I replied nonchalantly and clapped my hands together. "All right, the peanut gallery can leave now."

The healer glanced at Bonggyu, who bit his lip and nodded. The healer bowed his head low and exited the room.

"...State your terms," Bonggyu growled.

I held up my fingers. "First, have your man apologize to the victim and return the stolen relic."

"Of course. I'll see to it."

"Second, cease all political attacks on Alchemia and publicly confess to the atrocities you've committed against us. After that, submit to a proper prosecutorial investigation."

Bonggyu's face contorted with shock and rage. "Are you telling us to commit suicide?!"

"If you refuse, all the data I have will be sent to the press. It'll be like throwing oil on a burning warehouse. Public opinion will force not only the prosecutors to act, but possibly even the Execution Division."

At the mention of the Execution Division, Bonggyu froze. They held extralegal authority in the hunter world, with permission to kill in the field. If they got involved, the Healer's Union might truly be dismantled.

"Mr. Chairman, did you really think you could run your organization the same way after things have come to this?" I took another sip of the tea. It was sweet, but this time, it suited my taste. "Did you think everything would be fine if you just sat on your hands and waited for the public to quiet down, just like you've always done? It's time for a new way of thinking. From now on, the Healer's Union will face change, one way or another."

I savored his expression as I stood and retrieved the USB drive. "I can't wait long. Three days at most."

I pocketed the USB and spoke as I headed for the door. "Consider your time up the moment this video appears on television."

* * *

I'd made it out alive. A belated sense of relief washed over me. I'd worried they might suddenly turn hostile and attack, but they weren't that thoughtless. I got my phone back and exited the building safely.

"Whew."

I let out a soft sigh as I looked back at the Healer's Union building, then walked toward Seojin's waiting car. A thrill shot through me with every step.

* * *

Seojin had to leave for other business, so I returned to the Magic Tower alone. Bora and Ea were bustling about.

"O-oh! Welcome back, Yusin."

I caught the flustered look on Bora's face. "Why the guilty look?"

"...Ahaha! I didn't expect you back so soon."

As if she had no choice, Bora showed me the ingredients on the table: an induction cooktop, a pot, beef, and various vegetables and mushrooms.

"Huh? Ingredients for hot pot."

"Correct! Aren't you tired of convenience store food and delivery? I'm going to whip up something that'll put some life back in you!" she declared, pressing a pack of beef to her cheek and winking.

Having built up some immunity to her cute act, I calmly rummaged through the ingredients. Ah, damn it. Perilla leaves.

"Who's cooking?"

"Me, of course!"

"I have also decided to assist as a kitchen helper, Tower Master," Ea added.

'I have very little faith in the women of this household.'

Sensing my expression, Bora pouted. "I practiced this a few times at home! I'm really confident!"

"R-Right. I'll look forward to it."

The cooking began immediately. Bora turned on the induction cooktop and started boiling an anchovy broth that contained kelp, dried shrimp, and even dried pollack. Apparently, they sell pre-made broth sets these days.

While the broth simmered, Ea chopped vegetables, and Bora opened the beef package. As the plastic wrap came off, thinly sliced, bright crimson beef for shabu-shabu was revealed. The ceiling lights reflected off its surface, making it look incredibly appetizing.

'Ugh, do we have to cook it? I just want to grill that meat in a frying pan.'

"Yusin. You were just thinking you wanted to just grill the meat, weren't you?"

"...Have you been hanging out with Ea so much that you learned how to read minds?"

"Ugh, just you wait!" Bora grumbled, setting up a small cutting board. She brought over a huge pile of napa cabbage and perilla leaves.

"Does hot pot usually have this much cabbage?"

"I'm making mille-feuille nabe."

"Mille… what?"

"If you don't know, just watch!"

She laid a wide cabbage leaf on the cutting board, placed a perilla leaf on top, then added the beef. "Two slices of beef? Or three?"

"Three, three."

Before I knew it, I was engrossed in the process.

As I requested, Bora beautifully layered three slices of beef, then stacked cabbage, perilla leaf, beef, and another cabbage leaf on top. She pressed down lightly with her palm.

"Ah, I know this dish! So this is mille-pyong nabe!"

"Mille-feuille nabe," she corrected.

With a kitchen knife, she cut the layers into sections, then repeated the process several times. Not taking my eyes off her, I made a call.

"Seojin. When are you coming to the tower?"

"I just stopped by the Alchemia office. Is something wrong?"

"Bora's making hot pot. Want to come?"

"My condolences, Tower Master."

Somehow hearing his voice, Bora shrieked, "You won't even get a drop of broth if you come!"

I added one more thing. "Ea's the kitchen assistant."

'Crash!'

I heard the sound of books falling.

"I'm on my way."

The call ended. I smiled wryly and glanced at Bora.

"Hmph! Seriously. This is so frustrating, I'm going to enroll in a cooking class."

Bora grumbled as she spread Ea's finely chopped vegetables on the bottom of the pot. Then, she began to arrange the cut mille-feuille pieces upright, starting from the outside and working her way in. The white of the cabbage, the green of the perilla leaves, and the red of the beef created a beautiful combination of colors.

Soon, the pot was tightly packed, leaving only the center empty, looking as if flower petals had bloomed inside. To finish, she placed a crown daisy, and a star-shaped shiitake mushroom in the middle.

"Ooh, it looks really impressive."

"Right? Right?" Bora said with a bright smile, having been frantically snapping pictures with her phone. "I guarantee the taste this time, too! It's a combination that's hard to mess up."

All that was left was to pour in the broth and bring it to a boil. Ea went to the third floor to get Eunsol, who was engrossed in golem creation.

"Beefie!"

At the mention of food, Eunsol came running. A moment later, Seojin arrived.

"Gasp! Gasp! A-Am I late?"

"...You got here fast. Did you take a helicopter?"

"If you're late, you can help set the table!"

We set out the dishes and utensils and gathered around the table. In the center, we placed the induction cooktop with the pot of mille-feuille nabe.

"Woooow!" Eunsol and Seojin exclaimed in unison.

"Hmm."

Both were surprised by its appetizing appearance. When Bora poured the anchovy-kelp broth gently over the pot, another round of gasps erupted.

Soon, the pot began to bubble. The crimson beef tucked between the cabbage leaves gradually turned a delicious golden color.

"All right! In that case…" Bora tasted the broth with a ladle. "Okay! Dig in!"

"Yay!" everyone cheered.

"Thanks for the food."

"Thanks for the food," everyone echoed.

We each took a piece of mille-feuille. I dipped a cabbage leaf into the soy-based sauce Ea had made from an online recipe and took a bite. It was heavenly.

"I admit it, Bora. You get a three-month pass on your cooking."

"Hehe! Only three months? Be generous and give me three years!" she said with a radiant smile.

I stared at her. "...You seem to have changed somehow."

"Huh? What has? My cooking skills?"

"No, it's nothing."

Seojin, while enjoying the mille-feuille, was focusing his attack on the bean sprouts and mushrooms at the bottom of the pot. I don't know how he knew, as if by magic, that Ea had been in charge of the vegetables.

"'Mille-feuille' is French for 'a thousand leaves,'" Seojin rattled off, though no one had asked. "It refers to a dessert made with layers of puff pastry. Combined with the Japanese word for hot pot, 'nabe,' it becomes mille-feuille nabe, a type of fusion cuisine."

Of course, no one was listening, too engrossed in their food.

Eunsol's cheeks were puffed out like a squirrel hoarding acorns, making me want to poke them.

The longer the hot pot boiled, the more the beef fat rendered out, making the broth richer and more savory.

Once the mille-feuille was gone in a flash, Bora got up, rummaged through the ingredients, and returned with something else.

"Ta-da! Kalguksu noodles!"

Oh, man. This girl knows what she's doing. Genuinely moved, I pressed the bridge of my nose.

"I'll extend your pass to one year."

"Ohohoho! Thank you!"

We added the knife-cut noodles to the rich, savory broth. As steam billowed and the noodles cooked to chewy perfection, everyone dove in like soldiers, inhaling the strands. The perfect end to a meal like this is either noodles or fried rice.

It was a proper meal for the first time in a while. We cleaned out the pot, not leaving a single bean sprout behind.

For dessert, we had strawberries from the supermarket.

"Yummy. Nom nom."

Eunsol started dozing off, as if her Dreamscape had activated. It was amazing to see her use her Remote Control ability to its limit, levitating strawberries into her mouth.

Seojin and I ate strawberries while discussing the Healer's Union.

"Was it necessary to give them three days?"

"Nah, I just said that. It's too late today, so I plan to release it tomorrow."

"I see."

"What kind of sinister plot are you two hatching now?" Bora asked, bringing over the second dessert: sliced bananas with a chocolate hazelnut spread.

"It's nothing. Oh, and the Healer's Union issue is resolved, so you don't have to worry about it."

"That's a relief! What are you going to do now that we've eaten?"

"Challenge the fourth-floor trial."

"Oh, again? You'll ruin your health. Take it slow."

I just smiled and stretched. Whether it was this incident or anything else, every time I tried to do something, I faced resistance from all sides. To protect the Magic Tower, I needed to become stronger. And to prevent the foretold Disaster.

* * *

The next morning dawned. Bora yawned as she got off the bus. Stopping by the dummy factory in the early morning to move the finished potions before heading to the academy was the first thing to do on her daily schedule.

"Hm. Hmmm. Hm-hmm."

Humming a tune, she walked toward the research site, taking out her staff access pass and hanging it around her neck. She then turned on her phone and logged into social media. The response to her mille-feuille nabe post had been explosive. She checked each comment, replying one by one.

—Bora, your posts have been slow lately. You used to post like five times a day. Is something wrong?

Come to think of it, this was her first post in almost four days. She smiled softly and typed a reply.

—Sorry, I've been busy lately.

Bora turned off her phone and breathed in the fresh morning air.

There was a time when her life was nothing more than a search for content to post online. She'd go to famous restaurants, eat pretty desserts, and manufacture posts pretending to be happy, successful, and having fun. She only felt joy when people paid attention to those photos. It was more important for others to see her as happy than for her to actually be happy.

But lately, she didn't feel that need. She wasn't lonely. She could live each day to the fullest without relying on social media.

A car slowed and stopped beside her. The window rolled down, and a middle-aged man in his fifties leaned out. "Excuse me, miss, can I ask for directions?"

"Yes! Where are you headed?"

"I'm trying to get to Jungrye Market. Is it close? It's not showing up on my GPS."

"Ah, Jungrye Market? From here, you'll want to turn right—"

Suddenly, a hand clamped over her mouth from behind. Bora's eyes darted around in shock, but she couldn't see anything.

"...Mmph! Mmph!"

"Huh? What's wrong, miss?"

"Mmph! Mmph-mmph!"

Bora flailed her arms, desperately pleading for help, but the simple-faced man suddenly flashed a cruel smile.

"Nothing personal. Sorry about this."

Her body dissolved into thin air and vanished.

* * *

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