Chapter 148

When we were almost at the night market, Sung Uijae spoke in a voice laced with laughter.

“Seo Jehyun. Do you think your secret... weighs less than the information I’m looking for?”

“No way. I think they’re about the same.”

“No, what you’re doing is illegal. At least in this country. If I report you right now, you’ll get hauled off and do time somewhere. Want to try getting dragged away in cuffs? Treated like a beast?”

What a joke. I asked evenly,

“Then do you want to report me? Try finding your information on your own. Thanks to the Hunter Association’s little tricks, I doubt there are many info brokers in this country who are favorable to you, Hunter Sung.”

“Ha... you know all sorts of things.”

“Which is excellent proof I’m useful as an informant.”

I returned his smile with one of my own, and a fine crack formed in his laugh.

Not long after that, he surprised me by answering readily.

“Alright. Fine.”

“......”

“You asked what I’m looking for? I’m looking for a woman. Or not a ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) woman—maybe not. Could be a man.”

The hell is that. The uncertainty starts way too high.

Instead of answering, I tipped my chin to prompt an explanation.

“There was a hunter I happened to owe my life to once. Name’s Park Seoncheong. She was twenty-nine at the time, so if she were alive now, she’d be thirty-three... New year, so thirty-four?”

“Thirty-four...”

“Yeah. She’s dead.”

“My condolences.”

Ignoring my words, he continued slowly.

“I’m looking for that person’s lover. I think she’s a woman, but... maybe not. Could be a man.”

“And the reason you’re looking?”

“I have something to repay.”

Hmm, that’s... a lot more trivial than I expected. If I put my mind to it, it sounded laughably easy to find. But he wasn’t done.

“For the record, the reason I couldn’t find that person is...”

“The Association blocked you?”

“Yeah. Hunter Park was part of some weird Hunter Association project at the time, so... her personal info got erased without ever leaking out. The Association pulled strings.”

“Back then the Association shouldn’t have been as strong as it is now.”

“I didn’t start looking right away. I only found out her personal info had been erased the year before last.”

Ah, that tracks for that period. It’s when the Association’s power grew—and when things started going sour between him and the Association.

But why look now for a hunter he didn’t bother to find back then—after she died and even the corpse vanished from the world?

“Why didn’t you look right away?”

“I was just out of my mind back then. Hey, you think it’s easy to wake up an S-rank overnight? And I was... confused. I even considered pretending I didn’t know a thing and just living on... but people don’t work like that. It sat wrong with me on every level.”

“So when you went back to look, the personal info was already erased?”

“Right. And around then, something Hunter Park said came back to me.”

Hunter Park’s words?

I studied his expression like I was inspecting something—he looked uneasy, uncomfortable. He turned his eyes to the window for a moment, then faced forward again.

“Her lover had a rare disease... she said she was footing the bills. No family, so she was going to marry the lover.”

“And what does that have to do with you yourself going out to find the lover, Hunter Sung?”

“......”

“Sympathy... no, guilt?”

Which of the two prodded him? And after years had passed.

“Both.”

His answer was simple.

I tapped the steering wheel with my fingertips and said,

“If it was terminal, there’s a good chance they aren’t alive now.”

“I know. Still, wouldn’t it be better to check, for my own peace of mind? I’m doing this for me.”

“Yeah, that tracks.”

“......”

The reason was so flimsy I let out a hollow laugh. He turned an odd look my way.

I slowly retraced the situation.

“Setting aside your dislike of the Association’s conduct—if personal info was erased, that means a state agency was involved. Which could mean a state-recognized covert asset. Though since you know the name, probably not that level—more likely someone who got chewed up by the Association’s bullshit.”

“......”

“And a third party named Sung Uijae rifling through personal info that vanished like that... that’s a serious problem, for either the Association or the state. All for the flimsy reason of finding a lover who might already be dead, to offer some ‘compensation.’”

I said what came to mind as I listened. My dislike of the Association aside, I found his side harder to understand. The more I heard, the more ridiculous it felt.

“Besides, hasn’t the Association or the state already paid out ‘compensation’?”

“You trust this country that much?”

There was a thin sneer in his voice as he threw it back. Or was it anger?

“When I carried that hunter’s body in... do you even know how the Association treated it?”

“I don’t.”

“Like I’d brought in trash. To a degree no human being should reach...”

His voice trailed off, then he laughed low. There was a strange emotion in that laugh I couldn’t precisely place.

“Then why not look back then? If you’d looked then, it would’ve all been easier than now. And the lover—you’d have had a much better chance they were alive.”

At my question, he turned and looked at me, silent. When the quiet had stretched long enough, he answered softly.

“I told you.”

“......”

“I thought about pretending I didn’t know.”

With that intro, he stretched his voice out, speaking low.

“You probably won’t understand this feeling... but when the extreme comes, when you see it with your own eyes, not many people can accept it whole.”

“......”

“The desire to avoid it is completely natural, I’d say. So I avoided it. And I’m the one who bears that responsibility now.”

By then we were right at the destination. I pulled into the lot and parked, then finally looked him straight in the eye. I wanted to see what expression he was wearing.

But just from his face, I couldn’t read his insides well enough.

“What changed your mind?”

“Who knows. I think the discomfort piled up and finally blew. Maybe I’ve numbed out, too.”

Smirking, he tapped the dash and went on.

“I’m an S-rank hunter. When I want, I can step into the theater of death anytime—kill living things and watch living things die. I’ve gotten... very numb to it. It’s even a rush. When I watch monsters get crushed because of me.”

“......”

“My thinking’s completely changed, and that degree of change is perfectly natural, I guess. You, on the other hand, were born that way.”

It was a funny thing to say. How would he know my “birth”?

I asked, genuinely curious,

“What was I born as?”

“Who knows.”

He seized my right wrist again and lowered his hand, tracing the pattern on my palm with his thumb. But this time, there was no mana. Just unpleasant body heat and pressure.

When our eyes locked—his a bit feral—he finally spoke.

“A monster?”

What nonsense.

I chuckled at that and twisted my hand free.

Me, a monster? I mean...

‘He’s... not entirely wrong?’

I do have a beast hitchhiking in my palm, and a Dragon Heart breathing in the guard, so maybe calling me “human” stretches it.

But that’s not what he meant. He was pointing at my “birth.”

Contrary to his misconception, though, I was a very, very decent citizen. Truly.

Besides... strictly speaking, I’m not the “monster” here.

“A monster?”

“Are you not?”

“No. I’m a very kind, ordinary citizen.”

“......”

“And if we’re nitpicking, you’re more the monster than I am, Hunter.”

At last, his face showed emotions I could read. He was looking at me with a sour expression.

‘Why?’

It was the most obvious point in the world.

I offered a simpler example.

“I mean—how would a civilian know whether a monster in a dungeon breathed fire or a flame-type hunter did? Anything breathing fire is a monster.”

“......”

Which is why “Kwon Taehan” became a national punching bag, didn’t he. The decisive difference between hunters and beasts is just one thing—how well a hunter performs “human.”

Even if they think of themselves as human... their abilities are already far, far beyond the human category. How can a regular person be expected to see that as “ordinary human”?

“List the ranks with letters and line everyone up by power—S-rank looks great, F-rank looks like dogshit... sure. I won’t even argue that I’m dogshit.”

“......”

“But if you’re talking about what’s advantageous for living among ‘humans,’ F-rank is better. Honestly, how is someone who can kill dozens in a heartbeat not a monster?”

I lifted a corner of my mouth and went on, casual.

“From that angle, you look a bit more like a monster than I do, Hunter. Whatever you think of me.”

“That thing in your hand...”

“Even considering the beast, you’re far less human than I am. Never thought that once?”

How curious. If I’d suddenly gained power like that, I’d have luxuriated in inhuman omnipotence. Maybe even felt a bit like a god.

‘This is unexpected.’

A Sung Uijae who wrestles with human questions. But the very fact he wrestles with them proves he’s not truly “human.”

I unlocked my phone and jerked my chin.

“But I’m not saying I want to be at odds with you, Hunter. I’d like us to get along.”

“You just called me a monster, and now you want to get along?”

“Of course.”

I watched him and pulled my smile a little higher.

“Because it’s scary if we’re at odds.”

“Scary? Your guts are already hanging out.”

“How do you know Korean proverbs so well? Fascinating.”

“You should be grateful I’m not killing you.”

“It’s normal for people not to kill people. Why should I be grateful?”

You’ve gotta be kidding me. I stared at him like it was absurd, and he opened his mouth like he had a lot to say.

“Just now you called me a monster...”

“I said you’re close to one. I didn’t say you’re literally a monster.”

“Are you explaining because you thought it would sound different?”

Didn’t seem like something to get offended over. I let out a short laugh and jerked my chin at his phone.

“So... cooperation. Contact me. I do read business calls.”

“Sure of that?”

“I prefer calls over texts. If I don’t pick up, my bad.”

No one can cling to their phone all day. For someone who should know better, his fixation on replies was ridiculously severe.

He narrowed his eyes and stared at me for a beat, then sighed and rubbed his forehead.

“...Get out. For now.”

“Yep.”

Come to think of it, quite a bit of time had passed. When I checked, yeah—more time than I thought.

‘Im Haekyung must’ve been waiting.’

I’d spent this much time soothing one S-rank, so I was about to piss off another. Feeling like I was reenacting “three in the morning, four at dusk,” I opened the car door.