65
"So…."
Slumping onto the sofa with an exhausted face, Baek Woojin leaned back against the cushion at a somewhat slouched angle and asked Hong Ikhyeon and Jo Soohwan, who occupied the sofas on either side of him.
"What brings you here so early in the morning?"
Far from taking offense at Woojin's blatantly annoyed demeanor, Hong Ikhyeon laughed heartily and answered the question.
"Heard you gave our Yeonha some sweet relief from her aching tooth yesterday."
"You must have misheard. I'd recommend cutting whoever reported that to you."
"My, my. Was that not the case?"
At Hong Ikhyeon's playful smile and counter-question, Woojin let out a small sigh and dragged his hand down his face once.
"I didn't pull it out completely. Just gave it a slight nudge."
"Either way, you were going to yank it out clean, weren't you?"
"That's true, but."
"Then it amounts to the same thing. Why's a young lad being so nitpicky?"
It was true that the giant named Hong Ikhyeon was overwhelming, but at the very least, Woojin was certain he wasn't a petty man, so he skipped an actual response and just gave a perfunctory nod.
"What about you, Mr. Jo Soohwan?"
"Ha, haha. I'm here for a somewhat personal matter…."
Honestly, Woojin couldn't even fathom why he had come.
So if asked which person he wanted to have a more serious conversation with, it would be Jo Soohwan rather than Hong Ikhyeon, but regrettably, the situation didn't permit it.
"So I hear."
Woojin directed his words at Hong Ikhyeon.
"Are we strangers?"
Of course they were strangers.
But Jo Soohwan was too timid to speak such honest words to none other than one of Korea's giants, Hong Ikhyeon.
"Guild Master Hong Ikhyeon."
"Oh my, why so stiff between us? Just call me old man. Grandfather works too."
"…."
In contrast to Jo Soohwan, whose inner thoughts were completely inscrutable, Hong Ikhyeon made no effort to hide his intentions at all, laying them bare so openly that it was exhausting in its own way.
So Woojin made a decision.
"I'm going to get some more sleep, so please finish your private chat and see yourselves out."
"Uh, w-wait, Mr. Woojin? Mr. Woojin!?"
Unlike Hong Ikhyeon, who waved his hand with a grin, Jo Soohwan urgently called out Woojin's name, but Woojin paid no heed, entered his room, and shut the door.
"…."
"…."
With the host gone and only two guests left sitting awkwardly in the living room, the atmosphere went beyond uncomfortable to downright dreary. Though that description only applied to Jo Soohwan.
"Jo Soohwan."
"Yes. Sir."
Hong Ikhyeon was still smiling, but the meaning behind it was entirely different from the goodwill he had shown Woojin.
"Did that child Hyeji send you here?"
"No, sir."
"Of course not."
Hong Ikhyeon gave a small snort, then finally dropped his smile and leaned back against the sofa.
"If you're just building personal connections, I won't interfere. But if you're trying to pull him into your guild with schemes, give it up."
"Is it because Hongryeon marked him first?"
"Marked? Does that kid look like someone who'd meekly go along if someone tried to reel him in?"
"That's…."
"No, right?"
Jo Soohwan couldn't deny it and nodded.
That was understandable—if nothing else, the mere fact that he had glanced at Hong Ikhyeon of all people the way one might dismissively look at a vagrant on the subway was enough to gauge what kind of personality he had.
"That kid isn't someone who'll fall under anyone's banner."
"Should I understand that to mean Hongryeon also has no intention of recruiting Mr. Woojin?"
"You heard me right."
Jo Soohwan didn't answer immediately but fell into thought for a moment.
Hong Ikhyeon gave him ample time to sort out his thoughts.
"As you know, I can't go against Hyeji's wishes. So please give me a reason that Hyeji would find convincing, sir."
"Tsk tsk. A fellow who's long surpassed Chairman Jo in business acumen, yet he still gets bossed around by his fiancée before they've even tied the knot."
"Haha…."
Jo Soohwan scratched his cheek in embarrassment, but Hong Ikhyeon sent him a favorable look for the first time since they'd met today.
"You're probably aware that dungeon spawn rates have been skyrocketing these past few years."
"Of course."
"We're fortunate they've stayed at D-rank so far, but once they cross into C-rank, it won't be something we can just laugh off."
Even though the number of hunters was increasing every year, the reason the hunter industry remained a blue ocean was simple.
The rate at which dungeons were multiplying had outpaced that number.
"My boy and the others might not admit it, but old fogies from your grandfather's generation and mine think this way. We think our children's generation is ruined."
"…."
Jo Soohwan's expression hardened.
Not because he disagreed with Hong Ikhyeon's statement.
It was because he himself had unknowingly harbored the same thought.
"Kids these days think rank is everything. Of course, that's not wrong. If you want to walk around with your head held high, you need at least A-rank as a baseline."
He said it with a light laugh as if joking, but Jo Soohwan knew.
That those words were no joke.
"The number of hunters is growing, but the number of high-ranks who can actually respond to crises is shrinking every year. There are occasional promotions to A-rank, but that's it. Those guys don't look any higher anymore."
Hong Ikhyeon's eyes sank deeply.
They were so deep that Jo Soohwan couldn't even begin to fathom how far ahead he was looking.
"My son. Hyeji's father. Those damn bastards don't take risks anymore. They just mechanically run through safe dungeons with confirmed strategies."
It was true.
In the case of newly spawned dungeons with unfamiliar magic patterns, raids were mostly conducted by conscripting personnel from large guilds under government leadership.
Of course, the ruined generation Hong Ikhyeon spoke of had never once been included among those conscripted. They had already risen to positions where they could refuse such demands.
And they'd hand over precious guild personnel while taking the credit instead.
This was the dark side of the current major guilds—unknown now, and one that would remain unknown in the future.
"How long do you think I can keep operating in the field?"
"…."
At the impossibly heavy question, Jo Soohwan could only shake his head.
"Five years at best. I'm holding on thanks to the unknown power called mana, but even that can't completely block the massive wave called time."
"You mean to say—"
Hong Ikhyeon's deeply sunken eyes returned to their original deep crimson color.
"If that kid grows properly, he'll be someone who surpasses an old man like me with ease."
"To that extent?"
At Jo Soohwan's widening eyes like a startled rabbit, Hong Ikhyeon pulled the corners of his mouth up and asked.
"Do you know how old that insolent kid is this year?"
"Hyeji guessed he's around the same age as Yeonha."
"Seems you think differently."
"I suppose seeing what I did yesterday had an effect."
At the mere age of twenty, finding a die that an A-rank hunter had deliberately hidden? Without any tools whatsoever?
This wasn't a matter of possible or impossible—the very option of possibility didn't exist in the first place. Because the cups and bar table used in yesterday's shell game were made of 'Plutos,' a material known to have the highest magic resistance of any existing substance.
"The day comes when your eye proves right after all."
"Hah…."
Jo Soohwan didn't ask the foolish and unproductive question of whether that was true.
"He wasn't simply born with talent. That kid possesses something my unimpressive children's generation couldn't grasp."
He had saved the granddaughter he'd put above all else twice over.
He had been prepared to offer money that would let her live in luxury for the rest of her life if she wanted. But he didn't. There was no way that perceptive kid didn't know the value of saving his granddaughter's life.
And yet, that kid—who was appropriately polite and appropriately arrogant—only wanted weapons and armor to use as compensation. And to show just how little he valued himself, he'd contacted them so cautiously just to ask for a few lumps of magic stones.
Setting aside the Tower incident, even after the linked dungeon affair where he must have barely survived alongside his granddaughter, reports kept coming in that he'd dragged himself back into the dungeon.
Without his primary weapon, no less.
"When our generation retires, Korea's precarious standing in the international community will shrink significantly. And I believe that appropriately insolent kid will become the pillar that maintains that balance of power."
"I understand your intentions, sir. But no matter how outstanding Mr. Woojin is, you're talking about a mere five years. For him to replace your positions in that time——"
"Want to make a bet?"
"…I don't gamble."
"And that's exactly why you're bossed around by that Hyeji girl."
Jo Soohwan scratched his head, then rose from his seat.
"I'll stop trying to recruit Mr. Woojin. I don't know if Hyeji will accept it even if I explain your intentions, sir, but I won't push the matter any further."
"Good. Otherwise it'd be no fun."
"Haha…."
Jo Soohwan gave an awkward laugh and bowed politely to Hong Ikhyeon.
"I'll take my leave first. And any future contact will truly be for purely personal reasons, so please don't misunderstand."
"You handle that as you see fit."
"Yes. I'll see to it myself."
Some residual discomfort remained, but Hong Ikhyeon waved him off, so he left.
And later that evening.
"Um, Boss?"
"Yeah?"
Hong Ikhyeon, who had been bickering with the other old folks for ages over whose grandchild was better and whose granddaughter was prettier before heading back to his room, stopped in his tracks upon discovering Lee Dayoung waiting for him.
"Did you beat someone up again?"
"Come on! That was a one-time thing forever ago, are you going to keep teasing me about it?"
"If you didn't, you didn't. Why get mad about it?"
"Because you tease me about it every time we go overseas, Boss!"
"Oho, my eardrums are going to burst."
Hong Ikhyeon dug in his ear once, then asked with a mischievous grin.
"So what is it?"
"Well…."
As Lee Dayoung cautiously opened her mouth, Hong Ikhyeon's grinning lips gradually turned downward until veins bulged on his forehead.
"Jo Soohwan, that bastard!!"
The news delivered late at night was none other than the fact that starting tomorrow's auction, Baek Woojin would be attending as Shin Hyeji's partner, not Hong Yeonha's.