I Forgot
"Yeongsu. What the hell is going on right now?"
Yoon Jiseok asked Jang Yeongsu with a dazed look on his face. Only moments ago, Jin Dohyuk had been radiating killing intent and Lee Jaeseong had been sitting on the sofa — and now both of them had vanished without a trace.
"...Looks like it's a title effect."
"A title effect?"
"Remember how that lunatic Jin Dohyuk bragged about catching a variant monster in a gate a while back? I'm guessing the ability he got from killing it is something like this."
Jang Yeongsu said this with a grave expression. It was true that [Solitary Fighting Demon Urkan] was a fairly well-known named monster, and Jin Dohyuk's victory over it was an equally famous story.
The problem was that no one knew what special effect killing a named monster granted — and Jang Yeongsu simply suspected it had something to do with the phenomenon unfolding before them.
"...So then, which one of them are we supposed to be rooting for?"
"That guy, obviously."
"Why?"
Jang Yeongsu let out an involuntary sigh at the sight of his friend staring at him with such an innocent face. His friend was, without question, hopelessly deficient in both strategic thinking and situational judgment.
"Think about it. If Jin Dohyuk wins, do you really think he'll just leave us be? We lied to his face, and now we know his secret on top of that."
"Ah... good point."
"And besides, that drop of blood we took earlier. There's no telling how that might factor into this."
Jang Yeongsu shook his head as he watched his friend's face turn pale, belatedly processing the implications.
"Gah."
It was at that exact moment that Lee Jaeseong reappeared.
Just as before he'd vanished, he sat in his chair with a perfectly calm expression.
"What are you so startled about? You look like you've committed some crime."
"N-no. Hurk. No, sir."
At Lee Jaeseong's words, Yoon Jiseok let out an involuntary hiccup, but Jang Yeongsu was different.
Even in that brief span of time, his mind had raced ahead, and he arrived at the conclusion that Lee Jaeseong had already dealt with Jin Dohyuk. And in that situation, there was only one thing for him to say.
"Shall we take over Mapo as it stands?"
"No need. Too much hassle. There are other guilds there anyway, aren't there?"
At Lee Jaeseong's words, Jang Yeongsu quietly bowed his head. It was a shame to let an entire district like Mapo slip away, but the decision wasn't his to make — it was Jaeseong's.
"Then I'm off. Ah — my nephew liked those toys, by the way."
With that, Lee Jaeseong walked straight out of the office.
"That was his way of telling us to buy more toys, right?"
Jang Yeongsu merely clicked his tongue at his friend, who asked him this with a straight face.
The news of Jin Dohyuk's death reached the world from an unexpected source: a well-known American hunter community across the Pacific.
Sightings of a strange monster issuing duel challenges were beginning to pour in from all across America, regardless of gate rank. At first they were nothing more than a handful of eyewitness accounts, but it didn't take long for the creature's identity to come to light.
It took less than an hour for that brief exchange on the American hunter forums to cross over into the Korean communities. Information-hungry Korean guild members and netizens began spreading the posts far and wide, and rumors of Jin Dohyuk's death were quietly blossoming across every board.
And rumors, as a rule, attract other rumors.
As the rumor spread further and further, the Korean hunter scene had no choice but to be thrown into absolute upheaval. The death of Jin Dohyuk — who had ruled over the Mapo district with the raw, overwhelming power unique to returnees — was all but confirmed.
The Heukchi Guild was already starting to collapse from within, and the other guilds of Mapo were biding their time, watching hungrily for the power vacuum. Meanwhile, the leadership of the guilds dominating the rest of Seoul felt a chill of crisis and began quietly keeping their heads down.
It was a post built on pure speculation with no evidence whatsoever — and yet, strangely enough, it carried an odd persuasiveness.
The great tectonic shift of the Korean hunter scene had officially begun.
"...Jin Dohyuk is dead?"
Kang Iseol, Guild Master of Baekya in Yeongdeungpo, set down her tablet with trembling hands.
It had been only a few days since she'd gone to that shabby old apartment in Guro to ask for help. She had originally gone intending an alliance of equals — or perhaps an outright absorption — but the moment she came face to face with the true master of Guro, those ambitions had folded up cleanly on their own.
He was an overwhelming power who had no need whatsoever for a hand like hers.
Which meant all Kang Iseol could offer him wasn't cooperation, but a simple plea. And yet, even knowing that, she genuinely hadn't expected things to turn out like this.
The alliance of guilds threatening Yeongdeungpo. Of all of them, the one who worried her most had been Jin Dohyuk, Guild Master of the Heukchi Guild in Mapo. She could manage the other guild masters somehow or another, but a returnee known as the Berserker — against him, no answer had ever presented itself.
And that very Jin Dohyuk had died in the span of mere days.
No — strictly speaking, no one could say for certain that he was dead. But it was a fact that Baekya Guild's situation had improved dramatically. The allied guilds that had been encroaching on Baekya's territory and picking fights at every turn were now tucking their tails and cowering.
He's my benefactor. The man who saved Baekya — no, who saved me and my guild.
In Kang Iseol's eyes, a deep relief bloomed alongside a distant awe directed at Lee Jaeseong. Though, curiously, that was also the moment the image flashed through her mind of those innocent-faced children squabbling over whether to call her "auntie" or "uncle's wife."
"When someone does you a kindness, you owe them a proper thanks."
Kang Iseol murmured this to herself in the empty guild master's office, her cheeks faintly flushed.
She had a car prepared in front of the guild office at once, bought up an enormous premium hanwoo gift set with her own hands, and headed for the old apartment in Guro.
Creeeak—
The distance from Baekya's guild headquarters to Lee Jaeseong's home wasn't far at all.
"I'll walk from here."
Before long, Kang Iseol arrived at Jaeseong's apartment complex, said this to her driver, and stepped out of the car. It was at that very moment that her senses — those of an A-rank hunter counted among the very top — picked up something suspicious.
Who is that?
Kang Iseol instinctively suppressed her presence and hid herself behind a corner flower bed. A man with the collar of an old coat turned up and a hat pulled low over his eyes was sweeping the location of Jaeseong's home with a piercing glare.
He looked suspicious beyond all measure at a glance.
Kang Iseol wondered, idly, why this kind of thing kept happening every single time she came looking for Jaeseong's home — but she couldn't afford to repeat the same mistakes as last time.
Which of those bastards is it this time?
The suspicious man's identity was almost certainly a spy sent by one of the guild alliance. Of course, she knew that whatever the alliance tried would be meaningless before Jaeseong's overwhelming might — but nipping trouble in the bud was always the better policy.
With eyes gone cold and sharp, Kang Iseol slowly closed in on the man from behind.
Thud—
But the man was taken from behind far more easily than she had anticipated. Under her surprise attack, his body crumpled — and as he fell, she caught a glimpse of his face.
"...Nǐ shì shéi (Who on earth are you?)"
The words that tumbled from the collapsing man's mouth were Chinese.
And Kang Iseol simply stood there in silence, staring down at the man her ambush had knocked unconscious.
He's... not with the alliance?
Only then did Kang Iseol realize she had made a very serious misunderstanding — but the deed was already done.
What kind of pairing is this supposed to be?
I couldn't help but wear an exasperated expression as I looked at the two uninvited guests sitting side by side on my living room floor. Add in my brother-in-law perched at the dining table, munching popcorn with an expression of pure entertainment as he watched us, and Seo Yeon and Seo Jun squabbling nearby — and my head was starting to ache all on its own.
On one side sat Kang Iseol, Guild Master of Baekya, hugging a premium hanwoo gift set with her head bowed and her face scarlet. On the other sat Wei Jinsheng, still in his ratty old coat, gingerly rubbing the back of his neck.
Honestly, I'd expected Kang Iseol to show up sooner or later — but Wei Jinsheng, who was supposed to be in China, coming to find me was something I hadn't anticipated at all.
Still, there was a more pressing matter at hand.
"So let me get this straight. You thought he was some suspicious character, so you knocked him out?"
"...Yes. I thought he'd come to spy."
I asked this of Kang Iseol. From what I could piece together, she'd mistaken something about the situation and attacked Wei Jinsheng. I narrowed my eyes and studied her.
How should I put it. Despite not looking the part at all, there was something distinctly... hapless about her.
"...I'm so sorry. I didn't realize he was a guest."
I let out a short sigh at the sight of Kang Iseol wearing the expression of someone who wanted to crawl into a mouse hole and disappear. The only saving grace was that her hand wasn't as lethal as it could have been.
Had it been any of the other Blood Heaven Cult subordinates, the man wouldn't have been knocked out — his head would have been smashed in on the spot.
"And you? You're supposed to be in China. What brings you to Korea?"
"...I came to see you."
At my question, Wei Jinsheng — who had been rubbing the back of his neck with a sour expression — turned to me and answered. Kang Iseol stared at him in wide-eyed surprise at the discovery that he spoke Korean, but I had known that all along, so I simply carried on the conversation.
"To see me?"
"Yes. There's something I need to confirm with you."
I couldn't help but find his words puzzling. It was true that I owed him a small debt, but I had no idea what he could possibly need to confirm with me.
"Ah — first, I should explain my situation."
Wei Jinsheng, who had thrown a furtive glare at Kang Iseol just moments before, began laying out his circumstances with an attitude of deference reserved for me alone: that he had fallen from power within China, and fled to Korea in something close to a escape.
"Right. I get that your situation is dire. But what exactly is it you need to confirm with me?"
Having heard him out in full, I asked him this. I did intend to help him, given the small connection between us — but what he wanted to verify remained a complete mystery.
"The gate you came out of. I need to confirm what it actually is. It was clearly unlike any ordinary gate — entry was impossible from this side, after all. And the problem is that the gate itself is still open. It has not closed."
"Ah! Right."
At his words, I let out a short exclamation of realization.
"Now that you mention it... I completely forgot to close it behind me."
It was only now, belatedly, that I remembered — the gate I'd left open was still hanging open, exactly as I'd left it.