Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: Setting the Stage
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The next day, the mages in their northern territory were in an uproar. They had learned that Lee Si-woo had killed Greenlet and rescued the Roben siblings.
They were the aces assigned by the Wilderness Magic Tower, gathered under Kakan for the sake of the tower’s interests.
“What is this? Since when do we just stand by and watch some human run wild? Huh? Why are we letting that monkey bastard, who should be breeding in the slums, go unchecked?”
“What a fucking idiot. Do you think that kill score is a joke? Hey, that ‘monkey bastard’ is the current number one ranker, you know? You wouldn’t dare say a word to his face, but you sure can run your mouth.”
“Shut your trap, you suck-up. What? You getting hot and bothered because some human trash is number one? Are you dying to offer yourself to him or something? Huh?”
“What? You son of a bitch! You’ve crossed the line! You want to die?!”
The atmosphere grew so heated that fists began to fly. Just then, a lion beastman, who had been quietly tipping a whiskey bottle in the corner, slammed his glass down hard.
Thud.
The noise stopped as if by a lie.
The mages glanced around like hyenas watching their leader.
The lion beastman flicked the whiskey from his mane, then slammed his forearm—a writhing mass of scars and sinew—onto the table and spoke.
“My friends, isn’t it a beautiful world? So equal and fine that the kind of seed born from between the legs of slum whores can come to the selections and act so high and mighty. Am I wrong?”
The mages all voiced their agreement with the words of Kakan, the master of the northern region.
““That’s right!””
Kakan chugged the whiskey straight from the bottle.
He exhaled, soothing his throat, which burned from the potent liquor, then spread his arms wide and shouted.
“I make you a promise. I will chew that bastard’s head whole. It’s been a while since I’ve had a taste of human flesh!”
““Chew him up and swallow! Savor the taste!””
Amidst the enthusiastic response from his subordinate mages, Kakan laughed heartily, raised his whiskey glass high, and bellowed.
“Chew him up and swallow! Let’s savor the taste!”
Just then, a soft, gentle voice echoed through the hideout, dousing the fiery atmosphere with cold water.
“It seems my timing wasn’t the best. I didn’t realize you were thinking of chewing on my head.”
The mages, startled to see Lee Si-woo, who had infiltrated their hideout without a single soul noticing, immediately took up combat stances.
Kakan, on the other hand, tilted his glass with a calm expression, as if he had already been aware of Si-woo’s presence.
“You need a good side dish when you’re drinking strong liquor.”
“How about we change that side dish from my head to someone else’s?”
Kakan’s whiskers twitched as he grinned.
Honestly, though he didn’t show it, even Kakan was surprised by Si-woo’s audacity.
He had never dreamed that the man would barge right into his own hideout, the heart of enemy territory.
“Why bother, when it’s right in front of me?”
“As you know, I’m quite the nimble one. When you’re hunting, you have to aim for the easy prey to fill your belly.”
“But that’s no fun.”
“Coming up empty-handed can’t be much fun either, can it?”
At Lee Si-woo’s impudent attitude, never yielding a single word, Kakan threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh.
A moment later, he stopped laughing, his expression turning serious.
“So you’re acting cocky because you trust in your Wings of Wind.”
“Are the Wings of Wind all I trust? I have quite a bit of faith in my own abilities, too.”
“Do you know? That there are five Masters under my command right here in this room?”
“And that’s only thanks to me sending one of them to the grave. Hmm, the more I think about it, the more it seems like a good deed. May I take a moment to praise myself?”
To be joking about praising himself in a situation where the surrounding mages could pounce at any moment?
As if dumbfounded by his insane nerve, Kakan let out a dry laugh.
In contrast, a dog-kin mage, who disliked Si-woo’s insolent way of speaking, growled and snapped.
“Watch yourself, human. Unless you want to be torn limb from limb and eaten.”
Lee Si-woo smiled faintly and said.
“You, on the other hand, should watch your mouth. Unless you want your head smashed in like Greenlet’s.”
“This bastard…”
Kakan raised a hand, stopping the dog-kin mage who was about to lunge at Si-woo in a fit of anger.
“Enough. I am speaking.”
At Kakan’s single gesture, the dog-kin mage retreated without another peep.
“…My apologies.”
Lee Si-woo narrowed his eyes and observed Kakan.
‘They’re supposedly all Masters… but his control over his subordinates is extraordinary. Hmm, so this is the man the Wilderness Magic Tower has its eye on.’
Although the mages who received betting rights were called aces, in the end, there could only be one true ace.
In that sense, Kakan was undoubtedly the Wilderness Magic Tower’s main card.
Kakan crossed his arms and asked.
“Enough with the wordplay. Let’s get to the point. Why are you here? You can’t be crazy enough to have crawled in here without a purpose.”
“I came to propose an alliance.”
“An alliance? Are you telling me to form an alliance with the madman who killed one of my own mages?”
“Is there any reason we can’t? Am I wrong?”
Kakan, pausing to sort his thoughts and gauge Si-woo’s intentions, spoke.
“You must have visited Wiridia as well, not just me. Correct?”
The corner of Lee Si-woo’s mouth twitched faintly.
Annoyed by that meaningful smile, Kakan stroked his whiskers with a claw the size of a baby’s finger.
Sensing Kakan’s displeasure, Lee Si-woo beat him to the punch.
“Yes. The result wasn’t good, but I did pay her a visit.”
Kakan, who had been thinking of starting a fight if things went south, snorted at Si-woo’s swift reply.
“Why wasn’t the result good?”
“Would you expect it to be?”
It was an obvious answer, but one that subtly got under his skin. Kakan suddenly wondered why this man had come all this way just to provoke him.
He was being so openly provocative that it actually made Kakan feel uneasy.
Thanks to that, Kakan couldn’t bring himself to make a move easily and just ran his mouth.
“From the looks of it, you didn’t really come here to form an alliance with me. You, what is it you truly want from me?”
Lee Si-woo stroked his lips with his index finger. As Kakan clenched his fist at the gesture, which strangely grated on the nerves, Si-woo opened his mouth with a low laugh.
It was a risky move, as if he were testing the limits of Kakan’s patience.
“I came to give you an opportunity.”
“An opportunity? What kind of opportunity?”
“An opportunity to not be helplessly crushed by us. How does that sound?”
“…Us?”
“I have formed an alliance with Yuryung of the east. And tomorrow, I plan to strike you alongside him.”
At those words, the expressions of everyone present, including Kakan, changed completely.
The impact of Si-woo’s statement was that great.
Kakan’s glaring eyes shot wide open in disbelief.
“Nonsense.”
“It will all come out tomorrow anyway, so there’s no reason for me to lie, is there—?”
Before Si-woo could even finish his sentence, Kakan moved.
He had decided that dealing with Si-woo immediately was a clearer solution than bothering to verify the truth of the alliance.
It was a sudden, agile movement, like a lion pouncing on a gazelle.
Seeing the fist rushing toward him, Lee Si-woo’s entire body gleamed with a golden luster.
Crash!
A golden arm blocked Kakan’s punch, which was like a lion’s paw.
Kakan snorted, scraping Si-woo’s skin with his angry claws, but it only produced the sound of metal scraping metal and dealt no significant damage.
Their arms locked, the two wrestled, grappling for strength like a tiger and a lion.
In that moment, they acknowledged each other.
‘He can withstand my strength, enhanced by my Mineralization ability? Is this really possible with pure physical power, without any magical effects? Insane… Now I see why humans are trampled by beastmen in this world.’
‘A mere human, trading blows with me, a member of the lion tribe, in close combat? Hah, I’d only heard stories about that golden body… It’s beyond imagination. It’s hard to believe he’s human. Or maybe… he isn’t human at all.’
Crack.
With the sound of bones settling, Kakan was stunned.
He had thought they were evenly matched, but now his own arm was starting to bend.
It was hard to believe, but Lee Si-woo’s physical strength clearly surpassed Kakan’s.
“Where did this crazy bastard come from…!”
Kakan had no choice but to circulate his mana.
[1st Circle Elemental Magic: Swiftness]
As the buff-type wind magic, Swiftness, was cast, a gentle current of wind enveloped Kakan’s body.
The power of buff-type magic like Swiftness varied by Circle; in the case of the 1st Circle, it increased agility by about 30 percent.
Si-woo was quite surprised when Kakan cast Swiftness.
Although it was only a 1st Circle spell, Swiftness was one of the Wilderness Magic Tower’s secret arts, not a spell a wandering mage like Kakan should have been able to learn.
‘Those bastards at the Wilderness Magic Tower. They taught him Swiftness to make him the winner!’
Empowered by Swiftness, Kakan’s already formidable physical abilities began to shine.
With a lightning-fast kick, he struck Si-woo’s abdomen to create distance, and then Kakan’s fists cut through the air.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Kakan landed two straight punches on Si-woo’s face, followed by a spinning kick to his chest.
Taking a considerable impact, Lee Si-woo was sent flying backward.
But something was strange.
It was certainly a full-power kick, but considering Si-woo’s skill, he shouldn’t have been sent flying like a ball hit by a bat.
Sure enough, while still in mid-air, Si-woo threw a punch behind him.
Crash!
Si-woo smashed through the wall, escaped through the hole, then spread his Wings of Wind and soared into the sky.
Si-woo shouted down at Kakan.
“Kakan, today’s reception was impressive. I’ll be sure to repay this debt tomorrow.”
Kakan watched Si-woo’s departing back with a cold gaze as he left behind a clear laugh.
The mages, who hadn’t been able to join the fight because it had happened so suddenly, approached Kakan one by one.
“I’m sorry. I was too flustered to help.”
Kakan shook his head at one mage’s apology.
“No, it’s fine. Even if you had helped, you wouldn’t have been able to stop him from escaping. More importantly… prepare to move.”
“Excuse me? Prepare to move?”
“Yes. I need to go south and meet Wiridia.”
“To Wiridia… you mean?”
The mage seemed reluctant at the thought of going to Wiridia, with whom they had often clashed, and Kakan’s eyes flared.
“You saw Si-woo’s skills just now, so you know. If two freaks like that attack us, even I won’t stand a chance. In other words, if by some chance Si-woo’s alliance with Yuryung is real, we’re finished.”
Before they clashed, he had admittedly looked down on him, but after their brief exchange, it was clear he was no pushover.
“That’s true, but… will that high-and-mighty Wood Elf, Wiridia, really form an alliance with us…?”
“She will, nine times out of ten. This is purely my gut feeling, but if Si-woo really did visit Wiridia… there’s no way nothing happened.”
There was no way Wiridia would have let Si-woo leave peacefully, so she must have experienced something similar to what he had. Therefore, if Wiridia had any sense, she wouldn’t treat Kakan poorly.
Was that why?
What concerned Kakan more than the alliance itself was Si-woo’s true intention.
He couldn’t for the life of him understand why Si-woo would come to them and blabber on about his alliance with Yuryung.
‘That bastard. What in the world are you plotting?’
* * *
After leaving Kakan’s hideout and returning to the western region, Lee Si-woo summoned the Roben siblings.
“Laila, I need you to deliver this note to Yuryung in the east right away.”
The note contained the demand they had agreed upon beforehand: that he would handle Wiridia, so Yuryung should handle Kakan. It also served as a notice that his side would attack tomorrow, so their side should attack tomorrow as well.
Of course, Si-woo didn’t forget to add a threat that the alliance would be void if Yuryung didn’t keep his promise.
Even though approaching the eastern region recklessly could get her killed by Yuryung, Laila replied instantly without a hint of doubt.
“Yes, I understand.”
Roben, worried for his sister, spoke up cautiously.
“I’m concerned that Yuryung might attack Laila.”
“If she wears a white band around her head, he’ll know she’s one of mine and won’t touch her, so you don’t need to worry.”
Since Si-woo said so, Roben had no choice but to believe him.
“Huh? Ah… yes. Understood.”
“More importantly, Roben, you haven’t forgotten what I strongly urged you to do, have you?”
Roben replied, his face tense.
“No. If you ever fire the signal flare… I will personally take the lives of those in the hideout.”
Among the nine people Si-woo had selected to get into the Top 10, the seven besides the siblings were tied up with ropes and locked in the hideout.
It was Si-woo’s contingency plan to take their lives at any moment if the situation didn’t go his way.
Si-woo’s goal was to ruin the interests of the established powers, excluding the Senior Magic Tower, but he had no intention of risking his own life, blinded by vengeance.
That’s why he had prepared the Roben siblings as his trump card.
If by some chance things went wrong, his plan was to ignore Kakan, Wiridia, and Yuryung, assassinate only their subordinate mages, and forcibly form the Top 10 to end the selections immediately.
Si-woo patted Roben’s shoulder with a gentle smile.
“As you know, the only ones I can trust are fellow humans like you and Laila. After all, the others… are of a different species than us, aren’t they?”
The reason Si-woo entrusted such a critical mission to the Roben siblings, whom he had only met a day ago, was because they were not only human but also members of the terrorist organization, Racist.
Members of Racist, who were endlessly cruel to all non-human races, would never betray a fellow human like him to save the other races tied up in the hideout.
Moved by Si-woo’s words, Roben and Laila nodded firmly.
Hearing that someone as capable as Si-woo trusted him, Roben couldn’t hide his trembling heart as he spoke.
“Please, trust me. The moment I see the signal flare, I will handle everything perfectly.”
“I’m counting on you.”
After encouraging Roben, Lee Si-woo’s eyes narrowed.
The black pupils revealed between his lids looked exceptionally cold today.
‘With this, the stage is set.’
Now that Si-woo had visited the south and the north and caused a ruckus, Kakan and Wiridia would form an alliance unless they were fools.
And Yuryung, completely unaware that the two had formed an alliance, would head for the north.
The rest was simple.
He just had to watch how things unfolded, assess Yuryung’s strength, and adjust his plans accordingly.
‘Well, Yuryung. Don’t be too upset. I said I’d take care of Wiridia, but I never said when, did I? Right?’