#41
Ah, why hadn’t he thought of that? Why hadn’t he considered the simple fact that the man wasn’t following him, but rather had business at Nameless as well, so their paths just happened to overlap? Ha-seong felt a bit embarrassed.
“I’m sorry.”
Since the man was wearing a full suit, he had naturally assumed he wasn’t a hunter. But that was exactly the kind of prejudice he shouldn’t have. There was no law saying only hunters could come and go from Nameless, and Ha-seong bowed his head, reflecting on how he was full of preconceptions and biases.
“It’s fine. That’s understandable. Are you affiliated with Nameless?”
“Yes. I’m a purifier belonging to Nameless.”
Ha-seong had somehow fallen into step beside the man as they entered the building. Then strangely, gazes poured in from all around. The hunters and staff passing through the lobby were all looking in Ha-seong’s direction and whispering among themselves.
What was this? Had they somehow found out that he was the one who broke the Pounding? Or had his act of pretending to be caught up in the dungeon while beating up the boss been exposed? No. If that were the case, Cha Do-hyeok would have contacted him first about something.
Besides, he had supposedly covered well with the team that had been deployed for the dungeon raid that day, saying they must have seen wrong. Lee Seung-woo had apparently insisted that someone had been there even while receiving treatment, but there was no evidence to prove it, and above all, since Seung-woo was the only one who had seen Ha-seong, the credibility was greatly diminished.
Then what the hell was it? Those stares.
“Um, but do you happen to know where the Guild Leader’s office is?”
At that moment, the man tilted his head and asked. Had he come to see Cha Do-hyeok? Come to think of it, the security guards standing in the lobby hadn’t stopped this person either. Had he already made an appointment?
“Let’s go together. I also have business with that guy— I mean, the Guild Leader-nim.”
“I’d be grateful if you would.”
The man grinned broadly. It was quite a proper and kind smile. Ha-seong thought this as he stood in front of the elevator.
“But you are…”
“Do Ha-seong.”
“Ah, Ha-seong-ssi, have you ever heard this expression?”
The man stroked his chin and tilted his head.
“What expression?”
Ha-seong pressed the button for the top floor as soon as he got on the elevator.
“Rich unemployed person.”
“……”
Ha-seong looked at the other person with deliberately widened eyes. What, could it be that this person’s dream was also to be a rich unemployed person? He was about to feel a sense of kinship.
“It seems like some kind of metaphorical expression, but I don’t understand the meaning yet.”
The man showed a deeply contemplative expression. A rich unemployed person literally meant someone with overflowing money living an idle life, so what metaphorical meaning could there be? Ha-seong was seriously wondering if such words had different meanings in this world when—
Ding—
The door opened with a cheerful sound. They got off the elevator, and Shin-woo’s eyes, who had been sitting in front, widened. And in front of him was Cha Do-hyeok, who had been talking about something with Shin-woo.
“Guild Leader-nim, over there…”
Then Do-hyeok turned around and looked back and forth between the man walking leisurely toward them and Ha-seong standing beside him.
“What kind of situation is this?”
Do-hyeok tilted his head. It was rather Ha-seong who couldn’t understand that reaction. Why was Shin-woo widening his eyes, and why was Do-hyeok looking back and forth between the man and Ha-seong as if it were strange?
“What situation? You haven’t been in touch at all, so I came to find you.”
The man spoke to Do-hyeok quite familiarly. Rather than someone who had come on business, he seemed like a friend who had come for personal reasons. Ha-seong had thought that guy with that personality wouldn’t have even one friend, but apparently that wasn’t the case. As Ha-seong craned his neck and glanced between the two, Do-hyeok suddenly approached him.
“Hyung, what do you know about coming here together?”
“Huh? About what?”
Do-hyeok seemed to roughly understand the situation and let out a deep sigh. Then he gestured to both of them to come inside first.
“Me too? Shouldn’t you meet with your guest first?”
Ha-seong whispered quietly, but Do-hyeok only said it was fine and to come in.
“Shin-woo, don’t let anyone in for a while.”
“Yes.”
So the three people slowly entered the Guild Leader’s office. Ha-seong, who had entered the Guild Leader’s office, sat side by side with the man at the table. No matter how much he tried to deduce why he was in this room together with a guest, he couldn’t figure it out at all.
“Do-hyeok, explain.”
And the man sitting next to him seemed to be in the same situation. Then Do-hyeok sat across from the two of them with his characteristic emotionless face.
“So why did you come without even contacting me, Yoon Woo-bin?”
Then Woo-bin smiled slightly and casually performed the strange act of scolding through ventriloquism, saying it was because he hadn’t been in touch at all.
“Yoon Woo-bin?”
Speaking of that name, Ha-seong knew it too. He had definitely heard when Do-hyeok told him everything last time that the Management Bureau was also aware of this fact, and among them, a hunter named Yoon Woo-bin was leading the investigation.
After that, Ha-seong went home and looked up information about Woo-bin. Well, he called it looking up information, but in this world, just typing a famous hunter’s name into a portal site would pour out all kinds of related information.
Yoon Woo-bin. An 8th-ranked hunter in the official rankings. He was also a hunter who had attracted attention for the shocking choice of entering the Management Bureau during his successful career as a hunter. As soon as he joined the Management Bureau, he joined as a core department member, and shortly after was promoted to team leader of a team, so he was apparently also called the Management Bureau’s mascot.
There were also rumors that the number of hunters applying to the Management Bureau had greatly increased after Woo-bin joined. Come to think of it, there was a reason why all the other hunters had stared when they walked through the lobby earlier. It was because he was a famous ranker.
Now he also understood why the security guard hadn’t stopped him even though he hadn’t made a separate appointment. There was no need to. His face was his business card and ID. If this was the case, he should have looked more carefully at the photos when researching the information. Since he had only glanced at them, he couldn’t remember well.
“Hmm, it seems Ha-seong-ssi didn’t recognize me.”
“Ah, I wasn’t sure.”
Well, it would have been more difficult for someone from this world not to recognize the Management Bureau’s mascot and a skilled person ranking in the top 10.
“It’s possible not to recognize him. You’re quite pretentious.”
Do-hyeok openly criticized Woo-bin. But Woo-bin only smiled with a Buddha-like face. It seemed like Woo-bin was mentally more mature.
“So. Why did you call Ha-seong-ssi along?”
Do-hyeok made eye contact with Ha-seong. Though it wasn’t a planned situation, he was asking if it was okay to speak. Ha-seong nodded to indicate he should speak. Anyway, he was someone he would have to meet eventually, and if Woo-bin was also investigating this case, cooperation in the form of information sharing was essential.
Of course, if he tried to interrogate and investigate him thoroughly, that would be troublesome, but in that case, he planned to leave everything to Cha Do-hyeok.
“The informant I mentioned last time.”
Do-hyeok said this while pointing to Ha-seong. Woo-bin also seemed surprised by the unexpected statement and looked at Ha-seong with widened eyes.
“Rich unemployed person?”
Then Woo-bin pointed at Ha-seong and said that. What the hell did that bastard Cha Do-hyeok explain me as?
“For now, it’s planned. That’s the plan.”
Since he wasn’t a rich unemployed person yet, there was a need to correct it.
“You’re saying the informant you found is Ha-seong-ssi?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, Cha Do-hyeok. Didn’t you even explain properly about me?”
“I’m doing it now.”
Hah. Ha-seong let out a long sigh. From the looks of it, Woo-bin had also come directly because he was frustrated and had no choice, but that bastard was really something.
“But…”
At that moment, Woo-bin showed a serious expression.
“Do-hyeok is using honorifics. I think he also called you hyung earlier.”
What’s with that bastard who devoured manners like rice mixed with soup? Woo-bin’s eyes were saying exactly that.
“I’m older.”
Even with that additional explanation, Woo-bin was confused. Because Woo-bin was also older than Do-hyeok. By a whole three years. But that bastard had never once used honorifics with him. The title hyung? He had even thought that the day he heard that would probably be the day the world ended.
“As expected, Do-hyeok has no manners.”
Saying this, Woo-bin grinned. To smile while casually cursing. Probably mental-type skills would never work on Woo-bin, Ha-seong thought.
“Well, that’s fine. I’d like to hear the reason Ha-seong-ssi was selected as an informant first.”
“The informant I had in mind needed to meet exactly two conditions. A skilled person whose face isn’t known.”
Woo-bin also seemed to agree with this and nodded.
“I acknowledge that his face isn’t known. I’m also seeing Ha-seong-ssi for the first time. But has it been verified that he’s skilled?”
Woo-bin glanced at Ha-seong. His appearance suited words like neat and pretty, and his physique didn’t seem particularly outstanding. Of course, he knew you shouldn’t judge people by their appearance, but he couldn’t get any feeling from Ha-seong at all.
“Pounding.”
At that moment, Do-hyeok muttered quietly. Pounding referred to a special measuring device created to allow inference of hunters’ grades.
“You heard the story. Our guild’s measuring device broke.”
Ha-seong coughed loudly with a guilty expression.
“Yeah. Won-hyeok was almost crying when he told me about it. You didn’t break it, did you?”
That made sense because Nameless’s Pounding was famous. With accuracy similar to the Pounding officially used by the Management Bureau, there was almost no margin of error. It was also incredibly sturdy, so even Nameless’s hot-blooded hunters couldn’t damage it no matter how much they tormented it. In terms of durability, it was superior to even the Management Bureau’s, so when he heard from Won-hyeok that it had broken, he had naturally assumed it was Do-hyeok’s doing.
“Not me, this hyung.”
“…Huh?”
“This hyung broke that thing.”
Then Woo-bin’s gaze naturally turned to the side. Ha-seong smiled awkwardly and turned his head to avoid that gaze.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
