Chapter 2-5. The Abnormal Summit (1)
Most things in this world follow a set pattern.
The same logic applied without fail to state visits, and there was one place foreign dignitaries invariably made for the moment they set foot in Korea.
Before the Gate crisis, that place had been the National Cemetery.
And that much remained true even now.
There was, however, one place a guest of state would stop at before the cemetery—if that guest happened to be a hunter.
Namely—
"It's been far too long since I was last here."
"Hasn't it. Been keeping well, Jun?"
"Getting by."
The Gate Memorial.
Every nation in the world maintained a memorial space like this on the ground where the first Gate had torn open within its borders.
And Korea's Gate Memorial stood... in Incheon. Lee Jun's hometown.
"Didn't you say you were born and raised here?"
"I did. I'm up in Seoul for work these days, but I mean to come back down when the time is right."
"The city looks... completely gutted, though."
"Restoring the capital alone nearly broke us."
Korea had at least gotten off lighter than most countries.
No—or perhaps, in practical terms, it had been far worse. The total area of damage was narrow, but every last bit of it had been concentrated in the capital region.
"It did fall a long way behind. This place too. A sorry excuse for a metropolitan city."
Lee Jun murmured wistfully, his eyes on the memorial monument.
Back then, Korea had been forced to make choices. Resources were laughably scarce, and most of the devastated areas lay in the capital region.
Weighed by importance, first priority was obviously Seoul.
Second was Gyeonggi Province—Goyang above all. Third was Seongnam, and fourth, though it sat in the provinces, Sejong, which had taken heavy damage.
Incheon had been left scrambling, grateful just to restore the airport and its immediate surroundings.
"And yet with the pull you had, you could easily have started rebuilding from right here."
"……"
It was true, of course.
The reason Korea had recovered this much in a mere three years was Freya and the Technology Bureau Director—and it had been Lee Jun who persuaded them. He could have adjusted the order of priority if he'd wanted to. Incheon had been a metropolitan city, after all, not to mention the symbolic site of the very first disaster.
But Lee Jun had not.
"You have to think with a cold head. Resources go where the return on investment is highest. That's simply how it has to be."
"And yet you call this place precious to you. Will you be all right?"
"Memories are just old news. Cling to the past, and all you do is live in it forever."
At Lee Jun's words, the man wore a bitter smile.
"Jun. Aren't you... the one still left behind in the past?"
"……"
Lee Jun turned his head.
The blond man in his middle years was looking at him. Those brown eyes were deep enough to hold long years and memories whole.
"Ebra."
"Yes."
"Do I... look that way to you?"
"Objectively speaking, the answer is yes. Isn't that why you left?"
He gave no answer to that question.
"Then subjectively?"
"Even more of a yes."
"I see."
Lee Jun offered nothing further on the subject. He simply kept his eyes fixed on the memorial.
The silence held for a while. This time it was Ebra who spoke.
"By the way, how did you know to come here?"
"Know to come here? I drove."
"Hahaha, Jun. Your sense of humor is as terrible as ever. I mean—I threw out my official schedule and skipped a meal to get here. How did you time it so perfectly?"
"Figured you'd wander along about now."
"Oh? So something between us still connects?"
"That... broke a long time ago."
"A shame, that."
Saying so, Ebra turned his gaze to the memorial as well.
"Comrades growing fewer and fewer."
A line or two above where Lee Jun's eyes rested—
reading off, one by one, the names the man himself could hardly bear to look at.
"HAHAHA! Yelena's already gone on ahead, you say?"
"She has. Marched into my place in the dead of night without so much as a by-your-leave."
"She has always loved her surprises. Must have been fun."
"Fun my ass. I had a hell of a time prying her off me—she's still dead set on tagging along even now."
Ebra laughed heartily at Lee Jun's grumbling.
"Still the same as ever, Jun."
"What is?"
"Yelena is an illegal entrant as we speak. Were you desperately keeping her under wraps for fear she'd be found out?"
"Isn't that a bit of a leap? If she got caught, I'd be the one in trouble too."
"Hmm, fair point. Got a tidy excuse lined up this time as well?"
"Hah... aren't you the one who never changes? Still saying whatever pops into your head?"
No matter how many times he said it—
I am not that kind of man.
"……"
And there was one person watching this cozy little exchange in silence.
"You... what are you doing here?"
"Ah, just brew us two coffees, would you, Chairman?"
"Oh my, if it isn't Mr. Go! Hahaha, a pleasure."
"……"
The Hunter Association's chairman's office.
In what should have been the Chairman's private sanctum... something very much like a summit was underway.
Go Seok-gu looked at the two of them as if they'd lost their minds.
"This punk, fine, I'd expect this much—but aren't you Hunter Ebra Rubenter? Why on earth are you here...?"
"To attend to my schedule, of course."
"Schedule, meaning...?"
"A discussion with the Chairman is included in today's itinerary, as I understand it. Am I mistaken?"
"Well, you see..."
Ebra wasn't wrong.
After his summit with the President, he was due to have dinner with the Association Chairman and go over a number of pending issues. That really was the schedule.
Then again, you could also say Ebra was dead wrong.
Because that dinner had been canceled half an hour ago.
And yet here he was, strolling into the chairman's office and offering greetings without a flicker of awkwardness.
With... that man at his side, no less.
"You've got the gist of what's going on, I trust?"
"...Yeah. You pulled another one of your little schemes, didn't you?"
"'Scheme'? Let's use the word 'whim,' shall we?"
Lee Jun had asked Ebra to cancel everything on his itinerary after the memorial visit.
And Ebra had readily agreed.
— "Our strategist tells me, naturally, that is how it must be."
The theatrical flourish was just like him.
And so Lee Jun scrapped Ebra's remaining schedule and headed for the Association building, where public attention had long since faded.
The Technology Bureau Director had cleared his route the whole way, so no problems there.
As for the secretary who should have been posted at the chairman's door...
"Seriously, Secretary Choi? You let us in when the owner of the room isn't even here?"
"Frankly, the former Vice-Chairman inspires more confidence than the current Chairman."
"Hey. Whose secretary are you?"
"I am a secretary because I collect a salary. Loyalty is not part of the package."
"……"
"Haha, that's our Secretary Choi for you."
"Do enjoy your time, gentlemen."
With a quiet hiss and a soft thud, Secretary Choi bowed with impeccable courtesy and let herself out.
Like I said—the Association's top brass are still on my side.
"...And who do you think signs that salary?"
"You know as well as I do she respects you most, however she carries on."
"Right. Otherwise I'd have fired her ages ago."
Go Seok-gu let out a long sigh and sank into the chairman's chair. Then he flapped a hand at them—a declaration that he wanted no part of their talk.
Meaning: babble amongst yourselves and show yourselves out.
"Oh? You won't be joining the conversation?"
"Join, my ass. You needed a venue, so you came here—that's all this is. I've got work to do, so entertain yourselves and get out when you're done."
That was Go Seok-gu for you.
Lee Jun had spent close to a year at the man's side. These days, one glance said it all.
"Then we'll take that coffee, please."
"Oh, I'll have an iced americano, thank you."
"I know exactly what's on offer. Mocha Gold."
"……"
Ebra, it seemed, had still not acclimated to Lee Jun's humor. The face he made, fighting to keep his composure, was genuinely entertaining.
In any case—
The venue was secured, and Go Seok-gu was the last man alive who would sell what he overheard.
As for bugs or wiretaps... under the Technology Bureau Director's watch, no one on earth was getting through.
Besides, conversation between the two of them always ran along these lines:
"...So. How are No. 10 and No. 21 faring these days?"
"Same as ever. Business as usual. When your land is that vast, there's no end to what can go wrong."
"You've got that many hunters too, so it evens out, no?"
"Costs plenty, which is exactly why it holds together. Not coming out of my pocket, mind you. Ah, yes—how are No. 1 and No. 3?"
"The same as they always are, I'd imagine. Especially lavish this time around."
"Always something over there too, hmm."
That exchange had carried, in code, the state of the United States and of Russia.
No. 10 and No. 21; No. 1 and No. 3. The numbers were bundled two by two—the former pair the US, the latter Russia.
Old comrades, addressed by their numbers and homelands as though reading from a cipher.
For the record, Korea was No. 0.
"I miss No. 3, for what it's worth. And how is No. 1?"
"Don't get me started. You would not believe how capricious she is."
No. 3 was Ekaterina. No. 1 was Yelena.
"I met with No. 8 recently, myself."
"And how is she?"
"Grown into someone remarkable, I'd say? She'd surprise even you."
No. 8 was Sisela.
"And... No. 17 asks after you. A great deal."
"……"
"The others want to see you too. What do you say to showing your face, at the very least?"
No. 17 was... Jeanne.
"I don't know. Not yet... I honestly don't."
"All right. That is your choice to make. But you would do well to make up your mind soon."
More than half of his old comrades were already dead.
And those still breathing would, before long... follow them.
Lee Jun intended to stop that from happening.
It was a resolve made the moment he returned to the past—and it still held.
"……"
Which meant... it was time I changed, too.
Face things head-on instead of running. Settle the drifting life, put down roots somewhere, and stay.
The first thing that came to mind was... the place he lived now.
"Jun. You look like a man with a lot on his mind."
"Yeah... it's a bit of a tangle."
"When the head gets tangled, you rest it. What do you say we call it here for today?"
"……"
What that remark meant was: the rest would be heard at Lee Jun's house.
Yelena was, naturally, there right now. Word had already been passed that something was wrong in Russia—so the details would be taken straight from her own mouth.
Which meant...
"So she hasn't told even you yet?"
"She hasn't. I haven't heard a thing."
"Is that the wiretapping at work? No—hold on. You brought me in without telling me so much as that?"
"Well, there's been nothing remotely stimulating happening of late. It looked like fun, so I simply said yes."
So that was why Ebra had come. Only this man would go out of his way to take on something like this in the middle of a schedule that would crush anyone else.
"Then let's head back for now."
Though the two of them were, at this point, using his house as a hotel with breathtaking naturalness.
Every last one of these people did this.
He really ought to start charging lodging fees.
"Haah... fine. Go on, get going."
"Hahaha, wonderful! It has been some time since I last saw that house of yours, hasn't it?"
"'Some time,' my foot. You worm your way in for a visit every single time you land in this country."
"And yet deep down you're glad to see me. No need for the act."
"Glad, my ass..."
Lee Jun sighed and pushed himself up from his seat. Ebra rose with him, booming with laughter, while Go Seok-gu scowled at the pair of them.
"What, you're leaving?"
"We are, yes. A terrible shame about that coffee."
"You little punk..."
Go Seok-gu could only stare at him, dumbfounded.
Right. Teasing that old man really was one of life's small pleasures.
But love him or tease him, Lee Jun owed Go Seok-gu a great deal.
To barge in unannounced and colonize the man's office, and receive nothing worse than this much grumbling—connections this precious did not come twice.
Thinking so, the two of them made their way down to the foot of the Association building.
The reporters were out in force, as expected. The exits had been sealed tight, but there was no hiding a visit like this from everyone inside the building.
The Technology Bureau Director could muzzle every camera in the place; people were another matter entirely.
Though... letting the crowd gather had been part of the show, too.
"Jun, was all of this calculated as well?"
"Naturally. A venue is a venue, but if the papers flooded out tomorrow saying I'd hung the Chairman out to dry, that would be its own problem. Far better that word gets around as a secret meeting held away from prying eyes, wouldn't you say?"
A scoop, by its very nature, had to feed the imagination.
What could the Chairman of the Korean Hunter Association and one of America's foremost hunters possibly have discussed behind closed doors?
If you could make people ask that question, you had already won.
And sprinkle my name over the top of it, and you have the perfect exclusive.
Every bit of it, planned.
Even in retirement, a man needed to demonstrate that his influence had not retired with him. He'd been brushed off as a has-been at that last auction—so yes, this was exactly the kind of reminder the world needed.
A few minutes passed that way.
Having granted a suitably measured round of answers, the two men cut through the press and departed.
An alley perhaps five hundred meters from the Association building.
Having shaken their tiresome tails completely, they paused to catch their breath.
"Mm. I suppose we can head over now."
"Phew... it's been a while since anyone holed up at that house this long... Ah well, fine. Stop by your hotel first, drop your things, and come over. I'll head back ahead of you and give the magician the word."
"Things? No, no need. I never booked a hotel to begin with. The government did offer to arrange one, but it all struck me as terribly uncomfortable."
"What? Then where on earth did you send all your luggage?"
"Where else would it be, Jun? Your house. Sent it on ahead already."
"……?"
Excuse me—who said that was your call?
Ebra, and now Yelena too—did they all think his home was some by-the-night inn?
Granted, there was one person there genuinely living the boarding-house life. But then, Seo Yoon was a hunter on Management's roster to begin with.
"The first guest through the door is always the hard part, no? Once you're three, it turns into a proper full house. Charming, I'd call it."
"Ha. That logic applies to hunters signed to my agency and no one else's. What is this—are you two planning to join Management? Huh? I asked you a question. Are you joining or not?"
Lee Jun tossed the words off lightly. Not a real question—just a throwaway line.
And then came an answer he could never have predicted.
"Well, since you ask—honestly, I have given it some thought."
What?
For an instant, Lee Jun could only stare.
Here was a man tempered by every imaginable ambush and contingency—and even he had never gamed out this possibility.
"Arcana. I should like to gather us all again."
Ebra's words flew in and buried themselves like a stiletto.
Into his mind.
And into his heart.
"What about you, Jun?"
He could not answer.
All he could do was stand there, rooted to the spot, his face twisting.