novelraw Chapter 158 : Jae-hee, a Free Boy (1)
Chapter 158 : Jae-hee, a Free Boy (1)
One week later.
Yeongdeungpo, Seoul.
Here stood a building tall enough to survey all of Seoul.
Hero Tower, the headquarters and residence of the New Five Heroes.
The top floor was residential.
The clatter of cooking echoed from the kitchen, even at this early hour.
The residential floor of Hero Tower featured a central communal living room and kitchen, with individual rooms for each hero branching off from it.
The gentle, rhythmic sounds of knife on cutting board continued for some time.
At eight AM sharp—the very second the hand hit twelve—Rain Man emerged from his room. Even in his own quarters, he kept his face obscured by the hood of his sweatshirt.
He padded in his slippers toward the sounds in the communal kitchen.
Bubble, bubble…
Jae-hee, who was in the middle of tasting the soybean paste stew, brightened at the sight of him.
“Ah, good morning, Rain Man bro!”
Rain Man quietly surveyed the breakfast Jae-hee was diligently preparing: soybean paste stew, rolled omelets, a few simple side dishes, and mixed-grain rice.
“Hard at work this morning,” he remarked.
“Hehe, gotta earn my keep!”
A week had already passed since Jae-hee had begun living here as a guest.
He felt too self-conscious to just freeload, so he’d been finding any chore he could to make himself useful. Preparing breakfast was one of them.
Rain Man hesitated, about to tell him he didn’t have to go to such trouble, when…
Click.
Another door creaked open, and a young woman with a bob cut, dressed in pink pajamas, shuffled out. She let out a long yawn and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand.
“What’s that? Smells good.”
“Good morning, Medic sis!”
It was the Saint of Pandemonium, the healer of the New Five Heroes—callsign: Death-Medic.
They’d gotten to know each other after she’d treated both him and Ghost for their injuries during the Gangnam Station Gate incident.
Normally, she wore heavy makeup and kept her fingers long and sparkling with nail tips and stickers, but having just woken up, she looked perfectly ordinary.
“Ooh, what’s this, Boy? Made breakfast again?”
“Yep! Soybean paste stew and rolled omelets today!”
“Yahoo! See? This kid’s got a good head on his shoulders. Our dear senior Ghost trained him well.”
Jae-hee quickly dished out rice for the two of them and set the table. Humming a little tune, Death-Medic casually took her seat.
After a moment’s hesitation, Rain Man sat down as well.
“How much rice would you like?” Jae-hee asked.
“Just a little.”
“Just a little for me, too. I’m a total scrub when it comes to dieting, and I’ve gained some weight lately. Gotta cut back on the carbs.”
While the two of them picked at their breakfast, Jae-hee scooped a mountain of rice into a large bowl for himself and started shoveling it down.
Truth be told, part of the reason he cooked was so he could eat as much as he wanted.
Still not full after finishing, Jae-hee got another scoop of rice and began mixing it thoroughly with the side dishes and stew. Death-Medic, barely touching her food, was focused on her phone.
Rain Man picked up the remote and turned on the TV. The morning news was on.
«…It’s already been a week since the Cheongnyangni Gate incident. The subsequent unrest across the country has also largely been brought under control…»
Stuffing his face until his cheeks looked ready to burst, Jae-hee glanced at the screen.
The official story was that Iron Knight and his guild, The Knights, had occupied the Gate in protest of the Awakened Protection Act, triggering a rampage that was successfully subdued by the New Five Heroes.
Sporadic protests had broken out across the country afterward, but that was the extent of it.
The Knights were led by Iron Knight—the undisputed oldest and most respected guild master in Korea and the leader of the Old Five Heroes. With their defeat, no other Hunter Guild had the momentum to follow suit.
The simmering rebellion that had threatened to boil over among the Hunters had ultimately subsided, and the Awakened Protection Act was proceeding smoothly toward implementation.
«President San Kim is scheduled to address the nation tonight…»
Death-Medic put down her phone, stretched her arms wide, and looked at Jae-hee with a grin. “So, Boy. I heard you awakened your ‘Domain Break.’”
“Oh! Yeah, I did. How’d you know?”
“When you suddenly started living here, I got curious and kept pestering the boss about it.”
Death-Medic covered her mouth and giggled, gesturing with her eyes toward Rain Man. He had finished his meal and was now drinking a glass of water.
“I only answered because she asked just as I was about to bring it up myself,” Rain Man said, then nodded at Jae-hee. “Boy. Now that you seem to have adjusted to life after your release, I’d like to make you an offer.”
“Huh?”
“Will you join the New Five Heroes?”
The proposal was so sudden and so monumental that Jae-hee choked on his food. As he coughed, Death-Medic cackled and handed him a cup of water.
While Jae-hee drank to compose himself, Rain Man nodded again.
“In fact, that’s why I brought you here in the first place. Will you join the Five Heroes?”
“Ehh? You’re a scrub at math~ Then we wouldn’t be the Five Heroes anymore.”
“The number doesn’t matter. If we become the Six Heroes, so be it.”
Rain Man smoothly deflected Death-Medic’s comment and continued speaking to Jae-hee.
“With the implementation of the Awakened Protection Act, all Hunter Guilds are slated for provisional dissolution. From now on… we will be this nation’s only organization of Awakened, its sole protectors.”
“…”
“The work will be demanding, and we’ll always be busy. Having a capable new member would make things easier.”
Death-Medic chimed in. “You’ve awakened a Domain Break, so you’re a guaranteed S-Rank. And since you were our dear senior Ghost’s disciple, your skills are a given… Hmmm, you’re still a scrub, but you’ve got a lot of potential.”
“Your ability itself has plenty of room for refinement, but that’s something we can help you with.”
He looked at the still-bewildered Jae-hee.
“If you agree, I intend to push for your recruitment. However…” Rain Man hesitated for a moment before nodding gravely. “We’ll need to hear the opinions of the other Five Heroes.”
“The other members?”
Death-Medic shrugged. “It’s a democracy, you know? We run on majority rule.”
The New Five Heroes was a guild consortium—an alliance of five S-Rankers, each a one-person guild, a one-person private military company.
While they generally followed Rain Man’s lead, major decisions regarding the organization’s operations were decided by a majority vote.
“The other members of the New Five Heroes, who were dispatched across the country, are all returning today.” Rain Man laced his fingers together. “So tonight, we will be holding a meeting of the New Five Heroes—a Heroes’ Meeting.”
“…”
“If you accept my proposal, we will discuss the matter there.”
Jae-hee swallowed hard.
“What will you do, Boy?” Rain Man asked once more. “Are you willing to become a ‘hero’?”
***
That afternoon.
The middle floors of Hero Tower. The main conference room.
“Oh!”
Jae-hee was loitering around the conference room for the Heroes’ Meeting, helping himself to the complimentary snacks, when he spotted a familiar face and lit up.
“Sergeant Hwa!”
“Ah!”
The person who turned at his call was none other than Mu-gung.
“Good to see you again, Sir Hunter.”
“Hehe. Have you been well, Sergeant?”
“Ah… I’m not a sergeant anymore.” Mu-gung scratched the back of her head, looking sheepish. “I left the military and am now working as Hunter Chosen One’s assistant… or rather, his ‘sidekick.’”
“Whoa! Congratulations! I mean, this is something to congratulate you for, right?”
“Haha. Of course. Thank you.”
“So does that mean you’re a Hunter now, too…?”
“Yes. I suppose so.” Mu-gung smiled wryly and lowered her gaze. “My Hunter name… Please call me… Chosen Two.”
The sheer tackiness of the name made Jae-hee blurt out his thoughts before he could stop himself.
“That name makes you sound like a total lackey… I mean, uhh…!”
“It’s all right. It’s the truth…” Mu-gung said with a hollow laugh. “Well, it’s better than ‘Joseon Two,’ isn’t it…?”
“Oh, right. Mr. Chosen One does insist on calling himself Joseon One.”
As if on cue, someone from across the hall shouted for Mu-gung. “Hey, Joseon Two! Where are you?”
“…”
Mu-gung looked utterly miserable, but the man who’d approached didn’t seem to notice.
“I have told you time and again. No matter how busy you are after a mission, you must begin the debriefing… Oh, it’s the lad from before.”
The man was Chosen One, the third S-Ranker of the New Five Heroes—or Joseon One, as he called himself. Dressed in his usual traditional armor and faceplate, he remembered Jae-hee from the monster plane hijacking incident.
“I heard the stories. They say you played a major role in resolving this crisis.”
“Huh? Heh, well, no… It was just a coincidence…”
“Well done. You saved this land of Joseon! Truly commendable!”
As he accepted the man’s offered handshake, Jae-hee thought to himself, This guy’s vocabulary is so weird…
“So, I heard the agenda for this Heroes’ Meeting… You’re joining the New Five Heroes?”
“Ah, yes. I received an offer.”
Listening beside them, Mu-gung clapped her hands in surprise. “Congratulations!”
“No, it’s not official yet…”
“But if you’re joining the New Five Heroes, does that mean you’ve reached S-Rank?”
“Yes. I think… I did, this time. Probably.”
“That’s incredible! I knew from the moment I first saw you that you had extraordinary potential…!”
Chosen One chided the effusive Mu-gung. “Now, now, assistant. Don’t just congratulate others. You must focus on your own training. You, too, must strive to join our team.”
“Oh, come on. How could I ever join the Heroes’ Meeting? I’ll just work hard and try to be a useful assistant.”
“This one has talent, but such a lack of ambition… Tsk, tsk.”
Chosen One clicked his tongue and turned back to Jae-hee.
“That day, we ended up just waiting on the outside, unable to assist in either subduing Iron Knight or defeating the Demon Lord. It seems they were worried we might get hurt or killed, and as a result, the triumphant debut the higher-ups had planned for us fell completely flat.”
Chosen One nodded at Jae-hee. “But you distinguished yourself in the process.”
“Uh… yeah.”
“Therefore, if we accept you into our team, the team gets to swallow up all the credit you earned.”
“…!”
“It’s a strategic move that allows us to both recruit a new S-Rank Awakened and retroactively claim credit for resolving the incident.”
Though he couldn’t grasp the full meaning, Jae-hee could sense the various calculations underlying the offer to join the New Five Heroes. He also realized this had to be connected to why Hae-eun Seo had released him from prison.
Chosen One was about to say more but stopped when he saw others entering the conference room.
“Hm, the other heroes have arrived.”
Jae-hee looked over as well. Through the open door, the remaining members of the New Five Heroes—the ones Jae-hee had yet to meet—were filing into the room.