Chapter 77
Chapter 77
“Mr. Lude!! Are you all right?”
“Y-Yeah.”
Following Baek Jangmi’s directions, Lude took one turn, went straight out of the workshop, and stopped in front of the elevator. Ding, the doors slid open again, and Lude sighed when he saw Min Jaeyoon waving both hands like he was thrilled. He stepped inside.
“Hey, why do you look so wiped out? Noona! Did our Guild Master do something to you?”
Min Jaeyoon hit the button for the first floor. As the doors closed and there was no one else to overhear, he quickly switched to calling her noona and smiled with a hint of cutesiness.
“No. I just have a lot to think about. Oh, and I agreed to show up at Hunter’s Night.”
“Oh, really?! Wow!! That’s such a relief!”
Min Jaeyoon clapped three times and beamed. It figured, since he had probably been pushing alongside Baek Jangmi to prepare the party. With that in mind, Lude let a stray question slip out as a joke.
“But why are you doing the Guild Master’s secretary work too. So you did have a reason for all those dawn shifts.”
“The Guild Master’s secretary is supposed to be the most capable person! I’m still a newbie, but it is best to learn from the ground up. I guess I’m the most capable one!”
Min Jaeyoon grinned, made a V sign, and flipped it downward. Lude stared at him in surprise.
Hunters in the Sanctuary only had to do Hunter work. Other guilds were the same. White Night seemed to be a little different.
“Huh? Was that a thing? Most Guild Masters are Awakener anyway, so a Hunter would never need to be a secretary.”
“Ah, that is only in White Night! The White Night Guild Master has always been a Hunter. I think the next Guild Master has me in his sights!”
Puhaha! Min Jaeyoon puffed his chest and laughed with pride. Until a moment ago, Lude had thought Baek Jangmi insisted on being a Hunter while leading the guild because of her convictions. Maybe not.
“Why? I heard everyone prefers a Guild Master who is an Awakener because Hunters run into too many constraints.”
From Lude’s point of view, putting a Hunter in the top seat came with a lot of restrictions.
Like Lude and Kang Ihyun, they had to report for more than thirty hours of reservist training each year, and they were obligated to answer a call-up if a large gate opened in the country.
That alone hit the Guild Master’s post hard. Imagine a crisis at the company and the boss cannot be reached. How much worse does it get than that.
There was only one difference between a Hunter and an Awakener. Whether you could use offensive skills. Put that on the scale of costs and benefits, and it was obvious any Guild Master would give up being a Hunter.
He knew there were not many bosses who were often absent from their posts. Even the convenience store where Nari had worked part-time had been that way.
His uncle, an A-rank Awakener with a Constellation, was not a Hunter, and he did the Guild Master job as an Awakener.
There was a reason Kang Sujin had told Kang Ihyun last time that he had no intention of handing Sanctuary over to him.
Yet White Night had always put a Hunter in the Guild Master seat. Even to an outsider like Lude, it did not add up.
“Well… There is a bit of a thing! It’s a trade secret though!”
Min Jaeyoon winked as he answered Lude’s question. Lude sensed a shift, a small difference between Min Jaeyoon’s earlier lively attitude and his mood now.
He noticed Min Jaeyoon tapping the crook of his folded arm with a finger. It looked like nerves. Min Jaeyoon lowered his voice.
“Did you see the Guild Master’s magic?”
“Huh? Yeah, she was incredible. It could not have been anything but precise.”
“Then why did you leave on your own? The Guild Master did not see you out?”
“Yeah, she said she had to shut down her computer.”
I see, Min Jaeyoon said, then fell silent. Lude frowned. He kept feeling like Min Jaeyoon or White Night had something to hide. He let out a breath and spoke.
“Hey, I don’t know what it is, but if you keep hugging it to yourself like that, you’ll land in big trouble again like at school. Either open up and tell someone, or do not let it show at all. You’re making me worry.”
It was another guild’s business, so Lude had no excuse to pry. He closed his mouth again and looked up. The elevator display showed the fifth floor.
“Noona.”
As they drifted down past the fourth and toward the third, Min Jaeyoon looked at Lude. The red eyes behind his horn-rimmed glasses glinted, and his face was uncharacteristically tense.
The first sight of him being that serious left Lude at a brief loss for words.
“…I know you were my benefactor. I know you helped me more than I deserved. And, well, it is shameless, I know,”
Min Jaeyoon bit his lip hard. He hesitated over something, then spoke again.
“Could you help me later just once?”
“With what?”
“If I ask for help, just that one time, could you help me? I’m sorry, noona.”
He clenched his hands tight. His fingertips went white from the lack of blood.
“Um… Sure.”
There was no way she could say no here, so Lude nodded without thinking. Min Jaeyoon’s smile eased a little, like the weight on his heart had lightened.
Seeing that smile, Lude blinked. It felt like seeing someone’s kid brother who had shot up while she was not looking.
“Thank you, noona! You really are the best! You know I always believe in you, right?”
“Cut it out. I don’t buy it.”
“Aw, noona~”
“What are you doing! Get off of me won’t you?!”
Min Jaeyoon tapped her shoulder playfully again. Lude irritably raised an elbow to shrug him off. The elevator reached the first floor, and just before the doors opened, Min Jaeyoon spoke to Lude.
“Noona! You can make it on your own from here, right?”
“Uh, yeah. Kang Ihyun said he would be downstairs.”
“Great! Then can I head back up now? The Guild Master asked me to take you to the underground garage, but I have something to do upstairs.”
“You’ve got too much work, don’t you. Seriously. What now?”
“I have to help the Guild Master...”
Min Jaeyoon let out a thin laugh with a drawn face. Lude clicked her tongue, then patted his shoulder. The doors opened, and Lude stepped into the lobby.
“Okay, see you then.”
“Yep! See you at Hunter’s Night. Dress sharp! I’m looking forward to it~”
Min Jaeyoon stood inside the elevator with a smile and waved both hands again, then hit the close button. Right before the doors shut, his face went stiff and blank for a moment, but Lude did not notice.
* * *
“Hey!”
With a thump, Kang Ihyun flinched in the parked car and glanced over from his call. Lude was there, temper flaring, and he gave the front tire a kick.
“What are you doing?! Are you going to open the door or not?!”
“O-Oh, Lude! One second. I’ll open it right now! I will! Auntie, I’ll call you back! No, I’m fine. I’m not going to die!”
He wrapped up the call, fumbled the locks, and then froze. Lude climbed into the passenger seat with a wicked smile. Knowing he had done wrong, Kang Ihyun started to shake.
“L-L-Lude... You finished early I see. Nothing happened, right?”
“Yeah... Because someone did not want to hear any griping, he ran off on his own and left me to soak up all of Min Jaeyoon’s dirty looks...”
Lude sat there in the passenger seat, clenched his teeth, and gripped Kang Ihyun’s shoulder. Kang Ihyun shut his eyes tight and braced to face judgment for his sins.
He knew he had been in the wrong to run away from Min Jaeyoon’s icy glare instead of facing it.
“I-I am sorry, Lude! B-But I did not know Jaeyoon was that stressed! So I wanted to dodge that moment! It was a reflex! I did it without thinking!”
What could he do? A little brother who had only just stepped into working life made him unbearably anxious. It was like leaving a toddler by the riverbank.
There is not a big sister or big brother alive who would feel no guilt if, instead of helping a sibling who is just learning to toddle through society, they ended up increasing that sibling’s workload.
Of course such people must exist somewhere, but Kang Ihyun could never be one of them.
“So you leave me like that?! Make up your mind!! Is it Min Jaeyoon or me!!”
“It is you, Lude! It’s you! So please cool down! I was in the wrong!”
Kang Ihyun rubbed his hands together. Lude’s anger loosened a notch at the sight, and he gave a short sigh. It was not unpleasant to see that kind of desperation pointed at him.
“Whatever, just don’t do it again.”
“Got it!! Thank you, Lude! From now on I’ll stand there and take the lecture with you!! I will never, ever abandon you!”
“Yeah yeah, you better not.”
Lude held back a laugh and sat still while Kang Ihyun clung and pleaded from the driver’s seat. A black indirect message popped up in front of Lude’s eyes.
[The Lord of Chaos looks at you, saying you have gotten better at holding your temper, Nari.]
‘...Really?’
Lude rubbed the front of his coat. He did feel a little lighter lately.
He was not in a great mood, and he had not changed overnight, yet at least those sudden bouts of nameless anxiety had eased.
‘...Huh.’
He had never felt like this before, and he blinked a few times. He was not sure it was all right.
Was it all right to stay this relaxed? What if he crashed back down later. It hurt more when you fell from higher up.
“Lude?”
“Ah.”
Kang Ihyun stopped him from spiraling again. Lude let go of the line of thought he had been following.
Even the Lord of Chaos just let Lude’s chain of thoughts spool out, but Kang Ihyun always cut it at a surprisingly good point.
“Sorry, I zoned out.”
“Are you very tired?”
“I’m fine for now.”
Still worried, Kang Ihyun smiled again when Lude fastened his seat belt and turned the ignition. The car rolled out slow and smooth.
“How is Jaeyoon doing? I have not seen him once since he joined.”
“Ah, that kid... He grew up a bit.”
“Haha! Uncle said the same thing.”
As the everyday talk picked up again, Lude thought back to Min Jaeyoon. The annoying front was the same, but there was a weight to him now.
He had even asked for help, so he must have gotten tangled in something. Lude wondered if he should say it, then watched Kang Ihyun out of the corner of his eye at the wheel.
Min Jaeyoon was still the brother Kang Ihyun cared about. Lude did not want to fuel his anxiety with idle talk, so he quietly gathered his impressions and chose his words.
“…We should look into White Night a bit.”
Min Jaeyoon’s behavior. The subtle friction with Baek Jangmi. After putting everything together, Lude rubbed his lower lip. Kang Ihyun glanced aside at him.
“Did something happen?”
“No? Nothing much. Ugh, I don’t know. At Hunter’s Night, tell the guild to keep an eye on White Night’s people. I have a bad feeling. Especially the Guild Master.”
“Okay. I will dig into it privately.”
Seeing his face, Kang Ihyun nodded with a serious look. It was the first time he had seen Lude look that grave.
“Hey, if you have time, let’s stop somewhere on the way.”
“Where?”
They pulled out of the garage. Dusk had already settled, and the lights wrapping White Night’s building shone even brighter.
It was the first time Lude suggested they swing by someplace together, so Kang Ihyun brightened and answered with a broad smile.
“The mall.”
The mall? Kang Ihyun blinked. Lude’s brow was creased.
“…Let’s go take a look at menswear first.”
The phrase single-suit gentleman from the social media comments slid through his mind again.