Chapter 81
Jey stared at Yoon Sang-hyuk in silence.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I don't know... I just feel like you've changed a little."
"In what way?"
"I couldn't really explain it in words. But something is definitely different. If I had to put it in color, you'd been almost colorless before, like a gray so pale it was barely there. But now you seem a little brighter. Just a little, literally just a little."
Inside the mask, Yoon Sang-hyuk's expression slowly cooled.
"So it was because I met a friend?"
He'd had his suspicions, and they were right after all.
Yoon Sang-hyuk's body blurred, then vanished from where he stood.
"Agh-!"
Jey screamed in pain. The Yoon Sang-hyuk who had been sitting in the chair was suddenly there, one hand clamped around her throat. Slowly, he lifted her off the ground. Jey's face was turning red as life was strangled from it.
She flailed both hands to pry his fingers loose, but the struggle was hopeless from the start. Yoon Sang-hyuk drew her face closer to his until no more than a handspan separated their eyes.
Even as she choked on the pain of not being able to breathe, Jey could see those eyes staring back at her. They were full of madness and a strange, feverish light. It felt as if they were looking through her own eyes and drilling straight into something deep inside her.
For a moment, she had the sickening sense that she had been stripped naked. She stopped struggling and let her body go limp.
Yoon Sang-hyuk spoke coldly.
"I told you to stop, didn't I?"
"Kh... k, kghhh..."
"Do you not understand the word enough? I know the Dark Merchant Guild you run has extraordinary information power. So why do you keep making me pay attention? What exactly do you gain by provoking me over and over?"
"N-nothing..."
Yoon Sang-hyuk hurled Jey to the ground. She clutched at her throat and coughed hard, dragging in ragged breaths.
"I warned you clearly. When it comes to things connected to me, keep it moderate. Why do you keep crossing the line?"
Yoon Sang-hyuk was not the kind of man who would shrug it off just because someone kept watching his every move. Until now, he had ignored it because the level had been low enough to overlook, but this time was different.
"From this moment on, the Dark Merchant Guild leaves Korea. Pull your branch out of the Masked Castle. After that, if anyone connected to the Dark Merchant Guild appears in Korea and gets on my radar, I will find you."
"I'm sorry."
"I gave you enough warning. There's no way you didn't know that. And yet you kept crossing the line. Did you think I wouldn't notice you were building up your influence while doing it?"
He had let it slide until now because she was capable and useful to him. But that was all it was. There were plenty of other people who were useful.
"I didn't mean anything bad by it. I'm really sorry. It won't happen again. Even if I know, it'll be as if I don't know."
As if she knew, but did not know.
That was how it should have been from the beginning. The Dark Merchant Guild handled information, so there was no way rumors about Yoon Sang-hyuk would not flow in. No, information about Yoon Sang-hyuk, who brought them the greatest profit, would surely have been classified as top secret.
And even if someone else offered a fortune for it, they would never have revealed that information.
If that was the case, then she should never have shown that she knew anything to Yoon Sang-hyuk either.
"Jey."
"Yes, Lord."
"Do you think I'm being too harsh?"
"No. It's clearly my mistake. I overstepped."
She had made the mistake of thinking that because she knew the unmasked Yoon Sang-hyuk, and because he had called her by name, they were a little closer than before.
But whether he wore a mask or not, the man in front of her was still the Masked Lord.
"Jeylin Stuart."
Jey's body shook violently. Jeylin Stuart was her real name.
"From the northeastern United States, Pennsylvania. Your father, John Stuart, is fifty-two and works as a lawyer. He's trying to use his ties to the Republican Party to get into politics. Your mother, Catherine Stuart, is fifty-one and a housewife. She likes gardening, and she makes sure to have coffee at the cafe Vikos once a day. You have two younger brothers. Should I tell you about them too?"
"No."
"Jey. Jey. Jey, the Master of the Dark Merchant Guild. When have I ever treated you as Jeylin Stuart?"
Jey shook her head.
Don't think too highly of yourself just because you're the only one with a name. If I made one phone call right now, what do you think would happen to your family?
"Don't do that."
"Of course not. I have no reason to. So you should live like I do too, knowing while pretending not to know. There's nothing in this world that only you can do. I don't need to say it at length; you know exactly what I'm getting at. You're smart."
"Yes. I understand."
"One last thing. Is the Dark Merchant Guild really yours?"
Jey jerked.
The meaning buried in that one sentence made her head go blank. Yoon Sang-hyuk may have planted one of his own people inside the Dark Merchant Guild. Of all the organizations created by players, the Dark Merchant Guild was the largest. It had more than one hundred thousand affiliated players, and even Jey did not know the exact number once you counted the players connected to them.
If Yoon Sang-hyuk was saying something like this, then among Jey's closest aides, one of her inner circle could be his person. Maybe every one of her closest people was serving Yoon Sang-hyuk.
If she decided to dig, she could find out. But if she did, her relationship with Yoon Sang-hyuk would end there. Could she really stand on the opposite side of Yoon Sang-hyuk, the Masked Lord? She asked herself the question. The answer came surprisingly quickly.
No.
"From now on, let's not let something like this make us clash."
"Yes, Lord. There won't be anything like this again."
"That doesn't mean I want us to become awkward with each other, either."
They had already crossed the line, so they could not go back to the way things had been completely. But they had to act that way. At the very least, they had to pretend.
"Since you already know, I'll ask you for a favor."
Jey let her eyes glimmer and bowed her head slightly. The Masked Lord asked, and she would carry out the request. The Masked Lord gave her many things in return.
That was all there was to it. From now on, she would have to live by that.
As Jey was making that resolve in her heart, Yoon Sang-hyuk spoke.
"I'm thinking of arranging houses in the city for Chul-jung's parents and for Yoon Mi-sun's parents. Can you bring them here?"
"Of course. That's easy."
Jey answered with her usual bright smile, as if she had never been in pain at all. Yoon Sang-hyuk nodded in satisfaction.
When he waved a hand, Jey lowered her head and disappeared.
He let out a short breath.
Today, together with Yoon Sang-min, he had visited Kim Chul-jung's family home and held a barbecue in the garden. Watching Kim Hyo-yeon hop around in delight had made him laugh more than once. That pleasant mood had crashed to the floor because of Jey.
Yoon Sang-hyuk rose to his feet.
He left the reception room, moved along the corridor, and went down the stairs to the basement. He wasn't heading to meet the family members who were engrossed in golem research down in the workshop.
"Open the door."
With a heavy click, the stone door slid aside.
A foul, stale smell drifted in through his nose, out of place in the Masked Castle. He walked down the narrow passage. On either side were small rooms sealed off by iron bars.
The place Yoon Sang-hyuk had come to was the prison inside the Masked Castle.
When he stopped in front of the iron door at the very back, it opened on its own.
"Wh- who...?"
Inside, four men hung spread-eagled from iron chains fixed to the ceiling. One of them looked at Yoon Sang-hyuk entering and shuddered as if seized by a spasm.
Who among the players would not know Yoon Sang-hyuk, the Masked Lord?
"Park Tae-seong."
"Yes, sir!"
The man on the far left shouted his answer.
He was Park Tae-seong, the Master of the Phoenix Guild, who had managed the Sharp Fang Orc Village in Namdong Industrial Complex, Incheon. The other three were Phoenix Guild executives.
"You know why you're here, don't you?"
"Yes. I do."
No interrogation seemed necessary.
"Why did you do it? For money?"
"... ..."
"Did the Cathedral Knight Order promise to give you mana stones or something?"
Park Tae-seong could not answer and avoided Yoon Sang-hyuk's gaze.
"Did you think I couldn't find you no matter where you hid? Even if you had hidden inside the headquarters of the Cathedral Knight Order Guild, you would've been dragged here."
"I'm sorry."
"Do you know how many people died because of that filthy money? Or are you one of those types who think non-players are worthless?"
"No. Absolutely not."
Yoon Sang-hyuk looked at the four men one by one. Feeling his gaze, they all lowered their heads.
"I'm not going to kill you."
Hope entered their eyes. But that hope quickly turned into despair.
"I'm going to give you something worse than death. Marianne."
"My lord. You called for me?"
With a faint pink aura, Marianne appeared.
"Lock all of these men up separately. They must not be able to speak to one another. Loneliness and isolation are truly frightening monsters. And when they fall asleep, make them dream. Let them repent, even if only in dreams, to those who died because of them."
"Everything shall be as my lord wills."
* * *
Yoon Sang-hyuk watched the man sitting opposite him, fidgeting nervously.
Hasegawa Ryota, the Twilight Swordsman and Master of Geomgwirim, Japan's representative guild, had come to the Masked Castle.
The two of them had been sitting in silence for more than thirty minutes.
The tea in front of them had long since gone cold.
It was Yoon Sang-hyuk who broke the silence first.
"You've been well, I hope?"
"Thanks to you."
"I should have gone to Japan myself."
"I came to make sure that didn't happen."
"Right. Try to stop me, then."
Yoon Sang-hyuk leaned back in the chair and crossed his legs. Hasegawa Ryota wet his lips with the tip of his tongue.
"First, this matter has nothing to do with me."
"Let's say that's true."
"It's true that Michael Buren invited me to join him. But I refused. Unable to persuade me, Michael Buren made a deal with a senior government official. The old monsters, possessed by the ghosts of the past, approved the deal as well."
"I understand. But there's one thing I still can't figure out. How did Mike Buren learn about the forced overflow?"
Hasegawa Ryota chewed on his lower lip.
"Mizuya Junichi. Should I call him the Red-Eyed Reaper?"
"The Red-Eyed Reaper? Isn't he the number two in Geomgwirim?"
"He is."
"Hah, haha."
Yoon Sang-hyuk laughed loudly.
If Junichi was the Red-Eyed Reaper, then he was Hasegawa Ryota's most trusted subordinate. And that man had betrayed him.
"Junichi's father was connected to one of those specters who are trapped in the past. Of course, I didn't know that."
Yoon Sang-hyuk nodded as though it all made sense. When he had visited Japan and spoken with Hasegawa Ryota about the dungeon overflow, the Red-Eyed Reaper had been there too.
"And the Phoenix Guild men you hid? Are you going to say you didn't know about that too?"
"I knew. But it had already happened... and if I could conceal it, I wanted to."
"That's enough. You admit it was your mistake, then?"
"I do."
"There's someone close to me who doesn't want me going to Japan."
Hasegawa Ryota likely had a good idea who that person was.
"But we can't bury this here. At the very least, the Red-Eyed Reaper won't escape punishment."
"He no longer breathes."
That meant he had killed him.
"You do decide quickly. That specter tied to him, the Preacher of Silence... I'd like to see him stain his blade with blood again."
"Understood."
No matter how carefully he hid, no one could escape the sword of the Preacher of Silence, a member of Geomgwirim. In the end, from this moment on, he would be living on borrowed time.
"There'll be friction with England before long. You need to persuade the Japanese government and fight them. The Necro Master has already agreed to do the same."
"I will."
"Last thing."
Hasegawa Ryota stared at Yoon Sang-hyuk with burning intensity. Whatever Yoon Sang-hyuk demanded, he would have no choice but to accept it. It had better be a punishment Japan could allow.
"You don't need to be that tense. This last part is a promise, a vow. If something like this happens one more time in the future... "
Yoon Sang-hyuk drank the cold tea, then closed his hand around the cup. The porcelain cup crumbled into fine powder.
"I will come to Japan again. And the result will be..."
Yoon Sang-hyuk looked at the pile of powder on the table.