#27
[Ha-seong niiiim!]
As soon as he entered the office, the pig came running to Ha-seong while crying. However, as if he had no intention of having a tearful separated family reunion, Ha-seong nimbly dodged the running pig.
“I took good care of it.”
Han Shin-woo looked at the whining pig with honey-dripping eyes as if it were some adorable pet dog. If he liked it that much, he could really take it away.
“Yes. Well, thank you. I caused unnecessary trouble.”
If it hadn’t been here either, he was really going to try calling various zoos. Of course, it was more because if a monster went to a regular zoo, that could create problems in its own way, rather than being worried about the pig.
“Let’s go in for now.”
Do-hyeok pointed to the Guild Leader’s office. He was surely intending to talk about that revenge or whatever it was. Ha-seong glanced at the pig that was clinging to his leg and rubbing its face against him, then soon went in and handed it back to Han Shin-woo.
[Ha-seong-nim, you’re not abandoning me, right?]
Ha-seong quietly calmed the pig down, saying it wasn’t like that so stay still, then followed into the Guild Leader’s office.
“Why did you tame that pig?”
“Uh…… That’s right. Why did I do that?”
Ha-seong pondered why he had tamed that pig and remembered going into the dungeon to save Boss Kim.
Come to think of it, that’s where he met Cha Do-hyeok too. If he hadn’t gone in there that day, many things would have been different from now. He wouldn’t have gotten involved with the 1st-ranked person, and he wouldn’t have faced the situation of helping with revenge or whatever. He would have continued doing business under the guise of purifier work and lived carefree. Though thinking about it now was meaningless.
“I met him in that dungeon where I first met you. I went in thinking Boss Kim was caught up in that dungeon, but there was nowhere to get information.”
“Ah, that dungeon where the sword demon appeared, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Now that I think about it, that day was ridiculous too. You casually deflected an S-rank sword demon’s attack and then brazenly said you were a civilian.”
“What? You saw all that on that day too?”
“Yes.”
Then what? He had seen all that and had been playing dumb until now? He really couldn’t shake the thought that he was a cunning bastard. That way, it made sense that Cha Do-hyeok had been looking for Ha-seong. Since the guy who dodged an S-rank monster’s attacks left and right and landed a hit on it had casually lied about being a civilian.
“Then why were you collapsed there that day?”
Thinking about it now, it couldn’t help but be funny. Why was an S-rank Hunter collapsed like that in that place? The pig said it saw a collapsed person, so he naturally thought it was a civilian and followed.
“I got hit by an attack.”
“For someone who’s supposedly ranking 1st, losing consciousness from an S-rank attack.”
When Ha-seong was actively working at his peak, making full preparations from the moment of entering a dungeon was basic, and when discovering a place presumed to be where the dungeon’s owner was located, the rule was to first observe the situation, erase one’s presence, and act carefully. Because it would be dangerous if that guy noticed this side and launched a surprise attack.
Right. Like Cha Do-hyeok.
“I didn’t know.”
Right. He seemed not to know such basics. The Hunters of this world. He knew this was a world that treated and looked up to Hunters, but sometimes he thought that the Hunters of this world had a tendency to let their guard down too easily. If they received the mental training that Ha-seong had gone through, they would be completely different.
“That dungeon would rise to S-rank.”
“……What? What do you mean by that? Wasn’t that dungeon originally S-rank?”
“No. It was a strategy case our guild had taken on, and it was originally A-rank. Which means that sword demon shouldn’t have been there.”
“Ah.”
Well, there were occasionally cases where a dungeon’s rank rose higher than predicted. Ha-seong had experienced it several times too. Times when he thought it was a simple strategy case but the rank suddenly shot up and he had a hard time. On such unlucky days. That day seemed to have been such a day for Cha Do-hyeok. If that was the case, suddenly being attacked was also, well, somewhat understandable.
“And it’s also connected to the story I’m about to tell you now.”
“……”
In an instant, the air in the conference room changed again. Do-hyeok’s expression also changed subtly. For a moment, Ha-seong had this thought. He had thought it started when he met Cha Do-hyeok that day, when they encountered each other in the dungeon, but it wasn’t. He felt like the real beginning was starting now.
“That dungeon’s rank rising that day wasn’t a natural phenomenon.”
“Then……”
“It means it rose artificially.”
Artificially? Then someone manipulated the gate’s rank? No, but did that even make sense in the first place? It wouldn’t be something within the realm of what humans could do. Ha-seong stared at Do-hyeok as if telling him to continue.
“You know about the incident 10 years ago, right?”
10 years ago? Ha-seong deliberately furrowed his brows at the unfamiliar story. There was no way he could know. 10 years ago, Ha-seong would have been seventeen. It was when he was frantically killing monsters in an already destroyed world. It was a time when he didn’t even know such a parallel world existed, so how could he know about an incident from 10 years ago?
“You don’t know?”
Ha-seong slowly nodded his head. Do-hyeok made an expression like, how could you not know that, but Ha-seong really didn’t know. Moreover, he couldn’t make clumsy lies and act to hide that he didn’t know it here, and he didn’t want to either.
It would be an obviously discoverable lie, and since he had decided to help with the revenge anyway, he couldn’t start off on the wrong foot from the beginning. Right now Ha-seong had to trust Cha Do-hyeok, and that guy had to do the same.
“……Well. Okay. Then I’ll tell you from there.”
Looking at how Cha Do-hyeok’s mouth moved, it seemed like he was about to ask what the hell hyung was. But he seemed to intend to faithfully keep his threat not to ask about Ha-seong’s personal matters and immediately started explaining.
“So about that incident 10 years ago……”
“Countless people died and were injured. It was an incident where even the survival of the country was discussed in the first place.”
Ha-seong briefly turned his gaze to look beyond the wide window of the Guild Leader’s office wall. Tall high-rise buildings stood in rows and countless cars were racing down the wide roads. People easily connected with someone through their phones, the small world in their hands, and solved most of their lives through them. The sight of students giggling while watching videos when he first came here, the sight of easily calling a taxi with a phone rather than waving hands – it was unbelievably painful past that he had felt this was a highly developed society.
A world where Hunters were treated well and in the spotlight. Since they were the heroes who solved the incident that almost led the world to destruction, perhaps this atmosphere toward Hunters was natural. If at that last moment when he was dying in the previous world, he hadn’t died and had solved that dungeon, could Ha-seong have lived in such a world too? He suddenly had such a thought.
“So that’s why Hunters are so popular here……”
Ha-seong muttered quietly while gazing at a bird flying across the blue sky. Do-hyeok, who had been quietly watching such Ha-seong, tapped on the table. It meant to focus again.
“I don’t know about popularity. The real story starts now.”
Do-hyeok slowly delivered the truth of that incident that day and the problems that continued to this day, not too fast nor too slow, appropriately conveying only the necessary story.
“……So what you’re saying now is that someone is going around opening gates? And not only that, but also manipulating their ranks?”
“Yes.”
It was completely different content from what he had expected. Since he mentioned revenge, he thought it would be Cha Do-hyeok’s personal matter, but if even the Management Bureau was involved, well, this was no longer a personal matter. If by any chance the Management Bureau noticed Ha-seong’s existence……
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of telling anyone about hyung.”
“You already said I was an investigator.”
“I only said I found an investigator. Anyway, Yoon Woo-bin only needs useful information about this case, so if I make up something about the investigator’s personal details, he won’t dig deep.”
Though we can’t avoid meeting face to face, Do-hyeok added quietly. Well, if it was just that, it didn’t matter. His anxiety wasn’t completely resolved, but now wasn’t the time to nitpick every such detailed part.
“So you, no, you guys want to find the culprit who caused that incident that day?”
“Right. For now, we’re seeing the guy who appeared now and the guy from 10 years ago as the same criminal.”
Then the reason Cha Do-hyeok wanted revenge on that guy wasn’t for personal reasons or anything, but because he almost made the world he lived in perish once, to fulfill his duty as a Hunter? Thinking about it that way, it somehow didn’t seem to suit that guy at all.
“So your revenge is ultimately toward the culprit who almost made this world perish?”
“Mm.”
He expected a bland answer like “Yes, well, that’s right,” but unexpectedly the guy made a low sound.
“Well. If I had to say, I’m not really interested in whether the world perishes or not.”
Do-hyeok’s eyes began to shine keenly. Perhaps because it was a look you could never see from an ordinary person, Ha-seong felt the back of his neck become slightly chilly. That feeling was also something Ha-seong hadn’t felt in a very long time.
“……Then what is this revenge you mentioned? Why are you trying to find that guy?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
