Chapter 47
“Aaaaaahhhhh—!”
When someone trying to scatter and disappear was wrapped in fire, there was no way they could endure it. The phlegmy screams and the smell of burning flesh filled the dirty alley.
“Did you think I’d let you escape when I know your ability?”
Mujin, who had approached closely, stepped on Kim Sangmin’s hand.
“Urgh! Kuuugh…! Aaahhh!”
Crack, snap, breaking sounds came one after another. Without any change in expression, Mujin thoroughly trampled the man’s hand as if telling him to give up thoughts of escape and focus on him. Only after the back of his hand and all five finger joints were completely crushed did a light of submission clearly rise in Kim Sangmin’s eyes.
“Twenty gold bars used to verify Do Yeongmyeong’s prophecy…”
“Th-that’s…”
“Twenty gold bars for one prank.”
Mujin’s eyes sank coldly as he muttered as if talking to himself.
While looking up Kim Sangmin’s history, he felt both absurdity and puzzlement simultaneously.
At the time of Do Yeongmyeong’s first large rift prophecy, news about a hunter who burned twenty gold bars as a ‘prank’ had passed by briefly.
Hunter society overflowed with bizarre humans. There were many who had accumulated abnormal wealth through rift subjugation. Moreover, since the prophecy of a religious group they considered a cult turned out to be true, that news was so shocking that the existence of the hunter who burned twenty gold bars for pranks naturally moved away from interest.
So Mujin also hadn’t paid attention to it. No, it would be more accurate to say he never even thought to pay attention.
‘Until I encountered that bastard Do Yeongmyeong today.’
Mujin recalled Do Yeongmyeong’s face showing excessive interest in Eunseong. The moment he witnessed those eyes and expression, he felt as if bugs were crawling up the back of his neck. A strange premonition that could only be felt in combat situations. It was the current and smell that flowed when someone was definitely going to die.
When Do Yeongmyeong informed him of Eunseong’s location under the guise of prophecy, he had been blinded by desperation. After getting Eunseong back, he thought that guy might have some supernatural ability that could be classified with words like ‘foresight.’
There were quite a few hunters who had predictive abilities to see several minutes or hours ahead. Whether Do Yeongmyeong, that bastard, didn’t report his ability to the Rift Control Agency and instead created a cult to fill his own greed, either way, Mujin had no interest. He should have dug deeper from that time.
After returning to the guild and entrusting the exhausted Eunseong to Lee Haesu, Mujin carefully retraced Do Yeongmyeong’s movements. It was true that he had ignored them as a cult group that only spouted nonsense.
The moment he sensed that something was strange from the first prophecy that was acknowledged as truth by the Holy Grail, he felt he was three years behind.
And what was this now? How strange, he had found Kim Sangmin too easily.
“Isn’t it really interesting?”
A hunter with hundreds of millions in gambling debt, who was about to be exiled due to accumulated criminal records, someone who even sold his own child.
Not even a believer of Yeongseong Gwanghwi, yet squandered hundreds of millions verifying the leader’s prophecy.
The Rift Control Agency that roughly concluded the investigation despite the security breach where the Holy Grail was located.
Mujin gripped Kim Sangmin’s chin and looked straight into his eyes.
“Hunter Kim Sangmin. It’s unfair, isn’t it?”
His eyes, clouded with pain, trembled violently. Through him, Mujin saw his own eyes burning bright yellow.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I really, really… don’t know…”
“Isn’t it unfair that despite contributing to making Do Yeongmyeong a star, you’re exiled like this and living as a fugitive at the bottom, searching through garbage?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know about such things.”
“Which side told you they’d spare you if you just kept your mouth shut? Do Yeongmyeong? The Rift Control Agency?”
“N-no! That’s not it!”
“Ah— both sides?”
Mujin lifted up the chin of the trembling Kim Sangmin. The hands slapping his cheeks should have felt humiliating, but he was just trembling with fear. The moment Mujin raised his hand, he screamed “Aaaahhh!” and even wet himself.
“My, why are you doing this?”
Mujin pressed down the man who was convulsing and shaking, putting restraints around his neck. Click, the lock turned and red light entered.
“Ah, ahhh—! Kuahhh! Ahhh! Aaaahhh!”
“I don’t kill people. My friend dislikes it when I act violently.”
Kim Sangmin couldn’t calm down even though he was just having restraints put on. Watching him continue screaming and even vomiting, Mujin clicked his tongue.
Mujin straightened his back and from where he directed his gaze, motor sounds gradually approached. Soon after, a scooter with a broken headlight flashing clattered into the alley.
The person who stood up from the small saddle was Yeon Seokchun, whom Mujin had called. He who had gone to the Rift Control Agency on business was dressed in a neat three-piece suit.
“Team Leader-nim, surely you didn’t ride that thing all the way here?”
Mujin made an expression wondering where he had picked up such trash.
“Of course not. The car is separately parked on the main road.”
Yeon Seokchun knocked out Kim Sangmin, who kept screaming, then pondered how to move him. Since there was no other solution but to carry him, he took off his suit jacket and handed it to Mujin.
“But why did Do Yeongmyeong leave this guy alive?”
At his question, Mujin shrugged.
“Because he didn’t feel the need, or maybe as a backup scapegoat for when he needs to shift blame?”
Or… it could be breadcrumbs scattered to make me follow.
Mujin, saying it was respect for elders, took Kim Sangmin from Yeon Seokchun and hoisted him onto his shoulder. Then he immediately began walking ahead in the direction to leave.
“If we take this guy and dig into the traces, something will come up. We can set him up as a witness later, and whatever Do Yeongmyeong’s purpose is… since we’ve fallen behind, we have no choice but to follow diligently.”
Kim Sangmin’s two legs dangled behind Mujin. Looking at the messily broken knees, Yeon Seokchun frowned.
“That must have hurt.”
“Team Leader-nim needs to feed him well and take good care of him for the time being. It seems like there’s a secret-keeping skill on his tongue, so watch him carefully so he doesn’t commit suicide.”
When they escaped the maze-like alley, the large jeep Yeon Seokchun had brought was visible. The sleek body that didn’t suit the abandoned city ‘Bottom’ sparkled under the dim moonlight. They had to drive for two hours in that car to reach the lift going up to District 3.
Yeon Seokchun suddenly looked at Mujin with a fed-up expression. Three hours ago, he had received a call asking for pickup since he was chasing Kim Sangmin with his bare body. Following his coordinates by car, he had clicked his tongue because the distance was too far. He newly felt that even among combat-types, the physical difference was like heaven and earth.
Mujin, who had shoved Kim Sangmin into the trunk as if throwing him, immediately hopped into the passenger seat. While fastening his seatbelt, cough cough, he suddenly burst into coughing.
“…Don’t tell me you’ve caught a cold?”
Yeon Seokchun, who had gotten into the driver’s seat, made an incredulous expression. His gaze naturally went to the wristwatch Mujin was wearing. The body temperature displayed on the LCD was 39 degrees.
“You should take fever reducers.”
“Fever reducers?”
“Yes. You seem to have caught a cold.”
“A cold?”
Even after answering himself, Mujin looked foolish, so he let out a hollow laugh.
As the engine started and the car began moving, cold night air brushed over their heads. As if proving Yeon Seokchun’s words, light coughing burst out again.
“After the guild leader returned, Hunter Baek Mujin must have relaxed a lot. People always get sick at times like that.”
Yeon Seokchun’s expression warmed as if he had glimpsed the human side of the person sitting next to him. He thought he should stop by a pharmacy on the way back and gave Mujin a look.
But Mujin still had eyes like he was hearing such nonsense for the first time in his life.
“Have you never caught a cold before?”
“……”
Even when Yeon Seokchun asked again, Mujin just looked at him silently. That expression was as if any disease had absolutely nothing to do with him, so Yeon Seokchun couldn’t help but burst into an absurd laugh.
* * *
“Oppa, you struck really refreshingly.”
In the guild leader’s office, Ha Yera’s voice rang out clearly as she set down large and small titanium boxes on the round table. She had just come from Joo Hyeonwoo’s workshop after watching the video recorded on Eunseong’s protective glasses. She was referring to the scene in that video where Eunseong struck Do Yeongmyeong’s cheek.
“It’s not something to laugh about.”
Mujin replied while buried deep in his wing chair. With a large ice pack on his forehead, he had no intimidating presence, but his voice was serious. Perhaps because the top of his head was warm, Curry had climbed up and was dozing.
Eunseong, sitting across the table, suppressed laughter at that sight and slightly pursed his lips.
“Sorry, I couldn’t control myself…”
“No. I was careless.”
Taking him to the restaurant just to feed him one meal, and not being able to get out quickly were both mistakes. He should have pressured the Sayeong kids more and called them to the guild building instead. No, who would have thought that bastard Do Yeongmyeong would appear there in the first place.
At the continuing muttering, Ha Yera’s eyes widened.
“Hunter Baek Mujin, is it because you’re sick? You’re talking longer than usual today. You must have a high fever.”
“Why am I Hunter Baek Mujin while Eunseong is oppa?”
“Ugh.”
Ha Yera was disgusted.
“How can Eunseong oppa and Hunter Baek Mujin be the same? I’ll absolutely never call you oppa—”
“Ha!”
Mujin burst into hollow laughter. Rather than laughter, it was closer to breathing out in bewilderment. He folded and drew back his long legs that had been stretched on the footstool, and slowly straightened his back, causing the ice pack on his head to fall with a thud.
“Call Eunseong Hunter Yoo Eunseong too. No, call him Guild Leader-nim.”
Since he was said to be sick, perhaps because he was sensitive, his tone was excessively cold. Eunseong looked at Mujin with worried eyes.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
