The Tribute Ship
"What on earth are we supposed to send...?"
In the Strategic Countermeasures Division's office at the Association, Park Ingyu and the staff had their heads bent together once again, wracking their brains late into the night.
What kind of country was South Korea? Before the Tower appeared, it was the sort of nation where a president who slapped punitive tariffs on all incoming goods would turn around and gift a single crown, grinning as he pulled it out of his pocket on the tarmac for the cameras to see.
Going back further, it was the country that had bled the Ming Dynasty dry — sending envoys back home begging them to please, please stop sending tribute missions, only to invent excuse after excuse to keep the goods flowing in. Gifted by geography with a position of strategic importance, it had been raised, whether it liked it or not, into a master of currying favor with the powerful of other nations.
And yet even after several visits led by Moon Seoyoung and her hunters, pinning down Yuhyeon's tastes had proven maddeningly difficult. It wasn't simply because the man was without greed, either.
"We figured he wouldn't take gold or treasure, but who would've thought he'd refuse the weapons and medicine the man actually seems to need?"
"We showed him a mana-enchanted weapon once. He said only frail barbarians use such things."
"What about medicine? You know, like the potions that drop in the Tower."
"He said only frail barbarians fall ill."
"..."
The Empire's pre-modern way of thinking was more than the modern hunters could keep up with. Yuhyeon's tastes. Then, as if stepping backward into the answer, Moon Seoyoung suddenly struck upon it.
"Oh, come to think of it — he confiscates our kimchi every single time we come through. Do you think he might actually like the stuff?"
"What?! Why are you only telling us this now?"
"Well, if it's such a hassle, shouldn't we just stop bringing it?"
"Oh, come on. It's not like we're dumping it in front of him. If he's hauling it off when he's not even going to eat it, he must have some other use for it, right?"
"You think so?"
"If it really bothered him, he'd have said so first. Let's just leave it be."
As long as it worked, even dust counted as a part.
The discovery nearly reduced months of accumulated effort to bubbles on the water, but thanks to one former developer on staff, they had at least managed to stop the kimchi from vanishing from the official tribute goods.
"Still, there has to be something he wants."
"Right? He's human, after all..."
Wanting nothing at all made no sense. If that were the case, tribute itself would be unnecessary, and he could simply have told them never to bring anything again.
From Yuhyeon's perspective, it was obvious he was waiting on a card they clearly held in hand but had yet to play. The problem was that no one had the faintest idea what that card was — and so, once again, several of the staff shuffled off toward the smoking room.
"It's been a while, Director Park Ingyu."
"Mr. Lee Dowon, I presume."
Park Ingyu had been on his way to follow them when someone caught him in the corridor. It was Lee Dowon, Vice Guild Master of the Ignis Guild.
South Korea was home to several colossal guilds known as the 7 Great Powers. Most of them didn't operate domestically, and the Ignis Guild in particular kept its very headquarters in the United States.
Lee Dowon was a dual citizen as well — a black-haired foreigner fluent in Korean, but one who had spent nearly his entire life in America since birth.
He had rushed back to Korea the moment word broke that a Hidden Stage had opened there. Tucking his Association access badge into a passport case whose ink had barely dried, he spoke to Park Ingyu.
"I heard the news. The Tianyu Empire? And you're having trouble negotiating with them, I understand?"
"Not negotiation — tribute. They're an extremely closed nation with an empire-first mentality, so we're proceeding carefully, closing the distance step by step."
"Haah. This is why state institutions never work. They eat your tax money and still can't get anything done promptly. Surely you've heard the saying?"
"Which saying?"
"If a problem can't be solved with money, start wondering whether there wasn't enough of it."
With that, Lee Dowon laid out the reason they had come all this way.
"The Ignis Guild will lend you our assistance. In exchange, grant us the exclusive right to process and distribute the magic stones that come out of there."
"If you'd like to make that request officially, we'll discuss it with the relevant ministries. Should it be approved — and how exactly would you propose to help, specifically?"
"I told you already. We'll flatten the problem with money."
To the Ignis Guild and to Lee Dowon, the Association's methods were hopelessly quaint. To put it less charitably, they reeked of poverty.
"Lugging cargo over on carriers? Doesn't that strike you as, oh, a touch beneath the dignity of a nation?"
"From our standpoint, it was the best option available."
"So stop doing your best and start doing it well. Is that really so difficult?"
"..."
"Use the monsters we've tamed, and we can move up to thirty people in a single trip. We placed a rush order with the lab — they'll be arriving at Busan Port soon."
Even though the entry information for the Hidden Stage had never been officially announced, Lee Dowon already knew exactly how to reach the Empire. Sooner or later it was bound to come out, yes — but not at this speed.
If they accepted these people's help, could they actually secure hunting rights in Pamagok from Yuhyeon? The deliberation did not last long.
"For my part, I must respectfully decline."
"You're refusing to take our hand?"
"And one more thing — a favor, if you will. All this talk of 'not enough money' and whatnot... I would strongly advise you never to breathe a word of it in front of Great General Yuhyeon."
"Haha. Guarding your turf already, are we?"
They might be nothing more than a single guild, but they were one of the 7 Great Powers. Compared to an Association that couldn't even properly handle the monsters spilling out of the Tower, the gap in capability was a chasm.
Set against the profits to be reaped from magic stones, even paying tribute would amount to a trifling cost — three arrowheads' worth of blood. To secure an advantage over every other faction in their relations with the Tianyu Empire, Lee Dowon began assembling his own delegation the moment he stepped out of the Association building.
In the forest zone near Pamagok, where sunlight barely reached the ground, the Association's hunters were crossing the rift once again today, trudging across the flat terrain where the basilisk's gaze had turned the trees to stone.
They had hauled supplies diligently with no proper facilities set up around them, protected by nothing more than a thin layer of defensive magic. However strapped for cash they might have been, surely they weren't so poor they couldn't airlift a few tents for a base camp.
The reason for such a spartan setup was simple: they still hadn't secured hunting permission in Pamagok. The moment they settled in and lit a fire, monsters were bound to come sniffing around — so they had no choice but to flee from any encounter, avoiding combat at all costs.
Ordinarily, the routine would have been the same as ever: load the carriers, trudge all the way to the fortress, and get turned away at the gate yet again. But today was different. Yuhyeon himself — the man who ruled this whole gorge — had come to them in person.
"Something reeks again today, I see."
"G-Great General...!"
"At ease."
"We prostrate ourselves before the Great General!"
"Mm."
Moon Seoyoung bowed so hard her forehead nearly cracked against the ground. Judging by what the other subordinates — the ones who treated them like barbarians — had let slip, even a Border Guard Commander rarely bothered to patrol outside the fortress walls in person.
And yet for fifteen years, without missing a single time, Yuhyeon had walked the most dangerous ground himself rather than sending his men ahead of him. It was little wonder those beneath him trusted and followed him with their whole hearts.
"Let's see. And what might this be?"
"That's the food we brought this time. Last time, well — we were running a little short on our own provisions, so..."
It was kimchi. White kimchi, radish water kimchi, and even cucumber kimchi. They hadn't planned to bring it to the fortress at all, and they'd deliberately prepared the least pungent varieties so that no complaint could even be raised against them.
It had been fermented fresh at Moon Seoyoung's family home, and sat there in its winter-kimchi plastic wrap. Yuhyeon found it among the sea of carriers with uncanny, almost supernatural precision, and then his face scrunched into an awkward grimace.
"There are vegetarians among the barbarians in this area."
"I'm sorry — vegetarians?"
"Vermin who catch the scent from a thousand li away and raid villages to strip every weed and vegetable from the kitchens. So elusive are they that even the Border Guard cannot catch them."
And so, for your own safety, I shall keep them here for a time. The moment Yuhyeon said this and scooped up the carrier, one of the party who'd just had her kimchi confiscated let out a wail.
Moon Seoyoung still couldn't understand why Yuhyeon wouldn't so much as glance at any of the other tribute goods. Even though the meeting had produced a resolution — asking the Great General directly what he needs would be discourteous; we shall not do it — she worked up the courage to speak.
"Um... Great General."
"What is it?"
"We wish to hunt in Pamagok."
If they couldn't establish a foothold here, scraping magic stones would be the least of their worries — their very survival would be at risk. Having a single Shin Yuyu on hand did not make every hunter safe.
"If there is anything you need, we will prepare anything at all. So please — is there no way you could tell us?"
Yuhyeon never demanded tribute of his own accord. But if they could hear from his own lips what was lacking, the Association would move mountains to find a way to provide it.
Looking down at Moon Seoyoung, who was privately entertaining the thought that her neck might well roll for this, Yuhyeon opened his mouth.
"I have already received it."
"You... received it?"
"Have you truly not realized, even after following No Chil's advice and saying nothing? When you first arrived in this land, your commander placed something in my hands with his own. I am merely awaiting his word on the matter."
The commander Yuhyeon spoke of was, of course, Director Park Ingyu. What Park Ingyu had handed over at that first meeting was none other than a business card. He hadn't brought anything else with him that day — there had been nothing else at all.
What on earth was he supposed to do with that? Moon Seoyoung hastily pressed him.
"C-could you perhaps explain in a little more detail...!"
"Well, well! To think you were here."
At that very moment, a massive rift tore open nearby, and dozens of people came pouring through.
Behind them followed compact container boxes fitted with tracked undercarriages. Whatever was inside couldn't be seen, but it was clearly in a different league from anything the Association had brought.
Lee Dowon cast a contemptuous glance at the carriers spread pitifully across the dirt, then turned at last to Yuhyeon and introduced himself.
"It is an honor to meet the Great General of the Tianyu Empire. I am Lee Dowon of the Ignis Guild."