Chapter 33: Absolute Proposition (14)

Bang! Lude slammed his fist on the cafe table to snap them out of it.

At his voice, the two who had been arguing clamped their mouths shut. Lude ground his teeth.

“Both of you be quiet, or else….”

“Yup!”

“Yes!”

Snapping to attention at Lude’s words, both of them jumped to their feet. Pushing his chair back into place at a neat angle, Min Jaeyoon spoke to Lude.

“Anyway, noona! I’ll get going now! I’ll tell the police everything honestly, so don’t worry about the statement! And I’m sorry about my grandpa. My hyung over here is surprisingly uninterested in other people.”

“You’re one to talk…!”

“What, you two are going to fight now?”

“Not at all.”

Just before round two of the brothers’ quarrel could start, Lude shot them a glare. Kang Ihyun glanced at Min Jaeyoon with a look like a big brother watching his bratty little sibling stick out his tongue behind their mom’s back, then looked away.

“I’ll talk to my grandfather. And think about my offer. I graduate in a few months. See you later. Bye~!!”

Blowing them a final, exaggerated hand kiss, Min Jaeyoon moved away from the two. Lude let out a long breath now that he was finally gone.

“I guess you really did grow up like brothers. Listening to you bicker childishly like kids.”

“Childish?! No!? You saw him scratching at my temper on purpose! Also, me, not interested in other people?! I even have a maxed out social life passive!”

Kang Ihyun was worked up in a way Lude had never seen. Lude snorted, stacked the glasses, and stood.

“He wasn’t entirely wrong, was he? You didn’t notice Min Jaewon was feeding me nonsense. Jaeyoon figured it out the moment he heard it.”

“Even so, it is a bit much to say my words are useless.”

“To be fair, would that old man really listen to your words?”

Muttering, Ihyun tossed his straw into the trash and whirled around beside Lude. Seeing the hurt look on his face, Lude hurried to add an explanation.

“From what Jaeyoon said, your uncle’s trauma is severe. Is that something you can fix by approaching it with social skills? I faint when I see a camera as it is.”

At a loss for a rebuttal, Ihyun only pouted and followed Lude out of the cafe.

“Then nobody can get through to him. Even if Jaeyoon talks, nothing will change.”

Hearing Ihyun grumble, not even bothering to hide that he was sulking, Lude chuckled.

He had that maxed out social passive, he took good care of Nari’s feelings, and in so many ways he was far more adept than Nari. In the end, though, he was about Nari’s age.

Thinking that he had a pretty cute side, Lude climbed into the car Ihyun had parked. They had ridden here in his car early that morning to meet Min Jaeyoon.

“...People who haven’t lived it, don’t know. One moment can change your whole outlook on life.”

“I know that feeling too. I met Nari, and also…”

“For you, it’s positive. For Min Jaewon and Min Jaeyoon, it isn’t. I’m sure both of them have related status abnormalities. In that case, he’ll communicate better with Jaeyoon than with you.”

At Lude’s words, Ihyun only fastened his seat belt in silence and buckled in. He started the engine and waited for the navigation to boot up, hands on the wheel. Lude spoke in a cold voice.

“But I’m not forgiving your uncle. I’m giving that man one more chance only because of you. If he kicks it away, there won’t be another.”

“…I know. I’ll try to get him under control.”

“Really, even thinking about it again is absurd. Is this something you should have to help me with? It’s not like Min Jaewon is my father-in-law. This feels like a demo of Marriage Despair.”

“…”

Lude let out a long, wordless sigh and looked out the window. The navigation finally came on, but even after the engine had been running for a while, the car did not move. Lude snapped his head around.

“What are you doing? Not going?”

“G-G-Going now!! I… I’ll do better! Yes! I’ll do better!”

Ihyun gave an awkward smile and clenched the wheel. Seeing his face, Nari instantly knit her brows.

“If you aren’t feeling well, don’t drive.”

“No, it’s fine! I’ll do good. Really!”

“I need to get a license soon. This is making me nervous.”

Nari grumbled, not realizing that even with a license she would be a novice for a while.

“Oh, and don’t worry about Min Jaeyoon. He doesn’t know anything about me. He just likes women stronger than him, and he prefers older women, so he says he likes me.”

“It is also true that every girlfriend he has dated so far has been an ace from the fighting club.”

Lude’s eyes went round as he shot Ihyun a look that said, ‘So that preference was real?!’ He calmed himself at once right after.

“But among S-class Hunters, all the women are older than him. He says he is joining White Night. Even that guildmaster is older than him.”

“Uh, well. The White Night guildmaster is the same age as our guildmaster though.”

“…What I’m saying is that once he becomes a Hunter, he’ll see far more people.”

Lude pushed that potential disaster to one side and turned his gaze to the window.

“Anyway, unless he somehow becomes rank three in the country, nothing troublesome will happen!”

“Haha, true! Getting to rank three is no small feat after all.”

“Exactly. There’s no way a high schooler with no training jumps to rank three.”

They did not know what tomorrow held. Laughing peacefully, they drove off to enjoy their sick leave and then head to their own homes.

The next day, Min Jaeyoon settled into rank three as the sixth S-class Hunter in the Republic of Korea.

* * *

And after that sweet sick leave ended.

‘Lude, I’m rank three now! That means you’re the only one stronger than me! Kyaa!’

He handed the overexcited Min Jaeyoon to the guildmaster, who looked completely dumbfounded, then rested at home all day. When he returned to the Sanctuary, there was a mountain of work waiting.

“Only the Erosion Type cases are like this, right? Please tell me that's true.”

“…”

“Why aren’t you saying anything...”

“Well, even if it isn’t an Erosion Type, if a high grade gate blows… there’s no helping it…”

At Ihyun’s drained answer, Lude clawed at his scalp with a gritty groan.

Too lazy even to walk down the hall, Ihyun had installed a printer right in the office. It churned out A4 sheets without stopping.

This was the result of their everyday duties piling up with piles of supporting documents to prepare. At least the Sanctuary paid their bonuses on time. Otherwise he would have quit long ago.

With a little slurp, Ihyun drained even the last sip of coffee from beneath the ice and gave his tumbler a little shake.

“I’ll go buy coffee.”

“Get me one too.”

“You can’t have coffee, Lude. You said the doctor told you not to drink it.”

“I can’t help it. I can’t live without coffee. If I can’t drink it, I at least need to pretend.”

“Then I’ll get you decaf.”

Taking Lude’s tumbler as well, Ihyun left the office. Lude ducked behind a partition so he could not see his face and pouted.

[Our Nari is totally whipped, says the Lord of Chaos with a giggle.]

You could fool a doctor, but not Kang Ihyun, who watched him every day. Deciding to take a moment’s break, Lude leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling.

Public interest in the school gate had been enormous for two days.

Since the incident took place at an educational institution, it drew universal attention, which sped up the investigation.

It was announced that someone had deliberately stolen the school’s magic stones and sold them on the black market, and that the building was so old its safety grade was low. On top of that, even the installed devices had not functioned, so several factors combined to cause the incident.

On top of that came the birth of the sixth S-class Hunter in Korea. The internet was in an uproar. On the Lord of Chaos’s advice, he had actually turned his phone off for a while.

[Regulations will get tighter from now on, says the Lord of Chaos with a nod.]

“They should. There are not a hundred or a thousand Kang Ihyuns and Ludes to go around.”

Lude scowled and focused on the paperwork again. At the sound of a knock, he spoke without thinking.

“Come in. I’m here.”

Creak. The door opened. Eyes still on the monitor inside the partition, Lude said,

“That was fast. Leave it on the desk. I’ll buy it next time.”

“Hunter Lude.”

At the dignified voice of a middle-aged man, Lude’s eyes went wide. He leaned out around the partition.

Hair slicked back, glasses on his face, Hunter Min Jaewon stood there with an abashed expression.

“I have something to say. I came to ask if you have a moment.”

“Ah, yes, sure. I have time now. What is it?”

Perplexed, Lude rose from his seat. Facing him in the office, Min Jaewon hesitated for a moment, then bowed his head. A perfect ninety degrees, the so-called folder bow.

“I am sorry. I was truly in the wrong.”

Lude blinked at the heartfelt tone from Hunter Min Jaewon.

After the gate raid, he had assumed that if they met, Min Jaewon would keep it distant and let things slide. It had never crossed his mind that Min Jaewon would come find him to apologize.

He continued.

“I shouldn’t have done it, but whenever I saw you, someone with an evil alignment, the blood rushed to my head with old memories. I couldn’t control myself. Even at my age, I couldn’t restrain it. I behaved shamefully.”

“N-N, please, stand up first.”

It was the first time someone much older than him had bowed to him like that. Lude flustered.

He could handle malice directed at him. He was clumsy when dealing with people who approached with any other intent.

He had never once received a sincere apology like this. He had no idea how to respond.

‘…So he was not a man you could never reason with.’

Come to think of it, raised by Min Jaewon’s hand, neither Kang Ihyun nor Min Jaeyoon seemed fundamentally bad. With that fresh in mind, Lude looked at him as he spoke on and on in front of him.

“No. You had nothing to gain, yet you saved two of my grandsons. I foolishly denigrated and vilified you.”

If he said “grandsons,” that must include Kang Ihyun, Lude thought.

He had somehow ended up saving two members of Min Jaewon’s family. Feeling awkward, he rubbed the hair by his temple. Min Jaewon lifted his head and met his eyes squarely.

“I should have known sooner that you were the one who said those words to young master Ihyun. The young master did not tell me, so I did not know. My perspective was too narrow…”

“Ah, about that.”

Lude cut off the apology that was very clearly going to go on and on and rubbed the back of his head. It was that thing again, the words Ihyun said he had told him. This was the third time he had heard someone reference them with that tone, so it was starting to bug him.

“I honestly don’t remember what I said. What did I say to him?”

“He did not tell you?”

“He told me to remember it on my own, but nothing comes to mind. I doubt it will. People keep reacting to me like this, so it is getting on my nerves.”

Resting his chin, silent for a moment, Min Jaewon pushed his glasses up.

His eyes went half lidded behind the lenses. He looked like he was weighing whether he had the right to talk about Ihyun’s past. Lude quickly added,

“Ihyun already told me everything about his parents and his past, so don’t worry.”

“Ah! Then this is just between us. The young master must not know that I’m the one who told you.”

Nod, nod. Lude widened his eyes and dipped his head a couple of times. Seeing that, Min Jaewon chuckled and pushed his glasses up again.

“One day the young master came home and said he had met a benefactor. He used to be a man of few words with no confidence in himself, very downcast, but that day he looked unusually bright.”

“Him, really?”

“Yes. He was not treated very kindly by the main family. In hindsight, it was also my fault for forcing a role on him in how I educated him. Anyway, I asked what he meant. He said he had got an answer to why he should live from his benefactor.”

Hearing this, Lude glanced aside. An answer to why you should live, school. Something tugged at his memory. Min Jaewon went on.

“He said, he does not know either.”

“Ah…”

At those words, Lude’s eyes flew open. A flash went off in his mind.

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