Chapter 175

After hesitating with a look of doubt, Geon-joo finally stepped into the elevator. The moment he reached the first floor, he was met with the stinging glares of the Night Rat guild members. I crossed my arms, watching Geon-joo maintain a nonchalant expression despite the sharp gazes coming at him from all directions.

Well, this is unexpected.

I thought he’d be at least a little scared, but his reaction was perfectly calm. Was it because he was an S-rank now?

Well, if you only considered rank, there were probably few in the Night Rat guild who could beat him.

However.

A group beating is a different story.

There’s a saying that is fair to all men. It doesn’t apply in cases where one person, like me, possesses the power of a nation-class individual, but it certainly applies to those who are merely strong.

There’s no hero in a gang fight.

What an impressive phrase. For the sake of my guild members, who had worked day and night chasing his whereabouts right after he ran away, who had chugged awakening potions on an empty stomach and stayed up for a week with bloodshot eyes, I graciously stepped away from Geon-joo’s side. As the distance between us grew, Geon-joo turned around with a questioning look. My eyes met with a guild member’s over his shoulder.

“Avoid the face when you hit him.”

That face was a precious commodity, so I hoped it would remain unharmed if possible. At my leisurely added comment, Geon-joo’s confusion deepened, but it was cleared up soon enough. The resentful guild members who had surrounded him charged all at once.

I was the one who had made them work, but their pent-up frustration, unable to be directed at me for fear of their own lives, was now unleashed upon Geon-joo. A chaotic flurry of kicks ensued. Amidst shouts of “Do you think this is your house, running away and coming back as you please?” Geon-joo expressed his indignation.

“He’s the one who brought me here.”

“‘He’? Heeeee?”

The guild members, sensing an opportunity, latched onto his choice of words and beat him even harder. At their shouts of “Who gave you permission to call the Guild Leader that way?” Geon-joo’s sense of injustice grew. I watched him get beaten to a pulp and pulled a fresh set of clothes from my inventory.

A short while later, the merciless assault came to an end. After being pummeled with a variety of insults like “The cause of our overtime,” “The enemy of Night Rat,” and “You nation-ruining beauty of a bastard,” Geon-joo pushed himself up from beneath the guild members’ feet. To his credit, he knew he was in the wrong and didn’t fight back once during the beating. I was pleased by that, so I personally grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, rescued him from the crowd, and handed him the clothing item I had taken from my inventory.

“Go get changed. I can’t take you anywhere looking like a beggar.”

“And who’s the one who made me look like a beggar…”

His voice was sullen, clearly hurt by the beating. I silently raised one eyebrow. Receiving the unspoken command to say more, the man obediently took the clothes and went back into the guild building.

Expecting him to use the bathroom in the first-floor lobby, I assigned a guild member to him, just in case.

“He might run away again, so follow him and keep an eye on him.”

If Han Geon-joo had heard that, he would have jumped up and down insisting he be allowed to go to the bathroom by himself, but I didn’t care.

Then you shouldn’t have run away.

When you have a prior record, it’s only natural to be subjected to measures befitting that record.

A short time later, Geon-joo came out of the guild building, his expression even more rigid than before. I let out a small laugh at his icy glare.

“Relax your eyes.”

“…”

“Didn’t I tell you?”

I hate bastards who look at me like that.

The words I added with a hum were delivered smoothly, but their content was anything but kind. Just as I had granted his three requests, he had to grant my three requests. As I lightly rolled my wrist, Geon-joo, showing his displeasure openly, slowly relaxed the tension in his eyes. Only then did the cold atmosphere dissipate.

“…Who assigns a guard to someone going to the bathroom?”

“If you don’t like it, you shouldn’t have run away. How can I trust you and just let you go?”

“Let’s write a contract.”

“No.”

I couldn’t trust a flimsy piece of paper when I didn’t know what kind of loophole Han Geon-joo might use to escape. As I took a firm stance, Geon-joo ran a hand through his hair and started walking alongside me. The guild members watched us and began to whisper among themselves.

“What’s this, their vibe is better than I expected?”

“I checked while we were hitting him earlier, and that Geon-joo fellow’s body was perfectly fine. Not a single broken bone.”

“There’s no way the Guild Leader would go that easy on him…”

“No, is our Guild Leader a pushover? Why is he letting him off after being backstabbed like that? He suffered for a month after that bastard Geon-joo left.”

There were voices of suspicion and voices of discontent. I silenced them with a slight roll of my eyes and pushed Geon-joo into the waiting car. I followed him in and slammed the door with a loud bang. Chan-hee, sitting in the driver’s seat in place of Jongsik, flinched in surprise.

“You’ll break the car…”

At his timid rebuke, so different from Jongsik’s whining, I just smiled quietly. Chan-hee, a self-proclaimed fan of mine, blushed at the smile and quietly gripped the steering wheel. Despite his demeanor, he was a guild executive and understood that my smile meant, ‘Shut up and drive, Chan-hee.’

“This is why Chan-hee is so easy to work with.”

Unlike Jongsik, he didn’t need me to kick the back of his seat; he understood what I wanted and acted accordingly. He would have made a fine assassin. Seeing how quietly he provided support, he had the sense for it. As I muttered this fleeting thought of regret, I turned my body. I was thinking of giving Geon-joo a potion if he had been beaten badly, but when I looked at him, his gaze wasn’t on me but fixed on Chan-hee.

Ah, is this his first time seeing Chan-hee?

The only Night Rat executive Geon-joo had seen was Jongsik. It was understandable that he would be curious. I explained that he was an executive of Night Rat, and Geon-joo smiled faintly.

“…You have so many people around you.”

It was a whisper, almost to himself. I couldn’t tell if he meant for me to hear it or if it was just a simple murmur, so I didn’t respond. In that time, the car driven by Chan-hee moved steadily, taking us to the front of the Association.

Today was the official start of activities for Team Noah, the team formed to prevent a nation-class Gate disaster, so the area around the Association was swarming with reporters. Unlike when I operated as Night Rat, I was now acting as Swallow, so I deactivated the artifact that obscured facial recognition. I took a mask item from my inventory and handed it to Geon-joo. The man took the offered mask and gave me a suspicious look.

“What’s this mask for?”

“What do you think it’s for? It’s to cover your face. You operated as a one-man guild without revealing your face, didn’t you? Keep it covered.”

“It doesn’t matter if I reveal it now.”

“Why? Because you already took it off in front of me?”

He didn’t deny my playful comment. I scanned Geon-joo’s attire from top to bottom, then forcibly put the mask on him. I snatched the mask from his hand, leaned in, and fitted it onto his face. Geon-joo flinched back in surprise. He touched the mask that was now on his face.

“Why are you putting this on me?”

“I thought it would be better to keep it covered.”

“…Am I too embarrassing to be seen with?”

After a brief pause, his words made me look at him with an expression of disbelief. What kind of nonsense was he spouting with that face of his? If any of the other Night Rat members heard that, they would scream that he was just showing off. As if to tell him to stop talking nonsense, I flicked the nose of the mask with my finger. “Ah!” With a short yelp, Geon-joo clutched his nose and recoiled.

“Stop with the nonsense and keep it on. There’s nothing good that comes from revealing your face in an incident of this magnitude.”

You’re young, too.

I knew how much scrutiny an S-rank Awakened received at a young age. Han Geon-joo was already the youngest in Noah. The title of ‘youngest’ was something that would attract attention when Noah’s name became known to the world, and it was a position that would easily draw the envy and jealousy of others.

Hunters are vicious.

Especially those blinded by jealousy. According to the investigation I had Gyeongjin do, there were thousands of hunters desperate to join Noah. What would they think when they heard Han Geon-joo’s age?

He already had a short period of fame operating as a one-man guild. Unlike the other hunters who had achieved a respectable status, neither he nor I were in that position. I, known as Swallow while hiding my identity as Night Rat, and Geon-joo, who appeared like a comet and gained some fame as a one-man guild before becoming a member of Noah, were both perfect targets for hunters who couldn’t get into the team. Now, imagine if his young age of twenty-three became known.

What’s that young punk who’s still wet behind the ears doing there?

It was obvious people would rush in with such thoughts. So, to avoid useless retaliation, he had to cover his face. It was fine for me since I didn’t have a family, but Han Geon-joo was a different story.

Those blinded by jealousy could take his friends or family hostage and threaten him to withdraw from Noah. It was a cheap trick, but from my own experience, it was an effective one. Humans were generally weak to other humans. That’s why there were stories of vicious, world-renowned villains and criminals being warm and caring to their own families and spouses.

“Guild Leader?”

Geon-joo called out to me as I was lost in thought. I snapped out of my reverie and slowly opened the car door.

“If your face becomes known, the people around you will be harmed. To prevent that, you either have to cover your face or prove your skills, and you haven’t shown anything yet. To others, that means you’re just a scrub.”

No matter how strong Han Geon-joo had become after reaching S-rank, people didn’t know. The hunters who might attack his family and friends after his face was revealed had not yet acknowledged his skills. Revealing his face without proof of his abilities was the most foolish thing he could do.

“So if you want to show your face, show your skills first.”

So that the vipers who covet your position will know to look before they leap.

I advised him with a crinkle of my eyes and got out of the car. Immediately, camera shutters went off, and a flood of questions poured from the reporters’ mouths. I clicked my tongue at the crowd blocking my way and released my aura of frost, creating a thin, transparent wall of ice. The reporters were flustered. In that gap, I extended a hand towards Geon-joo, who was still in the car.

“What are you doing, not getting out? Do you need an escort?”

At my smiling words, the man who was about to take my hand flinched. Then, with a quiet “whatever,” he got out of the car by himself. The flashes and shutter sounds exploded again. Paying them no mind, I led Geon-joo down the path between the ice walls and into the Association building.