The Goblin Masked Elder
The old man wearing the goblin mask wrinkled his nose at me in a playful manner. Yeonsu quickly pulled out her phone and gave a suitably vague explanation of the current situation before requesting backup.
'She literally caused an incident just yesterday.'
Judging by the voice on the other end, the caller seemed to be an elderly man. Their conversation sounded quite familiar, almost like old friends.
'Is that the Association President...?'
In my previous life, I remembered her speaking with the Association President quite often.
The other person seemed to say something in response.
The way the two of them bickered suggested there was some complicated history between them, but I had zero desire to get involved. Calling the Association President an old man... there were times when I really questioned if Yeonsu was in her right mind.
She quickly ended the call and waved us over.
"Ah... well, that's..."
Yeonhee looked troubled by Yeonsu's request. The moment Yeonsu saw her expression, her brows furrowed.
"......"
"No, but still..."
"We don't know what might happen... What if you freeze up again like yesterday..."
Even after what happened yesterday, her actions showed no hesitation. We had come up with a plan to extract people ourselves precisely because we thought this might be another trap set by them. If she charged in like this, our consideration would be meaningless. Besides, she kept talking like she was going to head out immediately, but we needed to wait for the support team to arrive.
"Ugh—"
Yeonhee tried to hold her ground while hugging Yeonsu, but the moment Yeonsu grabbed her by the back of the neck and lifted her up, she dangled helplessly in the air.
'She must have some kind of countermeasure...?'
Looking at Yeonsu, it seemed like she was actually looking forward to encountering that mysterious being from yesterday again.
'That ritual from yesterday—if they really wanted to, they could activate it again in any number of ways. What could her countermeasure be? There's no way she could meaningfully raise her resistance in just one day.'
Now that it had been confirmed that the leader of Do could see the future, I couldn't help but worry. I stared intently at Yeonsu, but she simply patted my shoulder and gave me a wink.
'I can't stop her.'
We waited until the support team arrived. The moment they showed up, we prepared to head to the factory.
"Understood."
'Association personnel, huh... Still, if Yeonsu is vouching for them this strongly, I guess we can trust them.'
Yeonhee gave Jinkyung and Jua one last hug before moving with us to a spot out of sight from the others.
The moment Yeonsu asked with a puzzled look—
- Whooooosh—
The Shadow Dragon that Yeonhee summoned revealed its majestic form. After being summoned, the dragon's eyes met Kang Yeonsu's. Unlike when it looked at me, its pupils were calm and serene.
'This bastard?! So it's strong against the weak and weak against the strong?!'
I nearly burst out laughing at the absurdity. But Yeonsu, upon seeing the Shadow Dragon, sparkled like a child seeing a dinosaur for the first time.
'That thing is cute? Where?'
Anyway, with Yeonsu now riding along as well, we headed back to the factory.
Yeonsu hung from the tip of the Shadow Dragon's tail like she was on a ride and spun like a top in the air.
"Y-yeah..."
'Seeing her like this really shows how pure she can be.'
For some reason, I felt a warm sense of satisfaction and nodded. It didn't take long before we arrived back at the factory. But in that short time, something major seemed to have happened here.
"Oh, seriously..."
The underground factory had been blown apart into a massive crater as if it had been hit by a nuclear bomb. For a moment, we were all speechless.
"Tsk... We're too late."
Since I had already blown up the birthing area with bombs when I escaped, there probably wasn't much left to salvage anyway. Still, I never expected them to erase the entire place so cleanly without leaving a single trace of dust.
'They didn't kill their own allies too, did they?'
If they had, I would have received a message, so that probably wasn't the case.
Yeonsu stared blankly at the scene for a moment before making another call.
The person on the other end sounded like their teeth were grinding in frustration at Yeonsu's audacity.
Click—
But Yeonsu hung up before even hearing the reply.
'She's really something. Treating the Association President like some neighborhood grandpa...'
"What should we do? Everything's gone... I'm sorry."
Yeonhee apologized for not calling Yeonsu sooner. Yeonsu expressed her regret and told her to call her first next time.
'The strongest ally who can be summoned anytime...'
Both times we had called her, the incidents had been incredibly large in scale. Even if we contacted her again in the future, she would come running without hesitation.
Since we had some time to spare, we discussed what had been happening inside the factory and how to track down Do. Soon after, the team Yeonsu requested arrived and began analyzing the underground space.
"Okay."
"...Is something wrong?"
Yeonhee asked because Yeonsu looked like she had something to say. Yeonsu scratched her chin and replied.
"Ah! R-right, I do remember that now."
"Hehe..."
In other words, she was saying that even if we skipped joining the White Knight Guild and went straight to the Association, she wouldn't interfere. What in the world... What was going on?
'What's this... Why is Kang Yeonsu acting like this? What kind of justification could possibly change the mind of such a stubborn woman?'
Just the fact that she had supported and helped us was already something we could never fully repay. Now she was even guaranteeing our freedom of choice. It was hard to understand.
'That expression... She's giving us the chance to listen, but she's strongly convinced we'll come back to her anyway... Well, I'll find out tomorrow.'
Since this matter seemed to have wrapped up rather anticlimactically, we stared blankly at the analysis team for a while. Just as we were about to say goodbye to Yeonsu and head home—
A massive presence suddenly radiated from above. Both Yeonsu and I simultaneously looked up at the sky.
'What the hell is that? A goblin mask?'
The being floating in the sky was indeed wearing a goblin mask. It descended very slowly, careful not to provoke us.
"Hoo—"
The moment Yeonsu recognized the entity, she entered full combat readiness and began looking for an opening to attack. Her aura was fierce, as if there was no longer any point in talking.
However, the strange being with the goblin mask showed no signs of aggression. It landed on the ground, observed us for a moment, and finally spoke.
'That voice...'
It carried even deeper traces of time than the elderly man's voice Yeonsu had been speaking with earlier.
Yeonsu lowered her combat stance the moment the man landed. Just by presence alone, the man was a monster comparable to Yeonsu. But the tension in both her and me eased slightly the moment he touched the ground.
'What is he? An early Awakener? There aren't many people who can move around so freely...'
The old man with the goblin mask waved his hand at Yeonsu, who was still radiating a menacing aura.
'What kind of cult is this?'
Yeonsu slapped her forehead and shook her head.
'Hmm?'
The old man with the goblin mask threw something toward Yeonhee. I swiftly snatched it out of the air.
'This... It looks like a grass flute similar to the Bracelet of Binding. Why this?'
It resembled an item used by party members inside dungeons to locate each other's positions.
"?!"
We all jumped in surprise at the goblin-masked man's words and looked at him with questioning eyes.
'Fucking hell.'