44 – 044. Kang Haneul (5)
After entrusting the request to Illyana, I went back to the office of the Special Countermeasures Division. There was still time left before work, and I wanted to ask Min Chaeryeong about this once again.
“A business trip?”
However, Chaeryeong Min was not in the office. Chae-yeon said that she went on a business trip to another academy.
“Another academy? Where?”
“Yeoil Academy in Incheon.”
“Yeoil?”
It was a name I had never heard of. Yeoil Academy is the second-largest academy in Korea located in Incheon, and it was a private academy that formed a rivalry with Green House. It must have been an exchange episode between the academies in the middle of the original work that appeared in earnest.
But why did Min Chaeryeong go there?
“Do you know what you were on a business trip for?”
“Mole?Lu?”
Chae-yeon stuck her head out from behind her screen in her seat and shrugged her shoulders. Yeah, she was my fault for expecting him.
I turned my gaze to another person in the office. Most of them were on missions such as outside patrols, so there was only one person left in the office besides me and Chae-yeon.
“Senior Yuri.”
“Eh?”
Yuri Cho shook her shoulders at my call. We’d been together for over a week now, and she still seemed uncomfortable with me. Lee Tae-ho said it would be like that for the next month or so.
“What did the team leader do on a business trip?”
“Well, what? I don’t know the details either…….”
Still, like when we first met, I didn’t use polite words of respect for my junior. Considering her androphobia, that alone would be a great improvement.
“D, from what I heard, you said you were going on a business trip for something related to a scholarship foundation, I guess? I didn’t even hear what was going on…….”
“A scholarship foundation?”
At those words, the existence of the inspector who had contacted Kang Ha-neul flashed through his mind.
Min Chaeryeong must have been aware of the existence of the inspector. However, she did not inform me of the inspector’s existence. And now, she went on a business trip to contact the Yeoil Scholarship Foundation without saying a word to me, who had entrusted the mission.
It was too cunning to dismiss it as a coincidence. Therefore, it would be reasonable to judge that there must be some connection between the two incidents.
‘That means that the inspector Kang Ha-neul talked about is not a Green House person, but a Yeo-il side. Then the inspector’s purpose in approaching Kang Ha-neul is not to prevent her from dropping out.’
There is no reason why Yeoil’s school supervisors should stop Green House students from dropping out. Likewise, there would be no reason for the scholarship foundation belonging to Yeoil to provide financial support such as scholarships to Green House students.
‘Then, a scout.’
I was almost ignorant of the physiology of academies and scholarship foundations, but that was the only possibility that came to my mind.
It was quite possible. Kang Ha-neul’s psychic ability belongs to an objectively very outstanding ability. If she tries to drop out of her academy, it’s no wonder that other academies, who have been eyeing her abilities, approach her.
‘Is that why Min Chaeryeong went away? To prevent Yeo-il from stealing Kang Ha-neul into her academy?’
It didn’t seem like something the guards would care about, but Min Chaeryeong was the subject of this mission. It didn’t make sense if he coveted her river sky’s Avatar abilities, trying to prevent her dropping out or her incorporation in order to keep her under him in the future.
‘But it’s a bit strange.’
There was just one fact that I couldn’t understand, and that was why they didn’t explain the circumstances behind it to me.
Min Chaeryeong didn’t provide me with any relevant information on this mission. The same goes for her detailed course of action. She just blocked Kang Ha-neul’s dropout with her fists. That was all of Min Chaeryeong’s orders.
It was an act that could not be understood by common sense. I don’t know why Min Chae-ryeong gave me this mission, but if she wanted to prevent Kang Ha-neul from dropping out through me, wouldn’t it be more effective if she provided as much information as possible and gave detailed action guidelines?
‘First of all, there are two possibilities that come to mind. There was something kangaroo that didn’t give me any information or… ….’
Or that she didn’t expect the situation itself in which I prevented her from dropping out of Kang Ha-neul from the beginning.
‘My head will break, damn it.’
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t guess what Chaeryeong Min’s true intentions were. Even if the information was lacking, it was too lacking. It seemed that at least the results of Illyana’s investigation would make a proper judgment possible.
“What are you worrying about?”
I looked at her at her question of her vegetable relationship. Come to think of it, she should also ask how Ji Ye-won, who was supposed to be guarding her, was able to get out of the safe house.
“Vegetable smoke. See me for a second.”
Conscious of my listening ears, I headed for the locker room with Chae-yeon. The time to enter the mission has already passed, so no one will come here for a while.
Still, I locked the locker room door just in case, and asked Chae-yeon silently.
“Vegetable smoke. You said you’re going back to the office from today. Then, what happened to Ji Ye-won?”
“Ji Ye-won? Did he go out?”
“What?”
“I’m out. He’s not in the safe house anymore. So I, the guard, don’t have to be there anymore.”
It was the first time. Ji Ye-won is no longer in the safe house, what the hell are you talking about?
In the first place, she was placed in the safe house to avoid the Dawning Corps’ pursuit. Although she had caught a series of gangsters, including Yoo Hyeon-ho, her pursuit of her related to her organization’s core project could not have ended just like that.
Ji Ye-won is still exposed to danger. But when she left the safe house, she said it made sense.
“What the hell does that mean? Explain in detail what the hell happened-“
“Listen to the person himself for the details.”
Are you listening to yourself? Are you calling Min Chaeryeong and asking him to listen? If not-
“Are you telling me to listen directly to Ji Ye-won?”
“Yes. That’s right. In fact, I don’t even know the details.”
“Ji Ye-won said she had left the safe house. Then where are you now?”
“I don’t know.”
“What is that… ….”
I didn’t know this, I didn’t know that, I didn’t know anything at all.
However, I couldn’t just blame her. As it was for me, it could be that Min Chae-ryeong went ahead with the work on her own without any explanation.
“I don’t even know where Ji Ye-won is, so how could I ask her to tell me about her situation? Why didn’t the manager say anything?”
“There was.”
“What did you say?”
“She said that she would naturally find out where Ji Ye-won is after work today.”
“What are you talking about again?”
Did you send a reservation text message just in time for work? Or did you secretly leave a note in the mailbox at home?
I don’t understand why it’s so complicated when you can just tell me what it is. When I expressed my feelings, Chae-yeon shrugged her shoulders and said,
“I heard it was a surprise of its own.”
“What is a surprise?”
In her mind, the face of Min Chae-ryeong, who covered her mouth and smiled like a fox, came to mind. She is a surprise and nabal, and if you just say it in a cool way, where does it come out? Really.
‘I’ll find out naturally after work?’
Today, I had to leave work on time without night shift. Therefore, the time left until work is about 1 hour.
It wasn’t a long time, but my body was itching for no reason because of Min Chae-ryeong’s words conveyed by Vegetable Yeon. To put it bluntly, she was anxious. She said that Ji Ye-won’s departure from the safe house meant that her whereabouts were at increased risk of being discovered by the Dawning Corps.
There is no way Min Chae-ryeong didn’t take any action while liberating Ji Ye-won. She was anxious, but she couldn’t help it. Because her main character, her life was still directly related to mine.
At most one hour. There is almost no possibility that Ji Ye-won’s personal problems will occur within it. I don’t have one, but it just didn’t suit my temper to sit here and wait for an hour.
‘Okay, I’ve decided.’
The time to worry was not long. Having made my decision, I immediately opened the locked locker room door.
“Senior Yuri.”
“Huh!”
Jo Yu-ri, who was sitting in the seat at my call, looked at me with a trembling body.
“Why, why are you calling me?”
“I will leave early.”
“What?”
“Eh?”
My dignified declaration overlapped with Cho Yu-ri and Chae-yeon’s exclamations.
“Something urgent happened at home.”
It didn’t suit my temper to sit still and wait for an hour.
***
Training hunters costs money. It was a common sense that everyone living in Korea had, and a universal perception of hunters.
In Korea, hunters are divided into 4 types: 1st, 2nd, 3rd level hunters and civilian hunters.
Basically, all personnel who graduated from the private hunter academy are given the nationally certified third-class hunter qualification. If you graduate from Green House, a national academy, you will be awarded a level 2 license, and private hunters can obtain a level 2 license through a separate exam. The first-class hunter is a qualification given only to a few special superhumans designated by the country, and those who are not from the academy but have completed separate education are granted a private hunter license.
Excluding special cases of first-class and civilian hunters, the average time required to train general second- and third-class hunters is 4.7 Years. The training cost is equivalent to about 500 million won per person.
Most of the training costs are covered through state subsidies or corporate sponsorships. However, about 200 million, or about 40%, must be paid by the students themselves.
200 Million is no small amount of money. Only a handful of enrolled students are able to pay such fees. Because of this, most students receive scholarships through the scholarship foundation established in each academy…. It is a situation where he is receiving hunter education while paying debts in the name of.
The Yeoil Foundation under the Yeoil Academy headed by Min Chaeryeong was one of those scholarship foundations. The Yeoil Foundation is a foundation operated with the funds of the Yeoil Group, which stands shoulder to shoulder with the Hansung Group. It was one of the largest scholarship foundations in Korea in name and reality, providing scholarships to students of 7 academies besides the Yeoil Academy.
As the scale clearly shows, the head office building of the Yeoil Foundation was a large 25-story high building. Min Chaeryeong stepped inside, frowning at the brilliant reflection of the sunset from the glass exterior wall.
“Are you here? Min Chae-ryeong, team leader.”
Her desk clerk soon recognized her and came to her aid. However, Min Chae-ryeong did not even look at her and just spoke bluntly.
“Is Inspector Kim Yo-han at the top? We had an appointment to meet today.”
“Sorry. Due to unavoidable circumstances today, Scholar Kim Yohan…….”
“Ejaculation?”
Min Chae-ryeong’s cold gaze scanned her staff. Feeling an instinctive sense of intimidation, the employee trembled.
“Ejaculation on the subject of a trick to steal someone else’s academy student? Are you really going to try it out with us right now?”
Min Chae-ryeong I didn’t mean to intimidate her. She was just her words, which she normally let out with her emotions. However, even that level was daunting enough for her ordinary staff to handle.
“I’m sorry. Scholar Yohan Kim is currently attending a meeting with the directors of the foundation at the Yongin branch…….”
“So. Why is the inspector I was supposed to meet today going to Yongin instead of Incheon to attend the meeting?”
“That, that… ….”
As an employee, it felt unfair. In the first place, from the point of view of Min Chaeryeong’s promise, it was only what she arbitrarily decided and notified yesterday. Originally, Min Chaeryeong was not in a position to speak out loud like this.
Nonetheless, the reason why her staff is in trouble with her is because of orders from her superiors.
‘A guest is going to visit today at the Green House. It may be an inconsiderate and rude guest, but try to please as much as you can. Never go against your heart.’
It was a mysterious order that made it impossible to guess her intentions, but as her lowest-ranking employee, she had no choice but to follow it.
I heard that he is the leader of the security team on the Green House side, but why the hell are special orders coming from the directors of the foundation because of the leader of the security team?
As a mere desk clerk, she had no idea what was going on behind the scenes. She didn’t know, so she just tried to please Min Chae-ryeong as much as possible by following her instructions from above.
“When will Inspector Kim Yohan return?”
“As scheduled, at 9:00 am tomorrow morning… ….”
“Ha. To wait a whole day? I told you to wipe your neck and wait, but that doesn’t sound like a word, does it?”
The words were not directed at her staff, but her hands were already wet with cold sweat. What on earth is this person so confident about? Why do the foundation’s board of directors care about her planting? At first, I wondered why, but now I like it. All she wanted right now was for this uncomfortable situation to end as quickly as possible, even if only for one minute and one second.
“That’s about taking your anger out on a desk clerk who doesn’t know what’s going on, Team Leader Min Chaeryeong.”
Did her wish come true?
The employee turned his head at the lithe voice heard from behind, and soon let out a sigh of relief with a more relaxed expression.
“Mr. Yujin Seong…… !”
Sung Eugene. An executive of the S-class guild ‘Winter Alliance’, a director of the Yeoil Foundation, a first-class hunter who has conquered numerous dungeons, and a rising supernova who has become one of the few S-class superhumans in Korea at the young age of 20.
At his appearance, the desk clerk was relieved that he was alive. On the other hand, Min Chaeryeong looked at him with an expression saying, ‘Look at this?’.
“Who is this? Are you Sung Eugene Hunter, who is rumored to have a difficult face to see? What are you doing here?”
“A noble guest has arrived, and someone of the right level should meet him. Isn’t it? Team leader Min Chaeryeong.”
“Take off the title of team leader. This is not even a green house. Why don’t you just call me senpai like before?”
At those words, the employee’s eyes widened. Speaking of Seong Yu-jin, she is a famous hunter in Korea. What the hell is the identity of that woman who treats him so innocently?
“Ha ha ha. I guess there are a lot of eyes here.”
On the other hand, Seong Yu-jin only smiled awkwardly as if she was in trouble. Soon he pointed to the elevator behind her and said to Min Chae-ryeong.
“Welcome to the Yeoil Foundation. Min Chaeryeong, team leader. Let me take you to the drawing room.”
“If so.”
After answering that, the displeasure on Min Chae-ryeong’s face disappeared before she knew it.