Chapter 916 – Side Story – Always on Your Side (1)

One day, about two months after I founded the adventurer’s guild.

I took a whole day off and was having a leisurely time while vacationing with Hye-eun for the first time in a long time.

To say it was leisurely, the dating course was a bit far from the typical dating course of couples.

That’s because today’s date course was hiking Geomdansan Mountain in Hanam-si, near Gangdong-gu.

“Taekyung, this way! Let’s go up this way this time!”

“Yes, yes. Still, it’s dangerous, so don’t run too much. “Fall and get hurt.”

“Are you telling Kang Hye-eun, an S-class shield user, that she could fall and get hurt, CEO?”

… I’m very excited, I’m excited.

Well, as Hye-eun said, she was recently promoted to S-class. Because she succeeded in narrowly passing her S-class promotion exam that she took as soon as the new year came.

“Is S-class that good?”

“There’s nothing wrong with putting it up. Among hunters who have spent their entire lives as hunters, less than 1% have achieved S-level hunter status. And now I’m at the same level as Taekyung.”

Currently, Hye-eun responds with a bright smile as if she is happy that she is the only one in the Azure Shield with the same level as me.

After finding out that I had become a hunter, I didn’t seem to be particularly eager to increase my rank, but when I saw that I had achieved an unprecedented increase in my rank by defeating the three-headed basilisk last year, I seemed to have developed a strange competitive spirit.

Still, at one point, he decided to become the world’s best hunter in my place, but when he saw me getting ahead of him, he said he didn’t want to fall behind.

For reference, the reason why hiking is not a ‘normal dating course’ is because of the special background of the hunter world.

Originally, mountain climbing in the world was mostly a hobby or group activity for older men, but men in this world did not like activities that involved moving their bodies, and women mostly did physical work, so they rarely rested or relaxed during weekend leisure activities. Because I preferred it.

Not to mention the hunters who risk their lives every day, work on construction sites, move things, and other hard work were all women’s jobs in this world.

Since no one uses mountains as a hobby, naturally, no one develops them and uses them for tourism. As a result, unlike Korea in the past, most of the mountains in this world are only small mountain paths without well-maintained roads or stairs. It was. Unless the area has been cleared for the purpose of passage or hobbies.

It was difficult to climb unless you had the same physical ability as me or Hye-eun, so naturally, Geomdan Mountain on weekdays was the exclusive domain of Hye-eun and I, and from the time we reached the halfway point, we pioneered the broken path and worked hard to get to the top.

“It’s been a long time since we dated, but I didn’t expect you to bring up the topic of hiking.”

“… Was it not that good?”

“No, I like it too. In the first place, if it weren’t for Hye-eun, she wouldn’t have anyone to climb with. “For the first time in a long time, I should feel like I was breathing fresh air at the summit.”

If I suggested something like a hiking date to Cha Yu-ri or Hwa-young, it was obvious that I would get a variety of looks, and I couldn’t think of any other women who would like a hiking date. At least Eunyoung or Cheon Jihee?

Of course, it was a meaningless assumption since Eunyoung was busy these days with her boss’s dungeon expedition and Cheon Jihee wouldn’t have preferred a date alone with me in the first place.

It was a rather intense date, riding alone on a rugged, deserted mountain, but it wasn’t all bad. Since there were only two people on this large mountain, there was something we could talk about.

“It seems like the slope gets steeper the higher you go.”

“Huh. So be careful. “If I think I’m going to fall, I’ll call you right away.”

“Well, that’s too much! And if you use that, all your clothes will come off…”

“What do you think, we’re the only ones here anyway. Even if I climb to the top naked from now on, no one will know.”

“Well, I would never do something like that!”

Well, of course Hye-eun would say that. Instead, she should come back with Eunbyeol again next time.

Although it is a bit steep, Hye-eun walks eagerly in front of me and climbs the relatively gentle slope.

When she got tired, I took the lead instead, creating something similar to a mountain path, and after climbing the mountain for a while, Hye-eun regained her energy and climbed the mountain in front of me.

After hiking for almost two hours, Hye-eun and I were finally able to climb to the top. Hye-eun, who was clearly tired, sat down on a nearby rock to rest.

“At las… ! It’s normal… !!”

-Sharply.

“Drink water, Hye-eun. “I sweat a lot.”

“Ha, yes. Thank you, Taekyung~.”

Even Hye-eun must have been exhausted after hiking for two hours without a single trail, so she sat down on the ground and took a bottle of water from her pocket and gulped it down.

Looking at her like that, I sat next to her and looked down the mountain at her. Looking at the distant scenery of Hanam and Seoul below the mountain.

“Whoa, it’s refreshing.”

“Now that I think about it, why did you suddenly ask me to go hiking? I thought I would say that we would go on a date at a movie theater or something like usual, or if it was too difficult, we could go to a dungeon alone.”

“… “I just wanted to climb.”

“Huh?”

“I want to know what it feels like to climb a road no one has been on before.”

Hye-eun strangely looked at me and met her eyes while saying those words.

I was able to fully understand that the ‘road no one has been on’ she was talking about did not specifically mean today’s hike.

“So, how does it feel to be on a path no one has been on before?”

“First, it felt like it was harder than I thought and took longer than I thought? “When I climbed a mountain with a walking path in the past, I climbed it in an hour even though it was at a similar height to this one.”

“Well, the fact that there is a road means that it took a long time to build it. It must be definitely different from having no road.”

“Huh. It’s still hard, but I think it’s rewarding in its own way after climbing this high. “I feel prouder, perhaps because I took a more difficult path.”

After finishing it, I feel even prouder.

Does this also apply to me, who is currently running a guild?

Perhaps Hye-eun brought me here because she was aware of the concerns I had expressed to her not long ago. In the process of founding the ‘Hope City Guild’, I talked to Hye-eun once about how the guild was run.

… About giving ‘forced call’, which is part of my awakening ability, to all hunters who will join my guild from now on.

‘When I first brought it up, he didn’t seem to like it very much.’

If it was natural, it was a natural story. In the end, it was no different from his claim to have sex with more women than he has already had with dozens of people.

In some cases, it may end up as a ‘first time’ relationship, but looking at the cases of women who have mixed bodies with me so far, that almost never happens. Hunters who formed new relationships were also likely to want constant affection and desire from me, just like other women.

… Comparatively, it could only be an unwelcome proposition for Hye-eun, who would be deprived of more time together than before. Of course, the same goes for other women.

‘The only hunters who have yet joined the guild are those with whom I have ‘had a relationship’…’

Four members of the Azure Shield, including Hye-eun, Cha Yu-ri, Min-ah, and Cheon Ji-hee.

There are three members of Golden Trail: Sihee, Do Yehee, and Eunbyeol.

The other members consisted of older sister Eunyoung, senior Hwayoung, and Jinah and Seonah. Of course, most of these are dual affiliations with other guilds.

The members so far are hunters who have had a relationship with me at least once. In other words, it also meant that all guild members so far had a ‘forced call’ that summoned them to a location I designated when they experienced a life-threatening crisis in the dungeon.

However, running a guild with only this number of people would ultimately be a far cry from my goal of creating a world where monsters do not kill people, so I would have to recruit new hunters in the future. In the process, the number of hunters involved inevitably increased.

‘… Of course, the standards of having an appearance that ‘I can stand on’ and being a hunter that ‘does not have a lover or husband’ will inevitably remain.’

Is today’s hike Hye-eun’s answer to that concern?

Or maybe he just climbed the mountain with me to cool off his complicated mind. Or maybe he walked all the way here to pour out his emotions to me.

… Maybe he’s tired of me confidently insisting on doing something like this and is trying to say goodbye.

Even if such an offer had been made, I would have had to accept it calmly. Because it was a very selfish claim for me to be the only one to have relationships with women and hope that they would remain by my side forever.

However, this dream I have had since childhood.

I couldn’t compromise on this dream of creating a world where monsters wouldn’t kill people.

The path of the guild that no other guild has taken so far and could not take.

In the process of leading the guild, will Hye-eun be my support, or will she leave me and become an empty space?

“… Taekyung.”

It was the moment when Hye-eun called my name and the answer was about to be decided.