The Guild Leader’s Seat
“Are you asking me to take over as guild leader?”
He had never expected them to ask him to lead the guild, so he was caught off guard for a moment. But soon his thoughts fell into place, and the advantages of becoming Wraith Guild’s leader began lining up in his mind.
If he became Wraith Guild’s leader, he would be able to use the execution hunters.
Even now, the execution hunters were protecting So-jin and her younger siblings, but there was no way there weren’t people grumbling about it. Tae-min had not said so outright, but Hyun-jun was certain those complaints existed.
If he became guild leader, he could intervene from the inside in earnest and crush any dissatisfaction as soon as it surfaced.
“Yes. There’s no one better suited for the job than Kang Hyun-jun.”
“Are you sure this is all right? I’m an outsider.”
“All the other executives who could have inherited the guild leader’s position are dead. From this point on, I’m the highest decision-maker. And I want Kang Hyun-jun to become guild leader.”
There was steel in Tae-min’s voice. He believed that if Hyun-jun took the position, Wraith Guild would not only grow stronger, but also be able to exact revenge.
“Fine. I’ll accept.”
“R-really? Thank you!”
Tae-min’s expression brightened. Becoming guild leader would make it easy to use the execution hunters, and it carried plenty of other advantages besides, so Hyun-jun agreed without hesitation.
“Good. Have all the guild records ready by tonight.”
If he was going to be guild leader, he intended to do it properly.
*
“I’ve brought the records.”
Tae-min came in carrying several file folders. Hyun-jun, who had been seated in the temporary office, gave a nod and opened the folders he was handed, scanning through them at a glance.
“The guild’s financial condition is better than I expected.”
Among Bronze-tier guilds, Wraith ranked near the bottom, but if these documents were accurate, its cash flow was good enough to place it in the middle to upper-middle range.
“That’s the only thing our guild has going for it.”
“But there aren’t many regular members, and the execution division isn’t especially large either.”
“Yes. To begin with, our former guild leader founded this guild to get a more favorable settlement on magic stone revenues, so the execution division itself hasn’t been around for very long.”
It was common for executives to create small guilds to make money, since the settlement rate rose depending on the tier of the guild they belonged to, and guild members had to pay settlement taxes whenever they cleared a dungeon or raid as a guild and sold off the magic stones. Listening to Tae-min, Wraith Guild seemed to be no different.
“I see.”
Hyun-jun answered with a grave expression. In cases like this, such guilds were usually the first targets for absorption by larger guilds. Wraith was no exception.
“I’m changing the policy. From now on, Wraith will pursue an aggressive strategy.”
“You mean you want to expand our power?”
Tae-min asked. Hyun-jun looked at him and nodded.
“As you can tell from the recent ambush, the people behind Echo seem furious that their plan was disrupted. There’s no other reason they’d send assassins, is there?”
It made sense.
“There’s no guarantee something like this won’t happen again. If we want to survive, we need to grow strong enough that the people behind Echo can’t afford to touch us.”
“I agree with the guild leader’s opinion.”
At some point, Tae-min’s way of addressing Hyun-jun had changed to “guild leader.”
“There’s one thing we need to do first if we want to expand our power.”
“What is it?”
Tae-min asked as he looked at Hyun-jun. Just by placing an outstanding hunter like Hyun-jun in the guild leader’s seat, the wind of change had already begun to blow. At the thought that the guild might soar high into the sky, Tae-min felt his heart thud with excitement.
“Absorb Echo through a merger. I have no intention of sitting still after being targeted like this.”
“Is that possible?”
In an official guild war for a merger, regular guild members can also participate. Even if the execution division has taken a heavy hit, Echo’s regular guild force is still intact, so an official guild war would not let Wraith overwhelm Echo outright.
“Of course it’s possible. You know the rules of an official guild war, right?”
“Yes. Unlike an unofficial guild war, it takes the form of a duel.”
“And unless someone loses or voluntarily declares a substitution, one person can keep staying on the field to face the next opponent.”
“Don’t tell me, guild leader…”
Tae-min’s pupils shook. He had guessed what Hyun-jun was thinking.
“That’s exactly it. You and I are going to take down all nine of Echo’s participants.”
It was crude, but it was the surest way for the currently underpowered Wraith to win.
“Is that possible?”
“It’s more than possible. If you can win just two matches, I’ll handle the remaining seven.”
Hyun-jun’s unwavering confidence filled Tae-min with confidence and hope in turn.
“Before the guild war begins, all we need to do is leak our participant list to Echo.”
Of course, aside from Tae-min, the list would be made up entirely of C-Class hunters, Hyun-jun included. If most of them were C-Class, Echo would not send out excessive force of its own. They had also lost many hunters when the execution division collapsed, so they would surely want to avoid throwing unnecessary strength into a guild war.
But they won’t know I’m hiding my true strength.
A C-Class hunter with the ability of an A-Class hunter. That was Kang Hyun-jun. Echo’s execution division did have some information on him, but because of the nature of the division, it often maintained its own isolated server or stored material documents instead. So when the office burned and the people involved lost their lives, all of that information was wiped out.
“Ah! I think I understand what you mean!”
Tae-min was quick-witted. He grasped Hyun-jun’s intent at once.
“But we don’t have a reason to declare a guild war right away.”
“Kim Tae-min. From the execution division leader’s point of view, would you say this ambush was a success?”
“They succeeded in assassinating our guild leader and inflicting damage on the execution division, but since they failed to destroy the evidence, I’d call it a failed operation.”
Because the Special Police had arrived faster than expected after Hyun-jun’s report, they had been unable to carry out the evidence destruction that was essential to the execution division’s operation.
“Then first, file a claim using the evidence. One of the corpses secured by the Special Police is bound to belong to Echo’s execution division. A hefty compensation demand should be about right.”
“If they refuse to accept it, we can challenge them to a guild war on the condition of an absorption merger. With a valid reason and clear evidence, Guild Oversight Bureau will approve the guild war.”
An absorption merger required a massive amount of capital, but fortunately Wraith’s finances were solid. He did not need to worry about that part. Many Echo guild members would defect during the merger process, but if it succeeded, Wraith would grow to the point where it could aim for Silver Tier.
“Should we proceed right away?”
Tae-min asked carefully. Hyun-jun nodded.
“Start it.”
The operation began. Hyun-jun moved quickly through the procedures and officially became Wraith’s guild leader, while Tae-min formally lodged a claim against Echo through Guild Oversight Bureau using the evidence they had secured. The compensation they demanded was an amount even Echo would struggle to cover, but because their wrongdoing was obvious, Guild Oversight Bureau did not step in to reduce the figure.
Meanwhile, Hyun-jun hurried the move. The realtor had confirmed that immediate occupancy was possible, so there was no reason to delay. He left all the furniture selection to So-jin. Thanks to that, just three days after the move, the empty space had taken on the look of an ordinary family home. They could not throw a housewarming party because of the circumstances, but instead Tae-min came by with a stack of gifts.
“Wow! Uncle’s here!”
The younger siblings did not dislike Tae-min. Come to think of it, since he always brought snacks or toys whenever he came, there was no reason they would. After ten minutes of gift-giving, Tae-min and Hyun-jun moved to the study to talk in private.
“Echo refused the compensation.”
It was the expected result. The amount Wraith had demanded was heavy even for a guild the size of Echo. From the outset, it had been a claim meant to provoke a refusal.
“Good. Proceed according to the plan.”
“Understood, guild leader.”
Tae-min nodded. Somewhere along the way, he had become Hyun-jun’s loyal subordinate.
*
Echo’s guild leader, Choi Na-young, was in a foul mood. She had sent the Wraith guild leader to the other side, but because the evidence had not been destroyed, the Special Police Bureau’s investigation had continued with relentless intensity.
All she could do was claim that the guild’s extremists had acted on their own and pin the blame on a few expendable people. Even that had only been possible thanks to the help of a “very important person” behind her.
“Damn it, this is so annoying!”
The mug she hurled in frustration smashed against the wall in a miserable heap. She was a support-type, but she was still a B-Class hunter, so the force in her body was nothing like that of an ordinary person. In the corner of the office, Lee Jin-gyu, the guild leader’s secretary and a B-Class magic-type hunter, let out a short sigh and used a simple spell to clean up the shattered mug.
“I have one more piece of bad news.”
“Just say it.”
Na-young told him to speak, but her voice was sharp. Jin-gyu, however, remained calm. It was not the first or second time he had had to endure her hysteria during the long hours he had spent working as guild leader secretary, so he was used to it.
“Wraith has declared a guild war against us.”
“What? Guild Oversight Bureau approved that?”
“They said the evidence was too obvious to reject, so they had no choice but to pass it through.”
“Those bastards... they take our money like that and still can’t help us when it matters.”
Na-young complained bitterly. She regretted every bit of the bribe money she had fed to Guild Oversight Bureau’s executives.
“Wraith isn’t likely to have escaped without losses either, so do they still have enough strength to challenge us to a guild war?”
“It seems they’re trusting the mercenary who performed well in the previous unofficial guild war.”
“Mercenaries can’t participate in guild wars.”
To take part in an official guild war, one had to be formally affiliated with a guild.
“They may have temporarily registered him as a regular guild member.”
“Just how outstanding is that guy, for them to invest that much?”
“I’m not certain, but there are rumors he’s at least A-Class. Considering Wraith’s victory in the unofficial guild war, it doesn’t seem like a baseless rumor.”
“Then there’s no reason to worry. Wraith can’t possibly have the financial breathing room to keep an A-Class hunter on as a mercenary for long... right?”
Wraith’s finances might not be bad, but that was by Bronze-tier standards. Na-young judged it insufficient to sustain an A-Class hunter as a mercenary for any long period.
“Did you get the participant list?”
The list of guild war participants was supposed to be confidential, but through unofficial channels it was not impossible to obtain. When the power difference between guilds was large, in particular, the difficulty of obtaining it dropped.
“We’re in the middle of securing it now. Ah, excuse me for a moment.”
Jin-gyu paused the conversation and checked his smartphone. A strange look entered his eyes.
“I’ve secured the list. There’s one B-Class hunter, and the rest are all C-Class.”
“What? You had me worked up over nothing.”
“There doesn’t seem to be any need to bring in our own A-Class hunters, who are already focused on dungeon clearing.”
Echo’s only remaining A-Class hunter, Baek Han-su, was concentrating on dungeon raids to make up for the guild’s losses.
“Five B-Class hunters should be enough.”
At Jin-gyu’s words, Na-young nodded.
“We’ve got this.”
A smile spread across her lips. She had no idea that everything was already unfolding exactly as Hyun-jun intended.