Sera didn't say anything after they left the gate, but her silence wasn't empty. It carried weight, the kind that built slowly when something refused to make sense no matter how many times you replayed it. The streets were busy as usual, hunters moving between gates, merchants calling out deals, the normal rhythm of the city continuing without pause. To anyone else, it would have been just another day. To her, it felt like something had shifted beneath that surface, something she couldn't ignore even if she tried.
She walked beside Suho for a short distance, matching his pace without speaking, her thoughts running ahead of her. Every movement he made inside the dungeon replayed clearly in her mind. The timing, the precision, the way the enemies reacted—not just to his attacks, but to something else she couldn't fully grasp. It wasn't skill alone. She had seen skilled hunters before, even fought alongside some. What she saw today didn't fit into that category.
"You're heading back?" she asked finally, her tone casual enough that it wouldn't raise suspicion.
"For now," Suho replied.
Sera nodded once, as if that was all she needed to hear. "Same," she said. "I've got something to take care of."
It wasn't entirely a lie.
But it wasn't the truth either.
They parted without another word, each going in a different direction. Suho didn't look back. Sera did.
Just once.
Then she turned away.
---
She didn't go home.
Instead, she changed direction after a few blocks, moving toward a quieter part of the district where the noise of the main streets faded into the background. The buildings here were older, less maintained, but still active. This was where smaller operations worked—information brokers, independent analysts, people who dealt in things that didn't always make it into official records.
Sera stopped in front of a narrow building and pushed the door open.
A small bell rang as she entered.
Inside, the space was dim but organized, shelves lined with files and old terminals set against the walls. A man sat behind a desk, barely looking up at first until he recognized her.
"Well," he said, leaning back slightly. "Didn't expect to see you today."
"I need something checked," Sera replied, walking straight to the counter without hesitation.
"That so?" he said, his tone light but curious. "What kind of something?"
She placed a small slip of paper on the desk.
A name.
"Suho."
The man glanced at it, then at her. "New interest?"
"Just information."
He studied her for a moment, then shrugged. "Alright. Give me a second."
He turned to one of the terminals, typing quickly as he pulled up the registry database. The screen flickered faintly as it processed the request, filtering through recent entries.
After a few seconds, he stopped.
"Hm."
"What?" Sera asked.
He leaned forward slightly, eyes narrowing at the screen. "Nothing unusual," he said slowly. "Registered today. Standard process. Classified as Warrior type. A-Rank skill—Modifier."
Sera's expression didn't change.
But her attention sharpened.
"Anything else?"
The man scrolled further.
"No guild affiliation. No prior records. No flagged activity. Clean profile."
Too clean.
Sera leaned slightly against the counter, her gaze lowering for a brief moment as she processed it. A new hunter with that level of control shouldn't be this empty on record. Even prodigies left traces—training history, recommendations, something that hinted at where they came from.
This—
Was nothing.
"Check the dungeon logs," she said.
The man raised a brow. "That costs extra."
Sera didn't respond.
She just placed another bill on the desk.
"…Alright," he muttered, turning back to the terminal. "Let's see what your mystery hunter's been up to."
The system pulled up recent gate activity, cross-referencing participants and results. After a few moments, the data appeared.
"Slime Marsh. E-Rank. Clean clear. Nothing unusual reported," he read aloud. Then he paused as he moved to the next entry. "Second gate… same rating, but…" His expression shifted slightly.
"But what?"
"There's a note here," he said, scrolling carefully. "Unstable conditions detected. Structure irregularities. Possible system distortion."
Sera's eyes narrowed.
"Was it reported officially?"
"Looks like it," he replied. "Filed by another party inside the gate. Not him."
Of course not.
Sera exhaled slowly.
"What about combat logs?"
The man shook his head. "Restricted. You'd need higher clearance for that."
She clicked her tongue softly.
It was enough to confirm her suspicion, but not enough to explain it.
"Alright," she said after a moment. "That's fine."
The man leaned back again, watching her carefully. "You want my advice?"
Sera didn't answer.
But he continued anyway.
"Stay away from whatever this is," he said. "Clean profiles like that usually mean one of two things. Either he's exactly what he looks like… or he's something you don't want to get involved with."
Sera picked up the slip of paper.
"…I'll decide that myself."
---
By the time she stepped outside, the sun had already begun to set, casting long shadows across the streets. The city was quieter now, but her mind was anything but.
Everything pointed to the same conclusion.
He didn't match his record.
His skill didn't match his classification.
And whatever he was doing inside the dungeon—
It wasn't normal.
She stopped walking for a moment, her gaze drifting toward the distant gates visible across the skyline.
"…Suho."
She said his name quietly, as if testing it.
Then she shook her head slightly and continued forward.
She didn't need all the answers yet.
Not immediately.
Because now—
She had something better.
A direction.
---
And this time—
She wasn't just watching.
She was looking for the truth.