A Horrific Price (3)

"......"

The attempt on the Shanghai Gate, and everything up to the day I left Korea — those days would not stop circling in my head.

The two who had died were hunters I'd never been on good terms with. And the country I was born in, the country where I had served as raid leader, had thrown me away. Even so, two men who had been S-rank hunters were dead, and for South Korea that was unmistakably a crisis. On top of it all, the Shanghai Gate was still unresolved. They had formed a joint team, and they still couldn't clear it?

No. Did they even prepare properly?

I doubted they had truly given everything they had when they put that team together. Then the doubt turned on me. Wasn't there something more I could have done? Should I have gone into the boss room, if only to take the measure of their strength?

I started to push myself up off the bed, and from behind, Hannah drew me into her arms.

"......Hannah?"

"Stay still."

Something soft met my back — the warm, pleasant give of her skin. I could see the pale, fine hands wrapped tight around me.

"It's the news from Korea, isn't it? Not just now. You've had that dark look for a while."

I couldn't answer. I was never any good at hiding things from this woman. Hannah was the one who organized every report the Association sent my way, so she already knew exactly what I had heard yesterday.

"It isn't your fault."

"That's not what I'm saying."

"Then what are you saying?"

I had no answer. From behind, Hannah rested her chin on my shoulder.

"If I'd just done more of what I could have done..."

"You already did all of it."

"As raid leader, you said you should pull back for the moment. You were suspended for it. And that country threw you away."

Her voice was soft. Not a single word of it was.

"You did everything that could be done in that country."

I said nothing.

"And you're still worrying about those people?"

I let out a short breath. She was right. Every word of it was right. I hadn't killed them. It wasn't that I had failed to stop them. I had spoken, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and because of those words I had lost everything.

"They aren't your country anymore. They aren't your comrades, either."

"So forget them."

Hannah laid a hand against my cheek and turned my face toward her. Her pretty face was right there in front of me. Maybe it was the morning light, but I could see every last eyelash.

"You left that country and came to an unfamiliar America. Don't tell me you aren't satisfied with what you have now?"

She said it looking straight into my eyes. I could have answered at once, but I let a beat pass. When she looked at me like that, it meant she was giving me permission.

"Of course not."

"Hmm. Hearing it in words alone, I'm not quite convinced."

That sweet little coaxing of hers. Quite some time had passed since Hannah and I had become what we were to each other, and still, in moments like this, holding back was difficult. I kissed her.

I had to show her — this woman I'd met in America — just how much the very best she was.

Yeah. That's right.

I had come to America to gain what I couldn't gain in Korea, and I had meant to change. Fretting over things that didn't matter. Taking responsibility for things I had no need to own. It wouldn't be easy, not right away. But slowly, I had to kill the man I used to be.

South Korea had been at a standstill for days.

The networks had stopped airing the programming they were supposed to run and begun reporting on nothing but the recent disaster. Two deaths. A toll like that was, ordinarily, as common as daily life. It was still more than enough to shove the country into fear.

Of the S-rank hunters South Korea had still possessed only a few months ago, one had left for America at the end of his suspension, and two had never come back from Shanghai. The man who, over a long tenure as raid leader of the nation's flagship S-rank raid team, had built a stable system. The man who had briefly taken that post. And the man who had been a core member of the team. Three people gone — and the blow was enormous.

Until a few months ago, word had gone around that South Korea stood on the verge of being crowned the hegemon of Asia, and the whole nation had hung its hopes on its very best hunters. A string of incidents had, in effect, cut that strength to less than half.

Korean Hunter Association headquarters.

Kim Mansoo sat in the chairman's chair, looking out the window. Two documents lay on the desk. The death certificates of Lee Mingi and Oh Chulsoo.

There were no bodies, so there was nothing to confirm. Only a name and a date, written on paper.

I sent them.

He was the one who had appointed Lee Mingi raid leader, and the one who had signed the list dispatching them to Shanghai. He was the chairman. Of course the decision had come down from above. Political circles, and plenty of other hands besides, had arranged for it to be so. That did not turn the hand that had written the name on the paper into someone else's.

A long breath left him, and Kim Mansoo shut his eyes tight.

Up came the face of the young hunter who had sat across from him in this room a few months ago. Lee Dohyeon — and these days, word was that he was doing rather well for himself in America. As chairman, Kim Mansoo had met him often to ask his counsel, had talked through what lay ahead, and had watched that young man ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠step forward himself to manage the S-rank and A-rank hunters who looked like trouble. A man never acknowledged in proportion to what he accomplished. A man ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who had never been given what ought to have been his. The hole he left behind was vaster than anyone had imagined.

How did it come to this?

The reality bearing down on him felt, to Kim Mansoo, like a lie.

The main conference room, in the same building. Every S-rank and A-rank hunter still remaining in the country had been called in on an emergency summons.

"I'll go over what has been confirmed so far regarding the Shanghai Gate," an Association staffer said, bringing the materials up.

"Ordinary monsters were barely found inside the gate at all. And we have testimony that mana was detected in a distorted state in front of the boss room."

No one spoke.

"The passage collapsed during the retreat. Every survivor's account agrees that it was not a natural collapse."

"And the boss's appearance?"

"Unconfirmed."

The conference room stirred.

"So you're telling us we don't even know exactly what killed them?"

"Not as of now."

These were hunters who had cleared gates beyond counting, but what they were hearing sat outside every category of monster they knew. A low murmur spread through the room.

"Why are we even sitting through a briefing like this? Doesn't look like any of us will be going to Shanghai."

Someone had spoken with no sense of the room. No hunter particularly moved to stop them.

A hunter seated toward the front raised a hand.

"......I'll be straight with you."

"With the strength we have right now, if an S-rank gate opens here at home, can we clear it on our own?"

Silence.

"You're not answering."

"That would depend on the gate's mana level......"

"A Low one, we'd manage. What about Mid and up?"

The staffer shut his mouth.

"Up through last year, we were confident no matter where one opened. Not anymore."

"Hey, you. Watch your mouth. Why are you talking like that? So negative."

"If we mince words even in here, then where are we supposed to say it?"

Voices broke out from every side of the room.

"We don't have a raid leader. That's the biggest problem."

"Even if we rebuild the representative raid team right now, it'll take time to get our coordination back. Too many people dropped out in too short a stretch."

"Is there any guarantee an S-rank gate won't open during that year?"

"And if a Dungeon Break happens, then what?"

"A Dungeon Break? If we were in that much danger, do you really think other countries would just sit still?"

"The Shanghai Gate, too. If China had pushed harder to request support from America, none of this would have......"

They weren't really speaking to one another. They were only talking.

"And anyway, what does the Hunter Association actually do?"

"Politicians pop up out of nowhere, take a photo, and leave. Not a shred of use. Honestly."

With no answer in sight, the grievances had started to spill. Watching them, the staffer who had briefed the room so earnestly let out a sigh where no one could hear it.

What is this? Were this country's hunters always so weak?

He had brought in every S-rank and A-rank hunter they currently had. Far from reassuring, it felt like minding a roomful of bratty teenagers. He was certain it hadn't been this way before. So that was it. Without someone to hold the reins, they were nothing but a rabble. He thought of Lee Dohyeon — young, and more of an adult than any of them — and shut his eyes tight.

"Would you listen to this bullshit," A-rank Yoon Seong-ah muttered, taking in the disgraceful scene.

S-rank hunters, and look at them. Not a dependable bone in the lot. How pathetic could they be? She glanced to the side.

Two women she couldn't stand. So Yumi was here, and so was Han Yewon. The red-haired scrap — where had all that old confidence gone? Her eyes were cast down. And the black-haired girl, the one who went around with those disgustingly huge breasts, still couldn't cage that vacant, anxious stare.

Fuck. Should I just leave for another country too?

Stay here, and she was going to lose her mind right along with the rest of them.

"You're looking well, Hunter Lee Dohyeon."

"As are you, James."

James Jordan, head of the Hunter Management Division, had flown in from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles. I met him in person. His manner was the same as ever — thoroughly at ease, and without a single opening.

"These days, the hunter this country is watching with the greatest expectation is you, Hunter Lee Dohyeon."

"Haha. You flatter me."

"Flattery, is it......"

"Yes?"

James Jordan set a sheaf of documents on the table, as if the thought had only just occurred to him.

"I'm not sure it is flattery."

I looked at the papers.

"......"

The contents were simple.

"This is?"

"Sooner than you might expect, you may be headed for the very top."

James Jordan said it with an easy, sly smoothness.

Hannah had told me. The US 1st Raid Team represented America, and so it put ability first. They made a habit of trying to change the roster. Even so, those changes almost never actually happened.

"......"

Of course, this time would be different.