SRSBO: Chapter 14

Sensing my presence, the man turned his head while cursing out loud.

“Hey, you crazy dog! No matter how much you live doing whatever you want, canceling such an important meeting-”

I judged that the man was acquainted with the landlord, so I quickly hid the stand, which I had brought out as a weapon, behind my back.

“Oh, hello.”

“…… Who are you?”

The man who had been shouting flinched and frowned.

The man had a peculiar appearance, with accessories dangling from his ears and tattoos engraved from his chin down to his collarbone.

After carefully scanning the room, the man in the flashy attire muttered to himself, ‘…… I didn’t come to the wrong place, did I?’

Then he quickly raised his head and looked at me as if he had realized something.

“Crazy! Is this why he suddenly called for the newbie healer?!”

“Huh?”

“Hah… Wow, damn. I’ve seen everything I needed to in my life. I even saw a woman in that guy’s house.”

The man roughly ruffled his hair. It didn’t seem like he was talking to me, although I I was standing in front of him.

The man, muttering like that, remained silent for a long time, as if lost in deep thought.

“…….”

Feeling awkward at the stretching silence, I set the stand I was holding down on the floor and looked around.

Given how loudly that man has been speaking but Joo Yunwoo hasn’t come out of his room yet, it’s either he hasn’t woken up or not at home right now.

My aimless gaze landed on the cake box the man was holding. It was a cake from Memoria, the same one Joo Yunwoo had bought last time.

‘That was delicious…..’

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to eat it.

The pleasant thought was interrupted by someone else’s voice. The man, awkwardly scratching his head, approached me.

“Excuse me. Do you know where the owner of this house is right now?”

“Oh, Yunwoo? Sorry, I just woke up, so I don’t know.”

“…… Yes…… ? Yunwoo?”

Thump!

Before I could comprehend what was happening, the man suddenly fell face first on the floor while talking. The impact was so strong that the floor he was standing on shook.

I was startled and immediately reached out to help him up, but my hand was blocked by another hand.

The owner of the hand was none other than Joo Yunwoo.

“You, why are you here?”

Joo Yunwoo’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, as if he was displeased.

Having only seen his gentle demeanor, I was momentarily surprised by this unfamiliar side of him, but quickly grabbed his arm and shook it.

“That’s right. Yunwoo! Call an ambulance right now. If that guy fell headfirst, he might have gotten a concussion!”

“I’m okay.”

“No, you might be okay, but that guy must not be okay, right?”

Even though I thought I should call an ambulance, I didn’t have a phone. I sighed as I remembered the phone that had been destroyed when I hit Yunwoo on the head.

Why have the people around me been getting their skulls cracked lately?

“This crazy bastard…….”

The man, muttering curses under his breath, slowly got up. His body staggered, as if he were carrying a heavy stone, and glared at Joo Yunwoo.

Regardless, Joo Yunwoo simply stared at the man with a cold, indifferent gaze. The man, seemingly enraged, parted his lips.

“Why aren’t you answering the phone again-”

Before the man could finish speaking, Joo Yunwoo whispered something in the man’s ear. The man burst into laughter and turned his gaze towards me.

The moment was brief. The man’s gaze returned back to Joo Yunwoo with a face that seemed to have much to say, but in the end, he clenched his lips shut.

Once the tension in the air subsided, I was able to hear a brief explanation about the man. He described himself as Joo Yunwoo’s friend, or more precisely, someone who was like a friend.

“I’m Ha Dogyeong. I’m sorry for being so rude just now.”

The man’s tone was much more polite than it had been a moment ago.

“I see, I’m Kim Eujung. More importantly, are you okay? The sound of you hitting the floor was pretty strong. I think it might be a good idea for you to go to the hospital.”

“No. I’m fine, I’m an Esper after all.”

“Oh, I see. So you are an Esper…….”

My words trailed off at the unexpected information.

I looked at Joo Yunwoo with a desperate expression. I hoped he wouldn’t call an Esper for guidance without the consent of the person involved.

Perhaps sensing my feelings, Joo Yunwoo didn’t mention anything about me.

Ha Dogyeong extended the cake box he had been holding toward me.

“Ah, I bought a cake. Would you like to have some? I got it from a place that’s supposed to be famous, so it should taste good.”

“Wow, I love this. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. But I think I woke you up early this morning. I honestly never thought there would be someone else at his house. But… how did you end up in a place like this, Kim Eujung….?”

Ha Dogyeong cautiously glanced at Joo Yunwoo and slowly asked.

I opened the cake box with a polite laugh at his serious expression that seemed to be exaggerated.

The chocolate on top of the eclair sparkled. I could also see panna cotta drizzled with tangy-sweet raspberry puree, and a tart topped with a variety of fruits, all arranged harmoniously.

I couldn’t help but swallow my saliva.

“Sister, wait a minute.”

Joo Yunwoo took the cake box from my hands. At the same time, Ha Dogyeong’s face twisted into a shocked expression.

He sure has an expressive face.

The calm on my face shattered when I witnessed the cake box, which had moved to Joo Yunwoo’s hands, being terribly crushed.

“The cake!!”

The cake, which had been perfectly fine just a moment ago, had now turned into a crumpled piece of waste paper.

It wasn’t just that the cake had been squished. Perhaps it was due to Joo Yunwoo’s abilities, the entire cake box had shrunk in size, as if it had been pressed by something huge.

“You, why did you suddenly destroy a perfectly good cake?”

What kind of a bolt from the blue was this? In response to my shocked and bewildered expression, Joo Yunwoo answered firmly.

“What if he poisoned it?”

“……?”

“If that bastard put poison in it to hurt you, it would be dangerous. You shouldn’t eat something given by a stranger.”

“…… Yes?”

I was so surprised that I couldn’t even find the words to speak. As I stood there, opening and closing my mouth, Ha Dogyeong, who had witnessed the entire scene, let out a small, incredulous chuckle before speaking.

“This guy is a crazy bastard…….”

This time, I completely agreed with him.

* * *

“Get out.”

As soon as the woman left, telling them to speak comfortably, his tone of speech changed in an instant, like a palm flipping over.

Ha Dogyeong was once again stunned speechless by his quick change of attitude.

If that guy had just received the call in time, he wouldn’t have come looking for him like this. Eun Woojin hated it when people would enter his territory without saying a word.

It was only because he had known Eun Woojin since their high school days that he was allowed this much.

‘…… He seemed to be in a good mood recently, is this the reason?’

Ha Dogyeong narrowed his eyebrows and recalled the recent incidents.

Since last time, there had been a series of large gates opening one after another, and his energy had been greatly depleted.

Eun Woojin, the guild master of Messiah, was the worst combination of an S-class Esper with an extremely low matching rate.

On the day when Eun Woojin’s condition looked particularly bad, Ha Dogyeong, thinking that if things kept going like this, that guy might end up dying and he would end up becoming the guild master. So he tried to persuade him to continue receiving guiding from other Guides instead of blindly looking for a matching.

However, Eun Woojin ignored him mercilessly.

Since the time spent wasn’t in vain, Ha Dogyeong judged that if he said anything more, it would only lead to trouble, so he decided to leave it for tomorrow.

And the next morning, Eun Woojin answered the phone right away, which was a rare case for him.

Before he could even finish the usual ‘Hello’, Eun Woojin’s cold voice rang out from the phone.

“Don’t contact me for the time being until I contact you first.”

Dud.

The phone call ended after he just blurted out what he wanted to say, Ha Dogyeong felt a pang in his stomach but shrugged it off.

It wasn’t the first or second time that the guild master’s personality was a complete mess.

Surprisingly, the next day, Eun Woojin came to the guild.

The rare visit of the guild master had the guild members peeking around in curiosity. Although he was the guild master, he was someone who spent more time absent from the guild than actually present.

Still, when it came to clearing gates or achieving accomplishments, no one could match him, so everyone turned a blind eye.

Then the aforementioned incident happened. The guild master of Messiah, who was famous for not treating humans like humans, showed kindness for the first time.

Not only did he quietly brush off when someone bumped into him in the hallway, but he even went so far as to help move the items the person was holding.

The guild member, who had received such an odd display of consideration from the guild master, was so terrified that he shouted ‘Please help! A stranger has invaded our guild!!’, and ran away.

When Ha Dogyeong heard the news, he first doubted his own ears. Once he realized it was true, he finally thought to himself that Eun Woojin must have gone crazy.

He called over a guild member who had been working there since the beginning and asked him.

“Do you think Eun Woojin has finally gone crazy?”

“If you’re talking about today’s rumor, I also think the Master has completely flipped 360 degrees.”

“……? If he turns 360 degrees, isn’t that just the same?”

“Yes, that’s the point.”

So he meant that guy has been crazy from the beginning.

Ha Dogyeong agreed wholeheartedly.

Thinking about it, it wasn’t just today that he behaved strangely.

He had told Ha Dogyeong not to contact him for a while, but then he suddenly told him to send the healer home right away, and even asked to buy some dessert from a famous store.

It was easy to brush off as his usual eccentricities, but if you really thought about it, each one of those requests was strange in its own way.

He could understand if Eun Woojin needed a healer, but what’s with the cake? He’s someone who doesn’t even eat sweets, what on earth does he need a cake for?

Thinking it might be the usual signs of his crazy behavior, he asked the new healer who had visited Eun Woojin’s house. But the healer just shook their head vigorously with a pale expression, and only said, ‘If I say anything, I’ll die’ and trotted away in a hurry.

Ha Dogyeong didn’t press the newbie healer any further. From what he’d observed over the years, Eun Woojin was the type of person who would do anything crazy, and more.

In the end, Ha Dogyeong decided to visit Eun Woojin’s house and see by himself.