By Zephyria 
“A girlfriend, uh, well… Hyung, you’re cool, so, you know, it’s fine if you date like 1,000 people. It’s fine, but… do you have a girlfriend you’ve dated for more than 9 years?”
“9 years, my foot. I rarely have a girlfriend I’ve dated for more than 9 months. The religious sect is short-handed, so I’m just too busy with work.”
Kim Si-baek wondered for a moment why Tae-un was obsessing over the ambiguous period of 9 years instead of 10, but he soon realized the answer. Tae-un had met Kim Si-baek at age 5 and parted ways at age 14.
Ah.
“….”
Surely. It couldn’t be.
He instinctively denied the thought that popped into his head, but once he became aware of it, the voice of a child filled with heat and the humidity of that summer drenched his mind.
〈In a few more years, I’ll be an adult. An adult just like you, Hyung. That’s why I…〉
No, it’s nothing. It’s impossible. It happened 21 years ago.
“Guild Master, we are about to begin the strategy briefing.”
At the voice of the hunter from the Supernatural Phenomenon Response Agency who approached, Kim Si-baek barely managed to gather his tangled thoughts. As they headed to the meeting location, Tae-un’s expression remained nonchalant, as if there was nothing to be surprised about.
They rented a cafe near the Management Center for the meeting. It was the very same cafe where Tae-un and Kim Si-baek had been drinking coffee before the incident. The owner, who had hidden safely without injury, set out all the desserts and brewed plenty of coffee, telling them to help themselves during the meeting before stepping out.
Since the incident occurred in the middle of the city, six guilds based in Daejeon gathered in one place. Among them, the two large guilds were the 7777 Guild and the Tobazyush Husarski Guild.
‘They must be some heavy hitters. But is it okay for me, a nobody on Earth, to come along?’
Kim Si-baek stroked the collar of Biyendwe, worrying that he might be making Tae-un lose face. Since it was a meeting of Guild Masters or their representatives, he technically had no qualification to attend. However, Gwak Yun-sang had pleaded so earnestly—almost as if he were clinging to his pant legs—that he couldn’t bring himself to refuse.
Of course, thanks to that, Tae-un—who would normally flip a table right in front of the President if even one thing displeased him—became remarkably well-behaved. When Kim Si-baek cast a worried glance his way, Gwak Yun-sang gave him two thumbs up and a wink. Just his presence was reassuring, like a specialized talisman for Tae-un.
In exchange, a scene unfolded where Tae-un sat pressed tightly behind Kim Si-baek, wrapping his arms around his waist and resting his chin on his shoulder, but they chose to ignore it. The attendees’ expressions turned bizarre upon witnessing this, and they cast glances demanding an explanation, but those were ignored as well. As long as the meeting proceeded well, wasn’t that all that mattered?
Gwak Yun-sang tried his best not to look at Tae-un and shifted the atmosphere.
“Before the briefing, I will start with introductions. This is confidential for now, but this is Hunter Kim Si-baek, who has returned to the country recently after active duty overseas. He is S-class.”
“…Nice to meet you. I am Kim Si-baek.”
Tae-un’s clinginess was the same as usual, but because of the unfamiliar realization triggered by his earlier reaction, the warmth pressing against his skin made Kim Si-baek slightly nervous. Consequently, Kim Si-baek’s response was a bit delayed as he stood up slightly and gave a polite bow. The people didn’t look at him, but rather at Tae-un, who had been pulled up along with him because he was hugging his waist, and they flinched.
“He looks young, but he is 49 years old this year. 49. In two months, he will be fifty. I swear on the name of our Commissioner, it’s true.”
Among the first-generation hunters who awakened during the Great Cataclysm, there were quite a few who had ignored Tae-un, claiming he was too young despite his overwhelming achievements. Naturally, Tae-un made sure they could never act like condescending elders again, but there was no guarantee the same wouldn’t happen this time. To prevent any potential issues, Gwak Yun-sang specifically emphasized Kim Si-baek’s age.
“Ahem.”
An elderly hunter, who had been staring with wide eyes at the news that the incredibly young-looking Kim Si-baek was S-class, let out a forced cough.
A middle-aged Caucasian woman with an eye patch over one eye raised a hand. It was Justina Novacka, the Guild Master of the Tobazyush Husarski Guild. She asked in fluent Korean.
“I heard there was a rising hunter who was regarded as A-class by our kids, but I didn’t expect him to be S-class. Are you also affiliated with the Seven Guild?”
“I am.”
“Oh, well, it would be strange if you weren’t…”
The people gathered at the meeting looked as if they were dying of curiosity to know what the relationship between the two was, but they endured. If it were just a matter of hunting the giant vine, it would be one thing, but since they had to rescue people, time was not on their side.
Once the introductions were roughly over, Gwak Yun-sang attached the blueprints of the Management Center and the magic stone exchange to a transparent board. The areas where the giant vine’s coverage had been estimated by measuring magical energy from the outside were colored in black.
“As you can see, the giant vine has completely overtaken both buildings. Although the buildings were designed to withstand attacks from magical energy and magical beasts, we cannot simply be optimistic that they won’t collapse, as the giant vine has absorbed magic stones.”
“How much did it eat?”
A hunter with a youthful face, clearly showing signs of nervousness, asked. According to what he had heard from Tae-un, he was the successor of the Gabyeolcho Guild, currently training to succeed his father, the Guild Master.
“Fortunately, it couldn’t touch the mid-grade and high-grade magic stones stored in the basement, but it seems to have swept up almost all the low-grade magic stones.”
A mixture of sighs and clicking tongues echoed through the crowd.
In truth, when a magical beast engages in cannibalism, consuming magic stones doesn’t cause a significant change, so the absorption of magic stones itself wasn’t a major concern. However, magic stones refined by humans provided incomparable efficiency even to magical beasts. Even if they were low-grade magic stones traded by weight, it was only natural that the beast’s rank jumped significantly after absorbing them.
“What about the people trapped inside? Are they still alive?”
“Because the communication equipment inside the center was destroyed during the first attack, the signals are jammed and we haven’t received any news. However, a hunter with communication abilities was isolated at the exchange, and we’ve obtained some information…”
Gwak Yun-sang wrote the number 6 with a marker. It was the number of survivors.
The elderly hunter who had initially looked at Kim Si-baek with disapproval, Guild Master Jeong Myeong, frowned.
“Too few.”
“That’s only the people confirmed around the hunter who communicated. There were also many people who evacuated outside during the attack.”
Contrary to the positive answer, Gwak Yun-sang’s expression wasn’t very bright. Once a giant vine consumes a building, everyone trapped in that building—which could collapse at any moment—becomes a hostage.
“As you all know, I will state this once more for the sake of clarity. Two types of fruit grow on the giant vine: fruits that scatter spores and fruits that mimic the absorbed magical beasts. Unfortunately, the giant vine at the Management Center has not absorbed a single magical beast.”
“….”
“If the fruits ripen and burst, they will all be giant vine spores.”
“Damn it.”
That was the problem with the giant vine. If it germinated in a magical beast’s habitat, it would absorb the beasts, and most of the fruits would become magical beasts. Furthermore, since the mimicked magical beasts did not grow or reproduce, giant vines were sometimes planted as a last resort in areas that were impossible to handle, and then cleared later.
However, a giant vine that germinated in a place where not a single magical beast could be found, like this, was different. Since only spores would come out of the fruit, it was only a matter of time before giant vines germinated throughout the entire city.
Because no sane person would plant a giant vine in a place where magical energy had been purified, this possibility had remained only as a theory—until now, when it became a reality in Korea.
Gwak Yun-sang continued gloomily.
“Because the growth rate has changed due to the absorption of magic stones, it is difficult to gauge when the fruit will fully ripen. To prevent further damage…”
Just as Gwak Yun-sang was about to announce the Commissioner’s difficult decision to prioritize the elimination of the magical beast over the rescue of human lives, a clear and crisp voice cautiously offered an opinion.
“There is a way to slow down only the growth of the fruit…”
The attention of everyone in the room snapped to one spot. Although he had been introduced as a new S-class hunter, he had been so quiet—aside from Tae-un clinging to him—that they had momentarily forgotten him.
Kim Si-baek had kept his mouth shut, feeling that he shouldn’t speak since he wasn’t a guild representative, but a topic had come up that he couldn’t simply ignore.
“Surely you’re not about to say something stupid like we should just cut them off before they ripen?”
Guild Master Jeong Myeong, who couldn’t hide his distaste for the man’s face—which looked far too young regardless of his actual age—spoke bluntly. Kim Si-baek replied in a manner that showed he wasn’t bothered by the other’s behavior at all.
“Cutting them before they ripen only makes them burst sooner.”
“Then what method is there?”
“Before the manager’s briefing, I received a reagent from my guild’s mage, who said they had improved a formula to delay the growth of the giant vine’s stems.”
Guild Master Jeong Myeong, who was about to pull rank on the rookie hunter by asking what that had to do with anything and suggesting that his instincts had dulled from living abroad for too long, suddenly flinched.
He had locked eyes with Tae-un.