Chapter 22: Maze & Safehouses

Taehoo was released from solitary confinement after four days.

He pushed open the heavy iron door and stepped outside, where the piercing sunlight stabbed at his eyes.

Once his eyes had adjusted, he could finally take in his surroundings.

Three-story buildings stood in a row as if measuring each other’s height, and he was standing in front of the third building.

‘Is this the Safehouse…’

It was an easy fact to figure out. Besides, it was clear this was outside Ganghwado as well.

“It’s meal time.”

Jin Tae spoke after finishing up the cleanup.

After four days of constant hunger, he was starving.

It looked like they were finally going to feed him a proper meal.

The place Jin Tae led him to was a cafeteria. Or, to be exact, a place that resembled a cafeteria.

[What is this?]

One side of the wall was filled with shelves stacked with instant foods, and in the corner was a kitchen where you could cook your own meals.

But,

In the kitchen, the children were preparing their own food.

A few had already found seats and were eating. Muncheol and Juhyeok were among them.

‘It’s a strange sight… but at least the number of people hasn’t gone down.’

It seemed Jin Tae had devoted all his time to Taehoo during those four days.

That was why, right now, the children could be seen happily cooking their meals in the cafeteria.

[Was it really necessary to win over these kids? After all that trouble?]

Ba’al grumbled.

It wasn’t unreasonable to feel that way, seeing the kids laughing and playing, unaware of their own situation.

‘Trust me.’

Taehoo had experienced the future once, so he had no doubts.

The reason the Belial House, despite being a latecomer, could wage war against the Dantalion House.

It was the talent of the children here.

Taehoo joined the other children.

He picked out plenty of food from the shelves and headed to the kitchen.

Only then did the children notice Taehoo, glancing at him from the corners of their eyes. It was obvious they still felt uneasy around him.

After all, to their eyes, he was the guy who killed someone the moment he arrived.

Of course, that would change with time.

As they got older and matured, they would come to understand Taehoo’s actions.

‘And when they see Joseph, whom Nachal spared, most of them will follow me.’

Of course, that future would only come if the children survived Jin Tae’s training.

No one understood the true strength of the Belial House better than Taehoo, who had been their cannon fodder in the war.

That’s why he’d planned to take in all the children Jin Tae trained.

‘If this works out, I’ll have the foundation to build my own standing outside the family.’

That was what Taehoo aimed for with this plan.

‘But for that, I need to be most careful with Juhyeok.’

Dantalion was the biggest wild card in the current situation, aside from himself.

‘A mission with no time limit. If Dantalion sent a kid our age, they must see this as a long-term mission.’

At least for the next year or two, there was little chance of a large-scale raid or interference from Dantalion.

And that much time,

‘Is more than enough to win over a kid.’

Juhyeok was still just a child.

Besides, Taehoo knew what had turned Juhyeok into Dantalion’s stray dog.

‘He was always too good to rot in a place like that.’

He was also one of the few people Taehoo felt grateful to.

After all the twists and turns, after even reincarnation, Taehoo was finally given the chance to repay the person who had tried so hard to protect him.

‘Of course, I’ll repay him, but I’ll also take his abilities for myself.’

This time, Taehoo was determined to make Juhyeok his own.

After finishing his thoughts, Taehoo picked up his prepared food and walked over to Juhyeok.

On the way, he felt Muncheol’s gaze.

‘Looks like the kid was really worried about me.’

Through Muncheol’s eyes, Taehoo could feel just how much he had worried.

‘Just wait a bit longer.’

Taehoo smiled inwardly at Muncheol,

“Hey.”

He greeted Juhyeok.

‘What’s with this guy…?’

Juhyeok was more surprised by the sheer amount of food Taehoo brought than the sudden greeting.

‘Is he a food fighter or something?’

Taehoo was already on Juhyeok’s watch list.

Today, he was about to add the title of glutton.

There were three Safehouses in total: one was a dormitory, and the other two were training buildings.

That was something Taehoo had learned from Muncheol while lying in bed.

Muncheol hadn’t spent the whole four days just worrying, after all.

If it had gone past five days, he’d even planned to take action himself—if Taehoo had been any later, things could have gone wrong.

That realization brought a twinge of guilt for making him worry so much.

‘It’ll be easier if I share some of my plans with him from now on.’

Even in situations like this, being able to trust each other would let them act much more securely.

Resolving himself, Taehoo put that into action right away.

He gave Muncheol a rough outline of his plan.

‘He really is on a different level from me…’

Muncheol couldn’t help but admit it—while surprised by Taehoo’s plans, he realized they truly were cut from a different cloth.

‘The master said this might be someone I’ll have to follow in the future.’

He recalled Nachal’s words.

There had even been a personal order to get a good grasp of the person who might become his master during this mission, as he might end up serving him for a long time.

‘If things go as he explained… the word “might” could disappear altogether.’

Muncheol sensed that the time to choose his master could come sooner than expected.

After Taehoo joined them, Jin Tae also focused on the children.

He put them through training so intense, it could only be described as murderous.

They trained in the basics of infiltration and ambush, the foundations of being a spy, as well as in martial arts and weapons skills.

There was a reason those two buildings had been constructed as dedicated training facilities.

On the first day of martial arts training,

Taehoo knocked down ten kids, Juhyeok eight, and Muncheol seven.

The results were similar in weapons training.

The same went for infiltration and ambush.

The other kids, despite training every day, could only marvel at the skills of the three.

The promising ones were even sent to the Arena from time to time.

For some reason, Jin Tae never gave Taehoo a chance to compete.

Muncheol and Juhyeok were each sent to the Arena twice over the course of three months.

It was a bold move, considering they were the ones who had personally killed with the Knife of the Arena.

Besides those trainings, Taehoo also learned all the basics, including fasting training he had planned to do after returning to the Sanctuary.

Another three months passed like that.

“Now that you’ve all built your foundations, it’s time for special training.”

For the first time in half a year, Jin Tae led the children to the third Safehouse.

The third Safehouse was a Maze.

Inside the Maze, as seen through cameras, hungry dogs were roaming free.

They drooled hungrily, looking like they could tear something apart at any moment.

In addition, each intersection of the Maze was clearly equipped with various mechanical devices.

“From today on, you’ll be split into two teams and run this Maze once a day.”

Jin Tae continued his explanation.

Two teams would start from opposite sides, and the first to reach the center would be the winner.

Any weapon was allowed, and there were no restrictions on the means or methods—that was the one and only rule.

The layout of the Maze changed every time, thanks to the mechanical devices.

With hungry wild dogs everywhere, and the fastest route to the center constantly shifting, this was in every way the essence of spy training.

‘So this was the real training. Making them do this before awakening… No wonder the Belial House’s assassins were so skilled.’

Even Taehoo had to admit it was an impressive training method.

“And if even one person from your team loses, your team is banned from the cafeteria the next day.”

With that one sentence, the children’s faces hardened.

For kids who trained every single day, that was a deadly penalty.

“I’ll pick the team leaders. Team 1 is Nam Taehoo, Team 2 is Kim Ju-hyeok.”

And with that, the training began.

Luckily, Muncheol was assigned to Taehoo’s team.

They were given ten minutes each to choose weapons and make a plan.

‘So there was team-based training after all.’

There was no better way to manage a large group efficiently.

That’s why Taehoo had subtly worked to turn Juhyeok and himself into rivals.

‘Even in his past life, Juhyeok always protected those assigned to him.’

Even when he was a stray dog of the Dantalion House, in far worse circumstances than now, he did the same.

That’s why, aside from Taehoo, there was no one better to lead the kids here.

‘Let’s see how this goes.’

The first round.

Of course, he had no intention of holding back from the start.

Now that the teams were set, there was little reason to go easy.

Taehoo and Juhyeok’s teams entered the Maze.

The Maze was even narrower than expected, and the walls were higher.

Taehoo soothed the kids and moved forward slowly.

There were twelve members on his team.

How well he could keep them together would determine how fast they cleared the Maze.

How far had they gone, searching for the path?

Rumble.

He heard the sound of machinery moving nearby.

At the same time,

Gugugugu!

The floor beneath the kids shifted all at once.

The moving floor split the kids into two groups, and the Maze, with its changing terrain, moved them around like an escalator.

In an instant, the team was split in two and isolated.

Pew! Bang!

Flare shells shot up into the Maze’s sky.

• If your team gets split up in the Maze when you don’t want it, fire a flare right away.

The kids were following Taehoo’s instructions.

“There.”

The Maze walls were high, but it wasn’t hard to figure out the direction the flare came from.

“Let’s move.”

Taehoo gave the order,

Woof! Woof!

Soon, the barking of dogs echoed.

“Up ahead!”

Muncheol cut down a doberman that came charging out of a corner.

With mana coursing through them, those dogs were practically monsters.

Clang!

Arrows shot out from the walls at Muncheol.

Clang!

Taehoo and a few kids swung their swords and deflected the arrows.

Three kids up front handled the dogs, while three in the back kept an eye out for traps.

The traps were about as difficult as Taehoo had expected.

Arrows rained down, or the floor suddenly gave way.

‘This reminds me of when I climbed down the cliff at the Sanctuary…’

How far had they made it through the Maze?

They managed to regroup with the separated members.

The team, once split into three, hurried as one toward the center.

This was a competition, after all.

The center of the Maze was a large, circular hall.

In the middle of the hall sat a button that would determine the winner of the training.

Taehoo’s team and Juhyeok’s team arrived at almost the same time.

All twelve members, unharmed.

‘He really is fit to lead the team.’

As Taehoo breathed a sigh of relief—

“Let’s go!”

Now, it was an all-out battle.