109.
But it was impossible to endure without using his ability. Because of what that bastard had done, he had almost lost Sehun. The face that had looked at him with cold eyes was still vivid in his mind.
He would never forget the moment when Sehun, who had always been devoted to him, changed into a completely different person and pushed him away.
Suppressing his desire to kill, he ended up just inflicting pain. Even that was nothing compared to the suffering he and Sehun had experienced.
Still, seeing the man faint with a distorted expression of agony made breathing a little easier. The thought of making him pay for his crimes over and over again helped settle some of his churning emotions.
While Jian recovered his depleted strength while leaning against Sehun, Yongho and Siyun returned after organizing the situation.
“…We’ve set up a tent over there. Let’s go this way.”
Yongho, who as always wore his black robe pulled down to the tip of his nose, pointed to a tent. Jian, Sehun, the unconscious Researcher Heather, Hyunwoo, Yongho, and Siyun entered the tent. Hyunsu remained outside with Jihwan.
Inside the tent, a long table and chairs had been prepared in advance. Siyun, who headed to the head of the table, activated a sphere-shaped artifact placed on the table.
“This is a soundproofing artifact. Let’s all sit down and talk. We can’t leave the tower without concluding this matter.”
Siyun said as he sat in a chair and interlaced his fingers. He had heard about the “Jeongho Association” from Hyunwoo and confirmed Researcher Heather’s existence, but there was still too little information.
When he gathered the guild members and asked when Hyunmin had started acting strangely, they said it was since the maze dungeon floor.
At that time, Hyunmin had returned to the first floor with a guild member who couldn’t recover from psychological shock after being seriously injured, and then returned with a new guild member who had joined the raid party.
He was originally quiet by nature, but after that, he apparently enjoyed spending time alone much more.
“If there are other spies in here, they might know that this person’s identity has been revealed. There’s a possibility we could be attacked if we go down the tower defenseless. From their perspective, we’ve become enemies. Although we can’t communicate with the outside, since they possess artifacts that can transform appearances, they might have other methods too.”
At Siyun’s words, Hyunwoo sent a look of agreement and cleared his throat softly to draw everyone’s attention.
He looked at Yongho, who hadn’t yet given his answer. Siyun had readily agreed to help, but Yongho had postponed his answer, saying they should talk again after organizing the situation.
“What does Hunter Ahn Yongho think about this?”
“…I should join you. Actually, I’ve heard about experiments conducted on children before.”
“Is that true?”
“Yes.”
Yongho scratched the table with his fingernail. It was a habit that emerged when he was deep in thought.
In fact, ten years ago, a hunter police officer had disappeared in the Gangwon Province region.
Although he wasn’t a person of high position and was merely a C-rank hunter, Yongho had, upon receiving a report about the disappearance, dispatched two A-rank hunter police officers to investigate the truth.
Since retaliatory crimes against hunter police occasionally occurred, he had planned to convert it to a murder case if they found a corpse and make the perpetrator pay a proper price.
However, they couldn’t find any traces. As if he had suddenly sunk into the ground, all traces of the missing person had abruptly ended at a place far from his usual workplace.
Information about the missing person’s whereabouts came from his girlfriend, whom he had recently started dating. The girlfriend, discovered during a survey of his acquaintances, reluctantly shared her story after continued investigation and persuasion.
According to her, the missing person had sent a text message a few months before his disappearance saying he had discovered a strange building in Gangwon Province, where he had gone on a 2-day trip with his parents, and had a bad feeling about it.
A few days later, he reported it to his superiors, but they dismissed it as nothing important, which angered him, and he said he would start an independent investigation after work hours.
She tried to dissuade him out of concern, but he insisted, saying it seemed children were involved.
In the end, he disappeared without a trace, and the girlfriend testified that she had kept quiet for fear something scary might happen to her too.
Afterward, Yongho had tried to investigate personally, but it was in vain. He still hadn’t found the missing person.
Without any evidence, he had secretly thought it might have been the missing person’s delusion. He had been taking depression medication, and his fellow police officers thought the same.
But strangely, it had bothered him for the past 10 years. Now, after hearing about experiments targeting children from Hyunwoo, he suddenly thought that incident might be related as well.
“You still haven’t found that person, right?”
“No.”
After hearing Yongho’s brief story, Hyunwoo sighed. He remembered that when they recovered the children’s remains, there were also some belonging to an adult male.
That person might or might not be the one Yongho was looking for, but somehow, he felt the former was more likely.
“Actually, I thought Director Shin Yoonjae and Minister Keum Heon-jung were behind the Jeongho Association.”
At Hyunwoo’s words, both Siyun and Yongho raised their heads abruptly. Siyun, in particular, frowned as if he couldn’t believe it.
Thinking that verbal explanation alone lacked persuasiveness, Hyunwoo took out a folder from his inventory. It was a specially crafted artifact containing dungeon by-products for security.
He handed it over so that Siyun and Yongho could look at it together. He waited until the two had seen all the data they had investigated so far.
The sound of turning pages echoed in the tent for a long time. When Siyun turned the last page, Hyunwoo spoke.
“I thought they couldn’t have hidden for so long without the protection of someone of that caliber. While I couldn’t find definitive evidence, there was plenty of circumstantial evidence.”
Hyunwoo paused briefly and made eye contact with Jian. Shin Yoonjae had often made meaningful remarks to Jian.
He had not only informed him about the existence of the ‘Jeongho Association’ but also provided various forms of help. So he felt like a gray figure mixed with black and white.
“…It won’t be the Director. He asked me to help Hunter Han Sehun. And thanks to the medicine the Director gave, Hunter Han Sehun was able to regain his senses.”
Yongho, who had been tapping the table with his index finger, defended Yoonjae. Hyunwoo, who had been lost in thought for a moment, nodded in agreement.
“I see. Perhaps Director Shin Yoonjae is a double agent. He belongs to the Jeongho Association but also helps our side to interfere with their work.”
If he really was affiliated with the Jeongho Association, there were many things that didn’t make sense, starting with why he had left Jian and Sehun alone all this time.
He must have had plenty of opportunities to easily control Sehun. He only watched over Jian from afar and only approached after the tower appeared.
But they couldn’t fully trust him. Shin Yoonjae had shown too many suspicious behaviors to be completely trusted.
“To be honest, I’m cautious about telling you all this. If we’re not careful, we could be exploited in reverse. So…”
Hyunwoo carefully took out a rolled parchment from his inventory. It was a contract with the effect of sealing part of one’s mana if the promise was not kept.
“I’d like to draft this contract together. I want to trust you all, but the enemy Jian and I have been tracking for a long time is one for whom even thorough preparation is insufficient.”
Recognizing the contract, Siyun adopted a cautious expression. Having even a part of one’s mana sealed meant taking a considerable risk.
“Hmm. Since this is how we can trust each other, I’ll agree to the contract.”
Though they had known each other for a long time, they had all been busy leading their respective guilds, and their strong personalities made it difficult to get along together.
The gazes of Siyun and Hyunwoo turned to Yongho. After a moment, Yongho also nodded.
After Hyunwoo wrote the content of the contract as a representative, they each took turns pricking their fingertips with a dagger’s blade. Drops of blood fell one after another onto the yellowish parchment.
When Yongho dropped the last blood drop, the parchment glowed blue. At that moment, complex rune patterns appeared and then disappeared on the backs of the three men’s hands.
“Thank you all very much. Thanks to you, dealing with the ‘Jeongho Association’ will be much easier.”
Even if Keum Heon-jung was truly behind the Jeongho Association, with Siyun and Yongho’s help, it would be worth trying.
“Shall we go down the tower then?”
As Hyunwoo put the faintly blue-glowing parchment into his inventory, Siyun stood up first. He looked around at those gathered in the tent and said:
“I plan to leave about 30 people from the raid party on this floor. The Cerberus hasn’t reappeared yet, and the safe zone is being maintained well, but it’s to prepare for any situation. If a dungeon break occurs and Cerberus goes outside the tower, there would be numerous casualties.”
Everyone seemed to agree with Siyun’s words. Then Hyunwoo asked on behalf of everyone. If they weren’t all going down together, they would have to redistribute personnel.
“How do you plan to select the remaining people?”
“I’ll pick a few from each team. That way, the number of people drawn from each guild will be similar.”
“That’s a good idea.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
