As soon as his words got out of his mouth, Soo-Hi's eyes zeroed on him. A midget she might be, a cute and harmless-looking one at that, but her eyes were those of a hawk. He knew that she wasn't looking for him, she had already found him. Her eyes did not move in the slightest.
Her mouth opened, she appeared to have been saying something to the housewife who then looked at Sen and laughed, a hand covering her mouth before a mischievous smile settled on it. The martial artist left with her group, and Sen cursed inside of his mind.
'There goes my chance to talk to her. Guess the midget wants to talk to me...Please god, anything but that! Make something happen, anything!'
If Sen was actually religious, he might have started to pray at that very moment. The child-like childhood friend he so dearly wanted to avoid continued to advance towards him. Before she could reach him, before she could even talk to him, an immense figure got on her path.
A wide back blocked her sight and Sen looked up to gaze into hardened hazel eyes. A middle-aged agent of the KHG had just shown himself with a phone in his hands, one that he placed right against Sen's ears.
"Heya, buddy. Got time to talk?" An energetic voice spoke loudly into his ear, and he gulped.
'Anything...BUT NOT THAT FUCKER!' He never was religious in the first place anyway.
"A-Ah, Mister Gumiho, is that you?" He asked, forcing some modicum of calmness in his voice. The voice shot back at him, just as excited as Seneos expected from that man. If that was nothing more than an act, it was a fairly simple and unnerving one. Simply terrifying to even think about.
Sen's eyes widened as he heard a very distinct loud noise coming from the phone, and then the same one a second after. It repeated itself and a much more serious voice could be heard, yet the actual words that were spoken were unknown to Sen. Be it because they were of another language, or because of the call's quality, he knew not. However, he was more so confused as to why he was hearing gun shots. Many agents of the KHG wielded firearms so perhaps this was simply Gumiho training.
"Oh, dear hunter that I totally do not show favoritism towards, did you go to the dungeons I recommended?"
He could not show weakness at that moment, but he very much wished to just run away. What favoritism? This was nothing more than harassment!
The middle-aged man dressed in a pristine blue and black suit even scoffed at the mention of favoritism. No one was fooled by the illusion that the KHG was a good organization, but there had to be a limit to how much of their true nature they could show.
"No...I haven't. I found one closer to my position and it was filled with spiders. I have more experience fighting th-"
"No, you don't." The simple answer came and struck Sen.
"W-What?"
"You have been on more dungeons filled with goblins. Spiders can move on walls and have really good mobility. Goblins are just dumb, green human toddlers. Most of them that is. The previous Sen thought it better to fight goblins than any other means of unholy creatures that crawl around these...Dungeons. You did not follow my recommendations because you do not trust me....."
A deafening silence ensued. Sen could see Soo-Hi come from behind the KHG agent and glare at the taller man, but he paid her no mind. He could feel pressure, weighing down on his shoulders, on his entire body, perhaps even on his very soul. Those were simple words, and Gumiho was not even there. He saw something tremble in his field of vision and slightly looked up in front of him. Someone else was feeling it, he wasn't alone.
It felt like an eternity, but a laugh came through.
"Good.....Would be pretty moronic otherwise. I am still saying that perhaps you should go there. Hunters seek treasures and glory...Perhaps they should go for something else? Danger, mystery? So many things can go wrong, and if they can they will. The poor common folks, what would be of them if none of the overpowered madmen came to their rescue? A bit of heroic work wouldn't hurt from time to time.....God knows....."
The same sounds could be heard, this time from several different sources. The same excited laugh sent tremors down Sen's body as he heard people shouting on the other end of the line.
"How much it's needed."
The overlord felt like it was his turn to speak, but he couldn't and wouldn't. Forget about the harassment, he simply felt as if listening to Gumiho any further was wrong. From the very bottom of his heart, he hated this situation and couldn't tell why. He was wary of the man, he only felt negative things from him. This couldn't and shouldn't have that much of an impact on him, but it did.
As the middle-aged man with a three days beard slowly closed the flip phone, Sen felt his own phone vibrate. He heard exclamations from all around him and his head perked up. Everyone in the area had taken out their phones at the same time.
He unlocked his phone and saw an alert he hadn't seen in months.
"Oh dear, seems like you will get to know what I mean in a second. Jeol will likely contact you later, she had a most fruitful discussion earlier on....Han Soo-Hi, was it? Ah, I am so bad at remembering things!"
The call ended, the phone was closed and the man swiftly left, all the while grumbling to himself.
Sen blinked a few times, trying to make sense of what had just transpired, as the alert on his phone ended and a feminine voice was heard.
It resounded all across the area, as everyone from KHG members to Hunters listened to it.
"People of Seoul, it is time for another KMS Urgent Broadcast." The young voice seemed so familiar to everyone, and it brought nothing good.
"A KMS urgent broadcast, now? What could have happened?" A young hunter asked from behind Sen.
"Bah! Bet it's another broadcast full of nothing but hot air and conspiracy stuff. What is the KHG thinking, letting that girl run her mouth around?" An older man clad in a poorly made paladin armor commented. A scoff from one of his partners got the attention of the younger fighters.
"If she wants to feed the theories that already invaded all of the internet, let the kid do it. People just like to mock her these days, and I am sure the KHG doesn't mind a jester."
A hum brought Sen's attention back to his guide that was very much still there despite her initial silence.
"Hmmm...I woooonder, what could those hunters be talking about? A jester?" Vodka asked, once again dragging on a syllable nobody usually did.
Sen let out a nervous giggle, trying to make fun of the situation to relax himself.
"Oh yeah, it's that reporter. I forgot her name but she is famous for always attacking the KHG. If you listen to her, they are a bunch of Satanists that eat orphans or something. She takes all opportunities to get to them, and after she got promoted at KMS, that's a news channel by the way, she started to use the urgent broadcast to plant fear and suspicion in the hearts of the people. I am not one to defend the KHG, not at all, but she is pretty ridiculous." He giggled some more, and then didn't once he realized Han Soo-Hi was still very much there, and very much staring at him with her eyes wide opened.
Why she had to look that creepy, he couldn't possibly tell but if she was trying to intimidate him, she was doing a good job.
But, no he couldn't react that way. He had defeated a gigantic beetle that could crush a normal man in a fraction of a second. He was a changed man.
Surely he could face his past, surely he could face a midget of an adult woman that was once his friend?
No, no he couldn't!
He turned to his left, looking for anything that could allow him to escape but he saw nothing of use. She took a step towards him. He turned to his right even faster. He saw the healer, Kang Tae-Yeon in the distance but was about to dismiss him when he saw that he was talking to someone. Sen saw a head full of long red hair in the distance and a body clad in a tight suit that was most likely made more to show the body of its wearer than protect it.
He almost felt like crying, but he wouldn't. He muted all sounds from his phone, he didn't need to hear the broadcast anyway. He could see most of the hunters in the vicinity did the exact same. He took his own step forward, lifted his right arm, and yelled.
"Hojosa, how are you doing man!?"
He ran towards the two high-ranked hunters, going past Soo-Hi and stealing a glance at her. He saw those hawk eyes pierce through him, but he would forever deny that he started to run faster after that. A dungeon overlord, whatever that title entailed, couldn't quite show fear towards a midget.
He arrived before the hunters and briefly noted how surprised Hojosa looked, that and how all traces of sadness had disappeared from his face. That and his very eccentric outfit could have almost fooled the overlord, but he could see the emotions, not on the face but in the eyes.
He made no comment on it and merely extended a hand towards the fire mage.
"You....Seneos, right?" Hojosa asked, shaking the hand of the weaker hunter while under quite the confusion. He glanced at his teammate who offered no response and could have almost felt some annoyance. He just couldn't however.
"Ah, yes I am Seneos. The porter from...Not that long ago. I was just in that dungeon with Tae-Yeong right now." He blurted out without thinking. He only realized a second later that maybe he sounded a little bit too familiar when it came to the two, especially Tae-Yeong that was.
None of them seemed to mind, and for some reason, he didn't expect them to. By the gods, that he didn't believe in, was he growing ever so slightly more confident?
Hojosa's position relaxed as he put his hands on the two hunters' shoulders. He then smiled widely enough for his eyes to almost close.
"You did listen to your heart in the end. It's good. You're the first of us to enter a dungeon again, and you did it so quickly. You growing some balls, Hubae? I heard there was a priest in the raid team too, it's good he didn't steal your spotlight. The path of the Virtuous may be able to throw some weak ass fire but it can outshine your path in healing. We wouldn't want you all depressed in a corner, right? "
Tae-Yeong simply kept frowning and ignored the fire mage who turned to Sen. It was the latter who spoke first, however.
"Hmmm...I think you are getting messages, your phone keeps lighting up." He said, pointing at the smartphone poking out one of the tight outfit's many pockets.
Hojosa swore under his breath and quickly took out his phone. It slipped away from his fingers many times before he finally secured it and sighed.
He started to read the messages while Sen threw a loo over his shoulder. Soo-Hi was nowhere to be found.
"Huh....Hojosa? Hojosa, what's going on!?"
The sudden outburst of the healer had Seneos' head snapping back into position. He watched as the fire mage started to sweat bullets while his teammate shook him.
The response was the same as exclamations that arose from different hunters in the crowd.
"Listen to the broadcast! The dungeon in gangbuk...The one those two went into...."
At the same time, a voice whispered softly in Sen's ears.
"I am hearing a lot about the dungeons this Gumiho mentioned to you, Overlord. The one in gangbuk and the goblin one."
The overlord wasn't in the right position to heed her words, however.
Before Tae-Yeong and Seneos. Before every hunter who had recognized him because of the small bit of fame he had started to build...
Hojosa crashed to his knees.
*************
(Hubae means junior and is normally used to refer to someone younger than you at school. It is pronounced Hoo Bae )