A World of Hunters
Aside from a weirdo dropping by this morning, it's been a pretty quiet day.
She has yellow hair and eyes, and she's brilliant, but she's constantly throwing tantrums.
Why the hell are there no normal people in this guild?
"Welcome! A sandwich to go, right?"
After slacking off and doing a few odd jobs around the office, I headed out to the sandwich shop across the street just in time for lunch.
Maybe because I'm a regular who eats here almost every day except weekends, the part-timer handed me a bag before I could even order.
Two sandwiches and a cookie. It was the exact menu Shin Ji-hye and I ate every single day.
"Uh..."
"I-Is there a problem...?"
"I was actually only planning to order one today."
"What...? I-I'm so sorry!"
The part-timer's face went pale as she bowed her head in a panic.
"I-I'll take one out. I'm sorry. From now on, I'll wait until you order..."
"No, it's fine. Just give it to me."
I took the bag and paid for it anyway.
"This is the Italian, right?"
"Ah... yes."
I set aside the sandwich and cookie for Shin Ji-hye, then held my own sandwich out to the part-timer.
"Want this?"
"Huh...?"
"If you've already eaten lunch, then never mind."
"Oh, no. I... Is it really... okay for me to take it...?"
"Yeah."
She's just a part-timer; mistakes happen. Besides, she was only trying to look out for a regular customer.
Plus, even though it was a franchise, the sandwiches this girl made were weirdly tastier than the ones made by the other workers.
Better to keep her happy so she keeps making my sandwiches, rather than letting her quit over a little stress.
"Th-thank you..."
She accepted the sandwich with a look of immense relief. Just as I grabbed the bag and turned to leave the shop—
"Excuse me, u-um, sir."
"Yes?"
"I-I'm really so sorry about earlier... If you don't mind, could I buy you a meal sometime...?"
My brain stalled for a second as I looked at her blushing face, unable to meet my eyes.
...Is she asking me out?
"Sorry, but I'm good."
"Ah... I-I'm the one who should be sorry. Really..."
"It's fine. Just don't quit."
Leaving behind the beet-red part-timer, I walked out of the shop and headed toward the Guild Leader's Office.
"Ah! Hunter Yoo Sung! You're back!"
It was Lee Chae-eun, greeting me with her signature harmless, eye-smiling face.
I used to feel a bit guilty because my thoughts turned dark and dirty every time I looked at her, but lately, just seeing her felt incredibly healing.
"Have you eaten, Chae-eun?"
"Ah! I was planning to eat in a bit."
"Alright. Make sure you don't skip meals."
Lest she ruin her personality by starving herself like a certain blonde hunter.
Then again, Chae-eun wasn't the type to end up like that. Lee Seon-yul had a terrible personality even when she was well-fed.
Deciding not to voice those thoughts, I exchanged a brief farewell with Lee Chae-eun and stepped into the Guild Leader's Office.
"Yaaawn..."
"Hey, Shin Ji-hye. Sandwich delivery."
"Mm..."
Shin Ji-hye, who had been bursting with energy before work this morning, gave a half-hearted reply and sank deep into her chair.
She looked exhausted. She was perfectly fine this morning, so why was she suddenly limp as a wet noodle?
"Did something happen?"
"A meeting..."
"What about?"
"The quarterly financial strategy meeting..."
"Ah."
Shin Ji-hye had majored in public administration. Eleven years ago, that is.
But instead of letting her graduate normally, get a job, or take the civil service exam, the world had awakened her.
As a result, her highest level of education was a college dropout. Though she had received an honorary diploma from her alma mater, she had only actually attended classes for a single year.
Even though the guild operated like a corporate business now, that structure was a relatively recent development.
Living as a hunter who knew nothing but fighting monsters, sitting through meetings with elite Ivy-League-equivalent graduates was bound to drain her soul like this.
"So, are you not going to eat?"
"Feed me..."
"Keep acting like that, and I'll feed you something else."
"...I'd actually prefer to eat that instead ♥"
Instantly, a spark of life returned to Shin Ji-hye's eyes.
Narrowing her eyes, she made a sly, suggestive gesture with her hand... What a tease.
"You had plenty this morning."
"Just because I had breakfast doesn't mean I skip lunch..."
"You're going to eat at night too. Eating the same thing for all three meals gets boring."
"I could eat it for the rest of my life and never get tired of it... ♥"
As she spoke, Shin Ji-hye subtly hooked her finger into her stocking and pulled it down slightly.
I felt my lower half stiffen, unable to resist the temptation.
Damn it, I really want to just...
But I decided to hold back for now.
We were already doing it every morning and night anyway, and I had to go out this afternoon. I couldn't afford to drain my energy.
"Hold out until tonight."
"Hmph..."
"Eat your sandwich. I'm heading out, so call me if anything comes up."
"Huh? Out? Why?"
"I'm going to see Park Tae-hyun."
Shin Ji-hye blinked.
"Park Tae-hyun? Why?"
"I promised to buy him a meal."
"I highly doubt you're going just to buy him food..."
Park Tae-hyun, the Guild Master of Seongjin.
In terms of sheer size, Seongjin Guild was slightly above Yuseong Guild. They did have more hunters under their wing, after all.
But as for any sense of rivalry, there was none.
We had fought back-to-back once upon a time, and our areas of expertise were completely different. If we were a proper hunter guild, they were basically a glorified gang office.
"Are you going to ask about the Gate?"
The bidding war over the Gate between Yuseong and Seongjin.
They had used the injury of Jin Seong-ah as leverage to snatch it away, but their aggressive bidding—even going so far as to compete directly with us—bothered me.
"Yeah. They aren't exactly the type to dive into a Gate right at the start and clear it, are they?"
Even a B-rank hunter could walk around with their chest puffed out.
An A-rank was capable of leading a small guild of their own.
Yet Seongjin gathered those A-rank and B-rank hunters just to act as scavengers.
Since they were essentially a collection of criminals, they only ever thought about leeching off Gates cleared by others. They weren't the type to do the good deed of clearing one first...
"They must have had a reason to target the bid. You said it was an S-rank, right?"
An S-rank Gate whose appearance had been predicted by the US and cross-verified by Lee Seon-yul.
A guild of Yuseong's caliber had more to gain than lose, making it natural for us to bid... but Seongjin?
As if reading my thoughts, Shin Ji-hye nodded.
"Yeah, S-rank. Park Tae-hyun probably planned to throw his underlings into the meat grinder to clear it..."
"But there's no reason for him to suddenly do that."
"True. Do you have a hunch?"
"What Yun-ah mentioned."
The Gate where demons appear.
That had to be it.
"Hmm... that's highly possible."
"Anyway, it's best to hear it straight from the horse's mouth. I'll buy him lunch and get some answers."
"Alright. You'll... be back before the end of the day, right?"
"Probably."
"Hehe."
Whatever pleased her so much, Shin Ji-hye began humming as she happily munched on her sandwich.
"Anyway, I'm off."
"Yeah. Oh, do you want to take someone with you?"
"Why?"
"Just... in case? Do you want to take Yun-ah or Seol with you?"
"No."
I shook my head.
If a hunter of Baek Seol or Do Yun-ah's caliber was spotted entering Seongjin Guild, the media would undoubtedly whip up a massive frenzy.
"I'll go alone. They know my face anyway."
"Alright. Call me... the moment anything happens, okay?"
"Yeah."
After making sure Shin Ji-hye finished her sandwich, I left the Guild Leader's Office.
My afternoon schedule was field work.
"How can I help you?"
Even if it was a gang office, Seongjin Guild looked like a perfectly normal company from the outside.
The first-floor desk employee who addressed me politely also looked incredibly normal compared to Seongjin's actual hunters.
"I'm here to see Park Tae-hyun."
"......Pardon?"
"Ah, I mean Park Tae-hyun. Could you let him know? Tell him I'm from Yuseong."
"......"
I handed the employee my business card. It was from my days as a team leader, reading: Yuseong Guild, Hunter Team 3 Leader.
"...Understood. Could you please wait a moment?"
The startled employee hurriedly dialed a number.
As I stood waiting by the desk, the employee hung up the receiver and spoke, slightly out of breath.
"H-He says he'll be right down. If you could wait just a moment..."
"He's coming down himself?"
"N-No, someone else..."
"Ah. Sure, whatever. I'll wait."
He probably wanted to save face by having me escorted up.
Just as the employee said, the person who approached the desk wasn't Park Tae-hyun.
"Ah, it's been a while. Have you been well?"
Instead, it was a familiar face.
"Yeah, sure."
"If you had let us know beforehand, I would have been waiting... Did I keep you long?"
The woman stood with her hands shoved into her pockets, pulling off a men's suit with effortless style.
A striking scar ran across her blinded, milky-white right eye—a testament to whatever brutal life she had lived.
Seongjin's 6th Division Leader, Lee Ji-seon.
Special note: Completely devoted to Park Tae-hyun.
"I didn't wait long. What's Park Tae-hyun up to?"
"The Chairman is... a bit busy at the moment."
"Did he go out?"
"No, but..."
"Then it's fine. Lead the way."
"Yes, Hunter Yoo Sung. Right this way."
Lee Ji-seon bowed with disciplined precision and began to lead the way.
With a sharp glance that dispersed the lingering stares of the other employees and hunters on the first floor, she guided me toward an elevator tucked away in the corner.
"There were four A-ranks and one B-rank from the 4th Division."
"What about them?"
"The bastards who dared to lay a hand on Hunter Jin Seong-ah. What did you do with that son of a bitch?"
Now that we were out of earshot, her language turned aggressively hostile. Though, it wasn't directed at me.
Lee Ji-seon came from a slightly different background than the rest of Seongjin's hunters, and she utterly despised those who resorted to scavenging.
"Well... he's probably still breathing."
"If you wish to dispose of him, just say the word. It was our failure to manage our own, so if hands must be dirtied, they should be ours."
"Nah, no need for that."
Since Do Hyun-ah was personally taking care of him, he wouldn't die. Though he'd probably wish he were dead from the pain.
"I know saying this now doesn't change anything... but thank you."
"......?"
"We dug into the 4th Division and found they had connections with a South American cartel targeting high-rank hunters. If you hadn't stopped them, Hunter Yoo Sung, it would have been highly problematic for us as well."
"Let me ask you one thing."
"Yes. Ask anything."
"Did they know she belonged to our guild when they did it?"
"They likely had no idea."
Lee Ji-seon swallowed hard.
"Judging by the last audio log, they didn't even know Hunter Jin Seong-ah was an S-rank. Nor did they know she was with Yuseong Guild. We... yes, we had absolutely no intention of crossing anyone from Yuseong Guild."
"Ha, unbelievable."
"Please consider it the work of wild beasts with shit for brains. We have already disposed of the 4th Division Leader and everyone connected to them. I know that doesn't make up for it, but... I am truly sorry."
She bowed to me with extreme caution.
At some point, she had taken her hands out of her pockets and clasped them respectfully behind her back.
"It's fine. It's been resolved."
"...I apologize. I have no excuses. Was the compensation sufficient? If there is anything else within my power, I will gladly offer it."
"It's fine. It's enough."
Did Shin Ji-hye say the bidding cost for that Gate was 200 billion won?
It was a Gate expected to yield at least 400 billion, or up to 500 billion won in profit.
Having swallowed that whole, it would be pretty petty to demand even more now.
"Ah. Now that I think about it... there's one more thing I'm curious about. Ji-seon, you said you came from the same world as Baek Seol, right?"
"Yes, that's correct."
A returnee who had been sucked into a Gate, crossed over to another world, and managed to return.
Baek Seol and Lee Ji-seon were from the same world.
"Do you... know Baek Seol?"
"No. I know of Hunter Baek Seol, but she wouldn't know me."
"Really? You'd think being from the same place would be enough to rely on each other."
"I was a nobody with nothing in that world. Hunter Baek Seol... no, Knight Commander Baek Seol, was someone I could barely dare to look at from afar."
What kind of world lay beyond?
Baek Seol had never spoken a word about it. All I heard from Shin Ji-hye was that it was a medieval-like place, but nothing beyond that.
"Even in that world, I survived by pickpocketing. If the Chairman hadn't saved me, I'd probably still be doing that."
"He probably... didn't think much of it."
He probably just ran into her in a Gate, realized she was a returnee with some decent power, and brought her along.
"Even if the Chairman didn't think much of it, it meant everything to me. I owe him an immeasurable debt. I only feel guilty for not weeding out the pests who angered him sooner."
Grind. Lee Ji-seon gnashed her teeth with enough fury to suggest she would tear those scavengers' flesh apart with her bare teeth if they were standing before her.
"...We've arrived. Apologies for showing you such a pathetic display."
With a sheepish smile, Lee Ji-seon stepped out of the elevator first and held the door open with her arm.
"Please, after you."
Just as she had on the first floor, she dismissed the nearby staff with a single glance and guided me to the Chairman's Office.
The door was unnecessarily large and exuded an antique atmosphere.
I threw the door open without hesitation.
"Hey, Park Tae-hyun, what the hell are you—"
"......"
And there.
Inside, Park Tae-hyun—who was forcing a woman to her knees—turned his gaze toward me.
The woman was completely naked, without a single thread on her body.
"Ah, my bad. I'll come back later."
"Hey, you son of a bi—"
To witness someone else's business firsthand. And of all people, Park Tae-hyun's...
Is this how Lee Seon-yul felt?
"...I should really show some restraint."
Yeah.
I am definitely never doing it in the Guild Leader's Office again.