These Idiots
These idiots.
Unilateral decisions always carry danger within them.
A person’s field of vision has its limits, and because of that, mistakes come easily.
If the matter were purely personal, one could still call it fortunate. When the damage from a mistake falls on only a single person, that person alone can simply endure the consequences.
But if it is not personal—if it is a public matter…
If it concerns the running of an organization, or something even greater…
Then the blunder of that unilateral choice is all too likely to return as something truly catastrophic.
That is why a leader who runs an organization must always seek the opinions of many people before acting on any critical decision. The resolve to make the final call is necessary, of course—but before that, one must possess the caution to examine the situation through other people’s eyes.
Because a decision born of one’s own short-sighted thinking can produce results no one ever imagined, and those results can harm not only oneself but countless others.
And in that regard, Lee Sena, Guild Master of the 28th Hunter Guild, was a person who possessed a fatal flaw as a leader.
She was the sort who never listened to anyone else’s opinion, who simply shoved her own thoughts forward and decided things on the spot.
In the end, that self-righteousness of hers…
Bestowed the greatest gift upon one man—
And the worst disaster upon a great many women.
“Haa… Finally that nuisance is gone. I can actually breathe.”
“Tell me about it. We’ve been dragging that useless lump around all this time. What a pain.”
Two people sat perched on a sofa, chatting. Guild Master Lee Sena and her friend Choi Yujin were tilting their wine glasses with deep, unrestrained pleasure.
From their point of view, the adjutant had been nothing but a constant source of friction—someone who picked apart every opinion of theirs, who never stopped lecturing that this was wrong and that was wrong.
And yesterday afternoon, Lee Sena had finally succeeded in discharging the troublesome eyesore that was Adjutant Lee Jinhyun.
Now there was no one left to clash with her over every little thing and rain down lectures. No one left to force tedious training on them. And no one left to invent pointless approval documents and bring them over as if a teacher were handing out homework.
As a result, Sena was savoring a freedom so complete it felt as though she had grown wings, happily continuing the conversation with Yujin over their drinks.
“That man never fit with us in the first place. Uselessly principled, always fixating on pointless things. We should have gotten rid of a guy like that ages ago…”
“Exactly what I was thinking. Men who strut around with military ranks are good for nothing. In the end, this world is protected by us hunters, isn’t it?”
Yujin agreed with Sena’s words with fierce enthusiasm. She refilled her empty glass with wine and continued.
“A guy who’s never even taken an Abyss’s head, talking about command? If he’d at least been decent-looking and knew how to listen, we wouldn’t have gone this far.”
“Honestly, we’ve been too good to him all this time. We kept a useless guy on the payroll and made sure he got his salary every month. And then that bastard, without a shred of gratitude, posts some weird resignation video and walks out? That pissed me off a little.”
“Well, what can you do? He’s a civilian now, so we have to put up with it. Consider it us showing mercy one last time.”
“Haha, true enough. Fired from a hunter guild, the guy’s future is obvious—he’ll burn through his severance and end up looking like a beggar. Who’s going to take someone like that in?”
The two of them raised their voices, openly mocking Jinhyun. As time passed they felt the alcohol beginning to take hold, yet their conversation tearing him down never stopped.
“Honestly… Abysses are things you just rush in and smash. Why make such a grand production out of it? They’re just monsters that are a little stronger than beasts. Before you start overthinking, the right answer is to beat them down with power.”
“You’re right. They don’t even have intelligence—they just move on instinct. What’s so scary about that? That’s why people with no real combat experience are useless. They overestimate the enemy and end up moving too slowly.”
“If this body of mine goes wild, I can wipe out a hundred Abysses or a thousand without breaking a sweat.”
In truth, the 28th Guild had never once lost a battle once combat began. They had smoothly cleared missions that other guilds had balked at, and at the center of it all had almost always been the S-class hunters Sena and Yujin.
Countless Abyss heads had fallen to their hands, and victory had followed as a matter of course. From their perspective, Jinhyun—sitting safely in the rear and pouring out useless lectures—was nothing more than a completely worthless existence.
“The only reason we’ve made it this far is because I put up with that guy’s nagging and worked hard… Without me, our 28th Guild would still be some no-name laughingstock.”
“Exactly! Even with those deadweights hanging around, our guild master worked so hard that the government decided to increase their support. And in the process they even approved kicking Lee Jinhyun out, just like we wanted.”
The adjutant position for tactics was temporarily empty, but for the reasons above they felt little urgency about it. Besides, a more capable person from the national side was already scheduled to come in, so there was no real need to worry.
“Heheh. Honestly, skill doesn’t matter that much. I hope the adjutant who comes in this time is a handsome guy.”
“Right? Then, unlike that Lee Jinhyun, we can properly dote on him.”
The two S-class hunters spoke of their personal desires and looked forward to the rosy future ahead.
And then—
—Bang!—
“What the…”
The next moment, the sound of a door being thrown open as if an explosion had gone off. The two of them didn’t even bother looking particularly surprised; they merely turned toward the entrance with annoyed faces.
In a place where only executives were allowed entry, the person who would barge in like this was obvious to them.
“Na Jiseon, did you lose another game and come to take it out on us? Sorry, but could you hold back for a while? Until the new adjutant arrives there’s no one to clean up after—”
“Is it true?”
“Huh?”
As expected, the person standing there was S-class hunter Na Jiseon.
But in this moment, the face that usually stormed in filled with rage held none of the anger the two had anticipated.
Contrary to their expectations, the emotion inside it was deep anxiety…
And fear.
“I-Is it true…? This… this message… Did he… did he really leave?”
“Leave…? Ah, you mean Lee Jinhyun? Can’t you tell just by looking? The government said they’d give us extra support, so I took the chance and fired him. You hated that guy too, so isn’t this a good thing?”
Among the executives, Na Jiseon had always been the one who looked most eager to tear Lee Jinhyun apart. Seeing her react so differently from what they expected, the two began to feel a faint sense of unease.
And then—
“No…”
“Huh?”
“I… I… wasn’t like that… Lee Jinhyun… no… Jinhyun oppa… I… I didn’t hate him.”
“...Jiseon?”
“…Damn it!”
After speaking in a trembling voice, she suddenly cursed and bolted from the room as if fleeing.
Faced with that behavior, the two began to feel deep confusion and looked at each other.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“Hell if I know. Maybe her anger management issues glitched out or something?”
They simply said whatever came to mind in the face of a situation they couldn’t understand.
Then, less than a minute after Jiseon had left, another person came running into the room.
“Seo Jiyun? What’s with that face? Did you see something you weren’t supposed to?”
Seo Jiyun came in gasping for breath, her face deathly pale. At the sight of her looking like that for the first time, Yujin asked with genuine puzzlement. In response, Jiyun simply held out her phone screen and asked them.
On the screen was Lee Jinhyun’s resignation video.
“Th-This… is this real? Did Lee Jinhyun… did that guy really leave this place?”
“Left… Well, it’s not wrong. To be precise, I kicked him out.”
“What…? R-Right now… what did you just say? K-Kicked out? You kicked him out? That guy? You yourself?”
“Why are you so shocked? You roughly noticed too, didn’t you? You heard about the government support. You should know that in a situation like this, Lee Jinhyun isn’t needed—”
“Kh…”
Sena spoke with a puzzled tone as she watched Jiyun’s horrified voice. Jiyun’s expression looked as though her words had been cut off for a moment; then, before Sena had even finished speaking, she spun around and hurried off somewhere in a rush.
These idiots…