Chapter 32: Wrecking My Little Sister's Work Life
Kwon Sudong rubbed his eyes and looked again. He still couldn't make sense of what he was seeing.
It had started well enough.
A few months back, word went around that a new mage had joined. He went to see for himself, and a rather pretty young woman had walked into a guild that wasn't even particularly large — enough to make him shelve any thought of transferring out.
At last. His reward for all those hard years.
From that day on, Kwon Sudong — the guild's ace, by his own reckoning — had gone after the mage named Kim Sujeong in earnest.
At first it was nothing more than small kindnesses. He was forty-five. Unlike the other men his age still playing at youth, he was someone who understood shame. He still didn't know how to win a woman's affection — which was why he'd never managed to marry — but by that age, a search or two was enough to learn what kind of man women hated.
Come on too openly, and a woman pulls away. What they wanted was a kind man. A fatherly man. So Kwon Sudong had been kind to Kim Sujeong — blatantly so — and done whatever she needed.
It hadn't been easy, of course. Young as she was, she sulked at the smallest thing and kept her distance. Even so, he'd been patient. Courting a young woman at his age was no simple matter, and he hadn't needed to worry about whether it was going well.
"Hyung. Sujeong doesn't seem entirely cold to you, you know."
"You ought to try being a little more forward."
"Young women like big, solid men. Men like you, hyung."
The people around him had egged him on just enough, and cracked the nastier jokes in his place, building the mood for him. And every time, Kim Sujeong's face hadn't looked all that displeased. So Kwon Sudong had gathered his courage bit by bit and drawn closer. He'd thought he was drawing closer.
But nearly half a year had passed without any real progress. At some point she'd started to feel as if she were avoiding him — enough that even he could tell she no longer answered when he spoke.
Impatience set in. Why is she like this?
"Hyung. Isn't it about time you confessed?"
"Could be you're measuring too carefully."
Instead of giving up, Kwon Sudong pushed harder. The more he pushed, the further she drifted — and the further she drifted, the tighter he clung to that timeless proverb. No tree fails to fall if you strike it ten times. Day after day, whether from the people around him or from the television, he drilled the same lesson into himself: an older man who wants a young, pretty woman has to find his courage.
And then the chance came.
The guild office — a generous name for what was really just a small room — was where he caught Kim Sujeong asking the guild master to let her older brother into the dungeons for a while. He hadn't needed to eavesdrop. It was lunch hour, and he'd overheard it while getting ready to head out. The words carried just fine.
"I don't know what he can do, but it's probably low. You want us to take him into the dungeons we run? You know how dangerous that is, right, Sujeong?"
"Yes. I'll handle things right beside him... and of course he doesn't need a share. Please just let him come in a few times. Knowing my brother's personality, he'll go charging around without a clue and get himself hurt. I'm asking you."
"You know that's a lot to ask, right?"
"...I'm sorry."
Even to Kwon Sudong's ears, it was an unreasonable request. They weren't entering the dungeon alone. She was asking them to drag along someone who might not be any help at all.
"How about you go with him into an F-rank or E-rank dungeon? Or call me and I'll help. Let's handle it that way instead."
"Yes. Thank you for looking out for us. I think that's the right call. I was just worried..."
"I know. But if we assume he's F-rank, taking a hunter who just awakened into a C-rank dungeon is even more dangerous. And we can't drop down to a lower dungeon just for your one brother, can we?"
Kwon Sudong saw his opening, and stepped right in.
"Come on, Guild Master. Are we really that calculating with each other?"
The guild master was younger than he was. They had a personal rapport and addressed each other like brothers, so he spoke without ceremony.
"I'll keep everyone safe and sound, so let's grant our Sujeong's request. When has Sujeong ever asked for something like this?"
"...Are you sure? You'll be the one bearing it, hyung."
"Bearing what? Since when is a C-rank dungeon a dungeon to me? I already keep Sujeong safe on an ordinary day — if adding one more person makes it dangerous, I might as well tear up my A-rank tanker badge, hahaha!"
He thought he'd been rather dashing.
"Thank you... Team Leader."
"Team Leader, nothing. I keep telling you to just call me oppa."
It felt like the first thank-you he'd heard from her since she joined. Something that had been jammed shut seemed to give way, and his confidence swelled with it. If things simply kept on like this. He leaned on her guilt in measured doses and pressed his advances even harder, right up until the day they entered the dungeon.
On the day itself, one look at the sorry state of the man she called her older brother left him feeling grateful instead. Kim Sujeong, who used to ignore him outright and wouldn't so much as glance his way, was at least grudgingly answering him now.
"How about a drink with oppa tonight? We said we would."
"..."
And with a little pressure on that vacant-looking brother, he'd made sure Kim Sujeong felt the weight of it too. He'd meant to lay down the law — to crush the spirit of a man who might one day be family.
That had absolutely been the plan.
So what the hell was that movement, so utterly wrong for the scrawny frame under the sponging pretty-boy face he already couldn't stand?
Honestly, he hadn't even seen it. The man took up a sword and vanished in an instant, and far off, the blade in his hand was dripping blood. Five monster heads thumped to the ground at the same time. He'd thought someone had laid a CG effect over the scene.
The man who was Kim Sujeong's brother came walking over, flicking blood off the sword, and said it without expression.
"Fuck, they're strong."
He said it flatly, as if he himself hadn't known he would be this powerful, and not one of them could laugh.
"He... killed them in one go?"
"All five?"
"Does that even make sense?"
The C-rank dungeon they were in was a tropical biome, thick with bipedal monkey-type species. They had no particular skill worth mentioning — just raw physical stats high enough to make them a pain to fight. That was why Kwon Sudong, the A-rank tanker, mattered. Without a tanker holding the front line solid, the damage dealers were swept away in seconds.
Which was also why the little prank he'd pulled at the end had been somewhat dangerous. He'd stepped up that far and still hadn't gotten the reaction he wanted, so he'd played a small trick to remind them how indispensable he was. Part of it was temper. That so-called brother had the nerve to puff up his pride in front of his little sister, playing at being a man, and it had set Kwon Sudong off.
He hadn't thought, even for a second, that anything would come of it. A hunter who'd only just awakened, hunting monsters in a C-rank dungeon? No matter how high a hunter's rank, that was next to impossible. Stats and skill grades might be high, but a low level meant you simply hadn't invested the points.
And yet he'd done it.
"No. How..."
"I killed five. You're throwing in your share too, right, mister?"
"..."
"Wonder how much an A-rank tanker pulls. Three shares? Sounds tasty."
He had no answer for the needling.
The dungeon hunt had gone a little flat.
In the end, I was still nothing but a twenty-six-year-old unemployed little shit. If I'd held out a little longer, the scene would've landed cleaner than this. I'd bitten on the taunt and shown my hand, so in a way I hadn't even won. Strictly speaking, I was the dumbass who'd won. I'd dropped down and played at his level.
Still, it felt good.
Kim Sujeong was looking at me the way you look at a savior. That was when the regret hit.
"What are you staring at me like that for? Disgusting."
"Thanks, oppa."
"Ugh..."
"But for real, oppa, what's your actual rank?"
"What's it to you."
"Don't you need a mage in your party, oppa?"
I'd wanted attention. That part was true. I just hadn't wanted this kind of smothering attention from my pain-in-the-ass little sister.
"Don't need some C-rank scrub."
"Please. Can I quit? You saw him earlier. That decrepit old fart coming on to me like he has any right. At this rate I'm either gonna get assaulted, or I'm gonna kill him. One of the two."
"Quit. That's your call."
"Exactly. So party with me. Yeah? I'll follow you around and help until you get big, oppa."
"Who's helping who. Go stand behind Tanker Oppa and fling your spells."
"Oh, come on. Pleeease?"
This was why the fun had leaked out of it. She kept nagging at my side, so I'd simply stepped in and wiped out every monster in the dungeon myself.
The older hunters were so shocked they couldn't get another word out. I felt a little bad. Had I hit them too hard? Still, I'd heard they had an A-rank tanker in there, and even a B-rank dealer.
"Are you... really F-rank?"
One of the hunters asked.
"Yes. I awakened last week... It isn't even a combat ability, so I wasn't planning to enter any dungeons, but it seems Sujeong didn't know that and asked the guild for help. Thanks to all of you, I'm leaving with a good experience."
I didn't know how things would turn out from here. It wasn't as if I'd be crossing paths with these people again. But this much I could tell: Kim Sujeong's life at this guild was fucked.
I wasn't particularly worried. I knew her personality, and she didn't look like she had any intention of sticking around much longer.
"Thank you for your hard work."
We were out of the dungeon in under three hours. I'd barely offered a simple goodbye, and before I could even climb into the passenger seat, Kim Sujeong was already in the car. Giving the hunters standing slack-jawed in the distance a wide berth, she floored the accelerator like she was making a getaway.