Swallowing a Company Whole
From this moment on, this place—
"What are you doing home at this hour? Did you forget something?"
Kim Kang-hyun's wife greeted her husband's early return with a flat, unimpressed look. The usual stream of complaints followed—why hadn't he answered his phone, why hadn't he at least called, and so on.
Kim Kang-hyun answered with the air of a man about to collapse from sheer exhaustion.
"Just drop it and look at this."
"What is it?"
"Plane tickets."
His wife's eyes went round as she scanned the documents.
"What—why London?"
"Three-week itinerary, all the way up through Scotland. That family trip you've been singing about forever."
"Okay, but out of nowhere? Where did you even get all this?"
She had wanted a family trip, yes—but this was far too sudden. All she'd ever hoped for was that her husband would ease up on work and spend a little time with them. Anywhere nearby would have been fine. An overseas vacation had never even crossed her mind.
"You didn't go pick up some side gig, did you…?"
She pressed him, worried he'd overworked himself just to scrape the tickets together. Kim Kang-hyun let out a deflated little laugh.
"When would I have had the time?"
He told her everything that had happened earlier that day. How some girl had stormed into the police station. How she'd loudly declared she was going to catch the terrorists—and then actually did. And how it had all led to a bet involving the word seong.
His wife's face went pale.
"…Is that girl completely unhinged?"
Kim Kang-hyun burst out laughing.
"You think so?"
"I mean—'Wanna lose your balls or change your sex?' Isn't that terrifying? Even if she's young and doesn't know any better, who actually makes someone change their sex?"
That set Kim Kang-hyun off into a fit of wheezing laughter. Hearing the story secondhand, without having witnessed any of it firsthand, the girl did sound like a full-blown lunatic. He wiped his eyes and answered.
"I have no idea. Anyway, her guardian signed off on it, so you can relax."
"Who's the guardian?"
"Kang Jiye. Deputy Director of the Incheon Branch."
"…?"
His wife blinked rapidly.
"Deputy Director of the Incheon Branch? So she's a high-ranking Hunter."
Kim Kang-hyun nodded.
"Which is exactly why I couldn't call her out on what she meant. She was standing behind the girl making giant X's with her arms and shaking her head like crazy. Thanks to that, the kid spent the whole time mocking me for being an idiot."
"Holy crap…"
"But the vibe wasn't a threat. It felt more like she was worried about my safety. I just kept my mouth shut because I was afraid the plane tickets might get canceled."
His wife smacked her lips, then nodded.
"Fair enough… If one word from her is enough to root out a whole terrorist cell, who knows how deep her backing goes. You did the right thing keeping quiet."
"Right?"
But then his wife, still staring blankly at the documents, suddenly scowled. She spoke with a bitter little smile.
"Look, I'm grateful—but it still pisses me off. She couldn't even just say seong as in surname?"
It wasn't simply the intimidation of raw power that bothered her. It was a fundamental linguistic discomfort. And she was a former Korean language teacher, no less. The whole situation was so perfectly twisted it almost felt deliberate.
Kim Kang-hyun shrugged.
"Cheap price for a business deal, if you ask me. We can pick up a souvenir later and tuck it into a thank-you letter."
"Yeah… but why send us on an overseas trip in the first place? It's completely ridiculous."
"Hell if I know either."
"Hah—now this is justice served!"
This is exactly why you should never open your mouth without thinking.
One careless promise, and now I was stuck shipping people off to a foreign country. And because the condition included the whole family, the guilt was going to hit twice as hard.
Inspector Kim Kang-hyun was probably going to eat nothing but dirty looks the entire trip there and back.
"Right, Mother?"
Kang Jiye rolled her eyes just a fraction and answered.
"…Mm. So. Did you enjoy it?"
"Huh?"
"Did you enjoy it. Sending Inspector Kim Kang-hyun off on that castle trip."
"Obviously?"
"If it made our Pecia happy, then I support it."
It almost felt like she was gently placating me—but that had to be my imagination.
Honestly, following up Windsor Castle with Edinburgh Castle might have been a bit much. But a promise was a promise.
And since Kang Jiye's connections could apparently arrange the lodging too, I'd already done more than enough on my end.
Revenge succeeded… and yet I feel so empty.
I'd won the bet and wiped out the Fifth Cult, but my bank account had a gaping hole blown straight through it.
I walked home lost in thought.
The Party Bears wrecked this time numbered nearly a thousand. The Toy Soldiers still needed repairs too. Restoring all of them would take an absurd amount of capital—and unfortunately, I did not have that kind of money.
But I knew exactly how to fix a situation like this.
"Mother."
"Hm?"
"Would you head home first?"
"Why?"
"I'm about to go shake down the Director for cash, and since he's done right by you, it might get a little awkward with you there."
"…"
Kang Jiye asked with a distinctly uneasy look.
"How much are you planning to squeeze out of him?"
"Hard to say? The terrorist bounties alone should be worth hundreds of millions, and then there's the compensation for stopping the Bukhan Mountain attack, plus damages for every resource I lost in the process—I'll be itemizing every last detail."
One way or another, I sent Kang Jiye home and headed for the Central Hunter Administration. Whether he was swamped because of the cultists I'd dragged in, the Director didn't show his face right away.
So I ended up waiting alone in his office for a bit.
"Bee-ee!"
I opened the door to find a pink Party Bear dancing on top of the desk.
Being able to amuse themselves without supervision was one of their better qualities—but this one looked a little too cheerful, so I pressed my thumb into a sensitive spot.
"Boop the nose—!"
"Bwuak!"
It immediately clapped both paws over its nose and bounced straight up. Footsteps approached from outside, and I sat down on the sofa as if nothing had happened.
The Director opened the door, looking thoroughly bewildered.
"What is it?"
"Ah—I wanted to talk about the bounties on those wanted criminals, and about Bukhan Mountain."
"…No, I mean why is that thing snorting and glaring daggers at you."
Now that he mentioned it, the Party Bear was indeed staring me down.
You wanna die?
I narrowed my eyes right back. The creature averted its gaze and scrambled up onto the Director's back.
"Bee-ee (fuck)."
I grinned and greeted the Director properly.
"Been well?"
He took the seat of honor and answered.
"Well enough. We only saw each other a few hours ago."
"I'll cut to the chase. Give me money."
Pffah!
The Director sprayed his tea. He coughed and hacked like he was about to choke, then stared at me.
"Money? What money?"
"I just told you. The bounties on the wanted suspects and the Bukhan Mountain compensation."
"If you wait, it'll be processed and paid out on its own, won't it?"
"Would I be here if I weren't in a hurry?"
"…"
The Director sighed.
"Things aren't great on our end either. A lot of mid- and low-rank Hunters died in the recent terrorist attacks."
"Ah… You have my deepest condolences for their noble sacrifice."
The Director's expression brightened a little.
"Thank you. Which is why—"
I cut him off before he could finish.
"Then if you don't have cash, pay me in goods."
The Director blinked.
"Hm?"
"I understand the Administration is strapped. But that's a cash problem, right? The Administration has to be sitting on stockpiles of Mana Wood, Mana Cloth, Mana Cotton, and the rest. Hand them over."
"Hah… What is this, a highway robbery?"
"I'm collecting what's owed to me. You'd do well not to treat me like some pushover. I already know you're the type who'll pay up eventually, so stop dancing around it and let's wrap this up."
The Director's brow furrowed. He stroked his chin.
"…You know, it's strange. Kim Seojun does the same thing. Both of you talk to me like you already know me inside and out."
"Whatever. Are you giving it to me or not?"
He tapped the armrest of his chair, lost in thought for a moment.
"Strictly speaking, Bukhan Mountain isn't under our jurisdiction."
"…Don't be petty."
The Director let out a hollow laugh.
"I'm stating a fact. We can offer humanitarian support, of course—but it's firmly civilian territory. There's no reason a government agency should bear responsibility."
"…"
Fucking slippery bastard.
In practice, every domain where Hunters operated fell under the Hunter Administration's purview. Sure, the incident had happened at an academy training ground—but that training ground existed specifically to produce Hunters.
It was absolutely not unrelated.
Administration personnel got dispatched there all the time, and I'd heard transfers from the training grounds into the Administration were common too.
But just as I was about to push back, the Director spoke with a light sigh.
"…So let me make this clear. This is not me being forced to compensate you."
"What?"
He tapped at his smartwatch, and the TV screen lit up.
An aerial view of what looked like a factory complex filled the display.
"A comprehensive manufacturing firm I own. Produces all kinds of materials. High-grade Mana Cloth and Mana Cotton included, of course."
"…!"
"I'll turn over the entire output of that facility to you. And I'll expand the Mana Cloth production line."
"Uh… isn't that a little excessive?"
The Director fixed me with a deepened gaze.
"Setting species aside—if I'm being honest, even this much isn't enough. Do you have any idea how many lives you saved?"
"Well, Bukhan Mountain did get pretty intense. Just the wrecked Party Bears alone…"
"It wasn't only Bukhan Mountain. You performed rescue operations at the disaster sites too. And you cried over a child crushed beneath a building, didn't you? Hearing that made me feel ashamed, frankly. What am I, if a magic beast can feel more than I do? I've never grieved a stranger's death that deeply myself."
"…"
He smiled bitterly and asked,
"Are magic beasts always so emotionally rich?"
I stared at the floor for a moment, then shook my head.
"I doubt it. Even the 'original me' would never have cried in a million years."
"The original you?"
"Yeah. Smirking about it, maybe. Crying? Not a chance."
"…"
The Director stared at me intently. While he sat there lost in thought, I offered a belated reaction.
"So basically, that makes me the company president, right?"
"Hm? Haha, well—"
The Director, who'd answered on pure reflex, suddenly went wide-eyed.
"Wait. What did you just say?"
"You said you'd give me the entire production output! That means everything besides Mana Cloth counts too, right? Hell yeah!"
Faced with my unfiltered glee, the Director could only open and close his mouth in silence.
There was a bit of trial and error after that—but one way or another, I swallowed up an entire company that day.