Iron Hand (2)
Lesson: drink in moderation!
The three of them stepped out of the restaurant, stuffed full of grilled meat.
Whoooosh!
A cool breeze brushed against his face.
Nothing like it. Nothing better!
It felt surprisingly fresh. He'd never had friends, never known anything but his nose buried in books day after day—social life was a phrase he'd only ever read. The library job had been the whole of his existence. But eating meat with people, sharing drinks like this... it really did feel like something new.
It was eight in the evening. Too early to call it a night, somehow.
"Everyone."
Park Juhee spoke up first.
"How about we start on the dividend work from earlier while brainstorming the interior design? Ah—I haven't told you yet, have I? We're about to sign a contract on a Seona Couture storefront in a prime spot in Sinsa-dong!"
"Oho, really now?"
That piqued his interest. Not that he knew anything about interior design. Juhee would handle that just fine on her own. What he needed was simply something to pass the time—he'd been running flat out for a while now, and a bit of rest was due.
"Where should we go to work?"
"There's a wholesale shop around here I haven't surrendered the lease on yet. Let's go there."
"Sounds good."
Yoo Seon-ah nodded along eagerly.
"I can't go home yet anyway—I still have to finish grinding Ice Needle. Sleeping over there's fine, right? You two can chatter while I practice."
"Of course, CEO!"
And so, round two was decided: the Awakening Wholesale Shop.
They picked up a few snacks and four cans of beer on the way in. The building was old, but the interior felt familiar and cozy. With quick little pops, they set everything up and settled onto the warm ondol mat.
And Yoo Seon-ah? She claimed a corner and immediately began drilling Ice Needle. Which meant Seo Hwarang was now sitting face to face with Park Juhee alone.
"So, first thing."
Seo Hwarang raised an agenda item—one he'd only brushed over in passing before.
Safety.
"Seona Couture is making a lot more noise than we expected, and it's only going to grow from here."
"That's true."
"What worries me most is that we don't have any real power yet."
Seo Hwarang, Yoo Seon-ah, Park Juhee. All three of them had families. People they needed to protect—and the world was a dangerous place.
Crime. It had become a painfully sensitive topic lately. Ever since Awakeners appeared, there had been endless situations the law simply couldn't shield people from. brazen criminal organizations had even begun operating in the open.
I'm confident I can protect my own hide.
It was everyone else who was the problem. Especially Park Juhee—she wasn't even an Awakener.
"We'll need to work out some security measures."
"I actually looked into a few security firms already,"
Juhee murmured, tapping away at her phone.
"But they're pretty expensive. And I'm not sure how effective they'd really be. No matter how good they claim to be, their muscle can't outmatch a guild."
"Fair point."
A genuine headache. They couldn't be together every hour of the day. Should he just found a guild from scratch? Joining one didn't suit his temperament, and he couldn't keep stringing people along with convenient lies the way he had been.
They'd traded a few more bits of small talk when—
Ring!
A notification chimed from his phone. The sound was from Awakener Net.
What's this?
He glanced down and opened it.
Ah. It was Uncle Hwang Cheol-woo.
He skimmed the message. A clear offer of help—and of all moments, it had to come now.
Well, that works out nicely.
He owed the man good feelings for that 100-million-won knife. He mentioned it earlier, didn't he. That he'd like more robes—that if any more got made, he wanted to buy them. Thirty-five members, nineteen robes delivered already... so sixteen more would do it, right?
If I just catch one more Wind Serpent, that's more than enough.
All he had to do was pluck plenty of feathers off that thing.
Hmmmm.
Seo Hwarang stroked his chin. A chance to repay a debt had come sooner than expected—and he had the stock to spare. Was there any reason not to?
Nodding to himself, he fired off a reply.
Clean and simple—he'd knock the price down. A flat 1 billion. Nobody could say a word against it. After all, Seo Hwarang would be sourcing the materials and doing the crafting himself, end to end. In exchange, though, he'd ask for the favor.
That's what he offered it for in the first place, isn't it?
Until he'd built up real strength, he'd delegate security to the White Tiger Guild.
"You're telling me they requested security? From Madam Yoo Seon-ah's master craftsman? Sixteen robes for sixteen billion won?"
"That's right, hyung-nim."
"You magnificent bastard, Hwang Cheol-woo."
Baek Ji-hyeop's grin stretched from ear to ear.
"You really went and built those connections!"
Nothing brought people closer than working together. Handle their security, and the relationship would deepen naturally. For White Tiger, it was an immense honor.
And besides—
If they shaved 500 million off each of the sixteen robes, that alone was eight billion won in savings. There wasn't a single reason to say no.
"Absolutely!"
Baek Ji-hyeop clenched his fist.
"Tell them we'll handle it. No questions asked!"
While Seo Hwarang and Park Juhee sat in front of the computer comparing interior design estimates, Yoo Seon-ah let out a long sigh.
"Haaah."
This was so frustrating. It kept slipping through her fingers, just barely out of reach. Had the road from proficiency 79 to 80 always been this brutal?
1st Circle. Ice Needle.
Pasuk!
The floor around her was already carpeted with fallen icicles. Quite some time had passed since the sky went dark—eleven at night, give or take?
That was when it happened.
Click.
The lights went out.
"Huh?"
"What is it?"
"A blackout?"
Except through the window, the neighboring buildings were still glowing. So not a blackout.
1st Circle. Master Light.
Pat!
Four bright orbs of light floated up around Seo Hwarang.
"...You hacker."
Yoo Seon-ah muttered, dumbfounded. An ordinary 1st Circle Light summoned a single orb—and not nearly that bright, either. But look at the place. The whole room glowed as if someone had flipped on every fluorescent tube in the building!
"It's not a blackout, so what could it be?"
Seo Hwarang frowned. Something felt off—a prickling unease—and he triggered Master Detect Magic as well.
And in that instant—
He saw a color that shouldn't be there.
A blood-red, human-shaped figure, standing close enough to touch.
A cold shock ran down his entire spine.
Invisible?
"Everyone, get behind me. Now!"
1st Circle. Master Magic Shield.
Vuuuum!
A full-frontal magic shield bloomed into place. Then—
1st Circle. Master Light Arrow.
Zeeeeng!
Twenty light arrows rose into the air around him.
"Oh my."
And with that, the crimson phantom gradually took on substance. The invisibility was peeling away.
"How did you notice?"
What emerged was a woman in a black leather jacket.
An Awakener.
Seo Hwarang's eyes went cold. She used an invisibility skill—an assassin type, most likely. One of the most nightmarish classes for a mage to fight.
"Wh-who are you?!"
Park Juhee cried out, startled. Yoo Seon-ah said nothing, lowering her stance into a wary crouch. An Awakener had approached without consent and gotten this close. The fact alone was enough to make every hair on her body stand on end.
"Fascinating."
Song Mi-young was genuinely intrigued. Kidnapping was her specialty, and she'd completed a full workup on her targets before ever coming here.
— C-rank mage Yoo Seon-ah.
— F-rank mage Seo Hwarang.
— Civilian Park Juhee.
By every matchup, a mage absolutely could not hold against an assassin. She'd relaxed because of it—and yet she'd been made this easily?
And what's worse—
The one who'd spotted her wasn't Yoo Seon-ah. It was the F-rank man. And another thing—count the Light Arrows floating above him.
Twenty?
She'd faced plenty of mages in her time, but she'd never seen anything like that.
"Well, I've been spotted, so I suppose there's no helping it."
Even so, Song Mi-young didn't lose her composure. Kidnapping was all about momentum. Snatching someone quietly in one clean stroke was tidy, sure—but once discovered, you owned it with your chest out.
"I'm here for Yoo Seon-ah. I've come to collect her."
"Me?"
"That's right. Our CEO wants to meet you."
Absurd. If you've come to collect someone, you show your face out in the open. Creeping up in stealth and then talking this much nonsense?
"Let me lay out your options first."
Shing.
Song Mi-young drew a dagger from her waist.
"First: come along quietly. In that case, I'll let that rookie mage and that pretty young lady over there live."
Whirrr!
The dagger spun fluidly through her fingers, announcing that her skill was far from ordinary. The sheer pressure radiating off her could knock over a light chair or a potted plant—at minimum, C-rank.
"Second: you resist and get dragged out anyway. In that case, sadly, those two's lives end today."
"...Where are you taking me?"
"Told you already. The CEO wants to see you."
"I mean—which CEO?"
"Hmm. You really think I'd tell you that when I'm dragging you there by force? Hurry up and choose. Big sis is a busy woman."
Song Mi-young smiled, thin and cold. The expression said plainly: no more questions would be entertained.
"Hm."
The one who stepped forward wasn't Yoo Seon-ah. It was Seo Hwarang.
"So our lives hang on your mood, is that it?"
"Not my mood. Yoo Seon-ah just has to come along quietly."
"But that's your position. Mine's a little different."
Seo Hwarang was in a foul mood. Fear? He felt none of it. His feelings right now were exactly the same as when he'd run into bandit camps and criminal organizations back in Etherion. He might not be able to suppress her lightly—but he sure as hell wasn't going to be the one who lost.
"I only have one option on my list. I take you down and hand you over to the police or the Management Bureau."
"Hah."
Song Mi-young let out an irritated sigh, as if her pride had been pricked.
"Some people just won't listen until steel's at their throat."
Whirrr!
The dagger that had been flashing through an elaborate flourish came to rest in her grip—
SHIIIINK!
—and flew straight at the bridge of Seo Hwarang's nose.
A distance no mage could hope to block, a signature ambush from her favorite angle. Probably an instant kill. The moment it buried itself in his skull, he'd be dead before a single scream escaped.
Ugh, cleaning up the body's going to be a hassle.
But no hassle came.
CANG!
The blade struck the magic shield he'd already spread in place and simply dropped.
"...!"
Huh?
At this turn of events, Song Mi-young's face froze over.
My throw was blocked? By a mere shield?
Her mana-laced dagger could punch through the shield of a heavily armored knight. It carried enough power to pierce clean through and still deal real damage.
"Hey."
That was when Seo Hwarang spoke, his voice frost-cold. Above him, the twenty Light Arrows now hovered alongside four vicious Firebolts and five Ice Needles, all rising in unison.
"First punch was yours."
From here on, it was self-defense.
You're already dead.