The Way of Life for a Terminal S-Class Hunter - C57
$57
“It’s not your fault.”
I had somewhat anticipated Lee-han’s circumstances and heard about them before. So I wondered if gratitude had somehow felt like love.
“Hyung, you’re the first kind world I’ve met. The person who showed me that there are people who can step up and help others, even if it’s not their problem. The first being I saw after coming out of the bad things that were confining me.”
However, it wasn’t such a simple matter. Lee-han’s feelings were precious things that I couldn’t judge arbitrarily.
“I must have left quite an impression on you, right?”
Lee-han, who was stroking my hand, was gentle.
“So you don’t need to shrink back or feel sorry because you think you can’t listen to my feelings. For me, liking you is like a familiar habit.”
Lee-han suddenly stood up and looked me in the eye. There was no lie to be found in those sparkling eyes.
“And I quite like this habit.”
The child who said they first encountered a kind world because of me had, at some point, become that kindness itself. To the point where I felt ashamed.
“Thank you.”
My eyes were burning. Lee-han, who loved so similarly to me, was so different from me.
“I didn’t mean to make you cry. Ah, I also wasn’t asking for tea right now.”
I shook my head at the somewhat playful murmur and took a sip of the coffee I was holding. After the cool liquid went down, my heart felt a little more at ease.
“I’d like to stay longer, but I have some things to hand over to team members before the raid, so I’ll go first.”
Lee-han took out the pager that had been vibrating softly for a while. Unable to ignore it any longer, his slightly furrowed face was full of discontent.
“Let’s talk more after the raid.”
I didn’t want to show too bad an ending to Lee-han, who had trusted me.
“Alright.”
The retreating back was broader than I had thought.
***
Even after Lee-han left, I sat on the bench for a long time. Since I had mainly been abroad, there was no content to organize and hand over, and the raid preparations were almost complete, so I could afford this leisure. Watching people busily passing by gave me the feeling that everyone had their own path to walk, which made me feel at ease.
“Haah…”
Even though the weather had warmed up considerably, I could still see my breath. Since I hardly felt the cold after manifesting, I enjoyed drinking cold beverages even in this weather. As I sat there, my cluttered mind gradually sorted itself out.
‘I should let go of things I can’t control.’
I was like someone holding onto a snowflake that had already melted. I had decided to organize things, so even if Seo-heon couldn’t understand, I had to make it that way.
“Let’s talk.”
A shadow fell over my head. It was someone I hadn’t expected to speak to me personally after our previous one-sided conversation.
“Mr. Kwon Ho-jun?”
“Yes, that’s right, so can you answer if we can talk for a moment?”
He was quite irritable, so I offered him the seat next to me without delay.
“Yes.”
He sat down and just bit his nails without saying anything. I thought if I waited, he would open his mouth, but after about ten minutes, I reached my limit.
“Um, what did you want to talk about?”
Kwon Ho-jun’s shoulders heaved greatly, but that wasn’t the attitude of someone who came to argue about something.
“I, I want to participate in this raid too.”
“Pardon?”
I touched my earlobe a few times, wondering if I had heard wrong.
“I said I want to participate in this raid.”
Kwon Ho-jun wasn’t the type of hunter who could participate in a raid. He needed a bodyguard due to terrorist threats, so there was no way he could participate in an S-class dungeon raid. From the beginning, his entry into the Ihwa Guild was largely in the name of being Seo-heon’s lover, not as a hunter.
“I don’t understand why you’re telling me this. I don’t have that authority.”
It would be faster to talk to Ms. Mi-yeon instead. Not that she would include Kwon Ho-jun in this raid anyway. Taking a barely C-class hunter into an S-class dungeon would be nothing short of assisted suicide. Especially if they were a mental type rather than a combat type.
“Seo-heon says it’s absolutely not okay for me to be in danger. But I have something I want to prove too.”
It was natural for Seo-heon to stop him. Who would want to take their lover to such a dangerous place? Even if that weren’t the case, having a burden only increases the difficulty of a high-level dungeon raid.
“I don’t have that authority, so I’m sorry.”
“Liar.”
It was a small voice, like crawling on the ground.
“Why is it all just you… If only someone like you didn’t exist…”
Kwon Ho-jun muttered, staring at the ground. The sparkle and happiness I saw when I was first introduced to him had disappeared like smoke.
“Mr. Kwon Ho-jun?”
“Something is going wrong.”
After jumping up and spinning in place for a while, Kwon Ho-jun suddenly turned his head to glare at me, then left without saying goodbye. Something was making Kwon Ho-jun anxious and causing erratic behavior. From his reaction, it was related to me, but at the same time, it was something I couldn’t understand yet.
“Haah…”
I slowly got up and headed home, clutching my head. Someone was clearly stabbing my head with an awl. Otherwise, it wouldn’t hurt this much.
***
I received a final day off before the dungeon raid. While some hunters find it important to hone their senses by clashing with monsters before a mission, others find rest more important. Since I spent more than 70% of the year with monsters, resting was more efficient for me than maintaining my senses.
“The situation is messy too.”
The image of an anxious Kwon Ho-jun wouldn’t leave a corner of my consciousness.
“Haah…”
Even after sighing for who knows how many times, the tightness in my chest wouldn’t go away. I decided to at least clean up my room instead of my unorganized head, and I was in the middle of turning the room upside down. I thought I wouldn’t have much stuff since I traveled frequently and didn’t need much, but once I took everything out, there was more than I expected. After this raid, I would leave the guild and have to vacate the dormitory. Even if that weren’t the case, I didn’t want to stay by Seo-heon’s side anymore.
“I’m really leaving now, so I should organize in advance.”
I muttered to myself as I rummaged through my belongings. The desk drawer was full of neglected contracts. Most of them had expired, so I threw them in the trash without hesitation. I gathered occasionally used items like seals, pencils, and erasers and prepared to throw them away along with the documents. I also found about three bank books that I rarely used.
“I should donate these along with the books.”
Thanks to Ihwa’s generous conditions that maximized my convenience, there was an excessive amount of money in the bank books. Due to business trips and support for other guilds, my income was probably better than that of freelance mercenary hunters who were rumored to work quite a lot.
Even though I said several times that I didn’t need this much.
Seo-heon’s kindness was unnecessary for me. I didn’t have much time to spend money, and I didn’t know how to spend it either. I gathered the bank books and selected books that could be donated to libraries or institutions. I put the clean books that I had only read once or twice together with the bank books, and separated the ones I had read multiple times or used for studying.
“As for clothes…”
Except for a suit I had only worn once, my casual clothes were all simple. Apart from a few that I would wear a few more times, the rest could all be thrown away in clothing collection bins. As for item equipment, I could just organize them and sell them all at auction.
There were also high-grade items I received as thanks for supporting other guilds on business trips, but I didn’t particularly mind parting with them. Items should be in the hands of those who need them.
However, there was one item I wasn’t sure how to deal with. The bracelet Seo-heon gave me.
It was clearly different from other items he bought as guild master for the raid. I mistakenly thought it was a gift prepared for me, but in the end, it was just a side gift for his lover. I still hadn’t decided how to organize this.
I caressed the intricately crafted pattern with my hand. If I wasn’t going to wear it or throw it away, it would have been better not to receive it.
Once again, I put the bracelet into my inventory. It would just be an item occupying a slot, as it wouldn’t be needed in this battle either. Even though I knew it was foolish, I couldn’t throw it away again.
“Let’s continue cleaning.”
I continued cleaning to try to forget about the bracelet that had entered my inventory.
I should leave behind the expensive things that Seo-heon forcibly gave me as guild support. I decided to think of them as just borrowed from the start.
It was around the time when the cluttered room was all organized and I had separated what to throw away and what to leave behind. There was a rattling partition in the back of the drawer. Suddenly, I remembered the object I had put inside.
Click.
When I removed the partition, there was a box with a broken lock inside.
“So this was here.”
I carefully lifted the box, which was as old as my worn-out heart and covered in dust. This box was similar to the bracelet stored in my inventory.
Click.
I carefully removed the broken lock and opened the box. Thanks to the box’s effect, the inside was clean without even a speck of dust, let alone any foreign substances. On top was a photo of Seo-heon and me together.
When my parents were still alive, the two families went on a trip to Portugal. The weather was exceptionally good, and the river sparkled in the sunlight. It was a photo taken by my father, who insisted that Seo-heon and I stand side by side because the background was so beautiful.