Chapter 48
Taepyeong Guild was like this too. And Ryu Seon-hwa....
At this point, it was practically a jinx.
Relationships that began with someone handing me a business card never seemed to go well.
My relationship with Taepyeong Guild only improved because their vice guild master worked hard at it.
I carefully controlled my expression and looked at TIDY Executive Director Jeon Dae-hun.
Maybe it was his professional mask.
Or maybe he trusted the Hunter Association standing behind him.
Either way, he was forcing himself to look relaxed.
The cold sweat on his face was harder to hide.
Well, the criminal organization they were backing just collapsed.
Jeon Dae-hun smiled faintly and spoke.
"I'm sure my sudden visit surprised you. But matters like this need to be handled quickly."
"So you're admitting from the start that TIDY had an organized crime group under it?"
I cut straight through his attempt to soften the conversation.
At my words, Jeon Dae-hun crossed his legs.
"Hmm. You already know TIDY was involved anyway."
I had expected him to dodge the question a little longer without giving a direct answer.
He admitted it that easily?
Simply coming here in person was already close to acknowledging TIDY's connection to the Blue Dragon Gang.
But this wasn't something he should be confessing with his own mouth.
There's no way the Association would handle this so carelessly.
Then this must be TIDY acting on its own.
A sucker had practically walked into my hands.
I subtly glanced toward In Yeonhae and gave her a signal.
"Then let's get to the point. This is our compensation proposal. There are conditions, of course."
"You're calling it compensation while attaching conditions?"
"It should be acceptable to both sides. Please read it first. Then we can discuss the details."
Wondering what else he intended to say, I looked over the proposal.
The contents were...
Exactly what I'd expected.
"...Ah."
Even with only a quick glance, certain phrases stood out.
Monetary compensation.
Preferential settlement rates when signing a processing contract with TIDY.
Strict confidentiality.
These people spent so long bullying Phoenix Guild that they must have started seeing Hunters as people beneath them.
First, the amount offered as monetary compensation was one billion won.
That's about the price of a B-Rank weapon.
Of course, one billion won was a lot of money.
The problem was who they were offering it to.
The captain of Yeonwoo Guild's Support Team.
A Raid Team captain.
And me.
For people who weren't exactly desperate for money, it wasn't particularly attractive.
Then there should have been some other worthwhile compensation.
And what they came up with was better settlement rates if we signed a Gate byproduct-processing contract with TIDY.
Yeonwoo Guild already used another processor.
And I didn't even enter Gates.
If anything, I was the person who bought Gate byproducts from guilds and processing companies to use as sculpting materials.
Jeon Dae-hun still looked perfectly confident.
Apparently, he genuinely believed this proposal would satisfy us enough to keep what happened in Jeongmyeong confidential.
From TIDY's perspective, maybe that confidence is natural.
They'd spent years pressuring Hunters and guilds in Jeongmyeong.
No wonder Hunters looked easy to them.
Most of the guilds TIDY had dealt with were small or medium-sized.
Most of them probably lowered their heads on their own.
And behind TIDY was the Association.
A national organization even major guilds had difficulty challenging.
Of course their confidence would soar.
But why would I care about any of that?
"Not interested."
"What?"
Executive Director Jeon Dae-hun looked genuinely flustered.
He clearly hadn't expected such an immediate rejection.
"You called this compensation. Why are there so many demands attached?"
"They're only natural requirements."
Natural, my ass.
I slipped the proposal into my clothes and continued.
"We don't need any of this. Yeonwoo Guild doesn't use TIDY. I don't use TIDY either. And giving us one billion won while telling us to keep everything confidential doesn't make sense."
I tilted my head.
"Do you really think we're that easy? You didn't even bother researching us before coming here."
"W-Well, that's...."
"We don't need anything else."
I smiled.
"One hundred billion won per person. That sounds like compensation I'd consider reasonable."
Phoenix Guild Master.
Two guards.
Eom Seok-hwan.
And me.
Five hundred billion won in total.
Even for a company like TIDY, there was no way they could immediately produce that much cash.
"That's absurd!"
"If you don't like it, let's negotiate directly with the Association. What does the Association say?"
"The Association hasn't said anything yet... Ah!"
Jeon Dae-hun hurriedly covered his mouth.
Tsk. Shame.
I would've liked him to keep talking.
I hadn't actually demanded that amount because I expected to receive it.
I wanted to collect as much evidence as possible before the Association tried cutting off its tail.
For an executive, this man was remarkably careless.
Behind Jeon Dae-hun, In Yeonhae lightly waved her phone.
She'd recorded it properly.
Jeon Dae-hun covered his face and sighed before speaking heavily.
"...Are you sure you won't regret this?"
"I don't think I'm the one who should be worrying about regret."
Jeon Dae-hun swallowed.
Then he looked toward Eom Seok-hwan.
"...Does Yeonwoo Guild share the same position?"
"Yes. So stop wasting everyone's time and leave."
"Even after seeing what happened to Phoenix Guild?"
"I feel bad for Phoenix Guild, but Yeonwoo and Phoenix are in completely different weight classes."
"..."
Jeon Dae-hun kept shaking his head as he backed away.
"I'll report this to my superiors. Whatever happens afterward, I hope you don't regret it."
With that, he hurriedly left the pottery village.
"...Should we go back inside and finish the pottery experience?"
"Sounds good."
What made up me?
I wasn't talking about things like the human body being sixty-six percent water, sixteen percent protein, thirteen percent fat, and so on.
Something more abstract.
What did I live through?
What were the things that made me into me?
Ironically, those were the thoughts that filled my head as I spun the wheel and carved away at clay until I was satisfied.
Not ways to combine a new form of art with what I already did.
Not ideas for using clay in some future piece.
Instead...
Why had I sculpted?
Why had I lived as though I would die without sculpture?
Did sculpture itself keep me alive?
Those thoughts were closely tied to the theme I'd chosen for the second piece before leaving on this journey.
I didn't push the questions away.
I let them rise.
And let them flow wherever they wanted.
Eventually, I remembered what had first made me want to sculpt.
Grandfather, who taught me about art, had been a painter.
My parents hated anything related to art.
Yet despite that, I had fallen in love with sculpture because of a television program I happened to see.
Maybe it had been a special produced for the twentieth anniversary of the Gate Crisis.
One of those programs that looked back on the past and remembered everything humanity had lost.
Among the footage was a sculptor.
He appeared after a film director, an idol, and a dancer, as one of the people representing pre-Gate culture.
Anyway.
I had been captivated by that footage.
They hadn't even shown the finished sculpture.
Just a man sweating like a construction worker while hammering away.
As a child, I became curious about what could make someone focus that intensely.
That curiosity led me to photographs of countless sculptures.
Michelangelo.
Rodin.
Alberto Giacometti.
Henry Moore....
Maybe part of the reason I still insisted on classical sculpting methods wasn't just personal preference.
The sculptor in that old video had been holding a hammer and chisel.
Powerful childhood memories always left some kind of mark.
I can't even remember the sculptor's name or face anymore.
But one thing remained perfectly clear.
His back.
The way he carefully brought the hammer down.
As though that exact moment had been the one that captivated my younger self.
"Good."
I'd decided.
I would sculpt the image that had created the present-day me.
South Korea.
Seoul.
Hunter Association Headquarters.
"Damn it...!"
BOOM!
The loud noise made every employee in the office flinch.
"How the hell did you handle this?!"
SWISH!
The documents he threw failed to land on the desk and scattered across the floor.
The increasingly messy office almost seemed to reflect the department director's current state of mind.
"Why did those idiots have to touch Do Hwa-in there?!"
"W-Well...."
The department director glared at his subordinate.
The employee who had come to report on the Jeongmyeong situation could tell from that look that the man was waiting to hear what excuse he would make.
The employee instantly regretted trying to defend himself.
There wasn't really anything he could say.
At best:
Apparently they thought they could treat Yeonwoo Guild and Artist Do Hwa-in the way they treated small guilds.
Which was practically the same as admitting that the people working for them were stupid, reckless bastards.
And that we had been on the same side as those stupid, reckless bastards.
And then those TIDY idiots tried to clean things up and made it even worse....
If TIDY's executive director hadn't gone personally to Artist Do Hwa-in and Yeonwoo Guild claiming he would resolve the situation, things would've been better.
They could've cut off the Blue Dragon Gang and ended it there.
After all, the entire reason they'd used a criminal organization so unsuitable for a national institution was because they were disposable.
A tail that could be cut off whenever necessary.
But TIDY had personally approached them.
Offered compensation.
Then asked them to keep the Jeongmyeong incident secret.
Worse, they'd written it all down and handed the document directly to the enemy.
Now there was evidence that TIDY had been protecting a third-rate criminal organization in Jeongmyeong.
And the idiot even took the bait so openly.
How dare a subsidiary start talking about what the Association thinks?
It had effectively created evidence that the Association was connected to the matter as well.
The Blue Dragon Gang and TIDY both....
Did they think that because small guilds trembled in front of them, the entire world would bow too?
They liked bragging that the Association stood behind them.
Judging from the way they acted, they seemed to believe they were the Association.
Meanwhile, the person who actually worked for the Association was getting screamed at by his department director in their place.
The employee's eyes began to sting.
He forced them open wider.
If even one tear escaped, the lecture would probably continue for another hour.
"I'm telling you to say something!"
"...I'm sorry."
"Unbelievable!"
The director pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed repeatedly.
Eventually, he waved the employee away.
The employee resisted the urge to sprint and slowly returned to his original seat.
The director bent down to gather the scattered papers.
Then sighed again.
When he finally raised his head, his expression had changed.
He seemed to have reached some decision.
Several employees had been sneaking curious glances toward him.
The director turned toward another subordinate.
"Was Manager Lee the one who contacted Ryu Seon-hwa?"
"Yes. Shall I contact her?"
"Yeah.... Set up a meeting."
Manager Lee didn't ask any questions.
He immediately sent Ryu Seon-hwa a message asking her to call once she saw it.
Then he looked back at the director.
The director opened his mouth several times before finally speaking.
"Tsk. She's arrogant enough to be difficult to use, but we don't have much choice."
He paused.
"Tell her we'll review the conditions she mentioned last time as positively as possible."
"Understood."
Aside from her habit of constantly trying to seize control, Ryu Seon-hwa was a useful potential collaborator for the Association.
She had a respectable public position as a marketer for a famous foreign department store.
She already held hostility toward Do Hwa-in.
And though the director called her difficult, her greed actually made her easy for the Association to manipulate.
We've already brought plenty of arrogant Hunters under control.
Someone like Ryu Seon-hwa will only be annoying.
The director steadied himself and began planning the next move.
There was no telling when Yeonwoo Guild would use the Jeongmyeong and TIDY incident to pressure the Association.
They couldn't simply apologize, compensate everyone, and keep their heads down every time something went wrong.
The country would become a mess.
You can't let people carrying swords decide how the nation is run.
The nation's military strength had to remain in a position where the state could make use of it.
The director remembered the Association President's speech from when he'd first joined.
That brilliant moment that had made him swear to devote himself to the country.
One month later.
Kim Seul-gi, a member of Yeonwoo Guild's Raid Team Four temporarily assigned to Artist Do Hwa-in's security detail, stood around with a bored expression.
Artist Do Hwa-in lived in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Seoul.
One of the few areas in the city where detached houses were gathered together.
It was already quiet and sparsely populated most of the time.
Around midday, it became so silent that birdsong from the mountain behind the neighborhood could be heard clearly.
Most residents had left for work or school.
No matter how fond she was of Artist Do Hwa-in, standing alert all day in such a quiet neighborhood wasn't easy.
And unless something special happened, Artist Do spent practically all his time shut inside his home.
Recently, Kim Seul-gi's entire day consisted of watching Chaeri busily fly around.
She subtly turned her face away from the other guards and stretched into a long yawn.
The moment she sensed someone approaching, she hurriedly straightened before she could even wipe the moisture from her eyes.
"Seul-gi. Didn't I tell you? Artist Do is in the middle of an intense work period these days. You probably won't even see his face."
"I-I didn't think it'd be this extreme. Haha...."
The person approaching was another member of Raid Team Four.
He had joined the guild earlier than Kim Seul-gi.
At a normal company, he would've practically been her senior mentor.
Since this was a guild, they simply treated each other like an older brother and younger sister.
Anyway, when Kim Seul-gi volunteered for guard duty yesterday, he was the one who warned her.
Even if you go, nothing dramatic like what you're hoping for is going to happen.
Kim Seul-gi had immediately shot back that he applied for Artist Do's security detail all the time too.
Remembering that exchange made her feel awkward, so she changed the subject.
Her target was the other guards standing behind the house.
From where Kim Seul-gi stood, only one colleague's left arm was barely visible.
Kim Seul-gi deployed a shield around them as a makeshift sound barrier and whispered.
"Seriously, how do those guys stand so alert all day?"
"You're ridiculously good at using your skill. I've never seen anyone use a shield like this besides you."
"That's why I got into Yeonwoo Guild."
"Fair enough. ...They're members of Dowon."
"Artist Do Hwa-in's fan café?"
"Yeah. Apparently they're members."
"Then unlike us, they aren't waiting for something dramatic to happen. They came because they want to watch him sculpt."
"Probably."
The colleagues stationed behind the house weren't from Kim Seul-gi's team.
One had been assigned from Support Team One.
The other from Raid Team Two.
Since both team captains had even traveled with Do Hwa-in, those teams volunteered for his security work frequently.
There were currently two types of Do Hwa-in fans inside Yeonwoo Guild.
The first type was people like Kim Seul-gi.
I hope something dramatic happens so Artist Do gives me a weapon like the Green Dragon Crescent Blade too.
In a sense, they dreamed of becoming the Cinderella of the Hunter world.
The other type was like the colleagues behind the house.
People who genuinely loved every work Do Hwa-in created.
They had one thing in common.
Almost all of them actively participated in Do Hwa-in's fan café.
I'm jealous.
At least they aren't bored like me.
There was one more thing Dowon members had in common.
Even if they did nothing but stand guard all day and then went home, they still looked perfectly satisfied.
"By the way, oppa. I'm not saying this because I have ulterior motives or anything."
"That's one hell of an opening disclaimer."
"Ah, come on. Listen. I really don't mean anything by it. But hasn't Artist Do been a little too quiet? Even Chaeri hasn't appeared today...."
"Sounds like you have plenty of ulterior motives."
"I'm serious right now. Even if I want my Cinderella moment, my respect, affection, and friendship toward Artist Do are genuine."
"I'll allow respect and affection, but where did friendship come from...? If you're worried, go check on him once."
Kim Seul-gi hesitated before asking shyly,
"Can I?"
"Yeah. Sometimes when there's absolutely no sign of him, we check. You never know. Apparently he often forgets to eat unless Chaeri handles it. What if he collapses?"
"Then! I'll go right now!"
"Just don't make too much noise. If nothing's wrong, he'll be working."
"I know, I know. My shield moves with me."
"Very impressive. Truly."
The shield really did move alongside Kim Seul-gi.
She could feel her colleague silently applauding behind her, but she didn't look back.
Right now, merely leaving her post gave her a small rush of excitement.
It was just a short inspection before returning.
Even that felt like something new had finally happened.
Kim Seul-gi carefully opened the front door.
The guards had access to a master door-lock key for emergencies.
Beep.
Even that small sound made her shoulders shrink.
She slowly opened the door and looked inside.
The house was cool.
The air disturbed by the opening door lifted a thin layer of dust, which drifted slowly before settling again.
One thing was obvious.
Artist Do Hwa-in hadn't entered the house in quite some time.
Don't tell me he's been eating and sleeping in the workshop this whole time?
She had assumed he at least crossed over to the house to sleep.
The excitement that had carried Kim Seul-gi inside immediately disappeared.
Her expression turned serious.
She could faintly hear hammering in the distance.
But that wasn't enough to reassure her.
If there was anyone capable of continuing to swing a hammer right up until the moment he collapsed, it would be Artist Do Hwa-in.
At least, that was the image of him circulating inside Yeonwoo Guild.
Kim Seul-gi quickened her steps.
Just as carefully, she opened the workshop door.
CLANG!
The bright sound of hammer striking chisel rang through the room.
She saw a back drenched completely in sweat.
And behind it...
An enormous back.
"...Holy shit."
Kim Seul-gi covered her mouth.
Then she could do nothing but stand there and stare.
