Chapter 5 - Bullying Within the Party (2)
Chapter 5 - Bullying Within the Party (2)
Chapter 5 - Party Bullying (2)
Pajik!
As Liv swung her staff, the flow of mana from Chloe's torture magic shattered to pieces.
Seoyun's twisting body finally collapsed to the floor.
Seoyun's fingertips were still trembling, and she was still groaning with rough, labored breaths.
Liv's eyes sank coldly.
"Human trash."
Peong!
A red wave of mana bursting from Liv's staff pushed Chloe back by several steps.
"Keueok! How dare you...!"
Chloe gritted her teeth and raised her staff once more.
Liv's staff also glowed an even deeper shade of red.
"Liv, calm down!"
Goodwill urgently stepped between the two.
But Liv's gaze turned toward Goodwill.
"You're just the same, Hero."
"What?"
"Do you know how many hours Seoyun-ssi slept yesterday?"
Goodwill's mouth shut tight.
"Two hours. While you were all sleeping in your tents, this person stood guard, calculated the next route, and even disarmed trap circuits. All while her ankle was swollen."
Liv looked down at Seoyun, who was trembling from the aftereffects of the torture magic, with pitying eyes.
"And yet you had no idea. Is it only 'protection' when you move after a person screams in pain?"
"I was busy saving the knights..."
"No. It wasn't just this time."
As Goodwill spat out an excuse with a stiff face, Liv scoffed and cut him off.
"You always told her to hang in there. But you never once shared the workload. Even when Chloe was abusing her, all you did was say 'stop it.'"
Liv stepped toward Seoyun and helped her up.
"You just wanted to be a good person, but you never wanted to be someone who takes responsibility."
Goodwill couldn't refute it.
But Chloe sneered at Liv and said,
"Traps are the guide's responsibility. If there were dangerous spots left, she should have cleared them all in advance!"
"Seoyun-ssi told you not to go there."
"She should have stopped us more forcefully!"
"Do you think that makes any sense? That's just your way of shifting the blame onto others."
Liv looked at Chloe with a contemptuous gaze.
"There is neither honor nor knighthood here. This party is nothing more than a human trash can that grinds a person down and dumps all the responsibility onto them."
"What did you say?"
Chloe exploded in fury and fired an attack spell.
She didn't seem to care whether Seoyun was next to Liv or not.
Pajik!
A blue flash flew straight toward Liv's face.
But with just a tilt of her staff, Liv diverted the magic to the side.
Kwaang!
The stray flash shattered the dungeon's stone wall.
"This bitch, what kind of mana power...?"
As her magic was blocked once again, the color drained from Chloe's face.
And understandably so, since throughout the entire dungeon raid, all Liv had shown was low-level recovery magic and support magic.
However, the power Liv revealed now was on a completely different level, so much so that calling them fellow mages would be embarrassing.
A power that instantly crushed an executive-level mage of the Knights Order.
She was no ordinary person.
Realizing that Liv was not an easy opponent, Chloe...
"An outside adventurer has attacked a member of the Knights Order! Seize that bitch!"
She shouted to the surrounding knights.
"She's a traitor! Arrest her immediately! It's an order!"
Following the order, the knights drew their weapons all at once.
Goodwill reached out toward Liv once again.
"Liv, apologize for now. If you apologize to Chloe, I'll somehow..."
"Ordering the victim to apologize."
Liv cut off Goodwill's words.
"That's what bystanders do best."
Kwang!
A massive red wave of mana exploded from the tip of Liv's staff.
The charging knights rolled across the floor and were sent flying.
Chloe deployed a barrier, but she was pushed back by the mana wave and slammed hard into the stone wall.
"This mana is!"
"It's demon mana!"
"She's a corrupted renegade!"
Dark red mana surged around Liv.
An aura distinctly different from ordinary mana, which displayed a bluish-white wave of white and blue.
She had unleashed the power she was hiding to maintain her disguise.
"Have you only realized it now? Did you really think that after entering a labyrinth connected to the Demon Realm, there wouldn't even be a single eye of the demon race watching?"
Liv scoffed at the Knights Order's lack of safety awareness.
Throughout the dungeon raid, they had pressed forward solely for results, fanatically focused on acquiring spoils of war.
They had been advancing by sacrificing Seoyun.
"Haa..."
She embraced Seoyun, whose consciousness was hazy from pain.
"Seoyun-ssi. It's going to be a little bumpy."
"Liv...?"
"Let's get out of here first."
Liv pointed her staff toward the ceiling.
Kwaaang!
The moment the mana explosion covered their vision,
the emergency escape route hidden in the ceiling opened up.
"It's a hidden escape route! Stop her!"
"Seoyun! Seoyun! The guide is being kidnapped!"
The Holy Sword, which had never been drawn while Seoyun was being tortured,
was pulled out the instant she was about to leave the party.
Kwang!
As Liv's red mana swept in front of his eyes, the Hero's feet paused for a brief split second.
That single moment of hesitation from the Hero was more than enough.
Carrying Seoyun in her arms, Liv flew into the escape route.
...
At the same time, Empire Knights Order Headquarters.
Knight Commander Hardwork read down the telegram that had urgently arrived.
[Second Battalion Hero Party Attacked]
[Guide Han Seoyun Departed]
[Accompanying an Adventurer Presumed to Be a Renegade]
[Route Interpretation Impossible Immediately After Guide's Departure. Dungeon Raid Suspended]
And beneath that telegram lay a separate order stamped with the Imperial Seal.
[The Disappearance of 3rd Princess Eileen Is to Be Kept Strictly Confidential]
[Publicly Announce That She Is Recuperating at the Detached Palace]
"Following the Princess, now it's the guide."
The adjutant swallowed hard.
"Commander, do you believe the two incidents are connected?"
"Can't you tell even after looking at these? If anyone believes they aren't connected, they are a traitor."
Hardwork roughly set the order down on his desk.
Nowhere in the imperial order was there a single sentence inquiring about Eileen's life or death, nor any rescue plan.
Only three things were written.
Maintain strict secrecy.
Announce the Princess's recuperation at the detached palace.
Severely punish anyone spreading rumors.
What the imperial family feared even more than the Princess's death was the fact that the competent Princess had left the empire of her own volition.
The most capable people in the empire leave seeking a better place.
Everyone leaves to join the Demon King.
Becoming corrupted is a better life.
The moment such rumors spread, the empire's cause of loyalty and devotion would collapse.
"Han Seoyun is also an outsider whom the Princess personally assigned to the expedition plan."
"Right. Immediately after the Princess disappeared, we must prevent rumors from spreading that even the guide she had her eye on has disappeared. Especially among the outsiders."
Hardwork stood up from his seat.
"Blockade the border. Capture the guide alive. Execute the traitor on the spot."
"Yes, sir!"
"Entrust Goodwill with leading the pursuit immediately. Our 1st Battalion will also begin the pursuit at once. I will go personally. Have everything prepared right now."
Just as the adjutant, Hustle, was about to leave, Hardwork called him back.
"Hustle."
"Yes, Commander."
"Silence the Knights Order so rumors don't spread. Neither the Princess nor the guide is missing."
Murderous intent flickered in Hardwork's eyes.
"They have betrayed the empire. Once we capture the guide, we will interrogate her regarding the Princess and quietly dispose of her."
...
Alarm sounds were ringing in the Demon King's Army Strategic Situation Room.
"Emergency escape route opened!"
"Agent Liv has deviated from the scheduled route!"
"We haven't confirmed target Han Seoyun's intention to join us either. At this rate, it's a kidnapping!"
Reports from the executives poured in.
On the large monitor, Liv's shaking field of vision and unstable mana levels were being displayed.
The vital signs on the sub-monitor were also fluctuating rapidly.
'She used a lot of mana.'
The Demon King stared for a while at Liv running away with Seoyun in her arms on the monitor.
"No."
At that single low-pitched word, the situation room fell silent.
"That is not a kidnapping, it's an emergency rescue."
The Demon King thought while tapping his fingers on the desk.
And then he said decisively,
"Article 24 of the Demon King's Army Field Safety and Temporary Protection Regulations: At a scene where body and mind are threatened by physical abuse, isolation takes priority over consent procedures. One must be alive to make a contract or refuse one."
"However, it is a fact that Agent Liv violated the corruption plan."
"We will address her responsibility after she returns alive."
The Demon King's red eyes flashed brightly.
"Cease the commotion."
The Demon King's voice pressed down on the situation room.
"Do you think the operation is over when a field employee has not returned?"
At that moment, everyone in the situation room instantly froze.
"Safety comes first. What is Liv's current location?"
"It's uncertain. We sent rescue signals three times, but she is avoiding all of them. It seems she cannot distinguish between the Empire Knights Order and the Demon King's Army rescue team."
"Hmm... What about the Empire's movements?"
"An advance party led by the Hero Goodwill is in hot pursuit behind them. The pursuit team departing from the Empire is expected to arrive in half a day."
"Is the leader of the pursuit team Commander Hardwork?"
At Hardwork's name, the air in the situation room grew heavy.
Right then, the former Princess, Eileen, who was standing in front of the monitor, spoke up.
"Liv isn't the one avoiding it. The guide, Seoyun-ssi, is making her avoid them."
Eileen drew a line over the mana map.
"Guides judge strong mana flows as danger signals. She must also be erasing their escape tracks by blending them into the surrounding circuits."
"Liv... no, Han Seoyun is evading all those pursuits?"
"She has that level of skill, which is why I said I needed her."
Eileen tapped the map with her fingertip.
The person who had designed this dungeon expedition was none other than Eileen.
The terrain of that entire area was stored inside her head.
"It's here. It looks like a dead end, but in reality, you can descend along the valley. Seoyun-ssi will head this way. This is the only path left."
The Demon King looked at the map for a moment, then stood up from his seat.
"Budget double hazard pay for the dispatch team. Have the situation room immediately rotate with the night shift. Make sure protection handlers from the Medical Team and HR Team accompany them as well."
"Uh, protection handlers from HR... even the brainwashing specialist?"
"Correct."
"Han Seoyun has not been corrupted. Nor is she a prisoner or hostage. We must make that fact clear to her immediately after the rescue. Brainwashing is required."
"Are you going as well, Demon King-nim?"
"Kukuku, Liv is my employee. If Hardwork of the 1st Knights Order has stepped out, I must go personally."
The Demon King laughed wickedly as he draped a giant black cloak over himself.
"Going to all the trouble yourself..."
"My precious subordinate is being pursued by the Empire Knights Order. It is only natural, if only for her safety."
He looked at Eileen.
"Team Leader Eileen, can you come along and read Seoyun's mana?"
"Of course."
Eileen also put on a red coat over her Demon King's Army suit.
There was no hesitation in her hands as she folded the mana map and put it into her bag.
"After all, she's the person I asked to bring."
The waiting spatial mage opened a red portal right in the middle of the situation room.
Eileen took the first step into it.