An Excellent Negotiator Doesn't Negotiate (1)

The HIM Guild headquarters in Gangnam.

The second-highest floor of a tower that stabbed at the sky.

Within that vast space sat exactly two people.

"Sit wherever you're comfortable."

"This building is something else. Wow, look at that Han River view."

Honestly, at this altitude you could probably see the river all the way from Gyeonggi Province.

That's not an exaggeration, either — with hunter-grade eyesight, it'd genuinely be possible.

"Impressive, isn't it? It's only recently completed, so it still feels polished. Taesan's headquarters looks like some IT company from the nineties by comparison."

"Haha. I take it you're quite close with Guildmaster Kang Tae-san?"

"That old man insists on adoring me, so what can I do."

Creeeak—

Bantering with easy small talk, Lee Jun settled into his seat.

Not at the big desk in the center, but at a small table beside the sofa.

This arrangement was simply more comfortable.

Kim Seong-hyun, in turn, took the seat across from him.

In the slits of his unreadable eyes, something like a faint glint of hidden steel seemed to flicker.

"Shall we, then... get down to the reason for your visit today?"

"Simple enough. Negotiation."

What the negotiation concerned was abundantly clear.

an A-Class gate inside HIM's territory.

A matter of proxy clearance for that precarious gate — one with fewer than ten days left until its break.

"Honestly, I was quite surprised when I received your call."

"I understand. To be truthful, we didn't expect the auction to collapse like that on our end, either. Time was short, so I swallowed my embarrassment and reached out."

The two men exchanged words beneath practiced, courteous smiles.

Now, let's decode what those two little exchanges actually meant.

Lee Jun had pointed out the abruptness and discourtesy of HIM's sudden proposal.

Things like this were supposed to follow official procedure.

Skipping all of that and abruptly dropping an A-Class gate — a major asset — into his lap?

Setting aside the shock of it, this was flat-out disrespectful to a fellow organization.

Twice as disrespectful coming from a brand-new company of exactly three people, no less.

Kim Seong-hyun had understood that subtext perfectly.

Of course he had.

The man had been around this industry long enough.

Like Lee Jun, Kim Seong-hyun handled politics and management rather than combat.

He occupied, within HIM, the position Lee Jun had once held in the Association.

So he had parried in kind:

The auction house, until now under the Vice-Chairman's jurisdiction, suddenly developing a hole like this?

Isn't that a variable created by none other than your own retirement?

'Annoying, but... he's not wrong.'

{So what? You're already retired. What does it have to do with you? He's just picking a fight for nothing.}

You could look at it that way, sure.

But this kind of work was supposed to be handled thoroughly.

When you got down to it, the Association was a government institution.

{Hmm...}

Lee Jun, who had abruptly announced his retirement, did bear some fault here.

He'd trusted the Director of the Technology Bureau far too much and rushed through the handover.

...Wait, hold on. Didn't that guy tell him to leave it alone, that he'd handle it himself?

Well... the Director was Lee Jun's own appointment, after all... and at the end of the day, everything like this was the boss's fault.

And so each side had landed a blow.

You could call the damage roughly even.

None of it was entirely Lee Jun's responsibility, and from HIM's perspective, weighed on any scale, the affair was a minor one.

But this kind of probing match only tired everyone out, so better to keep it brief and move on.

"Very well. Shall we stop measuring each other now?"

"Music to my ears. Facing you, Vice-Chairman, is a considerable drain on my sanity."

"Provoking people happens to be my one talent. Can't be helped."

"I see. Same for me, then."

In truth, Lee Jun held the upper hand in any war of nerves.

Domestically, there was simply no one you could rank above him in that department.

He could say that with confidence.

"Well, I'd rather not keep doing this even in retirement."

"You are still working as a hunter, are you not?"

"Hunters aren't the sort of people who do this."

Going straight for the throat.

The reason he'd come here today.

It was to negotiate the commission.

Lee Jun had all but declared that he intended to wrap up this negotiation quickly and leave.

"Good. Long meetings only breed fatigue — I much prefer it this way."

With that, Kim Seong-hyun handed Lee Jun the file on the gate.

HIM's territory was Gyeongsang Province.

One might wonder why their headquarters stood in Gangnam when their jurisdiction lay there — but in truth, every major guild kept its home base outside its own territory.

Even Samhwa, whose territory was Seoul itself, had its headquarters in Anyan, so that settled it.

In this day and age, travel took almost no time at all, so guilds planted their offices in the capital region purely for administrative convenience.

Samhwa had... a slightly different reason, but Gyeonggi Province was part of the capital region anyway, so what did it matter?

In any case.

HIM's territory was the Gyeongsang region — specifically the metropolitan line linking Busan, Ulsan, and Daegu.

"Busan, of all places... That's near the power plant, isn't it?"

A gate that had manifested beside a nuclear power plant.

If it reached its break... it would be a catastrophe of historic proportions.

"Which is why we couldn't simply sit on our hands. If we attempted a risky clearance and something went wrong, the exposure would be far too great."

The time remaining until the gate break was uncomfortably tight.

The projected break date was October 10th.

Today was September 29th, which left exactly ten days to clear it.

Factoring in a margin of error, they realistically needed it cleared within eight.

And here was the problem: October 6th was Chuseok.

As a major guild, HIM was obligated to attend events hosted by the state.

Which meant time was truly running out.

There were, of course, options.

The first was what he was doing now — delegating the clearance to another organization.

And the second was—

"I'll be honest with you. This contradicts the groaning I did a moment ago, but... if we pushed ourselves, our own personnel could clear it. Our Guildmaster will be returning soon, too."

Pushing themselves.

Not a good option — but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠if the possibility was there, it wasn't a bad one either.

Gate clearance had never been a game of dice, after all.

The chance of success and the chance of failure coexisted, always.

Whether you were a D-Class hunter or an S-Class one.

"So I'll speak boldly. If you accept our terms when we stake Antilek's Bonfire, I believe it will profit both HIM and S-Class Hunter Management."

Oh-ho.

That was quite the gambit from the other side.

We don't even need to hand you the commission.

In other words: pressure — accept the deal even when a transcendent-tier artifact is on the table.

A worthless artifact, admittedly, but the mere name of transcendent tier carried weight.

Unfortunately, as a move played against Lee Jun, it was the worst of bad plays.

He might have wavered if they'd held firm that their spare manpower could never clear it in a hundred years.

Negotiation was negotiation — but Lee Jun's first priority was civilian casualties.

From their side, the strongest card would have been to emphasize that the only place capable of taking on a proxy clearance was his management agency.

The gate break was mere days away, after all.

They couldn't simply let it rupture, so Lee Jun would have loosened his terms regardless.

'They misread the board.'

Lee Jun's public image was that of a man who played the cheerful clown on the surface while hiding something black and cold beneath.

{It's mostly accurate, isn't it?}

Well... he couldn't deny all of it.

But there was one premise about him that never changed, wasn't there?

{Hmph. That again?}

Silhouette snorted through their link.

She was probably wearing an intrigued expression right about now.

Maybe he had Freya to thank for that.

These days her emotions came through to him with far more clarity.

Savoring that rising interest, Lee Jun spoke.

"A safe nation. A safe life."

"I'm sorry?"

"A slogan I coined back in my Association days. We raised it at every national hunter recruitment drive."

A hunter's first obligation.

Move for the sake of those without power.

Hunters existed to protect the unawakened — and, by extension, anyone weaker than themselves.

Otherwise, they were nothing more than awakened individuals.

Indeed, most unregistered awakeners hid their status precisely because they had no desire to be hunters.

"HIM has always been an Association-friendly guild, hasn't it?"

"...It has."

Kim Seong-hyun seemed to sense something ominous, and he hesitated before answering.

Probably searching his memory for some mistake he might have made.

Not that he'd ever find it.

"We accept the commission. As for compensation — Antilek's Bonfire will do nicely."

"......"

The truth was, Lee Jun had never intended to refuse.

The negotiation was, and always had been, a formality of conclusion.

This entire meeting had been nothing more than a mutual probing of hands.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

...As long as that impression got across, it was a success.

'Life is easier when you're the sly one.'

Let them leap to their own conclusions, let them run wild with their own reasoning — and everything flows smoothly without you lifting a finger.

Lee Jun knew from long practice that this was the easiest and most effective way to operate.

Hard-won know-how from years of hands-on fieldwork.

"Besides, once Ms. Yoo Ha-eul returns, this resolves itself — perfectly timed, really."

"...One could put it that way."

"What a pity, then. As I understand it, she's required to stay in the United States until at least the 12th."

"......"

Yoo Ha-eul was currently deployed to America.

A guild there, an old partner of HIM's, had suffered devastating losses when an S-Class gate broke.

That incident had occurred in the previous timeline as well, and it had been the springboard from which Yoo Ha-eul leapt into true S-Class territory.

However.

An S-Class gate break was no picnic.

Her return date was October 12th.

Well... in the previous timeline the auction had gone through properly, so no break had occurred — but either way, her return date held no variables.

'Regression ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠really is the best. I keep telling you.'

Informational asymmetry.

Of everything regression had given him, it was the thing he loved most — right after his life.

Watching Kim Seong-hyun's carefully maintained composure wobble, Lee Jun added, almost kindly:

"To be honest, I already knew roughly how things stood at HIM. Today's negotiation was... how should I put it? A friendly social call."

"......"

"You know that old saying, don't you? An excellent negotiator doesn't negotiate."

The phrase originally came from the principle that the best negotiation is refusing to negotiate at all — never giving your opponent what they want.

Most often applied to hostage situations.

But what Lee Jun had just done meant something even further beyond that.

He had forced the choice upon them.

From the very start, HIM had possessed no option other than the outcome Lee Jun wanted.

Simply put, HIM had been testing him — not that he had any intention of playing along.

Winning what you want without ever negotiating.

We call that a free lunch.

{That is not remotely a free lunch...}

It was absolutely a free lunch.

When it was this easy?

{Hmph. If you say so.}

Lee Jun flashed Kim Seong-hyun a bright, easy smile.

The negotiation was already over.

The table had shattered, so yes — over and done.

Either way, the victor appeared to be Lee Jun.

And to that man, Kim Seong-hyun said:

"Hmm... didn't you say we were done measuring each other?"

"Hahahaha."

Laughter burst out of Lee Jun before he could stop it.

Such a naively honest complaint, straight from Kim Seong-hyun's mouth.

Clearly, first-years were still wet behind the ears.

'This side's got eleven years on the clock, regression included.'

And with that thought, Lee Jun delivered his signature smile-laced parting shot.

"Did you believe me?"

"......"

Kim Seong-hyun's narrowed eyes drifted slightly apart.

Apparently the shock had exceeded his self-imposed threshold — his expression management was failing.

Ah, this was a masterpiece.

"Well then, I'll be off."

"...Yes. I assume you won't be needing an escort."

"Of course not. I'm not a toddler."

"Get home safely."

The eyes of Kim Seong-hyun as he said those words were — quite sharp.

After Lee Jun left the vice-guildmaster's office.

Kim Seong-hyun remained on the sofa, glaring at the table.

On it sat the documents he himself had handed over.

He accepted it... without even glancing through them.

"......"

Rriiing—

And then, the ringing phone.

He answered before the first ring had even finished.

A young woman's voice carried through the speaker.

Kim Seong-hyun exhaled once, then relayed the negotiation in meticulous detail.

On the other end of the line, the woman listened to the report as though it were great entertainment.

The woman laughed off his account with hearty good humor.

The negotiation had gone well, and whatever Kim Seong-hyun had felt in the process was, frankly, of little importance to her.

This man had a stubbornly self-directed streak, after all.

Which ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was why what she was curious about was something else entirely.

Lee Jun, retired from public office, could summon total sincerity at will — or turn stingy and evasive just as fast.

In short: the man refused to lose.

She had tasted that once herself, and she had wanted her own vice-guildmaster to feel it too.

And today's negotiation had unfolded exactly as she'd hoped.

"He is, without question, no ordinary opponent."

—Hahahaha! Of course not! He's someone I acknowledged, after all!

"...I'm not sure how much credibility that title carries, but having seen him myself, I understand why you rate him so highly."

Kim Seong-hyun admitted it, though it stung.

The fact that he had misread his opponent from the very beginning.

Next time they met... he wasn't sure he could win the war of nerves, but he would at least refuse to lose it.

And beyond Kim Seong-hyun's resolve, on the far end of that call—

—on the other side of the planet, she too was already anticipating their next meeting.

Guildmaster of HIM, one of Korea's four great guilds.

Yoo Ha-eul.

Deployed to the United States, she stood atop an endless mountain of monster corpses, savoring the glittering night sky above.

"Yeah. I really can't wait."

Hanging up the phone, she murmured those words to no one at all.