The Three Idiots and the Crow
The three idiots.
“Hyunsoo, are we not leaving yet?”
“Brother Joo-hyung hasn’t shown up yet.”
“Where did he go?”
“He said he was buying walnut cookies…”
“That bastard stuffs his face at every single rest stop. Hey, don’t you know the people upstairs are losing their minds telling us to find him right now?”
“Sorry.”
B-class detection ability user Yoo Hyun-min’s tongue-lashing made F-class body reinforcement user and driver Shin Hyun-soo bow his head. Of course, inside he was muttering, If you’re that pissed off, why don’t you go find him yourself, you fucking bastard—
“Just drive. Tell him to catch up at the next rest stop or go home on his own.”
“If I do that, Brother Joo-hyung won’t let it slide…”
“What’s he going to do if he doesn’t let it slide?”
“…Oh, there’s Brother Joo-hyung now.”
The SUV door slid open with a heavy clunk, and C-class spearman Lee Joo-hyung climbed in.
“Hey, idiot, why are you so slow? Are we on a damn picnic?”
“Let’s not be so strict about food. We all have to eat to live.”
“Ha, this son of a bitch is for real.”
“What? You wanna throw hands? You know a B-class detector can’t beat me, right?”
“What?”
“Alright, alright. Let’s get going. One, two, three, four—all aboard.”
Even in the face of Lee Joo-hyung’s provocative attitude, Yoo Hyun-min could only clench his fists and do nothing. There was a rank difference between B-class and C-class, but the gap between support and combat abilities was just as real. Noticing that his opponent had flinched, Lee Joo-hyung smirked and continued.
“So where are we even going? If you’re the leader, you should at least point us in a direction.”
The meaning was clear: if they were just going to keep driving in circles, there would be no more special treatment for a B-class hunter.
“Hand it over.”
“Huh?”
“The walnut cookies. You gonna eat them all by yourself?”
In other words, he had no idea where they were supposed to go.
“By the way, guys… why are there four of us? We definitely left with just three…”
“Now that you mention it…”
All three of them looked around at the same time.
“You’re supposed to be watching the road, dumbass.”
“Huh? What the hell is this?”
The fourth passenger was easy to spot.
“A crow?”
It had stealthily claimed a seat for itself and was busy stealing walnut cookies.
“Can you not even tell a person from a crow anymore? You counted the damn bird too?”
“Caw!”
“What the hell, you birdbrain. Spit out the human food!”
Yoo Hyun-min smacked the back of the crow’s head. The atmosphere inside the car instantly turned ice-cold. Everyone could feel that the chill wasn’t just their imagination.
“W-what the…!”
“Cawwwww!!”
“That thing’s a monster, isn’t it?! We have to kill it right now! Hurry up, you idiots! Kill it!”
At Shin Hyun-soo’s shout, Lee Joo-hyung snapped back to his senses. He frantically pulled his weapon from his bag. But when he turned around again, B-class hunter Yoo Hyun-min was already being devoured by an unidentified black fog. Beside him stood a crow that had taken on a vaguely human shape. It didn’t take long for the black mist to completely consume the vehicle.
Ah, this feels like it just became a huge problem.
From the moment the crow popped out after I opened the trading window, something had felt off. I had definitely given her the Chris sword, yet the fact that BlackMageSobs hadn’t left a single comment in the gallery for so long was even more ominous.
The scenarios I’d come up with were mainly two. One was that BlackMageSobs had been burned to death by the holy beam. The other was that she was absolutely furious and thinking about how best to ruin my life.
Looks like the second scenario was correct.
What should I do? Should I at least bow my head and offer after-service?
BlackMageSobs left no more comments. What the hell was that about?
“Caw caw! Oh one who offers tribute! You too have the habit of looking into the void and laughing and crying, just like the owner of birds!”
“What? When did you get here?”
“I have just arrived! The wish you desired has been perfectly fulfilled!”
“Are you talking about the trackers?”
Instead of answering, the crow nodded.
“You really dealt with the trackers? Already?”
“Caw… By the way, could you please stroke my head? It itches terribly but I cannot reach it myself!”
The crow hopped over and pushed its head toward me. Without thinking I reached out and scratched the tiny skull. It must have felt amazing because it flopped over onto its side and let out happy little kaa kaa sounds. Is this a cat or a crow?
“Choco.”
“This girl is Nebra!”
“Nebra, did you really take care of all the trackers?”
Still lying down, the crow nodded. The feeling that hit me was like a hammer to the brain—it was clearly no lie.
“…Then if I pointed at someone, could you—”
“That I cannot do, oh one who offers tribute!”
“It’s not that you can’t.”
“I choose not to. Because my true master does not wish it!”
“But you’re staying with me right now.”
This time the crow shook its head. Even though it had entrusted its body to me, the one it truly served was still BlackMageSobs. Its loyalty was impressive.
“Caw! It is instinct for a crow to follow its mother, after all.”
“If the black mage wants it, wouldn’t that be fine?”
“I heard a pact was made! You requested help to protect your body!”
“…That’s true.”
“Arbitrarily changing conditions while trading with a black mage would not be good for you either.”
“…”
“I will faithfully carry out what was promised.”
The crow’s voice had grown serious, completely different from before. When she spoke like that, I couldn’t keep pressing the issue. Still, I had gained a reliable ally who would keep the Hunter Association’s threats at bay. Suyeon would be able to move around outside with a little more peace of mind now.
“Thanks, Ddujjonku.”
“Nebra!”
Thanks to the crow, the past few days had been comfortably peaceful. Not having to tell Ji Suyeon “You’re being chased again so we need to run” was one of the things that put my mind at ease. Unfortunately it seemed I was the only one enjoying the calm—outside the forge, a fierce battle was taking place.
Minyoung had spilled all the details to me. She suddenly asked if I had killed one B-class hunter, one C-class hunter, and one F-class hunter. It wasn’t really a question that wanted an answer, because before I could even speak she poured out her frustration.
“They’re throwing a fit at us, you know? Saying we killed their hunters! It’s suspicious! Take responsibility!”
I couldn’t exactly say what I wanted to—that if I had the ability to kill a B-class or C-class hunter I would have done it long ago. So I kept my mouth shut.
“That B-class hunter was part of a tracking team, apparently. The pursuit has been cut off for now. Things have gone quiet on their end too.”
“Still, be careful. We might have missed something, or they could have sent another team.”
The relationship between the government and the Hunter Association was truly strange. Some matters only ended after blood was spilled, while others were wrapped up with just a few words. Sometimes both happened at once. Both sides were certain the other had screwed them over, yet they pretended not to know and asked politely. They lied through their teeth with straight faces. The other side noticed the bullshit but pretended to be fooled. Of course, only up to the point where a suitable price was paid in return.
This is pro wrestling, not MMA.
The reason was simple. They had learned through experience what happened when they stopped keeping each other in check, and what happened when they sharpened their blades against each other too much. No matter how much you hated the nuclear bomb buried in your front yard, you could only spit on it—you couldn’t swing a pickaxe at it.
“Is Suyeon doing okay?”
“She’s deciding on lunch right now.”
“Ugh, I’m so jealous…! Can I come eat with you? If I run over right now, will you let me join?”
While a spy war was raging outside the forge, only peaceful little things were happening inside the workshop. Ever since Suyeon joined, a few changes had appeared. First, mara hotpot and tteokbokki started appearing on the table more often. Whenever her mana ran low from working at the forge, she would order spicy, salty, or sweet food. At this point I was starting to suspect that Ddujjonku, tteokbokki, and mara hotpot were actually this dimension’s version of mana potions.
“What should we order? If I get mara hotpot the tteokbokki will cry… but if I get tteokbokki the mara hotpot will feel sad…”
“I’m sick of both of them.”
“Still…”
“Can’t we just order separately?”
“Come on, Boss! We should eat together!”
“We can order separately and still eat together… ah, never mind.”
Ordering delivery twice for one meal under the same roof? My cheapskate DNA refused to allow it. Even though selling mana stones and rings had left my bank account quite comfortable, some habits refused to change so easily.
Suyeon had also started calling me “Boss.” Even I wasn’t shameless enough to demand she call me “Oppa” like some trashy protagonist, so I let it be. She wasn’t wrong, after all.
“Kkamong! What do you want to eat?”
“Nebra…!”
It seemed Suyeon had taken on the role of the crow’s feeder as well.
“Boss, I’ll order a really big portion of mara hotpot for you.”
“I don’t want to eat that much.”
“We still have work this afternoon, so we need to eat properly.”
The biggest change inside the forge, however, was the sudden surge in ring production. After we figured out how to divide the labor and match our rhythm, efficiency more than doubled. Since the original quantity was small, doubling it still wasn’t much… The real problem was that there was no way to secure enough materials. We needed to clear higher floors and bring back more dark iron.
“I think we’re already making a lot right now, you know?”
“No, at this pace it’s not even close.”
“…Do we really have to go? Can’t we just stay in the workshop and keep making rings?”
“We can’t.”
“But it’s dangerous…”
Dangerous or not, it couldn’t be helped. We needed more rings. We needed more dark iron. The situation on the lower floors was that we cleared the dungeon before we could even fill the bag we brought. We would aim for the tenth floor. The plan was to make a big haul during the boss fight.
“Um… Minyoung unnie said she would help!”
“Huh?”
Suyeon struggled to carry over a large box. It was packed full of dark iron.
“She brought a whole carload while you were away, Boss. She said she’d keep sending more.”
“You should have told me.”
“Well… Ah! If I told you, you’d make even more…!”
“……”
“……”
She was already thinking about slacking off. Still, I couldn’t just scold her. The only person who truly worked like they owned the place was the actual owner.
So what do I do now?
They say that people who have worked their whole lives will look for work even when told to rest. That was exactly my situation. With the afternoon schedule suddenly gone, I had no idea what to do. Was I really supposed to just keep making rings? Thanks to Suyeon recently taking on a lot of the workload, simply making rings didn’t even feel like proper work anymore.
“How about taking the whole day off for once?”
“Caw, oh one who offers tribute…! How about stroking this girl’s head?”
“Kkamong! I’ll scratch you!”
“This girl is not Kkamong—caaaaw…”
Fortunately, work appeared soon enough.
“A guild?”
“Yes, a guild!”
“We’re just a small workshop with fewer than five employees, you know?”
They told me to create a guild.