Chapter 77: CH 74

Chapter 74
 
     To hide how affected I was at his audacity, I hid my face by lifting the cup of coffee I didn’t originally intend to drink.
     “Oh? It must be hot…Please, drink it after it cools down.”
     “…..”
     Bae Jaemin pretended to be sweet and poured water into my cup. I nodded as if I agreed with him and did as he recommended.  But still, I felt nauseous, recalling Choi Kyung-sik and his final moments from Seo Dawon’s memories.
     Bae Jaemin couldn’t possibly be unaware of his death.
     Even if Bae Jaemin didn’t personally see his end as he was caught up in confronting Jung Garam…His saccharine words were terrifying when compared with how he cruelly asked if all the bodies had been disposed of properly; goosebumps raised all over my arms.
     “It tastes good, right?” Bae Jaemin asked.
     “…Yes. Very good.”
     However, I couldn’t express my anxiety.
     Every time Bae Jaemin asked a question, I responded briefly. The conversation continued that way for quite some time. I reacted soullessly to each meaning-laden overtures of small talk the Priest flung my way…
     Fascinatingly, Bae Jaemin was able to continue the conversation and ask follow-up questions to my short answer–I was unable to remain quiet.
     If he had asked overly personal questions, I would have been able to refuse to answer or have the excuse to stay silent as I contemplated my response, but he had ambiguously toed the line. I had no choice but to engage in his small talk, and silence lasted for no longer than three seconds.
     “Aha. So, you just became a user?”
     “Yes…..”
    “Was there anyone around you who’s become a User?”
    “Um….I’ve heard a rumor that a classmate I didn’t know very well became a User.”
     “Oh? What’s his name?”
     “I’ve only ever seen him around… I don’t know…” I don’t know why he always smiled so vibrantly at my unenthusiastic answers, but my lips matched his–the corners of my lips curling upwards, making my cheeks cramp. 1
     Just how long must I deal with this kind of omiai-like atmosphere? 2
     At that moment, Bae Jaemin suddenly pressed, “Then, Lee-kyung-ssi, where did you meet this ‘friend’ of yours?”
     “……What?”
     “You said you didn’t know anyone here; you don’t belong to a guild nor an agency…I was wondering where you found a friend who could sell dozens of [Barnasiums].”
     “…….” Naturally, I was left tongue-tied. Bae Jaemin’s question didn’t seem so simple. With cold sweat running down my back, I stuttered, “T-that’s…..”
     Bae Jaemin observed my growing anxiety with a calm face and mumbled, “As expected, at the [Tower of Command]….?”
     …What?
     He smirked at my rigid expression, put down the cup he was holding, and looked straight at me. “Lee-kyung-ssi’s past is clean.”
     “…….”
     He was smiling, but he revealed so casually that he conducted a background check on me.
     I continued to guess at his motive, but I became nervous at his straightforward attitude and his blunt reveal of my contradictions…He seemed to relish my expressions, slowly bringing up the cup to his mouth and taking a long sip of coffee. “So maybe…I thought that Lee-kyung-ssi had made a ‘friend’ recently…”
     “……”
     “Only rankers are able to sell top quality [Barnasiums] in batches…”
     “……”
     “The most recent place where you could have met with such a Ranker could only have been the Tower of Command. Lee-kyung-ssi, like puzzle pieces falling into place, you were at that raid being carried by Kim Sangyoon, right?
     “…….”
      “In addition, that person hides himself well and refuses to let me know of his identity…that narrows down the possibilities.”
" "
     “……”
     “Ah, of course this is all simply guesses so far. It’s not necessarily the truth.” He looked far too confident for his conjectures to be merely wild guesses…His reasoning was horribly accurate. If he were to make a connection to my class, Necromancer, here, it may be easy for him to make a leap of logic and consider those from the Red Lotus guild…

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     Did I really get discovered so easily?
     I didn’t dare return Bae Jaemin’s gaze and stared at my cup instead; my palms under the table were drenched in sweat.
     I couldn’t imagine what he would reveal next, so I could only barely restrain the unbridled nervous energy that simmered in my body.
     “Lee-kyung-ssi’s friend…I guess they still dislike me a lot.” 3 He sighed and spoke calmly, as if he were blandly reminiscing upon an ex-friend. His strange, conciliatory words struck me speechless.
     This….What did this mean?
     My ‘friend’ was Seo Dawon…
     Is he asking if Seo Dawon dislikes him?
     Dislike doesn’t even begin to cover the depths of his displeasure…Because of him, Seo Dawon was murdered, lost the guild that he poured blood, sweat, and tears into, and was made to wander as a vengeful ghost separated from his body…To summarize all of this as merely ‘dislike’…..
     Is Bae Jaemin crazy?
     I don’t know how Bae Jaemin interpreted my bewildered silence, but he smiled bitterly and fiddled with the handle of his coffee cup. “I’m sure you would find it troublesome to be caught in the middle, but…”
     “Yes……?”
     “But…They’ve refused to communicate with me. Even if I want to apologize, I have no means to contact them…But now, I’ve gotten to know you.”
     “……”
     I couldn’t understand the rapidly changing line of thought.
     Right now…I think Bae Jaemin is operating under some huge misunderstanding?
     After we parted ways last time, he conducted a thorough background check…But, instead of connecting the lines between Necromancer, Tower of Command, and the Red Lotus Guild, he seemed to be suspecting a partnership between me and a ‘Ranker’ who had also attended the recent raid–one who must not be on good terms with him. Perhaps he connected the suspicious origins of the [Barnasiums] with that ‘Ranker?’
 
     Who the hell are they?
     In order to obscure our plans, wouldn’t it be better to reinforce Bae Jaemin’s faulty reasoning…?
     However,the conversation alone did not give a clue as to who Bae Jaemin suspected; even if I were to lie, I lacked the sauce. 4 To make matters worse, it seems he wanted me to contribute to the conversation; the longer the silence, the more inscrutable the atmosphere became.
     In the end, after meeting Bae Jaemin’s gaze for the third time after looking away, I predicted that, even if all the coffee in this room was drunk, the interrogation would not finish without some input from me. “He….That person….”
     “Yes.”
     “He still…has yet to let go of his…anger….” I looked at Bae Jaemin; he smiled bitterly and nodded–he looked as if he had expected this foregone conclusion.
     “That hyung is particularly FM-like.” Bae Jaemin sighed. 5
     I was so afraid he’d suddenly ask for me to confirm the other’s name–I felt that my head would explode. It would have been nice to know the Rankers’ personalities or know who exactly had history or intimacy with Bae Jaemin…But, no matter how hard I thought, my mind only thought of the Red Lotus guild members.
     Fortunately, rather than to press me on the man’s identity, Bae Jaemin…spoke as if he were conversing with that ‘mysterious ranker’ backing me–he spoke more freely, wistfulness coloring his tone. I stayed wary–there were many points to respond to and, thus, many pitfalls to fall into. “Well, there’s nothing I can do if he’s still regretful…”
     “Ah……yes.”
     “But that’s a more personal matter…I’d rather ask why he was so against the official registration of the guild.”
     “Ahhh….”
     Looking into his eyes, I realized Bae Jaemin had finally reached the point of his inquiry after a lengthy and twisted path.
     So that means…The Ranker in question has some authority…That mysterious someone feels…pity for Bae Jaemin? By the way, what does he mean by protesting against the official registration of the guild? The HaHae guild? They’ve already held a press conference to announce the official launch, haven’t they?
     However, I couldn’t afford to show any signs of burning curiosity, so I rubbed my hands, pretending to be helpless and trying to back out of this dangerous direction. “You know, I…In fact I’ve just recently gotten to know this person…” I appealed that I was not the best person to help him with his dilemma. If I follow through to the logical conclusion and promise Bae Jaemin an appointment with this unknown Rnker, I may escape today but be in deeper waters the next time we meet…
     Bae Jaemin, though, continued to speak before I had fully voiced my excuses, “Since you’re here with me now…I’d appreciate it if you told me where you planned to eat tonight.”
 
 
TL: NGL, I was pretty tense when I thought MC was discovered.
 
 
Footnotes The phrase used here was originally “I only know his face, aka, that they were acquaintances. Omiai was originally something like a “marriage meeting” in the original. I felt that the readers would be more familiar with the term omiai. The two are essentially the same: arranged dates to figure out if both parties would be compatible for marriage. Korean doesn’t really use pronouns, and often the gender of subjects can be vague. In this case, this is on purpose, so I decided to use “they” as a gender neutral pronoun. The original actually does say sauce, referring to the internet slang source = sauce. When you see an unknown series in the comment sections of manga websites, you ask for sauce! FM stands for field manual. It’s slang for people who steadfastly follow the rules, but not in a good way. A stick in the mud, essentially.

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