The plane arrived at Jeju Airport around 9 PM. As Jaehee muttered about how difficult it would be to find decent accommodation given the late hour and year-end season, Sa-yoon let out a hollow laugh. Whatever he made of that laugh, the man tidying his brown hair showed a surprised expression.
“Did you make reservations in advance?”
What a simple question. Sa-yoon pulled out and waved the invitation he’d received from the organizers.
“Jaehee. You’re with me, why would we need to find accommodation?”
“Unless we’re planning to sleep on the ground, we need somewhere to stay.”
“…”
The completely serious rebuttal momentarily left him speechless. Throwing a bewildered look, unsure if it was a joke or serious, Sa-yoon took out his phone.
Why would they need to find lodging when attending the unity festival?
“The time has come for you to be proud of being my companion, Jaehee.”
“I don’t know. After what Mr. Jongsik said, I’m not particularly proud…”
“I’m S-rank now, Jaehee.”
“…”
Sa-yoon kindly reminded the man who seemed to have momentarily forgotten his original rank after spending quite a long time at a lower rank. Recalling a certain night about three months ago, the man slowly closed his mouth. Sa-yoon’s lips curled up.
Yes, you should know your place.
His S-rank strength was by no means inferior when compared to Lee Jaehee’s. If anything, he had overwhelmed him. Hadn’t that been proven on the night he tried to assassinate him?
Sa-yoon savored being able to dominate others with power again after so long. Humming happily several times, Jaehee spoke again.
“So what about the lodging?”
“Ah.”
Only then did Sa-yoon return to the topic that had briefly derailed.
“If the invitation is gold, the organizers come to serve us.”
Unity festival invitations were divided into three colors. Bronze for skilled individuals not belonging to guilds, silver for skilled guild members, and gold for high-ranking awakened ones like guild masters or association presidents.
Only the most skilled and famous were guild masters worthy of invitation to the unity festival. Thus, the organizers tried their best to invite and treat them well. One such service was personally guiding those with gold invitations upon arrival and ensuring they experienced no inconveniences.
So there was no need to reserve lodging. The organizers would provide accommodations.
When he explained this, Jaehee showed an interested expression. Sa-yoon waved the invitation back and forth like dangling a toy before a cat.
Not long after sending a text about their arrival to the organizers, a guide approached.
“Please show your invitation.”
Sa-yoon handed over the invitation with his name on it. After carefully checking it wasn’t forged, the person bowed.
“I’ll escort you to your lodgings.”
He walked to a car and opened the back door. After explaining to Jaehee that everyone with gold invitations would stay at a luxury hotel designated by the organizers, Sa-yoon got in first and pulled in the man who was standing there blankly.
“Why are you acting so provincial?”
Looking around everywhere like someone visiting Jeju for the first time and staring intently at the guide’s car made him look just like a country youth who’d come up to the big city. When Sa-yoon asked exasperatedly, Jaehee made a sour expression.
“This kind of treatment is unfamiliar.”
“You’d get it often if you joined Night Rats. Want to join?”
I could give you an executive position with your skills.
When he said it jokingly, the man smirked and shook his head.
“Though somewhat tempting, I’ll decline. I might consider it if Night Rats stops being a crime guild.”
“Oh my. Then you’ll never get to consider it.”
Sa-yoon laughed at the proposal that had already been rejected about three times. Jaehee was probably the only one who could reject his guild recruitment offers this many times and still be alive.
“You can stay wherever you’d like on the third floor. The entire floor has been cleared, so unless you move to the lobby or other locations, there won’t be any friction with other participants within the floor.”
The guide who had driven them to their lodging with smooth skill added this explanation. Taking the master key he handed over, Sa-yoon nodded and went up to the third floor.
“Since the festival starts in two days, let’s just sleep today and do proper sightseeing tomorrow. There’s a separate eve ceremony.”
“Eve ceremony?”
“Yeah. Usually the first auction happens during the eve ceremony, and after that there’s unity sparring. Though it’s called unity sparring, it’s actually combat to gauge how much everyone has grown during their time apart, so watch carefully. It’s not often you get to see rankers sparring.”
Sa-yoon advised while handing one of the two keys he held to Jaehee. Since he preferred being close to the elevator, he chose the room visible right after getting off and told Jaehee to choose his own, and Jaehee picked the adjacent room.
“The main festival starts from midnight after the eve ceremony ends, so get plenty of rest today. If you walk around with sleepy eyes, you’re likely to get picked on for looking weak. Especially when it’s your first festival. Ah, having Rai around would be good though.”
There’s one crazy person obsessed with summons.
Sa-yoon muttered, recalling a woman he’d seen at the festival four years ago. If she still had that personality of treating summoners well whenever she saw summons, it would be quite helpful for Jaehee at his first festival.
The man acknowledged the string of advice saying he’d keep it in mind and opened his room door. Given his usual lifestyle patterns, it was about time to rest.
“Well, get some rest. Contact me if anything happens.”
“Alright.”
Satisfied with the calm response, Sa-yoon only opened his own room door after watching Jaehee enter first.
“Maybe because it’s been a while since I’ve come to the festival, but I remember a lot of faces.”
Recalling memorable hunters who should have all arrived by now, Sa-yoon let out a small groan and lay on the bed. Something felt empty as he looked up at the ceiling. After patting the vacant bed a few times, he realized Rai was missing and suddenly got up to open Jaehee’s room door.
“…!”
The man who had been organizing his luggage raised his head with a surprised face at Sa-yoon casually flinging open the door despite it being someone else’s room.
“What is it?”
“Rai.”
“Ah.”
Rai had been temporarily unsummoned since Jeju Airport. Being a tourist destination, Jeju’s airport was crowded, making it an unavoidable choice.
When he boldly demanded the return of his poor unsummoned summon, the man who seemed to consider briefly soon drew a summoning circle.
“You know Rai consumes quite a bit of my energy, right?”
“Yeah. You assigned him in the first place considering that. Why act like you’re doing me a favor now when you originally assigned him partly for surveillance?”
“I was just saying.”
The man who hadn’t even gotten his investment’s worth from speaking completed the summoning circle.
Woof!
Shortly after, Rai was resummoned. Sa-yoon immediately lifted up the Fenrir that bounded over to him.
“Somehow you seem more like the master now.”
Jaehee grimaced at the scene that looked like a reunion after 10 years apart. Sa-yoon returned to his room carrying the huge summon while chiding him not to dismiss the bond formed from sleeping together almost daily for about two months. Though the slightly grown Rai was bigger than when first seen, Sa-yoon was now S-rank. He could gladly handle the weight of a baby Fenrir.
Thump thump!
Whether enjoying this, the Fenrir’s tail wagged wildly, slapping Sa-yoon’s thighs.
“That hurts, you.”
Woof!
“Stop licking.”
Woof!
“Oh hell, fine, do whatever you want.”
Between the slapping and licking it was quite a mess. Since he wasn’t the type to listen when scolded, Sa-yoon let him do as he pleased while stroking the Fenrir and slowly drifted off to sleep. Perhaps because his mind was at ease after reaching S-rank, it was a night of good rest.
***
“Let’s head out now, Jaehee.”
After sleeping leisurely until the sun was high and lazily getting ready to go out in the late afternoon, Sa-yoon called Jaehee after dinner. The man rolled up several papers he was holding and put them in his inventory.
“What’s that?”
“I wrote down some precautions Mr. Jongsik told me. Since you said the eve ceremony starts soon, I thought you might cause trouble.”
The response was quite nonchalant. Though Sa-yoon was dumbfounded, he honestly wasn’t confident he wouldn’t get into fights at this festival after so long, so he didn’t argue. He did make excuses though.
“Just so you know, I’m not the one picking fights, those bastards are the ones picking fights with me, Jaehee.”
“But you backstabbed them first.”
“Well, isn’t that the fault of those who got hit?”
“…”
Jaehee shook his head. Seeing the Fenrir lick Jaehee’s hand as if to comfort him, Sa-yoon shrugged.
“Anyway, just know I’m not the one starting fights.”
“Seeing how much you insist on this, something’s bound to happen when we go in.”
Jaehee was sharp as always. Sa-yoon was briefly surprised, wondering if he’d seen the future with his heaven-piercing skill, before continuing on. Jaehee’s words proved true the moment Sa-yoon entered the hall with him where the pre-auction commemorative party was being held.
“Kwon Sa-yoon!”
Someone who shouted Sa-yoon’s name in broken Korean came running like lightning from far away and grabbed his collar. Meeting golden eyes that seemed to blaze with fire, Sa-yoon stared blankly at the man who had grabbed his neck.
“Who were you again?”
When he muttered to himself, genuinely not remembering, the man holding his collar let out an exasperated breath.
“The Dagger of Heris.”
He said through gritted teeth. Ah! Only then did a vague memory surface and Sa-yoon smiled brightly.
“Have you been well? Looking at your face that seems like it was scraped against asphalt, seems you haven’t been doing so well.”
The original owner of Sa-yoon’s main weapon, the Dagger of Heris.