Chapter 287

Me, Im Kkeokjeong, Song Song, and Butler Kim.

Yet Lee Jungryong’s gaze, the moment he entered the hospital room, fixed on only one person.

Team Leader Choi.

“You’ve grown a lot.”

“……!”

The moment I heard Lee Jungryong’s first words, it felt as though someone had struck me in the back of the head with a sledgehammer.

So this was what Team Leader Choi had been hiding.

Their relationship was clearly more than that of an ordinary superior and subordinate at work.

As far as I know, Team Leader Choi was with Ares Guild for only three or four years.

Even if I estimated conservatively, he must have met Lee Jungryong when he was in his early to mid-twenties. “You’ve grown a lot” was not something you said to a man like that.

That was the sort of thing you heard from your parents’ friends or relatives during the holidays.

“It’s been a long time, Vice Guild Master Lee Jungryong.”

The stiff title and formal tone made Lee Jungryong stare at Team Leader Choi with an intrigued expression.

“Vice Guild Master? When you were young, you used to call me Grandpa.”

Grandpa?

That was the second shock. For a moment, I wondered if perhaps… but I quickly erased the thought.

This was simply a matter of what he had called him. He had only called Lee Jungryong Grandpa as a child. Lee Jungryong could not actually be Team Leader Choi’s grandfather.

Still, it certainly seemed like they had been close since Team Leader Choi was young.

That alone made Team Leader Choi’s relationship with Lee Jungryong anything but ordinary.

While everyone else was stunned, only two people maintained their composure: Butler Kim and Team Leader Choi, who answered calmly.

“That was twenty years ago.”

“Time is frightening. I never thought that affectionate little boy would turn out like this.”

“The older I got, the more I began to see things that had been invisible to me before.”

“I received a report that you resigned last year. Thinking back on it, I don’t believe I saw your face even once after you joined the Guild. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed.”

His expression showed no disappointment whatsoever, despite his words. Team Leader Choi’s face was no different.

“I felt the same way. If you hadn’t immediately transferred me overseas so I couldn’t even set foot in headquarters, we might have seen each other more often.”

“Why? Didn’t you like the overseas branch?”

“I felt it wasn’t where I belonged. That’s all.”

“Not where you belonged…”

“Wasn’t that the picture you wanted, Vice Guild Master?”

“You think that was what I wanted?”

Lee Jungryong let out a quiet laugh.

“So you built yourself a new nest? Even going so far as to borrow someone else’s name?”

“I’m sorry to interrupt while you’re speaking.”

Butler Kim, who had remained silent until then, suddenly opened his mouth. His voice was as calm as ever.

“But the young master and I aren’t strangers.”

“Oh, who might this be?”

Lee Jungryong widened his eyes in apparent surprise.

It was an exaggerated reaction. If he knew Team Leader Choi, there was no way he could have failed to know Butler Kim, the person closest to him.

“Kim Hwajong? It is Hwajong, isn’t it?”

“It’s been a long time, Senior.”

Butler Kim did not refuse the hand Lee Jungryong extended. The two men shook hands with even faint smiles on their faces.

Informal speech? And Senior?

Putting aside exactly what their relationship was, they seemed to be much closer than I had expected.

“It was a good thing I came in person. The last time we met was… about twenty years ago, wasn’t it?”

“Eighteen years, to be precise. Ship-pal years.”¹

Was it just my imagination, or had he put extra force into certain words?

I glanced to the side. Song Song and Im Kkeokjeong looked as though they had seen a ghost.

Ah. It wasn’t my imagination.

Close, my ass. My eyes must have been broken.

I take it back. Butler Kim didn’t merely dislike Lee Jungryong.

He fucking hated him. He looked as though he would have preferred Lee Jungryong dead.

As a mage, he simply didn’t carry a knife. His tongue was a blade.

At his vicious words, Go Jun, who had been standing behind Lee Jungryong like an iron tower, took a step forward.

“Watch your mouth.”

“Watch my mouth?”

“He is not someone you may address carelessly.”

Butler Kim gave Go Jun a strange look.

“You look highly skilled at a glance, Hunter. What is your name?”

“I’m Go Jun, responsible for the Vice Guild Master’s security.”

“All right, Team Leader Seok.”

Butler Kim’s characteristic low voice continued smoothly.

“If you’ve said everything you have to say, shut your mouth and get back behind him. This isn’t a place for the likes of you to interfere.”

“……!”

Go Jun’s already expressionless face hardened.

Just as the veins began to stand out on his forehead, Lee Jungryong burst into hearty laughter and motioned for Go Jun to step back.

“I thought age might have mellowed you, but… your temper is still the same. This is the Kim Hwajong I remember.”

“When it comes to foul tempers, I’m still several levels below you, Senior. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Team Leader Choi added a word in a chilly voice.

“Let’s end this pointless conversation and get to the matter at hand.”

How many people in Korea—or in the entire world—could speak so carelessly to Lee Jungryong?

Im Kkeokjeong and Song Song were left gaping at the stormy exchange.

Even I was inwardly astonished by Butler Kim’s behavior, despite having personally witnessed him make Im Chunsoo, the Guild Master of Sangdong Guild, crawl like a dog several months ago.

What on earth happened between them?

Team Leader Choi was one thing, but even Butler Kim was completely different from his usual self.

“One of you is young and hot-tempered, while the other still hasn’t managed to abandon the temper he had in his youth. Well, there’s no harm in getting to the point now, I suppose. It’s a little disappointing, considering I came here as an invited guest.”

“Did you just call this an invitation?”

“You’re mistaken. Not one of us would invite you, Vice Guild Master.”

“Think carefully. Surely there’s at least one person who did?”

Lee Jungryong had been looking at the two of them with amusement. Then he suddenly turned his head toward me.

“That fellow.”

Silence descended over the room.

With everyone’s eyes on me, I thought for a moment before carefully opening my mouth.

“What kind of bullshit is that?”

The instant I finished speaking, Go Jun let out a low growl. He looked ready to charge like a hunting dog if Lee Jungryong hadn’t shaken his head.

After restraining Go Jun, Lee Jungryong spoke to me.

“Didn’t you say it yourself? That I should come in person and apologize to the victim.”

“Oh.”

I had definitely said that.

To Park Jihoon and Park Tae Seop.

“You look as though you never expected me to come.”

“To be honest, I didn’t. What are you plotting by coming all the way here?”

“You have a tendency to speak without considering what comes before or after. Since I accepted your invitation, shouldn’t you start by thanking me?”

Thank him?

I let out a hollow laugh. The rest of his words were so absurd that they weren’t worth answering.

“Your mouth may be crooked, but at least speak straight. It wasn’t an invitation. It was a demand. A demand for an apology.”

“No. If coming here had not been my own decision, could you—or the Peace Guild, for that matter—have made me move even a single step?”

“That’s…”

“Didn’t you think so yourself? You really didn’t expect me to come.”

It felt as though someone had dumped a bucket of cold water over me. My words caught in my throat.

Everything he said was true.

Though my heart had cried out for anger and revenge, I had never expected Lee Jungryong to come. Even then, my head had coldly compromised with reality.

Lee Jungryong, the man who effectively ruled Ares Guild, was still a giant I couldn’t force to kneel here through my own strength.

“A demand is the right of the strong. Words spoken by the weak to the strong can never be a demand. They are always a request—or an invitation.”

“……!”

“That’s why I came in response to an invitation. No matter what weakness you think you have in your grasp and wave around, that fact will not change. I am Lee Jungryong. I am Ares Guild, and Ares Guild is me.”

His voice was quiet, but it carried weight. Everyone in the Peace Guild, myself included, was left speechless.

At least one thing was clear. Lee Jungryong had not come here to apologize.

Having etched the overwhelming difference in power into our minds, he continued with a satisfied smile.

“And you shouldn’t treat a guest who came to visit a patient this way. Especially not a guest who brought a present for the patient. Isn’t that right, Team Leader Seok?”

“That is correct, Vice Guild Master.”

Go Jun answered like a robot and knocked on the door. A Hunter from the security team, who had been waiting outside, entered and placed what he was carrying on the table.

A vase filled with hundreds of flowers.

And an envelope.

“Compensation money. If the amount isn’t enough, tell me and I’ll give you more.”

My gaze remained fixed on the flowers. They were beautiful and white. I had never been particularly fond of flowers, but I had never disliked them, either.

Yet this was the first time in my life that receiving flowers as a gift had made me feel disgusted.

Lilies as a hospital-visit gift.

The anger I had forgotten began to crawl back up from the depths.

I rubbed my stiff, tingling neck and muttered,

“What a fucking old bastard…”

This time, even Go Jun couldn’t hold himself back.

With a roar, he charged. His fist lashed toward my lower jaw at blinding speed.

Crack!

Blood sprayed with a chilling sound.

I frowned and slowly turned my tilted head. The taste of sticky, salty blood spread through my mouth.

“Damn it. I bit my tongue.”

Go Jun’s eyes widened. He looked back and forth between his fist and me as though he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“How?”

“I’m pretty tough. I drank a lot of milk when I was young.”

“I definitely imbued it with mana…”

If it had been Fist Energy given physical form, I wouldn’t have been standing here like this.

Of course, if that had been the case, I wouldn’t have let him hit me on purpose, either.

I flashed him a grin.

“You should have used everything you had. Enough to finish me in one blow.”

Whoosh!

“Hup!”

Go Jun sucked in a short breath and reached out to knock my arm aside. He was so fast that an ordinary A-rank Hunter couldn’t even compare.

His hand curved like a hook and snapped toward my wrist.

This really is a grappling technique.

Remembering the surprise I had felt when fighting Park Jihoon, I smoothly twisted my wrist.

Slip.

As his hand clawed at empty air, I smoothly wound around his wrist and tightened my hold. At the same time, I put my strength into a stomp that drove down onto the top of his foot.

Crack!

“Urgh!”

The weight of a thousand geun crushed Go Jun’s instep and drove it deep into the solid concrete. With a groan of pain, he raised his arm to shield his face.

But…

“You think that’ll do?”

One thing was certain.

I hadn’t avoided the blow.

Go Jun hadn’t been able to avoid it.

Crunch!

My fist struck the exact center of his face, breaking his nasal bone in one blow and flattening the area beneath his nose.

His mouth flew open, and white teeth tumbled out amid the blood.

Clatter. Thud.

“You son of a bitch. Who the hell do you think you are, throwing the first punch?”

“……!”

It all happened in an instant. Everyone in the hospital room was shocked, but one person’s reaction stood out in particular.

“You bastard…”

The voice that had been relaxed throughout trembled faintly. Ripples spread through Lee Jungryong’s eyes.

I quickly spoke first, before things could get worse.

“For the record, that was self-defense.”

But the words I heard next were impossible to anticipate, or even guess at.

“What is your relationship with my older brother?”

“Excuse me? Who?”

“The person who taught you that.”

“If you mean that…”

My eyes snapped open.

Was this old man talking about martial arts?

But Lee Jungryong was no longer listening to me. His eyes had sunk deep as he stared at Team Leader Choi.

“Did Soyeong have another man?”

I didn’t know who the name Soyeong referred to.

But apparently, to someone, that name was a dragon’s reverse scale—a point that must never be touched.

Team Leader Choi clenched his fists, and blue flames blazed in Butler Kim’s eyes.

“Senior. Do you want to die?”

“Answer me.”

“You bastard! Lee Jungryong!”

“Now.”

Team Leader Choi’s tightly sealed lips finally parted.

“You know better than I do. What kind of relationship those two had.”

“Then that bastard…”

“You must have already investigated Mr. Jin Taekyung.”

“Are you saying all of that is true?”

“It is exactly as you know it. There isn’t a single lie.”

Lee Jungryong’s eyes trembled.

After looking back and forth between Team Leader Choi and me, he finally turned around slowly. The door opened as though someone had been waiting for the signal, and his steps came to an abrupt halt.

He tossed out a single sentence.

“I’ll send someone soon. Once the negotiations are over, hand over the people you’re holding.”

Click.

The door closed behind the last person to leave—the security team Hunter carrying Go Jun on his back.

It felt as though a storm had just swept through the room.

I turned toward Team Leader Choi, who was silently staring at the tightly closed door.

“Who is Soyeong?”

“She was my mother.”

“……What?”

“The mother who gave birth to me and raised me. She passed away a long time ago.”

My mouth fell open despite myself.

What the hell is wrong with this old man?

Lee Jungryong had asked Team Leader Choi whether his late mother had cheated while she was alive—her own son, no less.

“Crazy. Why would he—ah, never mind. You don’t have to answer.”

“It seems the shock was considerable for Vice Guild Master Lee Jungryong. I didn’t expect him to ask so directly, either.”

To hell with whether he was shocked.

I frantically waved my hand.

“Team Leader, really, it’s fine. You don’t have to tell me.”

“Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if my mother had been born as someone other than Cheon Taemin’s daughter.”

“All right, that’s enough…”

My body abruptly froze.

What did he just say?

Although I couldn’t move an inch, my mind repeated three syllables faster than ever.

Cheon Taemin. Cheon Taemin. Cheon Taemin…

“Did you just say Cheon Taemin?”

“If my pronunciation wasn’t incorrect, then you heard me correctly.”

“Could it be… the Cheon Taemin I know?”

“Yes.”

Team Leader Choi nodded and continued.

“He was my maternal grandfather.”

For a moment, my vision spun and my legs wobbled.

Cheon Taemin. He said Cheon Taemin.

I had once harbored doubts about Team Leader Choi’s identity.

A man in his twenties with seemingly limitless ability, whom an A-rank mage known as a hidden hero of the Great Cataclysm called Young Master.

Now I finally understood how all of that had been possible.

It was because his maternal grandfather was Cheon Taemin.

Humanity’s great hero. The world’s greatest Hunter…

Among all the words used to describe Cheon Taemin, the title “Guild Master of Ares Guild” was only a small piece.

The name of the largest piece was an immortal achievement no one else could ever attain.

The man who killed the Demon King. The Slayer.

That Cheon Taemin’s maternal grandson was standing before me.