Episode 52
Once a dungeon was cleared, the dungeon inevitably began to collapse. The ground would disappear, and the sky would cave in.
If it was a dungeon in the form of ruins, the temples or tombs would gradually collapse.
Even after clearing an A-rank dungeon, it took a bit more time for the ceiling to fall.
Though the structure was strangely inconsistent, if E-rank dungeons collapsed within an average of one hour, B-rank dungeons took about three hours.
And in the case of A-rank dungeons, there were said to be some that did not collapse for up to four hours.
Some scholars claimed it was due to the difference in the energy comprising the interior, but no one knew the truth.
I Seokcheon and Gim Hyeonseok. In other words, the two survivors of the Dangun Guild were lying exactly where they had been before, in a near-death state.
"Hurry up and get up."
Jonghyeon shook them awake roughly.
It would have been easier to go outside and call the rescue team, or to send the cleanup crew while leaving them be.
But if that happened, they wouldn't be able to match their stories. In other words, all attention could shift to Jonghyeon.
"Hey!"
When Jonghyeon shouted roughly to wake them, they barely came to their senses.
They were letting out faint groans, but that had nothing to do with Jonghyeon.
"How..."
Whether I Seokcheon had regained some of his senses, he blinked his eyes repeatedly.
"I'll explain the details later. For now, we need to escape from here."
"What? So those bastards killed the boss?"
"They perished together. More importantly, we need to leave quickly. I'll carry the mage, so please prepare to move quickly."
Jonghyeon spoke quite urgently, and I Seokcheon also raised his body with difficulty as if he understood.
Staggering step by step, I Seokcheon quickly followed Jonghyeon.
When they had nearly reached the dungeon's exit, Jonghyeon set Gim Hyeonseok down and spoke.
"Now then. I will give you a choice here."
"Suddenly what..."
I Seokcheon tried to say something, but Jonghyeon cut him off and continued.
"Don't ask questions. If you leave here, both of you live. Correct?"
I Seokcheon nodded heavily.
"The two bosses perished together with Gang Jeongu's party. You understand that as well, don't you?"
As befitting the leader of a guild, I Seokcheon was quite shrewd, and only then did he grasp what Jonghyeon intended.
"The deal?"
"I will take the share that would have been divided three ways, divide it into five instead, and transfer four of those shares to the Dangun Guild."
If the three of them survived and left as things were, the shares of the other members would be divided among them into three parts.
He meant to divide the whole into five and give four shares to the Dangun Guild.
Since there weren't that many monsters inside, the deal was actually quite trivial.
However, I Seokcheon pondered Jonghyeon's words for a moment.
"Wait. There were two bosses?"
From its hide to its claws, a Chimera had nothing to throw away. But there had been another boss?
If so, even without a mana stone, the profit from dismantling the boss alone would make up for it to some extent.
"Yes. The bosses were the Chimera and the Hound. There were two of them, and they perished together with Gang Jeongu's party. The condition is the amount I mentioned earlier."
"Heh heh. To be exact, the condition includes the price of our lives."
I Seokcheon spoke with a bitter expression.
"Well, something like that. You must know the reason why I'm keeping you two alive to make this trade."
In the end, it was a matter of focus. If three people survived and coordinated their stories, the fact that the rest had died wouldn't be a big problem.
But if only Jonghyeon survived, all attention would converge on him.
And that would be quite troublesome. It wasn't an empty threat—he would be summoned for every investigation under the sun, and he would have to exert tremendous effort to be recognized as innocent.
"Are you saying we'd be in a tight spot if we opened our mouths? Don't worry. I'm just glad those brats were taken care of without me having to lift a finger."
I Seokcheon gladly accepted Jonghyeon's terms.
Though the exact value of the items couldn't be calculated, no item worth a fortune had ever come out of a Chimera dungeon.
In fact, the items Jonghyeon had obtained would have been virtually useless if they weren't set items.
And the other party held their lives in his hands. That fact was quite significant.
Even though he held their lives, handing over money was a preventative measure against them opening their mouths in the future.
"Well, I don't have a hobby of killing people either. I didn't actually kill them, after all. That's the truth. Now let's go."
Jonghyeon spoke with his characteristic expressionless face, and rather, I Seokcheon found that feeling credible.
At the same time, he thought Jonghyeon was incredible. At least, it definitely seemed like he had taken care of the bosses and obtained the accessories.
But he didn't have the leisure to think at length, nor did he want to think anymore.
The Dangun Guild had lost one promising healer, and two aces were injured.
He was more worried about handling the requests that would come in the future and the direction of operating the guild.
Truthfully, he was grateful simply to have been saved. I Seokcheon decided not to think deeply about this matter any further.
I Seokcheon was a man who knew how to survive, in a different sense from Jonghyeon.
When they came outside, the cleanup crew was already on standby.
"Wait, you're already out?"
The official's expression, whom he was meeting in person after a long time, was unchanged from before.
Only then did Jonghyeon's tension ease and relief flood over him. Since this was the first time Jonghyeon had experienced such a case, he had been quite anxious despite pretending otherwise. He was only human, after all.
"Well, that's what happened."
Jonghyeon began explaining the circumstances to the official.
Of course, it included some embellishment, and the official seemed to believe it.
"But it's been a while since I've seen you come out to the site yourself."
"Well. It's a matter concerning the nation's prestige, is it not?"
"I had no idea you were interested in such things."
"Haha. I am a public servant working for the nation. In a way, isn't Jonghyeon also someone who works for the nation?"
"Hoo. Spare me. I will not participate in these events any longer."
Without batting an eye, the official lied.
Because from what Jonghyeon had seen, the official seemed utterly uninterested in the nation's prestige or anything of the sort.
Of course, whatever the official thought about as he lived his life, it was of no interest to Jonghyeon.
Jonghyeon, his body exhausted, simply wanted to return home, wash up clean, and lie down in bed.
After wrapping up the settlement issues and general discussion and changing his clothes, Jonghyeon got into his car.
As if to tell Jonghyeon to open his window for a moment, the official tapped on Jonghyeon's window.
Whirrr—
"What is it this time?"
Could something suspicious have come up?
There was nothing inside the dungeon to be suspicious about. They had all died by the Chimera's hand. But even so, like a thief afraid of his own shadow, Jonghyeon's heart pounded slightly.
"Do you know about the Flame Master, who's been quite the hot topic lately?"
It was the first time he had heard of it.
"I don't know what that is."
"Then go home, turn on the internet, and search for Flame Master. It will be quite interesting."
With those words, the official turned back, and Jonghyeon quickly closed the window as the weather was cold and stepped on the accelerator.
★ ★ ★
"Hehe. Look at this!"
"......"
Just why does this kid act like she lives here?
Jonghyeon felt like he always saw Bori at his home. Out of seven days a week, Bori came over almost six days, making some excuse or another.
"Aren't you going to school?"
"No, look at this."
"I saw it, so what? Isn't that only natural?"
"Tch. Why don't you ever praise me properly? Are you really my teacher?"
Bori began sulking in earnest.
In truth, Jonghyeon was also very surprised that Bori had already obtained a D-rank.
It had been less than a few months since Bori started learning from him.
However, since Bori had very little experience actually clearing dungeons, he had thought she would fail due to lack of real combat experience.
"I guess D-rank dungeons are easy these days."
Jonghyeon deliberately kept being sarcastic. Though he was happy inside, there was no need to let her off easy.
If he did that, people grew lazy. That was Jonghyeon's usual philosophy.
"Hmph. Are you a fossil? These days, D-rank dungeons are cleared through one-on-one duels, you know?"
Only then did Jonghyeon understand the reason Bori had passed.
During the process of selecting her own bodyguards, Bori had fought almost over a thousand one-on-one duels.
When it came to one-on-one combat, it could be said that she had reached a level where she wouldn't lose easily against opponents of similar skill.
"Then I took it even more lightly. You should see some blood in dungeons, see some people die too."
Jonghyeon wondered if his words had been too harsh for a moment, but it was necessary to make her realize the truth.
Hadn't he himself just caused someone's death not long ago?
Jonghyeon had once again realized that it was not monsters, but people who were dangerous in dungeons.
Though of course, even monsters would be dangerous for Bori.
"I don't know. I'm not talking to you for a while, Teacher. I'm hurt."
Bori seemed genuinely sulky, and Jonghyeon was slightly concerned, but he had already turned on his phone and was watching the news. It was because he had hardly watched any news recently.
'Hmm, what's this?'
The video about the Flame Master that the official had mentioned earlier was floating as a search term on Jonghyeon's green screen.
And when he clicked on the search term, he saw that the Flame Master was Korean, and public opinion was hotter than he had thought.
Suddenly recalling that the Flame Master was someone who commanded the official's attention, Jonghyeon clicked on the Flame Master's video. The official didn't pay attention to just any matter.
The view count was already quite high.
When Bori realized Jonghyeon's attention had drifted away from her, she felt even more sulky, but she grew curious about what her teacher was staring at so intently.
Bori sneakily circled around and peeked at Jonghyeon's phone screen from behind.
A video of flames rampaging.
Every time a fist of fire was thrust out, even monsters that should have had a certain degree of resistance were roasted whole and died.
'Impressive. At this level, it's A-rank?'
Jonghyeon's impression went that far.
There was nothing particularly surprising. While chakra users who could handle fire to that degree were not common, it wasn't like they didn't exist. There was nothing particularly strange about it.
And this was also because Jonghyeon had never properly encountered someone who fought using chakra.
In the end, Jonghyeon turned off his phone without seeing the related search terms. Because Bori behind him was on his mind.
"What are you peeking at like that?"
"No. I was just curious. It was making a loud noise."
Bori answered evasively, and Jonghyeon had no intention of grilling her about it. Rather, he felt slightly sorry for what he had said earlier. That was why he was even more concerned.
And with a sudden thought, he realized he had no memory of anyone praising him when he had grown stronger or achieved something.
A world filled with either respect, wariness, or those trying to exploit him.
There was no one to praise him, and praising himself would lead to complacency.
But wouldn't it be fine to be generous with others even if he was stingy with himself? She was his disciple, after all.
Suddenly, Jonghyeon felt keenly that what Bori needed was praise.
"Good work. But you know dungeons are more dangerous, right? It's not about one-on-one fights, so never get cocky."
Though Jonghyeon said it in as gruff a voice as possible, those words already seemed to have moved Bori greatly.
Her eyes welling up with tears, Bori hugged Jonghyeon from behind, and Jonghyeon patted her hand, which was heavily calloused.
'Right. I've grown cruel again out of habit. I said I wouldn't do this.'
Jonghyeon found it burdensome that he was changing so much himself.
And perhaps it was because he saw himself pouring that burden entirely onto Bori, who had approached him the closest.
Jonghyeon intended to stand in that posture until Bori felt better.
"What are you doing right now?"
However, the place where they were standing happened to be the living room, and Secretary Jang, who had just returned home, discovered the scene and asked.
Before Jonghyeon could say anything, Bori already quickly withdrew her arms, and Secretary Jang spoke with a grave expression.
"Something has just come up."
"Ah. It's not what you think, this with Bori right now is, well..."
"No. That is not important. I am on Jonghyeon's side, so you need not worry."
"No, that's what I'm saying. It's not that kind of relationship, Secretary Jang."
But sensing that Secretary Jang's expression was unusual, Jonghyeon quickly dropped his playful expression and returned to his characteristic deadpan look.
"Did something really happen?"
The information Secretary Jang brought was more shocking than Jonghyeon could have imagined.
---------= Author's Afterword ---------=
A new part, Act, has begun.
Brrr-commend!
I'm thinking of a new pledge, so if you have any good pledges, please recommend them.