Three hours after the Agency was occupied.
The Villains had murdered the Guarders protecting the Agency and restrained all the employees.
Karin was lucky, if only because she was being held with the other children due to her young age. Aside from being confined, their movement was relatively free.
However.
“Pl-please…. Gaaah!”
The sounds of hostages being brutally murdered echoed through the halls.
Karin squeezed her eyes shut. The children huddled close to her, unable to pull away in their anxiety, as if seeking comfort in each other’s warmth.
“You there, kids. Come out.”
“Why?”
“Hmm, because it’s better than dying?”
Kay gave a half-hearted answer to Karin’s question while holding a gun. Seeing the weapon, the children began to tremble like leaves.
“Right?”
He spoke as if seeking agreement, but Karin did not answer. One of Kay’s smiling subordinates led the children away. They didn’t want to go, but they had no choice. If they didn’t listen, they would end up sleeping forever like their friends. Then, they wouldn’t be able to play or talk anymore.
“Don’t be so angry. It can’t be helped. Someone has to fight.”
“What did you say?”
“It’s something you used to do all the time, too.”
Kay sat backward on his chair, facing Karin directly.
“How many people do you think you’ve killed? Probably way more than someone like me.”
He chuckled lowly to himself.
“You killed them easily enough with just a flick of your finger. Saying things like, ‘I want that city’ or ‘I want that village today.'”
“That was the bare minimum to protect the people of my Territory—”
“Is that what the people of the Territory really wanted? Hmm? Maybe those people would have been fine just having a different master.”
“I suppose you don’t care to think about what happens to a Territory that falls in war and becomes a group of prisoners?”
Kay spoke as if he were enjoying himself.
“True, there are plenty of lunatics who hang the villagers and drink while watching. But the opposite could be true as well, couldn’t it?”
“Mister. If someone runs at you with a blade, are you just going to stand there? After all, the opponent might not kill you. Maybe they just wanted a drink and lost their head for a moment. Right?”
At Karin’s sarcasm, Kay burst into laughter. He nodded his head.
“You sure know how to shut me up.”
“What’s this? Are you getting pushed around by a brat like her, Brother?”
A woman dressed in red—no, a woman drenched in blood—walked into the room with a wet, squelching sound. The sight terrified the children, who clung even more tightly to Karin.
“You should change your clothes if you’re back.”
“Hehe. I like being like this. It makes me feel like I’m always ready for battle. By the way, that Hero is insanely strong. He cut my arm off.”
At the nasal voice of the woman in red, Kim Yeo-jin, Kay responded quietly.
“Didn’t you get treated with a Regeneration Skill?”
“Yeah, but the other guys are in critical condition. They said if they don’t get treated right now, they’ll die, so they have to handle them first.”
After pretending to sob playfully, Kim Yeo-jin gave Karin a sly smile.
“That Hero is absolutely incredible. He’s hot. He cut a lady’s arm off like he was slicing a radish. Don’t people usually hesitate?”
“The existence known as a Hero is the ultimate murderer.”
“Is that so? Well, I guess a lot of people did die because of him. He fought the entire Continent as an enemy just for one insignificant little brat of a Noble girl.”
Karin sighed as she watched the two banter.
“Lady.”
“L-Lady…?”
“The Hero made an oath to protect me from the start. He kept that oath without betraying it, and he stopped the rampage of a Continent that had gone astray.”
Because of the Demon King, the Seven Kingdoms had united as one to eliminate a common enemy.
But the Demon King was too strong. The Demon King’s Army, led by his overwhelming charisma, ravaged the kingdoms despite being outnumbered.
That was when the Hero appeared, defeated the Demon King’s Army, and brought peace to the Continent. However, the Seven Kingdoms then engaged in a bloody war to claim the empty throne, and even more people died than when they were fighting the Demon King’s Army.
Eventually, a king who had grown in power invaded the Rania Territory to purge the Hero, who might become an obstacle in the future. The pretext was that they were worried about the safety of the Kingdom with the young Katrinne acting as Noble, so they would provide a regency.
The Hero took up his sword again to defend the Territory. And he shed a great deal of blood. In the end, a war lasted for ten years.
“You must be happy to have someone protecting you. Who else would protect you against the entire Continent? Hehe. I didn’t have anyone, which is why my body ended up so ‘wonderful.'”
Kim Yeo-jin lifted her skirt.
The moment Karin saw what was writhing in the woman’s stomach, her brow furrowed. The children screamed or vomited at the sight.
“Oh my, how mean. You didn’t have to throw up.”
Kim Yeo-jin continued, laughing cheerfully.
“Still, I’m satisfied now. I gained power by sacrificing all my internal organs.”
The power to not lose to anyone. Kim Yeo-jin kept those words to herself. After all, she had been helplessly defeated by the Hero. She was frustrated, but strangely, she wasn’t angry.
“Let’s go, Yeo-jin.”
“Mission complete. But what about Jay? We can’t just leave him.”
Kay answered immediately without hesitation.
“We have to leave him behind.”
“Why? What a waste. Jay is the strongest among us.”
“By the standards of ‘us’ until now, yes. And he only joined us in the first place because of the covenant with that person. He already fulfilled the covenant and has been extinguished. He won’t be with us anymore.”
If Jay were there, everything could be easier. But he was always looking toward the Hero. His ideals were completely different from theirs.
The Future Sight Kay possessed was giving him the answer. Jay would be a useful wild card, but he could never be on the same side.
“Now then, kids. Shall we go outside with me?”
At Kay’s words, the children hid behind Karin. Karin shielded the children and furrowed her brow.
“Why are you all being so heartbreaking? I thought I explained it clearly enough.”
Kay muttered as he pulled out his pistol again. The children, remembering how many people had been killed by that gun, reacted with instinctual trauma.
“Noble Lady. These aren’t even your Territory’s residents, so why don’t you stop asserting your rights and hand over the kids?”
“I don’t want to.”
“Hmm, was I being too kind? I thought my manners were pretty good, right Yeo-jin?”
When Kay spoke while shrugging his shoulders, Kim Yeo-jin replied with a sneer.
“Cut the crap.”
“Well, fine. Have it your way.”
Kay said that and pulled the trigger.
*Click.*
No bullet fired from the barrel; perhaps it was empty.
“Actually, I knew you wouldn’t even blink.”
Saying so, Kay tossed the pistol aside. As the gun hit the floor, Kay pulled a Magic Stone from his coat.
It was a stone radiating a gloomy purple energy. The moment Karin saw it, she felt a sense of foreboding.
“Well, it was nice meeting you. See you next time.”
The gloomy purple stone began to be absorbed by the children’s bodies as if it were a contagion.
“Ah…!”
Karin tried to stop it, but it was no use. The infection had already begun.
“Older Sister….”
Lee Ho murmured softly. Karin looked down at the young girl. As if she had already given up, Lee Ho gave a strained smile and shook her head.
Starting with Lee Ho, cracks began to appear on the bodies of all the children. The light expanded as if it were about to explode.
It would be difficult to occupy the Agency any longer. Led by the Hero, a joint attack from the Military and Hunters was heading this way. More importantly, an Awakened individual with unknown motives had infiltrated the interior.
Kay knew who they were.
‘I see, they finally chose the Hero.’
It was interesting that those heavy-set bastards, who had refused to move for so long, had finally stood up. The Hardline Faction called themselves Residents and proudly revealed themselves to this world. But the Moderate Faction called themselves Transferees and believed they were living on borrowed land.
Despite his constant invitations to join them, the Moderate Faction members who had been refusing were now infiltrating the Agency. They likely weren’t here to help the Hardline Faction.
The Hero. What kind of charm did he possess? Kay couldn’t understand it.
Time was up. He had achieved his goal; now he just had to use the explosion to blind the enemy and escape.
At that moment, the bright light faded. No, it vanished.
“Huh, what happened?”
Kim Yeo-jin sounded surprised. Her companions were the same. Kay looked back.
He had intended to resonate the corrupted Magic Stone to cause an explosion and create a massive Gate. It was his plan to escape the Agency safely.
But the children were gone.
In their place was a dark Subspace radiating a chilly energy like a black hole.
“A Gate?”
A Gate had manifested even though the Magic Stone humans hadn’t exploded. Kay couldn’t comprehend the situation. The future had changed.
‘The Hero?’
No, the future hadn’t changed because of the Hero this time. Every cause and effect was tangled like the veins of a leaf. Because of that, nothing was ever 100% certain. Still, Kay had strived to create answers that approached 100%.
This meant a variable had interfered with the changed future.
Karin was the only one standing there. Her gaze had become chilly and cold. The innocent girl who had played and laughed with the children was gone.
In those eyes that looked as emotionless as a doll’s, a cold light slowly began to swirl, and her cross-shaped pupils began to glow.
“Future Sight?”
No, it wasn’t exactly Future Sight.
True Eye.
That was the exact name of the power Kay had been granted.
‘She has the same thing?’
And it wasn’t a single-eye Awakening like Kay’s; both of her eyes were Awakened.
Something walked out through the generated Gate.
*Clang, clang.*
The sound of metal grinding against metal. Three medieval knights in full plate armor stepped out. They were burly and armed with a halberd, a longsword, and a mace.
“!”
They were knights. Looking at them, Kay’s eyes showed panic for the first time. Something he hadn’t planned for was happening right before him.
“Priest Power. True Eye. Dimension Power. Saint.”
Kay’s panic was short-lived. His lips curled.
“I see, it was you.”
The true power this Noble Lady possessed. It couldn’t be a power she had suddenly regained. Opening a dimensional door wasn’t a simple calculation like throwing a fireball.
It was a power she hadn’t even revealed to the Hero, who was closest to her. A power she had hidden even from someone like family, her only true ally.
Why would she hide it? When the answer came to him, Kay felt amused and laughed heartily.
“The person that individual was looking for… was you. I see, did you want to keep it a secret from the Hero? Why? Because you thought he would abandon you?”
Instead of answering Kay, Karin made a declaration.
“Kill them.”
Receiving their master’s command, the knights’ eyes glowed with a sinister light. The Villains drew their swords and spears.
The first to attack was the knight with the halberd. He swung downward diagonally toward the enemy.
*Slash!*
One Villain couldn’t block the powerful blow and was heavily cut across the body. The remaining Villains scattered, trying to attack the knights’ flanks. Since the knights were wearing suit armor, their movements were slow, and their vision was narrow due to the visors, meaning their reactions were bound to be delayed.
“If you hide inside such heavy armor, you’re obviously going to—!”
A Villain struck the knight’s side with a sword. However, only a dull thud echoed.
The knight stared blankly down at the Villain. The Villain felt the danger and tried to retreat, but the knight had already grabbed his wrist.
“Huh?”
Before he could even voice his confusion, the Villain’s head was struck by the mace, bursting his skull.
“Don’t do it.”
Kay stopped Kim Yeo-jin as she tried to step forward. The arm she had lost to the Hero hadn’t even received Regeneration treatment yet. The soldiers the Noble Lady had summoned were not mere riff-raff. They were well-trained knights.
Of course, that wasn’t all. Their power was currently being amplified by their Awakened master. Their strength and momentum were terrifying.
Kay looked at the Noble’s cold face. She was pretending to be composed with her arms crossed, but her complexion was poor. Her legs were also trembling slightly. With her current power, merely opening the dimension and summoning the knights was pushing her to her limits.
‘If I set my mind to it….’
He could capture the Noble Lady if he pressured her now. He hadn’t expected her to possess such a formidable power.
“Dammit.”
However, if he captured her, the Hero would come. Kim Yeo-jin, whom he had carefully raised, would face a brutal death at the Hero’s hands, and he himself would be trapped in the Hero’s Inventory, tortured for information until he died.
‘Escape is the priority for now.’
He wanted to be greedy. But now was not the time.
“We’re retreating.”
“Who said you could?”
At Karin’s sharp words, Kay smirked. He pulled out another corrupted Magic Stone.
“I say so.”
He crushed the Magic Stone.
“Huh?”
Cracks and light began to appear on the bodies of the Villains in the room.
“Uh… Kay…?”
The Villains who had been fighting the knights looked at their own hands and then at Kay. A brilliant light poured out. Simultaneously, an explosion erupted.