Chapter 72
Chapter 72
“…Ah, Uncle? Did you hear that?”
“Ihyun.” It was not the “young master” he used in public. Hunter Min Jaewon only called him that, as if he were a real nephew, in private.
“Yeah, you shout so loud the whole hall can hear it. Everyone passing by must know. I sent them all away, but I got worried.”
He really wore a worried expression. Kang Ihyun smiled, thinking Lude had somehow been added to Min Jaewon’s circle of private people.
“The thing is, I think we should leave Lude out of this invitation.”
“What? Sujin told you again and again that every S-rank absolutely has to attend this time.”
“She did, but… there are a lot of reporters there. The awards ceremony even gets broadcast on network TV.”
“Ah,” Min Jaewon let out a low note. He did know, to some extent, that Lude had a severe fear of cameras.
He too had not escaped his trauma around demons. It had eased thanks to his grandchildren, but it was still there.
“Even if the Guildmaster and the White Night Guildmaster each give me two hundred smacks on the back, I’ll just have to deal with it.”
“Wait. Wait a moment. Ihyun.”
Min Jaewon waved his hands when he saw Kang Ihyun sigh as if it couldn't be helped. Smiling, he spoke to him.
“You know this uncle spent a lifetime tormented by demons too, yes?”
“Yeah…”
Min Jaewon folded his arms with his usual easygoing smile. He looked toward the office, his expression turning rather wistful.
“Thanks to Jaeyoon I am slowly getting better, and I learned something.”
“What is it?”
“I don't think there is such a thing as a full cure. But if it eases to a point, life gets a little easier.”
He looked at the office where Lude would be sitting alone and then smiled. He tapped Kang Ihyun’s shoulder twice, then headed for the office.
“Uncle?! What are you doing?”
“Leave this one to me.”
“No, I am telling you, Lude can't do that. His trauma looked really serious.”
“Ihyun, you know Lude can't spend his whole life running from cameras, right?”
“That is true, but…”
At that, Kang Ihyun closed his mouth. An Illusionist ranked number one in the world. Now that he had returned to society, Lude would end up exposed to the press somehow. Even with a PR department, there was a limit to what they could avoid.
“You are a bit overprotective when it comes to Lude. This uncle raised both you and Jaeyoon into respectable adults. Trust me just this once.”
“Still…”
Kang Ihyun had always handled Lude like a gemstone, so the idea of leaving him to someone else made him uneasy. Min Jaewon saw that look and laughed heartily.
“Stop worrying. Would I treat my future son-in-law badly!”
“Uncle!”
At that, Kang Ihyun flushed all the way to his neck. Relieved, Min Jaewon turned his body back toward the office. As he reached for the doorknob, the smile faded from his face.
He took a brief, deep breath. Beyond this door was a sensitive soul, one who had been wounded so deeply that even the smallest stimulus made him leap.
It was absurd. The one who had saved his two grandchildren from suffering, and by butterfly effect had even saved Min Jaewon himself, was locked in fear.
It made no sense. Or perhaps it was all too real. He ought to repay that kindness somehow, even like this.
Approach gently. Act comfortably. Raising someone into a decent human being with that method was his parenting creed. He opened the door.
* * *
[Nari, Nari, to cheer you up, the Lord of Chaos gives your shoulders a massage!]
Lude sat with his knees pulled up on the chair, head hanging low. Uncharacteristically deflated, he was being earnestly supported by the Lord of Chaos through indirect messages.
[Still, since Kang Ihyun helped, the Lord of Chaos says it turned out well in the end and now stretches your neck too!]
Lude silently shook his head, hugging his knees tight with cold hands. He stayed like that for a long while, doing nothing, until there came a knock.
“Rank one! May I come in for a moment?”
It was Min Jaewon’s voice. At the sound, Lude started, lifted his head, and put on the glasses that hung at his chest.
He was still at work. He cleared his throat and opened the door. Min Jaewon was looking at him with a booming laugh.
“How come you look so out of sorts!”
“…It is nothing.”
Lude pressed a finger hard to the corner of his eye. Min Jaewon saw he had been on the verge of tears and lifted his hand to pat Lude’s shoulder.
“I was able to hear something ringing down the hall. Perhaps it was you?”
“Y-You heard?!”
“Don't worry! I sent everyone away.”
Lude’s unease only seemed to build. Even with the comfort, his face stiffened. Watching him bite his thumbnail over and over with a tense look, Min Jaewon patted his back.
“No one would have heard the details. This is a tucked-away spot among tucked-away spots.”
“…Okay.”
“You hate cameras, right?”
“Yes. That is right.”
At that, Lude let out a deep sigh and looked a little relieved. Min Jaewon looked at him.
He avoided people. Although quite some time had passed since he joined, he had never even exchanged words with anyone besides Min Jaewon or Kang Ihyun, much less grown close.
The tiny two-person office tucked away in a corner. People hardly used it because it was so inconvenient to access, but Lude had picked it the moment he arrived, saying an office should be in the very back.
As the Number One, he could have claimed the best room, but his air of deliberately avoiding people made Min Jaewon feel sorry for him.
And even though Kang Ihyun had solved the immediate problem, seeing Lude still upset, Min Jaewon felt a kind of kinship.
“But you wouldn't like it if we blocked all the press from entering, out of consideration for you, would you?”
At that, Lude looked at Min Jaewon. He hesitated for a moment, then slowly nodded. Seeing it, Min Jaewon smiled and slung an arm around his shoulders.
“I understand how you feel. I also know what you are thinking. It is the sort of problem people like the young master or Sujin have probably never experienced. Right?”
Behind the lenses, Lude’s black eyes looked at him. Some feelings didn't need words.
“Is it not that you hate yourself more than you hate the cameras?”
He closed his eyes tight, then opened them. Min Jaewon looked straight at his face.
He had only ever seen the cold, irritable expression, but now that he could look properly, he could tell Lude was another ordinary human being with clear joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure. Emotionally, he was even vulnerable.
His face twisted, then he nodded a few times. As if telling him to cry as much as he needed, Min Jaewon pulled him into a firm embrace.
“Does it not feel like everyone else is living well and moving forward, while only you are stuck there alone?”
“…Yes.”
“Do you not feel like a half person, someone who always needs help, even though you want to stand tall?”
“…Correct”
His voice shook. Min Jaewon knew he was crying without a sound. People who could never truly leave that day. Emotions flowed that only they could share.
Even when your mind knew it wouldn't happen again, your body faithfully reacted to protect its owner.
“The truth is, you want to go and handle it with style without the young master’s help, right? That is why you are angrier at yourself, isn’t it.”
Lude only nodded repeatedly. Perhaps because he knew there was a similar shock. Perhaps because he was emotionally shaken now.
Or perhaps because he had come to trust others, at least a little.
Lude couldn't control his feelings and sobbed, sniffling. Lately, he thought, he really had become tearful.
Min Jaewon took Lude by the shoulders, which he had been patting in his arms, and looked at his face. Lude wiped the reddened skin under his eyes with his sleeve.
“Are you going to a hospital? You look like you need professional treatment.”
“Yes. I have gotten somewhat used to phone cameras.”
“So what remains is the reporters’ cameras.”
Just thinking of reporters still sent a chill down his spine, it seemed, because Lude’s face went pale again. He covered his mouth and spoke.
“…I don't want my information circulating online at all. I don't want to be preserved as an object.”
“But that is not easy in modern society. Especially for someone as impressive as our Number One!”
Smiling, he tapped Lude’s shoulder. In the slightly looser mood, Lude grumbled and turned his head a little.
Still, praise for himself didn't seem entirely unpleasant. Lude’s face settled back into his usual cool expression.
“I am not sure about the impressive part. Most of the time my intent gets twisted, an article goes up on the internet in an hour, and people curse at me. They don't even hesitate to fabricate things.”
Lude frowned again and sighed. Min Jaewon recalled the many things Lude had gone through as an active Hunter. It wouldn't be surprising if he had not only stress but trauma.
Add to that the life he had lived as Shin Bitnari, and in truth he had suffered far longer than Min Jaewon had guessed.
“If you don't want to spend your whole life avoiding cameras, then shall I teach you how to command the cameras?”
“Does such a thing exist?”
At Min Jaewon’s words, Lude raised his head. In Lude’s expression, Min Jaewon saw the will to recover.
A person who had enough will to climb out of the pit of despair with just a little consideration and a little attention.
And it was clear that the people around him would be influenced by that look. Thinking of Kang Ihyun’s steps, which had grown quite a bit lighter recently, Min Jaewon smiled without thinking.
“I don't know it myself. But I know someone who is truly the best in this field!”
Puffing out his chest, Min Jaewon opened a video site. Lude looked at the screen with him, and, uncharacteristically, his face showed surprise.
A square, old screen ratio. Inside it, a year-end film awards show was underway. A black-haired woman had come to the stage, holding bouquets and a trophy.
“This person?!”
Lude’s mouth fell open. Min Jaewon burst out laughing.
“Yes, someone so famous that, in my generation, if you don't know her you are a spy. She Awakened and changed careers to Hunter. Anyway, she knows cameras inside and out. If we ask through our Guildmaster, she will surely help.”
Pointing at the screen, Min Jaewon smiled. Lude watched, having forgotten every emotion from a moment ago. Someone he had never expected was smiling faintly.
[First, thank you for such a precious gift. I am deeply grateful to my agency’s president, our director, our department head, and my manager. Going forward, so that I can keep making good projects…]
White Night’s Guildmaster, “White Prophecy,” Baek Jangmi.
At least twenty years in the past on the screen, she was receiving the Best Actress award.