I Became a Goblin Ancestor

“Then we’ll take our leave first.”
“Alright, you said you came in the middle of work. You can go ahead.”

A brief conversation we had after their polite greetings with proper etiquette.

Afterwards, the five who had come with Yeon-ah left the living room first with another polite greeting.

They had originally come today just to pay their respects, and had even stopped their important work to do so.

There was no reason or need to keep them any longer, so I waved my hand as I watched the backs of the five leaving.

Swish– Click–

As the five left the room, the living room door that had opened with a hiss of steam closed.

And when only Yeon-ah and I were left in the living room, she turned her gaze from the door to me and carefully asked with a somewhat puzzled expression.

“Then I suppose you can tell me now. What you wanted to ask of me…”
“Ah, that. Right, I should say it now.”

Until just now, I couldn’t say it because five others were with Yeon-ah, but now that only Yeon-ah remained, I picked up the device I had placed next to the sofa, recalling the request I had thought of in advance.

When I turned on the device’s screen, various news articles related to gates appeared.

I showed them to Yeon-ah and began speaking.

“I looked up a bit more about these ‘gates’ on this device earlier, and there seem to be quite a lot of interesting things. Right away, it says there are a total of 27 gates being managed within this defense city alone.”
“Yes, that’s correct. Of course, two of them are located in the slums and can’t be used right away, but still. By the way, if what you want to ask me about gates is whether you want to go inside one, is that it?”
“Exactly. But no matter what, it wouldn’t be fun to just enter using your name, so I’m thinking of legitimately earning the right to enter gates.”
“You mean…”

Yeon-ah trailed off as if she had guessed something from my words.

And before she could voice the answer her thoughts had likely reached, I stood up from where I was sitting and said,

“Now that I have a place to live and have obtained various information, I want to try being a ‘hunter’ myself.”
“I see, so that’s it… Then what you want to ask of me is…”
“Prepare things so I can get a hunter license. Even though I want to go through the proper steps to enter, I don’t want to start from the very bottom, which would be annoying.”

It was true that I wanted to become a hunter and work as one myself, as it wouldn’t be fun to enter under the protection of the General Management Team’s power, but I had no desire whatsoever to start from the bottom as a novice hunter, which would be E-rank in terms of grades.

Therefore, borrowing the power of the General Management Team was only for the initial hunter license exam.

I wanted to ask Yeon-ah for help to get a bit ahead of others more quickly.

‘Looking it up, the treatment of B-rank and above was worlds apart from E-rank.’

『It was truly a gap like that between nobility and slaves. What a cruel reality.』

E-rank hunters had the image of being talentless dropouts or complete newcomers who had just started, so there were many cases where they weren’t treated as hunters despite being hunters.

Therefore, most of the disgusting or miserable incidents involving hunters that I had looked up involved E-rank hunters, and even if they somehow managed to join parties and upgrade to D-rank from E-rank, that was the stage where they were at least treated as novice hunters.

From C-rank, they had the image of being a hunter who could pull their own weight, so I wanted to obtain at least a B-rank hunter certificate from the qualification exam, or an A-rank if possible.

‘If I borrow the power of the General Management Team, wouldn’t at least C-rank be possible somehow?’

That’s why I made this request to Yeon-ah, and after a few seconds of looking at her with somewhat expectant eyes.

“Hah.”

With a short exhale, Yeon-ah raised her lowered head, met my eyes, and answered willingly.

“It might be a bit complicated… but I think I can fulfill your request sufficiently, ancestor. I’ll contact the leader of the Punishment Team directly. Then you should be able to obtain an A-rank hunter certificate by meeting her.”
“…That’s very kind of you, but is it really okay to go that far?”

Directly contacting the leader of the Punishment Team?

The Punishment Team was undoubtedly one of the five major powers holding all authority over gates and hunters.

Going a bit further, they were a second-in-command level force that also held the right of summary execution, like those who tried to kill me today.

So when I heard that she would directly exert influence on the leader of such a Punishment Team, I could once again feel how much power the General Management Team and Yeon-ah, its leader, had.

But while feeling relieved that I had such good backing, I soon expressed doubt at Yeon-ah’s reaction, which was quite different from what I had expected.

“But this is unexpected? I thought you’d surely stop me, saying it’s dangerous for someone in the position of an ancestor to wander around outside carelessly.”
“…Perhaps the leaders of other major powers would have done so.”

Yeon-ah nodded slightly as if agreeing with this.

This time, in contrast to her willing permission earlier, she seemed to understand too easily.

At that, I tilted my head in question and asked.

“Then why?”
“That’s because with our General Management Team’s power, we can cover up everything else as long as you don’t publicly declare yourself to be the ancestor. Whether by bribing people to keep their mouths shut, using surrounding people to isolate them, or dealing with it cleanly by killing them. We will never let you be in danger.”
“Are you saying you’ll keep watching and observing me even after I get my hunter certificate?”
“Rather than surveillance, we’ll just grasp simple situations through your device. However, if an alarm goes off in an emergency, we’ll act immediately. From the start, we have no intention of interfering with your free lifestyle at all.”

So to summarize Yeon-ah’s words in one sentence, she was saying they would let me loose with only the minimum safety measures, and if any situation arose, they would immediately clean up afterwards by any means necessary.

And Yeon-ah added that there was no one who could assassinate me within the defense city anyway.

Yeon-ah assured me that while there might be those who could withstand a direct confrontation, there absolutely wouldn’t be anyone who could kill or assassinate me.

As expected of the eldest daughter of the family that had protected and watched over me for a long time, every single way she handled things was entirely to my liking.

Of course, that has nothing to do with this, but anyway, I was so pleased that I wore a satisfied smile on my lips.

“Then, I’ll go handle what you’ve requested. It should be dealt with by tomorrow dawn, or morning at the latest, so you can rest comfortably today.”
“That’s quite fast. Alright, understood.”

Then, after tapping her device a few times, Yeon-ah bowed her head to me and turned around.

I waved my hand at her retreating figure with an even more sincere heart than when I had seen off the five earlier.

Swish– Click–

Finally, after one opening and closing, I was left completely alone in the living room space.

I quietly put the device and Hwa-gon I was holding into my chest and moved my steps towards the door leading to the bedroom.

“It’s been a tiring day in many ways…”

I was clearly wide awake until just now, but after finishing the conversation, fatigue suddenly came over me.

I came out of the amber after 70 years, saw the completely changed appearance of humans, got into an argument and got angry, followed Yeon-ah and crammed a lot of new knowledge into my head.

Thinking back on it, it was inevitably a tiring day, so I let out a weary laugh and threw myself towards the bed in the bedroom beyond the open door.

“I guess I’ll sleep for a bit…”

Falling into a deep sleep, clearly feeling my consciousness sinking, unlike the sleep I had taken in the amber until now.

I slowly closed my eyes, feeling my mind quietly falling asleep.

『…Sleep well, Shin-yeon.』

Just before falling asleep, along with a warm hand stroking my head.

I thought I heard such a voice.

In the central district of the defense city where the towers of the Five Pillars were built.

In the office of one of the five tall towers, a red-haired woman quietly listened to the voice coming through her device.

[Tomorrow, a girl will visit your exam site. She’s the girl we’re going to take in as our exclusive hunter, so when our exclusive hunter comes to see you tomorrow, I’d like you to give her an A-rank hunter certificate after a simple test. Of course, you should handle the test directly, not an ordinary examiner.]

The content of the call was something that anyone who heard it would laugh at, asking what nonsense this was.

However, surprisingly, the caller talking to the woman was none other than Lee Yeon-ah, the leader of the General Management Team.

[I’ll send you the information and photo of that exclusive hunter, so please have our exclusive hunter’s certificate ready by 5 AM tomorrow. I’m calling you like this under the pretext of a favor because I have some friendly relations with you.]

What could be the reason for her, who was known to have a rational and cold personality, to make such an unreasonable ‘request’?

Ahn Seo-hyun, the leader of the Punishment Team, seriously pondered the reason, but unfortunately, there was no answer to that question.

Therefore, the only thing Seo-hyun could do was to ask Yeon-ah, who was just listening to her words normally, for the reason.

“I understand that you’re being considerate of me, Yeon-ah. But despite that, is it alright if I ask for the reason?”

[The reason?]

“Yes, you surely know too. Even for talented hunters, the highest grade of hunter certificate our Punishment Team can give is C-rank. There’s not even a precedent for issuing a higher hunter certificate.”

So who on earth was this girl they were taking in as an exclusive hunter that she was making such an unreasonable request?

Seo-hyun asked Yeon-ah this, and at that question, only the silence of the call sound was quietly maintained between them.

However, as this heavy silence continued, Seo-hyun could rather guess, more or less, what that reason was that Yeon-ah wasn’t saying.

‘Today, when our ancestor was burned, she said she saw a girl who seemed to be the General Management Team’s ancestor…’

The General Management Team’s ancestor that the great ghoul, Seo-hyun’s own ancestor, had seen.

She couldn’t be certain, but the ancestor had clearly affirmed that that girl was the sleeping ancestor of the General Management Team, and seeing Yeon-ah’s attitude of silence about the reason, it seemed that her words were probably true.

‘But…’

But if the exclusive hunter Yeon-ah was talking about was really the General Management Team’s ancestor, it meant Yeon-ah was saying she would make her ancestor a hunter.

Even if it was at the ancestor’s request, wasn’t this letting things go too far?

Therefore, just as Seo-hyun’s thoughts were beginning to shift to the question of whether Yeon-ah had finally gone mad, Yeon-ah’s voice broke the silence and echoed from the device.

[I’d like to consistently feign ignorance and say that she’s really just our exclusive hunter without any lies… but your ancestor probably avoided the memory manipulation procedure and heard the story roughly.]

“Well… that’s true.”

[Then this time, I’ll change my words and tell you clearly.]

At Yeon-ah’s suddenly changed voice, Seo-hyun flinched for a moment.

Unlike the voice from just now that had some consideration, Yeon-ah’s voice was cold and utterly inorganic.

Seo-hyun trembled at that change that could be felt even through the device, and immediately after, Yeon-ah continued her interrupted words with her changed voice.

[Our ‘exclusive hunter’ will visit you tomorrow, so please hand her an A-rank hunter certificate. I’ll send all the information needed for the hunter certificate. This is an ‘order’.]

“…Alright, I’ll follow that order.”

[I’ll speak quite well of you, so don’t worry about being disliked by our exclusive hunter. That’s all.]

Click—

The call ended just like that after such a one-sided notification, as if there was no need to look after this side anymore.

Then, Seo-hyun smiled faintly as she looked at the messenger from Yeon-ah that had arrived in her personal email, not her work email.

“I’ve unnecessarily gotten on her bad side…”

Even though she had been maintaining the most amicable relationship with Yeon-ah among the Five Pillars.

Honestly, it wasn’t a big deal for Seo-hyun personally, but from the standpoint of the entire Punishment Team, it was quite a painful matter, so she couldn’t help but let out a bitter smile.

However, the matter had already fallen as an order, not a request.

In a situation where she would probably have to pull an all-nighter, Seo-hyun quietly placed her hands over the hologram keyboard.

Perhaps tomorrow.

A hunter who became the first exception would be born.