Chapter 55
Chapter 55
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: Racist
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Before officially entering the magic tower, Lee Si-woo met with the Roben siblings at a café.
He hadn’t originally planned to see them, but it was awkward to flatly refuse their persistent requests to express their gratitude.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, Si-woo, my sister and I were able to enter the Wilderness Magic Tower under rather favorable conditions.”
The survivors from the Top 10 had scattered among the various magic towers and corporations under the Association, according to the interest-sharing agreements.
However, this process had been fraught with considerable friction.
Because Lee Si-woo had interfered in the survivor selection, the quality of the survivors was abysmal.
Thanks to this, the Roben siblings, who were the best of the lot, stood out and were able to gain some minor advantages.
No matter how cheap the remaining goods were, it was the psychology of the haves to want the best among them.
Lee Si-woo smiled brightly and said.
“It’s nothing. I was just using you for my own needs. I wasn’t acting out of any particular goodwill.”
Roben gave a bitter smile at Lee Si-woo’s excessive honesty.
“Still, we are grateful. Whatever your intentions were, Si-woo, the fact that we owe you our lives doesn’t change.”
“If you insist on repaying me, I won’t stop you. Well, it would be cold to only accept the sentiment, after all.”
At Lee Si-woo’s affability, Roben scratched the back of his head.
He was a completely different person, a full 180 from how he’d been during the selection, making it difficult to adjust.
Back then, Lee Si-woo’s aura had been entirely different from what it was now.
-When I fire the signal flare, kill all the survivors in the hideout. Do you understand? There can be no mistakes. Make sure they've stopped breathing. Check twice, three times.
Roben could never forget Lee Si-woo’s cold face that day, treating the captured and bound survivors in the officetel room like slabs of meat hanging in a butcher shop.
Perhaps that was why, even as he joked and laughed with Si-woo, he couldn’t let his guard down.
He couldn’t fathom what might be hiding behind that gentle smile.
Laila, on the other hand, was twiddling her index fingers, stealing glances at Si-woo with an unusual look in her eyes.
It seemed her memories of the selection had left a strong, albeit different, impression on her than on Roben.
“Si-woo, if it’s not too much trouble, would it be alright if I contacted you from time to time? I still have a lot to learn as a mage…”
To Laila’s cautious question, Lee Si-woo replied with a gentle smile.
“Contact me? Of course. Just don’t be disappointed if you find out I don’t know much. I’m not as impressive as I might seem.”
At his permission, Laila’s face brightened noticeably as she beamed.
“Thank you. I’ll only contact you when I have a really pressing question, so I won’t be a bother. Oh, but by any chance, is that person named Jin your actual brother?”
“Hmm? You know Jin? I don’t think we’ve met him together yet.”
“No, it’s just that when I called you before, you must have missed it, because someone named Jin answered instead. He was a little… peculiar.”
“What did he say?”
“Well, he asked who this woman was. He kept going on about how he hadn’t given permission for you to date yet…”
As if embarrassed to speak such scandalous words, Laila fanned her face with her hand.
Lee Si-woo scratched his nose and sighed.
“…Don’t worry about it. That guy’s always been a bit dramatic. And he’s not my real brother, just a close younger brother figure. I owe him a lot, so I’m pretty much at his beck and call.”
“Ah, I see. Well, anyway, he seemed like an interesting person.”
They continued to chat, erasing the lingering awkwardness and building a rapport.
Then, when the mood seemed right, Roben took a coin from his pocket and placed it on the table.
Lee Si-woo’s pupils flickered slightly upon seeing the coin.
The coin Roben offered was the same Lincoln commemorative coin that the plunderer had taken out in Castle.
“It’s a small token, but I hope you’ll accept it. My debt to you is too great to be repaid with words alone…”
As Roben slid the one-cent coin toward him, Lee Si-woo tried not to show that he recognized it.
“My, this is quite a sudden gift. I’m at a loss for words. Um… but I’m not very worldly, you see. I’ve never seen a coin like this before… Is it valuable?”
“Haha, my apologies if I got your hopes up, but it’s not that kind of gift. However, I can assure you that it will be of great help to you someday.”
“This coin?”
Roben glanced at Laila beside him and asked.
“Laila, you’re okay with this, right?”
As Roben’s eyes seemed to ask for her permission, Laila answered in a firm voice.
“Of course. Si-woo is different from the other traitors. He said so himself during the selection. That we can only trust our fellow humans, and that the other races can’t be trusted.”
“That’s true.”
“And… most importantly, he already knows where we’re from. Yet he hasn’t reported us. Isn’t that enough? We can trust him.”
Roben wore an awkward expression at Laila’s solid conviction.
He actually suspected that Si-woo hadn’t acted out of genuine kinship, but rather to reassure and effectively use them.
Roben stole a sideways glance at Lee Si-woo.
But it was difficult to read the inner thoughts of the man with the faint smile, and having received too great a favor to distrust him based on mere suspicion, Roben tried to force his mind toward a more positive outlook.
Besides, it was an undeniable truth that Si-woo hadn’t reported them.
“I suppose if I can’t trust the man who saved my life, who can I trust?”
After checking his surroundings to ensure no one was watching, Roben took out a small note and handed it to Lee Si-woo.
Lee Si-woo accepted the note impassively and read its contents.
-If you ever need help, take that coin to Slum District 17 anytime. And tell them Roben sent you. Racist will help you in every way possible.
Racist.
A group that, tired of discrimination, chose to discriminate; sick of hatred, chose to hate.
And a terrorist group that would not shy away from any vicious crime to raise the social standing of humans.
Their infamy was widespread, armed with meticulous secrecy, unwavering loyalty, and vicious methods.
Their ruthlessness—not hesitating to kill and plunder everything non-human like a swarm of locusts devouring a field, and their willingness to throw away their own lives when cornered—made the various interest groups shudder.
But Lee Si-woo, despite making contact with the terrorist group Racist and obtaining their token, remained perfectly calm.
No, he was rather pleased.
He knew that while Racist was hostile to other races, they were quite favorable to their own kind whose trust had been verified.
‘So the plunderer was connected to Racist. An executive? Or a grunt? Hmm, in any case, it seems a decent card has fallen into my hands. It’ll be useful.’
Lee Si-woo tucked the coin away and smiled warmly.
“This is a bit much… but it would be rude to ignore such a heartfelt gesture, so I’ll shamelessly accept the coin. Ah, and Mr. Roben, Ms. Laila, if you ever need help, feel free to contact me anytime. As long as it’s not an unreasonable request, I’ll do what I can.”
After exchanging some polite pleasantries, Lee Si-woo shook hands warmly with the Roben siblings and parted ways.
* * *
After parting with Lee Si-woo, the Roben siblings navigated through winding alleys and arrived at a secluded road.
Spotting a used sedan parked on the side of the road, they got in without hesitation.
A middle-aged gentleman sitting in the driver’s seat, flicking a coin with his thumb, asked the siblings.
“Did Si-woo take the coin?”
Roben replied as he sat in the back and fastened his seatbelt.
“Yes, he did.”
A charming black mustache that looked as if painted with a brush, and the distinct brown skin of a South American. Unforgettable, sharp features, and a rough burn scar on his left cheek, as if seared by a branding iron.
The middle-aged man, who looked like he’d stepped out of a mafia film, flicked the coin with his thumb.
*Ting.*
The middle-aged gentleman snatched the coin out of the air and opened his palm.
Confirming it had landed on heads, he gripped the steering wheel and spoke.
“Do not forget the third rule.”
“‘Recommend a traitor, and you offer your life’… Yes. If by some chance Si-woo reports us, or reports the branch in the slums, I will take responsibility.”
Starting the car, the middle-aged man spoke in a monotone voice.
“You both made the recommendation, so you both must take responsibility, no?”
At the man’s words, Laila responded firmly.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take responsibility with my brother.”
Perhaps due to the heavy conversation, the oppressive air made it hard to breathe, and Roben took a deep breath.
The middle-aged man watched Roben carefully in the rearview mirror and opened his mouth.
“There’s a dwarf named Badu in the Wilderness Magic Tower. He’s a pimp who runs an abnormal desire club within the tower, and I hear he’s having a hard time finding people lately because the human-loving group, Lover, has been so active. Make contact with him.”
“…Are you planning to supply him with people?”
“Yes.”
“That’s too cruel for the children.”
Driving down the dark road, the middle-aged man put a cigarette to his lips and lit it.
As white smoke filled the car, a disgusted Laila waved her hand.
The middle-aged man stared impassively at Laila’s scrunched face in the rearview mirror and said.
“We are bugs. We survive by scavenging the scraps they discard, living in their shadows, begging for their attention, and pleading for their amusement.”
“Karis…”
“Roben, don’t act all high and mighty now, and don’t delude yourself into thinking you’ve lived a clean life. Where do you think all the money that clothed you, fed you, and educated you came from? How could a street urchin like you ever have become a mage?”
“……”
“You are a leech that feeds on the blood and sweat of bugs. So shut up and do as you’re told. If you want to repay even a fraction of your debt to the children who died on the streets to fatten you up.”
The middle-aged man, Karis, continued in a dry voice.
“Or what? Should I throw your sister in instead?”
Laila flinched.
Karis never made empty threats.
If he wanted to do something, he did it; if he set out to do it, he succeeded.
Roben answered immediately, as if he had never hesitated.
“I’ll make contact.”
Karis took a deep drag from his cigarette.
Ash fell from the glowing red tip.
With white smoke lingering around his lips, Karis spoke.
“Don’t try to be clean on your own, and don’t try to wash yourself clean alone. Just stay mired in this filthy water with us. It’s better for you that way. That way… you won’t notice the stench.”
A person who has become clean cannot adapt to a dirty place.
Even the smell of a sewer, once unnoticeable, becomes nauseating.
As soon as Karis stubbed out the cigarette butt in the ashtray, he lit a new one.
Was it just his imagination?
No matter how strong a cigarette he smoked, the stench never left the tip of his nose.
It was as if Karis himself was the source of the stench.
* * *
A single horn protruded from his forehead.
An appearance that was more rough than sharp.
A messy, untrimmed beard.
A man who exuded a vaguely hysterical aura was watching a holographic TV by himself.
Staring intently at Lee Si-woo fighting Yuryung on the hologram screen, he suddenly threw the remote control.
*Crash.*
The remnants of the remote, shattered against the wall, fell to the floor.
The man’s bloodshot eyes widened as he muttered.
“Superior physical abilities, Invisibility. Just 40 days ago, he was an otherworlder, and now he’s a 1st-Circle mage. Heh heh, this is a 1-star purple ticket? Harman, you bastard. I’ll tear you to pieces. You played me for a fool.”
The man, who had been spitting out his soliloquy, growled like a beast whose pride had been wounded.
“But the question remains, why did Harman die? That bastard overstepped his bounds and coveted what was mine, but his abilities were beyond doubt. Otherwise, I would never have taken in a lowly human like him…”
The one-horned man, the summoner Elim, stood up.
“Isabelle of the Senior Magic Tower had no connection to Harman, nor did she hold any grudge against him. But she stepped up for Lee Si-woo and killed Harman. Lovers? No, that’s absurd. That has no plausibility. An elf loving a human is as unconvincing as a lion lusting after a dog.”
Elim pondered and pondered.
The entire situation was so suspicious it reeked.
“There’s something special about him. Or… someone unknown is backing him.”
As he continued to deliberate, Elim suddenly let out a hollow laugh.
Come to think of it, it was a useless worry.
He had no intention of giving up on Lee Si-woo now.
No matter who was behind him, no matter how special he was.
Thus, the outcome was already decided.
“Yes, it doesn’t matter who is behind him. Whatever it is, I will crush it with all my might and take back what was originally mine.”
A sharp, blue light gleamed in Elim’s eyes.
He had no intention of moving carelessly like Harman.
He would slowly observe his target, and at the moment of the hunt, he would pounce with all his strength.
He would sever the windpipe with his fangs, and feast on the flesh and blood.
As he always had.