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Chapter 168: Chapter 168

Meanwhile, there was another person besides Kang Seo-dam who suffered a headache due to ’Mr. Seo Jio’.

"...."

"What is wrong, Ruda-ya?"

"...Uh...."

It was exactly Kang Seo-dam’s student and prospective priest, Iruda.

"Because of the gift received last time."

"Ah, the one Brother Jio gave? That flower?"

"Right, that dried flower."

"Did he not say it was medicinal herbs? You said you like eating medicine. Can’t you just eat it?"

"...That would be the simplest method, but no matter how much I think, it is not ordinary medicinal herbs...."

It was medicinal herbs to which the Sun Goddess, and no one else, gave her gaze directly.

’Moreover, the subtle greed of Divinity I felt then....’

The fact that Divinity harbors greed for a human’s object itself is a tremendously rare thing, but the one who revealed greed this time was the Sun Goddess who loves the natural order of fate and pure innocence.

’Basically, she is not someone who would covet something.’

A situation where such Divinity pokes the side of Iruda herself, an insignificant prospective priest, was truly something that made no sense.

"How did it become like this?"

"What is the problem?"

"Because it feels like I received too precious a gift."

Thinking that the matter might grow bigger than imagined, she didn’t tell Cha Isold about her confusion in the meantime, but even that hit a limit as of today. Iruda needed a reference person.

"Cha Isold."

"Yeah, what should I help with?"

"That brother you are close with...."

"You mean Brother Jio, right?"

"Right, is that person originally like that?"

"Uh... what?"

"Does he originally go around scattering gifts like this?"

"Yeah!"

"...."

At the affirmation that was too refreshing and firm, Iruda was lost for words for a moment.

"...Why?"

"He says when he sees people, they are so admirable that he wants to give gifts."

"Just why?"

"He says there is no reason not to give, so why shouldn’t he give...."

"Just what is the problem?"

"Is that a problem?"

"The gift is not just a gift."

Actually, starting from gifting fruit jelly to Cha Isold, there was a feeling that it was a little excessive.

According to Cha Isold, he is a brother he got close with by chance, but an acquaintance he met only a few times gave too expensive a gift to a young kid who knows nothing.

Even more so, the gift Iruda received was worse.

"The reason I said I like medicinal herbs was truly not because I wanted to receive medicinal herbs...!"

Usually, when she said she liked medicinal herbs, adults looked baffled as if seeing something they couldn’t understand, and soon ignored and passed it over.

No, in the first place, she didn’t even know there would be a person who really carries around medicinal herbs.

"Cha Isold, what do you feel from this dried flower?"

"Sunshine smell?"

"What else?"

"Softness like a blanket dried well in the sun?"

"Anyway, it means the Sun, right? Right? It is the Sun, right?"

"Aren’t the Sun and sunshine a little different? One is tremendously hot and one is warm."

"It’s the difference between beating up and petting, anyway it means it’s the same hand."

Unlike the commonly known image of the Solar Cult, the actual light of the Sun is tremendously violent.

The better one gathered and delicately controlled it, the more excellent a Priest of the Sun one could become.

And making medicinal herbs containing such sunshine of the Sun fully was a very arduous task.

If one had no talent, it was a task one couldn’t even attempt, and even with a little mistake, the fragile medicinal herbs would burn in the Sun’s fire.

"...."

As expected, this was too precious a gift Iruda could not handle.

"...Perhaps he gave this kind of gift to screw me over...."

"Why eat screws?" (Korean idiom "eat screw" means "get screwed over", but Cha Isold takes it literally as eating candy)

"...I was thinking maybe that person called Seo Jio gave this kind of gift to trouble me."

"Huh? Probably not? Why do you think so?"

"Mercy not befitting one’s place drives a lowly beggar on the roadside to death."

"Ruda isn’t a beggar though?"

"Of course, I am a 1st-class citizen and on the wealthy side among humans, but even considering that, in this situation, I am indeed a beggar."

"You always speak too difficultly."

"I mean my personal safety is dangerous because it is an undeserved gift for me. There are many people who covet too precious treasures."

Judging by the turning situation, right now it wasn’t simply a problem of just people either.

"And if one doesn’t have the power to protect from those coveting people, a gift rather becomes poison. If I give an extreme example, someone who coveted the gift I received could kill me and take this away."

Perhaps because the word ’kill’ sounded quite provocative, Cha Isold was startled and asked.

"Shall I call Brother Jio?"

"No, a Hunter of that level would be busy so there is no need for that...."

Iruda, who was quick-witted, knew there was no malice in the gift the person called Seo Jio gave.

’However, he didn’t look like a person who wouldn’t know that it would become a gift I cannot handle.’

And now, Iruda decided to try concluding.

"...Does it mean to buy favors?"

"I don’t know what you mean, but Ruda seems to think too complicatedly."

"Certainly, if I offer a gift the Goddess wishes for, I will receive great protection."

"Although I don’t know well what it is, I don’t think Brother Jio would have thought up to that extent...."

Cha Isold, who didn’t know exactly what his partner was thinking but noticed that deep depth, blurred the end of his sentence.

He knew that the Black Cape goes around scattering gifts without any thought.

Watching his partner who seemed to be devising something similar to a scheme, Cha Isold thought.

’Smart people seem to live life too tiredly. I’m glad I’m not smart.’

Indeed, Jio also knew that his gift could become poison to the small priest called Iruda.

However, it was also that he was gifted with a comfortable heart because he knew the Black Cape’s gift does not harm anyone.

Basuram Flower is precious medicine without side effects so there is no problem whoever uses it, and Jio himself who gifted that medicine and the Sun Goddess affirmed that gift.

A gift bestowed receiving the protection of various Divinities had its safety guaranteed through providence and fate.

Above all, Jio didn’t have a way of thinking deeply, but he knew well the depth and width other people could think.

Jio would be pleased however Iruda utilized his gift.

"...I must offer it to the Goddess."

Therefore, this too was what Jio wished for.

"I am going to see Priest Kang Seo-dam, what will you do?"

"I’ll go together too."

"If you are bored being alone, play together with other kids."

"I just want to be with Ruda, because you’re my partner."

"...."

Iruda soon nodded slowly.

"I will have to live carrying you on my side for a lifetime."

"Huh? Isn’t it originally like that?"

"It’s nothing, I just expressed my intent."

And Kang Seo-dam, who just returned from finishing a meeting, is said to have choked severely on the fragrant and piping hot bomb his fluffy young student cherished and brought.

***

A meeting room of The Collectors.

"Ah, Floor Master."

"Miss Yu Ji-na?"

The newly composed dispatch team gathered one by one in that place.

Garasani, the 5th Floor Master of The Collectors’ Gallery, scanned the Hunter who just entered the meeting room.

The woman he called Yu Ji-na was wearing a cape over a suit, the attire of the gallery’s resolution team.

It was a face he knew well as a Floor Master.

"It’s been a long time."

"It is indeed."

The resolution team member grinned and sat opposite Garasani.

"Since the 5th floor rarely has anything to resolve."

"Because it’s not a place where rookies are assigned."

"Maybe because it’s a place where only veterans come and go, there is absolutely no news."

"If news of the 5th floor is delivered to the resolution team, isn’t that exactly a big problem?"

"Isn’t this all thanks to the Floor Master caring for us."

At her rubbing her palms together briskly while saying so, Garasani raised his eyebrows.

"Your skill of trembling with trivial flattery is still the same."

"Please make it certain whether you like it or dislike it."

"Since I like it, try doing it one more time."

"Oh my, as our Floor Master brightens the light of the 5th floor, peace comes to the gallery and wealth comes in...."

Around then, another person entered the meeting room.

"Whoa... what is this again?"

"To say ’what is this’ seeing a person, you are too much."

"Yes, so what are you doing?"

"Can’t you know by looking? She is trembling with flattery."

"Nothing would come out from trembling with flattery to the 5th Floor Master though...?"

At the words of the man who was field staff, the woman of the same affiliation laughed awkwardly.

"It’s been a long time, Floor Master."

"Is it the first time seeing you after you moved to field staff while working on the 3rd floor?"

"Yes, thanks to you looking after me a lot, I adapted well."

"Right, it is enough if you just work well anywhere. You are doing well."

Curator Garasani looked back at Yu Ji-na, the resolution team member.

"Didn’t they say one more person is coming from the resolution team?"

"Because a resolution request came in from the 1st floor. Since it’s his own zone, he said he’d come after just checking quickly."

"An appearance of fulfilling one’s responsibility is always good to see. The protagonist of today also won’t be unpleasant with such behavior."

"If necessary, I was going to tell him to come up quickly regardless of resolution or whatever, it is unexpected. Mr. Jio is also truly generous with his artwork."

Resolution team member Yu Ji-na, who was examining the surroundings, laughed as if interested.

"I thought Curator Yu Seong-un would also be together, but actually that person wasn’t on the list?"

"Since he is such a busy person, it can’t be helped."

"No matter how busy, it is the work of his artwork, not anything else...."

"Of course, if he revised his schedule a lot, it wouldn’t have been that he had no room. But it is not an easy task."

And it wasn’t just that reason.

"The Guild Master intends to see in what way ’Mr. Seo Jio’ reacts amidst strange humans. Indeed, it must be his calculation to check whether there is value in maintaining the pretext of ’Mr. Seo Jio’, or if there is any danger."

To that, another field staff employee asked.

"Still, isn’t it dangerous? For it to be an A-Class dungeon from the first conquest of all things, the difficulty is absolutely not low. Wouldn’t it have been better to have an adaptation period slowly in a slightly safer place?"

"Before taking such measures, ’Mr. Seo Jio’ already grabbed the schedule he wanted and came, so for us, we just followed. And even if such an urgent schedule wasn’t caught, the Guild Master wouldn’t have done such boring work."

Doesn’t everyone know Bisabeol’s personality well?

"He is a person who doesn’t have enough patience to aim for such a stable opportunity while leaving an opportunity that looks obviously okay in front of his eyes. If he were a person to let such an enjoyable event flow by boringly, he wouldn’t have been a Guild Master in the first place, that person."

"It is truly difficult to refute...."

"To ask a person who made The Collectors to avoid such patience from the beginning to restrain now is something that makes no sense. Besides this, he must have judged that this conquest is worth trying in various aspects."

Probably through this opportunity, Bisabeol would come to decide what position to assign ’Mr. Seo Jio’.

Although it was a bold task with a big risk burden as quite a few people could die, since he decided to show ’Hunter Seo Jio’ to the world, it was a process that had to be gone through once someday.

And there was another reason.

"Above all, I don’t know well if ’Mr. Seo Jio’ would endure such stable and boring work."

Clearly, The Collectors could have aimed for a safer opportunity.

They could have attached familiar faces next to him in a low-grade dungeon and let this mystery adapt among humans little by little.

However, hearing from the previous conquest dispatch, ’Jio’s Portrait’ had a desire for a bloody battle.

He, who was said to have also harbored evil Divinity, might be disgusted by such a comfortable fence.

"We shouldn’t do something that harms the artwork."

"I agree with that part."

Because both the resolution team member and the field staff employees were people who nodded.

Because they were people who knew well what disaster could occur when the ’artwork’s’ mood is twisted more than anything else.

All kinds of ghost stories didn’t arise in The Collectors for nothing.

The field staff employee who was previously a curator added words.

"Still, Curator Yu Seong-un must be regretful."

"Since it means his charge artwork is escaping his hands and active in the outside world...."

"And it is the first activity too. It must weigh on his mind."

To a curator of The Collectors, charge artwork was a tremendously sensitive topic.

Because managing a bizarre mystery that twists fate and digs into the mind was truly a task where tremendous nerves were consumed.

A curator had to love their artwork, had to study about it, and also had to recognize its danger.

Since they manage with love a mystery that could kill tens of people at once if it escapes their hands, it was also unavoidable that obsession arose following that.

"Especially since it’s an artwork of the 5th floor."

If a curator didn’t love and obsess over the artwork, one didn’t know what tragedy would occur.

"He must be very upset...."

"So I must have been included in this dispatch team."

"Does it mean if it’s around the level of the Floor Master, he can be trusted?"

"I think he chose the lesser evil rather than the worst."

And it was around then.

Knock knock knock.

"...."

"...."

"Excuse me."

A knocking sound was heard from outside the meeting room.

"May I come in?"

A low and gloomy voice was asking for permission.

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