Chapter 16
“Pant… Pant… Pant…”
“Grr…”
“Are you alright?”
“No… I’m not… I feel like I’m dying.”
“Well, if you have the energy to joke, I guess you’re not too bad off.”
“Sigh…”
Seon-Young lay on the ground, her leg badly injured. Her comrades had gathered to help the wounded, but now that the mission was over, their faces were shrouded in darkness.
Exhausted and injured A-rank and B-rank Hunters surrounded her. Although they had narrowly completed the mission thanks to timely reinforcements, the damage they had sustained was not something to be taken lightly.
However, the true extent of the damage was not merely physical.
The greatest injury inflicted during this mission was mental.
Even the hellish experiences of past S-rank missions hadn't felt this bad.
Although those battles had resulted in far more casualties and some Hunters had to retire due to irreparable injuries, they had all managed to laugh and cheer with relief once the mission was over.
The euphoria of completing an impossible mission and reclaiming the objective had been enough to temporarily erase their physical and mental suffering.
But now, the only emotions they felt were despair at the current situation and concern for their future.
They felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness, as if their abilities had been laid bare.
‘We’ve completed S-rank missions, yet we struggled so much with a B-rank mission…’
‘I always knew, but is this really all we’re capable of? Have all our successes been because of Vice-Commander Jin-Hyeon?’
Although this was the new vice-commander's first mission and mistakes were to be expected, compounded by the S-rank Hunters' own errors, they had always managed to overcome seemingly impossible tasks.
They prided themselves as veteran warriors who had survived countless hellish battles, yet they had struggled immensely in this situation. This realization was a severe mental blow.
Moreover, this shock naturally made them acutely aware of the absence of Vice-Commander Jin-Hyeon, whose efforts had made such a significant difference.
‘If only the vice-commander were here, this wouldn’t have happened…’
‘What do we do now? How can we handle even A-rank missions like this?’
Feeling the stark reality of their situation, the Hunters began to shrink back in despair.
At that moment…
“Damn it… That damned vice-commander. I’m going to…”
“…”
“Sigh…”
A voice filled with anger passed by them—Lee Se-Na, the guild master and the one ultimately responsible for this disaster, the one who had plunged them into this despair.
The Hunters sighed heavily, and their eyes grew cold as they watched her.
‘She’ll never understand why this happened.’
‘She thinks this is all because of the new vice-commander? As if she did nothing wrong herself?’
‘We’re doomed… We were finished the moment she drove away Vice-Commander Jin-Hyeon.’
Unable to openly express their dissatisfaction with their superior and S-rank Hunter, the Hunters suppressed their boiling emotions.
Meanwhile, oblivious to the Hunters' cold stares, Se-Na prepared to return to the base with Yoo-Jin, ready to punish the new vice-commander she believed had humiliated her.
---
“What?… Say that again?”
“Wasn’t it you, Guild Master, who ignored my orders and acted on your own? How can you blame me for the resulting casualties?”
Se-Na radiated a terrifying killing intent. As an S-rank Hunter, she could crush his skull like an eggshell, but Choi Han was determined to speak his mind.
Though his voice trembled with fear, he was unwilling to take the fall for this fiasco.
“I did the best I could in that situation! If you had just followed my orders, the damage wouldn’t have been so severe…”
“Ha! So you’re saying this isn’t your fault? Fine, I didn’t follow your orders. But if you hadn't assigned us a misclassified B-rank mission, none of this would have happened! Those numbers should have warranted at least an A-rank classification!”
“What do you mean… There were fewer than 3000 Abyss monsters! That’s not a significant number.”
“Bullshit! You expect me to believe that I, Lee Se-Na, one of the top 50 S-rank Hunters in South Korea, struggled against fewer than 3000 Abyss mon steres? I’ve won against ten thousand Abyss monsters before! It doesn’t make sense that I had such a hard time!”
“…Ugh…”
Despite his feelings of injustice, Choi Han couldn’t argue further. Se-Na’s combat achievements were indeed impressive, making this mission seem trivial by comparison.
Her extensive combat experience was incomparable to his short tenure, and she could assess the battlefield firsthand, unlike Choi Han, who had to rely on limited angles from his monitor.
Eventually, Choi Han had no choice but to accept responsibility for the situation and went back to write his report.
Watching him leave, Se-Na felt a wave of relief.
‘At least this will cover up the fact that I forgot to charge my weapon.’
She concluded that the root cause of the disastrous battle was her failure to charge the Rose Cutter. If it had been fully functional, the combat would have been much quicker, and she wouldn’t have been embarrassed by the Beadle.
‘Yes, it was a minor mistake. And that damned vice-commander trying to mess with me… But no way could I have struggled so much otherwise.’
Confident in her abilities, Se-Na rationalized the situation.
Meanwhile, back at his desk, Choi Han typed rapidly, not writing the report Se-Na expected.
Although he admitted fault as required, he also included a request for a transfer, effectively a resignation from the 28th Guild.
“Goodbye, you bitches! It’s been a hellish time!”
Leaving the 28th Guild behind, Choi Han didn’t go quietly. Unlike Jin-Hyeon, who had left to avoid causing further trouble for the Hunters, Choi Han posted about his experiences on the vice-commanders' community, detailing the horrors of the 28th Guild.
Simultaneously, some major news outlets received a tip from a reliable source about the internal strife within the 28th Guild.
It was...