Chapter 445 — Still Working After Coming Back (1)
“Will you be okay, hyung?”
Yoohyun asked, looking at me worriedly. Keeping my gaze on the papers spread out on the living room table, I nodded.
“A lot has piled up, but well…”
To be honest, it made me a little sad. The papers on the table were none other than a kindly compiled list from Mr. Seok Simyeong of all the things I had to take care of.
“The extra post-return interview was skipped because of health issues. For the Peace doll promotion, I do need to show my face once. Since we didn’t bring the baby monsters in officially, I have to go to the Association and clean up the paperwork on that… Haeyeon is taking care of the Chinese Hunters, right?”
“Yeah. You don’t need to worry about that side of the procedures. They’re already waiting at the port.”
“I need to set a date for the surgery too… What, they already caught the Gold Hamster.”
Apparently it would be entering the country soon. Then we’d be taking on overseas kiseungsu too… Since this was our first overseas commission, didn’t that mean I’d have to show my face around here and there for that too?
“It looks like the Association is starting to press again about the Awakening Center issue. Korea’s gotten safer, so can’t we put that off a little? The dungeon interior filming equipment has also progressed a lot. And besides all that, there’s Director Song’s issue too. I have to gather the overseas Hunters together to check them over as well.”
What was this? Why was there so much? The most urgent thing, for now, was registering the monsters.
“Haeyeon Guild Leader, I shall grant you special priority rights available to little brothers only.”
Yoohyun blinked, then smiled.
“Thank you, Director Han Yoojin.”
He answered naturally, then sat down on the single sofa and stretched out his long legs lightly. Maybe because I’d told him a few times when he was younger that crossing his legs was bad for him, my little brother’s posture was generally pretty proper. Even so, it still looked slightly loose, relaxed.
…When I sat like that, it didn’t look cool at all.
“No matter how rare a high-rank kiseungsu of any species may be, among them the water dragon is absolutely necessary for Hunter Bak Yerim of Haeyeon.”
“It’s not only necessary, but necessary for an S-rank. Sounds like this one’s price won’t be small.”
“At the same time, among high-rank Hunters in Korea who need an aquatic-type kiseungsu, Hunter Bak Yerim is at present the only one.”
In other words, aside from Haeyeon, there wasn’t any large guild that could properly pay its value. If I traded it overseas, the taxes under the Special Hunter Act would be astronomical.
“Of course, I don’t intend to undervalue it for that reason. I’ll pay a sufficient price. Enough to satisfy Director Han Yoojin.”
“You sound awfully confident. It won’t be so easy to satisfy me. What will you do if I refuse?”
The Haeyeon Guild Leader rose to his feet. He slowly walked around the table and came to stand beside me, then bent down. My younger brother’s outstretched hand settled on my shoulder. If it had been anyone else, it might have felt rather threatening. But his face was smiling softly.
“Will you refuse?”
In the voice asking, Really? there was a sly little trace of aegyo mixed in. Oh, look at this. When I grabbed his arm and tugged, he dropped obediently onto the seat beside me.
“You became a guild leader and picked up tricks like that? Where did you learn them!”
“Obviously from you, hyung.”
“What? No, when did I ever!”
It wasn’t like there were no incidents that came to mind… from when I worked part-time and things like that. But that was service spirit, okay? Especially since adults tended to look kindly on a young guy working hard.
“You learned it and then decided to imitate it, as an S-rank Hunter?”
“I’ve never done it, and never will do it, to anyone but you anyway.”
I ruffled the head of the little brother leaning against me a bit too heavily.
“What would you do if I weren’t here?”
“Since there aren’t many suitable trading partners outside Haeyeon, it would be better if you refused first. Then I’d have an excuse too, so I could step back and pressure things slowly from there.”
That was a good answer.
“What do you want, hyung?”
“Since you’re a good little brother, I’ll specially let you have it at the old market rate for an S-rank baby monster. That’s going to turn into Yerim’s debt anyway, isn’t it?”
The guild would help with the relevant paperwork, but it had no obligation to pay the cost for a personal kiseungsu rather than a guild-use one. I wanted to just give it to her, honestly, but handling public matters too personally wasn’t good either. If I did that carelessly, it could come back and be used against Yerim later.
“Then it really won’t cost much.”
“As a bonus, maybe I should make the Haeyeon Guild Leader do some service work for me too. My shoulders are aching after bathing the kids yesterday.”
Yoohyun immediately began massaging my shoulders.
“Ah, that feels good. The Black-Back Water Buffalo would be good if you put it with an A-rank team. It could easily accompany an S-rank dungeon team too.”
“Yeah, take the buffalo properly.”
“I will. On the other hand, let’s hold off on Leafnil and the Horn Fox for now. They’re both awkward.”
Since they were both small, they couldn’t be used as riding beasts, and their abilities were also awkward to place in a combat unit. It looked like they’d simply been captured thoughtlessly on the basis of, Well, they’re high-rank baby monsters. I’m the Director of a kiseungsu rearing facility, you know. Kiseungsu.
“The Pegasus is, ugh, ow.”
“You’re really stiff. Around your shoulder blades too. Sit up straight, hyung.”
“Ah, hey. A little gentler… The Prairie Pegasus is A-rank, but even S-rank Hunters could definitely use it as a kiseungsu. It’s not much good for defense types. More than close-combat types, it suits ranged—aaagh! Wait, wait!”
- Grrr.
Peace, who had been lying beneath the sofa, pricked his ears at my groans and even bared his teeth.
“Peace, it’s oka—Yoohyun, aaagh!”
“Once your leg is treated, let’s really start exercising.”
“No, but still, I even caught mid-rank Hunters in the dungeon!”
“That’s exactly why you’re like this. I think you’ve developed a habit of overusing your body in battle, hyung. Not mana or skills, but your actual body. You’ve got memories from before the regression, your stats go up every now and then, and you watch the S-rank Hunters around you and even share in their sense of motion.”
Hmm, that actually might be true. I was in an environment where it was hard to really feel my own limits.
“And even normally, you don’t take care of your body.”
I have no reply.
“Anyway, about the Pegasus—I thought it would suit Hunter Evelyn. She doesn’t seem to have any attribute skills in particular, but I was going to ask.”
Hyuna-ssi could use it too, but she had Sorok. If Sorok’s growth stayed too slow, it would be better to lend her a Unicorn rather than the Pegasus. There was also Blue.
“Haeyeon doesn’t particularly need it, right?”
“Mm, not immediately. We have enough A-rank kiseungsu for now.”
Two Unicorns, two wolves, a lizard, and even an ostrich. It was more than enough to cover a single high-rank team.
Of course, if we were going to form teams that included personal kiseungsu for Yerim and even for Mr. Sunghan, then we’d need far more monsters. But for now we’d secured one full team, so it would look better if Haeyeon showed a little restraint too. If you monopolized everything too much, people were bound to resent it.
I ended up sprawled across my younger brother’s lap as I picked up my phone. Maybe because some of the stiffness had eased, it hurt less than before.
“Hello, Seseong Guild Leader.”
[Did you rest well last night, Han Yoojin-gun?]
“I slept like a log. Anyway, what do you think about giving the Pegasus to Evelyn-ssi?”
[She’d welcome it.]
“The answer came out so quickly that I guess you already discussed it with Evelyn-ssi.”
Sure enough, it only took a hint. They moved a step ahead and understood each other immediately, which really did make things convenient since there was no need to drag things out.
“Then I’ll get straight to the point. For now, with this new batch we brought in—aagh!”
[…Han Yoojin-gun?]
“I’m getting a massage. That spot really hurts. Please have Seseong handle the registration process for the newly arrived baby monsters on our behalf.”
Because I’m tired, okay. I have to reduce the amount of work even a little.
[That’s something the Director of the rearing facility ought to handle personally.]
“Don’t play hard to get. Surely the Seseong Guild Leader can manage one bit of convenient rule-bending like that.”
[Director Song Taewon will have something to say about it.]
“Don’t bully Director Song, and do it neatly. I’d appreciate it. We can discuss the detailed trade conditions after the kids have all been registered.”
After ending the call, I immediately called Haeyeon. The Peace doll was still being handled by the PR team for now, but they said they were planning to set up a separate department for it soon.
“It really has been delayed a lot, hasn’t it.”
[Yes. Other than the concept shoot, the preparations are complete, so as long as Director Han can spare us a little time, that’ll be enough.]
“It’d be best to do it on the weekend, right?”
On weekdays, people had work to go to, and school too. I got an update on the progress and worked out the schedule as well. The most urgent thing was the photo shoot, so we decided to do that this very afternoon.
“I still don’t understand why I have to be photographed too.”
It was a Peace doll, wasn’t it enough if only Peace looked cute? Or else just Yoohyun, maybe. Peace was his kiseungsu after all.
Then I asked Seok Simyeong about the newcomers at the rearing facility as well. He said they were gradually being trained and handed over, but since there were few experienced people, it seemed to be taking a bit of time.
[Haeyeon will continue handling the parts that need specialists, but it would be better for the rearing facility to have one or two reserve personnel of its own as well. Once it settles in, you’ll probably need to do additional hiring.]
He said that recruiting staff itself wouldn’t be difficult. Especially for the enclosure-handling positions, apparently there were quite a lot of Hunters hoping for the job despite the high qualifications. Maybe they were people who liked animals.
[And I assume the Guild Leader is sitting right there beside you.]
“Yes. He is.”
[There are reporters waiting by the building. We’d appreciate it if Director Han could come out to see the Guild Leader off when he leaves for Haeyeon.]
“See him off?”
[Yes. In order to completely suppress the nonsense rumors about this kidnapping incident, we’d like you to be seen acting close for a while.]
That wasn’t hard, but what nonsense rumors were they talking about? Had people started saying that we were actually on bad terms because he’d let me get kidnapped and then gone into a dungeon?
[Additionally, we’ve narrowed down some suitable names for the kiseungsu rearing facility, so we’d appreciate it if you could review them.]
Ugh, I’d been losing confidence in naming things lately. Still, it was only choosing from a set that had already been narrowed down, so even if I picked with my eyes closed, it shouldn’t be too bad.
After seeing Yoohyun off together with Peace, I headed toward the rearing grounds. In the meantime, Yerim, who had gone to the Hunter Association, came back.
“I think the biggest strength of our guild is that it’s close to the Association.”
Yerim said that while grumbling that it was annoying. Yesterday had been the report on returning from Japan, and today it was registering and reporting her new equipment. The items Yerim had obtained had officially been processed as things gained in Japan with Shishio’s cooperation. Reliable son indeed… I keep telling you.
“If they make us register all this stuff one by one and then the Association gets robbed, won’t that be a disaster?”
“Of course it’d be a disaster. But for equipment, they only take visual data anyway. If it doesn’t have killing power, a simple report is enough, and in the first place gun control in our country used to be strict.”
Back in the early days, people had even said that Hunter weapons shouldn’t be allowed for private ownership. But once it became clear that a mid-rank or above Awakened person was stronger than a firearm just by existing, that argument had quietly died.
“We’ve installed a large temporary pool.”
One of the rearing facility Hunters said that while guiding us toward the field. On the grass sat a huge portable pool that looked about ten meters across.
“However, the structure isn’t sturdy, so we can’t let the other monsters out onto the field.”
Well, of course. A structure like that would break quickly if even one of the wolf cubs chewed on it. There was a pond in the rooftop garden, but it was far too small for a water dragon that lived in the water. For now, they were talking about arranging a long-term rental for a nearby indoor swimming pool.
- Kkyureuk!
The baby water dragon poked its head up from beyond the blue wall of the pool. Yerim floated up and reached out toward it. The water dragon rubbed the tip of its nose against her palm in a friendly way.
“Can I carry it around in a water bubble? I think it liked that.”
“Of course, that’s fine.”
The moment my permission fell, the water dragon floated up together with a lump of water. It spun in circles, and just like Yerim said, it really did seem to be enjoying itself.
“Have you picked a name yet?”
“Yes! But there’s the elemental too, right? So I picked two. Coral and Mar. Mar can mean sea, but Margarita can also mean pearl. So it’s Coral and Pearl.”
Yerim furrowed her brow deeply, saying she still hadn’t decided which of the two names to give the water dragon. Coral and Pearl, huh. Honestly, that sounded a lot better than anything I’d been coming up with. But if it was a water attribute, I felt like I could actually come up with something decent myself too.
“I think I could decide once I see the water elemental! Do you think it’ll still be a long time before it hatches?”
“The color has gotten darker.”
Since I couldn’t take it out of my inventory while I was being held in China.
“Mar really suits the water dragon better, right? Its blue scales and fins have a slight pearly sheen too. What do you think, Mar?”
- Kkuu!
“You like it? Hm?”
Yerim grabbed the fin that stuck out past the water bubble and shook it like a handshake.
“When Mar grows up, it’ll probably go to the Gyeonggi rearing facility, right? They said they were making an artificial lake there.”
“It’ll probably be like that. Unless it learns juvenile form like Peace.”
“Mar, you can do it too! Live with unni!”
- Grrreung.
If the two of them got really close, maybe there was a chance.
Leafnil seemed to be nocturnal and was asleep. It had been active in the dead of night, after all. The Pegasus, meanwhile, seemed to have become friends with the lamb in the meantime. Sorok was awake too, for once.
“Sorok, did you get some exercise while I was gone?”
- Ppyaeeng.
Once Sorok got up, the buffalo lay down. The ostrich was fine, and they said the lizard in the pond was doing well too, but—
“The Horn Fox is very shy.”
They said it had eaten, but hadn’t gone for a walk and had stayed huddled in the corner of its pen. The moment I stepped in, it pricked up its ears and rushed over.
- Kiing, king!
“Yeah, yeah. It’s okay. This isn’t a scary place.”
Should I take this one home? But Peace would hate that. For now, I picked up the Horn Fox and came back outside. Then next—
“Ahjussi isn’t going to name these kids himself, right?”
Yerim said, narrowing her eyes.
“…The buffalo and the Pegasus will be left to their owners. As for the others, well, I don’t have to name them myself.”
The problem was… I asked the rearing facility Hunter to give us a little space, then brought up my concern.
“There’s one that asked me to name them.”
It felt like they’d hate it if someone else named them, you see.
“You remember that fairy dragon that transformed into the Seseong Guild Leader before, right? The one we saw in the dungeon?”
“Ah, the pink dragon?”
“Yeah. So for now, um, Pinky or Cherry…”
I glanced sideways at Yerim’s reaction. Fortunately, her expression wasn’t too grim.
“For you, ahjussi, you really tried.”
“Is it okay?”
“If it were just a dragon, I think it’d be fine, but you said it can talk and even turn into a human, right? And it called you dad too. Han Pinky might be cute, but once it’s grown up, it’d be a little weird, wouldn’t it? Especially with Seseong ahjussi’s face.”
…The thought of calling Sung Hyunjae Pinky did send a slight chill down my spine.
“Even when it transforms normally, it looks like a child.”
“Still, try thinking outside of color for once. Up to now, you were doing okay! If you keep trying, you’ll get there, ahjussi!”
Yerim actually praised me, saying I was improving.
“Or why not ask Seseong ahjussi too? Since he’s related to it.”
“The changeling doesn’t seem to like the Seseong Guild Leader much.”
Still, maybe I should at least ask for advice. Whatever else, it had to be better than me doing it alone.
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