Chapter 15
By the time Seo Jia had almost finished her bowl of soup, she quietly set her spoon down on the table.
A faint smile rested on her lips.
“It’s strange. Why does my heart feel so peaceful? I feel like I’ve become a completely different person.”
Mangi replied in a calm voice.
“I’m glad.”
Looking into her eyes, Mangi continued.
“I think when your heart is starving the most, even something as simple as a bowl of soup can come to mean a lot.”
Jia’s eyes trembled slightly.
After hearing those words, she remained silent for a long while.
A brief silence settled over them.
Poming quietly sat beside Jia and gently pressed her front paws against the back of Jia’s hand.
Even without anyone saying anything, Poming seemed to understand that there was no need to chatter right now.
A little while later,
Jia raised her head and carefully looked at Mangi.
“Um… can I ask you one last thing?”
“Yes, of course. Go ahead.”
“I… really am dead, right?”
Instead of answering, Mangi slowly nodded.
Seeing that nod, Jia let out a small laugh.
But there was still a trace of sorrowful regret mixed into her smile.
“If I really died… and if that’s why I came here… then at least I’m glad that I was able to make one last happy and wonderful memory before going to the afterlife.”
As Mangi cleared the table, he quietly said,
“This memory will stay with you for a long time, somehow.”
Jia closed her eyes and slowly exhaled.
Tears once again gathered beneath her eyelids.
“You know, Chef… all my life, I always wanted someone to acknowledge me. I wanted likes. I wanted comments. And I desperately wanted to hear even a single ‘thank you’ from my teammates.”
She slowly lifted her head.
“I told you before, didn’t I? That I never once thought I was good enough. I always felt lacking, always felt like I was falling behind everyone else, and no matter what I did, I was never satisfied with myself.”
Mangi quietly asked,
“How do you feel now?”
Jia smiled.
“For the first time, I think I’m a little okay with myself.”
She paused for a moment.
“And if I can live another life in the afterlife… I feel certain that I’ll be able to live it as a much better version of myself than I did in this world.”
Her eyes shone brightly.
There was still sadness around them, but beneath that sadness was a firm sense of peace.
“Chef. No… Hunter.”
She smiled deeply.
“Thank you. Really.”
Then she said it once more.
“Thank you… truly, truly.”
With those words, her body slowly began turning into light.
Transparent, gentle threads of light wrapped around her body before slowly scattering into the air.
Poming placed her front paws together and spoke softly.
“I hope you’ll be happy in the afterlife.”
Mangi also lightly closed his eyes, pressing his lips together as if offering a silent prayer.
The light slowly drifted around the restaurant.
Then, before long, it stopped in front of Mangi.
And then—
Ding.
A familiar notification sound rang through his head.
[System Message]
[The lingering regret of the deceased Hunter Seo Jia has been resolved.]
[The power of her heart is being passed on to you.]
[New Ability Acquired: 『Emotional First Aid』]
[Through food or physical contact, temporarily grants mental stability and improved concentration to emotionally unstable targets.]
[Classified as a Healer-type skill.]
[This skill is temporary and will disappear once the current battle ends.]
After obtaining the ability of the healer Seo Jia, Mangi quietly closed his eyes.
He felt a deeply comforting warmth.
Although it was only a temporary healer ability, that warmth did not feel like nothing more than a skill.
It was a trace left behind by the life of a person named Jia.
“Jia… goodbye.”
Poming quietly waved her paw.
Then she murmured in a small voice,
“In your next life, I hope you’ll love yourself just the way you are.”
The last traces of light disappeared.
At the same time, the rain finally stopped.
Now, neither the clattering of dishes nor the sound of rain could be heard inside the restaurant.
Only peaceful silence remained.
Mangi and Poming quietly began cleaning up the kitchen together.
Poming’s eyes sparkled as she asked,
“Chef, that ability you received from Jia… doesn’t it seem really useful?”
Mangi nodded.
“Yeah. It’s a truly precious gift.”
Poming exclaimed brightly,
“Then you’ll be able to use it to help other people in dungeons now too, right?”
Mangi quietly looked up at the sky.
“I should. But it also feels too precious to waste carelessly. More importantly, since it’s a one-use ability, I’ll have to judge carefully and use it when it really matters.”
“Ah, I think that just means you can’t use it continuously without charging! During a battle, once it recharges, you should be able to use it again right away!”
“Really?”
A new sense of determination seemed to settle into his eyes.
Some time later.
The entrance to the dungeon was fairly crowded.
The dungeon scheduled to be raided today was—
‘Skeleton Catacombs BX-07.’
It meant that this was the seventh location among the BX-rank dungeons.
There weren’t enough B-rank or higher Hunters gathered here today, so raid members were being recruited regardless of rank.
One of them noticed me standing around and muttered,
“Look over there. Isn’t that guy F-rank?”
“Hey, isn’t he the guy who supposedly killed the ‘Swamp Predator Grulak’ last time?”
“He just got lucky. He’s still only F-rank. Probably just happened to land the finishing blow.”
Several Hunters waiting nearby whispered mockingly.
Every one of them was looking at me.
An F-rank Hunter who ran a street-food stall and somehow ended up killing a boss monster.
Apparently, that story had already spread among the Hunters in this area.
One of the Hunters watching me walked over.
“You’re joining us, right? We’re short on people.”
