The Masked Banquet
"May I see your invitation?"
Seoul S Hotel. Eunha had been about to walk in as if it were the most natural thing in the world when she caught herself and stopped.
"......Here."
She held out the red envelope she had prepared in advance. The man in the suit examined it with care, then returned it.
"Thank you. I'll show you to the grand banquet hall. This way, please."
He did not lead her to the elevator at the center of the lobby, but somewhere else entirely. Eunha followed, glancing about as she went. The lobby was deserted. Even the front desk stood empty.
Was a party really being held in a place like this? The hush was so complete that the doubt crept in despite her.
"You may use this elevator."
"Thank you."
So there was another one, tucked away in a corner like this. Eunha gazed at the golden automatic doors before her. They opened. She stepped into the glittering car, and though she never touched a button, it began to climb on its own.
How many floors is this thing going?
She lifted her eyes. There was no floor indicator, no monitor — nothing of the kind. Only a single mirror on the left-hand wall. She studied her reflection once more.
A black mermaid dress falling to the knee. Aside from the sheer puff sleeves, the design was clean, almost bare of ornament, and with it the black cat-shaped mask she had worn at the last auction.
I can hardly show up in the Princess of Dark Flare's dress.
She had rushed out of the house that morning and broken a sweat choosing something to wear. In the end she was glad she had taken the shop clerk's recommendation and bought a reasonable one. Fingering the mask, she waited in silence for the elevator to arrive.
When these doors opened, Yijun would be somewhere on the other side. She still did not know why he had invited her here, and there was no promise she would learn the reason tonight. But she had come. If she had not, whatever she might have learned would have ended as something she never knew.
Ding-dong—
The doors, which had seemed as if they might never open, finally did. Eunha stepped out slowly.
GRAND BANQUET HALL ▶▶
A sign had been set, helpfully, right in front of her. She looked around and walked slowly in the direction it indicated.
The corridor was glass on both sides, so the world outside was easy to see. No wonder the elevator doors had taken so long. The surrounding buildings looked like toys. This place had to be very high up.
Not far off, a violin carried through the air. Then the blaze of a chandelier struck her eyes, and she lifted a hand to shade them.
People stood in twos and threes, enjoying the party. Even a rough count put them well past a hundred. A few glanced her way, but no one came over.
Eunha scanned the room for anyone who looked like Yijun. With every face hidden behind a mask, it was no easy search. In the end she set it aside and let her back settle against the wall.
......What now.
Having come this far, simply turning around felt wrong. Staying where she was did not seem likely to help her find him either.
Unni, is that guy even really here? Starts to suspect you got stood up for nothing.
If he wanted to see you, he should've come find you himself! Snorts: why all this come-here, go-there fuss?
The cat was plainly furious. Eunha agreed with it, at least in part. Look as she might, she could not find anyone who resembled Yijun, and she could hardly seize every masked guest one by one and ask whether they were him.
Could it have been someone's prank? It didn't seem likely. Aside from Siwoo, no one knew what lay between her and Yijun.
Maybe I should just go back.
She was sunk in the thought when—
"......?"
She lifted her head.
The air had changed. The murmur died away, and someone's footsteps rang through the hall louder than all the rest. A man stepped onto the platform and took the microphone.
"On a splendid night like this, I offer my thanks to everyone who has graced us with their presence. I am wearing a mask, but I ought to introduce myself. I am Go Daeyun, president of the Korean Hunter Association."
A mask splendidly dressed in red feathers. Its wearer was President Daeyun. The chandelier poured its light over him, and every person in the hall, Eunha among them, turned to look. A man in a suit at his side interpreted the words into English. There were, it seemed, more than a few foreigners among the guests.
"Before the party begins in earnest, there is something I would like you to hear."
"Decades ago, I awakened by chance and became a hunter. I thought I had been chosen. I was elated to believe I had become someone special, unlike other people."
"But in the decades I spent working as a hunter after that, I met more hunters than I could count. They were stronger than I was, finer, and braver."
"Perhaps I am not so special after all. Perhaps I am a person of no particular account. The thought came to me. Weak of me, I know."
"To me, beaten down as I was, my father said this."
You are strong. But that does not mean they are weak."
"Only now, I think, do I understand what he meant."
"It is a sad thing to hide behind rank for the sake of convenience, and to judge one another's worth by a single letter of the alphabet."
"I hope that, at least in this room tonight, we will not."
"Every one of us is special."
"It comes to the same thing."
"Because we are, all of us, hunters."
The long speech left the banquet hall silent. Daeyun took the microphone again, a faint smile on his lips.
"Those are the words Maestro said to me before I opened this party."
Maestro. At that alias, the room began to stir.
"......"
In the midst of it, Eunha stood where she was and stared at Daeyun. Through the restless quiet, he went on without a waver.
"This year, Korea — the Korean hunter world — has received a great gift. The holder of Prime, the special title the World Hunter Organization grants only to the top ten of the Global Ranking. To us he is better known as the first S-rank. Maestro. He is here."
"Before I am president of the Korean Association, I am one hunter, and as a hunter I agree with his thinking. So this year we have chosen to hold a special party: a masked banquet. I hope it will be a night none of you forget."
"Thank you."
Clap, clap, clap......
Daeyun came down from the platform to applause. Of those who stopped clapping, half turned back to their glasses and the party, and the other half glanced about as if searching for whoever looked like Maestro.
Eunha ought to have looked for him too. She did not. She only stood there, perfectly still.
Prime...... Maestro......
......Baek Yijun.
He was not the man she had known. Everything about him was strange — even the "story of Yijun" that had just come from the Association president's mouth. She had understood as much at their last reunion, but here it became real. The Yijun she knew was nowhere now.
Had he invited her to this place for no other reason than to make that plain? If so, it was an effective method. Prime, as named by the World Hunter Organization. The first S-rank. Nothing but unrealities, poured out without end, and she had no room left to feel the old ache of missing him.
"What was I even hoping for?"
A self-mocking smile touched her mouth as she murmured it.
Ting.
Huh? Unni, why'd you suddenly get all gloomy? Plants its hands on its hips and snorts at the room: who did this?!
The bastard who called you here and never showed is the one in the wrong. Insists you go home this instant — there is not one reason to stay a single second longer.
Winks: how about we go home and play that game of twenty questions from last time? Tonight, special occasion, I'll put up 3,000 Coins.
......So this was a day she lived long enough to be comforted by a cat. Eunha slowly swept a hand across the yellow message window floating before her eyes.
Yes. Time to go home.
Staying did not seem likely to bring her to Yijun anyway. And even if she did meet him, she no longer knew whether they could manage a real conversation. He was a hunter famous across the world now.
She started slowly toward the exit of the banquet hall. And then—
Thud.
"......Ah."
Just before she could leave, her shoulder struck someone else's. The brooch on her dress fell to the floor.
"Ah, I'm sorry."
A man in a black suit and a white mask. The mask's smiling eyes left an odd impression. As he bent to pick up the brooch, a thick wave of perfume reached the tip of her nose.
"Here. The mask was in the way. You aren't hurt?"
He held the brooch out. Eunha took it and glanced up at him.
Silver-gray eyes, glimpsed through the mask. When they met hers, her brow drew faintly tight.
"Baek......"
Her lips had barely parted when—
"......Eunha?"
His parted as well. A stunned voice, as if the soul had left it. He was wearing a mask, and still he knew her at once.
So did she. In that brief instant, she understood who he was. She had every reason to.
"What are you doing here......?"
Baek Yijun.
Because he was the old comrade with whom she had shared so many years.