The Plunderer

After her bath, Diana threw herself into the hospitality Lee Tae-hyun had prepared without a shred of restraint.

The facilities at Cheonseong Resort were top-tier by any standard in the world.

And beyond that, an army of staff had personally maintained everything in peak condition for Diana alone.

If this wasn't the height of pampering, nothing was.

"Ahhh~."

Diana let out a melting sigh as she sank into a plush sofa. It felt like every ounce of fatigue from the past stretch was draining out of her at once.

Superhuman or not, mental exhaustion kept piling up all the same. For a woman who had been grinding through a murderous schedule without pause, a single day of rest was sweet as honey.

"…I want to move this entire place back home."

The drink that had appeared midway through, in particular, had been nothing short of divine. Crisp and clean like some rare elixir, it felt like it had washed the fog right out of her brain in one swallow.

"What was the name of that drink again?"

"Sol's Woo—"

Before Ji Yeon-ha could finish her answer—

"Was the facility to your liking?"

Lee Tae-hyun's voice drifted in from across the room. Wearing an angelically sweet smile that didn't suit him at all, he walked slowly toward the two of them.

"I put it together in rather a rush, so I was worried it might have fallen short."

"Oh, don't be absurd. I was this close to squatting here for the rest of my life."

"Haha! Hearing that makes all the effort worth it."

A warm, friendly exchange. The mood seemed to be flowing in a perfectly pleasant direction—

'Th-they're both monsters….'

Ji Yeon-ha knew better. She knew exactly what each of them was thinking, hidden beneath those harmless-looking expressions like a sharpened dagger sheathed in silk.

"You're even more beautiful in person than through a screen, Lady Diana. Every inch the sovereign of exalted magic."

"Fufufu, and you're more dashing than your reputation suggested, Taehyun dear. And quite the gentleman, too."

It was a lion and a tiger putting on bunny masks and staging a masquerade for each other. That surreal spectacle nearly short-circuited Ji Yeon-ha's brain.

"Well then, shall we head to dinner?"

Tae-hyun smiled faintly and guided the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠two of them toward the banquet that awaited.

After the meal, I dismissed every last Cheonseong employee.

Now the only people here were the three of us.

"Then… let's get down to business, shall we?"

I eased into it, deliberately unhurried.

"The real reason Lady Diana has come to Korea. Naturally, that would be Horizon?"

"My~ how refreshing, someone who gets straight to it. Though I suppose we've had our fill of pleasantries for the day."

Diana set down her after-dinner tea and narrowed her eyes.

"That's right. To me, Horizon has become quite the thorn in my side."

She shrugged, as if the reasons needed no explanation.

"I'll be blunt. The magic tool crafting technology—hand it over to us."

"Haha! That's quite an impudent joke you've got there."

I let my expression harden just a touch, on purpose.

"It is a joke, I trust?"

"If it came across that way, then I apologize."

A hollow apology, of course. What person on this planet apologizes while wearing a smile that seductive?

"Tell me, Taehyun. Do you know why the Magic Tower holds a monopoly on magic tools?"

That caught me slightly off guard. I hadn't expected the word 'monopoly' to come out of her mouth first.

"I couldn't say. Is there a reason?"

"To build a better world. In other words—for the greater good."

…Hm.

How exactly was hoarding every magic tool in existence good for the world? My feeble little brain simply could not fathom it.

"Hunters use skills, and mages use magic. Broadly speaking, both get lumped together as 'skills'… but there is a decisive difference between the two."

"You mean whether it's been academicized or not?"

"Precisely. Ordinary skills rely heavily on instinct and physical execution, but magic is another beast entirely."

Diana tapped her temple with her finger.

"Magic is systematized. Which means it can be studied, researched, and experimented upon as a scholarly discipline, and elevated level by level."

Combat-class skills, at best, had been passed down in comparatively vague forms—martial manuals and secret tomes. In a way, that was only natural. The way you swing a sword, the way you place your feet—those had to be learned by moving your own body, through your own sweat.

'But magic is different.'

The theory and principles of magic. The structure and operation of spell formulas. The knowledge distilled from deconstructing and designing them all came out remarkably concrete.

'If I had to compare it to a warrior's art—imagine a sword manual that spelled out everything from the exact finger placement on the hilt, to the force of each breath, to foot placement and the shifting of your center of gravity.'

That was also why mage-types had so many 'Skill Modifications' compared to everyone else. Unlike skills that depended on feel from start to finish, a visible spell formula existed—so it was easy to knead in your own interpretation.

'Not that any but geniuses manage it.'

That same influence was why mage-types carried a scholarly air the rest of the hunter community lacked.

"For hunters walking the path of magic, quality education matters above all else. And when it comes to knowledge and information on magic, no one on Earth can rival the Magic Tower."

I'd heard of it before.

Beneath the British Magic Tower lay a subterranean labyrinth housing 'the Ark'—the repository of every spell known to exist, past and present. From the most common magic, to the 'Grand Spells' that required many mages casting in concert, to the 'Signature Spells' of legendary mages, all the way to spells sealed away for one reason or another.

'They're so serious about magic they built a place like that.'

It meant they regarded magic not as some mystical power for killing monsters, but as a discipline in its own right—a body of knowledge.

"…I see the gist of your argument, Lady Diana."

My thoughts had settled into place, more or less. I kept my gaze locked on Diana and laid out the conclusion I'd arrived at.

"In other words—the Tower monopolizes magic tools so that every mage in the world has no choice but to come to the Tower?"

The Magic Tower believed that only they could teach the finest magic. Admittedly, the information and magical knowledge they possessed was beyond comparison with anyone else.

'But not every mage goes to the Tower.'

Some joined guilds. Some roamed free, affiliated with no one at all. It might have been different back in the old days, when the Tower was 'the first guild'—

'But nowadays even ordinary hunters have options.'

There were guilds promising better treatment than the Tower, and there were people who despised the Tower's particular atmosphere and refused to affiliate altogether.

'They couldn't just sit back and watch that happen.'

So the solution they chose was monopolizing magic tools. To use magic efficiently, you needed a magic tool. Some spells were even designed from the ground up assuming their use—magic tools were no small part of a mage's life.

'Monopolize those tools, then distribute them exclusively to Tower members.'

Join, and you profit. Refuse, and you're penalized. Using that gap, the Tower had been filling its ranks all this time.

'And honestly, the mere ability to use magic tools freely and experiment with them was said to be worth the price of admission on its own.'

But with the arrival of 'Horizon,' the entire board had flipped.

The reason the Tower could simply buy up magic tools until now was that no one else could make them. No matter how much they paid, supply would eventually run dry.

But if Horizon kept producing at its current pace, the Tower could no longer rely on the method it had clung to for so long. If it tried to monopolize every tool Horizon made, it would go bankrupt within a few years.

"Oh ho. You're more clever than I gave you credit for, Taehyun."

Diana ran her tongue briefly across her lips.

"Naturally, I don't intend to appeal to moral duty alone. Business is best served cold, after all."

"Meaning what, exactly?"

"We'll buy Horizon. Our Magic Tower will."

"Wha—?!"

Ji Yeon-ha shot up out of her seat in shock.

"The way it's being run now doesn't interest me… but magic tool crafting looks like it would be quite useful."

Well, obviously. Being able to craft magic tools meant holding enormous potential in your hands.

Even I was squeezing in work on the 'Magicarapace: Machina' blueprints whenever my mana had room to spare.

'Of course she covets it.'

If this deal went through, the Tower's crisis would become the stepping stone toward its greatest golden age ever.

Of course—

'That's if it went through.'

"I decline."

The moment I flatly refused, Diana calmly asked for my reasoning, as if she'd expected it.

"And why is that?"

"You know the answer better than I do, don't you, Lady Diana?"

I let out a soft laugh.

"'Horizon' is far too valuable to trade away for a fistful of money."

Money? I had more than I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠knew what to do with. And even if I didn't, I could never hand over Horizon. That would be the thoughtless move of a fool.

'Granted, the prestige of having cut a deal with the British Magic Tower is tempting.'

But it couldn't compare to Horizon's near-infinite potential.

"A pity. I thought even out of magnanimity, you might yield."

"Funny, hearing the word 'yield' out of you."

"…Excuse me?"

"Who's been refusing to yield an inch of anything all this time, if not the Tower?"

The lofty reasons she'd given were nothing but a pretext. No grand vision, no greater good—just tyranny born of an empty-headed sense of mission that 'all magic belongs to the Tower.'

"Stripping others of their opportunities, then using that as leverage to assimilate them—is that truly your 'magnanimity'? I'm curious."

"Ha…! I misspoke. You're not clever at all, Taehyun—you're a fool."

Her brow twitched faintly.

"This deal is a mercy we are granting you."

Arrogance began bleeding into her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠voice. An authoritative pressure, the kind one levels at someone beneath them.

"If this deal falls through, do you think the Magic Tower will simply sit quietly?"

"…"

"We will mobilize every means at our disposal to squeeze Horizon, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Cheonseong—and you. Until you crawl back to the negotiating table on your own. And when that day comes, the terms will be far more lopsided than they are now."

In a word: 'hand it over now, or hand it over after a beating.'

Such an overt threat that it was almost refreshing.

"For instance, I could have this girl dismissed from her post as Master of the Korean Magic Tower."

"…You'd remove Yeon-ha?"

"Nehh?!"

At the sudden appearance of her own name, Ji Yeon-ha bit her tongue.

"Do you have grounds for dismissal?"

"Reasons can be manufactured, can't they? The point is that I hold more than enough power to do exactly that."

"…"

I pretended to weigh my options for a moment. Then—

Swish!

I drew a skill book out of subspace.

"Ah, no! Don't! I'll be fine, really—!"

"Stay still, Yeon-ha."

The core skill from which all magic tool crafting flowed. Thank goodness I'd kept that last copy untouched.

"Surely that's not—"

"Indeed. The skill book containing the magic tool crafting skill."

"Kuhufufu! An excellent choice. You truly are a wise one, Taehyun."

The moment Diana reached out her hand to take the skill book—

I manifested the bearing of an apex predator—brief, and without warning.

Kuuuuwoong!

An overwhelming presence spread through the room in an instant.

For a heartbeat, everyone but me froze mid-motion.

"Th-that just now—?!"

"…Hnngh!"

Diana's face scrunched, and Ji Yeon-ha trembled, cold sweat beading across her forehead.

'Hm. As expected.'

So that was roughly the gap between us.

Having taken a fair estimate, I immediately retrieved the skill book into subspace.

"…What was that supposed to be?"

"What does it look like? A statement that our contract hasn't been signed yet."

"What on earth—"

"Then let me make you a proposal."

No tangled clauses, no fine print. Clean and simple.

"One duel. The loser unconditionally accepts whatever terms the winner sets."

"Ye… yes?!"

"Hunters should solve their problems like hunters."

There was one absolute law that governed the hunter industry—nay, nature itself.

'Survival of the fittest.'

The strong rule the weak.

"Are you… in your right mind right now?"

"Yes."

"I trust you haven't forgotten who I am?"

"Of course not. Lady Diana—Supreme Tower Master and the United Kingdom's World Ranker."

"And you wish to duel me?"

I knew. I knew exactly how insane this must look to her.

But I also knew this was the path to 'the greatest possible gain' for me.

"Why?"

I covered my mouth with my hand and gave her a sneer, eyes narrowed to slits.

"Don't tell me you're scared?"

"…What did you just say?"

A vein throbbed on Diana's pale forehead.

"Who would be scared, of you? Honestly, hilarious."

"Then…"

"Fine. Let's do it. Who do you think is going to lose?"

Yep—a pride-stroking type who flares up the instant it's bruised. She was trying desperately to hold a stern face and pretend otherwise, but to anyone watching, the agitation was obvious.

Seeing her like this, there was no doubt '1st Owl' was Diana, through and through.

"Ha, seriously. Me, lose? To that? As if. Such a lowborn little—"

Doing my best to ignore her muttering, I rose from my seat.

"Well then."

The venue for the final item on Lady Diana's itinerary.

"Allow me to escort you to the dueling arena."

At long, long last—the moment had come to test the power of a World Ranker.