▶ Chapter 14. People I Miss (1)
All three brothers had probably expected me to have quite a lot.
Even so, the surprise on all three of their faces was obvious.
“That's really a lot. And… every single byproduct is in extremely clean and uniform condition. That means you killed them all in a very short amount of time.”
Apparently, that was the part that surprised them.
Han Dongju's eyes gleamed intensely.
“You got these from a Grade 9 Break, right? These are also in ridiculously good condition. How many seconds did it take you to kill them?”
“One second?”
“……!”
Han Dongju's mouth dropped open so wide that I actually worried it might split.
Finding his reaction a little funny, I took something out right in front of his nose.
A single Grade 10 Random Draw Box.
“……!!!”
I hadn't known it was possible, but Han Dongju's mouth opened even wider.
He was even drooling.
Ugh, gross.
I wanted to kick him in the butt and tell him to get a grip, but of course I couldn't do that.
Still, I could tease him a little.
I slowly moved the box to the left.
Like a cat hypnotized by a dangling toy, Han Dongju's sparkling eyes immediately followed it to the left.
Oh.
This time, I moved the box far to the right.
Once again, Han Dongju's eyes followed it instantly.
This is fun!
I raised the box up, then lowered it down, but Han Dongju reacted exactly the same way every time.
“Please let me touch it just once!”
“Sure.”
With trembling hands, Han Dongju carefully accepted the box as if he were handling a national treasure.
“Waaah! A Grade 10 box! This is my first time touching one! Awesome!!! The size, the weight, the texture…”
Then he licked the box with his tongue!
“Even the taste is the same as the other boxes! The only difference is that the mana inside feels much heavier! Waaaaah!”
Now Han Dongju was even rubbing his cheek against the box.
Tears of pure joy gathered in his eyes.
…I think he's lost his mind.
Just as I thought that, Han Junggeun let out a sigh so deep it seemed like the ground itself might sink.
He walked over and smacked Han Dongju on the head with his fist.
Thump!
For what was supposed to be a simple knock on the head, it made an awfully heavy sound.
“Get a grip.”
“Yes…”
The shine coming from Han Dongju's eyes dimmed a little, but he still looked half-crazy.
He didn't even let go of the box in his arms, as if his life depended on it.
He simply stared passionately at it while drooling.
Bam!
This time, Han Junggeun struck his younger brother's head hard enough that it looked like he was trying to break it.
Fortunately, Han Dongju's head didn't burst open, and his eyes finally returned to normal.
“…That hurts.”
When Han Dongju made a tearful face, Han Yonghwan walked over and healed him.
Then Han Yonghwan took the box away, pulled disinfectant alcohol wipes from his inventory, and quickly scrubbed the box with practiced movements.
Especially the places Han Dongju's tongue and drool had touched.
“Sniff…”
With tears hanging from the corners of his eyes, Han Dongju stared at the box after it was returned to me.
Maybe it was because he already had cat-like features, but he looked exactly like a cat whose entire body had gone limp from unbearable sadness.
I felt a little sorry for him.
“…You can hold it for a while. But no rubbing it against your cheek, no licking it, and no drooling.”
“YES!!!”
Han Dongju instantly brightened and carefully hugged the box to his chest.
I grinned.
Then I placed the rest in front of him.
The other nine Grade 10 boxes.
“!!!”
Han Dongju looked so overwhelmed with bliss that he seemed ready to melt right there on the spot.
Seriously.
Teasing him is fun! Is this what it feels like to tease a younger brother?
The thought suddenly crossed my mind.
“I want to sell everything I've taken out except for the Grade 10 boxes. The Grade 7 boxes too.”
“The Grade 10 boxes! You're not selling the Grade 10 boxes?!”
Naturally, the one desperately shouting was Han Dongju.
“I'd like to ask Hunter Han Dongju to inspect them for me.”
I didn't have particularly high expectations for the Grade 7 boxes.
But Grade 10 boxes were different.
There has never been a Grade 10 box in recorded history.
They were rewards that appeared after clearing a Grade 9 Break or completing a Grade 10 mission.
And until now, no Hunter had ever succeeded at either one.
Thinking about that, Han Dongju's reaction wasn't all that strange.
Han Dongju is also an expert at opening boxes because of his extremely high Luck stat.
For an item crafter, going crazy over high-grade byproducts, mana stones, and boxes like these was practically instinct.
“You want me to open the Grade 10 boxes?!”
Han Dongju jumped for joy, still carefully holding one of the boxes in his arms.
“Yes.”
“Right now! No, wait. I can't do that. I need to calm down…”
“Huh?”
“Normally, I open commissioned boxes right away, but this is a Grade 10 box! I need to prepare thoroughly first so that something even better can come out.”
“Prepare?”
“Yes. I save up all the boxes I buy, then purify myself with a proper bath. Every month on the seventh, I start opening them at exactly 7:07:07 in the morning.”
“……”
I suddenly remembered hearing that Hunters did all kinds of strange things before opening random boxes.
“Take them back for now and come here again three days from now, before seven in the morning. I'll open them then. That way, something better will definitely come out!!!”
This time, Han Dongju clenched both fists as his eyes burned with determination.
“……”
Without saying anything, I took the box from him and put it back into my inventory.
I also stored the other nine.
“NotAHunter.”
Han Yonghwan, who had been looking at Han Dongju with an exasperated expression, spoke.
“It will take us a little time to accurately calculate the value of these byproducts and mana stones. Would it be all right if we tell you when we meet again three days from now?”
“Yes. Do that.”
“But… I don't see the Grade 9 boss's mana stone. Are you not planning to sell that?”
“No.”
And immediately afterward, I saw it.
Han Yonghwan, Han Junggeun, and even Han Dongju all looked deeply disappointed.
No.
They looked devastated.
Even Han Junggeun, who showed the least emotion out of the three, reacted that way.
That surprised me quite a bit.
“Do you really need the Grade 9 boss's mana stone that badly?”
“YES!!! VERY!!! DESPERATELY!!! WE NEED IT!!!”
Han Dongju's voice thundered through the warehouse as he bowed deeply to me.
His upper body went down almost as far as his knees.
“Please, sell us just one! Please! Please!”
It looked like if I refused, he might actually drop to his knees.
And not just Han Dongju.
Han Junggeun and Han Yonghwan looked ready to do the same.
“…You're not planning to use it for anything bad, right?”
They didn't seem like the type, but I decided to ask directly just in case.
Judging by the amount of mana contained within a Grade 9 boss's mana stone, it could become a terrifying weapon all by itself.
“Of course not!”
“Then tell me what you're planning to use it for. Even a rough explanation is fine.”
“We need it as the energy source for this device—‘Makdoongi.’”
Han Dongju pulled what looked like some kind of computer out of his inventory.
There was a monitor that looked to be about thirty inches, along with a keyboard and mouse.
All of them were connected to a mana-stone container used to power devices with mana stones.
It didn't look ordinary at all.
Makdoongi?
The name was a little funny.
“There's something we're desperately searching for. We finally finished making this item recently, and it can track what we're looking for. But to operate it properly, we need a Grade 9 boss's mana stone.”
Come to think of it, I remembered something.
“The third of the Wish Guild brothers is apparently close to completing a new item.”
“I heard it's related to mana, but I don't know the details. All three brothers are really looking forward to it, so it must be something incredible. The Guild Master has been really worried because it seems like it'll be finished soon.”
An employee from my previous workplace had told me that the day after my memories of my past life returned.
This had to be it.
“What are you looking for?”
Han Dongju couldn't answer.
His face darkened as he lowered his head.
Han Yonghwan exchanged an unreadable glance with Han Junggeun.
Han Junggeun gave a short nod.
Then Han Yonghwan spoke.
“Our youngest sibling.”
+ Chapter 5. People I Miss
“What?”
“When we were young, we lost our youngest sibling in an unexpected accident. We thought our sibling had died… Fortunately, thank God, that wasn't the case. But we have no idea where they are.”
At first glance, Han Yonghwan looked calm, unlike Han Dongju.
But his eyes told a different story.
There was a depth of pain in them that I couldn't even begin to imagine.
Guilt.
Sadness.
Frustration.
Anger…
I had seen those emotions countless times in my previous life.
They were the eyes of someone who had lost something precious because of an unavoidable tragedy.
“…How exactly does this device, Makdoongi, work?”
As if he had caught the scent of hope, Han Dongju suddenly raised his head and immediately began explaining.
But…
Is this some kind of alien language?
That was honestly what it sounded like.
“Did you not understand?”
“…No.”
“I explained it really simply, though.”
Han Dongju stared at me with a pitiful expression that seemed to say,
Oh dear, you couldn't even understand that? Tsk, tsk. Are you stupid?
Maybe Han Yonghwan noticed me clenching my fist, because he quickly stepped in.
“There are research results showing that family members have very similar mana, whether they're related by blood or through adoption.”
“Yes, I know.”
The fact that all three brothers had silver mana that felt almost identical was one example.
Then suddenly, a thought came to me.
My mana was silver too.
