Chapter 15. Resolve (4)
It was the message that popped up right after I sent Lee Sea and Jin Yu-ri out of the Silver Demon Mountain ruins.
Lee Sea, Jin Yu-ri, Yoo Hae-bin. Rescuing those three from danger was the clear condition.
The moment the two I sent out stepped beyond the ruins that were on the verge of collapse, they were no longer in crisis.
Yoo Hae-bin was safe too, now that the explosions had stopped and I had control of the ruins—no way to call that a crisis anymore.
So that's why it cleared then.
Anyway, as a reward for clearing the sub-quest, I learned the name of one confirmed traitor from Europe.
DreamerArnaud Duré.
A mage who wields earth-attribute magic and exercises absolute dominance within any domain he prepares. Back in the day, he was the mood-maker among the 36 Heroes.
And right now, to me...
"I'll kill that bastard while he's still in Korea."
He's just a traitor who needs to pay for his crimes.
Even though she must be curious, Seo Yeon-hee didn't ask for the basis on which I named him a traitor.
She didn't ask how I found out, either.
Regardless of her own doubts, she only asked about what I needed for the job at hand.
"What was his motive for betraying us?"
"I don't know yet."
"Then figuring that out should be your top priority. You don't want to just kill him off without thinking, right?"
Why he betrayed them.
How the betrayal played out.
I wanted to know those things before killing him.
That way, I could spell it out clearly for him as he died.
Why he was dying. And by whose hand.
"Do you have to kill him in Korea? If you give yourself more time and flexibility on location, you'd have way more options."
"It doesn't have to be Korea, no. But I'll move fast on the timing, so it'll probably be while he's still here."
The progress on volume 2 of Kill the Evil had already passed the halfway mark.
Based on the pace so far, it would wrap up in at most a month.
Before that, I had to kill at least one of the 36 Heroes.
While establishing the precondition that Phantom was off the suspect list.
At this point, I'd identified six surviving traitors.
I knew the names of three: one in Korea, Arnaud Duré, and one in the US.
The US one was third priority.
My current forces, the physical distance, and all the other factors to consider.
It was too risky to attempt rashly.
The Korean traitor was second priority.
If things didn't work out, I'd pivot there, but Korea was his home turf, plain and simple.
Unlike Yeom Ui-jun, who'd fully committed to his corporate persona, a half-assed attempt here could fail spectacularly and screw up my future plans.
"That's why Arnaud Duré is the easiest target. He's a pain if he hunkers down in his domain, so I want to take him out in Korea, when he's at his weakest."
"Will Phantom help?"
"Not for this—it's not an official Phantom op, so probably not. I might bring Hae-bin along, though. She's got a grudge against the ones who drove her from her home. Even if I don't ask, she'll volunteer."
"Oh? Did you two get closer on that school trip?"
"......I've been kind of a jerk to her until now, so I figure I owe her some better treatment."
"Yeah, she's got that bold side, but she's cute, right? You should be a good senior to her."
Seo Yeon-hee spoke in an unusually gentle tone, clearly fond of Yoo Hae-bin, then quietly took a sip of her liquor.
She lit a slim cigarette, exhaled the smoke, and asked,
"Arnaud Duré's strength depends on the situation. Good timing, and he'll go down easier than Yeom Ui-jun. Bad timing, and he might even outmatch Charlotte. Got a solid plan?"
"If I pull out everything I've got, I can create a one-on-one opening with him."
My ongoing research into mana attributes.
The Silver Demon Mountain ruins under my control.
Arnaud Duré's magic, deeply tied to specific regions or the land itself.
My charm stat, leveled up to lure him somewhere isolated where I can learn his motives.
Simple in summary.
Dangle some mana research bait he'll bite on, lure him to Silver Demon Mountain, and kill him inside.
It wasn't this concrete before, but the gains from the school trip pulled it together into a real plan. Seo Yeon-hee nodded approvingly.
"On the surface, it'll look like a disappearance, not a death?"
"Yeah. To everyone else, he'll have gone alone, and I never went back to Gyeongju."
No one to testify to Arnaud Duré's death.
A disappearance, but one where death is all but confirmed.
Not murdered, but meeting an unavoidable end inside the ruins.
That was the outcome I was aiming for. Then Seo Yeon-hee asked,
"No leads on the other two?"
"Not confirmed, but I can't rule them out."
Arnaud Duré might be the only traitor.
Or maybe not.
I had to consider the chance all three were.
Seo Yeon-hee voiced a faint concern.
"If Charlotte's a traitor too, that'd be a headache."
"You met her recently, right?"
"Yeah, she reached out, so we talked briefly."
Rarely, Seo Yeon-hee looked a bit troubled.
Sword Queen Charlotte Tate.
Mist Witch Seo Yeon-hee.
Great Archmage Jeong Se-bin.
And one more.
Han Tae-gang's wife, now deceased.
Those four were the youngest among the 36 Heroes.
There were other heroes around the same age, but those four formed a group.
Though not as close as outsiders thought.
Jeong Se-bin was the center, and Han Tae-gang's wife kept things warm.
Charlotte Tate and Seo Yeon-hee? Honestly...
"Did you two have much to say?"
"Not really. We talked for less than an hour."
Close in a group, awkward one-on-one.
That was their dynamic in World Guardian, and after all this time, it had probably gotten worse.
And I wasn't asking about my meeting with Charlotte just to tease Seo Yeon-hee.
"How was she?"
"She's gotten really strong. Surprised me. She'll keep getting stronger for a few more years."
"How does she stack up against someone I know well?"
A question aimed at Han Tae-gang.
Seo Yeon-hee thought for a moment, then answered.
"She'd be tough to beat in two breaths? Unless Han Tae-gang's developed something beyond that."
Her assessment, having met the current Charlotte Tate and fought the current Han Tae-gang, carried serious weight.
Stronger than Han Tae-gang...
I pressed further.
"Compared to you, boss?"
"Me?"
Of course she'd win.
No human could beat her.
I was asking about the effort to subdue her, but Charlotte Tate was far stronger than I'd thought.
"Hmm? On a moonless night, she'd be a real hassle."
"......"
Mentioning the moon's phase meant tapping into her Long-lived Species powers.
Even on a new moon, that's power way beyond the 36 Heroes benchmark, and she'd say it's hard to drop her easily?
"Top three among humans, no question."
"Can't guarantee first, but definitely that tier."
Such a powerhouse could be a traitor.
Killing Arnaud Duré might not end it—I could end up fighting her too.
Just as a bad feeling crept in about the latter half of Kill the Evil volume 2 not being smooth sailing,
Seo Yeon-hee, who'd been gazing at me steadily, spoke up.
"Seems like we've wrapped up that business. Mind finishing the story from earlier?"
"Yeah, I was hoping to ask about this anyway."
I lit a cigarette, took a couple drags, and met Seo Yeon-hee's eyes directly.
Her gaze was so captivating it could ensnare you if you stared too long.
Once the cigarette burned down,
I asked the question that had puzzled me since Silver Demon Mountain.
"Boss—no, sis... did you know about Rabbit Mask existing before she joined Phantom?"
'He's playing dirty?'
Seo Yeon-hee thought, hiding her slight fluster.
Lee Dojin rarely used specific terms of address for her.
Usually none at all, or "boss."
"Sis" was rare.
It came out when the mood was great.
Or when he had something serious to say.
This was the latter.
'Calling me sis with that look... I couldn't refuse even if I wanted to.'
As Seo Yeon-hee pondered inwardly, Lee Dojin asked in a calm tone,
"You know where Silver Demon Mountain is, right, sis?"
"Ah... yeah, I do. I went when I was still in uniform. The view from the summit is nice."
"Sis" sounded great, but the situation made her uneasy.
Normally, she'd latch onto "when I was in uniform" and chat happily, but not now.
Lee Dojin continued.
"We got to the summit, and suddenly we entered an inner ruin—me and Hae-bin, Sea and Yu-ri."
Lee Dojin and Yoo Hae-bin.
Lee Sea and Jin Yu-ri.
Split into pairs, they started from opposite directions and headed to the center.
"Sea and Yu-ri's path had no interference. They reached the center and saw this, I think."
Lee Dojin waved his hand.
A mural manifested with mana, vivid and moving—not too large in scope.
A woman with silver hair whipping in the wind, fending off evil monsters. Fitting the origin of Silver Demon Mountain's name.
She instantly recognized the silver-haired woman and the monsters.
"There was something like that inside?"
"I confirmed it later. On our way to the center, Hae-bin and I fought the attackers from the mural... but they were corpses moved by mana."
Lee Dojin had figured it out back then, what she'd just realized.
The black-glowing monsters that attacked humans and drank their blood—Long-lived Species like her.
And the silver-haired woman was Phantom's Rabbit Mask.
Judging solely by appearance in the mural, calling her Rabbit Mask might be a stretch.
But Seo Yeon-hee knew Lee Dojin's mysterious abilities.
He knew her real name—what's deducing from a mural?
"We took down the Long-lived Species—"
"Don't worry if it's bothering you. I don't consider those scum kin. They predate my birth, and I've never seen their faces."
The Silver Demon Mountain legend dated to the mid-9th century.
She was born much later, and fallen Long-lived Species weren't kin by her standards.
Like how a normal person and a serial killer are both human, but treating them the same would piss off the good ones.
Similar principle.
"After we cleaned them up, the ruins started collapsing. I seized control, sent Sea and Yu-ri out first, then checked what they saw."
"The mural you showed me?"
"Yeah. Turns out Rabbit might be way older than me."
Lee Dojin took a deep drag from his cigarette and exhaled with the smoke.
Dead serious expression.
Then he asked her.
"Back to my first question. Sis, did you know about Rabbit before she joined Phantom?"
Seo Yeon-hee answered.
"Yeah, I knew about her."