Leveling Up Alone

“Do you feel uncomfortable, Sir Han-Yeol?” Ferdinand asked, sounding concerned that their sudden visit offended him.

The reason he was concerned was most people would have said it was fine by now, but that was not how things worked with Han-Yeol.

Han-Yeol was the type of person who would not miss an opportunity to wage psychological warfare against his opponent. Others might think he was very sensitive or was an overthinker, which was not wrong technically, as he was already skeptical of Ferdinand even though nothing had happened yet.

However, Han-Yeol’s instincts always served him well and this coupled with his habit of never fully trusting humans made him doubt even the smallest things.

“Not at all, I was just thinking of something. Anyway, I cannot seem to think of any reason you would have to meet me, so why are you here today?” Han-Yeol asked. He was smiling, but it was blatantly obvious that he was not a welcoming host.

[What did he say, Sir Ferdinand?]

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Ferdinand was the only one capable of speaking Korean in the group, hence the other Hunters were unable to understand what was happening.

“Ahem… We intruded upon you today to ask a favor,” Ferdinand replied, ignoring the Hunters.

“Oh? A favor?”

“Yes, the Hunters in our coalition forces have heard of your heroism in saving the Southeast Asian countries. You are truly befitting to be called the strongest Hunter in the world.”

“Hahaha! Nonsense, I was just doing my best for our world, that’s all.”

“Hohoho~” Tia laughed after finding her owner’s fake humility quite cute.

Han-Yeol noticed Ferdinand grimace. It was quite subtle and lasted only for a split second that nobody noticed it, but his keen senses did not miss even the slightest movement in the room.

‘What was that?’ he wondered.

However, just because he noticed him grimacing did not mean he knew why he did so, but he knew that Ferdinand was definitely hiding something.

Han-Yeol remembered his father's teaching. ‘I knew it. This is one cunning guy. Father was right when he said to never trust someone who comes to you smiling.’

“Speaking of your heroism, may you please show us some of your heroic feats too?”

“Huh?”

Han-Yeol could not understand what Ferdinand’s intention was. He might be extremely wealthy and the most powerful Hunter on Earth, but he had come from a very poor background. He knew nothing about how elites socialized and neither was he interested in them even after he became wealthy. Instead, he preferred to live a normal life with those he was close with and spend money on whatever he wanted.

Such a way of socializing was not something he experienced even in the Bastro Dimension when he lived as Harkan, as the Bastrolings were the direct type. They would not beat around the bush trying to sound pretentious.

“Ah, my apologies. What I wanted to say is, would you be kind enough to help us just like how you helped those four countries?” Ferdinand immediately reiterated after noticing that Han-Yeol did not understand his way of speech.

‘Tsk… Who the hell talks like that?’ Han-Yeol was annoyed and could not understand how these so-called elites conversed.

Suddenly, Ferdinand lowered his head and said, “I implore you.”

[Please, Sir Han-Yeol.]

The rest of the Hunters lowered their heads as well the moment Ferdinand did so. This was unbefitting of them, especially for Ferdinand, but this was something Ferdinand had prepared to get Han-Yeol to agree to helping them.

‘This should be enough, right? He’s the heroic type of Hunter, so he definitely won’t refuse us if we bow our heads to him,’ Ferdinand thought confidently.

Unfortunately, this was a very one-dimensional way of thinking.

Han-Yeol shrugged and replied, “I don’t want to.”

“Thank you–eh?” Ferdinand was stunned.

He was confident that the world’s most powerful Hunter, drunk on playing hero, would accept the request, but the hero did not even think for more than a second before flatly refusing it.

Ferdinand always thought things through before making a move, so Han-Yeol’s unexpected response completely caught him off guard.

Han-Yeol emphasized his refusal. “Let me repeat myself since it seems like you didn’t understand. I don’t want to. I refuse. No.”

“B-But why?” Ferdinand asked in response.

Han-Yeol grimaced at the man’s stubbornness and said, “The world’s coalition forces have already refused my help. Let me ask you this. What authority do you have to ask me for help–no, ask me to fight on your behalf?”

“T-That is…”

Ferdinand was blindsided by Han-Yeol’s blunt question. He might be the commander of the HUN’s peacekeeping forces, but he was not the one in charge of the currently ongoing war. He was merely one of the commanders under the coalition of China and the HUN, and the high-ranking officials on both sides were the ones calling the shots in this war.

In other words, Ferdinand had no voice at the table aside from things related to military strategy. A good example showing how little authority he possessed in this war was the fact that he could not choose where to mobilize. The high-ranking officials would decide where he was to be deployed, and he had no choice but to follow their instructions.

“And I think you’re mistaken about something. It’s not four but five countries if you include the Philippines. Also, I didn’t help them because I cared about this world or wanted to become a hero. It was all for my own benefit, and I plan to charge them a hefty price for receiving my help,” Han-Yeol said.

Then, he smirked and added, “I never do anything for free. Now, let me ask you another question. What can you give me in return if I help you kill those monsters?”

“T-That is… We can…”

“Let me finish that for you. Nothing. You can’t give me anything. Why? Because you don’t have any authority within the HUN, Mr. Ferdinand.”

“...”

Ferdinand was absolutely speechless at Han-Yeol’s vicious and blunt words, and he was forced to bite his lips, trembling from being humiliated in front of the others.

“What? I hope you didn’t think I’d agree to help you just because you called me a hero and all? Did you really think something like that would actually work?”

“...”

Ferdinand was unable to respond–no, he had nothing to respond with. It felt as if Han-Yeol saw right through him, as he had been completely checkmated.

Han-Yeol was sort of reading his mind. To be precise, he was reading the mind of one of the Hunters who had come along with Ferdinand. The Hunter was quite young and he looked like the weakest among the group, so Han-Yeol decided to read his mind to figure out what they were plotting.

‘N-No way… This can’t be possible…!’ Ferdinand despaired.

He liked and respected Han-Yeol. His reaction after hearing that he had saved four–no, five countries from the monsters was, ‘As expected of him!’

Unfortunately, his fantasy of Han-Yeol shattered into pieces after this encounter.

“Tsk… How will you survive out in the world if you’re this ignorant?”

“...”

“Alright, I guess that should be it, right? I’m a bit tired today, so please see yourselves out now.”

Han-Yeol was still reeling from the incident with White Dragon, so he was exhausted mentally.

Meanwhile, Ferdinand misunderstood this as Han-Yeol chasing them out.

“B-But Sir Han-Yeol!”

“Yes?”

Ferdinand raised his voice, sounding emotional. “Don’t you hear the screams of the young Hunters dying on the battlefield?! Do you not have an ounce of empathy for them?! How could you ignore them like that?! Does it make you feel good knowing you abandoned them?!”

This was very unknight-like of him. In fact, even the Hunters who had served him for a long time were surprised by his words. He always upheld the knight’s code and was always careful even with the smallest things for fear of tarnishing it.

He conducted himself like a noble from the medieval ages–or at least that was what he thought. Whatever he might be, at least he was not a bad noble.

Nevertheless, Han-Yeol was unfazed even though Ferdinand had screamed right at his face.

“Yes, I don’t hear them. And I don’t understand why you’re forcing me to care for them when they’re not even my subordinates.”

“H-How can you say that?!”

Ferdinand wanted to continue arguing, but he could not utter any of the things he had prepared after seeing how cold and emotionless Han-Yeol’s eyes were.

Han-Yeol yawned and said, “Yawn… I’m tired and I have to sleep so please leave.”

“Please, this way,” Sahas added, holding the door open.

The Hunters might not have understood the conversation between Han-Yeol and Ferdinand, but that did not mean they could not read the atmosphere. The atmosphere in the room already showed that they failed to get what they wanted, causing them to leave the hotel with heavy hearts.

“Ah, thatwas not worth the trouble,” Han-Yeol grumbled, rubbing his eyes after the Hunters left.

“Hoho~ You’re too ruthless, master. Did you really have to chase them out like that?” Tia asked playfully.

“What’s with that look? Why are you pretending to take their side when it’s obvious you’re just having fun?”

“Oh~ Is that what it looks like? No~ I’m very concerned about them.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Hohoho~”

The conversation would usually end around this time after Tia had her fun, but that was unfortunately not the case this time.

The new member–or rather, an old member who now had the capability to talk after polymorphing into a human, White Dragon, chimed in and extended the conversation.

“Humans are truly interesting creatures. Their brazenness made me think they were demons for a second.”

“Kyuuu!”

She was holding Mavros in her arms, which was rather odd as she used to ignore him, but she was now affectionately patting his head. It went without saying that Mavros was currently on cloud nine.

“Tsk… What am I going to do with that ungrateful lizard?” Han-Yeol grumbled.

“Kyu!” Mavros retorted and glared at him after getting called a lizard.

“What?! You wanna fight?!” Han-Yeol snapped.

They both glared at each other with sparks flying in the space between them.

Shwaaak!

“What you said just now was rather unpleasant.”

The argument in the room was far from over as Stewart appeared out of thin air.

“Hmm? I don’t think I was making things up though?” White Dragon replied brazenly.

Woooong!

The next round was between Stewart and White Dragon. They did not get along since before, and their animosity only grew after she awakened and polymorphed as a human.

Stewart was a demon with dark attributes while White Dragon was the complete opposite of him. Demons and dragons had always been at odds with each other, and this had been going on for as long as anyone could remember.

Tia explained before to Han-Yeol that the animosity between the two races was not caused by one side. Rather, the two had been at each other’s throats since time immemorial.

The demons coveted the dragons’ strong bodies, and they would always start their conquest of a dimension by corrupting the dragon residing in it. On the other hand, dragons were generally curious creatures, so they would capture demons and conduct all sorts of experiments on them.

Han-Yeol clicked his tongue. “Tsk… Those two are at it again.”

“Yes, they are. Hoho~”

“Hmm? Aren’t you supposed to be on the demon’s side?”

“Why should I?”

“Aren’t you a monster?”

“But I’m not a demon, right?”

“Oh… right…”

Han-Yeol was still confused about the difference between a demon and a monster, but he just went along with what Tia said.

‘Well, even humans can be racist toward other humans, so it’s probably the same with them. I probably shouldn’t get involved in that without understanding how it works,’ he thought.

The last thing he wanted to do was get involved in something he was unfamiliar with and end up in another sticky situation.