A golden Saturday morning.
I was vacuuming in the living room.
Wheeee!
Originally, prosecutors had holidays and such because of their enormous workload, but I am not a prosecutor, I am a special investigator.
Thanks to this, I can add some color to my housework.
"Really, you don't have to do that?"
While Ariel was trying to stop me.
Alice, who was sprawled on the sofa, lifted her legs slightly as the vacuum cleaner approached.
He was a doll-like guy from the beginning, but today he is even more so.
It wasn't a very pleasant sight to see him slumped over in the morning, but he deserved to rest.
"Alice has definitely been working a lot lately. She even helped with the interrogation last time."
"is it so?"
"We have too much work to do... Let's hire more team members."
"But you can't just pick anyone."
After grumbling softly and finishing cleaning, I sat down on the sofa and flipped through the news channels... A little while later, Han Ye-jin came knocking quite naturally.
Now is the time to start distributing green dust again.
I started working as soon as Alice, who was lying next to me, suddenly opened the distance.
Meanwhile, completely unexpected news was coming out on the news.
[Reporting that this year's Hunter Festival will be held as scheduled...]
"Hunter? Oh, are you starting to do it now?"
It's a famous event that even I, who have no experience in official hunter activities, know about.
It's easy to think of it as a hunter version of the university festival we had last time.
But the scale is incomparable to that.
I've never directly participated in the Hunter Festival, so I'm curious about it again.
"But what do you usually do in the Hunter Festival?"
"Hmm? Have you ever participated in a Hunter Festival?"
"You know, I'm a little busy..."
As I answered Ariel with a slightly embarrassed feeling, Alice calmly hit the nail on the head from beside me.
"I bet you painted some weird figurines or something at home."
"It's not a figure, it's a miniature model!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
Han Ye-jin apologizes again, remembering that she burned it and ate it.
Tia, who had brought Ker up to me without me noticing, was making a fuss from afar.
"A festival? Are we going to the same festival we had last time?"
"The Hunter Festival is a really good festival."
For some reason, Ariel laughed off Tia's words and explained them to me.
"Not only can ordinary people experience the Hunter's abilities, but each guild also opens pop-up stores."
"Oh, that sounds fun. I can't go though."
"...Why?"
Yeriel asks with a slightly hardened face.
I instinctively flinched and explained.
"It looks like an environment where Hunter crimes are very likely to occur... Shouldn't we be on high alert?"
"Even so, you can rest for a day, right?"
"...Shall we rest?"
"yes."
Tiring!
As I was nodding in the strangely oppressive atmosphere, I received a call from the company.
Blanche brought up a fairly long list on the screen.
"Oh, this again."
"What is that?"
"The company's request... something like a wanted notice."
[Golden Lion's Fur]
[Thunderstorm Mask]
[...]
The list sent by the company was mostly loot from rare monsters.
These are also materials that can be used to upgrade Blanche.
However, it is not intended to be used to add core functions, but rather to simply improve performance a little.
If the material was related to the core functions of the Oracle, a warrant would have been issued long ago.
As I clicked on the list, details about the ingredients came flooding back.
A document detailing the material's capabilities and intended uses, as well as its most recent discovery locations.
I glanced over it quickly and muttered.
"It would be nice if we could increase our quota a bit... Blanche's been doing quite well with her detective work lately."
[Is that so? That's fortunate.]
Blanche comes in literally without blinking.
I was about to say something to the guy.
She rearranged the list haphazardly, showing only the relevant ingredients.
[There are two materials that can increase your quota right now: the Thunderstorm Mask and the Baek Eun-rang's Fang.]
"Which of those were witnessed in Korea?"
[The Thunderstorm Mask was obtained from the Red Dragon Guild in Korea about a month ago.]
The Red Dragon is a large guild with a fairly well-known name.
If I had obtained the materials from the Winter Kingdom Guild, I could have gotten them with just a word from Yeriel...
It doesn't seem like it will be solved that easily.
But where can I get it in Korea?
I thought so and urged Blanche on.
"Is it planned to be sold?"
[No. The Thunderstorm Mask is a rare and powerful material, so it was originally intended for internal consumption within the guild... but due to the association's strong request, it has been put up for sale as a prize for the Hunter Festival competition.]
"A Hunter's... contest prize?"
If you look at how it's being handled, it must be at least 1 billion worth of material.
But what kind of competition is this that the prize is worth 1 billion won?
As I was dumbfounded, Alice flinched beside me.
"Uh, is that by any chance..."
[Yes, this is the Hunter Popularity Vote, which can be considered the main event of the Hunter Festival.]
"It's a hunter popularity vote."
I was hoping, but it was as expected.
If such expensive hunter materials were offered as a prize, it should naturally be a competition aimed at hunters.
Otherwise, the winner won't even receive the prize.
Even handling hunter materials requires its own permission.
I nodded, feeling like all my problems had already been solved.
"It's a hunter popularity vote... If Yeriel leaves, it's over."
"Oh, I'm sorry, but I can't go to that competition."
"Huh? Why?"
I don't really want to send my wife to a competition like that, but...
This time the item at stake is too big.
Ariel smiled bitterly and explained the situation.
"Only active hunters can participate in the Hunter Popularity Vote."
"Well, then what if you reverse your retirement for a moment?"
"That won't work either. I won that tournament five years in a row, so I've been banned since last year."
"That's a very understandable reason..."
In fact, there is no way the competition or anything can proceed once Yeriel leaves.
Alice smiled bitterly as she recalled the last competition.
"Last year, the voting rate was over 95%. For reference, the second place candidate got 1.6%."
I felt like I was betting too hard on the product...
It seems like they are trying to make the most of this opportunity to hold the competition.
I desperately looked for an alternative.
If we could increase the Oracle's allocation, special forces operations would become much easier.
"If Yeriel can't compete... Alice, can't you?"
"Me? There's no guarantee that I'll win if I go out, right?"
Alice blushed slightly and reacted skeptically, but I thought I had a good chance.
"No, Alice, you're incredibly popular, aren't you? You're the mascot of the Winter Kingdom Guild, after all. And... with that costume, you could easily win."
"That outfit?"
"If you go out wearing the 'Dark Magical Girl Alice' costume that I showed you last time... AAAH!"
An enraged Alice swung her fists wildly and punished me.
"Do you think I'm crazy enough to wear that in front of other people?"
It's unfortunate, but if you don't like it, there's nothing you can do.
Besides, Blanche also judged that Alice alone did not have a good chance of winning.
[My prediction is that it will be insufficient.]
"What?"
[We just confirmed the application for participation in the tournament from A-rank hunter Shinsoi. Currently, she is the strongest candidate for victory.]
"Ah... the runner-up in last year's competition was none other than Shin So-i."
Alice also nodded, swallowing her sigh.
Shin So-ra is definitely a woman of a very high level, both as a hunter and as an actress.
Since Yeriel won't be able to compete in this competition, I'm sure she'll come out with the mindset of definitely winning.
I lamented with all my heart.
"Why is an actor of Shin So-yi's caliber appearing in a place like this?"
"If you win the Hunter Popularity Vote, you get free publicity. Plus, whoever wins this time will be in a position similar to Yeriel's successor."
"Now that you mention it, it definitely seems like it has merit."
In any case, I can't just hand over the winning prize to Shin So-yi.
We worked hard to figure out how to win the competition.
"Seo Ji-yu... at best, she'll just help with makeup. I heard that only hunters can participate in the competition. Do you know any hunters around you?"
"No matter what, there's no entertainment industry hunter as successful as Shin So-yi..."
"How about we look for competitors? Alice will definitely appeal to a certain demographic of voters. So, let's try to minimize Shin So-yi's vote share."
"Wait, a specific taste? What do you mean by that?"
We're having a moderately noisy meeting...
Suddenly, Tia raised her hand.
I answered without even looking at the guy properly.
"We're busy right now, so you can just get the cola and drink it."
"Oh, no. I'm not asking for a cola... Is it possible that hunter pets can't participate in the competition, Master?"
"Hunter pet?"
Alice, I, and even Ariel were all taken aback by the unexpected opinion.
Blanche immediately found a case.
[It's not uncommon to see hunter pets on stage. Just looking at past tournaments, there were at least three.]
"okay?"
Certainly, Tia looks pretty good just by looking at her appearance.
It would be really fun to see him and Alice holding hands and going out.
But Alice shook her head vigorously, citing the rules of the competition.
"Wait, that's only possible with your own hunter pet?"
"That's no problem either. In fact, Tia is your hunter pet on paper."
"... what?"
If you think about it, it's obvious.
Since Yeriel is a retired hunter, there's no way she'd be allowed to raise a hunter pet, and since I'm a normal person, it's the same.
In the end, Alice, the only hunter in the special forces, had no choice but to become Tia's master.
At least that's how it is on paper.
Alice, who realized the fact too late, grabbed the back of his neck.
"I never thought it would be handled like that..."
"But will it help if I take him out?"
In fact, Tia has an appearance that could appeal to people with similar tastes to Alice.
Besides, the guy is a part of Tiamat.
Since Korea is a country that was invaded by Tiamat... if we do it wrong, it could actually lower our voting rate.
Tia raised her voice as if she was offended by my opinion.
"My, my lord. I am the one in charge of charm among the six heads..."
"How long are you going to push that concept?"
"It's not a concept!"
"Woof woof!"
I had a pleasant weekend in a moderately noisy atmosphere.