When the Quiet Hall Fell Loud
The once-quiet banquet hall had turned rowdy sooner than I’d expected.
As soon as the broadcast cameras pulled out and nobody had to worry about appearances anymore, people really let loose.
Eat and drink,
drink and eat.
Everyone chattered away in a din that only grew louder as the alcohol took hold.
Tae-cheon and I enjoyed ourselves just as earnestly.
We put our whole hearts into piling up mountains of empty dishes on the table.
That mountain-building continued until the interrupters arrived.
Han Jae-im called Do-hee in a low voice.
"...Do-hee."
"Yes. I saw."
She hadn’t said what she needed, but it was easy enough to guess why she’d called.
The eyes of everyone in the banquet hall, us included, had turned that way.
Alading Miller.
She was walking toward Do-hee.
And she wasn’t the only one.
Maksim Smirnov was also heading this way.
His reason was probably Tae-cheon.
He’d stayed with us from the airport all the way here, and now he was coming over again....
Just how much did he have to say?
Meanwhile, I’d been sitting there gaming because I didn’t know what to do with myself under Li Lianzhe’s stare.
"Baek Do-woon."
Han Jae-im called me in a voice so soft it was almost swallowed by the noise.
When I looked up, he swept a hand quickly upward.
Get up, he was saying.
"Have some awareness."
"No, it’s fine. Right?"
"Exactly. Neither you nor Do-woon needs to move. I don’t want to be stuck standing around with them anyway. They just keep staring without saying anything."
Huh?
Li Lianzhe was doing that too....
No, saying "was" was wrong.
He still was, right now.
He wasn’t walking over to me like Miller or Smirnov, but his eyes were still fixed on me.
"Still, no."
Han Jae-im looked moved by the fact that he didn’t need to make way for them.
That didn’t change his mind.
Stubborn, huh.
"Maybe they couldn’t say what they wanted in the car because there were other people around."
Huh?
That actually made sense.
Maybe Li Lianzhe had only been staring at me for that very reason....
No, if Saessak had warned me to run, maybe that wasn’t it at all.
"Baek Do-woon."
"Hoo. Fine, damn it. Quit nagging me."
If they had something to say, then I supposed I’d better give them the space.
Jae-im and I stood up from our seats.
Do-hee and Tae-cheon looked apologetic.
"Oppa, you really don’t have to move...."
"Right. Just stay seated. Tell them to stand somewhere else."
"Master, please stop saying impossible things."
Han Jae-im flatly crushed Tae-cheon’s suggestion.
Yeah, on that point, Jae-im was right.
Making Miller and Smirnov stand around at a banquet like this wouldn’t look good in any number of ways.
"We’ll be nearby, so call us if anything happens. Though, nothing probably will."
"Okay...."
"Sorry."
"It’s fine."
Then Jae-im and I left the table at once.
Soon after, Miller and Smirnov took our places.
Miller sat in the seat Jae-im had occupied, and Smirnov took mine.
“…….”
“…….”
Just because we’d stood up together.
Just because we’d left the table together.
It didn’t mean I had any intention of being alone with Han Jae-im.
He knew that too.
I reached out and pointed to a table.
"I’m going over there."
"Fine. I’ll go that way. Let’s not see each other again."
"God, I’d love that."
With that, Jae-im walked over to the table he’d pointed out.
They seemed close enough that, the moment he arrived, they started laughing and patting each other on the shoulders.
Hmph. So I was alone again.
Just like before.
The World Tree sapling says the Manager is not alone.
The sapling says it is here with him.
Ha, yeah.
I had you, Saessak.
I stroked Saessak and slipped out of the banquet hall.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Woo Yeon-hoo was feeling puzzled.
The S-class hunters’ attention was all fixed on one place.
Miller and Smirnov had each left interviews saying they wanted to meet Baek Do-hee and Lee Tae-cheon, so that made sense.
What puzzled him was Li Lianzhe.
Li Lianzhe was staring straight at Baek Do-woon.
Had Do-woon done something wrong?
Just as that thought crossed his mind, two S-class hunters stood up.
They were heading toward the table they’d been staring at.
A few seconds later, Do-woon got up with Han Jae-im and left the table.
"Hm? Ah. Looks like they’re giving up the seats."
"Oh, then should we call them over here?"
"Good idea."
He nodded at his younger sister’s suggestion.
Then he looked over at O Juhan.
O Juhan was wearing the fine formal attire suited to a banquet.
At the same time, he was wearing a completely unsuited black mask over his face.
"I don’t mind either."
"Unanimous, then."
As Yeon-hoo started to push his chair back and stand, Woo Chae-yeon was quicker.
She reached out, caught her brother by the wrist, and stood up first.
"Sit still, oppa. I’ll go bring them over."
"No, I’ll go. I need to talk to Do-woon anyway."
"I said I’ll go."
"……?"
What was with her?
He tilted his head and looked at his sister.
Woo Chae-yeon smiled faintly and met her brother’s eyes.
The smile made Woo Yeon-hoo go cold.
Her mouth was smiling, but her eyes weren’t smiling at all.
"I’ll go, oppa."
"...Fine. Got it."
Yeon-hoo nodded and decided to go along with his sister’s wishes.
As her older brother of seventeen years, he had the strong suspicion that if he didn’t obey her now, she would make him pay for it for quite a while.
"Thank you! Oppa really is the best!"
Even as she thanked him, Woo Chae-yeon was still smiling only with her mouth.
“…….”
Yeon-hoo watched her leave with light, quick steps.
Watching, he shook his head.
Then his eyes met O Juhan’s.
"Still, it is a banquet. Why don’t you take off that mask?"
"No taking your frustration with your sister out on your friend."
"……."
"And no looking like some pitiful older brother whose little sister was stolen away. I nearly hit you as a friend."
"...That’s harsh."
"Have some of this."
O Juhan handed him a fish steak.
Yeon-hoo stared at it for a few seconds, then picked up his chopsticks.
He decided to act like a man with food in front of him.
"Oh. Not bad. What kind of fish is this?"
"Dunno? I do know Lee Tae-cheon’s been demolishing these, though."
"Demolishing them?"
"There."
O Juhan pointed with his index finger at Lee Tae-cheon.
Sure enough, Tae-cheon was tearing through the fish steaks as though he meant to wipe them out.
He didn’t seem to care that Smirnov was sitting right beside him.
Compared with the two women next to him, who were chatting energetically, he almost looked like he was deliberately ignoring him.
"...Guess he likes fish."
Yeon-hoo muttered that and took another bite of his fish steak.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The hallway was quiet, unlike the banquet hall.
It was quiet enough to feel almost desolate.
Maybe the reason it felt that way, despite how brightly lit it was, was because it reminded me of old times.
Even if I simply didn’t like noisy places in the first place....
"It’s the same now as it was back then."
As I walked the corridor alone, a sigh escaped me naturally.
Being alone like this had been a common occurrence ever since orphanage days.
The kids at the orphanage liked Do-hee and Tae-cheon.
Who wouldn’t like an older sister and older brother who were pretty, handsome, and kind to everyone?
Han Jae-im was one of those kids too....
No, he wasn’t just one of those kids.
He was probably the chief culprit behind all the trouble who had stolen the most of my time, and who was still doing it now.
From Jae-im’s point of view, though, I was probably the chief culprit.
Bzzt.
I felt a vibration in my right hand where I’d been tapping the screen.
I thought maybe Kim Jae-sik and Ji Sang-wook had sent me another message, but no.
The caller on the screen was Yu Jae-i.
"Hello?"
"Hello? Is now a bad time to talk?"
"No. I’m fine right now."
Everyone was busy eating and drinking.
I was on security duty as part of the welcoming team, but nothing bad would happen if I slipped away for a bit.
There were stronger people than me all over the hall.
And if something did happen, they’d handle it themselves.
Tae-cheon would especially jump in with both feet.
Then Do-hee and Jae-im would probably get dragged in too.
"I watched you on TV. You looked good."
"What’s with the compliment all of a sudden?"
"Not you. Your friend."
"Ah...."
Well, that figures.
There was no way she’d call me handsome.
Still, Tae-cheon really was good-looking.
He was handsome enough not to lose out to Smirnov, who was considered a world-class beauty among men.
To me, Tae-cheon’s face was better.
"You didn’t call just to make a joke like that, did you?"
"It wasn’t a joke. Being next to you just made him look even better."
"......Is something wrong?"
"No. Nothing’s wrong."
What was this?
Was she really calling just to joke around?
And why make such a boring joke of all things?
I knew I wasn’t exactly good-looking compared to Tae-cheon....
Was she putting me down because she thought she was prettier?
"I don’t know why, but I just got the feeling I needed to call you right now."
"A feeling?"
"Yeah. Like if I didn’t, some fox would steal you away or something."
"...Am I a side dish with frog meat?"
I couldn’t make sense of what Jae-i was saying.
Why was a fox suddenly involved?
"Well, whatever."
"Whatever...."
"I called partly because of your friend too."
Jae-i changed the subject as if it weren’t a big deal.
And she was talking about Tae-cheon again.
"What about Tae-cheon?"
"The shield. I finished it."
"Already?"
She’d finished it already, after I’d barely entrusted her with the pinecone?
Arca had been made quickly too....
Jae-i had once said of Arca, "It’s already perfect as a weapon on its own."
Maybe there just hadn’t been much to alter.
"Mok-jung helped me."
"Huh. So Ms. Mok-jung knows how to make equipment too?"
"Yeah. She helped me once, back when I first started...."
"I see."
After her father vanished, Jae-i had grown up on her own.
It was a relief she’d had a trustworthy friend like that.
If she hadn’t....
How would Jae-i or I have grown up?
Probably not the way we did now.
"She’s better than most blacksmiths. I taught her well."
"That must’ve been a lot of work."
"Not really. Mok-jung picked things up fast, so it was easy."
"No, I mean you."
"What?"
"It probably wasn’t easy helping you from the side."
"......"
Nice.
I’d landed a good one.
That was the price she paid for comparing my face to Tae-cheon’s.
Ha!
"...What do you want to do about the shield?"
Jae-i changed the subject again.
No, more precisely, she returned to the main point.
She meant Tae-cheon’s shield.
"Are you coming to pick it up, or should I deliver it?"
"Deliver it, please. I think I’ll need to stay tied up with this work for about a week... maybe ten days."
"Okay. Oh, can you tell me where you’ll be tomorrow?"
"I don’t have my schedule set yet, so I can’t. I’ll text you once it’s decided."
"Got it."
"......"
"......"
An awkward silence settled in.
Hm.
The World Tree sapling says its heart is racing.
Why was it suddenly racing....
Was Saessak the kind to get flustered sometimes, too, like at Bangju Orphanage?
The sapling says it likes this sort of racing heart.
“…….”
"Aren’t you going to hang up?"
"Hm. I should."
"......"
"Ahem. Have a good night."
"You too. Don’t drink too much."
Don’t worry.
Even if I drank a lot, I wouldn’t get drunk.
Thanks to Saessak, I’d become the kind of body that couldn’t get intoxicated no matter how much alcohol I put away.
I shortened that into a quick answer, since that was what I wanted to say.
"Yeah. I will."
"......"
"......"
Silence fell again.
Only Jae-i’s breathing reached my ear a few times through the receiver.
I was quietly listening because her breathing was pleasant to hear, and then the call cut off abruptly.
On the smartphone screen after the call ended, Saessak appeared.
The green-glowing sapling somehow looked as if it was smiling at me.
[The sapling expresses disappointment at the disconnected call.]
"Could you not be disappointed over this sort of thing?"
No, it wasn’t the same thing.
Saessak was smiling now.
It was definitely wearing the face it made when it teased me, just like Tae-cheon.
"Ahem, ahem...!"
I coughed and looked around.
Floor 46.
Without meaning to, I’d wandered down two floors from the banquet hall.
There was no point in going back up now.
I’d just spend a little time on this floor before returning.
I opened the nearest door and stepped inside.
The room beyond was dark, the lights turned off.
But.
“…….”
Someone was there.
Another S-class hunter from the United States.
Edidat Gwicin.
He was sitting in seiza before the window, looking down at the Han River.
When had this old man gotten here?
Hadn’t he been in the banquet hall when I left?