Episode 80 – The Invitation That Slled Like Trouble
The taxi was cheap, slled like old cigarettes mixed with that sour leftover perfu drivers used when they didn’t want to wash their seats, and every bump in the road made Kim Do-hyun’s arm throb where the healer had patched him up. His head was leaned back against the worn-out leather, but his eyes weren’t closed, not even for a second. They were locked on his own right hand, the fingers twitching like he wasn’t fully sure they belonged to him anymore. The mory of that cursed sword still lingered in the veins of his palm, whispering like it wanted him to hold it again, promising power if he didn’t mind losing a bit of his sanity in the trade.
He flexed his hand, opened and closed it, then muttered under his breath, half a joke, half a confession. "Damn... Han Sen. That guy... what the hell are you?"
Every streetlight that flashed past the dirty taxi window dragged him deeper into the thought. Han Sen wasn’t just so hunter who had stepped in at the right ti. The man moved with the casual sharpness of soone who had seen too much blood but still carried himself like it didn’t matter anymore. No hesitation, no wasted movent, no fear of the monster that almost tore his family apart. He didn’t act like a savior, but he beca one anyway, and Do-hyun couldn’t get over the fact that it wasn’t only his life that got pulled back from the fire that day. It was his sister’s trembling breath, his parents’ panicked screams, his own shaky knees when he almost gave in to despair.
If Han Sen hadn’t appeared when he did, there would’ve been nothing left but silence in that vault.
The driver coughed, clearly irritated at Do-hyun’s muttering. "Kid, you’re shaking your damn hand like you’re about to throw gang signs. You gonna pay or not?"
Do-hyun blinked, looked at the guy’s half-bald head in the front mirror, then cracked a grin that didn’t match the tired shadows under his eyes. "Relax, old man, I’m good for it. Keep driving, I ain’t jumping out of the window yet."
The driver muttered sothing about "crazy hunters with their aura drama" and focused on the road. Hunters weren’t rare in Seoul, but most people still treated them like they were half celebrities and half disasters waiting to happen. And Do-hyun, sitting there with an aura that wasn’t exactly stable thanks to the curse gnawing at the edge of his mind, didn’t look like the kind of passenger you wanted to piss off.
When the taxi finally rolled to a stop in front of the massive Candace Guild headquarters, Do-hyun leaned forward, slapped a couple of crumpled bills into the driver’s hand, and stepped out without waiting for change.
The building rose like a damn fortress in the middle of the city. Glass windows climbed toward the night sky, but behind them, shadows of people moved like machinery that never slept. Guards in black uniforms stood at the entrance, not stiff like soldiers but relaxed like people who knew if trouble walked up, it would be handled fast. The Candace Guild was one of the richest, most established nas in Korea, their fingers deep in dungeon managent, resource trading, and the type of politics nobody admitted existed. For Do-hyun, walking up to those front doors wasn’t just guts — it was borderline stupid.
He didn’t care.
His clones had limits, his body was barely healed, and he was still thinking about the look on his sister’s pale face when she bled on that vault floor. But all of that only fed the fire under his ribs. He wasn’t planning on being so stray dog hunter waiting for scraps. He needed backing. He needed strength. He needed a guild, and not a weak one where they’d toss him around like another pawn. He wanted the type of guild where doors opened, resources poured in, and monsters stopped being nightmares and started being stepping stones.
The lobby was colder than outside, not just from the air conditioning but from the way everything inside scread money. Marble floors polished enough to see his own reflection, plants that probably cost more than his entire apartnt, a chandelier dangling overhead like it belonged in a drama about chaebols. At the center desk, a receptionist with sharp lipstick and an even sharper glare stood, hands folded like she had been waiting her whole life to judge people like him.
Do-hyun approached casually, hands in his pockets, and before she even asked, he announced. "I’m here to et the captain."
Her eyebrow lifted higher than was probably healthy for her face. "Do you have an appointnt, sir?"
Do-hyun tilted his head, gave her that streetwise smirk like she had asked him sothing ridiculous. "You kidding? I told you, the captain invited ."
The woman tapped her perfectly painted nails against the desk, clearly unimpressed. "Look, Mr... whoever you are, the Candace Guild doesn’t operate on street talk. Without an appointnt, you’re not seeing anyone, let alone the captain. So please"
"Yo, who’s running their mouth like that?"
The voice bood across the lobby before Do-hyun could respond. Everyone turned, and Do-hyun’s eyes widened a little despite himself. The man walking toward them was built like a mountain stuffed into a human body. Big beard, big chest, and big enough to make the floor groan under his boots. He wasn’t tall in the normal sense. He was giant. Thirteen ters if Do-hyun had to exaggerate, but even if he was half that, the guy looked like a damn wall of muscle with a pulse.
The receptionist straightened imdiately, her voice turning from iron to honey. "Ah, Sang-woo-ssi, I was just explaining"
The man waved a hand the size of a dinner table and grunted. "Explaining nothing. This kid’s with the captain. You blind or what? Step aside."
Do-hyun blinked, then pointed at himself. "Wait, ?"
Sang-woo’s bearded face broke into sothing between a laugh and a growl. "Yeah, you. Kim Do-hyun, right? Damn, smaller than I thought, but you’re still the guest. Go on up. Captain’s waiting."
The receptionist looked like she had swallowed a lemon but kept her mouth shut.
Do-hyun couldn’t help himself. He leaned a little closer to her desk and whispered with a grin. "Told you I was the real deal. Should’ve believed , noona."
Her glare could have killed him if looks worked like aura, but by then, Do-hyun was already walking toward the elevators behind Sang-woo.
The ride up was quiet except for the faint hum of the elevator. Sang-woo scratched his beard like he was digging for treasure, while Do-hyun kept his hands deep in his pockets, his brain racing. If the captain really was waiting for him, that ant this wasn’t so random goodwill gesture. Guild leaders didn’t et strays for fun. They always wanted sothing. The only question was: what the hell did Candace Guild want from him?
The doors opened to a wide office with walls that weren’t walls at all, just glass stretching into the city lights. Paintings covered the few solid sections, each one heavy with color and emotion, the type you didn’t understand unless you had lost sothing. The captain of Candace Guild sat at the far end, not at a desk, but in front of one of those paintings, brush still in his hand, eyes lingering on the strokes like he was painting mories instead of pictures.
"Co in," the captain’s voice carried without him turning around. Calm, heavy, the type of voice that could silence a room without raising an octave.
Do-hyun stepped inside, and the first thing he noticed wasn’t the painting or the expensive furniture, but the way the captain looked at him when he finally turned. Not like an employer sizing up an applicant, but like a man asuring the weight of another’s scars.
"I’m glad you made it back safely," the captain said, setting the brush aside. "I was curious... how did you recover so fast? That wound should have kept you down for weeks."
Do-hyun scratched the back of his neck, awkward but honest. "If it wasn’t for Han Sen, I wouldn’t even be standing here. Guy pulled out before things got worse."
The captain nodded, lips pressing thin, but his eyes didn’t look away. "I only did what anyone should have, kid."
Do-hyun shook his head imdiately, heat rising in his chest. "Nah. Don’t try to play it off like that. You didn’t just save . You saved my whole family. You rushed them to dical care before I even thought straight. That wasn’t normal kindness. That was more than enough, and you know it."
For a mont, silence stretched between them, broken only by the faint city noise beyond the glass walls.
Do-hyun narrowed his eyes, voice dropping. "So tell sothing, Captain... why’d you go so far for ?"
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