Fate’s Prank (7)
The judge standing on the dais never stopped talking.
“I recently had my fortune told, you know. According to the art of fate-reading, the pillars of one’s birth cannot be changed by any means. So if some charlatan tells you he can alter your destiny and tries to get you to pay for a ritual, swear at him and run. He’s a fraud, through and through!”
Sitting in my chair, I looked around.
Once again, the elevator doors opened, and people began filing into the banquet hall one by one.
There weren’t enough chairs, so most of them were left standing in awkward poses.
Each name tag pinned to their chests contained their information.
＜ Kim Jin-woon ＞
- Expected Rank: C+
＜ Park Sang-gi ＞
- Expected Rank: E+
＜ Moon Do-yoon ＞
- Expected Rank: C-
…….
Every single one of them had an expected rank higher than mine.
The name tag on the brute beside me caught my eye as well.
＜ Bang Su-hwan ＞
- Expected Rank: B+
Feeling my gaze, he spoke to me.
“Brother Yongki. There are a ton of applicants, huh? Are they really planning to take all of us? We’re not going to get rejected too, are we?”
Bang Su-hwan’s expected rank was B.
He was a hunter who could potentially grow higher than anyone else here.
And yet he was still glancing around nervously, his shoulders hunched.
Looking closer, I noticed his jacket was covered in what looked like cat fur.
“……”
So he didn’t have any underlings to bully, huh.
My first impression of him had been lousy, but now that I saw him properly, he felt strangely like a timid bear.
Suddenly, I became curious about his story.
“Hey. What kind of trouble did you get into to end up in juvenile detention?”
“Ah, well…….”
Bang Su-hwan scratched the back of his head and went on.
“I was bullied when I was little. I had a solid build, so kids from my school, and even older students, told me to join one of their delinquent cliques. When I refused, they made my life hell.”
Bang Su-hwan’s forced smile looked oddly bitter.
“Whenever I walked down the hallway, they’d shoulder-check me. They shoved my head into the urinal until my lip split open…… Still, I couldn’t say a word. I was soft-hearted, and back then I’d never fought anyone before.”
He confessed his past in a calm voice.
“Once, while I was on bread duty and coming back from the snack shop, I found a stray kitten by the incinerator. It was soaked through, shaking like crazy, and it reminded me of myself, so I fed it the sausage and milk I was holding. That’s when the older boys from the clique, the ones smoking nearby, saw me.”
As I listened, a bad feeling began creeping over me.
“They kicked the cat and started beating the hell out of me. Watching that little thing rolling around in the mud made me lose it, and I just…….”
I didn’t need to hear the rest to guess how it ended.
“Anyway, the seniors all ended up in the hospital, and I got sent to juvenile detention. You know those younger guys I met at the Hunter Association? They’re all juvenile-detention buddies of mine. They were going through the same hell I did, so I helped them out, and they started following me like I was their big brother. Oh, right.”
Bang Su-hwan took his phone from his pocket and showed me his wallpaper.
“This little guy is the one I met by the incinerator back then. His fur was all fluffy, like a cotton ball. Cute, right? Hehe.”
A story about protecting an abandoned stray kitten, getting beaten within an inch of his life, and then finally snapping and ending up in juvenile detention.
If there really was a god, whose side would He have taken?
Bang Su-hwan’s? Or the side of the delinquent clique?
Under what kind of justice would He have passed judgment?
The Purple Devil could only keep throwing out questions.
As I sank deeper into thought, someone lightly kicked the leg of Bang Su-hwan’s chair.
The guy jerked to his feet and shouted,
“You picking a fight with me? You wanna die?”
“No. I didn’t mean to do it on purpose…….”
“Fuck! What are you staring at? Keep your eyes down!”
“Tch. What the hell’s his problem?”
The man who had accidentally kicked the chair muttered as he walked off.
Bang Su-hwan huffed and sat back down.
Looking closer, I saw his hands were trembling uncontrollably.
“I-I developed trauma after that, so whenever I see someone, I end up shouting and cursing for no reason. I know it’s a messed-up way to handle things, but…… I never want to go back to that time again.”
His voice trailed off at the end.
Hearing his story, I understood why he’d been so aggressive when we first met.
It was probably a defense mechanism, something to protect himself.
“I’ll apologize once more. I really was sorry back then, Brother.”
“Fine.”
“Thank you, Brother. You really are a magnanimous man.”
“Stop saying pointless things and sit up straight.”
“Yes, sir.”
Bang Su-hwan straightened the crooked chair and sat properly.
“Hold still.”
I brushed the clumps of fur stuck all over him.
“Haha. It’s Mungchi’s fur. I forgot to use a lint roller before coming out.”
Bang Su-hwan flashed a goofy grin, baring his teeth like an idiot.
The chair’s surface caught the lights and gleamed with a polished sheen.
My old occupational habit kicked in, and I started analyzing the material.
Running my fingers over the smooth finish, I knew immediately what it was.
Burn Light?
Even if this was a luxury banquet hall, making the chairs out of cutting-edge material was excessive.
Was this just to flaunt their wealth?
No.
The rumor was true.
More precisely, this was exactly how it happened in my previous life.
The judge on the dais waved a hand.
“Looks like almost everyone’s here now. You there! The one who just got off the elevator, come forward. Anyway. So why do fortune-tellers lie and claim they can change a fixed destiny?”
That chattering voice had been getting on my nerves for a while.
The judge grinned and said,
“Because they need to rip money out of you.”
There were so many applicants that fewer than half the people were actually sitting.
The rest stood in place, staring up at the dais.
“You’re all the same. You came to Dio Guild in the end because of money, didn’t you? Money? We’ll give you money. But in return, you’ll have to provide us with something too. That’s what makes it a fair trade.”
A vicious aura began to boil off the judge’s body.
Bang Su-hwan, standing beside me, flinched and activated Strong Toward the Weak, Weak Toward the Strong.
“B-Brother. That guy’s dangerous. At least S-rank?! Be careful.”
He swallowed hard, drenched in a cold sweat.
The judge clapped his hands once. Smack!
“All right, quiet! Everyone, quiet! We’ll begin the induction test now.”
By then, the applicants had started voicing their complaints one after another.
“What do you mean test? You already gave us our expected ranks!”
“What, are you looking down on us because we’re rookies?”
“How long are you going to keep us standing here? Bring out the female staff and serve us coffee or something. Heh heh!”
Most of the people gathered here had miserable personalities.
This place was a complete disaster.
The judge unfolded a single sheet of paper.
“You all signed this when you came in through the entrance, didn’t you? If you look closely, it says here that Dio Guild will not be held responsible for any injuries or damages sustained during the induction test.”
Bang Su-hwan’s eyes widened.
“That was in there? I had no idea! Did you see that, Brother?”
I had.
Everyone had been in too much of a rush to notice, but…….
In my previous life, this incident had made the media storm for a while.
The headline had probably been something like:
<< Dio Guild’s Ruthless Recruitment. Is This Really Okay?! >>
At the judge’s provocation, the atmosphere only grew more heated.
“What kind of bullshit is that!”
“You wrote it so tiny it looked like ant shit. How the hell are we supposed to read that?”
“Figures. It’s Dio Guild after all. Tsk tsk. Where are the female staff? Bring them out and we’ll let this slide.”
The judge soothed the applicants.
“Yes, yes, I understand. First, why don’t you all stand up?”
“Fuck off!”
“You’ve been barking orders since earlier.”
“What rank is that bastard?”
The judge, still smiling, drew a breath and adjusted the microphone.
“Stand up!!! You pieces of trash!!!!!”
The echo that ripped through the banquet hall was enough to tear eardrums apart.
Several people sprang to their feet reflexively.
The previously noisy hall fell silent in an instant.
In that one lion’s roar, everyone understood.
The gap between that judge and themselves.
Bang Su-hwan and I quietly lifted our asses off our chairs as well.
For some reason, if we didn’t, it felt like the bastard might do something terrible at any second.
“……”
“……”
“……”
The judge’s twisted expression snapped back to normal, and his voice turned almost sweet.
“I’m only going to say this once, so listen carefully.”
He snapped his fingers, and a low-ranking attendant ran onto the dais, placing a chair in front of the judge.
“The test is a kind of game. We call it Chair Snatching! The rules are simple. Bring me a chair and sit down, and you pass. Simple, right?”
The judge sat down with a plop.
Then he checked the watch on his wrist and went on.
“You’ve got exactly ten minutes. If you can’t claim a chair, you fail. You won’t get another chance to apply, either. You’ll go home. Like losers. Like loners. Like broken losers with nothing left but scars. Trudging along with your heads down.”
The judge’s flippant words weren’t funny anymore.
So that’s how it is.
“Then, on my mark.”
The tension was so thick it felt like even the air had frozen solid.
He raised his index finger and brought it down.
“Go!”
The peaceful banquet hall became a scene from hell in an instant.
* * *
“Representative. For the afternoon schedule, you have a meeting with the head of Cheonyangji at 3:30. Starting at 5:40, you’ll be with Team Leader Lee Yu-seol, who was requested by the advertisers as the model…….”
“Stop.”
While his secretary was midway through the report, Go Pil-hun lifted one finger.
Smoke rose from the cigarette pinched between his fingers.
The entire Dio Guild was a non-smoking zone, but Go Pil-hun didn’t care at all.
Lee Yu-seol, standing nearby, waited silently.
After Go Ju-hun died, his half-brother Go Pil-hun had taken over as the head of the guild.
In other words, the current king of Dio Guild was Go Pil-hun.
“Today’s the day, isn’t it?”
“Pardon? Which event are you referring to?”
“The new recruit selection.”
“That’s right. As you instructed, we added a new induction test based on meritocracy.”
“Hmm. Will that be enough?”
Go Pil-hun frowned, looking unconvinced.
The secretary hurriedly flipped through the screen of his tablet PC.
“The judge is Na Sang-min, an S-rank hunter, so there’s no need for concern.”
“Na Sang-min, huh. Well then, okay.”
The seat of Dio Guild’s only S-rank hunter, Go Ju-hun, had been left vacant.
Go Pil-hun had scouted Na Sang-min away from another guild with a huge sum of money to fill that S-rank position.
“What did Na Sang-min say?”
“He complained about being made to handle the aftermath for the new recruits as soon as he arrived. But once he was told it was your order, he accepted without another word.”
The secretary checked the time.
“He should already be gathered in the banquet hall by now.”
“Let’s go take a look.”
“Pardon? Now?”
Go Pil-hun stubbed out his cigarette on the desk instead of the ashtray.
“Why? Got a problem with that?”
“No, sir. Let’s go.”
“Lee Yu-seol. You’re coming too.”
“I am, Representative?”
Lee Yu-seol’s brows drew together.
She disliked calling anyone other than Go Ju-hun “Representative.”
Go Pil-hun was the sort of man who could lunge in any direction at any moment, and being near him made her uneasy.
“You’ve still got time, don’t you? Let’s go enjoy the entertainment. Secretary Kim, you stay here. Lee Yu-seol will guide me.”
Lee Yu-seol had already finished reviewing the contents of this program.
To call hunters fighting for their lives “entertainment”…….
Can I really follow a man like this?
Lee Yu-seol hesitated.
“I…….”
“Listen, Team Leader. This isn’t a suggestion. It’s an order from your superior.”
“Understood.”
Go Pil-hun whistled and strode ahead.
Lee Yu-seol followed behind him.
The two of them stepped into the elevator.
Silence hung in the heavy air.
It was Go Pil-hun who spoke first.
“My brother used to mention you sometimes. Team Leader Lee Yu-seol. He said you were reliable, a capable woman.”
Go Ju-hun and Go Pil-hun were not particularly close brothers.
They only met from time to time for official appearances and exchanged formal pleasantries.
“For him to praise someone else. That man, who saw everyone except himself as beneath his feet.”
Go Pil-hun’s lips lifted at one corner, but there was nothing cheerful about it.
He turned toward Lee Yu-seol.
Then he extended his hand.
“In any case, I’ll be counting on you too. If my brother recognized you, then you must be trustworthy.”
Lee Yu-seol looked down at Go Pil-hun’s hand.
His pale, elegant fingers looked almost like a woman’s.
It was rare for a hunter to have hands that refined.
“I’m sure my brother, up in heaven, would be pleased to know you’re helping me.”
Go Pil-hun’s gaze rose to the elevator ceiling.
His repeated mention of his dead brother wasn’t grief.
It was a calculated move, designed to dig up Lee Yu-seol’s guilt.
And his strategy worked.
Lee Yu-seol took his hand.
“Understood, Representative Go. I’ll do my utmost to serve you.”
Ding.
The elevator stopped.
When the doors opened, the two of them turned while still clasping hands.
In the silence, both Go Pil-hun’s and Lee Yu-seol’s pupils widened.
The banquet hall was a complete ruin.
People were gasping for breath as they retched up the contents of their stomachs; others were sprawled on the floor like sacks of blood and meat.
Of the more than one hundred applicants,
fewer than ten were still standing on their own two feet.
And among them, one person stood out in particular.
He had his arm slung around a broad-shouldered man with a crew cut.
His face was covered in blood, as though he’d washed himself in it.
As he was trying to steady his ragged breathing, his eyes met Go Pil-hun’s.
“Fuck. What are you looking at?”