The Magical Hunter Girl Decorates the Dungeon! - Chapter 44

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

The Magical Hunter Girl Builds a Dungeon! Episode 44
At first, the Director only asked for money, but later he brought up something else.
Whether she could heal the patients.
‘I could solve it with Centennial Ginseng juice, but…….’
She couldn’t injure her Centennial Ginseng friends just to cure injured people.
Still, thinking of the Director’s muttering…….
‘Two methods are coming to me!’
Siheon frowned as he plotted out their travel route.
“Kid. Why do you have that satisfied look on your face? It’s ominous.”
[You wearing a satisfied look would be even more ominous.]
“Fair point.”
“Why does everyone treat me like this! Focus here, please!”
[You were the one goofing off first, yet you talk the most.]
While the adults were planning their sortie to the B-rank Dungeon.
Iji quietly grabbed Grimoire and drew her to one side of the open space.
It was time to take the first step of ‘Plan B: negotiating with the Director’.

* * *
The Dungeon was said to be on a mountain in Yangju City.
Since it was a location no road could reach, they had to prepare not just Dungeon armor but also for mountaineering.
Grandmother packed five rolls of kimbap.
“If you’re going up a mountain, you need to bring cucumber too. It’s good to eat instead of drinking water.”
“Got it!”
They went up fully prepared like that, but…….
They gathered only two pieces of important information that day.
The Rainbow Butterfly was a good item.
Budae-jjigae was delicious.
When they ventured off the trail searching for the Dungeon, a pack of stray dogs attacked Iji.
At that moment, the Rainbow Butterfly shone, and the dogs bore teeth marks on their scruffs, legs, and backsides.
“Yelp, yelp!”
The frightened dogs all tucked their tails and fled.
Seeing this, Grandmother felt even more reassured than Iji.
“I can rest easy even in the Dungeon now.”
But the two of them never reached the Dungeon.
Despite circling the location Grimoire had mentioned, they found no entrance.
Even with Grimoire manifesting to help search, it was the same.
[The data definitely said it was here…….]
“I can feel magical power around here, but I have no idea if it’s actually in this area.”
“M-me neither…….”
“Oh dear. You’re tired, Iji. Must be from using the Rainbow Butterfly.”
In the end, they descended toward Uijeongbu and had dinner at a budae-jjigae street. The budae-jjigae, packed with sweet beans, wasn’t spicy at all and was incredibly delicious.
‘I have to brag about this to the kids later! I ate grown-up food!’
Of course, her first person to brag to was her colleague, Siheon.
Siheon ignored the budae-jjigae story and spoke only about the Dungeon.
“If we abandon the natural hypothesis that Grimoire simply bungled the job—then either the entrance is hidden, or the Dungeon hasn’t yet manifested in our world.”
“Manifested?”
“You know what a pimple is, right? Oil builds up under your skin and suddenly bursts out. Dungeons are similar. The problem exists, but we’re at the stage where it hasn’t broken through into the world yet.”
“Ah, so we just have to wait!”
“That’s right.”
And Siheon murmured.
“If it appears from waiting, that would be nice, but…….”
“…….”
If the entrance were hidden, then waiting would be a waste of time. That’s what the silence meant.
Information was definitely needed.
So Iji put Plan B—the one she’d been thinking over—into action.

* * *
Guro-gu Underground Hospital.
The Director spread both arms wide like a villain as he spoke.
“I’ve been waiting for you, customer. Did you bring something good?”
Iji placed a paper bag she’d held carefully in her arms on the desk.
The Director let out a low chuckle and opened the bag—
Only to be startled by the hot steam billowing out.
Iji grinned and said.
“Here, have some buns! I bought them at the subway on the way here.”
“……the money?”
“That’s fine. I get allowance from my sister!”
“……no, that’s not—”
“Five thousand won adds up pretty quick if I skip street tteokbokki! Eat them before they get cold.”
After wavering for a long time, the Director finally surrendered to the sweet aroma. He even brewed barley green tea to serve alongside the buns to his guests.
After drinking the barley green tea—which tasted better than black tea—Iji opened her mouth.
“We don’t have 150 million won. And we have no way to instantly cure your patients either.”
“Hmm. So you came to appeal to my emotions? You’re mistaken if you think I can’t be harsh with the weak.”
“Instead, I have a different proposal.”
“Ha! Some other proposal……wait, but—”
The Director looked at Geumhui with a trembling gaze and spoke.
“Do I have to keep talking to this one? Not the elderly woman?”
“The idea came from this little one. I’m just tagging along because subway fare is free.”
“…….”
“Right! Talk to me.”
Then came an absurd proposal.
“I’ll make a bad factory owner into a good person!”
“A bad factory owner?”
“When a patient came last time, you said it—’Is it that neighborhood again? There must be a factory owner sending me critical cases all the time.'”
“…….”
Even if the Director didn’t remember everything he’d said, he grasped the context immediately.
There had indeed been several Hunters arriving with severe injuries from a refining factory in Masuk, in the southern Gyeonggi region lately.
It seemed he must have let slip such a muttering while receiving patients.
When the Director nodded absently, Iji puffed out her chest and declared.
“The Director’s problem! Too many patients! The best solution! We will eliminate the bad factory that creates patients!”
“…….”
Clap, clap, clap, clap. Geumhui applauded.
The Director swallowed a sigh.
“Look…… kid. This is a hospital.”
“Yes.”
“Hospitals survive on patients coming in. Did you think I’d be happy if patients stopped coming?”
“Yes.”
Iji nodded immediately.
“Actually, my sister is a nurse. She’s always saying she wishes the world had no patients and everyone was healthy.”
“…….”
“So I asked her if she’d be okay getting laid off, and she said it’s an impossible dream so she just says it. People will keep getting hurt and sick no matter what.”
“Is that really your sister? Is she okay saying that to an elementary schooler?”
“Elementary school kids need to understand reality. Just like how a cold isn’t the end once you catch it and recover—so you have to wash your hands after coming home every single day!”
“Ah. That’s true.”
“And critical patients are really difficult cases, right? If the factory making critical patients disappeared, wouldn’t you be able to treat many more patients comfortably?”
“……ha.”
“That is all.”
Watching Iji bow her head stylishly before sitting down, the Director suppressed a laugh inside.
A proposal built from stacked simple logic—each sentence was full of points to argue against.
But that sentence she’d emphasized most, ‘We will eliminate the bad factory!’, was attractive precisely because of its simplicity.
So much so that the Director found himself asking without thinking.
“Eliminate the bad factory? How?”
“I’ve done it before. You lure the factory leader into a Dungeon and make them good!”
This time, Geumhui cut in.
“There were con artists running a factory with Dungeon Byproducts in our neighborhood. If we hadn’t dealt with their leader back then, more than a dozen elderly people in the neighborhood…….”
Geumhui lowered her voice.
“Would have hanged themselves. Really.”
“…….”
“Anyway, we know well. But to do this, you need a Dungeon near the factory. Is there one there too?”
“There should be. Refining factories in Masuk are usually built near Dungeons.”
She answered coolly, and the Director burst out laughing.
“Ha, that’s really absurd. Both of you talk like it’s all nonsense with no basis in reality, so why do I want to believe it just once?”
Iji raised her hand.
“I know why! Because you’re a good person, Director!”
“I’m not good.”
“Bad people can’t say that.”
“…….”
“Anyway. If you’ll accept the proposal, tell me which factory to go to.”
The Director settled back deep into the sofa.
Her mind moved with cold calculation.
……Honestly, ‘if it works,’ it’s not a bad choice financially.
The critical cases from that factory had particularly poor prognoses. No matter how intensively treated, they almost always died shortly after. They departed to a world that would never repay their medical bills.
Closing that factory would definitely benefit the hospital.
‘It’s not because I’m particularly good.’
Running an underground hospital that ignores medical law is simply because it’s interesting.
Taking all patients is because it irritates her to watch injured Hunters carelessly wander into any hospital and lose their futures to medical debt.
Not desperately collecting hospital fees is because Hunters sometimes give information more valuable than money.
It’s absolutely not because I’m good…….
……and yet.
‘Because you’re a good person, Director!’
She didn’t want to become this girl’s first bastard, betraying eyes so clear and trusting as those.
In the end, the Director nodded.
“Fine. I’ll do it.”
“Yay! Thank you so much!”
“D-don’t be so happy! It’s not even a condition favorable to you anyway!”
While the Director’s conscience took a beating.
Iji pulled something from her pocket.
“Since you accepted my proposal, I’ll give you a bribe.”
“Huh?”
A good kid bribing someone?

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