Han Jewoon had come into the evening dead set on his plan.
What he'd triumphantly brought out was a savage, potent liquor specially formulated for Awakened.
Ordinarily, an Awakened's body burned off alcohol using mana, so it took a lot to get one drunk.
But even people who walked the line between life and death every day sometimes wanted to forget reality and get thoroughly hammered.
This liquor had been made for exactly that kind of Awakened — a monster of a drink, beyond anything you could imagine.
One glass would knock an ordinary person cold, and even an Awakened who didn't deliberately circulate mana would drop like a stone. Terrifying stuff.
Naturally, since he had no intention of getting drunk himself, Han Jewoon was calmly draining his glass and burning off every trace of alcohol in his system as he went.
Chae Junhyeok, across from him, was another matter entirely.
He'd held up better than expected, but the limit was starting to show.
Anyone could see he was well and truly drunk.
Han Jewoon propped his chin on one hand and held out a glass.
"One more, to celebrate being friends?"
"Ugh… okay… but this is the last one."
Chae Junhyeok let out a small pained sound but obediently took the glass and drained it.
Whether it was the word "friend" that got him or he'd just been thirsting for another drink, Han Jewoon couldn't tell — but either way, it was a reaction he was quite satisfied with.
The truth was, from the moment he'd hauled the man to this island out of the blue, Han Jewoon had been deliberately, doggedly drilling in the word "friend."
Because he genuinely wanted to be friends with him.
Han Jewoon was thoroughly enjoying the situation — putting in real effort to look good in someone else's eyes — and there was even a strange thrill in it.
In all his years reigning as Korea's number-one Hunter, he'd never once met a person he liked enough to want standing shoulder to shoulder with him.
And that sole exception, of all things, turned out to be a non-Awakened.
When word had spread not long ago that Chae Junhyeok had triggered a second awakening in one of the kids, most Awakened had reacted coldly.
His recent trajectory might have shifted, but this was a man who'd been branded a delinquent for years.
Even Awakened couldn't force a second awakening on themselves — and a non-Awakened had triggered one in someone else? Most had scoffed, calling it nonsense.
Han Jewoon was different.
The moment he'd heard the news, he'd been certain.
If it was Chae Junhyeok… he'd have pulled it off.
Starting with Kim Sihyeok's public evaluation that Seo Jihyeok had spied on, then the abandoned factory, the A-rank Gate, and most recently the hearing.
Over just a handful of months, Han Jewoon had watched from the front lines as Chae Junhyeok's kids grew at a pace that shattered common sense.
Bawi Guild had promising talent of its own by the truckload, but there was no comparing them.
It wasn't simply a matter of the kids' raw talent.
Behind that grotesquely explosive growth, the overwhelming ability of the man orchestrating it all was clearly at work.
So Han Jewoon had been half-convinced already as he tracked the man's movements, and eventually he'd found the decisive clue.
The eyewitness accounts of the mysterious, colossal golden light that had recently blanketed the sky above District Eight.
Perfect, undeniable proof that one of his kids had achieved a second awakening in that abandoned land — District Eight.
"Hey, why aren't you drinkin'! You drink too!"
Just then, an empty glass shoved its way up in front of his face.
Chae Junhyeok's usual stiff expression was gone without a trace, his face now completely undone.
At the slightly slurred pronunciation, Han Jewoon put on a show of being weak too and crinkled his eyes.
"Why are you such a good drinker? I feel like I'm already getting drunk over here."
"Heh heh, how long've I been drinking, huh! This much is nothing, nothing."
The way he giggled as he poured — he was every inch the delinquent from the rumors.
So you're going to keep up the act even in front of me, is that it?
Han Jewoon gladly played along and accepted the glass.
Watching to see when this masked man would finally show him what he really was underneath was quite the entertaining game in its own right.
He really is a prize. However I have to do it, I want him on my side.
The corner of Han Jewoon's mouth curled up.
He cast the bait, casual.
"So, how's that goal you mentioned early on coming along?"
The declaration about dragging his own father down and taking the Awakened Management Bureau Chief seat for himself.
At first he'd assumed it was pure bluster.
A man supposedly gunning for Bureau Chief who did zero political maneuvering and cultivated zero connections, spending all his time on the kids' training instead? Come on.
But watching his recent moves, Han Jewoon had realized.
The man was closing in on that impossibly distant goal with meticulous precision.
The moment he'd become certain the ambition was real was at the recent hearing.
He'd drawn the government into the game as if it were nothing, and shut the Bureau out of interfering completely.
But even more terrifying was that even while taking the government's hand, he'd never once let go of the initiative.
Never in a hundred years did I think he'd pull off a second awakening in "District Eight" of all places.
With Chae Junhyeok's capability, he could easily have triggered a second awakening somewhere other than District Eight.
District Eight was, quite literally, nothing but ruins with nothing left in it.
So why go out of his way to pick District Eight?
However he turned it over, there was only one answer.
To exploit the fact that District Eight was the government's untouchable sore spot.
Back at the time of the District Eight disaster, the public had poured fierce criticism on the Bureau for deploying Hunters only to District Two — the wealthy district.
But Han Jewoon knew the ugly truth behind it.
The real force that had strong-armed the Bureau into sending Hunters to District Two.
It was the flood of high-ranking government officials who'd been living there themselves.
The Bureau, back then not nearly as powerful as it was now, had had no choice but to bow under heavy pressure from the government.
In the end, in exchange for handing over full authority over Hunter deployment, the government had dumped every ounce of responsibility and disgrace for the disaster onto the Bureau.
Chae Junhyeok, being the Bureau Chief's son, must have known all about that dirty back-room deal.
What if Chae Junhyeok tossed out even one clue to the world — that the location of the second awakening had been District Eight?
Hordes of frenzied Awakened would swarm to District Eight like bees, and inevitably the horrific past disaster would rise right back to the surface.
And when that happened, it wouldn't be the Bureau that got destroyed — it would be the government.
By choosing District Eight as his stage, Chae Junhyeok had, plainly and defiantly, closed his hand around the government's windpipe.
"Ha ha."
Looking at the man across from him — the one who'd successfully pulled off exactly the "screw the government and the Bureau" Han Jewoon had wanted for so long — Han Jewoon let out an amused laugh.
Just how massive and intricate a chess game was rolling along behind that defenseless-looking face?
He was the most desirable raw material out there — the piece that could complete Han Jewoon's long-cherished ambition.
With him, even the goal I'd thought impossible might be within reach.
The vast ambition Han Jewoon had been quietly working toward for years.
A "Guild Alliance."
At present, Korea's guilds were being played by the government and the Bureau — deftly turned against one another, sunk in a race to cannibalize themselves.
The pitiful reality was that they tripped over each other fawning on the government and the Bureau just to lock down the rights to clear one more decent Gate.
Naturally, that left the guilds' voice weak, and time and again they got used like puppets.
As the Rank 1 Guild Master, Han Jewoon had set out to break this dysfunctional structure — but it was never easy.
The deep-rooted history of feuds between the guilds was one problem; on top of that, the guild masters' sky-high, brittle pride meant they wouldn't come together for anything.
But if the anchor point for a new alliance were Chae Junhyeok — a non-Awakened — the story changed completely.
Being non-Awakened, he wouldn't set off that prickly competitive streak unique to Awakened.
Above all, wasn't he the one and only person known to trigger a second awakening?
Guild masters looking to grow their power, and Awakened hungry to break past their ceilings.
Faced with this absolute lifeline that would grant every one of their wishes, no guild master on the face of the earth would dare hold his head up in defiance.
Watching Chae Junhyeok drift woozily, Han Jewoon judged that the moment was right.
Just as he was about to quietly float it — If your goal's still a long way off, how about hearing my proposal first? —
"Han Jewoon."
Chae Junhyeok abruptly lifted his head.
A voice endlessly low and serious.
Han Jewoon flinched at the sudden weight in the air.
Don't tell me he saw right through me?
"Yeah. What."
"I mean this, seriously. Just between you and me."
Han Jewoon swallowed hard and leaned in.
"What."
"…seriously…"
Chae Junhyeok's golden eyes wavered.
"Aren't our kids just amazing?"
"……huh?"
For a beat, Han Jewoon's brain came to a full stop.
"No, I'm serious. They're just ten, nine, eight, six, and five years old. Does that even make sense?"
"Huh?"
"That Yul kid — the other day he ran the 100m in seven seconds. Awakened or not, that's crazy, right? And what about our Sea-ah. Her knowledge already puts most grad students to shame. Sometimes I get scared she might be too much of a genius. Sihyeok…… ha, that kid still hides in my shadow sometimes. I want him to just get a good night's sleep, but he's got to stand guard over me — it's heartbreaking and I can't get over how cute it is…."
Ignoring the stunned look on Han Jewoon's face, Chae Junhyeok launched into an impassioned speech.
"And Suho really loves animals. This kid who'd be totally justified in hating every living thing on earth — he just laughs 'hehe' over a stuffed animal. I've half a mind to just buy up an uninhabited island and set up a private zoo for him. And the twins…… ah… they're just so, so cute…."
Chae Junhyeok finally buried his face in both hands with a groan.
"Every time they go 'Direector, Direector' at me, sometimes I just want to stuff those chubby little cheeks in my mouth and take a bite out of them—"
"Wow… so this is what he turns into when he drinks — a doting fool."
An incredulous laugh burst out of Han Jewoon.
"You…… didn't you tell me once that your kids were your soldiers?"
At that, Chae Junhyeok's head shot up and he brought his fist down on the table with a bang.
"What?! What lunatic said that garbage?! Soldiers? Lay one finger on our kids and I'll make sure there's not enough of you left to bury!"
Watching him rage like he was about to flip the table any second, Han Jewoon could only laugh, helpless.
"Okay, okay. Got it, settle down and tell me more about those amazing kids of yours. So one of them really second-awakened?"
At the question, Chae Junhyeok — who a second ago had been thrashing with rage — abruptly welled up with tears.
"Our Sea-ah… Sea-ah second-awakened…."
Lee Sea-ah.
Han Jewoon instantly pictured her — the girl with the tightly-tied navy ponytail, the exceptionally bright one, full of leadership.
Chae Junhyeok clutched the empty liquor bottle to his chest and started sobbing openly.
"Ugh, better if she hadn't… our Sea-ah, how much it must've hurt her…… waaah…."
It hurt her?
Han Jewoon dutifully filed away every clue Chae Junhyeok was letting slip, while his mouth put on a slick front of offering comfort.
"You love the kids that much and you keep pushing them away — why? Soldiers, owner, whatever — you don't have to cast yourself as the villain. Looks like the kids are pretty fond of you, too."
At that, Chae Junhyeok — who'd been wailing his lungs out a second ago — went dead silent, as if he'd been doused with cold water.
His heaving shoulders locked up in an instant, unnaturally still, and an eerie silence — one in which even his breathing seemed to have vanished — settled over the table.
"……"
The clown of a drunk who'd been streaming tears and snot and raving on just moments ago was gone without a trace.
"No. The kids hate me."
It was a flat, absolute declaration, allowing no room for challenge or doubt.
Deep self-loathing and the residue of a painful past tangled chaotically in his bloodshot eyes.
Before Han Jewoon could even fully read that unfamiliar emotion, Chae Junhyeok chewed on his lip and went on.
"An adult who abused them…… how could they possibly like him. That can't happen."
"Chae Junhyeok."
"It absolutely can't……. They can't forgive Chae Junhyeok."
At the despairing murmur hanging in the air, Han Jewoon narrowed his eyes.
He etched every last piece of Chae Junhyeok's strange reaction into his mind, then casually steered the conversation elsewhere.
"Well, be that as it may. You do know you're on the government's and the Bureau's bad sides right now, don't you? What are you planning to do about it. What about your future."
Chae Junhyeok, staring blankly into empty air, moved his lips vacantly.
"My future? My future, huh…. My future is…."
……this was as far as it went.
The horrific drunken bender I'd pulled last night — as much of it as I remembered.
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