Chapter 282

BOOM!

Two people appeared amid a thunderous roar.

I waved at the familiar face among them.

“Well, the fucking bastard’s here.”

“……You.”

I had been about to punch him in the mouth the moment I saw him, but when I saw his face twist in rage, all I could do was snort.

Looking at Park Jihoon’s tightly clenched fist, I asked with exaggerated disappointment,

“You didn’t bring it?”

“What?”

“Melona.”¹

“You little—”

A large palm seized the shoulder of the man whose face had flushed red.

“There are still too many eyes on us.”

Biting his lip, Park Jihoon took a step back.

As I watched him with amusement, the middle-aged man who had sent everyone nearby away spoke to me.

“Do you know who I am?”

I nodded. There was no way I could not recognize that face.

His name carried weight, and he appeared often enough in newspapers, magazines, and other media.

Park Tae Seop, Guild Master of Myeongdong Guild.

A war hero who had distinguished himself during the Great Cataclysm, and one of Korea’s top rankers.

After surviving every kind of brutal struggle and becoming the master of a major Guild, he was the dream of Hunters and a respected elder.

I used to respect him, too.

But not anymore.

My good memories of Park Tae Seop had expired two days ago.

Thoughts showed themselves in one’s attitude. Sensing the undisguised hostility in my gaze, Park Tae Seop opened his mouth.

“You…… consider me an enemy.”

“I can’t exactly consider you a friend. We both know each other’s circumstances.”

“Don’t be so quick to make assumptions. As you live, you come to realize that there are no eternal friends or enemies.”

“I don’t know about there being no eternal enemies.”

I continued while looking at Park Jihoon beside him.

“But there being no eternal friends certainly has some truth to it.”

Park Jihoon answered in a cold voice.

“Your premise is wrong from the start. We weren’t friends.”

“We weren’t friends.”

I sank deeply into the chair and repeated his words under my breath.

One thing I still couldn’t understand was Park Jihoon’s sudden change in attitude.

But……

“Then again, what does that matter at this point? It was already over the moment you sent the Black Hunters.”

At the mention of the sensitive term, Black Hunters, Park Tae Seop waved a hand.

At his Guild Master’s command, the hundred or so Hunters who had filled the hallway flowed away like the tide going out.

Listening to their footsteps recede, I curled up the corners of my mouth.

“You’re not exactly being open about it.”

“It’s a disgrace.”

“You’re honest enough to be irritating.”

“I’m ashamed of it myself.”

“For someone who considers himself ashamed, you gave a pretty damn despicable order.”

“……”

“What was the reason?”

An uncomfortable look crossed Park Tae Seop’s face. But it was not directed at me.

For the briefest moment, his eyes touched Park Jihoon standing beside him, then moved away.

Well, well……

What Park Tae Seop had just done was not intentional.

If that action had emerged unconsciously, then there was definitely something he was trying to hide.

I recalled the things that had never quite made sense and thought,

Something stinks to high heaven. It reeks.

While I was muttering inwardly, Park Jihoon suddenly spoke.

“To keep you and the Peace Guild in check.”

“To keep us in check?”

“The appearance of a new powerhouse means someone else’s slice of the pie gets smaller. Other Guilds probably feel the same way, not just us.”

At first glance, it was a reasonable explanation.

The Korean Guild market was already oversaturated. The ranks had been divided, and the pecking order established. The old powers did not want a new competitor to appear.

“The Peace Guild is dangerous. For now, you’re limited to Bucheon, but soon you’ll grow at a frightening pace and expand your influence.”

“So you sent the Black Hunters?”

“We did send them. But didn’t I tell you? It was only a warning.”

“I believe I told you, too. Because of that ridiculous warning, one person ended up crippled.”

“Crippled? His two severed arms were attached properly, weren’t they? He won’t have any trouble with his daily life. Do people call that crippled these days?”

“It’s as good as crippling him. One Hunter’s career is over.”

“It’s better than the Guild being finished.”

“What?”

Park Jihoon snorted.

“This is only the beginning. All the high-level Gates worth visiting have already been blocked off for your Guild. With the surrounding Guilds shutting you out, you’ll slowly wither away and die.”

I suddenly remembered something from a few days ago: Team Leader Choi telling me that the other Guilds had claimed every A-rank Gate.

Because of that, I had been forced to lead the rookies from one C-rank or B-rank Gate to another, unable to gain any meaningful experience.

“Don’t tell me that was—”

“You’re slow. Did you think it was a coincidence?”

The corners of Park Jihoon’s mouth rose. He had not only fully regained his composure, but was even relaxed enough to lean back against the sofa.

“I heard you recruited a lot of Guild members recently. What are you going to do? At this rate, you’ll have to let them all go within a year. You’ll be lucky if they don’t sue you for failing to pay their allowances.”

“……”

I slowly relaxed my folded arms.

“You’ve got some skill. No wonder you’re a major Guild.”

“Well, I suppose we are.”

“But…… we’re holding a pretty decent card on our side, too. I think it would be interesting if the things Myeongdong Guild did behind the scenes by scraping together a bunch of criminal bastards came to light. What do you think?”

Without waiting for Park Jihoon to respond, I continued.

“Looking at how things work around here, you’d just snatch them away if we handed them over to the police. So I figured it might be better to play a little truth game through a live iTube stream.”

“……iTube? A live stream?”

“Oh, right. You don’t know we opened a Guild channel, do you? Subscribe and hit Like, too. Don’t forget to turn on notifications.”

“……”

“Wow, we’re already at three hundred thousand subscribers. If this blows up, we could break ten million. Probably half the people in Korea will watch.”

The smile around Park Jihoon’s mouth vanished as if it had been wiped away.

“It would be better not to start something you can’t handle.”

“I can handle it.”

“Do you want to make every major Guild your enemy?”

“If I raise hell here, can you clean it up?”

“……”

Park Jihoon’s mouth pressed shut as if someone had glued it together.

After glaring at me with burning eyes for a while, he tossed out a single sentence.

“Tell me what you want.”

“What I want?”

“I’ll accommodate whatever you demand as much as possible. Don’t make this any bigger. Let’s negotiate here.”

“Negotiate.”

“If we take this all the way, we’ll both come out wounded. You know that, too.”

He was right. If this had been something I could take responsibility for alone, I would have gone all the way.

But the lives of so many people connected to the Peace Guild were at stake here.

Someone’s friend, lover, family……

Their futures, too.

I quietly licked my dry lips.

“What can you give me?”

“Money and power. And all kinds of benefits that will help the Peace Guild grow.”

“Didn’t you say the Peace Guild’s growth bothered you enough to send the Black Hunters?”

“Which is why we need to set a limit.”

“Don’t step outside the fence we assign you?”

“That’s right.”

The more I listened to Park Jihoon’s proposal, the more a rough picture formed in my mind.

The terms we could obtain in exchange for handing over the prisoners currently held by the Peace Guild and keeping silent about this incident were substantial.

No, they were enormous.

Buildings and land. The transfer of exclusive rights to high-level Gates controlled by Myeongdong Guild. And an enormous sum of cash.

The overall picture looked good.

But……

“The most important thing is missing.”

“Those conditions are more than sufficient—what?”

Park Jihoon furrowed his brow.

“What did you just say?”

“I said the most important thing is missing.”

“You’re crazy. You’re demanding even more here?”

“To be honest, explaining it to me won’t do much good. I only know that the value is high. Our Guild Master or Team Leader Choi are the experts when it comes to what’s beneficial and what’s harmful.”

“Then what exactly is missing?”

I stared at Park Jihoon.

“An apology.”

“……What?”

“If you did something wrong, you should apologize. But the most important thing—an apology—is missing.”

His proposal contained plenty of extravagant conditions, but no apology.

The thing that should have come before everything else had disappeared.

“Ha.”

Park Jihoon let out a hollow laugh. Absurdity and anger showed in the way he looked me up and down.

“Fine. I’m sorry. Happy now?”

“That’s not how you apologize.”

Crack.

A bone-shifting sound came from Park Jihoon’s tightly clenched fist.

But only for a moment. After taking a deep breath, he looked into my eyes and spoke each word clearly.

“I’m sorry.”

“That’s better.”

“Are you satisfied now?”

I gave a small nod.

“But next time you do it in person, try putting a little more sincerity into it. Bow your head politely, too.”

“……What the hell are you talking about now?”

“What good does your apology do me? You need to apologize to the victim and his family.”

Park Jihoon’s eyelids trembled.

“You want me to apologize to that D-rank Hunter?”

“What, can’t you?”

“I believe I already said I’d pay compensation. It’s an amount most Hunters could never even touch in their entire lives.”

“That works out nicely, then. A heartfelt apology will be even more effective if it comes with a massive compensation payment as an expression of remorse.”

“You…….”

I added one gentle remark to Park Jihoon, who was glaring at me with vicious eyes.

“If it hurts your pride, bring one more person along and apologize together.”

Myeongdong Guild Master Park Tae Seop, who had been listening to us in silence, finally spoke.

“I’ll go in person and apologize. With all sincerity.”

“At least you’ve got the basics down, Guild Master. I suppose you could call yourself a somewhat cleaner piece of shit.”

Cleaner shit. At this point, I could not think of a more appropriate—and more paradoxical—expression.

But Park Tae Seop was not the other suspect I had in mind.

I lifted my back from the chair and looked into Park Jihoon’s eyes.

“Bring along the person who gave you your orders. Make that person apologize, too.”

“……!”

An uncontrollable wave churned through his eyes.

It lasted only the briefest instant, but the violent agitation was more than enough to turn my suspicion into certainty.

“Fine. Guild Master Park Tae Seop just agreed, anyway.”

Park Jihoon continued in a voice as calm as he could manage.

“We’ll go together and apologize.”

“Cut the bullshit. Bring that person here.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I rose with a silent laugh and walked toward the reception sofa where Park Jihoon sat.

“No matter how much I thought about it, I just couldn’t understand.”

I dropped into the seat across from him.

Beyond the large solid-wood table, I slowly examined him as he pretended to remain calm.

His solid build. The muscles visible beneath his shirt.

And I sensed the mana lying dormant inside him.

It was immense and powerful.

Even without checking his Level, I could tell the gap between him and the Team 1 Leader.

“You say you don’t understand. What does that mean?”

“How someone strong enough to chew up that Team Leader lying over there with one hand isn’t even a deputy team leader, but merely an ordinary Hunter.”

“……!”

“And he shows up for work so rarely that he might come in once a month. From the conversation I overheard between you and the Team 1 Leader, you were practically his superior.”

There were more than one or two things that seemed suspicious.

And as I spoke with them today, my suspicions gradually became certainty.

“Amazing conditions are being exchanged, yet the highest person in charge stays silent while the one doing all the talking is an ordinary team member with no position at all…… How am I supposed to take that, Guild Master Park Tae Seop?”

Myeongdong Guild Master Park Tae Seop met my gaze and slowly closed his eyes.

That was a fine enough answer.

I let out a quiet laugh and looked at Park Jihoon.

“So bring that person here. I don’t know who it is, but bring them here and make them apologize first.”

Park Jihoon’s tightly sealed lips parted.

“And if I refuse?”

“Then we go all the way.”

“You crazy bastard. Do you even know who that person is?”

“No. I don’t particularly want to know, either. But I do want to see that bastard come here, slam his head down, and apologize. Then I’ll be satisfied.”

Swish!

At the same time, I thrust out my hand at blinding speed.

Park Jihoon cried out in alarm.

“You little bastard!”

Pap-pap-pap!

In an instant, his hand collided with mine and became entangled.

Five exchanges passed in the blink of an eye.

Crunch.

His wrist broke, and his eyes widened.

I grabbed his hair, meticulously styled with wax, and slammed his head down toward the table.

Bang!

“Like this.”