#43
After confirming that Do-hyeok had safely gone down to escort Woo-bin, Ha-seong headed to the purifier office. As soon as he grabbed the door handle and opened the door, he could hear clattering sounds from inside.
“Ha-seong-ssi!”
Geon Yu-han came running toward Ha-seong with a pale face, seemingly startled by the sound of Ha-seong entering while he was working.
“Hello.”
Still, since he had encountered someone, Ha-seong thought he should greet them and bowed his head.
“Are you okay? I mean, just how badly were you hurt that you stayed in the treatment room for a whole day?”
“Excuse me?”
A whole day? Had he been in the treatment room for a whole day? Yesterday’s schedule had only consisted of receiving wound treatment and staying in the treatment room for a bit for performance before leaving work early.
But Yu-han couldn’t calm his surprised heart and continued pouring out words.
“Do you know how shocked I was? I was going to go to the treatment room, but the Guild Leader-nim said you needed rest and kept stopping me, saying it wasn’t allowed.”
“Ah.”
Now Ha-seong somewhat understood why Yu-han was making such a fuss. It seemed Cha Do-hyeok had transformed yesterday’s Ha-seong, who had left work early, into a patient who was so badly injured that he had to stay in the treatment room for a whole day. He thought Do-hyeok was surprisingly good at playing along.
“Yes. Fortunately, I’m fine now. Though I did suffer a bit yesterday.”
Ha-seong instantly changed his expression and acted like someone who was hurt but pretending to be okay, smiling awkwardly in front of Yu-han. Then Yu-han’s face became even more distorted.
“I’m sorry. I should have watched Lee Hyeon-woo more carefully and stopped him, but I never thought he would go so far as to do something like that…”
Yu-han pressed his forehead. Honestly, he didn’t want to burden him with guilt related to this incident. Yu-han seemed to have a sincere and responsible personality, and it appeared he felt somewhat responsible for Ha-seong getting caught up in the gate incident.
“It’s not something Yu-han-ssi should apologize for.”
The bastard who really needed to be taught a lesson was someone else. As Ha-seong was thinking this, the door opened at just the right moment. The person who appeared was none other than Lee Hyeon-woo. His shoulders were drooping as he entered, and he was startled when he immediately saw Ha-seong.
Like someone caught eating something by their mother at dawn, his face instantly hardened.
“Uh…”
“Lee Hyeon-woo, what are you doing? Is this the time for you to be acting like this?”
Then Yu-han stepped forward first. Unlike before, he began scolding Lee Hyeon-woo in a cold tone. Starting with how could he do that to a fellow purifier, he rattled off at machine-gun speed: because of you alone, someone was almost in great danger, even if it was a joke, you went too far.
At least in this office, Lee Hyeon-woo, who had acted fearlessly and arrogantly like a school bully, couldn’t make a peep at Yu-han’s words and only kept his head down. Seeing this guy, who seemed expert at sneering and lived with thick iron plates on his face, acting like this made him feel…
‘Serves you right.’
It was even better than he had thought. Ha-seong covered his mouth behind Yu-han and grinned. Probably as word of this incident spread secretly within the guild, that bastard would have received criticism and disdainful looks not only from Yu-han but from countless hunters.
Indeed, as painful as being beaten by someone would be the gaze of others filled with criticism looking at oneself. That bastard would receive that for quite a long time to come, so this was a kind of punishment Ha-seong was giving. If he had his way, he would have wanted to beat him dusty on a rainy day, but since he couldn’t do that, he had no choice but to let it slide with this much.
“Quickly apologize to Ha-seong-ssi.”
“…I’m really sorry. I, I really never dreamed that dungeon would rise to S-rank.”
Well, still, thanks to Lee Hyeon-woo pulling that pathetic stunt, Ha-seong had been able to investigate under the guise of coincidence and obtain meaningful clues. Should he be grateful for that part?
“It’s fine. You’ve apologized, so that’s enough.”
Ha-seong uttered words he didn’t mean. Then Yu-han spat out harsh words once again. The problem now isn’t that the dungeon rose to S-rank, the problem is that you got someone close to a civilian involved in the dungeon itself, and so on, like flowing water. Ha-seong thought Yu-han would probably have lived well as a teacher instead of a purifier.
Ha-seong felt grateful to Yu-han, who was saying everything he wanted to say.
“Are your injuries somewhat okay?”
Lee Hyeon-woo asked hesitantly, reading the mood. He too seemed to think, like Yu-han, that Ha-seong had been injured so badly that he had to lie down for a whole day.
“Yes. I’m fine. My forehead was badly torn and I got some bruises all over my back, but well, I’m perfectly fine.”
Haha, Ha-seong showed an innocent smile. Then Lee Hyeon-woo’s face became even paler. Gotcha, you bastard. Ha-seong thought this inwardly and resolved to make that bastard feel guilty about this for a while.
Ha-seong spent the remaining time making Lee Hyeon-woo feel uncomfortable. Then he went out when there were support requests. He was on edge wondering if gates might burst due to artificial forces, but fortunately, no such thing happened. As the day grew dark, Ha-seong slowly left the guild building.
He took the bus, got off at the stop, and walked slowly. Ha-seong’s house was in a quiet neighborhood far from the commercial district. It was a small house that appeared when you went deep into the alley.
There wasn’t much reason for getting a house in a place with poor accessibility. Just because it was quiet. It was good because it was quiet and not many people passed by. The floor space wasn’t very large, but it was cozy and nice for living alone, so he had decided on that place as his dwelling.
It was when he was entering the alley that led straight to his house.
“……”
Ha-seong suddenly stopped and quickly turned around.
“……”
Perhaps because it was getting cold, the sun had shortened, so the surroundings quickly became dark. A dark alley with old streetlights flickering. Ha-seong stared intently at the telephone pole area. He had definitely felt a presence.
And that’s when it happened. Something black jumped out from behind the telephone pole. Ha-seong quickly clenched his fist, but soon realized there was no need for that. Meow, a black cat made a cute sound and walked out leisurely. Ha-seong looked at the cat once with a deflated expression, then started walking again.
Had he been too tense lately? Ha-seong tilted his head and headed leisurely toward his house. As soon as he came home, what greeted Ha-seong was a pig that had collapsed. Even though it did nothing, it was sleeping sprawled out like someone exhausted from labor.
Its owner had come home from work, but it was so outrageous that he was about to give it a flick on the head but decided against it. It was when he had just finished washing up, roughly eating dinner, and finishing the dishes. Ha-seong’s phone, which had been carelessly thrown on the table, rang.
“Who is it?”
Ha-seong tilted his head at the unknown number. Before joining Nameless, when he lived by earning money through purification requests, he would answer calls from unknown numbers without hesitation, but not now. It had been quite a while since he had stopped taking requests.
Ha-seong was about to not answer but couldn’t overcome his curiosity and pressed the call button.
“Hello.”
When Ha-seong answered the phone, the other end of the receiver was quiet.
“Who is this?”
– What? Hyung, you didn’t even save my number?
A familiar voice with a familiar form of address. Among the people Ha-seong knew now, there was only one person who called him hyung.
“Cha Do-hyeok?”
Then from the other end of the phone came a murmur saying that was too much. Come to think of it, he seemed to have given his phone number when signing the contract, but he had forgotten to save it.
“It wasn’t intentional.”
Ha-seong only coughed awkwardly in embarrassment. Since they had never exchanged phone numbers and texted, or talked on the phone like now, he had naturally forgotten.
– …….
And silence continued again. Come to think of it, why did he suddenly call? Was there something important to say?
“But why did you call?”
Ha-seong turned off the TV he had been watching and went into his room.
– Just. Because you left work without saying anything.
Ah, when leaving work, he had gone to Do-hyeok’s room but only received Han Shin-woo’s message that he was away on business. Since it didn’t seem necessary to get confirmation for leaving work anyway, he had just come home.
“I went to tell you, but you weren’t there.”
– Yes. Well.
Do-hyeok’s strange voice came through. He had thought he called to scold him for coming home without saying anything, but there was no nuance of trying to criticize him about it at all.
– Hyung.
“Yeah.”
– Save my number.
“Got it.”
Yes, Do-hyeok hung up after those words. Ha-seong lay on his bed and thought deeply. What the hell was this phone call with absolutely no nutritional value? What had he wanted to say, or had he just called because he was bored? He thought about it, but coming to an answer wasn’t an easy task.
* * *
“Ugh!”
It was when Ha-seong was lost in thought about his conversation with Do-hyeok. Near Gangnam, in a deserted alley, a man tumbled greatly.
“You, what are you!”
The man wiped his struck face with his hand and shouted sharply at the opponent standing in front of him. Blood burst from his hit lips.
“……”
The opponent was wearing black clothes and a black hat turned backwards. Perhaps because it was night, that figure was like a shadow.
“Fuck! What are you to touch a hunter?”
The struck man, perhaps surprised by the sudden attack, burst into anger and took a combat stance. Despite the fierce momentum, the opponent was not shaken at all. The struck man cast a skill in the narrow alley and rushed at his opponent.
Dazzling movements and quite high precision skills as well. But the opponent leisurely avoided all attacks.
“Huff… huff…”
It was when the hunter, perhaps overpowered, was breathing heavily and preparing for the next skill for a moment. The opponent, who had shown no big movements throughout, suddenly kicked off the ground at rapid speed and leaped out.
As the opponent disappeared from sight in an instant, the hunter looked around in confusion. It was when he was trying to find where he had gone with burning eyes.
“……”
At the same time as a chilling presence was felt from behind, the sound of a sharp blade penetrating something echoed through the alley. The hunter slowly lowered his head with his whole body rigid. A long sword had penetrated from his back to his stomach.
“…You, what exactly… are…”
The hunter’s body went limp. Dark red blood dripped to the ground drop by drop. When the hunter who had stabbed him precisely from behind smoothly pulled out the sword, the hunter collapsed to the ground. The alley became quiet again. After confirming that his breath had completely stopped, the opponent leisurely left the alley.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
