The Magical Hunter Girl Decorates the Dungeon! - Chapter 13

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Magical Girl Hunter Decorates a Dungeon! Episode 13
A cold calculation took shape in her mind.
There is no such thing as free goodwill in this world.
‘The moment the rescuer sees my face, they’ll try to bleed me dry for a rescue fee.’
And yet malice—true malice—flows freely everywhere.
‘They could try to sell me off somewhere.’
Jin Si-heon had accumulated more than a few enemies who would relish hearing him scream. It was what came of living in defiance of courtesy, modesty, and compromise.
He had to guard against contingencies all the same.
Fortunately, his mana was operational, and his body responded to command.
‘My range of motion feels off, though… Must be from being trapped so long.’
There was no time to deliberate further.
Jin Si-heon channeled mana into his palms and leaned forward.
Beneath the light, the real world revealed itself.
The first thing that came into view was—
“Waaah!”
…a child.
Elementary school, lower grades, no question about it.
A small girl in a costume so billowing and theatrical she looked like she’d just bolted from a school talent show.
‘Did that kid pull me out? Surely not.’
There was no one else nearby, and the little girl was beaming as she stretched both hands toward him.
“Good job, good job!”
‘Good job?’
Jin Si-heon startled, hurling a burst of mana through the air and throwing himself backward.
A solid adult male, 187 centimeters tall, twelve percent body fat—if he landed on that child, it would be catastrophic—
‘…Huh?’
No.
The catastrophe befell Jin Si-heon instead.
The long legs that should have touched earth had vanished. What filled his vision was…
…a pair of fluffy rabbit hind legs.
“What is this?! What the—gah!”
A black rabbit forty-five centimeters long, three kilograms in weight, tumbled across the ground. The girl’s shriek pierced the air.
“Mr. Bunny! Wait, no, Hunter Sir—!”

* * *
“…And that’s how it happened.”
The girl—who’d introduced herself as “I’m Shin Yi-ji, second grade, class three, Sparrow Elementary School!”—explained the circumstances of his rescue.
After hearing it all through.
Only one sentence remained in Si-heon’s mind.
‘This isn’t a drunken dream. This is real.’
“So I’m the magic rabbit of a self-proclaimed Magical Girl who’s nine years old…”
Si-heon pressed his forehead. The soft sensation of his paws and fuzzy ears was mortifyingly pleasant, which only made it worse.
The flying book called Grimoire spoke tartly.
[What are you complaining about? If Yi-ji hadn’t come, you’d have suffered a slow, agonizing death, you residue.]
“Residue?”
[Didn’t I explain? Until just now, you were nothing but magic stone dung.]
“…”
[That you even came back is a miracle.]
Si-heon clenched his teeth, remembering the time he’d spent trapped in crystal.
It was true—he had escaped hell.
Even if his resurrection came in the form of a rabbit.
As he gazed helplessly at his front paws, Grimoire whispered.
[By the way, you haven’t forgotten anything, have you?]
“Forgotten what? …Oh.”
Grimoire’s pages pointed toward where Yi-ji had retreated.
She appeared to be concentrating on mining magic stones, but…
“Wow. The magic stones are so pretty! La-di-da! Oh, there’s another one?”
The performance was painfully forced.
‘She’s waiting for something from an adult while pretending not to care.’
What the child wanted was obvious.
Si-heon swallowed his embarrassment and approached her.
“Th… thank you for saving me, kid.”
“I didn’t do it for thanks! It’s what I was supposed to do!”
Yi-ji’s mouth corners twitched with joy.
It was the sort of adorable expression that made one want to pat her head without thinking.
…Which was impossible.
Yi-ji noticed his flailing rabbit paws.
“Is something wrong?”
“No!”
“But you were just moving your paws—”
“Hands! I was moving my hands! Never mind that. You came here to make money, right?”
“I was planning to find my partner first, but… yes.”
“If you help me just a little longer, I’ll give you enough money to make lottery winnings look like pocket change.”
Yi-ji’s eyes went round.
“More than a jackpot? Enough to buy a house?”
“Of course.”
“A two-story house with a garden?”
“Yes.”
“Even a premium apartment in the Seoul Station Vicinity?”
“Obviously… wait, a two-story house can’t be an apartment. Do you even know what a premium apartment is?”
“The grandmas in the neighborhood said it’s the best kind of house!”
“Ah… in any case, all of it’s possible.”
“…!”
Yi-ji’s eyes sparkled.
Even Si-heon, who rarely found children endearing, found himself unconsciously—
‘Could I knock through two floors of a building containing an elementary school and convert it to meet those conditions?’
—contemplating it because of how brilliantly her eyes shone.
“Thank you so much!”
“…Mm. One house is enough for you?”
“Yes!”
An oral contract was sealed.
But as Si-heon was mentally reviewing which accounts he could withdraw from quickly,
Grimoire needled him with a question.
[How are you going to get the money? Will banks hand it over to a rabbit?]
“Perhaps the stuffy old book isn’t aware, but the modern world has mobile banking—”
The practical problem of not knowing where his mobile phone was, and the bizarre new question of whether facial or fingerprint recognition would work with a rabbit’s face, suddenly loomed—but Si-heon refused to show it. He didn’t want to be looked down on by a collection of papers.
“And once I get back, I’ll search for a Healer Hunter. There has to be someone who can fix my situation.”
[Hmm. You dream big.]
“If you have something to say, say it properly, book.”
[That plan won’t even get off the ground. You can only move when Yi-ji transforms into a Magical Girl.]
“…What?”
“Oh!”
Yi-ji checked her Skill Window and nodded.
“That’s right. This skill only works near the Magical Girl.”
“Kid! You can’t transform outside dungeons?”
“A Magical Girl shouldn’t transform casually. Otherwise I’d just look like a weird person.”
“…”
Faced with such a bizarre statement, Si-heon lost the will to respond.
He couldn’t force her to transform.
If the Hunter truly believed that, there was a high probability it was actually impossible.
What he’d thought would be a fleeting trial now crushed down upon him anew.
“I’m stuck as a rabbit…”
“Sir, don’t worry! When the Magical Girl gets stronger, the magical animal friends sometimes become independent by the end!”
It wasn’t comforting.
Then Grimoire drifted closer and asked.
[You used mana earlier, didn’t you? How much of your original power do you think remains?]
“Probably around fifteen to twenty percent… Ow! Why’d you suddenly touch my head!”
[Just a moment. Oho, this is interesting.]
After a paper page touched his rabbit skull, Grimoire spoke again.
[When the dungeon collapsed, your soul split into six pieces and scattered. You’re just one of those pieces, so you have a sixth of your original mana.]
Yi-ji’s eyes widened.
“Is that even possible? If a body breaks into six pieces, you’d die!”
[You should have died, naturally. The girl simply performed something extraordinary.]
“Ah… hehe.”
[I have no way of finding the other bodies without their souls, but… they’re probably lying somewhere relatively intact.]
“How can you tell?”
[The soul mimics its vessel. Didn’t you see a complete body reflected in that crystal?]
Grimoire looked down at Si-heon again.
[So if you gather the remaining five souls, you might be able to reclaim your body.]
Si-heon’s eyes wavered.
“Truly? There’s even a chance?”
[Yes. Though whether you can find all five pieces and absorb them faster than anyone else… that’s another question.]
It was, in effect, a declaration of impossibility.
The rabbit’s ears drooped of their own accord. Si-heon felt a chill run through him at his own involuntary response.
‘No! I’m already adapting to this body!’
That’s when Yi-ji crouched down, patting his head as she spoke.
“But we already found one soul! We did something others said was impossible!”
“That’s… true.”
“Grimoire found your first soul, so you can find the rest too, right?”
[Well, it’s not impossible…]
In front of the reluctant Grimoire,
Si-heon voiced an uneasy suspicion.
“You’re suggesting we search for my souls together?”
“Yes! If we explore the dungeon together—”
“No.”
“Huh? No? But you just asked for help!”
“That was asking to explore the dungeon together? What kind of lunatic takes a child into a dungeon?”
“But I came in here on my own…”
“I won’t watch you crawl back in again. Abandon that idea while I’m still asking nicely.”
A child couldn’t be allowed to walk into a minefield.
That was an axiom Si-heon, despite his lack of social grace, could affirm.
“I can’t give you the big money right now. But I’ll teach you where to sell the magic stones you’ve mined…”
“…You’re going to stop me from going to the dungeon?”
“That’s right.”
“…Even so?”
“What?”
Something felt off.
He lifted his gaze and saw Yi-ji’s expression—struck as if by a blow.
“But we’re partners… It doesn’t make sense to hold each other back.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Partners don’t interfere with each other.”
“Ha! Since when were we partners? As long as you don’t get in my—”
“…”
Damn.
Si-heon’s blunt prefrontal cortex had reflexively spilled words that shifted her expression once again.
It seemed he’d pushed the tearworks button.
Yi-ji’s voice grew thicker with moisture.
“I thought… we’d become partners. In manga and storybooks, when you save someone’s life, you usually become close…”
“Look, here’s the thing—”
“I was so excited… I even told you I was a Magical Girl, and… hic…”
“Yi-ji? Take a deep breath. Okay?”
“I didn’t know I was being a pest, and I got so excited alone and… I’m sorry… hic, hic…”
In this moment, Jin Si-heon learned something for the first time.
‘I’d rather she just cry outright!’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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