Whether Kanghyun was going crazy or not, Yujun held up one finger and began his lecture.
“Kanghyun-ah. Do you know what culture our guild aims for? It’s to constantly communicate with each other, build trust through dialogue, and become people who can entrust their backs to each other even in crisis situations. But how can I, as the Guild Master, give orders to shut up and just hunt? That doesn’t make sense. Our Yunseul Guild has a free and horizontal atmosphere.”
“That communication is way too excessive!”
“Aw, that much is just cute. The kids are doing it because they like you.”
“Why on earth? What did they see in me? I’m a murder suspect?”
“Because I vouched that you’re innocent, they believed it right away.”
Ah… this is why he hated national heroes. Every single word had too much credibility.
Yujun grinned and scraped at Kanghyun’s insides.
In fact, Yujun knew. If Kanghyun really hated it, he would have ignored the team members or gone far ahead on his own. But he’d already received reports that while grumbling, he matched their pace, and while making faces like he was dying of annoyance, he still responded to them.
‘Kanghyun is softer than I thought.’
“Just enjoy it. It’s better than being bored, right?”
“Enjoy what…!”
For a moment, under excessive stress, Kanghyun buried his face in the sofa and let out a groan. His neck was stiff to the point of being pulled taut. If he could shut Yujun’s mouth, he’d have no other wish.
“You, you really… huu….”
Kanghyun pounded his chest and took deep breaths. All he’d gained from barging into someone else’s home at 2 AM was rejection and high blood pressure.
“I’m the crazy one. I’m crazy for coming to you to ask for a favor.”
“Why? I like it. Come ask for favors often from now on. You know the password, right?”
Yujun smiled with his eyes crinkling gently as he spoke sweetly. At that, Kanghyun swallowed his curses and got up. If he talked to that human any longer, he felt like he wouldn’t live out his natural lifespan.
“I’m leaving. I’m never coming back, it’s disgusting.”
“Huh? Leaving already? Why not sleep over? My bed’s king-size.”
“Shut up!”
Bang! The front door slammed shut as if it would break. Left alone, Yujun looked at the closed door and burst into laughter.
“So cute.”
The image of Kanghyun staggering while holding his neck kept flickering before his eyes, and he couldn’t stop laughing for a while.
***
A few days later. Inside the Gate again.
Two weeks had already passed since starting this task. Kanghyun was half-dead.
Shouldn’t the item appear soon? Kanghyun prayed earnestly to God.
‘Please let it appear this time. I want to rest so badly….’
But God didn’t answer, and from behind, noisy praise was still pouring out.
“Hunter-nim! You’re amazing today too!”
Kanghyun dry-washed his face. This wouldn’t do. If he kept accepting it, he’d die from stress before finding the ‘Fragment of Truth.’
He’d realized one thing while traveling with them.
For whatever reason, these team members currently had tremendous affection for him and also admired him.
Kanghyun couldn’t even guess why. He hadn’t shown them any particularly cool side….
Anyway, he had to shatter this fantasy.
If he changed their perception so they recognized that Kanghyun wasn’t a cool person, but a very uncool, cowardly, un-S-rank-like human, those guys would also be disappointed and fall away. In reality, he was exactly that kind of human. If they realized that, those guys would stop their ridiculous forced praise too.
Okay, decided.
From now on, Kanghyun was a bumbling coward.
Right on cue, from ahead came thud, thud, shaking the ground as a Twin Head Ogre, the mid-boss, appeared. A monster with two heads on one body roared while swinging a giant club.
“Uaaaah!”
Until now, he’d been too bothered and just yawned while immediately taking off its head, but today was different. Kanghyun pretended to be frightened, widened his eyes, and stepped backward.
“Hi, hiik!”
He deliberately screamed in an even artificial voice and plopped down on the floor pretending his legs gave out.
“I-I’m scared!”
People who are really scared don’t openly say they’re scared. Anyway, with his butt on the ground, he crawled backward on the dirt disgracefully. Dust flew and his clothes became dirty and messy. It felt gross, but he endured it.
How about that? Still look cool? Still feel the dignity of S-rank?
To this extent, the fantasy would have shattered so thoroughly it turned to powder. Expecting disappointed gazes to pierce him, he glanced back.
But.
“……!”
“Wow… crazy.”
The team members’ eyes were sparkling even more brightly than before.
What was with those crazy looks? An ominous premonition swept past.
“A strategy to induce the enemy’s carelessness by pretending to be scared!”
“For someone who can subdue an ogre like that in one go to deliberately use such a disgraceful strategy is to show us a demonstration…!”
“Notes! I have to take notes!”
No, if you feel it’s disgraceful, don’t try to wrap it up nicely and just be disappointed.
“He’s deliberately dirtying his clothes to take on protective coloring. Even his camouflage technique is perfect…!”
It’s not! I just fell!
While Kanghyun was screaming internally, the ogre’s club came crashing down. He’d already sensed this was ruined, but he decided to continue the act a bit more. Instead of dodging right away, he squeezed his eyes shut, covered his head, and curled up.
“Aah! I’m dead! I’m dying!”
He rolled across the floor and escaped between the ogre’s legs. It was a sight where the dignity of an S-rank Hunter couldn’t be found at all.
“While pretending to run away, he’s narrowing the attack range!”
“Hunter-nim! We’ll follow right away and hit from behind! You’re volunteering to be the bait, right? I’m moved!”
“……”
Kanghyun stopped rolling on the floor and just lay there staring blankly at the sky.
Looking at himself sprawled covered in dirt, the team members were wiping away tears of emotion. They were arbitrarily interpreting that the S-rank Hunter volunteered to be bait for their sake.
‘It doesn’t work.’
Thinking about it carefully, his strategy was wrong from the start. The problem was acting scared of such a weak monster. How could someone who’d been beating up monsters just fine for the past two weeks suddenly be scared of one ogre? There was no plausibility, way too little. He didn’t want to admit it, but rather, what those guys said—that he was acting to teach them something educational—made more sense.
“Ha….”
In the end, Kanghyun got up with an enlightened expression. In front of him, the ogre was still drooling and lurking.
Annoyed, he swung his fist in a fit of anger.
Pow—!
What he hit was one head attached to the left. However, from the recoil of the impact, even the right head burst out simultaneously.
‘Ugh, blood.’
Before the blood could splatter, he quickly stepped back at a speed invisible to the eye. It was faster than when he was fighting.
Thanks to that, his clothes and face were clean without a single drop of blood. Only his fist had gotten a bit dirtier.
“Waaaah! As expected, it was the big picture! To make them let their guard down then handle it in one blow!”
“Even the thoroughness of not getting blood on himself!”
“God Kanghyun! God Kanghyun!”
Kanghyun couldn’t hold back the surging irritation and clenched his fist. The ogre’s sticky blood on the back of his hand felt gross.
He spun around sharply and strode toward the main tank among the team members who had the loudest voice and made the biggest fuss.
“Hunter-nim?”
Without responding, he wiped his blood-covered fist on the shoulder part of the opponent’s shining armor. It was clearly venting anger and rude provocation.
‘How about that? Annoying, right? S-rank or whatever, come at me, please.’
Kanghyun watched the reaction with a crooked gaze. But far from getting angry, he was moved to tears.
“Isn’t this a technique to camouflage the smell by putting monster blood on it! Hunter-nim, thank you!”
…Forget it. Let’s stop talking. He hadn’t expected anything from the start anyway.
He grabbed his throbbing head and headed toward the boss room. From behind, he could hear the sound of team members following like puppies.
“Kiiieeeek—!”
As soon as he entered, a fierce gust of wind blew. High up on the ceiling, a wyvern was circling.
Flying-type monsters were the worst opponent for Kanghyun, whose main strength was close combat. The compatibility wasn’t good. Especially this monster was notorious for its cowardly pattern of staying in the air and shooting wind blades from a distance, or diving down to snatch people.
But Kanghyun’s eyes sparkled instead.
‘This is my chance.’
Bad compatibility? That was a perfect condition for pretending to struggle. Kanghyun flailed his fist weakly toward the air.
“Ah, I can’t reach? Damn it, it’s too high!”
It was a line read like from a textbook, but it seemed the excited team members couldn’t hear it.
“As expected, wyverns are tricky! Hunter-nim, we’ll draw aggro so please find the timing to jump!”
“No, stay still. I’ll handle it myself.”
After saying he’d handle it himself, how pathetic would it be if he couldn’t catch it? He deliberately kept missing.
Meanwhile, the wyvern began its dive. Sharp claws were aiming for Kanghyun’s head.
This was it. He planned to pretend to dodge appropriately then deliberately let it graze him. He had no intention of getting properly hurt. Kanghyun also hated pain. He was planning to get hurt just a tiny bit, then sit down crying that it hurt.
The team members were young but all had a lot of combat experience. Accordingly, they must have been injured many times during battles. If someone older than them made a big fuss saying it hurt to death from just a small graze, honestly, wouldn’t they lose some affection?
But at that moment.
“It’s dangerous!”
Someone stood blocking in front of him.
