Chapter 197: Instinct (2)

TL: SHW

In the end, the conversation couldn't go any further.

Gamble kept cautiously checking our reactions, but the pout of her lips made it painfully obvious that she didn't think Hope had done anything wrong. What exactly had he done to be proud of that she was making a face like that?

Hope, on the other hand, carried himself boldly with the expression of someone who had nothing to be ashamed of, but the hesitation in his steps gave away the fact that he was watching our reactions. Had he really done something bad enough that even he felt the need to be that wary? That made me even more uneasy.

I couldn't say I'd been watching the two of them for very long. But considering how they'd behaved even in that short time, if their reactions had been reversed, it would've been fine… no, it wouldn't have been fine, but at least it would've bothered me less than this.

Damn it.

But Hong Seok-young, wearing an expression that gave no hint of what he was thinking, sent Gamble back into the room. Gamble kept glancing worriedly at Hope before finally leaving. Apparently she'd thought she was hiding it, but just before she went back, she mimed punching the air. That…?

Right. No ordinary human would think of keeping a monster wearing human skin as a friend.

"Then where am I supposed to…?"

Hope cautiously opened his mouth with a sheepish grin.

When the gazes of Hong Seok-young, Lee Mi-seon, the other Daseon Hunters, and me all converged on him at once, Hope flinched and hurriedly waved his hands.

"Uh, no. It's fine. I can just stay with Sandra. I can sleep on the floor or whatever! I'm good at sleeping on floors! All I need is a blanket!"

"……."

"Sandra's staying over there, right? Can I go?"

"……."

"…I'm good at sleeping on the street too!"

"We're not so lacking in basic decency that we'd make you do that."

Hong Seok-young smiled by crookedly lifting just one corner of his mouth, though his eyes weren't smiling at all. The sight of him baring his teeth made it seem as though I could hear a beast growling somewhere.

I did feel a little sorry for Hope, who had gone rigid with nerves and looked flustered… but.

Once I'd become aware of it, separating out emotions that weren't mine was easy. Hope said it wasn't magic, but the sensation of it forcibly intruding into my mind felt similar to magic. Something like Mental Magic. Once I knew how, it was easy.

…And compared to Mental Magic, there was almost no resistance to speak of.

It was a shame Kim Chae-min wasn't here. If Kim Chae-min had been around, I could've gotten a more detailed explanation. What on earth had happened that she hadn't come?

As I stood there looking displeased, Hong Seok-young signaled me with his eyes.

With Gamble gone… Hope was easy prey.

I shrugged.

***

Hope, who had been raised by an Asian mother, was unexpectedly well-versed in East Asian etiquette. He was so free-spirited that I'd assumed he wouldn't know anything about that sort of thing.

What I meant was.

"If you sit like that, doesn't it make it look as though we're scolding you?"

Hope was kneeling in front of us.

"…Aren't you?"

Hope asked with a dubious expression.

He raised one knee as though he would stand up immediately if we told him we weren't.

I crossed my arms.

"How old… are you again?"

"Yes, sir."

Hope obediently settled back onto his knees. His mouth, however, kept running as freely as ever.

"But I'm telling you, I didn't do it on purpose. It's that thing. What do you call it? A species trait! Like how Koreans like kimchi!"

"It's a stereotype to assume every Korean likes kimchi."

"Come on, you know what I mean!"

Hope protested with an aggrieved look. I exchanged a glance with Hong Seok-young over Hope's head.

"Not really."

"I'm saying! It's something I can't control…."

"How old are you again?"

"……Something I can't control, sir. No, but I'm Australian, you know? I even call my dad by his first name!"

"Am I your dad?"

"Ugh."

Hope grimaced as though he'd bitten into a bug. The feeling was mutual.

"Anyway. You're saying it's something you can't control? Then did you ever think of warning us?"

"Well, what's bad about getting along if we're going to work together? I know I make a bad first impression!"

Should I have been glad that he had enough self-awareness to realize that, or….

"But seriously… it's not anything major. Look. You noticed pretty quickly too. Honestly, I didn't think I'd get found out like this, you know? It's not like it causes some huge amount of interference. It just… makes people's perception of me a little, just a tiiiiiiny bit better."

Just as I'd expected, all it took was a little prodding before Hope started spilling everything.

When I nodded along at the right moments, Hope apparently decided that someone finally understood him, because his face brightened and the words started pouring out without pause.

"It doesn't even last that long… At the earliest, until tomorrow? Two days, maybe three at most? Then the effect's gone."

I thought I understood now why Gamble hadn't volunteered to serve as Hope's brains. Even the greatest genius in the world couldn't make up for something that simply didn't exist.

"Uh, of course, even as I am now, the interference would've been stronger inside a Dungeon? And on top of that, if I weren't human… if I were in my original state, it might've… worked even better? Ah, but I'm human now, and this isn't a Dungeon, so I guess that doesn't matter."

"Why does being inside a Dungeon matter?"

"Because the environments inside and outside the Cradle are different."

"So?"

"I mean, the environment on Earth differs from continent to continent too. You guys should know that better than I do. You've got more experience being human than me! Look, the water's different from continent to continent, the terrain's different, and the animals living there are different. Even ocean currents and the direction the seasonal winds blow are different. Why would Dungeons be any different?"

Hope spoke with his eyes wide open.

"If one of those places suits me, then it's easier for me to use my abilities…. It's the same even with a species trait."

"For example?"

"For example? Hmm. I'm more comfortable somewhere without much water. Somewhere with good soil, where grass grows well. I like places with lots of flowers too."

"Even now, do you get stronger when you enter a Dungeon?"

"It's not that I get stronger… You didn't understand what I meant, did you?"

Hope looked up at me with pity in his eyes. I'd never once considered myself a violent person, but something about Hope in particular always made the violence inside me threaten to wake up.

If this were the Ability Management Agency, I'd have found some excuse or another to fire him. Actually, I wouldn't have even needed an excuse, would I? Ordinary civil servants might be nearly impossible to fire, but the Ability Management Agency was different. From the very beginning, it had started with a roster that made people say it was more Hong Seok-young's private Guild than a government agency. Even when I joined, ranks and all sorts of other things still hadn't been properly sorted out, and the place was a mess. There were plenty of things even I hadn't been able to touch and had simply left alone. Even I had far more authority, more responsibilities, and a bigger salary than my official position would've suggested….

No. This was beside the point.

Hope was definitely the kind of human… I hated most. Irresponsible, loose-lipped, sometimes seeming quick on the uptake only to turn around and be unbelievably stupid. Guys like this always caused trouble. Han Tae-kyung fell into this category too. You put in a one, so a one should come out, but instead they produced a three and tormented everyone around them.

"It's not exactly the same. It just feels like it works a little better? Don't you ever have days where you think, My blade's cutting especially well today? It's about that much."

Still kneeling, Hope spoke cheerfully. I could practically feel him congratulating himself in his head for coming up with such a great analogy.

Instead, I was the one feeling ashamed of myself. Because a guy like this wasn't the boss…. If that idiot had actually been the real boss of Ark, I might've wanted to kill Father with my own hands.

Because I'd have found myself thinking, How could he possibly let someone like that get away?

"Then…."

"Yeah?"

"There's one thing I want to confirm."

"If I answer that, can I sit in a chair? I really can't get used to sitting on the floor. How do people live like this?"

He always had to add one thing too many.

I frowned.

"Are you trapped in that body right now? If we kill you, do you turn into a monster?"

"Come on."

Hope immediately laughed, the sound escaping him like air from a punctured balloon.

"Even I can't come back to life after I die. Maybe if I'd only overlaid my mind onto a body, but I was reborn. I've been telling you that."

Then, without the slightest hesitation, he answered.

"I'm human."

I looked at Hong Seok-young.

In an instant, Hong Seok-young pulled a palm-sized Dagger from within his clothes. No sound. No Killing Intent. Hope kept smiling brightly, unaware of a thing.

I didn't know what else Hope was hiding.

Could I trust this guy?

Even if we'd agreed to allow a certain degree of secrecy… was there really any value in continuing an alliance this untrustworthy? Wouldn't it be better to get rid of him now?

He said he was human, but he was still someone I couldn't fully believe was human. Thinking back on it now, even the fact that I'd gone along with that ridiculous… thing Gamble had said about wanting to leave Hope some way to escape might've been due to Hope's influence.

It was strange. The very day Hong Seok-young encountered me in Myeong-dong, he'd dragged me straight into an interrogation room and questioned me for more than a week. Thankfully, he'd treated me humanely, but that didn't mean he hadn't treated me like a suspect. I knew how the Awakened Crime Investigation Office operated, so I'd just let most of it wash over me….

As I'd thought, everything involving Hope was strange. I wasn't even sure whether I was judging things properly anymore.

"…Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I'm thinking about how to dispose of you."

"Dispose of me? You sound like Noah."

"……."

Hong Seok-young was still standing behind Hope with the Dagger drawn. My eyes met his dark ones. Father's eyes, unlike any I'd ever seen before.

If I opened my mouth now, Hong Seok-young would teach me something Father had never taught me.

I knew without him saying anything.

Did I want that?

No.

Was that a method I needed?

If I shook my head here, would that be because of Hope's influence? Or?

I thought it over and over again as I stared at Hope, who was looking blankly up at me.

"Hey."

"Hm?"

I tapped Hope's knee a couple of times with the tip of my foot.

"How many days did you say you'd be staying here?"

"Me?"

Hope tilted his head from side to side.

"I think the paperwork I hounded our clerk into sending said a week. It was seriously hard getting that much time off!"

"Don't answer things I didn't ask."

"No, seriously, it was really hard! I may not look it, but I'm kind of a big deal in our Guild, you know? I'm even planning to move up to S-Rank soon!"

I calculated quickly in my head. One week. A week.

"You act like this at your Guild too, don't you?"

"…Could you define 'like this' a little more specifically?"

"With nothing in your head."

"That 'nothing in my head' part is kind of harsh. It's not that empty."

"Answer."

"……Iiiii doooon't reaaally knooow…."

That was the answer of someone who knew perfectly well.

"Probably about the same? People don't change that easily, you know."

"Then that's fine. Contact them and say you've decided to spend another week sightseeing. Tell them you're going to look around Seoul."

Hope looked at me with an odd expression.

"…Are you going to show me around Seoul?"

"No."

I looked at Hong Seok-young and Lee Mi-seon, who was standing there awkwardly like a spare part, and spoke.

"Let's go to the Americas."

"…The Americas?"

"The United States or South America, I don't care."

"……You don't?"

"You. You said you and Gamble earned your operating funds there. You must have some kind of base there."

"Uh…."

"And we'll catch that guy Henry while we're at it."

"Uhh…."

Hope visibly panicked, then hurriedly looked behind him. Hong Seok-young had already hidden the Dagger again.

Hope shouted.

"Isn't your son a little weird?!"

"Kids always go a little crazy when they hit puberty. But if he says we're going, then I suppose we're going."

"What? You're weird too!"

"No sane person works as a Hunter in the first place."

"That's true, but!!"

Hope scrunched up his face.

"It's definitely weird!"

Hope seemed to have the wrong idea about something, because I wasn't the weird one. This world was.

***

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