The White Saint and the Warm Fingers
I lifted my head and looked up at a building.
It was Ildae Group’s headquarters in Cheongdam-dong.
A conglomerate so pervasive there wasn’t a single line of business it hadn’t touched, from daily necessities to home appliances, a company every Korean knew by name.
Even the chairman’s son, Woo Yeon-hoo, was active as an A-class Hunter.
And perhaps to support that son, the company had even entered the Hunter industry three years ago.
There had been plenty of worried talk at the time, but now it had turned into a masterstroke that even polished their image as a young, modern company.
“Why are you wearing a mask?”
I stopped thinking at Deputy Lee’s voice.
Looking awkward, he came up beside me, then halted.
As if to tell everyone passing by, I have nothing to do with that weird masked guy.
That irritated me, so I slipped an arm over Deputy Lee’s shoulder.
“To hide my identity.”
“Your identity? Why would you need to hide it? No, more importantly, do you really think that thing is enough to hide anything?”
“Of course not.”
“……?”
Deputy Lee tilted his head, clearly not following.
He’d mistaken who I was trying to hide from.
I did want to conceal my identity, but not from the people at Ildae Group.
They were a conglomerate. There was no way a single mask would keep anything hidden from them.
If they looked into my movements even a little, they’d figure me out in less than ten minutes.
I wore the mask to fool anyone watching from the outside.
“What do you think would happen if I walked into Ildae Group with my face uncovered?”
“Nothing, probably. You’re just Team Leader, aren’t you?”
“...Right. I’m nothing. Just Baek Do-hee’s older brother and Lee Tae-cheon’s friend.”
“Ah.”
An exclamation slipped from my mouth.
He’d realized it.
Baek Do-hee’s brother. Lee Tae-cheon’s friend.
What sort of position that put me in.
Just because I was Baek Do-woon, people could easily assume Baekwooncheon Guild was trying to make contact with Ildae Group.
Even though I had never intended anything of the sort.
Even if I’d left the guild.
“Now I get why you wore the mask.”
“Good. So introduce me not as Baek Do-woon, but as a plant-harvesting skill expert.”
“Huh? What kind of expert?”
“I’ll handle the rest, so don’t worry about it. I’ll make it worth your while.”
“Team Leader, what the hell kind of plant-harvesting expert are you-”
“All right, enough. Let’s go in.”
With my arm still around Deputy Lee’s neck, I walked into the building.
As we passed through the huge revolving door, people stared at me.
To be exact, they stared at the masked face.
They kept looking back and forth between me and Deputy Lee.
Two young security guards approached slowly with serious expressions.
Like they were about to subdue a threatening intruder in front of them.
Ah.
“...It’s fine. We’re just fooling around.”
I let go of the headlock and patted Deputy Lee on the shoulder.
He wheezed a little, making a rough “Hk-hk!” sound as he caught his breath.
The two guards didn’t stop walking toward me.
Clearly, the mask was enough to keep their suspicion from disappearing.
I probably would’ve done the same.
Who would just leave a faceless person in a mask alone?
“It’s okay.”
Deputy Lee stepped forward with a friendly smile, though he did rub his neck lightly.
Had I squeezed too hard?
“He’s not a problem.”
As he said that, he showed them his ID and guild card.
The guards checked each one, and their eyes widened slightly.
“Baekwooncheon!”
Watching them react to the guild name reminded me all over again how impressive Baekwooncheon had become.
The result of Tae-cheon and Do-hee pushing themselves for two straight years and building it from the ground up.
My little sister and my friend really were something else.
“Yes, everything checks out. Then there’s no issue.”
“Thank you. Have a good shift.”
The guards handed Deputy Lee back his ID and guild card.
Just by virtue of belonging to Baekwooncheon Guild, they didn’t kick out a man wearing a mask.
That was how much trust the guild had earned from people.
Watching the guards leave, Deputy Lee said,
“And after that?”
“Hm?”
“If this goes wrong, I know nothing about it. You said you’d handle everything. No taking it back.”
“I said I would, didn’t I?”
Having reached a conclusion, we headed for the front desk.
As soon as we stopped in front of it, one of the receptionists recognized Deputy Lee.
She gave him a bright smile.
“Oh, Deputy Lee Seong-hun.”
What, what. My instincts are really good.
I looked at Deputy Lee.
He let out a sigh, then said in a low voice, “We’ve just run into each other on business a few times, so don’t look at me like that.”
Business, my ass.
Baekwooncheon had never done any business important enough to bring them into Ildae Group’s headquarters.
Deputy Lee answered the bright smile with one of his own and greeted the receptionist.
A bright smile and a blooming grin.
Spring everywhere. Pure spring.
“Hello, Miss Kim Min-ju.”
“What brings you in today?”
“Are the two of them there?”
“Yes, they’re in a regular meeting.”
“I think you should stop that.”
“Pardon?”
“I’m here at the chairman’s request.”
“……!”
The smiles vanished from the faces of the reception staff, who had been smiling as warmly as I was.
Replaced by sharp, probing looks that didn’t belong to ordinary front-desk employees.
I’d seen that look before.
The look of a beast staring at prey.
The look of a Hunter with game in sight.
They were no ordinary receptionists.
The receptionist called Min-ju shifted her gaze from Deputy Lee to me.
“Could it be...?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Deputy Lee answered the receptionist’s question as she turned her attention to me.
At once, her lips trembled.
She leaned toward Deputy Lee and asked, almost in a rebuke, “Really! It’s really true? You’re not lying, are you?”
“Why would I lie and let you do God knows what to me, Min-ju?”
Deputy Lee faltered for a couple of seconds, then took a step back.
Was it my imagination, or did his face just redden a little?
“J-just a moment!”
The receptionist hurriedly grabbed her smartphone and left the front desk.
It was behavior a desk clerk ought not to have, but none of the staff left behind scolded her.
In fact, they were all wearing smiles that seemed to say, Thank goodness.
Watching the receptionist’s back as she hurried away from the front desk, I grinned.
“You said it was for the money?”
“...Shut up.”
Deputy Lee’s face, as he said it, was bright red.
Ah. When should I tell the demolition team ajusshis?
That Deputy Lee had fallen in love!
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Chairman Woo Chan-sung was the kind of man who knew how to separate business from personal matters.
Even though the person he’d been looking for had arrived, he chose to finish his regular meeting before seeing us.
That was why Deputy Lee and I were sitting side by side on the sofa in the chairman’s office, drinking fragrant tea and waiting for him.
“I’m sorry. The chairman had an important matter to attend to... ”
The office wasn’t empty except for the two of us.
The front-desk receptionist named Kim Min-ju from the lobby on the first floor was sitting across from us.
It was odd that she was here instead of the chairman’s secretary, but since Deputy Lee looked satisfied, I decided not to overthink it.
“He’ll be done soon, though. You’re the one he was waiting for.”
“...Is that so?”
“Yes! Ah, right. May I ask your name?”
“My name...?”
“Ah, Miss Min-ju. It’s just that...”
Shit.
I’d only thought about hiding my identity, not the name I was supposed to use instead.
I’d figure one out soon enough, but saying it right away with a mask on felt embarrassing.
Deputy Lee seemed to be in the same boat, opening and closing his mouth beside me.
Fortunately, Kim Min-ju seemed to understand something, and slapped her forehead.
“Ah! How stupid of me. I asked a masked man a stupid question. Sorry about that.”
Fortunately, Kim Min-ju had apparently reached her own conclusion and nodded to herself.
Good. Thank goodness.
Unable to scratch my cheek, I scratched at the mask instead and thought it over.
What kind of ridiculous, utterly absurd name would work?
Bang!
The chairman’s office door swung open.
It was Chairman Woo Chan-sung.
Deputy Lee and Kim Min-ju sprang to their feet, but I stayed seated.
“Sorry to keep you waiting so long.”
As he spoke, two men and women followed him into the room.
The man was Woo Yeon-hoo, Chairman Woo Chan-sung’s son, and the woman was a face I’d never seen before.
Seeing them close the door after following the father and son in, I figured she must be a secretary.
The white-haired chairman took the seat of honor.
He had a thick, powerful build that didn’t suit his age.
Purely by body size, he was bigger even than Woo Yeon-hoo, who was an A-class Hunter.
If I’d met him without knowing who he was, I would’ve taken him for a veteran Hunter, not a conglomerate chairman.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Chairman.”
“No need for stiff formalities. Sit. You too, Min-ju.”
“M-me too? Don’t I need to bring tea?”
Kim Min-ju asked, flustered.
But Chairman Woo was already focused entirely on me.
Woo Yeon-hoo guided her back into her seat, then sat down beside her.
The secretary who had come in last took the seat beside Woo Yeon-hoo as if it were only natural.
“So, you’re the one Deputy Lee found. The plant-harvesting ability user.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“I’m Woo Chan-sung. This is my son, Woo Yeon-hoo. And this one here is my secretary, Um Jua.”
“...I’m Warm Fingers.”
They all stared at me with expressions of utter disbelief.
So what.
“I see. Warm Fingers. That’s a rather fine name.”
Even in that situation, Chairman Woo’s voice was heavy and dignified.
His hair and the beard growing neatly along his jaw were white, matching that tone of his.
Rubbing his white beard, Chairman Woo asked carefully, “I’m sorry to ask this right after meeting you, but may I test you?”
“Test me?”
“Whether you can really harvest Udamhwa.”
“Fine.”
“I like how straightforward you are. Yeon-hoo.”
“Yes, Father.”
Woo Yeon-hoo took a stack of papers from his suit pocket, selected one, and spread it open on the table.
A magic circle was drawn on the page, one used to summon an object from a designated location.
Deputy Lee, sitting beside me, let out a quiet gasp.
The entire stack of papers he put back into his pocket was covered in magic circles.
Was that the scale of a top Korean conglomerate?
Woo Yeon-hoo extended a hand toward the summoning circle and poured mana into it.
The paper vanished, and something else took its place.
A mushroom.
Of course, it wasn’t an ordinary mushroom.
Deputy Lee half-sprang from his seat in shock.
I nearly did the same.
“Chairman, this is... wait, could it be...?”
“Yes, you’ve recognized it correctly.”
“Seoljicho...! That’s an A-grade elixir!”
Deputy Lee murmured in awe.
Seoljicho.
A mushroom that only grew from frozen, fallen giants of the forest.
It wasn’t as valuable as Udamhwa, but as Deputy Lee said, it was still an exceptional elixir worthy of A-grade.
“When we finally acquired this, we were thrilled beyond belief...”
The father and son both let out a sigh.
Of course they did.
Seoljicho was useless for a patient with Jeolmaek-jeung.
No, not just useless. It was poisonous.
Jeolmaek-jeung was caused by an excess of yin energy.
What happened if you gave a yin-aspected elixir like Seoljicho to a patient with that disease?
Chairman Woo’s daughter would probably freeze to death on the spot.
“You could call it the price of the test. If you can dig it out, it’s yours.”
“Very well.”
At the promise of an A-grade elixir, Deputy Lee’s eyes lit up.
Why the hell are your eyes lighting up about something that’s mine?
At least manage your image while Miss Kim’s watching, you bastard.
Thinking that, I clenched and unclenched my right hand. Rolled my shoulders a couple of times too.
I wasn’t trying to drag this out.
But trying to harvest an A-grade elixir in front of an audience made me a little tense, that was all.
I made a fist and looked at Chairman Woo.
He nodded, signaling for me to begin.
“All right. Start.”
At the chairman’s signal, I unfurled my index finger from the fist I’d made.
My right index finger, held straight and alone, touched the Seoljicho.
And then the Seoljicho, from the frozen tree it had been growing out of,
boing!
It popped right out.
“……?”
“……??”
Everyone looked at me with utterly dumbfounded expressions.
Ignoring their stares, I thought to myself.
How am I supposed to use this so people’ll hear I did a good job?