Incitement and Fabrication (1)
“You really are a piece of trash I like way too much.”
“…….”
I caught sight of her grinning face, still split open with that irritating smile.
“So Lee Seolho and Yamato had a connection, huh? I did think something was off, but this is turning out more interesting than I expected.”
“There’s still nothing definite enough to call proof, sis. But there’s also no way to rule it out completely. Even if that old bastard wanted to kill me, do you really think any guild or organization inside Lindel could ignore you?”
“Are you flattering me, my cute little darling?”
That was exactly what I was doing.
“Half of it is….”
“I like how honest you are. Keep going.”
“There isn’t a single person in Lindel who doesn’t watch your mood. It makes sense to assume the lunatics outside pulled the trigger. Even if they do get caught, they’d have to be the kind of group strong enough not to worry about the aftermath. That’s the most rational conclusion, and the one with the highest chance of being true.”
“Makes sense. Yamato… come to think of it, that’s where that obnoxious bitch is guild master, isn’t it?”
“Have you met her?”
“The masters of the major guilds are required to gather once in a while. Under the Holy Empire’s supervision, of course. I’ve run into her plenty of times. Anyway, if our darling says so, I suppose I can swallow it a little. You know guild-to-guild fighting is forbidden inside the Holy Empire, right? I trust you’ll figure out a way around it.”
“…….”
“You should go now. You’re busy too. Our guild members will escort you.”
“Yes, Cha Heera noona.”
“The list you sent me last time has been very useful. Oh, and as for Jung Hayan….”
“Let me keep her with the Red Mercenaries a little longer. Just until this mess is over.”
“I figured you’d say that, darling. I’d like to spend at least a little time together if possible, but… looking at your face, I guess that’s not happening.”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’ll see you again later. Next time, I hope we meet somewhere a little more romantic.”
“We’ll do that, noona.”
I lowered my head as Cha Heera waved me off, then stepped out at an unhurried pace. Immediately, I saw a group of people running toward me.
Red Mercenaries.
Looks like the scolding Cha Heera had given them earlier actually worked.
I hadn’t expected them to come charging at me first. Their tense expressions, their trembling faces, and — more amusing than anything — the feeling that they were straining with all their might not to offend me made the whole thing strangely entertaining.
It’s genuinely hilarious when strong people start reading my expression like this.
“Th-that… Mr. Lee Kiyoung.”
“Yes.”
“We’ll escort you back to the guild.”
“Yes, I’d appreciate it.”
There was no reason to refuse.
In truth, the area already looked to have been completely secured, but there was always the possibility that someone had been left behind.
Low probability, sure.
Still, it was better to be as careful as possible.
Park Deokgu, Jung Hayan, and Sun Heeyoung had all been moved to the Red Mercenaries for the time being.
Kim Hyunsung wasn’t in sight, so I suspected he might be out digging into the background of the attackers.
He’s got his hands full in his own way.
He’d definitely be doing something like that.
Even as I kept walking, my mind kept spinning through possibilities.
What was the most miserable way to deal with this old man?
Or rather, what was the best way to kill him?
I did think about revising the plan somewhat, but since I wanted this wrapped up as quickly as possible, improvising to suit the situation didn’t sound all that bad either.
Don’t get rattled.
The moment I let it show that I was excited, the fight was basically over.
I used to think that saying, “The best time to smile is when things are hard,” was pure bullshit, but in my case, a slight upturn at the corners of the mouth suited me just fine.
“This should be far enough.”
“We’ll stay back a bit and be ready to respond immediately. Something could happen inside the guild, after all.”
“Ah, there’s really no need to go that far… although I suppose this is our guild.”
I tried to sound them out a little, but it didn’t seem to have much effect.
In fact, one of them even rummaged around in his pocket and handed something over with great politeness.
“And this….”
“Yes?”
“It’s something we prepared so you can send out a rescue signal whenever you need to.”
As I glanced at the man in front of me, I could feel an extraordinary intensity in his eyes.
It seemed Cha Heera’s scolding had made him decide to take things seriously. The moment I considered the possibility that a dedicated team might have been assembled just for me, the whole situation started feeling even more absurd.
Safety’s nice and all…
But if they imposed too many constraints on what I could do, it would only become annoying.
I’d better mention this to Cha Heera later.
After I gave a slight bow and entered the guild, I found the inside in a complete uproar.
Since the situation had already been resolved, everyone looked like they had just rushed back to the guild.
That alone was proof that everything inside Lindel had already been cleaned up.
While I was talking to Cha Heera, no less….
They really were quick on the response.
There would probably be some kind of meeting soon, where all of Lindel’s guild masters gathered together.
On the surface, it had been a terror attack aimed at me alone, but the location where it happened was the real problem.
Of course, it would be hard to find proof of who did it, but at the very least, the voices demanding that this never happen again would only grow louder.
By now, the press was surely preparing a massive headline about this attack. I did regret not being able to feed them more information right away, but there was no particular need to use the media either.
As I looked around after stepping deeper into the guild, several people came into view.
The only one from our party present was Kim Yeri.
Still, she seemed more familiar with me than anyone else, because a relieved expression had already settled on her face.
Lee Sanghee came hurrying over too, her eyes so swollen they looked like they’d been punched, and Hwang Jeongyeon was no different.
“Mr. Kiyoung! Did you get hurt anywhere?”
“I’m fine, Lee Sanghee-nim.”
“I-I’m truly relieved. Ah… th-then, I heard that Hayan was injured….”
“She’s gotten through the worst of it for now. I was told there may be some lingering effects, but her life isn’t in danger. Things were so chaotic that I left her with the Red Mercenaries for the time being. Deokgu and Sun Heeyoung also went there to check on her condition. As for Hyunsung, he should be back soon.”
“Ah….”
“It seemed safer there than here.”
The words carried a little edge.
Even though I hadn’t been aiming that at Lee Sanghee specifically, her expression grew dim all the same.
What pulled my attention more than her, though, were Lee Seolho and his little cronies.
Lee Seolho looked like he was maintaining perfect composure, but his lackeys were clearly worse at hiding their faces, and I could see a nervous tension lingering in them.
The man they had surely thought was dead had come back alive and well.
Maybe by now they were regretting their idiotic choice.
Of course, there would always be idiots who thought they could simply deny everything, but the fact remained that I had been attacked. That alone meant the advantage in this clash was mine.
Stupid bastards.
Utterly useless human beings.
Even if I generously assumed that Lee Seolho and his lackeys were innocent, there was no way I could work with people like that. In any shape or form, they were parasites gnawing away at the guild from inside.
The moment I shut my mouth, Lee Seolho, as though he had been waiting for it, stepped forward again.
“Ho-ho-ho. Well, this is a blessing in a disaster. Surviving even after being caught in such a chaotic terrorist attack — what more can one ask for?”
Crazy old bastard.
He really did have a talent for scraping right along the nerves.
“You may have suffered some lingering effects from the explosion. Wouldn’t it be wise to get checked over? Mr. Kiyoung.”
“I’m fine.”
“You must have had quite a time of it. To be swept up in an explosion like that. When I heard you’d been surrounded by unknown rioters, my heart nearly stopped… I was truly worried. With so many people already lost, to lose Blue Guild’s new talent as well… that would have been heartbreaking indeed.”
For someone sending what he claimed was sincere concern, his tone didn’t sound especially genuine.
“Lately, misfortune seems to be piling up one after another. This old man is anxious as well.”
“…….”
Even in the middle of this, the way he tried to muddle through and clean up the situation was absurd.
I only hesitated for a moment over how best to open the conversation, then looked at the old man whose mere sight made bile rise in my throat and spoke. The bastard’s lips tightened.
“These weren’t simple rioters.”
“…….”
“I’m sure everyone will hear about it soon enough. What happened inside Lindel wasn’t some random act of terror. And the attackers… they were too well-trained to be called rioters. They were assassins, without a doubt. They were targeting me and Hayan together.”
“Why would….”
“Perhaps because of the legendary-grade item Mr. Kiyoung possesses, Lee Sanghee-nim.”
Pfft.
It wasn’t a completely implausible story. Even if an item had already undergone ownership recognition, a legendary-grade item was worth that much.
If I also considered the possibility that the ownership ritual hadn’t been completed, then it was easy enough to imagine some lunatics driven mad by greed doing something like this.
But still.
“Ah, I don’t think that’s it.”
“Ah….”
“The fact that I obtained a legendary-grade item is something only Blue Guild members know. And of course, it’s also known that I completed the ownership ritual. I don’t know who leaked the information, but I doubt they would have gone so far as to target an item that already had an owner. Not while making an enemy of the Mercenary Queen, of all people.”
“The information….”
She looked genuinely shocked that information meant to be shared only within the guild had leaked out.
Naive little lady.
I didn’t know what Blue meant to her, but this place was a far cry from the clean little sanctuary it had been in the past.
“The reason I was attacked was probably because of my curiosity.”
“What?”
“It’s a bit delicate to say this, but in truth, I’d been wondering about the guild master’s death.”
“Ah….”
“Of course, I already knew that our guild master had been in a condition where he might die at any moment, but… even so, there were things that struck me as suspicious.”
Lee Seolho’s face showed a look that seemed to ask what the hell I was talking about.
So it wasn’t you after all.
For a moment, I considered that maybe it really hadn’t been Lee Seolho.
Maybe I’d been attacked because of his pride, or because I’d been closing in on the conclusion that he planned to sell the guild to Japan.
After all, Lee Seolho had assumed all of us would fail to clear the Cursed Shrine.
If the dungeon couldn’t be cleared, then the guild master’s death was a foregone conclusion anyway. Come to think of it, there was some logic to the idea that Lee Seolho didn’t actually need to murder the guild master at all.
Of course, it was possible he simply wanted to speed things up, or had some personal reason to commit murder….
The odds of natural death are getting higher….
Assuming that expression wasn’t an act, that was.
Whatever the truth was, it had no real bearing on me. If anything, the situation had become a little more interesting.
From my perspective, framing someone felt a little sweeter now too.
“I’d been considering the possibility of foul play. When the guild master took his last breath, no one was in the room, and when we had left on our expedition, the guild members who stayed behind didn’t seem to be entertaining the possibility of murder at all. No, to be more precise, they looked like they were hiding something.”
“What are you talking about….”
Rubbish.
“I won’t deny that I’d considered the possibility of an enemy from outside, either… but we had no internal information about what happened after we left for the expedition. I judged that it was more likely something had happened from inside.”
“…….”
“As you can see, the result speaks for itself. In that short span of time, I was able to gather a few clues, and then on my way back after finishing the job, I was attacked. By someone trying to bury the truth.”
Honestly, calling it rubbish would be generous.
The truth was, a more careful approach would have been better. I had gathered plenty of evidence, both material and circumstantial, but I’d simply run out of time to put the puzzle together.
I should have had time to autopsy the guild master’s body. I should have forced Lee Seolho into a tighter corner.
But the situation had changed dramatically.
Why?
Because I’d been attacked.
That one fact alone had given me a frame to fit together a puzzle that had previously been impossible to complete.
Covering my nose a little was practically a matter of course.
When I slowly opened my mouth, Lee Seolho’s face — as if he’d just chewed on a bucket of shit — slid into view.
“It seems to me, Lee Sanghee-nim, that there’s a repulsive traitor in Blue. The one who killed the guild master.”
Truth is not what makes the world turn.
Incitement and fabrication do.