WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Returned as a God ◈

Chapter 75: The Scramble (4)

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The man bowed politely toward me.

"Representative Park would like to see you."

See, told you my guess was right.

I looked over toward the condo.

"Park Siyu's at the condo?"

"Hey, hey, come on, at least drop the casual speech a bit..."

Kang Hyeonseung, who'd been listening in from the side, chimed in nervously.

The man himself didn't seem to mind my tone much at all.

That reaction alone told me who he probably was.

Both Kang Hyeonseung and Min Seongtaek seemed to be seeing him for the first time.

Protocol Secretariat, definitely. Man, why does this guy have so many people around him? Just born lucky or something?

Judging by how he carried himself day to day, that didn't seem likely, but here we were. Strange world.

Min Seongtaek jabbed Kang Hyeonseung in the ribs, telling him not to bother with useless talk.

"Well then, we'll head back to the condo. Thanks for the help this time."

"See you around, yeah? You've got my number, right?"

"Let's go."

Min Seongtaek practically dragged Kang Hyeonseung away by force.

Well, they're not bad guys.

They'd been decent to me too, so leaving those two be wasn't a problem.

What was left was this business.

Right on cue, a Benz pulled up in front of me.

"Please, get in."

Didn't look like the destination was the condo after all.

I settled into the back seat and quietly fiddled with my phone.

The number you have dialed is currently unavailable due to circumstances on the recipient's end...

"Guess it is pretty late."

Past 4 in the morning already.

Stepping out of the dungeon, the drowsiness hit all at once.

Maybe it was the tension finally letting go, but I fell asleep almost instantly.

By the time morning sunlight pushed through the tinted car window, we'd arrived in front of the guild headquarters.

The guild lobby was a mess of Hunters, some heading to work, others there for their own business.

Thanks to a secretariat staffer's consideration, I got shown straight into Park Siyu's office.

"Where's Park Siyu?"

"Ah, that... he seems to have stepped out briefly for a personal matter. I'll go get him right away..."

"He'll be back soon, leave him."

A voice came from under the long sofa set against one side of the office.

Choi Suhyun scratched at his bedhead and poked his face out.

I knew he was there, sure, but still.

Choi Suhyun waved a hand, telling the staffer to go on out.

Once the man left, Choi Suhyun settled back comfortably and yawned.

I sat down quietly across from Choi Suhyun.

A blanket printed with baby chicks, a baby chick eye mask, earplugs, even a baby chick plush pillow. He'd clearly gone all out to sleep.

Why does he own this many chick-themed items?

And why was he crashed out on the sofa of somebody else's guild office instead of his own perfectly good house?

Choi Suhyun pulled off the eye mask hanging on his forehead and sat up straight.

Whatever else was going on, his expression looked dead serious for someone who'd just woken up.

Everything else I could let slide.

"Where'd the ring go?"

The red ring, Ishtar's Ring, always on Choi Suhyun's finger, was nowhere to be seen.

In all the time I'd known Choi Suhyun, I'd never once seen him take that ring off, except when he lent it to me.

Choi Suhyun touched his finger lightly.

You're really okay just lending that thing out like that?

Or is it not actually that important to begin with?

"Anyway, that's not what matters right now."

Even accounting for just waking up, Choi Suhyun didn't look like himself.

Something in the air felt off.

"Something happen?"

"I'm sorry."

Choi Suhyun bowed his head, and that was when I knew something had gone wrong.

Park Siyu walked in through the inner door.

"I'll explain."

Unlike Choi Suhyun, Park Siyu hadn't slept a wink by the look of the dark circles under his eyes.

Park Siyu sat down on the sofa and told me what happened while I was inside the dungeon.

Cutting out the preamble and getting to the point.

"Noona Song Eunyoung got attacked by Yu Jihan right after leaving the dungeon, and in the middle of that, some god's personal barrier activated and dragged in an Unaffiliated trainee along with her. That about it?"

"It's my fault."

"Hey, what are you talking about? I haven't quit my job yet, you know. This is Association business. And Song Eunyoung is a follower of the god Soter..."

"Okay, both of you, calm down."

These two and their pointlessly overdeveloped sense of responsibility.

Whose fault it was wasn't the point right now.

Choi Suhyun sipped his coffee, crossed his legs, and leaned back against the sofa.

"You knew Yu Jihan was going to try killing Song Eunyoung, didn't you?"

"I figured it might happen. I didn't expect it to turn out like this, though."

"So that's why you asked Park Siyu to keep an eye on Song Eunyoung? Fine, I'll let that slide. That guy's a Transcendent!"

"Yeah, well, turns out he is."

"You absolute lunatic! A Transcendent's after Song Eunyoung and you just asked someone to 'keep an eye on her' and moved on? What the hell even is that guy? Why's he after Song Eunyoung and you?"

"No idea."

"I genuinely don't know. Only thing I know is he really, really hates the god Soter."

Didn't seem like there was any point going into detail about the tower.

Even bringing up the tower wouldn't explain why Transcendent Yu Jihan hated me this much.

"You joking with me right now?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"If you don't know the reason, then, what, ugh. Grab your own god by the collar and ask him!"

Come on, man, how do you grab a formless god by the collar.

And besides, I'm that god.

"Anyway, noona's not dead."

"How would you know that?"

"Because the headcount hasn't changed."

The god Soter has two followers.

If noona had died, the follower count should've dropped.

Follower counts being a thing has its uses sometimes.

But why does that make me want to cry a little.

I looked back at Choi Suhyun's finger again.

"So, since I'm curious too, where exactly did Ishtar's Ring go?"

"Gave it to Song Eunyoung! She needs something to protect herself with too, doesn't she! Well, someone else ended up taking it off her, though."

"Yu Jihan? Hyung, are you out of your mind? There were other people you could've handed it to!! That's like handing a cat the nuke launch button!"

Is this ring actually important or not?

The way it gets treated is unbelievable!

If anyone was going to make full use of Ishtar's Ring, it was definitely going to be Yu Jihan.

At my dumbfounded reaction, Choi Suhyun scoffed.

"Anyone who takes something of mine, I'll chase them straight into hell. And so what if it's just some ring? You think I can't take that bastard down without it?"

Choi Suhyun clenched his fist, looking dead serious about it.

The guy's got some scheming in him, gotta hand it to him.

Apparently Yu Jihan had gotten dragged into all this while trying to kill noona.

Which meant the two of them were probably still together.

That was Choi Suhyun's own version of a warning, given the circumstances.

If noona ended up dead, Choi Suhyun would use the ring as an excuse to hunt Yu Jihan down to the ends of the earth.

No idea how much Yu Jihan actually knew, but at least knowing that making an enemy of Choi Suhyun wasn't a great idea...

I'd like to believe he knows that much. But would he actually care?

Somehow, I doubted it.

He'd probably just say bring it on and fight it out if it came to that.

God, where does someone even pick up an attitude like that.

Park Siyu, who'd been listening quietly, finally spoke.

"Song Eunyoung's definitely safe, right?"

"Yeah. Let's leave the blame game right here. Arguing over who's at fault isn't going to bring noona back if she got captured, right? So let's talk about the guys who kidnapped her. That's what I actually want to know about."

That Yu Jihan might attack noona had been well within the range of what I'd expected.

Park Siyu, Jeong Choa, and Choi Suhyun had all been on site.

If the one who kidnapped all three of them hadn't butted in, this would've ended somewhere reasonable.

Even Yu Jihan couldn't have pulled off a one-sided fight against three Transcendents.

And even if a fight did break out, there was no way those three couldn't protect noona alone.

So strictly speaking, the uninvited guest here was that other party.

"Why go after noona? Wait, no, was noona even the actual target?"

I kept firing off questions, arms crossed.

Looking around, seemed like I was the only one talking.

I looked up, and Choi Suhyun and Park Siyu had both gone quiet, like they'd agreed on it beforehand.

After some silent back and forth, Choi Suhyun finally spoke.

"We don't know what the purpose behind it was."

"Right, that's what we need to figure out starting now. Honestly, I'm more curious about who than why, though."

"We've got a rough idea of who."

"Huh? Seriously?"

Park Siyu gave a small nod.

"Probably a follower of the god Beritaas. Not sure exactly what they were trying to pull off, but the mana signature matches Beritaas."

Park Siyu didn't sound particularly confident saying it.

Honestly, he looked like he wasn't fully convinced himself even as he said it.

Well, let's just go with follower of Beritaas for now.

"Who's Beritaas?"

"A god who was building up influence through followers concentrated in Korea and Japan up until a few years back. These days, basically wiped out."

"Yeah? So why would that god suddenly go after noona? Actually, I'm not even sure noona was the target..."

Choi Suhyun and Park Siyu both went quiet again.

Did you two plan this? What's going on?

A thought crossed my mind.

"Wait, you're not suspecting the god Soter, are you?"

What? Why're you looking at me like that? Did you actually suspect me?

Do you know how upright and clean a life I've lived?

If it's true, I'm about to feel really wronged here.

"Can't say the thought never crossed my mind... You don't happen to know anything, do you?"

"No! Do you know how spotless the god Soter is? Not a speck of dust if you shook him out! Making enemies with other gods, please!"

"You got no conscience at all?"

"What conscience! Compared to you, hyung, I'm still squeaky clean!"

"According to Choa and Choi Suhyun, Jung Hyeonseong ended up injured at the end of it."

"Who's Jung Hyeonseong?"

"An Unaffiliated Hunter's name. Sounds like Song Eunyoung got caught up in this trying to shield him. Being from the same Unaffiliated background probably made her more attached to him."

"Ah, so it wasn't noona they were after, it was this Jung Hyeonseong guy. And right around that exact moment, Yu Jihan happened to be trying to kill noona, and in the middle of all that, noona tried to shield Jung Hyeonseong, and the three of them all got tangled up together nice and neat?"

"Probably?"

"What do you mean, probably! What kind of mess is that supposed to be!"

"That's exactly my point! What! Damn it! So what if I raise my voice about it!"

Choi Suhyun's voice climbed too, clearly frustrated as well.

Park Siyu, unable to just watch, stepped in to calm the two of us down.

Choi Suhyun gulped down the coffee in front of him.

If everything discussed so far held up, then Beritaas's target was clearly Jung Hyeonseong, not noona.

I turned to Park Siyu and asked.

"This Jung Hyeonseong kid, anything on him?"

"Nothing. That's the problem."

Sounded like he'd already dug through everything there was to dig through, given how flatly he said it.

If someone as well-connected as Park Siyu, plus Choi Suhyun with his Association background, dug in and still came up empty, that meant this kid was genuinely one of the rare, truly clean people left in Korea.

Guess living too straight can cause its own problems sometimes, huh.

Really makes you think a person should break a few laws here and there...

"Fine, let's say all we've got is that he's an Unaffiliated Hunter and nothing else. Let's say Unaffiliated status is the target here. Then why Jung Hyeonseong specifically?"

"Because he's Unaffiliated, that's probably why they went after him."

"I'm asking why him specifically. That's not like you, hyung. It's not like he's the only Unaffiliated Hunter on the whole planet."

"That's true, sure."

Ugh, this is maddening! Why Jung Hyeonseong, I said!

There's gotta be some reason behind it!

"Unaffiliated Hunters are rare, but there's usually about one appearing a year... If the reason they targeted Jung Hyeonseong is that he's Unaffiliated, then other Hunters would... huh."

"What? What's wrong?"

Fill me in too, you two and your cryptic act.

Park Siyu and Choi Suhyun stared at each other, both mouths hanging open.

I'm curious too, damn it!

Let me in on it!

Choi Suhyun shot up out of his seat and planted himself uninvited in front of Park Siyu's computer.

"What's with him?"

"Nothing comes to mind."

"By your logic, if they went after Jung Hyeonseong for being Unaffiliated, there should be other Hunters out there just like him."

"Right?"

"Choi Suhyun, sure, he came up through the education division. But even I've run into Unaffiliated Hunters plenty of times since my own awakening. And yet I can't recall a single one by name. Song Eunyoung, from an Unaffiliated background. Jung Hyeonseong. Choi Suhyun..."

And then there was me, Unaffiliated once before meeting the god Soter. Four of us total.

Noona and I both had gods now, so we couldn't be called Unaffiliated anymore.

Strictly speaking, Choi Suhyun wasn't purely Unaffiliated either.

He could serve a god if he wanted, he just chose to keep his distance on his own.

"Hey, maybe you just didn't happen to notice a few Unaffiliated Hunters, that's all?"

"I wish that were the case."

Park Siyu's tone made it clear how slim he thought that possibility was, and he kept his eyes fixed on Choi Suhyun sitting at the computer.

Choi Suhyun's screen showed the HN admin page pulled up.

Hey, is it even okay to run company software like that from outside the office?

"Nothing. Only Jung Hyeonseong shows up. That can't be right..."

Choi Suhyun ran the search over and over, but there wasn't a single record of any Unaffiliated Hunter anywhere.

To sum it up, both of them had definitely encountered Unaffiliated Hunters over the course of their careers as Hunters, and both knew Unaffiliated Hunters existed.

But not only did neither of them actually remember any, there wasn't a single record of past Unaffiliated Hunters anywhere in the HN database either.

"This is a cognitive error."

Footnotes:

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