Chapter 119: Before the Two Maniacs Smiled at Each Other
A few hours before the two maniacs were grinning at each other...
“Well then, this old man will be on his way. You young folks go ahead and spend some time together.”
Minister Hwang said that as he stepped out of the restaurant.
Young folks?
It was a strange thing to say.
Bae Soo-hyun, who had been standing behind the minister, tilted her head the same way I did.
It was because of Han Jin-hwan, who was well past forty.
He looked like he was in his mid-thirties thanks to his youthful face, but by age alone, he was closer to Minister Hwang than to us.
Did he really count as one of the “young folks”?
Han Jin-hwan seemed to wonder the same thing, scratching the back of his head and letting out an awkward laugh.
Only Jo Joo-hyun responded warmly.
“Oh? Are you leaving?”
“Haha. Look at this kid, ready to die of happiness.”
“Huh? Me?”
“Don’t pretend. At least wipe that smile off your face.”
“Ah...!”
Jo Joo-hyun covered his mouth a little too late.
What a pliant little bastard.
Minister Hwang must have thought the same thing, because he burst into hearty laughter too.
Then he slowly let the laughter fade and looked at Han Jin-hwan.
“You’ve got work tomorrow, so don’t drink too much.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
“Bae Soo-hyun, you have a drink or two as well.”
“Pardon?”
“Spending time with hunters is part of your job as someone in Hunter Management.”
He wasn’t wrong.
A drinking table makes things happen.
There was a reason office workers went to company dinners even when they didn’t want to, dragging their feet like they’d been sentenced to suffer through them.
Well, not that Bae Soo-hyun was in a position where that mattered much.
She was an elite among elites, the kind of person who had been placed directly under the Hunter Administration minister at a young age.
“......”
So she looked at us with a slightly haughty expression.
The look on her face said that whether she drank or not was her decision alone.
“You want me to sit with these two?”
Her eyes were on me when she said it.
Bae Soo-hyun didn’t like me.
She was probably closer to hating me.
Ever since we first met in Gangwon-do, I’d never made a good first impression on her.
And from the way she treated him, she didn’t seem especially close to Han Jin-hwan either.
I didn’t know what things were like with Jo Joo-hyun, but if she already had two people she didn’t like, then naturally she’d want to leave.
“No, I’m going back to finish the work I’ve got piled up.”
I’d expected that answer.
Han Jin-hwan and I nodded at the same time.
Only Jo Joo-hyun looked flustered, as if he hadn’t expected her to refuse so bluntly.
Minister Hwang chuckled.
“You really do need to break that work addiction of yours.”
Work addiction?
No, Bae Soo-hyun wasn’t refusing to drink with us because she was addicted to work.
She just hated that the lineup at the table was me and Han Jin-hwan.
The coldness in the way she looked at us was proof enough.
“...Well, I suppose hunters talking things over might make for better common ground.”
Recognizing that, Minister Hwang changed course.
He seemed to decide that dragging Bae Soo-hyun away from here quickly was the better option.
“All right then. I really should be going. You boys have yourselves a good time.”
“Yes, have a safe trip.”
“I already told you, tomorrow-”
“Yes, yes. I won’t drink much.”
Han Jin-hwan waved him off briskly, as if telling him to get lost already.
How many hunters in the world could casually shoo away the Hunter Administration minister like he was a nuisance?
Even if it should have left him in a foul mood, Minister Hwang only laughed and departed with Bae Soo-hyun.
Once the two of them were completely out of sight, Han Jin-hwan looked over at us.
“Good, then...,”
“Ah, I’m going to head out.”
I cut him off.
I had no intention of going drinking with the two of them.
“What? Why?”
“I want to rest.”
“Rest...? We’re going to be working together from now on. We should at least spend some time together.”
“We will spend time together naturally enough, since we’ll be working together from now on.”
“Hah, well, fair enough. I can’t exactly argue with that.”
Han Jin-hwan turned from me to look at Jo Joo-hyun.
When their eyes met, Jo Joo-hyun smiled faintly.
“You’re okay with this, right?”
“Yes! Of course. Completely okay.”
“Good. I know a nice bar nearby. Let’s go there.”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll be going now.”
“You haven’t left yet?”
What a man.
He’d been the one trying to hold me back, and now he was acting like this.
People say a man’s mind changes going to the bathroom and coming back, and that was exactly what this felt like.
Perfectly fitting, really.
“Enjoy your private time.”
“Yeah, we’ll have a great time, you bastard.”
“Ah...”
At that moment, Jo Joo-hyun let out a short sound.
Looking back, I saw him clutching his smartphone.
It looked like a call had come in, because the phone kept buzzing nonstop.
“Sorry, it’s a call from my master...”
“Oh, right, right. You should take it, then.”
“I’m sorry.”
Jo Joo-hyun stepped away a little and answered.
The master of the Maine Guild, huh...
If I remembered right, his epithet was Flame Emperor.
He was also called the Unfortunate King.
After all, he had once been ranked number one before Han Jin-hwan took the top spot from him.
“Why? Why are you suddenly staring at me?”
“He says it’s his master. The Maine Guild master.”
“I heard you the first time. So?”
“He’s your rival, isn’t he?”
“Rival? What rival? I’m way stronger than him.”
“Oh. Confident, aren’t you?”
“It’s not confidence, it’s a fact. If it were you, would you be happy to call Gong Woo-jae your rival?”
“Huh? Gong Woo-jae? Why are you suddenly bringing him up...? Ah.”
I understood what he meant.
He needed someone to use as a baseline.
Gong Woo-jae...
He had definitely been strong.
Among the people I’d fought, excluding Crowd, he was the strongest.
I’d also liked the way he never stopped working toward a fight with someone stronger than himself, always scheming and thinking things through.
But that was all it was.
If I were to call someone my rival...?
Well, obviously...
“No way. That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Right? That’s the same for me and that guy.”
“Heh...”
There was only a single number’s difference between first and second place.
But from the way he compared himself and Gong Woo-jae, there must have been a real gulf between them.
Come to think of it, that made sense.
Han Jin-hwan didn’t compare himself to A-class hunters.
He compared himself to S-class hunters.
“S-so... what should I do...?”
Jo Joo-hyun came back.
His shoulders had drooped.
Oh, this is...
“The master called, so I think I need to head back...”
“Ah, that’s a shame...”
Jo Joo-hyun’s disappointment carried straight over to Han Jin-hwan.
He too drooped his shoulders.
“I really did want to have a drink with you, Senior...”
“No, if your guild master called, then there’s nothing to be done. Like this guy said, we’re going to be together for a week or two anyway. There’ll be another chance later, won’t there?”
“I’m truly sorry...”
“It’s fine, I said. Hurry along now. You don’t want to keep him waiting. Give him my regards.”
“Yes, I will...”
With that, Jo Joo-hyun started walking away.
Of course, he seemed reluctant, stopping every few steps to look back over his shoulder.
Han Jin-hwan must have found it pretty adorable, because he kept smiling as he saw him off until Jo Joo-hyun was completely out of sight.
Soon enough, it was just me and Han Jin-hwan left alone.
“Well then, I’ll be on my way, too—”
Clench.
Han Jin-hwan grabbed my wrist.
I could feel the determination in his grip; he had no intention of letting me go.
Baek Do-woon felt the World Tree sprout sense very pure lightning mana.
And the lightning mana, too.
Ow, damn it.
“You really trying to leave?”
“You just asked me why I hadn’t left yet.”
“That was before. Back then, Jo Joo-hyun was still here. He’s gone now.”
“......”
Seriously?
“Do-woon-ah. I’m Han Jin-hwan.”
“So?”
“Which means you can’t run away. Heh heh heh.”
Han Jin-hwan laughed like a third-rate villain.
There was no trace of the dignity you’d expect from the number one hunter in Korea.
Can’t run away, huh...
Well, that was probably true.
Was there anyone who could actually escape this guy, who moved as fast as lightning itself?
“......”
Of course there was.
The world had its exceptions.
I was one of them.
I had a way to get away from this man.
I just had to go to Sanctuary, where the World Tree sprout and the elves were waiting.
No matter how strong he was, there was no way he could chase me across dimensions.
“Don’t you want to learn Sword Qi?”
“Sword Qi?”
Why was he suddenly bringing up Sword Qi...?
“Yeah. You can’t use Sword Qi, can you?”
“How did you know that...?”
Han Jin-hwan didn’t answer. He just grinned.
He looked like he had absolutely no intention of explaining how he knew.
“So, what’ll it be?”
At the same time, he wore a self-satisfied expression.
He looked certain I wouldn’t refuse his offer.
“Ha... seriously.”
As if I only had him to learn Sword Qi from?
There were over ten A-class hunters in Baek Woon-cheon alone.
There were plenty of places I could learn it.
So I answered in a voice full of confidence.
“I won’t be staying long.”
＊＊＊
There are 1,952 islands in Jeollanam-do.
That’s nearly two-thirds of all the islands in Korea.
Most of those large and small islands are uninhabited, but some do have residents.
Chudo, the remote island furthest out in Jeollanam-do, was one of them.
That said, this wasn’t a place where ordinary citizens lived.
Most of the locals here were former hunters.
Chudo Hunter Prison.
A place where people who had been hunters, or who had committed crimes using their abilities and been sentenced to prison, were held...
The whole island was a prison.
And in the prison yard, Gong Woo-jae of the Dazol Guild, the man Do-woon had once captured, was there too.
Leaning against a wire fence with his subordinates, he read a newspaper.
It was an article with the headline, “S-Class Hunters, All Gathered at Last Tomorrow!” splashed across the front page.
When he finished reading it, his mouth opened slightly.
In that instant, dozens of eyes turned to Gong Woo-jae.
Those eyes didn’t belong only to his subordinates.
Other prisoners were watching him too, and the guards were keeping a close eye on him.
When all those gazes converged on him,
“...Achoo!”
Gong Woo-jae sneezed.
Then he sniffled.
The people who had been expecting him to say something turned their eyes away again.
They were afraid of keeping their gaze on him too long and irritating him.
That was how it was.
They were watching Gong Woo-jae’s mood.
They had no choice.
Even though his body could no longer circulate mana, he had once been an A-class hunter.
The physique he had built up during those years was still intact.
With physical strength alone, he could probably mock a C-class hunter without effort.
That was why, in this prison, there were only two things that could restrain him.
The mana stun batons assigned to the guards.
And the prisoners who, like him, had once been A-class hunters.
“...Have you caught a cold?”
“No. It’s more like... I get the feeling someone’s talking about me.”
“Pardon?”
The subordinate sitting immediately to his right asked the question.
Gong Woo-jae flipped the page of the newspaper and answered without looking up.
It was an incomprehensible answer, so the subordinate had no choice but to ask again.
“I don’t know why, but I feel strangely restless.”
“...What on earth are you talking about?”
Gong Woo-jae smirked and gave a small shrug.
Like he said, he had no intention of explaining.
“What are you planning to do?”
The subordinate moved on before asking a question that was even less likely to be answered.
Gong Woo-jae looked down at the newspaper.
Eight subordinates in total, including the one to his right, kept staring at him as if pleading for an answer.
Hoo...
He let out a short sigh and folded the paper.
“What we need to do now, no, what we can do right now... is wait.”
“Wait?”
“Yes. For her.”
“Her...? Ah. I see.”
The subordinate on the right nodded.
He’d realized who Gong Woo-jae meant.
The woman who had belonged to the Dazol Guild.
Yoo Hye-joo.
“But... do you think she’ll come all the way here to rescue you, boss?”
“She will. She thinks she needs me if she’s going to succeed in her experiment.”
“Isn’t that true?”
“No. What she needed was me, the one who didn’t turn into an idiot even after using beastification. Not anymore. I can’t even use beastification at all now.”
“Ah...”
A heavy silence settled in.
Gong Woo-jae broke it first.
“She doesn’t know that, so she’ll still come to save me. Which means the only thing we can do is wait quietly. Though, I suppose we ought to clean things up before that.”
“Clean things up?”
“Yes.”
Gong Woo-jae jerked his chin forward.
Rough-looking men were walking toward them.
There were sixteen of them in all, and at the front was Lee Jeong-geun.
He was one of the prisoners who had once been A-class hunters and who could still, here in this prison, stand in Gong Woo-jae’s way.
When his subordinates spotted Lee Jeong-geun, they quickly got to their feet and stepped forward to block the path.
Seeing that,
“This is going to be a pain...”
Gong Woo-jae let out a sigh.