Cracked Porcelain
"What did you just say?"
The smile drained from Jang Taeho's face.
Yoo Kangmin saw no reason to repeat himself.
"If you didn't hear it, you didn't need to."
"You little bastard……."
Jang Taeho strode toward him. He was so massive one might think he'd become a tanker on bulk alone.
"Got a death wish?"
The mood soured fast, and Yoon Seoha rushed in to hold Kangmin back.
"W-wait a moment! I'll apologize for him, so…… let's just end it here, okay?!"
"Hah?!"
Jang Taeho's lips curled into a vicious smile as he seized Kangmin by the collar.
"You'll do the begging yourself. None of that hiding behind a woman. Kneel and apologize right now, and maybe I'll go easy on you."
"What is wrong with you?! This is the Association!"
"So what if it is? What's that to me? Huh?"
"……."
Yoon Seoha let out a sigh. The Jang Taeho she knew was a man of towering pride — and worse, the sort with a filthy habit of strong-arming anyone he judged to be below his own rank, hunter or otherwise. A man like that, publicly slighted? There was no chance he'd let it slide.
"What are you, mute? Huh?!"
With that, Jang Taeho moved to hoist Kangmin clean off the ground with a single hand — surely, he figured, he could lift the man with ease and squeeze the breath from his throat.
"…Huh…?!"
Yet Kangmin's body did not budge so much as an inch.
"Wh-what the— why won't you……?!"
"You. What are you doing?"
Jang Taeho's eyebrows twitched. He did not care for the look on Kangmin's face — the look of a man being looked down upon. Had it been the usual Jang Taeho, he might have sensed something wrong and let go. But reason had abandoned him, and he crossed the line.
Krrk! Lips clamped shut, Jang Taeho dragged his mana upward. In that instant, the muscles across his entire body swelled even larger — proof that he had activated Indomitable Body, a D-rank physical enhancement skill. Designed to deflect monster attacks, it worked just as well for amplifying raw strength.
"Let's see how far you can take it!"
Nothing remained in Jang Taeho's head but a single thought: lift this man up, hurl him into the floor, and prove his strength.
"HRAAAH!"
It was the very moment Jang Taeho strained to raise his arm with everything he had.
"A show of strength? I like it."
With a faint smile, Yoo Kangmin wrapped his hand around the wrist gripping his collar — and with a light squeeze, bent it the other way.
Crunch! An ugly sound rang out — the sound of wrist bone grinding the wrong way.
"Huh?!"
Staring at his grotesquely twisted wrist, Jang Taeho spent a moment failing to grasp what had happened. Then the pain arrived, late but all at once, and he clutched his wrist and crumpled to the floor.
"AAAAAAAAAGH!"
Screaming, tears and snot streaming down his face, he rolled across the floor. Even Indomitable Body, the skill that hardened his flesh, was of no use whatsoever.
"Rely on petty strength and swagger about, and did you never imagine a day like this would come?"
Old memories came flooding back. Watching Jang Taeho carry on, the man might as well have been a neighborhood thug or a mountain bandit of the old days — creatures who rode roughshod over everyone on nothing but their paltry strength. Kangmin had seen far too many of them in his time. Which was exactly why he knew so well how to deal with them.
Kill this one? Spare him?
If this had been Murim, Kangmin would have killed him where he stood. Crushing the weak beneath the greater strength was precisely their logic. The problem was that this place was not Murim.
"Hoo…… Consider it heaven's fortune that you ran into me in so fine a world as this."
"Y-you insane bastard!"
The party members who had come with Jang Taeho recoiled in horror, each snatching out a weapon. They looked ready to lunge at Kangmin then and there.
"Stop! Please, stop!"
In their midst, Yoon Seoha was straining to play peacemaker.
"Stop, my ass! That guy picked this fight in the first place!"
"R-right! Our party leader's down — what else are we supposed to do?!"
It was a single spark away from open battle. Yoon Seoha bit down hard on her lip and drew her own sword as well — so that if a fight broke out, she could stand at Kangmin's side.
"Well, well. Seems you do have some loyalty to your comrades after all."
And yet Kangmin, as if something struck him as terribly amusing, was smiling even now.
"Go on. Try me."
A collective flinch ran through them. Why, they couldn't have said. All they knew was that meeting that smile made their bodies tremble whether they willed it or not.
"Because I will show you hell."
"……!"
They had no choice but to admit it — they were being crushed beneath an oppressive presence no words could describe.
P-please, somebody, help.
We don't want to fight!
Their fighting spirit was already gone. All that remained was the desperate hope that someone, anyone, would step in and end this.
"I'll help too!"
And when even Yoon Seoha — their one remaining hope — abandoned all pretense of mediation and planted herself at Kangmin's side, sword drawn, they could only despair.
Goddamn it. What do we do?
They stood frozen, unable to advance and unable to flee — and it was then.
Tap.
From somewhere came the sound of a cane's tip striking the floor.
"That will be quite enough."
A woman's voice, cold and level. The crowd of onlookers parted, and through the gap a figure emerged.
Blonde hair, vivid, cut to a sharp line at the jaw. A woman in a tailored black suit and a short skirt, walking slowly toward them with a cane in hand — her gait betraying a lame leg.
Cold, piercing blue eyes swept across Jang Taeho, then Kangmin.
The hunters who recognized her began to murmur.
"That's Branch Head Baek Dohee."
"'Thunder Spear' Baek Dohee?"
Yoon Seoha's eyes went wide as well.
Thunder Spear, Baek Dohee. Head of the Hunter Association's Sinyeong-dong Branch. There was a time when she had been an A-rank hunter, rated the most promising candidate for S-rank promotion in the country. Her spearplay, wreathed in lightning, had felled countless monsters and earned her that epithet. But the injuries she suffered in the gate collapse five years ago had ended her hunting career, and she had been reassigned to the Association as branch head.
"B-Branch Head!"
Jang Taeho, still sprawled on the floor, called out to her in desperation. Somehow, in that short span, he had forced his broken wrist bone back into place; he looked to be in somewhat better shape.
"W-welcome, Branch Head! This civilian attacked me out of nowhere!"
"A civilian?"
"Yes. I was trying to talk him down nicely, and out of nowhere he went and snapped my wrist……"
"That's a lie!"
Yoon Seoha cut in hastily.
"He grabbed my master by the collar first. He even used a skill."
"Th-that's bullshit! Lies! This woman is lying!"
Baek Dohee tapped the floor lightly with the tip of her cane.
Tap. It was not a loud sound, but both fell silent at once.
"I have been watching the CCTV feed since before I stepped out of the elevator."
"Wh-what……?!"
"The one who grabbed a collar first and used a skill was Hunter Jang Taeho, was it not?"
"B-but he insulted me first, so—"
"And does being insulted entitle you to use a skill on a civilian inside Association grounds?"
"No, that's not what I—"
"Answer the question."
"N-no, ma'am."
"Furthermore, Hunter Jang Taeho will proceed to the security office and file a written statement."
"Branch Head?!"
"Once I have reviewed its contents, I will decide whether your case goes before the disciplinary committee."
"I'm the victim here!"
"You can argue that a man who used an enhancement skill on a civilian is the victim once you're down there."
The staff behind Baek Dohee moved in on Jang Taeho. He wore the expression of a man grievously wronged, but he no longer had the gall to resist.
"Just you wait."
Kangmin gave a quiet snort at the textbook threat.
"Next time, it won't end at the wrist."
Jang Taeho flinched hard, the color draining from his face. His steps as he trailed after the staff seemed, if anything, a touch hurried.
"Hunter Jang Taeho's party members?"
"Y-yes?!"
"What are you standing around for? Go with him."
"U-us too?!"
"You're his companions. You'll give statements describing exactly what you saw. No embellishing. If your accounts contradict one another, perjury charges will be added on top. Am I understood?"
"Y-yes, ma'am!"
And with that, Jang Taeho and his entourage were gone. The tension drained out of Yoon Seoha, who let out a long sigh before turning to Kangmin.
"Master. Did you really have to say that at the very end?"
"Otherwise they'd try it again."
"That's called a threat, you know."
"It's called education."
Baek Dohee regarded the two of them.
"So he is your master."
"Yes."
"And what is it he teaches you?"
"The sword."
"Is he registered as a hunter?"
"No."
Baek Dohee's eyes narrowed.
"Then that would mean……"
"I'm not a hunter."
"You're telling me an unawakened civilian subdued a D-rank hunter?"
"Doesn't seem that remarkable to me."
"……."
"Master, please, watch how you talk……"
Yoon Seoha jabbed him urgently in the ribs. Kangmin ignored her entirely, his gaze staying on Baek Dohee.
Or, more precisely, on her body. The right leg that depended on that cane was no simple injury.
What a mess. Most of the channels through which energy flowed within her had been ruined.
Here, they call it mana rather than internal energy, don't they. The two differed in nature, yet at their root they were the same. Granted, one was cultivated in the heart and the other in the dantian — a difference, but hardly a decisive one. The crux was that the mana circuit at Baek Dohee's heart hung as precarious as cracked porcelain. Were she to force her power through it in that state, the broken shards would tear the surrounding vessels to ribbons. Of that, there was no doubt.
She could die from it.
Baek Dohee caught the weight of the stare he had fixed on her.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I was wondering how you're still alive."
The air around them went ice cold. Her injury was her reverse scale — the one subject no one had ever dared touch.
"Master!"
Yoon Seoha buried her face in both hands, while the staff behind Baek Dohee glared at Kangmin with stricken, frozen expressions. Everyone knew her injury had ended her days as a hunter. Spoken to her face, how are you still alive was mockery, plain and simple.
"That is quite a rude thing to say to someone you've only just met."
"I merely spoke what I saw."
"And what exactly do you claim to know about my body?"
"They call it a mana circuit, don't they? The one at your heart. It looks ready to shatter at any moment."
"……."
Baek Dohee's face stiffened. That her mana circuit was in a fragile state was information known only to her attending physicians and the Association's top leadership.
"How could you possibly know that?"
"Because I can see it."
"You can… see it?"
"I can."
"……."
Just as Baek Dohee moved to say something more, a staff member who had been anxiously watching her expression worked up the courage to intervene.
"B-Branch Head?"
"Go ahead."
"This is Hunter Yoon Seoha. She's here for her special promotion review today."
"I see. I did receive the report."
She had already been briefed on the F-rank hunter who had brought down a hobgoblin. The special promotion review had only been possible in the first place because Baek Dohee herself had approved it.
Baek Dohee's gaze shifted to Yoon Seoha, then returned to Kangmin.
"You said the two of you are master and disciple?"
"Yes."
"Then your success against that hobgoblin — did it have something to do with him?"
"Ah—!"
Yoon Seoha clapped a hand over her mouth. That reaction alone told Baek Dohee everything she needed to know.
"Very well. The promotion review will proceed as scheduled. And……"
Baek Dohee's eyes settled on Kangmin.
"There are some things I'd like to ask you about what just happened. Would you happen to have the time?"
"Me?"
"Yes. I'd at least like to pour you a cup of tea."
"Well. Why not."
Kangmin answered as though it were nothing at all.
"Branch Head? You do have an afternoon schedule……"
"Ah, my apologies. I'm not feeling well today — please cancel it for me."
"U-understood."
Baek Dohee turned.
"Follow me."
"Mm."
And so, before he quite knew how it had happened, Yoo Kangmin found himself in a private meeting with the head of the Hunter Association's branch.