Chapter 43
Eunseong clasped his hands together and gnawed on his knuckles.
“Where’s Curry…?”
“That thing flew off somewhere earlier.”
Mujin answered quickly, as if to say he hadn’t harmed it.
“Oh, I know. It does that sometimes. It probably went off to play somewhere.”
This laugh was a sneer. Eunseong turned his head out of habit to study Mujin’s face, even though he couldn’t see. Considering how he had been wary of Curry, calling it a monster, that dismissive laugh was natural, but…
“Curry isn’t harmful.”
“How would you know that?”
“Curry saved my life. For three years it stayed by my side without harming anyone in the tent village, and even on the day Hanyeong got hurt, thanks to Curry…”
Eunseong, who had been continuing his defense, had no choice but to stop at Mujin’s sigh.
“Eunseong, you’re too soft. You give ground too easily. You have no wariness or calculation. Even I could be harmful to you right now, but you have no suspicions at all.”
“You’re not harmful to me either.”
Eunseong retorted without hesitation.
“You died because of me.”
BANG! Suddenly there was a dull sound of cars colliding along with a horn from up ahead. Mujin urgently stepped on the brakes and reached out to press against Eunseong’s chest.
“Sorry. I was distracted.”
Eunseong instinctively grabbed Mujin’s arm. He was so startled by what he had just said that he didn’t even feel the sudden stop. As he just moved his lips silently, thinking he was hurt, Mujin stroked his neck.
“Are you okay? You didn’t hit anything, did you?”
“Uh, yeah… I’m fine.”
“I’ll go out and take a quick look, so stay seated.”
“Okay.”
Whether it was his imagination or not, when Mujin got out of the car, all the noisy commotion seemed to quiet down at once. In the stillness, only Eunseong’s insides were loud.
“…The accident was caused by other people, so why are you apologizing?”
Eunseong brushed over the spot where Mujin’s hand had touched once more. The person he saw and felt was incredibly kind and good.
Suddenly, the image of Mujin holding a knife to Baek Sangyeon’s neck popped into his mind. At the same time, the rumor that Jung Isaac had been reported missing because of Mujin. People trapped in self-hatred easily become destructive. Eunseong felt that Mujin hated himself.
‘You died because of me.’
That’s not true.
He had heard from Yeon Seokchun that the accident happened while he was struggling to save him. He had also heard that how he died and came back to life, and why he went missing remained a mystery, and that because of this, Mujin had spent three difficult years.
Among all the unclear things, there was only one thing Eunseong could be certain of. He would never have blamed Mujin at any moment.
Because of Mujin’s self-blaming words, spoken as if conveying unchanging truth, Eunseong’s heart ached sharply.
* * *
Hotel Serenity, the largest and most famous hotel in District 3, was the appointed meeting place to meet Sayeong Guild’s buffer.
The major hotels in residential districts were generally serious about themed decoration, all because rifts had taken away the surface. It was a kind of desperation to recreate and enjoy the beauty they had once taken for granted.
Hotel Serenity’s theme was a butterfly garden. Past the artificial pond and maze-like garden walkways, and spaces draped with purple wisteria, there was a huge glass greenhouse. The hotel’s pride was the lush forest decorated with mixed virtual reality, flower beds blooming with all kinds of flowers, and thousands of butterflies flying above them.
Before getting out of the car, Eunseong checked his protective glasses and pulled his hood back over his head. Mujin, who opened the car door for him, wrapped his arm around his shoulders and led him inside. Continuously whispering “step ahead, careful of the revolving door,” he suddenly called Eunseong as if remembering something.
“Oh, our guild doesn’t have a name yet. I forgot to tell you.”
“What?”
“The guild name. You should come up with it, Eunseong.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. We don’t have a name yet, so what should I introduce us as? Think quickly.”
His head wasn’t even working from this suddenly assigned task, when Mujin grabbed his shoulder tightly again, giving him a signal.
“They’re coming. Two people.”
The meeting began before Eunseong could fully prepare himself mentally. He could feel tension from the two Sayeong Guild hunters who quickly closed the distance. The atmosphere of them carefully examining this side could be felt even with eyes closed.
“Hello. I’m Ryu Sehyeon from Sayeong.”
“I’m Park Jiwon.”
“Thank you for your trouble coming all the way to District 3. Hunter Ryu Sehyeon, Hunter Park Jiwon.”
“Nice to meet you. Hunter Baek Mujin. This is the first time seeing you up close, and you’re indeed as rumored.”
Mujin took his hand off Eunseong’s shoulder and shook hands with both people in turn. Eunseong also immediately noticed the presence of hands extended to him and responded skillfully.
“Ah… This must be the newbie buffer you mentioned in advance. Nice to meet you.”
“Hello. I’m Han Geumseum.”
As soon as the brief handshake ended, Mujin wrapped his arm around Eunseong’s shoulders again as if embracing him. His overprotectiveness was embarrassing, but it wasn’t something he couldn’t understand, so he followed obediently. However, that sight seemed to stimulate the other party’s curiosity. The younger-looking of the two expressed pure curiosity about Eunseong’s eyes.
“Your eye area seems sensitive. It’s already unfortunate to awaken as a buffer, but if your senses are like that too, you must have suffered mentally.”
Having thoroughly promised with Mujin not to leak any information, Eunseong just smiled slightly and nodded.
Buffer ability users were rare. Among those who awakened as first-generation hunters, they had the lowest survival rate.
Attack-type and healing-type ability users, who operated with intuitive mechanisms, survived in relatively large numbers, but production-type and support-type did not. Since even the methods of handling abilities were gradually established over the years, their survival rates were low in the early days, and their descendants were also relatively few.
Buffers in particular were more often born like mutations among attack-type ability users rather than from bloodlines passed down through generations. Pure bloodline buffers were so few they could be counted on one hand.
Buffers who awakened so unstably often only had sensitive senses, but their abilities either failed to properly bloom or were so poor that they spent their lives depending on hospitals.
“We’ve reserved a conference room, so let’s move there.”
Mujin led the group with a calm voice. Suddenly, Eunseong thought this was the first time he’d seen Mujin like this. Naturally, dealing with people was something Yeon Seokchun would handle, but for safety reasons, Mujin had stepped forward himself. Watching from the side, it surprisingly suited him well.
Simple refreshments were already prepared in the reserved boardroom. After the waiting staff greeted them and withdrew, the four people sat facing each other across a square table.
“Actually, we were a bit surprised. We didn’t expect Hunter Baek Mujin to come out personally. We expected the elderly team leader who contacted us to come.”
Tension was clearly evident in Ryu Sehyeon’s tone.
“Seeing you like this, you seem even more impressive than what we heard in rumors.”
“We all broke out in cold sweat when we heard you recently captured a changgui with your bare hands. Honestly, I thought there was some exaggeration mixed in, but seeing you like this, indeed, indeed.”
Park Jiwon added with a frivolous laugh. This one seemed more curious than nervous.
“In the midst of all that, we received a personal commission contact, so we couldn’t help but have complicated thoughts. Hunter Baek Mujin training an unawakened buffer? No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t really imagine it. So we came to this meeting today to confirm with our own eyes.”
Ryu Sehyeon finished as if summarizing.
Were the rumors they had heard really only positive ones? Mujin tapped the table with his fingertips then backed down a step.
“Since it’s not yet an officially launched guild, you can treat us comfortably. Please think of this commission as my personal commission.”
“Hmm…”
“Is there a problem?”
“Ah, well.”
Apart from being restless, they seemed to definitely want something. After hesitating and stalling for quite a while, Ryu Sehyeon opened his mouth as if making a decision.
“Actually, if the client had been Huiseon Guild, we wouldn’t have needed to think much about it. You know it’s illegal for hunters to privately respond to personal commissions, right?”
What? Eunseong, who was listening, unconsciously opened his mouth slightly. He didn’t know it was illegal? When he first came up with the idea, Mujin had only said it was a good idea, so he never dreamed of this.
“Sayeong also knew and agreed to it, didn’t you?”
“Actually, we thought the newbie buffer we’d meet today would be a child.”
When Mujin answered stiffly, Sayeong’s Park Jiwon suddenly raised his voice. So they wanted to appeal that the risk they had prepared for was great? Eunseong couldn’t quickly follow the intent of what the other party was trying to say.
“The gist of what Hunter Park Jiwon is saying is that usually those who have difficulty with skill awakening are mostly children, so such commissions are processed through the Control Agency and guardians. And Hunter Baek Mujin is an attack-type hunter, so you have no connection to buffers.”
“So we thought the matter about the civilian patient was a smokescreen. To put it bluntly, we came out today thinking we had one job.”
While Ryu Sehyeon was trying to manage the situation, Park Jiwon jumped out again. He seemed frustrated with the careful, roundabout way of speaking. Mujin, who was watching the two, let out a small sigh.
“So you two are now saying that you expected I might have kidnapped some unrelated child who had awakened to buffer talent?”
“That’s not it, we actually thought it might be a hidden child of yours. Since you’ve been underwater for three years, naturally… Ah! Why are you pinching me!”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
