Thoughts and Patience
While the rehabilitation training was still going on, a knock sounded at the door. Cheon Mari immediately tried to head outside, but I pushed her back down into her seat, grabbed the IV stand, and dragged it out into the hallway with me.
The woman waiting there was drenched in sweat. It was the bodyguard who had earned the nickname “waiter” earlier. She held a tray with a document folder propped on a stand, and on top of the folder sat two bowls of ramen.
The bodyguard glanced around nervously before bowing her head.
“I’m sorry. The young lady kept saying that for breakfast there was ramen and Kang Sian never showed up, so…”
Setting aside how bizarre that sounded, it seemed Cheon Mari’s rampage had simply been because she wanted ramen. When you considered that the standard post-treatment patient diet was plain white porridge, it wasn’t entirely unreasonable. I was just stunned that she had gone to such extremes for a bowl of noodles.
“And we couldn’t find the exact ingredients the young lady requested… so we had to use ordinary ramen. I’m truly sorry.”
“Ah, it’s fine. Mari was probably half-joking anyway. She won’t mind.”
I thanked her, took the tray, and set it on the table inside the room. Cheon Mari was still grinning from ear to ear while I kept clicking my tongue.
“Is this really that fun for you?”
“Of course it’s fun. I’m having the time of my life.”
“Ugh.”
Cheon Mari slid over to my side. She pulled up a chair and sat right next to me, which naturally turned the tray as well. The table that had felt spacious for one person suddenly felt cramped. Along with the spicy aroma of the ramen came a strange, familiar scent. It was the lively energy of someone who had been carefully observing everything, mixed with the fresh smell of laundry that had been washed with extra care. It was the same scent I often caught when we fought.
When I looked at her as if to ask what she was up to now, I found a pair of eyes free of any emptiness staring back at me. It was burdensome. Honestly, if it had only been burdensome, that would have been lucky.
“By the way, Sian. There’s one thing I’m curious about.”
“What is it?”
“Lim Hana. What are you planning to do with her?”
The question came just as I was lifting a pair of chopsticks. It wasn’t quite a whisper, but it carried the careful tone of someone testing the waters.
“I already told you before.”
“That you’d deal with her?”
She made a slicing motion across her throat. I nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Then shall I help?”
“…Why?”
“Dealing with a middle-schooler as a middle-schooler is difficult. If I lend a hand, even a middle-schooler should be able to clean up the aftermath somehow.”
“…”
“Whether that means killing her or burying her socially.”
Maybe it was because she was talking about crushing another human being. Her already bright expression grew even brighter, practically glowing pure white.
Setting aside the current company’s politically messy situation, cooperating with Cheon Mari would be a good thing.
“Either way, I have no intention of doing that right now.”
I answered firmly. I truly had zero plans to move at the moment.
Cheon Mari’s face clearly displayed a giant question mark, as though she had witnessed something completely outside her expectations. It was possible I had misjudged the situation, or maybe I had overthought it and arrived at a hazy conclusion. Still, with my current mindset, this felt like the best and safest choice no matter how I looked at it.
“Mari, think about it. Leaving legal issues aside, do you really think I could beat her in a fight right now?”
“Hmm… I think you could win? You said you just beat up all her academy friends.”
“That’s because they were the problem. Lim Hana is a kid with real talent for magic. If she spams close-range spells, I’m dead.”
First point: I had no confidence I could win a physical fight.
“Then as petty revenge, kill all her friends—”
“If I mess with a bunch of friendship-obsessed druggies, who knows what kind of mess will explode? I can’t do that, if only for my aunt and uncle’s sake.”
“Your aunt? Would they reach out to your family too?”
“The druggies live right next door. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do on impulse. Besides, because of this whole situation I can’t even report the fact that they fired magic at me.”
Second point: My position was far too vulnerable. The fact that they were addicts was their weakness, but it was also mine. They could erase the consequences with more drugs, but I had to constantly worry about fallout. In the reality where Lim Hana saw me as a traitor, one wrong move could send sparks flying toward my aunt. At the very least, I would have to move my aunt’s family somewhere safe before doing anything.
“I’ll assign bodyguards. For your cousin as well, of course.”
“That won’t be nearly enough. Lim Hana’s academy friends aren’t ordinary kids. They’re all heirs to decent guilds or children of wealthy families.”
“…”
Third point: The difference in wealth and influence was overwhelming. Even if bodyguards were assigned, those people had the power to make the bodyguards turn their blades the other way. If it ever came to that, I would be finished.
“Then what about inflicting social damage?”
“Social damage?”
“You said they do drugs. If you subtly spread the fact that they’re potential drug-addicted murderers, it won’t splash back on your family.”
If the facts of attempted murder and drug use were leaked, it would definitely deal a blow. It might even make the news, and they would certainly receive sharp looks at school.
“That’s true. But what comes after that?”
“After?”
“Taking Gwangjeungcho is a crime, but if it were truly seen as a serious social issue, a massive crackdown would have happened long ago.”
“There won’t be much of a blow?”
Let’s say their identities as addicts were exposed and their shameless true natures revealed. Would that actually deliver a fatal blow to their daily lives and hunter careers? Right now, why weren’t hunters addicted to Gwangjeungcho having their qualifications revoked? Why could hunters who had been caught taking it and even appeared on the news still enter and exit gates normally?
Obviously because there were people protecting them. And it was a fairly open secret that Gwangjeungcho was deliberately neglected according to the interests of those in power. Ambiguously high-ranking officials shielded it because they themselves consumed or supplied it. Top-tier hunters usually disliked Gwangjeungcho because they managed themselves strictly. But when rookies acted self-destructively, it made maintaining rankings easier, so there was no real will to solve the problem. Since the top hunters felt that way, the non-users below them subtly shared similar views in one giant, messed-up party.
“It’s not for nothing that when kids of famous hunters get caught using Gwangjeungcho, they go study abroad in America, return after a few years, and resume hunter activities.”
It was clearly a drug, yet it wasn’t treated like one. The problem was social perception. Reporting it was practically useless. Precedents had already been ruined. This was the same even for cases involving juvenile attempted murder.
“Besides, for the attempted murder there’s nothing but my testimony. If those juveniles all deny it, given how the teachers are, I’ll be the only one who ends up looking pathetic.”
Even if I somehow proved it, the limits were obvious. Their lives would be disrupted for a while and their reputations would take a hit, but everything would recover in a year or two. Moreover, with the shield of being minors, it was difficult to impose serious punishment under reform-oriented policies. Especially considering this was the age of stormy adolescence and middle-school chuunibyou syndrome, there was a high chance the kids would instead become objects of envy. That would be the real disaster. Nothing complicated things more than gaining followers.
“Even if it feels powerful when only we know about it, the moment we bring it out into the open, the chance that it accomplishes nothing becomes huge.”
It was a hand too weak to go all-in on. In the end, I would only be able to deal a “somewhat significant” blow after they became adults. Not many people would want to stay close to an adult female addict in daily life. No one would want to deal with an empty-headed person wasting money on useless things. And almost no guild would want to hire a hunter whose body was being eaten away by a drug that grew more damaging the longer it was used.
“That’s true…”
This was the fourth point. The question of how much damage I could actually inflict right now. I also didn’t mention that the company was currently struggling. It had become famous lately, and it might sound like sarcasm.
“…So there’s no revenge at all?”
“No. As I keep saying, it’s just not right now.”
I was looking at the long term, not the short term. From the beginning, the more their bodies were gnawed away by Gwangjeungcho, the more advantageous it became for me.
“They won’t get an easy death. I’m simply postponing it until they’ve grown.”
After I explained this far, Cheon Mari looked genuinely surprised. It was as if she hadn’t expected me to have thought this deeply.
“Your thoughts and patience run really deep. It doesn’t match your age at all.”
“It comes naturally when you’re around a certain someone.”
“Huh.”
It was a joke, but if you read current events and hunter news every day, this much was easy to figure out. When I brushed it off like it was nothing, Cheon Mari fell silent for a moment. She rested her hand on the table and idly rolled her fingers, staring at the ramen that was starting to cool. Several minutes passed.
From outside came someone’s shout and the sound of a commotion. I started to get up to check, but Cheon Mari told me it was nothing and sat me back down. Then, as if to make me forget the questionable reality, she slowly moved her blood-red lips.
“Kang Sian, there’s one thing you overlooked.”
“I overlooked something?”
“If you carry out all this revenge, what exactly do you gain?”
Gain. I wasn’t sure exactly what she meant. For now, I considered the emotional aspect and the removal of a major threat as a single benefit. Whether the other side saw it the same way, I didn’t know.
“Safety and self-satisfaction.”
“Besides that?”
“Nothing.”
“Not even one thing? Not even financially?”
Financially. That was a fresh angle. From the beginning, revenge or removing a threat was something that consumed money rather than earned it. Even if there was any gain, it would only be whatever you could loot from their wallet afterward. I tilted my head, wondering what she was getting at.
Cheon Mari swallowed once, then widened her crimson eyes.
“Kang Sian, let’s make a deal.”
The devil whispered. A devil whose goals I couldn’t fathom.
“What kind of deal?”
“Include me in your plan.”
Not the same “I’ll help you” as before. She wanted to be included in my plan. So what benefit could Cheon Mari possibly gain? No matter how I looked at it there would only be expenses and not a single profit.
As questions flooded my mind, Cheon Mari continued.
“In return, I’ll provide you with financial benefits.”
“Before that, you need to tell me why you want to be included.”
“The reason? The hunters working for the company my grandfather runs have skills hitting rock bottom.”
“Your grandfather’s company… you mean Nartica?”
The company name that had been engraved on the sword she used. The company she was likely to inherit someday. Cheon Mari nodded.
“I plan to raise the skill level of our affiliated hunters over the mid-to-long term. Naturally, that will require replacing some personnel.”
“Fire the low-performing hunters and recruit high-skilled veterans.”
“Exactly.”
“But that doesn’t seem related to the plan I’m thinking of.”
If you needed veteran hunters, you could just recruit them with good conditions. It didn’t seem connected to my simple desire for personal revenge.
“Actually, it’s not just the hunters. I also need the know-how and technology that guilds have accumulated.”
“Guilds? Know-how? Technology?”
The moment I heard those three words, I immediately understood what this regressor was truly after.
“Hey, don’t tell me you’re targeting Lim Hana’s friends’ parents—”
“Their parents. They’re owners or top executives of fairly solid guilds.”
Endless greed worthy of a villainess. I could practically taste the sly smile.