Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: The First Move
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Grrrr.
The yellow hatchback rumbled down the road, its engine a heavy, low drone.
It was an old car.
So worn that its age was more striking than its bright yellow paint. For that very reason, it didn't look the least bit dangerous.
No one would ever imagine.
Clunk! Clunk!
Who would ever guess that this car, lurching as if it might fall apart after rolling over a fist-sized rock, its suspension shot, was carrying dangerous men?
In the passenger seat sat Gabriel.
In the driver's seat, his colleague, Amos.
Kanghyeok was in the back, surrounded by piles of the Errant Priests’ gear, which also filled the trunk.
Wooden crates, presumably filled with ammunition, medical supplies, and weapons, alongside a few personal belongings.
The state of the vehicle, the way they stored their weapons—it all highlighted the difference in capital between them and the Company.
Still, this was a group that felt like it was just getting started.
The Errant Priests.
*Click.*
Kanghyeok silently checked his pistol.
He was checking his weapon to clear his complex thoughts and calm his seething heart.
Amid the repetitive clicks, Amos glanced at Gabriel.
*Can that man be trusted?*
Gabriel answered the unspoken question with a nod.
Amos glanced at the bullet marks on Gabriel’s vest before turning his eyes back to the road.
Being from the same outfit, they knew each other's capabilities well.
To leave such a tight cluster of bullet marks on Gabriel, the man’s skill was beyond question.
“The plan?”
Just then, Kanghyeok asked, his eyes fixed on the pistol's slide. Before Gabriel could reply, Amos spoke up.
“You take the far left.”
“Is that the most dangerous spot?”
“Are you scared?”
Kanghyeok answered, meeting his eyes in the rearview mirror.
“I'll take the most dangerous place.”
“No.”
He turned the wheel, steering onto an unmarked road, and continued speaking.
“You're not involved in this. I can't put you in a dangerous position.”
Amos and Gabriel had been tracking Iron Mask for a long time.
Three warehouses they had barely managed to find.
Just before their attack, Gabriel had been injured by Kanghyeok. They had brought him along out of a sense of responsibility, but to them, Kanghyeok was an outsider.
He hadn't suffered at the hands of Iron Mask, nor was he driven by a mission like they were.
Gabriel and his colleague had decided they couldn't put such a person in harm's way.
“I am involved.”
Kanghyeok's answer drew both their gazes.
They waited for an answer that would explain why, but Kanghyeok said nothing.
He didn't want to say, and he couldn't say.
He couldn't say that he had seen and experienced the sins those bastards had committed in this world.
He couldn't say that there were deaths he had to repay them for.
*Click.*
Kanghyeok slammed the magazine home and racked the slide. Amos tilted his head and spoke.
“You take the warehouse on the far right.”
“The plan?”
“Primary objective is to secure their intelligence.”
There had to be documents or ledgers in the warehouse.
Documents with information on their associates or their future plans.
“Secondary objective is to suppress them. The method is…”
“Annihilation.”
Kanghyeok cut him off.
Gabriel looked at Kanghyeok through the rearview mirror, and Amos nodded heavily.
“I agree. If you have any questions, ask now.”
“I want to know the source of the photo.”
The photo Kanghyeok had seen.
He asked about the source of the photograph that had stirred buried memories and given him nightmares. Gabriel was the one who answered.
“We got it from a man named Maximo.”
“A colleague of yours?”
“No. He was one of Iron Mask's men. He escaped the organization, and we were protecting him.”
*Why is he speaking in the past tense?*
When Kanghyeok looked at Gabriel, he answered immediately.
“He was kidnapped by them. He's probably been killed by now.”
The grimace on Gabriel’s face told Kanghyeok all he needed to know about how the man had died.
Kanghyeok lowered his gaze to the pistol in his hand and focused on his breathing.
The in-breath and the out-breath.
His heart rate steadied into a regular rhythm.
His consciousness sharpened, his emotions subsided.
Ready to fight, Kanghyeok gripped the pistol tightly.
And through the front windshield, the three warehouses he had seen in the photo came into view.
*Grrrk.*
The car slowed, and Amos turned the wheel toward a spot behind some trees, bringing the car to a complete stop.
*Screech!*
“We're here.”
After pulling the handbrake, he glanced at Kanghyeok and got out of the car.
Kanghyeok got out with Gabriel and looked toward the warehouses with the binoculars Amos handed him.
This was the definition of heavily guarded.
Three warehouses, armed guards, many vehicles.
The warehouses were old, the guards looked seasoned, and the ground was covered in fresh tire tracks.
The scene seemed to scream, *This is Iron Mask!* Kanghyeok lowered the binoculars.
“Don't think of them as a common gang. They're professionally trained and skilled at moving as an organized unit.”
Gabriel spoke in a cautious tone. Kanghyeok handed the binoculars back to Amos and opened his mouth.
“I know.”
It was an emotionless reply, as if from someone who didn't understand the danger of the situation.
Then he started walking toward the warehouses.
Gabriel tried to stop Kanghyeok, who was striding forward, but Amos caught his shoulder and shook his head.
*No need to stop him.*
*If he's really from the Company.*
With three warehouses, they couldn't all move as one.
It was a situation that prioritized individual judgment and decision-making above all else, a situation where they had no choice but to trust Kanghyeok.
*Step.*
The two members of the still-fledgling Errant Priests followed Kanghyeok as he walked toward the warehouses.
The three headed toward a place where the security seemed relatively weak, preparing themselves by letting out long sighs or tapping their guns with their palms.
They were quite close to the warehouses when they heard it.
*Rustle.*
A faint footstep.
Gabriel and Amos lowered themselves into the bushes, while Kanghyeok hid behind a tree.
A moment later, the men came into view.
A patrol.
A two-man team, they were patrolling the warehouse perimeter, rifles in hand.
Their faces were bored, as if thinking *who would come all the way out here?*, but their rifles were loaded with live rounds.
Gabriel and Amos noted their rifles, then turned their attention back toward the warehouse.
If a firefight broke out, the patrol would just run back to the warehouse anyway.
They'd get into a better position and take them out along with the others.
There was no need to heighten the enemy's alertness with gunshots before even reaching the warehouses.
It was a rational judgment.
So the pair hoped Kanghyeok would do the same. But from behind his tree, he radiated the air of a predator waiting for its prey.
*That idiot.*
Amos scowled and started to reach out to him.
But his wrist was immediately caught by Gabriel.
The patrol was already close.
As Amos clenched his jaw, hoping Kanghyeok wouldn't do anything, Gabriel met his gaze and gave a slight shake of his head.
It was a look that said not to worry.
Amos silently pulled his hand free from Gabriel's grasp, still scowling.
Taking on two men without making a sound was not an easy task.
Dealing with them without a scream was even harder.
One wrong move, and they'd have to wait indefinitely for another opportunity that might never come.
Amos glared at Kanghyeok, his eyes about to burst, and moved his hand to the hilt of his combat knife in preparation for the worst. Kanghyeok simply focused on the approaching patrol.
He didn't touch his knife.
It was a moonlit night.
There were no streetlights; the only light came from the patrol's flashlights.
He didn't even place his hand on the hilt, fearing the blade might reflect the flashlight beams if he drew it.
Two meters remaining.
*Come to think of it, this is the first time.*
*Facing them without protective gear.*
*Step, step.*
Now one meter left.
The beams of their flashlights danced around his feet, and their presence became palpably close.
Kanghyeok breathed shallowly, waiting for them to get closer.
Seventy centimeters remaining.
A distance where he could pinpoint their locations by their presence alone.
One was in front, the other a step behind.
The moment the distance dropped below fifty centimeters, Kanghyeok boldly revealed himself.
“Huh!”
The man, startled by Kanghyeok's sudden appearance on the dark path, opened his mouth.
*Lunge!*
Kanghyeok lunged at the man, clamping a hand over his mouth,
*Shing! Thwack!*
and simultaneously drew his knife from its sheath and plunged it deep into the man's chest.
The moment the blade slipped between the ribs and pierced his heart, the man convulsed and then went limp.
The other man reacted instantly.
He put his finger on the trigger and aimed at Kanghyeok's head.
Before the man could even flip off the safety, Kanghyeok grabbed the rifle with both hands.
Then, stepping toward him, he twisted the rifle sideways. The man's finger, still on the trigger, broke with a sharp *crack!*
At the same time, the rifle was completely in Kanghyeok's hands.
“Ghk!”
The man opened his mouth wide, about to scream.
*Thwack!*
Kanghyeok smashed the rifle's stock into his throat and kept walking forward.
“Gh, kkh, ghk!”
Unable to scream, let alone breathe, the man stumbled backward.
His retreat was halted by a tree.
“Ghh.”
The man glared at Kanghyeok with bloodshot eyes, fumbling near the trigger.
The muzzle was pointed at Kanghyeok; all he had to do was pull the trigger.
Watching all this, Amos and Gabriel couldn't do anything.
They knew intellectually that he might need help, but Kanghyeok's fluid, rapid movements kept them frozen in place.
It was then.
*Clank.*
Kanghyeok unclipped the rifle sling and, at the same time, removed the stock from the man's throat.
Then he immediately wrapped the sling around the man's neck and pulled hard from both sides.
*Cr-crack!*
“Guhh.”
His carotid artery was cut off, and his consciousness faded.
When Kanghyeok released the sling, the man crumpled at the base of the tree. Kanghyeok placed his foot on the man's neck.
*Snap!*
Having dealt with both men without a single gunshot or scream, Kanghyeok silently retrieved his knife.
As he flicked the blood from his blade, two pairs of eyes followed him.
They were Gabriel's and Amos's. When Kanghyeok started moving toward the warehouse again, the two snapped out of their stupor and followed.
*Tap.*
Then Gabriel tapped the back of Amos's hand.
The moment Amos met his gaze, Gabriel jutted his chin toward Kanghyeok's back.
*See? He's trustworthy, isn't he?*
*We don't need to doubt his skills.*
That was the meaning, and Amos had no choice but to admit it.
*What kind of training do you have to go through to be able to do this?*
Amos couldn't easily tear his eyes away from the man with the broken neck, the one with his heart pierced in a single blow, and the two flashlights casting a pathetic glow on the scene.
Gabriel and Amos had also undergone harsh training.
From the moment they lost their parents to the horrors of war and resolved to prevent others from suffering the same fate, all the way until they became adults.
But they weren't confident they could take out two men as cleanly as Kanghyeok had.
*So this is a Company man. There was a reason the Father told us not to cross them.*
The moment Amos shifted his gaze to Kanghyeok, a voice came as if he had eyes in the back of his head.
“Hurry up. The others will soon realize their patrol is down.”
*Dammit!*
Amos cursed inwardly.
It was because he strangely felt as if Kanghyeok had become their leader.