Chapter 418 – A Calm, Not So Calm Daily Life
Someone’s piercing scream wakes up the guild on this serene early morning.
“Hey, Kim Shinwoo! That big thing can’t go in like that!”
“It’s fine, I tell you.”
The owner of that voice is Choi Da-eun.
She stands before something huge and overwhelming.
Her mind is half-dazed, moving her gaze around without focus.
“It’s… impossible! Next time! Let’s do it next time!”
“Come on, let’s hurry.”
But I just kept shoving it toward Choi Da-eun.
“It’s just not going to work! It’s too big to fit!”
“If you just relax, it’ll be fine, right?”
As that touched her face, Choi Da-eun looked terrified.
She lets out an even more high-pitched scream.
“I told you it won’t fit in my head, you f*cking bastard!!!”
It was nothing other than a mountain of documents.
There were so many that I was slightly struggling under their weight.
And without even getting Choi Da-eun’s consent, I placed it on her desk.
“What the hell is this? Why are there so many?!”
“Oh, this?”
Hyeji casually continued as Choi Da-eun gritted her teeth and demanded an explanation.
“You know about the request we got from the association president, right?”
“I know it failed because the opposing guild messed up.”
“Great, you know that.”
Those documents were highly relevant to us.
A formal reason letter about the request’s failure sent by the association.
Our guild’s official statement regarding the Reaper Guild.
A report that a wolf beastman from the Reaper Guild stole the handcuffs of an ability user.
And, of course, the invoice and tax bill related to the repair of my Defensive Coat, as well as the reason for the repair.
The third one was naturally intended for the ability user task force.
[Isn’t that a waste?]
‘I still have enough, so using one as an excuse wouldn’t hurt, right?’
And frankly, I could only say I was lucky with the last one.
“Shinwoo, it’s a relief that this got handled well.”
“Yeah. I thought it was going to be a disaster.”
At Hyeji’s words, I naturally recalled that time.
Because of the wolf beastman from the Reaper Guild, my Defensive Coat had been ruined.
I had seriously considered throwing it away because of that.
Just in case, before returning to the guild, I had explained the situation to the association president.
“Is it possible to repair my Defensive Coat?”
“Oh, that was definitely the original, right? Then the association will handle it.”
He gladly said he would help.
“Really?”
“Yes, but if you could pay upfront due to the receipt, we’ll refund you later.”
It felt too convenient for him to treat us this way.
“Why go through all that trouble?”
“Ah, actually…”
Surprisingly, the association president had a separate plan in mind.
“This is an item that the country puts effort into, so full funding comes from the support.”
“Ah, I see. If there are any unexpected reasons for more repair costs, we may need additional funding.”
“You’re quick to pick up on things, Hunter Shinwoo.”
‘Guess they still want receipts around here.’
[Tax dollars are bleeding, you bastard.]
Well, I had nothing to lose.
Right now, I was paying the repair cost with our money.
Once the association provided funding, it would be deposited back to me.
So, thankfully, I didn’t need to discard my Defensive Coat after all.
“It will just take a while to find a technician for the repair.”
“I can wait that long. Please take care of it well.”
Thus, the conversation returned to the present.
Hyeji pokes at the pile of documents I had stacked.
As if urging Choi Da-eun, who was making a sulky face.
“Anyway, you need to fill these out.”
“… Shouldn’t the involved party fill those out, you jerk?”
“I’m too lazy. You already know the content anyway.”
“Ugh…”
While Choi Da-eun let out a big sigh, Elcia expressed her doubt.
“But, husband! Do we have to write all this by hand?”
“Yeah. I said I would do it that way.”
“Why?”
It was indeed a valid question.
Even among such rigid groups, digitization is basic these days.
But I insisted on saying we’d write it by hand.
“I’m not the one filling it out.”
“Oh, then that’s no problem!”
“I have too many issues myself, you little shits!!!”
Since I wasn’t the one writing it down anyway,
Choi Da-eun must have realized there was no other choice.
While checking through various documents, she suddenly waved one paper at me.
“… But why did the association president send a lawsuit notice under my name?”
“Oh, that?”
It was the lawsuit notice sent to Choi Da-eun by the association president.
And it wasn’t a lawsuit against our guild.
It was simply targeting Choi Da-eun alone.
It might seem random, but the association president’s reaction was understandable.
That’s because…
“I cursed out the association president using your phone.”
“Ah, you f*cking asshole!!!”
Before I received the request, I had hurled insults at the association president using Choi Da-eun’s mobile phone.
Honestly, I thought the association president would forget.
But the moment I saw the word “lawsuit,” it sent chills down my spine.
I worried he might have recognized my voice.
[Looks like it’s not a lawsuit for this novel either.]
‘Thank goodness, f*ck…’
Luckily, it wasn’t directed at me, so I didn’t need to worry any longer.
At that moment, as Choi Da-eun yelled, Caressy and Ayeon lightly tapped her shoulders.
Trying to alleviate any worries she might be holding onto.
“It’s fine if you pay the fine. We can just deduct it from your salary.”
“Just send me to f*cking prison, you crazy Guild Master bastard!!!”
“If you end up in prison, I could help you with the bail.”
“Ahhhhh!!!”
At that, Choi Da-eun pulled at her hair, expressing intense joy.
Seeing that, Caressy wore a somewhat sinister smile.
As if she learned from Hyeji.
“If you keep making a fuss, you won’t get your salary.”
“… You bastards…”
In the end, Choi Da-eun had no choice but to work buried beneath that mountain of documents.
While grinding her teeth and diligently processing the paperwork, behind her back,
the heroines put a leash on me and began deciding turns for a competition.
This time, it was through a game of Hanafuda.
“Hyeji unnie is honestly sitting this out! We seriously thought we were going crazy!”
“Cut the crap and deal the cards quickly. You still came pretty early.”
“Wait! This f*cking cat beastman just took one more card!!! Bring me an axe!!!”
“No way! Look at this!”
At Ayeon’s words, Caressy got mad and slowly opened her hand to reveal what she’d been holding.
Contrary to Ayeon’s words, Caressy only had two Hanafuda cards in her hand.
“See! There are only two cards! Apologize right now!!!”
“… Sorry. It seems I’ve made a mistake.”
But sharp-eyed Elcia caught on to Caressy’s trick.
“Just a moment! This f*cking girl combined two cards with her strength!”
“Ugh, damn it.”
In the end, Hyeji’s punishment fell upon Caressy.
“I’ll merge your fingers into one.”
“They’ll break!!! They’ll really break!!!”
It was a heartwarming scene of the heroines bonding.
As I watched with a warm smile, all of a sudden, Piece spoke to me.
[By the way, didn’t the wolf beastman’s behavior seem a bit odd at the end?]
‘Yeah, it definitely seemed different from before.’
Her reaction at that time was unusually strange.
Of course, we had seen someone lose regression once before.
When we fought the cardinal in the Beastman Kingdom, he lost regression during the battle.
However, his reactions were completely different from this one.
[The cardinal simply realized that regression wasn’t activating.]
‘In contrast, this wolf beastman indicated that someone had taken it away directly.’
I decided to gather my thoughts again.
An unknown entity intervened with the wolf beastman and took away regression.
And the chilling presence that approached me in my dream.
Could these two be closely related?
Honestly, there were still a lot of unknowns about this.
But the most puzzling thing was something else.
What the hell did they want from me?
‘I’ve never done anything to deserve this in my lifetime.’
[……You soulless bastard.]
Now, I felt a bit bad about taking care of the wolf beastman.
At that time, I only thought about how to take him down.
So, I hadn’t considered this matter at all.
If only I had thought about this back then.
[Well, what’s done is done.]
‘But I still feel regret over it.’
At least I would have pressed hard to get an answer about this.
The more I thought about it, the deeper my thoughts became, but something interrupted my musing.
“Hey! You guys run a guild, right?”
Suddenly, our guild’s entrance opened, and a voice I felt I had heard somewhere came through.
“Let’s do one job together.”
As she said that, the figure made soft click-clack sounds with her steps as she approached.
Soon, she stood confidently, attracting the attention of me and the heroines.
“Who are you?”
“You don’t remember me?”
The figure that appeared was a woman with a peculiar outfit, blonde hair, and blue eyes.
Wearing a short skirt that maximized the exposure with slits on the side.
Meanwhile, despite her ample bosom, she was tightly wrapped up in her upper body by long sleeves, even in midsummer.
“Oh.”
“Hehe. With this appearance, there’s no way you shouldn’t remember me.”
Only then did I recall who she was.
That woman had teamed up with Ayeon’s sister, Jeong Bia, and fought me in sophomore year.
In the tournament, I had inadvertently knocked her out.
That’s right.
“Mamtong D. Spencer.”
“Hey, you f*cking bastard!!!”
It was the unexpected appearance of Spencer.
