Volume 1, Episode 21
021
—A contract like this? Can you get more special items?
It was something he had offered himself.
An item circulating in the dark underworld, the Death Contract.
There had been a time when Lee Seojun asked about it.
—Up to B-rank, or even an unranked contract.
But Lee Seojun had wanted something of a higher rank than that.
—I know they exist. Up to A-rank. But I’m not sure beyond that.
To that, Lee Hyeonu had answered.
—So that means A-rank ones exist.
It was a remark passed over lightly at the time.
Forcing an A-rank Hunter to sign such a coercive contract meant not only having to perfectly subdue an A-rank Hunter, but also enduring the complicated aftermath that would unfold afterward.
And just a while ago.
—You said there was a way to get that, didn’t you?
He demanded the A-rank contract that Lee Seojun had mentioned before.
—Huff…. Huff….
Lee Hyeonu moved hastily at that.
“I barely, barely got it.”
And what he had just handed to Lee Seojun was exactly that.
A single sheet of rustling paper.
But its price was beyond imagination.
He had poured every remaining fund in the Samil Resolution Office into it, and swiped the considerable remaining balance with a black card.
It was possible because it was a black card with no limit, one that didn’t care about the customer’s payment history at all.
“…….”
A heavy silence fell over the room.
Rustle.
In that place, Lee Seojun picked up the contract and began filling it out.
Everyone’s gaze was concentrated on Lee Seojun.
Tap.
Before long, Lee Seojun finished writing the entire contract.
Swish.
He passed it to Kim Seungmin with an expressionless face.
“……….”
Kim Seungmin, who had been looking back and forth between Lee Seojun and the contract, spoke.
“It’s hard to see properly.”
His two arms were bound.
Kim Juwon stepped forward trying to read the contract for him, but.
Snap!
Lee Seojun cut the ropes that had bound Kim Seungmin.
From the start, an A-rank Hunter couldn’t be tied up by such a joke.
“If I’d wanted to undo them from the start, I would have already.”
Lee Seojun’s very existence was the only restraint.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
The freed Kim Seungmin rotated his wrists round and round as if stretching.
Thud.
And he sat back down and began reading through the contract Lee Seojun had handed him.
In the midst of that.
“…….”
He raised his head and looked at Lee Seojun with sharp eyes.
“Right now….”
Touching him, the team leader of the Hunter Management Department, meant touching the Association.
In Korea, where not even the Three Great Guilds could yet surpass the fortress of the Association, Lee Seojun was binding a high-ranking official of the Association through an illegal contract.
“You know what you’re doing, don’t you?”
His question was both a final warning to him and a last chance.
“Everything will change depending on how you come out of this.”
But Lee Seojun brushed them all aside without a moment’s thought.
And as if nothing was wrong, without a single change in expression, he spoke toward him in a flat tone.
“Crazy….”
Kim Seungmin spewed curses toward Lee Seojun.
“Hoo.”
He clenched his fist and let out a deep sigh.
He had finally made up his mind due to Lee Seojun’s attitude that seemed to say there was absolutely no way around this.
“1. Once a month, either party may ask the other anything, and they must answer truthfully. 2. Neither may use the other for acts related to the Association or those threatening personal safety, such as murder. 3….”
Kim Seungmin began reciting the clauses written in the contract.
‘What?’
The more he read, the more puzzlement bloomed on Kim Seungmin’s face.
This was clearly a contract with a defined superior-inferior relationship.
Since Lee Seojun had written all the terms.
And yet.
‘Quite.’
It was fair.
There were no terms so unfavorable that they were excessively harsh to him.
Why was that?
Though Kim Seungmin couldn’t know the reason.
“Let’s do it. Sign.”
He signed the contract.
Kim Seungmin’s intuition.
Thump! Thump!
That had given the answer.
* * *
Samil Resolution Office.
Kim Seungmin returned immediately after signing the contract.
—See you again.
He returned because he now knew the office’s location, Lee Seojun’s identity, and where to find him.
“Ha, I thought my heart was going to give out.”
Kim Juwon said with a pale complexion.
Lee Hyeonu looked no different.
“Still, it was less of a big deal than I thought?”
Despite being called the Reaper of the Association, Kim Seungmin had ultimately signed the contract to survive.
“In the end, to Hyung-nim….”
Lee Hyeonu’s expression looking at such Kim Juwon was one of sheer disbelief.
“Do you really think that?”
“Huh?”
Kim Juwon answered with a face that knew nothing.
“If he hadn’t signed the contract, that would have been an even bigger problem.”
“Why?”
Lee Hyeonu pressed his temples as if he had a headache and spoke.
“Starting from the Association’s executives, they have a chip embedded near the chest that recognizes the body using mana. And that chip reacts immediately if they lose their life.”
“What happens if it reacts?”
Kim Juwon’s pupils widened.
“All information stored in the body is transmitted straight to the Association. If Kim Seungmin had died here….”
Samil Resolution Office would have ended today; no matter how capable Lee Seojun was, there was no telling what would have happened.
He would have had to live his whole life as a fugitive.
Because the Association currently held the greatest power in Korea.
Even more than the renowned Three Great Guilds.
“Th-that….”
Kim Juwon’s face, having learned this fact, was colored with bewilderment in an instant.
Swoosh.
And Lee Hyeonu looked at Lee Seojun.
His calm face seemed to know everything.
‘Just what….’
And yet he had taken a gamble.
And since he had succeeded.
‘Hoo.’
He couldn’t get a grasp on how to evaluate Lee Seojun.
Just as they were relaxing like that.
Clomp. Clomp.
Cheerful footsteps echoed through the room.
“Have a meal.”
It was Kim Juwon.
He had cooked and brought it out.
Rumor had it that after being rescued by Lee Seojun, he was staying and boarding at the Samil Resolution Office with Lee Hyeonu.
Dishes prepared with all his might, as if to make up for his earlier foolishness.
“Uh….”
But Lee Hyeonu, looking at the dishes, showed a strange reaction.
“Why aren’t you eating?”
Kim Juwon asked with a puzzled face toward Lee Hyeonu.
“Ah, right. And there are people interested in this Samil Resolution Office….”
At that, Lee Hyeonu averted his eyes and even started changing the subject.
“No. I know. I get it, but they say even Mount Geumgang is best enjoyed after a meal, so let’s eat first and talk again. We haven’t eaten a single meal yet. Let’s start with this one I prepared ambitiously this time….”
Just as Kim Juwon, eyes sparkling, cut off Lee Hyeonu’s words and was explaining about the food.
Plop.
Lee Seojun quietly scooped doenjang-jjigae with a spoon and put it in his mouth.
And a moment later.
Clink.
A cheerful sound rang through the room.
It was the sound of Lee Seojun’s spoon falling to the floor.
Swish.
Lee Hyeonu and Kim Juwon, who had been bickering, stopped.
And the two’s gazes turned to Lee Seojun.
“Ptooey.”
Lee Seojun spat something onto the floor.
It was a blue-glowing worm that seemed to have been inside the doenjang.
“This is called beetle grub doenjang-jjigae.”
The moment Kim Juwon, having seen it, was explaining to Lee Seojun.
“You crazy bastard.”
Lee Seojun smacked Kim Juwon on the head and said.
“If you ever cook again, I’ll kill you.”
The room instantly became a frozen sheet of ice.
Gulp.
Lee Hyeonu swallowed dryly.
“H-Hyung-nim….”
Kim Juwon’s pitiful voice echoed.
* * *
The 12th Raid of Tirion Guild, newly formed not long ago, with Yun Hyeongi as its raid leader.
‘Black Hog.’
The atmosphere around them in front of the Gate was heavy.
What had happened during the last raid.
The fatal accident that had occurred then….
—It will have been deposited into each of your accounts. If this fact gets out anywhere and reaches my ears, then….
It had been covered up with Tirion’s enormous power and money.
He heard that the deceased Kim Sang-uk had been handled as a common accident inside the Gate.
And he heard that his family had been given a huge sum of money that they couldn’t refuse, just like the rest of them.
And one more thing.
“Hoo….”
Raid leader Yun Hyeongi was in a foul mood.
Swoosh.
Yun Hyeongi’s eyes toward Lee Seojun.
“What the hell….”
The card statement that had flown to Yun Hyeongi a few days ago.
The details he had looked at thinking it would be nothing much were invisible to Yun Hyeongi’s eyes.
Only the amount entered his eyes.
—Wh-what is this?
That astronomical amount he had checked over and over to see if he had seen it wrong.
If the card payment hadn’t gone from his own account that he had saved since childhood, it was an amount that would have nearly gotten him called in by his father for the first time in a while.
“What did you spend it on?”
Yun Hyeongi asked Lee Seojun in a tone mixed with slight irritation and doubt.
“…….”
But no answer came from Lee Seojun.
He simply sent his gaze with a face that showed no concern.
“Hah.”
At that, Yun Hyeongi let out a deep sigh as if the ground would cave in.
A vein had bulged on his forehead before he knew it, and his clenched fist was trembling slightly.
Gulp.
The raid members watching this scene swallowed dryly, extremely tense.
Yun Hyeongi, the youngest son of the Tirion Guild Master.
That was exactly the behavior he showed when he was truly angry.
‘This is bad.’
Furthermore, Yun Hyeongi was someone who knew no restraint when angry.
He would do anything until his anger subsided.
Smashing everything around him was a given.
—Is my word funny to you right now? Huh?
He could even turn a person into a half-cripple.
To Yun Hyeongi, such things were nothing.
He had seen it in droves while at Tirion.
But because of that massive backing, there was no one who could stop him.
Tremble. Tremble.
And that anger spread to the people around him.
Until Yun Hyeongi’s anger subsided.
The bodies of the raid members, who knew all of this, trembled slightly.
“……!”
But what they feared did not happen.
That Yun Hyeongi took a step back.
“Forget it.”
Yun Hyeongi, with an expression that seemed somewhat calmed, spoke to Lee Seojun.
“Think of it as a contract fee. But for the time being, I won’t be able to spend that kind of amount.”
Matters related to Lee Seojun were still unknown to his father and others.
For now.
“Let’s just go raid.”
Yun Hyeongi spoke while looking at everyone.
“Yes. Understood!”
At that, the raid members answered with voices full of strength.
And they immediately began preparing something.
Click.
It was changing personal belongings before entering the Gate.
Because electronic equipment becomes useless and even breaks down, they have to leave their phones with the Association or the Support Department before entering.
Click.
Yun Hyeongi confirmed that all of their phones had been deposited and spoke.
“Enter.”
At the words of the raid leader, the raid members immediately moved their feet and entered the Gate.
And.
Brrr.
Lee Seojun’s cell phone began ringing continuously.
The strongest villain of all time has returned.