By the time I checked belatedly, every single ringtone had belonged to Sung Uijae. Unlike Koreans, who felt an instinctive aversion to the words “after the beep, you will be redirected to voicemail,” the bastard seemed eager to show off that he was a foreigner or something, because he had diligently left voice messages between call after call.
- Uh.... Hunter Seo, I’m not trying to make this sound bad, so listen. Roman woke up. You remember who that is, right? If you don’t, ask your friend and get at least the rough personal details. According to his report, you were involved in Chase’s death, and he says we should hear it from you. It’s not exactly a good sign.... Mm, yeah. What should I say? Anyway, I hope you’ll call me when you hear this message.
I calmly listened to Sung Uijae’s message, then put the phone down.
'So it finally came.'
I had no idea what method Kwon Taehan believed he could use to solve this. He hadn’t even been at the scene. Was he planning to give testimony or something?
After trying to gauge what the oddly thinking Kwon Taehan had in mind, I eventually changed clothes and left the room.
The center was busy and quiet. There were few people I passed in the hallway, but the ones I did occasionally run into were all running around busily.
Here and there, some people checked my face, paused for a moment, and looked as if they were about to speak to me, but I ignored them for now and headed toward the vending machine I had seen earlier.
Only after I paid for snacks and drinks at random and devoured all of them on the spot did my head clear. I gathered the trash together, threw it away, rocked my chair slightly, and sank into thought.
'But do I need to clean this up?'
I felt like I had made the most efficient choice.
As I had told Kwon Taehan too, if Chase Holt’s explosive mana could resolve the situation in one blow, was there any need to create multiple victims? There?
'Besides, if he’d been left alone, he was going to cause damage later anyway.'
Whether as prevention in advance or at least as risk prevention, I thought it had been an extremely excellent measure.
Unfortunately, however, I could not persuade people with that. To them, it was a future that had not come to pass.
'It’s unexpected that Kwon Taehan accepted it so easily.'
I recalled the conversation I had amicably shared with Kwon Taehan a little while ago while we traded blows. Surprisingly, the bastard acted as if he would understand even after hearing my explanation. Of course, since the choice had already passed, his understanding itself was unnecessary.
Still, the fact that he heard that explanation and somehow accepted it on his own kept coming back to me. Wasn’t Kwon Taehan originally the bastard who made inefficient judgments every single time? Like Joo Seowon.
Right, Joo Seowon.... Joo Seowon had been unexpected too.
They seemed to value information-sharing most of all, so I had told them the plan every single time...... only for their sense of morality to keep getting in the way.
I had already thought they were a good-natured bastard. Whenever a death essential to my plan accompanied it, they showed clear discomfort.
'But didn’t they care a lot about information-sharing too?'
Information-sharing and morality. Between those two, I was pretty sure what they had wanted from me was the former.
I sat there thinking silently, then got to my feet.
***
10 a.m., Perth, Australia Emergency Countermeasure Committee conference room.
After briefly organizing my luggage, I attended the meeting. There were broadly two agenda items. One was about the follow-up damage caused by this Dungeon Break, and the other was....
“We presume that Hunter Chase Holt, who fought for us, was unable to escape the Dungeon and has died. It is truly regrettable... and as committee chair, I feel a deep sense of responsibility.”
Right, that.
With an apathetic expression, I met the eyes of Sung Uijae, who sat in front of me and was looking at me crookedly. He seemed to be trying to say something with the shape of his mouth, but it did not look like any particularly accurate pronunciation, so it felt about as meaningful as watching a silent-film mime.
'What... do you want me to do?'
And right now, my attention was also caught on other things. For example, Joo Seowon, who was sitting quietly beside me because our assigned seats had not changed, and Kwon Taehan, who was sitting two seats away with the other high-rank Hunters.
The committee chair’s words repeated thanks and apologies as if he were playing red flag, blue flag. I silently admired the fact that he had managed to produce a speech of that caliber in such a short time and measured how long it lasted.
Eventually, while listening without interest to the damage recovery meeting that followed, I slowly scanned the Hunters sitting in a wide circle. Bastards whose faces I knew, bastards whose faces and names I both knew, and bastards I simply had no interest in.
Among them, Roman had somehow managed to attend despite getting beaten to hell. And beside Roman, two more of Chase’s companions sat side by side, maintaining silence.
Maybe Roman felt my gaze even in the middle of that, because he turned his head away from the committee chair and suddenly looked in my direction. When our eyes met, the bastard, who looked as if he might immediately start cursing me out, quietly turned his head and stared straight ahead.
'What the hell?'
I frowned slightly at the reaction, which differed from what I had expected, and continued looking at him. Amazingly, Roman no longer met my eyes.
'Did this bastard even make a proper report?'
But for that, his reaction was a little subtle....
Just then, as if the recovery meeting had ended, the committee chair who had closed that portion of the meeting lightly tapped the podium again.
“I sincerely thank you for offering such good opinions. I would like to once again express my gratitude to the Hunters who have gathered here with the sole determination to reduce the number of victims. After this, our center will take charge of the recovery work, and I promise that proper compensation will be provided to the Hunters who have said they will help with the recovery efforts.”
A wave of obligatory applause passed, and the committee chair waited briefly for the right timing before opening his mouth again, this time a little more heavily.
“Next... I will speak regarding the circumstances of Hunter Holt’s death. First, to every Hunter who worked hard both inside and outside the Dungeon... thank you. And I am deeply pained to deliver the unfortunate news about Hunter Holt.”
Right. So it finally came.
What the hell had they said for it to reach Sung Uijae’s ears? At this point, I was getting curious. I leaned back in my chair and quietly waited for the committee chair’s words.
At that moment, the committee chair, who had been scanning the Hunters one by one, abruptly looked this way.
Honestly, I had not yet thought of any excuse that could smooth over the situation. In the first place, I did not know why I had to cover it up, so of course nothing came to mind. The moment I took the microphone, thinking that if it came down to it, I would expose Chase’s Hunter-hunting, the committee chair continued.
“And... we were told that they would like to convey their thanks to Hunter Seo, who came from Korea.”
“......?”
What the fuck was that supposed to mean?
At the committee chair’s words, all three people connected to Korea looked at me at the same time.
'Are they thanking me for killing him?'
Well, looking at his usual personality, it probably had not been a problem on only one side. I did not understand the committee chair’s thanks, but accepted them for now.
“Yes, it was nothing.”
“This is a message of thanks conveyed directly by Hunter Chase Holt’s companions... on behalf of the authorities. I heard that you remained in the Dungeon until the very end because you wished to recover Chase’s body, who died in battle.”
“Oh....”
Me?
Well, it was roughly similar. Whatever my intention had been, the result was that I had insisted on remaining in an already cleared Dungeon several times over because I wanted to find even a trace of Chase, and almost got fucked because of it.
'Anyway, it’s thanks, so there’s no reason not to accept it.'
I answered in a kind voice.
“It was something I naturally had to do.”
At that, Sung Uijae’s expression, from where he sat across from me, turned strange.
In any case, if I set aside Sung Uijae’s reaction, which was not particularly among my priorities, the committee chair’s words were definitely bothering me.
'Chase’s companion said they were grateful to me?'
The companions of Chase that I knew were Roman and the two sitting beside him. I could set aside the bastard who had been outside the Dungeon because he had not received the communication, but Roman and one of the bastards beside him should have heard the entire scene of Chase’s suicide over the many-to-one radio, and yet they had asked for thanks to be conveyed....
'Did his impression change after getting beaten up?'
After that, long, drawn-out words of condolence for Chase, measures to send related items to America, Chase’s home country, and a promise to compensate his bereaved family continued for quite some time.
After that bizarre expression of gratitude, I lost even the last of my remaining concentration and sat quietly, waiting only for the meeting to end.
Once the meeting wrapped up, I slightly turned my head to check the reaction of Joo Seowon, who had been sitting beside me all along. Joo Seowon kept their eyes quietly lowered, then glanced at me as if driven by some impulse, and as soon as our eyes met, immediately rose from their seat and left the conference room.
I followed their movements with only my gaze, then slowly stood up.
In any case, putting Joo Seowon...... back beside me now was a meaningless thing to do.
I suppressed that impulse and moved my feet in order to resolve another impulsive question.
The destination of this impulse was none other than Roman.
When I caught Roman, who was trying to leave the conference room quickly, the bastard flinched in surprise and spoke.
“Mm, I don’t think we have anything more to say.”
“No, I think we do.”
“.......”
“Should we go somewhere without people?”
I had asked his opinion, but unexpectedly, the bastard followed me quite obediently.
Only after we reached a hallway where the people had disappeared did I have the chance to question him.
“You tried to kill me in the Dungeon, and then suddenly you’re grateful once we’re out?”
This time, it was pure curiosity beyond even absurdity. I wanted to know why his attitude had changed so suddenly.
At that, Roman swept his eyes over the surroundings once, then lowered his voice and asked,
“So in the end, I made it as if it never happened. What are you unhappy about...!”
Hm? I had never been unhappy.
“Unhappy? Do I look like I am?”
If anything, the matter had been resolved so easily that I was the one who should be expressing gratitude. Not that I was saying I actually would.
But this time too, maybe Roman misunderstood my words, because he shut his mouth tightly, glanced around once more, and said,
“I really don’t want to make an enemy of an S-rank Hunter either. Look, it’s unfortunate that Chase died, but... we can get along among ourselves, can’t we?”
“......?”
So...... what the fuck was this supposed to mean?
When I stayed quietly silent because I could not understand his words at all, he seemed to misunderstand that too and hurriedly added,
“Right, I understand plenty that you’re an S-rank Hunter. That was the secret, wasn’t it? Your country hid it? Somehow, damn it! I should have suspected it from the moment they said a B-rank Hunter had come to an S-rank Dungeon.”
“Wow....”
Was he insane?
