Chapter 232 - Chapter 232 (1/2)

His heightened emotion was all-too-clear to see on Chairman Yu's face.

Regardless of what he wanted to say, it shouldn't be discussed here. Jin-Woo remembered his mom and little sister, and took a quick look towards the dining table, before shifting his gaze back to Chairman Yu.

"..."

The older man was anxiously waiting for Jin-Woo's reply. After a short deliberation, the latter's lips finally parted open.

"If it's somewhere private to quietly talk, then, well...."

Chairman Yu's expression brightened and a genuine smile quickly formed on his face.

"Allow me to guide you to such a place. Shall we get going, then?"

Jin-Woo went back inside the apartment and told his mom that he'd be out for a bit, put on his coat, and made his way down to the lobby of the building while being accompanied by Chairman Yu and his entourage.

And as expected, the front entrance of the building was occupied by the reporters that had set up a camp there. Most likely, the three well-built young men were Chairman Yu's bodyguards here to overcome the wall of the reporters.

As for those said reporters, they were far too busy shouting out angrily while pushing and shoving against the Monitoring Division's Hunters protecting the entrance.

"What the hell?? How can this make sense? It's fine for the Chairman of Yujin Construction, but we aren't allowed to go inside?!"

"He's a guest coming to visit Hunter Seong Jin-Woo? Why can't reporters be guests, too?! We're also guests from now on!! We're guests!!"

"Aaah, is that so? The biggest financial supporter of the Hunter's Association is okay, but reporters are not, is that it?!"

The reporters crazily pushed and shoved forwards as if they were planning to stampede past the wall of humans were it not for them being Hunters and not regular people.

"Step aside!!"

Things were so bad that the Hunters of the Monitoring Division looked rather pitiable right now.

"Didn't Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim announce that he won't do any interviews?!"

"Hey, over there! Step back!!"

"If you wish to visit Hunter-nim's residence, you must go and obtain a permit from the Association first!!"

Since they were up against regular people, they couldn't resort to using their real strengths, so the agents from the Monitoring Division could only sweat profusely under the current circumstances. Jin-Woo studied them with sympathetic eyes and eventually, extended his hands out.

"Uh, uh-uh??"

The reporters began floating up into the air.

"S-save me!"

This time, forget about ten centimetres, Jin-Woo lifted the reporters ten metres up in the air. When he stepped outside the entrance, Hunters quickly bowed their heads to welcome him.

"Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim!"

"Hunter-nim!"

Compared to these Hunters who didn't get too surprised by what was happening – as if they were familiar with this whole thing already – the eyes of Chairman Yu and his three bodyguards went extra round from the sheer unbridled shock.

"O-oh, my god...."

The businessman's gaze was fixed to the reporter helplessly flailing in the air. He could see their complexion paling greatly, too. For the first time ever, Chairman Yu felt sorry for these people, even though he often times felt sick and tired of dealing with them in the past.

The person in charge of this batch of the Monitoring Division's agents walked over to Jin-Woo and although there was a troubled expression on his face, his lips began forming a smile, as well.

"Hunter-nim... If you keep doing this, it's going to come and bite us in the rear later."

"Well, they were getting a bit too noisy to be left alone, you see."

"Haha."

The reporters were continuously shouting something out, but even before anyone had noticed it, a barrier made out of magical energy was surrounding them to cut off all sounds made by their mouths.

The person in charge looked up at them for a little while, before asking Jin-Woo.

"How long will you keep them up there this time?"

"I'm thinking about something like five minutes, so that they can cool their heads up there."

The Hunters from the Monitoring Division burst out in laughter after hearing his declaration to rewrite the existing record.

Wahahahah-!

"Hey! Hush!"

The person in charge did his best to suppress his own laughter and chided his subordinates before replying politely back to Jin-Woo.

"I pray that you make sure no reporters are harmed today."

"You don't have to worry about that."

It's been a while since he had become a master in 'Ruler's Authority', or the technique to move Mana to influence an object. Even if he wasn't here, the Mana would safely lower the reporters at a later time.

'Nothing I can do about them feeling a bit sick, though...'

However, not only did they try to barge into his home even though his private details were being protected, they even tried to raise a huge ruckus as well, so this level of a warning shouldn't pose a problem at all.

Screech.

Soon, the waiting limousine Chairman Yu brought along came to a stop before them, and both him and Jin-Woo climbed into the back seat.

The vehicle smoothly glided forward and headed off to Chairman Yu's private residence.

***

Chairman Yu guided Jin-Woo to the drawing room of his mansion, which should probably be the quietest place they could talk in. They settled down on the couches while facing each other.

"I'd like not to be interrupted during my chat with Seong Hunter-nim."

"Understood, Chairman."

After he sent away everyone near their vicinity, Jin-Woo broke the ice first.

"How did you find out?"

There shouldn't have been any evidence of him helping Chairman Yu out. So, where could he have made a mistake? As Jin-Woo stared with a curious gaze, Chairman Yu began telling him the truth of what happened.

"My daughter saw you leaving the hospital on that day."

If it was Chairman Yu's daughter, then….

'Ah.'

Jin-Woo recalled Yu Jin-Ho's older sister, the one he ran into in front of his Guild office. He thought that she looked kinda familiar back then. But to think, she was the same person as the one he walked past in front of the hospital that Chairman Yu Myung-Hwan had been admitted to.

Realising that the actions he thought were watertight had been undone by a simple coincidence, Jin-Woo could only form a helpless smile.

At the same time, Chairman Yu was carefully studying Jin-Woo's expression, and after seeing that smile, he felt greatly relieved.

'What a relief.'

Even if the deed was done out of goodwill, Jin-Woo tried to hide it so Yu Myung-Hwan was inwardly worried that the young Hunter would get angry at him for exposing the secret like this. He wouldn't even be able to look the other party in the eye if he somehow ended up displeasing his life's saviour.

Thankfully, contrary to his worries, Jin-Woo didn't look unhappy at all. Indeed, what a wonderful turn of events this was for Chairman Yu.

"As I expected, it was you, Seong Hunter-nim."

"Yes, it was."

Jin-Woo didn't try to deny it.

The moment he heard the answer straight from the person, Chairman Yu's eyes, locked onto Jin-Woo, shook about greatly.

Up until now, he lost count of just how many people had tried to get in his good books because they wanted something from him. Some of them didn't even bother to put in any effort whatsoever and simply reached out, hoping to get a hand-out somehow.

But then, what about this young man before his eyes?

He saved a person's life. No, he saved the life of the top executive of the biggest corporation in the country, yet he wasn't asking for anything in return.

If Chairman Yu's daughter didn't see him and simply walked on by, he would never have found out how he recovered from that illness for the rest of his life.

Yu Myung-Hwan was famous for being a poker face, but just this once, his expression betrayed how emotionally moved he was.

"But, why....?"

He had to say something in order to suppress his overwhelming emotions.

"Why did you help me?"

Back then, even though the demand for a helping hand was made, accompanied by a huge financial incentive, Jin-Woo simply rejected it while saying that he didn't possess such powers.

So, what made him change his mind, then?

Yu Myung-Hwan brought Jin-Woo here pretty much to ask that one question, even at the risk of offending him.

Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump….

His heart was beating faster and faster as time went by; every passing second felt as long as ten minutes before Jin-Woo chose to make his reply.

And that he finally did.

"I judged you to be a trustworthy person, that was why."

"....!!"