Chapter 143: Jang Ye Ri
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 143: Jang Ye Ri
Exactly one week had passed. Park Han Cheol and the Greenbelt Clan were sipping beer in a tavern. The atmosphere in the metropolis of Hadum had been quite tense lately. It had already been on edge since the small city of Somorah was completely destroyed, and the recent chaos had only made things worse.
“Damn it… For fuck’s sake…”
“Tsk… Just drink up and forget about it.”
The voices of other victims could be heard all around them. A week after the Weapon Thief had begun his spree, such scenes were not common, but they could still be seen from time to time.
“Tsk… Looks like he’s still at it. That thieving bastard… I don’t know what the Goddess of Wisdom is doing… not catching a wicked thief like him…”
Park Han Cheol stared at Choi Jihye, looking slightly dumbfounded. A week ago, an incident had caused a slight change in the personality of the woman known as the model priestess—innocent, pure, elegant, and the most devout servant of the goddess.
Her anger toward the Weapon Thief who had stolen the fruits of her life’s work, and her resentment toward the Goddess of Wisdom for not answering her prayers, had piled up to the point that she had recently started to go off the rails.
Then again, her “derailment” only consisted of occasionally letting out a crude curse, drinking beer she normally wouldn’t touch, or offering her prayers an hour later than scheduled. Still, the fact that she had changed, even a little, was a bitter pill to swallow.
Park Han Cheol habitually took out a cigarette and spoke.
“Well… they say he’s been lying low lately. I suppose that’s a relief. It seems he’s definitely aware of us.”
It was then that Choi Jihye suddenly spoke to him.
“Let me have one.”
“What?”
“I said, let me have one.”
It seemed she was planning to go all the way. Of course, smoking wasn’t a crime, but seeing her act this way so suddenly was utterly bewildering. Her fellow Greenbelt Clan members also looked on with pained expressions, saddened by the change in her. Overwhelmed by her intensity, Park Han Cheol reluctantly handed her a cigarette.
“Suck… Hah… Cough, cough, cough!”
Having clearly never touched a cigarette before, she took a deep drag with all her might and immediately burst into a fit of coughing. The shock seemed to be greater than she had anticipated.
“Ugh… cough… This… this is pretty good. Cough, cough.”
It was a pathetic sight, watching her continue to puff on the cigarette while hacking her lungs out. To be honest, even Park Han Cheol himself sometimes felt the urge to let loose, so he could understand her feelings to some extent. It was like watching in real-time as someone who had lost their house and land deeds completely fell apart.
“Isn’t this just too much? I’d rather have died…”
“I know.”
“I only heard this as a rumor, but you know that one summoner from the next town who carried a crossbow? I heard he got his stolen, too. Does that trash think that if he’s caught, all the items he’s stolen so far will become his? I heard it was a detachable wrist-mounted item, and that bastard ended up with a dagger stuck in his wrist.”
Choi Jihye took a sip of beer and spoke again.
“The beer tastes sweet today for some reason. I guess the stronger the alcohol, the sweeter it is. Phew… I’m getting drunk.”
He was sure he had ordered watered-down beer for her. He wondered where she got such bravado. But he decided it was more important to comfort her right now, so he didn’t call her out on it.
“He’s probably handing them all out to his subordinates. That’s how monsters usually are. I’ve heard Orcs and Goblins are like that. I don’t know much about demons… Or, maybe he really is building a treasure trove, just like the rumors say.”
“And… and in there… my… my staff is… waiting… for me…”
It looked like she was about to cry again. Park Han Cheol averted his gaze, and eventually, Ha Juyoung of the Greenbelt Clan began to console her.
It had been like this ever since the incident. The demon known as the ‘Weapon Thief’ had started appearing here and there, evading people’s eyes and causing immense damage.
The absurd thing was that most of the victims were what you would call powerful. He was one of them, as were the other members of the Greenbelt Clan.
As the days passed, the Weapon Thief’s notoriety grew, and in contrast, strange rumors began to circulate.
The most ridiculous one was that this was someone’s hidden quest. The fact that not a single person had died despite so many weapons being stolen lent more credibility to this unbelievable rumor.
The arguments were that a monster would never leave a human alive, or that there was something strange about it only stealing weapons.
Among the rumors, the most preposterous was that the Weapon Thief’s treasure trove was located in the forest just outside the metropolis of Hadum. But it was a rumor Park Han Cheol wanted to believe. He had heard a report that the last time the Weapon Thief appeared, he hadn’t been carrying his signature weapon, the Dark Bat.
‘It could be there.’
Maybe there really was a treasure trove. It was clearly a baseless rumor, but the thief definitely had a base of operations somewhere. Thanks to this, the summoners living in Hadum were now divided into two types.
Those who went outside without their prized weapons, and those who simply holed up inside the city as much as possible.
For now, Park Han Cheol and the Greenbelt Clan were in the latter group. They had managed to buy new weapons with the points they had saved up, but there was a chance those could be stolen as well. The thief was clearly no pushover. If they fought him head-on, they would certainly have the advantage, but unlike other monsters, he was quite clever.
The proof was that he didn’t fight. That demon would never engage them in battle. The people going outside now were either lucky enough to have soul-bound weapons or were the type who had never encountered the Weapon Thief. Funnily enough, no guilds were making a collective move to catch him, which he assumed was due to personal greed.
In any case, the best course of action for now was to wait until the situation calmed down. As he was lost in thought about the demon, Ha Juyoung looked at him and spoke.
“When we were the first ones to get hit, I never thought it would get this big.”
“Me neither.”
“Well… I always thought it would fall someday, and I suppose it was an inevitable result, but with Somorah gone and a war raging in the North, things are a bit chaotic these days. I also heard that a few days ago, all the blacksmiths who went out to mine ore went missing. The guards who were watching over them were all found dead.”
“There are rumors that another city poached the blacksmiths, but the major guilds don’t seem very interested in the matter.”
“Well, it’s obvious what those bigwigs are thinking, isn’t it?”
As they were talking, a woman from somewhere in the tavern stood up and began to walk toward them.
Park Han Cheol slowly sized her up. She was too clean to be a beggar asking for alms, and too bundled up to be a prostitute selling her body. Despite her clothes, her sensual figure was noticeable, but Park Han Cheol wasn’t foolish enough to be distracted by a woman’s body. As he watched her with a wary eye, the woman approached and spoke in a quiet voice.
“That story you were just telling. Can you tell me a little more?”
She was speaking down to him on their first meeting. Naturally, he was offended. As he scowled, the woman’s voice came again.
“I will reward you.”
She produced a heavy-looking pouch of gold coins. He had no idea where she had gotten so much gold, but unfortunately for her, neither Park Han Cheol nor Ha Juyoung and his companions from the Greenbelt Clan were desperate for money.
Not wanting to cause a scene in the tavern, Park Han Cheol slowly began to gather his magic and spoke politely.
“I’m sorry, but I must refuse.”
“Thirty times.”
“…………?”
“I can give you thirty times the amount of gold in that pouch. Or… do you want your stolen items back?”
Thinking she was being rude, Park Han Cheol’s clanmates started to rise from their seats, but he held up a hand to stop them. He could feel a strange, subtle magic emanating from the woman before him.
Her outlandish claims of multiplying the gold by thirty or getting their stolen items back were already outside his interest. What he was more curious about was her identity. Ha Juyoung and Choi Jihye also seemed to sense that the atmosphere had turned serious and began to watch the woman warily.
Suddenly, the tavern was empty except for them.
‘A trap.’
But staging something like this in the middle of the city was impossible by common sense. Just as Park Han Cheol was frantically racking his brain, the woman began to pull back the hood that completely covered her face.
She only pulled it back enough to reveal her face, keeping her hair hidden, but Park Han Cheol couldn’t help but be shocked at the sight of her.
She was someone that anyone who had settled in Hadum would know.
“Jang Ye Ri… nim?”
It was Jang Ye Ri, the daughter of Jang Gi Young, the guildmaster of the Fallen Throne Guild that ruled Hadum.
“I don’t care what kind of information it is. That demon who steals weapons. Tell me about that demon, and I will be sure to reward you.”
Park Han Cheol forced himself to swallow the sour expression on his face. In his experience, getting entangled with the Fallen Throne had never once ended well. The fact that the slave trade that had been conducted in the small city of Somorah was actually being directed from Hadum was something everyone who had been in the East for a long time already knew.
The metropolis of Hadum had a hand in various illegal activities like that, such as drugs and human trafficking. That was precisely why the Greenbelt Clan hadn’t established a base here. They were wary of getting caught up in something strange.
Even though he had settled in Hadum, Park Han Cheol thought he had been as careful as possible, but he had never imagined getting entangled like this.
“You don’t have to worry. I will not harm you in any way. After our conversation is over, you may return to your ordinary lives. As long as you don’t reveal that you met me, you will be safe.”
“Yes…”
“As for the items you said you lost, I will return them if I can get them. If I cannot, I will find you weapons that are as similar as possible.”
It was certainly not a bad offer. More accurately, it was an offer he had no choice but to accept. He knew that if he refused, there would be retaliation in some form. Park Han Cheol glanced at Ha Juyoung sitting next to him. As expected, Ha Juyoung nodded, and Park Han Cheol slowly began to speak.
The best-case scenario was breaking even. Even if it didn’t go well, it wasn’t a deal where he stood to lose anything. There was no reason to refuse.