Chapter 168
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 168
Meanwhile, Kang Seo-dam wasn’t the only one with a headache over 'Mr. Seo Gio.'
"..."
"What’s wrong, Ruda?"
"Uh..."
It was none other than Iruda, Kang Seo-dam’s student and a novice priest.
"It’s about the gift I received last time."
"Ah, the one Gio-hyung gave you? That flower?"
"Yes, the dried flower."
"Didn’t he say it was medicine? You said you liked medicinal herbs. Can’t you just eat it?"
"...That would be the simplest solution, but no matter how much I think about it, this is no ordinary herb..."
It was an herb that the Goddess of the Sun herself had personally gazed upon.
And that subtle hint of divine greed I felt...
It was incredibly rare for a divinity to covet a human object, but the one who’d shown such greed was the Goddess of the Sun, a being who loves the natural order of fate and pure innocence.
She is fundamentally not a being who would covet anything.
For such a goddess to prod a mere novice priest like her was utterly absurd.
"How did it come to this?"
"What’s the problem?"
"I feel like I received a gift that’s far too precious."
Fearing things might spiral out of control, she hadn’t shared her confusion with Cha Yi-sol until now. But today, she had reached her limit. Iruda needed a sounding board.
"Cha Yi-sol."
"Yeah? Need help?"
"That hyung you’re so close to..."
"You mean Gio-hyung?"
"Yes. Is he always like that?"
"Uh... like what?"
"Does he always just hand out gifts like this?"
"Yep!"
"..."
The affirmation was so cheerful and resolute that Iruda was momentarily left speechless.
"...Why?"
"He said that when he looks at people, he finds them so admirable he just wants to give them things."
"Why on earth?"
"His reasoning was, why shouldn’t he give them things if there’s no reason not to?"
"So what’s the problem?"
"You don’t see the problem with that?"
"A gift isn’t just a gift."
Even the fruit jelly he’d given Cha Yi-sol had felt a bit excessive. According to Yi-sol, he was just a hyung he happened to get close to, but this acquaintance he’d only met a few times had given an innocent child such an expensive gift.
And the gift Iruda received was even worse.
"The reason I said I liked medicinal herbs wasn’t because I actually wanted to receive them...!"
Usually, when she said she liked medicinal herbs, adults would just give her a bewildered look, as if she were some kind of strange creature, and then ignore her. Besides, she had never expected anyone to actually carry medicinal herbs around with them in the first place.
"Cha Yi-sol, what do you feel from this dried flower?"
"The smell of sunshine?"
"What else?"
"The fluffiness of a blanket that’s been dried in the sun?"
"So it’s the sun, right? It has to be. It’s the sun!"
"Aren’t the sun and sunshine a bit different? One is super hot, and the other is warm."
"It’s the difference between a beating and a caress, but it’s the same hand either way."
Contrary to the commonly known image of the Sun Cult, the actual light of the sun is extremely violent. The better a priest can harness and meticulously control that light, the greater they become.
And creating a medicine infused with the full warmth of the sun’s rays was an incredibly arduous task. It was something one couldn’t even attempt without talent, as the slightest mistake would burn the delicate herb to ash in the sun’s fire.
"..."
Just as she thought. This gift was far too precious for her to handle.
"...Could he have given this to me just to put me in a tight spot...?"
"Why would he do that?"
"...I was wondering if this Mr. Seo Gio gave me this gift to put me in a difficult position."
"Huh? Probably not. Why do you think that?"
"Excessive mercy can drive a beggar to his death."
"But Ruda, you’re not a beggar."
"Of course, I’m a 1st-Grade Citizen and quite wealthy for a human, but in this situation, I might as well be one."
"You always talk in such complicated ways."
"This gift is too grand for me, which puts my safety at risk. There will always be people who covet a treasure this precious."
The way things were going, it wasn’t just humans she had to worry about anymore.
"And if you don’t have the power to protect it, a gift becomes a poison. To use an extreme example, someone who wants what I received could kill me and steal it."
The word "kill" must have been shocking, because Cha Yi-sol asked in surprise, "Should I call Gio-hyung?"
"No, a Hunter of his caliber must be busy. There’s no need for that..."
Iruda, being quick-witted, knew there was no malice in the gift Mr. Seo Gio had given her.
But he didn’t seem like the type of person who would be unaware that this gift was too much for me to handle.
And now, Iruda came to a conclusion.
"...Is he telling me to win her favor?"
"I don’t know what you mean, but I think you’re overthinking things, Ruda."
"Certainly, if I present a gift that the Goddess desires, I will receive great protection."
"I don’t know about all that, but I don’t think Gio-hyung thought that far ahead..."
Sensing the depth of her thoughts, Cha Yi-sol let his voice trail off. He knew that the man in the black cloak just handed out gifts without a second thought.
Watching his partner seemingly plot some sort of scheme, Cha Yi-sol thought:
Smart people live such exhausting lives. I’m glad I’m not smart.
To be fair, Gio knew his gift could be a poison to a young priest like Iruda. However, he had given it with a light heart because he knew that a gift from the Black Cloak would never harm anyone.
The Basram flower was a precious medicine with no side effects, so anyone could use it without issue. Moreover, both Gio—the giver—and the Goddess of the Sun approved of the transaction. A gift bestowed under the protection of multiple divinities would have its safety guaranteed by fate itself.
Above all, while Gio never thought deeply, he understood the depth and breadth of other people’s thoughts. He would be pleased no matter how Iruda chose to use his gift.
"...I must offer it to the Goddess."
Thus, this too was exactly what Gio had intended.
"I’m going to see Priest Kang Seo-dam. Are you coming?"
"I’ll go with you."
"If you’re just bored, go play with the other kids."
"I just want to be with you, Ruda. You’re my partner."
"..."
Iruda slowly nodded.
"I guess I’ll have to keep you by my side for the rest of my life."
"Huh? Isn’t that how it’s always been?"
"Never mind. I was just stating my intentions."
And so, it was said that Kang Seo-dam, who had just returned from a meeting, choked violently on the fragrant, piping-hot bomb his fledgling student had so carefully delivered.
*
A meeting room at the Collector Guild.
"Ah, Manager."
"Yoo Ji-na?"
One by one, the members of the newly formed dispatch team gathered.
Garasani, the 5th Floor Manager of the Collector’s Gallery, scanned the Hunter who had just entered. The woman he called Yoo Ji-na was wearing a suit with a cape, the uniform of the Gallery’s Trainee Team. As a floor manager, he knew her face well.
"It’s been a while," Garasani said.
"It has," the trainee replied with a grin, sitting across from him. "After all, there’s rarely anything for the Trainee Team to clean up on the fifth floor."
"It’s not a floor where rookies get assigned."
"Since only veterans frequent it, we never hear any news from there."
"If news from the fifth floor reached the Trainee Team, wouldn’t that be a major problem in itself?"
"And that’s all thanks to your meticulous care, Manager."
As she rubbed her hands together in a display of mock sycophancy, Garasani raised an eyebrow.
"Your pathetic flattery is as cheap as ever."
"Please be clear about whether you like it or hate it."
"I like it, so keep going."
"Oh my, with our Manager illuminating the fifth floor, peace has found the Gallery, wealth is pouring in..."
Just then, another person entered the meeting room.
"Whoa... what’s this?"
"Calling a person 'this' is a bit rude."
"Right. So, what are you doing?"
"Can’t you tell? I’m flattering him."
"Flattering the 5th Floor Manager won’t get you anything, though...?"
A female colleague from the same department laughed awkwardly at the man’s words.
"It’s been a long time, Manager."
"Is this the first time I’ve seen you since you moved from the third floor to the field staff?"
"Yes. Thanks to your support behind the scenes, I’ve adjusted well."
"Good. As long as you do your job well, it doesn’t matter where you are. You’re doing great."
Garasani turned to Yoo Ji-na of the Trainee Team.
"Didn’t you say another member of the Trainee Team was coming?"
"A cleanup request came in from the first floor. Since it’s their assigned area, they said they’d just do a quick check and come right up."
"It is always good to see someone fulfilling their responsibilities. The star of today’s show won’t find such behavior offensive either."
"I was going to tell them to forget the cleanup and get up here immediately if needed, but this is surprising. Mr. Gio is quite generous for a work of art."
Yoo Ji-na looked around, smiling with interest.
"I thought Curator Yoo Seong-un would be joining us, but his name wasn’t on the list."
"He’s a very busy man, so it can’t be helped," Garasani replied.
"No matter how busy he is, this is about his own assigned work, of all things..."
"Of course, if he had drastically adjusted his schedule, he might have found the time. But that’s no easy task."
And that wasn’t the only reason.
"The Guild Master wants to see how 'Mr. Seo Gio' reacts among unfamiliar humans. He likely intends to determine whether it is worth maintaining the pretense of 'Mr. Seo Gio,' or if there are any inherent dangers."
At that, another field staff member asked, "But isn’t it still dangerous? Of all things, his first raid is an A-Rank Dungeon. The difficulty is by no means low. Wouldn’t it have been better to have a gradual adjustment period in a safer place?"
"Before we could make such arrangements, 'Mr. Seo Gio' had already set his desired schedule, so we have no choice but to follow. And even if such a rushed schedule hadn’t been set, the Guild Master would never have engaged in such a tedious process."
After all, they all knew Bisabeol’s personality well.
"He is not a man with enough patience to seek a safe option when a perfectly good opportunity is right before his eyes. If he were the type to let such an entertaining event pass by boringly, he wouldn’t have become the Guild Master in the first place."
"It’s hard to argue with that..."
"Asking the man who founded the Collector Guild precisely to avoid such tedious patience to now exercise restraint is absurd. Besides, he must have judged this raid to be worthwhile from other angles as well."
Through this opportunity, Bisabeol would likely decide what position to assign to 'Mr. Seo Gio.' It was a bold operation with a high risk, where quite a few people might die, but once they decided to introduce 'Hunter Seo Gio' to the world, it was a process they had to go through sooner or later.
And there was another reason.
"Above all, I am not sure if 'Mr. Seo Gio' would tolerate such a safe and tedious process."
Certainly, the Collector Guild could have sought safer opportunities. They could have paired this mystery with familiar faces in low-rank dungeons to let him gradually adapt to humans.
However, they had already heard during the raid dispatch briefing that 'Gio’s Portrait' possessed a desire for bloody battle. Having also harbored a wicked divinity, he might find such a comfortable cage repulsive.
"We must not do anything that harms the work."
"I agree with that."
Both the trainee and the field staff nodded. More than anyone, they knew what kind of disaster could unfold if the work’s mood soured.
It wasn’t for nothing that all sorts of ghost stories surrounded the Collector’s Gallery. A field staff member who used to be a curator chimed in.
"Still, Curator Yoo Seong-un must be disappointed."
"His assigned work is leaving his care to operate in the outside world..."
"And it’s his first activity, too. He must be anxious."
To a curator of the Collector’s Gallery, their assigned work was an extremely sensitive subject. Managing a bizarre mystery that twisted fate and burrowed into the mind was an incredibly nerve-wracking task.
A curator had to love their work, study it, and be aware of its dangers. Since they managed a mystery with love—one that could easily kill dozens of people the moment it slipped from their grasp—it was only natural that an obsession would develop.
"Especially for a work from the fifth floor."
If a curator did not love and obsess over their work, there was no telling what catastrophe might occur.
"He must be very upset..."
"That is likely why I was included in this dispatch team."
"Does that mean they feel they can trust someone of your standing, Manager?"
"I believe they chose the lesser of two evils."
It was right around then.
Knock, knock, knock.
"..."
"..."
"Excuse me."
A knock sounded from outside the meeting room.
"May I come in?"
A low, gloomy voice asked for permission.