She did not raise her voice. She did not have to.
"How about we decide according to this world's rules," she said. "Let your level and equipment decide. The person with the highest combined combat strength leads. When someone surpasses them, leadership passes. No hard feelings."
Eyes moved to her and stayed. Han Ga-yoon's mouth thinned a fraction. Mira's brows lifted, then eased as if she liked the neatness of it.
Haeun continued, steady. "The head does not own anyone. The head coordinates when there is a crisis, mediates when our people collide, and sets joint priorities for hunts. We review the numbers on a fixed day each week. We keep it simple: compare the strongest combatant from each family, their current level, and their current set. If two are tied, leadership does not change until the tie breaks."
She turned to Han Do-chul. "It is simple enough to point to."
Han's cane stopped its small tap. "Simple enough indeed," he said, and a faint smile showed he approved of clear rules.
Yoon Seung-min nodded once, choosing to accept the frame instead of reaching for it. "The Yoon Group has Haeun at level five. If someone is higher, they should lead. If no one is, Haeun will carry the work until they are."
No hands rose. That was answer enough.
They moved through the rest in order. They wrote down what to do if a head showed clear favoritism or if a house felt isolated from shared hunts. And some other trivial stuff.
Once everything was agreed upon, something unknotted in the room. People let their shoulders drop. The air felt easier to breathe.
At one end, the men fell into the low rhythm of real-world deals even here. "If transport stays choked for two more weeks, our exports will pile up," Han Jae-min said to Seo Chang-ho, voice practical. "I want a lane to move our containers quickly."
"You will have one," Seo replied. "But when we call, you lift for our subcontractors as well."
"Done."
Numbers sat between them without a pen to write them down.
Across the room, the wives made their circle and spoke the small things that kept people steady.
"Your Regalia looks… very fitted," one said to Mira, shy and admiring. "Mine hangs like a curtain the wind hates."
"It suits you more than you think," Mira answered, and the woman's face brightened as if someone had handed her a tool that finally fit her hand.
Another leaned closer. "Does anyone get to choose colors? I feel like a basket of carrots."
She wrinkled her nose; everyone laughed in that soft way that makes laughter safe. Someone showed a hidden clasp in her mantle. Someone else asked if there would ever be a boutique in GFS, then caught herself and laughed again.
The young ones clustered. They talked faster and louder, buoyed by the way fear had somewhere to sit for an hour.
The younger ones clustered with the quick energy of people who needed to talk to keep fear quiet.
"What class did you get?"
"Epic," one said, grimacing. "I hate the look, but I am learning to make it work."
"Your boots look great," another replied. "What is your best drop so far?"
"Rare boots. My guards farmed them for me."
"I also got some warrior greaves and gloves. But they are useless to me. Show me yours; maybe we can trade."
They told damage stories and made each other a little braver by pretending to be braver than they were.
When it circled to Haeun, she kept it simple.
"I've been doing fine," she said. "Nothing too great."
Min-gyu's laugh was low and disbelieving. "Stop being modest," he said, half amused and half annoyed. He turned to the others and lifted his voice a little. "She's already killed an Epic."
Chairs knocked lightly against table legs. Heads snapped toward her. The twins leaned forward so far they nearly tipped.
"What?"
"No way."
Sera's eyes went wide. "You really killed an Epic?"
A small frown put itself on Haeun's face. "Who told you that?"
"Minjoo," he said, unbothered. "She was talking to my men about how great her miss is. I happened to be standing near and heard it."
She held her voice flat. 'I'll deal with her later,' she told herself, a smile tugging
Min-gyu opened his hand as if laying a card on the table. "And for what it is worth, I have seen her kill Rares in under ten minutes. With just her guard."
That set the circle on fire. Questions fell over each other.
"What tier class are you?"
"What skills do you have? Don't tell me you have one of those cheat skills?"
"Was it really you or was it your guard that did the work?"
Sera leaned in, palms hovering as if the item might appear in the air. "Can you show us an Epic piece? Please. Just one."
Haeun considered. She did not like showing off and liked keeping her cards secret, as secrets are only tools that have not been used yet. But Sera had asked, Min-gyu had already kicked the door open, and these were people she would have to work with.
She drew the bracers and the robe that matched them, set them on the table, and stepped back.
[Carmine Cuffs — Epic]
Magic Amplification: +40% (affects damage from Magic-tagged skills)
Cooldown Reduction: +8% (all skills)
+10 STR, +10 CON
Required Level: 5
(Mage)
Active — Oxheart: Double your STR and CON for 3.0 s.
Cooldown: 60 s.
Description: Lacquered carmine forearm guards veined like a heartbeat. When invoked, a low thrum runs under the skin and the metal warms.
[Carmine Ironhide Robe — Epic]
+60 Physical Defense, +15 All Elemental Resistances, +10 CON
Required Level: 5
(Mage/Warrior)
Description: A reinforced black under-robe sheathed in carmine panels at chest and flanks; flexible inner weave keeps the silhouette sleek while taking hits better than cloth has any right to.
"No fucking way"
"Forty percent magic amp," someone breathed. "My Rare is twenty-three and I bragged about it all the time."
"Forget that it even has an active skill."
"I'll buy the Robe," one of the young men said, in a rush. "Name the price. How about 500 mil?"
"It's not for sale," she said, and there was a brief, quick upward tug at the corner of her mouth that remembered a similar kind of conversation with another person.
"How did you kill it?" one twin asked, voice steadier now. "And how many people did it take to bring down an Epic?
Haeun considered lying, but then found no point in doing so.
'It's too much stuff to make up, and I will be introducing Loki to the alliance anyway.'
So she decided to tell the truth.
"Two people," she said.
The room tilted. Even Min-gyu's eyebrows climbed before he could stop them.
Ga-yoon let out a breath that could have been a laugh.
"Please. Be reasonable." Her tone stayed polite; the words did not. "Seven or eight of our guards struggle to hold a Rare stable, and we sometimes die multiple times. You want us to accept that you and one other killed an Epic?"
Haeun met her eyes. Her face stayed calm as she replied, "Believe it or not. It is what happened."
"Just the two of you killed it? What was the monster like?" Choi Min-jun asked. "What was the other person's class?"
"It was a Minotaur. The other person's class was...Assassin", said Haeun, hesitantly.
Now that Haeun said it out of her own mouth, even she was starting to doubt the story.
'It does kinda sound like a made-up story, huh, ' she thought.
Ga-yoon's mouth curved without warmth. "So a mage and an assassin took an Epic minotaur. Of course." She folded her arms. "If you want to impress the room, at least choose a story that does not step on its own feet."
Ga-yoon was feeling very good right now; she finally had a chance to mock Hauen.
'Finally, I can get back at this cold bitch for all those times I lost to her, ' she thought.
"She probably bought it off someone and is now flexing just to look good.", said Ga-yoon.
Sera's voice snapped before she could soften it. "Enough. Haeun doesn't lie. If she says she killed it, then she did it." Her eyes shone, a thin wetness at the rims
Ga-yoon folded her arms and tipped her chin. "Oh, very well. Miss Haeun, please go on and tell us how you did it. Do not skip the messy parts. We would all love the details."
Sera turned, cheeks pink. "Yes, Haeun. Tell it properly."
Haeun breathed out through her nose. In her head, she thought: I should have just lied. But out loud, she said, "Fine."
She began at the threshold of the dungeon. How the other guy moved ahead of her without speaking much, testing seams with the flat of his blade, how he would tank arrows that would have hit her. How he set a palm to her shoulder when she almost put weight where a slip would have meant a fall.
She told them about the boss chamber. The Minotaur that filled the floor with its shadow. The first exchange, when she thought she could stand at range and found out she could not. How he stepped between her and a horn that would have split her clean. How he made space for her to cast. How he dragged the monster away when it kept turning on her. She did not dress it up. She said it the way it happened.
Women drifted in from the edges without realizing it. Chairs scraped softly, then stilled. Faces tipped forward.
She kept going. The part where she made a mistake and saw it too late. The ground wrong under her feet. The boss already mid-charge. She had been sure, in that instant, that she would die. Her throat tightened again as she said it. "I thought that was it." But he crossed the gap first. took the hit she could not take.
The room shook. In the same breath, he stole the Minotaur's other eye so it turned blind, and then the opening was there for Haeun to finish it off. The system gave her the first-kill bonus, and her bar jumped straight to five.
Her heart thumped once, hard, as the memory passed through her. She looked up and realized everyone had gathered. Heat moved into her ears as she had revealed more than she intended to.
She set her hands flat on the table so they would not fidget.
Min-gyu's mouth was a straight line, the look in his eyes not kind. He had the exact sense that he and that man would not get along.
"Wow," Sera breathed, face warm, eyes bright as if she were seeing the scene with her.
Lee Sun-hee dabbed at the corners of her eyes with her sleeve. "It must have been terrifying in the moment he died, huh" she said, voice soft.
"It sounded very romantic. I would love to have a similar experience," said the other wife, glancing at her husband. Her husband coughed once and looked away too quickly.
Ga-yoon clicked her tongue, searching for a place to stand. "Are we seriously believing this story?"
"What more do you want?" Sera snapped.
But before the argument could continue, Mira spoke.
"There was too much detail in it to be made up on the spot. And if Haeun wanted to show off, she would not have downplayed her role, " she said, and let her eyes rest on Haeun in a way that read as simple approval.
"What was his name?" Sera asked, leaning forward, fingers laced. "You never told us."
Haeun drew a breath to answer.
Boots struck the threshold, and the room shifted as heads turned. Minjoo stood in the doorway.
"Miss Haeun," she said, clear enough for the hall. "Mr. Loki has arrived."
Every face swung to the entrance. The air felt like it held its breath.