EFME 74

Sunyul headed straight for the guild master’s office with Muyoung. Muyoung had Sunyul sit on the sofa in the guild master’s office instead of the break room.

“Wait here.”

“Yes…”

What on earth was he brought here for? He couldn’t imagine what it could be.

Muyoung seemed to be doing something while sitting at his desk, then stood up after a moment. He then gave Sunyul a look.

“Follow me.”

“Yes. But where are we going?”

“To have you earn your keep.”

“My keep?”

“Rent. You have to pay with your body.”

“…Am I working?”

“Yes.”

It was an unexpected conclusion. But… when he thought about it, it was a reasonable conclusion. Isn’t it only natural to pay for things with labor?

He didn’t feel like it, but he could do anything Muyoung asked of him. Considering everything he had done for him so far, he couldn’t just say no to being asked to do a little work.

Muyoung headed toward the area where the research labs were. He flinched for a moment at the mention of a research lab, but it was on a completely different floor from where Yoon Garam had been. Before entering, Sunyul read the nameplate on the door.

“Item Maintenance Team…”

“Oh, you’re here?”

A hunter in rather comfortable attire who had been working came out and greeted them.

“My name is Jin Seoyeon of the Item Maintenance Team. I’ll be working with Mr. Lim Sunyul today. It’s an honor to meet you.”

“Ah, yes. I look forward to working with you…”

Sunyul, who greeted her in a flurry, had his eyes fixed on Muyoung. It was a look asking for an explanation of what on earth was going on. When Sunyul showed no interest at all, Seoyeon cautiously observed the situation.

“I haven’t explained yet. Explain it to him from the beginning.”

“Ah, ah… Yes, I understand.”

Quickly coming to her senses, Seoyeon began to explain. Sunyul also turned to look at Seoyeon.

“This place is, as the name suggests, a team in charge of item maintenance. All items wear down a little by little. Some items are completely consumed, and some are reusable. The job Mr. Lim Sunyul will be doing today is recharging magic power into items that have run out of it. Of course, we don’t plan on giving you miscellaneous items. You can do those for practice, and once you get used to it, you can help with charging items of higher difficulty.”

“Yes, yes.”

Sunyul nodded his head at the flood of explanations.

Fortunately, it wasn’t a very difficult job. It also seemed to be far from what the past Sunyul used to do. The old Sunyul was said to be in Combat Team 8, so he probably had no connection to this kind of item maintenance.

If it was a different job from what he used to do, then memories wouldn’t be unnecessarily triggered…

But how much good would avoiding it like this do? As long as he associated with people, memories would naturally surface again. Was it the right thing to do to accelerate the surfacing of memories that came up even when he did nothing?

[The ‘Traveler of the Eternal Night’ says that since they’ll surface anyway, you should just choose what makes you happy.]

Sunyul stopped dead in his tracks, then lowered his gaze as if nothing had happened.

“Go on and do it, then.”

Sunyul looked back at Muyoung.

“Aren’t you doing it with me, Guild Master?”

“Should I?”

Muyoung asked back as if it were no big deal. For a moment, he could feel the bewildered gaze of Jin Seoyeon standing next to him.

Sunyul knew that Muyoung was a kind and gentle person, but he was also well aware of the fact that he was a very difficult guild master to the other guild members.

If a guild master like that were to work with them even for a moment, it would be a complete disaster from Seoyeon’s perspective… Sunyul shook his head.

“No. I’ll see you later.”

“Alright. Work hard to earn your keep.”

With those words, Muyoung opened the lab door and left without hesitation. Only after Muyoung was gone did Seoyeon smile comfortably.

“Um, um. Mr. Sunyul?”

“Yes?”

“An autograph…”

In the hands of Seoyeon, who was asking shyly, were a notebook and a pen she had taken out of her inventory.

“An autograph? I don’t have one…”

“Please write your name. Even a doodle would be great.”

In the end, Sunyul wrote his name neatly in block letters on the white paper. At Seoyeon’s request, he also added the phrase ‘To Ms. Seoyeon.’ Seoyeon smiled happily.

“Ahhh… Mr. Sunyul, I’ve been a fan for a long time.”

“Me?”

“Yes, of course. I’m so, so glad you came back safely…”

Sunyul was extremely flustered to see Seoyeon suddenly tearing up. Seoyeon wiped her wet eyes.

“I’m sorry, you were startled, weren’t you. Sniff, I tried not to make a fool of myself. I’m really sorry… Sob.”

“It’s, it’s alright. Please don’t cry.”

Sunyul was extremely flustered. He never expected to see someone clinging to his past here.

“Sob, you went through so much hardship… It must have been so, so hard for you…”

“I’m alright now. It was hard, but… no, I’m okay now.”

“Waaah…”

But seeing someone cry so genuinely for him… he felt the thorns he had put up without even realizing it begin to melt away.

“Have you calmed down a bit now?”

“Yes… Mr. Sunyul, really, the bastards who tormented Mr. Sunyul… don’t forgive them. Get them all criminal records.”

Sunyul nodded awkwardly.

He had heard from Muyoung that he was proceeding with a lawsuit. It was a sue-first-inform-later situation, but since Muyoung strongly insisted on doing it, he accepted without complaint.

The look on Muyoung’s face when he spoke about the malicious posts was truly awful, so he felt that this was the only way to put Muyoung’s mind at ease.

Sunyul realized anew that there were many people who cared for him. Unlike before. Just as malice had left a wound in Sunyul’s heart, goodwill also healed it.

Sunyul received definite comfort.

“Um… Then, I’ll show you a demonstration of the work.”

“Yes. I look forward to working with you.”

Having barely calmed down, Seoyeon began to teach Sunyul the work.

As explained earlier, the first task was to recharge magic power into items that had been depleted of it.

He held items like a detector that detected nearby monsters, a glowing sphere that served as a flashlight and followed the user without being held, and a defensive item that blocked simple attacks, and continued the repetitive work.

That simple work was surprisingly quite fun.

“You have a knack for it. Is that a given?”

Seoyeon soon finished with the simple tasks and began to assign more complex ones.

If the work he had done until now felt like pouring magic power into a wide-open straw, the new work felt like pouring magic power along a complex circuit, following its path.

He fumbled a little at first, but Sunyul soon got the hang of that as well.

“Mr. Sunyul, you’re incredibly good at this.”

“…Am I good? I’m so slow compared to you, Ms. Seoyeon.”

“Of course. I’m only this way because I have a supportive trait. For you to be this fast without anything is amazing.”

Excited by Seoyeon’s praise, Sunyul focused even more. He was engrossed in the items when he looked up at a strange feeling, and his eyes met a familiar face. It was Dakyung.

“Ack!”

Sunyul was so surprised he almost fell out of his chair. If Dakyung hadn’t quickly grabbed the chair, he would have definitely fallen over.

“Why are you so surprised, hyung?”

“You, you just appeared so suddenly… Why are you here?”

“I got permission to come in for a bit. It’s almost lunchtime, so I thought we could eat together?”

“You’ve done enough for now, so let’s clean up and go eat. It’s an awkward place to stop in the middle anyway.”

At Seoyeon’s words from the side, Sunyul nodded and began to tidy up his spot.

“A super famous creator came to the Item Creation Team, and they said they wanted to see you, hyung. Do you want to meet them?”

“…Why me?”

“Hyung, do you remember the paintings you saw before? When I first showed you around the guild. The paintings that were hanging in the item storage room.”

Sunyul remembered them clearly. The paintings of a man who strangely resembled Sunyul.

“Those were paintings of you, hyung.”

“…Me?”

“Yes! That artist, they were a huge fan of yours, so they kept painting you… They said they forgot the paintings were of you after the rift incident and just remembered.”

“Ah, okay.”

“You’re talking about Mr. Choi Jinseo, right?”

Dakyung nodded at Seoyeon’s question.

“Yes, do you know him?”

“Of course. He’s a really famous one among Mr. Sunyul’s fans. His paintings are so cool.”

Indeed… they were incredibly cool paintings. That was when he didn’t know he was the one being painted… but now that he knew they were of him, he felt strangely embarrassed.

“Should we go see him before we eat?”

“Sure. I think it would be nice to eat together too.”

At Seoyeon’s suggestion, the three of them headed to the Item Creation Team first.

“Mr. Jinseo went to eat lunch, though?”

But it seemed they were a step too late. As he wondered if he should come to see him next time, Dakyung grinned meaningfully.

“Should we go surprise him?”

“…Is that okay?”

Surprising someone he had never met before, was that really okay?

“Wouldn’t he like it?”

“…Is there a reason he would like it?”

“I don’t think he’d hate it. Let’s do it, please?”

“Okay. Let’s do it, Mr. Sunyul. I heard he likes pranks and stuff.”

Seoyeon also urged him on, her eyes sparkling. In the end, Sunyul found himself taking part in teasing Choi Jinseo, the item creator whose face he didn’t even know.

Before arriving at the cafeteria, Dakyung used a skill to blur the presence of the three of them. Sunyul wondered if they had to go this far, but Dakyung was serious.

“Hyung, use the homunculus to find Mr. Choi Jinseo’s location!”

Sunyul thought he was making the homunculus do all sorts of things. But the homunculus was originally specialized for reconnaissance. Since it had almost no presence and could change its form.

Sunyul dutifully took out the homunculus and, following Dakyung’s advice, turned it into the shape of a small insect to find Choi Jinseo.

Choi Jinseo was eating in a corner with one other person, and since he had his back to a pillar, it was the perfect spot to approach while hidden.

“Good. Let’s go!”

The plan was nothing special. Since doing something too grand would be a bit much, they decided to be satisfied with a simple ‘Boo!’ to startle him.

And the role of startling Choi Jinseo was given to Sunyul. With Dakyung’s generous investment, Sunyul held an invisibility item and headed toward a spot near Choi Jinseo. Choi Jinseo was excitedly talking to the person next to him.

“The food at the Cheongyeon Guild cafeteria is always so good, no matter when I see it.”

“Right? I eat it every day, but the satisfaction level is still high. It would be nice if you joined the company too, Mr. Jinseo.”

“It’s hard to be a fan if I have a corporate job… Ah, I’m going to take a picture.”

“Wait a minute, if you’re going to take a courtesy shot, let’s take it together.”

The two of them took something out and held it over their food. Sunyul stared at it. On the credit-card-sized photos, a person was pictured from different angles, and the face was extremely familiar.

“Is that me?”

“…Whoa?!”

“Aack!”

The photo cards that fell from the hands of the two screaming people flew into the air. Sunyul reflexively caught the photo cards and deactivated the invisibility item.