The Subcontractor Seeks a New Patron
In the early hours before dawn.
While the world still slept beneath a curtain of darkness, she arrived alone at a place empty of anyone else.
A broad stage that called a theater to mind. And beside it, a single grand piano of imposing size.
She approached it slowly, then carefully took her seat and lifted the lid.
"Haa…"
A deep sigh. Contained within it were the memories of days gone by, and the dense sorrow those memories carried.
Feeling that weight, she slowly set her rough, calloused hands upon the keys.
And so her performance began.
In a hall without a single spectator, she began to play with a skill that was startling to witness.
A performance that seemed to sing of calm and peace—and of the joy of pure delight.
Yet at a certain point, that unbroken flow faltered with a slight awkwardness and came to a clean stop.
It was not that she had lifted her hands from the piano. Her hands remained on the keys—trembling slowly now, as emotion overtook her.
It was not a mistake.
In that moment, she was waiting. Waiting for her turn to come around again. Waiting until their stage was finished.
And a short while later, she set her fingers moving once more and pressed the keys.
As if praising the sun that would soon begin to rise. As if rejoicing in a future filled with nothing but hope—free of all further pain and suffering.
And so…
After she brought that fierce, exultant performance to its end, her trembling fingers stayed pressed to the keys and moved no more.
Pouring into that final moment the honest feeling she carried—the truth of a woman who always wore a smile, and yet, since that day, had not once been able to smile from the heart.
Seated on the office sofa, I began slowly reviewing the materials in my hands.
For several weeks now, reports on the overall movements of the hunter guilds and the military had been regularly finding their way into my possession. The source of this information was, of course, Na Jiseon—who had entered into a kind of contract with me in exchange for forgiveness.
So this is how things are unfolding…
As I pieced together military trends I had been almost entirely cut off from since leaving my post as adjutant, I gave a slow nod.
In principle, there was no direct point of contact between Black Hunters and the hunter guilds. Between the Black Hunters—private corporations—and the military hunter guilds and army units, the only common ground was that both were armed forces operating hunter detachments. Neither side held any formal right to interfere in the other's affairs.
In other words, even if Seoul came under attack tomorrow and the military urgently requested support, we could ignore the call entirely and face no legal consequences whatsoever.
That said, the absence of a formal connection did not mean the military lacked ways to move us. Money. Just as they had always done, they handled Black Hunter companies by issuing indirect orders through commissions.
Put another way, to Black Hunters the military was a patron—a source of work. And for that reason alone, I needed to keep a close watch on their movements at all times, if only in connection with the commissions we received.
From that standpoint, the conclusion I drew from Jiseon's information was this:
At this rate, landing any decent commissions from the military is going to be impossible for a while.
Over the past several months, Abyss-suppression contracts with fairly generous rewards had been flowing out in abundance. Those commissions had been possible because the military, preparing for a large-scale operation, had been conserving its own strength—leaving a power vacuum in the process.
According to the materials Jiseon had sent, however, that large-scale operation was about to begin. Which meant that for some time to come, the military would have no reason to spend serious money hiring us for Abyss work.
In the middle or later stages of such an operation, perhaps. But in the early phase, the tendency was always to showcase the military's independent strength—if only to capture media attention and win public support—rather than bring in outside forces.
That did not mean we were about to sit around sucking our thumbs.
It was true that most commissions involving combat against the Abyss came through the military. But that was only one category of work. The range of jobs Black Hunters could take on was far broader, and a team like ours—holding A-class hunters—could land commissions with payouts considerably sweeter than anything the military offered.
The catch, of course, was that in those cases our opponents were more likely to be human than Abyss, and that carried a certain burden of its own.
But we can't keep taking Abyss jobs forever. We've finished adapting to this place… maybe it's time we started taking commissions that put us against people in earnest.
Of course, dealing with people required an entirely different approach from dealing with the Abyss. Unlike Abysses, which relied entirely on bestial instinct, people thought and learned—which made engaging them far more complex.
That did not mean I found the prospect difficult. The fact that an opponent could think complexly also meant there were that many more methods available to use against them.
"Given how things stand, it looks like we'll have no choice but to work under a different patron for a while."
"Mmm…"
As I laid out the military's current situation, I explained that for the time being we would need to take a different line of work—something other than Abyss hunting.
Kwon Soon's face took on a faintly troubled look at my words. Are, by contrast, showed surprisingly little reaction, while Glass began to display a fair amount of curiosity.
"Aide. When you say a different patron, what exactly do you mean? As you know, the kinds of work we can take on are quite varied. Do you have something in mind?"
"I have looked over a few possibilities in broad strokes, but I think it would be best to discuss the specifics with all of you. My experience as an adjutant is considerable, but it was limited entirely to combat against the Abyss. All of you have far longer careers in other fields, so for a while I believe it would be wiser to follow your judgment."
"Well, that is true enough."
"I understand. Then, as Jinhyun says, let us discuss it together for the time being."
Agreeing with me, they took the list I had roughly prepared and began reviewing its contents.
Then—
"Haa… so it comes to this after all."
Kwon Soon let out a deep sigh as she looked over the list. She gazed quietly up at the ceiling and spoke in a voice thick with regret.
"Honestly, I'm sick to death of dealing with people… I'd much rather just go wild shooting Abysses. It's so much cleaner and more fun."
"Haha… true enough. No need to make allowances for them, and their patterns of behavior are more or less fixed, so they're easier to handle in some ways."
I offered a wry smile of agreement at Kwon Soon's words. Even so, a person could not live forever on nothing but their favorite foods. Sometimes you had to eat things you did not care for, simply to survive.
And so, for a while, we examined the commissions on the list and began scouting for our next employer. But unlike Are and Glass, who were looking through them with relative enthusiasm, Kwon Soon still seemed thoroughly unenthusiastic—and in the end she set the list down without having examined almost any of it.
Knowing her as someone who always wore a smile and threw herself into things with energy, I found the sight a little unexpected.
Looks like Kwon Soon is fairly sensitive about this kind of work. Well… people do differ.
With that thought, I turned my gaze from her and prepared to discuss the matter with the other two.
But in that moment, I did not know.
I did not know that this journey—this affair that would end far sooner than expected—would become a considerable turning point in the life that lay ahead of me.