The SSS-Class Hunter’s Garden Log - Chapter 56
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 56
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Throughout the entire journey back to Association Headquarters, the Vice-Chairman’s face was flushed red with anger.
The garden had been completely empty, and among the panicking employees, he had become a laughingstock in an instant.
“What kind of thief dared to lay hands on my property!”
The Vice-Chairman kicked the back of the passenger seat.
Thud—.
The employee sitting in the passenger seat flinched but didn’t dare say anything.
Strictly speaking, the crops in the garden weren’t the Vice-Chairman’s property. He had neither the right nor justification to make such claims.
Yet his grinding teeth, as if something of his own had been stolen, was so very characteristic of him.
Taking whatever caught his fancy first, regardless of who it belonged to.
When the car stopped in front of Association Headquarters, the Vice-Chairman burst out of the vehicle.
“Just wait and see. Once I catch whichever bastard it was—, what’s this?”
The Association Chairman’s face crumpled as he stormed into the building.
Inside the building, personnel in black suits stood in a line, blocking the way.
One of them stepped forward as if he had been waiting.
On the man’s chest was a metal badge reading ‘Audit Department.’
“Vice-Chairman.”
It was a polite but emotionless voice.
“Please come with us for a moment.”
“Come with you? What are you talking about? I’m not in the mood for games, so move aside.”
The Vice-Chairman waved his hand dismissively as if shooing away insects and tried to pass by.
However, his opponent didn’t step back even an inch.
“A report has been filed. There are matters to verify regarding an internal audit. Please come with us.”
With those words, shadows simultaneously fell on both sides.
Two Audit Department personnel in suits instantly grabbed the Vice-Chairman’s arms.
“What the hell are you doing! Let go!”
As he struggled, the Vice-Chairman instinctively realized something.
This matter wasn’t the kind that could be suppressed and covered up with power as usual.
“Can’t you hear me telling you to let go? You Audit Department bastards think you know who’s backing you? You think I’ll just let today slide?”
The Vice-Chairman screamed at the top of his lungs, veins bulging in his neck.
When they arrived at the investigation room door, practically being dragged there, the Vice-Chairman’s heart sank once more.
Click.
The sound of the door closing echoed unusually loudly.
Inside was smaller than expected.
There were no windows, and even the air felt stifling.
After sitting in the chair prepared in the investigation room.
A thick pile of documents was spread out like a waterfall across the table under the harsh fluorescent lighting.
Familiar transaction records.
Unauthorized Gate coordinates. Magic stone export records. Item distribution ledgers.
The chaotically arranged numbers spun dizzily before his eyes.
The color gradually drained from the Vice-Chairman’s face.
“…This is.”
His fingertips trembled slightly as he gripped the documents.
These were things that couldn’t possibly have leaked outside.
Only himself and Han Tae-ho.
This should be information known only to the two of them.
The Vice-Chairman’s molars ground together audibly.
“That damned bastard Han Tae-ho.”
Only one word came to mind.
Betrayal.
No other possibilities occurred to him.
“I helped that pathetic guild maintain its ranking all this time, and he dares to stab me in the back?”
The fact that he had abandoned Han Tae-ho first wasn’t important to the Vice-Chairman.
What mattered was that someone who should have remained under his feet had the audacity to bite back.
Rage surged first.
And soon after, anxiety crept up behind it.
‘Surely this news hasn’t reached that person’s ears, has it?’
The Vice-Chairman bit his nails.
It was still okay.
He could still fix this.
Just then.
Creak—.
The investigation room door opened again.
As the Audit Department employees naturally stepped aside, one person walked through between them.
The first thing that caught his eye was a distinctive purple suit.
A color so free-spirited yet striking that it would be burned into one’s memory after a single glance.
Next, his gaze fell upon bright blue irises.
Gasp.
The Vice-Chairman unconsciously held his breath.
The person approached with leisurely steps, wearing a faint smile, and stopped across from the table.
Then, after looking down at the Vice-Chairman for a moment, he slowly opened his mouth.
“It’s been a while. Have you been well?”
It was a soft yet elegant voice.
But there was no warmth in it.
The Vice-Chairman’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
After that, the investigation room door closed again, leaving only the Vice-Chairman and the man before him in the small space.
As soon as they were left alone, the man across from him turned off both the microphone and recording camera.
“Da, Damian.”
Damian Park.
A man of mixed American heritage belonging to the Global Hunter Association.
An SS-rank Hunter like Seo Ganghyeon.
Due to his light attribute, he was called the ‘Reincarnation of a Saint’ in some circles, and now this man was sitting across from the Vice-Chairman, smiling sweetly.
“Ho, how did you get all the way here—”
Blue eyes that seemed infused with light swept over the documents spread across the desk.
“‘How,’ you ask. Our Vice-Chairman has been making frequent mistakes lately, so I came to offer some encouragement. I heard you’d gotten involved in some unsavory business.”
Damian dragged the pile of documents toward himself with his index finger.
The papers moved with a rustling sound.
“But my, my. You’ve been up to more troublesome things than I expected.”
Cold sweat formed on the Vice-Chairman’s forehead.
This wasn’t part of his calculations.
Who would have thought Damian Park would be in Korea at this particular time.
The Vice-Chairman frantically tried to pull the documents back toward himself.
“Yo, you don’t need to concern yourself with this. This is just a minor disturbance. It’s a misunderstanding that arose during internal reorganization— I can handle it myself.”
“A minor disturbance, you say.”
Damian repeated the same words.
His words trailed off softly.
Then Damian’s fingertips moved ever so slightly.
Flick.
At the same moment, the investigation room suddenly became brilliantly bright.
A dazzling light momentarily cut through the space.
The Vice-Chairman reflexively squeezed his eyes shut.
In that brief instant, sensing something slipping away, the Vice-Chairman frantically fumbled around his chest.
It wasn’t there.
The small box he had hidden in his inner pocket.
As soon as he realized this fact, he heard the familiar sound of a lock clicking open from across the room.
The Vice-Chairman’s head snapped up.
The box was already in Damian’s hands.
Damian opened the box and stared intently at its contents.
Smoothly polished artificial Gate cores.
Damian’s blue irises lingered on them for a long moment before gradually growing cold.
“What should I do about this? This doesn’t seem like a minor disturbance.”
Damian picked up one of the artificial Gate cores from the box.
The Vice-Chairman could only gulp nervously.
Even then, he didn’t understand what the problem was.
But as Damian’s skill enveloped the core, the color gradually began to drain from the Vice-Chairman’s face.
The core, wrapped in bright light, trembled before the artificial mana coating it scattered away like peeling skin.
Soon the reddish energy disappeared.
And the true form of what had deceived them as a core was revealed.
It was just a pebble.
Damian rolled the utterly ordinary pebble around in his palm.
“Before light, all truth is revealed.”
Crack.
Soon, like a cookie being crushed, the pebble lost its form and crumbled between Damian’s index finger and thumb.
White dust scattered in the air before slowly settling down.
The Vice-Chairman’s body trembled as he watched this.
“Vice-Chairman. Have you forgotten how precious these items are? Where did you divert the real cores?”
“I, I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
“How troublesome.”
Damian let out a long sigh as if he had a headache.
“To cause trouble and not even be able to clean it up. How can we trust you with work like this, Vice-Chairman?”
Damian tilted his head.
“There’s no reason to keep holding onto a useless card, is there? What do you think, Vice-Chairman?”
The moment he understood the meaning behind those words, goosebumps rose along the Vice-Chairman’s spine.
He was going to die.
It was an instinctive realization.
He had to run, right now.
But even if he opened the investigation room door and ran out, it was obvious Damian would catch him immediately.
As the Vice-Chairman racked his brain, his eyes fell on the remaining Gate cores in the open box.
The Vice-Chairman reflexively snatched a core and poured his mana into it.
He thought that if he escaped into a Gate, there might be at least a small chance of shaking off Damian.
Crackle—
The air twisted in the middle of the investigation room, and with a shattering sound like breaking glass, a black crack instantly tore open.
The Vice-Chairman desperately threw himself into that still unstably fluctuating gap.
However, Damian merely watched the Vice-Chairman’s struggles with disdain.
“How predictably he moves within expectations.”
As Damian’s outstretched fingertips gracefully traced a curve, brilliant light poured into the opening Gate entrance.
Instantly, space made a creaking sound and the Gate entrance began to distort.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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