Rafael
As Won-goo spoke, he stole a glance at Jeon Hye-ji.
Hye-ji's ability was to judge a person's trustworthiness and threat level. It told her how well and how often someone lied, and just how dangerous they were. In running the business, her power had been no small help.
Won-goo and Hye-ji had even worked out a set of hand signals for situations like this one.
It was Won-goo who sent the first signal. He shaped his fingers behind his back, and Hye-ji casually shifted into a position where she could face him — below the elf's cage. From there, she flashed two signals.
The first concerned trustworthiness. The second, danger. Both came back as maximum.
Meanwhile, Won-goo pulled out a cigarette and skillfully stalled for time. Then he addressed the elf.
"A life and revenge. How intriguing. But us humans like certainty, you see. We don't take vague offers like that, elf."
"Get me out of here, and you save a life. So I will work for you to repay the worth of that life."
"And the revenge?"
"I cannot forgive those who imprisoned me here. Those who slaughtered my family on false charges — I will never forgive them."
"Aren't those your own kind?"
"My kind abandoned me. Get me out of this place, human! I possess a truly magnificent blessing. I could be of great use to you."
At the word blessing, Won-goo's nose twitched.
One of the defining traits of the dwarf elf race was this: within it existed numerous tribes, and within each tribe, bloodlines that carried a special power. The elves called it a blessing. But Won-goo knew it was nothing of the sort.
He knew, because he had seen how many survivors died thanks to dwarf elves bearing that very blessing.
It wasn't magic. It wasn't shamanism either. Nor did it carry the same flavor as psychic ability. It was simply a kind of authority granted to the species called dwarf elf. Survivors had generally classified that authority — usable only by a tiny fraction of dwarf elves — as divine power.
Knowing all this, Won-goo studied the woman before him with grave eyes.
Under normal circumstances, he would never have bothered holding such a long conversation with a dwarf elf. The back-and-forth exchange had been mostly a means of drawing out information while stalling — he did, after all, possess the Perfect Communication granted by an unidentified Seal.
But if the dwarf elf in front of him was one of the rare few who wielded that authority, his thinking had to change.
Was it to ask her name, and make her swear on it?
Even that wouldn't give him certainty. If she truly was an elf of power, releasing her carelessly could mean the end of everything.
"Has anything you've said so far contained even a shred of a lie?"
"None!"
"Your name?"
"Raeng Protico El La Pael Rwafael."
"Rafael."
"It is Rwafael."
"Rafael."
"……"
"I don't have time. Can you swear on that name to what you just said?"
"I swear it."
At that, Won-goo stepped back and looked at Mu Beob-sa.
"Hand over what I left with you."
"And what, precisely, is it that you left with me?"
"That provisional contract, I mean."
Mu Beob-sa's face registered surprise.
"What exactly are you planning to do, if I may ask?"
"I'm going to write up a contract."
"That is hardly an inexpensive item…… and this is a dwarf elf. You weren't planning to take her and sell her, was that not the case?"
"No. I'm taking her in as one of us."
"Can we trust that?"
"We'll find out once the contract is written. Everyone heard what I said, right? If you have objections, speak up now. Any disputes?"
No one stepped forward. If Director Gong was doing something, there was a reason for it. That was all anyone thought.
"If she's lying, you'll just toss this contract away, I see. Expensive as it is, you didn't bother to keep it safe."
The contract Won-goo was demanding from Mu Beob-sa was an entirely different beast from the ones they had dealt in until now. The previous makeshift contracts did impose penalties, but they couldn't be called truly powerful. So they would use the provisional version when necessary, then formalize the agreement again back at the Shelter.
But this time, what Won-goo had requested was a far more potent version — a contract that held its effect for only forty-eight hours, yet carried a penalty severe enough to mean annihilation.
Won-goo eyed the grimy, crumpled contract emerging from Mu Beob-sa's coat and tossed out a remark.
"Ai, come on…… take better care of your things. What is this?"
"It is to be consumed this very use anyway, is it not? Director Gong, is this truly the right course? Do you not feel the loss? An item this rare should be saved for a truly desperate moment—"
"I'm torn too. But I think taking her with us is the better call. Time to verify whether my judgment's right."
Won-goo explained the situation to Rafael. The cage was lowered to the ground, and the contract and a pen were slipped inside.
Won-goo then recited the terms of the contract in painstaking detail. It was such a powerful contract that if he failed to explain it properly, he would suffer the penalty as well.
"By the way. Do contracts actually bind elves too?"
"Gifts come down from the universe. The moment you were born, the universe dispatched a single current of energy, and that current meeting you and bestowing its power — that is a Gift. As long as the procedure is followed, any existence in the universe can be bound by contract."
"Ah……"
In the meantime, Rafael unhesitatingly wrote her name onto the contract.
"Let her out. She may be becoming our newest family member."
"Are you sure about this, though?"
"Sure about what?"
"She stands out so much…… plenty of people have already suffered at the hands of dwarf elves."
"Then we cover it up. Hide the ears and no one will recognize her."
True to their nature as a demi-human race, elves and humans shared many similarities. The most striking difference was the ears. Dwarf elves differed not only in their ears but also in height, standing shorter than humans — another point of contrast.
That said, Rafael's height, standing upright, was barely different from Hye-ji's. Adult male dwarf elves averaged around 150 centimeters, with females typically about ten centimeters shorter. Rafael being roughly level with Hye-ji, who stood just over 150, meant she was considerably tall for her kind.
Moreover, thanks to the naturally graceful proportions elves possessed, at a glance she could even seem taller than Jeon Hye-ji. Hye-ji already had a remarkably small face — Rafael's was smaller still.
"See? Cover it up like this, and nobody can tell."
Won-goo said this as he wound a cloth around Rafael's head. Rafael silently accepted it, wrapping her own head turban-style to hide her ears.
"Rafael. Now let's see what you can do."
And sure enough, while they had been buying time, the dwarf elves had begun swarming in.
This hadn't been part of the plan. The objective had been to strike fast, grab the goods, and run. But the plan had broken — and now the moment had come to pay for that. A battle that would tax the crew considerably was waiting for them.
"It will take time."
"How long?"
"It has been a long while since I last used it. First, I would like some water."
Won-goo handed her the water from his pack. Rafael gulped it down, then fixed a ferocious glare on the oncoming dwarf elves.
And she extended her hand forward.
"You heard her. Using her power takes time. We hold the line in D-mode. Geum Chul-soo!"
"Yes, Director!"
"That's enough. Get over here and take your position."
Geum Chul-soo had been drilling Dulla at a slight distance from the rest of the crew.
For the crime of shouting out in excitement, Dulla was forced to hold its head down with one hand and touch the ground with the other, ears pinned back in a full prostration, while enduring Chul-soo's scolding.
True to his drill-instructor background, Geum Chul-soo's tongue-lashing was second to none. That once-thunderous Dulla couldn't so much as twitch under the barrage.
"Do it properly. You trained for this and you still slip up? Mr. Dulla, I am deeply, profoundly disappointed in you."
"Dullaaa……"
"In any case, you'll be showing us your work shortly. Fight properly this time. None of that bizarre theatrics from before — if you pull that again, you're not coming out. At all."
"Dulla."
"Up."
Dulla sprang to its feet and joined Chul-soo as they fell in with the crew.
"Rafael of the Slaughter has brought humans upon us!"
The dwarf elves who had reached the village bellowed in outrage.
Won-goo caught the meaning clearly and looked at Rafael. She was holding her hand out in front of her. She might have appeared to be doing nothing at all, but the grim resolve etched across her face was anything but ordinary.
Rafael of the Slaughter, huh. Judging by the dwarves' reaction, she wasn't lying. What kind of power is it?
The dwarf elves shrieked and launched their assault.
Agility born of their small stature — and strength far beyond their frames. Compared to dwarf elves, classified in the upper tiers of combat power, humans were utterly helpless creatures. On even footing, it would take a sizable mob of humans just to bring down a single one.
That was how formidable the species was.
And yet Won-goo's crew remained calm. They had long since stepped beyond the boundaries of ordinary humanity.
Dwarf elves armed with bladed weapons surged in as a pack and attacked — and the crew felt it all over again. Just how boundless the increase in combat power from their new armor truly was. The performance of the padding they now wore was staggering.
Nano-chain padding is straight-up overpowered at this point in time.
Won-goo watched the battle unfold with composure. Mu Beob-sa guarded the space in front of Rafael, and the crew formed the line in front of him. Geum Chul-soo and Dulla stepped forward as well. Somehow, a protective formation around Rafael had taken shape.
Despite the swarm of dwarf elves pouring in, the crew gave not a single step. It was the fruit of experience earned cycling through the Field, through dungeons, through every manner of killing ground. And that was why Won-goo could hold back from the front and observe from the rear.
Because everyone had grown strong enough to let him.
"Everyone, shield Rafael. These bastards are targeting her exclusively."
Precisely because he watched from the back, he could issue sharper, more accurate orders. This was, in fact, the battle doctrine he had envisioned from the moment he began taking in crew members.
"Beob-sa, sir. Archers coming in at eleven o'clock. Draw their aggro with the Wisps."
Mu Beob-sa gave a slight nod. He grumbled that his mana circuits weren't the kind of thing you could slice off your wrist and reattach, but he fully acknowledged the Wisps' utility.
Had Mu Beob-sa been an ordinary mage, the Wisps would have been of little help. But his mana far outstripped that of an average caster, so sending a Wisp all the way to bow range cost him nothing. Where typical mages could control a Wisp at only twenty to thirty meters, Mu Beob-sa's mana operated at a frankly absurd level.
The pity of it was that such tremendous power was going to waste, in a manner of speaking.
The number of dwarf elves wielding ranged weapons kept growing — and their numbers swelling meant things were getting genuinely dangerous. No one had been injured yet. But stamina had its limits. Unrelenting, back-to-back combat would break anyone down, no matter how heavily they'd invested in endurance.
The dwarf elves kept throwing themselves at the line, and one by one, the crew began to feel the squeeze.
Then Won-goo stepped up. He was already out front, joining the fight.
"How long are we supposed to wait?! Rafael! Hey!"
"Soon!"
Rafael, who had stood rooted in place, moved. Flora and insects converged toward her chest. Fast — astonishingly fast.
And the dwarf elves' reaction to it was even more dramatic.
"It's Protico! Everyone run!"
As if a natural disaster had descended upon them, the dwarf elves scattered in a panic, every last one of them fleeing for their lives.