Chapter 313
After all the safety training ended, there was a slightly early lunch before the afternoon schedule began. I thought they would roughly have us eat in a cafeteria and be done with it, but the Hunter Association side had prepared catering, of all things.
'They’ve got money, huh?'
They said we could just eat right where we were seated, so I brought back food without thinking much of it.
As soon as lunchtime came, Im Haekyung was called away by someone again and disappeared somewhere. Seok Jiwon, too, must have been to one or two events similar to this before, because before long, at the sound of someone calling them, they ended up holding their plate and talking for quite a while.
“Did you sleep well?”
“.......”
Do Yehyun, who had {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} been about to eat, flinched and mumbled with his chopsticks in his mouth.
“I tried not to doze off....”
“Everyone slept, not just you.”
“You too, hyung?”
“Not me.”
I answered as if it was nothing and continued eating. Just then, a plate was set down with a thud in the seat beside me. When I lifted only my gaze to check the face, it was definitely someone I was seeing for the first time by face.
“I came because I wanted to talk with you a little. It looks like Haeseong’s Guild Master is away from the seat anyway, so may I sit?”
Name: Tae Hyunjin
Age: 31
Rank: S
Title: -
Main Skills: Cold Wave (S), Tempered Blade (S), Sharp Rain (S)
Growth Limit: S
Tae Hyunjin. Korea’s first S-rank awakened person, and a water-type Hunter.
'To think this is a place where I can see three S-ranks at the same time.'
I unconsciously tugged at my wrist guard and nodded.
“Sit.”
“Thank you. Though even if you’d said no, I was going to sit anyway.”
What the hell?
Whether I cared or not, Tae Hyunjin sat down and calmly tied back her hair before starting to eat. Seok Jiwon, who seemed to have finished talking just then and had been about to return here, flinched and stopped in place when they saw Tae Hyunjin.
'Was this one’s personality kind of fucked too?'
High-rank Hunters having shitty personalities was just everyday life, so it was not particularly surprising. Tae Hyunjin silently shoveled food into her mouth, then raised a hand and drew our attention.
“Mm, the reason I came here is... I heard something.”
“Please speak.”
At my words, Tae Hyunjin grinned and pointed at my wrist.
“That’s mine, right?”
No sooner had Tae Hyunjin finished speaking than the wrist guard on my wrist began trembling softly. As if mana had reacted.
The moment I felt that, one of my arms instantly grew stiff and sore.
'Damn.'
Did it recognize the Hunter it had originally been deeply interconnected with? After the penalty bombardment last time, there were still traces left in the arm where the physical abnormality had occurred. Of course, it was only to the extent that no one would know unless they looked deeply.
That aside, why was something I had bought after paying a legitimate price Tae Hyunjin’s?
“Who knows? It’s mine, though.”
“I’m not telling you to give it back. It’s not much use to me anyway. But seeing as you can’t use it properly either, it looks like it isn’t much use to you too.”
Tae Hyunjin stabbed a piece of food hard with her chopsticks and grinned at me.
“If you use it well, your mana amount should increase far more than it does now.”
What, had she come here to pass along a tip or something?
“Don’t suppress it so much. Try letting it loose properly. A kid only grows when it has its own house, originally.”
“Its own house?”
“A host. You were thinking of possessing a dragon heart, but you weren’t prepared to become its host?”
What kind of obvious bullshit was that....
I answered apathetically.
“Yes.”
That aside, there was one interesting element in the conversation.
“When you say my mana amount will increase, do you mean my mana amount increases? It’s just an artifact, though.”
“You’re not saying that seriously, are you? A dragon heart doesn’t die. If you’re going to use it, you can somehow keep it alive and use it....”
That was true, but. Anyway, had Tae Hyunjin come all the way here just to say this?
“How did you recognize it?”
“If I say I could tell just by looking... there’s no way an appraiser holding a position in Haeseong would believe that. Just like information leaked to you, information leaked to my side too.”
“The source?”
“I’d lose out if I told you.”
That was true. Since she was not going to take it back anyway, it did not feel particularly important, so I nodded roughly.
And there were elements I could roughly infer. After all, on the day of the auction, only two people had been there. Joo Seowon and... the scammer I met in Shanghai.
'If it wasn’t the former, then the information must have leaked from that scammer’s side.'
I thought I had heard that the person was terminally ill, but seeing as information was being spread here and there, they seemed to be living somehow.
Tae Hyunjin barely ate any of the food and kept looking around, then spoke again.
“By the way, I’m curious too. How did you keep taking information so easily.... I almost caught innocent guild members because of that. Wondering if there was a traitorous bastard. But... Haeseong gave it to you, right?”
“It hasn’t been long since I joined Haeseong, though.”
Did she not feel that the timeline did not match even by her own reasoning?
At my words, Tae Hyunjin giggled and answered calmly.
“Weren’t you acquainted before that? With Haeseong’s Guild Master... I heard you’re very close.”
Should I just release an article? It seemed everyone thought that way anyway. If we publicly said we were dating, maybe no one would even care anymore.
“I saw that interview about... something more than friends. I don’t usually believe things like that, but when I saw Haeseong’s Guild Master’s attitude, I kind of believed it. Haekyung doesn’t usually treat people that comfortably and draws lines, you know. But earlier, I saw you two joking around and all that?”
'What the hell is “Haekyung” now?'
Besides, what exactly had she seen to think we were joking around?
I looked silently at Tae Hyunjin, then raised the corners of my mouth in a smile.
“Is there any need to go through Haeseong to get information on you, Hunter Tae? You aren’t that important.”
“Mm, that’s not exactly a great thing to say after taking my artifact....”
“Who knows? Does the source matter? I took what I needed, and you, Hunter Tae, just... owned it for a little while. Strictly speaking, it belongs to the water dragon. You pulled out someone else’s heart, didn’t you?”
“It was a Dungeon. What was I supposed to do?”
“Did I say that was bad?”
I chuckled and got up from my seat. Tae Hyunjin lifted her head to look at me, thought deeply about something for a moment, then said,
“You’re kind of unusual.”
“.......”
“I understand why Haeseong’s Guild Master suits you. Haekyung seems like the type to like this sort of thing.”
What the hell was this supposed to mean now?
Anyway, the higher the rank, the more everyone seemed to find life boring, because they fucking loved poking at people. I nodded roughly, without sincerity, and left the seat.
No sooner had I gone to get more food than Seok Jiwon stuck close to me.
“What did you talk about?”
“An artifact.”
“Did you know each other originally? Do you like women too? Is anyone fine as long as they’re S-rank and rich?”
What kind of bullshit was this now? I brushed off Seok Jiwon’s arm, which was starting to get on my nerves, and finished taking food. When I gestured to Do Yehyun, who was still sitting there, meaning he should come out, Do Yehyun cut off Tae Hyunjin’s words and got up from his seat.
“You seem to have a lot of friends, so go somewhere else.”
“I don’t have friends. They’re all business relationships.”
“I have one.”
“Who? Yehyun?”
“Yes.”
Could I express it as friend? Well, anyway.
I took Do Yehyun and moved tables. Since everyone was mixed together eating anyway, it should not matter where we sat.
As soon as we sat down, Do Yehyun asked as if he had been waiting.
“Do you know that person too?”
“First time I’ve seen her.”
“Ah....”
“Why?”
“It just seemed like you were close with S-rank Hunters. If their rank is high, they’re definitely more... useful in a lot of ways, right?”
“No, that one isn’t particularly useful.”
I answered simply. Do Yehyun looked at me as if he had something to say, then suddenly laughed quietly.
“Why?”
“Just....”
“.......”
“Hyung, should I support you later?”
“Did you save a lot of money?”
“By my standards, it’s no joke....”
“Let me see.”
“Yes.”
Do Yehyun handed me his phone and blinked.
“What’s the password?”
“My birthday.”
“What’s your bank password?”
“The six digits of your birthday, hyung....”
Unbelievable.
I checked Do Yehyun’s account balance and slightly furrowed my brow.
“Do you live without spending any money?”
“I have nowhere to spend it. You can have all of it, hyung.”
“There’ll be gift tax.”
“Ah.”
It was unexpectedly surprising because the amount was higher than I had thought. He had seemed interested in artifacts and whatnot all this time, so had he not actually spent anything in practice? Though even then, it was still the sort of money that could be spent quickly if one put one’s mind to it.
No sooner had I returned the phone than the chair in front of me scraped back. Thinking it might be the original owner of the seat, I lifted my head, and there was a man with his hair neatly swept back.
“Ah, hello. Hunter Seo Jehyun. I’m reporter Kim Daeik from KTT Broadcasting Station.”
“Yes, hello.”
“I received permission to interview awakened people in the afternoon, and among them, I’ve been watching for the right timing since earlier to ask whether an interview with you would be possible, Hunter Seo.”
“Can I not do it?”
“Ah.... Yes. But may I ask what exactly you feel reluctant about....”
Im Haekyung told me not to.
I wondered whether I should say that honestly as it was, or talk around it a little, then opened my mouth.
“No. I’ll do it.”
“Ah, yes. Since it won’t be a live broadcast anyway, you can speak comfortably. If you want, I can also prepare a list of questions. One moment.”
Maybe he really had been waiting for an interview, because the bastard rummaged around, pulled out a sheet of paper, and handed it to me. Most of the interview questions written on it were obvious things.
There were a few formal questions related to Hunter work that no one seemed likely to be curious about, and the rest were all about the transfer to Haeseong. Ah, there was also one question about the rank change mixed in.
I roughly skimmed the page with my eyes, then handed the paper back.
“You can keep it.”
“It’s fine.”
“Yes. Then please enjoy your meal... would it be all right if I come find you in the afternoon?”
“Yes.”
After the reporter left like that, Do Yehyun looked silently at me, then asked,
“...Hyung, how are you going to answer the interview?”
“Hm?”
Wasn’t that obvious? It was a news interview, no less.
I answered calmly.
“I should answer honestly.”
“.......”
Of course, if necessary, I would have to lie a little too. In any case, since it was not with bad intentions, there was no particular need to think of it as lying.