The Dinner Party and the Missing Hunter
The banquet hall had assigned seating for everyone.
I’d technically quit the guild, but I still ended up at the Baekwooncheon Guild table.
I was genuinely grateful to whoever had arranged that for me.
Otherwise I might’ve been stuck sitting with a bunch of strangers in some unfamiliar corner of the room. Or maybe I would’ve ended up at the table where Han Jin-hwan was sitting. And then the president, who was standing on the stage giving a speech right now, would have been seated there too….
No matter how little I cared about status and rank, I really didn’t want to sit at the same table as the president.
I might accidentally start acting like an enemy.
Vrrr, vrrr, vrrr….
The smartphone in my pocket vibrated.
It had been doing that nonstop ever since I’d stepped into the banquet hall.
It wasn’t calls. It was messages.
Two senders.
Kim Jae-sik and Ji Sang-wook.
The two of them had been spamming me ever since, demanding to know why I hadn’t told them in advance.
Mostly they were whining things like “Traitor!” and “This is outrageous!”….
Which felt a little unfair.
If I told them ahead of time, how was it supposed to be a surprise?
“Oh. This is seriously good.”
I ignored the buzzing phone and picked at the food in front of me.
The table was lined with lavish dishes worthy of the word banquet.
The only unfortunate thing was that half the people eating at this table had absolutely nothing in common with “elegance.”
Tae-cheon and I tore into the food like people who had never heard the word savor before.
“Hey, this is good too. Try it.”
Tae-cheon ladled some food onto my plate.
It was a white fish steak.
I took a bite, and a deep, savory richness spread across my tongue.
It was a flavor I’d never had before.
What kind of fish was this?
All the fish I’d eaten in my life had been cheap stuff like mackerel or flatfish. I’d tried frozen tuna from a buffet too, but….
“Do you know what kind of fish this is?”
“How would I know? Don’t ask stupid questions and just eat.”
Ugh. Lee Tae-cheon….
He really hadn’t changed at all.
If he was the master of an A-rank guild now, shouldn’t he have matured a little?
How was he still so good at one thing and so clueless about everything else?
If you ate something delicious, you were supposed to learn what it was so you could buy it again later.
“Hey, idiot.”
“Who’re you calling an idiot?”
“You’ve gotta know what fish this is if you want to buy it next time.”
“……!”
Tae-cheon, who’d been shoveling a huge bite of white fish steak into his mouth, froze on the spot.
His eyes, fixed on me, went as wide as his hand.
“Y-you smart bastard…!”
“Right?”
“Jae-im, what’s the name of this fish?”
Tae-cheon asked Han Jae-im, who was sitting beside him.
Han Jae-im, who’d been wearing his usual sour expression, let out a heavy sigh the moment he was asked.
So did Do-hee beside him.
Unlike Han Jae-im, hers wasn’t an exaggerated sigh.
It looked like she was calmly rein in her emotions.
After sighing it all out, Han Jae-im answered.
“Dalgogi.”
“Dalgogi? There’s a fish with that name?”
“It lives in Jeju and Yeongnam. It’s even mentioned in the Bible.”
“The Bible? That fish is in the Bible?”
“Jesus told Peter, ‘The first fish caught in the lake will have a silver coin in its mouth, and with that, pay your taxes and mine.’ That was the fish they caught.”
“Heeey, really?”
Tae-cheon stared at the Dalgogi steak with admiration.
I did too.
Once I heard it was a fish from the Bible, it somehow tasted like a brand-new delicacy.
Han Jae-im looked at the two of us and snapped in a low voice, “Could you both eat at a reasonable pace? Do you even realize what kind of atmosphere this is?”
The atmosphere, huh….
Han Jae-im was smart too, but he was the same kind of person as Tae-cheon in that he only knew one side of a thing and not the other.
Atmosphere didn’t put food on the table.
“Dummy, does atmosphere feed you?”
“Ugh…!”
“Exactly. You should try some too. Seriously, it’s amazing.”
Tae-cheon handed Han Jae-im a piece of the Dalgogi steak.
He was giving him part of what had been on his own plate.
Han Jae-im, who had been holding back the urge to snap at us, immediately relaxed.
His mouth even lifted at the corners, just a little.
“……”
Well, I couldn’t exactly blame him.
When Tae-cheon, whose greed for food was second to none, handed someone a dish from his own plate, it meant he liked that person a lot.
Whether he noticed it or not, Tae-cheon picked up his empty plate and got to his feet, striding off somewhere.
He was definitely off to get another Dalgogi steak.
Han Jae-im watched him go and shook his head vigorously.
“Baek Do-woon.”
“What.”
“At least you should learn to read the room.”
“Me too? So Tae-cheon’s a lost cause?”
“Can’t you feel the eyes from the other tables?”
“Nice dodge.”
Hmm.
The eyes from the other tables, huh….
It would be a lie to say I hadn’t noticed them.
Miller, Smirnov, Li Lianzhe, the Woo siblings, and Jo Joo-hyun.
Han Jin-hwan and the president, who were seated at the table I’d almost ended up at….
Everyone around us was watching.
“I was actually trying to read the room, you know?”
“……”
At my words, Han Jae-im narrowed his eyes.
Yeah, right? That look clearly said.
I answered in mock protest.
“But this really is delicious. You’ll change your mind once you try it.”
“Change my mind, my ass…! Haah….”
Han Jae-im almost snapped, then swallowed it down.
He had no choice with everyone watching.
Looking irritated, he grabbed his fork and jabbed at the Dalgogi steak a little too roughly.
He brought it to his mouth, and then….
“Oh?”
After chewing a few times, he looked down at the plate as if he’d just come to his senses.
See? I told you it was good.
“Mm….”
But unlike Tae-cheon and me, he was the type to let reason lead before instinct.
Like the level-headed man he was when it came to anything not involving me, he ate it with decorum.
He almost looked elegant doing it.
Of course, watching that made me laugh.
Just moments ago he’d been telling us to read the room, and now he was happily eating the same thing himself.
“Don’t laugh.”
“Pffft….”
“I said don’t laugh.”
“You really think saying that’s going to stop me?”
“You little—”
“Ahem.”
Tae-cheon had returned at some point and cut Han Jae-im off.
His plate was piled high with Dalgogi steak.
How many fish had he brought back…?
Han Jae-im, who’d been about to bark at me again, stared at the mountain of food in helpless silence.
“No fighting in front of sacred food.”
“We’re not fighting, we’re—”
“There, there. I know. Do-woon started something again, didn’t he? My bad. Eat something good and calm down.”
With that, Tae-cheon scooped some Dalgogi steak onto Han Jae-im’s plate.
The corner of Han Jae-im’s mouth twitched.
He looked absolutely delighted.
“I didn’t start anything, jerk.”
“Bullshit. You probably kept needling Jae-im until he got mad again.”
“I didn’t, I’m telling you!”
“No, no, you didn’t~ sure, sure. Good job.”
Then he added some to my plate as well.
Guess he didn’t believe me.
Well….
“I’ll let it slide since you brought me food.”
“Yeah, exactly. As you should.”
“Just remember I’m holding back for a different reason than Baek Do-woon.”
“Sure, sure.”
After that, the three men at the table all buried their faces in their plates at the same time.
Do-hee, the only woman at the table, let out a sigh in our direction.
She even slid her chair a little farther away from us.
Probably because she didn’t want to be caught on camera with us.
Whatever.
We weren’t about to stop ourselves just because of some food in front of us.
“Still, I guess he does seem different….”
Han Jae-im, eating rather properly for once, tossed out the topic.
He’d been looking at me when he said it, so I figured it was aimed at me.
Different?
Had I really shown that much of a change?
I thought I was the same as always.
Smirking obnoxiously and picking fights for no reason.
The World Tree sapling says those parts of the Manager would be fine to change a little too.
“…What the hell was that all of a sudden?”
“Aegion’s been bothering us less lately.”
“Oh? Really?”
“What’s with that surprised reaction? Weren’t you the one who did something?”
“Yeah. Not me.”
“……Hmm?”
Han Jae-im frowned.
It clearly didn’t make sense to him.
Neither did it to me.
I didn’t understand what he meant by Aegion bothering us less.
Why the hell would they suddenly ease off?
“What’s going on? There’s no way Choi Dong-hoon would just let it go.”
Tae-cheon, who had seen the man with me, voiced his own confusion.
He was right.
That day, Choi Dong-hoon had stared at me with dark circles under his eyes.
He’d even smiled that slimy smile of his and said I’d regret it.
There was no way he’d stop targeting me.
Not when he still wanted to get Calips back.
He wouldn’t have believed me when I said I’d thrown it away.
“Starting some time ago….”
Han Jae-im’s voice dropped lower.
Unconsciously, the rest of us leaned in to listen.
“Choi Dong-hoon hasn’t been appearing in public.”
“That guy?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe he’s been entering Gates?”
“I thought so too, so I checked. But no. There’s no record of him entering any Gate. More importantly, even the Aegion people were flustered.”
“They were flustered?”
“That’s when I became sure of it. Choi Dong-hoon must have gone into hiding without telling anyone.”
Choi Dong-hoon had gone into hiding…?
It was hard to believe, but….
The one saying it was Han Jae-im.
And with Tae-cheon sitting right there listening, he wouldn’t have brought it up unless he was sure.
So Choi Dong-hoon really had disappeared.
“Huh…?”
What the hell was that bastard doing all of a sudden?
“That’s why I thought you were the one who did it, Baek Do-woon.”
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
“That came out of nowhere. What for?”
“Because… you’re exactly the kind of bastard who’d do something like that.”
“……”
No.
Seriously, what was wrong with my image that whenever something like this happened, everyone just assumed I’d done it?
Besides, Choi Dong-hoon was a hunter ranked twenty-first.
He wasn’t the kind of hunter I could just do something about.
Not yet.
“Looking at your face, I guess not. Tch. For nothing….”
Han Jae-im shook his head.
He trailed off, but I could guess what he’d been about to say.
The whole thing was written all over his face.
So much for praising you, I’m sure he wanted to say.
Still, somehow….
The hostility pointed at me seemed to have softened a little.
Looks like that apology I gave at the Baekwooncheon headquarters last time had done some good.
Ah.
Speaking of Baekwooncheon headquarters, that reminded me.
“Oh, right. I keep forgetting to say this, but we should move.”
“Move? Why all of a sudden?”
“I bought a building.”
“You bought a building…? What are you talking about?”
Do-hee tilted her head, confused.
Tae-cheon and Han Jae-im both frowned.
Suspicion came before curiosity for them.
They probably thought I was up to some ridiculous joke again.
“Remember that call I took when Han-sunbae came looking for me?”
“Yeah. You said you were in Sinnonhyeon.”
“Right. I was buying a building then. From Woo Yeon-hoo, the master of the guild over there.”
I pointed at Woo Yeon-hoo with my index finger.
When I did, all three of them turned to look at him.
He looked startled by the sudden attention, but he stayed composed, smiled politely, and bowed his head.
The three of them bowed back in greeting.
Then their eyes came back to me.
“If you don’t believe me….”
“You want us to ask him?”
“Yep.”
Then he’d tell them.
That he’d sold me a building worth 153 billion won.
Do-hee asked the obvious question.
“Where did my brother get that kind of money?”
I almost told her I’d sold pinecones.
But I held back.
Han Jae-im was here, after all.
He didn’t know I was growing the World Tree.
Sure enough, he eyed me suspiciously and pressed, “Don’t tell me you got involved in something illegal?”
“Illegal…? What do you take me for?”
“Stop dodging the question and tell us straight. You took down Choi Dong-hoon, didn’t you? Stabbed him when his guard was down, right? You can’t say it out loud because it’s embarrassing, can you?”
“I’m telling you, no.”
“You really didn’t?”
Even Do-hee’s face bloomed with suspicion.
Of all people, even Do-hee was doubting me….
Did I really look like I’d go around doing evil things without rhyme or reason…?
Feeling that thought, I turned to Tae-cheon.
It was a gesture asking him to speak for me.
But… Tae-cheon clearly wasn’t interested and just kept stuffing his face with Dalgogi steak.
Crunch, crunch.
All I could hear was the sound of him trying to erase every Dalgogi in the world.
“……”
Yeah.
What exactly was I expecting from you?
That’s my one and only friend for you….
“Haaah….”