I Became a Goblin Ancestor

It was pure coincidence that she caught my eye.

That woman I briefly made eye contact with when I got off the flagship earlier.

With her impressive side-tied brown hair, we had briefly made eye contact by chance earlier as well.

But don’t they say that when coincidence happens twice, it becomes fate?

Just coming down to the first floor and looking around for a moment, our eyes met again, so I couldn’t help but be interested in her.

With coincidence overlapping twice, I had an intuition that we would somehow get along well.

Without reason but understandable, I approached her with that intuition and asked.

“Would you like to be my helper?”

That one sentence asked in the most natural, gentle tone possible.

Of course, as I had decided earlier, if she disliked it, I would immediately withdraw, and if I saw even a slightly negative reaction, I planned to retreat after a few confirmations.

Therefore, after throwing out that one sentence, I inwardly muttered a worried word while looking at her seemingly dumbfounded face.

Wondering if she might be taking this as coercion.

‘It’s coercion!’

Na-rang inwardly shouted like that, seeing the girl approach and ask her such a question.

Anyone would think so if they saw the girl who came riding a flagship, boasting about being the General Management Team’s exclusive hunter, directly pointing and asking right in front of them.

If this wasn’t forcing her to become her helper, what else could it be?

This wasn’t just Na-rang’s thought alone, as sympathetic gazes poured on Na-rang from surrounding colleagues and seniors and juniors.

Therefore, Na-rang looked around at the owners of those gazes, hoping they would help her, but…

Swish, swish—

What came back to Na-rang’s expectations were only employees turning their heads away coldly with awkward expressions.

‘These traitors…!’

Of course, Na-rang understood that she would have acted the same if she were in their position, but still, she had hoped someone would help her just this once, yet the only employee approaching was the youngest employee bringing a tray with cold water.

“Um, if it’s not rude, please have some water while talking…”
“Ah, thank you.”

As the youngest employee put down the water next to the girl while trembling, the girl smiled brightly and expressed her gratitude.

Then, the girl looked at the water put down by the youngest employee once, looked around once, and then turned her gaze back to Na-rang.

And only after receiving that gaze did Na-rang realize that she hadn’t given any answer to the girl’s words.

‘Shit, shit, shit, I really have no luck. Why me of all people?’

The girl’s face smiling and asking if she would become her helper.

Recalling that, curses naturally flowed from inside.

But she had already received the question. Since Na-rang had no choice other than acceptance, she nodded with a natural smile that she usually wore effortlessly.

“If that’s what the hunter wants…”
“Shin-yeon, my name is Shin-yeon, so call me by my name.”
“Ah, yes. If that’s what Shin-yeon wants, I have no problem with it. I’ll do my best as your helper.”

Na-rang said with a bright smile to the girl who revealed herself as Shin-yeon.

It wasn’t a lie.

What could a mere employee like herself say to the General Management Team’s exclusive hunter? If she didn’t want to die, of course she had to nod to anything.

And if you look at it in detail, being the helper of Shin-yeon, the General Management Team’s exclusive hunter, wasn’t entirely bad conditions.

‘Come to think of it, I could probably skip a lot of work under the pretext of assisting this hunter… And since she’s from the General Management Team, wouldn’t she give me tips and such if she likes my work?’

Given Shin-yeon’s status, if she became her helper, Na-rang’s own position would rise considerably as well.

If her personality was good, there could be unexpectedly many benefits coming to her.

‘Still, I’d like to avoid it if possible…’

Of course, these were just potential future benefits.

Rather than aiming for those, she wanted to throw away the position of Shin-yeon’s helper, which seemed like she would have to live with antacids all the time.

Therefore, Na-rang tried to carefully examine Shin-yeon’s true intentions, wondering if there might be any way to back out, but…

Crash—!!

The next moment, Na-rang barely held onto her sinking heart at the glass cup that shattered in Shin-yeon’s hand.

“Oh my… I guess I can’t control my strength well since I just came from a battle. I didn’t think it would break from just a light grasp…”

What could that mean? Is she saying that if Na-rang had any foolish thoughts, she would burst her head like that glass cup?

“Let’s put this aside for now… Hey, so what’s your name?”
“Ah, I, I’m Na-rang.”
“I see, Na-rang? Of course, me wanting you to be my helper isn’t a demand, so you can say no if you want. I won’t do anything bad to you if you do.”

Does she expect Na-rang to believe those words when she just shattered a glass cup right in front of her eyes just because Na-rang rolled her eyes a bit?

‘And of course, you won’t do anything bad.’

Just the very next day after rejecting Shin-yeon’s request, she would be kidnapped by unknown members of the General Management Team and die without anyone knowing.

‘What nonsense…’

Therefore, Na-rang’s insides boiled, feeling like Shin-yeon was playing with her life, but she answered Shin-yeon’s words with an invariably bright smile on her face.

“No, I really meant it when I said I’d be happy to take on the role. Being Shin-yeon’s helper would be a one-of-a-kind position.”

Of course, a hunter’s helper can only take on one hunter, so it’s a one-of-a-kind position.

And after giving herself so many positive affirmations, it really did start to feel good.

So Na-rang answered with a sincere smile and.

Therefore, Na-rang didn’t know.

That if she had shown even the slightest sign of dislike, Shin-yeon would have really backed off without doing anything.

“You’re really okay with it?”
“Of course. I think I’d be truly happy if I could become Shin-yeon’s helper.”

However, Na-rang’s acting skills, honed through 10 years of grinding at the Hunter Association, were too excellent to fulfill that condition.

Thus, Na-rang voluntarily walked down a path she could have really avoided.

It was years later from today that she learned this truth and broke down in tears.

Buzz buzz—

The bustling first floor bench of the Hunter Association.

“Ah, what a relief. I was worried she might be intimidated because of the General Management Team background, but I found a helper surprisingly easily.”

『It was a bit ambiguous… but in the end, her heart seemed sincere.』

“She looked really fine on the outside too.”

After finding a helper named Na-rang and resting on the bench, I let out a small sigh of relief while conversing with Hwa-gon.

If Na-rang had shown any signs of dislike, I would still be looking for a helper, but fortunately, the first person I chose seemed to sincerely want to be my helper, so I was able to find one in one go.

I did look closely to see if her words about wanting to be my helper were a lie, but it didn’t feel like a lie.

As Hwa-gon said, even though it was a bit ambiguous, Na-rang truly desired to be my helper.

It really would have been difficult if she had been intimidated by my General Management Team background, but seeing that I found an unbiased helper like this right away, it seems that fated connections can’t be ignored after all.

Thump– Thump–

And as I was passing time like that, conversing with Hwa-gon or eavesdropping on the conversations of surrounding hunters, I suddenly heard footsteps.

At that, I turned my head slightly, and immediately stood up from where I was sitting at the sight of a figure walking from the elevator direction.

“Did you finally bring it?”
“I’m sorry if you waited long. It took a bit of time to open and bring it out since it was stored securely in the safe.”
“…It seems you were keeping it quite overprotectively.”

What’s with keeping just a hunter certificate in a safe?

There were many things I wanted to point out in Seo-hyun’s words, but I barely swallowed the words that had risen to my throat and just smiled.

Then, Seo-hyun approached me with a smile as well and handed me something like a card she was holding.

More precisely, I received from Seo-hyun a hunter certificate with my photo, name, and A-rank written on it.

“This is…”
“Yes, it’s your hunter certificate. With that alone, you can freely enter and exit gates.”
“I can finally enter gates now.”

It had been a day accompanied by some effort and annoyance, as much as I didn’t choose the easy way that was right in front of me, but as much as that, I felt a considerable sense of accomplishment filling my chest as I received the hunter certificate.

It felt like remembering the memories of the past when I learned things anew one by one.

Of course, I cut off the reminiscence at an appropriate point so as not to recall the subsequent nightmares unnecessarily, and held onto my heart pounding at the mention of gates.

“Now that I’ve actually received the hunter certificate, I’m hesitating about which gate to go to first. Since each and every gate looked so interesting… Do you have any recommended gates?”
“Recommended gates, you say?”

Seo-hyun tilted her head slightly at my question.

It was a question I asked thinking that she, as the leader of the Punishment Team in charge of all gate authority, would know a lot in many ways.

Indeed, as if my thought wasn’t wrong, Seo-hyun swallowed a moment of contemplative silence.

However, the answer she soon gave was quite clichéd.

“It’s difficult for me to recommend. Since I can’t give an answer considering your preferences and combat style, I think it would be better to ask Yeon-ah.”
“Well… if that’s the case.”

This wasn’t the vague answer I wanted, but Seo-hyun’s words seemed sincere, so I nodded forcefully.

Certainly, as Seo-hyun said, it was something I could ask Yeon-ah about.

Therefore, with no more topics to talk about now, I carefully put the hunter certificate in the inner pocket of my jumper.

“Then I’ll get going now.”

Today, after receiving the hunter certificate, it seemed I should return to the General Management Team’s tower and look for gates first.

So I finished preparing to return to the tower after confirming the hunter certificate I had received.

Ding—

“Ah, it seems to have come up just now.”
“Huh?”

The moment before I was about to take a step.

At the sudden notification sound from Seo-hyun’s device, I had to stop in my tracks.

And at Seo-hyun’s subsequent words, as I let out a questioning sound, other hunters’ devices around us started ringing simultaneously.

Ding– Ding– Ding–

Not knowing what these notifications were about, I naturally asked Seo-hyun, who was right in front of me, about the current situation and.

Seo-hyun’s answer in response was about something I hadn’t expected at all.

“What do you mean it just came up? What’s that about?”
“Hmm? Isn’t it obvious? A new A-rank hunter, of which there are less than 200 in Korea, has just been registered. It’s a notification about that.”
“…Huh?”

What Seo-hyun showed me as she said this was her device with the screen turned towards me.

And on the device she showed me, a yellow name that had newly appeared above a small table labeled “Hunter Ranking” and the photo next to it were highlighted.

“Shin-yeon, the direct hunter of the General Management Team who took first place in the A-rank hunter rankings after just taking the first exam. Congratulations, I’m sure you’ll definitely occupy the front pages of this week’s news.”

My face photo firmly placed at A-rank 1st place along with the title of the General Management Team’s direct hunter.

As Seo-hyun said, at my appearance that had proudly taken 1st place, pushing down the original A-rank hunters with just taking the hunter exam alone, I lost my words for a moment and my pupils trembled.

“…First place?”

The question “Why on earth?” flowed after that, but there was no answer coming back.

However, even though no answer came back, I could clearly realize one fact.

The huge storm that would unfold from this moment on.

That I was right at the center of it.