#118
“Lee Jin-ha.”
Legas, who was busy giving instructions to the servants on how to stack the boxes, spotted Jin-ha and approached him, handing him a bundle of papers.
“Here is the list of prepared gifts. I heard you became a manager last night, so there’s nothing particularly grand…”
One unicorn horn, five sea serpent scales, 1kg of fairy-repelling powder, fifty single-use high-grade automatic defense artifacts, twenty lightning summoning scrolls, and many other monster by-products, scrolls, and artifacts…
As Jin-ha scanned through the list, he was left speechless. Unicorns were monsters that couldn’t even be hunted on Earth yet. A horn from such a monster would be incredibly valuable as the first monster by-product. The same went for the sea serpent scales. While hunting was possible, intact scales were rare due to the brutal and harsh hunting conditions on Earth. The fairy-repelling powder was something whose recipe had been shared but not commercialized.
Did he prepare all this in just one day since last night?
“It seems quite impressive…”
“Would this be enough to maintain Lee Jin-ha’s dignity?”
“It’s more than enough.”
Jin-ha replied absentmindedly. Then he thought he should have negotiated for more as a project manager.
Intellectually, he knew he had risen to such a position, but it didn’t quite sink in. After all, just the other day, he had been begging Riyekan to stop giving him things. Of course, that was personal wealth, and this was for the nation’s benefit, so it was different…
Jin-ha looked back at Riyekan in bewilderment.
“Th, thank you.”
“Ah, now you realize that what Legas does is the same as what I do.”
“Well, these are all things that can’t be taken out without your permission…”
“Do you like them?”
“Hmm…”
Jin-ha hesitated for a moment and then pulled Riyekan close to whisper in his ear.
“I didn’t expect you to be considerate in this way. Thank you very much. But if it’s too much…”
“What do you take me for?”
“Well, you are quite wealthy…”
“Just be thankful.”
At Riyekan’s firm and arrogant words, Jin-ha looked up at him blankly for a moment and then chuckled.
“Yes. Thank you very much.”
To cheer up his lover, secretly sending delivery food while pretending to meet as friends was something Jin-ha had experienced. Cha Ki-young, the playboy, had done that often with the people he dated. Thanks to that, Jin-ha had enjoyed many free meals and desserts.
But he never thought he would experience it on such a grand scale. It was a bit overwhelming, but Jin-ha decided not to complain anymore.
“Come back quickly. And make sure to keep in touch.”
“You’re quite restrictive.”
“Do you dislike that?”
Jin-ha gently kissed one of Riyekan’s cheeks, which was about to pout, and then said,
“I’m someone who separates public and private matters well, but this time, I can’t help but feel personal joy in a public matter.”
“That’s how it should be. That’s why I’m doing this.”
“Yes, it turned out as you wished.”
“Then, can I expect a personal reward when you return?”
Jin-ha tapped the cheek of the man who was subtly revealing his greed and then quickly stepped back.
“I’ll answer that when I return.”
He had already taken too much time. He couldn’t afford to dawdle any longer if he was to handle business on Earth. Jin-ha approached the man who had been watching the affectionate time of the recently interested couple in front of the portal.
Seo Ji-seop greeted Jin-ha with a face full of emotion and joy.
“Here, this is for you to take.”
He couldn’t move all these items at once. So, Jin-ha would have to tell the civil servant on the other side of the portal that he had received many gifts, and then Seo Ji-seop would deliver the remaining items to Earth. Seo Ji-seop handed Jin-ha the box containing the most expensive item, the unicorn horn.
“Even if you say it’s a gift, they might not be impressed, but showing them this will make them lively.”
He was a man who knew well how to navigate the civil servant society. Indeed, Seo Ji-seop’s guild was proactive in cooperating with the Anomaly Management Agency, and he must have keenly felt how passive and responsibility-avoidant civil servants could be during their many collaborations. It was natural that he was skilled in handling them.
Jin-ha took the box and bowed his head.
“I’m sorry to have you do this since the morning.”
“No, it’s my job.”
“Still, thank you…”
“If it’s really burdensome, how about withdrawing the first rule?”
He was really persistent. Jin-ha looked up at Seo Ji-seop with a disgusted expression, but the guild master, mad about other people’s love affairs, only shone his eyes eagerly without flinching.
Jin-ha slowly scanned the pile of boxes that could easily be a hundred and weighed the pros and cons. From now on, Seo Ji-seop would have to carry all these boxes alone and, together with the civil servant on the other side of the portal, ensure that nothing was stolen in the process and even prepare a gift list. It was not a job for an S-grade hunter, let alone the master of Narak, to do. Feeling sorry for making an S-grade hunter do such a thing and carefully considering the annoyance when the first rule was withdrawn, Jin-ha decided to make a slight concession.
“He’s the one who asked me out.”
“I knew it! I thought so.”
Jin-ha shook his head and headed towards the portal. Just before entering the portal, he glanced back and saw Riyekan pointing at the ring on his finger towards him.
It meant to make sure to keep in touch. Jin-ha obediently nodded.
* * *
The situation unfolded as Seo Ji-seop had said. The portal manager, who had been calmly responding with surprise to the mention of gifts, was shocked and froze like a statue when Jin-ha opened the box and showed him the contents, saying it was a unicorn horn.
As Seo Ji-seop appeared pushing a cart full of boxes, the portal manager looked at him with a trembling gaze.
“Those are not unicorn horns.”
Only then did the portal manager sigh in relief and laugh.
“Phew, you scared me. But suddenly, what gifts? Did something good happen?”
He couldn’t very well say that it was a gift sent by his lover to cheer him up. Jin-ha pondered what excuse to make, and Seo Ji-seop quickly intervened.
“There was!”
“What happened?”
“Our Jin-ha became a new manager. The master sent congratulatory gifts because Jin-ha has been doing well so far. It probably also means to ask for continued cooperation in the future.”
Seo Ji-seop, who had nicely packaged the situation, smiled brightly and poked Jin-ha’s side with his elbow.
“Quickly, tell me what you got.”
“Hmm…”
Jin-ha hastily took out the gift list that Legas had given him.
“Hmm, there’s a lot. I’m sorry, but could you record this on your phone?”
If he could just hand over the gift list, it would be great, but only Jin-ha could read these words. Jin-ha waited for the portal manager to turn on the recording function of his phone with a puzzled expression and then began to read the list from the top one by one.
“One unicorn horn, five sea serpent scales, 1kg of fairy-repelling powder, fifty single-use high-grade automatic defense artifacts, twenty lightning summoning scrolls…”
As his words continued, the shock and awe on the portal manager’s face deepened. And Seo Ji-seop watched the scene with enjoyment.
* * *
Jin-ha left the rest to Seo Ji-seop and headed to Seoul. Thanks to prior notice, he didn’t have to engage in unnecessary disputes this time. Come to think of it, he didn’t feel dizzy this time. The dizziness and nausea from last time were definitely due to that strange condition.
When he visited the Anomaly Management Agency, the deputy director’s office had already been cleared out. The deputy director’s funeral had ended as a family affair several days ago.
The deputy director, who had gone missing and was later found dead in a dungeon in another region. It was clearly a murder, but they had already held the funeral? In this era, funerals were usually cremations, and at the same time, they were a perfect destruction of evidence.
No matter how he thought about it, it was suspicious.
“Jin-ha.”
When Jin-ha turned around, Nam Hyun-seok waved his hand with a clumsy face.
“I heard you were coming. Come here.”
“Nam Hyun-seok.”
Jin-ha bowed his head slightly towards Nam Hyun-seok.
“I came because I heard the news. Can you tell me in detail what happened? Why did the deputy director suddenly…”
“Wait. Let’s talk about that inside.”
Nam Hyun-seok, who was conscious of the surroundings, took Jin-ha and went to the elevator. He soon found out why. The atmosphere in the agency was not normal. Everyone he met was filled with fear and suspicion of an unclear target. It used to be an atmosphere where even strangers would exchange light greetings, but now everyone was looking at each other as if suspecting each other’s identities.
What had happened in the meantime? It seemed too extreme to be just because of the deputy director’s death.
Finally, as they entered Jin-ha’s personal office, Nam Hyun-seok opened his mouth.
“The place where the deputy director was kidnapped was in front of the reserved parking space in the underground parking lot.”
“Yes? But the people who can enter this building…”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
