Chapter 306 – Part 2 – Tattletale

“Healer! Where’s the healer!”

An Gi-hyeon, who had entered the hospital dripping blood, called for a healer first.

“Gasp! Oh, quickly this way!”

The healer who laid An Gi-hyeon on a bed casually asked.

“How did this happen to you?”

“You don’t need to know that, just hurry up and heal me. Urgh.”

The healer’s gaze moved to the severed wrist while treating the wounds on his shoulders and forearms.

“What about your hand?”

An Gi-hyeon momentarily thought of Choi Seong-min who had taken his hand.

“It’s gone, why?”

“I can heal all the other places, but I cannot regenerate a severed hand. If you brought it now, I could reattach it…”

“I can’t bring it now, but I might be able to bring it tomorrow…”

“Tomorrow is too late. If you can’t bring the hand within 3 hours, you’ll have to live as disabled for life.”

“D-disabled…?”

An Gi-hyeon couldn’t speak for a while, as if struck by a hammer on the back of his head.

“L-let me make a phone call, please hold the phone for me.”

With one hand, he found the contact of his subordinate Kim Jun-taek and urgently called.

“Hey, Kim Jun-taek! Do you happen to know the phone number of the newcomer who came in today?”

-Yes. But why are you asking?

“Send it to me quickly. It’s urgent!”

Fortunately, thanks to the employee who knew the number, he was able to call Choi Seong-min, but…

‘This bastard!’

The problem was that he wasn’t answering the phone.

‘This guy is intentionally ignoring my calls!’

He couldn’t live with a disability for life like this.

Even if he had to swallow his pride, he absolutely had to ask for his hand back.

But even after 3 hours passed, he couldn’t contact Choi Seong-min.

“It’s too late. Even if you brought the hand now, treatment would be impossible.”

The healer’s words were like a death sentence.

“Th-then I have to live my whole life without one hand…?”

“Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do. But don’t despair too much. There are prosthetic hands, so to some extent…”

Even so, it was just a mannequin hand that couldn’t even move fingers.

There was no way such a thing could be comforting.

‘Choi Seong-min, you son of a bitch…!’

An Gi-hyeon, whose anger had reached its peak, made a resolution.

That he would use any means necessary to retaliate against Choi Seong-min.

* * *

The next day, as soon as he came to work at the Association, An Gi-hyeon looked at the employees.

‘Hasn’t that newcomer bastard come out yet?’

He would do anything to drag Choi Seong-min into hell.

With that single-minded determination, An Gi-hyeon looked at the emergency contact list stored in the Association’s internal network.

‘Here it is. Song Chi-hyeon’s phone number.’

As soon as he called, Song Chi-hyeon’s voice was heard.

-This is Song Chi-hyeon.

“Ah, hello, Great Hero-nim. I am An Gi-hyeon, Team 2 Leader of the Hunter Management Department. You came to our department yesterday…”

-I know who you are. Just tell me what you want.

“Ah, it’s nothing else, but the newcomer Choi Seong-min that you personally brought yesterday caused an incident.”

-An incident? What kind of incident?

“From the first day, he assaulted me, his team leader, and committed insubordination.”

-…

There was a brief silence from the other end of the call.

-I understand. I’ll come and hear the details in person.

As soon as the call ended, An Gi-hyeon smiled sinisterly.

‘Kek kek, Choi Seong-min, you’re screwed now, you bastard.’

Shortly after, the department door opened and Song Chi-hyeon appeared.

“I pay my respects to the Great Hero-nim.”

Song Chi-hyeon, who was nodding his head, noticed An Gi-hyeon’s one arm wrapped in bandages.

“You… where did your hand go?”

“That’s the thing… that newcomer bastard…”

From this point, An Gi-hyeon lowered his gaze and began acting pitifully.

Of course, there was no way it would work on Song Chi-hyeon who was reading his thoughts.

“Let’s hear the story inside.”

Song Chi-hyeon, who entered the team leader’s office, sat in the head seat and gestured as if to tell him to speak.

When the stage was set, An Gi-hyeon began pouring out what had happened to him like a fish in water.

“You know that newcomer you brought, Great Hero-nim. He was so confident, saying to give him any work, so I taught him this and that. But perhaps he was dissatisfied that I taught him too much work, because suddenly on the way home from work, he followed me and ambushed me in an alley and cut my wrist…”

An Gi-hyeon embellished the story in his favor.

And he acted as pitifully as possible, pretending to be the victim with tears welling up.

That wasn’t the end of it.

He had a finishing move.

“Look at this.”

He unwrapped the bandage and showed his now-missing wrist.

“Because that guy took my hand, I missed the time to suture it and became someone who has to live with a disability for life.”

An Gi-hyeon, who had been sobbing, spoke pleadingly.

“What exactly did I do wrong? Just because I gave him a bit too much work, he retaliated like this. I’m so scared I can’t even look at that guy’s face properly.”

“…”

“I beg you, Great Hero-nim. Please take pity on me and punish that cruel and vicious newcomer so he pays the appropriate price.”

An Gi-hyeon had tearfully pleaded, but inside he was praising his own acting.

‘This much should look pitiful to anyone, right?’

With that thought, he looked at the Great Hero, but…

“…”

Somehow his expression was lukewarm.

That was natural since the lies were all revealed through his thoughts.

‘This bastard thinks I’m some kind of fool.’

Song Chi-hyeon wanted to cut off the remaining wrist of this so-called team leader right away, but he held back.

It was clear that it was a lie, but he still needed to understand the situation clearly.

‘I can’t judge based only on that guy’s words.’

Song Chi-hyeon, who had been glaring at An Gi-hyeon, called someone.

“It’s me. Are you not at work yet? You’re coming? Then come to the team leader’s office.”

An Gi-hyeon was curious about who he had called, but he was able to confirm it directly in just a few minutes.

Choi Seong-min, the very person who had made him like this.

“Did you call for me, Great Hero-nim?”

“I called for a three-way confrontation.”

“A three-way confrontation?”

“The team leader here claims that you’re the one who made his wrist like this.”

Choi Seong-min and An Gi-hyeon’s gazes met in mid-air.

-Choi Seong-min, you son of a bitch!

He didn’t show it outwardly, but An Gi-hyeon was raging inside.

‘So Choi Seong-min definitely cut off his wrist.’

Still, Song Chi-hyeon wanted to confirm directly with the person involved.

“Did you cut the team leader’s wrist?”

“Yes, I did.”

When Choi Seong-min readily admitted it, An Gi-hyeon couldn’t help but be furious.

“You shameless bastard! Is committing insubordination something to be proud of!”

“Quiet!”

Song Chi-hyeon, who made him shut his mouth, asked with serious eyes.

“Tell me what happened yesterday.”

“Yes.”

Choi Seong-min testified confidently as if he had nothing to hide… In fact, he just had to tell the truth.

“The team leader made me learn excessive work even though I had been there less than a day. When I said this was unfair, he disparaged me saying it was because I was a parachute hire, and when I protested again, he said I was talking back and viewed me unfavorably. So I warned him that if he kept bothering me, I would consider it defying the Great Hero-nim’s decision, and perhaps because that annoyed him, he followed me on the way home from work and tried to kill me.”

While Choi Seong-min was testifying, Song Chi-hyeon read An Gi-hyeon’s thoughts.

‘Since he’s not denying it, it must be true.’

If Choi Seong-min’s words were lies, An Gi-hyeon should have shown an incredulous reaction, but he didn’t.

Rather, he was acknowledging through his thoughts that such things had happened.

‘Choi Seong-min’s claim was the truth.’

Without needing to hear more, this made it certain.

An Gi-hyeon’s claims were all lies and he had tried to deceive him, a Great Hero.

‘This bastard won’t do. How dare he try to deceive me, a Great Hero?’

Song Chi-hyeon looked at An Gi-hyeon like he was looking at a bug.

“You tried to kill my direct subordinate over such a trivial matter?”

“It-it’s a lie, Great Hero-nim! It wasn’t me, but that guy who tried to kill me! This is unjust!”

Still not knowing he had been caught, An Gi-hyeon continued acting aggrieved.

In contrast, unlike someone else, Choi Seong-min showed no signs of lying.

His actions and thoughts matched exactly.

But there was one puzzling point.

“Choi Seong-min.”

“Yes, Great Hero-nim.”

“You said this guy attacked first, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“But how could you be unharmed against someone with 60,000 combat power?”

It was a question he asked because he looked completely uninjured.

“He was weaker than I thought.”

“This bastard…”

It was a statement that hurt his pride, but An Gi-hyeon could no longer refute it.

Because it was the truth.

Song Chi-hyeon, who read such thoughts from An Gi-hyeon and confirmed it was true, lit up his eyes.

‘Combat power of 20,000 defeating 60,000… And without a trait that reads thoughts like mine.’

He was not only good at hunting monsters but also skilled in human combat?

‘Maybe an even more amazing subordinate than I thought has come in.’

Song Chi-hyeon, who looked at Choi Seong-min as if seeing him anew, asked about the subsequent situation.

“Then did you cut off his wrist during the fight?”

“That’s not it. Although he tried to kill me, a superior is still a superior. I was going to just injure him somewhat and let it slide. I even extended my hand first to reconcile. But…”

“But?”

“When I thought about it, I got angry. Not because he tried to kill me, but because he insulted the Great Hero-nim.”

“He insulted me?”

At Song Chi-hyeon’s gaze, An Gi-hyeon panicked and shouted.

“Hey, Choi Seong-min! Are you going to keep lying? When did I insult him!”

“Don’t you remember? When I told you to stop because the Great Hero-nim was behind me, what did you say?”

An Gi-hyeon belatedly recalled his own statement.

-Ah, come to think of it… I did say ‘Great Hero my ass, fuck that,’ didn’t I?

Of course, there was no way Song Chi-hyeon would miss such thoughts.

‘Not only is this team leader bastard pretending to be a victim and lying, but he’s also trying to mock and use me, a Great Hero?’

In contrast, how was his subordinate Choi Seong-min?

“I can tolerate him trying to kill me. But as your direct subordinate, I couldn’t ignore insulting remarks toward the Great Hero-nim. I cut off his wrist because of this. I thought he deserved to be punished…”

When his lord was insulted, he got angry as if it were his own affair and carried out punishment on his behalf.

This was both protecting his dignity as a Great Hero and proving his loyalty.

‘Not only is he skilled enough to overwhelm a C-rank, but he also has high loyalty…’

Song Chi-hyeon’s evaluation of Choi Seong-min, whom he had been looking at, was elevated in an instant.

“Team Leader An Gi-hyeon.”

“Yes.”

“By the authority of a Great Hero, I declare: You are fired as of today.”

“What?”

An Gi-hyeon, who was surprised, soon shouted that it was unfair.

“This is unjust! Are you really believing the newcomer’s words over mine?”

“Of course. My subordinate is incomparably more trustworthy than trash like you.”

Saying this, Song Chi-hyeon glanced at him, and Choi Seong-min bowed silently to express his gratitude for believing in him.

But that wasn’t the only thing to be grateful for.

“Team Leader An Gi-hyeon. Pack your things and leave right now. Ah, before you go, hand over your duties to Choi Seong-min here.”

“Wh-what are you saying? Hand over duties?”

“Because from now on, Choi Seong-min will be taking over as Team 2 Leader of the Hunter Management Department.”