Don’t Bother Me
Lee Minho came back after going out to book a fishing boat.
“U-uncle, save me!”
But he’d brought something strange back with him.
Grrrrr—woof! Woof!
A feral country mutt with murderous eyes.
The yellowish-brown dog kept close on Minho’s heels, trying to bite him on the butt.
“Uncle!”
Kang Juhyuk scratched his head and walked over at an unhurried pace.
So this kid was supposedly an aspiring hunter, and he was getting chased by a single dog?
“Jeez.”
Woof! Woof woof!
Juhyuk casually grabbed the dog by the scruff and lifted it up.
Then he stood there, quietly meeting its eyes.
His face was utterly cold.
Loaded with killing intent.
“Wha… woof… woof…”
“Why were you chasing our Minho?”
“Woof woof—woof—woof woof woof.”
“Is that so?”
“Woof! Woof woof woof woof.”
“Ah, I see. So that’s what you’re saying.”
“Woof woof.”
“Got it. I’ll explain it properly, so wait a second.”
Juhyuk gave the dog’s head a light pat, then set it down.
“Lee Minho, why are you bullying dogs?”
“Me?”
“I asked it, and it said you got on its boat and tried to steal from it.”
“No, I didn’t! I just went to book a fishing boat. The captain wasn’t around, so I went inside the boat.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, and then that insane son of a bitch suddenly broke off his leash and came after me! Hey, where the hell are you making this up from? You wanna die?”
With his uncle right there, Minho’s confidence surged. He pointed at the dog and grabbed the wild hammer at his hip.
“Calm down, Lee Minho. And if you act like that toward a dog, you’re going to get chewed out by animal rights groups.”
“I don’t care if they do or not. That thing tried to bite me first, so what does it matter?”
“Enough. Stop it. At a glance, it looks like you both just misunderstood each other. Hey, you mangy mutt. You heard all that too, right?”
“Woof!”
“If you understand, then knock it off and go home.”
The dog growled once before turning back in the direction it had chased Minho from.
Thud-thud-thud.
Honggyeom, who’d been listening to the whole exchange, tilted his head.
Wait a second.
How the hell had Kang Juhyuk talked to a dog?
Unless you were a beastkin, there shouldn’t be anyone who could understand an animal that well.
And that wasn’t just Kim Honggyeom’s question.
After catching his breath, Minho gulped down water from a plastic bottle and immediately asked, “Uncle, how did you talk to the dog?”
“I learned.”
“Where?”
“Yukram. I told you about the ancient ruined city before, right? The place swarming with goblins and orcs.”
“Ah, right. I remember.”
“I learned the skill from a goblin chief there. It lets me talk to animals.”
“A goblin had a high-level skill like that?”
“That chief was special. The other goblin bastards could only go ugha-ugha like cavemen. That one even talked like a person.”
Minho glanced at Honggyeom, then fell into thought.
Was the goblin chief Uncle’s talking about actually a real goblin?
Thinking back to the incident where he’d nearly beaten Kim Honggyeom to death, he began to suspect that the goblin chief Juhyuk had met might not have been a monster at all.
...Wait.
Kim Honggyeom?
Minho jerked around in shock.
The person standing right beside him was none other than one of Korea’s worst killer hunters, Kim Honggyeom!
Why the hell is he here?!
When Honggyeom had been arrested earlier, he’d threatened that once he got out of prison, he’d come kill them.
Of course, back then I hadn’t been worried at all about his warning.
His murder charges were so severe that he’d supposedly be serving life.
But now.
If he was here, that meant he’d escaped prison!
Minho’s face went pale with fear.
Realizing what was going on, Honggyeom greeted him first.
“Long time no see, little hunter. You remember me?”
What was he supposed to say?
If he said he remembered, the man would probably rush him on the spot and kill him.
After everything that had happened to him in the dungeon, there was no way Honggyeom could forgive him.
“Ah… hello.”
Minho greeted him carefully, watching his expression.
“Relax. I didn’t come here to kill you.”
As if he’d read Minho’s mind, Honggyeom gave him an answer meant to soothe him.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For shooting a gas gun… in your face……”
“It’s fine. Thanks to you firing that gas gun at my nose back then, my chronic rhinitis went away.”
“Really? I’m glad it helped!”
“Yeah, and my sense of smell went away with it.”
“...Sorry.”
Listening from the side, Kang Juhyuk burst out laughing and grabbed Honggyeom by the shoulder.
“Think of it positively. Among the goblins in Yukram, there was one who suffered because his sense of smell was too good.”
Stop comparing me to a goblin.
Honggyeom scowled deeply and replied, “Forget it. Let’s move somewhere else quickly.”
“Why?”
“Because this place is dangerous. If we stay exposed in an open area like this, we could become a bounty hunter’s target.”
“No, to hell with bounty hunters and all that bullshit. Just fuck off. I’ll handle my own business.”
As Juhyuk showed his irritation, Minho cut in between them.
“Wait a second, Hunter Kim Honggyeom. Why are you here?”
“...It’s a long story. Let’s move somewhere safe and talk.”
“Somewhere safe?”
“Yeah. I’m not trying to interrupt your trip, but staying out in the open like this is dangerous.”
You’re the most dangerous person I know.
“Where’s safe, then?”
“Some place where we can narrow the field of view. Any nearby cafe will do.”
“Then let’s go to the pension we’re staying at. There’s a quiet little cafe nearby.”
“Understood.”
* * *
A bakery cafe near Sacheonjin Harbor.
After Minho had heard Honggyeom’s explanation, his face had turned deathly white.
“Uncle, I think we’re in serious trouble.”
In contrast, Juhyuk sucked at his Americano as if nothing were wrong and answered with a bright expression while enjoying a mobile game.
“How so?”
“Apparently we’re being chased by insanely dangerous hunters right now. They said someone might come kill us at any time, from anywhere.”
“So?”
“What do you mean, so? Professional hunters are coming to kill us!”
Juhyuk gave a small shrug.
“Then tell them to try if they can. I’m always keeping watch around me anyway, so I won’t get caught off guard.”
Sure, Uncle. Of course you would say that.
But I almost cried because I couldn’t even chase off one damn dog.
“Uncle, I know you’re strong. But among the people called hunters, there are some with unusual skills.”
“I know that too.”
“Some of them might even poison our food or drinks to kill us.”
“Come on, you think they’d go that far just because they’ve got a bounty on them? And I’m immune to poison anyway. I ate mandrake root in another world.”
I’m not immune to poison.
“Even if it isn’t poison, there are plenty of other dangers. Like using a sniper rifle from so far away we can’t even see them.”
“That’s fine too. My body’s got a thin mana shield around it twenty-four seven, so bullets won’t do a thing.”
Of course only Uncle would have something like that.
“They could just show up while you’re asleep and stab you with a knife.”
“I should’ve told you sooner. I drank dragon blood, so my skin’s harder than steel. A knife wouldn’t kill me, so I’m fine.”
Sure, Uncle would be fine.
But my skin’s as soft as tofu, so one hit would split me wide open.
Haaah.
As Minho let out a long sigh, Honggyeom chuckled and answered in his place.
“Kang Juhyuk, there are hunters who can nullify or exploit another person’s power.”
“Really?”
“The most troublesome one I ever fought could reflect damage.”
Juhyuk pricked up his ears.
“Reflect damage?”
“A few years ago I fought him once, and it was extremely dangerous. I stabbed him in the abdomen with a dagger, and the pain came right back to me.”
“Wasn’t that just you being stupid? Why would you use a physical attack on someone with a reflection ability?”
“I didn’t know back then. I didn’t know he had that kind of power.”
“Idiot.”
“...Anyway, I’m telling you this so you’ll be careful. No matter how strong you are, there are always enemies you can’t beat.”
“Nope.”
“What do you mean, nope?”
“There’s no such thing as an enemy I can’t beat.”
He said it with absolute confidence.
Honggyeom let out a deep sigh.
“The world is wide.”
“About as wide as your M-shaped hairline?”
“Shut up!”
“You should really cut back on the temper. The way you’re always running hot is why your hair’s falling out.”
“Haaah.”
“So, you said you were with the White Tiger Guild?”
“That’s right.”
Juhyuk raised a brow.
“White Tiger gave me a bit of trouble recently. If they come for me, are you planning to protect me?”
“Of course. The reason I was with White Tiger in the first place was because they had the power to clean up after whatever I did.”
“Then why’d you leave?”
“One of the guild members said he wanted to test his strength against me, so I killed him. Then Hwang Geumgang said that of all things, he couldn’t forgive murder among comrades.”
“So?”
“What do you mean, so? I left the guild and started wandering alone.”
The conversation paused for a moment.
The three of them sorted through what they’d heard so far in their own heads. In the silence, the only sounds were those of them drinking.
Slurp.
As if something had just occurred to him, Juhyuk opened the conversation again.
“Come to think of it, there was a guy like you in Yukram too. I said earlier that I learned animal language from a goblin chief, right?”
“Yeah.”
“That guy was exactly like you. His personality, the way he talked, the way he acted, even his long nose.”
“Haaah, for the love of—stop comparing me to monsters. How many times do I have to tell you I’m not a goblin?”
When the talk turned to another world, Minho jumped in with sparkling eyes.
“The goblin chief looked like Hunter Honggyeom?”
“You’d believe me even if I said he was your dad. Why, are you curious?”
“Yeah, it sounded interesting when I heard about that place last time. I’m also curious about the kinds of people Uncle met.”
“It’s not hard to tell you. Hey, goblin. You want to hear my story too?”
Juhyuk asked casually, lifting his coffee cup.
Kim Honggyeom shook his head firmly.
“No. I’m not interested at all.”
From the little he’d heard, it sounded like something from a game, a novel, or a movie.
Honggyeom had no hobbies beyond murder and survival.
“Fine. Then I guess I’ll have to tell it anyway.”
“I said I don’t want to hear it.”
“Okay, then I’ll start right away. It was probably... about a month after I arrived there—”
* * *
Yukram, the ancient city that had become a ruin in the war between the hero and the Demon King long ago.
In this gray land, birds larger than humans flew overhead.
Peck-peck-peck! Kraaaooo!
And it was a place where goblins and orcs dressed in clothes, in step with civilization’s progress, had built villages throughout the area and carved out homes for themselves.
Tap, tap, tap.
And then.
Kang Juhyuk, who had arrived there.
Unlike the time he’d gone to conquer the Demon King with no equipment at all, this time he’d set out on his adventure armed with an iron sword and a wooden shield. But—
“…Village chief, you wanna die?”