Chapter 111: Chapter 110: I Am Lee Jiwon! Part I
It was true that I was half-expecting the Cheng Long Guild to come here with another guild and wanted to see which guild it was. But I did not expect that guild to be the Sunbin Guild. Actually, now that I thought about it, there was a pretty high chance for it to be the Sunbin Guild, especially if I took into account the Sunbin Guild’s current strength.
-Is that how it works?-
For some reason, I had completely excluded the Sunbin Guild, even after I had tried to brush myself off of them.
“Jiwon oppa!” Haein had not changed at all. She looked exactly as I had last seen her. That same Haein was running at me full speed with tears welling in her eyes. I did not expect her to act this way at all.
She came to a stop in front of me and looked at me, tears falling down her cheeks. “Jiwon…oppa…”
“Uh….hi.” It was awkward. Almost five years in all had passed since I last saw her.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Huh?”
“I should have looked for you earlier…I owed you so much…I’m so sorry.”
“Uh…no, it’s okay…” I didn’t what to say or do as she stood there, crying. I raised my right hand and patted her head. I didn’t know why; I just did.
—
-How is he here all by himself?-
-Did he actually get here from the first floor faster than us?-
-How did he get through all of those monsters on his own? Is that even possible?-
The officers of the Sunbin Guild and the Cheng Long Guild had many questions, but all wondered the same thing.
-Just who in the world is that man?-
They all knew who he was; Lee Jiwon was pretty famous now. The whole world knew his name from the battle against the Blood Prince and the San Tuan Guild. His power ranking had gone up quite a bit, and many people looked forward to what he would become in the future.
However, none of them could believe that he made his way from the first to the tenth floor on his own. They knew exactly how powerful the dungeon monsters were on each floor. It took this huge group twenty days to get to the tenth floor. They even lost a few on the way.
“Did he come here with the Myth Guild?”
“Maybe they all died and he’s the only one left standing.”
“But look at him. He’s too clean. He doesn’t look like he struggled through the floors.”
“If he truly came with a group, we would have seen signs of large battles throughout the floors. Did you see any? Because I didn’t.”
The officers continued to whisper among themselves, but could notcome up with an answer.
—
Before Song Myungsoo had set out for Mongolia, he had met with his father. They talked about many things as father and son for the first time in a while, and the topic of Song Haein and Lee Jiwon had come up.
“I have to apologize. She’s your daughter and my granddaughter, but I was too greedy.”
“No, father, it’s all right.”
‘I was blinded by all of our success and growth.’
“Father, please. You’ve done nothing wrong. Look at the guild you’ve led all these years. We’ve become so strong that no one can ever challenge us.”
“That’s true, but sometimes I think that we grew too quickly. We could have taken it slow, but we didn’t even stop to smell the roses.”
“That speed got us this far, father.”
“You’re not wrong, but I also think about everyone we kicked away to make it possible.”
“We had no choice…”
‘Yes, we can tell ourselves that we had no choice as many times as we want. But know that your own son is one of them.’
“…” Song Myungsoo could not retort. It was a deep wound that will never close.
His son, Song Haechang, had never disappointed him before the Great Change. Song Haechang was full of pride and ambition as the third generation heir to the company, but studied and worked very hard to protect his pride and ambition. He also knew when to bend his pride.
“Try to look for Jiwon as discreetly as possible.”
“Lee Jiwon? Why him?”
“These days…the memories of when we first met him aren’t leaving me. I’m beginning to see his specialness again.”
“But to look for him now…”
“Just go with the flow. Just find him for now.”
“Understood, father.”
—
Song Myungsoo carefully scanned Lee Jiwon with his eyes. When Song Myungsoo first met Lee Jiwon, it had left such a powerful impression, so much so that he could never forget that day.
-He still…shines brightly.-
Right now, Lee Jiwon was patting Song Haein’s head, unsure of what to do, but Song Myungsoo had seen how confidently he stood when they arrived.
“I see you have quite the history with Lee Jiwon,” Wai Chung said, after quietly observing the situation.
“That’s correct, a very deep history.” That wasn’t completely true. In all honesty, their relationship wasn’t all that great after the Sunbin Guild had let him go. But Song Myungsoo had developed an instinct throughout the years. It wasn’t good enough for politics, but enough for business, and that instinct told him it would be stupid to answer Wai Chung honestly.
“The Sunbin Guild and Lee Jiwon, eh? That’s quite the fearsome pair.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
—
“You…you don’t have to cry.” I never had a grown woman cry in front of me before. Actually, I don’t think any woman or girl had cried in front of me before, begging for my forgiveness.
“O…okay.” Haein wiped away at her tears, sniffling. “I heard so many rumors about you. I should have looked for you then…but it became difficult to. I should have been there; we shouldn’t have sent you away like that. I’m so sorry.” She began crying again.
“Hey, that’s enough now. It’s all right.” I’ll admit, it wasn’t all right back then, but now it was fine. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t weak, or needed to expect anything from anyone.
“It’s been a while, Jiwon.” Song Myungsoo came up with his hand extended. I took it and shook his hand.
“Well, this is very heartwarming.”
I smiled at Wai Chung’s sarcastic comment. “This day is only getting better. You seem quite well, Vice-master Song.”
“It’s all thanks to you.”
“That’s good to hear, sir.”
“I know this isn’t the right place to catch up. Would you be opposed to meeting up on a later date?”
“Umm…” Several thoughts surfaced at what he just said. Was he only inviting me after all this time because I made a name for myself, or was I just overreacting? But there wasn’t much of a reason to avoid him.
I was strong now and I was only going to get stronger, faster than anyone else. I stood up straight and looked Song Myungsoo square in the eyes.
“Not at all.”
—
After that, both guilds sat down in the safe zone to take a break. In the middle of the zone, the officers of the guilds gathered to plan out the King-Emperor raid. As the first person to arrive at the Tomb, I was part of the planning as well.
“The limit is set to 25 members.”
“The boss type is a humanoid at 4 meters tall and since it uses a sword, it’s a fighter class.”
“We may have gone up against several fighter class bosses, but this is a high-grade dungeon. We must go at this with the utmost caution.” The Cheng Long Guild laid out all of their information.
“How do you suggest we fight it?”
“We believe that mages should be the DPS dealers in the raid. Their magic will be the most effective against a fighter class.”
“We’ll need a few tanks and healers/supporters to go with them and have the rest as mages.”
No one rejected the idea.
“Perfect. We’ll go with that, then. As for the 25 members…” Wai Chung contemplated for a few seconds. “I believe 13 from the Cheng Long Guild and 12 from the Sunbin Guild will be perfect. What do you think?” he asked Song Myungsoo.
I had thought that we would go with 12 from each guild and me since I was the one who got here first. I got up to say something to this bastard, but I felt someone place on my right arm and I looked to see who stopped me.
It was Haein, who hadn’t left my side since. She shook her head.
“That sounds good.”
“Perfect. We’ll need at least two tanks each; choose your healers and mages accordingly.”
“Yes sir!”
“Understood.”
“You all have ten hours to rest and take care of your equipment. After that, meet up at the eleventh floor entrance. We don’t have time to set up tactics with either guild, so we’ll go in with two separate parties. We’ll just have to make sure to not harm the other party. Does that sound all right?”
“Yes, that’s sounds fine.”
“Good. I’ll see you all in ten hours.”
—
I found myself amongst the Sunbin Guild’s ranks, thanks to Wai Chung’s attempt to keep me in check. That didn’t really matter to me; what bothered me more was Haein’s small smile.
“Sukchul.”
“Yes, Vice-master.”
“Set up a party of 12. But, be sure to include Jiwon as well.”
“Yes sir.”
“Jiwon,” Song Myungsoo turned to address me.”
“Yes sir.”
“I believe you came here first to participate in the raid, am I right?”
“That’s right.”
“Good. You will be a free role. Do as you see fit during the raid. We won’t interfere.”
“…Thank you.”
—
Ten hours later…
All 25 raid participants had gathered in front of the 11th floor entrance. Wai Chung, Song Haein and Song Myungsoo were there as well.
Wai Chung turned to Song Myungsoo. “Shall we distribute the rewards according to the raid contribution?”
“That sounds fair.” Song Myungsoo simply accepted Wai Chung’s obvious request. If he was going to be this brazen, there was no convincing him otherwise.
At first, I didn’t really want to do much against the King-Emperor. I just needed to do as much as everyone else so that I could be among the first seven to complete the quest.
But now, I wanted to smash that smile off of Wai Chung’s face and show the Sunbin Guild the full extent of my abilities. I wanted to show them all who I really was. I wanted to show them all who they were fucking dealing with.
-It’d be nice if Shaman Ko’s Stat points activate here, like it did against the Blood Prince.-
I tightened my grip on my Harrier.
