Chapter 6
[6] Oppa, Want to Go into a Gate Together?
After spending such a romantic morning together, we went to the local community service center to restore Sia’s canceled identity registration.
I’d wondered whether someone who had already been declared dead could reclaim their identity, but South Korea’s administrative system was more thorough than we’d imagined.
“Oppa, it’s called a resurrection application. Isn’t that hilarious?”
“Yeah. When I heard these existed, I thought it was a joke. I never imagined they were real.”
I had heard that such forms existed because missing people occasionally returned alive.
But I’d never imagined our Sia would be filling one out.
After finishing the paperwork, we headed to a rank assessment center directly operated by the Hunter Administration.
“Anyone who was previously a Hunter must renew their rank immediately after their resurrection application is approved? What kind of law is that?”
“Right? Why are there so many strange laws in the world?”
I thought I’d heard that some American state had an absurd law requiring principals to look after students’ horses for the day if they rode them to school.
This seemed just as strange and pointless.
Anyway…
Having to visit the rank assessment center as soon as her resurrection application was approved was a real nuisance, but at least Sia could teleport.
We teleported to the center, and Sia began filling out the paperwork as soon as we arrived.
“Excuse me, do I have to go into the rank assessment alone?”
Sia asked the receptionist as she filled out her forms.
The receptionist helpfully explained that she didn’t.
“You’re welcome to bring your companion in with you. The law changed recently.”
“Really? That’s a relief.”
Even while talking to the receptionist, Sia naturally pressed herself against my arm.
Then she set down her pen and turned to me.
“Oppa, do you want to get your rank reassessed while we’re here?”
“Me too?”
“Yeah. You have to renew it every two years anyway. How long has it been since your last assessment?”
I hadn’t even thought about that.
I’d spent the past year living like a wreck, putting everything related to Hunters out of my mind.
When had I last had my rank reassessed?
“One year… and ten months.”
“Then you’re about due! Perfect. You should get yours done while we’re here.”
Sia took another form from the receptionist and handed it to me.
She had a point, so I decided to take her advice and get reassessed too.
After finishing the paperwork, we headed to the assessment room.
‘I wonder what rank she’ll get.’
Barring anything unusual, I would probably remain D-rank. If I was unlucky, I might drop to E-rank, but apparently rank decreases were rare.
And of course, my awakening class wouldn’t change.
What I was really curious about was Sia’s rank.
Like me, Sia had been D-rank.
But that was no longer the case.
As a human, she had been merely a D-rank Hunter.
Now, however, she was a dragon who had lived for 2,500 years—a being entirely beyond the norm.
She wielded a mysterious power called Dragon Speech that I’d never even heard of, and she could effortlessly cast advanced spells like Teleportation without using formulas. Those abilities alone were unprecedented.
And if my guess was right, the powers she’d shown me were only a drop in the bucket compared to her full strength.
Taking all that into account…
‘Won’t she get an “Unmeasurable” result?’
Normally, someone only received an “Unmeasurable” classification when their power was so weak that measuring it was meaningless.
But there was another, purely theoretical case that most people didn’t know about. If someone was so powerful that the existing ranking system couldn’t define their strength, they would also receive an “Unmeasurable” classification.
That possibility existed only in theory, though. There had never been a single reported case.
‘This won’t just cause a stir in Korea. The whole world will go crazy.’
At the very least, it would make international headlines.
Brimming with anticipation, I looked at Sia.
But…
Unlike me, she didn’t seem particularly interested in her rank.
Instead, she spent the entire walk gazing at me.
“Sia, is there something on my face?”
“No. It just feels strange coming here with you. I’m happy, but it also feels a little odd.”
“Hmm. Now that you mention it, I feel the same way.”
There had never been any particular reason to bring someone along for a rank assessment, so I’d always come alone.
Hearing her say that made it feel a little strange to me too.
Anyway, as soon as we arrived at the examination room, a staff member called our names.
“Yoon Minjun and Jeong Sia?”
“Yes!”
“You’re here together, I see. Which of you would like to go first?”
“Sia, want to go first?”
“No, you go first, Oppa. I don’t mind.”
Thanks to Sia letting me go ahead, I had my rank reassessed before her.
“The procedure is the same as your initial assessment, so just relax.”
I went farther into the examination room, while Sia waved at me from the waiting area.
A little later, my reassessment began.
I wasn’t particularly nervous, since I didn’t expect any dramatic changes.
The staff member’s voice came through the speakers.
—Please channel mana into the ring provided, then strike the training dummy when you receive the signal.
Following the instructions, I channeled mana into the assessment ring and gripped the wooden sword.
The signal came a moment later, and I immediately charged toward the dummy on the opposite side.
The moment I closed the distance—
Whoosh!
I swung the sword with all my strength.
Clang! Clang!
My combat instincts had dulled, so the first strike felt a little off.
But…
‘This is going better than I expected.’
With each subsequent strike, I could feel my forgotten combat instincts gradually returning.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The assessment dummy gave off a strange metallic sound with each hit—something I rarely heard outside these tests.
It wasn’t a particularly pleasant sound, but I ignored it and kept swinging with everything I had until time ran out.
For that brief moment, it really felt as though I’d gone back a year.
—Your assessment is complete! Please wait a moment.
Following the staff member’s instructions, I sat beside Sia in the waiting area.
“Good work, Oppa! You were great! You haven’t gotten rusty at all.”
“Y-you think so?”
“Yeah. I was worried you might not be able to show what you could really do, but apart from the first minute or so, you were exactly the Oppa I remember.”
I’d felt the same way, and hearing Sia say it made me even more confident about the results.
They didn’t take long to arrive.
[Yoon Minjun / D / Swordsman
Strength: 28
Stamina: 24
Agility: 24
Mana: 16
Average: 23
Special Skills: None (+0)
Final Average: 23]
The staff member opened the door and came in.
“Your rank and class are both unchanged. Thank you for your hard work.”
“Thank you. Whew, that’s not bad.”
Apart from my Mana stat dropping by one point, there hadn’t been any significant changes.
Considering I’d been out of action for an entire year, it was an especially decent result.
Sia seemed to understand how I felt and gave me an encouraging pat.
“Next, Jeong Sia. Hmm, just a moment.”
But as the staff member examined Sia’s paperwork more closely, she suddenly recoiled as though she’d seen a ghost.
“Ms. Sia… you’re being reassessed following an Awakened Resurrection Application?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my goodness. Then, are you… a Returnee? Wow! I’ve never met a Returnee before!”
The staff member, who had maintained a calm tone until just moments ago, suddenly became much more talkative upon discovering that Sia was a Returnee.
Even the lifeless, glazed-over eyes so common among office workers had transformed into those of a young girl brimming with curiosity.
“I’ve occasionally heard about Returnees on the news, but I’ve never met one in person! Wow… How did it feel when you returned—”
The staff member, who had briefly forgotten her professional composure, seemed to notice Sia and me watching her. She stopped and cleared her throat.
“Ahem. I’m sorry. That was rude of me…”
“It’s all right. I would’ve reacted the same way. Returnees aren’t exactly common.”
“Thank you for understanding. Reassessments for Returnees like yourself take a little longer to prepare, so please bear with us.”
Having regained her usual composure, the staff member began preparing Sia’s assessment.
During the brief wait, a scene was already unfolding in my head, even though we didn’t have any results yet.
The system displaying “Unmeasurable,” the flustered examiner, and the absurd readings from a second assessment…
Higher-ups from the Hunter Administration arriving to interview her in person, followed by major guilds offering blank checks as they launched an all-out recruitment war…
‘You make me proud, Sia.’
How should I congratulate her when that happened?
Maybe I should act unimpressed at first, then properly congratulate her once she got flustered?
While I was lost in those fantasies, Sia’s assessment began.
She could probably toss that assessment dummy around like a toy.
Normally, its special construction made it sturdy enough to withstand almost anything without a scratch. But whoever had made it surely hadn’t accounted for the strength of something as extraordinary as a dragon.
Just how would she smash that thing to pieces?
With those expectations, I watched her reassessment.
But—
“…?”
The overwhelming power she’d shown when we reunited was nowhere to be seen. Sia was hitting the dummy with ordinary spells like an ordinary mage.
She looked just like…
The Sia I’d known before her reincarnation.
An utterly unremarkable D-rank mage.
‘Why…?’
[Jeong Sia / D / Mage
Strength: 15
Stamina: 21
Agility: 23
Mana: 29
Average: 22
Special Skills: None (+0)
Final Average: 22]
Why was she hiding her power?
As I watched her assessment, puzzled by her intentions, her results came out just as quickly as mine had.
“…Huh?”
The staff member checked the results first, then tilted her head at the report.
“That’s strange. Your stats haven’t changed?”
The estimated stats she showed us were almost identical to Sia’s back when she had been human.
The staff member scratched her head in confusion, but Sia merely smiled serenely.
“While there aren’t many cases, Returnees like yourself generally come back stronger than before. Their stats increase at least a little, or they gain a special skill. But yours… haven’t changed.”
The examiner gave her a sympathetic look.
[Jeong Sia / D / Mage
Strength: 15
Stamina: 21
Agility: 23
Mana: 29
Average: 22
Special Skills: None (+0)
Final Average: 22]
“Does that make me an unusual case?”
Unlike me, who was still bewildered, Sia asked the staff member with feigned innocence.
“Yes. Although the extent varies, Returnees normally experience an increase in stats or awaken some other power… Let’s measure you one more time, just in case.”
The examiner conducted the assessment again.
But the results were the same.
[Jeong Sia / D / Mage
Strength: 15
Stamina: 21
Agility: 23
Mana: 29
Average: 22
Special Skills: None (+0)
Final Average: 22]
After tilting her head at the results for a while, the examiner handed Sia the paperwork for reissuing her Hunter ID.
“You must be disappointed. Someone will contact you separately later, but if any problems arise before then, please get in touch with us immediately.”
“Will do. Let’s go, Oppa!”
Without the slightest apparent regret over her rank, Sia took my hand and led the way.
After handing in the paperwork at the counter and collecting her reissued Hunter ID, we went outside.
Unable to contain my curiosity any longer, I asked her.
“Sia, why did you deliberately get such a low rank?”
I checked our surroundings, then lowered my voice after confirming no one was nearby.
“Was it because of me?”
“Yes. Just like you’re thinking.”
Sia didn’t deny it.
Had she matched my rank to spare my pride because I was only a D-rank Hunter?
Perhaps noticing my expression darken, Sia cast Silence around us as she had yesterday, then continued.
“What are you thinking, Oppa? It’s because we can’t enter Gates together if our ranks are too far apart!”
“…What?”
Even so, if she’d revealed her true power, she could have rewritten Hunter history. Didn’t she feel it was a waste?
That was what I’d been thinking.
Then it struck me: why would a dragon like Sia care about such superficial prestige?
If that mattered to her, simply staying in the other world would have been enough. She had crossed dimensions and come here for me alone.
It wasn’t an actual law, but Hunters followed an unwritten rule: unless there was a Gate Break or some other exceptional circumstance, they didn’t raid Gates with Hunters two or more ranks apart from them.
“…You really are impossible.”
So that was the adorable reason she’d falsified her assessment.
When I turned toward her, she was smiling as though it were no big deal.
To thank her for being so considerate of me, I caught her off guard with a kiss on the cheek.
“Thank you.”
“Hehe.”
Sia squirmed bashfully.
Then she said—
“Oppa, since we’re talking about it, why don’t we go into a Gate now?”
“A Gate…?”
Not on a date?
“Yeah. Since it came up, I thought we could relive some old memories. We used to go into Gates together back at the Hunter Academy, remember? Can we?”
A Gate instead of a normal date.
It was a little unusual, but…
‘If that’s what Sia wants, then we should go.’
The only problem was the year I’d spent out of action while she was gone.
Regardless of my reassessment results, I might not be able to pull my weight in real combat. My psychological issues might even rear their head and hold me back again.
With Sia here as a dragon, none of that would pose much of a problem, of course…
‘But I don’t want her to see me fall short.’
I knew. No matter how hard I tried, I would inevitably look inadequate beside a transcendent being like Sia.
Still, if I showed her that I was doing my best, I felt I could hold my head high in front of her.
So let’s stop overthinking and go.
After all, Sia’s feelings couldn’t have been clearer from the moment she returned to Earth.
Instead of worrying about what she might think of me, I should do my best so I could be proud of myself in front of her.
“Of course we can. Let’s go now.”