When a Fox Becomes King Even in a Tiger’s Domain (1)
If I’d been on my own, I would’ve gone to Red Mercenary. Hell, I might not even have chosen Blue at all.
To my eyes, Blue was already a guild on the road to collapse, a rotten basin of stale water and dead water all mixed together, sinking through the floor and into a pit of filth.
Looking only at the present, choosing Blue was a gamble so reckless it bordered on insanity.
The guild master seemed to have died somewhere along the way.
The one we kept facing was the vice guild master, Lee Sanghee, while the old men drunk on the glory of the past were steadily hollowing the guild out from within.
They were mocked by other guilds as a matter of course.
Choosing a guild where Lee Sanghee seemed to be the only sane person was basically the same as boarding a sinking ship. That’s what I would’ve thought.
Riding Red Mercenary’s ship and laughing at the idiots going under might be exhilarating for the moment.
But I never overestimated my own abilities in the first place.
And I didn’t expect some grand transformation just because we joined Blue Guild.
That wasn’t just true for me. Kim Hyunsung was probably the same.
Our fox is surprisingly cautious.
And yet, despite that, Kim Hyunsung wanted Blue.
He’d wanted it from the very beginning.
Of course, it wasn’t like he’d never considered other options, but even now, in this very moment as things moved forward, the regressor still believed this was the right path.
Only one answer could be drawn from that.
Whether the future was near or far, joining Blue had to be more profitable than going to Red Mercenary.
If a lottery ticket with a guaranteed win was sitting right in front of you, there was no reason to go buy a different one just because the road there was inconvenient.
The regressor had placed his bet on the more certain option.
Throwing away a fortune that had practically rolled into my lap just because a few insane old men were annoying would be the height of stupidity.
Of course, there wasn’t no problem at all.
My safety.
My safety was what mattered most.
The reason I needed to find Cha Heera was to secure my own safety without ruining the picture the regressor was trying to paint.
Maybe there would come a time when I’d have to wreck Kim Hyunsung’s masterpiece for the sake of my own survival, but that time wasn’t now.
I can handle this.
I could handle a senile old man or a guild that was already half-dead.
I’m not usually a fan of gambling, but this felt like the moment to make my move.
“You mean Red Mercenary?”
“I’ll make a quick trip there.”
“Why all of a sudden…?”
“I have something to discuss with the Mercenary Queen.”
“You mean… Cha Heera.”
I gave a small nod.
Kim Hyunsung’s expression was hard to read, but as expected, Park Deokgu and Jung Hayan were in an uproar.
They’d already been put through the wringer once because of what had happened before, so it wasn’t strange for them to react like that when I said I was going to see that crazy woman.
Jung Hayan looked openly worried, while Park Deokgu kept glancing at her, awkwardly checking her mood.
In particular, Jung Hayan’s face had gone so pale it was almost ghostly, her expression looking like she was on the verge of a panic attack.
“Oppa….”
“H-Hyung… uh… you’re not going to that woman, are you…?”
“No. I’m doing something that’ll help the party.”
“Even so… that fox woman….”
“O-Oppa….”
From Jung Hayan’s point of view, it probably sounded like lightning out of a clear sky.
I had been planning to erase what had happened between Cha Heera and me as if it had never happened in the first place.
So the news that I was suddenly heading to Red Mercenary had to be unthinkable to her.
Honestly, I was a little worried she might do something reckless, but I figured if I put my own safety measures in place, things would be fine for now.
“May I ask why?”
There was no need to hide it.
“I thought I might need someone watching my back. I’ll tell you the finer details once things go well.”
“Ah… I see.”
Kim Hyunsung’s reaction wasn’t bad.
To him, this was basically me saying I was going to build a connection with her, so of course he’d welcome it.
Jung Hayan looked frightened.
She seemed to think I might be abandoning her, but of course that wasn’t going to happen.
She kept mouthing words at me like she had something to say, but whether her throat had closed up or she thought interrupting my conversation with Kim Hyunsung would be rude, she didn’t break in.
Park Deokgu stayed silent as well.
I had no choice but to gently take Jung Hayan’s hand.
“I’ll talk to her for a bit and come right back.”
“Yes.”
Normally, Jung Hayan should’ve been blushing at that, so the fact that she was reacting like this made it clear the shock was no small thing.
Leaving behind Park Deokgu’s unexpectedly delighted grin, I started walking down the hall with Jung Hayan. Only then did a voice as tiny as an ant’s reach my ears.
“D-don’t go….”
“Nothing’s going to happen.”
“But….”
“I’m just going to talk for a little while. You don’t need to worry.”
“I-I’ll go too….”
“It’ll be better if I go alone.”
“D-don’t… don’t go. If you go… if you go….”
Her voice sank lower and lower.
I’d expected something like this, but there was a strange chill running up my spine that left me a little flustered.
Still, this matter was the most important one for our party and, above all, for me.
Right now, Jung Hayan didn’t have the strength to protect me.
I pressed her lightly against the wall.
Her face had gone white, almost twisted with emotion, and surprise flashed across it.
“O… Oppa.”
I didn’t say anything.
Instead, I lifted her chin with my hand.
Jung Hayan’s face turned bright red, like it might burst, and she seemed unable to process what was happening all at once.
Instead of the low, subdued voice from before, a strangely tense one came out of her mouth.
“Oppa… oppa….”
When I slowly leaned in, I saw her looking at me as if she wanted to take in every inch of my face.
Then my lips met hers.
It wasn’t because the mood was right or the atmosphere was set—it was just a kiss. And yet, for Jung Hayan, that was apparently more than enough.
After she wrapped both arms around my head, our tongues tangled together.
I hadn’t planned on going this far, but it didn’t matter.
She clung to me with the kind of desperate intensity that made it feel as if she were trying to scrub away something filthy that had happened before.
Her grip on my hair hurt, but because of the oddly intoxicating atmosphere, even that pain felt pleasant.
“Ah….”
I’d been the one to initiate the kiss, but Jung Hayan, trembling all over, looked like she’d happily do far worse to me if given the chance.
She was clinging on as if she were finally about to unleash all the desire she’d been hiding, making it difficult to pull away from her.
Only after we both ran out of breath did our saliva stretch in a thin, glistening strand and give us a chance to catch it.
But Jung Hayan, having lost all reason, looped her arms around my neck again and opened her mouth.
“Oppa. Oppa. Oppa. Oppa.”
She kissed me again.
There was no reason to stop her.
What mattered right now was soothing her.
I wasn’t sure if she meant to do it, but a sharp little sting ran across my tongue. Jung Hayan had gently bitten it.
My expression tightened slightly, but it wasn’t a problem.
Only after Jung Hayan stared at me in shock did I slowly ease her away.
“I like you.”
I whispered sweet words into her ear.
Her whole body trembled with delight.
Yes. Delight.
That was definitely the emotion written across her face.
“I… I love… love you too.”
“I want to protect our Hayan.”
Half of that was sincere.
“I… I do too….”
“I want you to stay safe.”
“Me too!”
“That’s why this is necessary. Keeping a good relationship with that woman is something we need. Because I’m not strong enough.”
“I’m not… strong enough….”
“Yes. Because we’re not strong enough.”
“Still… still….”
“It’ll be fine.”
Jung Hayan was staring at me with a complicated expression, her mouth firmly shut.
I could roughly guess what she was thinking.
But I didn’t bother trying to interpret it any further.
Instead, I took the hand I was holding and touched my lips to hers one more time.
It was nothing special.
Jung Hayan probably thought I was being dragged off against my will, but I was really just going to have a conversation.
Still, I thought the current flow wasn’t bad.
Good.
You can’t trust an unpredictable woman.
Dangerous as she was, the person most capable of protecting me was standing right in front of me.
Her face was filled with a mysterious, almost earnest sense of responsibility.
From today on, she’d probably devote herself even more to growing stronger.
She would understand that she was too weak to keep me from leaving.
To Jung Hayan, who was shedding tears like chicken droppings, this whole situation probably looked like a documentary, but to me it was pure melodrama.
Seeing something so trivial dressed up like a massive crisis made me laugh a little for no reason.
“Nothing like last time is going to happen.”
“Hic….”
“I love you.”
“Ah… aaah….”
I’d never once said those words out loud in my life, but watching Jung Hayan’s knees give out and seeing her sink to the floor, trembling all over again, made it seem like it hadn’t been a bad choice after all.
After kissing her forehead one more time, I slowly started walking away.
The plan had partially fallen apart.
I had no choice but to rush my relationship with Jung Hayan a little.
Of course, my own evaluation of that wasn’t bad. There were more romantic ways to build something in a pleasant atmosphere, but this kind of crisis would make the bond between us just a little more solid.
Crazy old bastard.
I wasn’t the only one harmed by how pitiful my power was.
Jung Hayan was one victim. I was another.
I lacked the power to eliminate the impurities I hadn’t anticipated. If your brain is weak, your body suffers.
But the reverse is true too.
Leaving the lodging was quick work.
Not long after I set out, the place where Red Mercenary was staying came into view.
A guild member who spotted me with a startled look hurried over.
“What brings you here?”
“I’ve come to see Cha Heera.”
“Ah! Could you wait just a moment?”
“Of course.”
The place seemed to stir a little.
After a short while, one of the guild members nodded and relayed the earlier message.
“You can go inside. It’s the room at the very end.”
“Thank you.”
I had thought about what to say, but I was just as lost about how to actually get this conversation started.
My steps felt heavier than they should’ve.
Cha Heera probably had very little interest in a man named Lee Kiyoung.
If I told her I wanted to join Red Mercenary, that might change things, but that wasn’t why I was here either.
When I knocked once on the door, a voice came from inside.
“Come in.”
“Yes.”
When I opened the door and stepped inside, the first thing I saw was a woman sprawled on a bed, yawning.
Her hair was still red, and she was wearing clothes so thin they looked almost transparent.
Like before, I hesitated over where exactly I was supposed to look, but I didn’t fumble around this time and faced the power sitting in front of me.
“Looks like you’ve changed your mind.”
“No, it’s nothing like that.”
“Then… you’ll have to explain why you came here alone. I was in the middle of a nice dream, for one thing. Honestly, I’m getting a little pissed off. I don’t really like men who test the waters, you know… and it’s not like you came looking for me because you couldn’t forget your nuna while having such a gorgeous lover, either….”
I had no idea how to begin.
That was because I still hadn’t fully figured Cha Heera out yet.
Judging by her boisterous personality, acting intimidated or scared was out of the question.
Since I’d come here to make a proposal, I needed to be confident.
I drew in a breath and spoke the sentence I’d been turning over in my mind.
“I’d like you to become my sponsor.”
Silence fell over the room.
Cha Heera, looking a little surprised, soon turned toward me with a deeply intrigued expression.
Her voice was a little intoxicating.
“Hmm… you… good in bed?”
What the hell…