When Did This Man Get Here?
The first thing that came to mind when I saw Edidat Gwicin was: When did he get here?
He hadn’t been in the hall when I left, had he?
Maybe he’d wandered off while I was on the phone, and gotten here before me somehow...?
“……”
Edidat Gwicin was seated cross-legged by the window.
There was a chair behind him at the table, but he wasn’t using it.
Maybe chairs were uncomfortable for him.
Maybe he simply preferred sitting on the floor.
Or maybe he was lost in some deep thought....
Just from the way he sat there, all of those questions rose in my head. That was probably because he was the strongest man alive.
People said S-class hunters were more or less equal in strength, but...
just as hunters of each rank weren’t all equally powerful, S-class hunters differed too.
So who was the strongest?
If you broke down the people arguing over that question by percentage, the numbers looked something like this.
Han Jin-hwan: 5%.
Alading Miller: 10%.
Smirnov and Li Lianzhe: about 15%.
And the remaining 55%?
Obviously Edidat Gwicin.
Without question, the man the majority recognized as the strongest of them all.
“……”
Well.
I should probably give him some space.
He’d likely come out to the hall for a little time alone.
I understood that. I didn’t especially like crowded places either.
That was why I’d slipped away earlier when the children from the orphanage had piled all over Do-hee and Tae-cheon.
It was partly because I had no reason to be there with them, too...
Just as I was about to quietly close the door,
The World Tree sprout felt a warm gaze upon it.
A warm gaze...?
The only person who could possibly be looking at me right now was Gwicin.
Apparently he’d noticed the sound of the door opening and closing.
Gwicin had already turned his head and was looking at me.
The gaunt man, so thin his skin looked stretched over his skull, stared straight at me.
His large eyes stood out.
It was strange enough just seeing someone I’d only ever known from television looking right at me.
But...
Hm? What was this?
Something felt a little off.
The way Gwicin looked at me... it was almost like a parent looking at a child.
A smile, warm the way Saessak had described it, was spreading over his face.
“Hello...”
“……”
I did what anyone meeting someone for the first time should do.
The problem was that I said it in Korean he probably couldn’t understand.
Idiot.
I should’ve just said hello.
What if he thought I was some rude fan who’d followed him in here?
No... he was still looking at me warmly, so maybe he hadn’t misunderstood after all.
Gwicin opened his mouth slowly.
“Have you come here to rest as well?”
“……!”
That startled me.
He could speak Korean?
No. Maybe it was magic, like Miller’s.
Gwicin had spoken with perfect pronunciation, as if he’d spent years studying the language.
There wasn’t the slightest trace of the clumsy accent foreigners usually had when speaking Korean.
He sounded like a native.
Still, it wasn’t likely he’d learned the language of all things in Asia, when he mostly operated in the United States and Europe, so magic seemed like the right answer.
Gwicin gave a small bow of his head.
“Did I startle you? I apologize.”
Ah, damn.
I must have looked blank enough to misunderstand.
S-class hunters were objects of respect and awe.
Sometimes they became objects of fear and terror instead.
He must have thought I’d been scared for the latter reason.
I felt bad making him apologize.
“No. I was just surprised because your Korean is so fluent.”
“Korean? Was I speaking Korean just now?”
“Huh?”
What was he talking about?
Just now, no, even now, he was speaking perfect Korean like Li Lianzhe.
Seeing my confused face, Gwicin smiled faintly.
He even nodded, as though used to seeing my bewilderment.
“I am a druid.”
“……?”
So?
Was he bragging about his ability?
Was there anyone in the world who didn’t know Gwicin was a druid?
He was the world’s greatest druid, a man who had tamed dozens of beasts and monsters stronger than A-class hunters.
“To me, conversation does not happen through language.”
Gwicin added calmly.
He looked as though he’d explained this many times before.
“...Ah!”
So that was it...!
Like he said, he was a druid.
One who could communicate with any animal.
Was that all?
He’d even tamed A-rank monsters.
For him, language probably wasn’t such an important tool in the first place.
Huh. That was fascinating.
“I was feeling bored.”
Gwicin stretched out an arm.
Toward the table on his right.
“Would you keep me company?”
Keep him company?
I’d thought he’d come out here because he wanted to be alone, but maybe that wasn’t it?
Well,
“Sure.”
There was no reason for me to refuse.
It was Gwicin making the offer, after all.
He was a man standing at the very summit of hunters, someone even the S-class Miller had to defer to.
And besides.
I hadn’t really wanted to go back to the hall, noisy as a marketplace, either.
It would have been fine if Do-hee and Tae-cheon were sitting next to me...
but if I went back now, Miller and Smirnov would probably be there instead.
I sat down on the floor in front of the table, just like Gwicin.
The difference was that he was facing the glass window and the beautiful night view beyond it, while I leaned my back against the glass.
The distance between us was about two meters.
We weren’t close, so I figured it might be a little awkward if we sat too near each other.
“I have a question, Do-woon.”
Huh?
An all-too-familiar name came from Gwicin’s mouth.
“You know me?”
“Miller introduced you to me earlier in the hall.”
“She did?”
“Yes. She said you were the older brother of the White Saint.”
“Heh. That’s an honor.”
So the S-class hunters knew my name...
That was all thanks to Do-hee.
Miller liked Do-hee, which meant my name had come up because of that.
Come to think of it.
Why did Miller like Do-hee so much?
It wasn’t like they’d ever even met before.
“Oh, right. Go ahead, ask.”
I raised a hand to prompt him, and Gwicin asked his question at once.
“Might one of your parents be the same as I am?”
“……?”
It was a question I didn’t understand.
The same as him?
I had no idea what that meant.
Was he talking about race?
Or about druids?
“A mysterious, nostalgic energy emanates from Do-woon.”
“Nostalgic...?”
“Yes. It is as though I am with family. With my family in America.”
“Hmm?”
Like being with family, huh...
Did we have some Native American ancestor buried in our line somewhere?
Well...
“Maybe.”
I answered with a shrug.
Gwicin tilted his head.
“Both of my parents died in an accident when I was young. My sister and I do not know the roots of our bloodline.”
“Ah, I see. May they rest in peace.”
“……”
I thought of my parents’ faces, buried deep in memory.
As far as I remembered, if my memory was correct, they were Korean.
But if you went back far enough into the family line...?
I couldn’t say for certain.
It was possible our ancestors and Gwicin’s had once been the same.
It sounded like an impossible joke.
Still, even if they were the same... could you really feel something like a nostalgic energy from that?
Hm. Maybe that was just because he was an S-class hunter.
“Then there’s no way to know the identity of this nostalgic energy I sense from Do-woon.”
“Probably not?”
“That is unfortunate. Truly.”
As he said that, Gwicin’s expression turned somber.
There was so much regret in it that if a third party had seen us, they might have assumed we were talking not about my parents, but his.
Ah.
Maybe...
I looked down at the smartphone in my hand.
On the screen, Saessak was glowing blue, with the elves seated around it.
The nostalgic energy I felt from me...
Maybe it was something I’d sensed from Saessak.
To a druid like him, the World Tree’s mana might feel nostalgic.
“A game...?”
Well, I had no intention of telling him about the World Tree.
Unlike Li Lianzhe or Smirnov, he’d made a good first impression, but that was all.
I had no obligation to tell him I was the Manager of the World Tree.
So I shook the smartphone a little and said, “Yeah. These days, I’m alive thanks to this little guy.”
The sprout says it likes spending time with its manager, too.
Seriously, it even knows how to say sweet things.
Too cute for its own good.
“Heh, I see.”
Gwicin nodded twice, then turned his head away.
And so, in silence, the two of us looked out over Seoul, bright even in the middle of the night.
I didn’t mind the quiet much.
Maybe because Gwicin had sensed that nostalgic energy from me.
I’d felt a comfortable atmosphere from him, too.
Though...
For a brief moment, I found myself wishing the person sitting next to me was Yu Jae-i instead.
It was only for a second. Just a fleeting thought.
＊＊＊
“Why did you come back alone?”
Woo Yeon-hoo asked Woo Chae-yeon.
His younger sister had gone off saying she would bring Do-woon back, but now she’d returned by herself.
He glanced over at the Baekwooncheon table, wondering if Do-woon had gone back there on his own.
But the only people still seated at that table were Baek Do-hee, Lee Tae-cheon, Miller, and Smirnov.
“……”
“...He looked busy.”
Woo Chae-yeon answered in a cold voice.
At the chill in both her face and her tone, Woo Yeon-hoo and Oh Juhan both tilted their heads.
Then they started asking questions one after another.
“Busy?”
“Why would someone who left alone be busy? Ah. Did he meet someone he knew?”
“……”
Instead of answering, Woo Chae-yeon picked up a fork and knife.
With her other hand, she lifted a plate holding a beef steak.
She looked over at her brother and asked, “Can I eat this?”
“Huh? Yeah, of course.”
The moment Woo Yeon-hoo nodded, she pulled the beef steak over in front of her.
With practiced movements, she cut it into soft, neat pieces.
But she didn’t eat the slices she’d cut.
Was she planning to finish cutting it all first?
That thought crossed both men’s minds, but within a few seconds they realized it was wrong.
She wasn’t eating the steak pieces she’d neatly cut for herself.
Instead, she started cutting the sliced pieces again.
Into smaller pieces. And smaller still.
“……”
“……”
Woo Yeon-hoo and Oh Juhan watched her in silence.
Then they began speaking to each other in low voices.
“Looks like something happened.”
“Did one of the hotel people turn out to be a fan?”
“Nah, if it were a fan, they wouldn’t have approached him in a place like this.”
“True. If that were all, Chae-yeon wouldn’t have just come back by herself.”
“Right. She could’ve just waited and brought him back later. No need to...”
do something that scary.
Woo Yeon-hoo trailed off.
Oh Juhan also stopped speaking and simply looked at her.
She muttered to herself as if she hadn’t noticed the two men’s stares.
“He’s annoyingly perceptive...”
“What was that, Chae-yeon?”
“Perceptive?”
“……”
Again, she didn’t answer.
She’d even stopped cutting the meat.
All she did was fold her arms and click her tongue. “Tsk.”
The two men whispered again.
“Something definitely happened... but what?”
“Hmm. If she says he’s perceptive, maybe Do-woon ran off?”
“Ran off? Why would he?”
“Exactly.”
“Could it be...?”
“Be quiet.”
Woo Chae-yeon snapped sharply.
Woo Yeon-hoo and Oh Juhan, who had been whispering, shut their mouths at once.
Then they continued their conversation with only their eyes.
Could it be what?
Was it because of that woman?
That woman?
The one Chae-yeon hates.
Who does Chae-yeon hate?
You know. The blacksmith owner while Yinjin is out.
Ah. Yu Jae-i?
Right. When I saw them at the building the other day, they seemed weirdly close, so I thought-
“I said be quiet.”
Woo Chae-yeon snapped again, her voice sharp as a blade.
The two men looked at each other at the same time.
Did we just have that conversation out loud?
“……”
“……”
No.
They had definitely kept their mouths shut and exchanged everything only with their eyes.
They’d grown up together since they were children, so they could usually guess what the other was thinking.
Of course, it wasn’t perfect. They were wrong sometimes.
How had she called them noisy when they hadn’t even spoken aloud?
When that thought occurred to them, they realized they had forgotten one important fact.
She, too, was someone who had grown up with them since childhood.
“……”
“……”
And so Woo Yeon-hoo and Oh Juhan shut down every thought in their heads.
While feeling just a little wronged.