It had been quite a while since Lee Minyeong and Park Yeongjun had come and gone.
Since things were going smoothly, it seemed I only needed to wait a little longer.
In the meantime, all I did was procure dark iron from the first floor and make it into rings.
I needed to prepare the initial supply, but I only had one body, so all I could do was hammer away diligently.
Rustle—
Just as I was about to bend a lump of metal that would become a ring.
I heard someone outside the smithy.
“Who’s th—”
“It’s me.”
“…Oh, Yeojeong. What brings you here?”
Why the hell is she here?
How did she know to come here?
How much does she know?
Pyo Yeojeong, the captain of our mercenary corps, had suddenly shown up without warning.
Her body still didn’t seem fully recovered, as she was in a cast and even using crutches.
‘What the hell happened for her to chase me all the way here with that wrecked body?’
Unconsciously, I blocked the entrance to the smithy with my body.
Of course, Pyo Yeojeong pushed her way in without paying it any mind.
“It’s cramped. Move a bit.”
“……”
“Wow, this smithy’s nice. When’d you build this?”
“Not that long ago.”
“Oh, yeah? You should’ve told me to come hang out.”
“Why would I invite a friend to my workplace?”
“Kekek, true enough.”
Pyo Yeojeong let out a snickering laugh.
Then she began poking around every corner of the smithy.
“Hey, but you’re not even gonna visit me in the hospital?”
“We were in the same hospital. What do you mean, visit you?”
“Still! My bones were broken. You should’ve come and peeled me an apple.”
“What apple? It’s not like you’ve only broken a bone once or twice.”
The same pointless conversation as always.
Maybe because it was just the two of us, the dialect I didn’t usually use came out naturally.
And yet, for some reason, my voice seemed to be trembling.
Thankfully, she didn’t seem to know anything, but I was still just as anxious.
What if she noticed?
Would my head get ripped off on the spot?
I swallowed hard.
“Anyway, what brings you all the way here?”
“Just because. I got discharged, and I was bored. When I tried to grab the guys and play with them, they said you went down to your hometown, so I should go play with you.”
“What about the mercenary corps?”
“I’m not fully healed yet, and you went off the grid again… Intaek’s taking the ones who are fine and running them around the lower floors.”
Intaek was one of the officers of the mercenary corps who had escaped the twentieth floor with me.
He was one of the guys who handled rear support with me.
“Will Intaek be enough?”
“It’s the lower floors, so Intaek can handle it. He’ll at least cover the kids’ salaries. For reference, your salary is—”
Pyo Yeojeong made an X with both arms.
“I’m fine. But how did you know I was here?”
“When you go down to your hometown, where else would you go?”
“…True.”
Pyo Yeojeong wandered around the smithy again.
I’d tried to lock her attention down with a barrage of questions, but I failed.
For a while, she stared in disbelief at the war hammer I’d gotten from the Gallery, then struck the cooled dark iron with a forging hammer.
Then she arrived at the box where I’d gathered the rings.
“Wow, what are these? Rings?”
“……”
“You make rings too? That’s seriously hilarious.”
“I’m just doing it because I’ve got nothing else to do.”
“What the hell, there are so many. Why’d you make this many?”
How should I talk my way out of this?
Should I say it was part of mental cultivation?
There was no way that nonsense would work on Pyo Yeojeong, who knew what I was usually like.
“Don’t tell me these are for us?”
“Huh? What?”
“Looks like I’m right. What’s gotten into you? I’m touched.”
Pyo Yeojeong slipped one of the rings onto her index finger.
“Pretty, right?”
“No.”
“Nah, it’s pretty.”
“Fine, do whatever you want.”
“I mean, we don’t have a matching look. Some of us dress in all black, some just wear whatever they want.”
It’s not like we’re going to the Tower to play soccer, so isn’t that good enough?
I swallowed those words.
I figured there was no need to argue.
“If you put a ring on each person’s hand, it’ll build unity and stand out, won’t it? Smart, Haisun.”
She rubbed my head roughly.
She didn’t pat it. She rubbed it.
“Don’t touch my hair. You’re messing it up.”
“What are you, a high schooler? Going through puberty?”
“Then rub it gently. Don’t scrub it like you’re washing laundry.”
Whether she listened to me or not, Pyo Yeojeong thoroughly messed up my hair.
“I can take a box when I go back up, right?”
“…Do that.”
“How many?”
“What?”
“The rings. How many in one box?”
“Quit your bullshit… I don’t know. I’m just making them blindly.”
“Oh, yeah? Next time, keep track.”
“I’ll handle it myself.”
Pyo Yeojeong took the box and carried it to her car.
When I told her I’d carry it, asking why someone with busted limbs was moving it herself, she didn’t even answer and just hoisted it onto one shoulder.
Watching that, I soothed my aching insides.
How many more days would I have to spend making rings to refill one box?
Still, having a ridiculously large number of rings I could make going forward was better than that number becoming zero.
“The kids are gonna love this, right?”
“I think they’ll ask for money instead.”
“Don’t worry! I’ll crack all their skulls.”
“…Tone down that personality of yours.”
“Got it. I’ll just nag them a bit.”
She didn’t look like she had any intention of toning down her personality at all.
“Should I hand them out when we return from the next climb?”
“Next climb? When’s that?”
“Who knows? Soon, probably? Ten days at the latest?”
“That soon? Rest a little more.”
“I’m built different. And this time, I’m planning to climb from the eleventh floor onward by cutting things down. We need to prepare for the twentieth floor.”
Barely ten days. There was no way her body would fully recover.
On top of that, it would be a climb centered around spears and swords.
No matter how much she was with her comrades, a crisis could come at least once.
When that happened, everything would be exposed.
‘What do I do?’
Pyo Yeojeong had no intention of postponing the climb.
Should I at least lay as much groundwork as possible?
Casually let slip the possibility that I might be an Awakened.
And if I gradually appealed to her that there were good Awakened too, and that I was one of them, wouldn’t it soften the blow?
Yes, let’s at least try.
It’s not like I can hide it for the rest of my life.
“Hey, Yeojeong.”
“Yeah, what?”
“You know, the Awakened.”
“Yeah?”
“Were there really none of them who were halfway decent? You know, with their heads screwed on right, who didn’t cause trouble.”
“None.”
“There could be. It’s not like your nature suddenly changes just because you Awaken. If you were born decent—”
“There aren’t. Why are you suddenly saying this? Are you a mole?”
“No, I—”
“The only good Awakened is a dead Awakened!”
Fuck.
Please, Yeojeong, please have a more inclusive mindset.
I’m in no position to say this, but please…!
Ding—
Just then, my smartphone rang.
[Deputy Captain, I hope you’ve been well. Would you happen to be available for a quick call?]
It was Team Leader Park Yeongjun from the Mercenary Agency.
Since the conversation had been flowing in a very strange direction, Team Leader Park’s message was extremely welcome.
I slipped out of the smithy to avoid Yeojeong.
“Yes, Team Leader.”
—Ah, Deputy Captain, nothing’s wrong, is it? Have you eaten?
“Yes, yes. Anyway, what’s the matter?”
—It’s about the business. We’ve roughly got the framework in place, so I called you.
“I see…”
—The official public announcement will be next week.
“Next week…? Isn’t that moving a little too fast?”
Next week? Time had become even tighter.
It would be nearly impossible to gaslight Pyo Yeojeong and the members by then.
“Could you delay it just a little? I’m ashamed to say this, but fatigue has built up, so securing supply isn’t going well.”
—Haha, don’t worry. The business plan will be revealed next week, but there’s plenty of time before distribution.
“Ah, yes…”
—And a news report has already gone out to shape public opinion. The response is good!
“A news report?”
—You haven’t seen it yet? I’ll send you a link.
“What kind of news did you put out…?”
—There was a pair of F-rank Hunter robbers, you see. We carried out a project in cooperation with the police, and it took some effort to set the trap so they’d take the bait. Haha!
With that, the call ended.
My mind went faint.
It felt like I was getting hit by a Dempsey Roll from both sides.
Should I have forgotten about Awakening from the very beginning? Would it have been right to just lurk in the Gallery and keep living as I had?
I pondered that as I clicked the news link Team Leader Park had sent.
Of course, it was a meaningless worry. Even if I went back to the past, I would have made the same choice.
A reporter’s crisp voice flowed from my smartphone.
[In the late afternoon, a masked pair of robbers breaks into a quiet jewelry store.]
[When an employee resists, they even swing a weapon.]
[However, the robbers’ attack is blocked by an invisible barrier.]
[The panicked robbers. Before long, they are arrested by special police officers lying in ambush.]
[It was thanks to a mana barrier ring jointly developed by the Mercenary Support Agency and a private startup.]
[The barrier ring creates an invisible protective shield for three minutes, once. It can block not only bullets, but also attacks from Hunters.]
[Park Yeongjun (46, Head of the Mercenary Support Agency’s Magical Artifact Development Department): Our Mercenary Agency has conducted research and public projects from multiple angles for the safety of citizens and the improvement of mercenaries’ working environments, and as a result—]
[This is the first time an artifact containing mana has been reproduced using technology outside the Tower.]
[The barrier ring is set to be distributed first as part of a support project for vulnerable groups and mercenaries.]
[In addition, sales to civilians will also—]
[In our next story, the Korea Hunter Association has issued a statement condemning the police’s sting operation—]
For some reason, Team Leader Park Yeongjun had become the Head of the Magical Artifact Development Department.
The Magical Artifact Development Department had probably been newly created a few days ago.
And the jewelry store employee was suspiciously good at resisting.
The mosaic was thick, but even from the angle of her shoulders, that was Lee Minyeong.
Had that jewelry store also been newly created a few days ago?
The pleasure of seeing someone I knew on the news ended at exactly that.
‘Why are they so good at their jobs…!’
The hellish duo from the Mercenary Agency had set things in motion far beyond what I’d imagined.
Just from the thousands of comments on the news article, I could tell what kind of incident they had caused.
└Whoa, does this mean artifacts for civilians are getting released now?
└└Even so, they’ll be expensive as hell lol. Chairman-only item.
└└For real lol. Our country’s population is twenty million. How are they gonna handle the demand? If they export too, my turn’s never coming. That’s a line of 2.5 billion people. No answer.
└└If they’re handing them out to vulnerable groups too, doesn’t that mean production volume is pretty high?
└Truly. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. The Republic of Korea’s. National prestige. Rises day by day. ^^
└Three minutes is too short.
└└You’re supposed to run away during that time. It buys you time to flee somewhere crowded. It’s just insane.
└Mercenaries’ average floor is gonna go up by at least five. This is crazy ㄷㄷㄷ
└So will mana stone prices fall now?
└└You’ve opened your eyes. Come to the Mana Stone Investment Gallery.
I read the comments one by one.
There were only a few negative opinions.
Most of them were comments hoping for a better tomorrow.
Relief, pressure, and worry hit me all at once.
“What’s this? This is about rings too?”
At that moment, Pyo Yeojeong’s voice came from behind me.
I felt my body stiffen like a mouse that had come face-to-face with a snake.
My eyes moved between the screen and Pyo Yeojeong.
Pyo Yeojeong’s eyes moved between me and the screen.
‘Please, just spare my life…!’