Chapter 87
Chapter 87
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 87
Chapter Title: A Guild Master Needs More Than Just the Game
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For some reason, it felt like Abyss and the bound heroes behind me were intently staring at our clasped hands, but now wasn't the time to worry about that.
Taking advantage of Dart's slightly relaxed demeanor, I delved a bit deeper.
"You're not the only ones who fought in Bipa. Don't try to handle everything just among yourselves. Sieges are sieges, but in reality, we should obviously help each other."
"......"
"But aside from Binu-nim, I hardly saw any of your first unit? Where'd the rest of the first unit go?"
"Only a few of us take turns staying here, while the rest took the second, third, and fourth units to run the Midgard Dungeon."
Just as I thought.
Dart's expression visibly softened just from seeing my face, and he suddenly said to me.
"We owe you for the help this time, so if you need it, I'll open the dungeon for you."
"!"
Jackpot.
He offered it up first.
I'd been planning to ask Dart to release the Hellcannon binding as my reward, but this was obviously the better option.
I'd handle the Hellcannon contract through a quest and focus on training my guild members ASAP.
"That would be a huge help. They say hunter forces are national power now, right? We all need to thrive so we can help each other like this when it counts."
Dart paused as if thinking it over at my words, then quietly nodded.
Riding the momentum, I grilled him on SpaceKing's guild member training strategies, got advice from Dart to map out specific courses for the northern dungeons, and nailed down the permission.
* * *
Drip.
Blood fell in the alleyway.
"Damn, you...!"
A black-clad man gritted his teeth as he emerged from the Beta Field.
The Beta Field was a double-layered dimension where divine beings on Earth could freely enter and exit.
It had been created to prevent the constellations' battles from destroying the world, and it also served as a practice field for the 'Alpha Field' that would be built later.
Crunch.
"To think a mere human would dare!"
The constellation known as 'The Guide to Ruin,' who had taken the name 'Asin' for his incarnated body.
Unlike Asin, who had taken physical form, the bodiless constellation 'The Darkness that Observes the End' spoke to him.
【Isn't it hard to call him an ordinary human anymore?】
"Shut up!"
Asin's body continued to be enveloped in black light, but his wounds healed slowly.
To restore a constellation's body, one had to cast high-density heals to meticulously reconstruct the energy body.
And the forces of darkness were particularly weak at healing.
"No matter the restrictions on me, a newly awakened human shouldn't be able to match me already!!"
This was something that couldn't happen—and shouldn't happen—but it was already reality.
Asin's heart raced.
The constellations who incarnated on this planet, called the 'Grave of Stars,' with bodies similar to humans were particularly strong and confident.
Because if they died improperly in their 'incarnated' state, they could lose their memories as constellations.
Recovering lost memories took a long time, so not just anyone dared to attempt incarnation.
【You got too careless. With the third force cornered to the point of near annihilation, did you really think they'd prepare something ordinary?】
"......"
As his body healed, Asin's breathing gradually stabilized.
His incarnated body had been in crisis, briefly overwhelming him with human-like fear, but that emotion quickly faded.
Yet the reason left behind led to the same judgment.
A dangerous sprout from the start.
"When does the Babel Tower open?"
【Soon.】
"Once we're inside the Babel Tower, I have to kill that bitch no matter what."
Eliminate her now to avoid future trouble.
As Asin's eyes gleamed dangerously, the constellation he'd been speaking with, 'The Darkness that Observes the End,' laughed silently.
* * *
Hyunwoo—Shin Nokhyeon—sighed in lament.
"Sigh. When will Kaisha-nim finally contact me first, all friendly-like? Am I not her right-hand man...?"
"Right arm is Kali, left arm is Maya—"
"Shut your mouth, Kang Muhan."
Mura—Kang Muhan, Hyunwoo's real-life acquaintance and closest confidant—obediently closed his mouth, then spoke after a pause.
"For now, your only option is to contact her first under the pretext of work."
Muhan wanted to build a personal friendship with Kaisha too.
He'd come up with his own solution for sending back the western heroes, so he figured he could kill two birds with one stone by reaching out and bonding.
Nokhyeon apparently believed he was already pretty close to Kaisha.
As someone who'd been blacklisted by Kaisha after pestering her to meet once based on his real-world specs, Muhan had long since given up on that front.
Nokhyeon said.
"I'm hurt. Is it because I'm a chaebol? Did it create distance instead of seeming like a useful connection?"
He'd even subtly tipped off Goldbunker in hopes they'd recognize his value.
"Could be."
"Sigh, no way...."
His fantasies of meeting Kaisha in real life and flaunting his chaebol status to win her over crumbled to dust.
As Nokhyeon wallowed in sorrow, he suddenly glared at Muhan with a face full of resentment.
"I don't get what you're so confident about, Muhan-hyung. If I fail, you won't get a chance to bond with Kaisha-nim either."
Muhan flinched and shot Nokhyeon a glare.
"I have plenty of chances."
"Why?"
"Unlike you, the Gentle Knights guild master, I'm an official Fulminak guild member and Kaisha-nim's dedicated shield."
"......"
"She'll call me eventually."
Nokhyeon shot up from his seat.
"That's cheating!"
Nokhyeon bristled at Muhan's composed confidence but soon calmed his anger and sat back down.
"Neither of us is close to Kaisha-nim anyway, so I let my hurt feelings make me rash."
"......"
Muhan looked dejected.
It was true that Kaisha hadn't specially contacted either of them, who were lumped into the 'Gentle Knights faction.'
It was disappointing, but even work matters were mostly relayed through Kali.
And besides.
"Now that she's got Hellcannon and is all excited, would she even remember me?"
Nokhyeon grumbled.
Kaisha looked thrilled parading around with the stunningly handsome Hellcannon dressed impeccably.
When they'd formed a marriage alliance in-game as guild masters of Gentle Knights and Fulminak, she'd thanked them for reaching out first and vowed never to forget.
But that was just her tenth-or-so husband or whatever—still, this level of indifference?
What a heartless woman.
As Nokhyeon's disappointment deepened, the door burst open and a man nearing middle age strode in.
"Family head!"
Surprisingly, that was exactly how the household staff addressed Nokhyeon.
While their chaebol family ran the business in the typical public-facing way, their internal dynamics were a bit different from what outsiders imagined.
Nokhyeon smiled and said.
"Come in, Uncle."
"Please talk some sense into Father! That stubborn old man's getting more pigheaded by the day! Yesterday's proposal was utterly ridiculous, and... who are you?"
On the massive screen in Shin Nokhyeon's office, Kaisha and heroes including Hellcannon strolled the streets in modern clothes.
Nokhyeon's uncle, who belatedly recognized Kaisha, nodded.
"Ah, the one from the newspaper headlines. Looks like an actor—young folks are going crazy over her."
"Kaisha-nim is charming, isn't she?"
"I heard she's the granddaughter of some group chairman. Which one was it?"
Since he hadn't done any background checks, Muhan and Nokhyeon exchanged surprised glances at the unfamiliar info.
She was chaebol-related?
So that's why his chaebol status hadn't impressed Kaisha, the thought flashed through both their minds.
"More importantly, this is exactly when you need to step up and restore discipline in the family! That damn geezer is trying to tear down everything you've built with your blood and sweat!"
Even as the man—his uncle by blood and heir to the family business—raged on, Nokhyeon remained utterly unfazed.
Family drama exploding like this was hardly a new occurrence.
"I'll talk to the chairman over dinner, so calm down. You take blood pressure meds—getting this worked up is bad for your health."
"I'm begging you. Without you, I'd have keeled over ages ago."
Probably true.
After soothing and sending off his uncle, Nokhyeon sighed and said.
"Why does this make me miss Kaisha-nim even more...?"
"Dealing with the family elders is exhausting, obviously. Revealing your reincarnation status would make it so much easier."
Yooem Group was a very special family maintained by the third force's affiliates reincarnating over and over, centered around Hyunwoo.
Not everyone was a reincarnator, but family members generally knew the structure.
Muhan, lounging on the sofa with his laptop, manipulated the screen.
As the two dove into healing by scrolling through the endless online photos and videos of Kaisha, they froze.
In front of a wrecked car—whatever had happened—heroes swung swords in battle, and with Kaisha clutching her own throat, the two men were plunged into shock.
Bzzz—
"!"
Nokhyeon jumped at the caller ID on his phone.
[Caller: Kaisha (Ga-hyun Yoo)]
It was the call from Kaisha he'd been waiting for forever.
"Kaisha-nim!"
["Hyunwoo-nim, how have you been?"]
Her voice sounded perfectly fine.
He'd worried after seeing the photos, but luckily Kaisha wasn't badly hurt.
Nokhyeon immediately asked after her.
"Of course. And how have you been, Kaisha-nim?"
["I've been great. I've wanted to see you for ages, but I figured you were swamped with work, so I held off on calling."]
"Yes? No, that's..."
Nokhyeon trailed off with a groan at her words.
She'd thought he was busy.
"No matter how busy I am, I'd make time for you, Kaisha-nim."
As family head, Nokhyeon's duties mostly involved overseeing household operations, advising retainers, and occasionally meeting constellation-affiliated forces to build rapport.
The retainers constantly dragged him into every little thing, eating up his time—that was all.
Kaisha seemed caught off guard by the response, pausing to choose her words.
["Then when can we meet? I was just calling to set something up, but sooner the better, I think."]
"Where are you right now?"
["Pardon?"]
"I'm on my way."
["Here...? Right now?"]
"Yes. If there's a comfy café near your place for chatting, we can meet there."
["A café? Not a hotel suite?"]
"I'm not that kind of guy."
["......Pardon?"]
He could sense Kaisha growing more baffled, but correcting his long-misbuilt image was urgent for Nokhyeon.
"You probably see me as some chaebol guy who'd never set foot in a street café—gentle yet aloof, impossible to approach casually, always booked solid. But you're wrong."
"......"
Muhan, who'd paused his laptop tinkering at the mention of Kaisha's call, stared at Nokhyeon in disbelief.
Ignoring him, Nokhyeon smiled radiantly as if Kaisha were right there.
"From now on, think of me as a super convenient, capable guy with plenty of money and time—call anytime."
["......Ah, okay. Sure."]
Kaisha replied in a hesitant but amused tone.
["You're a funny one, Hyunwoo-nim. I was intimidated thinking you were some chaebol scion. I'll contact you more casually from now on."]
"!"
As expected of Kaisha.
She pierced right through his intent and what he wanted in one go.
Pleased with successfully revamping his image for approachability and securing a communication line, Nokhyeon smiled contentedly and got to the point.
"So, where should I head?"