Chapter 105
Arca.
The moment I picked up the trash and stepped outside, I drew Arca at once.
There was a figure standing in front of me, draped in a black robe.
A mushroom-shaped brooch pinned at the chest was especially hard to miss.
It had to be the bastard who had grown the parasitic mushroom on Lee Jeong-geun’s scalp.
Through the half-covered face, I could see a mouth curled into a smile.
Then that mouth opened.
"Hello?"
"…"
The smile never left the mouth as it offered me a soft greeting.
I stared at him, dumbfounded.
I couldn’t sense any intent to attack at all.
Then Saessak, as if sensing something, sent me a message.
The World Tree’s sapling feels something odd.
Odd?
What was odd about him?
The sapling says it cannot feel the repulsive aura it normally senses from the person in front of you.
That really was strange.
He couldn’t feel repulsive aura?
Saessak had felt the same aura from every Crowd member I’d met so far.
That nasty, skin-crawling presence that dragged disgust up from the bottom of your chest.
The last time we’d faced each other, I’d felt it clearly.
And now I didn’t?
Then maybe... this was some other bastard pretending to be him.
"Uh, hello? Do-woon? Hello? Are you listening?"
"…"
The bastard raised a palm and waved it wildly.
He was trying to get my attention because I wasn’t answering his greeting.
Looking at that idiot behavior, he didn’t seem like some other bastard after all, but...
"What brings you here?"
"Ah, you finally answered. You were just staring with your weapon out, so I got worried. I thought you were going to kill me."
For a man who claimed he was worried, he looked awfully relaxed standing there blankly.
The easygoing feel of the two hands he’d waved to get my attention hadn’t gone anywhere, either.
It was as if standing in front of me carried no danger at all.
Confidence, maybe. Or arrogance.
Either way, I didn’t like that smile, so maybe I should poke at him a little.
"Did you come to greet me again? Park Woo-hyun."
"No, today I came because Do-woon-!"
His mouth stopped moving.
The smile vanished in an instant.
Now that was a face I liked a little more.
"What, what did you just say?"
"Did you come to greet me again?"
"No! The part after that!"
"What. Park Woo-hyun?"
"How do you know that name...?"
He muttered in disbelief.
He caught himself halfway through and shut his mouth, but it was easy enough to guess what he’d been about to say.
How do you know that name?
That was what he’d wanted to ask.
It wasn’t hard to know.
It was the name of the parasitic mushrooms attached to Lee Jeong-geun and his underlings’ scalps.
I’d just called it out in case that happened to be the bastard’s name.
Judging by the reaction, I’d hit the jackpot, though...
"...I came here to warn you because I was worried about you, Do-woon."
Oh. Changing the subject?
"…"
"…"
Hm. No good.
Park Woo-hyun.
I didn’t think I’d get any more information out of him with that name.
Still, the smile on his mouth was gone, so that was something.
He said he’d come to warn me because he was worried, so I might as well hear him out.
I put Arca back in my inventory and said, "You were worried."
"...Yes."
"About me?"
"That’s what I said."
"Does that make sense?"
"It’s true. I came because I was genuinely worried. No hidden agenda."
He shrugged as he said it.
It was a laughably unbelievable claim.
There was no way a member of Crowd had come to me with no hidden agenda.
If I’d followed my temper, I’d have grabbed him and shaken out whatever he was hiding, but... I probably couldn’t do that.
There was no sense of danger in the bastard’s movements at all.
Saessak hadn’t felt any repulsive aura, either.
Those two facts led to one conclusion.
The thing standing in front of me was a clone the bastard had made with magic.
He’d approached me from somewhere safe.
That was why he could stay so calm even after seeing me draw Arca.
"Fine. Talk."
"The potion maker at Crystal Workshop is in danger."
"Hong Su-jeong? Why?"
"Because Crowd is after her."
"Why are you after Hong Su-jeong?"
At that, he tilted his head.
As his head angled, the hood covering his face slid back a little, and for the first time I could see more than just his mouth, down to the underside of his cheekbones.
The upper part of his face was still hidden.
Still, one thing was easy to guess from those not-quite-fully-lost baby cheeks.
The kid in front of me wasn’t that old.
Early twenties at most.
And at that age, he was a member of an A-grade terrorist organization...
Looks like he hadn’t exactly lived a proper life, either.
"You didn’t know?"
"Know what?"
"You and the potion maker here were the ones making and selling potions. That made the higher-ups furious."
"Furious? What does making potions have to do with you...?"
Wait a second.
They were angry because we’d made and sold potions...?
Then it hit me.
"Don’t tell me, you bastards...?"
"Just as you guessed. Ta-da. It was Crowd that blocked the distribution of potions in Korea."
"Why would you do something like that? No, wait."
"…"
"...Baba?"
"You really are sharp. That’s right. We banned healing potions so the buff potions would sell better."
"…!"
Hunters made a living by hunting monsters in Gates and getting paid for it.
Since they were entering dangerous places, healing potions were an indispensable item.
And if those healing potions suddenly became unavailable, what would hunters do?
They’d go looking for healers, or they’d start hunting for buff potions.
And if Crowd began selling buff potions that were both effective and cheap?
Hunters would buy and take them happily, just like Ji Sang-wook had done.
And if they were selling drugs as a package deal on top of that...
"...There’s one thing I don’t understand."
"What is it?"
"Do bastards like you even have the power to pull that off?"
Kim Jeong-cheol. Yong Du-sik. Even the bug-man.
The Crowd bastards I’d met so far were all pretty unimpressive.
It didn’t seem like a bunch of clowns like that could possibly block the distribution of potions.
Even though I was insulting the organization he belonged to, he laughed.
He didn’t even look offended.
"Haha! Crowd hearing that from someone? If that guy knew, I can only imagine how awful it would be."
That guy?
Was he talking about Crowd’s leader?
"I understand why Crowd looks easy after meeting the people you have so far. But I’d like to make the excuse that was because of Han Jin-hwan."
"Han Jin-hwan? Why are you bringing him up here?"
"Because Crowd has been dealing with Han Jin-hwan for the past year. Do-woon and Han Jin-hwan..."
He raised his right hand and left hand as he said our names.
It was just like placing weights on a balance scale.
The side that tipped down was the left hand with Han Jin-hwan’s name on it.
"You can guess where Crowd put its priorities, right?"
Han Jin-hwan had told Minister Hwang that he’d been playing around when asked.
Apparently, that plaything had been Crowd.
Which meant he hadn’t been able to pin them down for an entire year.
That Han Jin-hwan.
"That’s not all."
"…?"
"Crowd was also dealing with your younger brother and your friend."
"Ah..."
"And because of you, they ended up making an enemy of Balance Guild as well."
"Don’t say because of me. You were the ones who came up with that misunderstanding and picked a fight with Seo Ji-hyeok on your own."
"Haha, true. That was really our snake bastard’s mistake."
"…"
So Crowd was facing off against several enemies at once.
And every one of those enemies was a major one, yet Crowd had stayed intact all this time.
Looking at the level of Kim Jeong-cheol or Yong Du-sik, that was impossible to imagine.
How could that be?
As if he’d caught my confusion, the bastard nodded.
"Crowd has twelve executives total. Three of them were killed by you, but... that’s not really a huge deal. The executives Han Jin-hwan and your friend have killed so far are already in the double digits."
"Double digits...?"
"In other words, being an executive in Crowd is just a fancy title."
"…!"
"The real core of Crowd is four people. The remaining eight are just the hands and feet of those four. Replaceable at any time... The four seats you emptied have probably already been filled by now."
The people I’d killed were executives in name only, huh...
Now that I heard it, I’d need to rethink my image of Crowd.
Until now they’d just been prey for a quest.
...Hm? Wait.
"Four seats? Why four? I only killed three."
"Ah. One of them was me."
"…?"
"I was the one who sent Ba-num. That failure got me removed from my seat."
"You were the one who sent the assassin...?"
"Haha. Sorry. I’m reflecting on it."
He gave a short laugh and clasped his hands together.
He even held them out respectfully.
He had the nerve to be shameless after sending an assassin.
The sapling feels absurdity.
Saessak felt exactly the same way I did.
The bastard grinned as if he didn’t understand why.
"...Let me ask one more thing."
"Go ahead."
"Why are you telling me all this?"
"Huh? Oh no, I told you this last time. You must’ve let it go in one ear and out the other?"
I’d let it go in one ear and out the other?
What had this bastard said last time?
"I like you, Baek Do-woon."
Right... He had said that.
No, but how was I supposed to believe that?
"Don’t tell me you don’t believe me?"
"Could you believe someone like you if you were me?"
"Yes. If I were you, I’d believe someone like me. Because I know my feelings for Do-woon are sincere."
"Haah..."
A deep sigh rose on its own from my throat.
No matter how sincere someone thought they were, whether the other person believed it was a completely different matter.
Besides, he was Crowd. He was hiding his face so he could conceal his identity.
His name had been exposed, but even that wasn’t by his own hand.
Who in their right mind would take a bastard like that at face value?
"What exactly do you like about me?"
"Pardon?"
"Isn’t it strange? You should hate me, shouldn’t you? I’m the one who killed your comrade and forced you out of your seat as an executive."
"That is..."
"…?"
"It’s a secret!"
"What kind of secret is that..."
My face wrinkled on its own.
And whether I liked it or not, the bastard raised both hands.
He clenched both fists tight and said in a bright, forceful voice, "Keep it up from now on, too. Fighting! You can do it, Baek Do-woon! Gorgeous Baek Do-woon!"
"…"
He offered the same sort of encouragement he’d given me last time.
If there was any heat in that encouragement, then I was the weird one, I guess...
Hoo.
Had this crazy bastard gotten crazy from taking some strange drug?
Or had he gone crazy because he wasn’t taking the medicine he was supposed to?
I still had no idea why he was cheering me on.
It was like he’d forgotten the fact that I was fighting against the very organization he belonged to.
"Hoo, I heard your warning, so get going."
"Huh? Already?"
"Already? What do you mean already? You planning to stay here?"
"I told you so much information, and you’re being awfully cold. That hurts."
"Want me to show you what really cold looks like?"
As I said that, I pointed my right hand at him.
I was about to draw Arca again.
The sapling says it’s ready to be thrown.
That was our Saessak.
Without a word, it understood exactly what I meant.
The bastard shook his head.
"You really are harsh. You can just leave, you know."
The instant he answered, his body began to shrink.
He got smaller and smaller, disappearing entirely from sight in less than five seconds.
Just as I’d expected, it had been a magical clone.
I didn’t know exactly what skill it was, though.
Since he wasn’t the real one, it made sense that Saessak couldn’t feel any repulsive aura from him.
"Doesn’t seem like a trap, though..."
I had felt genuine warmth in his enthusiastic encouragement toward me.
If that entire expression had been nothing but an act...
Then that bastard might be even scarier than I thought.
Since it’s impossible to know whether he’s sincere, it would be best to stay cautious.
"Yeah, that sounds right."
I turned around and rang the workshop bell again.
For now, I needed to take Hong Su-jeong to Jae-i's Blacksmith.
Now that I knew Crowd was targeting this place, I couldn’t leave her alone here.
"Do-woon? You haven’t left yet?"
Hong Su-jeong’s voice came from inside.
"There’s somewhere I’d like you to come with me."
"Right now?"
"Yeah."
"N-no, you can’t! Do-woon, you have Jae-i already!"
"...Huh?"
What the hell was she talking about?