Chapter 9

Collision (1)

Secretary Kim and I came out of the black market after purchasing Iponia. He then spoke, sitting in the driver’s seat.

“Team Leader, when will you give me an explanation?”

I began wearing the bracelet I bought today in the back seat. As soon as I wore it, the size automatically adjusted to fit my wrist and wounded up. In that state, I infused a little Mana.

Whoosh!

The flow of Mana visible only to my eyes wrapped around the bracelet and disappeared. Confirming that the user’s imprint is complete, I smiled quietly.

Looking up, I spoke to Secretary Kim.

“I’ll explain everything later. Let’s go home first.”

Secretary Kim clicked his tongue and started the car. While he drove, I sat in the back seat and thought for a moment.

It was none other than about the woman named Oh Jin-hwa, who guided us through the products.

I peeked at the driver’s seat. Secretary Kim wouldn’t have noticed at all, right?

When Oh Jin-Hwa appeared and greeted us for the first time, I was quite surprised. Why wasn’t her name and dressing in my memory?

“What is that kind of Hunter doing in the black market, explaining the items?”

Throughout her guidance, I could see it in my eyes. Near her heart, her Mana Core explosively boiled around a huge amount of active Mana.

Speaking according to the present times, it was the level corresponding to the average S-class hunter.

*

“Oh, it’s been a while since I’ve worn heels. It’s very uncomfortable.”

At the reception room of the black market where all customers have left…

After seeing off the people who had just finished shopping, Oh Jin-hwa returned without using her hand, and she threw off the heel she was wearing by kicking twice in the air.

Next, she took off her glasses, put them on the table, and unbuttoned the top of her shirt. Then, she buried herself on a luxurious, fluffy sofa prepared for customers and crossed her two feet on the black leather footrest.

Then, the employee who was serving the customers with Oh Jin-hwa came over quickly.

“You’ve worked hard today, Director.”

“Yes, Eun-sil, you, too.”

The employee came to Oh Jin-hwa’s feet and kneels on the carpet. Then, she started massaging Oh Jin-hwa’s calves and feet on the footrest. Meanwhile, Oh Jin-Hwa took out a Cuban cigar that she always carried around.

Spat!

She didn’t need a cigar cutter. Just by flicking her finger lightly, the tobacco’s tip was cut off, leaving a sharp cross-section.

Flash!

She didn’t need a lighter as well. A blue flame burned from the tip of her index finger and lit the cigar.

As she tasted the smoke through her nose, Oh Jin-hwa asked.

“What’s the update from the source inside the Celestial Dragon Guild?”

The staff who was massaging her raised her head and deftly answered.

“It is said that the eldest son of the Guild Leader Seo Gyu-cheol went out unofficially three hours ago.”

“You’re also sure that they were the guests we had served, right?”

“I think so, too.”

“Hmm.”

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Oh Jin-hwa cracked her stiff neck from side to side while breathing lightly in the air. She was tired after acting formally for a while.

Although the Black Market was not interested in its customers’ personal information and did not want to dive into it, that was the case only when the other person was of a level that was unworthy of even knowing about.

The Black Market’s goal was to buy and sell, and one of the key points of sales activity was, of course, good management of the regulars. It was natural that VIPs, which accounted for only 5% of all customers, raised more than 70% of their total sales.

Furthermore, there was one secret that was not well known in public—the Black Market had a fairly sophisticated information system.

It was not surprising that one of the important virtues of merchants was information collection. Still, because of the characteristics of the products they handled, their information organization was much larger and specialized enough to exceed the general level.

Also, Seo Jin-wook just visited the only Black Market related to hunters in Korea at this point, and the Celestial Dragon Guild was, of course, at the top of their VIP list.

Such biometric identification information, such as voice fingerprints and gait of Seo Jin-wook, the Celestial Dragon Guild’s successor, was secured in advance.

However, Seo Jin-wook, to be precise, Choi Seung-hyun, who possessed his body, did not know this fact. He had never experienced this era’s Black Market in his lifetime, and he only had access to all this knowledge through historical records and testimonies.

The informal parts that were not documented could not be known.

His unique skill was to memorize what he already perceived visually, not to discover what he didn’t know.

“What must be the reason why the Celestial Dragon Guild’s son hid his identity and came here to buy a bracelet and a three-month-starved cat?”

“I do not know.”

“And I heard he was a psycho bitch? Seeing him today, he was perfectly fine.”

“That was surprising for me, too.”

Once again, Oh Jin-hwa, smoking deeply, muttered while chewing the tip of her glasses.

“Does the fact that the collected information and the confirmed entity are so different mean it is time to refurbish all the sources of information we placed in the Celestial Dragon Guild, or was everyone being fooled in the first place?”

As Eun-sil read between the lines, she asked back.

“You mean, he deliberately pretends to be retarded? But would there be a reason to…”

“Isn’t it more strange if he had no reason to act like that? Unfortunately, that kind of item that the guy picked it up was one of the few items that we don’t have enough knowledge on the identity and usage of. Those things are rare these days, and he only picks those up? I smell something.”

Eun-sil looked into her eyes and asked once more.

“What smell? Something fishy?”

“No.” Oh Jin-hwa smiled brightly, showing her teeth.

“It smells of sweet money.”

Eun-sil shrugged. “Your intuition is always on point, so it must be this time as well.”

“So put a few more people on the side of the Celestial Dragon Guild. I feel like I can grab big money if I take the chances. Moreover, since the opponent is the Celestial Dragon Guild…”

Oh Jin-hwa thought of this again. She had a very good feeling. And, as Eun-sil said, her gut feelings were seldom wrong.

*

On the way back home, sitting in the back seat, I asked Secretary Kim some questions. I could see his eyes widening in the rear-view mirror.

“What? Who are the people who will benefit if something bad happens to you?”

He sighed.

“Those are the first things that concern you, Team Leader, after losing your memories?”

“Yes, I’m curious. Isn’t that very important?”

Seo Jin-wook was the heir to the Celestial Dragon Guild, who was closely being watched. It was said that he would change the playground of the Korean Hunter Society in the future. It was not a minuscule issue to cast a curse skill on such a person.

Moreover, even the knowledge that those kinds of skills exist was unknown during this period.

Who in the world even found such a rare method and set a trap on Seo Jin-wook? What was the motive?

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Secretary Kim tilted his head and began to mutter. “No, well. If it is important, it is important.”

I harried him for an answer.

“Well, firstly, the competition between the guilds is rough, so if there’s any mishap towards the Celestial Dragon Guild’s heir, especially who is rumored to have the greatest potential, it would be good news for others.”

“How about if we were to look from inside instead of outside?”

Secretary Kim blinked his eyes as if he didn’t understand the question. I asked a more direct and specific question instead.

“Is there anyone inside the guild that would benefit if something wrong happened?”

A slightly dark shadow cast on Secretary Kim’s face. I did not miss that change.

“What’s wrong?”

“Because the old part of you seems to remain where you doubt the people around you without end or bottom of it.”

As one of Seo Jin-wook’s personality traits, he is said to have considered almost everyone, except himself, as potential enemies and could not trust anyone at all.

“If I were to answer you as I have done every time you have asked me that question, you never have to worry about such a thing. ”

Secretary Kim began to explain the structure of the forces within the guild briefly. It was too simple that it was embarrassing to explain it as a structure of the forces.

“So it is a peaceful system that is run by cooperation between my father, the person who has absolute power, and the sub-head of the guild, the next person-in-charge?”

“Yeah. Although the hunters brought in by the sub-Guild Master from outside follow him more than the Guild Master.”

He deftly scratched his chin.

“In the first place, the Guild Master completely trusts the sub-Guild Master, and there is almost no conflict.”

However, no matter how friendly they are, the powers are divided, and the sub-Guild Master has finalized his position as the next person-in-charge, right?

Hearing such naturally raised my doubts.

“If it’s to that degree, wouldn’t the next-of-command want to keep me in check? Oh, if it weren’t for that guy, it is natural for anyone to…”

The reason why I couldn’t finish was that Secretary Kim’s face had changed into the oddest expression I had ever seen.

“What’s wrong?”

“Wait. What about the sub-Guild Master? Keep you in check? Haha, well. Listen. The reason why you, Team Leader, haven’t completely lost you sh… ”

He looked at my face through the rear-view mirror and cleared his throat. And he changed his wording to what he considered ‘toned-down.’

“To think about it, it’s all thanks to sub-Guild Master that Team Leader intermittently go to the wrong side instead of completely losing yourself to insanity.”

What did that even mean? Secretary Kim shrugged.

“Wow, I’m not going to ask any more about it. Team Leader, I think your memories have truly faded.”

While driving on the highway, Secretary Kim explained simply.

As seen in the fragments of memories that came to mind when I was alone with the Guild Master today, the process of raising Seo Jin-wook by Seo Gyu-cheol seemed to be closer to emotional abuse.

In particular, it was said that it got even worse after it was confirmed that he had a Hunter’s talent. More like an attitude toward tools rather than to a son, to say.

Secretary Kim also spoke without hesitation when he talked about Seo Gyu-cheol in front of me. He thought that the father played a major role in worsening Seo Jin-wook’s psychotic episodes day by day.

“It was to the point that people would click their tongues! It’s not that I don’t understand why you, Team Leader, had become that way.”

I knew that the symptoms were not purely a disease but rather the effect of the curse someone cast on this body, but I still listened.

“I see.”

It was a little complicated thing to think about. If it’s to harass, why did it plant this kind of curse?

If Seo Jin-wook were annoying, the best way would be to make him impaired or kill him altogether.

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“Through everything that had happened, he was the one who has taken care of me so far?”

“Yeah. Was it since you were five years old? From that time on, I heard that you, Team Leader, already had been so damn ill-tempered… Hmm, hmm. Anyway, even though you were such a bad kid, only the sub-Guild Master found you so pretty, right? The Team Leader is also well-behaved in front of him most of the time. As far as I’ve noticed so.”

As I listened to him, I even felt like the sub-Guild Master took a parent’s role instead as well.

“I’ve fallen ill, but hasn’t he showed up for me?”

“He’s busy going through a dungeon right now.”

“Sub-Guild Master was scouted from another guild, or so I heard? Nevertheless, he became my father’s right arm, overtaking the nobles of Celestial Dragon Guild?”

“Yes. It’s a solid faith that never breaks.”

I then asked for the reason behind it.

“At the time that several guilds in a union were exploring a dungeon, the now sub-Guild Master, who was handling another guild, happened to save our Guild Master…”

A lifesaver, even.

For Seo Gyu-cheol, that was a strong reason to trust him beyond anything. But rather than to blindly trust him, there was clear proof that I had witnessed.

“Is it possible that Team Leader Park Chang-hee was one of the people brought in by the sub-Guild Master from outside?”

I heard Secretary Kim say towards Park Chang-hee that he was going to be barely punished. ‘You will barely receive a punishment thanks to the sub-Guild Master, anyways.’ He said.

Secretary Kim nodded.

“Yes.”

My head spun fast. Park Chang-hee tried to see through me discreetly. The sub-Guild Master was said to have built an independent force within the guild, and Park Chang-hee was a person under the sub-Guild Master.

Regardless of the apparent relationship, or the structure of the forces between Seo Jin-wook and the sub-Guild Master, I have no choice but to believe what I witnessed with my own eyes.

I was lost in my own thoughts, but from a certain moment, Secretary Kim glanced at the rear-view mirror towards the outside of the vehicle numerous times. It was still a long ride until Seoul.

“Well… Perhaps, it might not be true, Team Leader.”

It was a serious voice that I seldom heard. Secretary Kim then asked me, fixing his gaze on the rear-view mirror.

“Did you ask because you noticed it? The question of who might be the Team Leader’s enemy?”

“Why?”

“There seems to be a tail on us.”

When I heard that, I also looked in the rear-view mirror—a black van following our vehicle. I looked at the license plate. It was the exact license plate I saw 25 minutes ago.

As I concentrated my mind, I saw chunks of Mana swaying through the window of the coated van.

The people in that vehicle were all hunters. A cold breeze came up.

“I just deliberately drove off the other way because I wanted to make sure, but it keeps following us. I will request support from the guild.”

At that moment…

Because of the sudden change, of course, the other side seemed to have noticed our situation. The van’s door opened, and a hand that came out of it threw a small metal object towards us.

Secretary Kim and I, who recognized the object, frowned at the same time.

“Damn I…!”

Bam!

Colorless gas diffused from the metallic object and covered the surroundings. It was a Mana barrier wrapped around a hundred meters in radius.

It could be seen that the density of the air had changed completely.

“Barrier!”

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I read the Mana pattern, but it was blocking vision and interference.

“Damn, as expected.”

Secretary Kim confirmed that communications were completely paralyzed and eventually pulled over. “It can be more dangerous to be in a car. Come out and stand behind me.”