Chapter 49
From the moment he handed the earring over to Geum Myeonggyeol, Han Chasu had expected Jeong Iheun to come find him again. Why had he, who had been shouting about resigning so loudly, decided to remain with Cheonryeong Guild? It was all because of Geum Myeonggyeol.
Jeong Iheun couldn’t possibly be unaware of that, so he would probably bring something, anything, that could hold him back. Han Chasu could easily predict his actions.
So when he heard that morning that Jeong Iheun would be visiting, Han Chasu prepared himself mentally. ‘I’m afraid of lifetime contracts.’ Which meant that the moment he saw a lifetime contract, he would likely suffer a truly immense mental shock. Enough to consume energy, that is. ‘If I faint every time he brings it up, Jeong Iheun won’t be able to do anything about it anymore.’ Thus, Han Chasu braced himself to repel Jeong Iheun by making use of the restriction.
However, if there was one thing he hadn’t anticipated…
“Did you sleep well last night, Mr. Han Chasu?”
It was that Jeong Iheun had no intention of doing so. He came to see Han Chasu without so much as a document, let alone a bag.
“I heard you’ve been eating properly as well. Perhaps that’s why you look better than last time.”
Pale-colored trousers and a white shirt. The man, dressed in an outfit so light it could almost be called simple, held a bouquet of yellow flowers in his hand.
At the sight of him looking as if he were about to set off on a date, confusion filled Han Chasu’s eyes. There had been no such case in any scenario he had predicted.
“Here, take them.”
Jeong Iheun approached demurely and offered the bouquet. Han Chasu creaked like a broken machine before accepting the flowers.
“Someone from the center will bring a vase later, so put them in that. I chose ones without a strong scent, so they shouldn’t bother you while you’re here.”
As he spoke in a calm voice, Jeong Iheun never took his eyes off him. Faced with those red eyes shining with an innocent light, Han Chasu was at a loss for words.
But soon, with an impassive expression, he dipped his head. It was a gesture of thanks. ‘As expected, this was the right answer.’ Jeong Iheun let out a sigh of relief. ‘I’m glad I didn’t bring the contract.’ He knew it too. Now that the shackle called Geum Myeonggyeol was gone, Han Chasu could resign at any time.
But the reason he wasn’t demanding a lifetime contract from him as he had before was… ‘He’s already in a mentally fragile state. I can’t give him even greater stress on top of that.’ Jeong Iheun wanted him to remain in the guild in good health. Han Chasu, with an unwarped, proper body and mind. That was the form of Han Chasu that Jeong Iheun desired.
So instead of rashly forcing a contract on him, he had chosen to approach carefully.
“Ah, now that I think of it, I heard some good news on my way here.”
The gray eyes that had been quietly gazing down at the flowers looked at him. Meeting his gaze, Jeong Iheun said,
“Your name was among the winners of the guild’s free auction held two months ago, Mr. Han Chasu.”
Looking at his widened eyes, Jeong Iheun smiled soundlessly.
“Here you go.”
This was the real gift he had prepared.
A grayish crystal, a little smaller than a fist.
“It’s a demon spirit stone dropped in a West Coast dungeon. Unfortunately, it isn’t very large, but if you’re going to carry it around with you, this size might actually be better.”
Demon spirit stones, or spirit stones, drop from dungeons or gates at an extremely low rate. As the name suggests, they are crystals that contain demon spirits or spirits, and unlike magical beast eggs, they do not require a Tamer.
Instead, as they are comparatively easy to hatch, it was true that the abilities they were born with were nothing impressive. Healing that could only mend a paper cut, or poison less stinging than carbonated water, perhaps?
But for the current Han Chasu, there was no more suitable gift than this. No, it was a gift he absolutely needed.
Because a wall of the heart built up firmly cannot be torn down by effort, but it can be melted by gentle warmth. ‘And it should stabilize him mentally in various ways as well.’ When a person gains something small, weak, and in need of protection, they become astonishingly strong. The countless parents who faced monsters without any abilities at all in the early days of the Cataclysm in order to protect their children proved that.
So Baekdam’s words were wrong. Han Chasu did not need to recover in such a violent way.
Jeong Iheun carefully placed the crystal in Han Chasu’s hand and said,
“It’s yours now, Mr. Han Chasu.”
Hoping that he would recover before it was too late.
***
“Vase deliveryyy! Huh, Mr. Han Chasu, what are you doing?”
“……”
“Gasp, isn’t this a crystal? Wow, there really is something like a halo of light moving inside it. This little guy is going to come out soon, right?”
“……”
“Uh, Hunter Han Chasu? Mr. Han Chasu?”
“Ah.”
At the medical staff’s call, Han Chasu belatedly came back to his senses. Shaking his head hard, he exhaled a breath like a sigh.
The warmth he felt in his hand was too heavy. As heavy as the feelings Jeong Iheun had given him.
Tsk. Clicking his tongue without realizing it, he called the staff member.
“Um, excuse me.”
“You can speak now?!”
“Ah, yes.”
“J-just a moment. I’ll call the team leader. Please wait just a bit. I’ll leave the vase here, so you can put the flowers in it, and, ah, I already filled it with water!”
“……”
With a hollow expression, Han Chasu looked back and forth between the empty hospital room and the demon spirit stone.
“Nothing I can do about it.”
It was his own fault for losing his phone in the chaos. Han Chasu sighed and sank back into the bed.
The demon spirit stone glittering by his pillow bothered him immensely, but there was nothing he could do right now.
How many minutes had passed like that? From the far end of the corridor came the sound of people rushing over in a group.
“Hunter Han Chasu!”
“Mr. Han Chasu, we heard you called for us!”
“You may call me Park Seongjin!”
“Will all of you shut up? The checkup comes first, you idiots!”
After being tormented for quite some time after that, Han Chasu was finally able to borrow a laptop from the medical center.
And he was met with shocking search results.
“It takes at least three years for them to gain adult-level intelligence?”
Before that, demon spirits were no different from five-year-old children, apparently. They would throw tantrums because they didn’t want to eat, suddenly get spiteful and leap down onto their owner’s chest while they were sleeping soundly…
“You even have to sing lullabies so they sleep well?”
Wasn’t this truly the same as raising a child? Han Chasu felt dizzy. Worse, the time it took to gain intelligence apparently differed from individual to individual.
After seeing a lamenting post from someone who said they had raised a demon spirit for ten years and it still had not gained intelligence, Han Chasu made up his mind. ‘I must not hatch it.’ The most important factor in hatching a demon spirit stone was physical contact. In other words, if he didn’t go near it, there was no way the demon spirit would hatch.
“To think you ended up with the villain of all people. You’re unlucky too.”
Han Chasu looked at the demon spirit stone with complicated eyes. Looking at the small crystal containing warmth kept making him think of Jeong Iheun.
That pointlessly kind bastard.
Swallowing a sigh, Han Chasu carefully placed the demon spirit stone on the pillow.
“When I resign later, I’ll find you a good owner separately.”
Until then, let’s maintain an appropriate distance. Like the protagonist and me.
Before he knew it, a bitter smile had formed on his lips.
***
The head of Crisis Management Room, First Headquarters, Awakener Management Bureau, was a busy position. Busy enough that, if he wanted to make time to stay by Han Chasu’s side, he had to work without even taking time to eat.
Gi Taeyeon rapidly skimmed through documents as he asked,
“Where are the patrol records for District 12?”
“Jeongmin will bring them soon. He’s at the records management room right now.”
“The power struggle between Icarus and Jeokpung.”
“There was an update while interrogating the Icarus guild master, so I’m organizing it now! I’ll report in an hour.”
“Next is… the development lab. Just how long are those bastards planning to drag their feet with the training system?”
As if that weren’t enough, Baekdam had been calling since morning asking when exactly he would be able to torture the culprits.
“Han Jigwon, tell me exactly what the development lab babbled.”
The employee who received Gi Taeyeon’s gaze opened his mouth hesitantly.
“Th-they said there was an error in the system, so we’d probably have to wait several months. They said they tried to render the weakest monster as instructed, but something got tangled up, and only dragons are appearing.”
“An error?”
Gi Taeyeon laughed as if he found it absurd. As he swept his hair back, his eyes gleamed coldly.
“An error. You’re saying a system that passed twenty-one beta tests and was just about to undergo internal testing suddenly caused an error?”
“…
Yes.”
“They’re planning to take what they got and run.”
Now that they had the crystal in hand, it seemed they had lost all sense of what was in front of them.
It was obvious without even looking. The training system was already as good as complete, so they had just thrown it aside. By now, they were probably drooling over what experiments to do with the crystal, eyes shining.
“Good.”
Gi Taeyeon planted both hands on the desk, stood up, and shouted,
“Is there anyone here who has never been to the development lab? For the next half year or so, you probably won’t be able to see it in its original state, so today is your last chance. Anyone who wants to take a look, follow me.”
Simply put, it meant he was going to smash it so thoroughly that it couldn’t be restored even in half a year.
The Crisis Management Room staff understood their superior perfectly.
“Gasp, me! Those bastards said they’d fix my scooter and planted tentacles in the engine!”
“I-I’m going too!”
Victims of the development lab emerged one after another from all directions. Having recruited enough volunteers, Gi Taeyeon strode toward the research building without hesitation.
“They said the training system lab was in Building B, right?”
“Yes, sir! All virtual reality-related research is conducted only in Building B. So it doesn’t matter at all if Building A burns to the ground!”
The employee who seemed to harbor the deepest grudge shouted cheerfully. Gi Taeyeon nodded silently.
I’ll finish everything today, and spend all the time I have left from now on by Han Chasu’s side.
Within his eyes, fixed on the research building, blue flames took root.
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