“What else.”

I’d granted one request, so there were two left. I took off Lee Jaehee’s pairing ring and put it in my inventory. As I asked, the man who had been staring at my hand, now left with only one silver ring, stood up. Curious about what he was going to do, I watched him quietly as he crouched down and began searching for something on the floor.

“Ah.”

With a small gasp, Geon-joo found the pairing ring that had fallen on the floor and slipped it back onto his finger.

<‘Palshillo’s Pairing Ring of Fate’ has been reconnected!>

A system notification popped up.

This is absolutely ridiculous.

I scoffed and dismissed the status window that appeared before me.

He was already running the whole show himself, and now he was adding his own sound effects. It was a complete one-man circus.

If you were going to do that, why did you throw it in the first place?

The memory of him throwing the ring flashed in my mind, and a vein throbbed on my forehead. Just then, Geon-joo spoke up. His survival instincts were astonishingly sharp.

“I have a question.”

“Speak.”

“…Have you never taken the pairing ring off?”

“Never.”

“Why?”

Why didn’t I take it off? Well…

“Because there was no reason to.”

I answered monotonously, my voice devoid of any emotion. Geon-joo narrowed his eyes, as if there was a specific answer he wanted to hear.

“I thought you, of all people, would have taken it off immediately out of sheer indignation.”

“I was indignant, but why would I take it off? I had to find you and beat the hell out of you first.”

“…”

The room fell silent in an instant. I stared at Geon-joo with a defiant look, as if to ask what the problem was. He must have been prepared for at least that much when he ran away.

“…You did beat me up.”

“It’s a bit much to call that a beating. The Night Rat guys would cry if they heard you say that.”

A few slaps and a broken wrist wouldn’t even qualify him to claim he’d been hit by me. When I decided to beat someone, I beat them with the intent to kill, to the point where they’d need to chug two full potions just to survive.

Compared to that, a few slaps were pretty tame, weren’t they?

I glanced at the cheek I had struck. Geon-joo tapped his cheek with the back of his hand, sighed, and shook his head.

“This isn’t it…”

“What isn’t?”

“…You don’t need to know.”

His retort was strangely sullen. I wondered what I’d done now to deserve that attitude, but remembering from past experience that whatever I guessed would be wrong, I gave up thinking about it. It seemed better to quickly change the subject.

“So, what are the other two?”

“Two?”

“I told you three things I want from you, so you should ask for three things too.”

“What you told me sounded less like wants and more like warnings and threats.”

“Then you can try phrasing yours as warnings and threats too.”

If you have the guts.

At my added words, the man’s lips parted as if to speak, but he chose silence again.

Look at this bastard.

It seems he was actually going to say something when I told him to. You had to give it to him for acting like he had three or four lives to spare.

No, he actually did come back with an extra one, didn’t he?

Though it was temporary, the ‘Resuscitation’ skill I had seen in his skill list would probably save him from the brink of death at least once. He said he’d been through hell, and it seemed he had received a fitting reward. I couldn’t decide if I should be relieved for him or jealous.

Don’t I get anything?

Just in case, I called out to the System in my head, but the blue system window remained unresponsive. Of course. Wondering what I had even expected, I just waited for Geon-joo to state his demands.

“Let’s form an alliance.”

“An alliance?”

This request was also unexpected.

Just a moment ago, he had been acting like a child, whining about pairing rings and bracelets, but now he was suddenly bringing up operational matters. I watched him with interest. I gestured with my chin for him to continue, and as if he had prepared it in advance, Geon-joo took a contract out of his inventory.

I can’t believe he’s the one pulling out a contract.

I was always the one to offer them. It felt strange, with him being the one to produce it first.

“I’m suggesting an alliance with the one-man guild I established. I have no intention of rejoining your guild.”

“If you have no intention of being under me, why are you still calling me ‘Guild Leader’?”

“Calling you by your name or ‘you’ seems disrespectful.”

“You were always disrespectful.”

“…”

I told him the truth, and he glared at me. Look at those insolent eyes. He was always like that, so what’s with this sudden attempt at politeness?

I clicked my tongue and leaned back in my chair, drumming my fingers on the armrest. Was he trying to manage his image now? Unfortunately for him, that ship sailed the moment he started crying like a three-year-old in front of me. He cried about as much as Noah did. As I was thinking that, the man spoke in a small voice.

“…It also creates a sense of distance.”

That was an unexpected reason.

Since when did you care about things like that?

I looked at him with fresh eyes and shrugged.

“Then call me hyung if you want. You were doing it just fine earlier, why not now?”

Half of my intention was to tease him, the other half was pure curiosity. I wondered how he would react. He was the one who called me hyung first, but now that I mentioned it, his face crumpled. It seemed he’d left his conscience behind in the Tower.

Do all people who get entangled with the System lose their conscience like this?

“Let’s just stick with ‘Guild Leader.’”

“You’re not my guild member, so if you call me that, the others will get jealous. I can’t have that.”

“Just take the contract first.”

Look at this.

Since we couldn’t agree, he seemed to have opted not to call me anything at all. Deciding to play along with his ridiculous little scheme, I took the contract he offered.

“Why are you proposing an alliance?”

“Because I want to establish a friendly relationship.”

“And what do I gain from an alliance with you?”

“Doesn’t asking that turn this into a transaction?”

“My alliances have always been like this.”

At my casual remark, Geon-joo gave me a look that said, ‘What kind of person are you?’ A moment later, he proposed that in exchange for all items below A-rank obtained from Gate clears, we would cooperate with each other when needed. It seemed like a proposal he had put some effort into. I smirked and signed it. Only afterward did it hit me.

Would that clever bastard, who knows nothing about alliances and deals, really have proposed such terms?

Until I signed the contract, I hadn’t given much thought to the conditions he presented. The Night Rat guild was overflowing with artifacts, so there was no real benefit for me.

Still, I found the idea that this was the best condition the great Han Geon-joo could come up with after wracking his brain amusing, so I signed it. But on second thought, he wasn’t that kind of person. Would the man who tested me until the very end before running away be so careless?

A reasonable suspicion arose that his naive act since our reunion had all been for this moment.

As if to prove my thoughts correct, Geon-joo smiled softly.

“If you look at the contract clause, it states that during the alliance period, it’s impossible to inflict life-threatening harm on the other party. The alliance period is one year and will be automatically extended by one year if neither party expresses otherwise. I look forward to working with you.”

His smile was relaxed. Seeing him smile with his eyes crinkled confirmed it. I let out a sharp breath.

That’s right. This bastard got one over on me.

Annoyed, I furrowed my brow before shaking off my irritation. I was planning to grant all three of his requests anyway, so this wasn’t much of a loss.

Well, I was thinking of something like an alliance anyway.

He kept going on and on about being equals, so I had planned to propose a cooperative relationship, just like I had mentioned to Lee Jaehee. Aside from my own foul mood, it wasn’t that bad. As I composed myself, Geon-joo immediately brought up his next request.

“For my third and final request, I’d like to live with you.”

“…Hm?”

I didn’t understand at first and just stared at him. When I gave him a look that said, ‘Say that again,’ he elaborated.

“I want to stay where you are staying, Guild Leader. I was trapped in the Tower for a long time, so I’m in a situation where I kind of need some human warmth.”

“And why are you seeking that from me?”

“Because I went to the Tower to learn about you.”

“Why should I be responsible for something you decided to do on your own?”

“I know I’m being unreasonable. But you said you’d grant three requests, so I thought I’d ask. Is it not allowed?” The man tilted his head and blinked as he asked. “That other person seems to be staying here.”

I knew who he was talking about. I pressed a hand to my forehead and waved my other hand in dismissal. I had a strong feeling that refusing him now would become a major headache.

“Do whatever you want.”

Jongsik.

How did the Night Rat guild turn into a boarding house?

I thought of Jongsik as I watched Geon-joo thank me. When I asked where he planned to stay, he naturally replied, “Your room,” and at that, I lost all will to even look for Jongsik.

He wasn’t like this before.

I wondered what on earth had happened in the Tower and what the System had done to change Han Geon-joo to this extent. The man I met a year ago was a bastard who had a firm sense of personal space and was desperate to get away from me.

I laughed, dumbfounded, as I mulled over the three requests I had granted. One was to take off Lee Jaehee’s pairing ring, another was to form an alliance with him, and the last was for him to move his residence to the Night Rat guild.

At first, I wondered why he was wasting such a golden opportunity on these things, but looking at them all together, he had managed to get quite a lot for himself.

I was contemplating whether it was right to let this black-haired beast in. Just then.

[Quest – The Second Step for Activation]

• Type: The Resistor Quest
• Participants: (2/2)
• ‘Clear a Gate by cooperating with the disposition holder.’
• Details: Prove a friendly relationship by cooperatively clearing an A-rank or higher Gate with the Awakened who holds the ‘I Alone am the Honored One’ disposition.
• Reward: Able to proceed to the third step for activation.