There is No Such Thing as a Bad Hunter

definitely pretty but…

“Something’s fishy.
Do cut roses usually smell this strong?”

“Well, yeah, the scent of roses isn’t usually this strong….
Maybe they’re roses from a dungeon.”

“Are there roses that grow in dungeons?”

“There could be one, couldn’t there? Chungram Guildmaster-nim visits so many, after all.”

“That’s true, but it’s the first time I’ve heard of that.”

“It could also be a plant that pops up randomly in dungeons.”

“Mm.”

Since the roses didn’t have a label that said “Made in Dungeon” or something, Heo Sori and he wouldn’t be able to know for certain even if they put their heads together. 

Jiho was going to ask Yiwon where he got the roses from, but he stopped.

Joo Yiwon was raiding a dungeon today, so he wouldn’t be able to reach him anyways.

The roses that were in full bloom were beautiful.
However, Jiho felt conflicted since Joo Yiwon would come to mind whenever he saw them.

Whenever he thought of Joo Yiwon as a hunter, he felt a little upset.
Even though the difference between them had increased too much to be regarded as rivals anymore, he still couldn’t forget about when they used to fight over first place together.

That’s why he always felt impatient.
He was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to chase Joo Yiwon anymore.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to stay in the office all day today, so he could be far away from the roses of concern.

Still, in the morning, he had to smell the scent of the roses as he looked through a pile of documents.

Jiho stared at the numbers on the documents all morning.

No Name was a guild that started from rock bottom.

No one wanted to enter No Name with merely decent conditions.

In order to recruit good hunters, Jiho used a lot of his own money.

Even after the gates opened, in the modern society, the power of money was absolute.
Despite how they scorned Jiho, the hunters that needed money quickly still signed a short-term contract with No Name.

Since the short-term contract of one year was almost over, it was time to start renewing contracts.
A majority of the hunters that had signed for one year requested higher pay for the next term. 

Jiho had been planning to increase the pay anyways.

But that was before he saw the requests to raise their pay by twice or even thrice the original amount. 

Are the hunters that requested the raise really worth that amount of money? They aren’t.
Jiho was already paying the highest amount for their rank.
If they went to another guild, they would be offered much less than what is offered here.

It wasn’t like they requested such a high amount because they didn’t know that.

They were testing their luck with Jiho.
They knew that Jiho had no choice but to hold on to them.

But it really wasn’t easy to reject all the current guildmembers and recruit new members.

To hunters, No Name was a target of mockery.
Although the guild kept trying to recruit members this past year, there were very few that applied.

Even if their conditions were ridiculous, it was better to hold onto them.

They will probably be able to reach a compromise during negotiations.
However, the reason why Jiho was hesitating was not just because of their high requests. 

Most of the hunters who made these extreme requests were hunters that hated Shin Jiho.
Even though he was the guildmaster, they would often look down on him, avoid him, and curse him behind his back.
Since Jiho didn’t have any particular reaction to it, they didn’t even try to hide.

Instead, it was guildmembers like Heo Sori that were friendly to Shin Jiho that made reasonable requests. 

If he continued to hold onto these spiteful people in the guild, the atmosphere within the guild would worsen.

Had it been someone else, he would’ve definitely told them not to sign those hunters.
However, when it came to him, he was hesitant.

Do I really have to go this far? He couldn’t stop this question from rising.

The reputation of the guild that he had painstakingly nurtured was in rags.
How much more will he have to do to keep this up like this?

Even though he was trying to stay hopeful, doubt kept crawling up.

In the end, Jiho wasted his morning without being able to come to a conclusion.

Because of his depressed state, Jiho only ate enough lunch to fill his stomach.
After finishing, as he was getting ready to go outside for work, Lim Seung Joo noticed him.

“Are you going out again today?”

It was a useless question.
Shin Jiho went out nearly every day without a single break.

“Yes, of course.”

“Then I will prepare a healer.”

Though Lim Seung Joo’s words sounded polite from one afar, Shin Jiho raised his eyebrows in slight displeasure.

The danger of hunters’ work was high.
That was why preparing a healer was normal protocol.

Lim Seung Joo purposefully pointing out Shin Jiho’s need for a healer was to emphasize that he was weak. 

If Lim Seung Joo had also signed a one-year contract, he probably would have left without turning back, but he had signed a three-year contract. 

He was a precious A-rank hunter that Jiho was going to be seeing for two more years.
Jiho didn’t know if this was a good thing or bad thing.

A lot of hunters in the guild followed Lim Seung Joo.

Since Lim Seung Joo, the vice-guildmaster, didn’t hide his dislike of Shin Jiho, the others didn’t hide theirs either.

Although them following Lim Seung Joo was good for raids, it was terrible for the guild itself.

‘If he doesn’t like me that much, he should just leave.’

Jiho was annoyed.

Of course, since Lim Seung Joo was a well-known A-rank combat hunter that he had pulled over using the Chungram card, if he really tried to leave, Jiho would have grabbed onto his pants leg until it stretched out.

In the end, even though Shin Jiho was the contractor, he had to close his mouth as though he was the dependent.

For the sake of calming his body and soul, Jiho took out his terminal.
He played videos of cute cats from MeTube.
The only videos that Jiho, who rarely used the internet, watched were animal videos.

The pure and kind kittens, the exact opposite of Lim Seung Joo, rolled on the floor clumsily.
They rolled around whining before quickly falling asleep after running out of energy.
Jiho’s heart found peace at the lovely appearance of these kittens.