Chapter 94 – The Source of the Leak

‘I knew he was a pushover, but to this extent…’

She was not disappointed.

She simply felt relieved that her good-natured brother had, albeit late, quit working as a Hunter and taken up farming.

“Let’s do this while eating. It’s already midday.”

Hee-na abruptly held out the egg sandwiches she had brought.

“Wow. Looks delicious!”

As Hee-won reached out to grab a sandwich with his soil-covered hands, she slapped the back of his hand and handed him a wet wipe.

“Wipe your hands first before eating.”

While her brother wiped his hands, Hee-na spread the picnic mat she had brought onto the sandy beach.

The scorching sun of the beach was quite stingy. However, as the cool sea breeze brushed past, even that felt refreshing.

‘W-What?’

Meanwhile, Won Deok-sam lost his words at the carefree picnic show being put on by the man and woman in front of him.

Above his head, a monster was shrieking ‘kwek-kwek’. And he was tied tightly to a chair after being beaten to a pulp.

What on earth was this boldness, leisurely spreading out a picnic mat and sharing sandwiches in this situation?

At least one thing was certain.

‘I messed with the wrong person!’

Won Deok-sam blamed himself for acting rashly without looking deeper into the situation just because the target looked like a civilian.

‘There’s no way someone associated with such mysterious peanuts could be ordinary!’

Indeed, no matter how ordinary the other party appeared, there was no telling what kind of abilities they might possess.

Won Deok-sam had seen countless such cases while working as an information broker.

‘To make such a fatal mistake even while knowing that… Even if I was going to kidnap them, I should have understood them more first.’

Was it because of the woman’s particularly harmless impression? Looking back, he seemed to have acted much more hastily than he thought, blinded by the quest. It was imprudent.

‘Aaagh! Why on earth did I do that?’

While Won Deok-sam was reflecting, reflecting, and reflecting again on his own foolish actions, the siblings Hee-na and Hee-won cleanly finished a sandwich.

“It’s really delicious.”

Hee-won took a large bite of his second sandwich.

Instead of touching the sandwiches further, Hee-na crunched on the washed cherry tomatoes.

“Indeed. It is delicious.”

As her stomach filled up, her stiff muscles seemed to relax a bit, and her mind eased.

It was the perfect state to interrogate someone.

“Excuse me, Mr. Kidnapper.”

Hee-na spoke toward Won Deok-sam.

He was observing the siblings while tied tightly to the chair. Hee-na also scanned him slowly.

Although he seemed to have an extremely terrifying impression when seen inside the dark warehouse, the man she faced in such bright daylight was merely an ordinary middle-aged man.

Perhaps due to his face being swollen from the beating by Baduk-i, he even looked somewhat pitiful at a glance. With mottled bruises rising here and there on his face, his appearance was a total mess.

“Hey. Answer me. You didn’t bite your tongue while getting beaten by Baduk-i, did you?”

“N-No, I didn’t.”

Won Deok-sam barely moved his swollen, beaten lips.

“Lady, I am sorry. I must have lost my mind for a moment. If you only spare my life, I will do anything.”

An apology was best delivered as a preemptive strike.

Won Deok-sam cringed as much as he could. He was a person who could throw away his dignity in the face of his life.

“It is a relief if you cooperate obediently… Where did you hear about the peanuts?”

Hee-na asked point-blank.

It seemed the reason this middle-aged man had approached and kidnapped Hee-na was indeed because of the peanuts. For that to happen, it meant information about Hee-won’s peanuts had leaked from the Blue Dragon Guild, and Hee-na wanted to find that hole and plug it completely.

“I knew the Blue Dragon Guild took measures to prevent information from leaking… I’m curious how an outsider found out about my brother’s peanuts.”

“That… I found out by chance after seeing a post uploaded on the Hunternet anonymous board.”

“The Hunternet anonymous board? What did it say? Was it a member of the Blue Dragon Guild? No, that can’t be.”

She was told that all the Hunters who purchased peanuts from Hee-na had sworn on a mana stone to keep the relevant information confidential.

‘But a post was uploaded on an anonymous board?’

It was impossible.

“The route I know is this. Someone uploaded the peanuts on the Hunternet trading board to distribute a small quantity, and a Hunter who purchased them uploaded a post testifying to the effects of the peanuts on the anonymous board.”

“So the person who posted on the anonymous board was not affiliated with the Blue Dragon Guild.”

“That is correct. In any case, other Hunters who purchased those peanuts also searched for the source, but rumors circulated that repurchase was impossible because all the seller’s posts and ID were deleted.”

“…Ah.”

Hearing up to this point, she felt she could roughly grasp the circumstances.

It seemed one of the Hunters who bought peanuts from Hee-na had quickly sold them off through Hunternet.

Afterward, when the guild enforced secrecy, they probably deleted all the posts and IDs that could serve as evidence.

“Seeing that, I thought I could make a tidy sum of money if I found out the source of the peanuts. Digging backward, you came up.”

Hee-na held her throbbing head.

“Then does that mean other people could also come looking for me because of the peanuts?”

She had barely escaped after being helplessly kidnapped, yet this was not the end but the beginning…

Seeing Hee-na’s troubled expression, Won Deok-sam hurriedly shook his head.

“No, no. I am a special case. It was only because I directly handle information that I was able to trace it this far.”

“What do you mean you directly handle information?”

He licked his swollen, bursting lips.

“I am an information broker whose skills are counted among the best in Asia.”

“An information broker?”

She knew that the occupation of an information broker existed. They were literally those who handled information and received money in exchange for tracking it.

‘I thought my brother’s peanuts held great value, but I never expected even an information broker to pounce…’

Hee-na trembled slightly at the chilling realization.

The thing she had worried about all this time had finally happened. Someone coveting the abilities of the Hee-na siblings had appeared.

Hee-na tugged on Hee-won’s sleeve.

“Brother, what do we do? We’re in big trouble.”

“Hey, hey. Calm down. What is there to fear when the Blue Dragon Guild is behind us? Yesterday was just bad luck, but we can just be more careful from now on.”

Hee-won tapped the shoulder of the tense Hee-na. Then he added.

“If worst comes to worst, let’s explain the situation to the Guild Leader and request personal protection. Honestly, both you and I have abilities that can receive pretty good treatment. Of course, a peaceful life like we have now would be out the window.”

He sounded easygoing, but he was subtly rational. Thanks to that, Hee-na was able to calm her mind again.

As the saying goes, ‘two heads are better than one,’ even having her powerless brother stay with her was a help.

“If you just let me live in one piece, I won’t disclose this information to anyone. I can also take measures to ensure no additional information is leaked.”

Won Deok-sam quickly clung on after hearing the siblings’ conversation.

He claimed that because he was no ordinary information broker, he could promise security work far more thorough than the Blue Dragon Guild’s, and could prevent accidents in advance by identifying the person the moment anyone tried to dig up the siblings’ information.

Hee-na looked at Won Deok-sam with a slightly suspicious expression.

‘Is that mister really such a great person?’

Sensing that look, Won Deok-sam hurriedly added.

Perhaps the flying monster cawing loudly overhead made him feel rushed.

“Actually, I am Mr. Won!”

“…What is that?”

“You don’t know Mr. Won?”

Won Deok-sam blinked with an extremely shocked expression.

‘She doesn’t know me?’

In the Hunter world, the name ‘Mr. Won’ was highly famous. It was accepted as fact that most domestic and foreign information passed through ‘Mr. Won’.

He held that tight a grip on the Asian Hunter world.

Mr. Won’s identity was also shrouded in a veil. Fitting for someone who handled information, he had subtly distorted any information about himself.

The only known detail was the fact that his gender was male.

Meanwhile, Won Deok-sam was greatly shocked by Hee-na’s lukewarm reaction.

Even though he had exposed both his face and identity in a life-or-death crisis, to get a look that said, ‘What is that?’!

His pride was deeply wounded, wondering if this was all his fame amounted to.

“Mr. Won is one of the extremely famous information brokers worldwide! He is especially famous for having a tight grip on information in Asia!”

He unable to hold back, he sang his own praises.

Hee-won, who had finished off another sandwich, also agreed with that opinion.

“That’s right. Mr. Won is a very famous information broker.”

Won Deok-sam leaned forward with great delight.

“As expected! You know!”

However, one had to listen to what someone had to say until the end.

“But on what grounds should we believe that you and Mr. Won are the same person?”

Hee-won doubted Won Deok-sam’s identity. Hee-na also agreed with her brother’s words.

“That’s right. For such a grand information broker to kidnap someone close to a civilian just for a single peanut? That makes no sense.”

The Homemaker of the Dungeon