Chapter 20
Baekho Guild's headquarters was a massive hanok village in Seoul.
It was not merely a guild compound.
It was also a residential district where Hunters belonging to Baekho and their families could live at relatively low cost if they wished,
as well as a symbolic place that showed outsiders the history and stature of Baekho, one of South Korea's Big Four guilds.
The village, where the eaves of traditional hanok houses unexpectedly blended with modern security systems, was also one of the attractions visited by Hunter tourists from overseas.
But today.
A completely different sound was flooding into the normally tranquil hanok village.
Patter-patter-patter-patter-patter.
Dozens of footsteps.
The sound of camera shutters.
And the sharp questions spat out by reporters.
“Hunter Yoon Mi-ja! Is the rumor that Hyeonmu is absorbing Baekho true?”
“It is said that Baekho and Hyeonmu have maintained a friendly relationship for a long time. Was that entire relationship merely groundwork for this?”
“When did you first learn that Guild Master Han Yura wasn't in a normal state?”
From the moment the Hyeonmu Guild Master's limousine stopped at the entrance to the hanok village, the reporters rushed over as though they had been waiting.
Because today might become a day remembered in the history of South Korean Hunters.
Geumseong of Gangnam.
Baekho of Gangseo.
Hyeonmu of Gangbuk.
Cheongryong of Gangdong.
It was the day the four guilds that divided Seoul among themselves might lose their balance, turning the Big Four into the Big Three.
There was no way reporters would miss a scoop like that.
Yoon Mi-ja stepped out of the limousine wearing her usual gentle smile.
But inwardly, she clicked her tongue.
‘This isn't how I wanted things to look.’
The original plan had been to end things quietly.
Enter Baekho's main building, hand Han Sora the transfer documents, and get her seal on them.
If possible, without either the reporters or outsiders knowing.
Hyeonmu would take Baekho into its fold before it was torn completely apart.
That was what Yoon Mi-ja had considered the best course of action.
But what was this commotion?
Reporters had suddenly descended and were treating Hyeonmu's absorption of Baekho as an established fact.
It was a major incident, with cameras pushing deep into the village and exposing the faces of Baekho's guild members and their families.
Someone had deliberately set the stage.
And Yoon Mi-ja soon realized who that someone was.
The woman walking beside her as though she were a Hyeonmu Guild official.
A middle-aged woman with silver hair neatly braided over one shoulder, giving her a soft impression at first glance.
But her smile was excessively thin, and her narrowed eyes held the chill of someone who viewed people as nothing more than numbers.
The head of the Korean branch of the International Reproductive Resources Management Agency.
Seo Mun-hee.
Yoon Mi-ja smiled toward the reporters and sent her voice toward the woman in a thin strand of mana.
“You pulled off quite a cute little stunt, Branch Director.”
Telepathic speech inaudible to ordinary people.
It was a covert form of conversation that only Hunters above a certain level could use.
Seo Mun-hee did not change expression in the slightest.
“If you show too much bloodlust, it could damage your image, Hunter Yoon Mi-ja.”
“My image?”
The corners of Yoon Mi-ja's eyes curved ever so slightly.
She was smiling, but it was not a smiling face.
“After creating this mess, you're talking about image?”
“I prepared this stage for your sake, rather.”
“What?”
Seo Mun-hee glanced at the reporters' flashes.
“This is a historic moment in which the Big Four guilds are being reorganized into the Big Three. If something like that ends without anyone knowing, it may be quiet for the time being, but even greater suspicions will follow afterward.”
“⋯!”
“Hyeonmu is a guild that represents South Korea's traditions. If it gives the impression that Hyeonmu secretly swallowed Baekho, all kinds of conspiracy theories and inflammatory rhetoric will follow.”
Those words⋯ weren't wrong.
Hyeonmu's weapons were tradition and image.
A guild that had survived for a long time.
A guild that never missed a national event.
The Hunter guild most familiar to the public.
What if Hyeonmu had quietly swallowed Baekho in the shadows?
At that moment, the public would begin searching for a reason.
Whether money had changed hands.
Whether there had been threats.
What Baekho had been hiding.
And suspicions about how far Han Yura's condition had deteriorated would spread endlessly.
“So it would be better to enter openly. Hyeonmu openly absorbed Baekho. It brought a weakened guild into a greater order. That is how it should appear.”
“What a wonderfully plausible pretext.”
Yoon Mi-ja was still smiling toward the reporters.
But the voice coming through their telepathic link was as cold as a midwinter wind.
“Do you think I don't know the real reason?”
“⋯⋯.”
“You're trying to make sure I can't back out now, even if my feelings make me hesitate.”
The corners of Seo Mun-hee's mouth rose faintly.
That silence alone was answer enough.
“By making the stage this big, you leave me no way to back out. If Hyeonmu backs down here, Geumseong and Cheongryong will come running immediately.”
“You may think whatever you like.”
“Scheming bitches. You intend to make me trample Baekho today, no matter what.”
Beyond the reporters, Yoon Mi-ja could see the faces of Baekho's guild members.
Under the eaves of the hanok village.
Between the alleys.
Along the path leading to the main building.
They had all lost their voices and could only stare in this direction.
Some were furious, some were afraid, and some already wore resigned expressions.
Even if Hyeonmu absorbed them, they might be able to keep their careers.
They might even be able to keep their lives.
But the guild to which they had devoted their entire lives would disappear.
How could they be happy when the name under which they had dreamed, bled, and raised their families was erased overnight?
Yoon Mi-ja walked past those gazes and arrived in front of Baekho's main building.
And there, she stopped.
In front of the main gate.
Because a woman was standing in the spot that should have been empty.
“Please go back, Guild Master Yoon Mi-ja.”
“Sora⋯?”
Yoon Mi-ja's eyebrows moved ever so slightly.
Normally, the girl should have been inside.
Whether she was crying over the documents or seething with rage, she should not have been out in front of the reporters.
But Sora did not flee.
Instead, she stood alone in front of Baekho's main building.
As though she herself were the representative of this guild and its final gatekeeper.
The cameras all turned toward her.
The reporters began murmuring.
Seo Mun-hee's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
Han Sora met all those stares and spoke clearly.
“Baekho will never be absorbed by another guild.”
At those words, the murmuring instantly grew louder.
“What did she just say?”
“She's refusing the absorption?”
“Is Hunter Han Sora going to stand against Hyeonmu?”
Camera flashes erupted, and live-streaming drones began broadcasting her face.
Baekho, which had been believed to have collapsed because of Guild Master Han Yura's injury.
Its successor had refused absorption in front of the Hyeonmu Guild Master.
Was it reckless stubbornness?
Was it her last shred of pride?
Or did she still have an unrevealed countermeasure?
Countless interpretations arose simultaneously in the reporters' minds.
Meanwhile, Yoon Mi-ja looked at Sora for a moment.
A faint light passed through her eyes.
But it did not last long.
‘She's still only A-rank.’
Yoon Mi-ja muttered inwardly.
‘Even that girl has only just reached A-rank. The name Baekho is too heavy for her to bear.’
Baekho under Han Sora's leadership could not hold out.
She might be able to buy time through information warfare.
She might be able to sway public opinion.
But in Hunter society, what ultimately decided the outcome was always power.
Baekho, with its S-rank gone, was already a beast with its fangs removed.
So she had to break it here.
She had to defeat it completely.
Only then could she bring it, at least tamed, inside Hyeonmu's fence before the other beasts tore it apart.
Step.
Yoon Mi-ja took one step forward.
At that moment, her usual gentleness disappeared.
The kindly smile of a grandmother and the dignified composure she always displayed as the Hyeonmu Guild Master before the public had both vanished.
Only one thing remained.
South Korea's longest-serving Hunter.
A living legend of the Korean Hunter community.
And for the first time, that legend looked at Han Sora as an enemy.
“Move aside.”
At that short command, the air around them grew heavy.
The reporters' voices cut off, and even the faint mechanical hum of the filming drones seemed to recede into the distance.
Cold sweat formed on Han Sora's forehead as she stood before Yoon Mi-ja.
Simply breathing felt as though her lungs were being crushed.
S-rank.
Everyone there instinctively understood why the word was spoken in the same breath as claims that it could change a nation's standing.
But.
“I⋯ can't move aside.”
Yoon Mi-ja's eyes widened ever so slightly.
Han Sora was not backing down.
She could not even hide her trembling fingertips, but both feet remained planted in front of the main gate.
“Good heavens⋯.”
“Could she really be taking on Hunter Yoon Mi-ja right now⋯”
“Is she trying to fight?”
The reporters' murmuring spread again, but no one dared raise their voice.
The sight itself was simply too unreal.
But this was never a fight meant to be won.
‘Already two days.’
Two days had passed since Seo Jihoo entered the underground infirmary.
He still had not come out.
That meant one of two things.
The surgery had failed.
Or it was still underway.
And Han Sora chose to believe it was the latter.
Because Seo Jihoo had said so.
That you had no reason to die.
That your mother had no reason to die.
I would make sure nothing like that happened from now on.
So there was only one thing she had to do now.
Stand here as Baekho's representative.
And keep every single person from entering through this door until Seo Jihoo woke Han Yura.
Han Sora swallowed a trembling breath.
And the reporters.
Yoon Mi-ja.
Seo Mun-hee.
Baekho's guild members.
She shouted so everyone in the village could hear.
“No one! Not a single step! No one may enter Baekho without my permission!”
At that moment, Baekho's name, which had seemed to be on the verge of collapse, raised its head once more in front of the main gate.