The Gladius Guild.
Standing before this battered, worn-out guild sign, only a single thought crossed Jang-pil's mind.
"So what I'm asking is, on what grounds have you been spouting such crazy nonsense since earlier...?"
Ah, Lee Gyeom-shin, this bastard finally lost his mind after going through all kinds of filthy hardships.
He went crazy and came to this Gladius Guild, which was no different from the state of his own life.
There was no other way to explain why a bastard who had wanted to join a famous guild so badly until just a few days ago would bring his footsteps to a place like this.
"Don't tell me you...?"
Jang-pil stared intently into Gyeom-shin's eyes, then let out a deep sigh before long.
"...Haa, I'm sorry, Gyeom-shin."
"Huh? For what?"
Perhaps after realizing what the Hunter industry was actually like, his body and mind had grown exhausted with his own lack of talent, driving him to act like this.
"I think I haven't been able to pay much attention to you lately because I was busy working as a Hunter."
He thought that if he took care of him attentively for a few days, Gyeom-shin would come back to his senses.
"I'll forgive you to some extent for making me unemployed."
"Huh...?"
Thinking that his cherished younger brother had gone mad from stress, the fury that had been boiling up until just moments ago melted away like snow.
"...No, don't worry, hyung."
However, Gyeom-shin's mind was crystal clear.
He already knew full well.
Although it looked shabby right now...
"Just trust this little brother of yours this once."
The fact that the Gladius Guild would achieve the greatest revival in history, on an unprecedented scale.
"Because everything's going to work out."
Knock, knock.
"...Who is it?"
When he knocked, a man opened the door and asked Gyeom-shin.
"I came because I would like to become a guild member."
"...Understood. Please wait a moment."
The very first place that had come to his mind after regressing ten years into the past.
That place was this Gladius Guild.
The only reason they were going under was simply that luck had not been on their side.
CREAK—!
"...It is a humble place, but please come in."
They had been deliberately scammed many times by guild members and business partners they had trusted.
All of it had been a scheme by the Kaiser Guild to swallow up the Gladius Guild.
However, that only proved how warm-hearted and loyal they were.
In other words, it was a guild with the exact opposite disposition of the guild Gyeom-shin had built, where strength was everything.
Gyeom-shin intended to make this very place his safe haven for growth.
Trudge, trudge.
Following behind the man and relying on the flashlight of a cell phone, they walked down a dark path.
"Haa... Don't these people even have the money to pay their electricity bill?"
Jang-pil grumbled under his breath.
Because it was a dismal environment as different as heaven and earth from the Kaiser Guild, to which he had belonged until just yesterday.
It was on a level that could not even be compared.
"You... don't tell me the better place you talked about is this crumbling haunted house?"
"...Shh, hyung, isn't that rude? The mister guiding us is going to hear every word."
Before long, the guild building came into view.
"No, that's not what I meant!"
"Huh? There it is."
A ruined, crumbling building that ghosts would absolutely love.
As if proving the pressure the Gladius Guild had endured until now, its exterior was in a wretched state, looking ready to collapse at any moment.
However, Gyeom-shin did not care in the slightest.
CREAK.
"Please come in. It is this way."
"Yes, thank you."
On the contrary, he was smiling as though he had finally arrived at the exact place he needed to visit.
Because at the end of this path, the person he had wanted to meet so badly would be waiting.
That single thought was all that filled his mind.
***
"...What brings you here?"
The Guild Master of the Gladius Guild, the Sword Flower.
"Are you the Master of this guild?"
"...Yes, I am."
She was a beauty rumored to have never once lost to anyone with a sword.
"So it really is you...?"
However, almost no one had actually seen her face in person.
Thanks to coming back to the past, Gyeom-shin saw her beautiful face firsthand.
That beauty which could rarely be seen because she always hid it behind a mask of flowers.
"Yes, that is correct. I heard you came with the intention of joining the guild..."
Long, fine hair, large, clear eyes, and the alluring figure of a beauty.
That was the appearance of the Sword Flower, Yeon Da-hee.
"Is that the case for both of you...?"
At her beautiful appearance, Jang-pil's face had turned bright red before he knew it.
And even his attitude did a complete 180-degree turn.
"Ah, yes! Th-that is right!"
The man who had just been asking Gyeom-shin if this was really a good place now wore the expression of someone who had truly arrived at a great place.
'Having a soft spot only in front of beautiful women really is this hyung's only weakness.'
However, Gyeom-shin was not like that.
"...No, I'm going to decide after seeing how you do."
On the contrary, his expression grew noticeably more serious.
He had not come here just to look at the Sword Flower's pretty face.
What he wanted were contract terms and skill.
"Hey, you ill-mannered jerk! What kind of rude talk is that to a lady...?!"
Gyeom-shin ignored Jang-pil's words.
He simply looked into her eyes and spoke.
"I'll get straight to the point."
Stating the purpose for which he had come here with absolute clarity.
"Appoint me as the Vice Guild Master."
Right from their first meeting, it made no sense whatsoever.
"A-are you out of your mind...?!"
Even in a guild on the verge of collapse, the position of Vice Guild Master was exceedingly important.
Jang-pil was appalled by Gyeom-shin's demand.
"...No, I'm completely sane, hyung."
The Gladius Guild was a skilled veteran guild—capable enough that the Kaiser Guild had been trying to absorb it.
By contrast, Lee Gyeom-shin and Jang-pil were currently nameless rookie Hunters meeting her for the very first time.
Without even glancing at Jang-pil's face, whose pupils were shaking wildly, Gyeom-shin spoke.
"I'll make this guild grow at ultra-high speed."
"...Are you saying those words to me in earnest?"
Yeon Da-hee's eyes gazed steadily into Gyeom-shin's, reading what lay within them.
"Of course I mean it."
"......"
It was a demand there was no way she would grant.
Even so, Gyeom-shin was confident.
"Well, it seems like you keep looking at me as a con artist..."
"Hey, punk, that's because you keep pushing her like this!"
Besides, the one offering an unprecedented opportunity here was not her, but Gyeom-shin.
"Take it or leave it. I won't ask twice."
TOSS—!
Lightly ignoring Jang-pil's words once again, Gyeom-shin tossed the Demonic Sword to Yeon Da-hee.
CLACK.
"Th-this is...?"
In the past, the father of the Sword Flower, Yeon Da-hee, had been a very famous Holy Sword user.
Gyeom-shin already knew that.
"If you take me in, I'll use that sword to make the Gladius Guild the strongest guild."
"......"
That was why he had chosen this guild.
For a while, she stared intently at the Demonic Sword Ades.
This was the reason Gyeom-shin had risked his life to get his hands on the sword first thing after regressing.
'Haaa, he said he'd take me somewhere good so I wondered what he was up to, and now he comes to a guild where we don't even know anyone and tries to pull something with a single sword.'
Of course, it was only natural that Jang-pil knew nothing at all about the value of this sword or the situation.
After all, when Gyeom-shin had first obtained Ades, he had not been able to tell it was a Demonic Sword from its appearance alone, either.
However, Yeon Da-hee was different from them.
'This sword is...?'
She was a master blacksmith who had dedicated her life to studying swords.
Moreover, her family itself had been known as a lineage of blacksmiths since ancient times.
Thus, even in the modern era, she had mastered the art of forging and appraising Hunter-exclusive swords.
'I can feel a powerful energy from this sword... the exact opposite of the sword Father used to wield.'
Not only that, her father had been a Hunter who wielded a Holy Sword.
Her father had built this guild with that single Holy Sword.
Yeon Da-hee gently closed her eyes.
'Father...'
Then, she felt fate in Gyeom-shin.
"...Very well. Let us do that."
In this Hunter who had appeared carrying a sword with the exact opposite energy of her father's, right when the guild was on the verge of complete collapse.
"See, because you're being so unreasonable, even Lady Sword Flower is rejecting—Wait, what...?!"
That was why she had accepted.
"W-what did you say...?"
"Very well. I will accept the master of this sword as the Vice Guild Master of my guild."
Just as this guild had been founded with a single Holy Sword, it would rise once again with the single Demonic Sword held by Gyeom-shin.
She felt it as a matter of fate.
"I-is that true...?!"
"...Yes, however, not you—only your younger brother over here."
It felt as though her late father had come back to life for the sake of the guild.
"Because you are not the master of this sword."
"Aaah... What on earth is that sword anyway...?"
Everything had gone according to Gyeom-shin's plan.
SMIRK—!
"Good. Then the contract is sealed."
He shared a handshake of success with Yeon Da-hee.
"...I am Yeon Da-hee."
"I'm Lee Gyeom-shin."
SHAKE.
She was in no position to be picky.
Enough to willingly appoint a man whose name she did not even know straight to the position of Vice Guild Master.
"I-I am Jang-pil."
With this, all the comrades Gyeom-shin had initially thought of were gathered.
SHAKE—!
"I-I look forward to working with you, too...!"
Every last piece needed for his revenge.
***
Right after finishing their guild registration, Gyeom-shin stepped through a blue-lit Gate.
"You... what on earth were you thinking, joining the Gladius Guild...?"
This beginner dungeon where they had arrived just like that.
Together with Jang-pil, Gyeom-shin was walking through an abandoned monastery.
Trudge, trudge.
"And dragging me down with you like a water ghost, no less."
Jang-pil still could not understand Gyeom-shin's actions.
Nor, of course, Yeon Da-hee's decision.
"I'm not being a water ghost; I brought you along so I could seat you on a cushion of money too, hyung."
Her ostensible reason for sending the newcomers here was for them to prove at least a bare minimum of ability.
"Haa, this jerk."
Even in a beginner dungeon, if one let their guard down even slightly, their head would go flying.
Because this was not a game.
Even if it was called proving a bare minimum of ability, it still required risking one's life.
"Just because you have a working mouth, you sure know how to talk."
However, the real reason lay elsewhere.
Yeon Da-hee intended to persuade her guild members while Gyeom-shin was exploring this place.
"...No, I'm serious, hyung."
Even without this, Rankers were already leaving the guild at the speed of light.
It was obvious what would happen if they found out that the position of Vice Guild Master had been handed over to a nameless rookie Hunter.
"We have to save your sick little sister first by any means necessary, don't we?"
"......"
Jang-pil had a cute young little sister named 'Jang-mi.'
Unlike him, she had a gentle personality and was a cute, lovely girl.
However, she would die two years from now.
GRAB—!
"You, how many times have I told you not to bring that up...?"
"...Does acting like that make money appear?"
It was because the chronic illness she had been suffering from worsened.
Gyeom-shin and Jang-pil had poured their entire fortunes into trying to save Jang-mi, but it had been impossible.
It was the result of missing the window for her surgery due to a lack of money.
"What? Have you said everything you want to say right now?!"
"That's why I'm saying let's save her."
Jang-pil grabbed him by the collar, but Gyeom-shin met his gaze with eyes as sharp as ice instead.
"By earning that filthy money quickly."
"Uuuugh..."
After his sister died so anticlimactically, Jang-pil was slated to grow sick of the guild that had only used him and quit.
"I'm telling you to put aside all that pride and save your precious little sister first."
"...Are you really..."
"So trust me, hyung."
After that, he had joined Gyeom-shin's guild.
Whatever the outcome, Gyeom-shin had been the only one to give up everything he had at Jang-pil's most desperate moment.
"I'll save Jang-mi without fail no matter what it takes, so trust me, hyung."
However, in this life, there was still a chance.
"We aren't related by blood... but you're my one and only hyung, aren't you?"
"......!"
A chance to save everyone.
"Besides, Jang-mi is practically my own little sister, too. Isn't she?"
"You..."
Both Jang-mi, who would die of her illness two years from now.
And Jang-pil, who would die five years from now.
He could save all of them with his own two hands.
"So let's earn money like crazy and save our pretty Jang-mi."
"Lee Gyeom-shin..."
Moved by Gyeom-shin's heartfelt determination to care for his little sister, Jang-pil choked up with emotion and could not continue speaking.
His hand, which had grabbed Gyeom-shin by the collar out of pride, naturally loosened its grip as well.
At that moment, a sound quietly reached his ears.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
'...They're nearby.'
From afar, the sound of money rolling in.
SMIRK.
'The monsters of this dungeon.'