The corpses of the Nol were gathered together. This was to carry out the dismantling work more comfortably.
I took out a butcher’s knife from the tool bag at my waist. I planned to start dismantling with the Nol on the far left.
“Nol after a long time, huh?”
I deliberately spoke the thought out loud instead of just thinking it. They say that the longer you live alone, the more you talk to yourself—but that wasn’t the case for me.
Until this morning, I was a member of the guild, the center of group life. I began dismantling the Nol while talking to myself to pretend I didn’t notice that someone had approached.
Namsan Gate has a high pollution level, so people tend to avoid it, but it’s not so empty that no one is around. Highly polluted gates are common, and gate masks are widely sold.
Here, even a basic gate mask was enough. People avoid this place, but it’s not a place no one enters at all. Yet right now, not a single person was in sight. It was as if people were being barred from entering altogether.
“Ugh.”
I made noises every time I moved, pretending to be unaware of anything strange. Blood flowed out from the torso of the Nol whose head had fallen off.
One by one, I dismantled the heads of the other two Nol. One had no head to begin with, so I left it be.
Rustle. As I watched the blood drain, I heard a sound.
It was the sound of stepping on withered tree branches. To keep up the act of not noticing anything, I remained silent.
“Ah, I see. You already knew.”
A calm male voice reached my ears. Only then did I turn my head to look at the owner of the voice. The man had messy hair, wore a leather jacket, and was smiling.
His relaxed smile seemed to say that the polluted air didn’t bother him. Any hunter or dismantler working in an E-rank gate couldn’t avoid coughing.
Either they had a skill that neutralized toxins like mine, or this level of pollution was nothing to worry about. Just as with enough mana, one can feel no pressure even in higher-ranked gates.
“… I thought I fooled you well.”
“Hmm, are you serious?”
Apparently, my act was awkward. The man shook his head as he approached me. Then he looked at the Nol and the two split trees. He muttered in a disappointed voice.
“I thought you were a fool wandering around despite what happened. Seems I was wrong. I should have hurried up a bit more.”
I wondered how long he had been watching me, but the question was immediately answered. Fortunately, he hadn’t seen me use my skill. If he had, he would have learned my identity, something I hadn’t even told Taecheon about.
Still, I wondered which faction he belonged to. Was he someone who was ordered to kill me? Or was he just following orders? I pretended not to know as I proceeded with the work.
I began peeling the skin off the Nol whose blood had drained.
“‘Ignoring me?’”
“If you don’t preserve the Nol corpse, it rots quickly. You have to hurry if you want to use it.”
“Use it?”
“Nol skin is common equipment for rookie hunters.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to use it.”
“If it’s in good condition, of course.”
“Your friend I Taecheon or the Baek Uncheon executives aren’t the types short on money.”
Look at your tone. Anyone would think I was some friend-ripping scammer. Of course, that was the image I had inside the guild.
‘The parachute who found a good friend.’
‘The little sister’s spine breaker.’
Because of this, many people I worked with apologized to me for the misunderstandings. Those who understood later would ask why Dohee and Taecheon didn’t clear things up. Of course, those two made every effort to resolve the misunderstanding that involved me.
They explained how necessary I was to Baek Uncheon. Strangely, the more they did, the more the early members like Han Jae-im and others seemed to think they were shielding me.
They seemed to believe those two wouldn’t receive help from someone like me, simply because they disliked me as a person.
Two years ago, I wasn’t exactly a good person.
I’m not great now either, but it was worse then.
“……”
“……”
The man quietly watched me peel the Nol’s skin.
When I finished peeling one completely, he finally spoke.
“Indeed, for an office worker, you have quite the skill.”
Praise is a frightening thing. He could be an enemy, but hearing praise made me feel good. I held out the freshly peeled red skin.
“Want one? I’ll give it to you.”
“I’ll pass. The color doesn’t suit me.”
Makes sense; he mostly wore dark-colored clothes, fitting the gloomy atmosphere of Namsan Gate. I put the skin back on the ground.
Looking at the neatly peeled skin, I could feel the effort hadn’t been in vain. After retiring as a hunter, I learned dismantling to make a living. Thanks to that, I could establish the dismantling team in the guild and even became the team leader of the dismantler management team.
But not anymore.
“Too bad. It’s hard to find dismantlers of this caliber.”
“Too bad?” I looked at the man who said something strange. What exactly was he lamenting?
He smirked after seeing my face and continued.
“I already know. You’re going to quit being the dismantler management team leader.”
“I’m going to quit?”
He didn’t know I had already left Baek Uncheon Guild.
“Why pretend you don’t? You said so last night.”
“Last night?”
Last night, I was struggling to survive. I never said a word about quitting the team leader position.
“You told Myunghwan, ‘That friend of I Taecheon can’t be an ordinary office worker,’ right?”
My grip tightened on the butcher’s knife.
‘To Myunghwan.’
Hearing a familiar name, I realized the man was Myunghwan’s superior. The man before me was definitely someone from the Other World guild.
“To think you were hiding and preparing for this kind of thing. Impressive.”
“… Damn.”
“Don’t worry—I’m not here to kill you.”
“You nicked the skin.”
“… Hmm.”
When I tightened my grip, the butcher’s knife cut slightly into the skin. Luckily, the wound wasn’t severe enough to throw it away entirely. I could just cut out the damaged part and still use it.
I carefully moved the knife to reduce the loss ratio as much as possible.
The man thankfully waited until I finished peeling the skin completely.
“Is it usable?”
“This much has to be discarded.”
I pushed the cut part aside and looked at him. His ruggedly handsome face was hidden under messy hair. Myunghwan wasn’t so rugged, but he looked older due to his fierce appearance.
“You’re not here to avenge a comrade, right?”
He nodded at my words.
If it were for revenge, there would be no need to control people and then come after me. Killing one person is much easier than controlling a crowd. He came for a conversation… maybe?
“There isn’t enough reason to take revenge on you.”
“Reason? Do people from the Other World even follow that kind of thing?”
“Even at night, shadows exist.”
He shrugged his shoulders, answering my question. I wasn’t sure if it was the right expression, but I understood his meaning. The Other World was also a place where people gathered, so there must be ‘rules.’
If they don’t follow those rules, the Other World couldn’t be maintained.
“My guild will bear the cost of the failed request. It’s not revenge against you.”
“So you won’t kill me?”
“Killing you would be cheap venting. Whether I could kill someone who doesn’t die even if stabbed in the heart or smashed in the head is another matter.”
Because my goal was to save people, I didn’t pursue the chase to the end. If I had known my information would be revealed like this, would I have pushed harder? No, I wouldn’t.
Last night, I was in a position where I had to take responsibility. Regretting what couldn’t be helped would only cause blame.
I did my best. No regrets.
“Myunghwan’s a little broken now, but well… he was bound to get into big trouble eventually, so maybe it’s time.”
As the man said this, a large amount of mana began gathering in his chest. I furrowed my brows, wondering if he was about to attack.
To respond, I gathered mana into my butcher’s knife, but then the man said, “That’s why we can’t say the Cheonching Guild has completely tipped.”
A scale appeared on his chest—the very scales held by the Statue of Justice.
“Scales…?”
He nodded and introduced himself.
“I’m Seo Ji-hyeok of the Cheonching Guild.”
A Cheonching Guild member created the scales? No wonder he sounded like someone in management earlier. Seo Ji-hyeok must be the master of the Cheonching Guild.
“One of my subordinates kept pushing me to come, but now I’m glad I did.”
The guild master came because a subordinate pushed him. He wasn’t here for revenge or venting anger.
“Why are you glad you came?”
“Let’s make a deal. Until Cheonching reaches balance.”
Huh? A deal?
Seo Ji-hyeok’s words were unexpected.
Namsan Gate was quiet and desolate due to the lack of people. Even the Nol monsters inhabiting here were nowhere to be seen.
This was because the Cheonching Guild from the Other World controlled the area. Seo Ji-hyeok stood with his subordinates around him, reading a report. It was information about Baek Do-woon, whom he had just met.
“Baek Do-woon…”
[Former D-rank hunter. Transitioned to dismantler after retirement.]
[Established monster dismantling team and dismantler management team in Baek Uncheon Guild.]
[Subsequently, Baek Uncheon Guild developed collaboration between hunters and dismantlers.]
[*Revealed that retirement as a hunter was a disguise.]
[Did not discard hunter’s license.]
[Skillfully concealed ability, which overwhelms A-rank hunter Jeon Myunghwan.]
[Possesses skills related to ‘healing’ and ‘regeneration.’]
“I’ve finished reading. Take it.”
Seo Ji-hyeok handed the report back to Choi Gi-jeong, the vice guild master. Choi Gi-jeong politely took the report and asked,
“Have you reached an agreement?”
“I told you not to ask when you already know.”
Choi Gi-jeong knew well, as Seo Ji-hyeok’s mana flow when summoning Cheonching had revealed the answer.
He asked despite knowing to indirectly scold Seo Ji-hyeok. After all, Seo Ji-hyeok had bluntly said “Kill him” before heading to meet Baek Do-woon.
“I told you to kill him. Baek Uncheon already has enough trouble with I Taecheon and Baek Dohee. If he steps up too—”
“How?”
“Huh?”
“How do you kill him?”
“How do I mean? Because of his regeneration skill? You know as well as I do that cutting off his head is enough.”
As soon as he finished, Seo Ji-hyeok sighed. Choi Gi-jeong couldn’t understand why. He himself was the one who wanted to sigh.
“I can’t kill him.”
“Excuse me? What do you mean? With your Cheonching abilities, surely…”
Choi Gi-jeong stopped talking abruptly. Seo Ji-hyeok’s words kept nagging at his mind.
I can’t kill him.
I can’t kill him.
“… Him?”
Seo Ji-hyeok referred to Baek Do-woon as “him.” That guy, that bastard, that one.
‘Him’ was not a term used for humans. It was a word hunters commonly used to refer to monsters.
“… Was he that strong?”
“No, he didn’t seem very strong. More like a few screws loose.”
“Huh? Then why did you say that?”
“You can’t kill the world, but you don’t call it strong.”
“… Huh?”
Choi Gi-jeong thought this was nonsense. How could a single human be called a ‘world?’ It was an absurd and baseless statement. But the playful expression on Seo Ji-hyeok’s face was genuine.
“You can’t kill the world, but you don’t call it strong.”
Those words echoed in his mind.
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