"Vice Leader."
"Yes! Leader."
The man waiting behind Beomdong answered with strict military bearings.
"I will spring the Noose, so make ready."
"...!"
They were carrying out Operation Noose.
At Beomdong's words, the man's eyes gleamed.
'The Noose...?'
Just what kind of existence were they trying to catch, that he would use that?
It was the Noose of the Bi Ryongdae Leader, from which no one had ever escaped.
It was an operation that absolutely no one could flee from unless they were monsters on the level of the Ten Great Experts of the Central Plains.
Just as the middle-aged man was tensing up.
'Let's see you taste some bitterness, you unlucky brat.'
Beomdong suppressed a smile as he recalled the eldest son of the Guga family, who would be squirming by now.
Not long after Beomdong had gone to the Soyeomra.
Crack-!
"Kkaaaack!"
"Lift your head. I told you that closing your eyes means death. Why do you keep closing them? Shall I gouge out your eyeballs so you can't use them at all?"
Beomdong realized something had gone wrong.
"Kkeu-heuuuuk...."
Whenever blood flowed from his mouth, shards of the cup flowed out with it. The inside of his mouth was torn to shreds, and the taste of blood filled his senses.
He tried somehow to move, but after his throat was grabbed, strength wouldn't properly enter his entire body.
His vital points hadn't been sealed, nor was he in a position where he was subdued and unable to move.
He simply couldn't muster any strength.
"And you, who call yourself a martial artist of the League, threaten me using people around me? Have you really gone mad?"
"Keuk... kkeueu.... Let... let go right now.... You'll regret...."
"Your mouth is still alive?"
Clatter-!
"Keok!"
A blow crashed into his head.
Guyangcheon picked up the cup in front of him and struck Beomdong.
The shattered fragments didn't fall to the floor but floated into the air.
Guyangcheon grabbed a relatively large piece among them.
Kwak-!
"Kkeo-eoak!"
He stabbed it straight into the back of the man's hand.
Though Beomdong instinctually wrapped his body in protective astral energy, Guyangcheon tore through Beomdong's protective energy without any difficulty.
Flick-! The piece embedded in the back of his hand was immediately pulled out.
Afterward, as blood was about to well up over it.
Chiiiiiik-!
"...!!!"
From the excruciating pain in the back of his hand, this time Beomdong couldn't even scream.
Guyangcheon pressed fire over the deeply inflicted wound.
"Kkeok... kkeo-eu-eok.... Kkeu-eu-eu-eo-a...."
As Beomdong writhed and twisted his body with gurgling sounds, Guyangcheon grabbed the top of his head and lifted him up.
Then he met eyes with Beomdong through his shining blue eyes.
"Hey, you should've behaved when I was leaving you alive peacefully. Why do you keep acting like a dick? Then I have no choice but to act like one too, don't I?"
He was smiling.
Guyangcheon was smiling as he burned the back of Beomdong's hand.
Seeing that smile, Beomdong felt chills run down his entire body.
'...I made a mistake.'
The threat of pressuring those around him using the League's position and power.
Naturally, this might not have worked.
But.
'To be this strong...'
The important part of this operation was that when he spat out those words, the opponent had to be enraged.
If he couldn't endure it and tried to subdue the opponent, or if he made threats.
It was an operation designed to easily seize investigative authority by establishing the justification that he had intimidated a League figure.
'Damn it.'
Beomdong's miscalculation was not knowing that Guyangcheon would go this far.
Who would have thought that in the middle of Haenam, he would use violence and torture on a League Leader like this.
Chiiiiiik-!
Feeling the sensation of his hand burning, Beomdong trembled along with a scream.
"Heeeuuuaaaah!!"
The situation was gradually turning bad.
Beomdong had stepped forward personally because he had judged the opponent to be a strong one.
He couldn't have imagined that even he would be subdued like this.
He knew the opponent was a master, but to be this strong...!
Beomdong thought amidst the pain.
'My energy isn't moving properly. Could it be... poison?'
This wasn't the Beomdong who would be trampled on so mercilessly.
He was a martial artist of considerable realm and a figure who had obtained the position of a League Leader, no less.
And yet, having his throat grabbed meant he couldn't use his energy? It was nonsensical.
'Damn it. When on earth did he—?'
Had he put poison in the tea he just drank? If so, when had he done it? At the beginning? No.
'I even checked thoroughly just in case...?'
He had finished checking in advance to see if anyone had tampered with the pre-prepared tea.
When on earth had he slipped in the poison?
Beomdong rolled his eyes amid the pain of his torn-up mouth and his constricted throat.
Even if that were the case, he had to endure somehow.
No matter how much pain he was being put through now, he wouldn't be killed.
So he had to endure.
Outside, the members of the Bi Ryongdae were waiting.
Personnel deployment was important when carrying out the Noose.
If an agent sent a signal or didn't appear for a certain amount of time, they would rush in.
In a few seconds, the promised time would pass.
Then, the members of the Bi Ryongdae would appear to rescue Beomdong.
'I just have to endure until then.' Just as Beomdong was thinking this.
"Master."
Nahi approached Guyangcheon, who had been burning Beomdong's wound continuously, and asked.
"What should I do with the rats outside?"
"...!"
At Nahi's words, Beomdong's back went cold.
Rats? Could she mean the Bi Ryongdae?
If so, they should be using stealth techniques from a distance. How on earth did she know?
"Shall I clean them up?"
Putting aside Beomdong's shock, Nahi asked indifferently.
Guyangcheon suddenly stopped his hand that was burning Beomdong and tilted his head.
"Hmm."
Only Beomdong's groans filled the space for a moment.
"No, leave them."
Guyangcheon answered lightly.
"I was about to tell you to go clear them away. But perfect timing."
He sent his gaze toward the closed window.
"He's here."
A presence could be felt from afar.
A very familiar and damnably irritating presence.
******************
It had already been half a jinc since Beomdong approached the target.
In the tense atmosphere, a man approached and asked.
"Vice Leader, there is not much time left until the scheduled time."
"...I see."
Jeongjin, one of the vice leaders of the Bi Ryongdae, nodded at his subordinate's words.
After Leader Beomdong approached the target, the door had suddenly closed.
They had all been bewildered by this unforeseen situation, but.
"We proceed as planned. Prepare yourselves."
Jeongjin controlled his subordinates and simply followed the mission Beomdong had given.
Half a jinc since the anomaly manifested.
Once that time passed, they would mention the name of the League and enter the target.
That was the core of the operation. Recalling this, Jeongjin bit his lip.
'Will you really be alright?'
He had said there wouldn't be much danger. Yet the windows and doors were blocked the moment he entered.
He could even tell that an energy barrier had been set up inside the building.
Something had definitely happened.
Seeing that, Jeongjin deeply pondered whether he should rush in immediately, but.
'It's the Leader himself. He must have anticipated this.'
This too must be part of some operation.
Believing so, Jeongjin regulated his breathing.
The target was said to be barely past twenty at most.
The Leader had called him a considerable master, but.
'Still, he probably isn't at the Leader's level.'
Since he was the Leader of the Intelligence Department, his martial power might be comparatively lacking, but.
Even so, he was a Leader.
Beomdong was absolutely not a weak martial artist. Let's trust him and prepare.
As Jeongjin was judging thus.
"Vice Leader. It is time."
When his subordinate relayed the words, only then did Jeongjin nod and draw his sword.
Sreung.
Jeongjin, having drawn his sword, spoke to those around him.
"Bi Ryongdae. Combat readiness."
The moment Jeongjin moved and the martial artists around him were about to switch stances one by one.
"The target is right in front of us...."
"It's a sword."
"Toward the sword... no. Huh...?"
At the voice heard from the side, he had to freeze his body rigidly.
Chills ran down Jeongjin's spine. Thus his head turned to look sideways.
Someone was standing where clearly no one had been until just now.
'What...?'
Jeongjin widened his eyes as he looked at the figure.
It was a woman of small stature.
A woman with a small frame, shouldering a club larger than her own body.
However, her hair was unusually short for a woman. Perhaps barely covering her ears?
"It's a sword, it's a sword. Right? This is a sword?"
The woman looked at Jeongjin's sword with somewhat chilling eyes, continuously displaying curiosity.
"It's a sword, it's a sword!!"
"...What...!"
At the bizarre reaction, the moment Jeongjin tried to take a guarded stance.
"But. Why are you holding a sword? Mister, why are you holding a sword? What are you trying to do? What is it? Near here, there's the Lor—... Ah, I shouldn't say that. Right, thanks for letting me know."
The woman began talking to herself.
"You shouldn't hold a sword, right? They told me to come here, but it's strange if the mister here is holding a sword. Don't you think so too? Right, I think so too."
The woman who had been repeating questions and answers to herself for a while.
Seeing that, Jeongjin frowned.
Because he couldn't afford to have his ankle grabbed. He tried to ignore the woman for now and move.
"Damn it--! I'll ignore her and enter first...!"
"Then, is it okay to kill you?"
Hwa-a-a-ak--!!
"...!!"
Suddenly, tremendous killing intent brushed against Jeongjin's skin.
Thus Jeongjin instinctively moved his sword, but.
Before that.
"Right. That should be fine."
The woman's movement came first.
Shwik.
The club on her shoulder was grabbed by the woman's hand and swung.
At that moment.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaak---!!!
A devastating explosion swept through the Bi Ryongdae.