Great Citizen Cha Dohyeon

Dohyeon had been planning to toss the man enough to cover the repairs—a brisk here, take it and get lost—but the demands came pouring out of the taxi driver's mouth in an endless stream, and he found himself struck dumb.

"Ah, so let me make sure I have this straight—you want repair costs, medical bills, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rental fees, and living expenses on top?"

The taxi driver, his face flushed scarlet, nodded hard.

"Of course! I won't be able to work for at least three months! I'm the sole breadwinner in a family of six—do you have any idea how much living expenses cost?!"

At the driver's brazen shakedown, Dohyeon's lid spun ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠clean off.

"Got a passenger in there?"

Gob 2 pointed at the rear-seat window and traced a big circle above his head—the sign for yes.

"Let them out."

Clack-clack!

With finger bones sheathed in jade, Gob 2 punched through the taxi's rear door as if it were cake, seized the panel, and tore it clean off.

"Eek!"

A young woman in the back seat, her face tight with alarm, shrieked.

"You're all right. Please, come out."

The passenger, who had been peeking warily through the gap where the door used to be, clutched her handbag to her chest and stepped out.

"Head over to that sidewalk, if you would."

The woman scurried off in the direction Dohyeon pointed.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?! Now I'm owed damages for emotional distress too! This is psychological injury—a full year of treatment, minimum! Do you know how much I've babied this car?! Criminal charges AND a civil suit—my son-in-law is a lawyeerrr—!"

"Taesan."

Dohyeon cleanly ignored the driver's fuming—his face had graduated from red to purple—and gave the order.

Clack-clack!

CRUNCH! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! WHAM!

Skewering the taxi with his long tusks, Taesan hoisted the car high overhead and brought it crashing down against the pavement.

Crash— CRUNCH— crack—

Every window burst into a spray of glittering shards, and the frame crumpled beyond all recognition.

"Let's move it to the side."

Once the taxi was thoroughly demolished, Dohyeon—still not entirely satisfied—had the wreckage dragged to the roadside, then set Taesan and Soran on what remained to stomp it into crumbs.

CRUNCH crackle-crunch—

The two elephant skeletons tap-danced atop the taxi on jade-sheathed feet, and the car—which had come through the fender-bender looking brand new—flattened out like a waffle.

"Gob 2. Clean up the road."

Swish, swish, swish, swish—

Gob 2 pulled a broom from the pack on his back and swept the glass shards off the asphalt. Dohyeon had whipped the broom up for him specially—Gob 2 being the ranch's designated chore-boy, after all.

With the situation wrapped up, Dohyeon re-hitched Soran to the elephant carriage and offered his parting words.

"Driver. File a claim with the Management Bureau for the car—I did, after all, definitively destroy it. You know Soran's name, so the process should be smooth. In exchange, none of this nonsense about medical bills or living expenses. And if you'd like to become a skeleton and serve for the rest of eternity, I won't stand in your way."

Let the dogs bark—the elephant carriage rolls on.

Dohyeon knew it in his head, too. He had become a man who could sway even international affairs. But this was the first time he had ever actually reached for that power.

Petty citizen Cha Dohyeon is no more. I have been reborn as Great Citizen Cha Dohyeon.

Dohyeon and the Seonwoo couple left the scene, their footsteps light.

As for the taxi driver, the sight—unlike anything he had witnessed in his life—had hollowed him out completely, and he stood dazed in the middle of the road until a kind-hearted citizen took him by the hand.

"Uh… uhhh—……?"

"Whoa-ha! Seriously, I never saw this coming. When I heard he was going to deal with it, I figured I'd step in and settle things reasonably, but—wow. Just, wow!"

By the Hyodoncheon stream at the edge of Hyung's Ranch: Gob 2 grilling meat over the charcoal fire, and Soran and Taesan keeping watch over the animals that couldn't stand the heat. Lim Seonwoo reminisced about the afternoon's events between mouthfuls.

"Was it really all that remarkable? Jostling with Climbers is my day job, so it didn't strike me as anything new."

To Song Seogyeong, who worked at the Bureau, Dohyeon's behavior was hardly worth raising an eyebrow over.

It was human nature to use power the moment you had it. Who knew what the taxi driver had been thinking, picking a fight with a Climber—but a Climber running wild was nothing out of the ordinary. If anything, today's incident had been on the humane side: he'd offered to pay for the car, gotten the passenger to safety, and the driver's body was perfectly intact. Climbers this magnanimous were few and far between.

"Ah. Well, sure, you'd see it that way. But I'm different. I was friends with ordinary-citizen Cha Dohyeon, that's what I'm saying."

Thinking it over, Seogyeong had to admit Seonwoo had a point.

"Fair enough. I suppose Climbers lived perfectly ordinary lives like everyone else, before they awakened."

With his violent antics repeatedly becoming the topic of conversation, Dohyeon could no longer contain his embarrassment.

"Oh, come on, give it a rest. Even I didn't know I had it in me."

Seonwoo and Seogyeong exchanged a glance and burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha! There it is. Now that's the Cha Dohyeon I know."

When he had obliterated the taxi, Dohyeon had seemed like a stranger; talking with him now, he was still the same old Dohyeon. Seonwoo could feel the image of civilian Dohyeon and the image of Climber Dohyeon fusing, without a seam, into a single whole—Cha Dohyeon, the human being.

"Let's keep looking out for each other, Dohyeon. If anything ever weighs on you, call me, no exceptions. You've made it big enough that you don't need my help anymore, but if there's ever something I can do for you, I will."

Seogyeong added her own two cents.

"Should I be calling you 'young master' from now on?"

That was, after all, the traditional term of address for one's husband's younger brother.

Dohyeon felt a warmth spread through his chest.

"Whatever's comfortable for you. 'Dohyeon' is fine, 'young master' is fine. I've been calling you Sister-in-law from the very beginning, after all?"

The three of them sat in comfortable chairs in a clearing beside the clear waters of the Hyodoncheon, tipping back their drinks over well-grilled meat.

"Gob 2. Watermelon, please."

Clack-clack!

Gob 2 drew a jade-hued kitchen knife from his bag and cut into the watermelon.

Snick—

The ripe melon parted like a block of tofu.

"Ooh…… Any chance I could get one of those knives?"

"Me too, if possible."

Objects crafted with Advanced Jade Bone Processing carried, by default, a mysterious and beautiful jade luster unless treated otherwise. And their performance was beyond comparison with anything off the shelf—no wonder people coveted them.

"I'll pack them for your trip home. Iro, note it in the schedule."

Iro, who had been standing in reverent attendance beside the comfortably seated Dohyeon, took out a notebook and recorded the entry.

Watching this, Seonwoo deliberated a moment before opening his mouth.

"Wow…… I don't know how appropriate it is to say this, but I'm jealous. Of your ability. When on earth did a goblin learn to read Korean?"

Dohyeon answered, his face brimming with laughter.

"You're my hyung, Assistant Manager. In for a penny, in for a pound—I'll just call you hyung from now on. It's been ages since I left the company, and you were still calling me 'Assistant Manager.'"

Seonwoo flung his arms wide and pulled Dohyeon into a hug.

"That's right, my little brother. You take good care of this hyung of yours."

For a long while, the smell of sizzling meat, the crackle of charcoal, and warm, affectionate laughter lingered in the valley of the Hyodoncheon.

Lunch the following day.

Despite it being Sunday, someone from the Tower Management Bureau came calling.

"I apologize for visiting on a weekend, Climber Cha Dohyeon."

The Seonwoo couple had gone off to enjoy a few museums and beaches around Jeju, so Dohyeon—having hitched Soran to the elephant carriage for them, just as he had the day before—greeted Team Leader Jeong Siwoo alone.

"What business brings you out on a weekend? Come in, first of all."

"It's a small gesture, but I brought some drinks."

Dohyeon set the assortment of coffees Siwoo had carried in on the table and ordered Gob 2 to serve the watermelon.

Jeong Siwoo, Team Leader of Climber Support Team 1 at the Jeju Tower Management Headquarters, found his eyes shining at the sight of the two goblin skeletons he had never seen before.

As if Siwoo had ordered the entire menu at a nearby café, Dohyeon picked out the drinks that suited his taste from the wide variety, then asked:

"So, what's this about?"

Only after Dohyeon had chosen did Siwoo pick out his own drink, and then he spoke.

"I've come because of yesterday's incident."

"Yesterday?"

What happened yesterday, again……?

Dohyeon cast his mind back over the previous day. The cool shade of the stream bank, the animals splashing in the water, the belated sworn brotherhood with Assistant Manager Lim Seonwoo, the jade bone kitchen knives promised as send-off gifts for the trip back to Seoul.

Ah, right—I have to make those knives.

And what else was there……

"Oh, right. The taxi, wasn't it?"

"Yes, that's the one."

"Did a complaint come in already? How much was the taxi?"

Dohyeon asked, arms crossed. Whatever the taxi cost, he was prepared to toss the sum over without a second thought. He was, after all, now a man of means—one whose debts, once counted in the billions of won, had been wiped clean.

"The driver hasn't filed a complaint yet. And as for the value of the car, by standard practice the Bureau takes care of it. Consider it a form of welfare."

"Then why……?"

"External PR."

"PR spin?"

Siwoo nodded.

"You may not have been aware of this, Climber Cha Dohyeon, but the Tower Management Bureau also has a department dedicated to managing Climbers' public image. Climbers live lives quite removed from ordinary people's, so the department works to shape public perception—to help Korean society embrace Climbers."

"And this is the result of that management……?"

Dohyeon had never dreamed such a department existed. Because the public's opinion of Climbers was already scraping rock bottom. The endless horror stories surrounding Climbers made ordinary people give them a wide berth.

Siwoo, looking sheepish, covered his mouth and coughed.

"Ahem……. Astonishing as it may seem, this is the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠managed version. The internet carries an overwhelming volume of information, and public fascination with Climbers never lets up, so……"

His composure restored in an instant, Siwoo continued.

"In any case, last night footage of you, Climber Cha Dohyeon, spread all across the internet. Some people cursed you for smashing the taxi; others cheered……. The problem is that the discourse was beginning to spread to Hyung's Ranch itself, so they sent me—someone with a familiar face—to hear the full story. PR spin works best when it's grounded in fact, you see."

"Ah, I see……?"

A department that managed social media spin was going to manipulate public opinion on his behalf. Dohyeon felt like a celebrity who had just signed with a major entertainment agency.

"So, here's how it went down……."

An hour after Team Leader Siwoo had heard the full account of the previous day, the circumstances—leaked online as "per an insider"—had spread across the web, and the people who had been cursing Dohyeon vanished without a trace.

The defense mounted by Bureau employees, by ordinary people who sympathized with Dohyeon's side of the story, and by the self-proclaimed uncles and aunts of Taesan and Soran swept the negative sentiment toward Dohyeon and Hyung's Ranch away like a wave.