Chapter 139 A Shard Within (1)
“With only a B class hunter as your bodyguard, there might be a third attempt to kidnap you today.”
Yoohyun laughed while he respectfully held an umbrella over my head. He would look like Hunter Minyui Kim to other people.
“If there are people who try to take such a foolish chance, I’ll burn their roots as a welcome. So please don’t worry.”
“You’re a dependable person like my brother.”
I walked along while trying to stifle my laughter. Other hunters worried over me and continued to ask if I was all right with only a B class hunter as I went to the parking lot.
“Hunter Minyui Kim is more than enough.”
The hunters looked at Yoohyun with surprised eyes. While Minyui Kim had a useful skill, he was only a B class supporter who had officially met me for the first time. It would be strange for me to trust him.
However, I did not want to be indifferent to him and thought it would be useful to raise Minyui’s value. After all, I was the person to be connected with nowadays.
Minyui Kim’s car was a small and yellow foreign compact model, and his novice driver sign had a character on it.
“Even his air freshener is cute.”
There was a famous children’s character mini-doll hanging on one side. I wondered whether kids nowadays liked this sort of thing, and remembering Yoohyun’s bleak car saddened me a little.
“Do you have a hobby?”
“A hobby? No.”
Yoohyun replied while turning on the engine.
“You really don’t have anything you want to do and the like?”
“I didn’t have time to think of such things.”
Yoohyun’s quiet reply made me think my question was an unnecessary one. However, my brother might have the time to find a hobby if his surroundings allowed it in the future. He should not become Hyunjae Sung or Riette. There were not any S classes from birth that would serve as a suitable example, and I might have to count on the other two.
‘I have to search for them anyway. Please let them be the right people.’
My life was already going crazy, and I needed a break now. Riette would appear soon, and I might have to meet her with my lowered fear resistance. The thought made my head spin.
I first replaced my broken cell phone. While the television and the Internet moved on to new issues, people inside and outside of the communication service branch store [still] recognized who I was. A grandmother held my hand and told me I had gone through much trouble.
I had my USIM chip replaced in embarrassment and called our dear Sesung Guild Leader after getting back to the car. However, he did not answer for once. Was he busy? I called him again to no avail, so I changed tactics and tried to get Soyoung Kang on the phone.
[Hello, Mr. Yoojin Han!]
“Hello, Ms. Soyoung. Do you know where Sesung Guild Leader is? He’s not answering the phone.”
[Guild Leader is um, officially conquering a dungeon right now.]
“I met him last night.”
Her lie was transparent as there would have been multiple witnesses who saw numerous lightning bolts shower down in an otherwise dry sky. The association lapped it up since they wanted the credit, and yesterday’s processing of the dungeon break was said to be by association hunters headed by Taewon Song on television.
I had not seen another hunter, although it would have been bothersome if they had come even though they had been notified that an S class monster appeared. There was no healer present anyway.
[Oh, you did. I did not know that because you were not mentioned. It’s no surprise since when our Guild Leader moves without prior notice nowadays, his actions have to do something with you on a 99% average.]
Was I that bad? I did act on a whim often, and someone like Hyunjae Sung would move on a planned schedule.
[Would you come to the guild? I’ll get in touch with him.]
“Yes, thank you.”
We should tie up the ends as soon as possible. I called Taewon Song after I ended the phone, but he did not answer. He probably was still unable to replace his phone, as his cards would have become unusable.
“Let’s go to Sesung.”
“I know we are not up to their level, but I’m still pissed off. I wish you wouldn’t have to go there.”
Yoohyun turned the handle while he continued to grumble. While Haeyeon Guild would match Sesung regarding domestic dungeon conquering abilities when we assembled an S class team with Yerim, we were still far behind in other fields. Of course, a guild founded by a teenager going this far was an impressive feat in itself.
“You’re only twenty. How can a minor who started from scratch catch up to an adult who already carved his place in society in such a short time? I heard that the Sesung Guild Leader was going places even before his awakening.”
“I know that he did not have any trouble with funds.”
“Do you know what he did?”
I had no personal interest regarding Hyunjae Sung, but I was curious. Did he really have foreign blood in him? He would have stood out before awakening as a hunter if he had lived in Korea. Since I did not have any information, there was a high possibility of him having been abroad.
“I don’t know, and I have no reason to know.”
“I can’t say to be on friendly terms with him as he is also an S class hunter, but he is a good business associate.”
He was special, and Yoohyun could learn how to be a better guild leader.
“Don’t become friends. You might pick up something bad.”
“I’m not friends with him.”
“Yeah, Ms. Hyuna Moon would be the best bet to be friends within the guild leaders. Noah and Ms. Soyoung would make good friends. It’s best to be friends with someone your age, and you should ignore old men.”
I felt better when I thought of them in the same place, including Yerim. It was a fresh and comforting sight.
“When we finish up this-“
It was then Yoohyun reached out to me with his hand. A longsword burst out and ripped my seatbelt. The blade spun over my head to penetrate the car door and became embedded on the road.
Then I heard a loud screeching noise of tires hitting the ground, and something crashed into the yellow compact car. At the same time, Yoohyun’s sword absorbed the impact of the crash and struck out at the car that had hit us.
I saw a large truck split in two through the cut car door. Yoohyun Han grabbed me with one arm and obliterated the swinging car door and jumped outside. I saw how chaotic the road had become when we landed on the collapsed truck that had been diagonally cut in two.
“Things become insane so quickly.”
I was still flabbergasted, but I was sure that the truck had tried to crush the small car. It had even targeted the passenger seat, and I had to sigh over the fact this happened the moment I came out with a B class hunter. The real Minyui Kim was a supporter who would not have been able to protect me properly. Since I had not been using the grace, I would have at least been seriously hurt, and maybe die on the spot if things had turned out badly.
“I know that it was an opportunity hard to ignore, but these guys act fast.”
They must have been lying in wait, and my heart began to beat faster due to my lowered fear resistance. I called Haeyeon instead of Yoohyun, who was searching the truck driver. I asked them to process the accident and a new car and turned my gaze back to the road.
“The driver’s dead.”
“He is? Yoohyun, I mean, Mr. Minyui Kim, please help the people still trapped in their cars.”
Many cars were swept into this accident because of the size of the truck. Yoohyun looked like he did not want to do it, but he ran down when I told him I would turn on the grace. He suddenly came back with an umbrella.
“Stay still, so you’re in clear sight.”
He opened the umbrella and made me hold it before going to an overturned car. I did not care if I got wet; it was summer.
The road situation was soon remedied after Yoohyun began to work. He easily ripped the dented car doors and rescued others. I thought it might be dangerous to move the injured, but Yoohyun used mid-class potions whenever necessary. He pushed the cars blocking the road and made way for the ambulances to come in.
119 and the police came soon, and there was low class awakened mixed in the ambulance workers. While there were no high-class awakened, there were more than ten mid-class awakened who worked as firefighters around the country. Most of them had awakened in accident sites and chose to work as firefighters instead of hunters.
“Thank you, hunter. I appreciate your efforts.”
Yoohyun exchanged words with the ambulance workers and returned to my side. His question rang quietly in my ear as we shared the umbrella.
“Who might it be? The association?”
“The auction house might be involved since they would have some grudges against us.”
“They both had it coming. However, wouldn’t the auction house still find some value in keeping us alive?”
“They wiped the entire hotel. Someone wants revenge.”
Yoohyun made me promise that at least an A class, and preferably an S class hunter would accompany me.
Later on, people from the Haeyeon Guild and the hunter accident department arrived. I did not see Taewon Song around because it was a simple car accident. Haeyeon decided to collect the driver’s corpse first after negotiations. I had not seen Hunter Sunghan Kim for a while, and he now approached us.
“Hello, Mr. Sunghan.”
“Are you hurt?”
Sunghan Kim did not say anything after I answered I was not hurt in any way and just took out the driver’s corpse. While he was friendly and showed his worry, his attitude towards me was more indifferent than before.
‘He had not sent me any medicine or other gifts recently.’
I looked up my status page and saw Sunghan Kim’s name was still recorded there. However, there was a definite change in his attitude towards me.
“Mr. Sunghan Kim.”
I called him as I got off the truck with Yoohyun’s help.
“Yes?”
“Do you remember saying that I reminded you of your grandfather before?”
“Ah…yes I did.”
Sunghan Kim looked a bit embarrassed as he nodded.
“I apologize for surprising you with ungrounded words.”
If he was saying that he was sorry, that would mean only one thing.
“You don’t think that anymore?”
“Yes. I still think there are similar points, but you two are completely different people.”
He answered, without any hesitation. So, he was saying that we were completely different people now?
‘Was the effect that made him think I was his temporary caretaker?’
However, Yerim, Peace, and the chick acted in the same manner to me. The difference between them and Sunghan Kim was that I had been neglecting the latter. The attention had been one way, and we had not met often and had not seen each other recently.
‘So, even if the keyword effect helps me temporarily, I have to work on relationships afterward.’
It would be too much to receive one-way affection because of a keyword, even if it was an L class title.
The effect seemed to have lasted about two months when I calculated the last time Sunghan Kim sent me presents. Did others experience a little change? Yoohyun was my brother with or without that title, so I would have to ask Yerim when she comes out.
‘I would have to pay more attention to Ms. Hyuna.’
I would have to get closer to her before the keyword effect wore out. I apologized to Minyui Kim silently for his lost car and arrived at Sesung Guild in a new one. Soyoung Kang met me and opened her eyes wide when she thought she saw Minyui Kim with me.
“This is the first time I met you.”
“This is Minyui Kim, a B class hunter in Haeyeon Guild.”
“A B class hunter? Mr. Han, are you craz-why are you being so careless?!”
“I trust him. Where is Sesung Guild Leader?”
“Please step this way.”
Soyoung Kang glanced at Yoohyun with distrust and led us in. We were inspected and given inventory seal bracelets to wear, but the inside of the building was heavily guarded. Soyoung Kang stopped walking.
“I’m sorry to say that a Haeyeon hunter cannot go on further.”
Yoohyun immediately frowned when he heard her words, but Soyoung Kang did not step back. She told him again that outside parties cannot enter with a rare determination and coldness in her expression.
“Mr. Minyui Kim, please wait here.”
“But I cannot leave him alone.”
“I’m not alone. Ms. Soyoung Kang is here, and maybe others.”
Something like a little lizard. I stepped closer to Yoohyun as if to calm him and lightly held his hand. Irin came over to my hand in the space we kept hidden from Soyoung Kang’s sight. Irin went to my shoulder and began to rest as a tattoo.
“Please wait in comfort.”
“Yes, take care. If there is any danger, let’s go with eleven.”
Yoohyun must be talking about the contract leftover from the Hong Kong kidnapping. What was eleven? I should check the memo later.
I affectionately tapped Yoohyun’s shoulder and followed Soyoung Kang to step inside.
“Our Guild Leader seemed to be in a bad mood this morning.”
Soyoung Kang opened her mouth when only the two of us were left.
“He may have had a nightmare or have other thoughts in his mind. He said to let you in if you wanted to come, but his voice was off.”
Soyoung Kang took out a compact portal key, telling me to be careful today. What was going on? Did Hyunjae Sung have a nightmare like me?