Chapter 117
Chapter 117
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 117
Chapter Title: Part 38. The Squirming Thing in the Depths (7)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Understood. I'll see you later."
After hanging up, Yoo Ji-tae closed his eyes and pressed a hand to his temple.
'As you commanded. My liege.'
There was no reply.
The clone headed to a quiet spot and donned the mask it had set aside. In an instant, it transformed into a Black man in his fifties.
It was one of the "Mimicry (AA)" disguises the clone had collected.
Before Yeoreum's dungeon raid set off, it had removed the mask for the first time in ages to greet people in Yoo Ji-tae's place. Now, going through Mimicry again, its weakened body felt uncomfortably frail once more.
The clone sat on a nearby bench, waiting for the next order. Then, with a massive jolt, Hate Ling's altitude dropped noticeably.
At last, the liege had made his move.
Soon, a voice came from the liege. It was information about who had bought the guardian necklace. The clone stood up.
Kanaye Guild.
It was the name of a superhuman combat guild under the South African Union SAN.
They weren't total strangers. As the clone puzzled over it, additional memories arrived from Yoo Ji-tae. A Kanaye cadet had lost to Yeoreum four times. And the malice flagged by Scales Eye had been intense.
Usually, such extreme hatred toward someone you barely knew stemmed from some indirect but major impact.
So the clone decided to ask directly.
A Black guardian from Kanaye was smoking outside the residential district. His name was Malunga—a man famous even in Lair for writing books on cadet training and giving lectures.
The clone approached him. As he stood up in confusion, the clone smashed a fist into his face. Crack. The man's body crumpled.
"Kuh!"
He flailed on the ground, trying to rise, but couldn't. His whole body felt limp. The clone grabbed Malunga by the collar and dragged him into the dormitory building's basement mana engine room.
"Y-You bastard... Who the hell are you...!"
His eyes were hollow, like he was drunk or drugged.
His head snapped back and forth. Fists breaking through his reinforced body. Malunga realized his attacker was on a whole different level.
The clone met his gaze and asked.
"You ruined everything."
"What?"
"We were plotting all sorts of schemes to drive the Yoo family out of Lair. You fucked it all up."
Perplexity gathered in Malunga's eyes at the clone's words.
He glared at the clone in Black guise, then touched his torn cheek. With a heavy sigh...
"Who are you with? SAN?"
"What does it matter?"
"Damn it... Someone else was pulling strings. Makes sense. No way those worthless clowns could strut around without anyone pushing back."
The sharp aura around the clone faded.
"If I got in your way, sorry about that. But punching me out of nowhere? That's too much."
"You'd better shut up. If you don't give me a good reason, you're dying here."
"...Shit. How'd you know? That it was me."
"Kang Moon-gu."
Those three words from the clone. Malunga let out a deep sigh and shook his head.
"Goddamn it..."
Like he felt betrayed, Malunga sighed repeatedly.
"Still, brother. Don't be too hard on a guy in the same boat. You lost something? I lost a damn truckload."
"What'd you lose?"
"After Malta got crushed 3-0 by Yoo Yeoreum, my standing in Kanaye went to hell. Up to 16 straight wins, they treated me like a hero. Hell, after Malta wrecked Erpan Guild's hatchling, my value tripled."
"..."
"If he'd just cracked the top 10... Me and Malta would've had a bright future. You know what Kanaye was like back then?"
Recalling it brought regret bubbling up, his face twisting.
He bit his lip hard.
"But that wild boar bitch Yoo Yeoreum ruined it all."
"..."
"Thousands of cadets in the tournament. But Malta and Yeoreum matched up four times. Even with scores normalizing upward, four times is fishy. Right? That damn bitch sniped him somehow. Or colluded with tournament staff!"
"Evidence?"
"Fuck evidence! It's obvious! So Kanaye dropped me from the top guardian list. And after the fourth loss, that bastard Malta turned to drugs. Got 34 points sucked dry by Yeoreum. You can quit drugs, but 34 points? Top 10's a pipe dream now. My tower came crashing down!"
Now the clone understood.
Luck had been brutally shit here.
"Fuck... It was rigged. All rigged! Out of thousands, only Yeoreum and Malta match four times? Bullshit! She knew her matchup advantage and sniped him on purpose to steal points!"
"..."
"Why're you looking at me like that? I'm the victim of dirty rigging! Pity me! In this shithole Lair, it's all about money or connections. Yeoreum's family has no pull, so she bribed or whored herself out. That's how she did it. You think I'd crumble alone?"
Getting worked up, his hands trembled with rage.
"I ain't going down alone. I can't fall by myself..."
Crack! His head whipped around. The clone had smashed his nose flat. Blood poured from both nostrils as he collapsed.
"You still don't get how insane your actions were."
Malunga clutched his mangled nose and looked up at the clone.
His mind cleared in a flash.
"You'll find out tomorrow."
Lair Administrative Office.
The 'Round Table of Seven' faculty meeting.
Middle-aged men gathered around the round table.
Principal Ha Seok-mu. Vice Principal Soon Heum. Assistant Vice Principal Ma Nam-jun. Assistant Vice Principal Yerson Liberty. And three inspectors—seven in total.
Due to complicated circumstances, most were puppets of the International Hunter Federation. But that didn't change their role in shaping Lair's present and future.
"We must punish them severely, per the school rules."
One inspector raised his voice.
"Severely how?"
"The whole family should be expelled. How dare they pull a knife on faculty?"
Such straightforward violations always fell into clear categories.
So when something fell outside those... the leaders' minds grew complicated.
"Hmm..."
"Cadet rivalries are one thing. But this undermines faculty authority. And the injuries?"
Vice Principal Soon Heum shook his head.
"I agree we need to punish the violent act. But... casualties make that impossible."
"What do you mean?"
"Here's the latest victim report."
A holographic display showed the document.
[Injured: 11]
[Dead: 0]
It was a miracle.
No deaths amid that chaos.
The man with the broken neck was a superhuman. The injured ones too. They'd been treated at the clinic's ER and cleared—no life-threatening issues. Silard Leo was the same.
In this era of advanced medicine and healing arts, 'murder' heavily influenced punishment severity.
You could cheaply reattach limbs, but the dead stayed dead.
"Still, just looking at the situation gets messy."
"How so, Vice Principal?"
"Military supply office malfeasance was uncovered. Yoo Yeoreum's team nearly died because of it."
"Even so, emotional retaliation isn't justified."
Some raged over life-or-death stakes.
But no deaths resulted.
"And after Silard went down... the aftermath was something else."
After asking Kang Moon-gu something, Yoo Ji-tae calmly offered his hands to the disciplinary officers. Like, take me away.
The officers freaked, but he'd followed them meekly to holding.
"What an absurd stunt... But it ended the incident."
Even so, per school rules, the Yoo family deserved heavy punishment.
"But... the one who did that to Silard."
"Pardon?"
"Even if we punish, it shouldn't be wasteful."
Principal Ha Seok-mu's words scratched the inspectors' nerves.
"Principal Ha! Then what's the point of school rules? Justice won't stand!"
"...Calm down, Inspector. Sand fits in a mold. But look closer—this is an avalanche."
"We're educators, Principal Ha!"
The inspectors bristled.
"I get your position, sir, but some things you don't say. There's no Yoo family! It's a fake clan! Probably some hunting dog the Korean government rears in the shadows."
"Harsh words, but I agree. He's no clan—just an individual. Realistically, no need to kiss ass. Protect faculty authority."
"Treating the strong special goes against justice. As educators, can you refute that?"
The criticism dragged on.
The quietly enduring principal, Ha Seok-mu, wiped sweat from his furrowed brow.
"It's been 11 years since I sat here. First batch, maybe? Nine years ago now. That incident."
A somber tone.
His words evoked the same memory in everyone.
"As you know, back then Lair and disciplinary were sharper, more military. Post-war school, after all. Corporal punishment was rampant."
The old puppet continued gravely.
"When the Yong Jeong-guk family head—no, he wasn't head then—as guardian, shoved a sword at disciplinary. Wasn't there someone here saying the exact same things?"
"That's different! There were real victims!"
"No deaths—same as now. And backed by Korean government—also same. Is justice that bends situational?"
"Principal Ha!"
"...Since when were we true educators?"
Then, disaster-class demon and assistant vice principal Ma Nam-jun spoke in a serpentine voice.
"I've had a thought."
All eyes turned to him.
"Yong Jeong-guk was different. If the clan's not solid, there's a better way."
"Better how?"
"Yong Jeong-guk already had Korean government backing. Clan itself was meh, but ready to grow. Backed by a powerhouse, uncontrollable."
But the Yoo family was different.
"Checked it out—Korean government flatly denies any ties."
"Not rearing as backup?"
"Who knows. Point is, they publicly deny. So, productive punishment now builds positive ties with that guardian. Lair needs power these days."
Leash it before it grows too big.
The inspectors, who'd decried the principal for soft justice, couldn't argue.
If the clan had no power, you could use them somehow, right?
That's when it happened.
— Y-Yoo Ji-tae guardian's lawyer is here.
A voice in Ha Seok-mu's in-ear. The reporter sounded blatantly flustered. Ha whispered back. Why?
— Well...
"What?"
Ha Seok-mu shouted involuntarily upon hearing. Eyes in the room stabbed at him.
Moments later, as two men entered... shock spread like wildfire.
"A-ha-ha! Come in, come in! What brings such busy public figures here?"
Ha Seok-mu stood personally to greet them, despite his secretary.