Chapter 56
In a dark room with a round table set at its center, people in robes had gathered.
Each robe bore a different brooch, some shaped like bees, others like skulls.
It was how they told one another apart when their faces were hidden.
Three seats at the round table were empty.
Two chairs had lost their masters, and the owner of the remaining seat had not yet arrived.
Among them, the one with an ant brooch spoke first.
"Why are you so-"
A bluish light flared and clamped down over his mouth.
When the glow faded, another robed figure appeared, dressed just like the others.
A mushroom brooch hung from that person's robe.
Perhaps feeling the weight of the others' eyes, the newcomer bowed their head deeply.
"I apologize. I was delayed while dealing with some matters."
"You mushroom brat. The way you're carrying on, anyone would think you're the only one among us who actually works."
"Exactly. We're all busy, and yet we still came together-"
The others chimed in one by one, starting with Ant.
Then the one with the skull brooch lifted a hand.
At that instant, the mouths circling the table fell silent.
The round table might have seemed fair because it was circular, but there was a clear hierarchy in the room.
Skull spoke in a tone that made it sound as though he were lecturing a child.
"From next time on, be quicker."
"Yes. I apologize."
With his head still lowered, Mushroom apologized once more.
The people gathered around the table watched that apology in silence.
Their eyes could not be seen, but they were clearly not satisfied.
The one with the circular brooch waved a hand dismissively.
He was seated directly opposite the skull brooch.
Skull nodded and spread his hand.
At the center of the round table, a video appeared.
Inside it was Baek Do-woon, wearing that infuriatingly smug grin of his.
"Has everyone seen this video?"
At the question, those seated around the table reacted differently.
Some nodded. Some shook their heads. Some said nothing at all.
"For those who haven't, let's take a brief look."
The video that began playing showed faces they all knew well.
Lee Tae-cheon and Baek Do-hee.
Several people ground their teeth at the sight of them.
They had blocked their work more than once. There was no reason to be glad to see them.
Representing those around the table, Ant asked the question.
"Did Baekwooncheon pull some stunt again?"
"He fought with Kim Mu-yeon."
"Kim Mu-yeon...? Aegaeon? Don't tell me the two guilds collided?"
"No."
The smiles that had begun to form at the corners of their mouths faded away.
Skull nodded as though he understood and said, "It seems to have been a personal dispute. Lee Tae-cheon also made a point of calling it a 'personal fight.'"
"They're not children. Do those idiots really think that kind of excuse will fly?"
"Whether it flies or not doesn't matter. Lee Tae-cheon has that much power."
"......"
"Wait. Kim Mu-yeon used Heart Break?"
Circle pointed at the video and asked.
The others followed his finger and looked at the screen.
Silver mana was bursting violently from Kim Mu-yeon in the video.
In that state, he swung his cherished sword, Calypse, at Baek Do-woon.
"That's right. Heart Break."
"Kim Mu-yeon used Heart Break?"
"So he gained S-class power."
"Even so, it would have been only for an instant."
"It is pitiable, a power bound to fade."
Those watching the video sneered at Kim Mu-yeon on the screen.
But Skull did not laugh with them.
He shook his head and said firmly, "This is no time for laughing."
He pointed at Baek Do-woon, who was facing Kim Mu-yeon in the video.
Blue mana, just like Kim Mu-yeon's, was surging violently from Baek Do-woon.
"Heart Break?"
"So what if that trash used Heart Break?"
"The point is that it wasn't Heart Break."
"What?"
After hearing Skull's words, the others looked more closely at the video.
Soon they realized that it lacked the defining trait of Heart Break: the mana scattered and fell apart afterward.
Baek Do-woon had produced a power similar to it without using Heart Break.
In other words, he could call up that level of force without wagering his life.
"And you're still going to laugh? Don't you see what that means? Can't you feel the question it raises?"
"......"
No one around the round table could answer that question.
Only one person could.
The one seated directly opposite Skull said slowly, "How much stronger will he become in the future...?"
"Yes, exactly."
"I can feel your unease, Skull. Are you afraid he'll end up as strong as we are?"
At that, the people around the table began to murmur.
"No way. Impossible."
"Impossible!"
"Do you know how much we've given up to gain this power...?"
Their words carried a miserable edge.
Skull and Circle both shook their heads.
Circle said, "That ability is certainly impressive, but I can see its weakness. An inescapable one."
Only then did the murmuring begin to die down.
Some even let out sighs of relief.
Circle went on, apparently satisfied.
"He can't use that whenever he wants. It's the kind of power that can only be brought out at a cost."
"Yes, you're right. I think His Grace's mood must have unsettled me and made me overexcited."
"......!"
"I apologize to all of you."
"His Grace was displeased?"
Circle asked as he looked at the screen.
Baek Do-woon was behind Kim Mu-yeon, down on one knee. Then he thrust out his left arm.
"Didn't you say the same thing last time? Just what is that man, anyway?"
"He didn't tell me."
"Then as his servant, we ought to divine our master's wishes."
The ones seated to Circle's right nodded.
They even tossed out words of fervent agreement.
"That's right. Let's decide now whether we should deal with him first."
"Yes. If we put our minds to it, we can kill him any time."
"His Grace would be pleased, too."
"If it's because of Lee Tae-cheon and Baek Do-hee, we'll create an incident and draw their attention away."
They went on rambling for a while.
Then, as Skull and Circle quietly looked at each other, they gradually fell silent.
At that moment, one person raised a hand.
It was Mushroom, the one who had arrived last at the round table.
"Um, didn't I say I was late because I was dealing with something?"
"And?"
"It was because of this matter."
At that, everyone turned to look at Mushroom.
Was it good to have all that attention?
Mushroom smiled thinly and said, "I sent 'Banum' to Baek Do-woon."
The World Tree manager's condition improved, so Sleep Mode has been deactivated.
The World Tree Sprout asks whether the manager feels all right.
Recovery is still needed, so it recommends taking it easy.
Reading the bluish message window, I pushed myself upright.
Just as Sprout had said, my body still seemed to need more recovery.
Even lifting myself up slowly hurt enough to make a groan slip out of me.
One use and I ended up like this.
Like Do-hee said, I really shouldn't use Photosynthesis Mode unless I had no choice.
Well, it wasn't like I could use it whenever I wanted anyway. I needed that thing called light energy to build up first.
But how was I supposed to gather that?
Should I just keep asking Do-hee to shine some light at me?
"Oh, you finally woke up?"
I turned toward Tae-cheon's voice.
The bastard was practically sprawled on a high-end sofa.
Looks like he had rented a VIP hospital room.
These idiots had money to burn.
"How long was I out?"
"Three days. It's Wednesday night now."
"Tch. Do-hee must've been worried sick."
"Of course. After you collapsed, she stayed glued to your side the whole time. I had to force her home because she didn't want to leave."
"She's going to be angry."
"Tell me about it. You should've woken up two hours earlier."
Tae-cheon let out a short sigh.
He got up from the sofa and sat down beside me.
Then he handed me a memo pad and several things.
Fruit juice, a fancy fruit basket, healing potions, and so on.
"What's all this?"
"What everyone brought by over the last three days while visiting you."
"Visiting me?"
Looking over the memo pad, I saw some familiar names.
Yu Jae-i, Kim Ji-yeon, Sim Yun-jin, Woo Chae-yeon, Oh Ju-han, Choi Claudia, Lee Seong-hun, Choi Gi-woo.
Choi Claudia was the sister director of the orphanage where we grew up.
As for Choi Gi-woo, he was a Hunter Association team leader, so that made sense. But how had the others even found out I had collapsed and come all the way here?
"The auntie came by?"
"She was insanely worried about you. Call her soon."
"Yeah, I should go see her. But how did she even find out? Did you call her?"
"Are you nuts? Why would I make that call when she'd only end up worrying?"
"Then how?"
"Seeing is believing."
Tae-cheon tossed out a half-baked proverb, then picked up the remote and turned on the TV.
As soon as the screen came on, he switched to one of the Hunter-related channels.
There, a male reporter was waving toward the background and jabbering away.
What he was pointing at was Seoul World Cup Stadium.
It was so badly half-destroyed it was hard to even recognize what it had once been.
Tae-cheon clicked the remote and changed the channel.
Four A-class Hunters? I'm only B-class.
Following this incident, the A-class Hunter known as Kim was revealed to have used Heart Break.
The power of it was enormous, drawing the attention of countless people.
Our station has learned that one expert measured the scale of that power, and we're here to meet him directly-
He changed the channel again.
On the third channel, instead of a reporter's face, mine was on screen.
Why the hell am I there?
On the TV, my face was accompanied by the caption, "Baek Do-woon, who exactly is he?"
Baek Do-woon returned as a B-class Hunter five days ago.
Until now, he was known to have handled Baekwooncheon's darker side.
He was also the one who stopped the attempted assassination of a Baekwooncheon salvage worker two weeks ago.
Having remained beneath the surface for two years, he has finally-
Tae-cheon snatched the remote from me and turned the TV off.
I couldn't listen to any more of that humiliating nonsense.
What the hell was that supposed to mean...?
What did I supposedly handle for Baekwooncheon?
The darker side?
Tae-cheon held back a laugh that was about to burst out of him.
Go ahead and laugh, then.
"With everyone talking like this, there's no way they wouldn't know."
"Sigh, what a mess."
"We got caught on camera fighting that Kim Mu-yeon bastard. It's all over Watcher Cast these days."
"All of it? Every last bit?"
"Yeah. More precisely, right after Do-hee used Sanctuary of Light? Looks like that drew their attention."
That made sense.
Sanctuary of Light was powerful enough to drive away the night itself.
There was no way it could have gone unnoticed.
If they started filming after Do-hee used Sanctuary of Light, then they must have caught me killing that bastard with a pine cone too.
Then...
"What about Baekwooncheon? No pressure from above?"
"We're fine. Even if they try to pressure us, so what?"
"Oh? That's bold of you."
"We have the power to back it up. Your friend Baek Do-woon does."
With that, Tae-cheon gave me a grin.
There would definitely be all sorts of pressure coming in because of this.
And yet he was trying not to show it.
That was good to see.
So now I was the only one who had to worry?
Whatever the reason, the fact remained that I had been caught on camera killing someone...
Either the Association or the government was going to throw a fit.
"Ah, right. I couldn't bring your sword or that giant pine cone."
"What? Why not?"
"Couldn't lift them."
"Couldn't lift them?"
"Yeah. After you passed out, I tried to grab them in a hurry, but they wouldn't budge. So I left them there."
The statement made me tilt my head.
Tae-cheon had definitely carried Arca and the pine cone.
He had come toward me with the pine cone slung over his shoulder, and he had even swung Arca.
Why had he suddenly been unable to lift them?
Sprout answered that question for me.
Sprout says the inventory has an anti-theft system.
It explains that when the manager used Sleep Mode, the system activated so that others could not take the items away.
Oh, so that was it?
Then I could just pick them up after I got discharged, couldn't I?
Sprout advises that the manager still needs to recover and should stop thinking about other things.
Sprout had apparently decided I'd get moving immediately, because it offered a stern warning.
That was unnecessary worry.
Every time I moved even a little, it hurt. Where exactly did it think I was going to go?
Based on everything it has observed of the manager's behavior so far, Sprout says it cannot trust that statement.
"......"
A grin spread across my face.
Who did our Sprout take after to have such a sharp sense of things?