By Zephyria The sliding door creaked open, and as someone entered the shop, the slightly relaxed atmosphere froze solid once more. The Hunters chewing on rice stopped their mastication, and someone who was about to choke managed to hold it back with sheer willpower.
The Gas mask, who had been hunching over as he entered, seemed to grasp the situation and paused in his tracks. A silence so profound that even breathing couldn’t be heard descended.
Of the two uninvited guests, the one blocking the door was the first to break the silence.
“How strange.”
Sa-young spat out the words with a sneer as he strode across the hall.
“Why is a public official here?”
Jung-bin replied calmly.
“I, of course, came for dinner. I never expected to see Lee Sa-young here.”
“Oh… you seem to have a lot of free time.”
“Haha, not really. Even if Lee Sa-young isn’t stirring things up, South Korean public officials are always busy.”
Even at the clearly barbed words, Sa-young scoffed and went to sit at a corner table. The Hunter who had been sitting at that table, shoveling Hangover Soup into his mouth, gasped and threw money on the table before fleeing as if running for his life.
“Aigo, those damned bastards are chasing away all our customers.” Eui-jae wore a wistful expression as he watched the other Hunters start to shift in their seats, following the first one out. Regardless, the two uninvited guests were engaged in their own conversation.
“Anyway, now that we’ve met… Lee Sa-young, I have something to tell you.”
“……”
“It’s not something we can discuss in such a public place. Would you please start accepting official contact?”
“Hangover Soup, one.”
It was a perfect dismissal. But Jung-bin continued to speak in a gentle voice, without yielding.
“Even when I go directly to Wave Guild, you’re always out. And when I send official documents, I only get the response that the Guild Master is unavailable due to external schedules. But I heard you eat religiously at this Hanover Soup Restaurant. So I came here on the off chance, and you were really here.”
“Lots of kimchi radish.”
“Ah, I’ll have a Hangover Soup as well, please.”
“……”
Eui-jae, who was taking out a pen to write the bill, narrowed his eyes and glared at the two of them. If you’re going to fight, go outside and do it. Don’t get the part-timer caught in the crossfire of a Hunter fight. Eui-jae pressed his temples with the pen he was holding. The stifling scene before him was giving him a headache.
Jung-bin glanced around and continued the conversation he had paused.
“And the Director said that you must pay for what you overturned last time.”
“……”
Lee Sa-young, who had been silent to all of Jung-bin’s words, nodded this time.
“Ah, and… just a moment.”
Jung-bin took out a round, cotton-like object from his Inventory. He pressed it hard with his thumb, and an opaque barrier descended, concealing the two of them from view. Thanks to that, the flow of air, which had been stagnant until just now, cleared up at once. The Hunters, who had been holding their breath and watching the two men’s conversation, let out sighs one by one.
“Wow, he’s even using a Shield item. It must be a really important conversation.”
“Hey, why cut it off here, making us curious?”
“No, if we get caught up in that, we’re really screwed. Let’s just eat quickly and get out of here.”
“Are they going to have a showdown here?”
“Surely not, not with civilians around.”
“Lee Sa-young might.”
“Don’t say such terrible things.” Eui-jae squeezed his eyes shut.
The Jung-bin he knew wasn’t the type to cause a ruckus in a place like this, but as the Hunters said, as long as Lee Sa-young was involved, nothing could be guaranteed. He didn’t want the Hanover Soup Restaurant to be on the news as the site of a brawl between Ranker number one and the Bureau of Rift Management’s star Hunter.
Eui-jae tapped his pen as he pondered. Shield items were often used when having private conversations, but they had one fatal flaw. Awakened Beings of a higher grade than the item could easily see through it.
Was the item Jung-bin used around A-grade? He couldn’t be sure, but there was no reason to use an S-grade item in a shabby Hangover Soup Restaurant.
When Eui-jae, who had been hesitant, slowly raised his eyelids, the barrier he had seen earlier was nowhere to be found, and Jung-bin and Lee Sa-young were clearly visible.
Bingo. Eui-jae cheered inwardly and, pretending not to see, sat down at a nearby table and began peeling garlic.
“Lee Sa-young, you were looking for an Unregistered Person, weren’t you? So urgently that you turned the Awakened Management Bureau database upside down.”
“……”
“That Unregistered Person is presumed to be a skilled individual. Enough to block Sa-young’s attack…”
An Unregistered Person who blocked Lee Sa-young’s attack. Eui-jae could tell who the topic of this conversation was, even though the subject was never explicitly mentioned. That bastard, he searched the Awakened Management Bureau database just to catch me? His nape grew cold at the thought that there was a reason he had been let go so easily.
“Did you find that person, by any chance?”
Eui-jae held his breath. For a moment, the purple gaze inside the Gas mask seemed to reach him over Jung-bin’s shoulder. Before he could even wonder if it was a misunderstanding, a short answer came.
“No.”
“Really?”
Jung-bin scanned the face hidden by the Gas mask as if trying to read it. Perhaps disliking that attitude, Sa-young leaned his chin on his hand and asked coldly.
“Shouldn’t you explain the situation before asking questions?”
“……”
“I don’t like it when you come straight to the point without explaining anything.”
The two stared at each other for a long time, as if in a standoff. But before long, Jung-bin raised both hands first. It was a gesture of surrender.
“Alright. I’ll tell you.”
Sa-young didn’t show any particular movement, but it was clear that he was listening. Jung-bin took out his phone, moved his fingers a few times, and showed a photo on the screen to Sa-young.
“You know about the A+ grade Mana Stone that was posted on Tomato Market a while ago, right?”
“I’d have to quit being a Hunter if I didn’t know about that.”
To the point of quitting being a Hunter. Eui-jae felt uneasy, as if things had become so tangled that they couldn’t be untangled. Perhaps he was more famous than he thought.
“You also know that Hong Ye-seong is locking himself in Mount Jiri to make equipment, right? Well, of course you would. I heard you were the one who installed the internet line in Mount Jiri.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Do you also know that Hong Ye-seong was nagging you to get him a Mana Stone?”
“Well, he probably did.”
“To get to the point, I think the Unregistered Person Lee Sa-young is looking for is the owner of that Mana Stone.”
Crazy, that guy’s like a ghost. He’s so quick to catch on.
Eui-jae calmly peeled the garlic with a blank expression. Sa-young smiled slightly, narrowing his eyes. And unlike his earlier surly demeanor, he replied in a rather friendly voice.
“That’s quite a leap in logic.”
But the content was not friendly at all. Jung-bin put his phone back in his inside pocket and continued.
“Anyone who can obtain a Mana Stone of that level would be at least a Ranker in the top 100. And those people naturally use the Hunter Market. Because the identities of both the seller and the buyer are guaranteed, it’s safe to make high-value transactions.”
“……”
“If the fees and taxes are burdensome, there’s also the option of selling it on the black market, although I shouldn’t be saying this as a public official. There’s no need to cause a stir by posting it on a popular app that even ordinary people can see. There are more than ten ways to handle it quietly.”
Lee Sa-young slowly began to tap the table with his gloved fingers.
“Then why was that Mana Stone posted on Tomato Market? And at such an absurdly low price.”
“……”
“Perhaps the seller doesn’t have a registration certificate and can’t use the Hunter Market. So they posted a sales post on Tomato Market. Then there are two possibilities. An ordinary person and an amateur Unregistered Awakened Being. But the probability of a simple ordinary person having such a Mana Stone… is close to zero.”
‘Amateur.’ It was a word that stabbed the heart of former Ranker number one, J. Eui-jae’s garlic peeling speed increased slightly. With the rustling sound as background music, Sa-young asked.
“So?”
“Then the scope narrows down to one. The owner of the Mana Stone is an Unregistered Person.”
“Ah…”
“At this point in time, the only skilled Unregistered Person who can obtain a Mana Stone of that level… is the person Lee Sa-young is looking for. That’s my conclusion.”
Jung-bin’s reasoning was quite accurate. Perhaps because he was from the police academy and had spent quite a few years rolling around in the Hunter world, his intuition seemed to be even better than before. It would have been a disaster if I hadn’t heard this. Eui-jae felt the need to be more careful in the future.
Tap, tap, tap.
The black fingers were still tapping the table. It was the moment when Eui-jae’s gaze was drawn to Sa-young’s fingertips as if by something. The sight of the black fingers slowly moving to draw letters was etched in his eyes like slow motion.
D
I
D
Y
O
U
H
E
A
R
Eui-jae abruptly raised his head and looked at Sa-young. His hand, which had been mechanically peeling garlic, slipped and made a futile gesture in the air. But he was too surprised to even think about whether his poker face trait was working properly.
An expression clearly visible inside the Gas mask.
Lee Sa-young was smiling.