Chapter 57
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: Misunderstandings Breed Misunderstandings (5)
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The conversation, which I thought would end quickly, began to drag on.
“No, it was definitely data that I, a B-rank Hunter, do not have the authority to view.”
Instead of answering, Park Si-woo looked down at the woman below with a slightly arrogant demeanor.
The Hunters seated before him were all eligible to participate in the dungeon raid.
To use a film analogy, Park Si-woo was the screenwriter and director, and those sitting in front of him were the lead actors.
“Say what you want to say.”
“Don’t you think you bear some responsibility for the last expedition?”
“If I felt no responsibility, I wouldn’t be standing here right now, busy as I am. I believe I am taking sufficient responsibility. Or should I hold a memorial service for every single dead Hunter?”
“So you’re saying the Hunters who died there deserved it?”
“I don’t know what it means to die well, but I’m sure they died doing their best. I can’t say for certain since I wasn’t there.”
“Hunters are not pawns.”
At the woman’s words, Park Si-woo let out a sigh.
The atmosphere was different from when I had first walked in.
“Don’t like it? Then get up here.”
“……”
“You, who can’t even step onto the very platform I’m standing on.”
The Hunter, who had shot up from her seat in anger, huffed and sat back down.
“Let’s continue. Why do you think dungeons we enter with thorough preparation still end in failure?”
“When something unexpected happens, I suppose. Like a variant monster, or a fake dungeon, things like that.”
Someone in the front row answered Park Si-woo.
“That’s also correct. However, if you look at actual cases of failed dungeons, more than half of them start with internal problems. In truth, external factors can be resolved to some extent when enough heads are put together. But the human heart is a fickle thing.”
Park Si-woo glanced at the woman he had just argued with.
“To conclude, I see the reason for the last expedition’s failure as internal discord. To be precise, not our team’s, but the vanguard’s. For the record, any A-rank Hunter can read the report in question. It’s public domain, provided you have the clearance. There was simply no need for me to write a lengthy story about another guild in that report.”
A man sitting furthest from the woman spoke up.
“What should we do about the Raon Guild bastards?”
“It would be best to cooperate inside the dungeon. As for after that…”
Park Si-woo scanned the Hunters seated in the conference room before continuing.
“Handle it yourselves.”
At least among the Hunters sitting here, not a single one failed to grasp the meaning of those words.
Perhaps emboldened by the Hunter in front, another one in the back raised his hand.
“Then… what about the raid ticket? There’s a rumor that it’s not 3-star, but 4-star.”
“I’m sorry, but raid information cannot be disclosed to anyone other than the ticket holders.”
“What if there are leftover tickets? Hypothetically speaking.”
“When you go to a packed restaurant, do you ask someone to confirm a seat is empty before you sit? ‘Excuse me, is this seat really empty?’ like that.”
“Why would I do something so pointless? I’d just sit. First come, first served.”
“Then just sit first.”
It was an incredibly simple answer.
At another gesture from Park Si-woo, the presentation reappeared.
The meeting continued for another two hours, and as I looked at the immense amount of data, which was impossible to believe had been prepared in a hurry, I felt only one thing.
This was no longer about teamwork or a joint dungeon攻略.
* * *
The long, tedious meeting finally ended.
Park Si-woo left immediately, giving me no chance to speak to him.
Most of the Hunters filed out of the conference room after Park Si-woo’s departure, but not all of them.
“It’s been a while. First time since the Ant Tunnel dungeon, right?”
Min Sung-taek approached me and extended a hand.
I habitually started to offer my right arm before belatedly remembering it was injured, shaking his hand with my left instead.
“You look like you’re in bad shape. Are you okay?”
“Ah, hahaha. A lot has happened.”
“Right. I saw your HighTube video. That was really you, wasn't it? What on earth happened?”
Unable to contain his curiosity, Kang Hyun-seung asked first.
Min Sung-taek shot him a look, but Kang Hyun-seung just shrugged as if to say, ‘What’s the big deal?’
“I always thought you were skilled, but… I was a little surprised to see your name on the list of representatives.”
It seemed the list had already been announced before I arrived.
The three guild masters had agreed to each recommend one person.
And no matter who was chosen, that member could not be removed by anyone other than the guild representative who made the recommendation.
Not even if the other representatives and the internal Hunters disapproved.
This dungeon expedition was a hot topic, even within the Aria Guild.
The Hunters chosen by their respective representatives held a significance that went beyond a simple recommendation.
Like me, the other two were also Hunters who had been active for less than five years.
To put it simply, it was a declaration that they would be backing these individuals once this raid was successfully completed.
The video had been taken down, but everyone who was going to see it already had.
Min Sung-taek and Kang Hyun-seung seemed to think I had caught Park Si-woo’s eye because of that incident.
They weren’t the only ones.
Two of the Hunters who had been sitting closest to the platform where Park Si-woo stood approached me.
The woman who had vehemently argued with Park Si-woo only to be shut down spoke first.
“I’m Joo Seo-hye. You’re Kang Han-gyeol, right? I saw the video. Though I think it was just luck.”
This woman.
Did she still have energy left after getting put in her place by Park Si-woo?
If my arm wasn’t hurting, I would have said something, but right now I didn't even have the energy to argue.
“No matter how good the video was, isn’t being a two-timer going too far?”
“What are you talking about?”
“No need to play dumb. I know you received an item not only from Representative Park, but also from Representative Yoo, who recommended me.”
So Joo Seo-hye was in Yoo Se-yeon’s faction.
Weren’t Yoo Se-yeon and Park Si-woo supposed to be allies?
For someone in her position, Joo Seo-hye’s animosity toward Park Si-woo seemed quite intense.
‘And besides, she was the one who crossed the line first.’
Joo Seo-hye seemed to think Yoo Se-yeon was interested in me, not her.
It was a misunderstanding, but a completely different kind of misunderstanding.
The reason Yoo Se-yeon was interested in me was to investigate and keep tabs on my relationship with Park Si-woo, not to recruit me to her side.
‘Though she might have, if Park Si-woo wasn’t in the picture.’
But that was just a hypothetical.
It wasn’t worth dwelling on.
“I just received what I was owed.”
“What you were owed?”
“You came in on Representative Yoo’s recommendation, yet you seem to know nothing.”
As I gently provoked her, Joo Seo-hye’s face flushed.
“Hmph, you’re still just a C-rank. Do you even know what kind of position this is?”
“So what? Wanna go a round?”
“What?”
“We can figure out who’s on top before we even enter the dungeon.”
I was well aware of the misunderstandings and misconceptions directed at me.
There was no need to explain or counter every single one of them.
Just as the atmosphere was about to turn hostile, a completely unexpected person intervened.
“Excuse me.”
It was a neat-looking woman in a white dress.
She hadn't been at the meeting.
The woman approached shyly, glanced around, and then suddenly grabbed my hand.
“Ugh.”
I realized her intention wasn’t malicious, but rather to examine the wound.
“Representative Park asked me to come because there was a patient in need of treatment. Has your conversation concluded, by any chance?”
The woman’s question was directed not at me, but at Joo Seo-hye.
A flustered Joo Seo-hye opened her mouth.
“It’s not over yet…”
“Fighting in this state will only worsen the injury. Do you wish to win against someone who’s already hurt?”
“That’s not it, but…”
“Then, has your conversation concluded?”
The woman smiled sweetly, repeating the same question in a gentle voice.
It was an excessive kindness, perhaps, but while she was smiling, I felt a chill run down my spine.
Annoyed by the woman’s persistence, Joo Seo-hye snapped.
“Damn it! Yes, it’s over!”
“Thank you.”
She bowed politely and turned away.
My eyes met the woman’s.
“Aren’t you coming?”
“Where to?”
“The treatment room. Your arm must hurt if you don’t get it treated. Well, if you enjoy pain, I won’t stop you.”
No, that’s not it.
From the way she spoke, she seemed to be a Hunter with a healing skill.
I had been worried about how to get treated since it was so late, but thanks to Park Si-woo, it seemed I could rest easy.
We left the main conference room and went down to the treatment room on the floor below.
“I’m Jeong Cho-ah, the Head of Treatment. Oh, please have a seat on that bed over there.”
Jeong Cho-ah, who had followed me into the treatment room, put on a white coat.
I wondered what the point of a coat was when she healed with a skill, but it seemed to be her personal preference, so I decided to let it be.
“I’m a real doctor. I passed the medical board exam through the Hunter special provisions, but I took the official test, I have a license, and I have experience with general surgery.”
She must have felt my gaze, one she had likely felt many times before, as the explanation came out almost reflexively.
“My apologies for the misunderstanding.”
“No, there really are Hunters who wear it just for the aesthetic. Not that wearing it makes their skills work any better.”
Jeong Cho-ah pulled up a chair and sat in front of me.
“But for a Head of Treatment, you don’t seem very well-known.”
None of the Hunters nearby, including Joo Seo-hye, had recognized Jeong Cho-ah.
They were wary not of her appearance, but of Park Si-woo’s order that came from her mouth.
Or, to be precise, she had called it a request.
A woman Park Si-woo would make a request of? I was curious what kind of person she was.
Jeong Cho-ah took hold of my arm.
When she had grabbed my arm in the conference room, the wound had momentarily healed.
Just a tiny bit, but still.
To be more precise, it felt less like healing and more like the wound was simply vanishing.
It was somehow different from simple recovery. The sensation was similar this time as well.
I felt sorry for the person healing me, but it was not a pleasant feeling.
“Well, you see, I’m a bit of a night owl. I can’t really wake up during the day, or maybe I should say I’m too tired. So I only man my post at night.”
The guild didn’t operate 24/7.
It wasn’t empty at night, but no Hunter would walk into the treatment room on their own two feet after getting injured.
More importantly.
“The treatment room’s operating hours are until 10 PM, aren’t they?”
“Oh my, are they? No wonder there were no patients. I was wondering what was going on, what should I do?”
Why are you asking me?
This woman was as much of an airhead as she looked.
“I don’t know. Maybe you could ask Representative Park to make it a 24-hour operation?”
“That’s a great idea. I’ll suggest it.”
The wounds where Jeong Cho-ah’s hand touched were disappearing as if by magic.
Not all healing skills were the same.
There were various methods, from forcibly increasing regenerative abilities, to substituting regeneration with mana, to rewinding the body’s time.
To heal a wound with just a touch.
‘To others, it must look like a convenient skill.’
If used well, it was a skill that could even be packaged as a goddess performing a miracle.
“There, all done.”
Having finished the treatment, Cho-ah clapped her hands and stood up.
I was grateful, but I didn’t want to experience it a second time.
Just as I was about to get off the bed I was perched on, she suddenly placed a hand on my cheek.
“Oh, just a moment.”
“Yes? Mmph…”
Jeong Cho-ah’s thumb suddenly entered my mouth.
What is this woman doing!
“It seems the inside of your mouth is injured too.”
Her finger touched the roof of my mouth, which had been cut open from Yoo Ji-han’s punch.
That part’s fine!
As long as my arm was healed, the rest was okay, so why was she so obsessed with my injuries? And she was too close!
Jeong Cho-ah herself didn’t seem to care at all.
It was always in these kinds of misleading situations that someone would walk in.
Ah, someone walked in.
“If I’m interrupting, I’ll leave.”
It was Park Si-woo.
As soon as Jeong Cho-ah’s finger was out of my mouth, I quickly yelled.
“Hey! That makes it sound even weirder!”