Chapter 252
Chapter 252
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 252
Chapter Title: ACT.49 The Spark of War (6)
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“You said this was the number one recommended dish. Why is this number one?”
“It is number one. Number one... from the bottom of the list of recommended dishes at this restaurant.”
“……”
I couldn't bring myself to chew anymore, so I stopped moving my mouth.
Then, my tongue began to be assaulted.
A taste I never wanted to know spread across my tongue.
*Crazy. They sell this stuff for money? Did they use their conscience as fuel to cook this? Has humanity regressed?*
“How is it? Delicious?”
Jun Bo-ra asked, beaming.
I was sure of it.
That was the smile of someone who'd succeeded in a prank.
“I've been remembering that time you fed me a dish made from monster meat. I'm the type who has to pay back what I've received.”
After a long, arduous moment of endurance, I finally managed to move my mouth muscles and spit out the food.
When I opened my mouth, a foul smell wafted out, making it hard to even speak.
I covered my mouth with one hand and mumbled.
“Damn it. At least that stuff tasted good!”
“It was still a terrible experience!”
“How is that the same as this!?”
“It is! It's absolutely the same! Do you know how the victim feels!?”
I quickly rinsed my mouth with the water the waiter brought.
My appetite had completely vanished.
I was still hungry, but my mouth refused to accept any food.
The rest of my party, happily cutting and eating their food, seemed surprisingly callous.
“Haa, whatever. Let's get to the point. How did the negotiations go?”
“That, of course...”
Jun Bo-ra made a V with her index and middle fingers.
“It seemed Pentagon Eagle didn't want to fight us either. It felt like they were trying to resolve things as amicably as possible. The moment I revealed I was the Strategy King, their attitude completely changed.”
It was only natural.
The twins and Cha Eun-ha.
People who shouldn't be strong at this point in time appeared as S-rankers, or close to it, plus the assumption that the Strategy King couldn't possibly be weak.
Various factors would have forced them to avoid a fight.
“Still, they backed off more easily than I expected. From Salvatio's perspective, I'd have thought he'd try to eliminate a clear threat like the Strategy King, even if it meant taking some damage.”
“Well, I did a little digging, and it seems the situation suddenly changed recently.”
Jun Bo-ra lowered her voice.
“They say the atmosphere is so tense a large-scale war could break out at any moment.”
“That's supposed to happen anyway, isn't it? With Pentagon Eagle trying to swallow up all the other American guilds...”
“No, the opposite.”
I froze, my hand still holding the cup.
Through the glass, Jun Bo-ra's serious eyes looked magnified.
“Several other guilds, excluding Pentagon Eagle, have formed an alliance and declared war, calling for the downfall of Pentagon Eagle.”
I recalled the three people I met before coming here.
They were moderators, yet they stood in opposition, chanting anti-Salvatio slogans.
In that one goal, they were aligned with us.
“And you had your dark soldiers stationed there, too. Of course, they didn't know that. But even without them, if we had clashed, Pentagon Eagle and Salvatio would have taken significant damage. The opposing factions wouldn't have just stood by and watched.”
“I see...”
The corners of my mouth lifted unconsciously.
This made one thing certain.
Achieving my original goal had just become much easier.
As I crossed my legs, the note in my pocket rustled.
The answer to the note was all but decided.
“What about you, then? It doesn't seem like your business is resolved yet.”
“For now, I've only managed to set up an appointment. They said he doesn't just meet with anyone, anytime.”
“I heard he does nothing but drink all day. Acting all busy.”
Jun Bo-ra snorted in disbelief.
“Should I go with you then?”
“It's a private meeting. I'm to enter alone. That was their condition.”
“...Isn't that a bit dangerous? Your face and name must be known here, too.”
“It's fine, I wore a mask from the start.”
If Choi Yeon-soo's ‘Polymorph’ had been S-rank, I wouldn't have had to bother with a mask, but what can you do.
Forcibly raising it from A to S requires 100,000 coins.
It's an amount that regular players, who have to pay daily maintenance fees, could never obtain unless they achieve great feats in major incidents. Not to mention, they'd have to give up on raising their stats and save for a long time.
Instead, Choi Yeon-soo has another important role.
That's why I included her in the delegation, and the preliminary work was already done.
“What if they tell you to take off the mask?”
“He's not that unreasonable.”
I know Graham's personality well.
I had experienced it hundreds of times, so I knew exactly how to lead the flow of the conversation.
“You guys go here.”
“What's this? A note?”
“The opposing faction to Pentagon Eagle you mentioned earlier. I've arranged a meeting with them.”
If this goes well.
We'll be able to bring down Pentagon Eagle from both the inside and the outside simultaneously.
***
“So you're the one who brought news of Harrington.”
The strong stench of alcohol stung my nose.
For a moment, I grimaced at the smell of alcohol, so potent I could believe the air was replaced with it.
“Ah, is the smell of booze a bit strong? Heh heh. My apologies. I've grown so numb to it, I can't even tell how bad it is.”
Graham slowly, sluggishly rose from his chair.
He was even larger than I'd seen in the game—a literal mountain of a man.
A muscular body that hadn't wasted away at all, despite all the drinking.
It was like facing a giant.
“Hup!”
KABOOM!!
One of the walls was blown away.
Fresh air rushed in from the newly opened outside, quickly clearing away the smell of alcohol.
With a peculiar expression, Graham clenched and unclenched his fist before letting out a long belch.
“Kuuugh. That sobered me up a bit. How about it? The smell should be bearable now, right?”
A man who would blow away a wall for such a trivial reason.
That was Graham.
“Thank you for your consideration.”
“Kwahahaha! Consideration? You sure have a pretty way with words!”
Before I knew it, new bottles of alcohol had been placed on the table.
“When it comes to having a truthful conversation, there's nothing better than alcohol. Open one. It's a drink I can recommend with confidence.”
“You seem like you'd get along well with Rinoyev.”
“Rinoyev! Now that's a name I haven't heard in a while! That's right, he's the only drunkard I've ever acknowledged. I'll never forget the look on the bartender's face when the two of us finished thirty bottles of vodka.”
[Is that even human?]
‘Surprisingly, yes.’
And that wasn't even their limit.
I'm curious how Graham would react if I showed him Yunhoe's Judorak.
“What are you doing? I told you to drink.”
Graham gestured with the tip of the bottle.
I glanced at the drink in front of me before looking back at him.
“I cannot drink it.”
“Are you refusing a drink from me?”
“Because I don't know what might be mixed in it.”
KABOOOM!!
The table split in half.
The bottles, having lost their support, rolled across the floor until they hit my feet and stopped.
“Do I look like that kind of petty man to you?”
Moody and hot-tempered.
Just as he was known in EOA, Graham glared at me as if he were about to chew me up and spit me out.
This is where it gets important.
As if nothing had happened, I replied, maintaining the same tone of voice as before.
“I am in a position where I must be cautious. The rumors about Pentagon Eagle are quite bad, you see. To be honest, I debated again and again whether I should even come here.”
“What kind of bastards are spouting such nonsense?”
A deep, blood-red aura flowed from around Graham's body.
Bloodlust.
It was the source of the immense power that allowed Graham to be number one in America.
I adjusted my mask.
“Nevertheless, I decided I had to fulfill Harrington's last request. Even if it meant I might become the first target of your rage, should you lose your reason.”
The bloodlust stealthily vanished.
“You've got guts.”
Graham's gaze changed.
They were no longer the slightly hazy, drunken eyes from before, but the eyes of a predator, befitting the guild master of America's number one guild.
“Where is the letter?”
“Here it is.”
I held out the letter.
Graham checked the officer's seal before opening the envelope and examining its contents.
After reading the letter for a moment, Graham wore an expression of interest.
“Harrington isn't the type to say things like this. You bastard, what did you do?”
“I don't know what you mean.”
“I mean Harrington wouldn't use words like these, even if he were addressing a country. Not unless his life was being threatened by someone, that is.”
Engulfed in bloodlust, the letter crackled and turned to ash.
“I'll ask again. Did you kill Harrington?”
His mana surged violently.
They may have fought often, but brothers are brothers.
Their bond was such that they would immediately know if something was off.
I immediately gave the answer I had prepared.
“That world was on the brink of ruin. Unlike Earth, which has held on to some extent, it was a world where monsters that had crossed dimensions literally covered the sky and land. A blood-red sunset cast its light, and the stench of death never faded. When I met Harrington, he had already faced death several times and was in a state of despair, his face gaunt. If he seemed different, I suspect it was because his personality had changed due to that.”
“Was Harrington alone?”
“He said all his useless subordinates had died.”
“Hmm.”
Graham's bloodlust subsided a little.
I continued my explanation, mixing in appropriate lies.
I described the world and the events that occurred after I met Harrington.
After listening silently, Graham asked another question.
“Then why did only you return?”
“He sustained an irrecoverable injury while fending off monsters during the activation of the dimensional travel magic. Since we were on an alien world, not Earth, it was impossible to use the system's shop, and there was no way to heal him.”
“He could have been treated after returning.”
“The mage's opinion was that his injured body wouldn't be able to withstand the dimensional pressure.”
“...Was there no healing magic?”
“Magic isn't omnipotent... or so he said.”
Graham drained the bottle in one go.
His bloodlust had faded to the point where it was almost unnoticeable.
He believed me. It seemed safe to assume so.
Graham could usually discern truth from falsehood by reading people's expressions, but it was impossible with an opponent wearing a mask like this.
That was also part of my plan.
“Your story has no circumstantial inconsistencies. I suppose I can take it as the truth. Ugh! That stupid fool. Why didn't he watch himself and get caught up in something like that.”
“Did you see for yourself how Harrington ended up in another world?”
“I did. With my own two eyes.”
Graham opened a new bottle and immediately brought it to his lips.
His actions practically screamed that he didn't want to talk about it anymore.
I was hoping to find out if there was another way to get there besides the one I knew, but it seems that won't be possible right now.
“I have one last question.”
“Yes.”
“Why are you wearing the mask?”
Graham wiped the alcohol dripping from his chin with the back of his hand.
This was another question I had prepared an answer for.
I answered immediately.
“Because I suffered burns and my face is a hideous mess. I, too, barely made it out of that world alive.”
“Burns. Right. A good excuse.”
The atmosphere suddenly turned cold.
His demeanor, which until a moment ago had seemed to believe and accept my words, changed completely as if it had all been a lie.
“It's always the ones with something to hide who wear masks.”
Graham gave a chilling smile, then in a flash, his arm shot out and forcibly ripped the mask from my face.