Ch.9433. Expansion of Flame’s Influence (1)

# Slavian Kingdom. Three months have passed since the incident in the Ashen Forest.

After joining the company, my primary goal was Flame’s growth. Flame has been expanding its influence at an explosive rate, even beyond my expectations.

‘So this is why backing is so important.’

Making significant contributions in Association cooperation missions. And eliminating the White Cross Order’s traitor while obtaining Parma’s Sacred Fire.

‘Especially the latter was entirely Flame’s achievement.’

After Krosel’s appearance and the Red Lake’s uprising, both the Association and the Papal Office have become extremely sensitive to the movements of the Red Lake and demon followers.

In that situation, priests of the White Cross Order betrayed them by colluding with the Red Lake. If that fact had become public, it could have caused a serious scandal.

‘But I took care of all those guys myself.’

As a result, I received personal thanks once again from Archbishop Enrico of the Far East Diocese.

In particular, Romeo, whom I captured alive, provided the Cross Order with a lot of information about the Red Lake.

A contractor with demons who failed after making a flawed contract with a massive thought entity. If Romeo died as he was, he’d be headed straight to the demon-infested hell.

So the Cross Order’s Inquisition seems to have tightened the noose around his neck with the threat of execution. He willingly divulged information, and the Cross Order shared that information with me as well.

Since information about the Red Lake is now under even stricter restrictions, this was a reward I desperately wanted.

‘The Cross Order’s favorable attitude toward me has been an enormous help.’

Moreover, the Cross Order has given me numerous privileges since that incident.

These privileges have been especially helpful to me now that the political landscape of the hunter world is different from before.

After Krosel’s appearance.

The emergence of gates and magical beasts, which had somewhat subsided, has increased significantly, almost to the level of the previous chaotic period. Terrorist attacks by villains have also increased substantially.

‘That’s why the clergy have become extremely busy.’

But there are fewer clergy members than regular hunters.

Naturally, getting approval from the Association to raid dungeons with numerous demon-type monsters has become exceedingly difficult.

‘Because it’s easy to become a villain if you contact demons without a priest present.’

But Flame was different. A guild that already had a White Cross Order priest as an elite raid member.

And above all, after I obtained Parma’s Sacred Fire, I received unofficial sainthood status. They couldn’t formally ordain me as a saint since I wasn’t a priest of the White Cross Order.

Instead, I was exempted from various regulations imposed by the White Cross Order or the Association. Even the cumbersome post-dungeon precision MCI inspections were greatly simplified for me.

‘Because of those detailed inspections, other guilds said there was a long gap until their next mission.’

That privilege made it much easier to expand Flame’s influence to the southeastern region.

‘Not only did Flame receive official certification from the Cross Order, but we also got first priority for dungeon bidding rights.’

Especially because of the official Cross Order certification, it became much easier to receive support from Cross Order priests.

So I’ve been incredibly busy for the past three months.

While other guilds were restricted in their activities due to stricter permits and lack of priest personnel, Flame practically monopolized the profitable dungeons in the southeastern region. Because of that, I’ve been away from Seoul for a while.

I’m currently in Busan. With Flame’s expansion, we needed someone responsible for focusing on southeastern regional affairs.

Soso and I were chosen as those responsible persons. Of course, we’re not handling everything by ourselves; Flame members frequently travel to Busan on short business trips.

‘Though Yuri hasn’t had time to come to Busan…’

The number of guilds that have come under Flame’s umbrella has increased significantly. As a result, Flame’s scale has shot up to rank within the top 15 domestically.

Considering just the skill of the elite raid party, they’re evaluated as capable of reaching the top 10, so Yuri, as the guild leader, couldn’t help but be extremely busy.

‘But that too will end soon.’

The domination of the southeastern region will be completed before long. Once that happens, we’ll have established a sufficient regional foundation. The operation can be left to professional managers, and Yuri should return to missions.

‘That’s what Siwoo did in the original work.’

The genre of Ark Hunter isn’t about guild management. While Yuri receives good evaluations as a manager, in the original work, Yuri is a High Knight of the Snow Field Order.

So ultimately, her place is on the field, not in an office. Once the southeastern expansion is wrapped up, Yuri needs to return as an ice mage.

‘We’re growing Flame’s scale to qualify for overseas missions that only large guilds can participate in.’

After all, this is a hunter story about Justice’s struggles to prevent the foretold destruction. So after finishing the business in Busan, the story must move forward.

Above all, I don’t have much time left.

I entered the conference room of Flame’s Busan branch office.

***

“Vice Branch Manager! Welcome!”

As I entered the conference room, rough-looking men greeted me in unison.

It was a respectful bow, bending their waists at right angles.

At first, these greetings were quite burdensome, but now accustomed to it, I raised my hand lightly to acknowledge them.

“Good to see you all.”

After saying that, I sat down in the empty seat specially prepared as the head seat in the conference room. Once I sat down, all participants took their seats at once.

‘I feel like some kind of gang boss.’

That wasn’t an entirely inappropriate comparison. The people gathered in the conference room now were guild leaders of small guilds around Busan.

Unless a guild had strict discipline, local small guilds were no different from thugs. But the people gathered here had quite lively eyes.

‘We recruited mainly those kinds of guilds.’

Although Busan had numerous small guilds competing without any major corporate guilds, there were still some guilds with good reputations and discipline.

One of the men addressed me.

“Thank you! Thanks to you, Vice Team Leader, we were able to conquer that damn dungeon!”

A man with a huge build and a face covered in scars. Looking over 40, the man had a very fierce appearance.

The kind of person you’d instinctively look away from if you met his gaze on the street. But now, this man stood before me, bowing deeply with a very respectful posture.

“I see. That’s good.”

I replied calmly. The man’s name was Pyo Sung-hoon, the guild leader of Red Breakers.

He was also a secular disciple of the Cheonma Divine Sect. Red Breakers was close to a second-tier guild nationally, but it was still famous in Busan.

Despite Pyo Sung-hoon’s intimidating appearance, he was a man with a sense of loyalty and chivalry uncommon among hunters.

‘That’s why I approached this man first when I came to Busan.’

To take over Busan, Team Leader Seo Du-ho and I spent several nights analyzing the local guilds.

Pyo Sung-hoon was ideal for collaboration with Flame.

With Yeon Soso, the junior leader of the Cheonma Divine Sect, holding an important position in Flame, it wasn’t difficult to propose collaboration to someone who valued loyalty like him.

Above all, Pyo Sung-hoon had a strong affection for Busan.

If his Red Breakers had dominated Busan, there wouldn’t be a problem. But Red Breakers was a B+ grade guild. Busan was filled with countless competing guilds of similar size.

And that competition was no different from territorial disputes between organized crime syndicates or mafias.

‘That’s why Busan was even more chaotic.’

Without a regional hegemon, with small guilds endlessly fighting, the region’s security couldn’t be good.

So Pyo Sung-hoon was very pleased when he heard my proposal.

Flame’s goal was to dominate Busan. Thoroughly disgusted with Busan’s chaotic situation, he wanted the conflicts in Busan to end in some way.

‘Of course, there was resistance.’

Flame was an S-grade guild with a steep growth curve, but to them, Flame was an outsider. Since such an outsider was trying to bring Busan guilds under its umbrella, there was a lot of resistance.

At first, even guild members who followed Pyo Sung-hoon’s will and cooperative guilds viewed Soso and me with suspicion.

‘Partly because Soso and I are too young.’

S-grade and A-grade hunters, but just a young man and woman of 22. It was natural for them not to trust us.

But now, three months later.

As evident from the reaction when I entered this place, Red Breakers and its cooperative guilds have all come under Flame’s umbrella. It meant they acknowledged me.

Everything was going according to my plan.

Today’s meeting was about raiding a dungeon in the territory of Dead Arms, Red Breakers’ biggest rival guild.

“The Branch Manager has arrived!”

And shortly after, Soso entered the conference room. Just as when I entered, all participants stood up and greeted Soso.

Pyo Sung-hoon whispered in my ear. Unlike his strict expression from earlier, with a face like an uncle looking at his niece, he said:

“Ahem. The Junior Leader is beautiful today as well. You’re lucky, Vice Branch Manager.”

***

After the meeting, I headed to the branch manager’s office with Soso.

Currently, Flame’s Busan branch manager position is vacant. Soso is temporarily acting as branch manager, but it’s not her official title.

Soso’s official position at Flame remains Team Leader. I was just an employee assisting Soso.

But people from the affiliated guilds always called Soso “Branch Manager” and referred to me as “Vice Branch Manager.”

When we first arrived, they wouldn’t even call us by our names properly. So our positions have changed considerably in just three months.

“It’s all thanks to you. Isn’t it?”

Soso said to me. I sat at the desk in the branch manager’s office, while Soso sat at the table across from it. I said to her:

“No need to flatter me like that. This plan was only possible because of your background in the first place.”

“R-Really? But gaining the trust of the affiliated guilds was all due to your operating! This isn’t Muguk… even with the Cheonma Divine Sect’s backing, it’s not a cure-all.”

At Soso’s words, I briefly recalled what had happened over the past three months.

Three months ago, Busan was in chaos.

The recent increase in gate appearances. Because of that, local guilds in Busan suffered greatly.

Dungeons and magical beast hunting are hunters’ biggest source of income, but even dungeons of the same grade as before had monsters with much trickier patterns.

As a result, there were numerous deaths and injuries during raids, and with the conflicts between guilds on top of that, the atmosphere in Busan’s hunter community was grim.

‘In fact, this wouldn’t be a big issue for a corporate guild.’

Busan’s guilds were still so backward that they hadn’t even introduced operating systems.

Without proper information teams and operators, they recklessly jumped into dungeons that had completely different difficulty levels than before. Naturally, their success rates dropped.

“But all the guilds that you personally analyzed gates for and operated for succeeded in their dungeon raids.”

As Soso said, she and I didn’t participate in dungeon raids directly.

Instead, we introduced modern gate analysis and operating methods to Red Breakers so that local guilds could succeed in dungeon raids on their own.

Of course, Red Breakers’ guild members opposed it, but Pyo Sung-hoon persuaded them. They agreed to give me full authority just once.

‘I’m staking my name on this. If we fail by following Mr. Lee Min-soo’s instructions, I’ll step down as the guild leader of Red Breakers.’

And I delivered perfect results with that one opportunity.

‘Red Breakers successfully conquered a dungeon they had failed four times before, in just one attempt.’

It wasn’t that the people changed. The members who participated in the dungeon raid were still Red Breakers’ raid team.

But with just my advice, they managed to conquer the dungeon that had given them so much trouble, by themselves. Naturally, there were no deaths or injuries.

That’s how I earned their trust. And even the remaining opposition disappeared after Soso and I went out alone and conquered an A-grade dungeon in Busan.

“All that’s left is Dead Arms, right?”

I nodded at Soso’s words. Red Breakers’ greatest rival, and the hunter guild backed by Sigurd.

I was planning to wage a full-scale war against Dead Arms soon. And while I was thinking about that plan, looking at the monitor screen on the desk,

Soso called out to me.

“Hey… Min-soo… would you come sit next to me for a moment?”

With reddened cheeks, Soso urged me to quickly sit beside her. And over the past three months, it wasn’t just Flame’s status that had changed.