Chapter 80: Routed

“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 you received?”

“…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 led 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 acquaintances 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, then 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 commanders’ 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.’