#15
Do-hyeok asked with a calm face. His calmness made it even more annoying. Ha-seong had stayed up all night because of that one remark, and seeing that nonchalant face made him want to give him a good smack on the head.
“So, you want to hire me as a Purifier? Really?”
Ha-seong asked about Do-hyeok’s proposal again. When they had encountered each other at ‘We’ll Sell Anything’ before, he had asked Cha Do-hyeok, who had investigated Ha-seong’s background and chased after him, what he wanted. After pondering for a moment, he had opened his mouth.
‘How about working as a Nameless Purifier?’
As soon as Ha-seong heard those words, he could understand why Cha Do-hyeok was called crazy, why he was called unpredictable. After making what amounted to threats, what? How about working together as a Purifier? It was a flow of thought he absolutely couldn’t follow with his own mind. And then he had calmly said ‘Think it over and come find me at Nameless in 3 days’ before smoothly disappearing.
From the day Ha-seong heard that proposal, he kept thinking and thinking about it. Thanks to that, he didn’t even notice that the pig had completely devoured all the cabbage, but he continued to rack his brains.
First of all, that proposal comes with the question ‘why?’ Why does Cha Do-hyeok want to hire Ha-seong? When they first encountered each other in that dungeon, he had said he was a civilian. He had run away like that, but then suddenly drew weird pictures to look for him.
Then when they met for the second time.
‘You were a Purifier?’
He found out that Ha-seong worked as a Purifier. Then the proposal he suddenly came after tracking Ha-seong down and thrust at him was an employment contract. No matter how you looked at it, there were many parts of that guy’s behavior that didn’t add up. There were more than one or two suspicious corners.
“Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why do you want to use me as a Purifier? A place like Nameless would already have plenty of skilled Purifiers.”
“Mm.”
Do-hyeok made a low humming sound as if pondering. No, after suddenly asking to work together, why is he now pondering the reason?
“You seem to have excellent skills, hyung. And right now our guild has one Purifier position vacant, so we were just about to look for someone.”
If you’re going to lie, at least wet your lips with some saliva. Of course, Ha-seong himself knows that he’s excellent as a Purifier. He was someone who had done Hunter work after all. That’s why when his grade as a Purifier was measured, he had worked very hard to receive a C-rank.
But Do-hyeok’s reason for wanting to scout Ha-seong now didn’t seem to be just that.
“I’m C-rank though?”
“It’s difficult to judge a Purifier’s skills based on rank alone.”
“Is that really the reason?”
“Yes. When we did the cooperative strategy with Sewon before, I could tell from watching you purify. That hyung isn’t an ordinary Purifier.”
Do-hyeok’s expression became subtle for a moment, but it was such a minute change that Ha-seong, whose head felt like it was about to explode right now, didn’t notice.
“What if I say no?”
“I won’t force you. As you know, Nameless isn’t that kind of guild.”
Do-hyeok shrugged his shoulders. From when Nameless was first established until it reached its current position, Do-hyeok had pursued a relatively open attitude in recruiting guild members. He didn’t particularly try to hold onto people who wanted to leave, nor did he make every effort to bring in outstanding Hunters. Well, in the latter case, it was thanks to the situation where Hunters were desperate to get into Nameless.
“You won’t force me, but instead you’ll expose my trade secrets?”
Ha-seong recalled what Do-hyeok had said at the shop last time. All those words he had said after finding out everything about what Ha-seong did.
“That’s up to hyung, I’m saying.”
“Are you going to keep calling me hyung?”
As he listened quietly, it couldn’t help but be an increasingly annoying form of address. Under the guise of the friendly term ‘hyung,’ what that guy was spouting now was nothing short of a threat, wasn’t it?
“So will you do it or not?”
“Do I even have a choice?”
“I told you it’s fine to refuse. Hyung said so yourself. That there wouldn’t be any legal damage to hyung even if those trade secrets were exposed.”
The problem is there’s only no legal damage. From the moment Cha Do-hyeok starts blabbing, the Purifier industry will be turned upside down, so how could he comfortably refuse? Ha-seong thought carefully. How could he make the best choice?
“So you absolutely won’t tell me what you want from me?”
“……”
Do-hyeok kept his mouth tightly shut. A quiet silence lingered in the Guild Leader’s office. Ha-seong tried to read that guy’s eyes, but it wasn’t an easy task. Right now, both himself and that guy were undoubtedly hiding something important.
He sat here as a Purifier while hiding the fact that he was an S-rank Hunter. So that guy must also be hiding something.
“To help with your consideration, if you join Nameless, you’ll primarily be assigned as my dedicated Purifier. Well, if there’s support work to go out for, you might go out too.”
Ha-seong listened quietly while continuing to ponder. Accepting this proposal might be too dangerous for Ha-seong. It was even more so because he couldn’t even guess that guy’s ulterior motives. As expected, it would be better to refuse this proposal. If Ha-seong’s trade secrets became known, the damage would be great and it could become a social problem, but there was no choice for now.
He had to save himself first, what else could he do? He could re-plan for a life as a rich unemployed person.
“Commuting follows basic principles, but if there’s no work for the day, you can leave immediately. Well, you can just rest too.”
Leave immediately…? And he even said it’s fine to just rest…? Ha-seong was startled by the words he heard while seriously pondering.
“Ah, I didn’t mention the most important thing. The salary…… I’ll match whatever you want.”
“……”
The life of a rich unemployed person. What was the most important thing for that goal? Wasn’t it money? Right, money.
The life of an unemployed person only becomes prosperous when you have money. A life where you can wake up whenever you want to wake up from sleep, play and eat all day, travel as you please, and buy everything you want to buy. Money can be earned somehow, can’t it? Ha-seong’s eyes flashed in a strange direction.
“Do you know how much I might ask for?”
“It doesn’t matter how much.”
Do-hyeok’s attitude exuded leisure. Damn, was that the leisure of someone with money? Ha-seong felt an inexplicable sense of defeat for some reason.
“……Really?”
“Yes. Really.”
This proposal was definitely suspicious. In a situation where he couldn’t understand why that guy wanted to hire someone who was just a Purifier, it was dangerous to hastily accept based only on talk of money.
But if he refused here, wouldn’t Cha Do-hyeok continue to pester him annoyingly? No, and if Cha Do-hyeok started running his mouth, Hunters and Purifiers might collapse. Wouldn’t it be too harsh to cause such large-scale social chaos because of one person like himself?
“Hey.”
If Cha Do-hyeok was plotting something anyway, wouldn’t it be more efficient and comfortable to stick by his side until he found out what it was? Ha-seong decided to finish his deliberation.
“Keep your promise.”
What could he do? Right now, money was the most important thing in Ha-seong’s life.
* * *
Knock knock.
“Come in.”
The Guild Leader’s office where Do-hyeok remained alone after Ha-seong left. Han Shin-woo slowly opened the door and entered.
“Did you see him off well?”
“Yes. And I also looked into what you asked me to do while you were talking with Ha-seong-nim.”
Do-hyeok only raised his gaze while resting his chin on his hand. It meant to speak.
“That pig isn’t an ordinary civilian animal but one of the low-grade monsters, a ‘Fire-breathing Wild Boar.’ It seems its body size became that small to adapt to the real-world environment after escaping from a dungeon. This is, originally monsters……”
Han Shin-woo got a bit excited as if thrilled about his field of expertise. He began to explain enthusiastically like a teacher giving a lecture.
“You’re talking too long. I think the task I gave you was something else.”
“Ah, yes.”
When Do-hyeok spoke a bit sharply, Shin-woo shut his mouth tight and nodded. He cleared his throat once and continued speaking.
“As you expected, Guild Leader-nim, that monster had a taming skill cast on it.”
The direct executive secretary of the Nameless Guild Leader. Han Shin-woo, ranked 45th, was one of the top taming masters among South Korean Hunters.
“What’s the skill grade?”
“That’s a bit ambiguous. The skill grade is about C-rank. At this level, even a competent Purifier could imitate it with a little effort. So I think it would be a bit of a stretch to say that person is a Hunter based on this alone.”
“Hmm.”
Do-hyeok leaned back deep into his chair.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. There’s still a way to definitively catch evidence that person is a Hunter.”
Do-hyeok slowly cast his gaze toward the documents on the table. The neatly placed documents were a Purifier employment contract with the signatures of both Cha Do-hyeok and Do Ha-seong written clearly.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
