Proof-reader: Girondono
“So-Soo Hyuk!”
“F*ck!”
The two Demon Guild members screamed when they finally came to themselves . They realised just who they were trying to mess with from the notification .
“P-please wait!”
They continued to shout in panic as Soo Hyuk stared at them .
“L-let’s talk!”
“It’s a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding!”
“We weren’t going to attack you!”
Listening to their desperate screams, Soo Hyuk, who had been planning to leave only one alive, changed his mind . He then asked the two men,
“What are you doing here?”
In response to Soo Hyuk’s question, the Demon Guild members hurriedly answered,
“W-well, we received a job…”
“I know about that . ”
Soo Hyuk had already found out from the 7th Peak that Heron was using the Demon Guild . And so, the moment he spotted them in this building, he realised that Heron must’ve hired them again .
“What I want to know is what kind of job did you receive?”
“…We were told to subdue . ”
The Demon Guild answered after hesitating for a moment .
“Really? Just subdue?”
“Yes . ”
The Demon Guild members nodded furiously at Soo Hyuk’s question .
“Of course, now we won’t even think about our task . ”
Their job was impossible from the beginning . They wouldn’t have accepted it no matter what if they had known from the beginning that the mercenary was actually Soo Hyuk .
“Can we briefly send a message to our guild master?”
“Yes, but first, I want to ask something . ”
Soo Hyuk continued as he answered their question .
“An NPC should be locked in here somewhere . Do you know where he is?”
“Ah, are you talking about the NPC called Romian?”
“Yes . ”
“He’s over that way . ”
One of the Demon Guild members replied while pointing further inside . At their reply, Soo Hyuk walked past the Demon Guild members and headed toward where they were pointing to . Then not long after starting, Soo Hyuk managed to find Romian .
Romian also discovered Soo Hyuk and made a surprised expression . The look in his eyes showed the confusion he was feeling right now .
“I went to the 7th Peak to do a different mission . I met Henkins-nim there and received another task . ”
Soo Hyuk started to speak as he untied the binding on Romian .
“He told me to deliver a letter . But when I came here to deliver the letter, a person called Heron lead me here . ”
“…I see . ”
Romian nodded absentmindedly .
“What about the mercenaries guarding this place…”
There had been three mercenaries guarding him just a few minutes ago, and they had left in the direction that Soo Hyuk had come from . What had happened to them?
“They were close acquaintants so I managed to persuade them . ”
Romian’s jaw dropped at Soo Hyuk’s answer . The bindings also came completely off at that moment .
[You have completed the quest ‘Imprisoned Romian’ . ]
A notification also appeared . Soo Hyuk briefly glanced at the notification then stood up with Romian and opened his inventory . There was still one more quest he had to do .
“This is Henkins-nim’s letter . ’
Romian silently received the letter from him . Then a notification appeared again .
[You have completed the quest ‘Henkins’s Letter’ . ]
Soo Hyuk stared at the notification and thought,
‘Will he be able to give me 10 gold?’
The reward for ‘Henkins’s Letter’ was 10 gold . It wasn’t much . It was comparable to pocket change . However, would Romian be able to give him 10 gold?
‘In this situation, I would be hard pressed to even get 1 gold . ’
After all, Romian had been imprisoned moments ago .
“Hoo…”
Romian sighed deeply as he finished the letter . He then raised his head to look at Soo Hyuk and spoke,
“I’m sorry . ”
“…Eh?”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to pay you right now . ”
Then as Romian continued, Soo Hyuk realised what he was sorry about
“The situation turned out this way…”
Romain continued with a sad smile while stealing glances at Soo Hyuk’s expression .
“Um, could you please help me one more time? If you do, I’ll give you 200 gold extra as well as the 10 gold . You just have to escort me to my room . ”
The moment Romian finished talking, a quest notification appeared .
[Escort Romian!]
Romian cannot stay in the corps any longer . First escort Romian to his room!
[Quest Reward: 200 Gold, Quest – The Secret Cave]
[Quest Fail Condition: Romian’s Death . ]
Soo Hyuk widened his eyes in surprise as he read through the new quest . There was an extra quest reward apart from the 200 gold . It was a linked quest . But the most surprising thing was the linked quest’s name .
‘The Secret Cave?’
The quest name was ‘The Secret Cave’ He made his decision then .
“I will escort you . ”
Soo Hyuk replied to the waiting Romian .
[You have accepted the quest ‘The Secret Cave’ . ]
Soo Hyuk thought as the notification appeared,
‘He doesn’t ask for Heron to be killed . ’
Soo Hyuk had wondered if Romian would ask him to kill Heron, but he hadn’t . Putting the thought at the back of his mind, Soo Hyuk walked in front of Romian and led the way to his room, preparing against any possible attacks .
‘They aren’t here . ’
Fortunately, the Demon Guild members had left in the time he had left them . As a bonus, the locked door had been opened wide at the entrance .
* * *
Crash!
Baal knocked over his chair as he stood up .
‘What the…’
He was staring at the incoming messages with surprise .
-Dururu: Guild Master, something big happened!
Dururu, he was one of the guild members on a mission with the Copine Corps . The reason for his surprise was because of the messages after it .
-Dururu: The mercenary we have to capture is Soo Hyuk!
-Dururu: Right now, Oneshot was killed and only me and Haha are left .
-Dururu: I don’t think just us two can capture him . What should we do?
Baal couldn’t immediately reply to Dururu’s quest .
‘Why again? F*ck . ’
Why was Soo Hyuk involved again?
‘Aoh . ’
Baal sent a reply while scrunching his temples .
-Baal: Give up .
The answer was decided from the beginning . Subduing Soo Hyuk? And with only three guild members? The mission was impossible from the beginning .
-Dururu: Then should we first return to the guild?
-Baal: Yes, return immediately . Don’t do anything .
-Dururu: But Heron’s right in front of us, so what should we do?
-Baal: Just ignore him . No, first notify him . Just so he doesn’t throw a tantrum at us .
-Dururu: I understand . We’ll retreat immediately .
After ending his chat with Baal, Dururu looked at Haha, who had been staring at him so far .
“He said to retreat . ”
“What? Just like that?”
Haha asked back in surprise at Dururu’s answer . He then stared at the locked door and asked,
“What about Heron?”
Currently, Heron was waiting right outside the door . What were they supposed to do about him?
“He said to talk nicely and immediately return .
Dururu answered Haha and approached the door .
Clank! Creak…
A few seconds later, he managed to open the door .
“Did it end…?”
Did he think that the task ended well because of the promised signal? Heron had been waiting with a bright smile, before he faltered as he realised that something was wrong .
Heron stared at Dururu and Haha, his eyes seemingly demanding an explanation . Noticing his gaze, Haha stared at Dururu while Dururu opened his mouth .
“I have to apologise . ”
“What do you…”
“The mission wasn’t what we expected . If we touch the mercenary from earlier, than bad things will happen . ”
Of course, even attempting to touch him would do it . Didn’t he come to the Demon Guild because the corps had no strength anyway?
“I apologise once again . ”
Dururu apologised with a deep bow, then ignoring Heron, ran away at full speed . Haha followed him behind .
Meanwhile, Heron speechlessly stared after Dururu and Haha’s fading backs . When they disappeared from his sight, Heron finally came to himself .
‘Wait, what?’
He couldn’t understand what had just happened .
‘A mission they didn’t expect?’
What did they mean by that?
‘Bad things will happen?’
That was a threat, right? But then, Heron realised something about the Demon Guild members from before .
‘Two?’
There had been definitely three people he had hired, but only two had come out from the building . In other words, one had been killed .
Heron turned around and stared cautiously inside the building .
‘Sh*t!’
Heron cursed in his mind when he checked inside the building . He could see a corpse, and it wasn’t the mercenary who had come to deliver a letter . It was one of the people he had hired, and from the reactions of the previous two people, he had been killed .
Heron kept on looking inside in a flustered manner . Originally, his plan was to capture the mercenary and take the letter himself .
But, the mercenary had been stronger than he had expected . No, he was strong enough to trivialise three members from the Demon Guild he had trusted so much . What if the mercenary harboured ill feelings from this incident? No, he would harbour ill feelings .
Of course, no matter how much the mercenary hated him, he wouldn’t make trouble inside the corps headquarters . If he did? The Heron would be able to use the full strength of the Copine Corps .
No matter how strong he was, a mercenary was a mercenary . If he utilised the strength of the corps, then one mercenary should be easily subdued .
‘No, this isn’t the time for that . ’
Heron, who had been absentmindedly staring at the building, turned around as he planned to escape from here for now .
‘Why…’
While walking to his room, Heron wondered about how things had turned out this way . But there was only one answer . The fact that the mercenary was strong .
‘…Hmph . ’
Heron frowned as he harrumphed in his mind .
‘Romian will probably escape . ’
In this situation, Romian wouldn’t just sit still after receiving the letter . He would definitely use the mercenary’s strength to help him escape .
‘What should I do?’
Heron couldn’t think of any way to capture Romian again .
‘Hmm, I could mobilise the commanders . ’
Heron thought of one way he could use to capture Romian . It was to use the comanders’ strengths .
‘But they would just welcome it . ’
However, he knew that the commanders wouldn’t move . They would instead rejoice at Romian escaping .
‘Even though I manipulated the situation like that . Those bastards . ’
Heron frowned once again as he recalled a past event . It had been a perfect trap . He had successfully made Romian into a criminal sex offender .
But the commanders’ reactions hadn’t been up to par . It was to the point where he received backlash when Romian was imprisoned .
‘No . ’
Heron changed his way of thinking .
‘It’s actually a good thing . ’
From another perspective, Romian escaping wasn’t such a bad thing .
‘I can slowly search for the cave, since I already have the key . ’
Heron already possessed the most important key .
‘Then I can use that to pressure the other commanders . ’
‘I have to quickly take over the corps . ’
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