Castorice's strength ran deep and unfathomable, coupled with her mysterious and dangerous abilities, she hadn't joined this round of training.
Though Kanae wished to keep drawing closer to her, being too deliberate would only put others on guard.
Within the Japan delegation, very few were aware of the full plan.
So, most found it odd how warmly Kanae was suddenly behaving toward Castorice.
After all, in their eyes, Kanae was the biggest cheerleader and follower of Goto.
It wasn't that she shouldn't build good relations with a powerful Hunter like Castorice, who operated with semi-independence… but it just didn't quite fit the impression she usually gave.
Still, they were all part of the same guild. However strange it seemed, no one dwelled on it or asked too many questions.
With Akari Shimizu present, the intensity of their sparring sessions clearly rose a notch.
Previously hesitant to cause serious injury, they now struck much harder—there were even moments when tempers flared and things got truly heated.
Fortunately, an S-Rank Healer was genuinely overpowered. Broken bones, limbs snapped—even if someone were clinging to life by a thread, she could easily pull them back.
Castorice actually had means to preserve everyone's lives as well, but hers wasn't healing.
It was more about making the underworld reject a person's arrival—keeping them hanging on, but ensuring they wouldn't die.
Of course, a full recovery method did exist: kill the person, then pull them back from the underworld. But that would be a bit too shocking for the world.
As Korea's currently strongest combatant, Cha Hae-in served as the 'training dummy' of these sparring matches.
Her normal training sessions hardly ever stopped—either fighting one-on-one or one-against-two.
Choi Jong-in could see this was Japan's attempt to gauge Cha Hae-in's fighting power and considered intervening, but Cha Hae-in indicated it was fine.
After all… she was improving constantly too. These battles definitely benefited her more than anyone else.
Watching Cha Hae-in endure such high-intensity sparring for a full three hours before finally showing signs of fatigue, everyone struggled to hide their stunned expressions.
As the day's intense training drew to a close, leaving many still hungry for more, Castorice was enthusiastically given contact details by Akari Shimizu.
After bidding farewell to the group, she left the place alongside Cha Hae-in.
The S-Rank guild leaders from Korea actually wanted to engage more with Castorice, but if they started, Japan's S-Ranks would immediately swarm over.
Both sides knew they couldn't let the other get too close; under such circumstances, neither would gain any advantage, so they simply dropped the idea.
Goto Ryuji and DFN had finally settled on how to handle the unstable variable that was Castorice.
This related to their plan to help Korea conquer the Jeju Island S-Rank Gate.
As mentioned before, Japan's proposed strategy was for them to draw the insect monsters' attacks outside, while Korea entered the nest to execute a decapitation strike against the Ant Queen.
But their true intentions went further. Once Korea entered the nest, they would immediately cease releasing magical energy.
The insect monsters exhibited stronger aggression toward targets with high magical energy and were easily drawn to them.
After Japan stopped emitting magic, whether driven by the Ant Queen's safety or the magic released by Korea during the decapitation attempt, the insects would be directed to the same location: right beside Korea's Hunters.
In that scenario, the Korea Hunters would be doomed.
Next, Japan's Hunters would simply report internationally that Korea's decapitation had failed, forcing Japan to retreat.
Then, a second attack force waiting at sea would move in to conduct a second assault on Jeju Island.
Not only would this weaken the neighboring country's combat power, but Japan would also become the nation that conquered an S-Rank Gate.
This would catapult Goto Ryuji into the ranks of a National-Level Hunter.
However… Castorice's appearance disrupted this plan.
Because Castorice's strength clearly surpassed S-Rank by far, enough to rival Goto Ryuji himself.
With power like that, neither Goto nor DFN believed Korea would be unable to cope and face total annihilation.
Moreover, Cha Hae-in's strength was also enough to make Goto take serious notice.
So, in this situation, how should they handle the tricky problem of Castorice?
The answer was quite simple: don't handle it.
Yes, when a person's power was sufficiently great, they couldn't be easily schemed against.
Not to mention they had absolutely no time to devise a proper plan, but even if they did scheme, what if it failed to kill her?
There was no need to offend a National-Level Hunter who hadn't even officially received her title yet.
Rather than that, it was better to maintain proper relations and foster goodwill.
But that S-Rank Gate was something Goto Ryuji absolutely could not let slip by, no matter what. He had waited too long for this opportunity.
S-Rank Gates were extremely rare; if he missed this one, he had no idea how long he'd have to wait again.
Thus, their final discussed plan changed accordingly.
That night, at Goto Ryuji's request, the strategy meeting reconvened.
But this had little to do with Castorice.
After bidding farewell to the other Hunters with Cha Hae-in, Castorice summoned the Death Dragon and brought Cha Hae-in to a suburban forest.
"Why bring me here all of a sudden?"
Cha Hae-in recognized this place. It was where she had previously secured the A-Rank Gate.
"I have a gift I'd like to give you, Cha-sunbae."
Castorice explained.
"A gift?"
Cha Hae-in didn't understand Castorice's action.
"If anything, I should be the one giving you a gift, shouldn't I? You've helped me so much, and I haven't even given you a proper token of thanks… Not to mention you saved my life."
At this, she felt somewhat dejected.
"What I mentioned were just casual pointers, not worth you spending so much effort to repay."
Though, in the end, that repayment hadn't succeeded.
"To you they might have been casual, but to me they were immensely helpful guidance."
As expected, Cha Hae-in didn't accept that line of reasoning.
"But I'm truly happy to receive such earnest gratitude and repayment from you, Cha-sunbae."
Castorice had her own values too. Knowing it was hard to persuade each other on this point, she continued, "Moreover, rather than saying I saved you, it's more accurate to say you were implicated because of me, nearly losing your life."
"That…"
Cha Hae-in recalled those people coming for her—it did seem to be because of Castorice.
Before she could ponder further, Castorice took out a purple gemstone.
"This is…?"
Still tracing the logic, Cha Hae-in's gaze was caught by the gemstone Castorice suddenly produced.
The magic flowing within it made her eyes widen; the quality of its magical energy reminded her of the Monarch of Frost she had faced before.
"It's a gem called a Sephira Crystal."
Castorice explained, "It's a crystal formed when a powerful being separated and condensed part of their power. Whoever holds it gains the power within. There are ten such gems in total."
This item was actually quite precious.
Although Amber controlled the power of the Spirit of Origin and had Durandal's physique, she could only separate about three hundred crystals a year, most of which were used as high-grade fuel for the system.
But… the person before her could be considered one of her only two friends in this world.
She had already fulfilled all duties of friendship toward Han Song-Yi, and she hadn't treated Cha Hae-in poorly either.
If Cha Hae-in hadn't been implicated and nearly killed because of her this time, Castorice wouldn't have considered giving out a Sephira Crystal.
"But… I can't accept this."
Cha Hae-in closed her eyes, pushing back the desire in her heart.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.