The Immutable
"I see… If that's really the case, we'll need to prepare."
The next day, Seong Ju-ah came to the gatehouse, and we talked about gates — naturally so, given that the B-rank gate raid had been established as part of our deal in the first place.
"A gate whose difficulty spikes dramatically from the inside…!"
For the record, I hadn't told her exactly what I'd witnessed in the Graveyard of Knights. That had been a special case, something apart from what a true Mutation Gate would be. Instead, I'd woven together the early warning signs that future Mutation Gates would exhibit and built a plausible story around them.
It does feel like a con.
But looking at the end result alone, this was the better choice.
"Thank you for telling me. This was never something we could afford to ignore, after all."
"Don't mention it."
For now, I might be the only sample size — but before long, the number of Mutation Gates would only keep climbing. Even just to prepare for that day, it was right for someone like Seong Ju-ah to have this information in hand.
She's the kind of person who could rise all the way to Director, after all.
I hoped the Hunter Bureau she would one day lead would prove more capable than the one from before my regression.
"Oh, and one more thing — regarding what you asked me about last time."
Seong Ju-ah said, tapping her files into order.
"This year's domestic Guild War is scheduled to begin in two months. Registration opens in two weeks."
The Guild War. Simply put, it was a massive league held among guilds across the nation.
When superhuman hunters rule the world, everything from sports to entertainment revolves around them.
And of all of it, nothing drew more attention than the Guild War itself.
A war of stars, held once every year.
Each guild selected a team of three, and those teams clashed against other guilds' teams until a final champion was crowned. It wasn't just Korea, either — countries around the world each ran their own leagues.
The ones that count as major, though, are only the US, the UK, and China.
All of them so-called hunter superpowers, nations lined with large-scale guilds.
"There's a rumor that this year's Guild War will be on an enormous scale."
"I hear they've prepared something quite spectacular for the winning prize?"
"Ah, well, that much I…"
She smiled awkwardly. Maybe she genuinely didn't know, or maybe she knew but wasn't at liberty to say.
Well, fair enough. What's coming out as this year's winning prize is no ordinary treasure.
This year's Guild War was being staged lavishly by the government and the Hunter Bureau working in concert — aiming, no less, for a spot among the 'Four Majors'.
Just how ambitious is that?
Ambitious enough that they were putting up an item of national treasure grade as the grand prize.
A insane idea, honestly.
Korea had only three national treasure-grade items, and they were offering one up as a tournament prize. If it ended up in hands worthy of it, fine — but in my previous life, the one who carried that treasure off was…
Japan.
And so the Guild War, which should have been the greatest festival of them all, became the seed of an unprecedented international incident — and collapsed spectacularly.
It became the moment the Korean hunter industry took a massive step backward.
Not this time. If only to keep the hunters who would have to fight on this peninsula when everything went to hell tethered to their homeland. If only to keep a national treasure out of foreign hands.
And above all —
For Seo-ha's future.
This iteration, I was going to be the one who took that treasure.
"Are you interested in the Guild War?"
"I am."
"Hmm… I could recommend a few suitable guilds. Any guild would leap at the chance to recruit you as you are now, but…"
A encouraging remark, that. Until just recently, asking to join a guild would've gotten me salt thrown in my face.
"Most guilds have probably finished assembling their Guild War selection teams by now, so joining at this point would make it hard to make the roster."
She tapped away at her tablet and pulled up a list of suitable mid-sized and small guilds.
"But with a smaller guild, you could still make a Guild War team without trouble."
She wasn't wrong. The large guilds seriously chasing the championship would have finalized their teams long ago and be deep in practice by now. Guilds like these were the kind that joined for participation's sake — use the stage to get their name out there, maybe aim for the main bracket while they were at it, and that was the extent of it.
"Thank you, but no need."
Obviously, I had no intention of joining any of them. No — I'd never planned on joining any guild at all.
"I'm not going to join a guild. I'm going to build one."
"Y-you're going to found a guild yourself…?!"
"Is there some reason I can't?"
"Well… no, but…"
Officially, there were three conditions for founding a guild. First, the founder had to qualify as a guild master. Second, the founding members — including the master — had to number at least five. Third, the guild's initial budget had to be at least 300 million won.
"I'd say that first qualification is well within reach."
If I were still an ordinary F-rank hunter like before, I could die and come back to life a hundred times without a founding approval coming through. But now? I was, exaggerating only slightly, the most famous hunter in the country. In a matter of weeks I'd set a new C-rank gate record and cleared a B-rank gate solo.
And if they refused to approve it, I'd just throw a fit through the press. They'd approve it right quick.
They knew it too, which was exactly why they'd say yes.
"As for the 300 million won budget — well, that condition is effectively free, wouldn't you say?"
Seo-ha. Further explanation omitted.
"So the two thorniest conditions are already solved, right?"
"Hmm… if anything, I'd say that last condition is the one that'll give you the most trouble…"
"……"
She wasn't wrong. Founding a guild required a minimum of five initial members. Even if you filled two slots with whoever you could scrape up, the two who'd fight alongside you in the Guild War had to be chosen with real care.
That said.
"You don't need to worry about that either."
"I've already picked my candidates."
The plan had been drawn up long ago.
The Cheongnyong Sword Sect, largest and grandest of the Four Great Sects. Its sect master, Seong Yong-ho, had just set foot back in Korea after a considerably long journey abroad.
"…I'm tired."
An old man with streaks of white in his hair, still radiating the presence of a true master, leaned back against the car seat.
"Swallow enough years, and you find yourself feeling your age in places you never expected."
"Is that so."
"Time has a way of changing many things. Nothing stands immutable before it."
The young man seated beside Seong Yong-ho adjusted his glasses and let the words fall flat.
"True enough. Nothing in this world stays unchanged."
People are far too easily deceived by routine. They let the days slip past as if tomorrow were guaranteed to be another day just like yesterday.
"Soon, every citizen of this country will learn that truth for themselves. Wouldn't you say, Seong?"
A Japanese man speaking fluent Korean. A blade-type hunter who had returned home alongside Seong Yong-ho.
And —
The man who would become the next sect master of the sword sect.
"It will be so, Fujiwara."
Fujiwara Manabu.
"The dragon always flies toward a higher sky."
"Wh-what on earth are you saying?!"
Seong Gyu-ho stumbled back a step, his face a mask of disbelief.
He'd told me his brother was returning, and I'd been waiting with a glad heart — and this is what he brings back?
What the man carried through the door was a bolt from the blue.
"Precisely what it sounds like. As of today, know that this child is the sect master's direct disciple."
Seong Yong-ho gazed at the man beside him with a gentle look. A broad-shouldered frame, neatly kept hair of bluish sheen — and those angular glasses. That silhouette was unmistakably…
"The Sword Demon…?!"
Seong Gyu-ho's throat went dry. He'd heard the epithet before. One of the so-called Irregulars — wasn't this Japan's rising next-generation star? And why on earth was he standing here beside Seong Yong-ho?
No — more than that!
There was something far more important at stake.
"Changing the direct disciple out of nowhere?! There has never been a precedent for such a thing!"
"Nothing in this world is immutable. There was only ever that which had not yet been attempted."
The direct disciple. The student who received the sect master's personal instruction — in effect, the one raised to become the next sect master. The Four Great Sects each had their own character and customs, but every one of them kept a direct disciple. It was a tradition as old as the sects themselves, the very thing that defined them.
And never once, in all that history, had a settled direct disciple been replaced midway.
Worse — the one meant to replace them was the Sword Demon of Japan.
There was only one thing that could mean.
"Are you intending to make the Cheongnyong Sword Sect a Japanese sect?!"
The transfer of the sword sect. Abandoning Korea — becoming Japan's.
Seong Gyu-ho demanded the answer, aghast, but Seong Yong-ho opened his mouth with cold indifference, not a flicker of expression crossing his face.
"Is that so wrong?"
"What kind of…"
"Gyu-ho. Let's be honest with each other, shall we?"
His tone shifting, the old man lowered his eyes and looked out over the sweeping grounds of the sword sect.
"This land no longer produces talent."
This tiny country had already given up everyone it had to give. The seedlings with talent beyond the ordinary showed no sign of sprouting.
"You know it as well as I do."
"Ugh…!"
The words lodged in Seong Gyu-ho's throat. He had felt it keenly himself, serving as acting sect master while Seong Yong-ho was away. He had known — and turned his face away from it on purpose. The average of their disciples had fallen far too low. His reason had been screaming that the sect's future could no longer be viewed through rose-colored glasses.
"But… but the sword sect is a sect of Korea! Even the least talented children — isn't it the sword sect that raises them into hunters worthy of defending their homeland?!"
"That argument only holds if there's a sect left to speak of. A flower cannot bloom without roots."
Seong Yong-ho continued with solemn dignity.
"I saw them in Japan. Children brimming with boundless potential. When I picture them growing beneath the sword sect's teachings, a smile comes to my face unbidden."
Give two flowers the same water, and you'll always favor the one that grows taller. Pouring water on weeds that may never bloom at all is nothing but waste.
"There is no other way for the sword sect to soar high again."
"Then… what about Seo-ha? Isn't that child the sect master's direct disciple?"
The White Dragon. An epithet born of the expectation that she would be the next master of the sword sect.
"Ah, that child?"
He gave a dry little laugh.
"A sect must never have two direct disciples at once."
"Then…"
"Effective today, Baek Seo-ha is demoted from direct disciple to ordinary disciple."
Seong Yong-ho's declaration rang through the sword sect grounds.
At that moment, the doors of the main building burst open, and a white-haired woman came flying out.
"S-Seo-ha!"
Seong Gyu-ho lunged to stop her, but it was too late.
"Eavesdropping, as I thought. You always did have a nose for trouble."
"Is it… is it true?"
Baek Seo-ha looked up at the man who had been her savior all her life, her eyes on the verge of spilling over.
"When have I ever lied to you?"
"Why… why…"
"You still don't understand your place, girl."
Manabu, who had been listening silently, smoothly stepped in front of her.
"It's because you're weaker than me. You have no right to lead this sect."
Tap, tap.
His finger prodded her shoulder.
"That's why you're being thrown away."
"Ngh…!"
Baek Seo-ha dropped into a stance, her hand drifting toward the sword at her hip.
"Oh? Settling the hierarchy here and now? Not a bad idea."
Manabu drew his own blade as well.
"Let's make it perfectly clear who owns this place—!"
And in that instant —
KRA-KOOOOM!
The great gate of the sword sect shattered clean apart.
"Ah… didn't actually mean to break it."
Beyond the wreckage, the culprit scratched his head sheepishly.
"Still not used to my stats going up. Tch."
"…You."
For the first time, a crease broke across the face of Seong Yong-ho, who had been serene from start to finish.
"Why are you—how are you…?"
Even Baek Seo-ha went cold, able only to stare at the newcomer.
"Oh, seems I picked a perfect moment to arrive."
Having sized up the situation in a glance, the culprit strolled forward at an unhurried pace. When he finally came to a stop before Seong Yong-ho, an insufferable corner of his mouth curled into a smirk.
"An honor to meet you, Sect Master."
He planted his spear into the ground and gave a slight bow of his head.
"The rightful heir of the Azure Dragon's Seven Forms. Lee Tae-hyun pays his respects to the Sect Master."