Chapter 29

To find out anything, she had to act. Cho-i eventually nodded.

“Alright.”

Cho-i said that and pressed the elevator button. Yeonhan Kim rode the elevator with her, scanned his card, and then got off again.

“What, am I going alone—”

is,” the elevator doors had already closed. Cho-i blinked. What is this? I feel like I’m being sold off.
Whether she was being sold or not, the elevator steadily ascended and arrived at the top floor. Cho-i stepped out of the elevator and looked around.
There was no separate secretary’s office; one person occupied the entire floor. A full glass wall was directly in front, a large mahogany desk stood before it, and a person stood in front of the desk.

“Guild Master?”

“You’re the first person to call me that so abruptly.”

“Then, Guild Master?”

“That’s what people usually call me.”

Due to the backlight, his face was not clearly visible. He was a man with black hair and fair skin. When the light hit his black hair, it shimmered gray. She squinted her eyes. It’s dazzling.
She wasn’t sure if her eyes were dazzled by the backlight or by the man’s beauty, but either way, she said, dazzled,

“Can you please draw the curtains if there are any?”

“Why?”

“Because I can’t see your face clearly.”

“Is there a reason for you to look closely at my face?”

“If you called me to see me, then it’s only fair that I see you too, isn’t it? And don’t stare at me like you’re licking me. Is there something interesting in my status window?”

At her words, the man, Taehyeok Sa, let out a hollow laugh.

“I was expecting this.”

His bright brown eyes were already fixed on her status window, lingering somewhere in the air rather than on her face.

“It’s beyond my expectations.”

His lips stretched into a long line. People often called that shape a smile, but to Cho-i, it didn’t look like a smile.

“If you’re going to stare, pay for it.”

“I’m the one who’s going to be depositing money into your account regularly from now on.”

“Still, that’s a different story.”

Cho-i watched his brown eyes slowly move from top to bottom.

“You’re staring so openly like this, shouldn’t I get something more for it?”

“Ah.”

He gave an awkward laugh.

“My apologies.”

“If you’re not sorry, you don’t have to say you are.”

The other person closed his mouth with a look that suggested, “What kind of person is this?” The smile-like expression on his lips remained.

“Alright.”

He nodded. He affirmed her words, glanced once near the left side of her face, and then slowly began to walk forward. Cho-i stood still as he approached her, looking up at him.

“What is this?”

“It’s Cho-i Hyeon.”

“Not that.”

He furrowed his brow and grabbed her chin with his hand. Her head snapped up, and Cho-i, feeling unpleasant, tightly gripped his wrist.
He raised an eyebrow, as if he hadn’t expected her to do that.

“Sir, if you’re going to look, please only use your eyes. Don’t you know manners, manners?”

“I wanted to touch it a bit.”

Instead of getting annoyed, she widened her eyes and opened her mouth. Then, with one hand, she bit down hard between his thumb and index finger that were supporting her chin. Her sharp canine teeth left faint teeth marks on his skin.

“An A-plus leaves a bite mark.”

Cho-i frowned as much as she could. She had bitten him with the intention of tearing off his flesh, but all that remained was a bite mark. She looked up at him, still biting his hand. He was just looking at her with interest, his eyes curved.

“Shh, you don’t just bite anyone.”

He spoke as if comforting her, but Cho-i bit his hand even harder. He gave an awkward laugh and released the grip on her chin.

“You’re not a good listener.” “Y-y-you s-s-started it.” “Hmm, what was that?”

Cho-i spat out his hand that she had bitten.

“You started the fight.” “I admit that.”

There aren’t many people who actually take the bait when I pick a fight, you know. He said it as if it were new, but Cho-i knew. His way of speaking changed freely according to his will, but there was almost nothing in his words. If there’s one madman, there’s bound to be another. Cho-i knew very well that she wasn’t sane. Of course, among the insane, she thought she was quite rational.

“And I’m not your Guild Master yet, so could you please refrain from using informal speech?” “What do you mean, ‘not yet’?” “You said you’d accept me.” “Did Yeonhan Kim tell you that much?” “Along with the threat that you wouldn’t accept me if I didn’t see your face.” “You really did a good job.”

He said with a legacy smile.

“Well done.”

Cho-i blinked slowly, then looked at his hand with an indifferent expression. It really was just a small bite mark. The sharp tingling sensation she felt when she bit a steel chopstick still lingered in her teeth. Is an SS-Rank really not human? Cho-i thought deeply, then gave up.

“A Parasitic Ring, huh.” “Did you already see that far?” “Everything else is insignificant, but that one stands out.” “How far did you see?” “Well,”

He leaned down slightly and gazed steadily into Cho-i’s unfocused eyes.

“‘Cannot die until it hatches’— that far.” “So you saw everything.”

Cho-i laughed fiercely. Her fangs, which had bitten him, were sharply exposed. He returned her smile and asked,

“Do you really not die?” “How can a person not die? Of course they die.” “Normally, one would answer that they don’t know. Since they’ve never died before.” “You’re annoyingly quick-witted. Do you hear that you’re annoying often?” “You must hear that you’re clueless often.”

Cho-i closed her mouth. Because it was X-rated true.

“So, when are you going to pay?” “Do you take cards?”

Cho-i laughed. She didn’t laugh because it was funny. It meant that with that one statement, he had looked up all her tracks in that short time.

“If you pay by card, there’s a 100% processing fee, customer.” “Oh dear, that’s an outrageous markup.” “It’s a Scythe compared to you.”

Cho-i grumbled and went to sit on the guest sofa by the mahogany desk. Taehyeok Sa turned from his spot and looked at Cho-i. Taehyeok Sa’s first impression of Cho-i Hyeon was nothing more or less than simply pretty. There were many women with pretty faces, and quite a few were as pretty as Cho-i Hyeon. If he hadn’t seen her in person, he probably wouldn’t have shown any more interest than that.

‘But she’s wearing something strange.’

He looked down at her hand. A Black Ring was on her right index finger. He slowly walked and sat in the seat opposite Cho-i.

“No place will treat us as well as we do, so let’s sign the contract.”

“Are you sure I’m contracting with a kid named Nara Shim?”

“You’re talking about the C-Rank who joined this time. We won’t be going to the dungeon together anyway.”

“She has to be there. She’s mine.”

“Yours?”

“She promised to listen to me from now on, so she’s mine.”

“If that’s the case, are all the S-Ranks who promised to listen to me mine?”

“Weren’t they?”

Cho-i tilted her head with a puzzled expression. It was the face of someone who firmly believed Dongju Kim and Yeonhan Kim were his, only to be told they weren’t.

He smiled, squinting one eye, leaned back comfortably against the chair, and crossed his legs.

“I’ll take a look at the contract.”

He snapped his fingers once. Then a piece of paper lying on one side of the mahogany desk flew over. It was his signature skill, [Telekinesis]. The first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of superpowers. And the one that wields the most powerful force. Cho-i looked at the contract that flew towards her.

“Since it’s a large corporation, there’s nothing to object to.”

At that, Taehyeok Sa laughed. The annual salary, incentives, and even the percentage of items to be distributed after a dungeon raid were perfectly clean. Cho-i put down the contract and said,

“But isn’t this a bit lacking? Isn’t it a bit low for an A+ Rank?”

Cho-i frowned at the corner of one eye. At that, Taehyeok Sa burst out laughing. Then, with a flick of his finger, he took back the contract she was holding.

“Well, I thought you were an A-Rank.”

“Oh dear, I’m an A+ Rank.”

“Did we mistake you for an A-Rank, or did it go up again in the meantime?”

At that, Cho-i played innocent and whistled. But she didn’t know how to whistle. She only let out a few ambiguous huffing breaths.

“Oh, come on, surely her rank didn’t go up again in such a short time?”

“It affects the wearer’s growth.”

He must have seen everything. Everything. Indeed, there’s no way he wouldn’t have read something so obvious right in front of him. Cho-i got up from her seat, leaped over the table, and sat with her legs spread wide on the glass table in front of the sofa where he was sitting, saying,

“If you tell anyone else about this, it won’t be fun.”

At that, Taehyeok snorted.

“If it’s not fun? What are you going to do?”

“I’ll spread rumors that the Guild Master hit on me and got rejected.”

“…”

“And that the Entity was rejected three times too.”

“…Who would believe that?”

“They would.”

“…”

“Because I’m pretty.”

“…You are pretty.”

“See, even you admit it.”

Cho-i leaned forward towards the other person, who was leaning back on the sofa, and smiled, showing her teeth. The other person was looking at her with a stiff face, as if he couldn’t even snort.

“I’ll sign the contract. I want to go to the dungeon.”

“I wonder who’s doing the favor of signing the contract.”

“Why? Aren’t you happy to have an A+ Rank tank to take along? I think Mr. Yeonhan Kim and Mr. Dongju Kim would be delighted.”

Then Taehyeok Sa said,

“I’ve changed my mind.”

Taehyeok Sa had not originally intended to assign Cho-i to Dongju and Yeonhan, but he changed his mind once again, that mysterious status window, that unknown item. He saw all of the Entity and made another decision.

“You’ll find out later, so for now, it’s best to just sign the contract today and leave.”

He smiled a smile of unknown meaning, and Cho-i looked at him with a very uneasy expression before standing up abruptly.