The New Boarder Was the Hunter Who Downgraded Me

Sol was fixing soup for her boarders when the status window hit her with F-rank again, and she almost dropped the pot. She had spent eight years feeding young hunters, sewing torn sleeves, and teaching them how to leave a gate with all their fingers. Now the system had stripped away her support, but not her skill, and she hated that the world still acted like she was finished. When a new boarder moved in with a familiar face and the wrong kind of silence, Sol felt her old rank burn under the scar of her downgrade. The pendant taped inside her vest started to warm, and the lie she had lived with for ten years began to crack. The man who came looking for a room might also be the key to the day...