Chapter 24
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Song Eun-young (4)
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[The ‘Slay the Black Orc!’ field has been cleared.]
[All orcs have been slain.]
[Tallying results.]
[Final + 0]
Just as I expected, I received no contribution points since I hadn't done anything.
The Association employees I'd seen earlier came running toward the park.
It wasn't just the Association staff.
Hunters who were nearby also sensed the commotion after the orcs were dealt with and flocked to the park.
“You’re…”
“What the? Did you kill them?”
“No, I…”
I couldn’t make out his name, but one of the Hunters who rushed over was from my party.
Around me lay the corpses of a dozen or so orcs, including the boss, the Black Orc.
Traces of swordplay were everywhere, and there I was, standing in the middle of it all.
Watching the orc corpses fade away, I scratched the back of my neck.
Since contribution points are invisible to others, it was a situation where anyone would easily misunderstand and think I'd done it.
I gave up on trying to explain.
***
A few days later.
Having finished my expedition, I went to the Aria Guild headquarters.
Hunters belonging to a guild are required to submit a report within two weeks of completing a dungeon expedition.
It was standard procedure.
It wasn't like the report was anything special.
You just had to fill out a form saying something like, 'This and that happened in the dungeon, which led to this, and so I made it out alive with all my limbs intact.'
The guild would then collect and organize these reports from the team members and submit them to the Association.
This process was used to gather information about dungeons and to reassess interpersonal relationships with other Hunters. In short, it was a kind of evaluation.
If any of the events described from inside the dungeon seemed inconsistent or suspicious, they would summon you for questioning.
For high-rank dungeon expeditions, it was said that writing the report alone could take as long as the expedition itself.
In the case of a C-rank dungeon, where plenty of information was already public, the reporting wasn't particularly strict.
“Such a pain in the ass.”
Even if it only took two or three hours, work was work.
I was sitting in the cafeteria on one of the middle floors of the Aria Guild headquarters, diligently filling out the word count on the provided laptop form.
As I was enjoying my free Americano, a man approached my table.
He was a handsome young man in his late twenties.
I set down my coffee cup and looked at him.
“I'm not sharing my table, so find another seat.”
The man blinked, dumbfounded by my attitude.
“Your business?”
I knew his purpose wasn't to share my table or take my seat. I drained the rest of my coffee.
“My name is Kim Kang-woo, from the secretarial department. Someone is looking for you.”
“Who?”
To send a secretary to fetch me, it had to be someone with a high position in the guild.
It wasn't that I had no idea who it could be.
Park Si-woo, one of the three guild masters.
As things stood, there was no one else in the guild who would summon me.
But the timing felt off.
There had been several opportunities to call for me before.
Was he busy?
If so, the interval was too long.
It had been over three months since I joined the guild.
Summoning me like this meant he had a specific reason.
The only thing that could be a problem was the dungeon expedition from a few days ago.
Even that was strange, since I hadn't submitted the report yet.
Kim Kang-woo didn't answer my question.
Rather than intentionally ignoring me, he seemed to be conscious of our surroundings.
I closed my laptop and stood up.
“Please follow me.”
I followed Kim Kang-woo out of the cafeteria.
He opened an emergency exit door in the middle of the hallway, revealing a private elevator.
When we got off on the 45th floor, there were three large doors.
Kim Kang-woo opened the centermost door.
As I was about to enter, he asked me.
“Would you like anything to drink?”
“Coffee. A hot Americano. And some chocolate would be nice too.”
Kim Kang-woo nodded at my request.
I turned my back to him and walked inside.
The view from the Aria Guild cafeteria wasn't bad, but being on a higher floor, this one was clearly different.
The office was unremarkable.
A white floor, a modern bookshelf, and a stark metal desk and chair.
For a guild master's office, it felt quite bleak.
I'd been expecting something more grand and antique, so it was a bit of a letdown.
“Your taste is pretty bad.”
“Sorry to disappoint.”
Park Si-woo stood up from his chair and approached.
With his celebrity-like looks, towering height, and casual attire of jeans and a neat shirt, Park Si-woo seemed less like the head of a major corporation like Aria Guild and more like a startup CEO.
Or maybe an actor or a model.
In any case, he was definitely photogenic.
His friend, Choi Soo-hyun, on the other hand, looked exactly like an overworked employee from the financial sector.
“I didn't mean to criticize. Taste is subjective, after all.”
“Make yourself comfortable.”
We sat on sofas facing each other.
Right on cue, the secretary, Kim Kang-woo, brought in coffee and tea.
It was clearly expensive stuff; the taste was on a completely different level from the cafeteria coffee.
Not that the cafeteria coffee was bad.
We drank our beverages in silence.
It wasn't awkward or uncomfortable. In fact, it felt as comfortable as being with a close friend.
Park Si-woo knew me, and I knew Park Si-woo well.
As the guild master, there was no way Park Si-woo didn't know what I'd been up to.
I, on the other hand, had diligently searched for Park Si-woo on the internet.
Unlike Choi Soo-hyun, not much was known about his dungeon exploits or skills, but Park Si-woo was famous in a different way.
I mean, it got to the point where information about the lip balm he wore while leaving the Association headquarters was leaked online.
Thanks to him, that inexpensive lip balm reportedly sold out in a single day.
“I heard you were at the Jeongbalsan Field. Is that correct?”
“You mean the Dungeon Break? Yeah. It happened right after we cleared the dungeon.”
Park Si-woo and I exchanged words casually.
There was none of the awkwardness of a first meeting.
It was probably because Park Si-woo was used to dealing with people like me.
“A complaint came in from the Raon Guild.”
“A complaint? Against who?”
Park Si-woo gestured slightly with his chin.
His expression clearly said, 'Who else could it be when it's just the two of us here?'
It wasn't that I didn't understand what he meant.
The question was just an automatic, incredulous reflex.
Seeing my disbelief, Park Si-woo explained.
“The Black Orc Shrine was a dungeon the Raon Guild was currently running. They knew a Dungeon Break had occurred and were about to handle it themselves, but you swooped in and stole their kills.”
“Once it becomes a field, doesn't any Hunter present have the right to kill the monsters?”
I was under the impression that was why the other party members had rushed to kill even one more orc.
Park Si-woo let a piece of chocolate melt in his mouth before answering.
“I guess you don't know the meaning of 'moderation'?”
He crossed his arms and glared at me.
He must be talking about the park.
“That wasn't me.”
I hadn't said anything because I was distracted, but it seemed best to clear up the misunderstanding.
I'd feel less wronged if I were at least getting chewed out for something I actually did.
Park Si-woo tilted his head, not understanding.
“According to your team members' reports, you were the Hunter who took care of the Black Orc. The Raon Guild is saying you did it too.”
Park Si-woo trailed off, implying he needed an explanation.
“Doesn't the park have CCTV? Go check the footage. I'm telling you, it wasn't me.”
At my words, Park Si-woo clicked his tongue in annoyance.
His expression seemed to ask if it was really necessary to go to such lengths for a mere C-rank Dungeon Break.
For someone with such a stoic face, he seemed to have a lot of complaints.
That guild, Raon or Ribbon or whatever, seemed to suspect I'd stolen the monsters they were trying to kill.
It would be less frustrating if I'd at least killed the monsters.
“How do you know if I did it or not? Got any proof? Ah, whatever. I didn't do it. Sue me. This is so damn unfair! Seriously. Making a fuss over something I didn't even do.”
I leaned back on the sofa, bluffing brazenly.
It wasn't a joke; I was genuinely frustrated. A complaint for something I didn't do? What a joke.
“You're much more interesting than I heard.”
“You find this funny? I find it annoying.”
“I'll look into the CCTV footage.”
“Like you're going to check it yourself.”
All a guild master like Park Si-woo had to do was order his subordinates around.
Park Si-woo fell silent at my sarcastic remark.
A thought suddenly occurred to me.
“You're not going to bill me for the park repairs, are you?”
“You have the money?”
“If I did, would I be in this situation?”
“I'm aware you owe Soo-hyun eight million dollars.”
“It's eight and a half million. Don't even bring it up unless you're planning to pay it for me.”
I thought he might have let it slide, but to tack it on as another debt… what a petty bastard.
Park Si-woo just shook his head at my response.
He changed the subject.
“When are you submitting the report?”
“The deadline is 6 PM today, isn't it? I was working on it. Stop nagging me like a parent asking their kid about homework.”
This last dungeon expedition was not normal.
I had no idea how to explain the incident involving the wraith.
‘If I just write something vague, I don't know what the other Hunters will write.’
Given the circumstances, I couldn't help but be concerned about writing the report.
“For your information, all the other team members except you have already submitted theirs.”
“Figured as much. What did they say?”
“You might as well just ask me to show them to you.”
Park Si-woo scoffed, clearly finding my question absurd.
There were tons of reports about the Ant Tunnel in the guild's archives.
There was no reason for a guild master like Park Si-woo to personally handle reports for a C-rank dungeon with plenty of existing data.
The position of guild master wasn't that leisurely.
“So if I write, 'The dungeon expedition was ordinary, and nothing happened,' I suppose I'll be dragged down to the interrogation room in the guild's basement?”
Park Si-woo tossed a business card toward me.
The back of the card, which didn't even have a name on it, had an email address printed in a sans-serif font.
“Your deadline.”
“One week.”
“Two days. I've already suspended your guild account, so don't even think about running off to a dungeon.”
“This sounds a lot like an abuse of power.”
“I guess it never occurred to you that you're the one receiving special treatment?”
“Fine, I'll send it to that email address. And I have a question.”
“Ask.”
“How much do you know?”
A brief battle of wills sparked between us.
Park Si-woo was the first to back down.
He went to his desk, took something out of a drawer, and brought it back.
Inside a glass vial, slightly larger than a finger, were small glass fragments. There looked to be at least four or five of them.
They were the same as the one I had.
“Lately, the number of incidents where monsters in dungeons exhibit strange phenomena has been increasing. Some of the Hunters who made it out alive reported finding fragments like these on monster corpses.”
Park Si-woo's eyes narrowed.
He was clearly suspicious of me.
“Shards of the Four Souls?”
“You can't be serious.”
“Half-serious. If you put them together, they might form some kind of orb, right?”
“That's complete nonsense.”
Park Si-woo's conclusion was that combining them was nearly impossible, as each fragment had a completely unique shape.
His phone vibrated.
It seemed he had a call.
After a short call, he put his phone down.
“So?”
“So what?”
“I'm asking if you found a fragment.”
“That's top secret.”
Honestly, if Park Si-woo used his authority as guild master to demand I hand over the fragment, I wouldn't have the right to refuse.
“Cooperate.”
“You're not going to ask for the fragment?”
“I already have plenty. It's not like they're particularly useful.”
Park Si-woo gently shook the vial.
Having collected that many, this conclusion was surely based on his own research and investigation.
“Then what do you want me to cooperate with?”
“My god is interested in you. That's all I'll say for now. I'll contact you again soon with more details.”
Park Si-woo fell silent, as if testing the waters.
Seeing him put on his coat to leave, I took my laptop out of my bag.
“Mind if I work here?”
Park Si-woo looked at me, already settled in comfortably with the laptop on my lap, but didn't say a word.
***
A five-star hotel in Gangnam, Seoul.
Choi Soo-hyun had booked an entire ten-person private room at the buffet.
For this price, it would have been much cheaper to just have a full-course meal at the hotel's restaurant.
Choi Soo-hyun set down his plate and sat across from me.
“We should've just gone to the restaurant. With a course meal, they serve you, pour your wine... Why pay so much to book a private room at a buffet?”
“It's my money, punk. Are you paying? You sure have a lot to say for someone getting a free meal.”
Choi Soo-hyun speared a strawberry from his heaping plate and popped it into his mouth.
It was strawberry season, so there were related events everywhere.
I told Choi Soo-hyun about my meeting with Park Si-woo.
“So you finished your report there before leaving? Wow, you've got some nerve. Have you no shame?”
“What, you expect me to leave a quiet space like that and go down to the noisy cafeteria?”
“A D-rank Hunter should be grateful for the cafeteria! Hey! Back in my day, D-rank Hunters weren't even considered real Hunters!”
“Ugh, such a geezer. And for your information, I'm C-rank now.”
“Already?”
Choi Soo-hyun took out his phone.
He looked up my info and was shocked to see it was true.
“How are you so fast? Did you secretly equip some kind of beginner's package?”
“I wish. Oh, right. Can you find someone for me?”
“If it's a missing person, go to the police.”
“It's a woman.”
“Are you trying to get killed? Do you know how many women there are in South Korea?”
The short-tempered Choi Soo-hyun cut me off, muttering.
Who would seriously just say, 'Find me a woman'? Let me speak, you damn oaf.
Noticing my water glass was empty, Choi Soo-hyun waved his hand through the glass partition.
An employee entered the room with a pitcher of water.
“You at least have to tell me what she looks like, what she does, how you met.”
“I was about to, wasn't I? So, um…”
I hesitated for a moment, wondering where to begin my explanation.
In that time, the employee who had poured water for Choi Soo-hyun approached my side.
The moment I turned my head and my eyes met the woman's, I spoke instinctively.
“It's her.”
“Excuse me?”
The woman was flustered, and Choi Soo-hyun stared at me like I was a lunatic.