"Ah ah!! Look at you hyungnim looking like a person for the first time." Min-ho complimented with a smug face, he was after all the one that dressed Raith who had a meeting with the association chairman and Mr. Mok Jun-Seo personally told him to wear a suit because they might not be able to fend off the reporters.
It was supposed to be some sort of 'Incase if it does not happen the way we want' kind of thing.
The association car was waiting for Raith behind the door.
Raith stepped out of the ironic grand entrance of the ruined back wall, his polished black leather shoes clicking against the crumbles on the floor. He straightened his charcoal gray three-piece suit, adjusting the tie in a confident gesture as he walked towards the sleek black car parked in front.
The midday sun shone down on his chiseled features, highlighting the sharp jawline and cold heterochromia eyes that seemed to pierce through anyone who met his gaze. His dark hair was styled with a neat side part, and he had a hint of stubble on his chin, giving him a rugged charm.
As he approached the car, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of black leather gloves, sliding them on with practiced ease. He opened the back door of the car and slid inside, settling himself onto the plush leather seat.
His presence seemed to fill the vehicle, his confident demeanor and impeccable dress sense making him appear larger than life. As he adjusted the cuffs of his jacket, the car pulled away, leaving a trail of dust in its wake.
Absalom and Min-ho watched the back of the car go farther and farther away.
"Oh, did you see Hyungnim... he was so handsome."
Absalom looked at Min-ho with a raised brow, "..."
Min-ho returned the gaze, but with an inquisitive one, "What?" He asked as the red-haired demon's gaze wouldn't leave him.
"Do you like Raith or something?" He asked, smacking his lips in an irritated manner, as though he had just taken a bitter drug.
"No! No way!! Not in that way!!" Min-ho refuted this strongly.
"Good...good, because of the way you were just looking now..." Absalom mumbled nodding his head but giving Min-ho one last scrutinizing gaze before stepping back inside.
***
***
***
As Raith's car arrived at the front of the association, just as predicted, the reporters swam around them like a flick of ducks, but thanks to the association agents that all surrounded Raith who wore dark shades to prevent his face from appearing unnecessarily on camera and because of his the continual flash of cameras.
Left to him, it meant nothing, but agent Jong-Su who had come to pick him up insisted that he wore it.
They were beginning to find it very hard to create a distance for him amidst the crowd, they were just too persistent.
"Hunter Raith, what do you have to say to Korea as her first Catastrophe rank hunter?"
"Hunter Raven some people question your origin because of your name, will you like an interview to clear these doubts."
"Hunter Raven we are from The Maesung dailies, we would like to have an interview with you, please we are willing to pay you for your TV time."
"Hunter Raven! We will pay you too!!"
Hearing that he will be paid did waver Raith a bit, but the association agents guiding him forward and still trying to pave a way through the crowd did not give him the liberty and luxury to be selfish and so...
'...air leap'
His use of [Air Leap] had even gotten better. He soared into the sky with just a subtle jump– flipped and landed right in front of the revolving glass door of the association building.
All of them paused and were dazed.
Then they remembered 'He is a catastrophe rank hunter'
They all flooded towards him but he entered quickly and closed the door. The agents around immediately lined up in front of the door with their hands behind their backs and their faces rigid. The reporters seeing this, clicked their tongues and caused while some of them went around, they didn't mind how long it would take, they were ready to wait for the time Raith would come back outside.
(Inside The Association)
Raith was seated before Chairman Mok Jun-Seo, with a table between them. Chairman Mok Jun-Seo brought out the papers in the brown file in his hands and dropped them on the table, shifting them to Raith.
"We've dug more than enough, DNA matches, searching your family name, searching the name Raven Raith, or even your unique eye color. Sure there are some people who share the same kind of condition but none of them were able to match your DNA... who are you, Hunter Raven."
Raith at this point, loosed the single button of the suit jacket and leaned back. He looked down, the overgrown bangs of his jet-black hair covering the look on his eyes as he seemed to be lost in thought for a moment.
"Hunter Raven?" Chairman Mok Jun-Seo was getting worried due to Raith's composure.
"Chairman Moth..."
"It's actually Mok, Mok Jun-Seo..." He corrected him.
Raith's gaze after he corrected him made him gulp and say, "...it's fine. You can continue."
"Can I trust you?"
"Of course, that is one thing I wish for so much. I want there to be trust between us." He replied to Raith.
"Can I... truly trust you?" Raith repeated.
"I will do anything to show you that I can never betray your trust."
Raith squinted his eyes. '...well, why am I worried. I can just kill him if telling him jeopardizes anything in any way. Or if he decides to tell the rest of the world that I am crazy. I can kill him and kill the people he tells and turn them into my soldiers.'
Raith heaved a sigh and started, "I am not from your world..."
Chairman Mok Jun-Seo's brow furrowed. "...is this about some multiverse existence..."
"I wouldn't say exactly that for now. But there is a world called Therut and there are humans just like you all living there... although there are also demihumans such as elves, dwarfs, and beast-folks..."
Chairman Mok Jun-Seo leaned backward to take this in. "You mean like elves? The one we often see in fantasy books and movies?"
Raith tilted his head, "See in fantasy books?" Something was not right here.
"Yes... several books around the world tell stories of these creatures, but they are popularly regarded as fairytales, even today that the impossible has been possible, we have never seen anything like that which never made us acknowledge the existence of those fairytale creatures."
'...no, something is wrong here. If I am right by all logic, the existence of the demihumans should not be known to any other world, except ours– something is not adding up... how is are a creation that is supposed to be exclusive to Therut because of the archons known in this world?' Raith's mind was in turmoil, there were so many parts to this crazy puzzle and none of these parts were coming together.
He narrowed his gaze, '...perhaps I have to go to Felfhiem sooner than I expect...' He said in his mind as he looked down at the paper on the table.
"What is this?" He asked, picking it up to his picture and his name.
"We made you a citizen of our country."
"Uh?"
"Your name is registered with this country. You can always consider this place your permanent home. And so with this, you can do anything you want, have your driver's license, your car, passport, and anything. You are just like every other human on this earth." The chairman explained to him.
Raith's eyes for unknown reasons got squirmy.
"Eh? Hunter Raith. I'm sorry if I have said anything inappropriate–
Before he knew it Raith wiped off from his face, the tears that were running down.
Chairman Mok Jun-Seo went silent and watched him. He didn't know what caused Raith's sudden vulnerability but in some way, he felt the privilege to witness a breaking moment of Korea's strongest hunter.
After Raith had wiped the tears off his face, his head stayed bowed and he didn't raise it until after a few minutes.
"...I'm sorry...for showing you that. I have never really had citizenship anywhere before... or been welcomed like this."
"You had a home in your world right?"
Raith scoffed, "I was rejected for being a failure."
"What? You Hunter Raith no failure!" Chairman Mok Jun-Seo refuted those words loudly.
Raith chuckled, from his perspective, it was cute how the association chairman was standing up for him. "I am a failure... but it is different this time..." He narrowed his gaze with a smirk before he continued, ".
..being a failure is the reason why I have come this far. Bound for the path of failure but equipped with the power to turn that failure into my strength."
Raith for the first time sparkled before the chairman's eyes, as he suddenly began to see him in a way he had never thought he could.
'...perhaps, he is more amazing than I even thought.'
