Party Leader: Baek Jaeseong — 3
Jisoo seemed to be giving my offer genuine consideration. Ours was a small-time party, sure, but I'd put the best terms I could on the table. Of course, a prodigy like her could easily find a better party than mine — or walk straight into a famous clan.
"With terms like these, I think it should be all right…"
"Jisoo!"
Just as she was about to answer, a low, dull voice called out from behind her. A towering man built like a mountain came striding toward us. At the sound of his voice, Jisoo turned her head on reflex.
"Ah…"
A small sound slipped from her lips — a sigh, or something like it. That single syllable told me everything I needed to know: she was uncomfortable around this man. Whether he noticed or not, he walked right up beside her with the unbothered air of someone who belonged there.
"Ah. That guy…"
Lina seemed to know him too. She and Jisoo had gone to the same high school, so he was probably from that circle.
"I told you I'd get back to you later, didn't I? Showing up in person like this puts me in a really awkward position. Last time, too…"
The man cut her off before she could finish, her voice already strained with discomfort.
"I didn't come here on business. Coincidence. Pure coincidence. I was having coffee here and just happened to spot you."
The man had the face of a mountain bandit — about as far from a coffee-shop regular as you could get — and he lied without so much as wetting his lips. Judging by the atmosphere, he'd been tailing her. He was too brazen to pass for a creepy stalker; he looked more like a gossip-page reporter panting for a scoop.
"He's a senior from our high school. He works as a scouter for the Ecster Clan now."
Lina filled me in from the side, her tone helpfully matter-of-fact. The words "clan scouter" made the whole picture snap into place. This thug-faced man was a recruiter who wouldn't even stop at stalking if it meant signing Jisoo.
"Pleasure to meet you. Jo Jinyong, scouter for the Ecster Clan — currently ranked fifty-second."
He seemed to have only just registered my existence, offering a belated greeting. He rummaged through his pockets, found his wallet, and pulled out a business card. It was almost impressive that a guy like this carried proper cards.
"Is fifty-second actually high?"
I asked Lina in a low voice.
"Above average, at least. Think of a solid mid-sized company."
Her analogy landed immediately. Without so much as asking, Jo Jinyong pulled out the chair beside me and sat down — a seat that put him on a diagonal from Jisoo and face-to-face with Lina. He acted as lawless as he looked. Having a clan at his back had clearly stripped this bastard of any sense of restraint.
"The Clan Master signed off this time. He's willing to double the signing bonus."
"D-double!?"
Jisoo's eyes went wide as saucers. I had no idea what the original figure had been, but doubling a signing bonus wasn't something you threw around lightly. It was proof of how highly the Ecster Clan valued her.
Her gaze flickered for a moment, darting between me and Jo Jinyong. Then the hesitation vanished from her eyes.
"I already have a party I'm joining. I'm sorry, but I can't accept your offer."
"What?"
Jo Jinyong's face went blank with disbelief. He wasn't the only one. I was pretty surprised myself.
No matter how well I took care of her, I couldn't match the income a place like the Ecster Clan could offer. We were a shoestring party; they were a major clan. The gap was the difference between a mid-sized corporation and a startup, and she knew that as well as anyone.
"The signing bonus is a billion won. You're telling me some party's offering more than that?"
"No. It's not about the bonus. I wasn't going to say this, but I've heard a lot of ugly rumors about the Ecster Clan. Even when my brother was still alive, he told me to stay away from them."
"Don't waste your time listening to some guy who couldn't even pass training. The stuff floating around out there is just garbage cooked up by jealous people."
He crossed the line as naturally as breathing. This was a man who was very used to talking this way.
"Don't you dare talk about my brother like that!"
Jisoo flared up, slamming both hands on the table with a bang as she shot to her feet. Jo Jinyong waved a hand, backpedaling.
"S-sorry. You just started talking trash about the clan out of nowhere, so I… Anyway, the Ecster Clan is ranked fifty-second in the industry. Genius or not, nobody's going to offer you better terms than we are."
"It's true — a billion won is the highest signing bonus I've been offered. The terms weren't bad, either… But I still want to go somewhere else."
"Where the hell are you going that's worth throwing the Ecster Clan away?"
His voice was close to a shout. Jisoo glanced at me, silently asking if it was all right to name me. I shrugged. Do whatever you want.
"I've decided to join his party."
Jisoo pointed at me as she said it. Jo Jinyong's eyes swung my way. Aside from that first greeting, the bastard hadn't paid me a shred of attention.
The moment he realized I was the one taking Jisoo, the look in his eyes changed. A guy with no grip on his own emotions. And they were using this thing as a scouter? The Ecster Clan clearly wasn't as impressive as it pretended to be. The rumors floating around were probably true.
"You're the one taking Jisoo?"
"Looks that way. My apologies."
I made sure the words came out in a lightly mocking drawl, designed to get under his skin. The most effective way to deal with a bastard like this was to needle him. There was no point being polite. And he reacted exactly as honestly as I'd hoped.
"Give up on Jisoo! A girl like her needs a strong clan — a clan like ours. It's better for her future, too."
"If you want her, by all means, take her. But she herself says she doesn't want to go, doesn't she?"
It was a blatant provocation, and he responded without a millimeter of deviation from what I'd expected. He slammed the table the same way Jisoo had a moment ago. The poor table was having a rough day.
"Some nobody nobody's ever heard of crawls out of the woodwork and starts running his mouth? With our clan's power, we could bury a guy like you in the Dungeon Hunter world for good."
"Wow. A grown man, and this is how he talks. Amazing. Really tells you everything you need to know about the clan. Tell me — is the Ecster Clan some elementary-school gang?"
"You little shit!"
I saw murder in his eyes. All it earned him was a snort. He at least had a shred of self-control — his fists clenched and trembled, but he didn't actually swing at me. A Hunter who used violence caught a far heavier sentence than an ordinary person.
The atmosphere had gone ice-cold. Lina and Jisoo looked at each other with stiff faces, as if silently asking whether it was all right to let this keep going.
In the end, Jo Jinyong couldn't swallow his rage. He stood first, glaring daggers at me as he delivered his threat.
"Ooh. I'm terrified."
He strode out of the café. Jisoo turned to me, her face tight with worry.
"That senior… even back in school, his reputation was terrible. I never even hung around him, but the rumors were everywhere in our year. Supposedly he got a girl pregnant and then made her get an abortion."
"Rotten from the start, then."
"It's just rumors, but the Ecster Clan doesn't hesitate to break the law if it gets them what they want. You should be careful."
If anything, I welcomed it if they came at me like that. I wasn't merciful enough to leave an arrogant bastard like him walking around.
"You failed?"
Do Byeongseok, Clan Master of the Ecster Clan, frowned at scouter Jo Jinyong's report. Go Jisoo was a rising star, a genius who was hot right now — but she was still an unproven asset. In that light, a billion-won signing bonus was no small sum. Even the other major clans wouldn't dump that kind of money on an unscratched lottery ticket.
There was exactly one reason the Ecster Clan wanted Go Jisoo: she was beautiful. Every organization needed a flower or two to liven up the atmosphere.
The Ecster Clan was a classic sausage fest, nine-to-one men to women. The few women they did have were so loaded with testosterone you could barely tell them apart from the men. That was why Do Byeongseok wanted Go Jisoo so badly. Outsiders would call it sloppy clan management, but the Ecster Clan itself had always been Do Byeongseok's personal playground.
"Tch. That bitch's pride is through the roof just because her face is a little pretty. She probably doesn't even get how good our offer was."
"She said she's joining a new party?"
"Yeah. Some ragtag outfit with a pretty-boy bastard as party leader. Oh, and that bastard picked a fight with me. I wanted to put my fist through his skull so bad. Oh, right — and that Ahn Lina. Looks like that bitch is in his party too."
"Ahn Lina? That girl you mentioned last time?"
"Yeah. She's pretty easy on the eyes too. You saw the photo, right?"
"I did. I liked her. White hair — rare to see that in Korea."
"But that bitch said she'd rather die than join a sausage-fest clan. No matter how much money we offered."
"Wait. If those two are in the same party… if that party disappears, they both lose their affiliation."
At Do Byeongseok's words, Jo Jinyong's face split into a sly, cowardly grin.
"That's right. Wait — then this is a huge opportunity, isn't it!?"
"Look into that party. We need to stick a few flowers in this clan. Can't keep making do with office girls forever."
"Heh heh! That's it. This is why I get along with the Clan Master. Handle it in a dungeon like always?"
The rumors that the Ecster Clan committed illegal acts were, surprisingly, true. In fact, they weren't ordinary Dungeon Hunters at all. Clan Master Do Byeongseok was a Demonic.
A classification for ability-users who are serious criminals.
Do Byeongseok was a Demonic who had even committed murder, but he lived as a Dungeon Hunter with his identity concealed. Even the Hunter Association couldn't catch every Demonic. He was one who had slipped entirely out of their sight.
"You know our creed, right?"
"Could never forget it."
"Kill the men."
"Rape the women."
"Heh heh! Is there a better old saying than that?"