Requiem Of A Failed Hero

Suspicious of what he was getting at Ruan Zhaohui lowered her eyebrows, carving out a slight frown from her delicate face.

"Increase your money?"

"Yes. When we discussed this deal, you didn't inform me about things like assassination attempts. Imagine, I just consumed my power trying to fight off that assassin, they were incredibly strong you know."

Raith asserted his words to her with a straight face.

Ruan Zhaohui kept her eyes on him for a few seconds, then she rolled them to the cracked floor and rolled back to Raith.

"Assassination attempts on who?"

Raith pulled his body back in a repulsive rebellion.

"Who else? Me of course!"

"Ah..."

Ruan Zhaohui sighed. There was nothing to be done, she had somehow managed to put herself in a helpless situation.

"Fine, how much do you want?"

Behind her Gilly gritted her teeth as she succumbed to the hunter's sly play.

"Four hundred"

Raith raised four fingers as he spoke.

"What the hell?!"

While Ruan Zhaohui's eyes widened, Gilly wouldn't have Raith's arrogance, she yelled forward, gesturing her hands as though she wanted to pull out a sword again.

Raith looked at her with a frown.

"What? Do you want to attack me with..."

"Gilly."

At the sound of Ruan Zhaohui's voice, she bit her lips and repositioned herself, standing like a statue with her head bowed.

"I apologize on her behalf. I suppose you are not saying 400 million..."

Raith raised a corner of his lips.

"You get the gist. I like you, you are quick on the uptake."

Smiling for a second, he said and then looked at her guard with an irritated frown.

She glared back at him, clenching her fists so hard that they would crush a rock.

"So you want four hundred billion dollars. Not even three hundred. One hundred and fifty billion for an assassination attempt."

Raith leaned into his chair and spread his arms, closing his eyes as he replied:

"Don't blame it on me, blame it on the Americans who tried to kill me. You can extort the money from them somehow."

"Still, Hunter Raith..."

"Wait"

Raith raised his hand cutting shut her speech.

"This does not mean that you will get all the spoils and rewards from the gate right. I'm the one raiding the gate, so I get to keep those. R...ight?"

He asked with a glowering face, almost innocent in all visible features but behind those delicate lines that drew out this facial expression was an intent that Ruan Zhaohui perceived as...

'I didn't know he was this devious'

She had to give it to him. She completely underestimated the hunter and didn't think he would be such a greedy bastard.

"No, if you will have all the spoil and rewards then I can't give four hundred billion dollars. I'm sorry but you'd have to settle for two hundred."

Raith clicked his tongue in disappointment and scrutinized her one more time before speaking.

"So, eighty-twenty?"

"Fifty-fifty."

Fifty Fifty was too much in fact, but let's say he does not die and comes back enough Ruan Zhaohui was sure that she would be gaining a lot more.

Such an amount of money was a small price to pay. Actually, if he was truly devious, he would have extorted more from her. Because he was the only one in jeopardy here. This was a rank of the gate that is unknown, even an unranked hunter tried to raid it and did not make it alive, if he died she gets to keep all her money, and if he made it alive all he gets to receive was a four hundred billion dollars which might not compensate for the hell he would go through in that gate.

However, Raith was pretty dumb to begin with.

Only after this raid did he begin to sharpen his senses.

"Fine."

He shot up.

"Give me some time to go freshen up."

He said and walked into his room, after his unhygienic nature being pointed out by Hana, he was getting mindful.

Ruan Zhaohui watched for a few minutes, staring at the cracked floor with her eyes lost in the imagination of what amount of force would have been applied to dent the marble ground like that.

Gilly stomped her knees to the ground, pulling Ruan Zhaohui's eyes out of her imagination.

"I'm sure if you give me the chance, I will be able to teach him a lesson. No one is allowed to speak to you in this manner. That man is a rude, ungrateful bastard. He doesn't even realize you are doing him a favor!!"

"Shut up Gilly."

"I'm sorry mother."

She bowed her head, biting her lower lips, to suppress the wave of anger that welled up in her.

"What makes you so confident that you can beat him?"

"I haven't been able to gauge his strength..."

She said with an expression drowned in shame but continued, her words finding retribution in the words she spoke:

"...even so, that does not mean I will stay still while someone like that is insulting your mother."

"Do your best to care for yourself, Gilly. That intolerance of yours might be the end of you one day."

On a day not far from now, Ruan Zhaohui's words came into play.

"Yes, ma!"

She ground her teeth and responded with an affirmative tone.

—

Eric woke up in a hospital, he was aggravated and tried to escape but his hand was cuffed to the frame of the hospital bed. And a man was standing before him with his hands in his pocket and a toothpick in his mouth.

He had a black eye patch over his left eye, his beard was rough and his face bony, with lazy eyes that looked like they would close any moment.

Despite the man's look being one that seemed to be natural out of depression, he wore a nice grin. One that spelled trouble for Eric here.

He immediately frowned as he raised his eyes to meet the man's.

"Eric Eric, did I not mention to you that I will be back"

A smirk managed to creep to a corner of his lips.

"Well, you are quite the persistent bastard. What difference would it make this time, you will just end up letting me go based on the chairman's order anyway so why don't you let me go right now? I don't have time for this."

"Ah of course. You don't have time for this, since you dared to assassinate a catastrophe-ranked hunter."

A frown creased out of his face.

"I will speak no further, I want to speak to the chairman."

The man before him smirked, he took out the toothpick and gestured, pointing it toward Eric.

"The chairman? You, my friend, have been repudiated."

Still frowning, even deeper, Eric asked:

"What do you mean? Put me through the chairman."

"In case you don't know. The entire media knows that two assassins attacked the Korean catastrophe-ranked hunter. Only one made it out alive and that one happens to be rookie hunter Eric Moore. The public naturally demanded answers from Chairman Whitman since it is no news that you are an agent of the association... ah where is it again."

He paused and rummaged his hand through his pocket, a couple of seconds later he brought out his phone, taking another couple of seconds to find the video.

"Ha, got it"

He turned the screen of his phone to Eric who began to shiver a few minutes after the video began to play.

"I can swear on everything I own that the association does not have anything to do with this incident. Agent Eric did whatever he did on his own accord. There were some rumors of his grudge against South Korea, but I never paid attention to it. I promise the masses that the association will personally investigate this matter and get to the bottom of this issue."

Eric's eyes trembled. He opened his mouth to talk but no words would come out, his words fell short and broke into pieces before they even made it out.

This was madness! This was a man he had lived his entire life for, everything he had done was as a result of instructions from Whitman.

What did he mean by 'his own accord' a rumor? What rumor?!! What discord does he have with Korea that he would attempt to kill their catastrophe-ranked hunter? What the hell was all this about?!

'No...no... no, I need to see the Chairman!'

Eric's glare ignited with fire, a fire that the man in front of him immediately recognized as he opened his mouth to speak.

"No can do."

He spoke before Eric could.

Eric frowned, "I need to see the chairman!!" He shouted.

"No can do. I said it already didn't I?"

The guy slipped his phone back into his pocket and looked at Eric for a few seconds.

"I know you have lived your entire life for Whitman. I pity you in fact and I have tried to save you from his schemes. But you trusted him far too much. To Whitman, everyone is a tool... you of all people should know that well by now."

Eric lowered his head, gripping the sheet of the bed he was in.

"Yes... I know..."

His words came out, almost shattering like glass.

"But there is one thing I am curious about... I hope you can at least say that."

The man's drowsy eyes slowly came alive, emanating one hell of a cold alluring stare.

"Why did Whitman send you to kill South Korea's Catastrophe ranked hunter?"