IRNH C68

Chapter 68

“What skills do you have? You didn’t write them in detail on the application.”

“Ah, should I show you now?”

“Uh? Ah—yes… if you’re comfortable with that.”

The man looked almost thrilled at the chance to demonstrate his abilities. Feeling something off, Sihyeon tilted his head slightly.

“DESTINY ON MY WORLD! SHOT!”

At that moment, the man shouted an incantation.

What? I thought he said he was support—why does this sound like a ranged DPS?

A faint shiver crawled up Sihyeon’s arms as he sensed energy gathering.

FWASH.

A wind blew from somewhere. The man’s clothes burst into a swirl of iridescent colors, and brilliant glitter rained down from the ceiling like a special-effects explosion.

Stunned, Sihyeon looked around before his gaze slowly returned to the man—now glowing faintly as the radiance faded.

A massive, overly frilled pink lace costume.
White stockings.
Shoes easily around 290mm in size.

A magical girl—no, a magical uncle.
Cute in theory. Terrifying in application.
He looked less like support magic and more like he could cleanse evil with sheer physical force.

Covered in glitter, Sihyeon couldn’t even brush it off. He pressed his lips together, doing his best to calm the chaos in his chest.

“Hrk.”

But the tiny laugh that slipped out beside him snapped the silence, prompting Sihyeon to speak.

“Y-you said you were applying as a support, right?”

“Ah, yes! My skills require me to summon a magic wand like this first!”

“…I see. Well, thank you. We’ll text you the results.”

“Oh. It’s over already? Got it… Then have a good day!”

He sounded slightly disappointed, but his cheerful tone matched his outfit too well.

Sihyeon stayed silent until the door clicked shut—then gathered the glitter on his head and burned it all away in a single burst of Sammae-power. He lowered his head.

Damn it.

He had thought interviews would be simple—just fill the guild member quota and move on.
But this was impossible.
No. He simply did not have the emotional stamina to ever face that man again.

“Master, you still have two applicants left. It’s too early to be discouraged. Do not be disheartened.”

“Yeah… that’s right. Two more…”

Even with Taewoon’s earnest encouragement, the motivation that had fled showed no sign of returning. Sihyeon burned the stack of printed résumés he’d prepared—none of them had anything properly filled out anyway.

KNOCK KNOCK.

A knock on the hotel room door.
Still shaken from the first interview, Sihyeon weakly waved a hand to open it.

“Uh… the person before me left, but you didn’t call, so…”

My eyes. My optic nerves.

A man walked in—wearing tight pink clothing and an odd bowl-shaped helmet on his head.

Sihyeon dragged a trembling hand over his face. He wanted to lie down on the bed and end the day right there.

“S-sit… down.”

“Yes~”

But telling someone to come inside and then kicking them out felt too rude.
He also didn’t want to set a bad example for Taewoon.
So he forced his trembling lips into something resembling a smile.

“S-so, is your skill something like… transformation?”

“Eh? Oh, no! I just wear this! It’s custom-made!”

Why. Why is everything pink? Why is it always pink?

Internally cursing, Sihyeon kept a stoic expression and nodded, carefully avoiding looking downward.

“I… see.”

“Doesn’t it look cool?”

“No. It doesn’t.”

“…Pardon?”

“No—nothing.”

He muttered unintentionally, then waved his hand quickly to cover it up.
He asked a few perfunctory questions and sent the second applicant away almost immediately.

It was the most exhausting five minutes of his day.

“Taewoon… should we keep going…?”

“Hmm… perhaps you should rest. I can give you a massage—”

That was when a familiar presence flickered at the edge of his senses.
Abrupt, like space being torn open.

Sihyeon frowned and shot up from his seat.

CLACK—THUD.

The door flew open. The rebound from the slam into the wall was caught by someone’s hand.

A man in spotless white clothing—as always—stepped inside with confident, bold strides.

Shin Ryuha.

“…Ah, f*ck.”

“Oh—language.”

Already exhausted, mentally fried from the absurd day, Sihyeon couldn’t hold back the curse when the last person he wanted to see appeared.

Hold it together. Breathe, Jeong Sihyeon.

“Didn’t you miss me?”

Should I kill him?

Beside him, Taewoon’s expression had twisted dangerously.
If Sihyeon gave the order, he would absolutely go chop that man’s head off without hesitation.

Focus. Calm down.

Even as Shin Ryuha’s irritating voice stuck to him like glue, Sihyeon swallowed down the erupting river of curses.

This man was a last-resort backup plan.
He couldn’t kill him.
Tragically.

Instead, he satisfied himself with imagining it and slowly opened his mouth.

“Why are you here.”

“I heard you were conducting interviews~ So I thought I’d join.”

“You should at least wet your lips before lying.”

“Haha.”

As soon as Sihyeon’s face stopped looking murderous, Shin Ryuha smiled triumphantly and plopped down on the sofa.

“Why are you trying to go somewhere else without me?”

“You mean without your guild, not you.”

“That’s the same thing.”

Annoyingly enough, it wasn’t entirely wrong.

The Shear Guild—from everything Sihyeon learned—was essentially Shin Ryuha incarnate.
A top-tier domestic guild, but its fame lived and died with him.

“Uh… should I… come in…?”

A timid knock interrupted them.

The last applicant—the third of today—peeked in nervously.

Great.
Of course he’d forgotten about the poor kid.

Sihyeon rubbed his forehead with one hand while clutching Taewoon’s hand tightly with the other—like handcuffs—to stop him from committing murder.

“You came early, so your turn is last. Get out.”

“So strict. You look like you’d be great at work.”

The exaggerated, syrupy tone made a pulse of killing intent spike up inside him.

I’m going to—

“I’ll head out now~ Tell me when you’re done!”

Shin Ryuha, smiling like he’d expected that exact reaction, waltzed outside—throwing a wink at the bewildered applicant on his way.

Today felt endless.

But there was still work to do, so Sihyeon swallowed it all down. He looked at the boy awkwardly lingering by the door, took a breath, and forced a smile.

Which vanished instantly once the interview started.

“Sigh… even if he were F-rank, I’d have hired him if he looked normal… Who knew hiring someone would be this hard.”

The boy had claimed he would soon become a great martial artist because a heavenly demon was “inside his head.”

With that, Sihyeon swore he would never, ever do this again.

There was a reason experts existed.
For a moment, he almost wanted to join the Shear Guild after all—as long as they didn’t force a slave contract on him.

KNOCK KNOCK.
“Can I come in now~?”

The slick, oily voice drifted back in.
Sihyeon resolved not to get irritated at the man who might soon be his employer, and nodded.

“Sit. You’re not actually here to take the interview, so—why did you come?”

“Ahh, too fast~ Let’s slow down a bit. Do you have coffee? No? Capsules? I can’t drink instant—”

Maybe I should just quit life.

He desperately resisted the urge to shove something into Ryuha’s mouth to shut him up.

“Haha. You’re really cute, you know? It’s such a—”

“Yes, I’m very charming. Is that your whole message? If so, let’s wrap this up.”

“Of course not!”

Still smiling, Shin Ryuha fluttered his hands like he was batting away dust, blocking Sihyeon from standing.

“By the way, Sihyeon. Do you know someone named Lee Gyu-hwan?”

The room instantly froze—cold as if drenched in ice water.

The man who always acted frivolous had suddenly struck a razor-sharp point.

Sihyeon’s mind chilled as he reevaluated the situation.

For Ryuha to suddenly ask about Gyu-hwan…
There were three possibilities:

He was tied to the Villain Alliance.
He was tied to “those people” Gyu-hwan mentioned.
Or some third option Sihyeon hadn’t imagined.

None of these were favorable.
Tension rose automatically.

“I know him. He’s Gyu-min’s older brother, isn’t he?”

“Aha.”

He gave a controlled amount of truth. Lying outright would have been sloppy. Better to mix truth and omission while gauging Ryuha’s intentions.

But instead of pressing, Shin Ryuha smiled slyly and casually shifted the topic.

“Wow, the accident was huge. I was shocked reading the report.”

“…I saw it on the news too. Gyu-min seemed overwhelmed.”

“I even had an ongoing deal with LK. Quite troublesome.”

The conversation skirted around the core issue without ever touching it.
Sihyeon kept his expression neutral and tossed a harmless question.

“It must’ve been a personal deal.”

“No. A regular one.”

A very subtle—and very curious—answer.