The night we came out of the Gate.
KNOCK KNOCK.
BANG! CRASH! THUD!
When I knocked on the door, an enormous commotion sounded from the other side. Only after around ten seconds did Hwa Yejin open the door, breathing heavily.
“W-Where is Leia?”
“At home.”
“Will she be all right by herself? She is rather free-spirited in many ways... No, she is a goddess.”
“She will be fine. I put on Netf×ix for her.”
Since I had all the wallet, cash, and cards, Leia—the complete slave to capitalism—had fiercely opposed my leaving.
- “No! Do not go! If you are going, leave that card behind! I will really only use it to buy food!”
Bullshit.
In the iterations where I trusted her with a card, Leia had wiped out seventy percent of my account balance on food in a single day.
It was not even as though she had ordered expensive steaks. She had consumed dozens of servings of nothing but chicken, black bean noodles, and pork soup.
Maybe she had a black hole in her stomach.
In the end, once I turned on Netf×ix, she blankly watched dramas. That let me abandon Leia and leave.
“Anyway, how long am I supposed to stand out here?”
“Oh? Ah, right! Of course! Come in, Kang Seon! I, Hwa Yejin, Guild Master of the All Magic Tower and Empress of Fire Wings, welcome you to my— Hey!”
I entered the house before Hwa Yejin could finish speaking.
Sorry.
She just talked far too much.
“Hmm.”
“W-Why are you making that face?”
“It is nothing.”
The strongest mage, a Guild Master with charisma and magnanimity, a woman who possessed both strength and character.
That was Hwa Yejin.
Her cold impression and blunt attitude were also major reasons she had earned the epithet of Empress.
She acted like a complete idiot only in front of me, but I had decided to dismiss that as some unexplained error.
Even so, who could have imagined it?
That cold, imposing woman...
“Is it not obvious that you cleaned up in a hurry?”
Lived in a pigsty.
“T-That is none of your business! You said you were coming over to sleep tonight! I cleaned as hard as I could for three hours!”
“You are admitting that you do not normally clean. What is this? Why are there tuna cans in the regular trash and wrappers in the recycling bin?”
“Get out of my house right now!”
When I began rummaging through everything one by one, Hwa Yejin screamed and grabbed me by the hair.
Did this woman remember that she was an S-Rank Hunter while I was a D-Rank Hunter?
RIP!
A bright sound rang out from my hair.
“...”
“...”
Several strands of black hair fluttered from Hwa Yejin’s hand.
“...Let us clean.”
“Yes.”
***
[The Skill 「Nightingale Pharmacy」(B) is activated.]
After we finished cleaning, I used 「Nightingale Pharmacy」 on the bald patch.
The hair that had been pulled out was quickly restored.
As light enveloped my head, Hwa Yejin knelt before me and raised her hands.
“I am sorry...”
“It is fine. It can be healed, cannot it?”
“I ruined the mood...”
“What mood?”
“Ah, it is nothing!”
I waved my hand to tell her to lower her arms.
Hwa Yejin watched me cautiously for a while before asking, “Can I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
After lowering her arms, Hwa Yejin plopped down onto the sofa.
It felt strange to remain standing alone, so I sat beside her.
“Did you really have to make Princess April meet the King? She only saw something terrible.”
“Something terrible?”
“Yeah. He strangled her, and he was disappointing until the very end... The Princess must have been deeply hurt.”
“That is good.”
“What?”
Hwa Yejin gaped at me.
“I said it is good if she was shocked and hurt.”
“Wait. Explain that in more detail. That sounds very easy for others to misunderstand.”
“The Princess cares for others to a pathological degree. You know that, right?”
Hwa Yejin nodded.
She knew that April was extremely sensitive to the deaths of others, and that she had experienced countless deaths because of it.
“Honestly, it would be impossible for me to fix someone like that. She needs professional counseling and treatment.”
She was someone who had died for no less than several decades, yet had never lost her concern for others. Changing such a person with a few words would be something that happened only in a novel.
“So I simply used the Princess’s disposition. It was a rather sly method.”
“A sly method... Ah, do not tell me!”
“Right. I deliberately made the King appear at his most despicable.”
A confined space, Hunters who could pressure him, and April appearing at a life-or-death moment.
I led the King to believe that he could somehow preserve his life if only he received April’s Mana.
Once I presented him with that situation, the result was as expected.
“Once the Princess realizes that the King became a rotten man because of her, she has no choice but to leave that Gate.”
“Not because she is disillusioned with them, but because she loves them?”
“Exactly.”
What an exhausting disposition.
It was a personality I could not understand.
But perhaps that was why she was good and I was evil.
“Well, she might have difficulties in various ways since she used to be a Gate Boss, but I sent her somewhere good. She will be fine.”
“Somewhere good?”
“I will tell you later.”
April and the Lust Demons. Park Seok-hwan.
It was an unusual combination, but none of them would fail to adapt.
Just as I thought I should finally rest, Hwa Yejin suddenly grabbed my arm.
“Huh? Why?”
“I have one more question.”
“What is it?”
The arm holding me was warmer than normal.
Her face was slightly flushed as well, so it seemed that she was preparing some sort of magic or Skill.
Well, it was only natural that she would be suspicious.
As Hwa Yejin had repeatedly emphasized, she was the Guild Master of the All Magic Tower. It had only been a short time since terrorists attacked and damaged her building.
In that situation, I had suddenly appeared and asked to be invited into her home. It was natural for her to mistake me for an assassin.
As though to clear up the misunderstanding, I gently gripped Hwa Yejin’s wrist and leaned forward.
Our faces drew closer.
“W-Wh-What are you doing...?!”
“Hwa Yejin. Do not worry. I will not do anything dangerous.”
Naturally.
If I did something dangerous, flames would turn my limbs into perfectly well-done meat.
“N-No, Kang Seon...! I understand, so move back a little!”
“Let us stay like this until the misunderstanding is cleared up.”
One of Hwa Yejin’s weaknesses.
She could not use flames against someone standing close to her.
She might accidentally burn herself as well.
Come to think of it, she really had been about to burn me.
She immediately told me to move away.
“...!”
At such close range, I saw Hwa Yejin squeeze her eyes shut.
Fortunately, it seemed she had realized that she could not attack me at the moment.
“Hwa Yejin. Listen carefully.”
“...Yeah.”
“I need to borrow a weapon.”
“...Huh?”
Hwa Yejin slowly opened her eyes.
For some reason, her gaze was shaking slightly.
“...A weapon?”
“Yeah. You have quite a stockpile of weapons in the All Magic Tower, do you not?”
“I do, but... You came here to ask for that?”
“Yeah.”
“I see.”
Hwa Yejin pushed my hand away.
And the last thing I saw was her hand flying toward my cheek.
***
“Ah, ahh. Ugh, my ears are ringing.”
A bright red handprint remained on my face, and the throbbing had become painful enough to make my ears ring.
Why had I been slapped?
“Hwa Yejin, are you asleep?”
There was no answer.
Could she even hear me?
She had made my bed beside the shoe cabinet, then gone into her room to sleep alone, so it would not be strange if she could not hear me.
In any case, I had successfully deflected Hwa Yejin’s suspicions.
I could not tell her the real reason I had come to her house.
“The time is...”
23:57. Three minutes remained.
I opened my Status Window and checked my Skills.
=====
Name: Kang Seon
Rank: D (DD)
Ability: 「Rapid Reading」(D)
Skills: 「Mimicry」(???)｜「Nightingale Pharmacy」(B)｜「Memoir」(???)｜「Mark of the Legion」(A++)
Special State: 7,201st Iteration (Final).｜Unclaimed Skill (1)
=====
「Mark of the Legion」, the Skill I had received from the hidden Quest in the ninth Gate.
As befitting a Skill that had been difficult to acquire, it had been one of the Skills I desperately tried to obtain during the iterations when I was actively clearing Gates.
=====
「Mark of the Legion」(A++)
Gather. Command. Burn.
Crush them, ruin them, and destroy them.
Everything in this world is mine,
and every talent in this world belongs to the legion beneath my command.
Gather. Command. Burn.
Those you subjugate shall become our legion, beings who obey any command.
But remember.
A legion is not exceptional merely because it is numerous.
It becomes exceptional only when those of quality gather.
The legion you possess may have only five members.
=====
The description was grand, but the core point was simple.
If I placed a mark on an opponent I had personally defeated, that opponent would obey me absolutely.
In some ways, its potential could be said to surpass Sa Ujin’s 「Pygmalion’s Web」.
Though their versatility and practical utility were on completely different levels.
But if I could draw out the full potential of this Skill?
It would not be an exaggeration to call 「Mark of the Legion」 an S-Rank Skill rather than an A++-Rank one.
“So, are you coming out now? It is time, is it not?”
Tick.
00:00. Midnight arrived.
[Someone has used the Skill 「Struggle of the Weak」(A-).]
A black curtain unfolded around Hwa Yejin’s home.
[Warning! Skills and Abilities exceeding ‘B-Rank’ are sealed in the surrounding area!]
[Warning! All Hunters’ Physical Ranks in the surrounding area are adjusted to ‘C-Rank or below’!]
Then, someone wearing black clothes and a mask landed from the ceiling.
“When did you find out?”
“A little while ago?”
I drew the weapon I had borrowed from Hwa Yejin in exchange for that slap.
“You are the one who interfered when I tried to overthrow the All Magic Tower.”
“Ah, am I famous?”
“Good. I will eliminate you here.”
「Struggle of the Weak」 was a barrier Skill that demanded a great price in exchange for sealing high-Rank Skills and physical abilities within a specific space.
In the iterations where I had not intervened, Hwa Yejin had always lost one arm in this ambush.
Normally, Hwa Yejin’s ability and security system should have made a barrier like this nowhere near sufficient, but...
“You really have no conscience. Do you want to betray someone who trusted you like that?”
“...”
Against an opponent she could have easily defeated at full strength, Hwa Yejin had lost while unable to use even half her power. The effects of the barrier had compounded with the panic of learning her attacker’s identity.
But...
“You are relying on 「Struggle of the Weak」 alone to do this?”
What a shame.
“To me, that might as well not exist.”
When it came to a fight between weaklings, few people were as strong as I was.