Eyes Full of Greed
Tae-hyun watched McCraney lick her lips and inwardly shook his head.
She was only acting restrained because she knew she wouldn’t come out unscathed if the dragon went berserk. If she ever found out Yong-yong had lost his power, she’d absolutely rush over saying she wanted to touch him.
McCraney cleared her throat. It seemed she realized she had been a little too obvious.
“So what are you planning to do from here on out?”
“Find more Authorities.”
Avatar of Archisus.
It was a Legendary Class, but it still had a lot of shortcomings.
Above all, it simply didn’t have enough class skills.
Looks like they expect me to gain skills by clearing the class quests...
When there was already a gap between him and the other rankers, this wasn’t the time to hesitate.
He had to run at full speed.
At Tae-hyun’s answer, McCraney nodded.
“That makes sense. The power of an Avatar comes from Authority. The more Authorities you obtain, the stronger you become.”
“Then do you know where the others are?”
McCraney flinched at that.
Seeing it, Tae-hyun smirked.
“So you don’t.”
“That sort of information isn’t easy to get. You know that perfectly well.”
“You talk like you’re some grand merchant lord, so saying you don’t know is a little disappointing. Oh well. Guess we’ll have to call in the people you hate.”
“The people I hate...?”
McCraney started to speak, then grimaced.
There was only one group she could possibly mean.
“Aigoo, Tae-hyun! I thought you’d abandoned us! Boo hoo! But of course you wouldn’t, right? Right?!”
“I wasn’t planning to, but if you keep clinging to me and crying like this, I might really throw you away. Get off.”
Tae-hyun shoved Pelmas away with his foot as the man clung to him, sobbing.
Pelmas had come all the way to find Tae-hyun in Tyrum, only to be ditched the moment they reached Genoma City.
From Pelmas’s point of view, it was an outrage.
But from McCraney’s point of view—as the head of a major merchant group—there was no way she could like Pelmas and his friends.
Worthless trash who do nothing but haunt gambling dens.
They make grand speeches about searching for their god, but looking at how they act, I can’t trust them for a second.
If they stay nearby, I’d be more worried about them stealing money.
Feeling McCraney’s gaze on him, Pelmas coughed awkwardly and let go of Tae-hyun’s pant leg.
Then he got to his feet.
“Ahem. Tae-hyun. It has simply been so long since I last saw you that I showed you an unsightly side of myself.”
“You were unsightly to begin wi—”
“Anyway! For what reason have you summoned me?”
Pelmas quickly cut Tae-hyun off.
Pelmas was no easy man to push around.
If they had kicked him out and then called him back, that meant they needed him.
Having figured that out, Pelmas looked between McCraney and Tae-hyun and cleared his throat again.
“Could it be that you need my talents? Only now? After casting me aside like that before?”
“If you don’t like it, leave.”
Tae-hyun pointed at the door without even a second of hesitation.
A level of coldness that even impressed McCraney.
He’s colder than a merchant.
Pelmas immediately threw himself flat onto the floor.
“Aigoo, no, no! I was only joking! How could I possibly dislike it?!”
Just like Tae-hyun, Pelmas didn’t hesitate for even a second before bowing his head.
It was a level of groveling even McCraney found impressive.
He’s lower than garbage.
Once Pelmas bent himself double, Tae-hyun stopped tormenting him and gestured for him to stand.
“From now on, you’ll be working together. McCraney here said she won’t leave you people out anymore.”
“When did I ever—”
McCraney looked wronged, but she didn’t argue further.
Right now, the one most likely to have information was Pelmas.
At Tae-hyun’s words, Pelmas’s eyes lit up.
“So then—have you obtained an Authority?”
“Yeah. I got one. Do you know where any of the others are?”
Pelmas grinned.
It was a smile brimming with confidence.
“Tae-hyun. Who do you think I am?”
“Human garbage.”
McCraney muttered it under her breath, but Pelmas ignored her.
“Am I not the man who has chased the traces of Archisus all this time, believed an Avatar would appear, and prepared everything for that day?”
“...”
Pelmas shouted with fervent excitement.
Nobody else in the room seemed particularly moved.
“Of course I’ve heard of the locations of other Authorities.”
“Oh? Where?”
“As it happens, one of my companions is already inside one of those places.”
“So where is it?”
“If the results are favorable, he’ll contact us at onc—”
“I said where is it?!”
McCraney, who had been asking from the side this whole time, finally snapped and cut him off.
But Pelmas looked at her with open scorn and said,
“I will tell Tae-hyun and Tae-hyun alone.”
“What? We just agreed to work together, didn’t we?”
“Maybe so, but on Caterand Island, when you went to obtain that Authority, you were the one who left us out.”
“You petty little—!”
“You’re the petty one! You dumped us and then expected us to sit quietly while you handled everything however you wanted? Who was it that brought the Avatar here in the first place?!”
McCraney and Pelmas burst into a noisy argument.
It was truly an ugly fight.
“Enough. Pelmas does have a point, so I’ll hear him out separately.”
“You’re taking Pelmas’s side now?”
“He’s right, isn’t he? That document about the Authority on Caterand Island was something Pelmas found, and we still cut him out of the process. He has a right to feel cheated.”
The reason Tae-hyun was taking Pelmas’s side was simple.
There was no downside for him to hearing it alone.
The fewer people who had information, the better.
There was absolutely no reason for Tae-hyun to kindly say, “Let’s all hear it together, haha,” out of consideration for McCraney.
“Then would you mind stepping outside for a minute while I hear Pelmas out?”
“This is my building—”
“Your building is my building, and my building is my building. Come on. Out for a moment.”
Tae-hyun forcibly shoved Rufo and McCraney along by the back.
The two of them were driven out of the room before they could properly react.
“Heh-heh. Tae-hyun. So you trusted me after all, calling me in separately like this.”
“You’re the one who said you wanted to tell me without anyone else around. What are you talking about?”
“Understood. Since you have placed your trust in me, I, Pelmas, shall live up to it!”
“You’re not listening to a word I say, are you?”
Pelmas struck a grand pose and glanced around the room.
Then he lowered his voice and beckoned with his hand.
Come closer.
Tae-hyun sighed.
“Can’t you just say it?”
“Someone outside could be listening.”
“If they’re listening outside, lowering your voice probably won’t help much... Fine. Whatever.”
Tae-hyun stepped closer to Pelmas.
Pelmas opened his mouth.
“Do you remember the companions I mentioned before?”
“I remember. You, and your friend Nekdon.”
“A splendid royal guard knight.”
“Right. Aside from the part where he got thrown out for gambling.”
“...And Galakpad. A sage-like man who spent a long time in the Magic Tower. Do you remember him?”
“Yeah. If you ignore the fact that he wasn’t a mage, just a copyist.”
“Ha ha. A mage and a copyist aren’t all that different, when you think about it. Other than the fact that one can’t use magic...”
“Isn’t that the whole difference?”
“Ahem. In any case, do you remember Ed-an?”
“Wasn’t he supposed to be a thief?”
“Please put a ‘great’ in front of that. Great Thief Ed-an.”
“Right, right. Great Thief Ed-an. So what? What did he do?”
“The one who entered the place rumored to contain an Authority this time... was Ed-an himself.”
“...!”
Tae-hyun’s expression sharpened in surprise.
Honestly, he hadn’t expected much from Pelmas and his friends.
Of course, Pelmas had played a major role in discovering that there was an Authority beneath Caterand Island.
He had pieced it together from old documents.
But to have found the next one this fast too?
He’s more competent than I thought.
Pelmas looked faintly uneasy under Tae-hyun’s stare and asked,
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Nothing. Just surprised you’re more capable than I expected.”
“Isn’t that incredibly rude?!”
“It’s a compliment. So Ed-an went to the place with the Authority? Where is it?”
“To the place said to contain the Authority, yes. Whether it truly exists there can only be confirmed once Ed-an checks for himself. As for how I discovered it, among the old documents related to the Archisus Church, there was a line that said, ‘Beneath the capital of the old rulers...’”
“I’m not curious how you figured it out.”
Tae-hyun cut him off cold.
Pelmas drooped visibly.
“What I want to know is where it is, and when Ed-an is supposed to come back with results.”
“Ha ha. There is no need to worry. I cannot say when he will return with results, but Ed-an will undoubtedly succeed. He is a Great Thief whom no one can overcome.”
“...Huh?”
Tae-hyun paused.
Something had just occurred to him.
“Wait a second. Didn’t that Ed-an guy retire?”
“Even retired, a Great Thief remains a Great Thief.”
“No, didn’t he retire because he got caught and both his arms were cut off?”
“Ha ha. Even with both arms gone, a Great Thief is still a Great Thief, is he not?”
“No, he absolutely is not!”
Tae-hyun stared at Pelmas in disbelief.
But Pelmas looked utterly confident.
“Ed-an is perfectly capable of handling things without arms.”
“I don’t buy that for a second. So where did he go? If it’s somewhere I can help, I’d rather go back him up.”
Pelmas seemed to trust Ed-an completely, but for some reason Tae-hyun felt a creeping unease.
If Ed-an stirred things up for no reason and some other faction or person stole the Authority, it would make everything several times more annoying.
I’m not about to turn an easy quest into a tangled mess.
But Pelmas hesitated instead of answering.
Tae-hyun pressed him.
“What are you doing? Where did he go?”
“Th-that would be... Mora City.”
“Mora City is...”
Tae-hyun searched his memory.
Mora City was definitely the... of the Atali Kingdom.
“The capital,” said Pelmas.
“The capital?”
The capital of the Atali Kingdom.
The place with the royal palace, the King of Atali, and knights crawling all over it.
“He went there?”
“Yes.”
“Not the royal palace, right? Please tell me it’s not the palace.”
More than anything, in the current situation, he did not want to get entangled with a kingdom.
In Fantasy Online 2, the most troublesome possible situation was making an enemy of a major power.
Guilds made up of players didn’t even count as major powers.
The truly dangerous powers were giants like kingdoms.
Once a kingdom held a grudge and started hunting you down, there was no answer to that.
Tae-hyun recalled old incidents from Fantasy Online 1.
Back then, whenever there were annoying bastards, I’d frame them and dump them on the kingdom army.
There had once been a case like this.
Tae-hyun had clashed with a certain guild and completely wrecked them through PK.
Then the guilds allied with them came swarming in.
But they had clearly made up their minds—they didn’t attack openly.
Instead, they kept their distance, trailing Tae-hyun and peppering him with ranged attacks the whole time.
Their intention was obvious: interfere with his quests, then pounce the moment he showed an opening.
So Tae-hyun kept leading them onward...
...straight to a castle occupied by the kingdom army.
As luck would have it, at the time a prince was also stationed there, personally commanding the army.
The guild members chasing Tae-hyun without a clue were horrified.
Tae-hyun threw on a mask and started setting off bombs everywhere in sight.
Naturally, the kingdom soldiers charged in at once.
“You crazy bastard! What the hell are you doing?!”
Whether the guild members protested or not, Tae-hyun turned the whole area into chaos.
Then he ran.
“N-no! It wasn’t us!”
Some of the guild members even tried talking to the soldiers.
Smack!
But Tae-hyun had no intention of leaving them alone.
As he fled, he darted through the middle of them, and whenever he saw an opening, he would slam one of them hard and take off again.
From the guild members’ point of view, it was maddening beyond belief.
“That son of a bitch, I’m going to kill him!”
In the end, the guild members exploded and drew their weapons.
And the kingdom soldiers took that as their signal to attack.
The result was obvious.