The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 75
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Yeo Joo Saves the World – Episode 75
“Do hunters have some instinctive desire to climb higher?”
I muttered to myself while gazing up at the Fantasia Guild building standing alone in the dark mountains.
The thirty-story Fantasia Guild building, positioned on the slopes of Gwanak Mountain right beside Korea University, was constructed to overlook the campus below.
The entire facade was built with reflective glass, making it nearly impossible to see clearly even during daylight.
Unlike the Justice Guild, Sama Guild, and Dongbaek Guild—all founded by first-generation hunters—Fantasia hadn’t even existed for ten years.
That’s because the founder was Sung Ro Sa himself, the current guild master.
“So he was a graduate student at Korea University, and this is how he takes his revenge.”
If he’d spent every day getting scolded by professors as an engineering graduate student, struggling with money, only to suddenly awaken as an S-rank mage—
“Yeah, I get it.”
I’d probably do the same.
His rough manner of speaking was a bit much, but I liked his personality.
The skill he demonstrated in building a guild into one of the Four Major Guilds in competitive Korea in less than ten years spoke volumes.
“Ms. Yeo Joo, we don’t have much time before our appointment.”
“Right, right, let’s go again.”
From the Justice Guild in Jongno to Fantasia in Gwanak District was quite a distance.
And for some reason, the visitor parking lot was built far down the hill.
Kang Han had no problem with it, but I was catching my breath after a brief pause because my stamina was giving out.
“Ugh, the healer’s dying here.”
Knowing Sung Ro Sa’s personality, he’d definitely made us walk up this steep hill on purpose.
It was that kind of attitude—you suffer as much as I did, so you should too.
Still, as I was panting in the night air to keep our 10 o’clock appointment, Kang Han spoke from beside me.
“Would you like me to carry you?”
“Carry me? If you carry Fantasia, we’ll be in big trouble, Guild Master.”
“No, I meant I’d carry you, Ms. Yeo Joo.”
“Huh?”
Out of nowhere?
I tilted my head at the sudden offer, but quickly understood.
The way Kang Han looked at me was like how one looks at a wounded comrade.
“I’ll take a picture of ‘Rescuing Private Yeo Joo’ later when I get injured inside the dungeon.”
“You won’t get injured.”
“Yes, yes. Just hearing that is reassuring.”
As we continued our conversation, the entrance to the Fantasia building came into view.
“Someone’s waiting out there.”
A person in a white uniform symbolizing the Fantasia Guild stood looking down at us as we climbed up from below.
“Good day. Thank you for taking the trouble to come. I’ll verify your invitation.”
As Kang Han presented the invitation that had been delivered to the Training Facility, the Fantasia Guild member who received it suddenly snapped their fingers.
I wondered what they were doing, but the invitation caught fire.
Flames mixing blue and silver blazed up in an instant, consuming the paper, then created a Fantasia seal shaped like a meteor shower before vanishing like an illusion.
So the invitation had such magic cast upon it.
I wondered what would have happened if someone had brought a fake invitation without a confidentiality oath.
“On behalf of Fantasia, we welcome the Justice Guild. All other invited guests arrived a short while ago. Please come up.”
Wait a moment.
“I didn’t see anyone on the way up. Is there perhaps another route?”
Were we the only ones who came up the hill?
“No. There is only one path up to Fantasia. However, the other guests came accompanied by someone with spatial manipulation abilities.”
In other words, it was saying that our guild didn’t have a hunter with teleportation abilities.
“…How unfortunate.”
The fact that Fantasia sent the invitation today was probably also related to that ‘spatial manipulation user’ somehow.
While I muttered words I couldn’t quite bring myself to say aloud, Kang Han’s hand pressed against my shoulder—apparently interpreting my silence in his own way.
No, don’t comfort me!
“Please proceed inside.”
True to its nature as a magical guild, Fantasia had us take a floating elevator without any cables extending upward, and we arrived at a conference room on the 27th floor.
Kang Han opened the door first.
At the same time, I began to sense multiple presences that had been blocked by the magic sealing the door.
“The Justice Guild?”
“Kang Han, it’s been a while.”
“…”
I slowly examined those seated freely throughout the conference room.
There were faces I’d never seen before, but it wasn’t difficult to identify their guild affiliations from the uniforms they wore.
‘Magma, Hwacheon, Ragna, and the Justice Guild, then.’
None of them had yet climbed to the upper ranks, but these were guilds that had been frequently mentioned in recent conversation.
In short, they had gathered only guilds with the potential to leap high whenever they had a proper stepping stone, and the will to realize it.
‘She really set the stage properly.’
And the architect of that stage appeared smoothly in the previously empty seat of honor, as if by magic.
Long blonde hair fluttered as if caught by a gentle breeze, and eyes narrowed slightly downward gleamed emerald green.
“Thank you for accepting our invitation, everyone.”
It was Sung Ro Sa, the founder and guild master of Fantasia.
* * *
“I apologize for the sudden invitation. It must have come as quite a shock.”
The moment Sung Ro Sa opened with those words, everyone from the guild except me and Kang Han rushed to wave their hands in denial.
‘Can’t he drop that pretentious act?’
It wasn’t even a split personality.
This was nothing like the Sung Ro Sa from a few days ago who was desperately trying to buy Im Chung Soo’s tonic.
“Since this is an urgent matter, I’ll get straight to the point.”
Regardless, as the guild master of one of the Four Major Guilds, Sung Ro Sa’s words brought the entire room to a hushed silence.
“I’m sure you’re all aware of Sung Yo Na, a former member of Fantasia Guild and my younger sister.”
As expected.
I’d suspected something like this from the moment he started distributing those invitations.
Fantasia had reached the limits of searching for Sung Yo Na alone.
More precisely, Sung Ro Sa’s patience had finally run out.
“Sung Yo Na is currently wanted by the Awakener Association as the sole witness and suspect in the Ansan A-rank Dungeon incident from two years ago.”
“…Ahem.”
A man who appeared to be from Hwacheon Guild, dressed in what looked like a modernized hanbok, let out an uncomfortable cough.
The Ansan A-rank Dungeon incident.
It was the first dungeon that Sung Yo Na, the guild master’s sister and an A-rank spatial manipulation hunter who had captured the nation’s attention, had ever entered.
But no one had walked out of that Gate that day.
When signs of a dungeon break began appearing in the Gate where Fantasia’s raid team had entered, the Awakener Association hastily dispatched high-ranking hunters.
What they found inside was one A-rank hunter in a comatose state, along with the gruesome corpses of another A-rank hunter and four B-rank hunters.
Worried about Sung Yo Na’s safety, the Awakener Association and Fantasia spent days thoroughly searching the dungeon, but she was never found.
Public opinion erupted.
Sung Yo Na, who warped space to assist in combat and was responsible for evacuating guild members outside the Gate in emergencies.
Yet only the remaining guild members were discovered—dead or left in a comatose state.
At first, there was considerable public concern for the missing Sung Yo Na, but as time passed, the wild speculation people had concocted hardened into accepted fact.
‘Sung Yo Na, frightened on her first dungeon raid, abandoned her guild members and fled during the critical battle. As a result, one guild member fell into a coma, and the rest all perished.’
Sung Yo Na became Fantasia’s and Sung Ro Sa’s weakness and shame.
But recently, traces of that very Sung Yo Na had been discovered for the first time.
“Then….”
A middle-aged woman who appeared to be the guild master of Ragna Guild furrowed her brow and murmured.
“Yes, that’s correct. Fantasia would like to request that you all pursue and capture Sung Yo Na.”
Capture, no less.
“Are you asking us to hunt a human being?”
Yang Hwa Yeon, the guild master of Magma Guild, didn’t bother hiding her displeasure as she questioned him.
“That’s right.”
But Sung Ro Sa’s answer was simple.
And before Yang Hwa Yeon’s displeasure could spread to the other guilds.
“All participating guilds will receive an initial fee of 10 million won per day, and upon successful capture of Sung Yo Na, a reward of 10 billion won. And.”
Sung Ro Sa leaned back in his chair and spoke in his characteristic languid voice.
“I plan to provide one S-rank item as a success bonus.”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————