Chapter 74
“You came early?”
“I didn’t really have anything to do.”
A spacious barbecue restaurant.
Inside it, a small private room suitable for a personal conversation.
He had arrived about twenty minutes earlier than their appointment time, yet she showed up not long after.
“I ordered the assorted set. Is that okay?”
“I eat everything except vegetables.”
“That’s a relief.”
Saying that, he placed the meat onto the hot grill.
Chiiiisss.
With the sizzling sound, a delicious aroma slowly filled the air.
“So, what’s this about? Why did you suddenly ask to meet?”
“I just wanted to eat some meat, but it felt awkward to come alone.”
“Really?”
Was that truly the trivial reason he’d called her out?
Just because he didn’t have anyone to eat lunch with?
It was painfully obvious that it was nothing more than a flimsy excuse.
Why had he suddenly asked her to have lunch together?
Suspicious of his hidden intentions, she cautiously asked,
“Did things get sorted out with Mephisto?”
“…Yeah. In the end, it worked out.”
The medicinal herbs he’d gotten from Jia turned out to be useless in the end, but he could already guess that bringing it up would only sour the conversation.
While Juhyeok silently grilled the meat, thinking about how to start the conversation, she spoke first.
“So, what’s the real reason?”
Getting straight to the point before even filling their stomachs.
“You didn’t ask me to meet just because you missed my face.”
Jia wasn’t foolish enough to think he’d asked her out because he liked her.
From the moment he chose a beef restaurant instead of a pork one, she had already sensed something.
She wanted to know exactly what favor he was planning to ask, enough to bring her to such an expensive place.
“The guy who didn’t contact me for a whole week suddenly asks to meet—what’s going on?”
“I’ve never really been the type to keep in touch.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Just tell me why you called me.”
The meat flipped over on the grill.
After checking that the door was firmly closed, Juhyeok spoke quietly.
“I told you before, right? That I can open gates.”
“Right.”
“And gates work just like any other—defeat the boss.”
“Yeah. They’re all the same.”
Thankfully, everything lined up with her expectations.
Without bothering with embellishments, Juhyeok got straight to the point.
“Can you open a gate for me?”
“…A gate?”
She looked genuinely surprised, as if she’d never imagined he’d ask for that.
Jia paused briefly, then picked up a perfectly medium-rare piece of beef, dipped it in oil, and asked,
“Why? Got someone you want to throw in there?”
“No. I’m going in myself.”
“Oh. So you want to go in personally…”
Her reaction wasn’t as dramatic as he expected.
Juhyeok continued.
“You said before that you could make an S-rank gate.”
“I did.”
“Open an S-rank gate for me—just once. In secret.”
“…”
Dark circles framed her eyes as she stared at him.
She chewed another bite of meat before speaking.
“Sounds like you’re short on cash.”
That was Jia’s first guess.
That he urgently needed money, so he wanted to jump into an S-rank gate to mine mana stones.
But S-rank gates weren’t something that appeared frequently.
Juhyeok, after agonizing over money, must have come to her—the one person who could open gates.
It was the most plausible conclusion.
But Juhyeok denied it immediately.
“I’m not going in to make money. If I wanted to sell mana stones, their origin would have to be fully traceable.”
“There are ways to launder them quietly. That’s how we made money at first.”
“There’s no need to take that kind of risk just to earn money.”
If things went wrong, the guild he’d worked so hard to build could be destroyed overnight.
He wanted a clean start, free of illegal complications.
“Then why go into a gate?”
He couldn’t tell her the real reason.
The artifact embedded in his body was a secret to everyone—naturally, the fact that he needed mana stones to feed it was also secret.
“Live combat training.”
That was the excuse he gave.
Cliché, but effective.
“I figured training in real combat would help more.”
“….”
Her chopsticks paused.
Those tired eyes stared straight at him.
For a moment, he thought his obvious excuse had been exposed.
Then Jia let out a deep sigh.
“If you’ve gotten that strong, shouldn’t you be resting a bit?”
Her face twisted as if she was fed up.
Since he was someone who trained obsessively every single day, the excuse worked.
If it were anyone else, she would’ve assumed ulterior motives.
But Juhyeok was a training fanatic who practiced even when he couldn’t stray more than ten meters away from her—so it sounded believable.
“At your level, S-rank is more than enough.”
A genuine question.
Why was he so obsessed with training?
By her standards, Juhyeok had already reached S-rank.
No—based on watching him train, he was competitive even among S-ranks.
“Won’t you be set for life like this?”
In South Korea, there was no hunter who could surpass him.
Though the public still rated him as “around S-rank” since he hadn’t fully displayed his power, it was only a matter of time before the world recognized him.
Wealth and fame would naturally follow.
Yet she couldn’t understand why someone like that continued to push himself so relentlessly.
“If it were me, I’d just train moderately and live comfortably.”
“….”
The truth was that he didn’t need a gate for training.
What he wanted were the mana stones inside.
Mana stones to feed the artifact.
But the question born from his lie struck deeper than he expected.
“Why do you train that hard, anyway?”
What was Juhyeok running toward without rest?
He was already strong. Already high above others.
His life had shifted from one filled with defeat to one of constant victory.
Yet he still swung his sword every day.
To that question, he answered with the ambition he always carried in his chest.
“Proof.”
“Proof?”
Juhyeok stopped flipping the meat and continued.
“I have a belief. That if you put in the effort, there’s nothing you can’t achieve.”
[‘In front of effort, impossibility is meaningless. Remember that, son.’]
His father’s face resurfaced in his mind.
Faint.
Clear in photographs, but hazy in memory.
What remained from childhood were dust-covered recollections—and that voice, brimming with conviction.
That voice alone had carried him through every hardship.
A hopelessly untalented person.
Someone who couldn’t rise above average no matter what he tried.
That was Jung Juhyeok.
And the one who overcame it—was also Jung Juhyeok.
“I’m getting stronger to prove that to the world.”
The belief he’d held his entire life.
He ran endlessly to prove it.
Effort.
Until everyone acknowledged the blood and sweat contained in that word.
Juhyeok would keep running.
It was a grueling path.
As a child, there were countless times he wanted to give up.
Countless times he hit walls and broke.
But even when he broke, he never stopped.
Effort became habit.
Habit shaped the person.
Juhyeok’s body was already built from effort.
That was the legacy his father left behind.
The will he inherited.
He would not stop.
“So you’re saying you got strong with nothing but effort? No talent at all?”
“Sadly, yes. I’ve never been talented at anything.”
“…Honestly, getting this strong alone proves you had talent.”
Reaching S-rank.
That was a realm no ordinary person could reach, no matter how hard they tried.
The fact that he’d reached it made her believe he had talent.
Juhyeok replied lightly.
“It wasn’t talent. It was luck.”
“Luck?”
“That’s all I can tell you.”
The best answer he could give without revealing the artifact.
Didn’t they say heaven helps those who help themselves?
Juhyeok had been lucky enough to encounter the artifact—and that luck allowed him to grow this strong.
He couldn’t explain everything, but saying he was lucky was still true.
He said that and took a bite of meat.
“So—can you help me or not?”
“…I don’t know.”
She fell into thought.
After a brief pause, she spoke.
“S-rank is a no. Making one drains so much mana I’d be bedridden all day.”
She could create an S-rank gate, but the sheer amount of mana required was overwhelming.
That was why she usually stopped at B-rank gates.
“Then how about an A-rank gate?”
“That… is possible.”
Jia began to stall.
She slid her chopsticks forward and smiled playfully.
“You’re not asking for help with an empty mouth, right?”
“…If it’s money, I’ll match whatever you want.”
“Nope. I don’t need money.”
Him coming to ask for help on his own.
For Jia, there wasn’t a better opportunity.
“Help us with something.”
Not her, but them.
He could immediately guess what she meant.
“Is it related to revenge?”
“Exactly.”
“I see.”
Juhyeok quietly picked at his side dishes.
Then asked,
“Anything else you want?”
“No.”
Her answer was firm.
“Just like proving effort is your life, revenge is our life.”
“…Alright.”
Time passed slowly.
They recognized what each needed from the other and tried to find common ground, but unfortunately, their paths didn’t quite intersect.
With lingering regret, Juhyeok placed a piece of meat onto her plate.
“Eat up. It’s going to burn.”
