25
25 - The Elf on the Mountain Castle
The vehicle that made a sharp turn crashed into the guardrail. Smoke rose from the engine as the car came to a stop.
Daggers poured down from all directions toward the stopped car. If they had been ordinary daggers, they would have just stuck into the car body, but those daggers were covered with a pale energy.
Whatever it was, it was something utilizing Magi. Probably enough to easily penetrate thin steel plates.
"Duck down!"
Shartia shouted loudly and took out wood chips from her bosom, scattering them.
The wood chips that flew in like being swept by wind stuck to the inside of the car body with tada-dak sounds, then extended bark to reinforce the car body. The daggers that could pierce through steel couldn't penetrate the bark that Shartia had spread.
'Where is the enemy?'
At the same time, Shartia was also searching for the enemy. However, nothing was detected. Except for the vehicles passing by in confusion due to the accident.
"Shartia, please take care of this place."
"What? Jin-woo?"
While she was firmly taking a defensive stance, Jin-woo jumped out of the car. There was no time to stop him, asking where he was suddenly going.
Swish swish swish swish swish!
A shower of daggers poured down on Jin-woo, who had voluntarily left the safe car. When Jin-woo dodged, the daggers could be seen penetrating the asphalt like tofu.
'As expected, they're not ordinary daggers.'
It was some ability that covered them with Magi.
Jin-woo put away his Fang Dagger and drew out his white gem sword, then ran toward where blue flames were detected.
Halfway up a distant telephone pole. There, where nothing could be seen with the naked eye, one blue flame was staying.
He immediately jumped up and slashed, tearing through the transparent atmosphere, and a person wearing black clothing appeared.
"How, how!"
The flustered culprit who fell tried to face off by drawing a dagger. He stabbed at Jin-woo with the same pale energy-covered dagger that had easily pierced through asphalt.
'He's quite fast, but his swordwork is too sloppy.'
His body movements themselves were fast, but his skill in handling the sword was terrible. With such skill, he couldn't be accommodated even if one wanted to.
Jin-woo easily dodged and stabbed his sword into the guy's chest.
'Next.'
This one guy wasn't one of the enemies. Jin-woo ran again toward the next blue flame.
This time too, being quite flustered, he hastily poured out daggers, but with both position and timing exposed, there was no way he could hit.
Jin-woo lightly deflected the daggers and once again pulled out and slashed the hiding assassin.
'Next.'
And so another one, and then another one.
When he had killed four people, the last one screamed Hiieek and ran away. Now there wasn't a single hidden blue flame left.
'As many as five people.'
For simple robbers, that's quite a number. Their skill level was hard to gauge.
An assassin's skill depended on how well they could hide, but since Jin-woo could see through any concealment, he couldn't determine the assassins' skill level.
"Jin-woo! Where are the enemies?"
Shartia came running belatedly. Looking at the vehicle crashed into the guardrail, it had completely become covered with wood, turning into a solid bunker.
It seemed she had laid Ikeda there and came to support Jin-woo, but there was no need for that.
"There aren't any now."
"There aren't any?"
"These four guys here, that's all of them. There was one more, but he ran away."
Shartia was quite surprised looking at the four corpses sprawled on the ground.
She seemed amazed that he had found and dealt with assassins that even she couldn't detect.
"How is Ikeda's condition?"
"He's injured, but there are no fatal wounds. He'll get better quickly with just simple treatment."
"The daggers weren't coated with poison or anything."
Jin-woo grabbed a dagger deeply embedded in the asphalt with two fingers and pulled it out, swoosh.
An ordinary dagger with nothing applied to it. It was a characterless dagger that seemed to be stamped out from a factory, without any decorations or maker's engravings.
Jin-woo surveyed the devastation around them. The vehicle that crashed into the guardrail was quite conspicuous, covered in wood, and there were holes punched throughout the asphalt.
Items that had been in inventories were scattered messily around the four sprawled corpses.
"Should we call 119 first?"
It seemed necessary to clean up the scene.
***
Ikeda was transported to the hospital, and Jin-woo and Shartia went to the nearby police station.
Since Ikeda had gone and verified their identities, they weren't treated roughly, but the police's attitude itself seemed quite troublesome.
Jin-woo, who didn't know Japanese, stayed quiet while Shartia mainly gave statements, and from what he heard, this kind of thing was common in Tokyo.
"It seems the police don't like to get involved in matters where assassination guilds are involved."
"Even though they're running wild in the city like this?"
"They say that digging into it with an unnecessary sense of justice doesn't end well."
In Tokyo, assassins were like gangsters or yakuza, so even the police didn't like to mess with them.
Unless they were detectives specifically in charge of that area, regular police tried to avoid getting involved as much as possible.
"The guys who died this time are from the Tsukikage Guild. It means moon shadow, and they're punks who'll do anything for money."
"Aren't all people who kill others for money punks anyway?"
"These guys don't just kill people, they also sell drugs and sell women and do everything."
"Good grief."
They learned about the mastermind, but there wasn't much they could do about it.
The last guy ran away, so they couldn't interrogate him, and they didn't know the location of their hideout either.
'I did get a good look at the last guy's flame pattern, though.'
It seemed like he'd be able to recognize him if they met somewhere. For now, since there was official business, should he take care of that first and then look for him?
While waiting briefly at the police station, a new employee came from the Management Bureau.
Handed over to him, the two people arrived at the scheduled hotel and safely completed check-in.
"Haigo, once we get here, we can feel at ease. There are many guards, and it's a hotel especially famous for security, so this place should be safe."
The newly arrived employee finally breathed deeply and spoke.
He, too, seemed to have been quite tense, worried about being attacked on the way like Ikeda.
"You just arrived today, and there was an unfortunate incident, so please rest well. If you need a guide, we'll attach one for you."
"It's fine."
Shartia declined the employee's proposal. Since she had been to Tokyo before, a guide wasn't particularly necessary.
"Rather, could you tell us about a place called Tsukikage Guild? They're the ones who attacked us."
"They're punks that exist everywhere. Their skills are quite decent, so they maintain the appearance of an organization, but they're trash without honor or pride."
"Rather than that, don't you know about their hideout or clubs where they frequently gather?"
"I don't really know that far... Shall I look into it?"
"Please do."
The employee said he understood and withdrew. In the room left with just the two of them after he left, Shartia swept back her hair and spoke.
"I can't really expect much. He says he'll look into it while making a fuss, but he doesn't seem to have any intention at all."
"It seems that way."
"Well, I've traveled abroad a lot too, but in the end, you have to take care of yourself. Foreigners aren't as kind as you might think."
"I saw the face of the guy who ran away at the end. Let's look for him later."
"As expected, Jin-woo has no intention of just letting this slide either."
Shartia clapped her hands, saying that was good. Like her, who had wandered around foreign countries without connections, she had her own philosophy, one of which was to never be looked down upon by locals.
Once you're looked down upon, you get picked on endlessly and get eaten up. A mindset of definitely paying back when wronged was necessary.
"Anyway, rest today. Just in case, keep this in your room."
Shartia took out a flowerpot and placed it beside the bed. It was a plant with thin thread-like vines hanging down to below the flowerpot, but it just looked pretty on the surface.
"If there's an intruder during the night, it'll tie them up on its own. Still, don't feel completely at ease, and be careful."
"Yes, thank you."
He thanked her for her concern and parted with her. Shartia's room was right next door.
After sending her off, he flopped face-down on the fluffy bed and closed his eyes.
For a 5-star hotel, it had quite a rough feel. It seemed to focus more on security than flashy decorations.
It was said to actually have good security, and the interior seemed to appeal even more to guests about its superior security.
Not only in the lobby but also on the way up to the guest rooms, he encountered several security personnel in black suits and sunglasses, and it was said that all of them were hunters of at least B-rank.
'Hunters don't just constantly go into Gates.'
Like Jin-woo now, there are people who work side jobs when Gates doesn't open, or many people who make Gates their side job and have separate main jobs.
The personnel working at this hotel were probably similar. The labor costs would be incredibly expensive, but the room rates were correspondingly high.
Anyway, while in Tokyo, all expenses were covered by the Tokyo Management Bureau, so it had nothing to do with Jin-woo.
Jin-woo, who closed his eyes for the remaining short time, woke up around evening.
Then he ordered room service, which he had only heard about, and had dinner with Shartia, and it was quite delicious, worth the expensive price.
"This fish is pretty good?"
"Right. It goes well with the wine, too."
The main menu was white fish with creamy white sauce poured over it.
For Jin-woo, who had only eaten fish dishes roughly grilled or boiled, or cut into pieces and boiled into spicy soup, this was his first time eating such cuisine.
The fish's aroma filling his nasal passages was fragrant and not fishy at all. The degree of cooking was also perfect, so it crumbled pa-seu-seu just by putting it in his mouth.
They also finished all the dessert fruits and rolled cake, and spent time appropriately while looking at the night view.
After spending such a satisfying hotel vacation, the next day.
The employee who came to the hotel lobby was accompanied by a woman he was seeing for the first time.
With the interpreter Shartia in between, Jin-woo exchanged greetings with her.
"Hello! I'm Ayaka from Shirata Guild! I'm A-rank and my main position is shield bearer!"
"I'm Kang Jin-woo. As you've heard, I'm E-rank. It's an embarrassing rank to introduce in front of an A-rank."
"Oh no, not at all. Ranks are something that eventually go up if you frequently go to Gates. Rather, people with unique abilities like Jin-woo-san tend to achieve great success later."
She was talkative and also good at saying flattering words.
He knew they were just words, but still, it didn't feel bad. It meant she was considering the other person in her own way.
"This might be a rude question... Is Shirata Guild also an assassination guild?"
On the other hand, Jin-woo's question was one where no consideration could be found. Still, since he couldn't help but ask, he asked quite directly.
Then Ayaka jumped and denied it.
"No way! Our guild doesn't have any hyena-like guys like that! Everyone is from a proper guild that has raised their ranks by properly exploring Gates!"
She didn't seem to be lying...
"Jin-woo. May I talk with her for a moment?"
Then Shartia asked for a moment and went somewhere with Ayaka, just the two of them.
He wondered where she was suddenly taking her, but Jin-woo waited calmly.
After a short while, Ayaka's face looked somewhat dazed when she arrived, and there were traces of saliva around her mouth. There was some strange purple powder-like substance on her cheek.
"It's certain that they're not an assassination guild."
After bringing back Ayaka, who was clearly not in a normal state, Shartia spoke with a bright smile.
Just what did she do... Did she feed her some kind of truth serum?
'S-rank is S-rank after all.'
Since she was always so good to him, he hadn't realized it, but S-rank was indeed S-rank.
Having survived in Gates for that long meant she would have several methods for extracting information.
"Heot!"
Ayaka's mind returned about 10 minutes later. Only then could Jin-woo have a proper conversation about work.
"The job is simple. Including me, 10 Shirata Guild members will accompany as breakthrough personnel, and Jin-woo-san just needs to point out the location of the core. Since everyone is A-rank, you can leave the combat to us."
"I heard that Elf-type monsters appear..."
"Don't worry. We've prepared perfect countermeasures."
Ayaka's strategy was simple.
What made Elves troublesome was their mobility and long-range striking ability, represented by their bows.
When you try to catch them, they run away with fast mobility, then shoot arrows again from a distance. They're troublesome opponents to chase and deal with.
However, conversely, it meant they had almost no stopping power.
"That's why our Shirata Guild was chosen as the assault team. When it comes to defensive ability, there's no one in Tokyo who can compare to us."
"That's reassuring."
Jin-woo recalled his memory of having a chase battle with Dark Elves. Certainly, with just one shield, most arrows could be blocked.
With defensive abilities on top of that, it would be perfect.
"Then shall we depart right away?"
"What? Right now?"
"Do you need preparation?"
"No, all guild members are on standby, but I didn't expect you to be this enthusiastic."
It seemed she hadn't expected him to step forward so actively since it was another country's affair.
To the grateful Ayaka, Jin-woo shrugged his shoulders and answered.
"Something else came up."
It was better to quickly finish what needed to be done. Jin-woo was the type to finish vacation homework as much as possible in the first week.
***
Ayaka had chartered a 25-seater bus and had her guild members on standby.
After greeting the Shirata Guild members on the bus, including the one sitting in the driver's seat, Jin-woo took his seat.
The bus started up loudly and departed toward the outskirts of Tokyo.
Jin-woo sat alone by the window with his eyes closed, while Shartia was getting information about the Erosion from Ayaka sitting beside her.
"This Erosion occurred across a mountain, and the troublesome thing is that it happened to be where a mountain castle is located."
"A mountain castle, you mean an old castle?"
"Yes. In reality, it's an old cultural asset that would easily break, but inside an Erosion, everything becomes solid, right? The mountain castle has also become almost like a fortress."
"Being on a mountain makes it even more troublesome."
Even if it had been a castle built on flat ground, it would have been troublesome, but it's a castle built on a mountain. Moreover, what's moving around inside are Elves with bows.
Just hearing about it, a troublesome conquest was expected.
"Still, there's no rule that the core has to be there. If it's on the flat ground instead of the mountain, it'll end easily."
Ayaka spoke with somewhat positive thinking.
And shortly after. The group that arrived in front of the Erosion tensely entered the Erosion.
"Hmm, the core seems to be on that mountainside."
When Jin-woo pointed to the mountain where the castle was located, Ayaka rubbed her face.
They say ominous premonitions always come true.
"It can't be helped. Let's go."
They couldn't give up just because it was in a difficult place. The Erosion had already progressed a lot, and if it grew just a little more, it might reach the city.
At this time, when support had come all the way from Seoul, and with even an S-rank Hunter attached, they had to clear it out somehow.
"This is the entrance. From here, you really need to be careful."
The group, which had already been tense, visibly stiffened from the mountain's entrance.
All 10 personnel were holding shields large enough to cover their entire bodies, and Jin-woo and Shartia also received shields and blocked the front.
The group entered the mountain like they had become one body.
Pu-shu-shu-shu-shu-shik!
As soon as they entered, a rain of black arrows poured down from the sky. Arrows made from Erosion energy.
Arrows with greater power than regular arrows struck the shield formation countless times.
"Don't stop, advance!"
"Yes!"
Following Ayaka's signal, they climbed toward the mountain castle.
Though it was a mountain castle built in rough mountain terrain in the past, in modern times, it has been a tourist destination. The paths were reasonably well-opened, making it more manageable to advance than expected.
'Still, it doesn't look easy, though.'
But even considering that, the arrow rain was serious.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands of arrows poured down without stopping, making the recent fight with Dark Elves seem like child's play.
Most importantly, Dark Elves didn't have unlimited arrows. But the arrows that the monsters were shooting now were made from Erosion energy, so they were practically unlimited.
Even though they had become monsters and lost their self-awareness, Elves were masters of archery. Positioned in the mountain castle and shooting inexhaustible arrows, there was no easy way to break through.
But suddenly.
Jin-woo felt a very strange sense of discomfort.
'What is it?'
A sense of discomfort that only he felt in this place.
He lowered his shield and walked forward as if entranced, leaving the shield formation.
"Jin-woo!"
"Jin-woo! Where are you going!?"
Shartia and Ayaka immediately screamed. But Jin-woo was absorbed in confirming the identity of the sense of discomfort.
'What is this? What are they trying to do?'
Among the arrows pouring down enough to cover the sky, not a single one was shot at Jin-woo.
They were all shot only at the companions beside him, and there wasn't even an arrow that landed at Jin-woo's feet.
Even with his shield lowered and arms spread, they all missed.
Jin-woo didn't have the telekinetic power to deflect arrows or anything. The Elves, who were archery masters, couldn't have missed either.
They simply weren't shooting at him.
Shartia and Ayaka, who belatedly noticed the same sense of discomfort, watched the scene with shocked expressions.