An Ambitious Man (1)
“Now that I think about it, my shoes might be a little dirty too....”
The moment I said it, I saw Jung Yura’s face contort.
Even so, the fact that she was slowly crawling this way told me she had decided to lower herself.
She was trembling all over, but I couldn’t sense even a hint of killing intent.
Hmm....
If anything, it felt like she was more worried about Lee Jihye than about me.
I was more curious about how Lee Jihye had come to stand in such a position than about why Jung Yura had fallen so low.
Before I could speak first, a voice cut in.
“You seem curious about a lot of things.”
“Of course. To be honest, I didn’t expect you to handle this woman like this. She was once one of Black Swan’s favored talents, and her raw combat ability wasn’t exactly small either.... Jihye, you were the sort who hated taking on risk, weren’t you? You’re prepared to handle the fallout, right?”
“There’s no risk. None at all, so you can relax too, Oppa.”
I was about to ask what she meant, then stopped short.
The state of Jung Yura’s body in front of me was too obvious to ignore.
[Checking the status window and latent potential of player Jung Yura.]
[Name - Jung Yura]
[Title - Public Enemy No. 1, The Worst Woman in History]
[Age - 29]
[Disposition - Calculating Strategist]
[Class - Assassin Thief - Rare]
[Class Effect - Basic Archery Knowledge Acquired]
[Class Effect - Basic Dagger Technique Knowledge Acquired]
[Class Effect - Basic Trap Technique Knowledge Acquired]
[Class Effect - Basic Assassination Knowledge Acquired]
[The acquired knowledge cannot currently be used.]
[Stats]
[Strength - 41→05 / Growth limit: Heroic or higher]
[Agility - 55→10 / Growth limit: Heroic or higher]
[Stamina - 43→11 / Growth limit: Heroic or lower]
[Intelligence - 40→30 / Growth limit: Rare or lower]
[Endurance - 20→05 / Growth limit: Rare or higher]
[Luck - 23→10 / Growth limit: Rare or lower]
[Mana - 43→09 / Growth limit: Heroic or higher]
[Overall Evaluation - Your body has been wrecked by external trauma. Not only has most of the mana circuit been destroyed, but the damage to the muscle fibers has caused a drop in your stats. You can manage everyday life, but it’s no exaggeration to say your life as an adventurer is over. If you had the legendary elixir known as an elixir, or a saint-class priest’s divine healing magic, you could be cured.... Well. In any case, how pitiable. Unlike player Lee Kiyoung, who never had anything to begin with, the sense of loss felt by someone who has lost what they once possessed is enormous.]
Hah....
What caught my eye more than the newly added title was the disastrous state of her body.
I had roughly expected a title to appear sooner or later, but her stats had fallen across the board.
Before I could fully piece together what had happened, Lee Jihye’s voice reached me and answered the question I had not yet asked.
“Her body’s broken in a lot of places.”
“....”
“She looks fine on the outside, but they say she might barely be able to live a normal life. I can’t know the full details myself, but if the media hadn’t paid attention, she’d already be dead. Honestly, it’s not much of a stretch to say I saved this woman’s life. As you understand, she needs to stay alive. There are still people who don’t understand the situation.... Our guild’s bigwigs are furious about it.”
“I can see why.”
“They tried to raise her, only for her to spend her days running all over the place and making a mess. From what I heard, this wasn’t even the first time. She was caught properly this time, that’s all. I don’t know the details myself, but there seem to have been plenty of people who thought the guild’s power was their own power. I suppose there was an intention to weed those people out this time, too.... This woman got caught as an example, properly and thoroughly.”
“Hmm....”
“There are also a few more political reasons, but it’s an internal matter. No matter how much you’re Oppa, I can’t exactly explain it to you.”
“Was there a power struggle or something?”
It probably was.
As expected, I saw her give a slight nod.
I had thought the inside would be in turmoil, but not to this extent.
It was nothing more than my own delusion, but it was obvious that Black Swan Guild had been wrestling with the likes of Jung Yura for a long time.
There must have been some push at some point to reform the guild, and some faction that thought they needed to clear the decks.
In other words, Jung Yura had simply been unfortunate enough to get caught in the middle, and had become a convenient excuse.
“If things had been rotting that badly on the inside, then they must’ve decided the only thing to do was cut out what had to be cut out. That’s what the current Guild Master unni thinks.”
“Current?”
“I’m not usually this loose-lipped, but I seem to be letting all kinds of information slip because it’s you, Oppa. Well, it doesn’t matter, since you’ll find out anyway. It’s just that there hasn’t been an official announcement yet. If this matter wraps up properly, the Guild Master will be replaced and there’ll be a lot of changes both inside and outside. The transfer of power went through peacefully, so don’t get any strange ideas.”
“Is that why you’re standing here right now? No, more than that, if it really was a peaceful succession, it doesn’t feel like very convincing words when I look at this woman’s face....”
“Why exactly there was trouble inside the guild doesn’t really matter, does it? The world doesn’t run on truth, after all. What matters is what the public thinks. What you set up this time can be seen in a similar way....”
“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about....”
“You worry a lot, Oppa. It’s not as if this world has recording devices or recording magic.... Well, anyway, half of what you’re thinking is probably right. In my case, I’m not the sort to take on risk, but I had to choose a side. Our Guild Master unni values all kinds of talent.”
“So?”
“After things blew up, I just brought in a report and handed over a few hundred pages. I analyzed the current situation, the cause, why the guild was rotting, what direction Black Swan should move in from here, the relationship with the Red Mercenaries and Blue’s future growth potential, and.... Hmm.... The kind of man Lee Kiyoung is?”
“....”
“I was writing so frantically I don’t remember it very well now.”
“....”
“Anyway, I guess my behavior felt a little fresh to the people above me. In a situation where all kinds of random, useless nonsense was being tossed around in those endless desk-bound arguments, what would you think if an ordinary guild member suddenly showed up in the office?”
They would think she was useful.
The lunatics on our side would probably just shout about what kind of bullshit this was, but if I had been one of Black Swan’s executives, I would have absolutely hired Lee Jihye.
In other words, she had seized the guild’s internal crisis and turned it into an opportunity to show what she could do.
“Honestly, the report probably wasn’t perfect. I’m not as smart as Oppa, and I didn’t have much time, either. Still, when nobody wants to take responsibility and somebody actually steps forward, doesn’t that make them likable? Well, there wasn’t absolutely no risk, but I figured taking it on once in a while wasn’t so bad.”
“Looks like something changed in you.”
“Of course. Well, I think Oppa probably knows the reason better than I do.... We can talk about that later. For now, could you tell me the conditions you want? I’ll match you as much as I can. Not just officially, either. To a certain extent.... Ah! If you wanted that woman, I could even give her to you.”
“You’re showing a lot of sincerity.”
“Of course.”
Glancing down at the floor, I caught sight of Jung Yura still pacing there.
She looked desperate.
It was obvious why she was acting this way.
She wants to recover.
That was right.
High-ranking priests at the level of a saint, or an elixir, were not easy to obtain.
In the first place, there were only a handful of people who could truly be called high-ranking priests, and bringing them here came at a steep price.
The same went for elixirs.
Not only were the materials expensive, but there wasn’t even an alchemist capable of making one.
In other words, she would have to rely on the chance of one dropping during dungeon conquest.
To put it simply, there was no way she could recover on her own.
She needed support at the guild level, so it was only natural she would want to curry favor.
When she slightly lifted her head, I could see the expression on her face as she looked at me.
A tangled mess of anger, resentment, worry, and regret.
The opposite of her neatly polished shoes.
“Honestly, I didn’t think things would go this smoothly....”
“....”
To be honest, I was at the point where it was hard to even call this interesting anymore.
“The world is a little.... like that, isn’t it?”
“Yes....”
“Seeing you makes me realize just how unpredictable human life really is.”
“....”
“It may be hard for you to accept, but think of this as paying the price for everything you’ve done so far. As the saying goes, one thing tells you ten, and your actions have come back to you.”
“Yes....”
“You look like you think that applies to me too.”
“Ah, no, it doesn’t....”
“It probably won’t work out the way you think. What would some spoiled brat who’s never been at rock bottom know? Pfft.”
“....”
“In your case, you were just unlucky this time. Yeah, think of it as stepping in shit. That’s probably the better way to put it. If you work hard, maybe you can make a comeback someday, so do your best and keep living, all right? And then, hmm.... This is the price for the cleaning you did. I don’t really like it, but... you have to be paid for labor. That’s what a beautiful society is.”
As I slipped a hand into my pocket, I saw her expression twist.
I slowly dropped the gold pouch from my hand to the floor, and I could see blood burst from the lip she was biting down on.
Tears welled up in her eyes.
There was no way she wouldn’t be angry.
To her, I was still just vermin.
“You should manage your expression.”
“Yes, Yura. It’s a gift from Oppa, so you should smile.”
“Th-thank you.”
The sight of her slowly picking up the gold that had fallen to the floor was, of course, exactly the picture I wanted to see.
I found it a little amusing that a person could fall so easily.
That sort of sight becomes a lesson.
Not so much a lesson in how not to live, but a reminder that if you aren’t thorough, you can end up like that someday.
Honestly, I did think that wasn’t a direction a normal person could really think in, but I couldn’t call it wrong.
You have to raise your own value, and you have to cut your enemies down.
In that sense, I was fairly satisfied with how this had ended.
It wasn’t completely over yet, but at the very least, my connection with Jung Yura ended here.
“It was fun. You can go now.”
She probably would not recover.
There was nowhere a major guild would invest in her again.
And yet, the fact that she was still living without losing hope was a part I quite liked.
The greater the hope, the greater the despair.
Imagining her spending her whole life dragging herself onward, thinking she could recover someday, that she could repay it someday, made me laugh.
She would probably believe there was pleasure after suffering, but that suffering was not going to end.
Even if it did end, it would naturally be a long road before that.
Still, she would keep consoling herself with fantasies of ten years from now, or twenty.
That’s what human beings are.
I couldn’t know exactly what kind of life she would go on to live.
After public opinion quieted down a little, she might die; then again, she might end up living an ordinary life.
Still, there was one thing I wanted to say if I ever ran into her in the Slums again.
You picked the wrong person to mess with.
As she slowly left the reception room, Lee Jihye immediately spoke.
“Are you satisfied, Oppa?”
“About half.... Now then, I’d like you to tell me what you can do.”
“Of course. I think you’ll be satisfied.”