Chapter 69

Chapter 69: Revenue Exceeds One Billion

We first strolled through the outdoor arboretum.

Despite it being late autumn, flowers were blooming in the gardens.

"Wooow......"

Rin kept exclaiming in wonder as she took in the flowers and trees.

We admired the pampas grass section and the pond as well.

Then we moved on to the main attraction: the indoor arboretum.

"Amazhing."

Rin was brimming with excitement, taking in tree after tree and flower after flower.

"Rin is loving this."

"I know. It was the right call to bring her to an arboretum."

In the outdoor section, Rin had flinched whenever she encountered people, but inside—even though there were far more visitors—she showed no signs of shrinking back, fully absorbed in the sights.

That was how excited she was.

"I need to take photos."

I captured Rin's moments on my phone.

It would have been even better to photograph her without the disguise, but that would draw far too much attention.

Still, just being able to take her outside the Rift like this made me happy.

Just then—

"Don't run!"

"Don't wanna!"

Two children who looked about five or six years old came running through the indoor space and brushed past Rin's shoulder.

BUMP!

Rin's sunglasses were knocked off and fell to the ground.

Fortunately, Rin reacted quickly and grabbed her beret with her hands, so neither the hat nor the wig fell off.

The two children stopped in their tracks, startled, and approached Rin.

I watched the situation for the moment.

"Hey, sorry for bumping into you."

"I'll pick up your glasses for you."

One child picked up the sunglasses and held them out to Rin, getting a look at her face.

"She's so cute......"

"Her eyes are light green...... Like jewels."

Rin took the sunglasses, put them back on, and hid behind me.

I spoke to the children.

"Our little one is fine, so just be more careful next time."

"Okaaay. Your daughter is super cute, mister."

"Yeah. She's cute."

These kids had good taste.

Their mother soon arrived, apologized, and took the children away.

I crouched down and asked Rin,

"Rin, you got bumped on the shoulder. Are you okay?"

"I'm otay."

"Good. Then let's keep looking around."

"Yeah!"

I took Rin's hand.

Watching us, Ria remarked,

"You really look like a loving father and daughter."

"Well, we are a loving father and daughter."

Hand in hand with Rin, I toured the indoor arboretum.

Ria captured our moments in photos.

She had learned how to take pictures and videos on a phone by now.

She was diligently adapting to modern technology.

Eventually, after completing a full loop of the indoor arboretum, we asked a passing woman to take our family photo. We handed her the phone, and she happily obliged.

Ria took off her sunglasses for the photo.

The woman taking the picture let out a gasp of surprise.

"Oh my, your wife is absolutely beautiful. And your daughter is adorable too."

There was no comment about me, but I was still pleased that my wife and Rin had been complimented.

As we posed for the commemorative photo, someone passing by recognized us and whispered,

"Isn't that the couple? The ones who were recently registered as S-Rank Hunters with the Rift Management Bureau—the naturalized couple."

"Hunter Emeria and Hunter An Seon-u......? I think that's them."

Word had gotten out that Ria and I had joined the Rift Management Bureau.

Originally, the Bureau had no plans to announce this.

However, when I left the Hunter Association, they had held a grudge and leaked it through the media.

'But their real intention was something else entirely.'

According to the Director, the President's Faction within the Hunter Association had publicized the matter in an effort to oust the Vice President's Faction.

The Rift Management Bureau had played along with their intentions.

Because ousting the Vice President's Faction was something the Bureau also wanted.

The Bureau exposed the Vice President's Faction's misdeeds through press interviews, explaining the circumstances that had led Ria and me to join the Bureau.

Public reaction was intense.

In addition to the news that two more hunters in Korea had reached S-Rank, the public was delighted that we were part of the Crisis Response Team at the Rift Management Bureau.

With two S-Rank members on the team that protected citizens during Rift-related national emergencies, people could not help but feel reassured.

With this, Korea had become a nation with six S-Rank Hunters.

On par with Japan, which had double the population.

Meanwhile, criticism rained down on the Hunter Association.

'The President's Faction at the Hunter Association went through with it knowing they would face criticism—all to completely drive out the Vice President's Faction.'

The Hunter Association publicly apologized to the nation for the abuses it had openly committed, and pledged to cut out the rot and reform.

But I digress.

I picked Rin up.

"Thank you for taking the photo."

"Thank you."

As more people began recognizing us, we quickly slipped away.

Seeing these inconvenient situations arise made me think that fame was not necessarily a good thing.

We returned to the car.

I asked Rin, who was in the back seat with Ria.

"Rin, did you have fun?"

"It was fuuun!"

"I'll take you to another arboretum next time."

And so Rin's first outing was a success.

'Coming to the arboretum was the right choice.'

For Rin, a plant-loving Dryad, it had been the perfect destination.

We had a quick meal with sandwiches we had packed in the car, then headed back to the countryside house.

***

After the outing.

Starting the next day, I resumed running the restaurant.

It was now the sixth day since the Emperor Guild had arrived on the Fourth Floor of the Rift.

The Blade Saint and his executives had eaten through every stat dish on the menu at least once.

They had even had the Wine Imbued with Dragon Mana.

'The top-ranked guild really does have unmatched financial power.'

Not just the executives—even the regular guild members had purchased stat dishes multiple times.

The total number of stat dish sales came to twenty-eight.

And the revenue generated from that was a staggering—

'1.2 billion won......'

That was the value of the magic stones earned purely from stat dishes, excluding regular meals.

I had absolutely raked it in.

But it did not end there.

"Your Grilled Sous Vide Drake Sirloin Steak and Glace Mushroom Horn Rabbit Restorative Soup are ready."

The Blade Saint had reserved two servings of stat dishes.

He was purchasing stat dishes to acquire the ten-percent stackable stats.

As I was plating the prepared stat dishes, the restaurant door opened and a customer walked in.

That customer was none other than the dragon Ashley.

"Welcome."

When I greeted her, Ashley gave a nod.

"Something smells delicious."

Everyone in the restaurant turned their gazes toward Ashley.

Ria, who was prepping vegetables beside me.

And the Blade Saint plus four Emperor Guild members.

Among them, only Ria and I—wearing our Sigil of Wisdom magical bracelets—could understand Ashley's Ancient Language.

Ria looked at Ashley and said,

"So this must be the great being you told me about, Seon-u."

"That's right. Her name is Ashley."

Ria's and Ashley's eyes met.

"So you must be the lady knight named Emeria that Fenrir spoke of. You certainly look strong...... And you're remarkably beautiful, even for a human."

Even the dragon had good taste.

Ria returned the compliment.

"Thank you. You are beautiful as well, great one."

"I appreciate that. And speak casually. You seem to be a co-ruler of the Central Plains alongside Seon-u."

"Got it."

She took a seat at the bar table in front of the open kitchen, as she had before.

The Blade Saint, seated two chairs down from Ashley, then asked me,

"Hunter An Seon-u, who is this person......? Is she even human?"

"......Well, um."

While I hesitated to answer, Ashley snapped her fingers.

A Sigil of Wisdom was cast instantly, without any need for incantation.

She seemed to possess magical skill far surpassing Ruina's.

She spoke to the Blade Saint.

"I am a dragon, human."

"......A dragon? And you expect me to believe that?"

"If you don't believe me, shall I make you believe through firsthand experience?"

Ashley formed a blue orb the size of a baseball in the palm of her hand.

An intense wave of heat radiated outward.

'That's flame magic.'

More precisely, a flame spell.

At the sight, even the Blade Saint broke into a cold sweat.

He seemed to realize she was beyond his ability to contend with.

I intervened to stop Ashley.

"Ashley, enough...... If you use that in here, the restaurant will burn down."

"If you burn down Seon-u's restaurant, I won't forgive you, dragon or not."

Ria also warned in a cold voice.

And then—

WHOOSH!

The blue flame orb dissipated.

Ashley spoke in a calm voice.

"I'm not so thoughtless a dragon as that. It was merely for demonstration purposes."

"Understood."

The Blade Saint wiped away his cold sweat and said to me, sounding despondent,

"I have to say, ever since arriving on the Fourth Floor, I feel endlessly diminished."

"Hang in there......"

The shoulders of the nation's representative hunter—ranked first domestically, once standing shoulder to shoulder with the Sword Saint—looked endlessly small.

Truly an age of trials for the Blade Saint.

I served the Blade Saint his stat steak and restorative soup, and as a gesture of consolation, gave him a complimentary glass of premium wine.

Ashley then glanced at the Blade Saint's food and picked up the white menu sitting next to him.

The menu listing stat dishes and buff dishes.

'It's in English and Korean—can she read it?'

Ashley touched the menu with her index finger.

Then she nodded.

She had probably used magic to translate it.

She asked me what it meant for stats to increase.

I explained the hunter system to her.

"Fascinating. So if one doesn't possess the system, eating these stat dishes has no effect?"

"That's right."

"I'd still like to try them, so I'll place an order. Make me the same dishes as that man."

"It'll take quite a while. Is that all right?"

"That's fine."

"Payment is upfront. One hundred and twenty gold coins."

"Hmm, that's expensive. Very well."

I had calculated at 500,000 won per gold coin.

She filled a small pouch with a hundred and twenty gold coins and held it out to me.

It had a solid weight to it.

"Payment received."

I then cooked her a Grilled Sous Vide Drake Sirloin Steak and a Horn Rabbit Restorative Soup.

Ashley's eyes widened after tasting the food.

"My, this is delicious...... You really are an outstanding chef, Seon-u."

"It's thanks to the quality of the ingredients."

"Knowing how to use good ingredients well is also a skill."

That was a fair point.

Ashley found the two dishes insufficient in quantity and ordered an additional ten servings of regular beef sirloin steak.

Ria took over the cooking for the beef sirloin steaks in my place.

"You've gotten quite good at grilling steaks, Ria."

She learned quickly and had excellent eye and intuition, giving her remarkable culinary talent.

"It's thanks to having a brilliant cooking mentor."

And so, Ria continued helping at the restaurant for at least three hours each day during lunch, steadily improving her cooking skills.

***

Time passed, and it was now the eighth day since the Emperor Guild had arrived.

The Emperor Guild stayed on the Fourth Floor of the Rift, venturing out on short-range hunts and training to gradually adapt to the environment.

Then today, two guilds arrived on the Fourth Floor within a single day.

One was a domestic guild—the Frost Flower Guild, ranked sixth, led by Han Se-a, who had commanded the Follow-Up Expedition.

The moment Han Se-a saw me, she confronted me.

"Why wasn't I invited to the reception?"

"Ah, well......"

I could not bring myself to say it was because we had not been that close.

"I was worried you might be busy."

"I wasn't busy......"

"Haha...... I'll invite you next time there's a big event."

I laughed it off awkwardly.

The other guild that arrived today was the Union Guild from the United States.

A guild led by Blake Garcia, one of America's four great hunters.

He was a former martial arts fighter who used steel knuckle gauntlets as his weapon.

Among Korean netizens, he was sometimes called the Fist King.

Accompanying him was an archer, Chloe Bennett.

She was also an S-Rank Hunter and the vice guild master of the Union Guild.

A single guild with two S-Rank Hunters.

The Sword Saint, Eriksson, and Santos welcomed the newly arrived Blake Garcia.

"Welcome, Blake."

"Looks like the road here was rough—you look terrible. Blake."

"......Good work getting here."

The S-Rank trio were hunters renowned even in the United States.

As each represented their respective nations, they appeared to be on friendly terms.

Blake greeted them with an American-style gesture.

"Hwang, Eriksson, Santos. Good to see you three in a place like this. We got lost along the way and had a hell of a time. If Hwang's country hadn't shared those maps, we never would have made it to the Fourth Floor."

Fortunately, their familiarity with each other meant there was unlikely to be any posturing or conflict among the newly arrived hunters.

'In any case, I'm going to make a fortune.'

The Emperor Guild alone had brought in over 1.2 billion won.

And now two more guilds had arrived.

'At this rate, I'll be putting up a building before I know it.'

Since gaining a home in the Rift, I had been spending most of my life there.

Part of it was that life in the Rift had become comfortable and familiar.

But another reason was that the countryside house was too old and cramped for proper living.

So I was considering whether to move to a new home outside the Rift.

'Of course, I have no intention of selling the countryside house—it's my father's legacy.'

Even if I moved, the countryside house would stay as it was.

In any case, when a large sum of money comes in, the first things anyone wants to buy are a house and a car.

I was no different.

'Should I really go ahead and put up a building......?'