Hero Hunter is on Parental Leave C26

Chapter 26

Sayeong’s internal alarms blared like a disaster siren.

This was bad. Really bad.

Sensing a crisis on a catastrophic scale, he swallowed hard, pretending to adjust his mask.

He’d worked in this underground world for a long time—dealing with clients who had every kind of baggage imaginable—

but this was his first time facing Won Iheun in person, at arm’s length.

Strangely, the man’s flawless, impeccable face only amplified the terror.

It was too perfect. Too unreal. Too… inhuman.

But Sayeong was also the head of the Concealment Guild, a leader recognized even in the underworld.

He tried to straighten his posture, telling himself this was a guildmaster-to-guildmaster confrontation—equals.

Yet the instinctive hierarchy forced his shoulders to curl inward.

A top predator stood before him, radiating killing intent from the apex of the food chain.

“When they finish cleaning, let’s go pick up Jaehee.

I have some things I need to discuss with this guy.”

“…Him? You have something to talk to him about?”

“Oh, don’t misunderstand. I have a formal request for the guildmaster of Concealment Guild Garden.”

Even so, Yeongung’s suspicion didn’t fade.

Iheun gave a faint smile, released Yeongung’s waist, and gently brushed back his tousled hair.

“Huh… What the hell am I even looking at.”

Sayeong muttered unconsciously.

He had suffered like crazy erasing Yeongung’s mana traces—yet now he was watching this ludicrously sweet, picturesque scene.

He forgot entirely about the money Yeongung had paid him over the years.

All he felt now was betrayal—absurd, unreasonable betrayal—flooding up his throat.

As Yeongung requested help to disappear, Sayeong had naturally learned about his pregnancy and birth.

He had assumed Yeongung must be an alpha, so discovering he was an omega shocked him.

And realizing the alpha father of the child was the infamous Won Iheun?

Another shock.

A child born between Won Iheun and Yeongung?

And conceived before marriage?

If the public found out, it would be a scandal of the century.

Yeongung hadn’t explained everything, but even with limited information, Sayeong could tell their relationship wasn’t ordinary.

Otherwise, Yeongung wouldn’t have hidden himself so meticulously while heavily pregnant, avoiding the world like a ghost.

There was also the other accomplice: Lee Chahyeon, director of the awakened medical center and Yeongung’s childhood friend.

Chahyeon, having overheard a conversation, had realized—

Yeongung had been in a one-sided love with Won Iheun.

But the behavior in front of him now—

was nothing like one-sided.

While Sayeong was still trying to reconcile this shocking reality, Iheun’s eyes swept over Yeongung’s body with an unpleasantly dissatisfied look.

“…Are you on a diet? Your waist looks a size smaller than before.”

Then he placed both hands on Yeongung’s hips and said something so shameless it made even the air blush:

“You have a beautiful slender frame.

If you lose any more weight, I will be the one who suffers.”

Why would Iheun hurt if Yeongung lost weight?

Sayeong immediately imagined things he desperately did not want to imagine.

He shook his head violently to drive them out.

One moment Iheun was threatening him—

and the next, the two men were lost in their own soft, intimate bubble.

Inside his mask, Sayeong whispered the truth only he could hear:

“…How is this one-sided in any universe?”

No matter how he looked—upright, upside-down, sideways—

it was undeniably mutual.

Iheun opened his mouth to say more, but Sayeong rapidly fake-coughed to save himself from hearing unnecessary details.

“Khmm… khm, khhhmm!”

Begging them to stop, he coughed harder.

Only then did both men finally look at him.

Late to realize the intruding eraser’s presence, Yeongung’s face ignited red like firewood thrown into a blazing hearth.

“Won Iheun—shut up and get OUT of the convenience store. Right. Now.”

As if surrendering, Iheun raised both hands—and promptly dragged Sayeong outside.

“See you later, Jaehee.”

✦✦✦

Dangling—

Dragged by Iheun into an empty lot, Sayeong now hung upside-down from the thick trunk of a zelkova tree.

Iheun stood before him, arms folded.

“Master… are you secretly a bloodhound?”

Iheun stared at the upside-down eraser, who still somehow had the audacity to talk.

“Director Lee Chahyeon already told me everything.

You tracked Yeongung using the pheromone that got on Chahyeon.”

When he’d gotten that call from Chahyeon, he almost fainted.

That was why he rushed back to Muhaedo.

As part of the concealment request, Sayeong had focused entirely on erasing Yeongung’s mana traces—

making him untraceable anywhere in the nation.

He erased every digital residue through the system.

But he overlooked something.

Just like awakened individuals each had unique mana, trait-bearers each had unique pheromones.

Actually, “overlooked” wasn’t the right term.

Mana—rooted in the system—left persistent data wherever its owner stayed.

Only erasers and the system could remove this data.

That’s why mana tracking was the standard method for pursuing criminals.

But pheromone tracking?

Pheromones that disperse into the air and vanish?

Such a technique was unheard of even in the darkest underworld.

“S-Seriously… pheromone tracking? Is that even possible?”

The fact that Won Iheun found Yeongung by such a method deeply wounded Sayeong’s pride.

He had never once failed a request.

The beautiful man whispered his name.

“Sayeong.”

Then, with a smile, he kicked the suspended man hard in the stomach.

“Ghh—!”

Hanging upside-down for so long, all the blood had rushed to his head, and the kick nearly made him black out.

“Whether pheromone tracking is possible or not—it’s none of your business.”

He took a step forward.

“Two years.

It took me two years to finally see him again.”

Iheun looked down at Sayeong’s dark red, swollen face.

“Because of you.”

Wham—!

A mana-infused fist slammed into his abdomen again.

“…!”

The pain was so immense Sayeong couldn’t even scream.

“You like erasing things, don’t you?

I could erase you from this world just as easily.”

It wasn’t a threat.

It was a fact.

And the brutal sincerity in Iheun’s eyes made Sayeong tremble violently as he begged for his life.

“Spare—spare me, please…!”

Finally, Iheun loosened the rope tied to his ankles and said:

“I’ll make you a very reasonable offer.

And you will, of course, agree to it unconditionally.”

“Y-Yes! Anything! I’ll do anything!”

Kneeling on the sandy ground, groveling, Sayeong trembled.

Iheun’s satisfied smile spread.

✦✦✦

“Ap… bya…!”

Overjoyed about something at daycare, Jaehee patted his omega father’s cheeks with both hands.

“Ohhh my sweet boy.”

After finishing his convenience store shift, Yeongung picked up his child.

Just seeing Jaehee’s little antics washed away all his exhaustion.

Beep—

Father and son stepped inside the apartment.

“…Huh?”

The apartment—messy that morning—was now sparkling clean, brand new.

Yeongung rubbed his eyes in disbelief and checked the house number again.

“Wait… 303. This is our place. What, did a housework fairy drop by?”

Then the familiar smell of soybean paste stew wafted from the kitchen.

Turning his head, he froze.

Won Iheun stood there, shirtless, wearing an apron, tasting soup with a ladle.

“You’re home?”

As if perfectly natural, he was finishing up seasoning the broth.

On the table was an entire lavish feast.

“You made all this?

Weren’t you supposed to talk business with Sayeong?”

“Oh, we discussed everything beautifully.”

Ding—

A message alert popped up on Yeongung’s phone.

He checked his smartwatch—

And his eyes went wide.

“…What!?”

Hunter Bank

Deposit: 1,000,000,000,000 won

Sender: ‘I’m sorry’ → Into checking account (*)

Balance: 1,000,002,058,000 won**

It was money sent by Sayeong.

 

1,000,000,000,000 KRW ÷ 1,300 ≈ 769,230,769 USD

(1 USD ≈ 1,300 KRW)

 

Basically… almost a billion dollars LMAO

Sayeong really said: “My bad bro, here’s generational wealth.”