Chapter 41: The Price of an S-Rank

#41

“So, what’s your business with me?”

Han Dokyeom was seated precisely beside Taeseongyeon. Taeseongyeon brought a cooled tea, untouched by Dokyeom’s lips, and placed it in his hand.

The pleasant aroma of mugwort wafted to his nose, suggesting it wasn’t coffee but likely a medicinal tonic. Yes, a tonic. The very elixirs Taeseongyeon was constantly receiving these days.

“I brought this out for you, Han Dokyeom. It’s good for your health, so drink up.”

Dokyeom grimaced, but reluctantly tilted the cup. He then threw his head back and swallowed it all in one gulp.

As soon as he set the cup down with a sharp *clink*, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and started to rise.

“I’ve drunk it, so I’ll be goi—”

“Han Dokyeom.”

In that instant, Dokyeom’s body was seized by a powerful force. An astonishingly strong pressure settled on his wrist.

The moment his hand twitched, a thick arm wrapped around Dokyeom’s waist, pulling him closer. His vision lowered, and their bodies collided with such force that his lungs felt crushed.

Dokyeom gasped for breath. He managed to grip Taeseongyeon’s shoulders, his vision blurry as he looked up.

Right before him, Taeseongyeon’s refined pupils, fathomless in their depth, stared back.

As if tracing a line, Taeseongyeon slowly let his gaze glide from Dokyeom’s eyes, over his cheekbones, down his cheeks, and finally to his lips.

Taeseongyeon’s lowered eyes blinked slowly. His gaze, which had been sweeping over Dokyeom’s skin as if searching or appraising, ascended once more to Dokyeom’s pale eyes.

Taeseongyeon’s eyes curved into a faint smile.

A fingertip traced up Dokyeom’s slender neck. But just as that fingertip was about to brush the mark beneath his ear—

“Taeseongyeon.”

Dokyeom seized his hand, stopping him. His eyes, fixed on Taeseongyeon, gleamed with a provocative light.

Dokyeom met the other man’s unfathomable gaze and smiled.

Having been caught in such situations a few times, he had grown accustomed to it, even developing a certain composure. It was as if a thought circled in his mind:

‘If I’m going to be caught, it’s better to be caught on my own terms.’

“If I’m to be taken, I’ll allow myself to be taken.”

Dokyeom lightly pushed Taeseongyeon’s hand away with the back of his own. Then, he tilted his head and extended his hand, revealing the mark, just as he had lured Agon with mana as bait that day.

There were all kinds of fishing grounds. Especially when trying to lure a great white shark, one had to be willing to make a personal sacrifice for it to be worthwhile, didn’t they?

“So, if you want to touch it, give me your hand, Seongyeon.”

Taeseongyeon’s pupils constricted sharply. Unlike his spreading smile, a chilling light gleamed in his eyes.

Soon, even the corners of Taeseongyeon’s eyes narrowed. As if offering a hand to his master, Taeseongyeon’s hand settled upon Dokyeom’s, their warmth colliding.

Dokyeom firmly grasped that hand, pulling it to his own mark. Then, as if inviting him to touch, he took Taeseongyeon’s fingertips and pressed them onto the mark.

Fingertips hesitantly, slowly, massaged the area beneath Dokyeom’s ear. Dokyeom’s eyes, flushed with heat, slightly crinkled.

Yet, even as he exhaled shallow breaths, Dokyeom never broke eye contact with Taeseongyeon.

“Hah…”

Taeseongyeon found the concave spot on the mark and pressed down hard. A sound like a scream escaped Dokyeom’s lips, and he immediately bit them.

Taeseongyeon’s languid voice spun dizzily around his ear.

“…Han Dokyeom.”

“H-huh, why… why?”

“If you come back hurt again… then you’ll be punished by me.”

More than today.

“You should… hah… say it properly. ‘Punish me… ah… please,’ you mean.”

At Dokyeom’s words, Taeseongyeon’s throat rumbled with laughter. It was a low, heartfelt laugh that was pleasant to hear.

The fingertip that had been pressing the mark finally withdrew, scraping lightly over his skin as it pulled away. As soon as he realized it, all sensations vanished like sand swept away by a wave.

Only Dokyeom’s ragged breaths filled the space between them.

“Hmm… that’s good too.”

It felt somewhat novel.

“Haa, hah… Ah, yes…”

As soon as his senses returned, a furious red light ignited in Dokyeom’s eyes. His fingertips, like an animal’s claws, snatched at Taeseongyeon’s collar.

“Haha, ‘good,’ you say? Oh, yes. But why are *you* the only one enjoying it, you bastard?”

Taeseongyeon gazed with a thirsty look at Dokyeom’s pale face, exposed to the sunlight. Everything about him was fair, yet his reddish eye rims, as if he had cried, stood out as clearly as a dot etched in a field of snow.

Even though his grey eyes, touched by the sun, were filled with venom, Taeseongyeon did not perceive it as a poisonous weed.

“From now on, let’s make sure to ask for permission before touching, alright? Next time, it won’t end with just a grab to the collar. And Taeseongyeon, if you use S-rank power for things like this, wouldn’t I get furious? Next time you summon a Hell Legion or a Skeleton Legion or any of that crap, I’ll go to Gwanghwamun, grab a microphone, and expose all of your perverted antics.”

Dokyeom, who had been shaking Taeseongyeon by the collar for a long time, finally descended from him with a refreshed expression and turned away.

Taeseongyeon propped his chin on his hand, admiring Dokyeom’s gracefully formed body. The sight of him stomping out, as if the ground itself would rumble, brought forth a low chuckle.

‘Interesting.’

Taeseongyeon watched the door slam shut, then picked up the empty teacup Han Dokyeom had left behind. He slowly swirled the shallow liquid remaining inside.

A voice, too low for anyone to hear, finally emerged after a long moment.

“You’re starting to pique my interest.”

****

Bursting out of the CEO’s office with renewed vigor, Dokyeom immediately pulled out his phone and called Han Yuseong. The call connected before even two rings.

*Click—*

–When did you wake up, Han Dokyeom?–

Instead of a greeting, a rather urgent question poured out. Dokyeom, heading towards the elevator with its floor directory, replied amiably.

“I woke up this morning, and I’m at the guild now. I heard Han Yuseong looked after my Agon, haha… there were no problems, right?”

A sigh filled the silence that followed his question. Dokyeom scanned the floor guide posted next to the elevator.

Department signs for each floor were neatly arranged, making it easy to read.

–You’ll find out if you go to the 6th floor.–

The 6th floor… that was the one marked as ‘Company Welfare Facilities’. Dokyeom immediately pressed the elevator button.

“Han Yuseong, I’ll treat you to a meal sometime. Nothing else, just to thank you for looking after Agon.”

–I’ll be entering the guild soon, so please wait a moment. I think I need to see your face, Han Dokyeom.–

“Why? I’m all better, you know? I just got an earful from Taeseongyeon, so let’s not do that, Han Yuseong, alright? If I run into you while taking Agon out, then we’ll see each other. Otherwise… let’s just meet next time. I’m hanging up, okay?”

Before even hearing a reply, Dokyeom ended the call and stepped into the opening elevator. It was then that he began to receive peculiar stares.

This started as the elevator stopped and people began to step in, one by one.

[15th Floor.]

Each time the elevator, which had begun its descent from the top floor, halted, strangers squeezed their bodies into the small space.

Suddenly, a man stepping into the elevator saw Dokyeom and opened his eyes strangely, as if he had seen something rare.

Indeed, every person who boarded either raised an eyebrow or recoiled their neck upon seeing Dokyeom, then, after numerous glances, settled precisely one step away.

[‘Orias’, the demon of ‘Lemegeton’, whispers, ‘Did you do something wrong?’]

‘I’d like to know that myself. What in the world is this?’

Something was definitely amiss, but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what it was. The stinging stares made him feel like a zoo animal, yet some people also let out hollow laughs, deliberately showing their displeasure.

[6th Floor.]

As soon as he arrived on the 6th floor, Dokyeom swiftly exited the elevator without looking back. However, no sooner had he escaped the oppressive stares than he encountered a new obstacle.

He was about to pass through the door into the welfare facilities when a security guard waiting there grabbed him by the shoulder.

“Entry is restricted without a guild ID… Which department are you affiliated with?”

“Ah…”

Dokyeom sighed, scratching the back of his neck.

“I’m a new hunter who just joined today, so I don’t have an ID yet. Is there any way around it?”

“Well, normally it would be fine, but a strange creature got in two days ago, so it’s impossible right now. We heard it’s a familiar, and it’s quite ferocious, so orders came down from above to protect the hunters. The pool area is only accessible with another person present, or for A-rank hunters.”

The entry restriction, it seemed, was because of Agon. Dokyeom nodded with a troubled heart, turning back toward the elevator.

Then, recalling the strange glares, he decided to take the emergency exit next to the elevator down to the first floor. Once there, he ordered a coffee at the café lounge in a corner of the lobby and waited for Han Yuseong.

The problem was that the stares, which had begun in the elevator, were still following him here.

“That hunter.”

“What is it now? What’s going on?”

“These days, those trash reporters are really going all out, adding MSG and writing a whole novel. Just click on any article. It’ll introduce him as ‘The E-Rank Hunter Who Saved the Nation,’ displayed in huge letters.”

“…Wasn’t that just a rumor?”

“Yeah, a rumor. But it’s a rumor that only *we* believe.”

Strangely, he could hear everything.

Dokyeom tilted his coffee cup, meeting each passing gaze. Only a handful of people averted their eyes in surprise; most frowned or stared boldly for a long time.

As he pieced together past events from the snippets of conversation, a group of hunters entered the lobby, pushing open the glass doors at the entrance.