Chapter Text
The rain is coming down in sheets, plastering Jisung’s hair to his skull, even beneath the hood of the signature red Hunter cloak he’s wearing. It’s also cold. Not only that, he and his partner, Minho, are just about to see something he’s been dreading the past week they’ve been riding.
“I can’t tell which I hate more,” Jisung says waspishly to Minho as the pair ride into view of New Silla, the next town on their patrol route. “The rain, or the fact that we’re going to have to go into that city.” Jisung squints at the walls of the bustling trade city on the road just ahead of them, the rain running rivulets down his scalp and neck.
Minho sighs. “We’ve been on the road for a week, and the last bed I slept in was basically an old sheet covering a handful of hay in that village where we Hunted the Kessel, so despite your strong misgivings for large cities… I for one welcome the sight and the thought of being able to sleep at the Hunters’ Castle tonight.”
“I know, I know. And we haven’t had the chance to send riders back to HQ with reports because we haven’t encountered a rider outpost in… two months? It’s time we send back some communication before they report us for dead.” Jisung tries to count back how long it’s been since they had left the major travelling roads to wander down the smaller circuits, but he loses track about three weeks ago.
Unlike Resident Hunters who stay in one place, Itinerants like Jisung and Minho move around the country instead, patrolling and bringing information from the capital to even the farthest reaches of the land. The smaller towns especially are where their help as Hunters is more likely needed, but it also means they’re removed from the Hunters’ Network for the most part, a troublesome problem for Hunters who need to trade information to do their job.
A warm bed, less travelling, a roof over their heads… It’s undeniable that being a Resident Hunter in a city has its benefits. Nonetheless, for all the comfortable trappings of an urban environment, Jisung still hates cities.
---➹𓃦➷---
The city is quiet for a well-known trade hub, but it’s understandable that the merchants would close their shops when the rain is so heavy. The major streets are so deserted even the rats seemed to be hiding somewhere. Hopefully drier than I am, Minho thinks sourly. Following some instructions from the city gate guards they barely hear over the pouring rain, the Hunters trudge through the mud and wet in squelchy boots towards the New Silla branch office of the Hunters.
Before long, they arrive at the address given to them by the guards.
“This is the New Silla Hunters’ Castle?” Minho says with some distaste as his gaze drifts over the old, greying stone and wood building that sits awkwardly in a relatively well-to-do part of New Silla. The “Castle” is a fanciful -- and in Minho’s opinion, slightly embarrassing -- way of referring to any of the Hunters’ outposts and lodgings across the continent. In their years of outriding, Jisung and Minho have stayed in Castles of all shapes and sizes; from an actual castle building in the capital city, to tiny three-man waystations in a remote mountainous region.
The New Silla version of the Castle isn’t on the verge of collapse, but it’s obvious there’s been very little upkeep on the exterior. Minho hopes that the insides of the Castle are not as bad as the outside, but after a week on the road and no sign of the rain stopping, he has really no choice but to accept whatever conditions the Castle can offer him for the evening. Nothing can be worse than what the innkeeper had called a “mattress” in the previous village anyway.
His fears are allayed as Jisung pushes the door open. A cosy fire roars in the open lobby, pushing back the bitter cold the pouring rain brings. Fat, mismatched armchairs and couches are pushed haphazardly around in groups, with colourful rugs adding a splash of warmth to the stone walls. Overall, the place looks welcoming, if a little worn. Minho tries not to notice some of the threadbare parts of the furnishings.
The only person in the room looks up at Minho and Jisung from behind the large reception desk. He stands up, recognising their red, if soaking, cloaks immediately. “Hunters? Thank the gods, we’ve been asking HQ for backup for months!” He exclaims, coming out from behind the desk.
Alarmed, Jisung holds up his hands, “Wait, hang on- we’re not-” but Minho, ever the workaholic, was now eagerly pushing forward, eyes sparkling. “What’s going on, what do you need help with?”
Fortunately for Jisung, the man manages to collect himself instead of instantly sending them out onto another mission. “No, I apologise. You two are fresh off the road, whatever our problems are can wait another evening at least. I’m Seungmin, and I’m the Resident Scribe at the New Silla Hunters’ Castle.”
“I’m Jisung, and this scowly baby here is Minho.” Jisung offers his hand to the taller man with a wry smile. “Forgive his face, he only has work on his mind and forgets that just like the rest of us, he too needs to eat and rest.”
Seungmin grins. “One of those, eh? Wish we had more Hunters like him at this Castle.”
“Excuse you?! We work plenty hard!” A new voice calls out from the front door as two other Hunters come in, dripping from the rain. They’re an odd pair to Minho; one tall, lanky with beautiful, refined features, the other muscular and bulky, the smile on his face quirked up on one side wryly. By that smile, he must have been the one protesting Seungmin’s quip.
Seungmin looks past Minho and Jisung to the newcomers with a welcoming smile of his own. “Well, with what few people we have here, it’s not like you have much choice in how little you rest anyway.” Seungmin quickly introduces Minho and Jisung and turns to the two. “These are Hyunjin,” he says, first gesturing to the taller, “And Changbin.”
Hyunjin looks them over, nods briefly in greeting and sweeps past them to go up the large stairs. “Dinner for you, Hyunnie?” Seungmin calls after Hyunjin, who pokes his head over the bannister and again nods silently before scampering up. Minho and Jisung look at each other, unsure how to react to the seeming rudeness. Seungmin manages to catch their uneasiness and smiles reassuringly, “Don’t worry about Hyunjin, he needs a bit of time to warm up to new people, even if they’re Hunters too.”
“But well, they came in at the right time- with that, you’ve pretty much met all the Hunter residents at the Castle. No visitors right now too.” Minho detects the strain behind Seungmin’s voice. Two Hunters and a Scribe? Just three for a large town like this?
“Let’s put you two up in the guest rooms, and dinner is usually at eight, if you’d like to join us.” Seungmin gestures towards the stairs.
“We’d love to,” Jisung says before Minho can say anything further, a warning hand on Minho’s wrist. “Sure,” Minho agrees, biting back any questions he has about the Castle.
---➹𓃦➷---
To Minho’s credit, he manages to wait until Jisung is warm from a bath and freshly changed before he rounds on him. “What do you think is happening here?” Minho asks, rubbing his chin speculatively.
“What do you mean?”
“Why do you think such a big trading city like New Silla only has three residents? The Castle here is large enough to hold at least five more, you saw the rooms on the way here. And why do you think it’s so worn-out? It can’t be that Headquarters isn’t supporting this branch, can it?”
Jisung shrugs. “Does it have to be a sinister reason? Maybe it’s just peaceful enough that the other Residents were transferred out, or that there are enough outposts nearby enough to support the three here if necessary? Not everyone likes to stay in the city.” He points to himself as a reminder.
Minho rolls his eyes, “Is your brain too cold to work? Did you not hear the Scribe say they’ve been asking HQ for backup? For months? Did you not notice that the two Hunters are bone tired? They look almost as tired as us, and they’re Residents at a Castle! And according to our map, the nearest outpost to New Silla is two days’ ride away, definitely not near enough for emergencies.”
“You are so nosy, Lee Minho. What do you think then?”
Minho thinks. “Beast Clan,” He says decisively. “And a powerful one.”
Jisung snorts. “Yeah right, they’re just understaffed.”
Minho just smiles serenely. “Bet you two silver coins.”
---➹𓃦➷---
Jisung is trying very hard not to give Minho any attention, but from the corner of his eyes, he can see Minho’s large, self-satisfied smile. Gods, I’m not going to hear the end of this. Ever.
“Oh please,” Minho says in what Jisung recognises as his smug, truimphant voice. “Tell us more about this Werewolf clan.” He holds out his open palm to Jisung without looking at him, and wiggles his fingers. Jisung just slaps down on his hand in response.
The Hunters are gathered around a large round table in the dining area; a spread of delicious meats and greens laid out before them as they share the meal family-style. Jisung and Minho aren’t used to such riches after months on the road, but they appreciate the hospitality of the Castle.
Seungmin shakes his head as he pushes his dinner around. “What can I say? They’re a Werewolf clan, and one of the biggest and most powerful ones in all of this country. The pack is led by one of the First Wolves, he just goes by JY Park or JYP. The pack… has a lot of influence in New Silla.”
Jisung looks up from his food with some interest. All Werewolves in the world can trace their origins back to the First Wolves, who in turn were created by a sorcerer hundreds of years ago. They were meant to be his personal pack of guard dogs, but the foolish sorcerer did not account for the fierce independence and intelligence of these creations, and before long, they had turned against their former master. Once they achieved their freedom, the First pack scattered across the lands to grow their families and mark their own territories. To be so close to a key part of magical history intrigued Jisung.
“The pack is an organised crime syndicate,” Changbin spits, “We just don’t have the evidence to shut them down for good yet. And you know Werewolves. They’ll just set up somewhere else and repeat the whole damn thing.”
“That doesn’t explain why you’re only three in here.” Jisung says bluntly.
“The pack is trying to pressure us into giving up this town,” a new voice says. Minho and Jisung turn their heads to Hyunjin, who flushes under their attention. “Well, they’re not getting it, not while the three of us are here.”
“How are they pressuring you?” Minho asks.
Hyunjin’s face takes on a sour expression. “For one, they’re driving the wild monsters out of the forest into town outskirts. But with only two Hunters, we can’t trap or clear them as fast as we should be able to, so the wolves take over the hunt and the townspeople support them for keeping them safe while thinking we aren’t doing our jobs.”
“There’s a lot of crime just lurking under the surface here too, something darker than just petty crimes which the local police can take care of easily,” Seungmin adds. “The biggest problem right now is the distribution of the drug Viridis. We have a sense of where it’s coming from, but on top of all the other things, we’re just too short-staffed to get the hard evidence. And as for the other Residents that used to be here…” Seungmin trails off.
“Killed in ‘accidents’,” Changbin does the air quotes with a sneer, “or asked for a transfer in fear.”
“We think they’re intercepting our communications too,” Seungmin says thoughtfully. “Especially since you say that you’re Itinerant Hunters, and that you hadn’t been assigned here. We just can’t decisively prove anything that will allow us to break the Beast Clan-Hunter Treaty.”
The Beast Clan-Hunter Treaty was an agreement drawn up many years before, in the aftermath of the bloody Samguk Wars that ended in an uneasy truce between Humans and the intelligent beasts. The term “Beast Clan” was coined for the Treaty, used to define the sophisticated and human-like “monsters” such as Werewolves and Vampires who often formed their own communities separate from Humans. The Treaty guaranteed that such Beast Clans would no longer be molested by human communities without acceptable reasons. On the other hand, more animalistic monsters, such as basilisks and ghouls, were generally regarded as dangerous pests that needed to be exterminated. Thus the Hunter Society was created - an inclusive group trained in monster lore and combat, specialising in hunting wild monsters before they could harm Human or Beast Clan society. By the law of the Treaty, Hunters served both Human and Beast Clan society, and could harm neither without sufficient reason.
Today, Beast Clans and Humans have a relatively close relationship, with many Beast Clan societies living closely and running trading relationships with Human cities and villages. Occasionally, a Beast Clan might even have significant influence over a city, with the Beast Clan Elders sitting on City Councils. The role of Hunters too had evolved; while Hunters still ensured the safety of the region with actual hunting, more often than not, their job was to support the local police as special investigators and to act as politically-neutral mediators between Human and Beast Clans as needed. In addition, they had a hidden, bloody role. They acted as executioners for any Human or Beast Clan who stepped out of line of the Treaty.
“What’s your story then?” Changbin asks the travellers, “We’ve already reported our situation here, so we should hear from you.”
Jisung shrugs, “Nothing special about us. We’re just your regular travelling Hunters, we’ve just been out of the loop and probably off any Hunter grapevines because we like Hunting out of the major routes. This is the first major city we’ve entered in maybe half a year? Actually, we have a few reports to drop off.”
“Oh?” Seungmin looks interested. “Hunted anything nearby recently? We’ve got our hands full here so we rarely travel out of the city vicinity to see if we can help our smaller neighbours. Would be good to keep track of wild Beasts nearby nonetheless.”
Minho thinks, “There was a Kessel we managed to Hunt down near a tiny village about a week out from here. I think it was called…”
Before he can recall the name of the village however, Hyunjin’s and Changbin’s heads whip to Minho. “You two took down a Kessel? Just the two of you alone?” Hyunjin asks incredulously.
“Actually Minho got it alone because I was dead asleep and refused to get up when he tried to wake me up,” Jisung admits sheepishly.
“You… managed to take down a Kessel, a large Beast with mind control powers… by yourself? A Kessel -- an aggressive, man-eating, wild Beast that usually takes a party of five to trap and kill.” Hyunjin stands, staring straight at Minho in disbelief. “How?”
“It wasn’t quite as spectacular or difficult as you think,” Minho said nonchalantly while trying to brush off the looks of reverence the other Residents were giving him. “This was already five days into the Hunt; we had already lured it to lair at a spot that we had prepared. it was well-fed, it felt safe so it was torpid. Jisung and I had been camping there for the past three days, so scent-wise, it was like we were part of the forest already. So with it lethargic and unable to smell us out, all it took was me to throw in an ice bomb to bring down the temperature even further to freeze it momentarily, then I shot out its eyes before it could open them and do the mind-control thing, then another arrow into its throat and then its heart when it flopped over. And done. Just good timing.”
Hyunjin and Changbin stare at him, slack-jawed in shock.
“It’s just a wild Beast with animal instincts, those are easily taken care of,” Minho continues into the silence. “The really dangerous ones are the ones who can think like humans.”
He pauses again. “And humans themselves, of course.” he adds thoughtfully.
Seungmin looks over the two of them again, with understanding dawning in his eyes. “You’re Han Jisung,” He addresses them in a slightly strangled voice, “And Lee Minho.”
“That’s us,” Jisung says around a mouthful of food, “By the way, this is delicious, was this made by your housekeeper? She’s so good, where did she learn how to do this?”
“You’re, you’re legends!” Changbin exclaims, ignoring Jisung’s attempt to change the subject. “Your tales are all over the Bulletins, of how just the two of you can take down Beasts that typically need entire parties of Hunters! You two only accept Hunts that others have failed at! And we’ve heard all the rumours, about how all the Beast Clans fear you and avoid having to deal with you because of your fierce reputation, because you seem to understand beasts better than anyone else!”
Changbin pushes his plate of food away from him, slapping the table excitedly. “You’re exactly what we need to get the Werewolf Clan out of here!”
“It’s all just good timing,” Minho repeats, refusing to say anymore, and his expression turning dark. The Residents exchange looks before they finish their dinner in awkward silence.
---➹𓃦➷---