Chapter 763: Recollection (2)

Seo Ok-hee establishing the guild named Eun & Ok, and the news that A-class Hunter Kang Eunyoung immediately joined her company, soon spread throughout the country.

The guild established by Seo Ok-hee, who showed prodigy tendencies since childhood and obtained the title of the youngest S-class Hunter, coupled with the transfer of Kang Eunyoung, who was rising in popularity at the time.

Moreover, since Kang Eunyoung had transferred to Seo Ok-hee’s guild from another guild that was very popular at the time, the eyes of many Hunters could only focus on their guild for a while.

At first, Seo Ok-hee also had no intention of growing Eun & Ok into such a large, major guild. She had by chance obtained an S-class dungeon that was good for her to operate in, but it was a guild hastily created due to South Korea’s law stating that dungeons could not be owned unless it was a corporate guild.

And even back then, she had thought that like other Hunters, her awakened abilities would weaken when she reached her late twenties, so she would retire in about 10 years at most.

However, as rumors started spreading that it was a guild founded by Kang Eunyoung, who was called a promising rising star at the time, and Seo Ok-hee, new Hunters also started pouring in like mushrooms after rain. Even new Hunters, seeing only the vision, began to come in, applying to her guild and refusing even the conditions from other major guilds.

In the end, Seo Ok-hee’s guild had no choice but to grow in size, even to accept and nurture new employees full of ambition and drive.

‘Since it’s a guild founded by Kang Eunyoung Sunbaenim and Seo Ok-hee Sunbaenim, there must be something. If I can also become a capable Hunter here like Seo Ok-hee Sunbaenim….’

‘If I’m going to join a guild anyway, joining a new guild will probably treat early members well. I don’t know how great a person Seo Ok-hee is, but I should just leech off it a bit and then retire.’

Figuring out whether new employees who will join were capable newcomers or lazy ones was not a difficult task for Seo Ok-hee. After intentionally asking a few questions related to herself during the interview, she could sufficiently distinguish that much just by reading the thoughts that came to mind.

Her mind-reading ability, which had been annoying to the point where she wished it didn’t exist, finally found its true purpose only after she rose to the position of Guild Master.

And the process of securing dungeons for the hastily joined new Hunters to operate in could proceed without spending much money or effort.

If she used her information gathering ability, it was possible to secure several major dungeons that other guilds were trying to acquire by slightly outbidding them.

When she was active as a Hunter, she could only be recognized as an S-class Hunter after applying her awakened abilities to the extreme and awakening other abilities through multiple awakenings, but becoming an S-class Guild Master was enough with just the abilities she originally had.

Thus, time flowed. The time of growth for Eun & Ok, the guild started by Seo Ok-hee and Kang Eunyoung.

As the time spent together grew longer, Seo Ok-hee, who felt she could no longer hide it, confessed her mind-reading ability to Kang Eunyoung, and Kang Eunyoung felt embarrassed, saying, ‘So all my thoughts were detected until now?’

As the company grew to a certain extent, they built friendships with other S-class Hunters through Kang Eunyoung, formed parties, and achieved great deeds enough to be remembered as legends.

Kang Eunyoung got married to a man who was a C-class Hunter, started a family, gave birth to their daughter Kang Hye-eun, and then returned to the party just one month after giving birth to achieve new feats again.

Five years since the day Seo Ok-hee first founded her guild. Perhaps those five years must have been the happiest period of her life.

…And that period of happiness rapidly crumbled due to various events she experienced over the course of one year.

The S-class Hunter colleagues gradually realized their bodies were reaching their limits, or experienced trauma due to major injuries sustained in battle, and retired one by one.

Like before, they went on expeditions alone together, but she too had become a bit difficult to show the same vigor as before.

The newly recruited younger members to fill the empty spots rarely meshed well, so eventually, the S-class party that had shown legendary feats ended up remaining only as legendary figures and disbanded.

In fact, even up to that point, Seo Ok-hee did not particularly think she was unhappy.

After all, it was a Hunter guild that would naturally be taken over by someone else someday when she retired, and even if she didn’t retire, as long as Kang Eunyoung was by her side, she felt no need to operate as a legendary party.

Even if her awakened abilities weakened to the point where she couldn’t enter dungeons, it wouldn’t matter because Kang Eunyoung was already an irreplaceable, true friend in Seo Ok-hee’s heart.

However, in the end, an incident occurred where Kang Eunyoung also stepped down from her position, her Hunter position, and her affiliation with the company-the death of a C-class male Hunter, Kang Eunyoung’s husband and Kang Hye-eun’s father.

“The South Korean government today held a ceremony to celebrate the retirement of Hunter Kang Eunyoung, who caught 500 high-level monsters, and Miss Kang declared at the retirement ceremony that she would hand over her position to her juniors and dedicate herself solely to childcare afterwards….”

Kang Eunyoung, who was greatly saddened by her husband’s death, laid down everything as a Hunter and declared her retirement just one year after the incident occurred.

If it were only that, Seo Ok-hee might have been able to endure somehow, but what made it most difficult for her at that time was that Kang Eunyoung said she didn’t want to face her.

At a time when she had not long lost her family, Kang Eunyoung didn’t want to show Seo Ok-hee all the gloomy emotions in her heart because she couldn’t bear to.

If she acted according to her usual habits, it was possible to show a bright demeanor outwardly at least, but she couldn’t bear to do so with Seo Ok-hee; it was impossible to hide her inner feelings.

And Seo Ok-hee also knew that, so she respected Kang Eunyoung’s choice. Although not being able to meet face-to-face was regrettable, exchanging greetings just through phone calls or video calls was not that difficult.

However, the strange remarks that were often heard whenever Seo Ok-hee talked with Kang Eunyoung frequently made her nervous. In conversations with Kang Eunyoung, her tone of voice occasionally slipped out, sounding like she had no lingering attachment to life for some reason.

「Now Hye-eun is already a middle schooler, you know. If you only look until graduation and getting a job… it seems like it’ll be over in about 6 or 7 years. …Huh? What’s ending? Of course, I’m talking about Hye-eun’s childcare~.」

「Recently, Hye-eun caused a big scene at school, and I was called around a lot~. I heard it was related to Taekyung, so she couldn’t hold back and charged in. Taekyung himself seemed to be unaware of it again. Whether he knew it or not, if you don’t convey it properly when you have the chance, you’ll never be able to convey it. …Huh? Who is Taekyung? That’s a sec~ret.」

「Ah, Ok-hee. I heard Hye-eun reached A-class recently? Thank you for looking after my daughter well~. Now that the second one is properly settled, I can finally rest easy, truly. …Ah, remarriage? It’s not like that, I just have a child I gave birth to in my heart~. Yes, that’s right, Ok-hee. If your company is still hiring male Hunters….」

If a stranger saw it, it might have seemed just like a simple, ordinary conversation, but Seo Ok-hee, who had reacted quite sensitively to others’ emotions since childhood, knew better. For Seo Ok-hee, who had observed the words spoken in her heart and the changes in her expression at the time together until now, Kang Eunyoung’s expression looked somewhat bitter, like someone preparing for the end, and every time she video called her, Seo Ok-hee’s heart also grew increasingly uneasy.

However, no matter how complicated her own feelings became, she herself could not go find Kang Eunyoung to comfort her. If she broke the promise and met Kang Eunyoung’s face again, she would reveal her hidden emotions all to her, and there was also the possibility that Kang Eunyoung, driven by that shock, might momentarily make an extreme choice.

Therefore, all Seo Ok-hee could do was simply hope she would overcome the depression accumulated over many years herself. Already, more than ten years had passed since the day she lost her husband, so she thought it wouldn’t be easy.

Seo Ok-hee’s earnest prayers somehow reached her wish, and fortunately, Kang Eunyoung overcame the long slump of over ten years.

Even Kang Eunyoung, who returned as an active Hunter for Eun & Ok and faced her again, made Seo Ok-hee unable to be happier. It was the moment she met her friend face-to-face for the first time in over ten years, not just seeing her expression through the smartphone screen every time.

“Congratulations on your return, Eunyoung. I heard your strength has returned too.”

“Yes. I still lack practical experience, so I think I’ll know once I go into a dungeon again after a long time, but. By the way, is this the newly changed CEO’s office? Maybe because I’m coming to work after a long time, everything really feels new.”

“…It’s all thanks to the employees doing a good job.”

If I could, I felt like jumping down from this authoritative seat right now and hugging my old friend’s body tightly. Even though we had video calls regularly, meeting face-to-face was something that happened more than 15 years later.

However, thinking there was a possibility she might still feel burdened by her getting close unnecessarily, Seo Ok-hee hesitated. Especially because of the ability she possessed, she had avoided even meeting face-to-face for 15 years.

Thanks to her semi-coercive communication ability called mind-reading, a habit developed for Seo Ok-hee. Not letting people she truly valued and cherished enter within the 10-meter range of her mind-reading. This prevented the other person from unnecessarily feeling burdened by having their thoughts read, and conversely, it was to avoid creating situations where she herself unintentionally read negative thoughts about her from the other person in the unlikely event they had them.

The fact that she intentionally made the CEO’s office large was not because she was authoritarian, but to have conversations in a large room, far enough not to reach her mind-reading range.

“Uh, there, you can sit at the end of the table. If possible, don’t come any closer than that.”

“Huh? Here? Why did you put the table in such a far place?”

“From there, my thoughts can’t be read by my mind-reading. If your feelings are read by me unnecessarily, you’d feel burdened too, right? Because of my ability, you must have hesitated before coming to work to meet me.”

“…At one time, it’s true I kept my distance thinking that way, but I’m okay now. And before, many much more embarrassing thoughts were read, so am I going to feel burdened just by this much?”

“W-well, still, things might be different now.”

“Hmm, really? Then, after a long time, want to try reading what I’m thinking right now, Ok-hee?”

“Uh, huh?”

Along with those words, Seo Ok-hee felt momentary panic in Kang Eunyoung’s steps approaching her without hesitation, and at the same time, her friend’s thoughts, read for the first time in 15 years, flowed into her mind.

‘Taekyung too said he’d transfer to the company, so he’ll probably meet Ok-hee during the transfer interview, right? I hope Ok-hee treats him well when Taekyung transfers.’

It was Seo Ok-hee who properly recognized the existence of Sung Taekyung for the first time, having only heard about him through vague rumors until now.