Poacher Hunting Arc

Running from chapter 114 to chapter 120 across volumes 16 and 17, the Poacher Hunting Arc bridges the Term Break Arc and the Eden Scandal Arc. The Shopkeeper accepts a government request delivered by SSS director Wyman Wilker: wipe out the poachers slaughtering endangered Miteran elk in a demilitarized forest in southwest Ostania, a region he holds in personal regard. Yor, Matthew McMahon, and the abrasive Hemlock take the job, with Gympie in support back home.

Before the mission, Yuri treats Yor to a night out and presses his belief that the Forgers exploit her. Yor gently declines his plea to return to their hometown of Nielsberg, explaining that the loneliness she once felt is gone, and Yuri is left gifting her bedspreads while privately admitting how many secrets he keeps from her. In the forest, Hemlock needles Yor throughout the drive, insisting marriage has dulled her edge and that solitude is the only road to strength. After the team wipes out a hunting party, his irritation boils over into an attack on Yor herself. Threatening her family proves a serious miscalculation: an enraged Yor batters him, strips away his sword, and spares his life, leaving his worldview in pieces. The assassins then storm the poachers' camp, interrogate its leader, and erase the operation entirely.

On the ride home, Matthew answers Yor's fresh doubts with blunt honesty about his own marriage. He intends to deceive his wife until he dies, holds no misgivings about it, and warns Yor that a half-committed marriage only ends up hurting everyone. Shaken, Yor engineers a second date with Loid, officially to keep up appearances, actually to find the cocktail that once numbed the pain of her injuries. Loid misreads her completely and drags her across the city sampling drinks, Hemlock's delivery of Gympie's medicinal salve gets her flagged as a possible adulteress by Camilla, Sharon, and Millie, and the couple flee hand in hand. At the hilltop park, Yor says she wishes to stay with the Forgers indefinitely; Loid, thinking only of Operation Strix, promises the arrangement can continue as long as she likes, and his businesslike answer quietly crushes her.

The final chapter scatters the fallout. Hemlock, reassigned to Berlint City Hall to build social skills, immediately attracts Millie's flirting. Loid, distracted enough during a WISE briefing to entertain Fiona's pitch to replace Yor, is reprimanded by Sylvia and resolves to understand his wife better. And at home, prompted by advice relayed through Anya and Becky to put a hand over her heart, Yor admits aloud that she might actually be in love with Loid, then swears Anya to secrecy.

The arc formally connects the SSS to Garden, introduces the assassins Hemlock and Gympie, and plants Hemlock among Yor's city hall coworkers. Its lasting weight is emotional: for the first time in the series, Yor names her feelings for Loid, even as she convinces herself he sees their marriage as nothing more than a contract, and quietly recommits to protecting the home the Forgers have built.