Chapter 68

With every deep breath, the terror gripping the city seeped into her lungs. Surveying the deserted perimeter, now turned into a ghost town, Lee Seonha curled her chilled fingertips into her palms.

A looming shadow hung over the dungeon following the breach at the entrance. With an unprecedented early re-entry taking place, tension had spiked not only among local residents, but within the government and the Hunter Association as well.

“Vice Guild Master Lee Seonha,” a voice called out.

Turning at the call, Seonha found a familiar face. Shin Young-won stood there—Yoo Tae-geun’s direct junior, an Association B-rank hunter, and Seonha’s former subordinate from her military service.

Seonha reined in any warmth and offered a crisp, professional greeting. Because Cheongho Guild and the Association were publicly known to be at odds, she deliberately schooled her expression.

Young-won returned the greeting with equal stiffness. Gesturing toward the cordon where emergency repairs had just wrapped up, Young-won said, “Additional barricades have been installed. You may enter now. And…” Trailing off, she held out the item Seonha had quietly requested: a piece of equipment unique in the entire country—the S-rank Watch of Seclusion.

The moment Seonha took the watch, Young-won glanced around and whispered, “If anyone finds out I smuggled this out, I’m dead. You have to bring it back without a single scratch.”

Her lips barely moved as she spoke, sounding like a ventriloquist. Seonha gave an almost imperceptible nod.

“Don’t worry. When we come out, it will be on Hunter Yoo Tae-geun’s wrist,” Seonha replied under her breath.

“…Do you really believe sunbae is alive?” Young-won asked.

“Of course,” Seonha answered firmly.

She echoed the very words her Guild Master had told his subordinates.

“Regardless of the circumstances, he’s the strongest among the nation’s A-rank hunters. Even the White Noise kids made it out alive. There’s no way the Association rescue team was wiped out completely. At the very least, Hunter Yoo Tae-geun will be alive.”

“I see,” Young-won breathed, her shoulders dropping slightly. “That’s a relief. Thank you.”

Though she hadn’t said it specifically to comfort her, Seonha kept silent. She knew all too well that what the despairing Association staff needed wasn’t reassuring words, but their people brought back alive.

“By the way, aren’t you going in, Vice Guild Master?” Young-won pressed. “Even if Cheongho’s Guild Master is personally leading the raid, isn’t the team too small?”

“I have another assignment, so I can’t go in,” Seonha replied. “Besides, if the source of the debuff remains active, numbers mean nothing. It’ll come down to pure mental fortitude.”

It was better for her to sit this raid out. It wasn’t a lack of willpower, but compared to Chaeyoon or Moonhyuk, she was more vulnerable to mental debuffs. Above all, Seonha had to keep watch over the hospitalized healer per Hae-gun’s orders. If the healer awakened before the dungeon was cleared, someone had to be there to contain the possessed vessel.

Just then, Kim Si-hoon appeared alongside Association personnel, catching her eye. Ever since arriving, he had been scanning the perimeter, clearly searching for Eui-rim, whose name was listed on the roster.

Glancing at Kim Si-hoon’s smug face, Seonha furrowed her brow. Seeing him participate as the jurisdictional manager made the worry she had pushed aside resurface.

Recalling her superior pulling her aside outside the conference room earlier, she pressed her temple.

Hae-gun had instructed her to ‘procure the S-rank Watch of Seclusion through an Association contact.’ Because Eui-rim wasn’t yet ready to shoulder the weight of high-grade mana stones, Hae-gun had insisted on borrowing the Association’s S-rank item.

Seonha had doubted her own ears. For a Guild Master who adamantly refused to owe any debt to the Association, the order had come as an utter shock.

Fortunately, Cheongho stepping in to rescue the Association’s team canceled out the debt… but at the time, she had been too stunned to react.

Yet the surprises hadn’t stopped there. While texting Young-won on his orders, she had heard something completely unexpected.

“Seonha-ya.”

“If the White Noise Guild Master steps down from the front lines, do you think their Vice Guild Master can run things properly?” Hae-gun had asked.

“Pardon?” Seonha had asked, blinking.

A single look into his eyes told her it wasn’t an idle joke. Though his expression had remained hidden behind the mask, eight years of working together gave her absolute certainty.

Hae-gun genuinely wanted to get rid of Kim Si-hoon. More precisely, he seemed intent on ensuring the man never woke up again, or inflicting trauma severe enough to force his retirement.

“Could you please hold back?” she had blurted out without hesitation.

No matter how detestable Kim Si-hoon was, she didn’t want Hae-gun touching a high-ranking hunter heading an entire guild. If Kim Si-hoon collapsed, the Association’s influence would expand into the vacuum. Knowing that full well, why indulge in a personal grudge?

Yet Hae-gun had offered no clear answer. He neither agreed with his usual nod nor brushed it off; he simply calculated something in silence.

“…Is this because of Hunter Kang Eui-rim?” Seonha had asked.

She had brought up Eui-rim’s name deliberately. Because her superior acted so uncharacteristically toward that supporter, she wanted to see if this was connected to him as well.

“He’s far more rotten than I thought, you see,” Hae-gun had replied.

Seonha’s intuition had hit dead center. A reply that was practically an admission had slipped from Hae-gun’s lips. While he tried to sound casual, his very detachment made his true intent bleed through all the more clearly.

“Vice Guild Master?” Young-won’s voice broke in.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Seonha met Young-won’s blank stare. Shaking her head to signal it was nothing, she sent Young-won on her way. With the item in hand and Kim Si-hoon on site, there was no reason for her to linger.

Right on cue, the subject of her thoughts appeared. The fluorescent accents woven into the hunter jacket made Eui-rim’s delicate, finely drawn features look exceptionally pale.

It really is fascinating.

His outward appearance seemed serene, almost detached from worldly concerns, yet the moment their eyes met, an unyielding resolve shone through that made it impossible to look away. He carried an aura reminiscent of when she first met Hae-gun, yet its gentler warmth disarmed everyone around him.

Did he say he brought him along because he liked those eyes?

Because the lack of fear when facing him had caught his attention. Hae-gun had said that seeing him look relieved rather than terrified had intrigued him enough to reconsider.

Then, figuring his abilities would be useful, he had hired him as a supporter—an instrument to buy fleeting moments of time. Hae-gun had claimed he intended to part ways once they cleared the Tower of Time.

Never imagining he would end up sitting across a table, sharing meals with the man.

Seonha stifled a smirk. Her eyes caught sight of her superior, who still wore his disguise mask despite approaching the dungeon.

Fond of him as he is, as if he’d ever let him go.

Whether Hae-gun was playing dumb or truly oblivious, she couldn’t tell.

Once the Isolation Ward raid ended, she would likely have to draft a new contract. Unless Eui-rim had approached Hae-gun with ulterior motives, that second contract would have to promise a lifetime commitment, just like the rest of them.

Until now, Hae-gun had only signed short-term contracts because of the ‘oracle’ he received, never formally taking on a seventh guild member… but the time had come to break that taboo.

After all, Eui-rim was the one person Hae-gun had publicly declared unique.

And their comrades had willingly stepped aside before Hae-gun’s proclamation.

Fingering the S-rank item inside her pocket, Seonha walked over to where her companions stood. Meeting Hae-gun’s eyes as he sensed her approach, she gave a slight nod. It was time to see them off.

The entrance sealed shut ten seconds after they stepped inside.

Eui-rim had worried they might run into temporal illusions like in Utopia, but aside from the known anomaly, the dungeon system functioned normally.

Eui-rim surveyed the interior of the ward, which looked almost identical to his memories from his previous life, sharpening his senses. Kim Si-hoon had claimed no monsters appeared until passing two patient rooms, but with the dungeon’s rank escalated, letting his guard down was out of the question.

“Guild Master,” Son Chaeyoon asked, “aren’t you going to take off your mask?”

At Son Chaeyoon’s question, Seo Hae-gun gave a slight shake of his head. “A bit later.”

“Why later?” Chaeyoon asked. “Kim Si-hoon is on his way.”

“I know.” Hae-gun’s voice carried a playful, mischievous lilt. “That’s why I’m taking it off later.”

“Oh. You’re planning to mess with him again, aren’t you?” Chaeyoon asked, a wide grin spreading across her face as she caught on.

Before Eui-rim could ask what she meant, heavy footsteps echoed from the entrance. Kim Si-hoon stepped inside, a heavy shield slung over his shoulder.

“Why are you all standing around? We should get moving,” Kim Si-hoon grumbled, looking around with obvious irritation.

“Hunter Kim Si-hoon,” Ahn Moonhyuk called out, stepping forward with an oversized, amiable grin.

“What?” Si-hoon snapped.

Before Kim Si-hoon could register the movement, Ahn Moonhyuk lunged forward and clamped a pair of heavy metal restraints around his wrists and neck.

Clack! Clank!

“What the fuck! Hunter Ahn, are you out of your—” The restraints bit down with a pressurized hiss. “Aaargh!”

Kim Si-hoon moved to strike back, but Son Chaeyoon was faster. Sweeping in from behind, she kicked the back of his knee, forcing him to the ground.

“Fuck, are you people insane?!” Kim Si-hoon screamed from the floor. “What the hell are you doing to me?!”

“Good grief. Look at him flop like a freshly landed carp. Why’s he thrashing so much?” Chaeyoon clicked her tongue.

Ahn Moonhyuk planted a heavy knee squarely onto Kim Si-hoon’s back. Kim Si-hoon writhed in a frenzy, but his struggles were useless against the massive frame pinning him down.

“Hello, Guild Master Kim Si-hoon,” a smooth, unfamiliar voice greeted him.

Seo Hae-gun finally shed his disguise. Pulling off the mask, he crouched before Kim Si-hoon with a dazzling smile.

“I believe this is our first formal meeting,” Hae-gun said.