Chapter 569

Thud.

The door closed behind Song Cheonwoo with a sound like thunder. His sturdy frame—hard to believe he was seventy—staggered.

Slide. Tap.

Neither his powerful mana nor the experience he had gained through a lifetime of hardship was any use to him now.

He braced himself against the wall and stared at the floor. A pair of black dress shoes stepped into view.

“Are you all right?”

At the sound of the businesslike voice, Song looked up, saw who the shoes belonged to, and gritted his teeth.

“Does this look all right to you?”

Head of Security Go Se-won bowed beneath his furious glare.

“I’m sorry if that sounded insensitive.”

“Spare me the words you don’t mean. Before I break your neck!”

“I wouldn’t recommend it. You’d have nothing to gain and plenty to lose.”

Go Se-won gave a gentle wave of his hand. At the far end of the hallway, the security-team members who had started toward them stopped.

“They’re my men. As you know, Director, they’re quite capable. And when the situation calls for it, they don’t care what they have to do.”

“You…”

“Please don’t misunderstand me. I only mean that I don’t want you to make matters worse.”

Crack.

The marble beneath Song’s hand, reinforced by magic, split in a spiderweb of cracks. He glared at Go Se-won through bloodshot eyes and forced the words through his teeth.

“So you kidnapped my children? They had nothing to do with this. They’d done nothing wrong.”

“They were exceptionally well guarded for people who supposedly had nothing to do with it. That means you had at least considered the possibility, Director.”

Two security-team members had died despite the whole team taking part in the attack. Given that they were among the best Ares Guild had to offer, it was no fewer than two.

“I regret what happened to your family. But if you suspected this might happen, you should have sent even more people to protect them.”

“……!”

“I shouldn’t have said that. I apologize.”

Go Se-won meant it. Song Cheonwoo was already like an old lion whose death had been decided. There was no need for Go Se-won to drive the knife in himself.

Would he believe me if I said it slipped out because I felt sorry for him?

Go Se-won was a father too. His first son had been born after he turned forty, and his second child was due in a few months. Both were already more precious to him than anything.

He would give his life for his children’s safety and happiness. That was what it meant to be a father. A parent.

But Song Cheonwoo had weighed his ambition against his family’s safety. Then again, if he had imagined the worst, he would never have tried to make an enemy of Go Jun.

……Not that I’m one to talk.

Go Se-won felt like a pathetic villain.

For well over a decade, he had lived more like a fixer than a Hunter. Ever since Lee Jungryong had noticed him and brought him into the security team, his main targets had been people, not monsters.

He was the one who had ordered his men to kidnap Song Cheonwoo’s family and then cleaned up the aftermath.

And I have the nerve to lecture him.

They were all pieces of shit in the same shit pit.

Song Cheonwoo had let ambition consume him on the verge of retirement and brought danger upon himself. Go Jun swung his blade without caring what it took to get his way. And Go Se-won had become the sword in his superior’s hand and kidnapped Song’s family.

A war between bastards. In the end, there’ll be a winner and a loser.

And he was nothing more than a component.

He was swallowing the bitter thought when—

Grab!

A hand far too strong to belong to a seventy-year-old man seized his collar.

“Team Leader!”

“Enough. Stay at your posts.”

Go Se-won stopped his men and calmly looked up at Song Cheonwoo, who stood a full head taller than him.

“I told you. You stand to lose more than you’d gain.”

“You bastards dare lay a hand on my children…!”

“The Vice Guild Master is listening inside. I don’t know what the two of you discussed, but I hope there won’t be any more unnecessary sacrifices.”

“……!”

Go Jun held his family’s lives in his hands. Go Se-won was telling him not to make Go Jun angry.

Song understood at once. His eyelids trembled, and though he kept glaring at Go Se-won through clenched teeth, his grip slowly loosened.

“You made the right choice.”

“……Shut your mouth. I’d like nothing more than to smash your face in right now.”

“I’m sure you would.”

A bitter smile touched Go Se-won’s lips. He would have felt the same in Song’s place.

And even twenty years after leaving active service, Song Cheonwoo was still an extraordinary fighter. His ability simply hadn’t matched his ambition. The fact that he had once been Lee Jungryong’s political rival said enough about him.

Which is why Go Jun chose a method this dirty.

Go Se-won disliked it. But dirty as it was, it would work.

Song Cheonwoo would be eliminated soon, and it would look so natural that no one would suspect a thing.

“Follow me. I’ll escort you outside.”

Go Se-won bowed slightly and started down the hallway. Song cast one last glare at the closed door, then followed.

Step. Step.

Go Se-won had sent his men away. Only their footsteps sounded in the hallway until Song broke the silence.

“What you said earlier. Was it true?”

“……?”

“You said you didn’t know what Go Jun and I had discussed. Was that true?”

Go Se-won considered the question for a moment, then nodded.

“I see. From what I found out about you, I suppose you were never much of a strategist.”

“What do you mean?”

“It seems he doesn’t trust you as much as I thought. Or perhaps he wanted to hide it even from his closest aide.”

Song gave a weak, hollow laugh at Go Se-won’s frown.

“Go Se-won.”

In the brief span of time between one breath and the next, he seemed to have aged ten years. No—twenty. He continued in a desolate voice.

“There’s such a thing as a line a person shouldn’t cross. You know that?”

“……If you’re criticizing the Vice Guild Master, I’d ask you to stop.”

“Criticizing him? That’s a much gentler word than I’d expected. Far too gentle for that bastard Go Jun.”

“I understand how you feel. But no one involved in this has the right to condemn anyone else. I know you haven’t lived a particularly clean life either, Director.”

“Heh. True. There was a time when I’d use any means necessary to get what I wanted. But I never went this far.”

Song laughed again, empty and almost unhinged. Go Se-won fell silent.

Song wasn’t talking only about the kidnapping.

What is it?

His heart pounded. A current ran down his spine.

This was a warning. A danger signal telling him not to listen.

But his body moved contrary to his thoughts.

“What limit are you talking about, Director?”

“A monster who has forgotten even the most basic duty of being human.”

“What?”

Step.

Song stopped before the Teleportation magic circle leading outside. He stared at it for a moment before speaking again.

“The boundary between human and monster. That bastard Go Jun…… has already become a monster.”

The old man’s empty gaze drifted through the air. As though searching through memories of a brilliant past, he took a weary step toward the magic circle and left Go Se-won with one last plea.

“I apologize for what I did to you. So please, don’t let those children die for nothing.”

Flash!

Before Go Se-won could ask what he meant, Teleportation magic manifested, and dazzling radiance swallowed Song Cheonwoo’s body.

Go Se-won stood alone, staring in confusion at the spot where Song had been. Then he turned.

The hallway was made entirely of white marble. At the far end of its long stretch stood a closed door. Behind it, someone was probably sipping wine, pleased with himself.

What in the world…… have you done?

Go Se-won muttered toward something deep inside his heart.

Section A, which was always filled with light, felt like a pit overflowing with darkness today.

I had no idea how long I’d been shut away in the training ground—or training room, as they called it in the modern world.

One day. Two. Maybe three.

The walls blocked out everything beyond them, and the temperature stayed the same. Once I got absorbed in martial arts, I lost track of time.

Even though I had a smartphone, I never looked at it, so I had no way of knowing. Perhaps they vaguely understood my situation, because no one from the Peace Guild came to see me or contacted me.

“…….”

Saying it like that made me sound like a complete loner. Which I absolutely wasn’t.

……Probably.

The Skeleton King hasn’t come by once since then, either.

It was good news in one sense: he seemed to be handling things better than I’d expected. But it also meant the emergency rescue team was busier, and more Gates were showing signs of abnormal activity. I couldn’t exactly celebrate.

What I could celebrate was that my own attempt was nearly complete.

It’s not finished yet, though.

I had never tried anything like this before, and the process so far had been anything but easy.

The pressure of having to create something exceptional while the current situation was on the verge of exploding may have contributed as well.

What I have now might be good enough……

Should I just take the plunge and go with it?

I’d asked myself that dozens, maybe hundreds of times. I was going over it again when the training room door opened with a familiar mechanical sound.

“So this is where you were. I need your help, as it happens.”

Step. Step.

Combat boots polished to a shine. A skin-tight blue suit. A shield with a skull on it.

I gave him a look colder than the snow piled on the roof of King Sejong Station in Antarctica.

“Look at this fucking bastard.”

“You heard from Director King Fury,¹ didn’t you?”

“……Are you playing two roles now?”

“Heh heh. Surely a citizen of the United States of America ought to be King-tin America.²”

“This bastard keeps changing his name however he wants. I’m going to beat you so badly you’ll want to go back to the glacier.”

“I can do this all day.”

Whoosh! Boom!

White Flame shot toward him like a streak of light. Its spearhead grazed his neck and pierced the training room wall, burying the shaft.

The Skeleton King looked from the spear to me, then muttered, “All day might be difficult……”

“Cut the bullshit. Why are you here? If you dropped by because you were bored, I’ll kill you. Seriously.”

He answered in a hurry.

“N-no, that’s not it. It’s a mission. A mission!”

“A mission?”

“That is correct, wicked human.”

He nodded.

“It isn’t an ordinary Mutated Gate. The magical power reading is enormous.”

“……!”

Damn it.