Chapter 40
"As far as I know, it's already been six years since you awakened your ability. And you're still struggling with coordinating your original body and clone?"
"……."
"Even as the leader of Korea's fifth-ranked guild? I don't buy it."
"What do you know……!"
I leaned in close to the doppelganger's ear and whispered. Loud enough for Jeong Hamin, standing right beside us, to hear.
"I get that the original body and clone share wounds and pain."
"……!!"
"If the clone gets hurt, you feel the corresponding agony. If the doppelganger dies, the original probably doesn't die outright, but takes a devastating hit, right? That's my guess."
"You, you……."
Namgung Hyunil's face drained of color, his words stumbling out.
'Yeah, this is the face I saw on the news later.'
As an aside, Namgung Hyunil would make headlines years later—as a condemned prisoner.
When your tail drags too long, it gets caught. North Ocean Guild's atrocities grew more vicious by the day, blinded by the halo of being a major guild. Once Namgung Hyunil and his crew crossed the line, they alienated every other big guild.
In the end, through joint efforts of the guilds and the government, most of North Ocean Guild's members were sentenced to death. Guild master Namgung Hyunil, naturally, was first on the chopping block.
'Right before execution, it came out that the one locked up was just the clone.'
Namgung Hyunil had secured one extra life with his doppelganger trick.
Yet he still stormed the execution grounds.
'There was a reason.'
Namgung Hyunil had risked diving into enemy territory to save his clone.
It all boiled down to one thing.
The clone and original were linked by their life threads.
I laid out my deductions to Namgung Hyunil.
"It's suspicious that you're traveling separately with just two underlings and the doppelganger."
"……."
"Your real body must be captured somewhere."
"……!!"
Bullseye.
I straightened up. Namgung Hyunil, still bowed low, lifted only his head.
His eyes had changed from the contemptuous glare of moments ago, when he'd looked at me like I was nothing.
"Take us there. I'll save your real body and your men."
"Wh-what makes you……! Some unheard-of hunter like you thinks he can order me around?! Ugh!"
The doppelganger groaned, its head twisting at an angle. Jeong Hamin's narrowed eyes gleamed dangerously.
"The reason you never heard of Seo Hunter here."
He was staring straight at me as he spoke.
"Is 'cause he's operating on a whole different level from your world, you idiot."
"Wh-what……."
Namgung Hyunil stammered, chewing on his words.
Perfectly voicing my own thoughts.
'What the hell?'
We marched toward the destination, with Namgung Hyunil's doppelganger and his gang at the front. Naturally, to prevent any resistance, we'd bound them tight with special vine ropes.
Where'd they come from all of a sudden?
"Whoa, never thought you'd use landmines like this."
Jeong Hamin poked at the vines wrapping the doppelganger's body.
"Didn't know they could be stored, huh?"
"If they can be planted, they can be dug up," I replied.
On the way, I'd unearthed vine landmines here and there, storing them in Hemo's body. With wild boar blood fed to it, the storage space was plenty roomy.
A guy like me has to rely on random items. What looks like trash to others might be a treasure to me. Call it a porter's habit.
"Damn it! Can't you tie this a little looser?!"
The doppelganger fumed.
His men were compliant, but the doppelganger was still snarling. So I'd packed it extra with double and triple vine landmines. No wonder it felt choked, turned into a human pincushion.
"Hey."
Han Biyeol barked sharply.
"Forgot your place already?"
"……."
"A big guild leader like you, caught like a dog by those fairy bastards."
"Th-that was just a slip-up!"
"If you're gonna make excuses, use your damn brain first. What, glaring now? Want me to dig deeper? I hate bugs, y'know."
……Whoa.
Couldn't even guess where this guy's personality went wrong.
'Handy having a scumbag like him as a guard.'
Han Biyeol was top-notch in skill and merciless to enemies. Seeing him herd the prisoners in a neat line brought a sense of relief.
'Barbarian handled by another barbarian.'
Only the crunch of footsteps for an hour.
From the rear of the line, I asked the dragged-along doppelganger,
"How much farther?"
"……Just a bit more……."
It had gone meek. Ever since hearing my hypothesis earlier, the doppelganger acted like this. No trace of its former disdain—total low posture.
"I might not know the way, but I can feel it when the original and clone get close. At this sync rate…… about 300 meters left."
"Got it."
"By the way."
With the ice broken, Namgung Hyunil started cozying up to me.
"You're still unaffiliated, right?"
Seemed Jeong Hamin's uppercut had rattled him.
"Yes."
"Then how about joining North Ocean Guild while you're at it?"
He whispered just for my ears.
"I can meet pretty much any terms."
Even now.
I sighed and said,
"Is that the original's will, or yours?"
"We're of one mind."
"You'll match any conditions I want?"
"Don't know your abilities yet, but you seem to have a brain. North Ocean Guild's full of thick-headed idiots."
Explains the robbery racket for income.
"Tempting."
"Knew it."
Namgung Hyunil smirked slyly.
"Then let's start by loosening these……."
"Annual salary: one trillion Credits."
"……? One hundred million?"
"You heard right."
"One, one trillion……???"
"Yes. That's what it'd take to get me to the negotiating table."
"You little shit."
"Negotiations failed. Too bad."
I strode past Namgung Hyunil without a glance.
'Like any Korean guild's handing out a trillion Credit salary.'
Well, one did—R&Y. They had made that offer to my brother Seo Boseok, who shot it down flat.
"What kinda monster demands a trillion right off……."
I ignored the doppelganger's mutterings.
Nine minutes after crossing more forest.
Kyarrur, kyarrur!
A eerie cackle leaked from the darkness. Soon, a dim glow settled on our skin.
We all dropped low, peering through the underbrush at the light's source.
It was a tiny village, hamlet more like. Ant mound-like huts dotted around, with a group of fairies dancing in a circle around a campfire. Chanting that same chilling nursery rhyme.
"Ugh, uuuugh."
The North Ocean Guild members shuddered. Like shell-shocked vets, chills running down their spines in an instant.
"……."
The doppelganger reacted the same.
I said to it,
"Where's your original body and your men?"
"Th-there…… by the……."
The doppelganger nodded toward the massive grandma tree…….
No.
Overwhelmed by its size, but clearly larger than the others—a colossal tree pressed right up against the grandma tree.
I sharpened my vision. Humans bound with ropes against the giant tree's trunk.
They couldn't break free from the vines the fairies kept spraying. They'd struggled hard—skin rubbed raw, blood trickling from rope burns.
The grandma tree calls. Two hearts at the roots. Writhing, breathing.
'So that's how it is.'
A withered grandma tree and a fresh young giant. The fairies' ritualistic behavior.
"They abandoned the spirit tree and started worshiping a new one."
"What does that have to do with the fairies kidnapping humans, Seo Hunter?"
Jeong Hamin jumped in immediately.
"Focus on the song."
"The song?"
Eheya diya, grandma tree. Take our blood, take it quick.
I swallowed hard and explained,
"The old grandma tree reached the end of its life, so the fairies chose a new spirit tree."
"Ah."
"That was probably a folk song passed down among them. And the fairies are carrying it out literally."
"Th-then! Why only kidnap people with blood type O?!"
I chewed the inside of my cheek.
"All the blood in this gate has to go to the new tree. But spilling it on blind ground might reach the old spirit tree's roots too."
A spirit tree that size? Its roots likely spanned the entire underground gate.
I turned to Namgung Hyunil. Campfire light flickered across the side of my Surprise Texture Mask.
"That's why you ambushed us—to toss us as mountain sacrifices and rescue your original and men."
"……!!"
"And if worst came to worst, grab just the original and bolt."
I ignited embers in my pupils.
This was the head of a major guild, after all.
"Filthy bastard."
I'd seen plenty of trash blinded by petty greed. That's why I held little hope for hunter society.
'But this crosses the line.'
Thank god for the Surprise Texture Mask. Without it, my face would've been a mask of murderous rage.
"I-is that what it was?"
My words lit the fuse of their unease.
North Ocean Guild members shot resentful glares at Namgung Hyunil.
"F-fuck. I, I told you I didn't wanna come……!"
"What?! You just said 'fuck' to the guild master?!"
"Why the hell not?! We're all about to die—can't even curse?!"
"You little fu……!"
Chaos erupted.
Han Biyeol watched with pity, Jeong Hamin with amusement, as internal strife unfolded.
'Time to step in.'
Any louder and those fanatic fairies would hear. I grabbed the doppelganger's shoulder and yanked it back. It sprawled with a thud—undignified.
Namgung Hyunil huffed. But after locking eyes with me once, he dropped his gaze, muttering curses under his breath. How humiliating. No face left to save.
"Heh."
Han Biyeol snorted.
"You lot, dumping all the blame on the guild master now? You followed that pathetic loser willingly, didn't you?"
The group mumbled awkwardly.
"And you were in on the robberies too. What, playing innocent in front of us?"
"……W-we were just following his orders……."
"Fucking hell. You call yourselves hunters fighting monsters with that gutless crap? If that's how you roll, spit it out and scram. So damn sneaky."
Han Biyeol clucked his tongue and turned away.
Then our eyes met exactly.
I asked him,
"You feeling okay by any chance?"
"……What?"
"Just, you started speaking sense out of nowhere. If the fairies' spores have that effect, I'll need to rethink the plan."
I meant it sincerely.