Revenge, Alliances, and the Auction
The regular central executive meeting of the Black Moon Hall was underway. A masked man, the leader of the organization known as Black Moon, opened his mouth.
“Hmm. It seems Muyounggui is dead.”
It was an enormous shock. At the news that Muyounggui, a powerhouse ranked among the top five in the Black Moon Hall, had been killed, every executive in the room began murmuring in disbelief.
“!”
“Isn’t Muyounggui supposed to be immortal?”
Since they were all high-ranking executives, they knew Muyounggui’s true nature. The idea that a spirit entity who had lived for hundreds of years was dead seemed impossible, even coming from Black Moon, the absolute ruler of the organization. The belief that Muyounggui was an undying being made his death all the more devastating.
“Here is Muyounggui’s Soul Orb. No matter how badly his spiritual body is damaged, as long as this Soul Orb remains intact, he can eventually resurrect. But when I checked this morning, it had been shattered like this.”
When the others still couldn’t accept the truth, Black Moon placed the fragments of what looked like shattered glass onto a large plate and showed it to everyone. The Soul Orb he spoke of was a kind of life vessel. Even if Muyounggui’s spiritual body took a fatal blow, as long as the core of his soul remained unharmed, he could eventually revive given enough time. But seeing the orb reduced to pieces, it appeared that either his spiritual body had been completely annihilated or he had vanished from this dimension entirely, severing the connection and causing the orb to shatter.
“Nikolai, explain what happened.”
Black Moon turned to Nikolai Yang, the vice-leader who had dispatched Muyounggui to New York. Nikolai Yang rose from his seat.
“The New York branch had failed to pay its monthly dues for several months. We concluded it was a branch rebellion and sent Muyounggui to handle it.”
“Ah, that’s right.”
Black Moon nodded as if the memory had returned. Determining whether a branch had rebelled was a serious matter. Aside from cases like Dang Sohwa where action was taken openly, it was standard procedure for the leader and vice-leader to discuss such decisions first. That was why Black Moon remembered having consulted on the matter.
“However, it turned out that our contact in headquarters had been identified as a spy and eliminated, which disrupted communications. At the same time, the New York branch was under attack and in no position to pay the dues. It seems we misunderstood the situation. Since the Muyoung Squad had already been dispatched, we decided they might as well assist the branch against the attackers.”
“So you’re saying he died fighting whoever was attacking the New York branch? Is that it?”
When Black Moon spoke in a tone that suggested it was absurd for some random branch-level opponent to kill Muyounggui, Nikolai Yang answered with a calm expression.
“The opponent was apparently a vampire.”
“Hmm…! A mature vampire could certainly defeat Muyounggui, even if a young one couldn’t.”
Black Moon nodded at Nikolai’s explanation. A powerful vampire with many years behind it could indeed overcome Muyounggui. Since both were long-lived demonic beings, the chaos at the Metropolitan Museum of Art suddenly made sense.
“Jackson Shaw was found dead. It was clearly the work of a vampire, yet the bed was drenched in blood.”
“So in the end, that idiot branch leader in New York earned the grudge of a vampire and got an innocent Muyounggui killed.”
When a vampire left its victim’s blood pooled like that despite killing them, it meant the target had earned an extreme level of hatred. Among vampires, drowning a corpse in blood was a sign that the kill had been done for revenge rather than for feeding.
“What should we do about the New York branch?”
“It’s a branch tangled up with multiple factions, so it doesn’t bring us much profit. Still, we should maintain at least a small presence there. Send your cousin, Sergei Yang, as the new branch leader. He’s talented. He’ll clean up the mess nicely.”
“…Understood.”
Nikolai Yang answered while grinding his teeth inwardly. On the surface, placing another member of the Yang family in the New York branch leader position might seem beneficial to him. But assigning his cousin and one of his most cherished confidants, Sergei Yang, to what was essentially a dead-end post among branch leadership positions was clearly an attempt to weaken his own faction.
“Does anyone object to Sergei Yang becoming the New York branch leader?”
Black Moon scanned the room, making sure Nikolai couldn’t reverse the decision, while the other executives—excluding Nikolai’s faction—nodded in agreement. They were happy to see his power diminish.
‘Ugh… Just you wait, Black Moon…!’
Though Nikolai Yang was sharpening his blade in his heart, his face remained smiling.
In the end, my stamina didn’t fall short. Thanks to the combination of my dark-red pillar’s unique properties and the dual-cultivation technique Black Miraculous Art, I was able to defeat(?) both Mimata Chieri and the Fitzgerald mother-daughter pair.
The pattern was that while I took on the Fitzgerald mother and daughter in a two-on-one, Mimata Chieri would watch and pleasure herself until they passed out, then pounce on me. Once I got used to it, I could pace myself properly and enjoy the sex.
The hotel room had an extremely large and expensive bed, so all four of us could lie on it together. Everyone had passed out from the intense all-night session, falling into a deep sleep. I had only dozed off lightly and woke up in the morning, turning on the TV.
These days, almost every device came with an auto-translation program installed, so I could watch American programs with subtitles. Since yesterday’s events had happened, I figured I should check the news. There might be new information about the Metropolitan Museum of Art incident.
“Chinese gang members staged an armed uprising at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and carried out a bombing that terrorized police officers. We now connect to our on-site reporter, Johnson. Johnson?”
A glamorous Black female anchor briefly summarized yesterday’s events and switched to the field reporter. Johnson… that name sounded oddly familiar.
The screen changed to show a brown-haired reporter wearing glasses standing in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, microphone in hand, beginning his report. The content was largely the same as what the anchor had said. He was spinning a story about the bodies in the museum belonging to some Asian gang and linking it to recent street conflicts—completely different from the actual events. I switched the channel.
Oh, it looked like the U.S. and Japan had played a soccer match. The channel I flipped to was a sports station showing highlights of a friendly A-match between the United States and Japan.
I hadn’t watched the full game, but the highlights showed Japan dominating with organized, technical soccer. However, they spent too much time passing the ball around without scoring. The U.S. used their physical advantage, scoring two goals off headers, winning the match 2-0.
At this rate, the calls to bring Kazuhiro into the Japanese national team would only grow louder… or so I thought. But after watching the post-match interview with the Japanese coach Manzawa Sanetada, I realized I was wrong.
“We lost because our best players, who are active in Europe, were not called up. And although we didn’t score, we led in every other statistical category. I have no desire to create controversy over a single player.”
Despite the loss, his attitude that they had done nothing wrong made it clear that as long as that coach was in charge, Kazuhiro would never be selected. And that “single player” was obviously a direct jab at Kazuhiro.
“Shall we see how people are reacting…?”
I went online to check the reactions. Most of the comments were insults directed at the coach. Quite a few highly recommended posts suggested Kazuhiro should just join the U.S. national team instead. Several memes were trending.
For example, they would post a photo from one of Kazuhiro’s interviews and write:
Memes like this about Kazuhiro switching to the U.S. team were going viral. I swear I saw something like this before I was possessed… How did it become a trend here too? It’s fascinating…
Of course, the real problem for the Japanese soccer world was that Kazuhiro actually was considering joining the U.S. team. But honestly, Japanese soccer wasn’t my problem.
I sent Kazuhiro the link to the meme I had just seen and texted him asking if he was really going to join the American team. He didn’t reply—probably because he was in morning training. He’d see it later and respond.
“Mmmhh♥”
It seemed everyone was slowly waking up. With sleepy eyes, they began clinging to me. I gave each of them a kiss and gently woke all three.
I had made a reservation at a brunch restaurant, so we needed to get up soon. After brunch, I planned to visit Phantom Thief Francois’s hideout to look at the items he had collected.
“I made a reservation at a brunch place, so let’s get up. We don’t have much time.”
I said while kneading and lightly slapping their buttocks. One by one, they got out of bed. Because I had pounded them so thoroughly the night before, they walked with slightly awkward, bow-legged steps as we all headed into the shower together.
Halfway through, the bathroom door creaked open slightly and Alice poked only her head in with a flustered expression.
“Ryuta…! I just realized we don’t have any clothes. If we walk around in just our cyberwear, people will think we’re Phantom Thief Francois… Sorry, but while we’re getting ready, could you go buy some clothes for Mom and me?”
Ah, right. I had kidnapped the three of them straight from the museum while they were still in their Phantom Thief Francois disguises and brought them straight to this hotel… I glanced beside the bed. Aside from Mimata Chieri’s clothes, only the cyberwear suits were scattered on the floor.
I nodded in understanding, took down their sizes, and headed outside.