Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Hunter Kang Mujin wore a very faint smile at the corner of his mouth as he extended his hand to me once more.

“I look forward to working with you, Hunter Yoon Seohee of ‘Heewon.’”

“I look forward to working with you too, ‘Guild Master.’”

I grasped the hand Hunter Kang Mujin held out to me. The handshake felt very solid, as if telling me I’d grabbed the right lifeline.

* * *

After I expressed my intention to join Heewon Guild, Hunter Kang Mujin immediately handed me a long contract that looked to be about ten pages long.

The contract detailed who Party A and Party B were, what duties and rights each had, and all the accompanying provisions.

I read the contract from start to finish once, discussed the amount of the support fund with Hunter Kang Mujin, and then signed my name next to the final signature line.

After confirming my name on the signature line, Hunter Kang Mujin promptly took the contract back.

“As with most guilds, you don’t have to come into the guild office unless it’s dungeon-related. You just need to visit about once a week to report whether you cleared any dungeons that week or received any requests. And the support fund will be deposited within thirty minutes from now.”

As expected of a major guild. They handle things quickly. I set the pen I was still holding down on the table and let out a small sigh of admiration.

“Then, can I get up now?”

“Of course. Ah, I’d like Hunter Yoon Juyeong to wait a bit longer. I still need to sign a contract with him as well.”

“I’ll—”

“Mr. Yoon Juyeong.”

“…Since Seohee has already signed, I intend to join this guild regardless of the terms. Just give me the contract and I’ll sign it right away.”

As if insisting his words were sincere, Mr. Yoon Juyeong picked up the pen I’d placed on the table and held out one hand. It was a silent gesture demanding the contract immediately.

‘This guy, seriously.’

Signing without even properly reviewing the contract.

The fact that he was trying to join Heewon Guild solely because I was now affiliated with it bothered me, but I held back as much as I could because of what Mr. Yoon Juyeong had said before we visited Heewon Guild.

After all, Heewon Guild was the largest guild in the country, and it already had three S-Rank Hunters under its wing.

So from the perspective of a rookie S-Rank Hunter like Mr. Yoon Juyeong, Heewon Guild—which had three S-Rank Hunters and plenty of experience supporting them—wasn’t a bad choice. He himself had said that to convince me before we came here.

I agreed to some extent, so I let it slide then, but…

This behavior now was completely beyond what I could tolerate. He’d convinced me by saying, “Joining Heewon Guild is absolutely not a bad thing for me either,” and now he was about to recklessly sign a contract that might have unfavorable terms for him.

I lightly poked Mr. Yoon Juyeong in the side to snap him out of it. But this time, Mr. Yoon Juyeong didn’t care at all. He stubbornly kept his hand out toward Hunter Kang Mujin, pressing him for the contract.

I finally couldn’t hold back and opened my mouth to say something.

“Yoon Ju—”

“Hunter Yoon Juyeong.”

But before I could even speak properly, someone else spoke first. It was Hunter Kang Mujin.

“I can’t presume to know what kind of relationship you two have, but I can clearly see that Hunter Yoon Juyeong values Hunter Yoon Seohee. However, acting on emotion alone in a situation where contracts are being exchanged is not very advisable.”

“It’s not that I’m acting purely on emotion. It’s just that Master is more important to me than any condition this guild might demand of me.”

Didn’t this guy just casually slip in “Master”?

I flinched at the embarrassing word that popped out of Mr. Yoon Juyeong’s mouth and cautiously glanced at Hunter Kang Mujin’s reaction.

…Luckily or unluckily, Hunter Kang Mujin seemed more focused on something other than Mr. Yoon Juyeong’s “Master” comment.

“That sounds almost as if you expect our guild to make unreasonable demands of you, Hunter Yoon Juyeong. Wouldn’t it be better to at least read the contract before saying something like that?”

“It’s not that I think Heewon Guild will make unreasonable demands of me. Rather, at the bottom of it, I believe that a guild ranked first in Korea wouldn’t ask anything inappropriate of an S-Rank Hunter.”

That was certainly nice to hear, but I still wanted to add that he should at least read the contract once.

As someone who learned that lesson the hard way when I first started out as a hunter—having not checked the contract properly and getting burned for it—I had to agree even more.

“Those bastards tried to lowball me by not even setting the incentive ratio properly in the contract…”

They even tried to ignore the government-mandated minimum performance bonus rate, so it wasn’t long before the government stepped in and audited them directly.

Haha. Thinking back, that place really was hopeless.

I let out a hollow laugh as I recalled my first job, a black company that had sucked the life out of a clueless newbie like me, when suddenly Hunter Kang Mujin spoke to me.

“…Hoo, I apologize, but Hunter Yoon Seohee.”

“Oh, yes, yes?!”

“I’d like to have a brief private conversation with Hunter Yoon Juyeong… Would you mind waiting outside? There’s a waiting room right next door. I’d appreciate it if you could wait there with a cup of coffee.”

“I’ll finish up quickly and come right back, Mas—”

“Ahahaha, well then, take your time and come back, Mr. Yoon Juyeong.”

“…Yes, Seohee.”

Anyway, the problem with this guy is that he keeps trying to slip in that “Master” nonsense whenever he gets an opening.

I prayed fervently that Yoon Juyeong wouldn’t bring up that “Master” business in front of Hunter Kang Mujin while I was gone, and slipped out of the guild master’s office.

“Ah.”

“…Ah.”

And this time, I ran straight into Jeong Seojin.

“Looks like the contract’s already done?”

“Oh, yes, well, thanks to you…”

Jeong Seojin looked exactly the same as when I’d met him before. That handsome face, and that characteristic air of not giving a damn about anything in the world.

‘He’s a bit uncomfortable to deal with in many ways, but…’

As much as I wanted to just exchange greetings and go my own way right then and there, there was something I absolutely had to discuss with Jeong Seojin.

I bit my lower lip, which was drying out from the awkward atmosphere, then let it go and met Jeong Seojin’s eyes.

“Um, Mr. Jeong Seojin.”

“…Ah, right. I did say I’d talk about it once you got here.”

As if he’d caught something in my gaze, Jeong Seojin brought up the previous matter the moment our eyes met.

I nodded vigorously at his words. That was the only reason I’d bother facing someone so uncomfortable and talking to them.

‘How the hell did he figure out that Blackie was a monster… and how did he know I was Blackie’s master?’

I didn’t care about anything else, but I absolutely had to get answers to those two questions.

And fortunately, Jeong Seojin wasn’t the type to say one thing and mean another. He glanced at the door behind me leading to the guild master’s office, then pointed to the waiting room right next to it.

“I think we’d better talk inside first. You don’t want anyone else hearing this, right?”

“…Fine. Let’s go inside and talk.”

Heewon Guild’s waiting room wasn’t particularly flashy, but its neat, tidy interior made an impression. I sat down on the sofa in the middle of the room and blankly watched Jeong Seojin as he made instant coffee.

‘…Jeong Seojin, drinking plain instant coffee instead of expensive specialty beans…’

It was a sight no one could have imagined—and one I’d never pictured myself. Especially since he was someone who never showed his face in the media anyway.

I took the mug he handed me, my mind still a bit dazed, as he finished making the coffee.

“Well then, before we start talking, I’d like to get one promise out of the way.”

After handing me the mug, Jeong Seojin grabbed his own cup and plopped down on the seat across from me. I clutched the mug he’d given me with both hands and looked up at him.

“A promise?”

“A promise that you won’t repeat what we’re about to discuss anywhere.”

“…Fine. That’s what I wanted too, from the start.”

“I figured you’d say that. But what I want isn’t just a verbal promise. It’s something else.”

Jeong Seojin took a sip of his coffee and waved his hand through the air. He was probably rummaging through his inventory. As I expected, soon enough, a piece of white parchment materialized in his previously empty hand.

“Here.”

“What’s this?”

“It’s an item. Called ‘Thoth’s Promise.’ Simply put, if you and I sign this, whatever promise is written on the parchment will be fulfilled ‘no matter what.’”

I’d never heard of the item before, but just from its function, it was clearly no cheap trinket.

As it happened, among the various items that came out of dungeons, things that could be used for non-combat purposes like this were often sought after by specific corporations or wealthy individuals.

‘I guess when you’re ranked number one, you can just casually hand over expensive-looking items like this.’

I took a fresh look at the parchment he held out, once again feeling the reality that the person in front of me was standing at the very top of the hunter industry.

The contents written on the white parchment were nothing special. It simply stated that the conversation we had here was not to be disclosed elsewhere. That was all that was written on the parchment.

“Do you happen to have a pen?”

“Here.”

Jeong Seojin immediately pulled a fountain pen from his inventory and handed it to me.