― Are you seriously insane? You leave ho and the first thing you toss out is your conscience? Is that it?
"Why do you sound so hurt?"
― Cut the bullshit, damn it!
"Woof."
I let out a dog bark just to ss with him, and on the other end of the call, I heard sothing shatter — a loud crash of sothing being broken.
Slurp. I sipped my coffee calmly and waited. A mont later, Hyun Dowoon spoke again, sounding thoroughly worn out.
― If you're going to be like this, just get to the damn point already...
"Aww, I should be paid first. You know how this works — you always pay a deposit before a request."
― I don’t need that. Just tell !
So impatient. He’s a good guy — maybe too good. Sotis I worry he’ll get taken advantage of sowhere.
"I’ll text you. It's not sothing easy to say out loud."
As I answered, I glanced over at Cha Sahyeon. The kid was still engrossed in her ga, but that didn’t an I could relax.
This wasn’t sothing I could explain simply, anyway. It’d be easier to summarize it by ssage.
“If I ask him to investigate a cult that kidnaps people and sacrifices them... even Hyun Dowoon might ask if I’ve gone delusional.”
Even I, who had personally been to that church just last night, still couldn’t fully grasp it. So there’s no way soone like Dowoon, completely uninvolved, could believe it easily. Still, whether he believed it or not, he’d look into it — because I asked.
― Wait, if you were just going to text , why the hell did you call?
"If I texted, you would’ve ignored . It’s not like I don’t know how you are."
Funnily enough, Dowoon reacted very differently depending on whether I asked him directly or not. That’s why I always either t him in person or called when I needed his help.
― ......
Guess I struck a nerve — he didn’t reply. That made laugh again without thinking.
『In other news: Three hours ago, the Managent Bureau announced that the 48th Guild Competitive Battle will be held. Let’s take a look at the footage.』
The announcer’s voice flowed from the TV I’d left on. I turned away from Cha Sahyeon to look at the screen.
“...?”
And there it was — a familiar face in the footage. That was definitely Ryu Sunghyun.
“Wait, why is Hyung’s photo on the news?”
While I sat there dumbfounded, the reporter continued:
『Last Tuesday, the Ronik Guild submitted a challenge for a competitive battle against the Circle Guild.』
Photos of both the Ronik and Circle Guildmasters appeared side by side on screen.
『There has been tension between the two guilds for so ti, so so fear this may be Ronik’s way of reigniting that conflict.』
My stomach twisted seeing that bastard Ronik Guildmaster’s face next to the Circle Guildmaster’s. And a competitive battle, of all things? I kept listening, trying to make sense of it.
『Ronik Guild insists it has no personal vendetta and rely wishes to test its skills against the improved Circle Guild.』
“Bullshit.”
Improved? Who the hell are they to judge whether soone else has improved or not?
『Today marks the fourth day since the challenge was issued, and Circle Guild has officially accepted. The final schedule will be decided through coordination between the two guilds.』
“Ha...”
I rubbed my throbbing temples and let out a deep sigh.
It was ridiculous enough that a big guild like Ronik would openly challenge a smaller one like Circle, but it was equally ridiculous that Circle agreed to it.
To be honest, I never imagined I’d learn about the Circle Guild’s involvent in a competitive battle like this. It didn’t happen in the previous tiline. There were plenty of clashes with Ronik, but never a formal match like this.
“If the future’s changed this much, what’s the point of regressing?”
I let out a hollow laugh. Part of wanted to grab the bastard who made this regression possible and scream in their face — Why did you send back if this was how it was going to be?
― Hello? Are you even listening? Hey!
Hyun Dowoon’s voice cut through my spiraling thoughts. I pressed my fingers into my furrowed brow and replied.
"I’m here."
― You can’t just go silent mid-call like that!
"Sothing ca up. Hey, Dowoon — I need to ask you another favor."
― Uh, I thought you were sending a text?
"Not that one. This is new."
― ...What now?
"I don’t care if it’s ten million or a hundred million won — just look into this first. I promise the information won’t take long to dig up."
Sensing that sothing was off, Dowoon’s tone sobered.
― What happened? Explain it properly.
“...I just saw the news. Ronik and Circle Guild are doing a competitive battle.”
― Yeah, I heard. Looks like Ronik finally lost its mind to jealousy. Either way, the power difference is massive — Circle Guild’s just going to get crushed.
Dowoon had already written off Circle Guild’s chances. Probably everyone who saw the announcent had done the sa.
But now wasn’t the ti to be disheartened. I forced myself to stay focused.
“Look into what happened between the Ronik Guildmaster and Sung— the Circle Guild’s Vice-Guildmaster. The more detailed, the better.”
― Wait, that’s the favor? You want to dig up dirt between those two?
"Not dirt. Just... find out if sothing happened between them. There has to be a reason why Circle Guild accepted a fight they can’t win."
― Hmm. Got it. That shouldn’t be too hard to find out.
"One more thing — don’t touch any personal info about the Circle Vice-Guildmaster. Got it? I don’t need that."
― Geez, you worry too much. Got it, got it.
"Good. I’ll wait for your call. Later."
After ending the call, I stared at my phone for a mont.
The investigation was in Dowoon’s hands, but that was only for figuring out the cause of this whole ss. As for solving it — that needed soone else.
“...No choice, huh.”
No matter how long I thought about it, there was no better option.
I really didn’t want to contact this person like this. Sighing in frustration, I opened my call history — and this ti, scrolled past Dowoon to a different number.
I’d honestly expected they wouldn’t answer. But surprisingly, the call connected right away.
― Hunter Cha Seohu?
Kwon Taehyuk’s voice was curious as he said my na.
I had saved his number from the business card he gave , but how did he know my number?
Whatever — this wasn’t the ti to dwell on small details. I let out a slightly awkward laugh.
“Ha ha, hello.”
― Didn’t expect a call from Hunter Cha Seohu. This is a surprise.
“Well... It’s been a while since the Rift incident. I just wanted to check in.”
Even with my thick skin, calling soone I wasn’t close to {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} out of the blue to ask for a favor pricked at my conscience a bit.
After I offered a half-hearted greeting, Kwon Taehyuk responded calmly.
― I’m doing well. The guild mbers you healed back then are recovering well too, thanks to you.
“That’s good to hear.”
― So, what’s the reason for your call?
Cutting straight to the point, huh? Still, since he laid the groundwork, I should take him up on it.
“Actually... I have a favor to ask, Guildmaster. It’s not a difficult one.”
― Even if it is, I’ll hear it out. Go ahead.
“Ah, um...”
His unexpectedly easygoing tone threw off.
He must’ve been really grateful for my help during the Rift incident. For soone like Kwon Taehyuk to offer help so readily — it caught off guard.
“Maybe it’s because the quest increased his Affinity with ... twice, even?”
Either way, earning his trust and becoming his ally was my long-term goal. So while I was grateful for his goodwill, it also weighed on .
Not to ntion — he wasn’t exactly a fan of my "cover" persona either.
Clearing my throat, I gathered my thoughts and spoke.
“I just saw the news — Ronik and Circle Guild are doing a competitive match, right?”
― Yes.
I suddenly beca curious what Kwon Taehyuk thought of this matchup. Everyone assud Circle Guild would lose. Did he think the sa?
“...What I want to ask is — could you arrange a eting for ?”
I bit back the unnecessary questions and got to the point.
― A eting?
“Yes. With Ryu Sunghyun — the Circle Guild’s Vice-Guildmaster. But I’d like it to be in a natural setting, sothing that won’t make him suspicious.”
If Circle hadn’t accepted the battle, maybe this wouldn’t be necessary. But now that it was set, canceling wasn’t realistic.
So that left with only one option: to help Circle Guild win — no matter what.
I wasn’t going to sit back and let my people get crushed by low-life scum like Ronik.
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