Chapter 9
The chest I was gripping.
Maybe because she was a leopard beastkin, but along with the luxurious fur, it felt soft to the touch.
So this is what a beastkin’s chest feels like.
A strange experience.
But that wasn’t where she led me.
Beyond that, between her collarbone and chest.
A strange scar felt against my fingers.
It wasn’t an old wound.
At most, a few days?
The rough, raised texture felt like I was touching some kind of beetle.
“How is it? Do you know now?”
The leopard smiled seductively.
When I looked startled, she slyly let go.
“My name is Milen. So? Should we get a room right away?”
She wasn’t making a sexual request.
She wanted something else.
“Ahem, excuse me. I think you’ve misunderstood.”
I took my hand off her chest and tapped the business card on the table.
“Read it again.”
“Meracle Marriage Agency. CEO Kim Juseon.”
“Yes, I came to ask whether you’d like to sign up.”
“Ha, I already know everything. No need to try to fool me with this.”
This conversation was going nowhere.
Was she closer to a beast than a human?
In the end, I showed her the business registration on a portal-site map on my phone.
And I even showed her a neatly taken photo of me there.
At that, Milen stammered in confusion.
“Uh, uh?”
“You see? I’m just a hardworking marriage-agency CEO. If you want to get married, come to Meracle.”
I stood up with a capitalist smile.
Then I turned and headed straight for the dancing main floor.
The farther I got from Milen, the faster my steps became.
‘Fuck! I got caught up in something weird!’
I had a hell of a time trying to play dumb and brush it off.
That’s a needle mark!
Even a wound that grotesque means there’s a very high chance it’s something filthy.
‘What the hell is this insane club doing?’
For now, I let it slide naturally.
But we couldn’t stay here any longer.
We’d get dragged into something weird.
Finding Kim Yang and Renea wasn’t difficult.
The crowd had all gathered over there. Kim Yang was dancing skillfully, just as she’d said she was used to, while Renea waved her arms beside her like she was doing a mask dance.
She seemed to be trying hard in her own way, but her expression was a complete pout.
Kim Yang spotted me first.
“Huh? B-boss, are you here to dance too? Want to dance together?”
“Save me! Spare me! I want to run away! What is this place?! It’s scary!”
Renea immediately clung to me.
She wrapped her arms and legs around my side and hugged me.
Honestly, that worked out.
“Kim Yang, let’s get out of here. Something’s wrong.”
“Huh? What’s wrong? This place is great.”
“Let’s go. I’ll explain outside.”
“……Okay.”
Kim Yang nodded right away at my serious expression and followed me.
And so, we passed through the main floor and were heading out through the hallway.
“There! That’s the one!”
Milen’s voice stabbed into my back.
When I turned around, Milen was swarming toward us with a bunch of huge men.
They were clearly the kind of people you should never get entangled with.
“Fuck! Run!”
“Huh?”
“What?! What’s going on?”
“No time to explain, so run!”
Renea finally got off me and asked in surprise.
“W-wait, are we being pounced on? I heard that in Seoul, you close your eyes and open them again and you’re on a hotel bed, but surely not?!”
“Grandma, there you go again!”
If we just turned the hallway corner, the entrance would be right there.
There would be guards standing there, but with all the people in line, they probably wouldn’t be able to make a scene.
The moment we were almost at the end of the hallway.
A man appeared before we even turned the corner.
Well-set blond hair.
His head to his toes were covered in famous-brand luxury, like a walking luxury store.
The kind of extravagance that wouldn’t wear anything under five million won.
A pistol aimed this way.
The man with the relaxed smile gestured toward us—
“Kneel.”
The pressure crushing my whole body made me pitch forward instantly.
“Ugh?!”
“Kyaah!”
Gravity manipulation.
He was an Awakened.
“Huh?”
But that wasn’t what surprised me.
His ability and his voice were absurdly familiar.
The problem was, he recognized me too.
“Don’t tell me that’s Kim Juseon?”
Looking down at me as I knelt under the gravity, he called out to me.
* * *
I could see why Kim Yang said the room was expensive.
Not only was the inside lavish, but there was also a karaoke machine, fruit snacks, and expensive liquor.
The basic setup had to be pricey.
Pop!
That blond luxury-brand peacock, Geum Taemin, casually opened that liquor and poured it into a glass.
Just look at him—he’s the only one drinking it.
His petty nature hadn’t gone away, even after making money.
He had us lined up in a row and leisurely drank his liquor.
The room entrance was already heavily blocked by three thugs.
“Kheh, Juseon. What a bizarre twist of fate. Right? We haven’t seen each other since the training center, so it’s been almost five years, hasn’t it?”
“You mean a shitty twist of fate?”
“This bastard’s mouth still hasn’t died yet, huh?”
Crunch!
Gravity manipulation pressed down again, slowly and firmly.
By the way, it’s illegal for an Awakened to use their ability on civilians.
“Why? Still think you’re the one on top? Hm? Juseon.”
Geum Taemin sneered.
Renea, sitting beside him, fidgeted as she looked at me.
Looks like she left her bow behind because she came to a club, so she can’t do anything.
Anyway, this is what happens when you only know how to do one thing.
No choice.
“Geum Taemin, why aren’t you working as a hunter? Did you quit because you weren’t good enough?”
“Bullshit. Hunters who make money by catching monsters these days are idiots. Why do something dangerous? You can make a ton of money just working as a guard here.”
“Sounds like you’re doing dirty work that suits you perfectly, huh?”
“And you’re doing a pathetic job that suits you perfectly.”
No matter what I said, Geum Taemin answered back calmly. He must have been certain he was the one with the upper hand.
“Juseon, you’ve always been the type to poke at things you shouldn’t touch.”
“…….”
“Do you know what kind of place this club is? It’s managed by Baekdu Pharmaceuticals.”
Baekdu Pharmaceuticals?
Wasn’t that a major corporation?
“Baekdu?”
“It’s where they get the raw materials for medicine for special customers.”
Kim Yang must not have known either, since she looked flustered. But in my estimation, it didn’t seem to have anything to do with her.
“Why? Curious? Want hyung to tell you? Come to think of it, I’m two years older than you, aren’t I?”
“You always act like stupidly obvious things are something impressive.”
“......What?”
For the first time, Geum Taemin’s face cracked, his brows knitting together.
But it was obvious if you thought about it.
Kim Yang was a beastkin and a regular clubgoer.
But she knew nothing about things like this.
Which meant beastkin weren’t the target.
“They’re probably buying blood, fur, or body parts from beastkin for money.”
“Ha, what, do you think we’re running some kind of organ trafficking—”
“Yeah, probably, dumbass.”
“…….”
Not beastkin.
Why specifically beastkin?
This part was easy too.
“According to the Fifth Floor’s old Murim lore, beastkin are beings born when a god called a ‘beast spirit’ shared intimacy with humans.”
“…….”
“Among them, beastkin are especially those born with a very strong line of beast-spirit blood.”
“…….”
“Then it’s obvious. They’d use beastkin to obtain the beast spirits’ transcendent physical abilities and use them for medicine, stimulants, drugs—whatever.”
“This bastard—”
“You told me it was a pharmaceutical company.”
When I smiled, Geum Taemin couldn’t hold back his anger and jumped to his feet.
Even the thugs standing guard, Kim Yang, and Renea stared at me in surprise.
“B-boss. You’re smart.”
“But did you really have to say that? He looks even angrier now.”
Just as Renea said.
A thoroughly furious Geum Taemin glared at us, then forced himself to steady his breathing and grinned.
“That was always your problem, Juseon.”
His lips curled coldly.
“You keep acting like you’re good at everything, and that’s why you’re living like this now.”
Geum Taemin’s gaze shifted to Kim Yang and Renea. In a deliberately kind tone, he asked them:
“Do you ladies know why Hunter Training Center class 111 is called the Golden Generation?”
“Class 111?”
“I-I’ll try to guess!”
Renea shouted that she’d try anything to survive, but Geum Taemin wasn’t looking for an answer.
“Because two of the Seven Extremes came from it. One was Yacha (Night Demon), Ryu Seoram.”
The other one was—
“The current vice president of the Hunter Association, Yoo Yena.”
A heavy name.
She was the most powerful figure among the power brokers running the Hunter Association.
Mine and Geum Taemin’s classmate.
“But there’s something nobody knows. The top student in Class 111 wasn’t Ryu Seoram or Yoo Yena.”
Like winding up a spring, Geum Taemin turned his head and pinned me with his gaze.
“That bastard. The top student of Class 111 was always Kim Juseon. Him—right there.”
“...The CEO?”
“What?!”
The two of them looked at me with shocked eyes.
I smiled and added:
“Geum Taemin was almost dead last.”
“Shut up!”
The gravity grew even stronger.
Trying hard to steady his breathing, the bastard grinned awkwardly, clearly wanting to keep me pinned down somehow.
“You never learned anything, did you? You stood out so pathetically that Yoo Yena singled you out. The top student didn’t even get his hunter license issued, you know?”
“Still better than you, using a hunter license to wipe other people’s asses, isn’t it?”
“Hah.”
The pressure vanished.
My hands and feet were free.
“You still think we’re at the training center from five years ago? You still think you’re the top student?”
Geum Taemin stepped in front of the table as if taking the stage and beckoned.
“Come out, Kim Juseon. I’ll bring you down now. And you’re going to die here.”
Apparently properly provoked, Geum Taemin challenged me to a one-on-one.
“You planning to shoot?”
When I sneered, he clenched his teeth and threw a dagger onto the table.
Thunk!
“It’s knife fighting. How about it? That’s the one thing you might actually beat me at, isn’t it? If you win, I’ll let all three of you go.”
Tsk.
I clicked my tongue, pulled out the knife, and stepped forward.
“You talk like you’ve ever won before.”
“You talk like you’ve ever won before.”