Chapter 35
Chapter 35
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Coincidence for an NPC (6)
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‘…What the hell?’
Yeomyeong furrowed his brow. He hadn’t sensed any mana or presence while grabbing the guy from behind.
Focusing his senses belatedly, he picked up a very faint presence.
The moment he tried to turn his head a bit more to check the intruder, a cold gun barrel pressed firmly against his cheek.
“Hey now, don’t even think about turning your head further. Nicely put your hands above your head.”
The threatening tone was quite overbearing, but the frivolous voice made it sound anything but intimidating.
“When I say nicely, relax your grip and raise your hands.”
Yeomyeong scowled as he pressed down on the rat bastard’s windpipe. Should he just let the guy go like this?
He didn’t ponder long. He decided to probe the intruder first.
“…This is a personal matter. You’d be wise not to get involved.”
“This is personal for me too. Saving lives is my hobby.”
The gunman spoke as if he were some apostle of justice, but it was clearly a lie.
A faint glimmer of relief shone on the rat bastard’s face, who was choking to death.
Yeomyeong narrowed his eyes and continued.
“What’s your relation to this guy?”
“…No relation at all?”
Silence settled between them for a moment. Soon after, a long sigh pushed away the heavy fog of quiet.
“Haa, I really can’t lie. Truth is, I kinda know Willard. Happy now?”
Yeomyeong hesitated, still gripping Willard’s nape. Snapping his neck right there wouldn’t be bad, but the gun aimed at his face was the problem.
He sighed and tossed Willard to the ground.
“Guhk, kuuk, krrk, cough, cough!”
Willard rolled on the ground, limp and gasping for air. Frothy saliva dribbled from the corner of his mouth.
The gunman, who had been watching the sight for a bit, finally spoke.
“You said it’s personal, right? What the hell did that guy do to you to make you try to snap his neck like a chicken?”
“…This bastard tried to kill my mentor.”
“Aha, righteous revenge?”
Willard, who had been listening to the exchange, jumped in with surprise. Saliva still sprayed from his gasping mouth.
“No, cough! No! Absolutely not!”
“What’s not?”
“Everything! It’s all a misunderstanding. Huu, that person’s mentor is also my mentor. There was just a slight misunderstanding between us…”
“Hey.”
Misunderstanding. The moment that word came out, Yeomyeong cut him off and drew up his mana.
Golden fury rippled beneath his eyes.
“Five armed brutes including a superhuman ganging up and grabbing his collar—is that the ‘slight misunderstanding’ you’re talking about?”
“No, that was… not intentional…”
“Shut your mouth.”
Not only Willard, who couldn’t sense the mana, but even the gunman fell silent for a moment. Yeomyeong glared at him, ready to lunge at any second.
The atmosphere was tense, on the verge of explosion. After a brief silence, the gunman spoke with a sigh.
“Ha, that guy really is a piece of shit.”
The rat bastard hung his head without responding. Yeomyeong gathered his mana to unleash Wave Yang Art.
‘Enough games.’
As he extended his hand for the next strike, the gun barrel pressing his cheek shifted away.
Bang!
The gunman’s bullet targeted Willard’s calf. It came without warning or prelude.
Both Willard, who got shot, and Yeomyeong, who watched it happen, blinked in stunned confusion.
“Ku, kuaaaak! Fuck! My leg! My leg!”
Willard belatedly clutched his leg and screamed in agony.
Whether specially treated or not, the bullet cleanly pierced through his calf bone and flesh. Blood poured from the hole in his calf, soaking the ground.
“…What the hell was that?”
Yeomyeong asked in a low, sunken voice. The sudden interruption scattered the mana of Wave Yang Art.
“I’ve got this disease where I just gotta shoot any piece of shit I see… Well, at least it’s not murder.”
“…That kind of wound will kill him from blood loss.”
“If he gets healed within three minutes, he’ll be fine.”
She spoke with the confidence of someone who’d done it before. Only then did Yeomyeong turn to finally check the gunman’s appearance.
The spot where the gunman should have been was empty.
All that was visible in Yeomyeong’s view was a slender hand floating in midair, holding a revolver.
‘…Invisibility magic?’
Yeomyeong instantly recognized the spell and raised an eyebrow slightly. It was the exact same magic Phrea Khan had used to hide her twin swords.
He didn’t know how difficult invisibility was, but wrapping one’s entire body in it clearly wasn’t easy.
The gunman was either an impressive mage or had an even more impressive magic tool. Either way, not an opponent to take lightly.
‘Fight her? Or…’
As Yeomyeong’s mana settled, urgent military boot steps and shouts echoed from the far end of the alley.
—Which crazy bastard fires a gun during dinner time!
—Can’t the MPs eat lunch in peace!
It was the military police handling security in the mercenary district. The voices sounded closer than expected—this alley was just a matter of time.
‘Did she shoot to draw them here?’
Yeomyeong glared at the invisible gunman. He… no, definitely she, judging by the voice, spun the revolver showily on her finger.
“Whoops, MPs are coming soon. How about we each go our own way? If you leave that guy like that, he really might die.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“Why? Let him die? But hey, you don’t have to kill him for sure.”
“…”
“He’s got a hole in his calf bone now. Even if treated, it’ll ache for life. Isn’t that punishment enough?”
“Every time it aches, it might remind him of his grudge for revenge.”
“Uh… true, but… that won’t happen. I swear. The Blue Rats will never touch you or your mentor again, ever.”
If her face were visible, she’d probably be winking. Instead of answering, Yeomyeong stared intently at where the gunman likely was.
A moment later, she added awkwardly.
“Ah, come on. Isn’t this trustworthy enough?”
“…Do I look like a fool who’d trust someone who won’t even show their face?”
“Jeez, always believing only what you see. Religious folks believe in gods they’ve never even seen.”
“I don’t go to temples.”
“Oh yeah? Must be nice being a heathen.”
As the two bickered, the neglected Willard gasped with half-lidded eyes. Classic symptoms right before death from blood loss.
“Damn, he really might die like that.”
Seeing it, the gunman sighed and wiggled the gun. About to shoot? Yeomyeong tensed his muscles.
Clack.
Contrary to his expectation, she tossed the gun to the ground.
Then, with her freed hands, she grabbed something in the air and ‘spread’ it apart.
A magical invisible veil parted, revealing what was hidden behind.
Someone’s jaw and solar plexus… a smooth jawline and slender neck, and something large in between.
Yeomyeong, who had been preparing for combat, furrowed his brow in confusion at the bizarre display.
Regardless, she plunged her hands between her breasts and pulled something out.
A pendant engraved with a bleeding heart over crossed sword and axe. It wasn’t from Earth, but the symbol was familiar to Earthlings.
Beyond the dimensional gate, the red god of war and strife worshipped by warriors—Lord Redox’s symbol.
Why pull out a god’s symbol at a time like this? As Yeomyeong’s eyebrow twitched long, mana bubbled thickly from the pendant.
Not mana infused by the gunman, but mana emanating from the pendant itself.
“…A relic?”
Unlike magic tools that needed external mana, this was an object blessed by a god, emitting mana on its own.
Proof of faith, reward of belief.
“Good thing you recognized it right away. Yeah, it’s a relic.”
The mana from the relic felt so heavy it made his skin tingle.
Not the common relics distributed to priests, but a high-grade one only seen on TV.
“…So you’re a cleric, not a gunman.”
“I’d rather be a gunman than a cleric.”
She gripped the pendant and yanked it off her chest with a snap. Then, she extended the hand holding the relic toward Yeomyeong.
“Here, take it.”
“…What?”
“It’s collateral for the oath. If by any chance the Blue Rats harm your mentor, take it to a Redox temple and ask for revenge. I guarantee the church will deliver fitting retribution to oath-breakers.”
“…”
“Isn’t this trustworthy enough?”
Yeomyeong glanced between the hand holding the pendant and the empty air, then accepted it without protest.
Not because he trusted her, but because he trusted the relic and the Redox Church.
They were the type to grab swords themselves if any fraud used their name.
Pocketing the pendant, Yeomyeong stepped back to clear the path.
The gunman hid her large upper body back in the invisibility veil and rushed urgently to the rat bastard.
“Willard, you idiot. Can’t even take one bullet?”
A pure white light flickered from the hand floating in the air. Not the fake glow of charlatans, but genuine divine light that wrought miracles. Even the clerics from the Incheon diocese he remembered couldn’t emit light that strong…
‘Why would a cleric of that caliber work with the Blue Rats?’
Doubts piled up, but he couldn’t ask.
The military police shouts reached Yeomyeong’s ears as he watched Willard and the invisible cleric.
—Check alley 3 and 11! That’s all that’s left!
Yeomyeong turned and walked to the opposite end of the alley. He didn’t know how this encounter would play out, but…
Now was the time to leave.
From behind his departing back came the frivolous voice.
“Hey! Nice meeting you, let’s never cross paths again!”
Say something like that, and they definitely would. Yeomyeong shook his head.
***
Kim Mansu and Cheon Yeomyeong ran into each other right in front of the mercenary unit’s base camp.
“Why’d the guy who left first arrive at the same time as me?”
Dust covered Yeomyeong’s clothes. Kim Mansu instinctively knew something had happened, but Yeomyeong’s expression was too calm.
“Got lost.”
“Got lost? Where’s the map?”
“Lost it.”
Kim Mansu’s eyebrow twitched long at Yeomyeong’s calm reply.
He wanted to snap at him, but having passed out in the car left him with nothing more to say.
“Haa, fine, at least you made it to base camp.”
In the end, Kim Mansu said nothing and entered the camp.
Screech.
The moment he opened the door, the rusty hinge screamed.
As if it were a doorbell, a dozen or so mercenaries inside simultaneously turned to look at the two.
“Huh? Vice Captain? Aren’t you on disciplinary duty?”
The first to speak was a man with a bushy beard that stood out. An disassembled assault rifle lay neatly before him, mid-cleaning.
“On disciplinary duty, yeah. Mansu’s here as an instructor.”
“Instructor?”
Only then did the middle-aged man glance at Yeomyeong standing behind Kim Mansu.
Maybe Yeomyeong looked younger than expected, as he chuckled dryly.
“I’m always telling you to cool that temper. And now you’re playing babysitter.”
“Shut it, you fool. When’s the next deployment?”
“Deployment? …You came right on time.”
“Right on time?”
The middle-aged man grinned as he expertly reassembled the rifle.
“Today, exactly three hours from now. Going to support the guys on expedition to North Manchuria.”
Speak of the devil—as if it wasn’t bad enough. Kim Mansu sighed.
“Real combat on day one. Rookie’s got luck.”
“Support expedition a joke? How’s a first-day newbie supposed to keep up?”
“It’s no joke, Vice Captain? I kept up after two days.”
“You had military service; this kid’s a civvie, so today he’ll just—”
As Kim Mansu tried to refuse, Yeomyeong behind him cut in.
“I’ll go.”
Kim Mansu’s face twisted. Seeing it, the middle-aged man burst into hearty laughter.
“Puhaha! Been a while since we got a decent guy! Yeah, that’s the spirit! Gotta be aggressive in the mercenary biz!”
Click. Having finished assembling, the middle-aged man stood, slinging the assault rifle over his shoulder, and planted himself in front of Yeomyeong.
“Rookie, name?”
“Cheon Yeomyeong.”
“Yeomyeong, welcome to Team 3 of the Immortal Dead Mercenary Unit. I’m Tianlin, the team leader. The others…”
Tianlin glanced around the base camp and shrugged.
“If you don’t lag behind on your first deployment, I’ll introduce ‘em.”
Amid the mercenaries’ collective snickers, Kim Mansu rubbed his throbbing forehead.
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