What followed was practically Cha Hae-In's personal showcase.
Ma Dongwook lost the strength contest to Kenzo Tanaka, and Lim Tae-Gyu—an archer who was supposed to stay in the backline—was dragged into close range by Minoru Hoshino and eliminated just as quickly once he no longer had a frontline to protect him.
After that, Kenzo Tanaka and Minoru Hoshino both went down to Cha Hae-In in the end.
After Scáthach's training in the Land of Shadows, it wasn't an exaggeration to say Cha Hae-In could hang her old self up and beat her senseless. Ordinary S-Ranks simply couldn't put meaningful pressure on her anymore.
After the brief "friendly exchange," the Japanese Hunters' faces had gone completely dark. There hadn't been any mage-types in this match, but the result still made them lose some dignity—especially after they'd been running their mouths about how weak South Korea's S-Ranks were.
Of course, they could see it clearly too: Baek Yoonho, Ma Dongwook, and Lim Tae-Gyu were all painfully average as S-Ranks went. They'd lost purely because of Esil and Cha Hae-In.
You've had S-Ranks like this, and you never once put them on the international stage? You kept them hidden?
Look at Japan—with their Goto Ryuji, and they never held back on the publicity. That was international clout.
If the South Korean Hunters could hear those inner thoughts, they would've cried injustice on the spot.
Cha Hae-In had always been strong in their eyes, sure—but not this absurdly strong.
"Seems everyone has a better understanding of each other's strength now." Seeing the match end—and seeing Hunter Cha Hae-In perform so brilliantly—Go Gunhee wore a satisfied smile.
"Not quite."
Goto Ryuji stepped forward and cut him off.
"Hunter Cha Hae-In and the other three showed their capabilities, yes. But Hunter Esil acted only once, and after that she never left her spot, did she? Can you really call that 'understanding'?"
Then Goto turned the spearhead on Scáthach. "And why didn't Hunter Scáthach participate? The rules say mage-types can't enter, but Hunter Scáthach isn't a mage-type, correct? Even now, you're still hiding things. It makes it difficult for Japan to fully trust you in the operation to come."
Hanekawa translated Goto's words into Korean for Go Gunhee and the others.
Off to the side, Sung Jinwoo's eyes widened the instant he heard them.
This guy's really that bold? He wants Shishō to step onto the platform? Does he not know how to spell death?
Japan had, after all, sent ten S-Ranks to help reclaim Jeju Island. Go Gunhee didn't want to offend them, so he explained carefully, "Miss Scáthach may be S-Rank, but she won't be participating in the Jeju Island operation. She only came with Esil, so there was no need for her to enter."
"Whether she's participating doesn't matter, does it?" Goto pressed, calm as ever. "She's been watching this whole time. Surely Hunter Scáthach's hands are itching as well."
A dense aura coiled around Goto Ryuji—so heavy it made even S-Ranks feel their breathing tighten.
"Coincidentally… my hands are itching too." His gaze stayed steady. "Spar with me. If you're worried about fairness, Hunter Scáthach can come together with Hunter Esil."
Sung Jinwoo was even more dumbfounded.
Not only did he want to fight Scáthach—he wanted Scáthach and Esil together?
How drunk do you have to be to say something like that?
In that moment, Jinwoo genuinely wanted to drag him by the collar and ask: Do you think you're worthy? Worthy of what? Worthy of anything?
But there was one thing Goto had gotten right.
Scáthach's hands really were itching.
There was no helping it—so many hot-blooded warriors packed into one gym, throwing everything they had into a fierce bout right in front of her. The fact she hadn't simply leapt down and flattened them all already was proof of her restraint.
And now Goto had released that aura straight at her.
This wasn't pressing the issue anymore.
This was provocation.
Scáthach's smile spread at once.
He was much weaker than Thomas Andre, yes—but that didn't matter. Scáthach acknowledged every warrior who dared to challenge, every fighter who dared raise a weapon against her. Strong or weak, they all had the right to witness the spearplay she had honed to the realm of the divine.
"Wait!"
Just as Scáthach was about to accept, Cha Hae-In flashed in, slipping between her and Goto Ryuji. Panic edged her voice.
"Miss Scáthach—please, calm down. Mr. Goto Ryuji is still going to lead Japan's Hunters to support us in reclaiming Jeju Island in a few days. If you injure him, it'll cause problems!"
The Japanese Hunters turned to Hanekawa—because he hadn't translated Cha Hae-In's words, and his face looked… strained.
"Hanekawa." Goto's brows knit. "What did Hunter Cha just say?"
Hanekawa opened his mouth, hesitated for a long moment, then finally shut his eyes and translated Cha Hae-In's words anyway.
This time, it wasn't just Hanekawa whose face turned ugly.
Every Japanese Hunter's did.
"No need to worry. The Jeju Island operation is still four days away." Scáthach spoke as if it were nothing. "Four days is plenty. Even if I beat him until he's barely clinging to life, I can still heal him. You and Sung Jinwoo know my healing best."
That did not reassure Cha Hae-In in the slightest.
"But… they traveled all the way here from Japan to help us reclaim Jeju Island. If you beat their leader too badly—too humiliatingly—if you make them lose their dignity, it'll ruin the cooperation."
Around them, the South Korean Hunters all wore strange expressions, thinking the same thing.
You just said exactly what makes them lose dignity… and you said it in front of everyone.
The Japanese Hunters' faces were so dark they looked like charcoal.
Cha Hae-In shot Sung Jinwoo a look, silently begging him to help talk Scáthach down.
Sung Jinwoo looked thoroughly unwilling.
He kind of wanted to see whether Goto Ryuji could keep that arrogant composure after Scáthach taught him what reality looked like. And besides—Scáthach had clearly been stirred into fighting intent. If Jinwoo stepped in and stopped her, there was a decent chance he'd end up taking Goto's place and getting beaten instead.
That was a terrible deal.
"…Shishō." After a fierce internal struggle, Jinwoo finally stepped forward. "Your magic can only heal physical injuries. It can't restore mental fatigue, right?"
That single form of address instantly seized the attention of everyone who hadn't known.
Shishō? The S-Rank Hunter Sung Jinwoo just called Scáthach his master?!
Jinwoo didn't have time to care about their reactions. He braced himself and kept going. "On the battlefield, everything changes in an instant. You have to maintain a perfect state—body and mind—at all times. That's what you taught me."
"Hm…" Scáthach's eyes softened with pleased surprise. "To think you've held onto my words so firmly. It warms my heart. Looks like my day-to-day instruction wasn't wasted."
She smiled, satisfied—and took a step back.
"Since both of my disciples are saying this, if I keep being unreasonable and picking a fight, how could I still serve as an example to you?" Scáthach waved it off lightly. "Forget the match."
Before anyone could recover from the shock, her words set off another tidal wave.
Just now… she said two disciples?
Which meant—
"Hunter Cha." Baek Yoonho forced down the storm in his chest and leaned toward her. "When Miss Scáthach said 'two disciples'… she meant…?"
"Yes." Cha Hae-In admitted it openly. "I became Miss Scáthach's student some time ago. Hunter Sung Jinwoo and I both learned under her."
Her voice stayed calm, but her eyes shone with sincerity.
"Miss Scáthach is incredibly—truly—strong. And because of her, I realized how much I was lacking, and how much room I still had to grow…" She took a breath, then added, quieter but no less earnest: "And because of her, I don't even need a handkerchief anymore. I can't smell the stench in mana now. I'm grateful to her."
That was it.
Both the Japanese Hunters and the South Korean Hunters lost their composure completely, eyes reddening, breath rough as they stared at Scáthach.
After Awakening, no matter how you trained, you couldn't cross the wall between levels. You couldn't make clear progress in a short time—unless you experienced Reawakening…
That was "common sense," something nearly every Hunter believed.
And yet—look at Scáthach's two disciples.
Sung Jinwoo, suspected of Reawakening, had leaped from the weakest E-Rank straight to S-Rank—and even now he didn't seem anywhere near his limit. He was still growing stronger.
Cha Hae-In, already standing at the peak of South Korea's S-Ranks, had recently undergone another surge in strength that made no sense at all.
So everyone present realized something at once—
The Hunter Scáthach standing before them had an overwhelming chance of being able to help other Hunters rapidly increase their power.
At that point, even if Scáthach weren't S-Rank—if she were just an ordinary person—she would still be someone nations around the world would go mad over, someone they would fight and tear at each other to claim.
The moment Baek Yoonho, Ma Dongwook, and the other guildmasters realized it, they all shot vicious looks at Choi Jong-In.
Cha Hae-In was the vice-master of Choi Jong-In's guild. No one believed Choi Jong-In had been completely unaware of her sudden leap—or of Scáthach's uniqueness.
Clearly, he'd been hiding it from all of them.
Choi Jong-In, you bastard…!
Goto Ryuji didn't bring up sparring with Scáthach again either. Instead, his mind filled with only one thought—how to pry Scáthach away and bring her to Japan.
If she truly had the ability to let Hunters keep growing, then could she help him break free of the label "a Hunter comparable to Liu Zhigang"—and become a National Level Hunter who surpassed Liu Zhigang?
Compared to that, Japan's earlier loss didn't matter at all.
Besides, Scáthach wasn't South Korean. She'd stayed here for a long time without returning to her own country. She didn't seem to have much attachment to her homeland.
In that case, Japan could absolutely try to dig at the wall and steal her away.
And they had to move immediately. Something this big couldn't be kept secret. If the major powers learned Scáthach's value first, Japan would be at a disadvantage.
After the spar, Scáthach's phone gained a whole pile of new contacts.
Baek Yoonho, Ma Dongwook, and other South Korean guildmasters—Kanae Tawata and Akari Shimizu from Japan as well. Even an idiot could see what they wanted, and none of them tried to hide it.
After witnessing the changes in Sung Jinwoo and Cha Hae-In, they couldn't sit still anymore. They also understood it was impossible to ignore Scáthach's will and monopolize her—so they started by trying to build a relationship.
Scáthach didn't mind at all. Meeting more people only made her life richer.
Besides, if someone wanted to become her student and learn from her, she'd be delighted.
If someone wanted to learn Scáthach's arts, she would teach.
The only prerequisite was whether you could endure it.
...
South Korea treated the Jeju Island operation with extreme importance. News about the ant monsters on Jeju—and about the operation itself—ran nonstop on television, with experts and reporters brought on to analyze every detail.
It had been four years since the S-Rank Gate appeared on Jeju Island. In those four years, South Korea had launched three clearing operations. Many South Korean Hunters had died—S-Ranks included. It wasn't just a thorn in the Hunters' hearts.
It was a thorn in the heart of the entire nation.
Everyone was watching this operation closely.
Walking the streets of South Korea, almost every passerby was talking about Jeju.
Warm yellow streetlight spilled down behind Sung Jinwoo as he pulled up the hood of his trench coat and lowered his head, scrolling through the flood of hateful comments aimed at him.
"Why isn't Sung Jinwoo on the roster?"
"So what if he became S-Rank? Once an E-Rank, always an E-Rank! Bet he pissed himself. Hahaha!"
"Even Min Byung-Gu, who retired, and Esil—who only recently became S-Rank—are joining. Where's Sung Jinwoo?"
"He's S-Rank and still acting like this? What a disgrace to South Korea…"
Jinwoo didn't care about the insults.
He was just worried about his sister, Jinah.
"Hm… Seeing you haven't been affected by the online hate puts my mind at ease."
Jinwoo's steps stalled. He looked up in surprise—and found Scáthach standing right in front of him, a cup of milk tea in her hand.