Trap
Late at night.
Only the soft glow of a standing lamp lit Room 1104, bathing the space in a seductive, intimate mood.
Eileen Benedict sat alone at the dining table.
She wore nothing but a black lace slip so flimsy it looked as though it might slide right off her at any moment.
The pale shoulders exposed beneath the light, along with the deep plunge of her neckline, were enough to stop any onlooker cold in their tracks.
With a graceful motion, she took a sip of blood-red wine.
Click—
The bedroom door opened, and Yu Jihyun walked out.
She was dressed in nothing but a thin robe as well, but the supple line of her legs and the curve of her hips visible between the folds carried a destructive charm all its own, very different from Eileen’s flamboyant allure.
“What’s with that outfit? You planned to put on a show the second Woojin-oppa comes in, didn’t you? If that’s the plan, why not just strip completely?”
At Jihyun’s venomous jab, Eileen didn’t even blink. She let out a soft laugh.
“You’re one to talk. What am I supposed to do about that little butt sticking out like that? I’m so embarrassed for you I’m about ready to get wine up my nose. Ah, I see. So since your chest can’t compete with mine, you decided to put all your strength into your ass?”
“Y-you’re ridiculous! W-what do you mean, can’t compete!? Hah? Seriously! This is absurd. You’re the one not even wearing a bra, so why are you lecturing me?”
“Are you wearing panties? I can’t see a panty line anywhere.”
Jihyun’s face flushed bright red.
“Th-th—!”
“What was that?”
She couldn’t very well say she was wearing a thong.
“Mind your own business! Whether I’m wearing them or not!”
Eileen swirled her wineglass lightly and answered as if it were nothing.
“Tch, one should always prepare in advance. A contest is decided in an instant.”
“What are you preparing for, you horny little demon? Seriously, is that all that’s in your head, you so-called successor to the Benedict family?”
“I’ll toss that right back at you. Why doesn’t DH Group go into the adult goods business? If you were the CEO, you’d dominate Korea—no, the entire world.”
“Ggh…!”
The two women spent a while trading vicious insults while sizing up each other’s clothes.
But before long, Jihyun jerked her chair back and sat down across from Eileen with an irritated click.
“So what did you want to talk about? You could’ve just said it. Why drag out the mood like this?”
Eileen gave a little snort.
“Want a drink?”
When Eileen lifted the bottle and asked, Jihyun held out her glass with a scowl.
“Fine, give me some. A drink might help me sleep.”
“Don’t go see Woojin-oppa after you’ve had it. You are absolutely forbidden from approaching Woojin-oppa while drunk.”
“T-that was an accident!”
Gulp, the red liquid filled the clear glass.
The two women drank in silence for a moment.
There was warmth in the quiet.
During the day they snapped at each other like rivals fighting over Woojin, but in moments like this, an odd sense of kinship settled between them—both of them sharing the same burden, the same worry.
“So what was that thing you wanted to say? The way you’ve been building it up, it doesn’t sound like something ordinary.” Jihyun asked first, setting her glass down.
Eileen slowly spun her wineglass, lowering her jewel-bright eyes.
“What do you think of our party now?”
Jihyun grew serious at the question and thought over the current members.
“It’s formidable. Honestly, it’s ridiculous. You and I, both among the strongest in the world, plus Jo Ayoung, who has the potential to reach Mythic grade. Then there’s the Heroic-grade ranged dealer, a Legendary healer… and your Necromancer to fill in the missing troops. And, of course, Woojin-oppa as the perfect coordinator. Even if someone tried to build a party from scratch, they couldn’t make one better than this.”
Eileen nodded deeply.
“Exactly. A party of this level was hard to make even in Unliworld. We had the Final Seven, but every single one of them was too full of themselves. Their individual skill was amazing, sure, but their pride was so high they couldn’t come together as one. Too many captains sink the ship—that saying fit us perfectly.”
Jihyun smiled bitterly as well.
Even in the final days of Unliworld, when humanity’s survival hung by a thread, the strongest people had been too busy checking one another to truly cooperate.
If they had joined forces properly, the Demon King would have lost his head long ago.
At the very least, because Jihyun had stayed at Eileen’s side all the way until the end and forced herself to swallow her pride, they had barely managed to secure victory.
“But look at us now. You, me, Jo Ayoung, Catherine, Kim Chulsoo, Kim Sangjin… all gathered under Woojin-oppa’s influence, with him uniting and coordinating everything. What do you think of that?”
Jihyun took a sip of wine and answered.
“What’s there to think? It’s a good thing. Isn’t it the strongest shield in human history, the kind that lets us actually live out that noble sacrifice you’re always going on about?”
At that, a deep smile curved Eileen’s lips.
“Oh? So you’ll help me?”
“W-well…!”
Jihyun snapped her head away, her cheeks reddening.
She toyed with her glass and whispered in a voice so small it was barely more than a mosquito’s buzz.
“...W-we’re friends, aren’t we?”
Eileen’s eyes widened as if she truly hadn’t expected that.
For someone like Eileen Benedict, notorious for being selfish and arrogant, it was rare to see her expression change so clearly.
She stared blankly at Jihyun for a moment, then broke into a soft, warm smile.
“Damn it, I should’ve said that first… You got me.”
“W-what are you talking about!”
Suddenly, Eileen leaned far over the table and pushed her face close to Jihyun’s.
“Yu Jihyun.”
“Wh-why are you doing that? It’s scary. Could you put away that extra slab of fat hanging off you? It’s starting to look like you’re showing it off.”
Even at Jihyun’s sharp words, Eileen continued in earnest.
“I don’t have any friends. Do you understand?”
Jihyun’s eyes flickered.
As the head of the Benedict family and the commander of Unliworld, no one understood Eileen’s loneliness better than she did.
Jihyun answered with a bitter smile of her own.
“…Same here.”
“Which means you’re my only friend. For now.”
That direct declaration hit Jihyun straight in the chest.
“Of course, we’re on opposite sides when it comes to the same man, but as for someone I can fully leave my back to… well, I can’t think of anyone but you right now.”
“What about Catherine? She’d even give her life for you.”
“Ha! That traitor who went running straight to Kim Chulsoo? At this point, she feels less like my secretary and more like Kim Chulsoo’s wife…!”
Jihyun couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing.
“Pfft! Ahahaha!”
Eileen grumbled, but a smile still lingered at the corners of her mouth.
The two of them looked at each other and felt it at once.
The weight of their families, the pressure of their positions, and even their affection for one man—there was no one in this world who could truly understand all of it except each other.
“I don’t want to lose what we have now. That’s why I accepted Jo Ayoung’s ridiculous proposal to be temporary girlfriends, or whatever nonsense she called it.” Eileen’s voice dropped, low and serious.
“Same here. But someone’s going to win and someone’s going to lose when it comes to Woojin-oppa. When that day comes, will we have to scatter and go our separate ways like we did in Unliworld? Honestly, that’s what scares me most.”
Jihyun’s confession left the room silent for a moment.
But Eileen already had an answer.
“No. There’s a way. A massive chain that can bind us together so we won’t be torn apart—not forever, maybe, but long enough.”
Jihyun’s ears perked up.
Eileen drained her wine in one go and declared, “We establish a guild. You, me, and all of our members together.”
“A guild…? Not under your family or my group, but an independent guild?”
“Exactly. Think about it. Even if we ran a guild with just the seven of us, we’d be nearly invincible. Is there any gate in the world we couldn’t handle? If we start out as an independent guild, we can easily brush off the interference of my family, your group, and even the countries we belong to. Complicated political procedures? We’ll just crush them with strength.”
Jihyun’s eyes began to gleam.
A guild created by Eileen and Jihyun together would become a supra-legal power that no nation could dare to lay a hand on.
“And the justification is perfect too. Heroes who saved the world. We clear the Asian Gate campaign successfully, then plant our guild’s flag on the foundation of that victory. After that, no one in the world will be able to block our path. We’d be heroes.”
To Jihyun, it was a completely feasible scenario.
“I’m fine with that, but are you? Founding a guild means giving up your position as the Benedict family head, or at least stepping outside its influence.”
Eileen let out a contemptuous snort.
“The family head position? It means nothing to me. The seat doesn’t make me. I make the seat. Do you really think the world’s savior, the strongest guild master in humanity, can be tied down by a single name like Benedict? Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll bet you anything the next family head will end up bowing to me.”
Jihyun found the confident Eileen utterly dazzling.
She had only ever thought about escaping the shackles of her family; she’d never thought of redrawing the entire board.
“And there’s one person who absolutely has to be there, Yu Jihyun.”
“Me?”
“Yes. I’m selfish, I’m reckless, and more often than not I don’t think things through. If you’re not there keeping an eye on me, I have no idea what kind of disaster I’ll cause. The number of people who can keep me in check? If you searched the entire world, there’d only be two: you and Woojin-oppa. I need you.”
Jihyun felt something warm rise in a corner of her chest.
Embarrassed, she shook her head and lifted her glass.
“Hah. Honestly. What am I supposed to do? If only because I’m afraid you’ll cause trouble, I guess I’ll have to stay by your side.”
Eileen grinned and tapped her glass against Jihyun’s.
Clink—
“Right after the Asian Gate campaign ends. Then we announce our guild’s founding to the whole world.”
“Good. I’m in.”
Jihyun narrowed her eyes and added, “And when we draft the guild charter, let’s pack it with poison clauses so Woojin-oppa can never, under any circumstances, slip out of our guild. We’ll keep him in the palm of our hands forever.”
“Heh-heh-heh… Of course. We won’t even let the other women catch a whiff of him.”
“Kheh-heh-heh… Good. Perfect.”
The eerie yet cheerful laughter of the two queens rang low through Room 1104.
It was the moment the guild of heroes who would save humanity—and the great trap aimed squarely at Kim Woojin—was set into motion.
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