Chapter 222
Chapter 222
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 222
Chapter Title: A Brief Rest (3)
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It had been a while.
In truth, people rarely came here seeking information.
Normally, there was no need to.
‘But things are different now.’
The situation outside of Korea was very different from what I knew.
To get that information, I needed the power of someone who could gather it without even moving.
[Character Information]
Name: Yun-hu
Gender: Male (41)
…
Unique Ability: Morning Bird, Night Mouse (A)
…….
Morning bird and night mouse.
The name of his unique ability was a shortened version of the proverb, “Birds hear the words of the day, and mice hear the words of the night.”
Its rank was A, just as I remembered.
Given the nature of that ability, even a B-rank would be enough to gather information from all over the world without moving a muscle.
‘Of course, at lower ranks, it’s limited to just hearing rumors.’
This rank was more than enough for what I needed to find out.
“And now, a gift for our young ladies.”
“Wow!”
“It’s so pretty…”
As promised, he first handed drinks to the twins.
They looked and were served like cocktails, but they were completely non-alcoholic.
He had probably used soda instead of liquor.
[Is that good?]
‘Probably?’
[It looks good.]
‘You can’t drink it anyway.’
[Tch.]
I took a seat.
Jun Bo-ra, who had been standing next to me, naturally sat down beside me and looked around quizzically.
“There’s no menu.”
“Our bar does not have a menu.”
“Oh, then how do we…”
Before Jun Bo-ra could finish her sentence, a cocktail was placed in front of her.
“This is a cocktail called the Midnight Moon. Please, have a taste.”
“Well…”
Swept up in the atmosphere, Jun Bo-ra took a sip, and her eyes widened.
She swirled the drink in her mouth for a moment, savoring the aroma, before letting out a short, satisfied sigh.
“...This is delicious.”
“Thank you.”
“I wish I could say more, but that’s the only word that comes to mind. It’s really delicious. Kim Se-hyeon, how did you ever find a place like this? Did you have a girlfriend or something?”
“One sip of that and you’ve already forgotten this place existed back in EOA.”
He then prepared different cocktails for each of the others.
They say a great bartender can recommend a drink just by hearing about a customer’s mood.
Being a player, he took it a step further, serving the most suitable drink after just a brief glance.
“For you, sir, I recommend this.”
And when my turn finally came.
He offered me an empty glass.
“Huh? Why’s your glass empty? Oh, I get it. He must have seen what you did earlier… He’s saying there’s no drink for a bad guy like you! Right? Ha, serves you right!”
“What are you talking about? This is what I wanted.”
With a smirk, I pulled out the piece of paper that was under the glass.
This wasn't a place you came to for a drink.
It was a place you came to buy information.
I fluttered the paper in front of Jun Bo-ra’s face.
“Hey, wait a minute. Is that…?”
“Sir. I’ll have the same drink as her, please.”
“Right away.”
“What, so this is that kind of place!?”
“It is.”
I took a sip of the new cocktail the master had given me and unfolded the paper.
It was filled with information about Saintess Emiliana, who had visited me not long ago.
As an A-rank ability user, he wouldn't know state secrets, but he could access information far more classified than what was generally available.
For now, that was enough.
‘I’ve confirmed that Salvatio is operating all over the world due to a series of incidents.’
This meant that, except for Korea, where Salvatio had not conducted large-scale recruitment, much would have changed.
The first step was to gather all the publicly available information and compare it with what I already knew.
I slowly read down the paper, then paused at a certain point.
‘…The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn?’
The Saintess is involved with these guys, too?
“What is it? What did you read? Let me see. Show me. C’mon, show me!”
I pushed away Jun Bo-ra, who was leaning in to peek, and got my thoughts in order.
The Saintess originated in Europe.
So, it was inevitable that she would easily make contact with European factions.
Even so, to think she had joined hands with a faction that opposed players.
‘With the Saintess’s power and influence, she must hold a fairly high position within Salvatio.’
What was she after?
I unconsciously tapped my fingertips on the table.
Perhaps the Golden Dawn was just a smokescreen.
The darkness on that side. The real power lurking in the deeper abyss.
‘Could the Saintess’s goal be…’
Tap.
The tapping on the table stopped.
‘I need to create a way to keep her in check.’
I still had too much to deal with here to go to Europe myself.
Above all, the quasi-disaster-class monster nestled in the Himalayas wasn't something that could be easily defeated.
I muttered to myself without realizing it.
“Unless there’s a way to travel to Europe and back in an instant…”
[Didn’t you say you were going to test if teleporting with a Dimension Stone was possible?]
‘Ah. Right, there was that.’
I walked over to Choi Yeon-su, who was sitting a little distance away.
Choi Yeon-su, who was drinking something with an overall sky-blue hue, looked up as if to ask what was wrong.
“That thing I asked you to have Min Gyeong-hoon look into. What happened with that?”
“Ah, that.”
I hadn't told Choi Yeon-su the full details.
Given the gravity of the matter, I wanted to control the flow of information for now.
Choi Yeon-su had taken the hint and hadn't asked.
He scratched his head as if things hadn't gone well.
“He said it’s impossible.”
“Then I guess there’s no other way.”
“Hear me out. He said it’s impossible for now, at least. There’s not enough research on it, he doesn’t know if it’s even possible with current technology, and he has no idea what he would even need to use if it were. He said things might be different after some time has passed.”
In other words, he wanted more Dimension Stones to use as samples.
Of course, I had no intention of giving him any.
Now that I knew Dimension Stones were necessary to build stacks for ‘Disaster Eater’, I couldn't afford to spare the already rare stones for samples.
So, that was the end of that discussion.
I smacked my lips and returned to my seat.
‘Then how did the Saintess get here from Europe?’
Salvatio knew something.
Something else that I didn't.
“Wow, is this alcohol? It’s better than I thought.”
“Is this your first time drinking? I’d have thought you’d had plenty of chances since you fully recovered.”
“My brother wouldn’t let me.”
“…That’s so lame.”
Jun Bo-ra made a disgusted face.
In the past, I might have felt the same, but knowing the full story, I didn't really think that way anymore.
As I smiled wryly, Hwang Yu-jin offered an awkward smile in return.
“Are you sleepy?”
“Yes, a little…”
At some point, the twins had started dozing off.
The sudden release of tension combined with full stomachs must have made them sleepy.
Perfect timing.
“Then let’s start wrapping things up.”
Jun Bo-ra immediately took Hwang Yu-jin to help Hwang Chan-jin.
The way she scurried out of the bar, perhaps afraid I’d bring up the groveling incident again, was quite amusing.
Jeong Ha-yeon offered to take the half-asleep children home for me.
“Ah, the kids are fine, I can…”
“You stay.”
“Huh?”
Choi Yeon-su looked puzzled but sat back down.
“I’ll leave them in your care.”
“Don’t worry.”
Jeong Ha-yeon gave a faint smile and led the twins away.
I turned my gaze to the opposite side of the table.
Seong Woo-hyeon and Lee Min-hwa.
The two of them were still in their seats.
“I assume you stayed behind for a reason.”
“It’s best if others don’t hear this.”
Lee Min-hwa tapped a still-moist glass with her finger.
“It’s about Seon Woo-jin-nim’s death.”
Seong Woo-hyeon took a sip of his cocktail and continued.
“It’s not uncommon for a player to die fighting a monster. The enemy was that powerful, and it’s something that can always happen. The problem is what to do with the Taegeuk Guild. They’ve been left high and dry after losing their guild master.”
“Kim Se-hyeon. How about you take his place? Heyyy. Why are you stopping me? Move your arm.”
“Se-hyeon-nim, Lee Min-hwa-nim tends to speak informally when she drinks. Please understand.”
“It’s fine. I don’t mind.”
If anything, it was Seong Woo-hyeon, who hadn't dropped his formal tone once from the very beginning, who was more remarkable.
I glanced at the hiccupping, red-faced Lee Min-hwa before looking down at my empty glass.
The Taegeuk Guild was empty.
Like this glass, with only a lingering scent.
It was a balloon, shiny on the outside but empty on the inside.
“Of course, you don’t have to decide right away. You can also refuse. This is merely a suggestion, not a demand.”
Seong Woo-hyeon added.
An empty shell wasn't very appealing.
But its name still held weight.
Even as the lowest-ranked of the five major guilds, the title of a top-five guild carried power in itself.
‘In other words, it’s a bit of a dilemma…’
I turned my eyes to Choi Yeon-su.
I’d asked him to stay for another reason, but if this was the case, then…
“If I refuse, what will you do with the Taegeuk Guild?”
“I imagine it would be merged. Normally, the vice master would take over, or a new leader would be chosen from the executives, but all of them either died or returned to the Bonghwang Guild… It’s a rather unusual situation.”
That wouldn’t do.
It would be troublesome if the other guilds grew any larger.
But it was even more troublesome for me, who had deliberately avoided joining a guild, to become a guild master.
After a moment of thought, I found a solution.
“Choi Yeon-su. You take it.”
“What? You want me to be the guild master of the Taegeuk Guild?”
“No, just use my name as the official guild master. You’ll be in charge of all the actual guild master duties. Yes. Acting Guild Master. That’s how it will look on the surface. But in reality, you’ll be the guild master.”
“Why make it so complicated… Hmm. Never mind. The leader must have his reasons. Alright. Are you two okay with this?”
“As long as it’s ultimately in Kim Se-hyeon-nim’s hands, it’s fine. Besides, given Choi Yeon-su-nim’s capabilities shown in various meetings, we can trust you completely.”
“Well then…”
So, my instructions for him to make his mark by continuously attending the guild meetings as my representative had paid off like this.
A very satisfactory result.
‘This way, I won't get that damn penalty either.’
Officially, I would be called the guild master, but it would be nothing more than a mutually agreed-upon lie.
Choi Yeon-su’s name would be on all the documents.
[The effect of ‘Great Hero’s Resolve’ nullifies the harmful effects of ‘Fear Imprint’.]
I recalled the message that had appeared when I faced Azi Dahaka.
An ability I presumed was a secondary effect of Disaster Eater.
It existed, but until I knew what level of opponent it worked against, it was better to play it safe.
“Then, moving on from that matter…”
Lee Min-hwa glanced at Choi Yeon-su.
But deciding that he would be their equal anyway if he was to be the acting guild master of the Taegeuk Guild, she quickly dismissed her concern.
“…I think it’s time for Crow-nim to come back.”
The corners of Seong Woo-hyeon’s mouth turned down slightly.
“There are those cultists Kim Se-hyeon mentioned earlier. And the sheer power of the disasters… I feel like we’re getting to a point where we can’t handle things on our own anymore.”
Lee Min-hwa said, then slumped over the table.
It shouldn't have been time for Crow's name to come up yet.
Did this mean the guild masters were taking the current situation that seriously?
“Oh, right. Kim Se-hyeon. Thank you, really. Thanks to you, I was able to get proper revenge for my brother. There still seem to be remnants of Tarwi left, but I’ll start cleaning them up tomorrow. It’s been so long since I’ve been this happily drunk.”
Lee Min-hwa beamed.
I simply returned her smile.
“Crow? You mean the legendary player, one of the First Nine? That guy’s still alive?”
“Yes. He occasionally sends word of his whereabouts, though it’s always one-sided. Even then, the most recent contact was two months ago. Honestly, I wish he’d give up his wanderlust and settle down…”
Seong Woo-hyeon trailed off with a bitter smile.
Of course, he would. Crow was probably busy traveling the world, solving various problems.
Come to think of it, that guy should be heading to America soon.
‘Perfect.’
As it happened, I had business in America too.
That was where Salvatio’s main base was.