At the same time I answered, Joo Seowon’s hand tightened further. When I turned my head, I saw them looking at me with a face full of things they wanted to say.

'Then what... should I do?'

Even if I had ice-type Skills, the main Skill the public knew me for was appraisal. There was no way a guy insisting on dragging a B-rank appraiser whose rank had only recently been corrected into the first entry could have good intentions.

In the first place, I hadn’t been thrilled about entering a Dungeon at all, but since I was already here, I was fully willing to go in, just like Im Haekyung had said.

That didn’t mean I was fine with going into a suspicious Dungeon alongside a bastard who was openly picking a fight.

Besides, from the look of it, if I tried to mumble my way around it, he’d obviously find a way to drag me along anyway.

'Wouldn’t it be better to cut it off from the start instead of refusing in circles?'

When I smiled at Chase, who was still looking this way, he crooked only one corner of his mouth and then turned his gaze to the official leading the meeting.

The official, receiving Chase’s look, spoke in a calm voice.

“We can’t force anyone. Each Hunter’s wishes are more important than anything else... and we know this is dangerous work with lives on the line. We’re grateful just that you came here at all.”

That was true enough, so I nodded. Then a voice suddenly came from somewhere unexpected.

“Ah, Hunter Seo and I know each other personally, so we already came to an agreement before the meeting. We decided to go in together.”

Everyone’s gaze swung over to Sung Uijae, who had suddenly spoken up. Even while taking all those eyes on him, he added to the explanation indifferently.

“It’s better if the S-rank Hunters go separately, isn’t it? If Holt goes in first, I’ll go in about three hours later. As support.”

“...I didn’t realize an agreement had already been made.”

At Chase’s belated response, Sung Uijae lifted a hand as if to say sorry.

Of course, he didn’t look sorry in the slightest.

Naturally, I had never had any such conversation with Sung Uijae, but I could tell that right now he was trying to shield me to some extent.

I opened my mouth to agree with what Sung Uijae had said.

“I....”

“Ah, right. Hunter Seo. We talked earlier and agreed on it, remember? Right?”

And before I could even answer, Sung Uijae cut me off again.

“......?”

'What the hell does he think I am right now?'

After that, every time I so much as tried to open my mouth, he kept throwing me warning looks like crazy, so in the end I shut up appropriately.

That more or less wrapped up the discussion on this topic, and while they were putting together the second-entry team, I unblocked Sung Uijae’s number on my phone and sent him a text for the first time in a while.

Take it easy.

The reply came immediately.

Don’t try to talk, and stay quiet if you can.

I have some tact too.

Grab the microphone one more time and I’ll pick you up and throw you out myself, so keep that in mind.

Unbelievable.

Explaining myself point by point to a guy who wouldn’t believe me anyway would’ve been ridiculous, so I just let out a short laugh, flipped my phone facedown again, and raised one eyebrow at Sung Uijae.

I didn’t know how he interpreted my expression, but Sung Uijae furrowed his brow and leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed.

***

After the meeting ended, the people who had bought time before entry quickly dispersed to get some rest.

“Hey, Korean.”

That was a pretty broad noun to use for calling someone.

I obediently turned around and faced Chase. He stopped in front of me, then lowered his head without saying anything and only lifted his eyes to meet mine.

“You’re interesting. Confident, too....”

“.......”

“If they sent you specifically, when there are so many S-rank Hunters... then there must be some reason. See you inside.”

With a short grin, Chase immediately turned his head and greeted Joo Seowon too.

“Ah, of course, you too.”

After watching Chase’s retreating back as he disappeared into the distance, I immediately led Joo Seowon away without any lingering attachment.

“What are you doing? Let’s go.”

“What the hell did you do to that guy for him to react like that?”

“I didn’t say much.”

He had started picking a fight from the beginning, so it was hard to even say I’d responded much on my side.

Joo Seowon glanced toward where Chase had disappeared and pressed hard at the space between their brows.

We got the key card for a bedroom inside the building and went in together. The inside was exactly dorm level: one bathroom, two beds, and one closet. There was enough room to put our bags down, but the room itself wasn’t big.

Since it wasn’t like we’d be staying long anyway, I sat down on the bed without much thought.

“Seo Jehyun.”

“What.”

“...Are you really going in?”

Joo Seowon was looking at me with the window behind them. Since the sun was still blazing outside, their face was shadowed enough that I couldn’t see the expression clearly. I leaned my body at an angle on the bed and quietly looked at them.

“Do you have something to say?”

“.......”

“Or do you just not want to go into the Dungeon?”

I crooked my fingers at Joo Seowon to tell them to come here. At that, they flinched a little and came closer.

“Either way, there are at least three S-rank Hunters going in with us. Their affinities are pretty well spread out too, so if one of them becomes unusable, the other two will handle things on their own. On top of that, there’ll be plenty of Hunters there who’ve done nothing but fight, so... as long as you don’t step up to the front, it doesn’t matter.”

“.......”

“If you really don’t want to go, stay here. Honestly, if we’re being real, that’s the safest and cleanest option anyway.”

I could just find something else to tell Im Haekyung later. Even if I didn’t put effort into it, Joo Seowon’s side would be more than capable of finding an excuse.

“...There’s something else I want to ask.”

“Yeah. What is it?”

I gestured for them to go on, and after staying silent for quite a while, Joo Seowon suddenly asked something unexpected.

“Why did you say we should write the covenant?”

“What?”

“You’re just making me investigate information for you. It’s not some hugely difficult favor... you’re only commissioning one-off jobs from me, so I was wondering why you made me write a covenant on top of that.”

“Hmm.”

They were asking that now?

As I furrowed my brow slightly, Joo Seowon continued in a calm voice.

“A covenant is something you stake your life on. You were too... casual about writing it. What if I’d made up my mind and killed myself? Why would you do something like that? Especially with someone you’d just met.”

“You value your own life.”

“I’m asking whether having me gather a bit of information for you and take commissions according to your tastes was really important enough to stake a life on.”

I quietly looked at Joo Seowon. This didn’t seem like the kind of thing they were asking without a reason, and both the direction of the question and the timing felt a little strange.

“No.”

“Then why?”

“Because it takes at least that much to build trust.”

“.......”

In the first place, the biggest reason I’d written the covenant had been to form a friendly relationship with a suspicious bastard like that.

“I wanted you to trust me quickly.”

“Why?”

“Well.... Back then, if I didn’t have you, things were going to be too hard.”

Gates were breaking out all over the place, there was a penalty where one wrong thing out of my mouth could get me killed on the spot, my rank back then had been weak as fuck, all my previous human relationships had been wiped clean, and on top of that Kwon Taehan was definitely going to wake up in a few months and come at me full of malice, so I needed to have something.

“...Do you remember what you put in the covenant?”

At Joo Seowon’s question, I gave an absent nod and answered.

“Saving your life?”

“Other than that.”

“Minha’s location?”

“...Do you know exactly where it is?”

“She’s inside a Dungeon. When the Dungeon closed, it got shifted over somewhere else entirely. She’ll be living just fine, so don’t worry too much.”

Since it was something I knew, I answered casually, and Joo Seowon turned their head to the side.

“When does it open?”

“There’s still a long time left. You’ll have to wait longer.”

“...You’re not lying, right?”

“You think I’d do that after staking my life on it?”

Except for the part where I’d met Joo Minha in person, everything from start to finish was true. That she was safe, that she was inside a Dungeon, and that there was still quite a while left before seeing her again.

“Did I write in the covenant that I’d bring her back safely too?”

“.......”

When I smiled and looked at Joo Seowon, they slowly walked this way.

They came right up to the bed before I leaned back a little farther to look up at their face.

“Seo Jehyun.”

“What.”

“I... really want to trust you.”

“Then trust me.”

Their whole attitude was strange. Come to think of it, even before we got on the plane, there had been a sense of them being excessively compliant.

Why?

I let my gaze travel slowly from their eyes to their lips.

“I wish you were a good person.”

“.......”

A particular emotion swelled in that strangely subdued voice. Joo Seowon slowly reached out and wrapped a hand around the area near my neck.

The hand moved up calmly, then quickly fell away again. I shifted my gaze and looked briefly at the hand that had withdrawn.

“Seowon.”

The moment I called them, Joo Seowon’s hand trembled. I caught their wrist loosely, then in an instant yanked them onto the bed.

“Hk...!”

At the same time I threw them down onto the bed, I rolled half over and switched positions, and Joo Seowon’s face was suddenly exposed in full.

“You... talked to Kwon Taehan, didn’t you?”

As I curled my lips up and looked quietly down at Joo Seowon, I could see their lips trembling slightly with tension. I dropped my gaze there, then looked back into their eyes.

Then, suddenly, an announcement came over the speakers.

“This is an emergency alert. A Dungeon Break has occurred, so all personnel capable of combat are requested to assemble in the lobby immediately. Once again, this is an emergency alert....”