The Moment Change Is Needed - 5
….
Hyun Sujin stared at the men and women gathered inside the pitch-black space. At first glance they looked ordinary, but every last one of them was an Elder.
The exact number of Elders had never been confirmed. Even among themselves, they had no idea how many stood at their level. At best, they only knew the faces of those they could actually contact like this. They were so reclusive and hated any outside interference that a full assembly like today was an extremely rare event.
Everyone whose contact information existed or whose name had ever surfaced—I called them all.
Since she was an Elder herself, she understood them well. They were people who despised anyone meddling in their personal lives. The relationships between Elders were actually worse than those between Elders and S-rank hunters. Different races, wildly different personalities. The only common thread was their age—most were in their twenties or thirties. Of course, exceptions always existed.
“Ah, hello.”
The girl who approached and bowed was a perfect example. She looked to be in her late teens at most. Even stretching it, that was the limit. In Korea she would have only just entered high school. Yet her true identity was the same as Hyun Sujin’s—an Elder. If anything, she was a monster equal to or worse than herself.
“You came too?”
“Y-yes. They said they gathered everyone they could reach.”
Looks like it. Hyun Sujin answered and turned her head away again.
If ordinary people saw this scene, what would their reaction be? They would probably faint on the spot, foaming at the mouth. A gathering of calamities casually chatting among themselves.
“Fuck, what the hell did you just say?”
I told the whore to shut her trap. It stinks like shit.
“You don’t even qualify to come here, yet you’re yapping from behind a screen.”
Of course, the conversation was far from pleasant. As always, the moment they met they snarled at each other like they wanted to kill one another. It was as if they all suffered from extreme kin-hatred.
They were all insane anyway. Moments like this made her think the simultaneous interpreter was a completely useless device. Even if they cursed in their own language, it came out perfectly translated in the other person’s tongue.
“I’d appreciate it if you told us quickly why you called this meeting. I don’t want to stay any longer in this stinking place.”
Agreed. It’s not like there are any welcome faces here anyway.
Very well. Then, Shadow.
At the words from the Elder on the other side of the screen, Hyun Sujin slightly raised her head.
“What.”
You owe us an explanation.
“Explanation for what.”
You broke the minimum rules we established among ourselves. You need to explain that.
They ignored one another, cursed, provoked, and even fought to the death. Relationships between Elders were nothing like the colleague bonds they had during their days as ability users. They could not even be called business partners. They were simply trash that happened to be thrown together.
Still, even Elders maintained a few bare-minimum principles. The most important was not to join hands with ability users to harm another Elder. Having already betrayed humanity once, they were not to betray their own kind again.
Why did you act that way in front of Korea’s S-rank ability user, identification code ‘Road’ Han Jiyun?
“What way did I act?”
“Don’t play innocent, you yellow monkey. You may not have said it out loud, but you were planning to just stand by and watch that bitch kill the ghost, weren’t you?”
The black woman who had been confronting Hyun Sujin earlier sneered.
“Didn’t I already tell you? I protected our honor. Getting beaten by a mere examiner should be humiliating enough. What would you gain by going all out there? You’d only earn mockery.”
I agree. I think Shadow stepping forward was correct.
“You shut up. You just want to nitpick everything I do, don’t you?”
Wow, bullseye. You knew? Then I definitely have to interfere even more.
“I’ll kill you, you damn bitch.”
Sure. Go ahead~. Coward.
Signs of fracture and conflict were already surfacing. Yet both Hyun Sujin and the other Elders simply accepted it. This was simply how things were.
Elders were, in the end, beings who only cared about themselves. They had not started as villains the moment they awakened their abilities. They were people who had once faithfully carried out their duties as ability users before defecting. S-ranks who had thrown away their responsibilities and seized their own desires instead.
The very code name “Elder” had been given to them by the villains.
“Ah. It always ends up like this.”
“Should I just leave? I was having a great time with some men and now I feel dirty.”
Take it easy on your body. You’re not even a whore.
“What’s it to you? That’s exactly why you’re the idiot who keeps having his women stolen.”
That’s why a pervert like you gets used by men.
“…Choose your words carefully. Before I rip your dick off and shove it down your throat.”
I don’t understand why you’re getting so worked up when it’s the truth?
It had seemed like the conversation was heading toward taking responsibility for her actions, but the topic had already derailed into them simply fighting among themselves.
There were many reasons. They simply didn’t like each other. Or the other party displeased them greatly. Or their goals did not align.
One might question what “aligning goals” even meant for Elders. Since they were all villains who hated the world equally, what was there to align or disagree on?
But if one looked closer, that was not the case. One could see exactly why they checked and fought each other so fiercely.
Some had betrayed for revenge. Some for greater power. Others because they refused to be bound by the stifling norms of society. Some were simply afraid, or wanted to become kings in their own worlds. A tiny minority truly dreamed of world destruction.
They had become traitors, villains, and Elders for all sorts of reasons. Naturally, when each tried to achieve what they wanted, conflict was inevitable.
If one wanted to completely destroy a place and massacre everyone for revenge, that act would appear to someone who wished to rule the underworld and expand into the light as nothing but an obstacle to their desires.
If one wanted to establish the law of the strong and become the absolute ruler of that world, but the person beside them screamed for world destruction and mutual annihilation, then of course the aspiring absolute would view the destroyer with hostility.
Hyun Sujin and the black woman Elder were much the same. She harbored hostility toward South Korea’s ability users for certain reasons and planned to throw the entire nation into chaos and topple it. Conversely, the black woman reigned as queen of her region, earning massive profits through black-market dealings. Her main customers were the various villain organizations inside South Korea. For the money to keep flowing, the tense balance had to continue. Since Hyun Sujin kept interfering, it was only natural the other woman was irritated.
The clash between one seeking revenge and one wishing to reign as king of her own world explained why relationships between Elders were the absolute worst.
“Ah, fuck. You retards.”
A man who had been listening finally spat out a curse in frustration.
“Why we gathered, what you called us here to do—just tell us that.”
…First, the reason we gathered is because of the Shadow….
“Stop the bullshit. That’s not the main reason.”
At those words, every Elder present closed their mouths almost simultaneously. They had all vaguely guessed it. That there was another reason they had been called together. And with an instinctive feeling that something was coming, they had shown up despite their grumbling.
….
After a short silence, the person on the other side of the screen slowly began to speak again.
To be honest.
Lately we’ve been biting and tearing at each other so much that the others have started to misunderstand us. They think Elders aren’t all that special. Just kids who got tired of their duties and quit.
“That’s not exactly wrong. We did quit, after all.”
I agree. It’s self-reflection.
“Shut up for a second. I’m pissed off.”
Before the other Elders could derail the conversation again, the one who had spoken continued.
This time I received some interesting news. It seems a change is coming. Gates, monsters, and dungeons. The governments of every country are in close communication.
“So?”
Shouldn’t we also seek change? For example, systematically hunting one of them down, tearing them apart, and hanging the corpse on the main street.
One of the Elders suddenly burst into laughter.
“Be honest. That’s just an excuse. You just want to kill Bernard this time, don’t you?”
Bernard. The strongest S-rank in England and one of the top ten strongest in the world.
“You’re trying to drag us into your personal revenge? I told you before—if something like that happens and a real war breaks out, how many of us here would actually stand to lose?”
Those who desired world destruction were not the majority among the Elders. Far more wished for this world to continue existing so they could remain absolute monsters within it, or kings that no one could control.
Yet they wanted to swarm and kill an S-rank—the pinnacle of a nation’s power? The implicit rules that existed between the world and the villains, between S-ranks and Elders, a kind of Maginot Line, would collapse. What followed would simply be total war.
I’m in favor.
“Are you insane?”
We do need some change. Look at the world these days. They’re taking us far too lightly, aren’t they?
“Thanks to the ghost and the shadow—those two yellow monkeys—it’s gotten even worse. How could they lose to some unheard-of ability user who isn’t even S-rank?”
The point is this. We Elders need change as well.
At those words, the figures gathered in the dark space and those beyond the screens all expressed their agreement.
Change. For some it was a good excuse to achieve what they had always wanted. For others it could raise the value of fear and bring greater profit. For yet others it could be one step closer to the destruction they so desperately craved.
“Tell me more. If it gets me excited, I’ll do it.”
I’m not interested, so I’m leaving. Handle it yourselves.
Unlike the tense beginning, the gathering ended in an unexpectedly half-hearted manner. Still, it was not without gain. On the contrary, this was quite significant. Those monsters joining forces and moving together—for the people of the world, even imagining it would be the worst nightmare.
Not bad, but I have no interest in those island Chinese.
Hyun Sujin, now transformed into a shadow, slipped out of the dark space.
More than that, thinking about it now, it’s ridiculous.
The sudden assembly of Elders. The reason was none other than that ‘examiner.’
Baek Seojin.
If not for him, Kwak Hyuk would not have been injured, she would not have stepped forward, and those monsters would not be talking about change or anything else.
*
“Hmm.”
“Examiner? What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing, Suhyun.”
“Is someone badmouthing me?”