Chapter 231.2 – Tournament (32) Part 2
[Kim Min-hyuk]
The book keeping is strange.
One or two figures were missing.
I tried to re-calculate it myself by checking from the beginning, but the end figure turned out to be quite different from the books.
This is not a mistake that an accountant would usually make.
Mistakes like this would inevitably have resulted in an abomination of a book.
This is a book written by a man who can’t even write his diary properly, let alone a book.
What on earth was the author thinking?
Was the book keeper a preschooler who had yet to learn private accounting?
It’s highly likely that it was written as a development token because it was a.s.sociated with the market.
He probably wasn’t interested in writing books in the first place.
I don’t know who it is, but I’ll have to tell whoever’s in charge of the person who wrote this book that they are not to be entrusted with paperwork in the future.
I let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of my nose.
My eyes are burning and feel like they are about to pop out any moment. Maybe because I’ve been overworking them.
I took out a couple of potion bottles from the inventory.
After drinking a strength recovery potion and a wound healing potion, the pain slowly lessened.
I stretch out while seated on my chair, trying to release the stress from my tense shoulders and stiff back. Stretching made my body feel heavy instead.
I need a break.
I would usually drink a bottle of elixir at this point, but now that the elixirs’ owned by the Order of Vigilance are out of stock, they’ve become a commodity I can’t get my hands on.
The Order of Vigilance was suffering from a shortage of manpower.
As the population grows, the work to be done increases, but the number of people handling it remains the same.
We need reinforcements.
In fact, many people want to join the Order of Vigilance as clerks.
But the required standard was far too high.
I asked Park Jung-ah several times to ease the qualifications required a bit, but she refused.
I even put it on the meeting agenda, but most of the members, like Park Jung-ah, rejected my proposal.
All the members who opposed were unrelated to office work.
d.a.m.n it.
I let out a deep breath.
I thought I’d be able to sleep tonight, but I still haven’t accounted for the overnight account for this bill.
I really want to quit everything.
It’s an idea that comes to mind several times a day.
I wanted to give up everything and just enjoy the festival. I craved more time with my lover.
Just last night, I was scolded for not paying attention to myself.
Since I work in the Order of Vigilance, most of my time was spent there. It was clear that other people wouldn’t even understand what we were doing.
I briefly check the time and lean back on the chair.
I examine the items I had in advance in the inventory, to see if they were still fine, and then change my clothes.
There was a place I have to visit before writing these badly-written books from scratch.
Lee Ho-jae.
A few days after the tournament began, he ended up getting stuck in a training stage. Now, I need to visit this guy who didn’t come out till the tournament ended.
In the first few days, Jung-ah spent her time in her room and strolled around the market. But a day after partic.i.p.ating in the tournament stage, she entered the training stage and never came out.
At that time, I had to try persuade him to go to the tournament first, using the training stage as an excuse.
Since then, I had to visit him in person every time.
I had lost my appet.i.te.
My body slackens as memories of the past fill my mind.
When I neglected other things and only focused on my growth.
Maybe I should have postponed entering the tournament stage.
I put on my new clothes and fix my appearance in front of the mirror.
I always care about my appearance when I set off to meet him.
Even when we meet for a short walk at night, I prepare for a few minutes before that.
I need this appearance whenever I meet him.
He’s always cautious of people.
It wasn’t because he was timid.
If you’re timid, you don’t look at people that way.
Those eyes were one of a predator’s, who looked at his opponent without any qualms.
While confronting that gaze that could peer deeply into someone’s mind, I wanted to look more relaxed.
I wanted to maintain the att.i.tude I held towards friends, not the att.i.tude towards superiors.
I didn’t want to be caught having a hard time dealing with him and getting nervous from time to time.
He wanted it, too.
Contrary to his behaviour, he is quite lonely.
It’s a story that no one on the Korean server would believe, but it was true.
He was very, very far from normal, but he liked a relationship that would make him converse normally. One that made him comfortable.
I’m trying to create such a relationship.
It wasn’t easy to talk to someone who could kill a person with a slight move of his hands if he wanted to, all the while cracking bad jokes.
I wasn’t all that comfortable, but I had to pretend to be comfortable.
Sometimes I wish that he was the head of the Order of Vigilance so the hierarchy would be established more firmly.
Of course, if that were the case, the Order of Vigilance and the Korean server would become a mess. But at least it would have been easier to deal with him.
Knock, knock
Knock.
I step away from the mirror and head for the door.
The only person who would knock in my room was a guest.
The Order of Vigilance would rather just send me a message than knock on my door and waste time.
And there was only one guest scheduled for today.
When I open the door, I see Lee Hyung-jin standing in front of the dark ebony door.
“Shall we go right away?”
“Yes.”
I leave the room with Lee Hyung-jin.
Outside the room were members of the Order of Vigilance working on the desks.
There was also Park Jung-ah.
I tried to a.s.sign her a separate room because she was the leader, but she hated being left alone in a small room.
.
She did so even though she knew that such behavior was uncomfortable for her subordinates.
Park Jung-ah, who was reviewing something while reading, raised her head to look at me.
“I’m going out for a minute.”
Park Jung-ah nodded and turned her eyes back to her file.
I didn’t say exactly where I was going.
I came out of the Order of Vigilance headquarters, being greeted by people on the way.
Each and every one of them asked me where I was going, so it took quite a while to get out.
I wasn’t even going out for any work-related issues.
d.a.m.n it. Is this really the place I work for?
They really are family friends.
I walked out of the headquarters and onto the quiet streets.
It was time for everyone to fall asleep, so no one was seen walking around.
Lee Hyung-jin only walked silently.
Was he always this quiet?
I remember him as a more chatty friend.
I don’t even know if I’m worried about something.
Walking down the street reminded me of the old days.
When I first created the Order of Vigilance and started this job.
Looking back now, it was amazing.
The Order of Vigilance began with Park Jung-ah’s determination to beat all criminals and give the death sentence to those who deserved it.
At that, I had said, “Uh. Yes,’ and thus, the Order of Vigilance formed.
Although I had played a part in forming the Order, objectively speaking at the time, it was highly likely that the Order would become another criminal group.
It had been like that for some time since its formation.
The fact that it was able to come all this way, meant that we tried our best to prevent it somehow and managed to reach our goal.
I soon reached the front of the square.
Rather than being on my way to meet my friend, I felt like I was going to either worship at a temple or shrine, or to even meet someone high up.
The stress made my steps heavy.
“Are you okay?”
d.a.m.n it.
Was it that obvious?
“I’m fine.”
There’s no way I can be alright.
I’m working myself to death.
If there was a way to end this f.u.c.king tournament any faster, I wanted to sell my soul and find out.
“Do you remember John Overtone?”