The Weight of Desire
Yoon Sang-hyuk frowned after taking a sip of the clear liquor in the crystal glass.
“I don’t know what’s so great about this vicious stuff.”
He swirled the glass once, took another sip, and let out a snort of laughter.
“Takes me back. The brewery really worked those NPCs to the bone trying to make this.”
“We did manage to make it in the end.”
Seated across from Yoon Sang-hyuk at the table, Anton Pavlov emptied his glass in one go, then exhaled a hot breath through his nose.
“You have to respect Russians and their love of vodka.”
There had been beer, whiskey, and wine in Eternal World, but no vodka. Players from Russia had tried to make it themselves because they wanted to drink it, but every attempt had failed. They hadn’t given up, and eventually they commissioned the brewers among the natives of Eternal World, the NPCs who lived there, and at last produced a liquor that wasn’t vodka, exactly, but was almost identical to it.
Thunk.
Yoon Sang-hyuk set his glass down on the table. The pair of eyes visible through the opening in the upper half of his mask fixed on Anton Pavlov.
“What happened?”
“……”
Anton Pavlov flinched slightly, then filled his own glass to the brim.
“You had something to say, didn’t you?”
“No.”
“Then why are you covering for him?”
Yoon Sang-hyuk spoke as though he already knew everything that had happened in his absence. Anton Pavlov simply looked back at him in silence.
“Do you know this? Anything taken into subspace gets numbered, no matter how trivial it is. Once an item has been numbered, you can still tell where it is even after taking it back out. Of course, the number disappears after a certain amount of time.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk raised a hand and pointed at Anton Pavlov.
“Then why were the Holy Relic of Uriel and the Elixir I gave you in that bastard Ian’s hands instead of yours?”
Anton Pavlov clenched his teeth.
“When I gave them to you, did the guild members who were with us tell Ian about it?”
“I…”
“Don’t say you gave them to him. I know that bastard’s greed well enough. And right now, you know full well that if it’s the Holy Relic of Uriel and an Elixir, he’d go so far as to forget his own mother and father.”
“Haa…”
Anton Pavlov let out a long sigh.
“The master invoked justification.”
“Justification? That he, as master, has to become stronger?”
Seeing the bitterness in Anton Pavlov’s smile, Yoon Sang-hyuk knew his guess had been right. He held out his empty glass, and Anton Pavlov filled it to the brim with vodka.
As Anton Pavlov poured, he tilted his head and looked at Yoon Sang-hyuk. He had poured quite a lot, but the glass was only half full.
“Didn’t you say a drink should be poured full?”
Anton Pavlov kept pouring. But no matter how much he poured, the glass never filled beyond halfway.
“Do you know the name of this glass?”
“How did you do that?”
“How I did it isn’t important. Try to guess. What do you think this glass is called?”
“I’m not sure. Is this some magic trick I don’t know about?”
“You’re the one who brought the glass. There’s no way something like that exists.”
Anton Pavlov nodded. The vodka and crystal glass were, without a doubt, things he had brought.
“This glass is called desire.”
“Desire...”
Anton Pavlov murmured under his breath.
“And every human being carries a glass by that name. The size differs from person to person. But no matter how large it is, that glass is never truly full. Just like this.”
The glass was still only half full.
The vodka that failed to fill it had already been transferred into the canteens stored within subspace. Yoon Sang-hyuk took the bottle from Anton Pavlov and poured again, but still the glass did not rise beyond halfway.
“That bastard Ian’s glass is unusually large. And it’ll never fill past halfway. You know that as well as I do. In that other world, Ian was especially greedy.”
“I know it well.”
The person who knew Ian Galayev best was Anton Pavlov. As vice-master of the Death God Guild, Anton had stood at Ian’s side and watched him. Ian Galayev always took the best thing first. Even if it was something he didn’t need, he never yielded it to anyone else.
The guild members had grown dissatisfied with Ian Galayev’s greed, but they never dared say it aloud. Ian Galayev was one of Eternal World’s top-ranked players, and his temperament was cruel to the bone.
“So what are you going to do?”
“I’m not sure.”
“You’ve grown used to it.”
Anton Pavlov looked at Yoon Sang-hyuk, not understanding what he meant.
“You’ve grown used to having things taken from you. Now it feels natural for Ian to take the best things, doesn’t it?”
“It seems so.”
“Then there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s something that happens all the time, isn’t it? You got something good. But Ian wanted it. So you gave it to Ian. Natural enough.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk murmured softly as he drank his vodka.
“So forget it.”
Anton Pavlov bit at his lips.
“But do you know what?”
Yoon Sang-hyuk set down his glass.
“The things I gave you weren’t meant for you to use. Right?”
“That’s correct.”
“They were for your family. For your beloved wife, and for the little princess who was going to be born into the world. But here’s the thing...”
Yoon Sang-hyuk stared straight through Anton Pavlov.
“Was this really the last time? Won’t the things your family should have keep getting poured into the glass of Ian’s greed?”
* * *
“Since I didn’t hear that properly, say it again.”
Ian Galayev growled fiercely. Anton Pavlov, standing before him, did not avoid that savage stare as he answered.
“I’m leaving the Death God Guild.”
“Is that what this is about?”
Ian Galayev only used the word “that” without saying exactly what he meant. It was because of the guild executives standing around them.
“Yes. It is. Because of the Holy Relic of Uriel and the Elixir.”
“The Holy Relic of Uriel?”
“An Elixir? On what hunting ground does an Elixir even drop?”
“But why would he...”
The executives spoke in low voices, but their words reached Ian Galayev’s ears without being filtered out.
“It’s always been like this. Why are you suddenly acting like this now?”
His voice had turned ominous. He was glaring at Anton Pavlov as though he might tear him apart on the spot.
“You mean because it’s always been like this, it’ll keep being like this?”
“……”
“If the master had asked for mine, I would have handed it over without a word. But those things were given to me by the Masked Lord for my wife and the daughter who’s about to be born. Please don’t say you didn’t know. I told you more than once.”
“So?”
“What you’re saying is that this sort of thing won’t be the last time, isn’t it?”
Ian Galayev shot Anton Pavlov a fearsome glare. Anton Pavlov was forcing him into an answer he could not easily give. If he revealed his true thoughts in front of the guild executives watching them, there would surely be backlash.
Even force had its limits.
“So you’re saying you’ll leave the guild?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“And if you quit over something as petty as this, how do you plan to deal with what comes after?”
It was a naked threat.
Ian Galayev’s influence reached across Russia. One word from him, and Anton Pavlov would have nowhere left to stand.
“You call this petty? I see. So to the master, this matter was just something petty. Understood. And you needn’t worry about what comes after.”
Ian Galayev’s brows twitched.
“I’m going to Korea.”
“What?”
Ian Galayev sprang to his feet. The meaning of going to Korea was simple enough. It meant going to the Masked Lord. The one place Ian Galayev could not lay a hand on was beneath the Masked Lord’s wing.
“Did you fall for his sweet talk?”
“It wasn’t sweet talk. It was my choice.”
“You’re going to betray the brothers you had in that other world?”
“If the master’s idea of brothers is a place where the strong casually steal from one another in the name of greed, then I’m done with those brothers.”
Anton Pavlov held out a hand.
“Give it back.”
“If I return it, will you change your mind?”
“That won’t happen. I’ve already seen the real face of the man called master. I will never use the name of the Death God Guild again. And the guild members who follow me will go with me.”
Bang.
Ian Galayev stomped the floor, and the base building’s floor burst open beneath his foot. Cold air rushed in through the hole, but no one paid it any mind.
“That bastard really has a death wish. Going to the Masked Lord? Fine. Go. But only if you can get out of here alive. You want me to give it back? Hah! Why would I? Why should I return anything to a bastard who’s betraying the guild and walking out? Cut the crap!”
Still shouting, Ian Galayev’s expression suddenly stiffened. It was because of one person opening the door and stepping inside.
“I can’t sleep with all this noise.”
It was Yoon Sang-hyuk. Ian Galayev glared at him with hatred.
“Isn’t that a little much?”
“What did I do?”
Yoon Sang-hyuk shrugged.
“So what you’re saying is that it’s all right to lure away someone else’s guild member?”
“Let’s be precise. I never lured Anton away. You drove him out.”
“What did you say?”
“The Holy Relic of Uriel, the Elixir. Did I give them to you?”
“……”
Yoon Sang-hyuk slowly walked forward and stopped in front of Ian Galayev. When he came close enough that one outstretched hand could reach him, Ian Galayev jerked back involuntarily.
The cold voice that slipped out from between the Mask of Chaos:
“Ian Galayev, master of the Death God Guild. You’ve truly lost your touch.”
Ian Galayev took a step back without meaning to.
“I’m the Masked Lord. You still don’t know that much? Anton coming to me after betraying the Death God Guild? Is that the issue here? No offense to Anton, but what exactly changes if he comes?”
Even if Anton Pavlov and several of the Death God Guild’s members came over, the power of the Masked Castle would not change much. Whether they were there or not, it remained the strongest force.
“Listen carefully. If Anton and the others following him come to Korea and you try anything stupid at all...”
Yoon Sang-hyuk reached out and pointed to the left side of Ian Galayev’s chest.
“You die. And also.”
He turned and swept his gaze across the Death God Guild executives.
“From this moment on, the Masked Castle will not trade with Russia, including the Death God Guild, under any circumstances. Even if an overflow occurs and Russia turns into a monster paradise, neither I nor the Masked Castle will move.”
The sound of someone swallowing rang out like thunder.
“It’ll be very entertaining. Just in case this needs saying: if the Castle of Chaos overflows, do you really think you can hold it back? Russia has the second-largest player population after China, you say? Believe it or don’t believe it. I don’t care either way. The moment the monsters inside the Castle of Chaos cross the boundary, Russia is finished. Because of your illustrious guild master’s greed, not only guild members but ordinary Russian citizens will die by the thousands.”
Ian Galayev ground his teeth. His whole body trembled with rage. But soon, as though he had given up on everything, he spoke in a voice that sounded half-dead.
“I was wrong. I admit it. What do you want me to do?”
The Death God Guild executives looked at Ian Galayev in shock. It was not the sort of thing they would ever expect to hear from Ian Galayev, the guild’s tyrant.
Yoon Sang-hyuk looked at Ian Galayev for a moment, then tossed out a single line.
“Kneel, bastard.”