28

ROKHA’s team leader, Yoon Jeong-Soo, was staring at the TV. His team members, including Yoo Ee-Na, were also watching.

On TV, the president of the Hunter Authority, Jeong Dong-Hoon, appeared.

[ Dear citizens, I’m really sorry to say this. ]

He was apologizing in front of everyone.

[ As the Hunter Authority, we are supposed to be a role model for protecting citizens. But because of an internal investigation, we have found that one of our members was developing a poison to kill Hunters.]

[ Park Soo-Ho, the head of the weapons department, and his wife, Park Seul-Ki, were allured by an anti-Hunter organization and have developed such weapons. Moreover…]

The news was shocking.

[ China and Japan are also involved in this. ]

[ This is unforgivable. Hunters are our allies. Not just our allies but the guardians who protect us from voracious monsters. But such a terrible incident occurred… ]

The most important point was coming up next.

[ The anti-Hunter organization is causing chaos around our world and we should stop this. ]

[ We, the Hunter Authority, see this as an act of terrorism. According to the 23rd law of Hunters, we will thereby ban them from our territory. ]

[ From now, rest assured that we will be different from what we used to be. I would like to thank Lee Ho, who allowed us to see our false actions and gave us a second chance to fix this. ]

At this, the hospital room had gone silent.

A few moments ago, Yoo Ee-Na’s teammates had been asking her who Lee Hwan was. However, after seeing the news report, everyone was speechless.

Officially, the Hunter Authority is supposed to be neutral. It was not an organization that served to represent the Hunters’ opinions and support them, but they had just announced that they would be backing up the Hunters. They declared that they would be taking part in eliminating the anti-Hunter organization.

It reminded them of similar eerie cases about terrorists. However, this situation was different.

Lee Ho from the Cheon-Meyong guild was involved. This country strongly relied on that man; there was no other unique skill holder that was just as strong as him. The issue was getting much bigger than anyone expected.

[ Thanks to Master Lee, we were able to invite someone who can support us. ]

When the reporter asked who that person was, Dong-Hoon smiled like a politician. It was easy to assume what he means, ‘It’s hard to disclose it now. I’ll talk about it later.’

Everyone was wondering who that person was. Was he from overseas? That person must be skilled since it was Lee Ho himself who invited that guest.

However, ROKHA’s team did not have time to think about it. From their smartwatches, a shrill alarm suddenly rang out. It was a signal asking for their help. With this, Jeong-Soo stood up quickly.

“Let’s go do our job.”

They still were Hunters serving the people.

Their day had not yet ended.

***

News ban. It referred to the term used when the media censored some parts of a news story to prevent the whole truth from coming out in the open. Because the truth was, some reporters already knew who that mysterious person was.

Lee Ho had a family. Aside from his dead mother, he had another family member. His father, Lee Myeon-Seong.

However, it was terribly difficult to write a news report about him because he was a jackass. His words were not only useless, but also arrogant and cocky.

Lee Ho was a hero of this country. They did not want to report on his grumpy father. They were just thankful that he hadn’t committed any serious crimes like murder.

But now, they were looking for another important person. Lee Hwan, Lee Ho’s missing brother.

In fact, several news reports had already come out about him. Even if the reports were fake, many people were still attracted to them.

Lee Ho has always said that he respected his brother.

‘I respect my brother more than anyone in this world.’

‘What you see from me, I learned from my brother. I learned the value of responsibility from him. To me, he is as valuable as my mother.’

‘I know him, he is not the type of man to just die. A lot will change if he returns.’

And so on and so forth. Everyone knew that Ho respected his brother a lot.

A few days ago, there had been a leaked photo showing that his brother has returned. At first, everyone thought the photos were fake, but the situation had been different than the other times this has happened. The Secretary team of the Cheon-Myeong guild had been busier than ever, Lee Ho smiled quite often, and he had appeared with a mysterious black eye on his face.

Some people also claimed to see a man that lookrf like Lee Ho entering his house, but photos of that man were always deleted immediately.

The circumstances were weird, and Cheon-Myeong’s silence and secretive attitude already showed that. That was how reporters figured out that Lee Hwan has returned.

There would be a news conference at 5 pm today.

Everyone tuned in to their television sets as the countdown ticked.

50 seconds, 40 seconds,… 10 seconds.

As time passed, all of the news media channels reported Hwan’s return.

[ Korea’s hero Lee Ho’s missing brother has returned! ]

[ Who exactly is Lee Ho’s mysterious brother? ]

[ What kind of clothes does this man, who is respected by Korea’s own hero, wear? ]

In every category, news about Hwan and Ho spread out. Most of them showed positive responses, but there were some negative points as well.

[ The hero, Lee Ho’s brother. After returning, he has already murdered someone. The victim is Park Soo-ho, the former head of the weapons department in Hunter Authority. ]

Lee Hwan laughed and checked the comments.

– An ordinary person is fine after getting hit by a poison meant for Hunters? Is that possible? –

– I bet that man is a Hunter. –

– Didn’t he do that to protect himself? –

– But there’s no need for murder. Isn’t he some kind of psychopath? –

And so on and so forth. He knew that the rules for Hunters and ordinary people were very different. They had special laws for Hunters to make it convenient for the government to deal with any issues caused by them. But Hwan’s case occurred in the middle of a high school.

“Are you sure it’s alright?”

Jeong Gi-Hoon, eating a cup of noodles next to him, finished his last bite and answered.

“If you are talking about Park Jeong-Nam and Park Soo-Ho, then yes. It’s fine.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Both of them were Hunters and their family was a spy from the anti-Hunter organization. They, in fact, are criminals. According to Hunter’s law, what you did to them is fine.”

Jeong Gi-Hoon’s words explained the current rules for the Hunters in this world. Hunter’s laws were much more important than normal laws. That was how the world worked now.

Gi-Hoon picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks, chuckled, and asked.

“I guess you were worried as well?”

Lee Hwan chuckled as well. Worry? Why would he worry?

“If worrying about killing more people still counts as a worry, then I suppose you are right.”

As if he was suddenly beset with goosebumps, Gi-Hoon rubbed his arms.

“That was a dark joke.”

“I was serious.”

“……..”

“Are you hot? You’re sweating a lot.”

Jeong Gi-Hoon shook his head.

“It’s just that my life has changed a lot, and in a funny way.”

“…Really?”

“I mean it.”

‘What’s wrong with this guy?’ Hwan wondered.

***

Yoo Ee-Na arrived at her job as usual.

It was supposed to be just a normal day at work, but the view she could see was different than usual. She could say it was even astonishing.

“Um… This man is the brother of Implementer Lee Ho and…”

The chairman of the Hunter Authority was in their office, introducing two men to the team.

“He will be your supervisor. Lee Hwan.”

Everyone’s surprise showed in their wide eyes and gaping mouths. Meanwhile, the chairman pointed to the other man standing beside him.

“This person, as you all might know, is Jung Gi-Hoon, an S-rated Hunter from the Cheon-Myeong guild. They’ll be here temporarily… but I know they are very capable. So please follow their instructions.”

That was it. The chairman left, and the room was silent for a while.

Lee Hwan broke the silence with a chuckle.

“I see that I’ve met all of you before.”

The team members of ROKHA were still frozen in shock.

What was happening? And why the hell was this man here?