Chapter 3-7. The Triangle Within the Heart (2)
They had been walking for about a minute when a massive figure came into view nearby — a middle-aged man who had to stand well over two meters tall. Kang Tae-san, Guildmaster of Taesan Guild.
"Over there," Lee Jun said.
"Huh? Isn't that Taesan Guild?"
"It is. Today's training for you two will be a joint exercise with Taesan."
"What?!"
Choi Jeong-hyeon jolted at the sudden announcement. Seo Yoon, by contrast, seemed to take it more or less in stride — she knew Lee Jun was close with Kang Tae-san. That wasn't to say she wasn't surprised either, just less so than Choi Jeong-hyeon.
"A joint exercise with Taesan… what kind of training, exactly?"
"Honestly, they contacted me out of the blue yesterday. Taesan wants to run a mock hunt together."
The previous evening, after finishing his housework and retreating to his room, Lee Jun had received a personal call from Kang Tae-san before bed.
"You got anything on tomorrow?"
"Yes. I'm busy."
"Fine, whatever. Then get over to Seoul Dungeon."
"I said I'm busy."
Well… if it was Seoul Dungeon, showing up was doable. He couldn't exactly bring the two of them into the Ant Nest's third floor anyway, and leaving them in Kang Tae-san's hands meant next to nothing to worry about.
I'll just head over there and drop the act when I get close.
Lee Jun planned to keep moving under his camouflage blanket until he was right beside Kang Tae-san. No particular reason — it just seemed better to appear next to the Guildmaster himself.
And so he was creeping along when—
"Hmm?"
Kang Tae-san looked straight at him.
What is with this old man. No way—
"Who goes there!"
WHAM!
The fist he threw detonated the air. That much force, from a swing that never touched anything at all.
"Gah…!"
The blast of displaced air tore every circuit inside the camouflage blanket to shreds.
This man… he didn't even use a skill.
'Still as monstrous as ever.'
Kang Tae-san's stat spread was famous, if famous was the word — every point sunk into Strength and Stamina alone. Something about pumping Stamina letting him endure longer training sessions, or some such. So this was the kind of power that came from a body forged to its absolute limit.
"Hah? Oh, it's you."
"Ugh… I only had two of these."
Lee Jun fumbled the ruined camouflage blanket into his Pocket. He'd have to ask the Technology Bureau chief to fix it later.
"Ya little rascal, what're you sneaking around for?"
"I just wanted to come too… but there are too many people."
"People?"
Kang Tae-san asked with a puzzled frown, then noticed Jeanne standing behind Lee Jun and nodded slowly.
"So that's really who came to see you."
The Taesan hunters gathered around also stirred at the sight of Jeanne. Well, of course — how often in a lifetime did anyone get to lay eyes on an S-Class hunter?
"Anyway, let's get started before this gets any louder."
"Ahem, right. Even I get a little nervous in front of an S-Class."
"…I'm also S-Class, you know."
"You're, uh… you're just friendly."
"……"
Well, he was always like this, so honestly it didn't matter. At this point it crossed into the territory of self-deprecating comedy.
"So, are the other two S-Classes joining the joint training as well?"
"You don't have to hammer the point home every time you ask."
"Fine, fine. Are you and the S-Class lady back there participating?"
"…Hah. We have separate business, so we'll leave once we hand things over. The joint training is for our two development hunters."
This joint training was not a routine exercise. It was an event with a special purpose — one laced with friction between guilds.
"What do you mean, a joint training, all of a sudden?"
"It's complicated to explain."
"Then my feelings are complicated too, and I'd like to decline."
"I'm explaining right now, aren't I? It's because of Seolwon."
"Seolwon?"
The reason Seolwon entered the picture was simple. An intelligence leak claimed that Yoon Seol, Guildmaster of Seolwon, would personally instruct her new recruits at Seoul Dungeon — and word had reached Taesan's ears.
"So your Guildmaster is really going there himself tomorrow?"
"That's right. So you come too and lend a hand."
"People usually don't spring that on you the night before?"
"I just heard about it myself. What do you want me to do?"
Well, he'd at least said the information was rock-solid. One of Seolwon's rising stars had apparently posted on her personal social media that she'd be receiving instruction from Yoon Seol directly — and the post was deleted within a minute, which only made it more credible. Apparently Seoul Dungeon was in an uproar over rumors that Yoon Seol would appear.
That explains it. That's why the dungeon entrance was so crowded from the start.
Made sense — there was no way anyone could have known Jeanne was coming. The crowd had gathered for Yoon Seol, and then an S-Class hunter showed up on top of it. A commotion was inevitable.
"So I came, but where's Seolwon supposed to be?"
"No idea. Haven't seen them yet."
"You're not saying that now and then having them not show up, are you?"
With Yoon Seol, it was entirely possible. If things got too chaotic, she might just not come.
"No, she'll come. Definitely."
"What are you basing that confidence on?"
"On you."
"…Sorry, what?"
"I leaked word back to Seolwon that you'd be here. You're on good terms with their Guildmaster, aren't you?"
Wow. Unbelievable.
Did you actually think she'd come just because you told her that?
"…We barely know each other."
"Oh, quit lying. 'Barely know each other,' and yet you hand over legendary-grade artifacts just like that?"
Ah, right. The Styx's Shard.
That had been him leaking it to the press.
"Hm. Well… if she comes, she comes."
"Trust me. She's coming, guaranteed."
Frankly, it would be more convenient if she didn't… Because if Yoon Seol showed up, Lee Hyeon-ah would too. There was no way that woman's loyal leech wouldn't come trailing after her.
"Hah… anyway. I can leave our hunters with you, right?"
"Don't worry. I won't run them like I usually do. Fifty percent. Fifty, I swear."
"At fifty percent from you, wouldn't they be hospitalized for weeks?"
"Aigoo, you rascal — if fifty percent is all it takes, hang up the hunter license."
"…If their condition gets any worse, I swear."
"Kkekkek, won't happen."
How was anyone supposed to trust that, knowing his track record? But then… Kang Tae-san really was peerless when it came to conditioning. There was nothing for it but to trust the results rather than the process.
"Then I'll head off before Seolwon arrives."
"Right, no idea what you're up to, but go do your thing."
"And stop laughing like that. You're in your mid-forties — what are you, somebody's grandfather?"
"Kkek. That's exactly what my son says."
With that conversation concluded, Lee Jun pulled another intact camouflage blanket from his Pocket. It was somewhat smaller than the one that had just been destroyed, but shared between him and Jeanne, it would do fine.
And as Lee Jun did so, Kang Tae-san narrowed his eyes and spoke.
"Come to think of it… they said the guy who soloed the Ogre the other day did something similar."
"…Could just be your imagination."
"Hmm… something's off here…"
How is he built like a bear and still this perceptive?
Lee Jun made to vanish before Kang Tae-san could connect any dots — and then it happened.
Thrum-thrum-thrum-thrum—
A suspicious sound drifted down from the sky overhead.
"……?"
Propellers?
Lee Jun looked up at the sound — and had no choice but to let his mouth fall open.
"…What the hell."
A top-of-the-line transport helicopter built by the Samhwa Group — and dead center on its body, a single emblem was plastered in plain view: a snowflake. The guild crest of Seolwon.
"Ha, they really went all out with the spectacle."
Kang Tae-san beside him chuckled, amused. Lee Jun hadn't anticipated a show like this either.
So it's Lee Hyeon-ah's doing.
There was no way Yoon Seol had proposed this. He didn't know her that well, but she didn't seem the type to enjoy staging a scene like this. That said, neither was she the type to object to it. If Lee Hyeon-ah had suggested it… her interest might well have been piqued.
Thrum-thrum—
The helicopter hanging in the sky drew steadily closer — then, at some point, stopped descending and hovered in place.
"…Huh?"
The cargo hatch is… opening? Hey, hold on. Seriously?
And Lee Jun's prediction became reality. The first thing to leap through the open door was none other than the Guildmaster of Seolwon — Yoon Seol.
"Is that… am I actually seeing what I think I'm seeing?"
"Kkekkek, bold as brass."
Having leapt from the helicopter, Yoon Seol free-fell for roughly a hundred meters. And then… she walked. Quite literally, as if descending a flight of stairs, she began walking slowly down through the air — starting from about fifty meters above the ground.
"……"
Fwoosh—
Scattering snowflakes into the early-autumn air, she set her foot on the ground. Precisely, directly in front of Lee Jun.
"It's been a while."
"It has… indeed."
White hair and crimson eyes. He'd seen her plenty of times by now, but that air of mystery still never quite became familiar. And set against it, the casual outfit — jeans and a white t-shirt. That very imbalance somehow only heightened her strange, otherworldly presence.
"About a month, I'd say."
"…Eleven days."
"That seems like quite a long time, no?"
"Not by any ordinary measure."
But Yoon Seol pressed the point no further. The subject, apparently, was closed. Instead, she suddenly took Lee Jun's left hand and examined it this way and that.
"This hand. You got it reattached."
"…It's the other one."
"……"
Swoosh—
She smoothly let go of the left and took the right.
"You got it reattached."
"……"
"Does it hurt at all?"
So that's her play — coming out all composed. Fine. If that's the game, I'll play along.
"…I told you I could reattach it myself."
"Mm, it's fine. Attached nicely."
She waved the hand up and down, then began twisting the wrist around and around— wait, ow. Human wrists do not rotate a hundred and eighty degrees!
"Um… Guildmaster?"
"How is the Styx's Shard treating you?"
"…I'm using it just fine."
"That's a relief. I wondered whether you'd be able to use it."
"I have my own methods, after all."
It felt like the conversation was being yanked along at speed. No single topic lasted long; Yoon Seol blew through whatever happened to catch her curiosity. As expected — still entirely on her own clock.
"Mm, seeing you in one piece is good."
"…Excuse me?"
"That was a joke. I'll win next time, so be ready."
Next time?
He had no intention of competing against Seolwon again. He'd won this time only because regression had handed him every piece of information on a platter; by any normal standard, it would've been a brutal fight. He didn't make bets where the odds of losing ran high — unless circumstances forced his hand.
Having wrapped up her conversation, Yoon Seol turned her head toward Kang Tae-san. A meeting of two heavyweight guildmasters — and not just any two, but the heads of Taesan and Seolwon, pillars of the Big Four. The kind of thing newspapers would run as front-page specials.
"Kkek. It's been just as long since I've seen this one, hasn't it?"
"I suppose."
"Aw, that stings. All your attention on this rascal and none for me."
"…Please don't mind it."
Yoon Seol parried Kang Tae-san's joke with glacial indifference. The woman who'd been chatting with Lee Jun a moment ago had vanished, replaced by the usual frigid Yoon Seol. Perhaps embarrassed by the reception, Kang Tae-san leaned over and whispered to Lee Jun.
"See that? Without you around she can barely string two words together."
"You don't see me getting jerked around by her, do you?"
"Gah, you sly little snake — jerked around, my ass."
No, I'm serious. I can't predict what Yoon Seol's going to do either, okay?
If she were the kind of person whose behavior could be predicted, he never would have gotten this entangled with her in the first place.
And so, while Lee Jun stood wedged between the two guildmasters wondering how to extricate himself, the rest of Seolwon's people began their descent.
THUD—
THUD— THUD— THUD—
Walking down through the sky like Yoon Seol was beyond most of them, so each landed with lightening magic woven around them — or else, like one particular someone, came down in a display of pure showing off.
BOOOM!
"…She's insane."
An impact like a meteor strike. Through the billowing cloud of dust, a long spear came into view.
Poof—
Lee Hyeon-ah swept the dust away with a casual flick of magic and revealed herself — laden with twice the luggage anyone else carried.
"Unnie! How could you go on ahead like that? You left all your equipment behind!"
"Mm. Hyeon-ah. Thank you."
"Ugh, honestly, they said there was something down there and—"
zap—
"Watch it."
"Ha! Fine, for unnie's sake I'll let it slide today — so at least keep it out of my sight?"
"You're the ones who came here."
"Anyway!"
Swoosh—
True to form, Lee Hyeon-ah threw a fit and hauled Yoon Seol off with her.
When is that girl ever going to grow up?
"Whew… this place is going to be a circus too, isn't it."
Lee Jun lamented to Kang Tae-san beside him. The man was watching Seolwon's retreating figures with an expression of keen interest.
…This old man's competitive streak is catching fire again too, isn't it.
"Two guildmasters, the vice-association president, and S-Class hunters on top. Seoul Dungeon's packed to bursting today."
"…I keep telling you, I'm not the vice-president anymore."
"Whatever. Leave this crowd to me and go see to your business. Today, for one whole day, I'll take personal responsibility for their conditioning."
Lee Jun nodded, then turned to give Seo Yoon and Choi Jeong-hyeon one final word. Both of them looked tense at the grave expression on his face.
There was only one thing worth saying to them.
"If that man over there asks you to do something that shouldn't be humanly possible — smash him over the back of the head first, then run for it. Understood?"
"……"
"Yes…?"
"I can hear you, you brat."
"Good to know your ears still work."
"What'd you say?"
THWACK—
Kang Tae-san grinned and gave Lee Jun's back a single hearty slap. It felt like being run over by a truck, but apparently it was meant as encouragement. That done, he rounded on the Taesan newcomers, who were desperately trying to read the situation.
"How long are you going to stand there gawking, you lot! You training or not?"
At the Guildmaster's roar, the Taesan rookies snapped to attention — and so did Choi Jeong-hyeon, who'd been staring off in a daze this whole time.
"We've got guests today, so I'll go a little easy. Of course, I'll make up for it next week, so don't go celebrating."
At every single word out of his mouth, the rookie hunters laughed and wept in turn — a telling glimpse of just how thoroughly they were normally ground down under the banner of "training."
Those two… they'll really be all right, won't they?
'Well… from here on out, I've got my own hands full to worry about theirs.'
This was no time for Lee Jun to be fretting over other people. The raid with Jeanne… was going to be twice as brutal.
"Shall we get going too?"
"Yes, Oppa."
Four remained. And so, the two of them and the dolls — wrapped in their camouflage blanket — set off toward the Ant Nest.