Awaking as an S-rank don't mean one get tired. Especially if someone was alredy overworked stayed up all night, went throught battle, and was injured to book, his eyes would be sore and his body would be aching.
Song Taewon swallowed a sigh and lowered his head to the desk. He was currently in an office not in the Awakening Office, but at the Hunter Association. Originally, documents that required processing would be sent through the Association to the Awakening Office. But instead of waiting for them, he was just borrowing an Association desk and getting them done directly. There was no need to waste manpower and time, but there was also no room to.
"This is the last of the MKC-managed dungeons."
An Association staff member placed a file on one side of the desk and asked if they could get him some coffee. Song Taewon answered that coffee didn't work on him, but he'd bother them for some, and turned back to the papers.
Choi Sukwon had used illegal items and grown into an SS-rank, but was being treated as though he'd run away. To subdue Choi Sukwon at the scene, in addition to S-rank Hunters Song Taewon, Riette, and Noah, Kim Minee and A-rank Hunter Kang Soyoung joined forces, but Choi Sukwon fled to a nearby A-rank dungeon and went missing.
It was quite a different story from the facts, but that was how it was reported.
Above all, it could not be revealed that Choi Sukwon, who'd turned into an SSS-rank, had been subdued by the stat F-rank Han Yoojin. It was impossible to explain properly, and the relevant party had also asked for it to be kept secret.
Song Taewon personally visited MKC to inform them of Choi Sukwon's actions, that the guild leader had gone missing in a dungeon, and that he was presumed dead. It was to prevent the high-ranking guild members who heard the news from raging.
Then he spent all night collecting all the documents related to MKC's S-rank equipment and 5-ranked dungeons. Since the other party was who it was, he couldn't leave it to the Management Office or another Association Hunter. As the guild was on the brink of collapse, there was also a need to expedite the process so that the guild members wouldn't steal anything.
Thanks to this, he was searching MKC until the sun rose at dawn, and was doing a final review to see if he'd missed anything even after he returned to the Association.
"When I'm done, we'll have a press conference..."
He'd have to wash up and change clothes. Song Taewon didn't drink the coffee he was handed, only wrapping his hand around it. It was summer, but the warmth from the paper cup was nice. The white paper cup in his big hand looked ridiculously small, enough so to ease his mood.
If it hadn't been for the uninvited guest who suddenly came in.
"Chief Song Taewon."
He was aware of his presence even before the door opened. But Song Taewon didn't pretend to have expected him; he only raised his head once called, and got up from his seat. Sung Hyunjae, the Seseong Guild Leader, stood there with a smile on his face.
And a round, white baby bird was sitting on his head.
-Chirp!
It was hard to recognize its expression, of course, I suppose you had a wonderful time with Han Yoojin-gun while I was away. Didn't I tell you it was polite to return things to their owner's hands if you found them?"
"Not only is Han Yoojin-ssi not an item, you're blaming me for your own negligence."
"I have nothing to say about that."
Sung Hyunjae made himself look pitiful.
"I didn't know he'd leave the house and abandon his child."
-Cheep!
The small break nipped at the fingertips that approaches it.
"Hunter Kang Soyoung was also on the scene".
"Soyoung went on a date. She went into a dungeon with hunter Riette at dawn, saying she had to revive the feelings from yesterday before she forgot them".
As soon as she woke up, she disappeard, leaving only a note about the dungeon raid. Indeed, there was no Auch thing as separating a fish from it's water.
Since Kang Soyoung and Riette entered a dungeon, Song Taewon was the only one left who could give an objective overview to Sung Hyunje. Han Yoojin wouldn't refuse to provide information, but the person who knew the most should be spoken to last. The smaller the gaps in information, the more accurately and deeply he could extract what he needed.
"There will be an official announcement soon."
"What an unamusing joke. Did you have breakfast?"
Instead of answering, Song Taewon stared at the man who was unique even among S-rank Awakened people. At the same time, he remembered last night's events.
Han Yoohyun.
He was an Awakened person who, of course, gave off an aura similar to that of Sung Hyunje. But it felt different last night.
Not that of a noble beast looking down upon everyone, but that of a human. A simple child who had barely grown up. That was how it appeared to him. He seemed to be not an animal who was pretending to be tied to a leash, but an ordinary human being who had no choice but to helplessly crawl across the ground, wrapped in all sorts of emotions towards others.
If that was so, then was the same possible for the man in front of him? Or for other S-rank Awakened people? What about the S-ranks Han Yoojin was already looking after?
Then the door burst open, and a woman in her mid- to late 40s appeared. Choi Eunyeong, a former executive at the Hunter Association who'd lost her position, had returned to the scene. Glancing between Song Taewon and Sung Hyunje, she smiled widely.
"Oho, life is worth living. Our Chief Song-nim is also amazing in many ways, but."
With confident steps, she walked up to the two men and continued to speak.
"You're as picturesque as always, Seseong Guild Leader-nim. You look good in your new fashion. The thing I regretted most after leaving the Association was that I wouldn't get to see you up close in person anymore."
"Ah, I thought I'd given you my personal contact information, but excuse me."
"I remember the number clearly in my head. But I don't have the confidence to set up a private meeting with you."
Choi Eunyeong turned her smiling face on Song Taewon. Her eyes softened, though.
"The MKC crackdown is almost over, so you can leave the cleanup to me. You should go home now."
"It's alright."
"You might be fine with it, Chief Song-nim, but we onlookers are not. Someone brought a nice car; Seseong Guild Leader-nim, I ask you to take over."
"I'll take him back safely and responsibly."
"Then I understand that Chief Song-nim will personally drive out the S-rank Hunter from the Association's cloudy atmosphere, so see you tomorrow."
When she said "we've put out the urgent fires, so you can even come in the day after tomorrow," Song Taewon hesitated slightly and then cleaned up his desk.
The room was already sunny when I opened my eyes. My little brother was still sleeping. Even with the help of skills and potions, a lot of energy went into healing big wounds like his; it would be exhausting. Choi Sukwon, you son of a bitch.
What was more, maybe because of the fog or a skill, his recovery was slow, and there was still a wound on his shoulder. Seeing the reddened traces peeking out of his collar, I simmered with anger again. I really shouldn't have allowed him to die so easily.
'Breakfast… or, no, lunch.'
It was a little early for lunch. Anyway, I was going to eat. When I got off the bed, Yoohyun-ie's eyes opened slightly. I patted him on the head, telling him to sleep more.
My eyesight recovered a little overnight, so I didn't wear contact lenses. Since I'd been recovering little by little every day, I had to get my glasses and lenses refitted daily. But now, I could see pretty well without them.
Ssss.
Bellaré, who was on the windowsill as if photosynthesizing, raised its head towards me. I scooped up the Jewel Snake and went into the bathroom attached to the bedroom. Bellaré liked water, so when I put it down and turned on the shower, it spun around underneath the spray. I washed up quickly and left the bedroom.
I needed to pick up Chirpie. Should I ask them to send it over?
Chirp!
"…Eh?"
A familiar sound came from the side of the living room connected to the kitchen. It was unsurprising. It had teleported again. I was so proud of our Chirp...
"You're awake."
"…Fuck, what the hell?"
It was Sung Hyunje. Cursing spilled out of my mouth. At the same time, the closed bedroom door suddenly opened, and Yoohyun-ie appeared in the doorway, face still half-asleep and hair disheveled.
"Hyung!"
"Don't come out. I'll take care of this, so go get some more rest."
I told him to go inside, but Yoohyun-ie still stood there staring at Sung Hyunje, even with his tired eyes. I asked him what he was glaring at when he was the one who left me at Seseong, and just barely got him to go back into the bedroom, ordering him to go wash up first.
Sung Hyunje had a disgusted look on his face when he heard what happened last night. If this guy had arrived in time, I would've mournfully shouted for Choi Sukwon to not touch Sung Hyunje-ssi.
"You didn't come for a long time, why are you trespassing now?"
"I thought while I delivered what you left behind, I'd deliver my excuse as well."
Sung Hyunje said, glancing at Chirpie spinning around me. So it hadn't needed to teleport.
"I'll hear you out."
I gave a lukewarm answer and went into the kitchen. He'd lost a lot of blood, so I'd have to feed him meat. But since I'd been away for a few days, the fridge would be empty of ingredients… or not. I saw fresh vegetables and meat as well as seafood.
When I looked back at Sung Hyunje, he took out a card and put it on the table.
"You left this behind, too."
"You gave it to me to use however I wanted. Forget that, the fridge being restocked..."
"You left my home, but the contract is binding. I have an obligation to feed you well."
"That contract, wasn't it broken?"
"It isn't violated if there's a certain level of protection in place; you walked out alone, though. Do you also have a stealth skill?"
Even my skills were revealed; I wanted to go back in time.
"Yes, yes. You've finally found the hidden bonus. Congratulations, as it's a bonus skill, we won't charge you any fees. Feel free to contact me whenever you need it."
"I'm surprised it's free."
"Sometimes there are such services. Of course, if you exceed the basic 30 minutes, there's an additional charge per 10 minutes for travel expenses."
What a conscientious plan. As I put down Bellaré and took out ingredients from the refrigerator, Sung Hyunje looked at me with a strangely satisfied expression.
"What are you looking at?"
"As I thought, you really are good."
"If you're going to talk nonsense, get the green onions."
Were there S-rank green onions? If an S-rank is the one cutting the green onions, they're S-rank green onions. I tossed him a whole bunch of green onions, and he caught them with a smile. I guess he liked green onions.
"Did Jellyfish show up again?"
Chiiik, the meat cooked on a heated pan. Sung Hyunje nodded as he cracked an egg into a bowl for steamed eggs.
"She asked me if I knew the crescent moon."
"Ah. That's one of the immoral people, but we can't meet her now because she's asleep. They said she knew Jellyfish."
Why did she bother to visit Sung Hyunje and ask? Because of the Seeker's Chains? His conversation with Jellyfish wasn't very long, but perhaps that bitch had tossed him into a space where time was warped, because by the time he'd burned her up and the fog lifted, it was close to midnight.
"Thanks to that, there were complaints that we couldn't see Candy Box."
What candy box. Was there a kid with you? I gave him a brief account of the Fog Sea Clan.
"I hope you won't sign a contract again. I can't do anything because she's not a curse-poison dragon type."
"Don't worry, Han Yoojin-gun, you still come first. It was a lot more boring than I thought."
He didn't seem to be lying. Still, when I heard she'd visited Sung Hyunje, I thought I should crack down further on the S-rank Hunters in Korea. Although there weren't just a few. I'd added two, but two were gone. Including Noah and Seseong's new recruit, the number was two more.
"Seseong's new S-rank Hunter—Evelyn, was it? Is she trustworthy? Jellyfish might approach other S-rank Hunters."
"She's a young lady who hates peddlers and cults very much."
"I do not like them either."
Anyway, he said she wouldn't switch sides easily. I had nothing to worry about with our kids, and Moon Hyuna wasn't a hard personality either. Kim Sunghan wasn't the type to betray Yoohyun-ie, so only Song Taewon and Hanshin were left. Song Taewon shouldn't be worrisome, so I'd have to meet with Hanshin's Bak Mingyu.
Once the S-rank Hunters were prevented from falling to Jellyfish's side, the domestic cleanup would almost be over.
"Give us the MKC Hunters. We need two new teams."
With the guild leader dead, there would be quite a few A-rank Hunters leaving. Soodam was relatively small, and its vice guild leader did a good job, but MKC was big enough that there would be many leaks. There would also be sales of its S-rank equipment and S-rank dungeons.
"Ah, the healer! Don't forget about their healer, in particular. There's already an A-rank healer at Seseong."
"The more high-rank healers, the better."
"No, that absolutely won't do. Does it make sense that we have three S-rank Hunters, but no A-rank Healers? Please hand them over peacefully."
As far as I remembered, MKC's A-rank healer was quite good. Was it a Chinese man? Currently, there were only two domestic A-rank healers, at Seseong and MKC. Which meant Breaker and Hanshin as well as other mid-ranked guilds would be snooping around, so we should reduce our rivals by one at the least.
I also clamored that all the Cold Resistance items should be ours while setting the table. In the middle, Yoohyun-ie snuck into the kitchen to help, but I chased him off to the living room, telling him to apply a potion. With that kind of injury, he should be taking a long vacation.
"Han Yoojin-gun."
While I was trying to decide whether to put out bowls and spoons for only two or three people, Sung Hyunje called out to me.
"You've helped especially, so make sure you eat—"
Sung Hyunje grabbed my arm and tugged it. Suddenly, the sound of running water came from the sink. He asked in a low voice, mingled with the sound of water, so that even an S-rank Hunter couldn't overhear.
"Are you confident you won't sign the contract till the end?"
He must be talking about the contract with Jellyfish. He looked at me as if he wanted to dig through my skull.
"What does it matter?"
"I'm not used to losing things, so I don't like it."
"If you aren't used to it, then you must've lived comfortably."
"To put it simply, I'm worried about you."
At the same time, his eyes creased in a friendly smile. If I said 'I was thinking of signing the contract,' he'd lock me up in shackles right away. If I asked my brother to help, that idiot Yoohyun would put me on a tight leash.
"I don't want to sign the contract."
It wasn't a lie trying to escape the situation. Jellyfish's proposal was still tempting. But.
"My little brother is still young. I can't go without him."
It would hurt if I died, but what could I do? I had no choice but to keep him close in my arms. Also.
"You can have bread with jam."
That's the perfect amount for him.