The Queen's Necklace

Pop.

Pacific tried to press his case a little longer, but in the end he gave up and left.

Hunting meant putting your life on the line. You couldn't blame survivors for being picky about which requests they took.

Won-goo wasn't one to filter out incoming requests indiscriminately. But when it came to jobs that should be refused, he had a stubborn streak that allowed for zero compromise.

"Is Taderson truly that strong a monster, I wonder?"

"Strong and nasty both. A warning notice means a monster is extremely dangerous. That's how it is."

"Wh-what grade is it?"

"Ninth? It's just emerged, so I'd say eighth for now."

"If it keeps growing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from eighth grade, that's genuinely impressive."

"I told you before—grade isn't everything. There are plenty of high-grade things that fold easily once you exploit a weakness. Taderson just isn't one of them."

"The numbers don't add up for you, I see, given how it turned out."

"As it stands, we couldn't catch it, no. Bring in a few more Named and sure, we could probably manage it. Wouldn't even need to field a force this large like last time."

"Then why are you not going after it, I wonder?"

"I told you. It was a decision made after weighing every angle. It's Ganjeol Point's territory—they'll handle it themselves."

"So Ganjeol will be stepping in, I see."

Won-goo shook his head.

"Ganjeol won't move."

"Not this time either? Is he hoarding his strength that much?"

"That's part of it, but the bigger reason is that the math on Taderson doesn't close. You think Ganjeol's certain he can catch it using his ability? Then he'd go. But what if he burns his ability and still fails?"

Mu Beob-sa's eyes sharpened.

"Is it a monster that strong, I wonder?"

"Run the hypothetical for yourself. Then ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you'll see why there's no clean answer."

"Still……."

"Say it, Jo Mu-sa. Why are you hedging?"

"The Ganjeolgot Coalition is, well, very big."

"It is."

"Is everyone besides their leader kind of weak?"

"Not at all. Ganjeol's got some real ones among his brood, and plenty of capable fighters besides. But the best of them all is still Ganjeol himself. On that, there's no dispute."

"Is his compatibility with Taderson bad, I wonder? Director Gong must know what Ganjeol's ability is, I see."

"And how exactly would I know that?"

"Do you truly not?"

Mu Beob-sa asked again, just to be sure.

"Truly not. But I've roughed out a guess. There aren't many abilities that can slaughter a crowd in a short span of time—that is, assuming the rumors about Ganjeol are true. Danshin-ah!"

With that, Won-goo called Danshin over and set him to boiling ramen.

Even so, Mu Beob-sa's expression refused to soften.

"You seem to keep dwelling on it, Mage-nim."

"It is a place adjacent to this one. That is the part that concerns me."

"We have an agreement in place. What's there to worry about?"

"If one mountain on their border becomes unusable, would they not turn their eyes toward the next?"

"So they could push all the way in here?"

"Not openly, but there are ways—drifting in and out like tourists while quietly building a presence. You know this as well as I do."

"You think too softly of the survivors in this region, Mage-nim."

"……?"

"Everyone here looks like they're missing a screw, but that's just their everyday face. Not all of them, mind you. Their rice bowl gets threatened? Then they change, and change a great deal. If Ganjeolgot comes sniffing around here all coy and greedy, they'll pay an appropriate fee for it."

"You mean the life stipend?"

"That's the one. But it won't come to that. Ganjeol—that old man isn't stupid enough to go that far."

"You've got a request for me?"

At Sanghae's place, Won-goo and Sanghae sat across from each other, working through a pile of fried food.

"I do. A request from Damseok Mountain."

"Damseok Mountain? A job traveled all the way here from there? Fresh should be right on hand."

"Fresh says he's busy these days."

"Busy, my ass. Just the other day he was out catching sham frogs with me."

"He's been working nonstop since then. Unlike some slacker Director Gong I could name."

"Tch. How much slacking have I actually done? I took exactly one week off."

"The old Gong So-jang wouldn't waste so much as an hour, let alone a day."

"That was the old me. The operation's bigger now. Anyway, what's the request?"

"It's from the Mosquito Gang."

"The Queen's Gang?"

"Yeah."

"Weren't they the quiet type?"

"Apparently some of their people ran off with gang property. Word is they fled somewhere around here, so the job is to catch them."

"Hmm…… that's awfully vague, isn't it?"

"The pay's decent, though. Ten gold coins per catch."

"Oh. Is there a separate advance fee?"

"Nope."

"Then we could come up completely empty. What if they didn't flee to this area at all? We'd eat nothing but scan costs."

"They're definitely nearby. The gang had their own pursuit team on them—chased them all the way to this area, then lost them."

"Hmm……"

Tapping his fingers against the table, Won-goo dug through his memory of the Mosquito Gang.

A mid-sized gang everyone called the Mosquitoes. That wasn't their official name, though—members, when introducing themselves, always said they served the Queen.

A gang ruled by a beautiful queen. That was the Mosquito Gang.

The sharpest difference between a gang and a services company was that a gang faced no limits on what it could do. On top of that, plenty of them were run in strange, one-of-a-kind ways. By that measure, the Mosquito Gang was exceptionally strange indeed.

Part of why they'd earned the mosquito name was that the Queen drained her members nearly dry—practically exploitative in every sense.

Though the kicker was that the members themselves didn't see it that way at all.

"What? Worried because it's somebody's family business?"

"If it were an ordinary gang job, I'd take it on the spot. But with them it's a little……"

"It does give off a bit of a cult vibe too. I know exactly what you're getting at, Gong So-jang."

"Right. Though it's hard to actually call them a cult."

"Their outward reputation is solid, at least. Never once heard of them backstabbing anybody."

"Hmm. The Queen herself isn't stepping out for this, right?"

"You seen that Queen move? She won't. If she will, introduce me. She's in the shelter right now, apparently."

"I'll hold off for now. What else you got?"

"This one needs a long trip."

"How far?"

"Mt. Samgak."

At those words, Won-goo straightened up in his seat.

"That's where the 3B branch is."

"Exactly. But it's just a branch. The 3B branches only gnaw on each other—leave them be and they leave you be."

"Hmm. So the request's not from them?"

"No. This one's from the businesses at the Shelter Course, down at the foot of Mt. Samgak."

"Why would businesses there need outside hands?"

"They seem to be pretty thick with each other, those businesses."

"Thick how?"

"Looking at the case file, that shelter was originally one family that swallowed up every business in it. Following me?"

"So you're saying that shelter runs like a family company."

"Right. See, this is why they call you sharp, Gong So-jang. That's exactly how it operated—until a dispute broke out. And it escalated all the way to bloodshed."

"So ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they want an outsider to clean it up. They can't bring themselves to touch their own family with their own hands?"

"More or less. I hear they considered hiring the gangs and services operating out that way too……"

"That'd be a nonstarter. It's the kind of work that earns you grudges. So what they need is manpower with no reason to ever visit Mt. Samgak again."

"You got it."

"Mt. Samgak…… what's it attached to? Whereabouts?"

"Beats me. I only found out after taking the request. From what I gather, even pushing hard, it takes over fifteen days of travel."

"That's way too far……"

"Right? Way too far."

There were good reasons survivors rarely strayed far from their shelters.

The Field was no safe haven. Monsters that could appear anytime, anywhere, in any manner—and on top of that, weather closer to natural disaster than climate. Every one of those factors had to be weighed into every move you made.

Near a shelter, you could prepare for those dangers to the fullest. The farther you got, the harder that preparation became.

"Neither one tempting you? Then want to just take collections like last time? The loan sharks were saying that work is your true calling, Gong So-jang."

"I took it that once because I knew the bastard. Why would a services outfit do debt collection."

"Then there's nothing else on the board. I'll let you know when something comes in."

"Hold on it for me. I'll talk it over with the crew and get back to you."

Won-goo shoveled the last of the fried food into his mouth and stood up.

"Let me know quick. There's somebody waiting."

"Fine, fine—give me an hour."

Back at the office, Won-goo gathered the crew.

"Fifteen days each way—isn't that far too long a stretch? A month gone, round trip."

"He's right, Director. The travel costs alone would eat the whole fee."

"There's still a reason to go. Hye-ji, what do you think? You know what's at Mt. Samgak, right?"

"I do."

Jeon Hye-ji wiped sweat from her face, her expression grave. She was the one who trained without rest, day after day—these days adding close-quarters combat on top of her thrown-weapons drills.

"It's true an opportunity's come."

"But…… something's off."

"What is?"

"The Course. I haven't been often, but I've been there. Back when I was with 3B."

"And?"

"Every one of those business owners was a believer. So, you see……"

"That's why this request doesn't quite make sense to you?"

"Yes. It feels strange, somehow."

"So what's your read, Hye-ji? Want to go see it?"

"I'd go this very minute—but the feeling won't leave me."

At that, the crew's faces stiffened.

It was nothing but a hunch, with a single scrap of evidence to its name. But survivors never took that hunch—gut sense—lightly.

"Could there be some other agenda at work, I wonder?"

"Who knows. But going by Sanghae's reaction, I'd say not. Besides, Sanghae's not the type to run a con that deep. Greedy with money, sure—but no."

The others nodded along in agreement.

"Still, I trust Hye-ji's gut. It was a marginal job anyway. The pay was decent, sure, but too long a haul to leave much of a margin. Hye-ji."

"Yes, Director."

"You're really all right with it?"

Jeon Hye-ji nodded. Won-goo moved straight to the next topic.

"Then we take the Mosquito Gang job and only that."

"Won't we need to hire quite a few Pathfinders, I wonder?"

"Two is plenty. Seok-bong handles this area, and for Cheonchu Mountain we get help from Baek Seol. If there's nothing once we circle back from there, they're long gone."

"So we're heading out on a job?"

Jo Mu-sa's question.

"We are. I'm off to see Sanghae, so everyone get your gear ready. We've got work."

They met with the representative the Mosquito Gang had sent.

"When you say 'dead or alive'—you mean bring them back even if they're dead?"

Won-goo asked. The man from the Mosquito Gang, Band, shook his head.

"The Queen does not concern herself with family who have left."

"Then?"

"The Queen's necklace. That is all you need to bring back. If they hand it over willingly, you simply collect the necklace and return……"

"Or else take it from their corpses."

"Precisely."

"Then I'll need one clause added to the contract."

Band's face hardened at once.

"We cannot pay an advance fee."

"I was already informed of that. But even a wasted trip has its matter of fault, doesn't it?"

"……?"

"If we comb this entire area and they still don't turn up, then that's not our failure—it means the information was wrong from the start. Wouldn't you say?"

"So?"

"In that case—if we've searched the area and found nothing—I'll take three gold coins. That's the only way the Pathfinder hiring costs get covered."

"And if a trace turns up in the area—how is that handled?"

"Then it's a chase, plain and simple. What I'm talking about is when no trace appears, or the trace we find is far too old. If they've gone beyond a certain distance, that rate doesn't cover a pursuit either. This region covers any target trackable within exactly twenty-four hours at no extra charge. Beyond that? I'll tell you the direction. That's it."

"……"

"Need time to think? Because in a manhunt, time is life. Isn't that right, Sanghae?"

"Time does matter."

Even Band had to agree with that.

"Then let's proceed on those terms. We look forward to working with you."

"No need for looking forward to anything—just write the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠contract. We're a business that lives and dies on its reputation."

Band and Won-goo clasped hands, smooth as anything.