Busan (4)
Busan (4)
I held Odin's face for about a minute, feeding her an Iron Claw, then let go.
"I'll specially forgive you with this."
"Cough. M-my face."
"It's not crushed, so let's stop there and get up."
"Of course it's not crushed! If it were, I wouldn't be able to talk like this!"
"That much, I assume?"
"Try getting hit by it yourself!"
She's being overly dramatic.
For someone who's supposed to be a Main God, if you're going to act like you're dying from this much, you should just rip off that Main God label.
As I looked at her pityingly, Odin clenched her fist.
"Huh? If you do that, your Geas will activate?"
"Hitting from the front isn't betrayal!"
You've already researched it that far?
Odin gathered her Magic Power and threw a punch.
But with just that level of a punch, she couldn't possibly pierce my scales and hide.
The fist imbued with a hefty amount of Magic Power faded away without leaving even a mark.
"You think I'd get hurt by that? A punch is supposed to be thrown like this."
A fearsome surge of Magic Power swirled over my front paw.
If she got hit properly by this, even Odin wouldn't come out unscathed.
"Y-you're really going to hit me?"
"If I were just going to show you, why would I have gathered it?"
Her eyes wavered, wondering if I was really going to hit her.
As if responding to that expectation-that-wasn't-an-expectation, I raised my front paw high.
And from top to bottom.
Hiding my true intent and imbuing it with killing intent, I swung down.
The front paw sliced through the air and stopped right in front of Odin's nose.
'This far.'
Actually, because of what I heard last time when I left, I thought if her life was in danger, she'd naturally betray me, but...
She's not betraying me here.
In a way, it's a relief, and in another way, it's a shame.
"Y-you're not hitting?"
"Yeah. I'm not hitting, so don't be scared."
"W-who's scared?!"
The moment she realized I wasn't going to hit, Odin returned to her usual tension.
Should I have just hit her?
It'd be awkward to hit her now, so instead, I opened the pouch again and put Apophis's corpse inside.
The part Odin took is a shame, but since I also openly tested her, I decided to just give it to her.
It's not like there'll be a problem if I don't eat that, so it's fine.
But is it really okay to eat this?
Poison is useless against me, but the fact that it was summoned using a Fiend's power bothers me, so I can't just eat it.
And conveniently, there are two suitable targets here to ask about that.
"Apophis's corpse. Do you think it's okay if I eat it?"
"H-huh? You're going to eat that?"
"Yeah. If I'm not going to eat it, where else would I use this?"
"Well, as material..."
"Would that work?"
"You said you learned magic!"
"Among the magic I learned, there's none that uses a corpse like this."
... Well, there's magic that requires large amounts of clean water or seawater.
While Odin kept her mouth shut, it was Freyja who answered my question.
"For other people or gods, maybe not, but for someone of your caliber, it should be fine to just eat it."
"Even though a Fiend summoned it?"
"The power of destruction granted by fate dissipates upon death, so as long as you're careful about poison, it's fine."
"I see. Thanks for telling me."
I opened the pouch I got from Odin just a little, cut off a bit from the tip of Apophis's tail, and took it out.
And tossed it into my mouth.
Crunch crunch-
Hmm... it's delicious?
Freyja looked at me as if I were a barbarian, tearing off and eating part of the tail raw, but if it's tasty, that's all that matters.
It's surprisingly savory, and despite having died quite a while ago, its freshness is top-notch.
Even though it's not the main body, perhaps because it's the kind of guy who calls himself the Adversary of the Sun, as soon as I ate it, there was a reaction in my body.
My Magic Power increased a tiny bit, and the poison became a bit more potent?
From now on, I should carry this around and take a bite whenever I'm bored.
With that, I was done with all the business I had with Odin, so I gathered Haeryeong to leave Asgard.
"Let's go now, Haeryeong."
"Are we going home?"
"We're going to meet Baek Yeon briefly first."
"Heheeng..."
At the mention of Baek Yeon's name due to the earlier incident, Haeryeong's expression became tearful.
But even just to check the interrogation results, we need to stop by the Association briefly.
"We're leaving, so don't cause trouble and live quietly."
"W-who says I cause trouble."
"You. You. You, you brat. You."
"I understand even if you don't say it like that!"
"That's exactly why I'm telling you not to cause trouble. Keep that in mind. If not... you know?"
"O-okay... I'm against violence..."
"And this is the guy who declared war... sigh."
When I raised my front paw again, gathering Magic Power, Odin shrank back.
"Please stop tormenting Odin, who already has a lot to do, and if you're done with your business, please just go."
"And what have you done right to butt in, you bitch."
Thwack!!
"Kyaaah!!"
Not as much as Odin, but Freyja is also someone who caused trouble alongside Odin.
Annoyed by her butting in as if she'd accomplished something, I gave her a knuckle tap instead of Odin.
Leaving behind Freyja, who was clutching her head and sinking down, and Odin, trembling wondering if she'd be targeted next, I left Asgard with Haeryeong.
When we finished our work earlier than expected and returned to the Association, the sun hadn't set yet.
Because of my reappearance, I could see the Awakened and employees in the Association getting agitated.
When will these guys ever adapt and not panic when I appear?
Maybe it's impossible?
As I reduced my size and landed in front of the Association, gazes gathered, but I ignored them all and went inside.
Then I went to the counter, grabbed a suitable employee, and asked for Baek Yeon's location.
Of course, a regular employee wouldn't know the location of the Information Department's Interrogation Room, but doing this will make a suitable person appear to guide me.
As expected, not long after, an Association employee who seemed to hold a slightly higher position appeared and guided me and Haeryeong to where Baek Yeon was.
When I opened the door to the Interrogation Room, which had no nameplate, a thick smell of blood wafted out.
This isn't a smell that arises over a day or two; it's one accumulated over a long time.
Indeed, an Interrogation Room is an Interrogation Room.
Thinking it wouldn't be good for Haeryeong's emotional state to take her inside like this, I used a simple magic spell.
Then the deeply ingrained smell of blood faded somewhat.
Only after the smell had sufficiently dissipated did I enter the Interrogation Room interior, where I saw Baek Yeon and Choi Soo-young conversing beyond a glass window.
And behind them, a man named Sang Cheol-woo in a wretched state.
Perhaps because it was a soundproofed location, the two continued their conversation without noticing we had entered, and I couldn't hear what they were saying either.
"Haeryeong. Wait here."
"Ung..."
Perhaps remembering when she sat on Odin's throne, Haeryeong obediently let go of my tail and went to a chair on one side of the room.
For Haeryeong to let go of my tail without any resistance...
Just what did they show the kid?
Looking at Sang Cheol-woo's state, I can roughly guess what Haeryeong saw.
I opened the firmly shut door next to the glass window and went inside.
"From the beginning, the fact that they came over from that side means the Busan Branch is also... Nidhogg-nim?"
"I'm back."
"You've returned much earlier than you said. How did the matter you went for turn out?"
"They had already prepared over there. So I could take care of business as soon as I arrived and come back early."
"I see. Ah, we also managed to find out a certain amount about this case while Nidhogg-nim was away."
"That seems to be the case..."
"??"
I didn't expect they'd be interrogating to the extent that Haekyeong was horrified.
Baek Yeon expressed confusion, not knowing we had already checked part of the interrogation process through the throne's ability, but since it wouldn't do Baek Yeon any good to know we were hiding things about the interrogation, I decided to keep it secret.
More importantly, let's hear what they found out first.
"So. What happened?"
"The investigation results show that Section Chief Sang Cheol-woo was not a traitor. To be precise, I should say he was half a traitor."
"What does that mean?"
"Section Chief Sang Cheol-woo is under the influence of a mental-type ability."
Mental-type ability?
"It's similar to a kind of hypnosis. Because of that, right now, Section Chief Sang Cheol-woo remembers himself not as the original Association Information Department Section Chief Sang Cheol-woo, but as a spy from somewhere."
"And where is that somewhere?"
"Unfortunately, we couldn't find out that far."
I turned my head from Baek Yeon, who seemed genuinely disappointed or deflated, and looked at the man named Sang Cheol-woo, half-unconscious and tied to a chair.
So that means he's currently under the influence of something like hypnosis... Is it okay to torture him like that?
Choi Soo-young answered that for me.
"It's fine. We also have mental-type ability users, so we can treat him later, tweak his memories a bit, and make it as if it never happened."
"What."
Torturing someone like that and then healing them and manipulating their memories afterward.
And this is the Awakening Association that protects the world...?
"Well... even if he was under the influence of a mental-type ability, the fact that he leaked Association information is true."
Choi Soo-young calmly said this and took out her smartphone, sending a message somewhere.
Then, as if they had been waiting outside, people immediately came and moved the wretched-looking Section Chief Sang Cheol-woo.
"Still, we managed to trace the route Section Chief Sang Cheol-woo used to send the information and found out the enemy's base."
"Oh. Where did he send it?"
"We need more time to pinpoint the exact location, but the approximate location was Busan."
"And he sent it specifically to the Busan Awakening Association Branch."
"That means..."
"It means there is another spy, or an employee under hypnosis, in the Busan Awakening Association Branch, besides Sang Cheol-woo."
"Sigh. It's gotten really bothersome."
Choi Soo-young sat on the edge of the desk, rubbing her temple with her finger.
Her face already showed annoyance at the prospect of having to root out spies.
Baek Yeon gave such a Choi Soo-young a sharp look.
She let out a sigh and cautiously made a proposal.
"So, this is what I'd like to ask... Nidhogg-nim. By any chance, are you thinking of going to the Busan Branch?"
"Me going there?"
"Yes."
"Is it necessary?"
Even if I go, it doesn't seem like I'd be much help in rooting out spies.
But Baek Yeon must have a reason for saying this.
"No matter how much the Association is a divided, incompetent group with many factions, spy detection is something the Information Department periodically conducts. But..."
"And a spy came out of that Information Department."
"Yes. Even if he was under the influence of a mental-type ability, a spy is a spy. In fact, because it's a mental-type ability, we have no way of knowing how many spies have spread within the Association in Busan right now."
"In the worst-case scenario..."
"The entirety of Busan could become the enemy."
Now I understand why she made this proposal.
Baek Yeon was mentioning the possibility of turning all of Busan's Awakened into enemies.
And if that happens, the only one who could face all of Busan's Awakened and come out unscathed is someone like me.