Chapter 286

In the early hours of that morning, a short post appeared on a popular forum frequented by Hunters.

Guys, I had a weird dream. Can someone interpret it for me?

I can’t reveal the specifics, but I’m a member of the Security Team of a major Guild with some clout. Anyway, that part isn’t important.

I was working as usual when I nodded off for a moment. Then Lord Fuck appeared in my dream.

My senior said some weird guy kept hanging around, so we went to catch him together. (My senior’s a traitorous bastard. I think his real name is Yamamoto, but he’s hiding it.) Anyway, the weird guy turned out to be Lord Fuck.

But that’s all I remember clearly. After that, my senior did yutori¹, and I did irasshaimase.²

└ Best comment: Before we interpret the dream, can someone translate this post? I have no idea what the hell this guy is talking about.

└ Same.

└ Forget everything else. What are “yutori”¹ and “irasshaimase”²? There’s no way to figure out the context.

└ Why is his senior a traitor? Did he buy Heattech from Uniqlo?

└ OP: Because he keeps using Japanese in this climate. He’s always saying stuff like yutori¹ and gensei.³

└ But you said you did irasshaimase.²

└ OP: Yeah.

└ What a lunatic. “Yeah,” my ass. LOL.

└ I can smell the problem child from here. Poor senior.

└ OP: But when I told my senior about the dream, he said he’d had a similar one. Lord Fuck beat up a hundred of our Guild members and went toe-to-toe with Ares Guild’s Vice Guild Master.

└ I want to beat the OP’s ass.

└ OP: I’m serious;;; Then he started yelling at me because his phone was gone;; He was probably pissed because it was the latest-model AdultPhone.⁴

└ Hello. I’m a practicing shaman. I sense an unusual energy from your post. Could you tell me more about it?

└ OP: Whoa, are you really a shaman?

└ No. I’m lying.

└ OP: Whoa. Are you a crazy bastard?

The post was deleted less than ten minutes later.

The people who had seen it didn’t give much thought to one attention-seeking lunatic disappearing, and no one suspected that Ares Guild had intervened in the whole affair.

Well, no one except me.

They must have tampered with everyone’s memories using mental magic.

It was obviously illegal, but expecting people who raised Black Hunters to care about the law would have been even more ridiculous.

Judging by the comment about the AdultPhone⁴ disappearing, it seemed they had thoroughly checked everyone’s phones as well.

That was decisive evidence.

My personal cameraman had bolted outside the moment Park Tae Seop and Park Jihoon appeared, only to fall straight into Ares Guild’s hands.

Not that I was particularly disappointed. They had searched me before letting me leave the building anyway. They even checked my shared cloud folder before returning my phone.

They had also been considerate enough to add a warning.

“Just in case you’re hiding anything, delete it now. If we catch you concealing something, it won’t be pleasant.”

I was already in a foul mood because they had found the porn on my phone, and the guy’s tone was beyond obnoxious.

If the situation had been any different, I would have given him a good one.

I memorized your face, you square-headed bastard.

He had an angular face and a crew cut. He had been put in charge of the cleanup, and everyone else kept calling him “Team Leader,” so he was probably Lee Jungryong’s right-hand man.

Qi Sense had revealed his name as Go Jun. His skill was part of the reason I’d bothered to find out.

That bastard seemed to have learned something resembling martial arts, too.

Once suspicion took root, I could see things more clearly than before.

Every Ares Guild member Lee Jungryong had left behind was exceptional. Any one of them could easily take down two ordinary A-rank Hunters alone.

But the impression Go Jun had given me was… honestly, enough to surprise even me.

His obnoxious manner came from confidence in his own ability.

How did Lee Jungryong train people like this?

Could it really be martial arts? Or perhaps a martial art developed independently within Ares Guild.

One question led to another.

I was mulling all this over when a nurse shouted from the hallway.

“Mr. Lee! Patient Im Hyeokjun is conscious!”

I sprang to my feet.

Im Hyeokjun. Im Kkeokjeong’s real name, though hardly anyone ever used it.

After three long days, he had finally regained consciousness.

“Darling! Jun’s dad!”

“Daddy!”

I forced myself to resist the urge to throw open the door to his hospital room. This was time for his family.

The sobs of a wife and children reunited with their husband and father after three days of unconsciousness drifted through the crack around the door.

Only after a wave of weeping had swept through the room and quite some time had passed did our turn finally come.

“Oh, you’re all here?”

Damn it. My throat closed up at his very first words.

Im Kkeokjeong spread his arms with a bright smile, then scrunched up his nose.

“Ugh.”

“Your arm! Be careful with your arm!”

“I thought it would be fine, but it aches a little when I move it.”

“They reattached a severed arm. Did you think it would be fine right away? What are you, a transforming robot?”

Song Song scolded him while casting a healing spell. Once the pain subsided, Im Kkeokjeong’s expression relaxed considerably.

“Thank you, Miss Song.”

“If you’re grateful, please be careful. Didn’t you hear the healer? You need to rest and avoid overexerting yourself for at least two weeks.”

“And thank you for saying that, too.”

“Uncle!”

“Ow, there go my eardrums.”

I never would have imagined how happy it could make me to see him laughing heartily like a bandit.

After letting out the same boisterous laugh as before, Im Kkeokjeong turned to the others.

“Hyung⁵ Kim—no, Guild Master. Thank you so much. The kids’ mother told me how well you looked after me while I was unconscious.”

Butler Kim shook his head slightly.

“There’s no need to thank me. It was only natural. When one of our Guild members suffers something like this, of course we step up.”

“I heard you spent quite a lot of money, too…”

A famous healer had been brought in to treat Im Kkeokjeong, and high-grade potions that casually cost hundreds of millions of won⁶ per bottle had been poured into him without restraint.

It might have been the same in the past, but this was a world where even a human life had a price. Who would go this far for a D-rank Hunter with nothing to his name but years of experience?

Butler Kim chuckled softly at the emotion thickening Im Kkeokjeong’s voice.

“If you really must thank someone, thank the man footing the bill. I’m just the figurehead, so leave me out of it.”

At those words, Im Kkeokjeong’s gaze slowly shifted toward the man footing the bill.

“Team Leader Choi.”

His voice burned as though it carried Scorching Yang Qi. Before Im Kkeokjeong could continue, Team Leader Choi cut him off.

“This wasn’t your fault, Mr. Im. It happened because our Guild was looked down on. I failed to prevent it, so if anyone owes an apology, it’s me.”

“Team Leader Choi!”

Im Kkeokjeong was the sort of man who could make a hardened criminal look like a model prisoner simply by standing beside one, and now tears brimmed in his eyes.

When he reached out to embrace him, Team Leader Choi flinched and stepped back.

“B-be careful with your arm.”

“It’s fine. I just want to hug you once.”

“…I’d like to pass that glorious opportunity on to the last person.”

It didn’t seem like much of an honor, but in the end, my turn came.

“…”

“…”

Silence fell.

There was something I had desperately wanted to say to Im Kkeokjeong once he woke up, but now that I was standing face-to-face with him, my mouth clamped shut like a clam.

Im Kkeokjeong broke the silence first.

“What do you think?”

“About what?”

“My wife and kids. Pretty, right?”

His out-of-nowhere bragging about his family drew a quiet laugh from me.

“Yes. They are.”

“Your sister-in-law is quite the beauty.”

“I’ll give you that. Did you imprison or threaten her?”

“There’s no tree that won’t fall after ten chops. Remember that. I succeeded on the forty-seventh.”

“You just said every tree falls after ten chops.”

Im Kkeokjeong snickered.

“Turns out there are some that won’t. Ten chops didn’t even make a dent.”

“It’s a miracle you weren’t booked as a suspect.”

“You idiot. If I’d given up back then, do you think I could have gotten a beauty like that?”

Im Kkeokjeong’s wife, her face swollen from crying, covered it with one hand and waved the other dismissively.

His two children, both still in elementary school, stared at me with bright, curious eyes as though they had never cried at all.

“Daddy, who is he?”

“Who is he? Who?”

Im Kkeokjeong pulled the clinging children into his arms and answered.

“He’s your uncle. Uncle Taekyung.”

“Uncle Taekyung?”

“Yeah. I’ve told you about him before, right? The handsome, strong uncle.”

So he had told his family about me.

Warmth spread from somewhere deep in my chest. The children’s eyes sparkled even more brightly as they looked at me.

Children were cute and beautiful by nature, but these sisters could have been child actors. So this was the victory of maternal genes.

“Wow! You’re Uncle Taekyung?”

“Nice ta meet you!”

A fond smile spread across my face.

I patted both girls on the head and said to Im Kkeokjeong, “They’re adorable. So innocent.”

“Obviously. Get married and have a daughter yourself. Then you’ll understand why people call men doting dads.⁷”

I’d been nicknamed a doting dad⁷ in high school, too. Of course, I hadn’t had a daughter.

In any case, the sight of this close-knit family of four made my heart swell.

Im Kkeokjeong raised his arm stiffly and embraced me. His hand, far weaker than before, patted my back.

Tap. Tap.

“Thank you. I’m always grateful.”

The moment I heard those words, my resolve hardened around a decision I had been carrying all this time.

I can’t make the same mistake again.

I repeated the words to myself and hugged Im Kkeokjeong tightly.

Today, one man had returned to his family and friends.

An hour later, only five members of the Peace Guild remained in the hospital room, including Im Kkeokjeong and me.

Im Kkeokjeong’s wife wanted her husband to rest, but his resolve was firm.

“I almost left my beloved wife and kids behind. I need to hear it now. Everything that happened, without leaving out a single detail.”

The good-natured man who had always been softhearted and full of laughter had gained firm resolve and steel in his spine.

By the time he had heard the entire story, Im Kkeokjeong’s face was rigid.

“It was Ares Guild?”

“Yes.”

“And the Lee Jungryong you mentioned really is that Lee Jungryong?”

“I’m sure.”

“…Hah.”

A groanlike sigh escaped him.

We had followed the tail called Black Hunter and found Myeongdong Guild. When we stepped on Myeongdong Guild’s torso, the head that emerged was Ares Guild.

The problem was that this was no ordinary head.

“We followed a snake’s tail and found a dragon’s head.”

As I said that, I cast a sidelong glance at Team Leader Choi and Butler Kim. Both of them wore their usual calm expressions.

But I had seen it clearly.

Before Im Kkeokjeong regained consciousness, when they first heard the name Ares Guild, a storm had raged in the eyes of both men.

There’s definitely something going on…

I didn’t know exactly what. Song Song and I had sensed something strange and questioned them relentlessly, but they had clammed up after briefly saying they would tell us once Im Kkeokjeong woke up.

But now it’s time for them to talk.

Perhaps he sensed Song Song’s and my gazes. Team Leader Choi was just about to open his mouth when—

Thud. Thud.

All kinds of sounds mingled together in the hospital hallway. But their footsteps were different. They were unusually heavy, with a deep, resonant echo.

And there was qi.

“They’re coming.”

At my words, everyone rose from their seats one after another.

Sure enough, the footsteps stopped in front of our hospital room.

Knock, knock.

The door opened, revealing a face I had seen only half a day ago.

Go Jun?

Wait. If that bastard was here, then could it be…?

The thought broke off. Go Jun’s face vanished from view as another man strode into the hospital room.

He was nearing seventy, yet his youthful appearance made him look like a man in his forties. He possessed a leader’s charisma and a natural air of intimidation.

Lee Jungryong.

His gaze swept over us before stopping dead on one person. The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.

“You’ve grown a lot.”

Team Leader Choi’s gaze sank deeply as he looked at Lee Jungryong.