Chapter 39 of 50

Chapter 39

"Ah, this was the fastest road...."

A disappointed sigh came from beside me.

I looked over curiously, and Eom Seok-hwan added an explanation like he was making excuses.

"Roads in the provinces don't get repaired as quickly as they do around the capital once monsters destroy them. If we have to take a detour, we'll be going around for a long time."

"It's that bad?"

"You saw it yourself in Eumgil Village. Monsters cross mountains and rivers just to wander into villages out here."

A beat later, he added that the roads were at least maintained to this degree because Glory Guild and several smaller guilds operated in the region.

His fondness for Glory Guild was obvious.

Gate management in provincial cities worked differently from the metropolitan area.

Around the capital, guilds divided territory almost like they were claiming land.

Every Gate that appeared inside a guild's territory became that guild's responsibility.

If a small or medium guild discovered a Gate inside its territory that it couldn't handle alone, it sent consortium requests to neighboring guilds and larger guilds it had relationships with.

Want to clear this together? We'll adjust the share of the rewards.

The provinces were different.

There simply weren't enough large guilds capable of handling everything even if territories were divided.

So Glory Guild declared practically the entire provincial region its territory.

Smaller Gates, from F to C-Class, were assigned to small and medium guilds first.

For larger Gates, from B to S-Class, Glory Guild received priority, then recruited cooperating guilds through auctions to form joint teams.

In other words, Glory Guild barely cleared any Gates entirely by itself.

The remaining members were divided between patrol forces and emergency support units that responded whenever smaller guilds sent out an SOS.

It felt less like a private company and more like the knightly order of a medieval lord.

"Let's at least ask how long it'll take. If waiting is faster, we'll wait. If not, we'll go around."

"All right."

The Glory Guild member holding a megaphone had been shouting instructions whenever a vehicle approached.

When our car stopped, he looked over in confusion.

Then Eom Seok-hwan stepped out of the driver's seat.

The guild member's mouth fell open.

"Urk!"

The single, undignified cry spread through the megaphone and ruined the atmosphere.

Judging from the way Eom Seok-hwan's shoulders shook outside my window, he was definitely trying not to laugh too.

A moment later, a booming greeting followed.

"Good afternoon! You're Team Leader Eom Seok-hwan of Yeonwoo Guild's Raid Team Two, correct?"

"Yes, yes. Good afternoon. Thank you for your hard work. I'm Eom Seok-hwan, captain of Yeonwoo Guild's Raid Team Two."

"Haha! What an honor! One of my colleagues told me they met you in Eumgil Village. Judging from the road you're using, are you heading back to Seoul?"

"Yes. I've been away for quite a while, so it's about time I returned."

The Glory Guild member hesitated for a moment before carefully speaking.

"I'm certainly happy to meet you, but... may I ask why you stopped your vehicle?"

"If we can't use this road, I have no idea how far we'll have to detour. Do you know roughly how long it'll take to clear the Gate? I'm currently on security duty, so I'm not asking to join the operation. But if we can wait, we'd rather do that."

"Ah, I understand. Could you wait just a moment?"

The Glory Guild member ran toward the temporary camp inside the control line and spoke with someone.

Then he quickly returned.

"Ah... I'm afraid I have bad news. It's an Eruption-Type Gate, and the rank is fairly high, so they're expecting a prolonged operation. Unfortunately, taking the detour would probably still be faster."

"That's unfortunate...."

Eom Seok-hwan soon trudged back toward the vehicle.

I'd already overheard most of the conversation, so he didn't need to explain.

The moment the window lowered, he asked,

"What do you want to do?"

"It's annoying, but we'll have to go around."

Eom Seok-hwan nodded heavily and stepped back to open the car door.

That was when someone suddenly rushed out of the distant Glory Guild camp and hurried toward us.

Eom Seok-hwan closed the half-open door again and stepped in front of the vehicle, cautiously watching the approaching person.

The other man belatedly seemed to realize Eom Seok-hwan was performing security duty.

He raised both palms and slowed down.

"Guild Master Glory left instructions for us to deliver a message if we happened to meet Crafter Do Hwa-in again."

Even his tone and word choice sounded like a knight serving some provincial lord.

As expected of Glory Guild, which supposedly lived and died by its concept.

I lowered the window and looked at him.

"What message?"

"Crafter Do Hwa-in! It's an honor to meet you! Ah! Here, the message was written in this letter."

The guild member reached inside his armor and pulled out a rather old-fashioned letter sealed with wax.

Wow. They're serious.

I'd never seen someone actually use one of those outside of a hobby.

Still, seeing it in person did make it look rather elegant.

The Glory Guild emblem had been pressed into the wax.

The detail contained inside such a tiny seal was so intricate that I almost wanted to inspect the stamp itself.

I carefully ran my finger over the sealing wax, feeling the uneven texture, then looked up.

"Can I open it here?"

"Please do as you wish!"

Despite the elaborate stationery, there was only a single sentence inside.

[The gates of Glory will always remain open to you.]

The handwriting was beautiful enough to make even the sentence look impressive.

But how did he know when or where I'd meet one of his guild members?

Surely he hadn't handed every single guild member going outside a copy of this letter... right?

For some reason, I strongly suspected that was exactly what he'd done.

The guild member was subtly looking curious about the contents.

Apparently even he didn't know.

I casually tilted the letter forward.

He immediately scanned it.

Eom Seok-hwan beside him did the same.

"Wow."

Eom Seok-hwan's reaction was brief.

The Glory Guild member's was anything but.

His expression suddenly turned deeply moved.

Then he asked us to wait and hurried back to the camp.

A short while later, he returned and said,

"You mentioned you'd have to take a long detour if you can't use this road, correct?"

"Yes. That's right, but...."

Eom Seok-hwan trailed off, sensing something strange.

"Actually, there's still some time before the Gate's predicted emergence. We'll open the road briefly for you, so please pass through quickly. We've already been controlling traffic for quite some time, so the road should be empty. If you maintain a high speed, you'll leave the danger zone quickly and get home much sooner."

The words spilled out rapidly, almost excitedly.

Instead of the bewildered Eom Seok-hwan, I asked,

"...Is that really okay?"

"Of course! Guild Master Glory is clearly showing great favor toward Crafter Do Hwa-in, isn't he? This much convenience is within our authority. And both of you are Hunters as well."

Just what exactly did it mean for the gates of Glory to be open?

Why did one sentence make them this generous?

...And what was with this loyalty to their guild master that seemed to defy the modern age?

Still, the offer was nothing but beneficial to us.

So I bowed gratefully.

"...What a strange guild."

Eom Seok-hwan eventually muttered that while we sped down the completely empty road, just as the guild member had promised.

I snorted and nodded.

I hurried toward the workshop.

The sculpture inside my head felt like a beast about to break out of an egg.

My heart pounded.

Hot blood raced through my veins.

It felt as though my entire body had become the shell, vibrating all the way to my fingertips.

Bang!

I threw open the workshop door.

Everything looked exactly as it had before I left.

Except for the materials moved to storage, the remaining stone and wood stood neatly in place, waiting for the hammer.

My gaze immediately landed on the granite positioned near the center.

Gray stone.

Almost as though I'd somehow predicted the future when buying it.

In an instant, the finished sculpture appeared over the material like a mirage.

A single person walking.

Tired, perhaps.

But still taking another step without stopping.

A person's walk could contain many meanings.

You only had to look at the word footprints to understand that.

But this time, there was only one meaning I wanted to put into the sculpture.

I understand you now, Father.

I realized you were once a child just like me.

It would be a fitting opening for persuasion.

"Hup."

I drew in a deep breath and raised the hammer.

My muscles pulled naturally from countless repetitions, and my bones followed in a smooth motion.

BANG!

The guards stationed around Do Hwa-in's home turned toward the visitor.

The middle-aged man who had accidentally slammed his old car door too hard cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Ahem."

"Sir, may I ask what business brings you here?"

The visitor tensed as a large Hunter approached him politely.

The mansion behind him looked like an ordinary house, merely built on a somewhat large lot.

And yet there were already five guards visible.

Every single one looked like a Hunter.

They carried weapons that ordinary civilians wouldn't normally possess, and their bodies were lean and trained.

I knew from the news that he's close with Yeonwoo Guild, but....

What kind of artist walked around surrounded by Hunter bodyguards?

"Sir?"

"Ah! My apologies. I'm... this person."

The visitor hurriedly pulled a business card from his wallet.

[...Professor, Department of Sculpture, ○○ University of Arts
Park Su-ung]

"I came to see my student."

"...Your student?"

Several guards turned their heads so quickly it almost made a sound.

They looked toward the workshop.

"Haha. Yes. If you don't believe me, you can ask him. My student was the one who contacted me first, so there shouldn't be a problem."

"Understood. Please wait here for a moment."

Professor Park Su-ung watched the broad shoulders move away and thought of his student.

That stubborn brat.

Park Su-ung had been Do Hwa-in's supervising professor.

He'd also been rather fond of him.

That was why he'd held many counseling sessions with him near graduation.

Naturally, most of them had been about his future.

"Hwa-in, are you really going to keep working only with wood?"

"I'll work with stone too."

"That's not what I mean, you brat. Do you have any idea how advanced technology has become? And how little space pure art has left because of it?"

Park Su-ung had been born before the Gate Era.

Even back then, pure art already carried the reputation of something that doesn't make money.

When Gates first appeared, everyone had been too busy trying not to die to worry about the future of art.

And after society stabilized?

All kinds of bizarre technology.

Skills.

New social systems.

Inside all of that, art was practically screaming its final death throes.

Honestly, the only reason art universities still exist is because of the stubbornness of old masters.

Even during the early Gate Crisis, when everyone was concerned only with survival, some people fought desperately to preserve art.

Their efforts had been effective enough that while the general public may have forgotten, art had not disappeared from academia.

And Master Painter Do Jae-hwan, the man Do Hwa-in had asked him to investigate, had been one of those elders who shouted that art had to be protected during the Gate Crisis.

To think my student's family was connected to one of the senior figures of the art world.

He hadn't said it aloud.

But seeing the surname alone made the relationship obvious.

Click.

In the distance, a familiar face approached, drenched in sweat.

A face that was both irritating and strangely missed.

"Professor."

The student he hadn't seen in years still wore the same stubborn expression.

"Yeah. Mind letting me inside?"

"Of course."

I stared quietly at my professor after seeing him for the first time in years.

The face that had gradually blurred in my memory instantly became vivid again.

"What brings you all the way here?"

"You're the one who emailed me, and now you're asking that?"

"I expected a reply. I didn't think you'd come personally."

"I know perfectly well that once you start working, you lose all sense of time. Rather than have you notice my reply weeks late, it was easier to come here myself."

"Still...."

It hadn't felt like that many years had passed.

Yet more wrinkles had appeared on his face.

His black hair had faded into dark gray.

His hands looked rougher than before, and his back had become slightly stooped.

Apparently, he'd kept working all this time.

"Enough. I came because I wanted to. Don't worry about it. More importantly, about what you asked me to look into."

"Yes."

"To be honest, there are plenty of people who know the name Master Painter Do Jae-hwan. There just aren't many who knew him well."

"..."

"Most of the people who knew him well are dead."

Nothing in this age was more fleeting than a human life.

Especially artists active around Grandfather's generation.

Most had already been elderly.

Apparently, very few were still alive.

"But I managed to contact one of Master Painter Do Jae-hwan's students."

My eyes widened.

Then Professor Park started to rise.

Huh? Is he leaving without giving me an address or contact information?

I stared at him with round eyes.

He waved one hand vaguely through the air.

"Come on. I'm the one who contacted them. It'd be rude to send you alone."

"Now?"

"When else? You were sculpting anyway, weren't you?"

"I was, but...?"

"Doesn't that sculpture take months to finish? Back in university, you used to leave the studio while working just to eat, sleep, or go drinking. Why are you acting like this is strange now?"

"..."

When he put it that way, I had nothing to say.

Maybe it's because ever since graduation, once I start a piece, I've usually stayed shut inside until I finish it.

I scratched the back of my head and stood.

"We'll take my car. I'll drive you, so don't worry."

"Ah. Give me a minute. I have to tell the guards."

"Good grief. Right. What kind of artist needs bodyguards? Artists are supposed to be free and...."

Age hadn't changed his personality at all.

I simply smiled and walked outside.

I heard him click his tongue teasingly behind me.

I pretended not to.

Several hours later...

My professor, two guards, and I arrived at a seaside village.

"Living by the ocean in this era...."

I heard one of the guards mutter in admiration from the passenger seat.

It was certainly a dangerous choice.

At the same time, I could vaguely understand it.

Outside the window, the ocean filled my entire field of vision, as though embracing everything.

Wasn't the sea said to be both cradle and grave?

The movement of the water, carrying life and death as it rolled in and receded, made my chest swell.

"...This is actually my first time seeing the ocean in person."

"That's probably true for most people these days. This is only my second time too. The first was when I was deployed for a government-requested large-scale monster wave."

"You never know what could come out of the ocean.... It's not really somewhere people can casually travel anymore."

No matter how countries divided territorial waters, every ocean was connected.

Even if South Korea managed its Gates perfectly, if another country failed, monsters spread across borders freely.

Ocean Gates were especially troublesome.

The Gate Emergence Forecasting Device could detect them.

But actually dealing with them was difficult.

There were monsters that had crossed over before the forecasting device was invented.

Monsters released afterward by countries that didn't possess forecasting technology.

Monsters abandoned because governments discovered Gates but lacked the manpower to clear them.

Creatures released from neglected Gates all over the world now swam through that vast ocean.

In the modern age, monsters disrupted everything from trade to fishing.

Countries with enough Hunters periodically cleared their territorial waters, but....