Chapter 109 Naughty Old Farts
"You have still not seen a trace of hunter Raith."
"At all sir... I have searched everywhere in Seoul, he is nowhere to be found." Chunho replied to Mok Jae-Hwa.
"What the hell is this? He creates this amount of crisis and decides to go off-grid?" Mok Jae-Hwa sighed and scratched his head.
'At this point, I am going lose all my hair. I mean, it hasn't even been two months since he joined the guild'
"What do we do? Hyungnim, I will help in any way that I can!"
Hunter Mok Jae-Hwa lamely looked towards the person that just spoke, 'And there is this guy to deal with... Since Raith's glamorous return, he has turned to some kind of zealot for Hunter Raith."
"Hyungnim?" Hunter Joon-Ho pressed.
"Stop it! Can't you see you are stressing him!" Tae Dong-Hyun said as he slammed his way into Mok Jae-Hwa's office.
"Dong-Hyunnnnnnn, Dong-Hyun I'm about to die... this guy wants to kill me!" Mok Jae-Hwa cried running to Dong-Hyun like a baby, as he approached the blacksmith, he received an uppercut that sent him back to where he was coming from.
"You were the one that went ahead and cut a deal with your father without even talking about it to me." Tae Dong-Hyun growled.
"My My, Dong-Hyunssi how could I have dared to disturb you when you are working on the project? That is the most important thing for you right now isn't it?"
"Ahem..." He cleared his throat and folded his arms, "I watched the footage from the fight between him and Turner, although most of the parts were unwatchable because they were too fast to be captured by our guild satellite and kept running from place to place. But I must say something, that boy... what is his name again?"
"Hunter Raith?"
"Yes, Hunter Rat..."
"Raith"
"Talk again and I'll smack the shit out of you."
Hunter Mok Jae-Hwa immediately held his lips together.
Tae Joon-Ho and Chunho were like the wind in this room, they made sure they said nothing and were as silent as a dead man.
"Hold onto him. A hunter that could fight on par with Turner. No doubt about it... he is a catastrophe rank. So, yes you are going to suffer everything in his stead and find a way to explain the situation to other guilds, the public, and even international relationships that want to know exactly what happened? He is registered with our guild for now, I know there was some deal between you and the association chairman... but it'd be really good if we can retain that guy."
Hunter Mok Jae-Hwa's face was filled with a passionate expression, his eyes glittering.
"Yes! I will do just that! I will find a way to make him stay!" Even though Hunter Mok Jae-Hwa was the strongest in the guild and the guild president, everyone knew how loyal and obedient he was to Tae Dong-Hyun.
ringg ringgggg ringggggg
Hunter Mok Jae-Hwa immediately picked up his phone.
"Yes sir, Mr. President sir...?"
"Sir... Yes sir!"
"Oh? What? Oh, yes sir! I will be there right away sir."
As he dropped the phone, tiredness vividly dominated his face.
"Don't tell me the president just called you?" Tae Dong-Hyun said, looking at the phone.
Chunho and Joon-Ho were both shocked to their bones but wouldn't dare to make even the slightest squeak sound.
"Yes," Mok Jae-Hwa nodded. "He said my attention is needed in the blue house?"
"So you are going to Jongno-gu?" Tae Dong-Hyun was very surprised.
"Will you follow me?" Mok Jae-Hwa asked with pleading eyes.
"Ah, now I remember... that project, yes the one that is the most important... there is something that I am yet to fix there for today. I need to hurry up now." He said and immediately turned to the door, "...this is why I never want to be guild president." He mumbled as he walked outside.
Mok Jae-Hwa's face turned to the two of them, Joon-Ho and Chunho. Immediately they averted their gazes from his.
"What about the guys? Sung-Min? Chong-Yol? Yeon-Woo? Shin? Ga-Yun? Yujin? what about Shin-Hye too?"
Chunho and Joon-Ho both nodded their heads sadly.
"They are all busy with their shifts, and hunter Shin-Hye is more serious about are modeling and commercials than she is serious about going to gates these days," Chunho replied causing Mok Jae-Hwa to fall in shock.
"All my S rank and A rank? They have failed me..."
Chunho and Joon-Ho slowly made their way out of his office. It was left to him and solely him to find a way out of this mess that Raith had created for the guild.
***
A few hours later.
Hunter Mok Jae-Hwa was seated in the board room with the president and some other important ministers, altogether they were about seven in the room, except the securities that stood by.
"Hunter Mok Jae-Hwa... I know that you are a good man. I can remember that day when you awakened as a disaster rank hunter and swore to use your powers for your nation and you have ever since kept your word." The president said to him.
Mok Jae-Hwa gulped as the president continued.
"If I would have my way, I don't want this disaster to have anything to do with you. And so we are thinking, hand over Hunter Raith to us. Capture him for us and hand him over to us, I hear he is just some nameless hunter. Hand him over to us, the country shall protect you and we can even make it seem like you were the one that put a stop to the fight."
Hunter Mok Jae-Hwa's expression suddenly became rigid and stiff.
He looked down and scoffed silently, "I can't believe this..." He muttered.
"Pardon, did you say something?" The minister close to Mok Jae-Hwa who was seating at the other end of the long conference table.
"I am a bit disappointed..." Mok Jae-Hwa lets his voice soar louder.
"Remember, you are before the president?" The minster closest to him warned, with a supposedly intimidating tone but from Mok Jae-Hwa's point of view it was just harmless barking.
"That is why I said what I said. I am before the president, I expected that I would have to carry the heavy weight of this disaster since I am the guild president of the hunter in question. A nameless hunter? That is no way to talk about a man.
The Korean government really is gullible, I see why we lost two disaster-ranked hunters to Turner. He has always been like this. This was far too much but it is the perfect opportunity to hold him responsible for his actions yet all you care about is public sentiment? and you want to sacrifice such potential for the sake of the public. Are you fools?!"
SLAM!!
The big man beside the president slammed the table as he rose.
"I tolerated your father talking down on us. I won't tolerate the same with you!!" The man shouted.
"Sit!" The president commanded.
The man reluctantly sat down.
The president smiled and began to reply to Mok Jae-Hwa, "You are like Jun-Seo in every way."
"I'm pretty sure my belief and my father's belief are so far apart."
"Well, he was the one that said we should do what we do best... he would take care of Turner. And in order to do what we do best, we need to use that hunter as a scapegoat"
"What are you even saying? What about the hunter that suddenly flew in from Japan and attacked him at the hospital!!"
"We heard about that but that was not a factor of Turner's appearance. Besides, Japan is willing to start a war should we lay a finger on their hunter. However, he is still in our custody."
"See? Isn't that a country that cares about her possession? They are protecting their hunter with everything and here you want to give yours freely to satisfy the crocodile tears of the public?!!" Hunter Jae-Hwa protested further.
"In case you aren't getting this clearly Jae-Hwa... I wasn't asking." The president's tone changed towards him.
"Oh? Is that how this is going to go? Are you sure you are ready to go down this path?" Mok Jae-Hwa asked him, staring into his eyes with a soft glow on his eyeballs and his aura putting pressure on the atmosphere.
"All the guild presidents of the top ten guilds in South Korea are here... including disaster rank hunter Seong Nara, the Ice Queen... they are all here in the blue house. I am confident you can be subdued in five minutes."
Mok Jae-Hwa got silent and spread his search senses to see if the president was speaking the truth. Immediately, he frowned.
"As far as I know, this hunter is said to be F rank... it won't matter–
"You are wrong..."
"Huh? Wrong about what?"
"Hunter Raith is not an F-rank hunter..."
"What do you mean?" Another of the minister asked.
"Yes, Hunter Raith is South Korea's first-ever catastrophe rank hunter."
"What?!!"