Founding the Guild (1)
Never thought I'd get to see these two in one place.
The White Dragon, Baek Seo-ha.
The All-Master, Shin Min-woo.
Before my regression, the two of them had never crossed paths even once.
At least, not within anything I knew of.
Top-tier hunters get tangled up with each other plenty, but neither of them was the type to seek out company in the first place.
If anything, you'd call them the quiet sort who just quietly did their own jobs.
Aside from the shared trait of not caring one bit about fame, they weren't even mentioned together.
Which was exactly why this scene felt so strange and new to me.
"Uh… what do I do, hyung?"
"About what?"
"I'm so nervous I can't get my words out…."
"About what, exactly?"
"You never told me Baek Seo-ha was going to be in the guild!"
So the All-Master was fidgeting around like a puppy that badly needed to pee.
"You're a Seo-ha fan or something?"
"It's not exactly being a fan… it's just, having a celebrity right in front of me…."
S-rank potential, a beautiful face, and on top of that, rumors that she would be the next Sect Leader of the Cheongryong Sword Sect.
Baek Seo-ha was born with every quality that made stardom inevitable.
Even if she herself never wanted it.
"Anyway, there's something I need to say—"
"Hold on."
When I opened my mouth, Baek Seo-ha raised a hand and cut me off.
Her eyes were dry and heavy.
"From here on, I'll do the explaining."
Well, it was her story to tell, so it made sense for her to be the one telling it.
I gave a nod and stepped back a pace, and Baek Seo-ha began.
"The truth is…."
That she was currently half-estranged from the Sword Sect.
That if things went on like this, the Sword Sect could be stolen away by Japan.
And in conclusion—
That to bring this entire situation to an end, they had to win the guild war, no matter what.
For someone who wasn't much of a talker, she summed it up surprisingly logically and clearly.
She must have prepared it all in advance, knowing she'd need to convince new members.
"What the…!"
When she finished, Shin Min-woo's mouth hung open in open shock.
"Then I suppose I'd better see what you can do."
"Wh-what, now?!"
"It's not that I doubt Lee Tae-hyun's eye for people, since he brought you here. But I'm desperate."
She rested her hand on her scabbard and threw me a sidelong glance.
"I'd like to verify your skill myself."
"Whatever you desire."
"Hyung, why are you deciding things on your own…!"
Either way, the verification was necessary.
I knew his abilities inside and out, but Baek Seo-ha didn't.
"Give it your best. I won't be going easy on you."
"Urk… o-okay, ma'am!"
The two of them stood facing each other in the sparring arena.
Duel — Begin!
And so, the starting flare of the duel went up.
"…Where on earth did you dig this monster up from?"
After the duel was over.
Baek Seo-ha asked, wiping the sweat from her brow.
The winner, of course, was Baek Seo-ha.
More than half her barrier was still standing, technically.
But this was not a result you could call an overwhelming victory.
"I've never seen someone use skills from every single discipline before. And to wield them to this level of mastery, no less…."
To be fair, there were cases of hunters dabbling in one or two skills from other disciplines as support.
But for Shin Min-woo, every one of them was a main skill.
This duel just happened to be a barrier-breaking format, so he couldn't use his healer skills.
If he'd been able to use those too, the gap between them would have closed even further.
"See? I told you I'm strong!"
Shin Min-woo, who'd taken the beating of his life, grinned sheepishly in high spirits.
"Well? That should prove it well enough, shouldn't it?"
"Fine. You have my recognition."
Baek Seo-ha sheathed her sword and let out a small sigh.
"This place and that place… both crawling with monsters."
She didn't seem particularly put out about it, though.
On the contrary, the corners of her mouth were curved just slightly—the happiest she'd looked in a while.
"Anyway, with this, the guild war team is complete. All that's left is founding the guild itself."
"…Seems like the order of things got awfully shuffled."
Guild approval took roughly three days, give or take.
There was still time before the registration window, but considering all the variables, it was better to have it ready in advance.
"We don't have enough people to submit the guild application yet. A founding roster requires a minimum of five."
Even setting the guild war aside, we still needed two more members.
And there was a condition of sorts attached.
Both of them had to be hunters.
If the guild grew large enough to staff an administrative department, unawakened civilians could be listed as members too.
But the founding members, at the very least, all had to be awakened hunters.
Strictly speaking, you could hand any old hunter a wad of cash to put their name on the roster.
For something that required zero actual activity—pure name-lending—few among the E- and D-rank hunters would refuse.
But that approach was a loss in the long run.
I wasn't planning to use this guild for the guild war and throw it away afterward, and who knew what kind of trouble could come from picking up random strangers.
They needed to be people I could trust, at the very least.
I had actually considered giving one of the two spots to Gong Gi-hyun.
But by strict definition, Gong Gi-hyun wasn't a hunter—just an ordinary awakened person.
He had zero gate record, and he'd never be entering a gate in the future either.
On top of that, he was already an employee on the Cheonseong research team.
Someone trustworthy, reasonably capable, and loyal enough that they'd never betray me.
"…So you're saying that person is me?"
"That is correct."
I smiled at Seong Gyu-ho.
"Which means you're asking me, right now, to join the guild you're founding, Tae-hyun-ssi… is that it?"
"You really do catch on fast."
His brow furrowed in real time, worry stacking on top of worry right before my eyes.
"I— wait, what's this all of a sudden…."
Once I laid out the background, his fluster seemed to ease a little, but he was still pressing a hand to his forehead with a troubled look.
"May I ask you just one thing? Why, of all people, me…?"
"Because you're someone I can trust."
"You trust me?"
"You stood up for Baek Seo-ha back in that hall. Isn't that more than enough of a story?"
True, I'd dropped him a very slight hint at the time.
But even without me, Seong Gyu-ho would have defended her.
"After all, it was you who took Seo-ha into the Sword Sect, not Seong Yong-ho."
"…!"
Seong Gyu-ho's eyes went wide, and his fingertips trembled.
"H-how could you possibly know that?!"
"It's obvious, isn't it? Would a man with an ego that enormous tell a child he personally brought in that she has no skill, that she's incompetent? That would mean his own eye for talent is rotten."
Actually, I'd heard it straight from the Baek Seo-ha of the future.
Seong Gyu-ho had found evidence of abuse at her orphanage and strong-armed his way into getting her admitted as a disciple of the Sword Sect.
And once her talent bloomed, Seong Yong-ho had quietly rewritten the story to cast himself as her benefactor.
"That's why I judged you could be trusted enough to take in as a guild member."
"Haah… Tae-hyun-ssi, you really are like some kind of ghost, aren't you."
Seong Gyu-ho shut his eyes tight for a moment, then turned his head to look out the window.
A gloomy atmosphere hung over the Sword Sect.
It had been like this ever since Seong Yong-ho and Manabu started running their intensive 'special training for the guild war' in the annex.
"Seo-ha is… like a niece to me. I know that as someone who stands as a teacher of the Sword Sect, I'm not supposed to play favorites with any child."
His voice grew a little thick.
"But a child who has never once known what real happiness feels like—how can an adult just leave her be?"
The orphanage where Baek Seo-ha had grown up was said to be anything but a bright place.
The places her clothes didn't cover were riddled with bruises, and the heating was so broken she lived with a constant cough.
A skinny, sickly, fragile little girl.
Seong Yong-ho wouldn't spare the child a glance—but Seong Gyu-ho kept her in his sight.
"The Sword Sect was the first place that ever let that child hold onto hope. For a place like that to take her hope away again—unforgivable, wouldn't you say?"
"Then will you join?"
"…I will. Count me into the guild."
Seong Gyu-ho shot to his feet with resolve, rolling his shoulders loose.
"Hm?"
Wait, wasn't he getting a bit too fired up about this?
His eyes were blazing with twin flames, his face set in the grim look of a soldier about to be thrown straight into the front lines.
"Compared to Seo-ha or you, Tae-hyun-ssi, I know I'm hopelessly insignificant. But even so, I will prove of some use—!"
"Hold on, hold on just a second."
"To think I'd be entering a guild war at my age. Truly, life is full of surprises…."
"I think you're operating under a rather grand misunderstanding."
Only after barely calming Seong Gyu-ho down did I finish explaining.
That the guild war roster had already been decided in full, and his name would simply be on the guild's membership list.
"Ah……."
The sight of a middle-aged man flushing crimson with shame.
Honestly, even as flattery, it wasn't something you could call fun to watch.
Er… anyway.
One spot was filled with that.
"…I want to die. Please show yourself out."
"…Good luck in there."
The moment I stepped out of the Sword Sect, an unidentified scream of agony rang out into the clear air.
"Hyung, are you sure you're not too busy right now?"
Right after successfully recruiting Seong Gyu-ho.
"Busy is busy. But a man has to do the bare minimum."
Shin Min-woo and I headed for a major university hospital in Seoul.
"His one and only family member is talking about joining some guild nobody's ever heard of. Who wouldn't worry? I should at least go greet her in person."
"Hmm… well, if you say so, hyung…."
This was the hospital where Shin Min-woo's older sister, Shin Yeon-hee, was hospitalized.
Creak—
As the hospital room door swung open, a woman in a wheelchair came into view.
Her features resembled Shin Min-woo's, but calmer somehow.
And with the round glasses added on top, she gave off a distinctly intellectual air.
"…Oh my?"
Her gaze, which had been buried in a thick book, swung toward us the moment the door opened.
"Noona!"
Shin Min-woo crossed the room in a single stride and stood beside her.
"You've been well?"
Shin Yeon-hee smiled faintly and closed her book.
"I've been fine. What brings you here? No phone call, nothing?"
"Hehe, there's someone I wanted to introduce you to."
"Introduce? Well, that's a first. Min-woo, actually bringing someone along."
Shin Yeon-hee's eyes naturally shifted to me, following behind him.
"Now, who could this be…."
"A pleasure to meet you. My name is Lee Tae-hyun."
"Hyak!"
The moment she laid eyes on me, she flinched hard.
"Mi… Min-woo? Who is this…?"
"Let me introduce you! He's my savior, and he's going to be the guild master of the guild I'm joining!"
"That's how it worked out, yes."
"A… a guild…? Min-woo, you joined a guild?!"
"Not yet, but I'm about to— ow, ow!"
Shin Yeon-hee smacked Shin Min-woo on the back, again and again.
"Owowow! What was that for!"
"What did! I tell you! No guilds! Until! You graduate! From the academy! And talk! It over! With me first!"
Smack! Smack!
Despite the sound, it clearly hurt a lot—tears were welling up in Shin Min-woo's eyes.
She looked frail, but she was an A-rank awakened person, so her raw strength must have been greater than it appeared.
"Aaargh… I thought I was going to die…."
"I really can't live like this!"
Once the brief scuffle was over.
Shin Yeon-hee cleared her throat and turned a polite greeting toward me.
"It's a pleasure to meet you as well. I'm Shin Yeon-hee, Min-woo's older sister."
A small, gentle voice.
"Are… are you, by any chance, the Lee Tae-hyun I've heard about?"
"I would be."
At the very least, among all the people using the name Lee Tae-hyun, I was the most famous.
"I see…."
Her chin trembled ever so slightly at my answer.
Then, after a short silence, she opened her mouth.
"I'm truly sorry to ask this. But could you nullify the guild contract Min-woo made with you? As if it never happened?"
"Wh… what are you saying, noona!"
"You, be quiet."
Shin Yeon-hee shot Shin Min-woo a stern warning look.
"He's a child who doesn't understand anything yet. I'm sure he made that guild contract without thinking it through."
"That's not it at all…!"
"He's a good little brother who devotedly takes care of his invalid sister. So just this once, for my sake—"
"Noona…."
Shin Yeon-hee bowed her head earnestly, deeply.
It was only natural for her to react this way.
In fact, I'd come fully expecting exactly this response, so I wasn't even that surprised.
It's common practice to sweet-talk low-rank or inexperienced hunters into unfair contracts and squeeze them dry.
Some cases went further—forcing illegal potions down their throats, bleeding them of everything worth taking, and discarding them once they were broken.
She must have assumed I was one of those.
"Please lift your head."
"Then…!"
"I'm sorry, but I can't release the contract Min-woo signed. I have quite a lot invested in him, you see."
"Ah, aaaah…."
The look on her face practically screamed: So he's already sunk his hooks in!
It was the picture of pure, unfiltered despair.
And since I genuinely felt like a villain in some drama, I quickly got to the point.
"In fact, the reason I came to visit you today, Shin Yeon-hee-ssi, isn't simply to pay my respects."
"Yes?"
"Shin Yeon-hee-ssi."
The final founding member of the guild.
That seat was, in fact—
"Would you care to join the guild I'm building?"
Reserved for the Divine Archer.