The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 515: Hand It Over (1)

“You’d think he’d at least clean up before taking such a comfortable nap.”

Items were scattered all over the waiting room floor. Not only the used Belare poison, but also the broken sword and spent bullets had all returned to their original state. These were the genuine articles, not dungeon item dummies that had lost their function. I briefly turned off my poison resistance and put the Belare poison bottle into my inventory first.

“And of all places to lie down, he had to pick that exact spot.”

Maybe he’d actually woken up but was pretending to be asleep. Just then, a system message window appeared before my eyes.

[Winner: Han Yujin]

Yes, I won. Three gold coins then clinked down one after another. Huh? I wasn’t told about this.

[Winning teams receive additional benefits when attending the party. Additional benefits can stack.]

“…I don’t know what it is, but thank you for giving it anyway.”

Wait, doesn’t this mean four people could team up and just keep trading wins?

[There are no restrictions on team composition, but you cannot fight the same opponent twice. It is also impossible to steal the same invitation twice.]

So that’s not allowed. But there were more hunters with invitations on this island. I shouldn’t be greedy—I’d just squeeze out a reasonable amount.

The system message disappeared, and a door like a dungeon entrance opened in one wall. I picked up the three gold coins, put them in my inventory, and approached Seong Hyunjae.

“Time to get up.”

I tried speaking to him, but there was no response. Was he deeply asleep? Just in case, I crouched down beside him and held my finger under Seong Hyunjae’s nose. He was breathing fine.

“Why won’t you wake up? Are you still B-rank?”

I grabbed and pulled on Seong Hyunjae’s cheek. It was definitely softer than before. Even for an S-rank, their skin wasn’t as hard as iron unless they concentrated mana to reinforce it, but there was still a difference. Non-awakened people’s cheeks pressed in or pulled easily, but once you reached high rank, it felt like they had more density? I had to put more force into my fingers to grab his cheek. It was probably due to the difference in the mana they naturally held.

“Hey, Seong Hyunjae.”

I grabbed and pulled both of his cheeks. For someone in his late thirties, he had good skin. Though of course it couldn’t compare to Yuhyun, Yerim, or Noah. Well, there was an age difference even among S-ranks. Still, at this level he could rival most people in their twenties.

“Was he like this before awakening too? Or did his skin improve after awakening? Didn’t you get any acne or anything during puberty? Yuhyun had clear skin too. It’s kind of funny to think of Seong Hyunjae going through puberty. But he must have experienced it once.”

His childhood, his adolescence. Was that young appearance he claimed to have seen in that lake dungeon before real?

“Still, since he’s at least B-rank, marks don’t stay easily. Is it slightly reddened? Honestly, you must have been cute when you were little. Just looking at Gyeol shows that much. Your current hair color is faded, so maybe you were actually pink-haired? Neither Diarma nor the dragonkin had even the ‘p’ of pink.”

Of course, neither did I. Maybe my liking for pink was actually a trace of a past I couldn’t remember. It might suit kids, but pink hair at thirty or forty years old… No wait, in that place pink hair might have been as common as black hair. There were blue-haired and green-haired people too.

“I only know this Seong Hyunjae here. But long, long ago there was the first Seong Hyunjae and the second Seong Hyunjae…”

I stopped mid-sentence. Having numbers attached in front of the same person felt strange after all.

“They’re all the same Seong Hyunjae, so number 1 and number 2 isn’t quite right. If we must divide them, if we must attach numbers, they should be attached to the places.”

That’s right. He’s just Seong Hyunjae.

“The Seong Hyunjae of the first world. The Seong Hyunjae of the second world. Or, yes. The Seong Hyunjae of the world with many lakes. The Seong Hyunjae of the world with two suns. The Seong Hyunjae of the world with blue clouds. The Seong Hyunjae of the world with delicious cakes. The Seong Hyunjae of the world where he learned to fish. The Seong Hyunjae of the world where the festival was fun. I don’t really know, you probably don’t know well either, but there must have been worlds like that.”

And in this place.

“Here, there are too many. Not even a full year. So— wow!”

Our eyes met. When did he wake up?

“It hurts a bit.”

“You’re only F-rank anyway, what’re you complaining about? You even got shot.”

As a final act, I gave Seong Hyunjae’s cheeks a hard pull before letting go. A faint red mark remained.

“Let’s pack up the items and leave.”

“Did Han Yujin win? There’s a message saying the winning team receives benefits.”

“Of course I won. This is mine, and this is also mine, and this one—”

“I think that was mine.”

“People can make mistakes.”

“Those gloves too.”

“Ah, people can make mistakes! Everything’s spread out all mixed up, so it’s confusing. Why are you sneakily taking the spatula again? Wait, where did the laundry basket go?”

“It was good for holding yarn, so I unconsciously grabbed the whole thing. We’re short on potions too.”

“You must have miscounted.”

“Chocolate flavor—”

“Don’t know, don’t know. I didn’t see it.”

We finished organizing the items and went out the door.

— Dad!

Gyeol cried out happily and clung to me.

— Are you okay? You didn’t get hit, did you?

“I’m fine, see? I’m perfectly fine.”

Though I did get hit quite a bit. Yuhyun also approached me, and Chief Song…

“…”

He subtly avoided my gaze. Seong Hyunjae’s eyes gleamed as he watched, as if he wouldn’t miss a single bit of my and Chief Song’s reactions.

“Uh, Yuhyun, nothing happened to you, right?”

“Yeah. When I woke up, I was in the waiting room and the exit was open. What happened to you, hyung?”

“Me? Well, I just fought.”

“But Chief Song is avoiding my eyes. Really nothing happened?”

Yuhyun said suspiciously. Well, um… Looking back, it was a bit embarrassing. Good thing I killed Seong Hyunjae. To others, it must have looked like a real brawl.

“We talked a bit… and I won.”

“I wanted to watch, but Han Yujin shot me in the head.”

“Hyung shot me in the chest. And I bit hyung.”

…What are you saying as if it’s something to brag about?

“I should have bitten him too. What a shame. How was it for our Chief Song Taewon?”

“…”

Chief Song avoided Seong Hyunjae’s gaze. Seong Hyunjae grinned and approached Song Taewon.

“Must have been so good you can’t even speak.”

“Stop teasing Chief Song. I hit him with a bicycle, okay?”

Both Yuhyun and Seong Hyunjae made expressions that said they should have seen that. More importantly, what time was it now? Just in case, I checked the time and found there was still some leeway before the Monster Mount breeding information announcement. Though it wasn’t generous.

“Seong Hyunjae, do you think it’ll take long to return to normal?”

“In this state… it should be fine by late tonight or tomorrow morning. At least I’ll be good enough not to lose to any random S-rank.”

“Then we can’t leave you alone, so today, um.”

My eyes met Chief Song’s. Those black pupils definitely rolled to the side. That appearance felt much more lively than Chief Song’s usual self. Because he was someone who always pressed down hard on his emotions, trying not to express himself. Even now his expression was stiff, but there were hints of instability—whether embarrassed, flustered, or at a loss.

It’s kind of cute seeing someone who wasn’t like this before act this way.

“…For now, I’ll stay with him.”

“Will you be alright?”

“Hunter Hwang Rim seems to have left the island, so it’s fine.”

“No, I mean the Sesung Guild Leader. I think he’ll be incredibly annoying. He’ll try to interrogate you.”

Even now, his expression showed he was dying of curiosity about how we fought. Even Yuhyun seemed like he wanted to hear about it.

“I’m used to it, so it’s fine.”

“I’ll be good and behave, so don’t worry.”

Without Hwang Rim—or more precisely, without that dirt—Chief Song was the best person to leave Seong Hyunjae with.

“Then let’s discuss Hwang Rim and the Transcendent behind him this evening after the schedule ends. I’ll ask them to track down Hwang Rim’s contact information too.”

Since the person called Richard Hwang didn’t seem to be a complete fake, it should be easy to find him. At the very least, he must have spread around a phone number for tobacco transactions. He might have even exchanged business cards.

After warning Seong Hyunjae again to really stay put, I left the room.

— Dad, you shot that guy?

“Yeah. Dad shot him.”

— Did Dad win everything?

“Won everything.”

Gyeol flapped his wings excitedly.

— Gyeol wants to learn to shoot too.

“That sounds good. With guns, you just need mana.”

Even I could inflict damage on mid-to-high-rank hunters with the Lynx gun. Though once you reached high rank, even hitting them became difficult.

“I want to learn too. Teach me, hyung.”

“Huh? Wouldn’t it be better to bring in an expert rather than me? I’m really just at a basic level.”

“I want hyung to teach me. Just knowing the basics is enough.”

Well, there’d rarely be any need to use firearms instead of items like this anyway. On the way to the conference room to prepare for the schedule, I ran into Yerim. Yerim immediately asked Yuhyun,

“Did you kill Hwang Rim?”

“No.”

“What? You made me leave by force saying Mister would worry about me!”

So that’s why Yerim wasn’t around. If that Hwang Rim bastard had just come outside, Yuhyun might have taken his head before I could even stop him.

“Then did he run away? Unharmed?”

“Probably. But hyung killed me instead.”

Yuhyun said as if bragging, and Yerim’s eyes widened. Gyeol added a comment.

— And Dad killed Chief Song too.

“I don’t… really get it, but leaving me out! Mister, I also want to be kil… no, that’s scary.”

“It’s not real—there’s this thing where we compete over Chatterbox invitations.”

I briefly explained the invitation duels to Yerim. However, I left out the appropriate parts about Chief Song and the puppeteer. She’d hear about it in the evening anyway.

“I want to do it too!”

“Sure, sure. You need to get additional benefits too, Yerim.”

Among us, the conditions were most disadvantageous for Yerim, but a gun in a fifteen-year-old’s hands was still a gun. And this time, I needed to prepare even more thoroughly.

Since I was quite tired in various ways, I finished preparing for the announcement while taking a short break. Since most people were here for the Monster Mount breeding information, even those who had left the island returned right on time. Among them was Shishio. Shishio, who had taken a seat in the front row as a staff member assisting with the event, saw me and smiled brightly. Yes, yes.

‘Please don’t say anything weird.’

If he spouted nonsense here, it would spread across the entire world in an instant. I also changed into a new suit and put a bow tie around Peace’s neck. Normally people stood at the podium, but I was given a comfortable chair. As I sat down, gazes gathered on me.

Most of those gazes were serious. There were hardly any eyes looking down on me lightly like before. A slight smile formed on my lips. It seemed like it would be fine even if I turned off Fear Resistance. Though of course there was no need to do that on purpose.

“Shall we start with something simple? Peace.”

— Kyang.

Peace, who had been sitting at my feet, hopped up onto my lap. I stroked under Peace’s chin and continued speaking.

“The most famous Monster Mount from Dodam Breeding Facility—a Grade 2 Unicorn subspecies, the Flame Horned Lion. The growth condition for this monster, which can grow to a maximum of S-rank, is the assistance of an adult.”

I revealed it clearly. But the listeners’ expressions became sour.

“Then does that mean only Director Han Yujin can raise them?”

“Yes. There are many cases like this. The higher the grade, the more demanding the growth conditions become.”

I operated the remote control I was holding. The screen behind me turned on, and the image of a pair of black and white unicorns appeared large. Images and videos progressed in order from their infancy through their growth.

“Grade 3 Unicorn species—White Shadow Unicorn. An A-rank Monster Mount whose speed is nothing to envy of S-ranks. Considering the original purpose of Monster Mounts, it might be better than most S-rank monsters.”

The screen changed again and a grassland appeared. It was a photo taken with a filming item under development for use inside dungeons.

“The growth condition for White Shadow Unicorns is staying in a dungeon where Unicorn species monsters inhabit.”

Energy returned to people’s faces. It wasn’t an easy condition, but it wasn’t extremely difficult either. They just needed to bring the baby monster along whenever they raided dungeons with Unicorn species monsters. Several people urgently sent texts, and some even went outside holding their phones.

The price of White Shadow Unicorn babies and dungeons with Unicorn species would skyrocket.

And next, the image of a Golden Griffin filled the screen. It was Blue flying powerfully. An S-rank monster. A flying species with excellent speed and combat power, lacking in nothing as a Monster Mount. Since Peace had attribute restrictions, there would actually be far more hunters coveting Blue. Even now, everyone’s eyes had changed.

“From here on.”

I continued with a smile.

“This is paid information. As a hint, the difficulty relative to grade is low.”

A brief silence flowed, and then—

“What do you want!”

An impatient hunter jumped up and shouted. The other hunters also stirred. At this rate, I might get addicted to the fun of swinging S-ranks around.

“The sooner you acquire the information, the more advantageous it is. First, I’ll sell it to three people under a confidentiality agreement, then make it freely available through the breeding facility homepage one month later.”

What was needed for the Golden Griffin’s growth was meat from magic beast species. And it had to be high grade. Guilds that quickly bought up dungeon management rights where magic beast species bosses appeared would inevitably have the advantage. Even if they won the bid secretly, they’d be discovered before long.

“The bidding will be conducted privately. Please write on the paper we hand out and put it in the box. Additionally, we’re planning to freely release one more A-rank monster breeding information tomorrow, so please attend in large numbers~”

Originally, I’d planned to finish today. But a reason arose to keep people here longer. Obviously because—

“Our team is me and Haeyeon Guild Leader.”

After the Golden Griffin breeding information auction ended, I called in a hunter who had shown a strong reaction to Chatterbox’s mark. Then I made a confidentiality contract and told them about the invitation duel. The opposing hunter looked puzzled as he alternated between looking at me and Yuhyun.

“Director Han Yujin, you’re participating?”

“Yes. Actually, my brother alone is enough. I’m just tagging along to get additional benefits.”

The expressions of the two hunters standing before us crumpled. They seemed offended that we were looking down on them. I sat perched on top of a large box while putting on sunglasses.

“If you’re interested, take out your invitation.”

“Of course we’ll do it.”

The two invitations placed side by side on the table began to glow.