Requiem Of A Failed Hero

"Heeheee... hyungnim you are all over the internet. I bet reporters will be seeking to find your face.

"What is that?" Raith leaned his head forward to see what Min-ho was looking at while he was eating ramen with one hand.

"It says, who is the mysterious Merchant of the association that cleared a disguise gate on his own?" Min-ho read it out for him. On Min-ho's phone, there was a graphic with a blurry picture of Raith when he was seated under the tent and with a question mark on it.

"I thought the association said they'd save me from the eyes of the public."

'I don't want to be the center of attention given my secrets and the fact that I am not from this world.'

"There are some things that even the association cannot control. The best they can do is hide your identity." Min-ho replied as he locked his phone and focused on his food.

"Bucht we can fochus on the brisht shide of chis..." He swallowed the food in his mouth and continued, "Everyone is saying you are probably Korea's third special rank hunter."

"Special rank?" Raith asked with a puzzled face.

"You know that the hunter ranking goes from F to S, and S is like the standard best, S rank hunters have privilege everywhere but they enjoy only a tip of what the special ranks enjoy. We have two special ranks, Disaster rank, and Catastrophe rank. Those two are way beyond common sense, and Korea has only two of those. If the guilds know that you are the third one, everyone... and I mean everyone will come running after you include guilds from different countries, America, Japan, China, England, Nigeria... all the countries, and you will be under certain privileges, not even the government can hold you down."

"It sounds impressive."

"It really is." Min-ho nodded with a smile as he slurped another spoon full of ramen.

GRRR GRRRR

Raith immediately picked up his phone as it vibrated.

"Hello."

>> Hello.

The voice on the phone responded to him.

>> Merchant Raven, there is a gate... I know you are resting from–

"I'm going, where is it? When?"

>> Uhm, Merchant Raven? It's okay if you decline this. You don't–

"I'm tired of eating ramen."

>> Sir?

"Never mind, just send me the location of the gate."

>> Okay Merchant Raven.

Raith sighed. 'This guy is about to traumatize me with ramen.'

"Was that the association?"

"Yes."

"Are we going to a gate?" Min-ho asked with a lit face.

"There's no we... I'll prefer to do this. Alone."

"Come on hyungnim? Alone, who will pick the crystals."

Raith grinned as he asked the question, as much as there was so much urge to flaunt his army of shadow soldiers, he wasn't interested in letting anyone know this soon, not Min-ho, not even the association.

"You've been away from the hospital for the past week. I'm sure you are needed. I will take care of this on my own." Raith replied to him with a calm and pleasant tone.

He was right, ever since his return from the disguise gate, Min-ho only went to the hospital twice and didn't even stay long as one would expect a doctor to. He had been home tending to Raith's needs and Raith was enjoying all the care– it had been a long time since he had that feeling of being cared for, that time when he was still surrounded by maids.

Min-ho looked down for a minute. "You are right hyungnim. I should go to the hospital, maybe I should quit and just become a hunter too."

"Wait, aren't you a doctor because you like the job."

"Well, there's that too but another reason is because of my father."

"Your father?"

"Yes, my father is the Chairman of the hospital, since all my brothers are not doctors he wants someone who will walk his path to inherit the hospitals."

"And that is you," Raith replied with a vibrant expression.

"Yes... it's nothing much." Min-ho replied scratching his cheek."

"If that is the case you can't quit being a doctor. If you will become a hunter make sure you are doing it for yourself. For now, I will go to the gate... make sure you don't quit."

"But how will you get there? I'm sure you don't know how to drive."

Raith smiled, "You'd be shocked. Give me the keys."

"Hyungnim, I know your world is like earth but driving a car here is a delicate matter..."

"It's fine then... I can just run. It'd probably be faster than a car anyways."

"Hyungnim no, just let me drive you."

"I'm not letting you into the gate."

"It's fine... I will go to the hospital after dropping you at the location." Min-ho said and watched Raith debate his decision.

"Okay." Raith finally responded and both of them left, leaving the leftovers.

***

In a few minutes, Min-ho was already at Nonhyeon-dong coastal road walk in Incheon, but they were trapped in the traffic that didn't seem to move.

"How weird the location he sent me, it looks like we are not too far from there," Raith mumbled as he looked around. People were coming out of their cars to express their frustration.

GRRRR GRRRR.

Raith's phone rang.

>> Hello, Merchant Raven, where are you?"

"I'm in traffic..."

>> Where what does it look like?

"Pink trees on my left and a big skyscraper on my right, it's also a thin road."

>> Ah, you are here already, from here out, you might need to walk and please be careful, make sure no one sees your face.

He warned and put off the call.

"Looks like the gate is just in front of us," Raith said and opened the door.

"Hyungnim, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to the gate. You can turn and go back home." Raith replied to him and turned to the front, the ring began to exude dark smoke and the shadow helmet covered his face immediately.

"Hyung?"

Min-ho wasn't the only one that stuck his head out of his car as Raith leaped into the air and hopped on cars till he got to his destination.