Kim Hyun-Sung definitely looked angry.

“There’s no need for you to apologize, Mr. Ki-Young,” he said.

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“You’ve done nothing wrong, no, even if you did something wrong, Miss Yoo-Ra doesn’t have the right to point it out,” he said.

‘Good job.’

“Mr. Ki-Young is clearly part of the Blue Guild’s party and if I believe that you did something wrong, then I would be the first one to tell you. I don’t know why Miss Yoo-Ra thought that our party’s actions were problematic, but this doesn’t sit right with me,” Kim Hyun-Sung explained.

Honestly, I didn’t act that way expecting this to happen. I simply thought that manipulating the members’ opinions was the most important, but after thinking about it again, it was natural for Kim Hyun-Sung to feel displeased because Jung Yoo-Ra was clearly abusing her authority.

I was affiliated with the Blue Guild and it was Kim Hyun-Sung’s job to manage me. It didn’t make sense for Jung Yoo-Ra to point out my mistakes since she had nothing to do with me. From her point of view, she probably said it to either widen her influence or because she was a sunbae. But as someone that had been on this continent for a long time, it was natural for Kim Hyun-Sung to think that it was unacceptable. There was an implicit rule that excessive interference towards a party wasn’t allowed. Jung Yoo-Ra basically broke that rule.

‘She looked down on our party.’

This was basically a translation of what Kim Hyun-Sung was saying.

‘Who the hell are you that you’re messing with my party members?’

This incident wasn’t similar to when she nagged Choi Young-Ki, the leader of our expedition because of Park Deok-Gu’s mistake. The point was that she purposely called me out here and nagged at me. This was where the problem lay.

Kim Hyun-Sung’s warm arms were a bit of a happier place than I imagined.

‘This is great.’

The situation was going very well.

I was like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Pretending to act like a sheep wasn’t easy, but the role suited me very well.[1]

“Mr. Hyun-Sung, I think Miss Yoo-Ra…said it…as the sunbae. I don’t think that was her intention…” I told him.

“No, Mr. Ki-Young. Even if that was the case, this is too much,” he said.

“I’m sure I did something wrong too…”

“I’ll be straightforward. You’ve done nothing wrong, Mr. Ki-Young,” he said.

I couldn’t stop the corner of my lips from going up because I saw the dumbfounded look on Jung Yoo-Ra’s face. The number of people disliking her was already going through the roof. With this small instigation, it became obvious who won the election of this politics and when I saw Jung Yoo-Ra’s face, I found it difficult to hold back my laughter.

‘Ha...’

During all of this, I heard people pouring words of encouragement on me. I also discovered that receiving encouragement was a lot of work.

“I guess you don’t know yet since you recently came here Mr. Ki-Young, but…Mr. Hyun-Sung is right. If there was something she wanted to say to you, then she should have asked for permission from the party leader. Discreetly calling you away just to criticize you is…hard to understand,” Choi Young-Ki said.

“This isn’t right. Even if he did something wrong, this isn’t how it should be done.”

“Even if the Blue Guild’s party is only here to learn because they lack experience, they’re still a party that’s doing the expedition with us. He’s not harming anyone and he’s actually doing his part very well…it’s really difficult for me to understand the Black Swan’s actions.”

The Devil’s Guild talked about the basic manners that one should keep.

“Mr. Ki-Young did nothing wrong and I actually think that he created a good mood for us. He’s actually been going about the expedition seriously…”

“Yes, I agree. Communication is important, but honestly, the Black Swan didn’t really do much for her to act that way…”

“Tsk…”

Even the emotional Red Mercenary Guild members commented.

Of course…

“I think you overstepped your boundaries. Tsk.”

“Miss Yoo-Ra, don’t you think your actions were a little too much? They’re a party that’s on the same expedition as us,” Choi Young-Ki said.

“Whew…”

Jung Yoo-Ra was receiving direct criticism from everyone. I wouldn’t have been able to create this situation if I didn’t build an elaborate design beforehand.

‘This is why one’s image is important.’

“Oppa…did you get hurt anywhere?” Jung Ha-Yan asked.

“No, I’m fine Ha-Yan. It’s nothing,” I answered.

“What exactly happened?” Sun Hee-Young asked.

“It’s nothing, Miss Hee-Young. What I said before was everything that happened,” I replied.

It would’ve been great if she slapped me, but I guess Jung Yoo-Ra wasn’t that stupid. If I said that I got slapped, Jung Ha-Yan might make plans to assassinate Jung Yoo-Ra, so I thought that this was good enough.

Anyways, the current situation placed me at a big advantage.

Jung Yoo-Ra was still frowning and people were still encouraging me. They mostly said that I didn’t need to apologize and that I actually made the mood better for the group. It was a natural response because I really did energize the expedition party with my actions before this.

Honestly, I was very curious about what kind of decision Jung Yoo-Ra was going to make here, but her decision had already been decided.

‘Acknowledge that you made a mistake and grovel.’

It was the best decision, but if that happened, then the result wouldn’t be that great. Even though her position was already crumbling, lowering her head meant that she wasn’t going to have that much influence anymore.

To convey the fact that she was trying to contribute to the party, even at the risk of being hated a little by everyone, was the right thing to do.

Basically, it was better to maintain somewhat of a position and I guess she was thinking the same thing.

“First of all, I’m sorry,” Jung Yoo-Ra said.

She was going to apologize, but not with a submissive attitude.

‘Dumbass.’

“Mr. Ki-Young is part of my party so I have control over him,” Kim Hyun-Sung said.

“I’m sorry I didn’t notify you earlier, Mr. Hyun-Sung, and I apologize to Mr. Ki-Young since you probably got hurt by the sudden situation,” she said.

“I think… I think I reacted a bit too sensitively, but I thought it was best to say what was on my mind because I thought there wasn’t any tension. I wouldn’t have to worry about this kind of thing if the expedition party was made up of normal parties…” she said.

‘Idiot.’

“Even though it was a little bit, I thought it was best for me to say something as a sunbae that had experience, but of course, I admit that my method was wrong,” Jung Yoo-Ra explained.

“I don’t know why you think you have the right to discipline people. I understand that we made a mistake in the beginning, but I don’t think we haven’t made any big mistakes after that,” Kim Hyun-Sung said.

“But it’s true that there were small mistakes,” she commented.

She was dealing with this better than I thought. This was basically what she was saying.

‘I did make a mistake, but you guys made mistakes too, right? Honestly, you guys are getting carried by us, so can’t you be understanding as to why I’m acting this way? You guys don’t have experience and you’re only here to learn. So you should have expected this at the least. Still, my method was wrong, so I’m sorry about that.’

She was quibbling, but it was a reasonable argument. She dealt with it very well to the point that if she had a favorable opinion from the parties, then she could’ve been elected. As expected, the Black Swan Guild started to voice their opinion.

“Honestly, the tanks are being too considerate of the Blue Guild’s tank. If that wasn’t the case, then this expedition would be going more smoothly. Our burden would be eased a little,” they said.

“Honestly, it’s difficult to say that the Blue Guild’s archer is doing her part…” one member said.

“And the alchemist isn’t really a combat class…” another said.

Even while apologizing, they were putting the blame on our party, and of course, there were others that disagreed.

“But you can’t say that they were getting in the way. Miss Ha-Yan’s magic helped us many times, but more than that, Miss Sun Hee-Young…”

“She assisted us a few times, but I think talking about this so soon is a problem.”

Unfortunately, it was becoming a controversial topic. This wasn’t good because I was basically placed on a meaningless hot seat. Whether it was a positive or a negative atmosphere, being on the hot seat put me at a disadvantage. Quickly putting myself down from the seat and placing the Black Swan Guild back on the seat was the priority.

When I was thinking about how I speak, I saw Kim Hyun-Sung’s serious face.

‘As expected.’

Even if Kim Hyun-Sung was reincarnated as Buddha, I was sure that he would be angry at this point. Kim Hyun-Sung wasn’t used to politics, but he was smart enough to realize that our party was getting criticized.

“I hope this doesn’t happen next time. If there’s something you want to say to my party, then please talk to me about it,” Kim Hyun-Sung said.

“Okay, I’m very sorry, Mr. Hyun-Sung and I’m really sorry to the Blue Guild’s party for making you suffer. Especially Mr. Ki-Young, I’m really sorry,” Jung Yoo-Ra said.

“It’s nothing. I was a bit surprised though,” I said.

“I was surprised as well because I didn’t think you would be hurt by it…let’s talk in private later,” she suggested.

“It’s nothing like that. I just felt a bit flustered,” I told her.

Even though she managed to put me on the hot seat, she lost a lot too. I was sure that she knew that her political life in this expedition was over the moment she lost the public’s opinion, but I thought that maybe she had a way of turning the tables around, no, she had a way. It was to contribute more to this expedition.

It felt like she wanted to be a villain for the safety of the expedition party, but turning a fake villain into a real villain was a piece of cake.

‘What will she do now?’

There were a lot of choices. Even though she pretended to be calm, what she had done was nothing more than dodging a checkmate.

Jung Yoo-Ra was already labeled as the most disliked person in the group and I thought that using the members’ opinion would be enough to isolate her, but our Kim Hyun-Sung looked like he wasn’t going to let this problem be over with a simple method.

“Could you please gather?” Kim Hyun-Sung requested.

“Okay.”

The others must have realized that our party members had something to discuss because they left this spot. Kim Hyun-Sung spoke while looking at us. “First of all, I’m sorry.”

“No, you shouldn’t apologize for anything, Mr. Hyun-Sung. Actually…” I said.

“No. I chose this expedition so that we could learn, but I didn’t think that we would be looked down on by another party,” he said.

‘They didn’t exactly look down on us…’

“I believe all of you learned a lot…”

“We did.”

“But this won’t happen again,” he said.

Kim Hyun-Sung was naturally a responsible person and I guess he was starting to feel angry. When I saw him bite his lips, I felt that he was thinking about something else.

“We’ll change our position a bit. I’ll stand in the front more and Mr. Deok-Gu, you can keep doing what you have been doing. I'll also give more instructions on when to use your magic. Miss Hee-Young, please focus on Mr. Deok-Gu more and don’t worry about us. Ye-Ri, continue what you have been doing too…” Kim Hyun-Sung said.

“Okay.”

“Miss Ha-Yan, you can increase your firepower since Miss Hee-Young will continue watching over Mr. Deok-Gu,” he added.

He was no pushover.

‘Ohhh.’

That was when I realized what Kim Hyun-Sung was up to. The reason why he didn’t stand on the front line was because of us and although this was just an assumption, I could feel that there were more reasons behind it. It could be to make sure that we got used to the hunt more or it could be to reduce any unknown arrogance in our hearts.

Our party was the center of attention and as we continued living comfortably, the desperation we felt a long time ago was slowly disappearing.

‘Thank you for carrying me.’

I wasn’t the only one that wanted to see Jung Yoo-Ra fall. As I looked at the regressor that tightened his grip around his sword, I nodded as if I was possessed.

1. The original Korean proverb here was 시어머니보다 말리는 시누이가 더 미운 법 which is literally translated as ‘A sister-in-law trying to calm the mother-in-law is more hateful than the scolding mother-in-law.’ It basically means that someone is saying all the nice and caring things on the outside, but is actually trying to cause trouble on the inside. ☜