Chapter 286: I Don't Know Anything!
Chapter 286: I Don't Know Anything!
After that little scrap with the Heavenly Sword.
I hurried back to my holding cell.
I was worried that Yumil might have caused some kind of trouble during that brief window, but fortunately, Yumil wasn't like The Adversary, Baek Si-hyun. She hadn't caused any problems.
"Nothing happened, right?"
I asked the question just in case this silence meant she had already finished doing something irreversible.
"A staff member walked past dazed with a coffee in one hand, but he didn't even notice the lock was broken."
…Is the Martial Alliance really okay like this?
Honestly, even if I hadn't used a distraction and just left her there, they probably wouldn't have noticed. Well, as long as I wasn't caught, it was fine. Maybe the person in charge had been told during the handover that they didn't need to worry about me.
Rather than such trivialities, there was something I had to apologize to Yumil for.
"Um. Sorry."
"Why are you suddenly being so ominous?"
Sorry, but it is ominous.
"I just went and had a bit of a bout with the Heavenly Sword using almost my full strength."
"…And?"
Her voice seemed strangely sharp. It wasn't just my imagination… definitely not.
"Good luck infiltrating the Alliance. The alert level has probably increased tenfold."
The Black Marauder appeared and unleashed power comparable to his first appearance! By dawn—no, maybe even now—the news was probably burning up with breaking reports like that. Since my phone had been confiscated when I was tossed into the cell, I couldn't check if that was actually the case, though.
"…You're joking, right?"
"No, I'm serious. After I leave, go find somewhere high up. You'll see a massive crater."
It was a major construction project completed by the two of us using only a sword and a Pry Bar. Man, I thought Kong Jianping was all talk and wouldn't be much different from the old days, but he'd been training hard in the meantime. As a fellow disciple, I couldn't be happier.
"So, be careful not to run into the Heavenly Sword. The moment he saw me, he started spamming instant-death-level Forms."
With Yumil’s current skill… could she block maybe two of them? Even that would put her in the upper ranks of A-Rank. But the very top… that would be difficult.
People always misunderstand this, but those at the absolute peak of A-Rank are monsters on par with us. Just like how Meteor managed to take a round off me in a duel after the Management Bureau was established—even if it was just a duel.
It's just that they lack S-Rank techniques like my Crimson★Hammer, the Heavenly Sword’s Infinite Form, Oxymoron’s Operating Room, or Mishika Misha’s Agent of the Earth.
Yumil and Baek Si-hyun have the talent to reach that level, and their growth rate is far faster than ours was in the past, but they're still lacking in many areas.
So.
"Do your best. Well, if you focus on escaping, you'll manage somehow. Unlike me, you have that teleportation thing."
I was talking about the thing she used to get in here. I don't know why various beasts pop out and bite her, similar to when she transforms, but I guess that's just her magic concept.
"It hurts a lot every time I use it, you know."
Hmm, so it really is as painful as it looks. Is it a mechanism where beasts come out, chew her up, swallow her, and then spit her out and regenerate her once she reaches the target location?
Regardless, the point of Yumil’s words wasn't that the teleportation was painful. It was more like: Why did you make things so messy that I have to use something that painful?
In that sense, maybe I should share one piece of good news.
"Don't worry too much. I'm coming back after wrecking one of the Heavenly Sword’s arms."
"What?"
A very high-pitched sound echoed in all directions. Startled, I quickly covered Yumil’s mouth.
"Keep your voice down."
Do you want to get caught?
I expanded my senses to scan the surroundings. A bit of time passed while I kept Yumil’s mouth shut, but I didn't feel anyone coming this way. Feeling relieved, I removed my hand from Yumil, who was huffing angrily into my palm.
"Calmed down?"
Yumil nodded at the question.
"Good. Now, if you have something to say, keep it quiet."
As soon as I set that condition, Yumil opened her mouth with a twisted smile.
"Wow. That. Is. Such. Great. News."
She emphasized every single syllable, clipping them short. I had no excuse, so I kept my mouth shut.
"Let's summarize, then. My secret presence here has been compromised, you left a mess so massive the results of the fight can't be hidden, and on top of that, you broke the arm of a top-tier Hero?"
Her words felt like needles, but unfortunately, she was slightly off on one point.
"Ah, I forgot to explain, but I also crushed a prominent villain organization."
"Die."
Whoosh.
With the sound of cutting air, a black hammer manifested in an instant and swung down toward my head. No matter how unexpected the sneak attack was, I wasn't the type to be hit by something like this. I moved slightly to the side and dodged the attack.
Yumil hadn't put her full strength into it either. The Hammer stopped just before hitting the floor, preventing the catastrophe of the cell collapsing.
"Really, truly. Can't you just let me hit you once?"
"No thanks."
Why would I?
At those words, Yumil looked up at the ceiling, clutching the back of her neck as if she had a headache. When I didn't say anything, she eventually seemed to calm down.
"…I'll figure it out myself."
Returning a hollow response as if she had reached enlightenment, she summoned a black puddle beneath her feet. Then.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
Numerous shadow beasts emerged and began biting Yumil’s body. Amidst the flesh being torn away bit by bit.
"If the plan fails, it's your responsibility."
With only her face remaining, she left those final words as she sank into the puddle.
Snap.
Her face was swallowed by a giant wolf, and silence returned to the cell.
Hmm.
Scratch, scratch.
I felt a bit awkward, so I scratched my head and stomach, but in the end, there was nothing I could do.
Might as well sleep.
I dove into the bed, ready to welcome the morning. It was a hard bed.
* * *
When morning broke.
As expected, the person in charge asked why the lock was broken. I gave the prepared answer: it was an emergency because I had to use the bathroom. The staff member gave me an indescribable, subtle look and didn't ask any more questions.
And with that, I was back to breathing the air of the outside world. Of course, I had to listen to a final lecture about not beating up the kids, but anyway.
As soon as the sun was up, I walked along the main road where martial artists were moving busily—some for training, some for smithing, and some heading off to see the crater where the Heavenly Sword and the Black Marauder had clashed.
I turned on my phone. I never charge it properly, so I was worried it might be dead, but fortunately, the battery was over half full. I opened the internet and checked the news section, finding what I wanted immediately.
There were countless news articles related to yesterday's events. I opened one at random. Immediately, a massive crater came into view. It was a clean, circular crater, as if it had been scooped out with an ice cream scoop. Perhaps because it was taken from the air, its scale was even more striking. Yet, despite the eye-catching photo, the news content was incredibly ordinary.
The time and location of the incident. The fact that the Black Marauder appeared, engaged in combat, and then fled. There wasn't a single mention of the Heavenly Sword or the villain group, no matter how hard I looked. Curious, I checked a few more articles, but the information remained the same.
So, I closed the news section and searched for the topic directly. I found a low-quality video that seemed to have been filmed from a distance, showing the fight between me and the Heavenly Sword. However, because it was filmed from so far away and in the middle of the night, the video only showed surreal flashes of silver light being swallowed by black shadows and the crater slowly expanding over time.
The comments on the video were also quite pathetic.
The comments were mostly like that. Usually, the Management Bureau would censor such videos, but the fact that they were leaving it alone meant that there was no way to tell the opponent was the Heavenly Sword from that video alone. Or perhaps higher-quality videos had already been nuked by the Bureau’s information team before I could see them.
In the end, this was it. The Bureau still didn't want to raise the Black Marauder to O-Rank, and for whatever reason, they didn't want it known that the Heavenly Sword had been defeated. I didn't know what kind of discussions were happening internally, though.
Anyway, if that was the Bureau’s general consensus, I didn't have to worry too much about Yumil’s side. Of course, the difficulty had spiked significantly compared to the original plan, but at least the Bureau wouldn't be intervening in the Martial Alliance on a massive scale.
As I walked while looking at my phone, I eventually arrived at the Management Bureau building. I put my phone away and headed toward the lodging I had booked in advance. Since it wasn't a very large branch, it didn't take long to reach the internal lodging, but with every step, a definite sense of foreboding washed over me.
The cause was none other than a voice all too familiar to me. A massive noise cutting through the morning air.
"A-bin! Let go! I'm going!"
"I told you to wait! It's not even confirmed to be the Black Marauder yet, and Senior hasn't come back either!"
…At first, I tried to believe it wasn't my kids. But as the voices and the content became clearer with every step, I let out a sigh and revealed myself to my disciples.
"What are you two doing?"
"Ah, Senior! You're here! Please talk some sense into Si-hyun! She says she's going to find the Black Marauder!"
"If the Black Marauder is there, I have to be there too! Let's go! Come out! Black Marauder!"
Why is Si-hyun so hyper? I felt like I could just leave her be, but if she went around shouting "Come out, Black Marauder!" everywhere, Yumil might collapse from stress-induced gastritis. Let's rein her in for now.
"Si-hyun."
"Yes!"
"Go back to your room."
"Understood!"
With just one word from me, Baek Si-hyun dashed back into the lodging room so fast it was as if her previous tantrum had never happened.
Left in the hallway were Han A-bin, drenched in sweat from wrestling with Baek Si-hyun for so long, and me, sighing as I easily deduced the situation. Just the two of us.
"…Do you need me to explain the situation?"
"No need."
I could tell just by looking. After that brief exchange, we slowly entered the room, unlike Si-hyun.
The lodging was a room with four beds, as I had requested a room for three people in advance. It wasn't luxurious, but it was about as good as a decent hotel. In the middle of the room, Baek Si-hyun was sitting quietly at a table, watching the news.
Coincidentally, a breaking news report about the Black Marauder’s appearance was scrolling across the screen. Baek Si-hyun’s body kept twitching as if she wanted to run out every time she saw it, but she didn't do anything more, prioritizing my command.
I felt truly relieved that this runaway train actually listened to me, and I sat down across from her. Han A-bin, exhausted, threw herself onto her bed instead of a chair.
Once things were settled.
"Master!"
Baek Si-hyun raised her hand with a lively voice.
"What."
"Can I go look for the Black Marauder?"
"No."
Since I had anticipated that question long ago, I immediately reined her in with my answer. That question was repeated about three times.
In the meantime, Han A-bin regained her energy and washed up. After everyone had breakfast and was ready, I took both Baek Si-hyun and Han A-bin to the Bureau lobby.
"Ah, Hero Crimson★Hammer. A message has arrived from the Martial Alliance Headquarters. They said you can come by anytime today."
I received the answer I had been waiting for. The annoyance I felt at hearing my Hero name was washed away by the news.