#38
Ha-seong carefully crossed over the gate. As soon as he came out, he quickly hid behind and looked around. He had worried that those hunters from earlier might be there, but fortunately it was quiet outside. It seemed Do-hyeok had cleaned up in preparation for any possible situation.
Soon Do-hyeok also slowly walked out. Ha-seong cleared his throat unnecessarily and reached out to complete the purification work. Do-hyeok was watching that back when he suddenly noticed that Ha-seong’s back also had some blood seeping out.
“……If you’re going to fight anyway, either get hurt or don’t.”
“How can you not get hurt against S-grade? This much is getting off cheap.”
“Let’s go back to the guild. Go straight to the treatment room.”
Honestly, this much wasn’t really a serious injury for Ha-seong. If he had to compare, it was like scratching a mosquito bite and getting a wound. Just applying some random ointment lying around at home would heal this much quickly.
“It’s fine. Besides, if I go like this, it’s like advertising that a purifier went into a dungeon and came back. It’s bothersome to explain and what if it causes unnecessary suspicion.”
“Isn’t there enough justification to explain?”
“……Ah, right.”
Ha-seong, who had been slow to understand for a moment, reacted a beat late to those words. Come to think of it, on the surface, hadn’t Ha-seong been forced into the dungeon by someone’s dirty, cowardly, and wicked scheme? Then he couldn’t just stay like this either.
He had to properly teach that trash delinquent bastard a lesson. Ha-seong grinned while thinking of Lee Hyeon-woo.
“Hyung.”
“Yeah. What.”
“Why are you laughing like that?”
“How was I laughing?”
“Like a pervert.”
“……That’s harsh.”
Ha-seong frowned and slowly walked out with Do-hyeok.
While riding in the car and moving to the guild, Ha-seong had to endure an unexpectedly burdensome gaze. Whenever there was a chance, like being stopped at a traffic light, Do-hyeok kept looking at Ha-seong and examining the wound on his forehead.
“Why do you keep looking? What, is this your first time seeing someone with a torn forehead?”
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
“Not really.”
So this is just like roughly scratching a mosquito bite. But whether he was worried or really seeing this level of wound for the first time, Do-hyeok couldn’t take his eyes off Ha-seong’s forehead after that.
Even after arriving at the guild parking lot, Do-hyeok’s gaze wouldn’t let up. Ha-seong shook his head while unfastening his seatbelt.
“Persistent guy.”
“I’m worried it might leave a scar on that pretty face.”
Saying this, Do-hyeok got out of the car. Ha-seong blinked and pondered what he had just heard. What could it be, what did he mean? After thinking for a while, he concluded that that bastard must have hit his head on debris when coming out of the dungeon, then Ha-seong also got out of the car.
The two got on the elevator in the parking lot. And Do-hyeok pressed the 3rd floor where the treatment room was.
“Hey hey, wait a minute.”
Just before getting off, Ha-seong tapped Do-hyeok’s shoulder.
“Do you know what’s needed at times like this?”
Ha-seong’s head was filled only with thoughts of teaching Lee Hyeon-woo a lesson.
“What?”
“Overacting. Lend me your shoulder.”
Saying this, Ha-seong leaned on Do-hyeok’s shoulder. Since Ha-seong was shorter, it wasn’t difficult to lean on him. Ha-seong was about to possess an actor who had won a Best Actor award again.
If the opponent he had only intended to mess with as a prank came in injured like this and even being supported, that bastard would definitely turn pale. Lee Hyeon-woo wouldn’t have known that dungeon would rise to S-grade either. Of course, even if the grade hadn’t risen, it wasn’t the right action. If Ha-seong had really been a C-grade purifier, there was a very high possibility he would have been injured or died even in a B-grade dungeon.
If he showed off his injuries as much as possible, rumors would spread quickly too.
He leaned with that thought, but Do-hyeok stayed still without complaint. He thought he would say something rude about doing all sorts of things, but it was unexpected.
“If you’re going to do it anyway, isn’t it better to do it properly?”
The elevator was about to arrive at the floor with the treatment room. Ha-seong’s vision shook for a moment. Do-hyeok had suddenly lifted Ha-seong’s body.
“Hey, what are you doing……”
Ha-seong hit Do-hyeok’s shoulder with a pale face. Ha-seong, who had suddenly become a princess being carried by a prince, was flabbergasted.
“You said overacting was needed.”
“No, that’s not it, first put me down……”
“The door’s opening.”
At Do-hyeok’s words, Ha-seong quickly leaned deeply on his shoulder. He thought he heard that guy laughing too, but was it his imagination?
As they entered the floor with the treatment room, the sound of people around them murmuring could be heard. It was understandable since the Guild Leader, especially one with a notorious reputation for being crazy, had appeared carrying some man. Several seemed to be taking out their phones and texting. Ha-seong buried his face deeper out of embarrassment.
“It tickles, hyung.”
Do-hyeok flinched momentarily at Ha-seong’s angry breathing.
“Shut up.”
In the end, Ha-seong couldn’t do this or that and ended up being carried in Do-hyeok’s arms all the way to the treatment room. When the treatment room door opened, the doctor belonging to Nameless Guild’s treatment room also pushed up his glasses and immediately distorted his face. He was shocked enough to die that the one who just opened this door and entered was Guild Leader Cha Do-hyeok, but what was in his hands was none other than a person.
“H-how……”
One of the doctors dedicated to the treatment room tilted his head with a somewhat tense face. At first he thought his Guild Leader had definitely beaten up a person, but fortunately that didn’t seem to be the case.
“Hey, put me down now.”
The person in Do-hyeok’s hands, no, arms, stepped on the ground with a slightly displeased face.
“Where’s Seo Ha-jun?”
“The team leader is away from his seat right now.”
“I’d like to ask you to treat this person. He’s my direct purifier.”
“Ah, yes. Of course. Please come this way.”
Ha-seong glared at Do-hyeok once, then followed the doctor inside.
“Hyung.”
“What.”
Do-hyeok quietly followed in and peeked at Ha-seong who sat in a chair. The doctor seemed busy preparing for treatment inside.
“Since you came to get treated anyway, lie down and rest for a bit.”
“I was going to do that anyway. Maybe it’s because I moved around for the first time in a while, but I feel like my whole body is aching.”
“Old man.”
Do-hyeok spat out those words and went back outside. That guy subtly teases and runs away. Ha-seong was about to say something back but decided against it, worried that Do-hyeok and Ha-seong, who were just Guild Leader and purifier, might seem like they were too close.
“You must be in a lot of pain.”
Then the doctor who had returned sat in the opposite chair and glanced at Ha-seong. It seemed he was both worried and curious since it would be very rare for a purifier, if not a hunter, to come in injured like this.
“Yes. Well. There was a bit of an incident.”
Ha-seong frowned as much as possible. That way he would look like he was in pain. His forehead was torn and his back was scratched, but it didn’t hurt that much. It wasn’t that he couldn’t feel pain, he was just used to it. Getting hurt and tumbling around was daily life for Ha-seong.
Still, he thought he had escaped from that sensation after coming to this world and quitting hunter work, but apparently not. Seeing how getting hurt and wounded was still familiar.
Even to the doctor’s words saying it would sting a lot, Ha-seong had to force himself to grimace.
* * *
Do-hyeok, who got on the elevator to go up to the Guild Leader’s office, leaned his body against the wall. And he closed his eyes tightly. The mechanical sound of the elevator rang in his ears, naturally bringing back what Ha-seong had said earlier.
‘Even if it had been you who was in danger in front of me today, I would have done the same thing.’
It wasn’t much, but with those words alone, he could recall an old voice that had been buried. Ha-seong was really fascinating. Even though they hadn’t known each other long, and even though he was someone whose identity was ambiguous, he was strangely comfortable.
A person of the same S-grade but absurdly stronger than Do-hyeok. Someone with tremendous abilities yet whose dream was just being a rich unemployed person, while at the same time being a strange person who couldn’t just pass by people in trouble. That strange person strangely kept bothering his mind.
At first he thought he had to be friendly since that was the only informant who met all the conditions, but gradually he didn’t need to consciously think that way.
Do-hyeok smiled slightly as he got off the elevator. As if expecting Do-hyeok would come, Shin-woo was standing right there. Then he stiffened with surprise as soon as he saw his boss’s face.
“What, why are you surprised?”
“What? Oh, no. Nothing.”
“The thing I instructed?”
“I did as you ordered.”
While saying this, Shin-woo pointed to the Guild Leader’s office. Do-hyeok headed to the Guild Leader’s office with a relaxed face, hands in his pockets.
“What is it? Why is he smiling?”
Shin-woo tilted his head with a puzzled face. Certainly, when Do-hyeok got off the elevator earlier, he had been smiling. Since Shin-woo became his executive secretary until now, the times Do-hyeok had smiled in front of him could be counted on one hand.
Shin-woo soon concluded that Do-hyeok was definitely excited about beating someone up and nodded.
“Hello.”
As soon as Do-hyeok entered the Guild Leader’s office, he greeted the person who was bowing his head in front of the desk.
“Ah, hello! Guild Leader!”
Then Lee Hyeon-woo bowed his head with a troubled face and tense voice. Do-hyeok walked leisurely to his desk without even glancing at the head bowed toward him.
“You heard the story, right?”
“Pardon? What story……”
When Lee Hyeon-woo feigned ignorance that wouldn’t work, Do-hyeok let out a bitter sneer.
“It’s not fun, so don’t drag it out. It must have already spread on the company messenger that a purifier came in seriously injured.”
“……”
“Lee Hyeon-woo, was it?”
“Yes. That’s right!”
“Shall we have a serious talk?”
It wasn’t an angry expression, nor was it an excited expression thinking of reprimanding someone. Cha Do-hyeok’s face was indifference itself. Why did an unreadable expression approach even more frighteningly? Lee Hyeon-woo swallowed his saliva.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
