Chapter 118
Seoul’s tallest building stood in Jamsil.
It was the Jamsil Tower, nicknamed the Second Tower of Sauron.
People called it that because when the setting sun touched the tower’s crown, it gave the eerie impression that a pair of red eyes was watching from above.
There was one more building in Seoul that could stand alongside it in height.
A 480-meter building, only about 70 meters shorter than Jamsil Tower’s 554.5 meters.
It was the Mine Guild building.
The guild’s headquarters, which had stood for more than a century, was nearly the same height as the tower erected by a major conglomerate.
At the top of the building sat a 10-meter luminescent stone that glowed like a lighthouse beacon.
It was shaped so much like a lighthouse that people had named the building after one.
But to the public, it was better known as the First Tower of Sauron.
That was because the giant white luminescent stone looked like a huge eye.
Just beneath that stone.
At a spot with a direct view of Jamsil Tower and a panoramic look over all of Seoul, lay the Mine Guild master’s office.
The true master of the Mine Guild, Yoon Geon, stood by the window, looking outside.
He was waiting for his disciple to return.
The disciple’s name was Jo Joo-hyun.
He had been Yoon Geon’s prized student, handpicked and trained by him back when he first started making a name for himself as an A-class hunter.
That prized student had gone out for dinner with Han Jin-hwan tonight.
Han Jin-hwan.
Hoo….
The moment Yoon Geon thought of that name, his mana began to surge.
Yoon Geon’s epithet was Flame Emperor.
Or rather, the Unfortunate Flame Emperor.
The reason the word unfortunate clung to that otherwise splendid title was Han Jin-hwan.
Before that outstanding man called Han Jin-hwan had appeared, Yoon Geon had held first place in the hunter rankings.
He had been the former number one, the man who had been knocked down to second place.
If not for Thunder Emperor Han Jin-hwan, he could have ruled the top spot without issue to this day.
Just as every previous Mine Guild master had done….
“You’re the Flame Emperor?”
Yoon Geon recalled Han Jin-hwan’s voice from their first meeting.
Along with that rude, insolent face and behavior.
That day, Han Jin-hwan had shaken his hand, then suddenly laughed.
He had let it spill from his lips with a loose, hollow sound.
Yes.
It had been an unmistakable sneer.
Then he had added one more line….
One line that had twisted the relationship between Yoon Geon and Han Jin-hwan ever since.
“People kept calling you Flame Emperor this, Flame Emperor that, so I came expecting a lot... but that’s it? I’m disappointed.”
In the present, Yoon Geon clenched his fist hard.
Red flames burst from his knuckles.
Just remembering the past had put him in a foul mood.
He stared at the red fire licking up from his fist.
“Well now… I’m still young, I suppose.”
Then he shook his head.
He scolded himself for losing control of his emotions and gathered the flames back in.
Soon the fierce blaze that had been burning wild in all directions gathered into small beads of light.
Three fire orbs rolled across Yoon Geon’s palm.
Then,
“Hmm…?”
he realized something.
“Now that I think about it, it’s been a while….”
It had been a long time since he’d remembered his first meeting with Han Jin-hwan.
It wasn’t a memory he liked, so he almost never thought about it.
It was the kind of memory he had tried hard to shake off.
Why had it suddenly come back to him?
The answer came quickly.
“Because of Jo Joo-hyun, maybe….”
His disciple, whom he had personally scouted and raised, had gone off to meet Han Jin-hwan.
As a teacher, it was only natural that his mind would return to the day they had first met.
Knock, knock.
A heavy knock sounded at the door.
The person he had been waiting for had clearly arrived.
Yoon Geon turned toward the door.
“Come in.”
The moment he gave permission, the large door opened.
As expected, the person he had been waiting for came inside.
Jo Joo-hyun stopped when he saw the red beads rolling in Yoon Geon’s palm.
He knew those were no ordinary marbles.
When Yoon Geon was irritated or deep in thought, he would gather flames into a sphere like that.
They were, quite literally, fire beads.
Of course, beads made of fire should not have been physically rolling in his hand.
And yet they really did seem to be tumbling there, round and smooth as anything.
Watching them roll so effortlessly, Jo Joo-hyun felt strangely drained.
It was a level he could not yet reach.
How much effort had gone into mastering control like that?
Jo Joo-hyun stood there admiring the beads so intently that he nearly forgot to walk forward.
Yoon Geon, seeing that, tossed out a question.
“Did I interrupt your time?”
“Huh? What do you mean... Ah! No, not at all. You weren’t interrupting anythin-”
“Clearly I was.”
“……”
“I know very well you’re a Han Jin-hwan fan.”
Yoon Geon said that with a grin.
Seeing it, Jo Joo-hyun barely swallowed a sigh.
It would have been rude to sigh at the guild master and his teacher.
But he couldn’t hide everything from his face.
“……”
Why ask if you already know?
That was the complaint written plainly across Jo Joo-hyun’s expression.
Yoon Geon saw it and chuckled.
He had gotten what he wanted.
As a teacher, he couldn’t simply sit back and watch his disciple having too good a time.
“I called you here on purpose to ruin a good moment.”
“...I thought as much. I was about to go for round two when you called.”
“Oh. So you knew?”
“Yes. The timing was almost offensively perfect.”
“So then, what was it like seeing him in person for the first time?”
“……”
Jo Joo-hyun didn’t answer right away.
No, it would be more accurate to say he couldn’t.
Was it all right to be honest?
That was the hesitation on his face.
“Well….”
“Heh….”
Yoon Geon let out another low laugh.
He understood exactly why Jo Joo-hyun was acting that way.
Up until now, Jo Joo-hyun had not been the only one who hesitated like this.
In front of Yoon Geon, everyone became cautious whenever Han Jin-hwan came up.
They had no choice.
Yoon Geon and Han Jin-hwan were rivals.
Others saw it that way, even if the two of them each had different opinions on the matter.
And Jo Joo-hyun, his prized disciple, was no different.
Yoon Geon blinked once and said, “It’s fine. You can be honest.”
There was even a smile on his lips.
Only after seeing that smile did Jo Joo-hyun slowly speak.
He decided it was safe to be honest.
“Well... he seemed cheerful.”
“That just means he’s got no manners.”
“He also seemed very free-spirited.”
“So he’s shameless as well.”
“M-Master...?”
“Hm? What is it?”
“Can I really be honest?”
“Of course. You can.”
“……”
“You can, I said.”
No, I feel like I shouldn’t.
Jo Joo-hyun muttered inwardly.
He muttered it only in his head, but his face made the thought obvious enough.
Yoon Geon chuckled again and flicked his hand.
It was a sign to keep going.
“The strongest person I’ve ever seen... was you, Master.”
“Mm.”
“When I met you, Master, you made me kneel without even trying.”
Jo Joo-hyun remembered the first time he had met Yoon Geon.
It had been the moment he first encountered a wall he could not cross.
Seeing someone on a horizon so distant he could barely comprehend it, Jo Joo-hyun had been devastated.
He had realized how small the talent that once made him so arrogant truly was.
“But Han Jin-hwan....”
“Han Jin-hwan?”
“A strength I couldn’t even compare to... that was what he was...”
The impossible wall.
The unreachable distance.
The despair that followed.
That was a feeling born only because one could compare oneself to another.
Today, Jo Joo-hyun couldn’t even make that comparison.
“...So are you going to give up?”
“No. It only made me want to chase him more.”
“Good. That’s it. That’s enough.”
“Huh?”
“As expected of my disciple. I’m glad I sent you out today.”
“Th-thank you...?”
Jo Joo-hyun gave his thanks with a note of confusion still clinging to it.
Yoon Geon nodded while idly playing with the red bead in his palm, then suddenly spoke.
From his mouth came a name Jo Joo-hyun had not expected at all.
“Ah, right. Baek Do-woon.”
“Yes?”
“That friend of Lee Tae-cheon’s. You said he was there too, right?”
“You know him?”
“Well... I happened to learn of him.”
Yoon Geon smiled faintly, the corners of his mouth lifting.
Jo Joo-hyun tilted his head and looked at him.
How did he know Baek Do-woon?
Because he was Lee Tae-cheon’s friend and Baek Do-hee’s older brother?
If that were all, he would have known him only as Lee Tae-cheon’s friend or Baek Do-hee’s older brother.
He wouldn’t have remembered the name.
To Jo Joo-hyun, the Mine Guild master’s seat was not the sort of place where one had the leisure to remember a man like Baek Do-woon.
But Yoon Geon did not continue.
He waited for Jo Joo-hyun to speak instead.
“He didn’t leave a very... good impression.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Today....”
Jo Joo-hyun told him about what had happened over dinner.
How Do-woon had sat there playing on his smartphone while everyone else was talking.
How, even when he joined the conversation, he would just say something odd and then go back to being indifferent.
Of course, there was one thing he found particularly irritating.
It was the reaction Do-woon had shown when he said Han Jin-hwan was his target.
Do-woon had raised his right hand, clenched his fist, and said in a flat tone, “Do your best? Fighting? Go, go.”
How could anyone possibly see that in a good light?
Had Han Jin-hwan not been sitting beside him, Jo Joo-hyun would have cursed him out with a, Who the hell does this bastard think he is?
If no one had been watching, he might even have swung a punch at his jaw.
“So the first meeting wasn’t a good one….”
Yoon Geon’s lips twisted.
“How should I put it... it feels like fate, somehow.”
“Yes? Fate?”
“Rude and shameless as hell.”
“You mean Han Jin-hwan?”
“Yeah. That’s exactly how I thought of him when we first met sixteen years ago.”
“Ah….”
“But now you’re saying the same thing about Baek Do-woon.”
“...Are you saying history repeats itself?”
“That would be the real stretch. Han Jin-hwan was destined to be number one from the moment his ability first became known. He was talent sent straight from heaven.”
The mana of lightning.
That alone was enough for Han Jin-hwan to become the strongest man in Korea.
Power enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with S-class hunters, those living embodiments of heaven-sent talent.
Was that all?
The world had already been saying that the fifth person to become an S-class hunter would be Han Jin-hwan.
“Exactly. Baek Do-woon isn’t Han Jin-hwan. No... even if he were, it wouldn’t be a problem.”
“It wouldn’t be a problem?”
“Our Mine Guild is nothing like the Mine Guild of back then, is it?”
“Yes. That’s true. We’ve made tremendous progress over the past fifteen years.”
“...No. That’s not what I meant.”
“Hm?”
“Back then, I wasn’t there.”
Jo Joo-hyun said it with complete composure.
Yoon Geon’s eyes widened.
“Yoon Geon without a teacher, and Jo Joo-hyun with Yoon Geon as his teacher—those are different things.”
“...Ha, hahahaha! Yes, yes! Jo Joo-hyun! As expected, you are my greatest masterpiece!”
Yoon Geon shouted, clenching his fist tightly.
The fire beads rolling in his hand flattened out and scattered into the air.
Normally they should have burst from the rebound, but thanks to Yoon Geon’s perfect control, they were instantly drawn back into mana.
“Follow me! Do that, and you can become Korea’s first S-class hunter! I’ll make sure of it myself!”
Korea’s first S-class hunter.
That would mean surpassing the Thunder Emperor himself.
It was no exaggeration to say it was the dream of every hunter working in Korea.
After hearing Yoon Geon’s declaration, Jo Joo-hyun calmly voiced his resolve.
“Yes... I’ll prove that I, and our Mine Guild, were never wrong.”
The two men of Mine shared a grin, each having made his declaration and his vow.