Lee Yunho shouted, the composure he’d shown when he claimed to have poisoned someone was completely gone, “Wh-where would I even learn a recipe like that?! I made this poison myself!”
“That’s a load of crap.”
Jeong Daon let out a short, derisive laugh. Han Jaeyeong turned to her and asked, “Hunter Jeong Daon, what do you mean by that? How can you be so sure the poison wasn’t made by him?”
This wasn’t something you could do unless you already knew about the poison’s existence. Jeong Daon having strange sides wasn’t all that surprising anymore, but this really was.
According to the records, she didn’t live a particularly unusual life.
When would she have ever had the chance to learn about poisons used by alchemists?
Jeong Daon looked at Lee Yunho and curled her lips into a smile. “That’s not something you should be asking me. Ask him.”
“So what? I made that poison myself to kill you mages— agh!”
As if she couldn’t be bothered to listen any further, Jeong Daon grabbed Lee Yunho’s wrist and forcefully pulled back his sleeve. A bracelet with a small bead attached was wrapped around his wrist.
The moment Han Jaeyeong saw it, their brow furrowed. “There’s a snake on it.”
A snake was engraved on the glass bead of the bracelet. Of course, snakes were a commonly used symbol, so that alone wasn’t enough to identify anything definitively… But almost instinctively, Han Jaeyeong’s gaze shifted to the bracelet Jeong Daon herself was wearing. Lee Yunho’s bracelet was cruder, but the resemblance was unmistakable.
“There’s no point denying it. I saw you pull out a vial of poison from that bracelet when you poisoned her.”
As she spoke, Jeong Daon snapped the bracelet off Lee Yunho’s wrist. The thin silver wire bracelet broke easily.
“I’m telling you, I just put the poison I made into the bracelet!”
“Then tell me. How did you treat the container so it wouldn’t melt when you put the poison into the bead? If you made it, you should know that much.”
“Well, that’s—!”
“Oh? Did you carve the crystal yourself? That’s actually pretty clever.”
“Y-yeah! I carved the crystal myself—”
With a scoff, Jeong Daon handed the bracelet to Han Jaeyeong. Han Jaeyeong took it, examined the shattered bead, and let out a hollow sigh. “Crystal? This is just synthetic opal.”
“That’s exactly my point.” Jeong Daon smiled mockingly. “This pretty much proves that this so-called alchemist doesn’t actually know anything about poison. No need to beg him for an antidote.”
Lee Yunho’s mouth fell open. “W-wh-what…?!”
“And Hunter Yu Minji.”
“Huh? M-me?” Yu Minji, who had been clutching her throat and coughing repeatedly, blinked and looked up at Jeong Daon.
“Don’t relax just yet. You’re not detoxified.”
“Whaaat?!”
“I just made it
look
like I used a detox magic circle and forced you to vomit. The real detox has to be done separately.”
Realizing what Jeong Daon meant, Han Jaeyeong’s eyebrow twitched. So, in other words…
“…You baited him?”
“Yeah. No reason to let someone who knows nothing drag us around.”
That made sense. If Lee Yunho had tried to blackmail them using the poison after administering it, they would’ve had no choice but to play along to save Yu Minji. But in that case, the detox would’ve been impossible anyway, and they’d only have wasted time. So Jeong Daon applied pressure immediately and forced him to reveal that he didn’t actually understand the poison, avoiding pointless delays.
“What if he’d been a real alchemist?”
“Guess we’re lucky the outcome was good.”
At those shameless words, Han Jaeyeong let out a dry laugh. To be fair, they would’ve done something similar themselves. Yu Minji being poisoned was unfortunate, but that had already happened, and they couldn’t afford to be led around by Lee Yunho.
Still, that was something a veteran like Han Jaeyeong could do, not something a newly awakened Hunter should be capable of, especially considering how convincing Jeong Daon’s tone and confidence had been, so much so that everyone had believed her impossible claim without question.
Just who is this person, really?
“S-so the detox still has to be done separately, then.”
“Guildmaster, what should we do about Yu Minji’s poison?”
Regardless of the fact that Lee Yunho knew nothing about poison, a decision had to be made. The best option would be to clear the dungeon quickly and send Yu Minji out, but withdrawing immediately would mean losing too much invested cost. Even if they sent her out, meeting the dungeon’s clear conditions would still take time.
Han Jaeyeong made their decision quickly.
“Let’s just use a standard detoxification magic circle right away. There’s a good chance that alchemist was bluffing. If he stored the poison in something like synthetic opal, which is basically plastic, it can’t be anything that impressive.”
“Yes, understood.”
“Hunter Minji, just hang in there a little longer.”
“I’ll quickly analyze the poison residue left inside the bead.”
And while the mages nervously rolled their eyes in anxiety, an enraged Shin Jieum kicked Lee Yunho. “Spill it. Who the hell hired you to pull a stunt like this?!”
Thud!
Lee Yunho screamed as the blow landed in his stomach. “Aaagh! A-A Hunter’s killing someone! Murder! She’s killing me!”
“Killing my ass. You think someone who feeds poison to people at random is human? You didn’t even know what kind of poison it was!”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Watching Shin Jieum beat Lee Yunho, Han Jaeyeong couldn’t help but admire it. She only hit spots that clearly looked like they would hurt.
“This bastard. Look at him screaming so dramatically. He’s got a recorder on him. Didn’t we sweep him with a metal detector earlier?”
“Uh, we did, but…”
“Right. Guess I was an idiot for leaving the search to mages— Ah, there it is.” After quickly searching Lee Yunho’s body, Shin Jieum found a small recording device hidden around his ankle and smashed it. She twisted her face into a crooked grin. “Guildmaster, what should we do? Should I just kill him and dump the body in the dungeon?” The longsword in Shin Jieum’s hand gleamed sharply. More than that, her killing intent surged.
As the blade slid up to Lee Yunho’s throat, Lee Yunho’s face turned deathly pale. “Y-you’re not really going to k-k-kill me, right…?!”
“You poisoned someone and thought you’d walk away alive? Wasn’t that an attempt to kill? Then you die.”
The sword lightly brushed against the skin of his neck. Already beaten senseless, now with a blade at his throat—
“I’m sorry! I was wrong!” Lee Yunho burst into tears, snot and all. The smug confidence he’d shown earlier when boasting about the poison was nowhere to be seen. “I messed up! I-I’ll tell you everything! Really, everything!”
“Lie and you die. Start talking. Who ordered you? And who taught you the recipe?”
“…I-I just took a part-time job I found online. Please, spare me!”
“A part-time job?”
This was the full story Lee Yunho ended up telling them.
Lacking real skill as an alchemist, Lee Yunho had been unemployed. While looking for work, he came across a posting on a job site. It claimed to be a simple task anyone with basic alchemical knowledge could do, and when he applied, he received a response almost immediately.
“They said they’d send me the ingredients and the recipe by courier, and I just had to make it and ship it back to a designated address.”
Just hearing it, it sounded no different from a menial side job like assembling toys. The pay, however, was extremely good.
Han Jaeyeong was dumbfounded.
“Of course it paid well. Making reagents without government authorization is illegal for alchemists. And you made it without even knowing what it was? You’ve got some nerve.”
Still, because the pay was good, he kept doing the job. Over time, the amount of reagent the other side demanded kept increasing.
Then the trouble began when he was caught skimming some of the materials for himself.
Shin Jieum let out a dry laugh. “Wait, why steal reagent materials in the first place?”
“Well… I didn’t have money to live on. I was behind on my water bills! I really didn’t have a choice!”
“You said the pay was good.”
“Well… I lost it gambling…”
“...”
Knowing that everyone was looking at him with contempt, Lee Yunho pleaded desperately. “They know about it, and now they’re saying they’ll sue me! They want fifty times the cost of the materials as compensation… I don’t have that kind of money!”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have skimmed the materials in the first place?”
“Exactly.”
In any case, he begged them to let him off just once. That was when the other party told him to come by the company. He went, planning to apologize in person, but the CEO turned out to be unexpectedly kind. Bought him a bowl of gukbap, listened to his situation, and then abruptly hired him on the spot.
“Was that Shining?”
“Yes…”
“W-wait a second! We’re just a subcontractor too!” Won Deokcheol, who had been quietly watching the situation unfold, spoke while trembling. “We can’t make money off just one junkyard, so we take on whatever work comes our way. That reagent manufacturing was subcontracted to us.”
“That’s not something you can just brush off with excuses—”
“It’s true! Really! Just like Yunho over there, we only took work from a brokerage company. We were short on hands, so we hired part-timers. We don’t know anything beyond that!” Perhaps after seeing Lee Yunho beaten so mercilessly, fear was clearly written all over Won Deokcheol’s face. “Lee Yunho was someone the boss originally planned to sue, but decided to hire instead; figured he’d try to save at least one life.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Shin Jieum scoffed. “More like they hired him to keep him quiet. If Lee Yunho reported the illegal part-time job to the police, both sides would be screwed.”
On the surface, it sounded like a heartwarming story, but in reality, a guy who stole materials and gambled them away and a guy who illegally subcontracted work and then hired someone to cover it up were cut from the same cloth.
“So where exactly were you supplying these reagents? What kind of guild uses uncertified reagents?”
“We just collect reagents made by part-timers and deliver them. I honestly don’t even know where they’re used—”
“You think that kind of answer will fly?”
“I’m not making excuses, I swear!” Won Deokcheol rambled on in defense. “Big guilds like HP only use certified reagents anyway… but because of cost issues, smaller guilds kind of do this under the table.”
“Well, it does happen pretty often.”
Han Jaeyeong wasn’t unaware of this reality. Mage-made reagents were absurdly expensive, while alchemist-made ones were far cheaper, often around one-tenth the price on the market. Illegally circulated reagents like these would be even cheaper. Of course, that also meant reduced stability and effectiveness, but the price gap was so large that small and mid-sized guilds often resorted to illegal reagents. With no effective way, or budget, to crack down on illegal production, it was bound to spread.
“Then why go as far as using poison to stop us? Who told you to try to kill us?”
“No, killing you was a bit much… wasn’t it?”
“What?”
In response to Shin Jieum’s question, Lee Yunho spoke in an aggrieved tone. “I mean, even if I used a bit of poison, you’re all Hunters, so you’d be fine, right? Like you said, I was just bluffing. It wasn’t some special poison.”
“…What?”
“No, seriously. You’ve got tough bodies, you’re from a big guild like HP… you make a lot of money too…”
Han Jaeyeong let out a sigh. Blowing his money on gambling, the inferiority complex he harbored toward mages from a major guild; it was all painfully familiar. A type of person so common it didn’t even spark curiosity.
As Lee Yunho muttered on, Yu Minji, who had been clutching her throat and trembling, bit her lip. Shin Jieum asked, “Want me to hit him some more?”
“…Yes.”
Thud!
This time, Lee Yunho couldn’t even scream. He clutched his stomach and collapsed to the ground.
“No one cares about your personal feelings. So, did Shining’s boss order this?”
“
Cough…
He just told me to make sure you didn’t go anywhere else. I don’t know what’s here myself…”
“H-hey, Lee Yunho!” Won Deokcheol shouted, “You ungrateful bastard! Stop spouting nonsense. When did the boss ever say something like that? This was all you, holding a grudge against the mages and acting on your own—!”
“You wouldn’t know, you’re just a civilian! He definitely told me that!”
“You little shit, how dare you talk back to your manager like that!”
Watching the two of them argue, Han Jaeyeong crossed their arms and fell into thought. “How much of this do you think we can believe?”
“Neither of them seems to know much, and they’re spilling everything under just this level of pressure… so weirdly enough, it feels like they’re telling the truth.”
“I wasn’t asking you, Hunter Shin Jieum. I was asking Hunter Jeong Daon.”
“…Ouch.”
“Me?”
Han Jaeyeong had asked because they were curious how Jeong Daon would judge the situation.
Jeong Daon, who had been listening quietly until now, blinked. “Why ask something like that to dead weight and a trainee Hunter?”
“You really hold a grudge, don’t you? So, what do you think?”
Jeong Daon seemed to think for a moment before speaking slowly. “It feels familiar.”
“Familiar?”
“Yeah. Showing even a flawed, weak idiot the illusion that they’re useful, taming them, and then making them accept an absurd order like poisoning someone as if it’s natural.”
Lee Yunho, having those words hurled at him directly, gaped in shock. “Wh-what…?!”
Han Jaeyeong looked at Jeong Daon quietly and asked, “Who used that kind of method?”
“…Who else? Cult Leader Lee Manbok.” Jeong Daon said this while pulling Leo closer into her arms. “Let’s go. The information seems solid enough.”
“…Alright.”
Even as they replied, another question formed in Han Jaeyeong’s mind.
Normally calm and detached, Jeong Daon reacted more emotionally when it involved family. And there was one more thing—
That pattern.
Han Jaeyeong’s eyes sharpened.
I need to look into the organization that uses that symbol.