Episode 112
“Hoo....”
Bae Soo-hyun let out a long sigh.
Smoke came with it, curling from her mouth in a thin stream of ash and nicotine.
Leaning against the rooftop railing, she closed her eyes.
For days now, she had been buried alive under work.
And the work was still piling up.
She had only been granted a moment. A brief one. Less than five minutes of breathing room.
Even that would be over the instant she burned through the cigarette pinched between her index and middle fingers, and then she would have to go back downstairs again.
Huuup.
She took the cigarette to her lips and dragged in a deep pull.
At the same time, she muttered, “Shit....”
The vibration in her pants pocket had told her why.
With the cigarette still in her mouth, she pulled her smartphone out of her pocket.
[A-class Hunter Management Department: Jang Jae-woong]
A call from one of her subordinates.
“At least that’s a relief....”
If it had been her superior calling, she would have had to stub the cigarette out on the spot.
And that wasn’t all. She probably would have had to go straight back down from the rooftop too.
She exhaled smoke and answered the call.
“What?”
- Ah, Director. Is this a bad time?
“I answered, didn’t I? Get to the point.”
- I’m calling about Baek Do-woon.
“Baek Do-woon?”
The moment she heard the name, Soo-hyun frowned.
It brought to mind the sparring match she had held with him to gauge his ability.
She had been mocked after seeing his strength that day.
“What did that bastard do now? Commit some kind of crime?”
- Yes.
“...He did?”
- That’s right. He’s currently being held at the Association and questioned in an interrogation room.
“Held.... What are you talking about? What did he do?”
- I’ll send the video now.
Buzz.
The smartphone in her hand vibrated against her ear.
Soo-hyun pulled it away.
- Video sent.
“Got it. I’m checking it, so stay on the line.”
- Yes.
“What kind of mess did he get himself into this time....”
She clicked the file open, muttering in irritation.
The CCTV footage was not exactly high quality.
Still, the man with his hair tied back in a short ponytail was unmistakably Do-woon.
The right hand he kept tapping against something also made it clear it was him.
The video showed Do-woon wandering through the back alleys.
His trademark wooden sword was in his left hand.
“Arca....”
The sword Kim Mu-yeon had gone rabid trying to get his hands on.
It was so heavy even an A-class hunter could hardly lift it, and it could unleash a mana blade as tall as a three-story apartment building.
A blade made of mana.
Its power was on the same level as sword qi.
Which meant anyone with mana could use sword qi easily enough.
That was why, the moment Soo-hyun saw Arca, one thought sprang to mind.
What if they mass-produced equipment like Arca?
Sword qi was something that could be called the exclusive property of A-class hunters.
If lower-ranked hunters could use it too, the world itself would change.
The hunter ranking system might even be overturned at its core.
She wasn’t the only one who had thought that.
High-ranking officials in the government had reached the same conclusion.
So the government had demanded that Yu Jae-i make them a weapon like Arca.
But Yu Jae-i had splashed cold water all over that request.
“I can’t make another one like Arca.”
She had drawn a hard line and said it was impossible.
The government had tried everything to change her mind.
They promised generous compensation and said they would cover whatever it took to make it.
Of course, Yu Jae-i had poured cold water on that too.
“Money isn’t the issue. Even if you brought me hundreds of billions of won, I couldn’t make it.”
Soo-hyun had been there, and she understood what those words really meant.
There were no materials.
The materials needed to make the weapon.
Anything capable of producing a mana blade had to be an absurdly rare, absurdly expensive item.
So why had Yu Jae-i used such precious materials to forge Baek Do-woon’s sword....
Back then, Do-woon was still only a D-class hunter who had returned after two years, and he had no real reputation to speak of, though he was now A-class and had even earned Han Jin-hwan’s recognition.
If anything, people had stuck labels on him like parachute hire or deadweight.
There was no reason at all to give him a weapon as monstrous as Arca.
Unless one thing was true.
That Do-woon had brought the materials needed to make it.
He had supplied the materials, so she forged the sword for him.
If that was the case, it made sense.
And Soo-hyun judged that he could no longer obtain any more of that material.
If he had, Yu Jae-i would have made another piece of equipment like Arca already.
In other words, Arca was the only one of its kind in the entire world, a sword that had to be guarded carefully so no other country could steal it away.
Just by its rarity alone, it deserved to be called a legendary blade, and yet that sword was currently being used as a shovel.
“What the hell is this bastard doing!”
Soo-hyun snapped out of her thoughts and shouted.
- Gah.... My ears, my ears....!
She heard the person on the other end groan, but ignored it.
She was too stunned to consider anyone else’s comfort.
Her eyes were fixed on Do-woon, who kept repeating the same motion on her smartphone screen.
In the video, he was digging into the ground with Arca.
The wooden sword played the role of a shovel perfectly.
He had smoothly hollowed out the alley floor.
After that, Do-woon buried the trash that had been lying at his feet.
“I-illegal dumping....?”
Her voice trembled with disbelief.
The person on the other end coughed a couple of times before speaking.
- Ahem, ahem! Yes. We’re told he repeated the behavior in other places too.
“In other places too?”
- Yes. That’s why, at first, the Association thought it might be some kind of terror attack....
“......”
Soo-hyun took another drag and tapped the screen.
The video stopped on the moment after Do-woon had finished covering the hole with his foot.
She exhaled smoke and asked, “So? Why the hell did he do this?”
- Well, we don’t know.
“You don’t know? You said he was in an interrogation room.”
- He’s currently exercising his right to remain silent.
“What? Remaining silent?”
- He hasn’t said a word, and he keeps asking for Choi Hee-seok to be brought to him.
What the hell kind of nonsense was that?
Soo-hyun tilted her head.
If he hadn’t planned some kind of terror attack, then he should just explain why he buried the trash.
Why would he ask for Choi Hee-seok, who was just as busy as she was, to be summoned now of all times?
No, if they were going strictly by importance here, Choi Hee-seok ranked even higher than Soo-hyun.
He was probably too busy to even have a moment to come up to the rooftop for a smoke break like she did.
“......”
- ...I’m serious. Really.
“Haa.... Fine. I’ll handle it.”
- Yes, ma’am.
The call ended.
She flicked the cigarette out with her index finger, stubbed it out, and dropped it into a portable ashtray.
Then she looked back at Do-woon on the screen.
“Maybe I should just let him rot....”
If she was being honest, that sounded appealing.
Very appealing.
But she couldn’t.
Do-woon had to attend tomorrow’s major international event.
As a bodyguard, and as Baek Do-woon, an A-class hunter.
The S-class hunters had shown enormous interest in him.
More precisely, it was his younger sister and his friend they were interested in....
“Hoo....”
She pressed a finger hard against Do-woon’s face in the video.
Her white knuckles betrayed just how irritated she was.
The paused footage resumed.
Do-woon, who had been frozen in the act of tidying the dirt, moved again.
He crouched down where he had buried the trash.
And then he started casting some kind of magic.
But Soo-hyun had already lost interest in the video and never saw what happened next.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Why the hell did you bury trash in the ground!”
About thirty minutes had passed since I got that question.
Choi Hee-seok still hadn’t come, probably because he was busy.
In the end, all that happened was that Choi Ki-woo kept asking me the same thing over and over.
I exercised my right to remain silent, never answering, never wavering under temptation.
Well, “temptation” was generous. It was more like, “If you tell us, we’ll let you go right away,” and little else.
As time went on, Choi Ki-woo started sighing again and again, looking frustrated.
He probably felt like this was a waste of time.
“One last question.”
Oh? Giving up?
Choi Ki-woo let out another long sigh and asked, “You really won’t say anything?”
“No. Please bring Choi-senior here.”
“Haa.... Even if I do ask him to come, there’s no guarantee he’ll actually make it here-”
Creak.
The sound of the interrogation room door opening cut him off.
Had Choi Hee-seok finally arrived?
I turned my head toward the door.
The person who walked in wasn’t Choi Hee-seok.
It was Bae Soo-hyun.
“Director Bae Soo-hyun...?”
Choi Ki-woo got to his feet in a fluster.
So startled, he just stood there staring until Soo-hyun greeted him first.
“Hello.”
“H-hello!”
He quickly collected himself and bowed properly.
So being directly under a minister really was something else.
Even Choi Ki-woo, the Association’s management team leader, had straightened up like a rookie.
Still, why was that woman here?
I had asked for Choi Hee-seok.
“What brings you here?”
“I’ll be taking Baek Do-woon with me.”
“Pardon? What do you mean?”
“......”
She didn’t answer my question.
She just stared at me as if she had no intention whatsoever of explaining.
Choi Ki-woo didn’t back down either. He stared right back, refusing to look away as though he wasn’t about to let me be taken from him.
About a minute passed.
“...If anything comes of this, your side won’t be taking responsibility, correct?”
Choi Ki-woo caved first.
It was in his best interest to do so.
Unless he wanted to waste more time with me, he was better off handing me over.
Soo-hyun smiled faintly.
“Of course. Naturally. I’ll even send you the official document if you want.”
“Please do. I’ll have to report this upward as well....”
“Yes. I’ll send it as quickly as possible.”
Then she turned to me.
It was the same look she had given me before our sparring match.
The World Tree sapling feels a hostile gaze directed at the Manager.
Saessak felt it too, apparently.
She spoke in a bored voice that matched her stare.
“What are you doing?”
“Pardon?”
“Are you planning to keep sitting there?”
“Ah. No. I should leave.”
What did it matter who came?
The important thing was that I was finally getting out of this interrogation room.
I followed her out.
As I left, I saw Choi Ki-woo looking much happier than before.
He had probably been relieved to have found someone else to deal with this mess.
“What happened?”
She asked once we reached the underground parking lot.
“Why did you bury the trash?”
“......”
Hmm.
How far had the rumor spread about me?
If she knew, did that mean Minister Hwang knew too?
I didn’t answer, just stared at her the same way she had stared at Choi Ki-woo.
My face probably said I had no intention of explaining anything.
She read the thought on my face and shook her head.
“Well, fine.”
Huh?
Bae Soo-hyun let it go far more easily than I’d expected.
I had thought she’d keep digging for answers....
It looked like she had decided she wasn’t going to get anything out of me.
Instead, she asked something else.
“You’re not planning a crime, are you?”
“No.”
Crime, my ass.
I was just trying to get energy for Saessak.
I kept my mouth shut because I didn’t want to confess the truth.
“Really?”
She asked, sounding unconvinced.
That hurt.
“Really.”
“Fine. I’ll believe you.”
“...Huh?”
That easily?
What if I was lying?
“......”
Ah. I see.
She wasn’t saying she trusted me. She was saying she’d believe my words.
There wasn’t a shred of trust in her expression.
She was probably going to dig into my background later.
No, judging by the fact that she had come all the way to the interrogation room today, maybe she was already doing it.
“Don’t be late getting to work.”
“Understood.”
“And stop doing strange things.”
“Ha ha....”
When I gave her an awkward laugh, Soo-hyun narrowed her eyes.
Apparently she didn’t like that at all.
But she didn’t say anything else and left.
“Strange things, huh....”
To anyone who didn’t know me, it probably did look that way.
Seo Ji-hyeok and Choi Ki-jeong had both treated me like some weird bastard at first too.
Well, I’d already cleared the quest, so I had no intention of doing anything else for now.
By tomorrow, they’d already be in Korea.
I should lounge around at home for a day and rest, and then-
“...Huh?”
What was this?
I felt like I’d forgotten something.
“What... did I forget?”
The World Tree sapling reminds the Manager that he has currently forgotten the Followers of the Demon Race.
Ah.
Come to think of it, I’d stuffed the snake-man into a trash can.
Damn it. I’d better find the snake-man as fast as possible.
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