A Girl's Revenge (3)
"Then I'll be on my way. Call me whenever you're ready."
"Yeah. Thanks, Scarlet."
Scritch-scritch—
Scarlet vanished up along the ceiling with the same movements as always. The first time I'd seen it, the spider-like crawl had turned my stomach. The more I watched, though, the more I had to admit it had a charm all its own.
Our conversation had confirmed Nam Da-eun's intentions beyond any doubt. She had an unshakable will for revenge. All I needed to do was set the stage.
After Scarlet left, I dug up the journalist's contact from the mixer party.
"No. Wait. Not yet."
Calling a journalist was a good idea. Ever since the terrorist attack, I'd been stuck in the hospital focusing on the heroines, and the press had gone relatively quiet about me. Stirring up a little attention again wouldn't hurt.
But there was something I had to do first.
I sent messages to the heroines. If they found out I was being discharged through an interview, they wouldn't take it well.
"…That's a lot."
How did I end up with this many women?
And that was without even contacting Liliana, Nam Da-eun, or Baek A-young. Too many was putting it mildly. Not that I could give any of them up. I'd have to take them all with me.
Anyway, now that I'd messaged everyone, I left a message for the journalist as well.
The person I contacted was Kim Ha-yeong, a reporter famous under the name Ha-yeong Unnie. She'd written an article about me back when I rescued Baek A-young from a dungeon, and I'd been grateful for it. On top of that, she'd come up to me at the party, told me she was a fan, and that had stuck with me.
This was a chance to repay her.
Preparations were complete.
I waited for Reporter Ha-yeong to arrive, turning over how I'd boost Park Min-gyu during the interview.
Beep-beep-beep—
"Hah… hm?"
Elise's eyes flew open at the alarm chiming from her smartwatch. It wasn't her usual timer. It was the tone she'd set to go off whenever a message arrived from Lee Ho-yeon.
She checked the watch at once.
"…He's getting discharged."
Hoo.
Elise let out the breath she'd been holding and evaporated the sweat from her skin with Clean magic. If it had been up to her, she would have celebrated his discharge by watching that video of him again, but…
"Sebas Chan."
"Yes, my lady."
Sebas Chan had been standing beside her the entire time, posted there in case anything went wrong during her meditation. Elise swallowed her disappointment and spoke slowly.
"I found a mana masseur."
"…I beg your pardon? I was under the impression you had given up on Mana Massage."
"I found someone good, so I'm going to try again. We've already signed a contract."
"If you had told me first, the guild would have provided support."
"There's a reason I didn't. The masseur is a man. A young man."
"…"
Sebas Chan closed his mouth.
Everyone in the Iris Guild wanted Elise to overcome her Congenital Mana Disorder, by whatever means necessary. Even if it meant receiving Mana Massage from a young man, Sebas Chan wouldn't have minded — so long as it cured her.
The Guild Leader's thoughts, however, might be another matter. Pair the word "massage" with a young man and a young woman, and anyone would start asking questions.
"Will the Guild Leader… permit this?"
"You think I signed a contract for no reason? I'm doing this because I've already seen results."
"I would never question my lady's judgment."
Elise had been a genius since she was a child. Sebas Chan had watched her grow up, and of course he trusted her. The Guild Leader wouldn't doubt Elise either.
The male masseur, on the other hand, might be in for a very dangerous time. When it came to anything involving Elise, the Guild Leader shed the composure that had earned him the title of Night Emperor.
"I shall report it myself for now. What sort of person is this masseur?"
"…Mm."
Elise opened her mouth intending to say Lee Ho-yeon's name, but when it came time to actually say it, her voice caught. Even she had to admit that his name coming up in this context looked suspicious.
"My lady?"
"It's Lee Ho-yeon. My new masseur."
"…?"
Sebas Chan's face filled with the obvious question. Lee Ho-yeon was a cadet he had personally investigated. Elise herself had ordered that investigation, and there had been no record of Ho-yeon ever learning massage.
And now, suddenly, he was a masseur?
"I know it sounds hard to believe… just trust me. I have my reasons. There is absolutely nothing improper about this."
Poke. Poke.
Her conscience twinged as she said there was nothing improper about it.
This is treatment. Treatment. A completely necessary course of treatment.
Elise kept the conversation going while she brainwashed herself right along with it.
"Understood. I shall convey this to the Guild Leader."
Fortunately, Sebas Chan did not press further. Lee Ho-yeon was suspicious, yes — but if Elise placed her trust in him, then Sebas Chan had to believe her as well. That was his role.
"Good. And make sure you tell him not to get excited. Tell him to stay calm."
"I shall do my best."
"…If he starts making a scene about coming to Victoria Academy, or about needing to see Lee Ho-yeon in person, tell him he and I are finished."
"Understood."
Sebas Chan sighed inwardly.
Sebas Chan. You're supposed to cut off any man who gets close to Elise at your level, aren't you? That's why I sent you there.
He could already hear the Guild Leader's nagging as a phantom lecture in his ears. If it had been up to him, he wouldn't have reported this at all. A date with a boy her own age was something Sebas Chan could have quietly overlooked. But this was a matter of treating Congenital Mana Disorder — a serious enough affair that a report was mandatory.
Sebas Chan waited with a gloomy expression for the Guild Leader's working hours to begin.
The guild master's office at the Buyer Guild.
The Buyer Guild had ballooned in size almost overnight, and the guild master's workload had ballooned with it. Park Min-gyu shoved the documents he'd been reviewing aside and let himself sink into his chair.
"Haa. This is not the time for this."
The work itself was going smoothly. But there had still been no word — not a single scrap — about the sisters Nam Da-eun and Nam Daehee.
How can there be nothing? Nothing at all?
If there wasn't even a sighting, there was a real chance they were already dead somewhere. And if that were true, a tower he had spent more than ten years building would come crashing down.
Park Min-gyu was still scowling when the office door burst open and someone strode in.
"Guild Master! You gotta see this. This is huge!"
"Don't make such a goddamn fuss, you bastard. We need to break those old habits, yeah? Keep it clean. And knock, for fuck's sake. What if I'd had a woman in here with me?"
"Ah— sorry!"
The guild executive, tattoos covering every inch of visible skin, scratched his head with an awkward grimace.
"Tsk. Just show me and get out."
"Yes, sir!"
The executive shoved a holomonitor at him, then shut the door and vanished.
Back when the Buyer Guild handled nothing but dirty work, they had needed muscle. They had also needed men who wouldn't flinch at dirty work. So Park Min-gyu had filled the executive seats with people who were greedy, strong, and stupid enough to control. This was the result. The guild had grown, but the place itself was a mess.
"Once we get a little bigger, I'll have to replace all those bastards."
For now, he didn't have the bandwidth. Managing a guild in the middle of explosive growth left no room for a purge.
Park Min-gyu clicked his tongue and looked at the monitor the executive had brought. A pretty-faced young man was on the screen.
"Hoh…?"
Park Min-gyu's mouth curled upward. He could feel his standing rising in real time. And Lee Ho-yeon — he'd spoken with the boy once already.
This could be a recruitment opportunity.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
A knock sounded at the door.
"Come in."
The only person who visited the guild master's office that calmly was the Director.
"Guild Master. We've received a sighting report on Nam Da-eun and Nam Daehee."
"What?!"
Park Min-gyu shot up from his chair and snatched the documents out of the Director's hands.
"Tipster is anonymous… saw Lee Ho-yeon and Nam Da-eun together…? Is this even reliable?"
Anonymous tips, with a few exceptions, usually came from people who had something wrong with them.
"Yes. Anonymous, but apparently someone well-known in that world."
"Hmm… so one of the exceptions, then?"
Park Min-gyu considered it for a moment, then let a nasty smile spread across his face.
Even better. They're connected. I can deal with them both at once.
He'd only ever entrusted this to reliable sources. It wouldn't be false intel. He wasn't some amateur who took information from just anyone. And the other party involved — Lee Ho-yeon — was already showing him goodwill.
"Director. Call the reporters and set up an interview."
"Sorry? About what?"
"I don't care what it's about. Shut up and set it up!"
"Y-yes, sir!"
The Director bolted from the room at the roar, and Park Min-gyu crossed his legs and sat back down.
"If I can just talk Ho-yeon around… I can solve everything."
He'd thought bringing up women last time had been a mistake. But if the boy was saying things like that in an official interview, it meant he was interested in women. Which meant he probably had Nam Da-eun with him.
It irritated him that someone had walked off with the girl he'd invested so much in, but it didn't matter. Whether he got the boy drunk or threw women at him, he just needed a stamp on a contract. After that, he could make him just like Nam Da-eun.
"This is an opportunity. A gift handed down from heaven…"
Park Min-gyu pulled a fake contract from his drawer, one meticulously forged with mana. There were executives in the Buyer Guild who were bound by this exact document. Every piece on the board was tilting in his favor.
"Nam Da-eun or Nam Daehee… I just need to get them back. It's fine."
Breaking in a girl who'd already lost her virginity to another man had its own kind of fun.
Park Min-gyu started preparing for the interview and began scouting a location to meet Lee Ho-yeon.
A hospital room at Chulhyul Hospital.
"An interview the very next day. He moves fast, I'll give him that."
"He's a fairly reliable informant at that level. He won't suspect a thing."
Scarlet and I were watching Park Min-gyu's interview from the hospital room. The moment my own interview went public, Scarlet had seeded the information — that I had Nam Da-eun with me.
On screen, Park Min-gyu was working through the interview with a stiff, awkward expression. Every question the reporter asked was angled in a direction that favored him.
"Is it okay for him to be that obvious about it?"
"People surprisingly don't suspect that sort of thing. And his public image is good right now, which only helps."
Beep—
I was watching the tedious interview when my smartwatch chimed.
The contact I'd given the journalist had made its way to Park Min-gyu as well. "The conversation we had last time" — that would be about recruitment.
"Shall we get going?"
I slipped out of the hospital and headed for the address Park Min-gyu had pinned. Naturally, it was a district packed wall to wall with entertainment venues.
Famous or not, this bastard hadn't changed a bit.
"Ready, camera girl?"
"Yes. Don't worry."
Scarlet had followed me hidden in my shadow, a recording artifact hooked through her ear. Time to start with something light.
Hear ye, hear ye! There's a lunatic who hired escort girls for a student cadet!