Chapter 285

How dare you touch my Disciple!

I only paid him back in kind. That settles the principal, so consult your Guild’s leadership about the remaining compound interest.

……You bastard.

I’ll take that as your acceptance.

I will never forget what happened today.

That was the conversation I’d had only a few minutes ago.

Lee Jungryong had left after delivering those words, each one dripping with killing intent.

He had administered emergency treatment with the potion he carried, but Park Jihoon’s injuries were too deep to heal with a potion alone. His Disciple had ended up like that, so he must have been in a hurry to get him treated.

“Phew.”

Once the presence of Lee Jungryong, which I could still faintly sense in the distance, disappeared completely, a sigh of relief escaped me.

“Man, that was exhausting.”

The moment I let go of the tension I had been holding until the very end, all the strength drained from my body.

I was tired. My clash with Lee Jungryong had left me with a slight Internal Injury, but the mental exhaustion was even worse.

I really caused one hell of a mess today.

Today, I had made an S-rank Hunter recognized throughout the world and a colossal Guild my enemies.

It had been a precarious tightrope walk with a sheer, bottomless cliff as the stage.

Lee Jungryong and I had met at the very center of that tightrope, and in the end, it was the other side that backed down.

He had no choice. I just targeted the exact point that mattered.

People with a lot to lose were bound to fear danger.

If the tiger known as Lee Jungryong—or the tiger known as Ares Guild—were to fall, the mountain lord’s¹ honor would hit the ground, and its carcass would become an excellent meal for the animals of the forest—in other words, its competitors.

Of course, the cleanest way to settle things would have been to kill me and silence me, but…

Lee Jungryong knew I wasn’t an easy opponent.

He had confirmed that he held the upper hand after a single clash, but that had still been enough for him to realize that the wolf in front of him was a fairly threatening opponent.

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and thought.

Three steps.

Today, I had taken three steps back against Lee Jungryong.

But today’s three steps would soon become two, and before long, those two steps would narrow to one.

And after that…

I’ll surpass you.

I had never seen a documentary about a wolf beating a tiger one-on-one, the kind I had mentioned to Lee Jungryong.

But I possessed the potential to grow without end. Just like my epithet, the Hidden Dragon.

When that time comes, both I and my Guild will be stronger than you ever imagined.

What I had gained from this incident wasn’t merely revenge for Im Kkeokjeong. I had also obtained a golden opportunity to help the Peace Guild grow.

If the Peace Guild had been frightened and backed down when the Black Hunters first attacked, it would have remained just another mid-sized Guild. But because we had fought back, we had earned revenge and compensation. What happened next would depend on Team Leader Choi’s abilities.

He’ll handle it well.

A conversation I’d had with Team Leader Choi several hours earlier suddenly came to mind.

“What are you planning to do?”

“Hard to say. If my hunch is right, I might see red, and even I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“Are you thinking of storming Myeongdong Guild?”

“I can’t promise I’m not.”

Song Song had called me crazy after hearing that, while Butler Kim had only stared at me in silence.

But Team Leader Choi had been different.

What he said had gone far beyond anything I expected.

“Then go.”

“Excuse me?”

“Myeongdong Guild. Go there, smash the place up, and turn it upside down. Ah, I’m not telling you to collapse a building in the middle of Seoul and kill people. If you’re not careful, the prison will become the Guild house.”

“……I thought you were going to stop me.”

“I would have, if you weren’t Jin Taekyung. I would have racked my brain and looked for another way somehow.”

“Then why?”

“Jin Taekyung, you may look reckless at first glance, but you always move with the worst possible situation in mind. And you always bring back the best possible result.”

“Are you really sure this is all right?”

“I intend to make the Peace Guild the greatest Guild in the world. If we back down when one of our Guild members has been attacked, we can never become the best in the world.”

“Then you really want me to…”

“Do it. Whatever the result, I’ll take responsibility.”

Team Leader Choi’s final words seemed to ring vividly in my ears.

“I trust Jin Taekyung. Perhaps more than I trust myself.”

I had repaid the boundless trust he had placed in me.

I had given Park Jihoon more than Im Kkeokjeong had suffered, and I had tacitly secured apologies and compensation from enemies no one could dare approach.

The greatest Guild in the world, huh?

Remembering Team Leader Choi’s bold ambition, I let out a quiet laugh.

I took out my phone and made a call.

Someone answered before the phone had even had time to ring properly.

—Yes. This is Choi Minwoo.

Team Leader Choi. It was him.

“I have a lot to tell you. Where should I go?”

—Jin Taekyung! You’re alive!

“……?”

—I thought you were dead. Is this really Jin Taekyung?

“…….”

You said you trusted me more than yourself, you son of a bitch…

“Jihoon! Wake up!”

The master’s anguished cry for his young Disciple, accompanied by hurried footsteps.

Park Tae Seop, the Guild Master of Myeongdong Guild, followed closely behind Lee Jungryong and stared at his back with startled eyes.

Did Lee Jungryong have this side to him?

Park Tae Seop had watched Lee Jungryong for many years.

During the Great Cataclysm, he had simply thought of him as someone who was strangely difficult to approach.

But after the war ended, Ares Guild was established, and Lee Jungryong seized its real power, Park Tae Seop came to understand his true nature clearly.

He was as hard as steel, as secretive as a viper, and capable of doing things that would make other people shudder without hesitation.

That was the kind of man Lee Jungryong was in Park Tae Seop’s eyes—a person he never wanted to meet as either an enemy or an ally.

So he was a human being after all.

But the strange impression Park Tae Seop had felt vanished without a trace the moment they emerged from the long corridor and entered the hall.

“Welcome.”

“……!”

The speaker was a middle-aged man. His movements were as precise as a soldier’s. His extremely well-trained body could not be concealed even by the black suit he wore.

The same was true of the twenty men and women standing behind him like iron towers. An emblem symbolizing Ares Guild was fixed over each of their chests.

I didn’t even sense their presence.

That wasn’t the only thing that shocked Park Tae Seop.

Over the middle-aged man’s shoulder, he spotted roughly a hundred Myeongdong Guild members lying collapsed on the floor. His eyes widened.

“What is the meaning of this…?”

The middle-aged man answered in a dry voice.

“We merely put them to sleep with sleep magic. For now.”

For now.

It was a meaningful choice of words. They were only asleep under the power of magic at present, but it also meant they could remain asleep forever.

Park Tae Seop was just about to shout in fury when—

“Is there some problem?”

Lee Jungryong slowly turned around.

The moment Park Tae Seop saw his face, he realized that he had been profoundly mistaken.

It had all been an act.

There was no emotion on Lee Jungryong’s expression, and his eyes were sunk deep and cold. There was no trace of the hurried footsteps or anguished cries worrying over his Disciple’s safety.

An icy chill slowly crept up Park Tae Seop’s spine.

“Guild Master Park.”

There was a blade hidden in Lee Jungryong’s gentle voice. It was as though venom dripped from the viper’s tongue every time it moved.

“Was it about twenty years ago? One day, you came to me and abruptly dropped to your knees.”

“……!”

“Do you still remember?”

“……Of course.”

Park Tae Seop clenched his teeth.

How could he not remember? Nearly twenty years had passed, but the desperation he had felt back then remained buried deep in his bones.

A string of massive business failures, debts totaling an enormous sum, and the looks people gave him as though they were staring at a failure…

For Park Tae Seop, it had been a living hell more horrifying than the Great Cataclysm.

After being rejected countless times by the people around him, the person he had gone to was Lee Jungryong.

Lee Jungryong had gazed down at the kneeling Park Tae Seop before asking him a single question.

If I help you, what can you do for me?

Park Tae Seop’s answer had come without hesitation.

I’ll do anything.

I like that.

What would have happened if he had never said those words?

He had asked himself that question hundreds, even thousands of times over the past twenty years, but there was no point. He had already come too far to turn back.

There was no such thing as a favor without a price, and he had been forced to commit all kinds of crimes for Lee Jungryong.

When he came to his senses, all he could see was himself being dragged along with a leash around his neck.

“Whenever I look at you these days, Guild Master Park, I find myself thinking the same thing. The words you said when you came to me back then feel like an empty shell.”

“How could that be?”

“No. That’s simply how human beings are. Even when they receive a favor, they quickly forget their gratitude and do nothing but pile up complaints. Save a man who was about to freeze to death, and his attitude changes as soon as he warms himself by a campfire. What can you do? Ha ha.”

“…….”

Despite the corners of his mouth curling upward, Lee Jungryong’s eyes were as cold as ice.

When Park Tae Seop lowered his head with a hardened expression, Lee Jungryong continued in a gentler voice.

“I only said that so we could continue working well together in the future. Your Guild members will be safe as well, so don’t worry about anything. Isn’t that right, Team Leader Seok?”

The middle-aged man in charge of Lee Jungryong’s security, Team Leader Seok, answered in a flat voice.

“Of course.”

“Well, then, I should be going. I’ll see you again.”

Tap, tap.

Park Tae Seop stood rigidly in place and watched Lee Jungryong’s back as he walked away after patting him on the shoulder.

Team Leader Seok spoke inside the descending elevator.

“Shall I take care of him?”

“Who? Ah, Park Tae Seop.”

“Yes. His expression looked rather uneasy.”

“That man’s thoughts are written all over his face. He was obedient for the first few years, but once he got comfortable and well-fed, he started entertaining other ideas.”

“He knows too much. And he handled this incident so poorly that the fallout reached the Vice Guild Master.”

For the first time, emotion entered Team Leader Seok’s voice.

Anger.

Lee Jungryong confirmed the steadfast loyalty he held toward him and smiled faintly.

“Leave him for now. Besides, we’ve only just taken a taste, so of course it’s bland.”

“Excuse me?”

At that moment, the elevator doors opened with a ding.

Lee Jungryong continued speaking as he walked.

“I only gave things a little prod. I wanted to see what the response would be.”

“Then…?”

“You occasionally have a tendency to underestimate me. If I had made up my mind, would I have entrusted this work to such half-baked fools?”

Team Leader Seok let out a low exclamation.

“You anticipated all of this.”

“I’ve only taken a spoonful and tasted it. If it doesn’t seem right, I can add salt and pepper.”

“As expected of you, Vice Guild Master.”

At the admiring look in Team Leader Seok’s eyes, Lee Jungryong smiled gently.

But his thoughts were different. There was something he could not reveal even to Team Leader Seok, his right-hand man.

Jin Taekyung. He’s no ordinary man.

From the beginning, what had bothered Lee Jungryong was the Peace Guild, not Jin Taekyung.

Even if he had stepped in himself, he could not guarantee that something like this would not have happened. He was not the sort of person who used a butcher’s knife to kill a chicken.

It was certainly an efficient approach, but if an unexpected variable appeared, the plan would fall apart.

So there was a wolf hiding among the chickens.

Lee Jungryong rubbed his tingling wrist.

For a moment, he had felt tremendous heat and power radiating from the young man. It was far too strong to dismiss as some fresh-faced brat’s cute little display.

He knew how to handle mana properly. A man who had been nothing more than an F-rank Hunter until recently—where on earth had he…?

There was one possibility he could reasonably guess at.

After finishing his train of thought, Lee Jungryong said to Team Leader Seok,

“Keep a close eye on Jin Taekyung.”

“Don’t worry. If he becomes a problem, I’ll deal with him personally.”

Team Leader Seok had always been reliable. He was a born fighting prodigy and the best among the children Lee Jungryong had personally selected and taught, so there was no need to question his skill. Even Park Tae Seop, a top-ranking ranker, was no match for him.

But Lee Jungryong suddenly found himself wondering.

Was Team Leader Seok really superior to Jin Taekyung?

“Team Leader Seok. No, Go Jun.”

His form of address had changed from a title to a name.

Team Leader Seok was not the kind of person who would fail to understand what that meant. If he had lacked even that much awareness, he could never have become Lee Jungryong’s prized Disciple.

“Yes, Master.”

“Hmm. It’s nothing. I was entertaining a ridiculous thought for a moment.”

Lee Jungryong clicked his tongue softly and walked out through the main entrance.

Five men and women were waiting outside the building. They wore robes covered in elaborate patterns and carried staffs.

“We greet the Vice Guild Master.”

“Your outfits are certainly gaudy. Can’t you dress a little more ordinarily?”

“They’ll look ordinary. To everyone else.”

They were A-rank mages directly under Lee Jungryong.

Just as the oldest-looking mage had said, none of the hundreds of people hurrying along the sidewalk paid them any attention.

They did not even know that an incredible battle had taken place above their heads—one that had nearly brought down a high-rise building.

“This is why magic is so convenient.”

In a brute-force move, the mages had blanketed everything within a radius of roughly two hundred meters with an illusion spell. They could pull it off because they were A-rank mages of Ares Guild, which selected only the best.

They would maintain the illusion spell here until all the cleanup was finished.

“Yes. Use that convenient magic to handle things properly so no rumors come out of this. If anyone seems dangerous, use mental magic to tamper with their memories.”

“Yes, sir. Understood. But that man is badly injured.”

“Ah, him?”

Lee Jungryong glanced at Park Jihoon, who was being carried on the back of one of the security team’s Hunters, and tossed out a single sentence.

“Treat him just enough, then dump him somewhere.”

If he died, so be it. Even if he recovered, he would not be able to properly use even half of the skill he currently possessed.

Lee Jungryong had no hobby of collecting spent batteries. He already had countless batteries, and replacing one was all it took.

Still, he proved useful at the end.

Through Park Jihoon, Lee Jungryong had gotten a measure of Jin Taekyung’s ruthlessness.

Once blood had been drawn, he should have killed him. If Lee Jungryong himself had been in that position, he would have done so without fail.

You couldn’t take that one step.

What good was cutting off both arms and carving up his body? If the enemy was still breathing, it was not complete revenge. It was nothing more than venting one’s anger.

That half measure will come back to poison you someday.

Lee Jungryong let out a derisive chuckle and climbed into the car that was waiting for him.