Episode 26
His hair was two to three times longer than that of ordinary men.
"I should cut this hair first. People have been staring all day."
He looked ordinary enough, but his distinct features and long hair were more than enough to draw people's attention.
And he was still unfamiliar with that attention.
But even in his shabby appearance, his eyes were alive. His gaze was fierce yet gentle at the same time.
He got a haircut and changed clothes during the day. Truly, clothes make the man; he transformed into a completely different appearance from just moments before.
He had changed into quite a handsome appearance. Only his clothing style was a bit unusual. Complete black.
His suit, pants, and even the shirt inside the suit were all black.
At the main gate of the Korean Headquarters of the Red Rose Guild.
He entered a cafe in the building across from it.
"One iced green tea, please."
"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't have iced green tea..."
When the cafe employee hesitated with flustered eyes, he changed his order.
"Then one green tea and one iced Americano, please."
When the two drinks came out shortly after, the man threw away the entire iced Americano and took only the ice, putting it in the green tea.
"As expected, iced green tea is the best."
He waited in the cafe, drinking his iced green tea, until night fell.
"Sir, we close at twelve."
An employee who had started closing-up cleaning came up to him as he sat quietly looking at his phone.
"Ah. Yes, it's already that late. The moon is quite bright tonight, isn't it?"
The employee roughly mumbled a response to the man's smiling question and went back to cleaning.
"Then shall we get started?"
The man opened the cafe door and went out.
Taking his iced green tea with him.
★ ★ ★
The security at the Korean Headquarters of the Red Rose Guild was quite tight. Two guards were stationed at the main gate in 24-hour shifts, and with a single call, more than twenty guild members would leap out in real time.
The headquarters, built after tearing down more than five buildings, was enormous in scale. Just imagine. If a building the size of a soccer field were erected in the middle of Seoul, wouldn't you feel its majesty?
But it caused tremendous public resentment, to the point that rumors spread that the Red Rose Guild had occupied Korea.
In fact, the Korean government was now listening to the Red Rose Guild. No, it had no choice but to listen.
Because if they didn't listen, the very nation of Korea could be shaken. It was simply impossible to defy.
"Haaaah. Nothing's going to happen in such a tiny country anyway. And yet I have to stand guard without fail."
The white guard muttered, venting his dissatisfaction.
He had finally made it into the Red Rose Guild's headquarters, only to be assigned as a mere guard.
Such a tiny, insignificant nation attacking the Red Rose Guild?
Even a passing dog would laugh at that.
But a man who would have been completely missed had the guard not been focusing on his field of vision was approaching from afar.
"Who are you?"
The guard shouted loudly at the approaching man, but he only smiled. The man without an answer kept drawing closer, and the guard, feeling something ominous, urgently woke his superior beside him.
"Sir Hanson! Please wake up. A strange man is approaching."
The Latin man called Hanson had been dozing while leaning against something, and he reacted roughly to the rookie waking him.
"What's going on? It's not like people don't come looking around here at this hour once or twice."
"It feels strange. Look at what he's wearing. He doesn't answer when called."
"You probably called out too quietly. No, you really don't know how to do anything right."
Even while that bickering went on, the man kept approaching. And finally, he stopped before them.
"Who might you be?"
At Hanson's question, the man in black scratched his head.
"I... I've been curious about something since a long time ago."
At the man's absurd words, Hanson's nerves began to sharpen.
The translation bracelet—a privilege, if one could call it that, of the guards.
They were issued that item, which an ordinary person's wallet could never afford in a lifetime.
Since Korea used the Korean language, they needed to converse smoothly with guests from Korea.
And wearing it, Hanson realized that a place called Korea had honorifics and casual speech.
In other words, his opponent was spouting casual speech right now.
"Hey. You must think I'm a joke because I'm a guard. If you're looking to pick a fight, you've got the wrong guy."
Hanson was the most senior among the guards. His rank was also C-grade, and he was quite high up even among C-grades.
He was essentially the head of the guards.
And this guy was picking a fight with casual speech toward someone like him?
There were few guild members who treated him carelessly. Precisely because he was such a Hanson, the man in black began to grate on his nerves greatly.
But the man in black, unconcerned with Hanson's reaction, kept muttering to himself.
"Have you ever read comics when you were little?"
Hanson was slowly reaching his limit. Tolerance for listening to nonsense varies from person to person. But Hanson was not a very patient man.
"Hey, yellow monkey. One more word out of you and I'll make sure you can never speak again! You don't know where you are? This is the great Red Rose Guild Korean Headquarters! The main office where executives and the Guild Master are present. This isn't a place where the likes of you can come looking for trouble!"
Tch. The guild told me not to cause accidents. But killing one yellow monkey won't change anything.
That was Hanson's thought.
But at that moment, the man's gaze was more terrifying than any Hanson had ever seen. It was a gaze filled with hatred.
"Speak... yes, speak. Can you make it so I can't? Funny. I'll finish what I was saying, so listen well. If you can move from now on, it means you're negating my efforts of the past six months."
At the man's oppressive and rigid tone, Hanson's body froze for a moment.
He couldn't remember himself boasting that he would kill the man if he said one more word. He simply felt as though a ferocious beast had been placed before a helpless version of himself.
"When you look at comic protagonists, they always say you should take out the weakest ones first when attacking somewhere. You know what I mean? Starting with the guys at the entrance. But I really never understood that. From when I was young until now."
Finished speaking, he took out something round from his hand.
At that, Hanson finally became aware of himself as a guard and tried to draw his sword in an instant.
"Huh?"
But he couldn't move his body at all. Something seemed to be holding him. And it seemed the rookie beside him was the same.
Looking at the rookie beside him, Hanson realized what was holding him and the rookie.
It was their shadow.
"Watch closely. You are now the first witnesses to the revenge I've honed."
And the man threw the round object in his hand with all his strength toward the headquarters building. Toward the headquarters of the Red Rose Guild that he had been so proud of.
Crash—
The sound of a window breaking was heard. And at the same time, that moment seemed to move very slowly for Hanson.
Huh? Why can I suddenly see my body?
Into Hanson's ears, who couldn't comprehend what was happening, the man's voice came very slowly.
"Hey, you coward. Don't just stand there stupidly; go and tell them. Tell them Ryu Jonghyeon has come for revenge."
Along with that very slowly heard voice, Hanson finally realized he was dead.
That man in black was Jonghyeon.
The rookie guard quickly opened the main gate and began to run inside.
He seemed to be running straight to his Guild Master. And Jonghyeon wanted exactly that.
After a short while, Jonghyeon took out another round sphere identical to the one he had just thrown. And he gripped it with all his strength and detonated it.
Boom! Kwa-kwang—!
An explosion erupted from inside the Red Rose Guild.
"Hmm. As expected, the performance is excellent."
What he had thrown was the Bomb Ghost Essence Set said to come from an A-rank dungeon. As the name suggested, it was a monster with a particular talent for explosions, and this essence was more powerful than a cannon despite its small size. Furthermore, it ignored the protective barriers of most mages.
If you poured qi into the Mother Bomb Ghost's essence and detonated it, the Suicide Bomb Ghost's essence would explode. Conversely, if you detonated the Suicide Bomb Ghost's essence with qi, the Mother Bomb Ghost would explode.
Only by catching these two Bomb Ghosts simultaneously could one obtain the Bomb Ghost Essence Set.
'How much suffering I went through to obtain this.'
What Jonghyeon gazed upon with a satisfied smile was the scene of the Red Rose Guild already about one-third destroyed.
The larger the building, the more it collapses when its foundation is shaken.
In other words, this building bearing the name of the Red Rose Guild Korean Headquarters would be impossible to restore unless rebuilt from scratch.
Hadn't he nearly died searching for the Bomb Ghost essences precisely for this?
"Then shall we go in?"
Catching fleeing enemies is easier than dealing with enemies coming out to catch you.
In other words, the Red Rose Guild, having suffered such bombardment, would all try to escape through the main gate.
Destroying the building was like digging a ditch, and being able to easily kill the enemies coming out was like catching crayfish.
The guard, knowing nothing, had opened the main gate and fled inside after hearing Jonghyeon's words.
Could there be a better situation than this?
Jonghyeon lit a cigarette and laughed heartily. It was a cheerful laugh, enough to put anyone hearing it in a good mood. It was also the first time Jonghyeon had laughed like this since the orphanage collapsed.
Entering the building, Jonghyeon began killing the enemies trying to escape through the entrance one by one.
"Who are you! Get outside quickly—"
Stab—
Those who mistook Jonghyeon for a guild member died like leaves in the autumn wind without a chance to resist.
"Kack! Enemies inside—"
Other guild members tried to shout upon seeing their colleagues dying in an instant, but before they could, a blade was already at their throats.
"Oh? There's a familiar face too."
Where Jonghyeon sneered and glared, there stood an executive who had come to face him at the orphanage.
"So it was you? Doing such a reckless thing? Just a few months ago, you were trembling before this Royson. What do you think you're doing now... kuegh!"
As if he didn't want to hear any more, Jonghyeon expressionlessly stabbed Royson's stomach with his short sword. A bit of blood splattered on Jonghyeon's black clothes.
"I don't want to hear your voice at all. Honestly, I don't even want to talk to you, but I'll tell you one thing. Even back then, I could have killed someone like you. You weakling."
Hearing those words, Royson wanted to say something more, but along with the pain in his abdomen, pain came to his throat as well.
In that short time, Jonghyeon had stabbed two places.
Guild Master Berry's office.
"What is the commotion?"
A newbie who had just joined came running in a hurry, insisting that he had to report and forcing his way into his room.
"Hanson was taken down. And something to the building..."
Seeing him ramble, it was clear something serious had happened.
At that moment.
Boom! Kwa-kwang—!
Before the newbie could even finish his report, sounds of the building collapsing began. And feeling the desk he was sitting at shake, Berry's peaceful face twisted.
"What the hell is going on!"
The guild's interior was already in a state of emergency.
—This is an announcement. The building is currently collapsing, so all guild personnel please evacuate to the entrance quickly. Also, all residing executives are requested to come to the Guild Master's office. I repeat. The building is currently...
A mage in the Guild Master's room urgently used magic to prevent the interior walls from collapsing. But even if the interior didn't collapse, if the floor below the Guild Master's office began to crumble, he would die all the same.
"Is everyone here?"
"Everyone is gathered except Royson, who went out to the main gate."
The executives who had rushed over upon hearing the announcement faced Berry's fury.
"I don't know what kind of terror this is, but I heard it was done by just one guy."
"One guy?"
The six executives were rather more tense at the word "one." If one person had come alone to destroy the guild, it was definitely no ordinary matter.
Speculations that his skills must be quite high were rampant, and murmurs continued, but Guild Master Berry could endure it no longer.
Bang—
"Who do you think you're making a racket in front of! Everyone shut up! We just need to catch that one bastard and beat him to a pulp. Ray, Gallis, and Fisher, follow me. The rest, evacuate the guild members and block any possible escape routes. Finally, Parker, run to the government and report that we've been attacked. Dismissed!"
They moved with such terrifying discipline the moment Berry's words fell. The prestige of the Red Rose Guild was no ordinary thing.
'Whoever this damned bastard is, if he's caught, he can forget about dying a clean death.'
The Guild Master began running fiercely toward the main gate with the three executives.
Of course, the elevator had broken down due to the building's collapse, so they took the stairs.
---------= Author's Afterword ---------=
Iced green tea is truly delicious.
I wonder if Jonghyeon's underwear is black too..?
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