“Some people from the association came looking for us.”
The one who woke up the three of them, who were exhausted and in despair, was Gamaltera, a member of the Ten Greats and known to have a contract with the Earth Elemental King.
The man, who looked like a twisted wire and a barbed wire fence, scratched his eyebrow with his finger.
“Looks like you failed.”
“…What about the others?”
Instead of answering Gamaltera’s question, An Joo-hyuk wiped his soaked forehead and avoided the answer.
As if that was enough of an answer, Gamaltera spoke in a very businesslike and slightly annoyed voice.
“Lee Myung-joon left saying he had something urgent to do, and Lee Woo-wei, as you know, is not in a condition to go anywhere. And Anastasia Rukiyanenko, she just fell asleep after taking care of Richard.”
Lee Woo-wei was so badly injured that he was buried, but Richard, who fought with him on the front line, also suffered a serious injury that pierced his chest.
And everyone knew that Anastasia had followed Richard like a father since she was young, and that she had stayed by his side without sleeping until he regained consciousness.
“So we’re the only ones left.”
“That’s right. Fujiwara Reiko and Ose Evans left yesterday morning to deal with the giant sandworm that appeared in the Middle East.”
He sighed softly.
“And as you know, I’m not good at negotiating or talking.”
“I wonder why they came.”
“It’s obvious. The reason they came to us.”
An Joo-hyuk nodded as if he knew the answer to Gamaltera’s question.
With a grunt, he got up from his seat, and Evangelin and Laura, who were lying on the floor or half lying down, also got up.
Gamaltera, who was glancing and squinting at the two of them, muttered incredulously.
“But is it true that the three of you stuck to him and it was useless…?”
“Yeah.”
An Joo-hyuk nodded quietly, as there was nothing to hide.
“All we could do was sort out the flow inside his body and recover his condition a little. There’s nothing more we can do.”
“What does that mean?”
“We have no choice but to wait for him to recover on his own.”
An Joo-hyuk said so, but he looked quite shocked.
And so did Evangelin and Laura.
Gamaltera, who had been looking at them with a displeased expression for a moment, turned his head with a slight tongue click.
“…I find him annoying.”
Gamaltera opened his mouth quietly.
The three of them, who followed behind him, looked at him with surprise, as he was usually very sparing with his words about others.
“The spirits told me. He has the blessing of the spirits. As you know, many spirits flock to humans who have the blessing of the spirits.”
He opened his mouth quietly as he walked ahead.
“But his blessing was overshadowed by the ominous smell and energy that emanated from him. And for some reason, I don’t know why, but he also had the energy of a high-ranking spirit.”
“A high-ranking spirit…”
“The spirits leave behind such strong energy and smell… Well, to put it simply, it’s like they’re ‘claiming’ him as their own, as we would see it.”
“Ahem.”
Laura coughed involuntarily as the word ‘claiming’ came out of his mouth, who didn’t know how to joke.
She was glad he didn’t laugh, and as she comforted herself, Gamaltera continued to speak in a slightly annoyed voice.
“To explain further, it means that they’re warning other spirits not to touch him, even if they have to risk their lives. In that way, there was one high-ranking spirit who emitted energy and smell to him, and another high-ranking spirit who left energy behind as if to protect him…”
“There are two of them? High-ranking spirits attached to him?”
“More like they left their energy behind. And besides their energy, I also felt a very faint energy that I couldn’t identify.”
Gamaltera breathed quietly.
At first, he thought he felt that way because he was a member of the World Tree.
But he realized that it was more than that, from the spirits who didn’t want to approach him, and from the terrible sight he saw then.
“The spirits are wary of him. And so am I. You know as well as I do that he has a lot of secrets and doubts. He even shows contradictory appearances.”
Gamaltera nodded slightly.
“But that’s all. Anyway, the fact that we owe him a great favor and that we owe him a huge debt doesn’t change.”
Anyway, Gamaltera was also one of the Ten Greats who was hailed as a hero.
He was not a foolish or narrow-minded person who would be blinded by his personal feelings.
“The association’s public opinion campaign has increased a lot lately.”
Evangelin muttered as she did so, and Laura nodded.
“Just by raising doubts, by making rumors, it has power. I know it’s annoying, but there’s no reason to wait for them.”
“I wonder why they came to see us.”
“It’s obvious.”
An Joo-hyuk chuckled softly.
“Yu Ji-hyuk’s whereabouts, and our cooperation request.”
“I don’t get it no matter how I think about it.”
Evangelin shook her head slightly.
“Why did they fire Aegis at him then? And how dare they ask for his whereabouts like he’s a villain? Did the association’s power get stronger without me knowing?”
The question she spat out was a question that everyone had.
Hero, and hunter.
Although they had different fields and enemies to work in, the boundary between the two was vague.
It was because they had made a separate name for convenience.
And there were rules that encompassed those heroes and hunters, which were no different from unwritten laws.
Using a colleague as a shield or bait.
And abandoning a colleague and running away was considered a taboo that should never be done among those unwritten laws.
But the association attacked the Seven Evils with Yu Ji-hyuk as bait without any hesitation.
It was lucky that Yu Ji-hyuk was different from ordinary people, but most people would have died without leaving a trace.
In that situation, the Ten Greats would not follow the association’s order to hand over Yu Ji-hyuk.
Ignoring the crisis of a comrade who fought together was secondary, but the act of firing Aegis was clearly a taboo-breaking act.
“…I’m curious about that too.”
An Joo-hyuk nodded.
He was famous as one of the Ten Greats, but he also had the title of an external advisor to the Ewon Group.
His brother and father of An Do-hoon, An Joo-won, led the nation’s top conglomerate, both in name and reality.
And even the Ewon Group couldn’t deal with the World Tree.
And Yu Ji-hyuk was one of the two remaining members of the main house of the World Tree, and a person who received absolute support and protection from the current head, Lee Ye-eun.
As soon as Lee Ye-eun had a problem with her whereabouts, he was the person who could act as the head’s deputy.
An Juhyuk was also unable to understand their actions, who came out brazenly after doing something that was nothing short of terror to such an opponent.
“Let’s meet them first.”
That’s why they had to be careful.
There was no way they would rush in like moths to a flame without any thought, so they must have had some hidden trust or belief.
“Who’s here?”
“I don’t know. Someone from the training department, what do I know.”
Gamaltera snorted and answered like that.
Meanwhile, Laura quietly asked An Juhyuk.
“Yu Jihyuk… what is he doing now?”
“Well, he must be awake and taking a walk by now.”
“Can we leave him alone?”
“He’s with his friends, so there shouldn’t be a problem.”
An Juhyuk said that with a calm voice.
“Those kids, they’ll be stronger than us in about 10 years, right? Even now, they can’t even hand out their cards to any decent heroes or hunters.”
At that, the other three implicitly agreed.
Meanwhile, Evangeline and Gamaltera tilted their heads slightly.
“We’ll have to split up here.”
“Yeah.”
An Juhyuk and Laura didn’t ask why.
They all had some means to know the status of Yu Jihyuk around him, just in case, and they noticed that someone was approaching him.
“…Choi Junhyung, that guy, and two more from the training department are with him.”
“We’ll have to split up here. We can’t leave the one who came alone.”
“I’ll go to where Yu Jihyuk is.”
“Then I’ll go with you.”
Laura raised her hand and volunteered, and then An Juhyuk decided to go with her.
Evangeline nodded at that.
“Then I’ll go talk to them with Gamaltera.”
She added quietly.
“Don’t be too harsh.”
***
“Hello?”
A man who blocked us in front of us smiled and greeted us.
Next to him were an Asian woman and a Western man.
“…I know there shouldn’t be anyone else in this hospital but us.”
Ivan stepped forward with a slight smile and Choi Hyunwoo moved to his side to make a wall.
Then, Han Suyeong narrowed her eyes and came to my side, and Euna breathed lightly.
“Um, I guess we ignored such trivial procedures because we were on official duty. I apologize for that.”
He bowed his head slightly and smiled brightly, Choi Junhyung.
“The person sitting there is Yu Jihyuk, right?”
At that, Euna muttered something.
She started to move her magic.
And Choi Junhyung, who was rated as a second-class by Lee Myungjun, raised his hand slightly and opened his mouth.
“I just came to talk to you. Just talk.”
“Jihyuk is a patient. If you have something to say, get permission from An Juhyuk first.”
The one who answered that was none other than Euna.
She shot back with a prickly, nervous voice that anyone could hear that she was on guard.
“Um, excuse me, but can you leave us alone?”
“Sorry, but I’m Jihyuk’s secretary and escort.”
At Euna’s words, Choi Junhyung raised his eyebrows slightly as if surprised.
Meanwhile, Svengali, who had been silent for a while, opened his mouth quietly.
[That guy… he smells faintly of Milted.]
Then he muttered as if pondering.
[He must not have met Milted directly. Hmm… did he contact his minions?]
Meanwhile, a man behind Choi Junhyung muttered sarcastically.
“He has a weird taste.”
“Quiet.”
Choi Junhyung raised his hand and told the man behind him.
Then he looked at me with a smiling face and said.
“It won’t take long. Let’s talk a little.”
“Well…”
I made a sullen response with a sneering voice.
I didn’t need to talk to him, and I had a feeling that he was after me because of Milted’s energy that Svengali felt.
Milted.
His minions were after me.
I was thinking that.
“…Huh?”
Suddenly, I felt Henir’s shadow twitching as if it was about to pop out.
I immediately ordered him to stay still, but he didn’t seem to hear me and kept bubbling.
‘This is the first time I’ve met such an enemy…?’
Maybe my body was weakened and my influence was weakened.
I thought I had to calm him down before something happened, so I pretended to touch my ankle and gently stroked Henir’s shadow and whispered.
“Good boy…? Stay still. That’s a good boy.”
[…]
Then, Henir’s shadow suddenly shook and trembled.
Maybe I did something wrong.
As I thought that, I saw that Henir’s shadow had calmed down.
[…I’m going crazy, who would believe this.]
I left Svengali, who seemed to be startled, alone and slowly raised my head and looked at Choi Junhyung.
“Why do I have to talk to you?”
“Um… because I came as a representative of the association?”
“Hmm…”
I pretended to stroke my chin and glanced at him.
“I was going to give you some time if you asked politely…”
I looked at the man who had sneered at Euna and made the most unpleasant expression.
“But you insulted my friend first, so I don’t want to give you any time. What do I do about that?”
At that, the man behind Choi Junhyung stiffened his expression and Choi Junhyung bowed his head.
“I apologize for that. But you can’t refuse with such a joke-like word, because the story I want to share is quite a serious matter… And we are clearly the representatives of the association who came to find Yu Jihyuk…”
“Euna.”
“Yeah.”
I cut off his words and spoke to Euna.
“Let’s go back. I’m sleepy.”
“Yeah.”
Euna immediately turned the wheelchair.
Ivan and Choi Hyunwoo also followed me as if to protect me, and Han Suyeong glared at them once and followed them.
“Ha, look at these bastards…?”
Meanwhile, the man who had sneered at Euna spat on the floor.
Then, gradually, the footsteps of the approaching ones started.
Choi Hyunwoo and Ivan started to talk calmly.
“Shall I do it?”
“You don’t have a sword. I’ll do it.”
Choi Hyunwoo nodded reluctantly and Ivan raised his hand slightly.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to talk for a moment, you cheeky…!?”
Then, from behind, I heard a sound of him kicking the ground and running.
Then, a sound of something leather bursting and hitting.
Almost at the same time, I heard a sound of the ground thumping.
“Shut up.”
The one who opened his mouth as if annoyed was Han Suyeong.
She, who had been silent until a while ago, shook her fist and said.
“Jihyuk is sleepy.”
At her feet, the man who had run in was lying down in the same posture.
