All three of them were villains.
They posed as low-ranked Hunters, looted the gear of the other Hunters who entered Gates with them, and then murdered them.
Naturally, Seo Yu-hyeon, Seo Yu-ra, and Seo Yu-seon weren't their real names either, and in reality they weren't siblings at all, but complete strangers.
"This one's going to be harder than last time. That Yun Min-jun guy, was it? The bastard can fight."
"Could just be the gear, but he's not bad for a D-rank. Doesn't mean we can't kill him, though, right?"
"Well, sure."
Their real ranks were B for Seo Yu-hyeon and C for Seo Yu-ra and Seo Yu-seon, more than enough firepower to easily overwhelm a pair of D-rank Hunters.
Barring any other variables, they'd have no trouble killing Jun-hwi and Min-jun and looting their gear.
"Same as last time. We ambush them mid-fight."
"When they're most distracted and most worn out, we pounce."
Even with the upper hand in every way, they never let their guard down.
"Even a tiger gives it its all when it hunts a rabbit."
Though it was for ill, they were quite meticulous.
That was also why they'd pulled off their 'jobs' without getting caught so far.
"If we drag this out any longer, they'll get suspicious. Let's head back for now."
With that from Seo Yu-hyeon, the three of them left.
***
"Aren't you going to rest, hyung-nim?"
"I want to go back over that last fight. Don't mind me."
To be exact, I was going over how the sword had felt when I used it, not the fight.
Seeing me swinging my sword even during the break, Kim Jun-hwi shook his head in amazement.
"You're seriously hardcore, hyung-nim."
"Not really. I just got some motivation recently."
I answered Kim Jun-hwi as I kept swinging.
A few minutes of this wouldn't suddenly make me stronger, but as they say, gather enough specks of dust and you get a mountain.
"Would this motivation have something to do with your girlfriend, by any chance?"
"You could say that."
"Ooh, a total romantic. Your girlfriend must feel so safe with you."
"Thanks."
Well, actually, it was the other way around.
I was the one who felt safe, not Sia.
A dragon girlfriend who tore through dimensions to come back just to see me.
The sense of security Sia gave me was far greater than I could have imagined.
"By the way, the three of them seem to be taking a while?"
"They sure are."
It had been ten-odd minutes since they left, but there was no sign of the Seo siblings coming back.
It wasn't really late enough to call them late yet.
Even so.
It was a little strange that all of them, having gone off in different directions, were nowhere to be seen.
But speak of the tiger and he'll come, as they say.
"Sorry I'm late. Have you been waiting long?"
"Not at all."
No sooner had I thought it than Seo Yu-hyeon came back, looking sheepish.
I didn't ask, since it might embarrass him, but it seemed he'd had quite a big job to take care of.
The two sisters rejoined the group one after the other.
'Did they all eat something bad yesterday?'
Their somewhat sheepish expressions looked strangely suspicious.
Anyway, after regrouping, we set off through the Gate again.
"It'll be around five or six by the time the raid's over, right?"
Kim Jun-hwi, who seemed to still have plenty to say, chatted away cheerfully the whole time we moved.
"Yeah, probably."
"How about a drink together after? This is a busy area, so there are lots of good bars around."
At this point, I couldn't tell whether I'd come to raid a Gate or to some social gathering.
The three siblings played along with Kim Jun-hwi, chatting happily.
But in the middle of the conversation, Seo Yu-hyeon, who was leading, suddenly stopped and pointed at something.
"Looks like this one's going to be tougher than before."
There looked to be three or four times as many as before, and some of the brutes were unusually big.
As Seo Yu-hyeon said, compared to the brutes we'd faced earlier, it was definitely a tough-looking pack.
'But......'
It still wasn't beyond us.
Thinking of it as building up real combat experience, it was actually a good opportunity for me.
"Uh, hyung-nim. Why are you smiling?"
Kim Jun-hwi, beside me, asked.
"There were too few monsters last time, but this seems just right."
"...Hyung-nim, you're a total masochist."
"I'm with Min-jun."
Seo Yu-hyeon, who was nearby, chimed in.
"This is exactly when killing gets fun."
When killing gets fun, he said.
Maybe it was just me, but for some reason, seeing Seo Yu-hyeon's smile as he said it sent a chill down my spine.
"Ugh, creepy."
Kim Jun-hwi, perhaps feeling the same as me, pretended to shiver all over.
At that, Seo Yu-hyeon played it off, laughing and asking if he'd looked a little scary just now.
It was as if he'd been joking on purpose.
But that only lasted a moment.
Once the real fight began, all traces of playfulness vanished from everyone's faces, Seo Yu-hyeon's included.
There were so many Antmen that I couldn't call it easy, but perhaps thanks to the Dragon Bone Sword and the other gear Sia had given me, apart from stamina, there were no major problems.
But that was only true for me.
When about half of them had been dealt with, I grew worried about the rest of the team and first checked on Kim Jun-hwi, right next to me.
"Jun-hwi. You okay?"
"Ugh, I'm a little worn out. The heals seem to be coming in fine, though, unless it's just me."
Kim Jun-hwi was honest about his condition.
I could see it too. His complexion was bad, and his movements had grown noticeably sluggish compared to the start.
"I'll buy some time, so fall back to the rear for a bit and catch your breath."
"I owe you one."
Kim Jun-hwi didn't turn down my offer and fell back without hesitation.
He seemed to be struggling even to speak, so I asked Seo Yu-ra to look after him in his place.
"Yu-ra, please take care of Jun-hwi!"
"...."
I'd shouted loud enough that she couldn't miss it, but no answer came back.
"...Yu-ra?"
Cutting down the swarming Antmen, I turned my head toward the rear.
Kim Jun-hwi still wasn't getting any heals, and there wasn't so much as a glimpse of Seo Yu-ra or the other two.
With no one in sight, an ominous feeling began to creep over me.
Had all three been ambushed by Antmen in the rear?
'I definitely checked there were no monsters back there before the fight started.'
Still, I couldn't rule out the possibility that other monsters had come as reinforcements in the meantime.
"Yu-seon! Yu-hyeon!"
I shouted the other two's names, but again there was no answer.
It would be hard to keep fighting like this, so we had to change tactics.
"Jun-hwi, I think we need to pull back farther for now. Once we've pulled back—."
I never got to finish.
Something came flying at us from the rear, slicing through the air.
With no time to see what it was, I instinctively knocked it away with my sword.
CLANG!
The very moment I deflected it, I saw what it was.
It was an arrow of condensed mana.
'Seo Yu-seon...!'
There was no way an Antman had shot a mana arrow.
It could only be an arrow shot by Seo Yu-seon.
Had she been ambushed by monsters and fired it in a panic from hiding, only for it to fly my way by chance?
Just as I was thinking that, another one came flying.
It wasn't aimed at the Antmen, but squarely at my heart.
This could not possibly be a coincidence.
And that meant only one thing.
"Those bastards...... are villains."
"What?"
"Those three siblings, they're villains. I had a hunch, but still."
I deflected the arrow and turned toward where it had come from.
And there was Seo Yu-seon, aiming a mana arrow with wicked eyes.
"Aw, so close."
There was no need to look for the other Seo siblings.
Seo Yu-hyeon and Seo Yu-ra were standing right beside her.
"How do you miss that on the first try?"
"My aim was fine, he knocked it away with his sword. Fxck, I didn't think a D-rank could block that."
The other two were smirking and licking their lips as well.
Just moments ago, they'd been chatting with us in such a friendly mood.
"You people... are villains?"
Kim Jun-hwi's voice was trembling.
"And if we said no, what would you do about it?"
"Hand over everything you've got right now, and we'll kill you nice and easy. How about it, sound good?"
Seo Yu-hyeon smirked and gestured for us to hand over our gear, while Seo Yu-seon and Seo Yu-ra cackled beside him, egging each other on.
There were three of them, and two of us.
On top of that, as villains, they had most likely lied about their real ranks, so anyone could see we were at a disadvantage.
To make matters worse, most of the Antmen were swarming toward us, not them.
Because Kim Jun-hwi and I had been on the front line from the start, pulling the monsters' aggro.
Realizing that, I broke out in a cold sweat down my back.
Dying here was not part of my plans.
Somehow, I had to find a way out of this.
'A way out of this... Right.'
Facing this life-or-death crisis, I suddenly remembered Sia's artifacts piled up in my subspace.
Fighting them as I was now was one thing, but if I took those out and used them, I'd have a real chance of winning.
But.
"...Huh?"
My subspace wouldn't open.
No matter how many times I reached for it, my hand grasped at nothing.
"Pfft, look at him."
When I kept failing to open my subspace, the villains pointed at me and laughed.
"Wondering why your subspace won't open?"
Seo Yu-hyeon taunted me with a nasty smile, and instead of answering, I glared at him.
"Still, you'll feel less cheated if you know why you died. It's simple. It's all thanks to this artifact. With this, I can lock other people's subspaces, and even force them open."
At that, Kim Jun-hwi reached for his own subspace too, but just like me, his hand kept closing on nothing.
I didn't know what trick they'd used, but they weren't lying.
"What the...."
"You wouldn't know, but the black market has all sorts of stuff."
"See, I told you. I said this was worth buying even if we had to stretch for it."
They weren't worth listening to anymore.
"Fxck. You people sure have fxcking long tongues."
Cursing, I spat toward the villains.
"Empty carts rattle the loudest. If I were you, I'd have killed us already instead of running my mouth."
"It's fine. We've got time to spare. Plenty of it."
Seo Yu-seon said it, folding her arms with a sneer.
"Unlike you two."
Behind us, the Antmen were swarming this way, and in front, the villains were eyeing us like tigers stalking prey.
Caught in between like the filling in a sandwich, I had just one ally.
We couldn't advance, and we couldn't retreat.
"Every time I see that panicked look, I feel like this job is so worth it. I'm so glad I got into this line of work."
With that taunt, Seo Yu-seon took up another arrow of condensed mana and drew her bowstring.
"Now, who should I kill first?"
Smiling wickedly, Seo Yu-seon released the string.
Once again the mana arrow was aimed at me, not Kim Jun-hwi, and I twisted slightly to dodge it.
Luckily, the arrow that missed lodged in an Antman that had been about to pounce on me.
SKREEEEE—!
The moment the arrow hit, the Antman crumpled.
Its destructive power was on a whole other level from her covering fire earlier.
Sure enough, they had definitely been hiding their real ranks all along.
'Wait.'
Something struck me the moment I saw the Antman the arrow had hit.
I could make this happen on purpose.
'Use barbarians against barbarians.'
Not bad, for an idea that had come out of nowhere.
Whoosh!
After dodging another of Seo Yu-seon's arrows, I moved in close to Kim Jun-hwi and whispered.
"I'll only say this once, Jun-hwi. Keep running as much as you can. Don't let our paths cross."
"What?"
I hadn't told him why, so he asked again as if he didn't understand.
But this wasn't a situation where I could explain everything in detail.
"SKREEK!"
An Antman lunged from behind, and Kim Jun-hwi and I dodged in opposite directions.
Not missing their chance, the villains unleashed another fierce barrage.
I quickly ducked behind a large Antman, and the villains' attacks hit it instead of us.
'Good.'
Glancing over, I saw that Kim Jun-hwi, exhausted as he was, was also summoning every last ounce of strength and nimbly dodging the villains' attacks.
But they weren't idiots, so it was only a matter of time before they saw through the plan.
To keep them from catching on for as long as possible, I pretended to square off against the Antmen with my sword, darting in and out of the brutes' pack over and over.
Kim Jun-hwi seemed to catch on to the plan too; copying me, he blended in among the Antmen.
How many minutes had we spent wearing down the monsters and the villains with our barbarians-against-barbarians plan?
"Aren't those bastards doing that on purpose?"
"They are, fxck. I was wondering what they were up to."
As expected, they saw through it, and the moment they did, they started looking for a counter.
"Hey, just don't do anything. Let them duke it out amongst themselves. They've pulled all the aggro anyway. We go again once they're worn out."
"Okay. Smart call."
I couldn't make out exactly what they said after that, but I could roughly guess the bastards' strategy.
Until we'd more or less cleared out the Antmen, they'd tune out of the fight and just wait for us to run out of steam.
It was a despairingly rational call.
'Is this... how it ends?'
But.
'End here? When I've barely just found Sia again?'
That couldn't happen.
So that Sia would never grieve over my death, I had to survive by any means necessary.
I had to survive and, no matter what, return to Sia's side.
The moment I thought of Sia, I felt a powerful will surge up from deep in my chest.
The will to survive and not die, and beyond that, the will to break through those villains.
'Will?'
Suddenly, something I'd heard yesterday came back to me.
'Domination is not a wrong answer, but what matters more is will.'
In the end, the very core of wielding a dragon's power was my own unyielding will.
A desperate will to survive, the will to break my enemies, and beyond that, the will to dominate the enemies I'd broken.
That will would awaken the dragon's power sleeping in the sword, or perhaps sleeping in my own body.
Holding onto a fierce will to break them and survive no matter what, I gritted my teeth and glared at the villains.
I'm going back to Sia, no matter what.
So there's no way I'll ever be broken by the likes of you.
No, I'm going to break you completely.
At that moment.
A brilliant light began to rise from the sword.
A light more brilliant and intense than anything I'd ever seen.