NOVEL NEXT Ch. 22
Chapter 22: Absolute Proposition (3)
Kang Ihyun / Hunter
Profile
Birth / October 24, 20XX
Occupation / Hunter (Main Class: Priest, Subclass: Holy Knight)
Affiliation / Guild Sanctuary
Ranking / Domestic Rank 2, World Rank 7, Number 1 in the Priest category
Education / St. Michael’s Boys High School
Physical / 188 cm, 80 kg
Family / Father Kang Minho (deceased at 38), Mother Jang Yujin (deceased at 35), Aunt Kang Sujin
Special Notes / Color Attribute Hunter. Alias: “Golden Sacred Flame.”
“W-Wait, it’s true… This guy’s a fourth-generation chaebol? He’s the guild leader’s nephew too…?”
Lude covered his mouth with his hand, staring at the computer screen in disbelief.
Running and maintaining a guild required a staggering amount of money, incomparable to even large-scale companies. People often said the core of guild management was “not going bankrupt.”
From the start, out of the Four Great Guilds that survived in Korea, Sanctuary and White Night were raised as subsidiaries of conglomerates.
Among them, Sanctuary had begun as a sub-subsidiary but had grown far larger than its parent company and became independent. No wonder the heir, Ihyun, possessed unimaginable wealth.
[The Lord of Chaos recalls that, now that he thinks of it, the things he used were indeed quite expensive.]
‘He really didn’t seem to have any sense for money.’
He would casually lend out expensive items, and even if something was lost or broken, he didn’t seem to care, to the point that Lude would scold him instead.
At first, Lude thought it was because Ihyun earned so much money he didn’t value it. But now, it seemed Ihyun had been born with a golden spoon, so he had no financial sense to begin with.
“So the guild leader purposely put his own nephew through an internship? Wow, that’s cold… ruthless.”
[The Lord of Chaos nods, saying with his personality, she would never just hand Sanctuary down without testing him.]
Of course. Knowing how strict the guild leader was, Lude thought the same as the Lord of Chaos and scrolled down with the mouse.
“He’s even two years younger than me. He’s twenty-three, right?”
[He even has the younger-male lead trait! He’s really pulling out all the stops to charm our Nari, the Lord of Chaos says, folding its arms.]
In the two-person shared office Ihyun and Lude used, Lude placed the latte on Ihyun’s desk and widened his eyes, dragging his cursor over the birth year on the webpage.
“No, but that’s not the problem…”
Lude let out another deep sigh and dragged over the family section. His face grew heavy.
Hunter Kang Minho and Hunter Jang Yujin. National heroes, and the first guild leader and vice-leader of Sanctuary.
After Hunter Kang Hana’s death, they closed the class 1 gate at Donghae in her stead, and died doing so. That meant Ihyun’s parents had essentially died because of Nari’s mother.
Lude remembered again the look on Ihyun’s face when he had first learned her true identity. What had his expression been? He couldn’t recall.
“Damn it… what the hell… ugh, seriously!”
Groaning, Lude grabbed his head and buried it against the desk, rubbing his black hair roughly, looking completely lost. A natural and fundamental question rose in his mind.
‘Why is he still staying by my side?’
To him, Nari was basically the daughter of the hunter who had killed his parents, Kang Hana. Human emotions were fickle. Hadn’t she also harbored resentment toward Sanctuary, even though they had done nothing to her or her mother?
But Ihyun? He had reached out his hand to her. Was it really without any ulterior motive, without any calculation? That thought made Lude’s head spin even more.
[The Lord of Chaos sighs, telling you not to think so heavily, warning that your anxiety level is spiking again.]
“And here I thought I’d finally found a place to breathe.”
The mere thought that Ihyun might have drawn him close just to use him twisted Lude’s insides. He had thought of Ihyun as a savior, but what if his kindness was nothing more than a sweet drug?
As Lude lay on the desk with a grim look, staring at the floor, the door burst open.
“Lude! You’re here?!”
“Whoa!”
Startled, Lude flinched and looked up. Ihyun had walked in while on his phone. The moment he saw Lude, he let out a sigh of relief.
Had he been looking for him? Lude pulled out his phone from his trench coat, and the lock screen showed dozens of missed calls from Ihyun.
“Sorry, you were looking for me.”
“Thank goodness. You’re not hurt anywhere, right? You didn’t hear anything strange, did you? I’m so sorry! Really, I should’ve paid more attention.”
“What… Huh?”
Ihyun strode forward, dropping to one knee to meet his eye level. His bangs were damp with sweat, as if he had run.
“…You’re avoiding me because of Hunter Min Jaewon, right? My former partner. The café worker told me. He was harassing you.”
“O-Oh that? No… it’s fine…”
“My uncle Jaewon has a tendency to hate evil-aligned people too much. He lost his son and daughter-in-law in a gate to demons.”
“O-Oh.”
Ihyun closed his eyes tightly, then opened them again with a remorseful expression.
“I’m sorry. Really, I am. I should have thought more carefully and mediated him better. But I’ll make sure to state clearly that you’re different from that, definitely. I’ll tell the guild leader too…”
“No, really, it’s fine. He seemed polite enough.”
“…What?”
Ihyun’s expression looked puzzled, but Lude shook his head, looking like he genuinely meant it.
“For me, that’s polite. You know not many people like me.”
Lude shrugged. He wasn’t physically violent, nor was he trying to bury him completely. Compared to what he was used to, this level of hostility was nothing.
It made sense. His main identity had been hated for ten years, and his alternate identity had been tossed around by the media, so his resilience had grown. It was a bitter, if useful, outcome.
Patting Ihyun’s shoulder as he looked at him with worried eyes, Lude tried to explain desperately.
“I told you, you’re unusual. I’ve been through worse. He’s actually mild, so I don’t really care. So you don’t have to worry either…”
“How can I not care! Don’t say things like that. I’ll make sure it never happens again. Ever.”
“It’s fine! Now I have y-you, right? You’re here, aren’t you?! What’s there to worry about… i-isn’t that right?”
Lude gave an awkward laugh and patted Ihyun’s shoulder. But Ihyun, who moments ago looked apologetic, now narrowed his eyes into thin slits.
‘He’s not usually like this. Why now?’
It was a sign that Ihyun sensed something suspicious.
Lude flinched and glanced aside, avoiding his gaze. Ihyun tilted his head slightly, clearly catching on, and asked,
“Did something happen?”
“Huh? W-What are you talking about?”
“Why do you trust me so much now?”
“What? No, I always trusted you!”
[The Lord of Chaos chuckles, asking where Nari’s conscience went.]
‘Shut up… damn it…’
Grinding his teeth at the mocking voice, Lude closed his eyes tight.
Seeing Ihyun face-to-face after learning about his background made him more tense than doubtful. Thinking that this younger man had hidden the truth about his parents and endured all his tantrums for his sake made his cheeks burn.
‘What if he actually hates me? Should I cut things off? No, maybe I should just wait and see… Damn it, how am I supposed to act naturally around someone with maxed-out social skills…’
Even so, Ihyun kept staring at him with narrowed eyes.
He glanced at the monitor, noticed his profile on the screen, and asked,
“Why were you looking up my profile?”
“W-W-Wha? O-Ohhh, it’s nothing! Just… I suddenly got curious! Yeah! I mean, you’re my one and only partner, of course I’d be curious!”
“Really?”
Ihyun gave him a sharp look. Something was off. The Lude he knew never babbled like that.
When Ihyun met his eyes, Lude looked away. When he moved to catch his gaze again, he turned his head. He was hiding something. Narrowing his eyes halfway, Ihyun pressed,
“What’s really going on?!”
“No, seriously, it’s nothing! This is just…!”
Lude muttered in a thoroughly flustered tone. As Ihyun placed his hands on his hips with determination, a red alert message appeared before both their eyes. It was a government notice.
[Urgent Alert from the Hunter Administration Bureau, Gyeonggi Branch – A class 3 Erosion-type Sudden gate has appeared at OO High School, Seohyeon Station, Seongnam City. All available Hunters are requested to deploy immediately.]
* * *
“Teacher~ can’t we finish early today? Please? Teacher~ The grace of a teacher is as high as the sky~ The more I look up, the higher you seem~”
“No.”
“Aww, come on, teacher~ The college entrance exam is over. Don’t you think our students deserve some freedom? Let’s dismiss early, just today. Please?”
Several dozen minutes before Ihyun and Lude received the class 3 gate alert. In the teachers’ office of an old public high school near Seohyeon Station, a bespectacled male student was shamelessly wheedling his homeroom teacher.
The teacher, clearly used to it, shook his head.
“Jaeyoon, do you not plan to graduate? Just because the exam’s over doesn’t mean you can skip or come late. If your attendance rate drops, you won’t graduate. And you were late again today.”
Realizing his plea wasn’t going to work, the boy ran his hand through his hair and sighed.
“Ugh… No, teacher, listen! We’re in danger! We all need to get out of school right now! The gate detector went off!”
The student’s playful tone suddenly turned urgent. But the teacher only laughed at the anxious eyes behind his glasses.
“That was just a malfunction. See? Everything’s fine now. It’s 11 o’clock. Just hang on another hour.”
“Seriously, teach!”
With that sharp protest, he was all but shoved out of the office. Closing the door with a slam, the boy heaved a deep sigh and looked down the hall.
The eastern mana-stone storage room. He popped a lollipop into his mouth and stared at it for a long time before finally lowering his head and sighing again.
“Fine, I don’t care anymore. Whatever happens, happens. Damn it!”
Whack!
The sound of a hard punch rang out, followed by a short cry as the boy staggered. Rubbing the back of his head, he clenched his teeth and looked upward.
“C-Come on, seriously? Ugh… fine…! Fine, I’ll do it! I said I’d do it! It was just talk, okay? Just talk!”
Muttering, the boy sighed again and trudged up the stairs in his slippers.