Chapter 58
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: I'll give you a cookie later (1)
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“Oh, you’re here?”
Wiping her hands on a handkerchief, Cho-ah looked to the side.
Park Si-woo stepped into the treatment room and locked the door.
“I told you not to be late, not to get into trouble on your way here.”
“It was unavoidable.”
It wasn't a joke; it was the truth.
Even I hadn't expected Yoo Ji-han to show up.
Cho-ah, who had been listening to our conversation, asked.
“Coffee? Or green tea?”
“Coffee.”
“Coffee for me, too.”
Jeong Cho-ah reached for the shelf.
Being short, she couldn't quite reach the top.
The boxes perched on the edge of the shelf tumbled down.
Before I could even move to help, Park Si-woo snatched them out of the air.
Unfazed, Cho-ah took three tea bags from the green tea box.
“Coffee isn't good this late. It'll keep you up at night.”
*Then why did you ask?*
She'd been like this since I first met her, a truly unpredictable woman.
Humming a tune, she approached the water dispenser.
“Wait…”
The water's overflowing!
Steam rose in a white cloud from the water spilling over the glass cup, a testament to how hot it was.
Unable to watch any longer, Park Si-woo snatched the cup from her.
The natural way he took over and poured the hot water suggested this wasn't the first time she'd done something like this.
It was nice of her to treat my hand, but her personality was so peculiar I was at a loss for words.
Park Si-woo handed me the cup with the tea bag in it. I reluctantly took it.
“Hey, this isn't green tea. It's black tea.”
How could anyone mistake this dark brown color for green tea?
Someone must have put black tea bags in the green tea box.
Still, how could she not have noticed?
“Huh?”
Hearing my mumble, Jeong Cho-ah belatedly realized her mistake and examined the green tea box.
*But I bet she's going to drop that.*
Sure enough, not even ten seconds after my worry, she dropped the box of tea bags.
Jeong Cho-ah sank to the floor and started picking up the scattered tea bags one by one.
Park Si-woo, however, sipped his black tea as if he'd known it was black tea from the start.
He seemed to be half-ignoring Cho-ah as she slowly gathered the fallen tea bags.
“Who in the world is she?”
“It's complicated. She was the only one I could ask for a quiet treatment at this hour.”
Park Si-woo glanced down at my arm.
The nuance seemed to be that it was my fault for getting hurt in the first place, but maybe I was just imagining it.
“Stay at a hotel until you enter the dungeon. I'll find you a place after it's over.”
“You already talked to him?”
“Whose fault do you think it is that I had to leave in such a hurry?”
Park Si-woo's brow furrowed as he drank his black tea.
His tone suggested he'd already finished talking with Soo-hyun, so there was no need for me to explain the whole story.
*Still, the news traveled way too fast.*
I hadn't intended to hide it, but I figured they wouldn't find out until tomorrow at the earliest.
As they say, it's better to get the beating over with quickly. If I was going to get an earful anyway, it was better to get it sooner rather than later.
“I heard you were attacked by some assailant. Are you alright?”
“Aside from the broken arm, I'm fine.”
And that was healed now, thanks to her, so there were no problems.
I knew that wasn't what Park Si-woo was really asking.
“I understand you didn't kill him. Why?”
“There was no need to kill him.”
“For someone you didn't need to kill, didn't you beat him up a bit too much?”
“He deserved it.”
I mean, it's the truth.
Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to endure the pain during the meeting?
If it weren't for Yoo Ji-han, I wouldn't have had to stay here this late.
“That assailant... was he that guy you mentioned before, Kim Yoo-han?”
For a moment, I was so stunned I could only gape.
Seriously, I never imagined he'd guess it right in one go.
I glanced at Jeong Cho-ah, who was behind Park Si-woo, gathering the fallen tea bags.
I'd been wondering why it was taking her so long to pick them up, and then, a moment later, she dropped the box again.
At this point, I couldn't tell if she was dropping it on purpose or not.
To keep dropping it like that was a talent in itself.
What kind of person she was didn't matter.
What mattered was whether it was okay for her to overhear this conversation.
As my gaze shifted to Cho-ah, showing my concern, Park Si-woo spoke.
“For your information, she was the one I had in mind before I recommended you. She's a B-rank Hunter due to a lack of dungeon experience, but her skills are S-rank.”
“S-rank skills? Does that mean…”
You can get to A-rank with enough experience.
But there was an absolute difference in the criteria separating A-rank from S-rank.
Those who surpassed the absurd standards of S-rank were called Transcendents.
If Park Si-woo was right, it meant she was a Transcendent.
I had many questions, but I decided to keep it brief.
“So, in short, she's trustworthy?”
“Yes.”
Park Si-woo didn't seem inclined to say any more.
Jeong Cho-ah turned her head, and our eyes met.
She gave me a bright smile as if to say I didn't need to worry.
We returned to the topic of Kim Yoo-han.
“It's been bothering me ever since, so I reinvestigated the members of the Ant Tunnel raid. His name wasn't in the records, but the name Kim Yoo-han did come up.”
I'd wondered why Min Sung-taek and Kang Hyun-seung were there; it seemed they'd made a deal regarding the members for this expedition.
Park Si-woo added an apology, saying he was sorry for looking into it on his own.
“It's fine. If anyone's to blame, it's me for bringing it up in the first place. But how did you know?”
All information about Kim Yoo-han within the guild had been erased.
Even if he'd heard the story from those two, it would have been impossible to identify a face from just a name.
Park Si-woo had called Choi Soo-hyun after the meeting ended.
Even if, by some chance, Choi Soo-hyun had taken a picture of Ji-han and shared it with him, it wouldn't have mattered.
Min Sung-taek and Kang Hyun-seung had been with me in the meeting room even after that.
No matter how you pieced it together, the timeline didn't add up, and there was nothing to connect the two.
“It was a reasonable suspicion.”
“A reasonable suspicion?”
“Yes. I heard the guy who attacked you was a Black Hunter, not registered with the Association. The decisive factor was that all the nearby CCTV footage was corrupted, following his movements.”
To pull that off while fighting me… he definitely has someone helping him behind the scenes.
“Learning that the guild's information was hacked doesn't feel great, but I simply made a reasonable guess based on the similar stories. There's no proof.”
He acted like he knew everything, but it was just a hunch.
“It was him.”
“I knew it.”
Park Si-woo nodded as if he'd expected it.
“What do you plan to do?”
“I think that's my question to ask.”
“I want your opinion. It would be a headache if he's connected to the Raon Guild.”
“I doubt it. Besides, he has nothing to do with this.”
“Then why did he attack you?”
“A purely personal matter.”
Yoo Ji-han's grudge wasn't with the Raon Guild or Park Si-woo, but with the god Soter and Kang Han-gyeol, who served him.
“He has nothing to do with the Raon Guild or this incident? What reason do I have to believe that?”
“None. But if you start digging into him, you're going to have a bad time.”
I never would have guessed Yoo Ji-han was a Black Hunter, not even registered with the Hunter Association.
I didn't know about his other stats, but his Strength stat alone had reached the Transcendent level.
To capture Yoo Ji-han head-on, by Korean Hunter standards, you'd need at least an S-rank Hunter just to stand a chance.
*Honestly, I got lucky too.*
Him making that ridiculous Vow with the god Soter was completely unexpected.
Yoo Ji-han can use skills. I could even see his status window.
Though it was displayed as '???', he was clearly in a state of serving the god Soter.
And yet he's trying to kill the god Soter?
That's basically patricide.
“Anyway, I know a surefire way to control him. So just let him do as he pleases.”
“Without explaining this 'effective method,' your claim is too weak.”
“Fine. The guy's Strength stat is Transcendent C. Black Hunters are guys who oppose the established Hunter factions, right? What do you think will happen when it's discovered that a Transcendent has been hiding as a Black Hunter all this time? Or are you confident you can catch him quietly?”
Park Si-woo flinched at the word that Yoo Ji-han was a Transcendent.
It seems even he finds a Transcendent to be a handful.
“You're sure it's a personal matter?”
“If not, I'll take responsibility. I won't say anything more whether you investigate him or not.”
“Alright, I won't press the matter.”
We more or less came to an agreement to draw a line regarding Yoo Ji-han's business.
Contrary to my belief that the conversation was over, Park Si-woo remained motionless.
“What? Is there something else?”
“What is a Thought-Form?”
“You… How do you know about that?”
I had told Choi Soo-hyun about the Ant Tunnel incident, but I never mentioned Thought-Forms.
“Judging by your reaction, you do know something.”
I had been about to stand up, but I sat back down.
Jeong Cho-ah, having half-given up on picking up the tea bags, pulled up a chair and sat in front of us.
Park Si-woo spoke to Cho-ah, who was sitting opposite him.
“Could you give us ten minutes alone?”
*Well, well.*
His voice was so stiff when talking to me, it would put a bureaucrat to shame.
*Could it be?*
The type who's weak to women?
No, if Park Si-woo was weak to women, he never would have fought so fiercely with Joo Seo-hye.
He didn't seem like that type in the first place.
He just knew how to handle people.
“No.”
“Ten minutes is all I need.”
“Han-gyeol, do you find me bothersome too?”
Cho-ah turned to me, half-treating Park Si-woo as if he wasn't even there.
“Not bothersome, exactly, but…”
It was true that it was a difficult topic to discuss.
Whether she noticed my expression or not, she turned her chair back toward Park Si-woo.
“Amusement park.”
*Huh? So suddenly?*
Jeong Cho-ah looked at Park Si-woo and continued.
“You promised you'd take me to the amusement park after the dungeon Han-gyeol is going into.”
Pouting, she said no more.
Whether she was complaining that she couldn't go to the amusement park because I was going into the dungeon instead of her, or making a proposal, was up to the listener to interpret.
“Fine.”
“When?”
“I'll make time.”
“When.”
“The original promise was for after the dungeon expedition, wasn't it? So obviously, it will be after that.”
That made sense.
At Park Si-woo's rather reasonable answer, Cho-ah nodded and got up from her chair.
“Just ten minutes?”
“If you don't like the hallway, you can wait in the empty office inside.”
“I'll do that, then.”
Turning her back, she waved, saying "see you later," and entered the empty office.
“Hey, are you two dating?”
Remembering the harsh words he'd thrown at Joo Seo-hye in the meeting room, this was an undeniable conclusion.
“We have ten minutes.”
Park Si-woo really seemed to think Jeong Cho-ah would come out in exactly ten minutes.
“Let me ask you one thing. Where did you hear that word?”
“From the god I serve.”
“Then ask them. They're a god, they should know that much.”
Considering he'd told me before that his god was interested in me, it seemed Park Si-woo was quite close with his deity.
Park Si-woo shook his head.
“They said it was difficult just to speak the word. They told me you might know the details.”
“What on earth does your god see in me?”
I hadn't done anything for Park Si-woo's god, and I didn't even know who the deity behind him was.
Despite that, I felt like they were showing me an excessive amount of favor.
“I'm the one who's curious.”
Park Si-woo glanced at the door Cho-ah had entered, looking wary.
He subtly turned his wrist, angling his watch toward me. I'd never seen Park Si-woo look so anxious.
“A Thought-Form is a being that has broken a Taboo.”
I started to explain, but would he even know what a Taboo was?
I was briefly wondering where to begin when unexpected words came from Park Si-woo's mouth.
“This is the first I've heard that breaking a Taboo turns you into a Thought-Form.”
“Then what did you think happens when you break a Taboo?”
“I've never broken one, so I don't know for sure, but I was told you die.”