Damn Hunter Life Chapter 63
Why is that? Is it because this guy is the original protagonist?
‘I don’t know. Let’s set aside the stealth skill mystery for now…’
After that, I shared everything I had investigated about regular hunter factions and bullying problems with Ja Hyeong-woo.
Wood attribute Myo Cho-hui was the only successor of her attribute, so there weren’t any factional fights. Though I should look into whether there’s any personal ostracism or conflicts within.
Won Ha-ri, the first and only metal attribute successor to appear, had recently finally accepted regular hunters who had no affiliation and shared her power with them. It was a newly formed force with few numbers, so there didn’t seem to be any particular problems there.
Fire attribute had two people: Sa Ye-ho and Ma Cheon-ah. But since their abilities were similar, there was no superiority between factions, and communication between successors and regular hunters was active, so no problems had been found currently.
Then what remained was one: earth attribute.
Earth attribute had as many as four successors. So there were four affiliations. (Since I have no affiliation, it’s exactly three.)
Since they had the most people, disturbances were bound to be frequent.
Moreover, since Woo Sae-geon alone reigned as such a powerful figure in earth attribute, I had thought that hunters affiliated with Woo Sae-geon might act arrogantly toward hunters from other affiliations…
‘Surprisingly, the earth attribute hunters were also fine.’
It wasn’t that there were no weird guys, but it was a similar level to other attributes. Woo Sae-geon might have managed them directly.
However, one crazy bastard from earth attribute was clinging to Yang Pyo, who was a successor no less, and threatening a successor, so we needed to pay particular attention to this side.
I finished the briefing by telling Ja Hyeong-woo about Sheep successor Yang Pyo and Kim Sang-ju. (I had already talked with Yang Pyo beforehand. We were no longer in a position to hide things.)
“It’s fortunate that other places are okay. We just need to overturn the water attribute.”
Even though he would be the one to face the most backlash from this as the top healer of water attribute, Ja Hyeong-woo’s resolve was firm and there wasn’t a trace of hesitation in his eyes.
“What’s the exact plan?”
Then we should move on to the next procedure.
“I’m going to organize all the violence incidents in the school into documents and deliver them to the Hunter Association and external parties.”
“External parties?”
“Police. And I’m going to ask my manager to find a decent reporter too.”
What I want is to instill a sense of alarm in both the delinquent bastards and the general public.
If the perpetrators are loudly reported and condemned by the public, everyone will be shocked. Then this kind of thing won’t happen again.
‘And citizens will realize something too.’
I want to point out how unhelpful and meaningless it was to simply watch public areas with surveillance cameras under the pretext of protection, and remind them what true ‘protection’ is.
“Before that, we need to notify all successors that we’re going to expose this and get their consent.”
In that process, no student who isn’t a perpetrator should be exposed as prey.
Especially successors who have a lot to lose and can be exploited.
“This shouldn’t be a report that you or I are making, but teamwork where all successors stepped forward for a clean school.”
It was a record. The longest time I had spoken seriously in front of Ja Hyeong-woo without sarcasm, without provoking anger.
I ignored it even when Ja Hyeong-woo stared at me as if he couldn’t adapt.
‘Let’s make it seem like all successors reported it.’ This was an idea I came up with so Yang Pyo wouldn’t get dragged down by the media because of his former friend bastard, but thinking about it, this was necessary for everyone.
‘From what I know from the original work, all eight successors were essential allies to protagonist Ja Hyeong-woo. Not one of them can have their mentality broken. There’s even combat coming up right now.’
While I was at it, I showed him the still incomplete documents. Ja Hyeong-woo took the papers I handed him and read them thoroughly.
“…It seems like you’re capable of handling this alone, so is there a reason you told me about this?”
For a moment, an answer didn’t come right away.
From the beginning, I had tried to find exactly one colleague to discuss and proceed with work together.
Hae Mi-jun was also a victim and knew more about this matter than anyone, but I hesitated to involve him. He’s young.
I just need to show Hae Mi-jun that things are being resolved well.
‘The reason I moved started from you.’
Ja Hyeong-woo tried to make eye contact with me while holding the papers. Even though it was uncomfortable, it was hard to avoid.
“Really, just to confirm whether I knew, that’s all? …Did you perhaps suspect that I was turning a blind eye while knowing about the violence?”
“I didn’t suspect anything like that.”
On the same sofa. With only one cushion between us.
Too close to Ja Hyeong-woo.
With other guys, being fellow men, anything didn’t matter at all, but why do I end up calculating distance only with Ja Hyeong-woo… It must be because I dislike him.
But to back away now would hurt my pride.
While I couldn’t do either this or that, the second hand ticked several times, and a faint softness appeared at the corners of Ja Hyeong-woo’s mouth, making me feel unsettled.
“Then, you must need me.”
It was a confident statement without any intention to tease me. Ja Hyeong-woo was confident that I needed him.
…Even in such a serious matter, saying something like “I don’t need help from someone like you!” would be too childish.
Just this once. Saying something nice to Ja Hyeong-woo.
“To collect testimony from victim students, someone like me who’s a bastard won’t do. There needs to be someone who can give them trust.”
The reason I deliberately wanted to drag another person into this and proceed as a joint work was—
To carry out such a heavy and big task of comforting hurt students all by myself on a large scale… actually, I was anxious in a corner of my heart.
Because if you’re the original protagonist, the moment you hear this story, no matter how much you hate me, you’ll jump in and participate in implementing justice.
“You’re trying to put me in front of you.”
Ja Hyeong-woo muttered as if he understood my heart completely. Then my hand automatically crumpled the sobok.
I got up from the sofa and turned my back.
“I’m going.”
After arriving home, embarrassment came belatedly. Why did I say goodbye so out of character?
Let’s forget this too. Like that damn past photo.
* * *
Ja Hyeong-woo moved by squeezing time even during harsh training.
As Gyeon Gang-hyeon had requested. He personally met with all successors one-on-one and conveyed what they were trying to do.
“I’m using you. I’m afraid people will curse at me if I step forward.”
Without reacting to those words from Gyeon Gang-hyeon at all.
When he told Jin Seol-woon, he seemed truly surprised. Apart from always being gentle with Innate fandom, he was too distant from regular hunters, so he seemed to have never even imagined such a situation.
The second was Sa Ye-ho. Ja Hyeong-woo already felt tired thinking about listening to his noisy questions.
But it seemed he needed to evaluate Sa Ye-ho a bit differently.
When talking about verbal violence incidents, Sa Ye-ho’s sharply slanted eyes didn’t relax at all.
“Okay, got it. Tell me if there’s anything to help with.”
He even said he would seriously support them.
“But is this something you thought up and are doing alone?”
Sa Ye-ho threw a question. To that, Ja Hyeong-woo answered honestly. He had no intention of hiding anything from successors at least.
“I’m doing it together with Gang-hyeon.”
Then a grinning smile appeared on Sa Ye-ho’s face. His gaze kept following Ja Hyeong-woo’s movements.
Ja Hyeong-woo turned around, meaning if you have something to say, say it. Sa Ye-ho chattered noisily as if he had been waiting.
“You guys get along better than I thought?”
…Regardless of what the truth was.
It wasn’t something he wanted to deny to others.
“Yeah.”
In Ma Cheon-ah’s case, it was tiring as expected. She couldn’t contain her temper and wildly emitted hot fire energy.
“Right now, I should cut off all those bastards’ limbs…!”
“Calm down. Cheon-ah, I don’t want to put you on the list for retaliatory assault.”
On the other hand, Myo Cho-hui didn’t say a single word throughout the explanation.
“Why did you and Gang-hyeon end up doing that?”
Though they had been colleagues for several months, Ja Hyeong-woo had really rarely seen Myo Cho-hui in private settings. In private, she seemed gentle like her public image at first glance, but absolutely not.
She was always empty inside.
“Because we saw it.”
Ja Hyeong-woo dryly recited the reason he could express and turned around.
“Going public…”
He thought young Won Ha-ri would be terrified to hear this fact, but she unexpectedly nodded her head calmly.
However, what caught Ja Hyeong-woo’s attention was something else.
The fact that Gang-hyeon oppa isn’t actually a bad person should also be made public. It was a murmur she let slip.
“You have the least connection to this matter, so you don’t need to worry. Your enrollment was recent too. And you’re the youngest.”
“Yes. And um, you know. Please tell Gang-hyeon oppa. If there’s anything I can help with, tell him to call me. What if someone who knows Gang-hyeon oppa is going around doing this tries to threaten him or something.”
Won Ha-ri was quite close to Gyeon Gang-hyeon, so she could contact him directly, but for some reason she looked at Ja Hyeong-woo and asked him to ‘pass along the message.’
Did they seem like a close relationship? Ja Hyeong-woo felt good.
With a feeling like he had resolved a little bit of the long-experienced hunger, he looked up at the sky and let out a small breath.
[“Won Ha-ri said that? Tell her it’s fine. I am a scoundrel, but I won’t go as far as being human trash who makes a fifteen-year-old kid beat up others.”]
But this was just a shallow sense of fullness that would quickly be extinguished by one sound of Gyeon Gang-hyeon caring for Won Ha-ri.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
