The Price Is Always Paid (2)
The Medalist Guild hideout.
"Hoo."
Guild Master Won Seong-jun let out a deep sigh.
After choosing to stand by and wait, he had sent Kang Si-a a simple check-in letter and was now simply waiting for a reply.
"…Still no answer."
What on earth was going on?
Had the Owls been right after all?
The Wandering Merchant brought down, and someone else snatching the opportunity—that ending?
If so, their silence would prove the worst possible move, one that gained them nothing at all.
"Ha. This is irritating."
Just as Won Seong-jun was about to scrub his face dry—
Boom!
"Guild Master!"
Kwak Cheol-san burst through the door and shouted.
"Check the community. The Wandering Merchant is back."
"What?"
Won Seong-jun immediately entered the Exchange.
"…!"
There was stock!
Under the name ★Wandering Merchant★, goods were once again flooding the market just as before!
"How is this possible? Was the Wandering Merchant really attacked?"
If the Wandering Merchant had been fine, Kang Si-a should have contacted them.
They were a proper partner guild, after all.
This week's shipment should have arrived.
The fact that it hadn't meant…
"Ahem. Odds are high, aren't they?"
"Damn it! What did I tell you? I said we should side with the Owls! Contact them again right now! Ask them what the hell happened."
"Hold on."
Just as Won Seong-jun bit his lip and began working the community system—
Ding!
A letter has arrived.
Huh?
A message had come in.
"Wha—!"
Won Seong-jun shot to his feet.
"What's wrong?"
"It came!"
"What?"
"A message from Kang Si-a!"
His voice trembling with excitement, Won Seong-jun shared the letter's contents.
"See? What did I tell you!"
This time it was Won Seong-jun whose spirits soared.
"The Wandering Merchant is fine. They're even sending goods! Kwak Cheol-san, if we'd thrown in with the Owls like you wanted, we'd have ended up with nothing."
"Heh… heh heh. I guess I panicked for nothing."
Kwak Cheol-san scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish.
"Well, those Owl bastards made it sound so convincing. They even sent video footage—who'd fall for that? Still, lucky the Guild Master's call was right."
"She's coming soon, so gather every guild member."
Won Seong-jun said it in high spirits.
"We should receive her with proper courtesy. Clean the place up a bit, and tidy yourselves too."
"Yes, Guild Master."
That same dawn.
Step. Step.
Kang Si-a appeared alone in the Gangdong district, where the Seoul Medalist Guild had made its base.
In the empty lot before the rundown gymnasium they used as a hideout, nearly twenty guild members already stood in formation.
"Athlete Kang Si-a! You made it!"
Won Seong-jun stepped forward with exaggerated hospitality.
Relief and genuine gladness were plain on his face.
"When the supply stopped without a word, you have no idea how worried we were. We even reached out in case there was anything we could do to help, but when you never replied… Still, seeing the supply resume, it looks like things worked out. What a relief. Hahaha!"
He carried on with shameless ease, as if he had truly, purely fretted over them the whole time.
And then—
"To be honest, not long ago an information guild calling themselves the Owls contacted us with some strange story. Claiming the Wandering Merchant's safety was in serious trouble, wanting us to join hands with them, and so on…"
He had completely rewritten the strategy of standing by and watching. That was the conclusion of his discussion with Kwak Cheol-san and the rest of the team.
Given how things had turned out, they would throw their lot fully behind the Wandering Merchant.
"Of course we didn't believe a word of it. Figured it was just bait and ignored them. Hahaha!"
A plausible excuse. A calculated effort to rationalize their silence as much as possible and dress it up as if they had kept faith.
But Kang Si-a's expression was ice-cold.
"That's strange."
"Pardon?"
"If you ignored them then, why bother telling me about it now?"
"…?"
Won Seong-jun felt the atmosphere take a wrong turn.
That freezing pointed remark.
Don't tell me…?
The worst-case scenario he and his teammates had feared—the nightmare hypothesis that this entire affair had been a test by the Wandering Merchant—could it actually be true?
Kang Si-a's face was cold. The gentleness from when they had met to make the previous contract was nowhere to be found. Even the few times they had crossed paths at the athletes' village, he had never seen her look this angry.
Ah.
Won Seong-jun understood.
Their shallow little scheme had been seen through completely.
Kang Si-a spoke again.
"I have nothing to give you."
"…"
Won Seong-jun's shoulders sagged.
"Tch. So that's how it is. I'm sorry, Athlete Kang Si-a. We were shortsighted."
He admitted it cleanly. Excuses would not work. They would only make things more pathetic.
But Kang Si-a shook her head.
"No need to apologize."
"…?"
"Just hand over the TC the Medalist Guild earned through the Wandering Merchant over the past two weeks. That's what I came for today."
"That… TC is…"
They had already distributed it among the guild members, and spent a portion on items.
"As for the price of weighing my trust on a scale—I'll let that go, for the sake of the athletes' village."
The moment those words fell, not only Won Seong-jun's face but every guild member's behind him hardened.
She had come alone, and her demand was: hand over the TC?
"Si-a, isn't that a little much?"
A sharp-featured woman—a former fencer—took a step forward.
"I'm not saying we did nothing wrong. Opinions were flying and we failed to respond properly, that's true. But honestly, testing us like this is pretty rude, don't you think?"
"Yeah! Do you know how much we suffered over this?"
"And honestly, we've already spent the TC. Gear, potions, everything. If you demand it back now, what are we supposed to do?"
Voices thick with grievance erupted from every side. Less reflection and guilt than wounded pride and pushback.
Kang Si-a listened to every protest in silence. Then she answered with crisp simplicity and a small nod.
"That part I'll take in items as well."
"What?"
That was when Kwak Cheol-san's brow furrowed hard.
"You little shit. Get a little cozy with the Wandering Merchant and suddenly nothing's off-limits, huh?"
That shout was the signal flare.
"Yeah! You show up alone and think you can do what, exactly?"
"Even if you've got nice gear, you're alone. You think you can take all of us?"
"Got some nerve."
A few of the hardliners drew their weapons. They too were monsters who had once represented the nation in their sports. In numbers and raw physique, the calculation said they held an overwhelming advantage.
Won Seong-jun nodded in agreement.
"See? Athlete Kang Si-a. How about we settle this amicably? Keep things friendly."
"Hoo."
Kang Si-a let out a sigh.
So it comes to this after all.
Her eyes went cold.
Truthfully, she had hoped—just a little. That the comrades who had once looked toward the same finish line and poured out sweat together would show at least a shred of conscience. That they would admit their wrong and apologize sincerely.
But the reality before her eyes was wretched. They had dressed up their inaction as prudence and rationalized their greed as opportunity. And now they were shamelessly playing the victim.
But.
She felt no tension.
She had cleared the Tower's fifth floor. Her mastery of the Spirit Cat Steps and Eagle Claw Divine Archery was far ahead of the other members.
Shhk.
She raised the Moonlight Bow.
Then—
Clatter-rattle!
From her expanded spatial pack, she dumped dozens of practice wood arrows—shafts without metal heads.
Oppa said not to kill them, after all.
For a little corrective education, nothing beat these. They would crack bone on impact, but they wouldn't kill.
"Oh? Looking for a fight, are you? No matter how good you are with a bow, you think you can handle me in close quarters?"
Kwak Cheol-san charged first, blunt weapon in hand.
Whoosh!
The blow came in, threatening, aimed straight at Kang Si-a's midsection.
The one redeeming point…
He wasn't aiming for a vital spot like the head.
Except—
If you hit someone with a blunt weapon, don't they die anyway?
Kang Si-a's eyes narrowed.
They had no intention of killing her, but they clearly intended to half-kill her.
In that case, no reason for me to hold back either.
She did not dodge the onrushing mace. She simply stood as if nailed to the spot.
"Is she insane?!"
Puzzlement flickered through Kwak Cheol-san's eyes—then melted into a cruel smile. If she was going to stand there and take it, his job just got easier.
But the instant before his mace reached her abdomen—
Shhk.
Kang Si-a's form slid half a step sideways like heat haze.
A half-step like shimmering haze—body and strike pass through empty air.
The heavy mace carved empty air, and Kwak Cheol-san's body pitched forward off-balance.
In that exact instant—
Twang!
A wood arrow left Kang Si-a's hand.
The result—
CRAAAACK!
A hideous impact-crack rang out, the kind of sound a mace makes when it smashes concrete.
"Ghh—GAAAAAH!"
The arrow had punched clean into Kwak Cheol-san's right buttock. The most humiliating spot possible—one that wrecked mobility without being a vital organ.
He screamed and rolled on the ground. It was a ridiculous sight.
"Kwak Cheol-san!"
"Y-You bitch!"
Stunned guild members charged from every direction.
But Kang Si-a still did not move from the center. She simply flicked a few of the spilled wood arrows up with her toes and caught them in her hand.
Oppa said it, didn't he?
True archery is not bound by distance. An archer who has mastered the Spirit Cat Steps has no weak range.
It was true. Their attacks looked painfully slow, and dodging them was as easy as yawning.
Stats were part of it—but the power of martial arts was the rest.
Twang! Twang! Twang!
Her bowstring sang without rest.
The arrows never sought fatal places.
Thwack!
The back of a charging swordsman's hand.
"Agh! My hand!"
Thwack!
The instep of a spearman mid-thrust.
"GAAAAAH!"
Thwack! Thwack!
The shoulder and thigh of two attackers closing from both sides.
She deliberately picked only the places densest with bone and nerve—the spots that would hurt the most and feel the most unpleasant when struck.
And even—
Twang!
One arrow punched through a man's pants and buried itself in the dirt between his legs.
His face went ashen; he collapsed where he stood and wet himself.
"Hiiieeek!"
This was not a fight. It was a one-sided torture.
Kang Si-a did not take a single step. She only twisted her body, leaned her waist, dipped her head—the absolute minimum of movement. With nothing but the Spirit Cat Steps, she slipped every attack.
"I-Insane…"
Watching it all, Won Seong-jun's mouth fell open.
What the hell is happening right now?
His sense of reality was gone. Even as guild members went flying and crumpled, he could not properly grasp what he was seeing.
That archers are weak at close range is common knowledge among common knowledge. Kang Si-a was laughing that knowledge in the face.
…Is that even human?
CRACK! SNAP!
CRAAASH! THUD!
As if she already knew every attack trajectory, she dodged—and in the gaps, delivered devastating punishment. And they could not simply keep their distance either. The arrows that hit from farther away only hurt more.
"Ghh—GAAAAAH!"
"S-Somebody help!"
"Stop! Stop! Stop! I'm sorry! Kyaaaaah!"
Screams filled the empty lot.
But Kang Si-a did not stop. There was no mercy in her eyes. Falling down did not mean it was over. Her gaze swept the bodies writhing on the ground like a precision scanner.
Left shoulder. Still intact.
CRAAAACK!
A wood arrow flew and punched clean through the unharmed shoulder of a man down on the dirt. He could not even scream; foam flecked his lips.
Right thigh. Not broken yet.
Twang!
An arrow buried itself in another man's thigh. With a hideous crack, the leg twisted at a grotesque angle.
"St-Stop…"
At last, Won Seong-jun could not hold it in and muttered under his breath.