Day and Night (17)
“A guild is, well, a gathering of people with specific occupations… No, I mean, I’m not trying to teach Jaehee-ssi, but I’m curious why you had such thoughts. Of, of course it’s a very excellent idea…”
Section Chief Lim Yongtae glanced elsewhere as he spoke. He had just been about to ask Jaehee if he didn’t know what a guild meant, but when Jeongwoo stared at him with such fierce eyes, he quickly changed his words.
If he said anything to Jaehee, it seemed like those eyes alone could shoot him dead. Woo Jeongwoo and Shin Jaehee – these two were unmeasurable grades that he had personally designated, and he almost earned their hatred over a single misplaced word.
The Management Bureau divided Awakened Ones into arbitrary grades for work convenience. It was a measure to efficiently send Awakened Ones according to their abilities when dungeons occurred. The grades were determined by referencing questionnaires filled out by the Awakened Ones themselves and their performance records, but these two people, Woo Jeongwoo and Shin Jaehee, were classified as unmeasurable grade.
When he first classified these two as unmeasurable grade, there was significant internal opposition. The concern was that he was overestimating young people who had only recently awakened. So they temporarily postponed the grade classification, and that’s when the training dungeon incident occurred.
Up until then, there were mixed opinions about the two’s abilities. Many thought their safe return from the A-rank dungeon was the result of coincidence and successful cooperation combined. However, the Daejeon Station dungeon incident proved that Lim Yongtae’s evaluation of the two was correct.
Besides Woo Jeongwoo and Shin Jaehee, the only other person Lim Yongtae had personally designated as unmeasurable grade was Lee Shinhoo.
“I happened to learn about it before, and those ordinary people seemed to be having trouble because they couldn’t choose a king. So I thought if I created a guild, I might be able to help such people.”
“Um, but Jaehee-ssi. You are, well, a Whisperer, aren’t you? Ah, perhaps you know a king nearby…? But then wouldn’t it be easier to operate the guild if that person came forward instead?”
Lim Yongtae’s eyes gleamed as he watched Jaehee’s reaction.
This couldn’t be helped even if Jeongwoo glared daggers at him. Identifying kings was a very important task for the Management Bureau too. However, since others couldn’t know unless they revealed themselves, locating kings was proving difficult.
Currently, Lim Yongtae knew of eleven kings in total, but since Kim Shin, the leader of the Doomsday Cult, had died, there were now ten. However, only four of them had revealed their identities to ordinary people.
“Well…”
Jaehee smiled bashfully as if somewhat embarrassed. When he glanced at Jeongwoo, Jeongwoo nodded. They had already decided to do this inside the dungeon, but now that he had to tell someone else, he felt newly nervous.
“It’s because I’m a king. I’m sorry for keeping it secret until now.”
“What? Ah… yes… yes? Wh-what, a king?”
“Yes.”
When Lim Yongtae, who had been nodding, asked again, Jaehee nodded. Lim Yongtae looked back and forth between Jaehee and Jeongwoo with a dumbfounded, comical expression.
“Even when I wanted to seek advice about things like establishing a guild, Section Chief Lim was the only person I could think of. Please take good care of us from now on. We’ve never done anything like this before, so we don’t know anything.”
“That’s right. There are many documents to submit for this kind of work, so people who haven’t done it before find it difficult. Then I’ll look into guild matters again and contact you. But… when you say king, what’s your classification…?”
“Ah… um, I’m a Royal Road.”
“Aha. I see. If you had told us from the beginning, we could have provided better support.”
Lim Yongtae subtly pointed out that Jaehee had lied. All this time, Lim Yongtae had guessed that Jaehee was a Fighter. Looking at the dungeon conquest reports, his weapon usage was quite skilled for his age and experience, and his combat ability itself looked good. So he naturally thought he would be a Fighter… but a king. The young man had properly blindsided him.
“Then Section Chief, please take care of us.”
Jaehee shamelessly greeted him as if he hadn’t heard Lim Yongtae’s last comment.
“Understood. I’ll look into it for now.”
“Section Chief Lim. I’ll contact you separately later. Let’s go now, Jaehee. Mother and father will be waiting.”
Jeongwoo offered his greetings and stood up from his seat. Jaehee glanced at Section Chief Lim, but the section chief, who looked somewhat out of it, didn’t even think to stop the two.
Jaehee and Jeongwoo declined the Management Bureau’s offer to give them a ride. When they came out of the dungeon, they found that the subway station where the dungeon had formed wasn’t very far from home. Since it was walking distance, the two decided to walk home for some exercise.
“Should we sit for a moment?”
Jaehee plopped down on a park bench on the way home.
This dungeon had felt particularly mentally exhausting and tiring. Thinking he might lose Jeongwoo, he couldn’t relax his tension the entire time.
A cool breeze brushed across his face. Since dungeons appeared, there were hardly any people out late at night, so the surroundings were quiet without a trace of human presence. Looking at it this way, it was hard to believe there were strange invaders on Earth.
“Wow. The wind is so cool.”
Come to think of it, he couldn’t remember when was the last time he sat relaxed like this. He had resolved to do nothing and laze around after the college entrance exam ended, but somehow it had come to this.
“Kyaeng kyaeng!”
“Ah…! I forgot because you were so well-behaved. You must have felt stuffy too, right? Want to come out?”
Just then, when Jaehee unzipped his jacket, a fox popped out from inside. Having been cramped, the fox shook its body and stretched its front legs in a big stretch. Seeing it like this, it was hard to believe it was a divine beast.
When Jaehee and Jeongwoo were about to leave the dungeon, the fox had jumped into Jaehee’s clothes and curled up small without anyone telling it to hide. For a fox, it was so small that when it curled up deliberately, it was small enough to be mistaken for a kitten or puppy.
“Tsk. Why did that fox brat follow us?”
Jeongwoo grumbled, but the fox didn’t care and wagged its tail, then wandered back and forth between Jaehee’s legs. Since the sun had already set and the surroundings were dark with no signs of people, Jaehee decided to just let it be. It wasn’t a dog but a divine beast, so it didn’t seem like anything would happen.
“Jaehee, if you’re going to keep that thing by your side, at least get an oath from it.”
“An oath?”
“An oath to serve you as king. I let it be earlier to see what it would do, but looking at its behavior, it doesn’t seem like it will just leave on its own. If that fox becomes your subject, it won’t be able to return to its own kind. Fox, it’s not too late even now, so speak up if you don’t want this. I’ll send you back where you came from.”
The fox straightened its body and looked at Jeongwoo. At its glaring appearance, Jeongwoo was amazed and let out a hollow laugh.
What a brazen little thing. Who could say it wasn’t that fox’s child?
Jeongwoo crossed his arms and glared at the fox. He had absolutely no intention of letting that fox stay with Jaehee before making a vow. Foxes were creatures with strong attachment to their pack. Since he had killed Seohuryorang, the leader of such foxes, this little one might be staying while dreaming of revenge for its mother.
“Kyaeng!”
When the fox turned its head to the side with a “kyaeng” cry, a system notification window appeared.
[Great Sovereign. Mirang of the fox clan has chosen you as king. Will you accept Mirang as your subject?]
“Huh…? Mirang applied to become a subject…?”
“Keok!”
Mirang puffed up its tail as if to say “see?” and sat neatly at Jaehee’s feet. Jaehee hesitated but eventually accepted Mirang. Mirang triumphantly fluffed up its fur and began wandering around the area.
“Uh… fox. Where are you trying to go?”
“It’s fine. Leave it be. Even like that, it’s a divine beast so it’ll be okay. Besides, it became your subject, right? Then if something happens to that thing, you’ll get an alert. It’s young and this is its first time in the human world, so it must be curious about this and that.”
Jeongwoo said indifferently while glancing at Mirang. Jaehee was still worried and kept glancing at Mirang, but Jeongwoo put his arm around Jaehee’s shoulder.
“Huh?”
“Hey, Jaehee. I have something to ask.”
“Huh…? Uh… Okay. Ask away.”
Jeongwoo’s face was too close. Jaehee couldn’t run away, nor could he lean into Jeongwoo, so he nodded in an awkward position. Jeongwoo grabbed Jaehee’s nape and whispered low in his ear.
“Why didn’t you give me a kiss in the dungeon?”
“What?”
For a moment Jaehee wondered what he had heard and was about to ask back when cold sweat ran down his spine.
Due to their height difference, when Jeongwoo put his arm around his shoulder, Jaehee was almost inside Jeongwoo’s embrace.
“To wake up a princess, the prince has to give a kiss. I couldn’t wake up because you didn’t give me a kiss.”
“Hey! You…! You, don’t tell me, at that time…!”
“You should have said ‘I love you’ and given me a kiss. Then I would have woken up much earlier.”
“You…! You, don’t tell me you were conscious at that time?”
“Mm. Well… I could roughly hear sounds. I just couldn’t move my body.”
Not only did his face turn red like a burning sweet potato, but his mouth went completely dry. Jaehee tried to remember what he had said while holding the unconscious Jeongwoo, but his mind went blank and he couldn’t recall properly.
“No, that, that was, Yeong-i said… That’s right! That was what Yeong-i said. I couldn’t tell whether it was Yeong-i’s words or something the Constellation said! I, I didn’t do it on purpose!”
Jeongwoo’s lips curved in a long arc.
“It’s okay. I can do it instead.”
“What?”
Smooch
Jeongwoo’s lips lightly touched and left Jaehee’s cheek.
“Hey… this…”
He couldn’t even figure out what to say. While Jaehee was rambling incoherently, Jeongwoo kissed him once more. This time it was on the lips.
