Ajumma
Three days had passed since the Mujin Association fell.
Nothing particular had happened to Sihyuk.
He woke late, washed up, and stepped out nearby whenever he needed something. He'd grown fairly used to the phone by now, so he no longer had to grab passersby every time he needed directions.
When he felt like eating something, he ordered it. When he had nothing to do, he sprawled on the sofa and watched videos.
He could spend the day however he pleased.
At first the days had felt excessively long, but after living through a few of them, he adapted quickly.
Sihyuk liked this life.
Only, every so often, the Demon King's Castle came to mind.
The high walls of black stone and the corridors that seemed to have no end. The bedroom he had used for hundreds of years, and the office where the lights never went out even late at night.
It was a stretch to call the place home, but it was, without question, the house he had lived in the longest.
The problem was that whenever he thought of the Demon King's Castle, the work that had always been piled high in that office came back with it.
Sihyuk decided to focus on Earth again.
That afternoon, too, he stepped outside with no particular purpose.
After walking a circuit around the lodging, he passed the restaurant where he had run into the Mujin Association people a few days earlier.
Every time the door opened, the smell of meat drifted out.
Sihyuk had just peeked inside and was about to move on when a voice he had never heard before caught him from behind.
"Kang Sihyuk, right?"
Sihyuk turned.
A woman with red hair tied high was leaning against the wall of a building a few steps from the restaurant.
Over her black combat suit she wore a dark red jacket marked with a flame-shaped emblem. Amber eyes looked straight at him.
Her build was not large, but she made no effort to hide the power packed into her body. Her legs and shoulders were developed in clean balance, and faint calluses remained on the backs of her hands.
"Who are you?"
The woman pushed off the wall.
"Do Ha-gyeong. Vice-Guildmaster of Yeomhwa."
He had heard the name somewhere.
Sihyuk searched his memory for a moment and recalled a video he had seen on his phone—the woman who had dropped a giant magical beast with her bare fists inside a Gate.
"A famous person."
"You recognize me?"
"I saw you in a video."
Do Ha-gyeong studied Sihyuk's face.
There was no surprise at meeting a celebrity, no tension at facing an S-class Hunter.
Her eyes only seemed curious about why she had come looking for him.
"Can we talk for a moment?"
"About what?"
"The Mujin Association."
He had heard that name from Riel.
Sihyuk asked with a blank face.
"What's that?"
Do Ha-gyeong did not answer. She simply studied his face a little longer.
"Doesn't seem like something to explain here."
The two of them left the restaurant street and headed for a nearby park.
It was a weekday afternoon, so there were not many people. Past the open space with its exercise equipment, deeper in, a bench half-hidden by trees came into view.
Do Ha-gyeong sat first.
Sihyuk took the seat beside her.
"Why did you come looking for me?"
"Do you really not know about the Mujin Association?"
"I'll listen for now."
The corner of Do Ha-gyeong's mouth lifted faintly.
It was a face that did not believe him.
She took out her phone.
"These are the people who took Kang Sihyuk a few days ago."
Two photos appeared on the screen.
Sihyuk climbing into a black van in front of the restaurant.
And a few hours later, Sihyuk walking out alone near the loading dock.
"There was a rumor that the Mujin Association had tailed the person who sold the gold bars. The intermediary side confirmed the seller's name and even cross-checked nearby road footage."
"This doesn't tell you what I did."
"That's right."
Do Ha-gyeong admitted it without resistance.
"We only know you got in the car and came out alone."
"Then why did you come looking for me?"
"Because that night the Mujin Association collapsed."
"Could be a coincidence."
"It could be."
Do Ha-gyeong lowered her phone.
"But I don't think it's a coincidence."
It was less the face of someone who had come to confirm than of someone who had come to fit the last piece into place.
Sihyuk looked at his own face on the screen.
The scene of climbing into the van, and the scene of walking out alone from the loading dock.
That alone could not prove he had brought down the Mujin Association.
But it was more than enough to raise suspicion.
Do Ha-gyeong stared at him and asked,
"You're the one who killed Kwon Taeseok, right?"
"Who's that?"
"The boss of the Mujin Association."
"First time hearing the name."
That was true.
Sihyuk had never heard the name Kwon Taeseok.
Do Ha-gyeong looked at him a moment longer, then nodded.
"Just the name?"
Sihyuk snorted a quiet laugh.
"Seems like you already decided the answer before you came."
"Pretty much."
Do Ha-gyeong did not deny it.
"The Mujin Association took Kang Sihyuk, and a few hours later Kwon Taeseok was found dead. More than twenty members were down without even putting up a proper fight."
"Is that all?"
"What I've confirmed so far."
Sihyuk leaned back against the bench.
He had confirmed how much Do Ha-gyeong knew.
There was no point in pretending further.
"They came at me first."
Do Ha-gyeong waited in silence for the next words.
"They told me to hand over the money, and they attacked first."
"Kwon Taeseok?"
"He said he'd let me live if I stopped there. Then he came at me."
He did not say he had killed the man himself.
But that was enough.
"And the rest of the members?"
"They're alive, aren't they?"
"You subdued more than twenty people alone?"
"Yeah."
A different light rose in Do Ha-gyeong's amber eyes.
"You're registered as a Non-Awakened, right?"
"Yeah."
"Do you believe that result yourself?"
Sihyuk did not answer.
Do Ha-gyeong held out her right hand.
"Can I check just one thing?"
"What?"
Sihyuk looked down at the outstretched hand.
"You didn't come looking for a handshake."
"I'll just check the mana response."
"You don't have to if you don't want to."
He liked the attitude of not hiding anything.
Sihyuk took her hand.
"Go ahead."
A thin stream of mana flowed from Do Ha-gyeong's fingertips.
It was too weak to call an attack—just enough to touch the mana flowing inside an opponent's body and read the reaction.
Her mana tried to climb up Sihyuk's wrist.
At that moment, the Magi sleeping inside his body moved.
It swallowed the invading mana whole, then grew quiet again.
Do Ha-gyeong's eyes widened.
It had not been pushed back.
It had not been blocked, either.
The moment it touched, it vanished.
She let go of his hand at once.
"What did you just do?"
"I didn't do anything."
"My mana disappeared."
Do Ha-gyeong looked down at her own hand.
The surprise lasted only a moment.
When her amber eyes returned to Sihyuk, a clear, vivid light had risen in them.
"The power you normally use isn't mana?"
"Similar, but a little different."
"You hid it during the examination?"
"A little."
"Why?"
Sihyuk answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Because if it comes out high, it gets annoying."
"The Association doesn't force people to work."
"Guilds come looking, ask you to enter Gates, call you every time something happens."
Do Ha-gyeong could not immediately refute that.
The reason she herself had come looking was, in the end, not so different.
"So you pretended to be a Non-Awakened?"
"Well, something like that."
Do Ha-gyeong laughed shortly.
The reason the man who had single-handedly brought down the Mujin Association had hidden his power was neither crime nor conspiracy.
He simply did not want to work.
"The Association will come looking today or tomorrow."
"And once they figure out who Sihyuk is, they'll demand a re-examination."
"I'll hide it well."
"There are survivors, too."
"They don't know what hit them either."
Indeed, the statements of the surviving members were all over the place.
Some said their bodies had suddenly grown heavy. Some said the ground itself had pulled them down.
There were also statements that they could not breathe, or that something black had crushed them.
But no one could explain exactly what ability it had been.
The only memory common to all of them was a single word.
Get down.
And then they had all fallen.
"You can't avoid the investigation into the circumstances of the death," Do Ha-gyeong said.
"It'll be confirmed that the Mujin Association kidnapped and attacked first, but Kang Sihyuk will still have to explain himself once."
"So what are you offering to do for me?"
"I can make it end there."
Sihyuk looked at her.
"How?"
"Yeomhwa will vouch for your identity."
"Join the guild?"
"No. Just for this incident."
Do Ha-gyeong leaned forward a little.
"We can't make the Association completely unaware of Kang Sihyuk. But we can keep it shared only among the necessary people, and we can stop a public re-measurement."
"The rank, too?"
"I'll keep the exact ability and numbers from spreading officially."
"Then what do I have to do?"
"Just give a statement once when the Association contacts you. After that, any necessary contact can go through Yeomhwa."
"Calling me out for deployment, or telling me to enter a Gate?"
"No such obligation will arise from this matter."
Sihyuk looked at Do Ha-gyeong with suspicious eyes.
"Why would Yeomhwa go that far?"
"It wouldn't hurt us to build a good relationship with someone like Kang Sihyuk."
Do Ha-gyeong lightly shrugged her shoulders.
"But I can't vouch for just anyone. I have to check for myself."
"Check what?"
"How strong Kang Sihyuk is."
Sihyuk looked at her for a moment.
"Don't tell me."
"Fight me once."
"No."
The answer came fast.
Do Ha-gyeong continued as if she had expected it.
"I'll arrange the place, and handle it so it doesn't get out."
"You just want to fight, don't you?"
"That's true too."
Do Ha-gyeong did not deny it.
"Still, to vouch in Yeomhwa's name, I need to know to some extent."
Sihyuk let out a short sigh.
Better to move once than be dragged around by the Association through multiple examinations.
"It really ends with once?"
"Yes."
"Do it somewhere without people."
Do Ha-gyeong's expression brightened.
"I'll prepare that."
She stood, walked a few steps, then stopped.
"But you've been speaking casually this whole time."
"Nothing left to hide now."
"I'm twenty-eight."
"So?"
"Do you know what you normally call a woman one year older?"
Sihyuk thought for a moment.
"Ajumma?"
Do Ha-gyeong's smile froze.
"…There's also 'noona,' you know?"
"Didn't think of that."
"You did that on purpose, didn't you?"
"Ajumma came to mind first."
Do Ha-gyeong slowly nodded.
"Ah~ is that so?"
"Your face doesn't look good."
"No. Why would I?"
When Do Ha-gyeong clenched her fist, her finger joints cracked.
"See you when we fight?"
Do Ha-gyeong stomped out of the park, fuming.
When Sihyuk returned to the lodging, Riel was standing in front of the entrance.
She looked as if she had just come back, a large bag hanging from one shoulder.
The moment she saw Sihyuk, her expression hardened.
Her gaze dropped to his right hand.
"Who did you meet?"
Sihyuk stopped walking.
"How do you know that?"
"Smell."
"I'm not a dog."
"I mean the residual mana."
A faint residual trace still clung to the fingertips where Do Ha-gyeong's mana had touched.
"Do Ha-gyeong?"
"Yeah."
Riel's light green eyes wavered.
"What did she say?"
"About the Mujin Association."
"Yeomhwa found out too?"
"Said they were a bit faster than the Association."
Sihyuk pressed the password on the front door.
"Said the Association will come looking today or tomorrow, too."
Riel's expression hardened further.
"So what are you going to do?"
"If they call, I'll go."
"It's not something to think of that lightly."
"I was attacked first."
"You think the Association will just ask that and be done?"
Sihyuk's hand stopped on the doorknob.
"Then?"
"They'll try to find out what you can do, too."
A short vibration sounded in the hallway.
Riel checked her phone.
It was a message from the Cheonlim information team.
Riel slowly lowered the screen.
"Yeomhwa's side is right. They don't seem to have identified you specifically yet, but it won't take long."
"That woman said she'd block it."
Riel's eyes narrowed.
"How?"
"Yeomhwa will vouch. Just take the incident investigation, and keep my ability from spreading outside."
"For free?"
"One condition."
"What condition?"
"Said to fight her once."
Riel's expression hardened.
"You accepted?"
"Yeah."
"Refuse."
Sihyuk turned around.
"Why?"
"If you use your power, you can't hide it anymore."
"I can do it moderately."
Riel looked at Sihyuk without a word.
Under that gaze, Sihyuk turned his head first.
"…Looks like you don't trust me."