Bring Me the Bastard Who Took My Daughter!! (Part 1)
***
BANG—!!!
"What? What do you mean 'what happened' now?"
FLAME—!!!
Heat so intense it spilled out and scorched the entire room, flames licking at the walls like they wanted to consume everything.
A blood-red mane like a beast soaked in blood, and eyes like a demon's burning red—fixed on the enemies.
The only Absolute being in the world to have reached the Transcendent realm, and the sole Transcendent of Korea, the world's strongest nation.
Everyone knew him as the "daughter fool," but no matter what they said, there was one unchanging truth: he was Korea's number one, the strongest in the world, and the Guild Master of Yeomwang Guild—the Flame King.
Yoo Han-jin, delivering the news he had just received from his secretary, let his overflowing aura erupt and set the room ablaze, his voice roaring with fury.
The aura of Korea's strongest, and among the five strongest beings on the entire planet.
Even if it wasn't the power of a true Transcendent, the mere presence of someone who had stepped into that realm was far too lethal for mere mortals to endure.
Fortunately, his secretary—who had followed him and was used to feeling that aura even from a distance—managed to suppress his own fear and forced out another report.
"T-t-the, the youngest young lady, the academy, the exploratory dungeon, is being swallowed by erosion, and—and the two of them are trapped."
FLAME—!!!
Even the already fearsome aura of Shin-yeom only grew thicker and heavier with every word. The secretary clung to his sanity like a lifeline, staring at Han-jin.
FLAME—!!!
In an instant, the terrifying pressure vanished completely. Han-jin stood up and reported to his secretary.
"Head to the academy right now. I won't take no for an answer—get the car ready."
"Y-yes, I understand!"
The Flame King, father of the student currently attending Legna Academy, Yoo Hwa-young.
He was rushing toward the academy where his daughter had been swallowed by the dungeon erosion.
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An emergency alert had been issued at Legna Academy—the premier hero training institution in Korea.
An exploratory dungeon erosion, an extremely rare phenomenon that only appeared in places with abundant mana.
By damage alone, the exploratory type was the least severe, yet two academy students had been trapped inside. Nine out of ten people who entered this death dungeon would perish.
The Iron Fortress-class exploratory dungeon, impenetrable by any external force.
To escape, one had to kill the dungeon's boss. But with only two first-year students who had just entered the academy, clearing it was practically impossible.
The two had already been trapped for four hours and forty-four minutes—time enough for them to be long dead.
The students' deaths were a tragedy, but the real crisis was who they were.
Yoo Hwa-young—Lucinus, the title given only to the most talented students among this year's academy entrants.
Daughter of the Flame King, Yoo Han-jin, Korea's strongest hero who had single-handedly killed a Celestial in a past timeline, the only Transcendent in the world, and the reason behind the title "Shin-yeom" that everyone whispered about.
The man himself was the problem.
Everyone knew how much Shin-yeom loved his daughter, and even the ridiculous rumor that a villain organization once tried to kidnap her simply by seeing her young face and had been wiped out in ten minutes.
A man who loved his daughter so fiercely could never simply stand by while she was trapped in a dungeon erosion.
BANG—!!!
"This incident must be covered up! It would become an irreparable blemish on Legna Academy!"
"Are you serious right now?! It's Shin-yeom, Shin-yeom himself! His youngest daughter is trapped in a dungeon erosion and you're talking about covering it up?! And covering it up would be the real blemish?!"
"No matter who Shin-yeom is, he can't just barge into the academy like that. So right now, send someone to—!"
CRACK—!
The heated exchange between the professor demanding the cover-up and the one insisting it couldn't be done because the trapped student was Shin-yeom's daughter was growing louder, mana already leaking from their auras in waves of emotion.
The academy's principal, Eira, stepped forward, clapped once, and infused her mana into the sound.
FSSSSHHHH—!!!
A wave of bone-chilling cold instantly flooded the conference room. The two professors, still arguing, broke into cold sweats and looked at Eira for guidance.
"We didn't gather here to fight each other. So, Professor Hiran and Professor Gangcheol—please refrain from raising your voices~?"
"K-khm... I'm sorry, Principal. I must have... I must have slipped."
"I'm sorry, Principal."
Everyone had forgotten the gentle smile and kind demeanor, but Eira was the one closest to the Transcendent realm even among the Highest-rank mages.
No matter how many Highest-rank mages were present, none could match her.
"Hmm~ Shall we resume the meeting then? Professor Kim? Professor Kim, what do you think we should do about this situation?"
"Hehe, I don't know if an old man like me has any useful advice, but to be honest, I think we should just expose it."
"But Professor Kim! If this gets out, the academy—!"
"Hehe, Professor Hiran, don't you feel it?"
Kim, the old general who had survived the Korean War, brushed his long white beard while staring outside and spoke to the professor who wanted to hide it.
"The aura is so intense it's scorching the air."
"Huh? That... that can't be..."
"Hmm~~ Now that I think about it, I almost forgot to mention something~~."
Eira glanced briefly at Kim, then burst out laughing at the trembling Hiran.
"Before we start the meeting, I received a call from Shin-yeom saying he was coming to the academy directly. Um~ By now, he should have arrived~."
Eira's words—delivered even though she knew they were already too late—made the faces of every professor present (except herself and Kim) turn deathly pale.
KWAAAAA!!!
At that exact moment, two massive auras pierced through the academy. The professors who felt them turned white as sheets, their eyes wide with shock.
"Hmm~ It seems the situation has grown even bigger than I expected."
Eira, who also sensed the aura, rose from her seat with a soft voice that remained calm and cold.
"I'll handle this. Please take care of your own tasks."
***
A powerful aura arrived at the academy.
Students instinctively took side alleys upon seeing the blood-red hair. The middle-aged man beside the red-haired young man—Yoo Han-jin—laughed with exaggerated flair.
"Whoa~ Legna Academy is just as it always was. Right, Han-jin?"
"Save the chatter and start walking. Besides, why the hell did you follow me?"
Han-jin asked Kim Deok-bae, his childhood friend who had graduated from the same academy, why he had tagged along. Deok-bae scratched his head with an awkward smile.
"Well, I was worried about a friend's daughter being in danger."
"Don't tell me you forgot your wedding anniversary and just came to beg your wife back."
Deok-bae sighed deeply at the friend's words, which cut too close to the bone.
"Well, I already tried begging, but our master is really pissed. Ever since I got the vacation last week, I've been kicked out of the house."
At his friend's complaint about being kicked out, Han-jin gave a small smirk and walked toward the academy's interior with a slightly softer expression.
The back of a friend who had always been energetic, yet Deok-bae had known him long enough to sense the deeper fear beneath.
The fear of a father who was not the Transcendent Shin-yeom, but simply a father whose beloved daughter might be in trouble.
Han-jin's steps toward the academy grew faster until he was almost sprinting.
WHOOSH—!
A thick wave of mana swept past Han-jin and Deok-bae as they hurried toward the principal's office.
Dungeons spread thick mana waves in only two situations: when the dungeon itself collapsed, or when a Dungeon Break occurred and monsters escaped to the outside world.
"Ah, no! Hwa-young—!!"
Han-jin knew that in an exploratory dungeon erosion inside an academy with abundant mana, the chances of his daughter and even one student surviving were practically zero.
And in an exploratory dungeon created by erosion, a Dungeon Break could only happen if no external life remained inside and time had passed.
Even a Transcendent being was still just a man, a father.
The sight of Shin-yeom's face turning deathly pale as he rushed toward the source of the mana wave broke something inside him.
"Kyaaa—!"
"Uwaaa! What the hell just happened?!"
The violent emotions alone were enough to make students passing by feel dizzy. As the heat grew even hotter, a cold chill finally spread, cooling everything down.
"Hmm~ If this happens in the academy, this old principal is in big trouble~"
Eira, the principal of Legna Academy, the woman who stood closest to the Transcendent realm and was known as the Snow Witch of the Ice Mountains.
She stood in front of Shin-yeom, Korea's only Transcendent.
"Principal Eira, step aside right now..."
Han-jin, still trying to show respect for the Eira who had taught him years ago, glared with burning eyes and unleashed a massive heat that clashed with her cold aura.
"Hmm~ It's been fifteen years since I last saw you, Teacher. You look like you've changed~?"
A soft voice that contradicted the freezing cold tone and the chill that made skin feel like it was freezing.
The storm of heat and cold clashed so fiercely that the surrounding air ignited and froze in an instant.
"...Move. Now."
Despite the fury threatening to erupt any second, Han-jin kept his distance out of respect for the woman who had once taught him. But right now he was like a volcano about to explode.
If the person blocking him had been any other professor, he would have shoved them aside with raw power. Eira knew that too well.
Her neck involuntarily rubbed under the murderous gaze that promised she would be bitten at any moment. Seeing the student she had raised had become far too powerful, she sighed deeply and answered.
"Indeed, you haven't changed. Come with me."
Eira turned her back, retracting her cold aura.
Han-jin followed her back, quietly suppressing his own heat.
While he tried to stay calm, his hands shook and his fists were clenched so tightly the knuckles cracked.
When they reached the source of the dungeon mana wave, Han-jin cried tears of relief.
"Ah, Hwa, Hwa-young..."
He hadn't wanted to believe it, but the image of his daughter dying had kept tormenting him.
She was alive.
The survival probability that had been infinitely close to zero had actually happened, and right as Han-jin was running toward his daughter.
"Please, please, anyone, anyone save my Cheon-seong... Please..."
A stranger was hugging his beloved daughter, and she was clinging to him, sobbing.
The emotion that had surged for her survival cooled into icy dread. A cold smile and a burning glare appeared on Han-jin's face.
"Oh my~? This... I didn't expect this either."
The massive heat that had no comparison to the earlier confrontation shot into the sky, and above it, phantom flames bloomed.
"Hey! Yoo Han-jin! If you run like that suddenly—! Eh... good luck to you."
Deok-bae, who had come running after the suddenly sprinting Han-jin, scratched his head at the rigid, cold expression of his friend and fled back the way he had come.