Chaos (2)
“Manager Im….”
That man either knew the secret of the pattern, or he was at least on that level.
Manager Na’s stiff expression said as much.
Go Gyeong-taek’s lips curled slightly upward as he rose from his seat and greeted Du-ho in a gentle voice.
“I’m Go Gyeong-taek, from the Han Hyeon-cheol family’s secretary’s office and strategist for the Changcheon Clan.”
“Ah, yes. I’m Im Du-ho, a manager at the Reboot Center.”
After introducing himself, Du-ho tilted his head inwardly.
Secretary to the family… and a strategist?
It was awkward to know what to call him.
Crinkle.
Manager Na’s brow furrowed even deeper.
That fox-like bastard….
Go Gyeong-taek had clearly noticed something.
Manager Na had to cut this situation off somehow.
So.
“Manager Im.”
“Ah, yes.”
“You may leave now. We’ll speak later.”
“But, Manager. I need to confirm something too.”
Aigoo.
Go already! Go! Why are you holding out?!
Watching Manager Na’s pitiful face, Go Gyeong-taek naturally extended a hand.
The sword.
“May I take a look?”
“Ah, yes.”
Du-ho set the sword on the table.
“I was about to check it myself anyway.”
At that moment, Manager Na’s face froze in utter despair.
Already… fixed it?
Mr. Im Du-ho!
Why are you this diligent?!
Whyyyyyyy!!!
By contrast, a satisfied smile spread across Go Gyeong-taek’s face.
Watching him move without a single complaint when told, he became certain Du-ho was the classic hands-first technician type, someone whose hands moved before his head did.
If he’d had any sense, he’d have doubted it before repairing it.
Go Gyeong-taek swallowed a sneer and picked up the sword.
Clink.
The sound of the blade sliding free from the scabbard rang through the café.
He’d expected to find the pattern engraved across the smooth steel blade, but…
“…Huh?”
It wasn’t new.
That’s the very sword we first bought from the Bureau, isn’t it?
Sure enough, the pattern was engraved on the blade exactly as it had always been there.
Huh?
Go Gyeong-taek rubbed his eyes and checked again.
What… is this?
Turning the sword this way and that, he sent mana through it.
Whoooosh—.
The temperature around them dropped in an instant.
“What? Did they turn on the AC?”
“Why’s it suddenly so chilly?”
“Who used a cold skill in a café!”
As the commotion broke out, Go Gyeong-taek immediately withdrew his power.
His innate ability, and the amplification skill layered over it, were both flawless.
That’s definitely the same sword from before!
Confusion surged through him.
It felt like someone had smashed the back of his head with a sledgehammer.
And then…
Manager Na, who had believed Du-ho had properly re-engraved it, was just as dumbfounded.
Heh… it’s over.
Should I quit everything and move to the countryside to farm?
As thoughts of an early retirement plan flashed through his mind, Du-ho spoke up.
“Should I just restore the pattern to the way it was?”
Manager Na snapped back to reality at the question and turned it over in his head.
Wait a second.
He said “restore,” not “engrave”?
Oh-ho.
He hurriedly looked back at the sword.
Come to think of it, it was exactly the sword they’d sold before.
Manager Na’s eyes widened.
They’d said it had been restored to new condition at the Changcheon Workshop, and he’d restored it back again?
Was that… even possible?
No, that wasn’t the issue.
Then they wouldn’t have to worry about a pattern at all! Of course, they could look for another method when they engraved it again next time.
Manager Na turned to Du-ho and broke into a broad smile.
He praised him for being far too commendable.
And wondered why he hadn’t said so sooner.
Meanwhile.
Go Gyeong-taek couldn’t take his eyes off the sword.
As his gaze swept over the blade, it stopped in one spot.
Flash.
Light reflected.
What is that?
Tilting the sword, he revealed a tiny pattern.
An anvil?
Was that always there?
It looked vaguely familiar….
Gasp!
This is…?
The hand holding the sword trembled faintly.
Master Jang Mun-seo’s seal?
Go Gyeong-taek set the sword down and took a breath. Then another.
No matter how he looked at it, the seal belonged to Jang Mun-seo.
Could it be.
Had they gone all the way to Yeouido?
Impossible!
Even one round trip between the Bureau and Yeouido would be tight on time.
Even if he were absurdly generous and assumed they had gone there and back, what about the time it would have taken to restore this sword?
Utterly impossible.
The conclusion was…
Does that mean Master Jang Mun-seo is at the Bureau?
Crazy.
Even if he hated Changcheon, that was another matter entirely.
He flicked his eyes between Im Du-ho and Manager Na.
No.
That couldn’t be.
If someone of that stature were at the Bureau, there’d be no reason to hide him.
If anything, they’d publicize it.
Then this seal…?
A seal didn’t lie.
Especially not one stamped with mana by Master Jang Mun-seo.
Why?
The meaning of this seal is….
Go Gyeong-taek bit his lip.
That the sword was now at its absolute best.
There was only one person in the country who could do this.
And only eleven in the entire world.
“It’s in peak condition…?”
But at his muttered question, Du-ho answered.
“You’re familiar with that skill. Yes, it’s in its best state.”
Thud!
Du-ho’s confirmation struck Go Gyeong-taek like a blow to the heart.
Crazy.
It was real.
Go Gyeong-taek’s gaze locked onto Du-ho.
Is Im Du-ho… Master Jang Mun-seo’s disciple?
Countless thoughts whirled through his head.
Then.
“If I restore the rest like this, then no one can use this to make trouble anymore, right?”
At Du-ho’s question, Go Gyeong-taek came back to himself and actually started to stammer.
“Huh? Ah… y-yes, that’s right.”
“Understood. Though there are quite a few of them, so it may take some time.”
“Ah, yes.”
Du-ho bowed and left the café.
Go Gyeong-taek was deeply shaken.
If he was going to restore the remaining eight, then…
Master Jang Mun-seo is definitely involved.
He quickly organized his thoughts.
If he’s connected to that man….
He shouldn’t be playing any petty games anymore.
No, if he touched this carelessly…
He might end up provoking Han Hyeon-cheol himself.
Instead…
This was his chance to build a connection to Master Jang Mun-seo through Im Du-ho!
Even if it was through that annoying Bureau.
* * *
After Im Du-ho left.
The arrogance that had been on Go Gyeong-taek’s face earlier was nowhere to be found.
Truthfully, he thought to himself, It’d be better to wrap this up quickly and slip away without giving them any room to pick at me.
In that spirit, he bowed politely.
“I look forward to working with you from here on, Manager Na.”
Then he added,
“Please pass along my thanks for the item to the master.”
Manager Na looked blank for a moment.
The master? Ah, he must mean Manager Im Du-ho.
It was a misunderstanding, but one thing was certain: for reasons he couldn’t quite grasp, the entire board had changed.
“Director Go.”
Manager Na slowly got started.
“We’ll count one of them as a service. How would you like to handle the remaining eight?”
The damage from using the restoration skill at the Changcheon Workshop was his own mistake.
Go Gyeong-taek opened his mouth.
“Per item… I’ll set the repair fee at two hundred million coins.”
We can just collect it from the executives anyway.
That settled it.
But Manager Na’s narrowed eyes didn’t look ordinary.
He tapped the table and tilted his head.
“And where exactly did you learn that method of calculating?”
“…Pardon?”
“You take a perfectly fine item, cut its performance in half, and call two hundred million in repair fees fair?”
“Th-that’s per item.”
Manager Na sighed.
“Listen here, you.”
“Y-you bastard…?”
Go Gyeong-taek stood there dumbfounded as Manager Na pressed him.
“If you’ve got any conscience at all, put your hand on your chest and think about it. You’re asking for the same product to replace something the customer ruined by mistake, and you think two hundred million per item makes sense?”
Go Gyeong-taek’s insides began to boil.
And on top of that, the near-casual tone.
Bang!
Unable to hold it in any longer, he slammed the table.
“Manager Na! Are you saying you don’t want to do business anymore?!”
In the past, that would have made anyone flinch.
But Manager Na was different now.
Because Go Gyeong-taek’s regretful gaze never left the sword!
So at times like this, he had to push harder.
“If you don’t like it, just take the item and leave. And take your hands off the bottom card—no, off that sword.”
“…!”
What’re you going to do about it?!
If he had been his usual self, Go Gyeong-taek might have drawn his sword and started a fight long ago.
But…
It burned.
His insides were blackening to ash, and he simply couldn’t afford to blow up the deal.
They had cleared the 80th floor, but the clan’s sub-teams would need these items soon enough.
More importantly, those sub-teams were the ones he’d been nurturing himself.
He couldn’t go back empty-handed.
Reading his desperation, Manager Na drove the nail in.
“For this repair, you’ll pay only half the purchase price.”
“Hey, that’s f-… no, that’s too much!”
“Just a moment ago, you were saying ‘f—’…”
“You heard wrong.”
Now slightly offended, Manager Na pressed even harder.
“From now on, if Changcheon tampers with any item sold by the Bureau on your own… we’ll bear no responsibility whatsoever.”
His blood pressure spiking, Go Gyeong-taek’s vision went white.
He bit down so hard his lip felt ready to split, barely keeping his wits together.
He’d tried to drag out some artisan who could use that strange pattern, only to end up saddled with a massive expense and unfavorable contract terms instead.
And yet.
“…Fine. We’ll do it that way.”
It was a declaration of defeat.
In the end, Go Gyeong-taek staggered out of the café.
Watching his retreating figure, Manager Na clenched his fist tight.
Yes…!
It felt like his chest had just burst open.
To talk back like that to the mighty Changcheon, the best clan in all of South Korea.
Die, you bastards.
The era when you got to have everything your way is over.
Manager Na couldn’t hold back the grin leaking onto his face.
Then he suddenly thought of the person who had overturned the entire board.
Manager Im.
No, our Du-ho manager.
He was so damn adorable it was almost criminal.
Vowing to take much better care of him from now on, Manager Na ordered coffee for Du-ho.
And forgot about Park’s coffee entirely.
* * *
Late at night.
After finishing their workshop work, the two of them locked the door.
Du-ho took chicken, beer, and tteokbokki out of the Garage and spread them across the workbench.
“Everything’s ready.”
“Heh-heh, this kid.”
Glug, glug.
The two of them wet their throats with canned beer.
Thanks to the workshop’s heat that had been building all day, every swallow went down especially crisp and refreshing.
Ahh, yes.
Jang Mun-seo picked up a piece of chicken, dipped it in the tteokbokki sauce, and ate it, while Du-ho insisted that the original was best and savored the crispy fried batter.
They ate for a long while before Du-ho finally spoke.
“Someone from the Changcheon Clan came by this afternoon.”
“From Changcheon?”
“Yes. A man named Go Gyeong-taek.”
Jang Mun-seo’s hand paused.
“The squinty-eyed one?”
“The squinty-—huh?”
For a moment, taken aback, Du-ho relayed what his superior had told him.
They’d damaged some items by using a restoration skill at the Changcheon Workshop and had come to the Bureau for repairs. But…
“For some reason, they ended up signing the contract exactly the way Manager Na proposed. And they even paid half the purchase price.”
After hearing the full story, Jang Mun-seo smirked inwardly.
Seems the squinty-eyed one misunderstood my seal.
From the look of it, his disciple still had no idea what was going on.
Jang Mun-seo took a sip of beer and said,
“Thanks to you, the Bureau landed a good hit on Changcheon.”
“All I did was show them the sword and ask a question.”
But it was because you stepped in at that exact moment that it worked.
With a faint smile, Jang Mun-seo put a piece of rice cake into his mouth.
Then he casually changed the subject.
“Are you going to show me the rest?”
“Ah, just a moment.”
Rattle—.
Wendigo horns spilled out of the Garage. There had to be at least eighty of them.
Jang Mun-seo admired the quantity.
Just how strong is this kid?
Normally, five wendigos in a single quest would already be a lot, but this was well over seventy at a glance.
“Can you sell these?”
“Hmm. If I set them at two hundred thousand coins each, they’ll sell quickly.”
Oh…
So that’s sixteen million coins.
Du-ho’s face brightened.
“Thank you!”
“But what happened to the wendigo mana stones?”
Crack. Crunch—.
He could hear the sound of mana stones being chewed in his ear.
Scratching his head, Du-ho laughed.
They’ve got to eat too.
He couldn’t exactly say that.
“I disposed of them in Sector 2.”
“…I see.”
When Jang Mun-seo gave him a doubtful look, Du-ho changed the subject.
“Actually, there’s something I wanted to ask you about.”
He reached into the Garage.
Thud—!
He set a heavy mineral on the table.
Its silvery-blue sheen reflected the workshop lights with a soft glow.
“I happened to find a box, and this was inside.”
Jang Mun-seo’s hand stopped.
The moment his eyes landed on the mineral, he spat out the beer in his mouth.
“M-mithril?!”
He picked up the ore. The weight settled solidly in his hand.
As he let mana flow into it, the mineral shivered faintly and began to glow.
What in the world.
Even before refining, the purity is this high…?
Looking at the mithril brought back a brief memory from long ago.
He’d only ever touched mithril a handful of times in his life.
It was precious in and of itself, and if you wanted to work it, the environment had to be just right.
The problem was…
Those damned clan bastards kept trampling all over me, so I could never make anything properly.
As Jang Mun-seo’s heart hammered, Du-ho spoke again.
“I want to learn how to smelt it.”
Jang Mun-seo set down the beer can.
“Come this Sunday.”
He looked away as if nothing were unusual, then added flatly,
“I’ll watch over you from the side.”
“You’re not going to show me yourself?”
When Du-ho asked that so innocently, Jang Mun-seo took another swig of beer instead of answering.
If I lay a hand on it…
When would you ever get another chance to strike something this precious properly?
“You only have one piece, don’t you? You need to handle it yourself if you want to improve.”
Du-ho tilted his head.
“Then it’s fine if you have one too, right?”
If we smelt them together, we’ll finish faster and sell it for several times the price.
Thud!
Meaning to do just that, he pulled out another lump from the Garage.
Good grief!
Seeing a second mithril, Jang Mun-seo clutched his chest.
“You’re going to give me a heart attack!”
In truth, Jang Mun-seo’s hands were trembling.
Not just from shock, but because an opportunity he’d never expected had fallen into his lap.
He glanced sideways at the mithril.
Just that one lump…
If I buy it and forge a lifetime masterpiece with it… would that be wrong?
Meanwhile, Du-ho was rubbing the hand he’d left inside the Garage.
There were still three more pieces in there…
But he was worried his master might not be able to handle it.
…I can’t take them out.