Chapter 286

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

Hyungs, 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 like usual when I nodded off for a moment. But then Lord Fuck appeared in my dream.

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

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

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” and “irasshaimase”? There’s no way to figure out the context.

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

└ Author: Because he keeps using Japanese in this climate. He uses words like yutori and gensei all the time, too.

└ But you said you did irasshaimase.

└ Author: Yeah.

└ What a crazy bastard. “Yeah,” my ass. LOL.

└ I can practically smell the problem employee from here. Poor senior.

└ Author: 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 got into a one-on-one fight with Ares Guild’s Vice Guild Master.

└ I want to beat the author’s ass.

└ Author: I’m serious;;; Then he started yelling at me because his phone had disappeared;; He was probably pissed because it was the latest-model AdultPhone.¹

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

└ Author: Wow, are you really a shaman?

└ No. I’m lying.

└ Author: Wow. Are you a crazy bastard?

The post was deleted in less than ten minutes.

The people who had seen it didn’t pay much attention to one attention-seeking lunatic disappearing, and no one suspected that Ares Guild had been involved in the whole sequence of events.

Well, no one except me.

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

It was an obvious criminal act, but it would have been even more ridiculous for people who raised Black Hunters to complain about something like that.

Judging by the comment about the AdultPhone 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, and had fallen straight into Ares Guild’s hands.

Well, I wasn’t all that disappointed. I had been searched before leaving the building anyway. They even checked my shared cloud folder before returning it.

They had also been considerate enough to add a warning.

“Just in case you’re hiding something, delete it now. It won’t be fun if you get caught keeping it hidden.”

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

If the situation hadn’t been what it was, I would have given him one good punch.

I memorized your face, you square-headed bastard.

He had an angular face and a crew cut. Since he had been in charge of cleaning up the situation, and everyone else had called him “Team Leader,” he seemed to be something like Lee Jungryong’s right-hand man.

The name Qi Sense had revealed was Go Jun. His skill had also played a part in my bothering to find out his name.

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

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

The Ares Guild members Lee Jungryong had left behind were all extraordinary. Each one of them was skilled enough to steamroll two ordinary A-rank Hunters alone.

But the impression I had gotten from Go Jun was… honestly, it was enough to surprise even me.

The obnoxiousness in his tone came from confidence in his ability.

How did he raise people like this?

Could it really be martial arts? Or perhaps a martial art developed independently within Ares Guild. One question after another kept piling up.

That was when I was lost in thought.

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

I sprang to my feet at the nurse’s shout from the hallway outside.

Im Hyeokjun. Im Kkeokjeong’s real name, which was almost never used.

He had regained consciousness after three long days.

“Darling! Jun’s dad!”

“Daddy!”

I desperately held back the urge to throw open the hospital-room door. This was the family’s time.

The cries of the wife and children who had been reunited with their husband and father after three days of unconsciousness drifted through the gap beneath the door.

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

“Oh, you’re all here?”

Damn it. My throat tightened at his very first words.

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

“Ugh.”

“Your arm, be careful! 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 you’d be fine right away? Are you a person, or a transforming robot?”

Song Song scolded him as she chanted a healing spell. Im Kkeokjeong’s expression relaxed considerably, as though the pain had subsided.

“Thank you, Miss Song.”

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

“And thanks for saying that, too.”

“Uncle!”

“Oh, my ears nearly fell off.”

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

After bursting into the same boisterous laughter as before, Im Kkeokjeong turned to the others.

“Hyung Kim—no, Guild Master. Thank you so much. The kids’ mother told me how much 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 fellow Guild members suffers something like this, we have to 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 won per bottle had been poured into him without restraint.

It may have been the same in the past, but this was a world where even a human life had a price. Who would do this much for a D-rank Hunter whose only thing to show for himself was his years of experience?

Butler Kim gave a low chuckle at Im Kkeokjeong’s voice, thick with emotion.

“If you really must thank someone, thank the one 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 was hot, 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’m the one who failed to prevent this tragedy, and I’m the one who should be apologizing.”

“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 stretched out his arms to hug 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 around.

“…”

“…”

Silence descended.

There was something I had really wanted to say to Im Kkeokjeong once he woke up, but when I finally stood face-to-face with him, my mouth clamped shut like a clam.

Im Kkeokjeong was the one who broke the silence first.

“What do you think?”

“About what?”

“My wife and kids. Pretty, right?”

His out-of-nowhere bragging about his family made me let out a quiet laugh.

“Yes. They are.”

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

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

“No tree survives ten chops. Remember that. I succeeded on the forty-seventh.”

“You just said no tree survives ten chops.”

“There are some trees that ten chops can’t even touch.”

“It’s a miracle you weren’t arrested.”

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

Im Kkeokjeong’s wife had a puffy face from crying. She 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.

A warm feeling spread from somewhere 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 pleased smile formed on 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.”

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

In any case, looking at this close-knit family of four made my heart ache with emotion.

Im Kkeokjeong raised his arm with stiff movements and hugged me. His hand, far weaker than before, patted my back.

Tap. Tap.

“Thank you. I’m always grateful.”

The moment I heard those words, I solidified a decision I had been carrying in my heart all along.

I must not repeat the same mistake.

I muttered the words inwardly and hugged Im Kkeokjeong tightly.

Today was the day a man returned to the side of his family and friends.

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

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. Every single thing that happened, without leaving anything out.”

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

After finally hearing the entire story, Im Kkeokjeong’s face had hardened.

“It was Ares Guild?”

“Yes.”

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

“Absolutely.”

“…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 the head wasn’t an ordinary one.

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

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

But I had definitely seen it.

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 the exact reason. Song Song and I had sensed something strange and questioned them relentlessly, but they had clamped their mouths shut after giving us the brief answer that 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 with the sound of a knock. A face I had seen only half a day ago appeared there.

Go Jun?

Wait. If that guy had come here, could it be…?

I couldn’t finish the thought. Go Jun’s face slipped out of sight 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 the charisma of a leader and a natural air of intimidation.

Lee Jungryong.

His gaze swept past 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.