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“May I come in?”

A familiar female voice could be heard from outside the door. A slight smile appeared on Jiho’s face as he answered. 

“Yes, you may come in.”

The person who entered was Heo Sori, a hunter in No Name. 

Heo Sori is 25 years old this year–one year older than Jiho–and a normal C-rank combat hunter.

Although C-rank hunters are relatively common in any guild, Heo Sori’s value in No Name is different from theirs. That’s because she takes on a lot of additional jobs on top of what she is assigned to in the guild.

Even though she receives a bonus for her extra work, Jiho always feels both grateful and sorry to Sori. Because she does more work than other people, she’s always that much more tired than the others as well.

Sori is an appreciated guildmember, who Jiho is planning to re-sign next time with better conditions.

Anyways, Heo Sori’s face, which usually looks slightly exhausted, was exceptionally bright today. It was full of life, which is usually only seen during lunchtime or before she gets off of work.

“Guildmaster-nim, Hunter Joo Yiwon stopped by, right?”

“Ah, yes. He just left; I guess you ran into him.”

“Yes, I just ran into him, so I greeted him!”

Heo Sori really likes Joo Yiwon–specifically his face. Though he hasn’t confirmed it or anything, Jiho’s pretty sure she’s even enrolled in Yiwon’s fanclub.

But based on how she vehemently refused to meet Yiwon when Jiho offered to arrange a private meeting between the two of them once, it seems that she truly only likes Yiwon’s face.

Even if she only likes his face, like is still like, and so Sori was as excited as a fan who just met their celebrity.

“Wow, daebak. His outfit today… was no joke. He’s always good-looking, but today, he looked like he was meeting his future in-laws. Did he come from an event?”

“He should’ve come from an event for awakened ones. Korea’s Excellent Hunter Award, I think? That one.”

Once a year, they present a prize and a bit of money to the hunter who had the highest performance that year. 

While the prize money is rather small, the award’s prestige is much higher than it sounds. The award is quite the issue amongst hunters.

The first person to receive this award was obviously Joo Yiwon, and he has continued to receive this award every single year after that.

Sori cast an ambiguous look at Jiho.

“Ah, I see. The relationship between the two of you is still very good.”

“…Where? And that guy was only here for less than five minutes before he left.”

“That is because he is busy. You should understand him. I know it’s upsetting when your boyfriend is busy, but…”

“Hey.”

Jiho jokingly warned. Heo Sori laughed.

“Hehe. Even if you try to deny it, you saw the interview, right?”

Heo Sori had a huge smile on her face. Meanwhile, Jiho’s face had sunk as if Sori had stolen his smile.

“Why do you think he did something like that….”

“They do say that there are a lot of eccentric people among geniuses.”

“That guy was a little weird even before he awakened.”

“Then he must’ve actually fallen for you. Our guildmaster’s face is, after all, stunning.”

“…It’s not to that point.”

“What do you mean it’s not? Even when the people on HS attack you for everything else, they can’t attack our guildmaster’s face.”

“….”

“I was completely shocked when I first saw you, you know? And I was even more shocked when I walked out of the guildmaster’s office. Everyone else looked like ’squids’. I was shocked the entire first month I joined whenever I saw your face, I’ve just gotten used to it a bit now that I see it every day…. Even now. Look! Wow, so good-looking!”

Sori clapped enthusiastically while Jiho looked embarrassed at the sudden compliments about his face.

She was 100% teasing him. 

After teasing Shin Jiho to her heart’s content, Heo Sori went back to acting properly. Before Jiho could even complain, Sori cunningly started talking about business.

“After Guildmaster-nim fainted, Vice-Guildmaster-nim finished cleaning up the scene and submitted the report to the HA. I haven’t seen anything pop up in the news yet. I don’t think you will have to worry too much about it.”

“Mm, thank you.”

“Will you be returning to the guild?”

“…Yes. Since it’s not time to get off of work yet.”

“I thought you would do so, so I already completed the discharge procedures. You can leave immediately.”

Because this isn’t the first time she’s had to do this, Sori took care of everything quickly. Jiho smiled a smile full of both gratitude and apology.

“Yes. You have worked hard.”

“Ay, it wasn’t that hard. By the way, what are these roses for? Did Chungram’s Guildmaster-nim give them to you?”

“Yes, Hunter Heo Sori may take these.”

“Ah, how can I take flowers that were given to Guildmaster-nim? Isn’t it okay to accept flowers as a gift?”

“That’s true, but I don’t have a place to put them and… I’m not good at taking care of flowers either.”

“Then I will place the flowers in the guild’s lobby. Since it’s spring right now, it will make the room look nice and bright.”

“That’s…”

Shin Jiho was going to tell her that that isn’t necessary, but in the end, he closed his mouth and nodded his head. Even if that guy’s annoying, Jiho isn’t the type of person to throw someone’s sincerity in the trash. Plus, the flowers are innocent.

With the decision to display the flowers in the guild’s lobby, Shin Jiho’s concern of the day was settled.

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On his way to work the next day, Shin Jiho regretted the decision of handing the flowers over to Heo Sori.  

Heo Sori had taken apart the huge bouquet of roses and displayed them all over the lobby.

But the bouquet Joo Yiwon left him was so big and full that the entire lobby was filled with a dizzyingly strong scent of roses. It was as if they moved an entire garden of roses into the lobby rather than a simple bouquet.

“The scent is too strong….”

“Isn’t it nice?”

Sori seemed proud of her work. They’re definitely pretty, but…

“Something’s fishy. Do trimmed roses usually smell this strong?”

“Well that’s true, roses don’t usually smell this strong…. Maybe the roses are from a dungeon?”

“Are there roses that grow in dungeons?”

“There could be one, couldn’t there? Chungram’s Guildmaster-nim visits so many, after all.”

“That’s true, but it’s the first time I’ve heard of something like this.”

“It could also be a plant that pops up randomly in dungeons.”

“Mm.”

Since the roses don’t have a label that says “Made in Dungeon” or something, there’d be no way for Heo Sori and Shin Jiho to know for sure even if they put their heads together.

Jiho was going to ask Yiwon where he got the roses from, but he stopped.

Joo Yiwon is raiding a dungeon today, so Jiho wouldn’t be able to reach him anyways.

The roses that are in full bloom right now are definitely beautiful. However, Jiho feels conflicted because Joo Yiwon comes to mind whenever he sees them.

Whenever Jiho thinks about Joo Yiwon as a hunter, he feels slightly upset. Even though they’re so far apart that it’s hard to be regarded as rivals anymore, Jiho still can’t forget about how they used to fight over first place with each other.

This is why he always feels impatient. Jiho’s afraid he won’t be able to catch up to Joo Yiwon anymore.

Thankfully, he doesn’t have to stay in the office all day today, so he can be far away from the concerning roses.

Though he still had to work through a pile of documents while smelling the flowers in the morning.

Jiho stared at the numbers on the documents all morning.

No Name was a guild that started from rock bottom.

No one wanted to enter No Name with merely decent conditions.

In order to recruit good hunters, Jiho had to spend a lot of his own money.

In modern society, the power of money is absolute, even after the gates appeared. Despite how they scorned Jiho, the hunters who needed quick money signed a short-term contract with No Name.

Since the short-term contract of one year is almost over, it’s almost time to start renewing contracts. But a majority of the hunters who were signed on for one year were requesting higher pay with their next contract.

Jiho had planned to increase their pay.

But that was before he saw their requests for pay two or even three times the original amount.

Are the hunters who requested that raise really worth that amount of money? No, they aren’t. Jiho is already paying them the highest salary for their rank. They’d be offered way less at another guild.

They’re not demanding these conditions because they don’t know that fact.

To make it short, they’re testing their luck with Jiho. Because they know that Jiho has no other choice but to hold onto them.

It really wouldn’t be easy to reject all of the current guildmembers and recruit entirely new ones.

To hunters, No Name is a target for mockery. Even though the guild has kept trying to recruit new members this past year, there were very few that actually applied.

Even if their conditions are ridiculous, it’d be better to hold onto these guildmembers.

It’s likely that they’ll reach a compromise during negotiations. But the reason Jiho is hesitating is not just because of their lofty conditions. 

Most of the hunters who made such extreme requests are hunters who hate Shin Jiho. Though he’s the guildmaster, they often look down on him, avoid him, and curse him behind his back. Since Jiho doesn’t have any particular response to any of this, they don’t even bother to hide it.

Instead, it’s the guildmembers like Heo Sori who are friendly to Shin Jiho who made reasonable requests. 

If Jiho continues to bear these spiteful people in the guild, the atmosphere within the guild will only worsen.

Had this been another person’s issue, he would’ve told them not to sign those hunters. But because it’s his, Jiho’s hesitant.

Jiho can’t stop himself from thinking, Do I really have to go this far?

The reputation of the guild that he had painstakingly nurtured is in rags. How much more will he have to endure just to maintain this as it is now?

Although he’s trying to stay hopeful, doubt keeps simmering up.

In the end, Jiho wasted his morning without being able to come to a clear decision.

Because of his depressed state, at lunch, Jiho only ate enough to fill his stomach. When Jiho started to get ready to go out for work after eating, Lim Seung Joo noticed him.

“Are you going out again today?”

It was a useless question. Shin Jiho goes out nearly every day without fail.

“Yes, of course.”

“Then I will prepare a healer.”

Although Lim Seung Joo’s words sound polite from a distance, Shin Jiho raised his eyebrows in slight displeasure.

The danger of a hunter’s work is high. That is why preparing a healer is normal protocol.

Lim Seung Joo purposefully pointing out Shin Jiho’s need for a healer was to emphasize that he was weak. 

Had Lim Seung Joo also signed a one-year contract, he probably would have left without turning back; however, he signed a three-year contract. 

Even though he’s a very valuable A-rank hunter that Jiho will continue seeing for the next two years, Jiho isn’t quite sure if that’s good or bad.

A lot of hunters in the guild follow Lim Seung Joo.

Since Lim Seung Joo doesn’t bother to hide his displeasure of Shin Jiho, even as the vice-guildmaster, the guildmembers don’t hide theirs either.

Though them following Lim Seung Joo is good for raids, it’s terrible for the guild itself.

’If he doesn’t like me, he should just leave.’

Jiho was annoyed.

Of course, because Lim Seung Joo is a well-known A-rank combat hunter that he managed to recruit thanks to Chungram, if Seung Joo really tried to leave, Jiho would’ve held onto his pants leg until it was stretched out.

Despite being the contractor, Jiho has to keep quiet like he’s the dependent.

For the sake of calming his body and soul, Jiho pulled out his terminal. He started playing cute cat videos on MeTube. The only videos that Jiho, who rarely uses the internet, watches are animal videos.

The pure and gentle kittens–the exact opposite of Lim Seung Joo–were rolling around on the ground clumsily. They whined, before falling asleep when they ran out of energy. Jiho’s heart found peace at the lovely appearance of these kittens.

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LaZ Bird Corner

Jiho with his cat videos is a mood.

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