LNHMAE CH 08

Chapter 8. The Memorial Ceremony

“This place.”

When I got closer, I was certain.

The soil itself was glowing faintly blue.

It feels like mana and spiritual energy have mixed together.

The mana coming from the island itself had always been quite strong.

That was why I might have simply passed by, but the energy here was definitely different from the surrounding area.

Then, at that moment:

Flash─!

A powerful light burst out, and the status window appeared.

Whoosh─!

I felt a warm energy surrounding my heart.

Distribution Areas

Uninhabited island, Ganghwa Island, West Coast.

Reward for completing Guide 2: Entry to the Tower Event Stage.
Hint: Monsters belonging to the Tower.

A Tower Event Stage?

This was the first time I’d heard that there were event stages.

But if the tower was offering it as a reward, it had to be better than an ordinary floor, right?

And once I entered the Tower, the spirits at home would automatically come along with me.

Coincidentally, my next destination was Ganghwa Island.

Come to think of it, it made perfect sense.

The areas where the scattered spirits were located were the same areas that had suffered damage from the Tower.

If I couldn’t find them all today, I could always come back on the weekend with Cha Junhyuk and Chae Seonhwa and search again.

When I closed the status window, the bluish glow disappeared from the soil.

“This soil should work.”

Soil suitable for a memorial ceremony.

I didn’t know why, but somehow, that was what I felt.

I put the soil into a ziplock bag and was heading back toward the flagpole when I heard some voices.

“What are we doing this on a public holiday for?”

“You little punk, since when have Hunters ever gotten holidays off?”

“Hey, but we’re civil servants now, aren’t we? Aren’t civil servants supposed to leave work on time?”

A group of people were smoking while looking out toward the distant coastline.

They were the three Hunters who had been specially recruited.

But there was one thing they had misunderstood.

Things like this needed to be corrected immediately.

“Surprisingly, civil servants often have to work on holidays.”

“Uh…?”

The newcomers quickly turned around and hurriedly crushed out their cigarettes.

I continued.

“During national disasters, various commemorative ceremonies, events, and festivals; elections; and even when there’s a lot of rain or snow…”

Especially when unusual weather occurred, local government officials had to somehow get to work and help deal with the situation.

Surprisingly, being a civil servant meant you had to stay on good terms with the Meteorological Administration.

And even after doing all that, if the damage became serious enough, civil servants could end up receiving a lifetime’s worth of complaints all at once.

Even though I wasn’t personally responsible for making it rain by performing some rain ritual.

While the three of them stood there blankly, unable to form proper words, an apology came from someone else.

“I’m sorry.”

It was Officer Choi, the one who was supposedly a candidate for promotion to administrative officer.

He stepped between us with an embarrassed expression.

“We’ll be more careful from now on.”

The other three immediately apologized as well.

“I’m sorry!”

“I didn’t know!”

“This is our first time, so we’re inexperienced.”

“It’s fine. However…”

Whatever they thought was one thing, but they didn’t need to apologize to me.

Still, making comments like that in public places over and over could become a problem.

Especially since our next destination was the memorial ceremony in Ganghwa Island.

Even if it wasn’t us, there would be plenty of eyes and ears there.

As someone more experienced and senior to the newcomers, I needed to warn them.

“Please be careful with your words and actions from now on.”

“Yes, understood!”

And there was one more thing.

Something had been bothering me for a while.

“Officer Choi.”

“Yes, Officer Lee.”

Officer Choi stared at me.

But he wasn’t the one I was concerned about.

It was what was directly behind him.

There’s a ghost behind Officer Choi.

…But I obviously couldn’t suddenly say something like that to someone.

It was a ghost I hadn’t seen when I met him at the Hunter Management Agency earlier.

Did something happen in the meantime?

“…”

“Did you call me for something?”

“No.”

Later.

If that ghost was still following him after we returned to Seoul, I could deal with it somehow, whether by exorcising it or something else.

Jingle─

A gloomy bell sound came from somewhere.

It was coming from the blood-red bell hanging around the ghost’s neck.

I gave the child ghost, who was staring at me, a cold look before turning away.

It was basically a warning telling it not to try anything foolish for the time being.

“Is everyone here? Did you all collect the soil? Then we’ll take a helicopter to the next location.”

Ganghwa Island Memorial Ceremony

The forces of the past and the forces of the future had gathered in one place.

“Good to see you, Director.”

“Chairman.”

The Chairman of the Hunter Association and the Director of the Hunter Management Agency firmly shook hands with friendly smiles.

Their hands remained clasped for quite some time.

Reporters eagerly photographed the scene.

The memorial ceremony on Ganghwa Island was packed with representatives from the Hunter Management Agency, the Hunter Association, various guilds, and government officials.

Among them, one person naturally stood out.

“Thank you for joining us on this meaningful occasion.”

It was Lee Young-soo, the president of South Korea.

After exchanging brief greetings with the important figures, he went to his seat behind the podium and sat down.

With that, the 10th 821 Tower Disaster Memorial Ceremony began.

“…We will now observe a moment of silence to honor the victims who lost their lives in the Tower disaster.”

As the host stopped speaking, the military band began playing the memorial song.

It was a slow, sorrowful piece in a minor key.

Among the people with their eyes closed, the cries and sighs of the bereaved families could be heard.

“Changhyun! Changhyun…!”

“Mother! Father!”

They called out to the people they missed, people they had buried deep inside their hearts, and shed tears.

Meanwhile, the people from the Hunter Management Agency had a task to perform.

“One person at a time. Come forward and pour your soil into this incense burner.”

Behind the altar, white chrysanthemums had been arranged without a single gap.

In front of them stood a large incense burner filled with soil that had accumulated over the past ten years.

“May you rest peacefully in the next world.”

One of the specially recruited hunters poured his oil into the burner and clasped his hands together.

But the soil he had brought looked strange.

It was dark, muddy, and full of moisture.

In some ways, it looked like soil scooped straight out of a swamp.

The soil brought by the other specially recruited Hunters looked the same.

They carefully poured their soil directly beneath the place where the incense sticks had been planted.

What exactly are they trying to do?

Finally, it was my turn.

I sprinkled the soil I had collected earlier directly on top of the soil they had poured.

Then the ceremony continued according to the program.

A staff member came forward and tried to light the ten incense sticks placed in the burner.

But the incense simply would not catch fire.

Not even a tiny bit of smoke appeared.

Whispers spread among the people watching.

“It was always like that.”

“Their resentment hasn’t been resolved yet.”

“Damn, that’s creepy! Look at my goosebumps!”

“This is totally a haunted spot.”

“How much resentment must they have? They died without even knowing what was happening, all in a single day.”

“I thought things might be different this time.”

“Different, my ass. The Hunter Association and the Hunter Management Agency are exactly the same.”

“Hyunseok! Hyunseok!! Are you here? Are you here? It’s Mom. Mom came!”

“Mom, stop! That’s not him! That’s not Oppa!”

“Subscribers! Did you see that? This is proof that ghosts really exist!”

“You can’t livestream here!”

Amid all the commotion, a monk with a serious expression and a shaman wearing a white ceremonial hat came forward to the altar.

They stood side by side and clasped their hands together.

A priest holding a rosary and a silver cross stood beside them.

But…

“…”

I could see them.

Three bluish-green goblin ghosts.

They were stuck right beside the incense burner.

And every time someone brought a candle over to light the incense, they repeated the same action.

[Whoosh!]

They puffed out their cheeks, fixed their eyes on one spot, and then blew forcefully toward the candle.

As always, the Hunter Association chairman watched the chaotic scene of the 821 Memorial Ceremony with a satisfied expression.

I was worried for nothing.

Just as expected.

There had been no unexpected changes.

No matter what the Hunter Management Agency tried, those incense sticks wouldn’t catch fire.

He didn’t know why.

It had always been that way.

Still, just in case, he had taken one precaution beforehand.

He briefly looked at the trash who had been specially recruited into the Hunter Management Agency before turning his gaze elsewhere.

Filthy bastards.

The association had leverage over those men.

They had committed crimes against ordinary people, and naturally, they had been caught by the vigilante group operated by the Association.

Even so, the long-established association had shown mercy.

They had decided to let them off this once out of the goodness of their hearts.

Instead, the men would spend some time reflecting on their actions.

For example, by doing things like spying.

Today, he had specifically told that trash where to collect the soil.

A swamp on the uninhabited island.

And he had ordered them to scatter the swamp soil over the incense burner.

To make the incense absorb the moisture.

So that it would be impossible for the incense to catch fire.

He had prepared this safety measure in advance.

It’s more than those bastards deserve.

From the Chairman’s perspective, this was an honorable activity.

A noble task carried out to preserve the Hunter Association, an organization with a long and distinguished history.

Such an activity required people of dignity.

Not common street thugs like those men.

The person who perfectly fit the chairman’s standards was an A-rank spearman named Choi Hyungwoo.

And he’s only an administrative officer candidate?

Apparently, he was currently only an ordinary administrative officer.

When the chairman first heard this, he had been genuinely dumbfounded.

Those arrogant people at the Hunter Management Agency were actually trying to judge people.

And on top of that, they were conducting a public-service aptitude evaluation.

He had almost laughed out loud.

“Arrogant.”

Who do they think they are to judge anyone?

Did they really not understand their own position?

This was exactly why newly established organizations were no good.

Their perspective was completely different from that of the Hunter Association, which had survived every kind of hardship.

To make a proper judgment about anything, you first needed an objective assessment of your current abilities.

In other words, they needed to understand their own place.

But those people had already gotten things wrong from the very beginning.

In fact, the association chairman had never felt threatened by the creation of the Hunter Management Agency.

There was only one thing that bothered him.

The Tower buff.

The moment the Hunter Management Agency was created, Korea’s Towers received the first attack and defense buff in the world.

That was why, just in case, he had been slightly worried.

But even that had turned out exactly as expected.

It doesn’t matter.

It was simply a case of correlation without causation.

A situation like the crow flew and the pear fell.

Now it was almost laughable.

He couldn’t believe he had ever expected anything from such insignificant people.

Therefore, what remained to be done was obvious.

Find the person responsible for the Tower buff and recruit them before the Hunter Management Agency does.

Obviously, if that person had any sense, they would accept the Hunter Association’s offer, since it was the organization that matched their level.

The proposal had both justification and practical benefits.

Because behind the Hunter Association was…

Ring-ring-ring─!

An international call came in at exactly that moment.

That person was clearly watching this scene live.

“Yes, this is the association chairman.”

He quietly stood up and blended into the crowd of excited people.

He needed to hide the truth in the middle of the confusion for a moment.

But then…

“…What? Who… who died?”

He asked again to make sure he had heard correctly.

But the same words continued to come through the phone.

“No… Is that really true…?”

Something that absolutely should never have happened had happened.

“Choi’s younger sister… No, why on earth?!”

An arrow appeared above the goblin ghosts that were blowing out the candles.

At the same time, a status window appeared.

Flash─!

I don’t even have to go looking for them. They just show themselves like a self-service feature.

Does that mean there are really that many spirits that escaped from the Tower?

Anyway, I just needed to deal with them using my skill, right?

The skills I have are…

Summon Spirit, Exorcism, Materialization, and Eye of Truth.

Among them, the most useful skill right now was exorcism.

<Exorcism: Returns a spirit to the place where it originally belongs.

However, it may fail.

The success rate depends on the level difference between the spirit and the caster.

Restriction: Can only be used once per day. >

Level difference?

I looked at the goblins for a moment.

The three ghosts were still happily blowing at the candles.

“…”

They didn’t look much different from the goblins that appeared on the first floor of the Tower.

If anything, they looked even more cheerful and innocent.

Exorcism.

This should be enough.

The memorial ceremony was still in chaos.

Some people were even cursing both the Hunter Association and the Hunter Management Agency together.

That won’t do.

My stable career as a civil servant was already being threatened from the very beginning.

“Director.”

“Ah, Officer Lee. I really need to get used to this. It’s going to keep happening in the future.”

The director looked troubled and was even sweating nervously.

“I’ll try lighting them.”

“The incense? Can you do it?”

“I think I know how.”

“All right, Officer Lee. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself if it doesn’t work.”

A new candle and incense stick were soon handed to me by one of the ceremony staff.

As I approached the incense burner, one of the goblins came rushing toward me like a moth drawn to a flame.

“Stop.”

The goblin froze.

Then it stared directly at me.

[Keek?]

“What do you mean, keek?”

[Keheh???]

The goblin ghost’s eyes widened.

The other goblin ghosts also turned to look at me.

“I warn you. If you put out this candle…”

[…]

“I’ll make you disappear from this world as well.”

[?!]

I could simply destroy them immediately, but there was a reason I was giving them a warning.

I didn’t know how many spirits could be affected by my Level 1 Exorcism skill at once.

[Ke-ke-ke.]

[Ke-ke-keek.]

But naturally, the goblins didn’t listen.

Fine.

I expected as much.

They need an example.

“Exorcism.”

<Exorcism can only be used once per day. If you use the skill now, you will not be able to use it again until tomorrow. Would you like to cast Exorcism?

“Cast it.”

<Select a target.