By Zephyria 
[Death and beauty tremble like a feather.]
The magical energy lingering around the Management Center seemed to thicken for a moment, followed by a rumbling sound of something collapsing. The main body of the giant vine grew thicker and soared higher, a change visible to the naked eye. It had absorbed the magic stones from the magic stone exchange.
Tae-un, who had been staring toward the Management Center with a frown, as if the distant scenery were unclear to his refined eyes, summarized the situation clearly.
“We’re screwed.”
“Still, you shouldn’t use bad words.”
“Yes, sir. But if this happens, the time it takes for the fruit to ripen will be shortened, right?”
“Conversely, there are cases where it’s delayed.”
“It’s so unpredictable.”
“That’s why it’s a magical beast.”
The main body of the giant vine was a headache, but the real problem came after the fruit burst. If they missed the hunting window, a nightmare could unfold where the entire city became contaminated.
Kim Si-baek looked back and forth between the dwindling remaining time and the giant vine, which had grown even stronger than before, and swallowed a sigh.
* * *
The employee of the Management Center’s hunter registration department struggled to open her eyes. It was dark everywhere, as if the lights were broken.
‘Where am I?’
As she tried to push herself up, she screamed at the pain surging from her leg. Along with the pain, her last memory returned vividly. It was the moment a tentacle had grabbed her leg, bursting out from the bathroom floor. She hadn’t realized it at the time due to the chaos, but looking back now, that shape was definitely a giant vine.
Whether it was a magical beast or a human, the giant vine treated them the same—absorbing them to use as nutrients. The employee hurriedly felt her own body. Seeing how her leg was swollen and the pain was severe, it seemed there was a problem with the bone. Other than that, there were no major injuries.
Despite her limbs being mostly intact, her fear only grew. Wouldn’t it be better to be eaten by a magical beast while unconscious than to become a meal for one while fully awake?
What snapped the employee out of her near-panic was the feeling of her back becoming damp where she lay. Touching the floor, she realized the identity of the damp liquid and gasped in horror. It was blood. Someone else’s blood.
She could see a colleague collapsed in the dim light. Gritting her teeth, she crawled over and first checked if she was breathing. There was a faint breath.
Thanks to the commotion, she felt others around them waking up one by one.
“What is this… Ah! A giant vine!”
“Blood, the smell of blood?!”
From a corner, a calm voice echoed, soothing the survivors who were on the verge of panic.
“Everyone, stay calm. What will you do if the magical beasts swarm here because you made noise?”
It was the manager of the hunter registration department. Under the manager’s direction, the survivors tore pieces of clothing to provide emergency first aid to the injured and searched the surroundings. The disaster response training they were required to take every quarter proved helpful.
Strangely, the place where they, the Management Center employees, regained consciousness was the magic stone storage office. There were five survivors in total. All were civilians who had not undergone awakening; except for one severely injured person who remained unconscious, the others had only minor injuries.
The employee with the injured leg tilted her head. Looking at the situation, it made even less sense. The manager seemed to feel the same and spoke quietly.
“Honey, is it really a giant vine? Does a giant vine not eat people immediately and instead move them to a place to gather them?”
“L-look here.”
Another employee, who wore a short-sleeved T-shirt even in November because of high body heat, held out an arm. Under the light of a mobile phone, skin mottled with seeping poison could be seen, exactly in the shape of where the vine had wrapped around. The eczema-like reaction was similar to that of a giant vine.
“T-then what is it? Is it trying to eat us… a-alive…?”
The youngest employee, hired this year, trembled with pale lips. Her wide eyes grew vacant, and her focus drifted. Before the terror of the Id Portal could crush their spirits, the manager hugged the youngest employee tightly.
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”
The manager patted the youngster’s small back with a firm hand. The employee, who had only been shaking, burst into loud tears in that embrace. Hearing the muffled sobbing, the other employees curled up their bodies.
Ironically, the youngest’s crying provided a strange sense of relief—that they weren’t abandoned alone in the magical beast’s domain. The employee with the injured leg tightly held the hand of the severely injured person who was still unconscious.
Only after venting her fear through tears did the youngest calm down to some extent.
“Are you okay now?”
“Yes, yes… I-I’m sorry.”
“It’s natural to be scared. I don’t know what the giant vine is planning, but this is the middle of Daejeon. The raid team must have already started their entry.”
The place where they regained consciousness was an office on the second floor of the storage facility. Since the standard raid method for a building overtaken by a giant vine is to start searching from the basement, they would surely be rescued, even if it took a little while. They had to believe that.
“T-that’s right. Guild Master Tae-un left the center not long ago, so he might be leading the raid team himself…”
“Seven Guild Master was here? Why didn’t I know?”
“Huh? Did no one tell you, Manager?”
The employees each chimed in with a word about Tae-un’s visit to the center. Recalling it while being captured by a magical beast made it feel like a past life, but they managed to force a smile. Above all, the weight that the name ‘Tae-un’ carried was enough to calm them.
“Now, let’s do our part. How are your wounds?”
“…They still haven’t regained consciousness.”
The manager looked around at the survivors, trying not to show despair.
“Does anyone have a protective magical tool?”
Protective magical tools, whose grade is determined by the skill of the mage who crafted them, are expensive. There were three people in the group who owned one. If they had all been single-person tools, some would have been left out, but the youngest employee’s tool was a medium-sized one for five people.
“A medium one must be incredibly expensive. How did you afford it on a civil servant’s salary?”
“M-my eldest brother bought it for me as a gift for passing the civil service exam. He said if an emergency happened, I should survive together with the people around me… that it would be b-better for my mental state…”
“He’s a good person. You said you were the youngest, right? What’s the age gap between you and your eldest brother?”
“S-seventeen years.”
“Oh my, you really are young. Your parents must have gotten along very well. What do your brother and sisters call you?”
“The youngest princess…”
The youngest employee’s voice, now small with embarrassment, no longer trembled with fear, and gentle smiles spread among the group.
“If you think a magical beast has appeared, you must activate the protective magical tool immediately. Can you do that?”
“Yes…”
After comforting the youngest employee, the manager removed the magical tool she had been wearing like a necklace. Then, she took off her shoes and stealthily crawled across the floor.
The doorframe was twisted, making it impossible to open. The manager pressed the button on the magical tool and tossed it through the gap in the door. In the darkness of the hallway, the magical tool began to emit a light, signaling a request for rescue.
The giant vine cannot detect light, but there might be other magical beasts. It was a gamble between whether the rescue team would arrive first or they would be discovered by a magical beast first, but the manager did not hesitate.
To the manager, a refugee from Seoul, the name Tae-un provided that much trust. Tae-un and his raid team would surely save them.
The survivors huddled together around the severely injured person. They intentionally shared bright stories, but the steadily worsening condition of the severely injured person made a corner of their hearts anxious. Even after finding a first-aid kit in the office and re-dressing the wounds, the anxiety did not fade.
The employee with the injured leg continuously wiped away tears, holding back her sobs. Her colleague had lost too much blood. Even if they were successfully rescued by the raid team, she didn’t know if the person would stay alive until they got outside.
The chaotic scene began to be quickly sorted out as hunters from the Supernatural Phenomenon Response Agency arrived.
“Hello.”
A hunter wearing a Supernatural Phenomenon Response Agency ID card approached and greeted them cautiously.
“I heard you were a great help in hunting the giant vine’s roots. If you don’t mind, may I ask which guild you belong to? Are you an acquaintance of Guild Master Tae?”
Since the hunter who appeared out of nowhere had processed the magical beast’s roots quickly with skill rivaling Tae-un’s, it was natural for them to be wary. If she told a pointless lie, it might only create a bigger hole later.
Just as she was about to admit to being an acquaintance of Tae-un, someone rushed over and firmly gripped her shoulder.