Episode 41
The nation had effectively entered a state of emergency.
They had been keeping a close eye on the situation ever since protests erupted over Jonghyeon's bodyguard recruitment, but now Weaver had even been spotted near his home.
Four figures sat around the table at NIS Headquarters.
Director Kim Jeongtae let out a sigh and spoke.
"Sigh. Gaia Guild has started making moves again. I'd like to hear your opinions."
First, the dignified man on the left opened his mouth in a heavy voice.
"There's nothing official about it. Right now, it's just reconnaissance and probing, you could say. They must be careful too. They shed blood once before."
Of course, they hadn't literally shed blood, but failing to recruit Raven must have been a heavier blow than coughing up blood.
"Of course. But the fact that they're probing at all means they're aware of him, doesn't it? He's the only domestic hope we've managed to find after Choe Pilgyu and Yu Jinseong."
Choe Pilgyu.
Known as Mr. Choe, he had been Korea's first A-Ranker. But he harbored a grudge against Korea, and when casting came calling, he had naturally crossed over to America.
Next was Yu Jinseong.
He had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and cleared every dungeon in sight, but when the state actually reached out, he withdrew from his guild and went under Chairman Lee.
Everyone nodded as if in agreement with Director Kim Jeongtae's words.
Jonghyeon himself didn't know this, but every country wanted a representative talent like America's Raven.
Not only would they become the nation's symbol, but the disciples or guild they raised would eventually become the pillars supporting the country.
A few more words went back and forth throughout the meeting, but no one could present a clear opinion of "Let's do this!"
And it was no wonder.
"First of all, Ryu Jonghyeon has too peculiar a personality. Or rather, I should say he's fierce. He's not someone who will easily belong anywhere."
The biggest problem was exactly as Director Kim Jeongtae had said.
Though he was affiliated with the state, being a troubleshooter was not technically a state occupation.
It was not well known to the outside, nor could it be called a perfect point of contact.
The man estimated to be in his mid-twenties, sitting on the other side, finally opened his mouth for the first time.
"I don't know how strong this Ryu Jonghyeon or whoever is, but isn't he just a flash in the pan after all? He may be hot now, but who knows when he'll cool off. Besides, it's a problem to make someone without personal will a national hero. Would he even know how to run a guild properly? Even if you hold a fishing rod, if you don't know how to bait the hook, you'll just be casting empty lines."
He was Gang Jeongu, a B-Ranker affiliated with the state.
Just one month before Jonghyeon appeared, he had been called the nation's rising star.
But the moment Jonghyeon appeared, all attention shifted to him, and Gang Jeongu was cast aside like a worn-out shoe.
Perhaps that was why he seemed to have particularly bad feelings toward Jonghyeon.
"Jeongu is right about that. But that doesn't mean we can carelessly leave him open to foreign contact."
In the end, they were back to square one.
The talent called Ryu Jonghyeon was important, and his contact with foreign entities had to be prevented.
But no one could suggest a method.
It was the worst possible situation.
After a brief silence, someone opened the door and entered the meeting room.
"Who is it during a meeting! No, you?"
At the dignified man's shout, everyone looked in the same direction. And they knew who he was at a glance.
It was none other than Jonghyeon's handler.
"It's been a while since I've seen you."
The dignified man recognized him immediately and greeted him.
It was a gathering of the highest authorities on dungeons in the nation.
Of course, Gang Jeongu was an exception, but he too had held considerable sway here until recently, so they had brought him along because he couldn't be ignored.
But the people in such a high-ranking position all greeted the handler as if they knew him.
"Hello, everyone. I figured you'd be wracking your brains... so I thought I'd drop by and offer some advice, or something like it."
With the handler's characteristic smile and yellow hair swaying as he walked in, his appearance was quite imposing.
★ ★ ★
A few days later.
Almost all the applicants who had applied to be Jonghyeon's bodyguard had been eliminated.
Amidst Bori's skills that improved by the day, most who had applied confident only in their own abilities were defeated.
Moreover, as the audition progressed, Bori's skills improved by leaps and bounds, and though Jonghyeon didn't show it, he was secretly pleased. Perhaps because of Bori's rote way of addressing him, or because he considered him something of a disciple.
"Please prepare the next participant."
The person who entered at Secretary Jang's words was none other than Weaver.
For both sides, what had finally been coming had finally arrived.
From Weaver's perspective, it was the dramatic moment of finally entering Jonghyeon's inner courtyard. It had been about two weeks since he left his homeland.
'Let's see what this arrogant face looks like.'
How anxious he had been for the past two weeks to set foot on this land.
The Jonghyeon Weaver saw looked like just a young man in his mid-twenties. Ordinary and quite handsome. But his aura was unmistakably extraordinary.
And he had to do what he came here to do.
"The reason I applied like this is..."
But before Weaver could finish, Jonghyeon made the first move.
"Ah. No ability usage. You just need to fight and win with pure skill. If you use your ability, it's an automatic disqualification."
Weaver tried to say something more at Jonghyeon's bored attitude, but—
"Then prepare yourself. Begin!"
Secretary Jang rang the starting signal almost before Jonghyeon finished speaking.
And at the same time, Bori charged in gripping a wooden sword, so Weaver could no longer open his mouth.
'What is this situation...'
Swish—!
With a heavy sound unbefitting a wooden sword, Bori's attack surged toward Weaver's shoulder.
But who was Weaver? He was a top-tier chakra user even among B-Ranks.
Which meant he had ample real combat experience.
Chakra users usually fought with small daggers or bare hands. Because chakra itself was a powerful weapon.
And Weaver was a perfect martial combat type even among them.
Weaver perfectly pushed away Bori's instantly slashing sword with his palm.
Bori was bewildered when his fully powered sword was pushed aside, but the force of the sword being pushed sideways disrupted his balance.
Weaver immediately drove a punch into the opening on the left, and Bori barely avoided it by rolling backward.
'There's another expert of this level in Korea?'
Weaver had exchanged only a single bout, but he was greatly surprised.
His martial skills had been honed even before unlocking his chakra abilities. Since he was about fifteen.
Therefore, he was quite confident in hand-to-hand combat without using abilities. Few within the guild could match Weaver.
Against Weaver's skills based on the Russian martial art Systema, sparring opponents usually crumbled in a single exchange.
But the person with the wooden sword in front of him had endured that single exchange.
And Jonghyeon, who was watching that scene, was also surprised.
'That martial art. It's derived from Systema.'
Jonghyeon himself had honed his martial arts and encountered various styles, so he recognized it as Systema at a glance.
And the exchange just now had been a perfect ambush. An ambush that could have inflicted a fatal wound on anyone experiencing it for the first time.
But Bori not only caught it but also rolled back to naturally create distance.
It was a judgment difficult to make casually unless one had faced Systema before.
'This will take a while.'
Jonghyeon instinctively felt it. Bori had grown stronger day by day during the bodyguard audition.
There were far more martial art users than Jonghyeon had imagined, and Bori had grown stronger by facing and gaining experience against them.
Active response and real combat. With these two things ingrained in his body, Bori performed the optimal response through his own judgment without anyone teaching him.
And as Jonghyeon predicted, the fight grew quite long. Due to the nature of unarmed combat, one had to be close to land blows.
And Jonghyeon's inner courtyard was quite spacious. Wide enough for a casual game of foot volleyball.
And Bori used that wide space appropriately, darting around to create distance. He seemed to instinctively know that widening the distance was advantageous for him.
After about ten minutes, it was Weaver who grew frustrated.
'If this keeps up, I'll tire out first.'
The attacker needed bigger movements than the defender.
And the opponent in front of Weaver didn't seem to be inferior in stamina. No, he was at the level of learning how to deal with Weaver in real-time.
'Damn. If only I could use my abilities!'
If he used chakra, the opponent before him wouldn't be worth a fistful. But the moment he thought that, the tide had already turned. The more excited one gets, the more weaknesses appear.
Reactions to the same attacks change. And Bori, skillfully, did not miss that timing.
The attack method Bori chose was not a swing but a thrust. This time, he quickly stabbed at the left thigh.
'Dangerous!'
He still had the strength left to execute such a fast attack?
Bori's attack was so ferocious that such thoughts arose, and Weaver, who pushed the sword away a moment too late, ended up taking a hit to his left leg.
But Weaver, who sacrificed his leg through instantaneous judgment, immediately closed the distance and grabbed the sword-wielding wrist. Bori, who had lost his escape route, had no choice but to allow a blow to his right arm.
And with that, it was over.
No matter how trained his body was, Bori, struck by Weaver's powered blow, lost strength in the hand gripping his sword. And with Weaver's swift hand movements not missing that opening, Bori lost his grip on the sword.
Weaver, being well-trained in real combat, had overcome the pain in his leg and launched a counterattack, but Bori had no ability to do anything after sacrificing his arm.
"Game over! Both contestants, step back!"
Secretary Jang quickly declared the end of the match.
It was clear that if they continued, Bori would get hurt, so from the referee's position, he declared the end for safety's sake regardless of pass or fail.
Hearing those words, Bori was stepping back to create distance. But Weaver, showing no intention of stopping, clearly extended his next attack.
No matter how exhausted he was, throwing a B-Rank punch took less than a second. And he was clearly infusing chakra, plainly visible to the naked eye.
But even in that split second, Jonghyeon was faster. He quickly dashed out and blocked Weaver's extending fist with his hand.
Clack—
In that instant, Weaver lost sight of Jonghyeon. At the same time, seeing Jonghyeon right before his eyes gripping his fist as if to tear it apart, he finally came to his senses.
'What am I doing right now? I got too excited!'
But it was too late to salvage the situation.
Already looking thoroughly furious, Jonghyeon was glaring at Weaver with terrifying eyes.
"What are you doing right now?"
With eyes filled with killing intent that seemed capable of subduing anyone, Jonghyeon spoke slowly and clearly, syllable by syllable.
★ ★ ★
The atmosphere in the meeting room the handler had entered was quite chaotic. But that chaos contained bewilderment.
"I didn't know you were still doing this."
The middle-aged man spoke as if dumbfounded, and the handler merely received it with a smile.
"You're that famous..."
Gang Jeongu looked at the handler with a surprised expression and spoke, but couldn't continue.
Because Director Kim Jeongtae cut him off mid-sentence.
"We didn't gather here to discuss him. He didn't come here to show his face either. Let's stop with the irrelevant talk."
At those words, Gang Jeongu looked at Director Kim Jeongtae with resentful eyes, but the director continued speaking as if he didn't care.
"So what's the conclusion you've brought? Let's hear it."
Director Kim Jeongtae's voice was calm but clearly laced with irritation.
Although the meeting had been going on for quite some time, no one had been able to rashly present a countermeasure, and the meeting was only dragging on meaninglessly.
The handler slowly looked around at the four people sitting at the conference table with a smiling face, and finally began to speak.
"First, I'd like to express my condolences to you busy people for wracking your brains here. I suppose I came because I expected it to be a headache?"
If one interpreted the handler's words closely, they would sound something like, "Why are busy people gathering here to wrack your brains over something useless?"
Though his words were sharp, no one in the current situation could argue with the handler about it.
Because the meeting had actually produced no results.
The handler, who had cleared his throat once, continued speaking.
"I saw Jonghyeon first. And I see him quite often now because of commissions. It's been about two years since I've been watching him. Watching him like that, I've come to exactly one conclusion about him."
Everyone looked at the handler with faces full of curiosity and held their breath.
Only Director Kim Jeongtae made a troubled expression, covering half his face with one hand with a look that seemed to say, 'Surely you're not going to say that here?'
Because the handler had already said this once before during a one-on-one conversation with him.
But as if enjoying the curious expressions of the other three who didn't know, the handler paused slightly and spoke clearly in a slow but low voice.
"It's simple. Jonghyeon is the type who will figure things out on his own if you leave him alone. There's no need for government intervention or meddling. If we really need him, we just have to commission him. In other words, he is a born troubleshooter."
The people quietly thought about what on earth that meant. But except for Director Kim Jeongtae, the rest couldn't understand it at all.
'What kind of bullshit is that!'
'Is that bastard really that strong?'
'Well. I more or less get the meaning. But will he really move in the crucial moment like that?'
Each had different thoughts upon hearing the same words.
However, the handler didn't seem to care whether they understood or not, and let out his final words.
"So don't try to grasp sand in your bare hands, and please just focus on the work you were doing. I came because I'm frustrated that the approval documents I left with you this morning still haven't been passed. Would you care to look outside? Well then, I'll be going now."
With those words, the handler left through the same door he entered, as if he wouldn't take any questions.
Despite having heard rather insulting remarks, they remained in a daze and no one could say anything against the handler's words.
When they looked outside, it was already evening.
---------= Author's Afterword ---------=
Thank you for your warm words and support.
I will work harder.