Chapter 60
As promised, Jina agreed to become the shield of Kang Hyun-jun and Wraith Guild. With that, he had gained the power of a top-tier guild group. They still had no official guild of their own and had only recently entered the guild business, but under Jina’s command, they seemed to have quietly secured a considerable hunter force. Now that he had earned a reliable ally, he could be at ease for the time being.
They used the vehicle Jina had provided for the return trip as well. On the way back to the guild office, Hyun-jun felt both hands trembling faintly in his lap.
This is an early-stage symptom of mana exhaustion.
It had been a technique with enough destructive power to shatter Absolute Shield, one of the most formidable defensive barrier spells, in a single blow. But the amount of mana consumed to create and maintain that massive Aura Blade was far too extreme.
I’ll have to keep this as a trump card.
It was not a technique he could use often.
“We’ve arrived.”
At the driver’s announcement, Hyun-jun stepped out of the vehicle and found himself in front of the Wraith Guild office. He took the elevator up to the third floor. The intelligence division’s office was on the third floor. Since it was a secretive department with plenty of outside work, there was not much in the internal office, but they had furnished it enough to give the place some shape.
“Is the head of intelligence here?”
As soon as Hyun-jun entered the office, he looked for Ha Jong-seo first. He had something to discuss regarding Ju Hye-ri.
“Guild Leader, you’re here?”
Jong-seo, who had been seated and working, stood and greeted him. Hyun-jun quickly swept his gaze around the room, then spoke.
“Come to the guild leader’s office. I have something to say.”
“Understood.”
After nodding, Jong-seo left through the door Hyun-jun had opened and gone through. By then, Hyun-jun had already headed for the stairs. Jong-seo hurried after him, and before long the two of them arrived at the guild leader’s office on the fourth floor. After confirming that Jong-seo had closed the door behind him, Hyun-jun opened his mouth with a calm expression.
“Has there been no contact from the Archdemon’s side?”
“Actually, there was something I needed to report. The Archdemon Guild sent a message through an unofficial route. They wanted only the guild leader to read it, so we couldn’t inspect it ourselves.”
“Show me.”
At Hyun-jun’s words, Jong-seo pulled something from inside his jacket. Hearing that it was a message, Hyun-jun had expected an email or something similar, but it was in fact a sealed envelope with wax, the sort of thing one might have used in the Middle Ages.
“That’s unusual.”
It was his honest impression.
“They say there’s nothing like a harmful spell or device on it.”
“Who checked it?”
“Lee Gyu-hwan, the team leader of Execution Unit One.”
Recently, Gyu-hwan had been settling into Wraith Guild after joining, and he had been working diligently. Of course, all of it could still be an act, but with his weakness being his younger sister, Gyu-hwan would not be able to betray them easily. Expecting unconditional loyalty like Tae-min’s would be difficult, but even this much made him a more than excellent chess piece.
“If it was Team Leader Lee Gyu-hwan, then I can trust it.”
With a brief murmur, Hyun-jun broke the wax seal and opened the envelope. Inside was a single sheet of paper covered densely with writing. He unfolded it and read.
It did not take even five minutes. When he finished reading it in full, Hyun-jun burned the paper with a face darkened by disgust.
“To put it simply, they know full well that we’re holding Ju Hye-ri captive, and they’re telling us to release her in her ‘unharmed’ state if we don’t want to see bloodshed.”
“The Archdemon Guild Leader is said to have a disgusting personality, but the letter is more polite than I expected.”
“There were a lot of insults written in it. I toned them down a little. He also asked after my parents’ well-being.”
He had tried to speak calmly, but anger naturally bled through his voice. Asking an orphan after his parents was a mistake, and they would have to be prepared to pay for it.
“I need to go to Ju Hye-ri right away.”
“I’ll guide you.”
Hyun-jun went down to the underground parking garage with Jong-seo. A vehicle was waiting there.
“I’ll drive. You go back up and handle the work.”
“Understood.”
Jong-seo sent the intelligence division employee who had prepared the vehicle back upstairs, then opened the rear door. After Hyun-jun got in and the door closed, Jong-seo climbed into the driver’s seat as well.
“We’ll arrive within thirty minutes.”
Leaving from the underground parking garage of the Wraith Guild office, the vehicle carrying the two of them soon headed out toward the sparsely inhabited outskirts. After another ten minutes or so, it arrived in front of a small, crumbling warehouse.
“Is Ju Hye-ri in here?”
“The warehouse is just a front. The main facility is underground.”
At Jong-seo’s explanation, Hyun-jun felt relieved.
“I’ll guide you.”
When they went inside, two men in shabby clothes stood and bowed. Despite their appearance as laborers, he could feel a formidable amount of mana restrained within their bodies.
“They’re hunters from our Execution Unit. We changed them into clothes appropriate for the location on purpose.”
At the report, Hyun-jun nodded with satisfaction. As expected of someone Tae-min kept close, he handled his work with meticulous care.
“This way.”
Jong-seo led Hyun-jun to a corner of the warehouse. After moving several stacked boxes aside, a passage leading underground appeared. They climbed down the connected ladder, and several men in black suits rushed over and bowed.
“Guild Leader, you’re here?”
“Is this Team Three’s duty today?”
Instead of Hyun-jun, who was looking around, Jong-seo asked the question.
“Yes. I’m in charge today.”
The team leader of Team Three nodded in reply. Hyun-jun, whose attention had briefly been drawn away by the atmosphere and appearance of what felt like an underground bunker, soon regained his calm and spoke.
“Where is Ju Hye-ri?”
“I’ll take you.”
They walked down the corridor for a short while. The Team Three leader, who had been guiding them, stopped and opened a small iron door on the left. Inside was a place that looked like an isolation ward.
Ju Hye-ri was bound on an old iron bed, wearing mana restraints. Her left arm was still severed.
“We decided there was no need to attach it.”
When Hyun-jun shot him a look that seemed to demand an explanation, Jong-seo spoke up. Well, what would she do with her left arm now? For the moment, Ju Hye-ri and the Archdemon Guild Leader should be grateful they had not been killed.
“Wake her up first.”
“Understood.”
“Kyyaaaah!”
A magic-type hunter used shock magic to wake Ju Hye-ri. It was crude, but effective.
“W-What is this? Do you know who I am? Take these off right now!”
The moment she opened her eyes, Ju Hye-ri tried to draw on her mana, only to realize belatedly that she was wearing mana restraints. She screamed, thrashing as if in a frenzy. Hyun-jun walked toward her. The dim light stripped away the shadows clinging to his face.
“You know exactly who you are, so shut up.”
“Y-You... you...!”
Killing intent spilled from Ju Hye-ri’s eyes. But there was nothing she could do. The helplessness that followed made her bite down on her lip hard enough to draw blood, yet nothing changed, and her resentment only deepened.
“Tch!”
With no means of resistance, Ju Hye-ri’s pathetic attempt at provocation was to spit at him. Even that did not go her way. The blood-tinged saliva never reached Hyun-jun, blocked instead by Jong-seo’s palm.
“Looks like you still haven’t come to your senses.”
“Yeah? You think I’d ever submit to some bastard like you? Is that really what you thought?”
“Submit...”
Hyun-jun lifted the corner of his mouth and moved to stand beside Ju Hye-ri. She tried to harden her resolve, but the atmosphere around him was so chillingly cold that she found herself swallowing dryly before she knew it, her body tensing.
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of doing that.”
“Really? Then you’re planning to kill me? My guild leader brother won’t sit still for that.”
He already knew that the Archdemon Guild Leader, Joo Hyeong-geun, and Vice Guild Leader Ju Hye-ri were siblings. So her threat did not work. There was no reason for him to be afraid.
“I don’t plan to kill you either.”
“Th-Then, are you saying my...”
“Not interested.”
Hyun-jun’s answer was firm. His gaze settled on Ju Hye-ri. Feeling it, Ju Hye-ri thought she now understood what it felt like to be a herbivore facing a predator.
I-I’m going to die... That killing intent is terrifying...
Cold sweat seemed to be running down her back.
“What, then? You’re planning to torture me?”
“Don’t reduce it to that cheap word. I’m simply...”
The air itself seemed to freeze at the coldness in his voice.
“Going to teach you what ‘fear’ is.”
“I-I had nothing personal in this!”
“I do.”
Before long, a small needle appeared in his hand.
Pierce and dangerous cooperation have begun. While you are with him, pain is under your control.
Dangerous cooperation had begun again.
*
“Executive Manager? You’ve already been discharged?”
A hunter from the Execution Unit asked in surprise when he saw Tae-min, who had come into the office for the first time in a while. He had heard that Tae-min had suffered a fatal wound, so recovery would take quite some time, and he tilted his head in confusion.
“I came in early so I could steal some of your work.”
“Haha. We’ve got quite a backlog already.”
Another Execution Unit hunter replied with a light laugh. The size of the Execution Unit was continuing to expand, and as a result, the amount of work they had to process was growing brutally fast.
“Is Team Leader Lee Gyu-hwan busy right now?”
“He’s out on an external assignment. He should be back soon.”
In the Execution Unit, an external assignment referred to their uniquely secretive work carried out outside the office.
“Is the sparring hall empty right now?”
“No. 2 is empty.”
“I’ll go down first and wait there, so when Team Leader Lee Gyu-hwan gets back, tell him to come down to Sparring Hall No. 2.”
“Yes, sir.”
Leaving behind the vigorous reply of his subordinate hunter, Tae-min moved down to the basement level where the sparring halls were located. He entered the empty hall and waited for about ten minutes before the door opened with a familiar presence.
“I was told you were looking for me.”
Under the lights, a man came into view. It was Gyu-hwan.
“May I ask why you called me to the sparring hall?”
Gyu-hwan asked. His tone was courteous, but there was also a firmness to it, as though he meant to leave if this was not work-related.
“Would you spar with me, Team Leader Lee Gyu-hwan?”
“Are you joking?”
Instead of answering, Tae-min smiled.
“You’re serious.”
“If it bothers you, feel free to refuse. There’s no compulsion.”
“Is there really no compulsion at all?”
With those loaded words, Gyu-hwan stepped closer. Officially, Tae-min was his superior, and the elite hunters under Tae-min’s command were watching over his younger sister under the pretext of protecting her. On top of that, Tae-min also held formal authority over the Execution Unit hunters Gyu-hwan had brought over from Andersen Guild. Of course, if an unreasonable order were ever given, they would likely follow Gyu-hwan instead.
“This isn’t an order. It’s a request.”
Tae-min’s gaze met Gyu-hwan’s. At that moment, Gyu-hwan caught a flash of strong determination in Tae-min’s eyes.
So it’s been a while since I’ve seen this.
A smile spread at the corners of his mouth.
“Very well. Let’s do it once.”
Before long, a staff was in his hand.
“Thank you, Team Leader Lee Gyu-hwan.”
“For the record, I don’t go easy.”
As he said that and raised his mana, a pleasant smile lingered on Gyu-hwan’s lips.