“Clan, huh…….”
Diesel, who had suddenly received a recruitment offer, fell into thought for a moment.
“I’d like you to tell me a bit more in detail.”
At those words, Sis nodded and spoke.
“You should already know to some extent what kind of situation the underworld is in right now.”
Conflicts among fixers active in Joseon.
It had surfaced only recently when Fixer River was attacked, but in truth, large and small conflicts among fixers had existed for quite a long time.
“I know it’s split into two factions.”
“That’s right. The southern and the northern factions.”
The southern faction based in the Underground Great Hall, and the northern faction based in Pyongyang.
To Diesel, who had lived through an era when Korea was divided into north and south, this situation felt strangely familiar.
‘Calling it the northern faction feels kind of off.’
It had already been nearly a hundred years since the Korean Peninsula, long divided into two, had been unified.
Yet the scars of division still remained here and there.
Among them, the economic disparity stood out the most, with the average income gap between north and south exceeding threefold.
There were various causes, but the biggest was the damage caused by monsters emerging from the sealed-off China.
To stop them, the Joseon government had established massive garrisons along the Yalu River, the Tumen River, and Cheollyeonggwan, but defenses were breached often enough that northerners had to live with fear every day.
‘That’s why most of the work in the north involves dealing with monsters.’
As a result, people from the north generally had rough and boisterous personalities.
In addition, they were characterized by a tight-knit sense of camaraderie that was hard to find these days.
“As you know, northerners have a kind of strange anger toward the south.”
Dissatisfaction with decades of enforced relocation policies, relative deprivation stemming from differences in living standards, and resentment over not being properly recognized for risking their lives to stop monsters.
“Among fixers who actively interacted with other regions, that sentiment wasn’t too severe, but after ‘that incident’ a few years ago, things changed drastically there as well.”
An incident from a few years ago.
As Diesel was forming guesses in his mind, Sis projected a hologram into the air.
Tall mountains of the north appeared, along with an ominous fog that covered the entire mountain range.
“Doesn’t it just look like fog?”
“…….”
“It’s not. It’s a Grade 3 monster, the Black Fog Tiger.”
Pitch-black energy pouring out from a single gigantic tiger.
Its size was so immense that the city directly below looked like a toy.
“Casualties were at least twenty thousand. Estimated property damage was fifty trillion Qubits. Among the deployed personnel, ten were Level 6—four died, and five suffered irreversible damage to both body and mind.”
“…….”
“The important part is that the northerners desperately asked for help, but the south gave none at the time.”
“Why?”
At Diesel’s question, Sis replied with a regretful expression.
“That part is still a mystery. Because at the time, no one in Seoul even knew that monster had appeared.”
“What?”
Diesel frowned as he asked.
“How is that possible?”
No matter how remote a mountain valley it was, as long as it was connected to the Electrosphere, the entire world would know.
Yet an incident that killed twenty thousand people occurred, and no one knew.
“That’s why it’s called a mystery. At the time, the north was completely isolated from the Electrosphere—until the monster was dealt with.”
“Isolated from the Electrosphere…….”
At that point, Diesel sensed something suspicious and mulled over the words.
“Looks like you’ve got an idea too?”
“I know who could pull something like that off.”
“Right. No definitive evidence ever came out, but circumstantial evidence was more than enough.”
When Sis raised her finger, a logo appeared.
“Megacorporation, Cheonrang.”
A giant corporation that overwhelmingly led the field when it came to the Electrosphere—the Cheonrang Group.
The ones who possessed secret weapons capable of completely cutting off Electrosphere access.
If they had committed such an act back then, the important question would be ‘why’.
‘I get the general picture now.’
Having heard that much, Diesel could roughly grasp how things stood.
Right now, Joseon was maintaining a tense balance among three massive forces.
Corporations, the government, and the imperial family.
Among them, the strongest by far were the corporations—namely, the megacorporations.
With cutting-edge technology and overwhelming military power that dominated the globe, corporations monitored and manipulated the ‘customers’ of this land, exerting immense influence over the other two forces.
Opposing them was the republican system of government.
However, despite having a very active means of participation called voting, citizens were unable to properly exercise their rights.
From the outset, all the candidates who appeared were thoroughly corrupt.
With elected officials in that state, there was no need to even mention appointed positions that handled most administrative affairs.
The last force, the Joseon imperial family, was the weakest compared to the other two.
Reborn around the resurrected Sejong, the imperial house had solidified Joseon’s standing amid the flames of the Third World War through Emperor Sejong’s overwhelming abilities.
However, when the emperor, the core of imperial authority, entered a long period of silence for unknown reasons, the power of the imperial family greatly weakened, eventually forcing it to cede much of its authority to the other two forces.
‘In a situation like this, the reason Cheonrang did something like that is…….’
The northern region was one of the areas where megacorporations could not easily exert their power.
There was little room for giant corporations to enter due to the unique agenda held by northerners, and more importantly, it was a place densely packed with the national army, a government power bloc.
‘So they probably tried to create a massive blunder on the side of the local government to expand corporate influence.’
For example, leading development projects under the pretext of reconstruction work, or deploying specific organizations under the guise of relief efforts—there were many possible methods.
And in reality, the Cheonrang Group, which had led the incident, wielded the greatest influence in the north among other megacorporations.
“From here on, this is my speculation. No.”
Sis continued with a grave look in her eyes.
“More precisely, it’s Isabel’s speculation.”
The owner of the Underground Great Hall, Madam Isabel.
The figure who effectively led the southern fixers.
“There’s a new force that’s entered these fixer conflicts.”
“Who?”
“The Royal Guard.”
“…….”
“To be exact, the Joseon imperial family.”
The goal of the imperial family was obvious without anyone needing to explain it.
To reclaim past glory.
To do that, the emperor ultimately had to return to his seat.
But how was that related to conflicts among fixers?
When that question was raised, Sis carefully opened her mouth.
“What it is, is…….”
Just as she was about to say something.
Suddenly, someone opened the door and entered.
“What are you discussing so intently?”
A pure white hanbok.
Hair neatly braided into a single strand.
Fixer River smiled as she looked at Diesel.
“River! You came at just the right time.”
“It’s been a while, Sis.”
“Indeed. How long has it been? Seol-ah, come on in too.”
“…….”
Chae Seol-ah entered behind River and looked at Diesel with an annoyed expression.
Diesel, in turn, frowned and asked.
“What is this? These two.”
“Didn’t you hear we were coming?”
“I didn’t tell him on purpose. It wouldn’t be fun otherwise.”
‘No wonder she dragged me to a teahouse…….’
Once the two guests sat down, the server brought out two new drinks.
After taking a sip of her tea, River looked at Diesel and asked.
“Is Lady Herja doing well?”
“You just dropped her off yesterday. Why ask?”
“She’s been looking for you so much. Asking when she could work with you again.”
At those words, Chae Seol-ah suddenly scowled and glared at Diesel.
‘Why is this elf acting like this, anyway?’
As the topic veered off with River’s appearance, Diesel brought the conversation back to the main point.
“So, River, the reason you came here is because of the clan Sis is trying to create, right?”
“That is correct. How far have you discussed so far?”
“Right at the timing for you to show up.”
Sis said with a smile.
“We were about to talk about Archmage Lee Hayun.”
The Archmage who was said to have met her end on Jeju Island, an island no one could enter.
When the story turned to his younger sister, Diesel listened intently.
“Right now, the Royal Guard wants River dead.”
“…….”
“Did River tell you why?”
“To some extent.”
In the past, Lee Hayun had attempted to assassinate Emperor Sejong.
If that were true, then the Royal Guard, the organization that protected the imperial family, would not have liked the idea of even trying to make contact with Jeju Island, where the Archmage had supposedly died.
That was why the Royal Guard was wary of River.
To the point of resorting to extreme methods like assassination.
“Originally, the Royal Guard can’t act openly. They’re officially part of the imperial family, so there are too many eyes on them.”
“So they’re using the northern faction to kill River?”
“That’s right.”
At those words, Diesel asked back,
“So, just to take out one girl, they’re trying to spark a war among fixers?”
“Just one?”
Chae Seol-ah asked back, clearly displeased with Diesel’s choice of words.
River calmed her and replied,
“They’ve always been like that. If it achieves their goal, they don’t care about the means. But this time, there’s a lot more involved than just the imperial family.”
“Megacorps, the government, the imperial family—they’re all the same inside. It’s all about fighting over their own bowls. Like River said, this situation is extremely complicated.”
Sis took a sip of her tea and spoke.
“In the power structure of the three forces that control Joseon, there’s always been one major variable. Do you know what that is?”
“…….”
At her question, Diesel frowned and answered.
“People from the underworld like us.”
“That’s right.”
Ghostcatchers had always been a significant variable in the balance of power.
Especially the Underground Great Hall led by Madam Isabel—no matter how much a corporation ruled the world, it couldn’t touch that place lightly.
Part of that was due to Isabel’s powerful ability known as the Dark Oni, but another reason was that the freelance Ghostcatchers themselves were profitable.
That, however, was only from the perspective of corporations that could hire external manpower.
To the government and the imperial family, Ghostcatchers were thorn-in-the-side troublemakers who caused disturbances every time.
Of course, they too sometimes borrowed the power of the underworld, but unlike corporations, they couldn’t openly cooperate.
“So the imperial family wants the fixers to weaken?”
“That’s one way to put it. In the end, they induced division in the underworld.”
“The imperial family has already made some kind of backroom deal with the northern fixers. We don’t know the details, but at the very least, it must have been a deal that served mutual interests.”
At those words, Diesel organized his thoughts for a moment.
The fierce power struggle among the three forces, and the countless individuals—fixers and Ghostcatchers—caught in between…….
Then suddenly, he pointed out one thing that bothered him.
“But isn’t there too little justification to start a war?”
At that, Sis looked at Diesel and smiled faintly.
“That’s exactly it.”
River chimed in, sipping her tea.
“That’s also the reason I came here.”
“…….”
“Like you said, Diesel, the northern faction currently has no justification to attack while breaking fixer rules.”
“And all the assassins who came after me were gangs from other countries.”
Diesel glanced at Chae Seol-ah at River’s words.
‘Did that elf block all those attacks by herself?’
Just how strong did she have to be for that to be possible?
Diesel recalled his first meeting with Chae Seol-ah.
‘Come to think of it, she was working with Sis back then.’
That meant she was at least a Ghostcatcher on par with Sis.
After briefly drifting to another thought, Diesel returned to the main topic.
“Then are they trying to create that justification now, on the northern side?”
Sis answered Diesel with a grave expression.
“No.”
“……?”
River carefully continued Sis’s words.
“They don’t need to create justification.”
“What do you mean…….”
In any era, ‘justification’ in war was more important than life itself.
Especially in a structure tangled with so many interests, lacking proper justification would inevitably result in enormous losses.
As if she knew that well, Fixer River looked at Diesel and said,
“Recently, we obtained top-secret information about the northern side’s method of attack.”
“What is it?”
Sis answered.
“The north is planning to use monsters.”
“Hah…….”
Monsters.
Diesel had heard rumors about those violent creatures said to spill out from the sealed China.
‘Mysterious lifeforms that could become national disasters depending on their grade.’
Just the Black Fog Tiger Sis had shown earlier had caused an unimaginable number of casualties.
And now they planned to use monsters.
“As I said, the north’s objective is clear.”
Sis looked toward River.
“To assassinate our River here.”
“…….”
“To achieve that, there’s no need to start a war.”
At that point, Diesel sensed something off and asked,
“Then what was everything you’ve been talking about up to now?”
He recalled what she had said before coming up here.
“We were talking about war.”
War.
A full-scale armed conflict between two groups.
Sis had clearly said that this matter was related to war.
“That’s right. This is a story about war.”
“What do you mean…….”
“More precisely, it’s a story about the war that ‘we’ will start.”
“……?”
The Little Sister smiled sweetly and continued.
“And the monsters those northern bastards release will make for a very good justification.”