The Hero Returns

Indigo.

The highest-ranked dungeon that had ever appeared.

This dungeon appearing in the Namsan Tower threw the whole world into chaos once more. The blue color alone was already treated as a worse calamity than natural disasters, but now an indigo-hued dungeon had shown up.

Obviously, the government, and particularly the Awakener Association of South Korea, where this indigo-colored dungeon had appeared, were working harder and more frantically than ever before.

And, stuck in the middle of it all, was Lee Jo-hu, anxiously tapping the ground with his foot.

"Haven't Gordon Rohan and Kim Su-hyeun arrived yet?"

Currently on the top floor of the Jongro Tower, where the Awakener Association had its headquarters.

That was where Jung Yoon-ho asked this question to Lee Ju-ho. As a part of the same guild as those men, no one knew their whereabouts better than the Lee Hu-ho.

Lee Ju-ho replied, "Gordon can't be reached at the moment. He must be in the middle of raiding the dungeon in Brazil."

"Are you saying that he went directly to raiding the next dungeon?"

"Apparently, he didn't run into many issues while raiding the one in Florida. Actually, I didn't get a call from him, just the news of what happened, so even I…"

From the get-go, Gordon Rohan wasn't someone who'd wait for someone's orders just because he was in the same guild. Indeed, he moved almost completely independently.

He just sent a message to Lee Ju-ho, stating where he'd go raiding next so that he wouldn't run into Su-hyeun in one of the several dungeons that appeared almost at the same time around the world.

"What about Kim Su-hyeun, then?"

"He's on his way."

"With Thomas Mathiras and Choi Hak-joon, too?"

Jung Yoon-ho's question was met with Lee Ju-ho's head shake. "They're currently headed to Australia. The situation there is also…"

Slam-!

The mayor of Seoul, also attending the meeting, smacked the desk before him and roared at the top of his voice. "How is this the right time to worry about another country?! Don't they understand that Seoul is on the brink of utter destruction if we end up making a single mistake?!"

In that instant, the conference venue fell into silence. Jung Yoon-ho, leading the meeting, and even Lee Ju-ho shut their mouths for a while.

Either he didn't sense the atmosphere getting colder, or he was too pressed to care. The mayor of Seoul, Yi Myeong-ho continued to yell while pounding on the desk before him. "Tell them to turn their plane around right this instance! This is no time to fool around, and with our damn situation being what it is, where the hell is their sense of duty as the awakeners of this nation…"

"Oh, the sense of duty, is it. Yes, sir. I hear you. I get what you're trying to say."

Lee Ju-ho nodded his head and abruptly cut Yi Myeong-ho off in the middle of his sentence.

The mayor must've thought that the leader of the Paragon Guild had decided to toe the line because he unclenched his fist and sat deeper into his chair with a satisfied look on his face.

Lee Ju-ho spoke flatly. "In that case, I'll have Kim Su-hyeun head to Australia next. And let us appoint Mister Jung Yoon-ho here as the leader of the raid."

"W-what was that?!"

"In the case of a dungeon with a difficulty higher than the green color appearing in their home territory, it is the duty of all S-Rank awakeners to participate in the raid if it's his or her turn to do so. That piece of legislation was created at the same time as another one that allowed S-Ranks to enjoy many privileges to prevent the dungeon outbreaks from occurring, as far as I understand it."

"Y-yes, so what?"

"It's Mister Jung Yoon-ho's turn this time, and as far as I know, he's attending this meeting precisely because of this fact. Is this correct or not?"

"Well, it's not wrong," said Jung Yoon-ho, while stifling a chuckle threatening to break free after he figured out what Lee Ju-ho was about to say.

On the other hand, Yi Myeong-ho's face was getting redder and redder the more Lee Ju-ho talked. The latter stared at the changing expressions on the former's face and carried on in a flat tone of voice he'd been using until now. "I'm sure mister mayor is already aware of this by now, yes? Unlike a few years ago, dungeons are no longer seen as repositories of resources."

"W-well, that is…"

The dungeons in the past were, quite literally, the repositories of natural resources.

Back then, the number of the available awakeners far outstripped the number of generated dungeons, and the Ether stones being mined from there became another type of resource that could potentially replace crude oil and even electricity.

Unfortunately, that was only half the story these days.

The risks posed by the dungeons were real. Events that were hypothesized since the beginning of it all but never really recognized until recently bubbled up to the surface quite rapidly.

A high-risk dungeon with a high degree of difficulty was a ticking time bomb that nobody knew when it'd go off. Not just any bomb, either—something with enough power to completely obliterate a single city, as a matter of fact.

And the high-ranked awakeners were individuals tasked with eliminating such bombs. This was the background behind the mercenary guild, Paragon's founding.

Lee Ju-ho continued to speak, "As far as I know, Kim Su-hyeun is returning to South Korea of his own accord. But, unlike the leaders of other countries, mister mayor, you didn't seek out the Paragon Guild but the Awakener Association instead, for some reason."

"That's because…"

"For sure, I'm an awakener affiliated with the association. However, the awakener Kim Su-hyeun is under the Paragon Guild, not the association. Even then, he's still on his way back to Korea. Do you know why?"

Yi Myeong-ho couldn't answer.

Lee Ju-ho's words hit their mark. Also, there was no way that the mayor didn't know the reason, either.

The reason why Su-hyeun was returning to South Korea—it was way too obvious.

"Because the dungeons are simply too damn dangerous, that's why. Because people will die if one turns into an outbreak. Calculating benefits and losses?! He doesn't care about that. The reason why he sent Hak-joon and Thomas over to Australia? Because the people living there are also people, that's why. Because they need to be saved, too!"

Lee Ju-ho's voice grew more and more agitated.

He always made sure to separate his private life from official business and used their full names whenever Su-hyeun, Hak-joon or Thomas was brought up, but this time, he didn't even bother to use their surnames.

That showed how agitated he was right now.

"That idiot Su-hyeun doesn't even know the meaning of the word 'calculating'. Just watching him from the sidelines sometimes makes me feel like I'll keel over from sheer frustration alone! No, wait. He does calculate stuff, sure. But none of that is for himself. But what the hell are you saying?"

Craaack-!

Lee Ju-ho's fist slammed down on the desk before him.

This was a full-blooded punch from an A-Rank. The tough desk shattered to pieces instantly, causing Yi Myeong-ho to visibly flinch and cower back from the fright without even realizing it.

"He doesn't have a sense of duty?! Who doesn't have it, again? Su-hyeun? You don't even have the faintest idea, yet you still dare to run that mouth of yours…!"

"Mister Lee Ju-ho. Please calm down for a minute."

"Y-yes, of course. My apologies, I was out of line."

Jung Yoon-ho got up from his seat and stopped Lee Ju-ho by grabbing the latter's arm. In the meantime, Yi Myeong-ho, deeply frightened by Lee Ju-ho's murderous aura, whimpered out his apology in a pitiful voice.

Lee Ju-ho, standing with an enraged expression, settled down in the chair, which was now visible to everyone after this desk was shattered into pieces. He then carried on from where he left off. "If you were planning to save a few pennies from the budget by using the Association to hire Kim Su-hyeun, then it seems that we need to change our plan. You should lodge an official request with the Paragon Guild at the appropriate request fee. At the very least, the amount needs to exceed what the Australians have offered us."

"B-but, that's…"

The inside of Yi Myeong-ho's head blanked out.

Bring along the request fee?

Honestly, that wasn't impossible to do. Without a doubt, the fee could be scrounged up somehow by taking a portion from the budget plus the tax revenue earned from the dungeons.

Indeed, this wasn't an impossible task to pull off. And it suited the characteristics of a mercenary guild, too.

But the crux of the problem was this—the situation had turned from being able to request Su-hyeun's help for free to actually needing to cough up a massive request fee, instead. And, as things stood, the blame for this turnaround was squarely on the shoulders of Seoul's mayor, Yi Myeong-ho.

<< N-no, wait! >>

The mayor quickly turned his head around and looked behind him.

This meeting was about discussing and implementing the measures to be put into place after the indigo-colored dungeon appearing near the Namsan Tower had been successfully raided. As such, a lot of reporters were present as well. They were the eyes and ears of the voting public, and so, they were diligently filming and recording every single word spoken up until now.

It was rather obvious that the news would get out soon—the news of Yi Myeong-ho's remarks causing friction between him and Kim Su-hyeun as well as Lee Ju-ho, leading to Seoul's budget needlessly being used up when, originally, it didn't have to.

"I, I'm really sorry about what I said earlier. Y-yes, Kim Su-hyeun alone is enough for us. We're eternally grateful for his aid, of course. Yes. He didn't even need to take responsibility like this, but he's even voluntarily…"

"Enough." Lee Ju-ho dismissively waved his hand as if he was not interested in listening anymore. "Mister Mayor, you need to take 'responsibility' for what you said yourself."

* * *

"…And so, that's what happened."

Lee Ju-ho met up with Su-hyeun, who had finally returned to South Korea, and told the latter what had transpired in the conference venue.

Currently, they were in a busy downtown street watching the Namsan Tower from below. Normally, this street should be teeming with crowds of pedestrians at all hours of the day or night, but now it was completely empty.

Su-hyeun asked. "In that case, what should I do? I'm guessing it'll take some time before they finish finalizing their budget and all."

"You just have to pretend like you're about to leave for Australia. It'd probably be enough to show them that our private plane is ready to take off at any moment."

Lee Ju-ho must've been seriously pissed off because he was still scowling unhappily even now. Su-hyeun knew that the anger was for his sake, so he couldn't help but feel happy inside. Of course, that didn't mean he was planning to go to Australia like the older man had said.

<< I can't leave that thing alone, after all. >>

The indigo-colored dungeon. Su-hyeun had no idea why that thing had appeared in South Korea, but he was acutely aware of the level of danger it possessed.

One month—this was how long it took an indigo dungeon to cause an outbreak.

<< Can't come to a hasty conclusion here, though. >>

Despite knowing that, Su-hyeun didn't feel reassured at all.

Too many things that were supposed to happen in the future had been distorted out of order. The times and locations had changed already, so it wouldn't be strange to see the time needed for an outbreak to change unexpectedly, as well.

Sure, it might not happen in the next couple of days or something, but even then, Su-hyeun was thinking of staying near the Namsan Tower for the time being, at least.

"Well, I'll have the private plane on standby, just in case. So our dear mayor can wet his pants for a bit longer," said Su-hyeun.

"You know, you can be rather nasty when you get riled up."

"Not as much as you, bro." Su-hyeun grinned while doing his best to suppress an even bigger laugh from bursting out, but then, his expression changed to one of deep concern. "But, will it be alright? No matter what our true intentions were, if people think we gave up on the raid with the pretext of the request fee, wouldn't public sentiment toward the Paragon Guild get worse?"

That's how people's mentality was like.

It was only normal to expect a lot from those with patriotism, a sense of duty, as well as the necessary power.

The public wished for these individuals to protect them. They demanded the sense of duty be upheld despite such a thing not being required in the first place. They would eventually start taking the sacrifices of those with power for granted.

Especially so when the events were directly related to their lives.

<< It won't be different this time, either. >>

Su-hyeun knew this fact better than anyone. Everyone from his previous life was like this. Maybe that was why they resented him. They asked, why couldn't he protect them, didn't he have the power to do so?

"Well, yeah, that's possible. Regardless of what happens, the only other person who can raid that dungeon besides you is Gordon, and, if it's not raided, Seoul will be destroyed for sure. In that case, our country will be finished," said Lee Ju-ho.

"But then…"

"So, our dear mayor should be in a full-on panic mode right about now. Without you, the city in his charge will be wiped off the map. From a moralistic standpoint, people might start pointing fingers at you, but for our mayor, there can only be one end." Lee Ju-ho drew a line under his chin. But his explanation didn't end there. "Besides, you don't have to worry too much. Do you think this big bro of yours couldn't control his rage and ended up starting this whole thing? I've never thought of letting anyone blame you for anything. If someone needs to be criticized and cursed, that'll be my job."

"Bro, but…"

Rrrrrr-

The phone went off just then.

Lee Ju-ho raised his hand to stop Su-hyeun and answered the call. "Yes, mister mayor. Hello there."

As he listened, a grin gradually spread over his face. The strange thing was, though, the tone of his voice as he spoke to the mayor on the phone remained as cold as ever.

"I see. I understand. Yes, we're in agreement, then. Yes, we'll head there right away. Well then, we'll speak to you later."

The call came to an end there. And Lee Ju-ho spoke in a voice full of barely contained laughter, which was a remarkable change from a second ago.

"They made the request."