Joo Jihye was the quintessential city dweller.

She had been born in the heart of Seoul’s most valuable district and had never once lived outside the city.

To her, life beyond the city barely even registered as something that existed.

Yet whenever she went out into the field or filmed a television drama, there were times when she had to travel to other regions.

Those experiences had only cemented her conviction.

She hated the countryside.

She hated the rough, unpaved dirt roads. She hated the disgusting insects. She hated how everything became pitch-black at night. No matter how old she grew or when she retired, she planned to spend her life popping champagne among the high-rises.

That was how it was supposed to be.

It definitely was.

“How did this happen...?”

After getting out of the car, Joo Jihye stared blankly at her surroundings.

She was in a remote mountain village without a single high-rise in sight.

As if coming to a rural village she had never even heard of were not bad enough, she now stood before a house tucked away in one of its most isolated corners.

“Come on in. That’s where you’ll be staying from now on. Sharing the same building might be uncomfortable, so you can use the annex while you’re here.”

Oh Hyunseong led her into the yard and pointed toward the annex.

What a thoughtful host he was.

Oh Hyunseong found himself nodding in appreciation of his own consideration.

Joo Jihye, however, was still reeling from the shock.

“You said you’d treat me! I thought you might have some secret research facility or something, but you expect me to stay here?”

“Rest is the best treatment for a hunter’s lingering aftereffects. Recuperate in the fresh country air and work up a sweat, and you’ll get better.”

“Wh-what kind of insane nonsense is that?!”

Joo Jihye sank to the ground.

After coming all this way with her hopes up, she felt as though she had been struck from behind.

Standing behind her, Choi Jeongil glanced at Oh Hyunseong and asked,

“Are you sure about this...?”

“It’s only for a few days. After that, I’ll send her back to Seoul even if she wants to stay. Oh, do you want to stay here with her in the meantime? I don’t mind.”

“Ah, well... I have some urgent matters to attend to...”

“Right, you’re a busy businessman. Fair enough.”

A bead of sweat rolled down Choi Jeongil’s face after his unexpected reprieve.

He had heard that Oh Hyunseong had taken up farming, but he had never imagined that his plan for curing Joo Jihye involved dragging her out here.

“What? You don’t trust me?”

Oh Hyunseong asked with a faint chuckle.

Choi Jeongil stared at him for a moment, then shook his head.

“Of course I do.”

Truthfully, Choi Jeongil had no idea what Oh Hyunseong was thinking.

But failing to understand him and being unable to trust him were two entirely different matters.

The Oh Hyunseong he knew was not someone who would do something like this without a reason.

Nor was this the first time he had made a seemingly incomprehensible decision.

Oh Hyunseong had often proposed plans that even his own team members found difficult to accept, and they had voiced their not-quite-complaints every time.

But in hindsight, he had always been right.

In desperate situations, those incomprehensible decisions had saved Choi Jeongil’s life time and again.

Even then, the team members who understood that had ultimately nodded and followed Oh Hyunseong’s orders every time.

And so Choi Jeongil nodded now, almost out of old habit.

“Then... I’ll leave her in your care.”

Choi Jeongil bowed deeply to his longtime senior.

The gesture carried the same courtesy and respect he had always shown him.

After the commotion in the yard subsided, Joo Jihye was left alone in a room in the annex, sitting in a corner with her knees drawn up.

He said he’d cure that miserable insomnia... I even postponed my entire schedule and followed him all the way out here...!

Ordinarily, she never would have believed him.

Her first impression of him at the department store had been abysmal, and there was no reason to trust a man who was not even a doctor when he suddenly made such a claim.

But she had believed him.

He was a highly respected first-generation hunter whom Choi Jeongil himself had vouched for, and she had thought that a hunter of his caliber might possess some kind of solution.

She had spent so long grasping at even the flimsiest straws if there was any chance of ridding herself of this wretched illness.

Yet all she had found in the end was despair.

Is he mocking me like this just because I made a few mistakes when we first met? Using an illness so painful it makes me want to die?

Joo Jihye gnawed at the nails of her trembling hand.

If he had not known her CEO, she would have already attacked him or done something equally drastic.

At this point, she was even beginning to suspect that Choi Jeongil had been taken in by some vile con man.

What should I do? Should I escape right now?

But she soon shook her head.

Choi Jeongil had warned her that if she caused trouble again, he would not let her off with a mere scolding this time.

She had already racked up several strikes with her previous incidents, so this time she truly had to obey him.

Fine. He said I only have to endure one week... I’ll put up with it until then. And the CEO had better brace himself. I’m going to bring this up every chance I get and bleed him dry when it’s time to renew my contract!

Joo Jihye fumed as she struggled to calm herself.

Then a delicious aroma drifted in from somewhere.

She had skipped every meal that day, so her head immediately snapped toward it.

What is that? There’s no way anything in a remote backwater like this could smell so good...

Joo Jihye rose without realizing it and followed the aroma outside.

When she entered the main house, she found Oh Hyunseong standing in the living room.

“Oh, perfect timing. I was about to call you. I’m having dinner, so sit down and eat with me.”

“...Eat what? There’s nothing here.”

“The table’s right there.”

Only then did Joo Jihye look toward the table.

The meal laid out there was so plain and meager that she had not even recognized it as a meal at first.

“You call this dinner?”

“What’s missing? There’s soybean paste stew, rice, and several basic side dishes.”

“Who even eats soybean paste stew these days...?”

Joo Jihye frowned at the stew.

Soybean paste stew was one of the foods that had deteriorated the most from what it had once been.

That was hardly surprising, since cheap factory-made soybean paste was particularly awful even compared to other synthetic foods.

It smelled foul and tasted terrible. Unless someone was genuinely destitute or had peculiar tastes, there was no reason to eat it.

Then why does this soybean paste stew smell like that?

Contrary to all her preconceptions, however, the aroma had been powerfully stimulating her hungry senses for some time.

It smelled like an entirely different dish from any soybean paste stew she had ever encountered.

Her arm twitched, but then she abruptly shoved back her seat and stood.

“Eat it yourself. I can’t stomach this kind of thing.”

“You do realize there aren’t any restaurants serving ten-million-won course meals in this village, right? Don’t blame me if you starve to death.”

“As if skipping a few meals would kill me. If I did drop dead, maybe the CEO would finally apologize.”

Joo Jihye spun around.

Oh Hyunseong scratched his head as he watched her stomp away.

“Hmm... This is a problem. I need to get her to eat.”

The reason Oh Hyunseong had brought her here was to conduct a clinical experiment with the spirits’ crops.

If even the downgraded version had produced such an effect on Joo Jihye, then eating the genuine crops grown here should have an even greater effect.

But if she refused to eat, he would have no way to observe her progress.

Well, she’ll eat on her own once she gets hungry enough.

He had promised to keep her for one week.

She probably intended to let her pride carry her through the entire week without eating anything before leaving.

But that was an extraordinarily foolish idea.

Modern hunters might not know it, but even hunters were powerless against hunger.

They could gain superhuman strength and abilities and feel as though they had become extraordinary beings, but nothing forced them to confront how ordinary and human they truly were more brutally than going hungry for extended periods during an operation.

If anything, it was an experience that exposed the absolute depths of human nature.

That must be why the training camp always included at least one period of starvation!

He paid it little mind and finished setting the table.

Then he looked proudly at the generous spread.

At first, even making white rice and red pepper paste stew had required a tremendous amount of effort.

Since he had to prepare everything himself without using outside ingredients, the process was bound to be labor-intensive.

Now, however, the range of dishes he could prepare had expanded, as had the number of basic side dishes on the table.

That was thanks to having established a proper system and increased the variety of crops he grew.

Normally, I’d give the spirits their snacks too... but they’re hiding because there’s a stranger here and refuse to come out.

Oh Hyunseong offered another silent word of gratitude for the meal and picked up his spoon.

“Thank you for the food!”

Inside the pitch-black room, a rustling sound broke the stillness.

“...Haah.”

The torment of insomnia was not simply an inability to sleep.

The problem was that although her body and mind were both screaming with exhaustion, sleep itself remained impossible.

Severe insomnia meant struggling endlessly in a horrific state with no way forward and no way back.

“I’m going insane.”

Joo Jihye rested a hand against her forehead.

Her body was exhausted, but she could not sleep, and she was hungry.

Her stomach was growling so fiercely that she found herself wondering whether missing a single day’s meals had always been this painful.

It’s all because of that smell!

The aroma of the stew had been seeping through her door all this time.

Her sense of smell was already sharper than an ordinary person’s, and hunger had put all her senses on edge.

As a result, her nose amplified a scent that most people would barely have noticed, driving her even further out of her mind.

“Ugh... I can’t take it anymore!”

At last, she sprang to her feet.

At this rate, she would never fall asleep, even if she died and came back to life.

Of course, she still had her pride to protect.

I’ll only try one bite. I don’t know why it smells so good, but once I taste that disgusting soybean paste, I’ll lose my appetite completely.

She crept toward the main house, concealing her presence as she peered inside.

Through the gap in a door, she saw Oh Hyunseong sleeping.

He’s dead to the world. There’s no way he’ll catch me!

A faint smile appeared on Joo Jihye’s lips.

When Choi Jeongil had personally trained her at Aegis, she had also learned infiltration techniques for concealing her presence.

Of course, her knowledge was superficial and embarrassingly amateurish compared to a specialist’s, but she could easily fool ordinary people and mediocre hunters.

Besides, Oh Hyunseong was already a retired hunter and had fallen into a deep sleep. She was certain she could deceive him.

Click.

When she lifted the lid of the pot in the kitchen, she found that some soybean paste stew was indeed still inside.

The rush of aroma left her dazed.

She picked up a spoon and carefully scooped up some broth and ingredients.

“...!”

Joo Jihye’s eyes flew wide.

Someone had once said that a late-night snack secretly eaten behind your mother’s back was the most delicious thing in the world.

But could cold stew truly taste this good?

Her original plan to take only one bite vanished without a trace, and her spoon began moving busily.

It’s delicious! It’s so good!

The savory broth, tofu, onions, and zucchini.

The vivid flavors of the ingredients blended together in her mouth with such devastating force that she did not even consider how obvious her theft would be the next morning.

But while she was eating in a frenzy—

“...A thief?”

A voice suddenly came from behind her.

Startled, Joo Jihye spun around.

Wh-what?

It was not Oh Hyunseong.

A woman was watching her from within the darkness.

Joo Jihye had no idea who this intruder was, but more importantly, her presence was anything but ordinary.

...She’s dangerous!

Sensing the threat instinctively, Joo Jihye raised her arm.

She activated her telekinesis at once.

Seizing control of the surrounding space in an instant, she attempted to crush the woman’s entire body.

But at that moment—

To Joo Jihye’s astonishment, her vision suddenly flipped upside down.

Crash!

“Gasp...!”

Joo Jihye slammed into the floor and sucked in a ragged breath.

Her vision went dark for an instant, and she could barely breathe.

Th-this is impossible.

She had attacked first, yet had been completely overwhelmed.

It had lasted only an instant, but she could tell that the other woman had wrested control of her magic away from her.

That was something no one could even imitate without possessing an overwhelming advantage in skill.

“...Who are you?”

The woman stepped out of the darkness.

Han Sooyeon stared down at her.

Chapter 17

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