Shinyeom (4)
"Five hundred million won. That's the surplus capital I can invest immediately."
"......Five hundred million?"
"Eek."
"Whoa..."
Our jaws dropped at a sum none of us had seen coming. The two standing beside me had gone round-eyed as well, staring in open astonishment.
"With this much on hand, procuring equipment for the two of you — and Gate entry permits — shouldn't be any trouble at all."
Min Yoongi delivered the line as if he were discussing the weather.
"I can handle the equipment purchases and the Gate acquisitions myself. If you'll leave it to me, that is."
"Oh, I'd welcome that, of course."
"Haha. I assure you, you won't be disappointed."
Yoongi tapped a few more keys on his laptop, then turned the screen toward me.
"I have no intention of demanding equity in exchange for the investment. Nor am I looking for any special treatment."
"Then...?"
"What I'm showing you now is the industry-standard contract. I'll take the minimum salary. All you need to do is sign."
"......Then there's nothing in this for you, is there, Yoongi?"
"Hahaha. Well, that's true enough."
His smile deepened a shade further.
"I only ask that you understand how sincere I am. And how dearly I hold Apex Guild."
I couldn't help the odd look that crossed my face. How to put it — watching someone treasure my guild even more than I did left me with a strangely complicated feeling.
As if he'd read my mind, Yoongi gave me a good-natured laugh.
"It was a guild I admired that much. Being able to bring it back to life with my own two hands is, for me, an irresistibly attractive prospect. Attractive enough that I'd gladly put everything I currently own on the table."
"Wow."
Han Yerim leaned in and whispered.
"He's kind of insane, but that's actually cool, oppa."
"...That's rude."
"Ow!"
I gave her forehead a light flick by way of warning, then looked back at Yoongi.
"Where do I sign?"
At that, the smile at the corners of his mouth deepened for certain.
And just like that, our guild gained one more member.
As befits the capital of South Korea, Seoul was packed with the guilds that stood as the face of the nation. Chief among them were Cheonhwa, Guseong, Gwangyang, and Taewon — organizations that, even by global standards, vied unambiguously for the highest ranks, their skyscrapers rising as the pride of Korea's Big 4 Guilds. A step below those giants, the guilds that formed the backbone of the country's hunter forces were clustered there in great numbers as well.
And somewhere in that forest of buildings sat Shinyeom Guild's headquarters: old, shabby, and small — a thoroughly unimpressive structure next to the rest.
"......What?"
Inside that musty, foul-smelling building, Guild Master Kim Junbeom furrowed his brow at the report that had just come in.
"Han Yerim. That bitch ran away?"
"Y-yes. It appears she slipped out of the dormitory last night."
For him, it was a genuinely splitting headache of a report. A Gate raid was scheduled in two hours, and the moment they lost a single A-Rank combatant, what would happen next was painfully obvious. So he made no effort whatsoever to swallow the rage climbing up his throat.
"Hey, you fucking incompetent piece of shit. I told you to keep a tight leash on her. How the hell does a girl who's been living there just fine up and escape from the dorm?"
"I-I'm sorry."
"Sorry is the fucking default, you moron — did you even look for her?"
"W-well..."
The subordinate's voice shrank into a mumble of excuses.
"S-she's A-Rank, so... the other guild members couldn't really give chase..."
"You little shit, you call that an excuse—?!"
The instant he heard it, Kim Junbeom bellowed and hurled the ashtray sitting beside him.
"What are you going to do about it? We've got a Gate raid in two hours and our core damage dealer is gone. Do you have any idea what this Gate is worth?! Huh?!"
And that wasn't even the worst of it. Where the runaway Han Yerim had gone — depending on the answer, that could prove the far more serious problem.
"What if she catches some major guild's eye, huh?! If you'd kept her locked down properly from the start, none of this would've happened!"
"I-I'm sorry!"
They'd managed to deceive her well enough to keep her as a B-Rank, but Han Yerim was unmistakably an A-Rank Awakened. Any guild worth mentioning would covet a talent like hers without a second thought, and if a major guild found her and tried to take her, Shinyeom would have no way of stopping them.
"Did you contact her? Did you even try calling?"
"W-we confiscated her phone."
"Fuck!"
Now that he thought about it, that was right. When they'd first brought Han Yerim in, they'd taken her phone and never given it back. That, too, had been on Kim Junbeom's own orders, so who was there to blame? All he could do was scream himself hoarse, veins standing out on his neck.
"Find her. I don't care how — just bring her back!"
He flung everything within reach as he drove the employee out, then dropped into his chair with a wheeze and stuck a cigarette in his mouth.
"Ha, this fucking..."
Not being able to run the Gate right now wasn't the real problem. That much, they could postpone. They could always draw up a new plan and go in once they were ready.
"Please don't go anywhere. Please..."
He just needed to get Han Yerim back. As long as they had her — an A-Rank Awakened — it wasn't unreasonable to think Shinyeom could grow even further than it already had.
"Damn it. Should I have just dosed her after all...?"
The method Shinyeom Guild used to maintain its members' "loyalty." The reason they hadn't used it on Han Yerim was simple.
She'd been too young.
It wasn't a matter of conscience. It was simply that if they ever got caught in a crackdown, the fact that they'd given drugs to a minor would be a charge they couldn't wriggle out of. They'd only been careful because of that — and now that things had come to this, he found himself wishing he'd just forced it on her.
"Please. Just don't let another guild lay eyes on her..."
Kim Junbeom's curse-laced prayer drifted out the window along with the smoke. Needless to say, it would not be answered.
"Come to think of it, let's get you a phone first."
"Huh? A phone?"
"Yeah. The guild confiscated yours, didn't they?"
"But..."
Han Yerim snuck a glance at my face.
"You'd have to pay for the phone too, oppa. I feel really bad..."
"Oh."
I looked at her with genuinely startled eyes. I hadn't expected her to say something like that.
"You actually think about stuff like that?"
"...What do you take me for?"
"Well..."
I just looked at her.
"Hmph."
That alone seemed to serve as an answer, because Yerim puffed her cheeks full of air and shot me a look of protest.
"Don't give me that look. You can't just walk around without a phone. No more arguing — take it."
"But still..."
"You can pay me back later. I'll deduct it from your first settlement, so quit complaining and take it."
I flicked her forehead as I said it, and only then did she nod, as if she had no other choice.
"Anyway..."
For the moment, the Gate entry permits and equipment for the two of them had been left in Min Yoongi's hands.
We need to pinch every last won we can right now.
Five hundred million was a lot of money, no question — but that didn't mean we could afford to throw it around. We had to save wherever we could, and I already had one method in mind.
"I'll be going into the two of your Gates as a porter."
"Huh?"
"Oppa, what did you just say?"
Choi Jian and Han Yerim both turned to stare at me, startled. Then they shook their heads in unison.
"No."
"Absolutely not."
Jian's expression had gone unusually stern, and her voice was uncharacteristically firm.
"Yeonwoo, do you have any idea how dangerous a Gate is for a non-Awakened? Absolutely not."
"She's right. Even if it's you, oppa, this is a hard no."
Yerim backed her up with equal force. At this rate, it didn't look like they would give permission no matter what I said.
"No, I'm telling you, we need to save money."
"I'd rather take a pay cut than put you in danger, Yeonwoo."
"Yeah, what she said."
"......Is it really that dangerous?"
Jian let out a sigh at the question.
"Even in the lowest-rank Gates, you never know when or where a mana anomaly might trigger, or when a monster might come bursting out. You have to be careful — and that's especially true for a non-Awakened."
"But other porters are non-Awakened too, aren't they?"
"That's why they make you sign a waiver that says if you die, it's on you! That's how dangerous it is!"
Jian raised her voice.
"At the very least, you need to be awakened at F-Rank. Otherwise, no. Non-Awakened porters have such a high mortality rate that they barely even hire them these days."
"I-is that so?"
That was a fact I hadn't known. It was at the very moment I decided the porter plan would have to be scrapped—
The trait Inventory has been awakened.
"......Oh."
I channeled mana as naturally as breathing and stored the cup in my hand into my Inventory.
"...Just now?"
"Huh? What was that, oppa?"
The two of them, having seen it, asked in surprise. Instead of answering, I simply looked them both in the eye.
"......?"
"...Ah."
They understood what my gaze meant, and immediately shook their heads, their expressions turning serious.
"......Absolutely not."
"No way."
"Why not? I'd say that's an ability tailor-made for a porter."
"Even so, no means no!"