A district of low-rise apartment blocks in central Seoul, on a rooftop.
A woman was watching somewhere while keeping herself concealed.
The parking lot of a studio apartment block, and inside it a dungeon could faintly be seen.
The woman brought a hand to her ear and focused on the sound in the earphone she wore.
KSSSSSH—
All that came through the earphone was static.
She did not like noise, but she did not take the earphone out.
That was because the noise disappearing would mean the person she was waiting for had come out.
It was the signal that Heo Jin-ho, who had gone in beyond the gate, had returned.
"Why is he taking so long?"
Heo Jin-ho's battles took under five minutes, and even when he struggled they did not go past ten.
Of course, there were times it took an hour when he tailed someone and struck them from behind.
But her watch was telling her that more than two hours had passed.
'Is he indulging his foul tastes in there again?'
Repulsive bastard.
He was her partner, but she did not like Heo Jin-ho.
He loved slaughter and stirred up pointless fights.
He was a long way from tidy, so it was always she who had to clean up and keep him in check.
'Something has certainly happened.'
At the instant she rose from her sniping point to withdraw, the crackling static cut off.
Communication had returned.
The woman settled back into position and looked down.
Heo Jin-ho was still nowhere in sight.
"How did it go? Report."
The man answered with a hand pressed to his ear.
-All clear. Situation concluded, over.
The woman's body flinched.
That was not Heo Jin-ho's voice.
"......Who are you?"
-It's me, it's me. Your son.
"Identify yourself."
-Ah, caught out? The owner of the dungeon.
A moment later, a man appeared beyond the gate.
Cha Geon-mu.
Why did he have Heo Jin-ho's earphone?
The question tore through her head, but she threw out her question calmly.
"And Heo Jin-ho? What became of that man?"
-He leveled a sword at me. And I answered in kind. Isn't the rest obvious?
He died, of course.
CRRK.
The woman's teeth ground together.
Hearing the sound, the man made light of it in an easy voice.
-Don't be too angry. That fellow was more sincere than anyone, and we finished it without regrets on either side.
"Do you know who you have just meddled with?"
-No idea. The Illuminati? The Freemasons? Either way, it seems you're quite the big fish.
"You don't seem to fear the consequences."
-What is there to fear? If that's the caliber of your assassin, I can guess the rest without looking.
The woman kept her voice calm, but her feelings were growing more heated by the moment.
It was not anger over the slight to the organization or the death of her partner.
It was anger at the plan going off course.
She had not much minded Heo Jin-ho making a mess of things.
Someone at Heo Jin-ho's level she could set right herself.
But if a third party who was not even Heo Jin-ho had cut in and ruined the work, that was another matter.
It meant it had passed beyond the range of her control.
'He has to be eliminated.'
The woman moved so covertly that she deceived even herself.
In her left hand she held a bow, and her right hand drew an arrow from the quiver.
She set the arrow to the string.
The distance alone was over three kilometers, and the Cha Geon-mu she could see was no more than a dot.
No problem.
She had made snipes like this dozens of times already, and she had never once missed.
"Your name is Cha Geon-mu, correct?"
-That's right.
"We meant to resolve this amicably. But...... it seems you have no intention of that."
-So you mean to kill me? By sniping me with an arrow?
"!!"
The woman was startled.
With those words, Geon-mu's eyes and the woman's had met.
It was only for an instant, but he had been staring straight at her.
-Why so flustered? If you weren't showing yourself, I figured you'd be sniping from somewhere, and since nobody here uses guns, I guessed a long-range weapon would be a bow. Seems I guessed right.
"......."
-I always love a silence like that. So this is how a detective feels. Detectives really were something in the old days.......
While Geon-mu was making light of it, the woman shook her head and cleared away the stray thoughts.
'No, it will have been my imagination.'
There was no way Geon-mu had such an ability.
In fact, detecting a snipe from this distance was rare even among A-Grades.
His eyes meeting hers had certainly been chance.
She steadied her breathing and took aim between Geon-mu's brows.
-Then let me ask one thing before I die.
At the instant she was about to loose the taut string,
-What do you people know about the Heaven-Breaking Dragon-Slaying Sword?
The woman's pupils dilated wide.
"The Heaven-Breaking Dragon-Slaying Sword. How do you know about that......?!"
The voice that had kept its composure broke.
-An interesting reaction. While I'm at it, let me guess further. Do you mean to wake the Emperor Dragon and take its power?
"Just what are you? Where on earth did you get such information......?"
In the moment the woman was in confusion.
Catching herself, she moved the focus she had put into the earphone back to her sight.
The Geon-mu she had been sniping was gone.
She had been distracted for only a brief moment, a mere three seconds.
Where had Cha Geon-mu gone? Just as she was tracking him with her eyes, she learned where Geon-mu was.
"Good that you know that much."
The voice she had been hearing in her earphone came from behind her.
The woman quickly drew the bowstring, turned toward the source of the sound, and shot.
FWIIIP!
Her reflexes were excellent, but Geon-mu's foot struck her and the arrow flew off in an entirely wrong direction.
With a savage rush of wind the arrow left a tail of light and became a star.
Geon-mu struck her wrist and disarmed her.
"Ugh!"
No sooner had the woman lost the bow than she put a hand to the dagger at her waist.
Geon-mu moved at a speed faster still.
Geon-mu's index and middle fingers jabbed all over the woman's body.
TAP-TAP-TAP!!
For all that speed, there was no damage at all.
But it brought about a result more fatal than simply striking her.
The instant he withdrew his hand, the woman's body sprawled out like a marionette with its strings cut.
The woman knew what this technique she had suffered was.
"Acupoint...... sealing?"
"That's right. Acupoint sealing."
The man who had closed in and pressed her acupoints in an instant, Cha Geon-mu, dragged over a folding chair and sat down in front of the woman.
"Tell me. Who are these people of yours that I've meddled with."
***
Before Geon-mu came out of the gate, before he subdued the woman.
Geon-mu had thought about who the person talking with Heo Jin-ho was.
'It'll be a kind of watcher, someone who doesn't get directly involved in Heo Jin-ho's work but observes.'
He judged it was not a close relationship but a tightly connected working one.
Which meant there was a high chance it was a sniper who could watch and support from a distance.
Before coming out of the gate, Geon-mu concentrated and wrapped himself in the Body-Protecting Aura.
It was so that he could respond if they recognized Cha Geon-mu and attacked at once.
And the moment he left the dungeon, the conversation with Heo Jin-ho's partner began.
As expected, the other party was a sniper.
Geon-mu talked calmly while scouting for the sniping point, and at last he was able to find the sniper.
'If I couldn't have borrowed the Phantom Speed Dragon's power, there would have been a chase.'
He would have caught her eventually, but it would have taken a long time.
Satisfied with his current condition, Geon-mu sat down in the folding chair.
The sniper was a woman with black hair and blue eyes.
And objectively a pure-looking beauty who did not seem the sort to do this kind of work.
She used an expensive-looking bow and arrows, and all of her other equipment was black for ease of moving at night.
"How did you know I was here?"
The reason Geon-mu had been able to find the woman was that he had the trait.
The eye that could see the truth of all things, <Myriad Phenomena>.
It was a convenient thing that could find whatever Geon-mu set out to find, however much of it there was.
Even an opponent blended into the night sky and invisible as a dot would be found without fail.
"How else? Because I'm damn good."
Geon-mu answered as though it were obvious.
"More to the point, you seem to think you get to ask questions in this situation."
Geon-mu pressed down on her left hand with his right foot.
The sole was quite sharply ridged so it would not slip even in the rain, and it was more than enough to cause pain.
"Nngh......!"
"This is the only time I'll talk to you comfortably. If you ask another question without permission next time."
Geon-mu drew out a short sword.
"I'll cut your fingers off one at a time. It's uselessly dull, so it will hurt every time one comes off."
Though it sounded as though he were saying it playfully, the sincerity in it was plain to feel.
The air filled with killing intent and grew heavy.
The woman found even breathing difficult.
"What's your name? Your hair is jet black but only your eyes are blue, so you don't look like a pure-blooded Korean."
"Lumia. As you say, I was not born in this place."
"Good, Lumia. Then let's talk comfortably with each other. Limited to the Heaven-Breaking Dragon-Slaying Sword."
Geon-mu laced his fingers together and looked down at Lumia.
"You know the Heaven-Breaking Dragon-Slaying Sword exists."
"I do."
"And everyone else in your organization knows too?"
"Not everyone knows. Most of those who are to be part of the plan know only that the sword exists."
"And you're part of that plan?"
"I am."
Right, of course.
"How much information do you have about the Heaven-Breaking Dragon-Slaying Sword?"
"I do not know much. Only what the sword looks like and where it is. You will know more than I do."
"I know more?"
"That the thing called the Emperor Dragon sleeps in it. They said something was inside it, but you are the first to say it in such detail."
I handed over information far too readily.
Geon-mu clicked his tongue.
'Either way, it seems that even being part of the plan doesn't mean knowing everything.'
He could understand that.
It was all information that no one but the person overseeing this plan should know.
It was blindingly obvious what would happen if it became known what kind of dragon it was and what that dragon's power did.
It was certainly enough to cause a split even in this organization called the Heavenly Dragon Society.
Because that was what the Heaven-Breaking Dragon-Slaying Sword was.
'Let me put the information together.'
There was an organization desperate to have his sword, and through an information route Geon-mu did not know, they were locating the remains of the Heaven-Breaking Dragon-Slaying Sword.
Geon-mu had no reason to leave them alone.
"How do you people contact each other? Telepathy?"
"You make pointless jokes. By smartphone, obviously."
"......Right, obviously."
Why had he assumed they were using telepathy or magical tools?
Geon-mu jabbed Lumia's right shoulder.
Lumia, whose whole body had gone limp, felt sensation return to her right hand.
"What is this......?"
"Take it."
Geon-mu tossed Lumia her smartphone as he spoke.
"Report to your superior."
"Report what?"
"Mission complete, of course. Tell them you obtained the remains of the Heaven-Breaking Dragon-Slaying Sword. And that in the course of it Heo Jin-ho died in combat, so you're reporting in his place."
"Then do you mean to give me the remains of the sword?"
"I'll give them to you. Of course."
Geon-mu lowered the short sword in his grip at an angle to the ground.
Then he stamped on it.
SHATTER—!
The sword broke into shards, and Geon-mu picked up one of the pieces.
Lumia had wits enough to understand what that meant.
"You want me to deceive our boss with this?"
"I guarantee they won't know a thing until they touch it. Unless your acting is truly abysmal, they'll fall for it."
"......."
"If you plan to do it half-heartedly, say so now. I have no foul taste for tormenting people."
Lumia closed her eyes and thought.
A moment later, having apparently reached a conclusion, she nodded.
"Understood. I will cooperate in that matter."
"Good."
Geon-mu smiled happily, but inside he had begun to suspect Lumia.
'She's far too compliant.'
Was she quick to resign herself?
Or was she hiding a dagger and about to pull some trick?
Of course, it could also be a trap to take him to her own base and then overwhelm him with numbers.
He had suffered it countless times, so it was hard to say it was not the case this time either.
'If I want to be safe, giving it up would be the right call, but.......'
Geon-mu intended to see this matter through to the end.
He would have to be prepared to step on a trap and keep going.
Lumia launched an application and placed a call somewhere.
"This is Lumia. I have acquired the remains."
She threw a glance at Geon-mu, then continued her report.
"I obtained it as instructed, but combat broke out in the course of it....... Yes, Heo Jin-ho is dead....... Understood. I will bring it there. Until the day the dragon devours the world."
Lumia hung up and turned her eyes toward Geon-mu.
She relayed exactly what had just been said on the call.
"The High Priest has invited us to come and see him in person."
"Then we go. The mission is complete, and we're on our way to report."
"Do you mean to fight there?"
"If necessary."
Lumia shook her head at Geon-mu's recklessness.
"Have you not...... just come from two fights?"
"There's no rule that says having done it twice means you can't do it a third time."
He was right enough to make asking look foolish.
"What do you intend to do once you get there?"
"Nothing much. Sweep the lot of them away."
Hearing that, Lumia began to think hard about something.
And having apparently reached a conclusion, she said this to Geon-mu.
"In that case, I will cooperate with you."
Geon-mu looked down at her with an incredulous expression.
"In this situation, your cooperating with me is a given."
"What I mean is that I will not deceive you or anything of the sort; I will faithfully follow your words and your intent."
An unexpectedly swift betrayal!
He wondered whether it was something she said only to get out of the present situation, but Geon-mu did not think so.
'This woman seems to have something held over her.'
She was being forced into cooperation, with a weakness that would be her reverse scale, one she could not withdraw from this plan without.
"I have...... sworn loyalty to this place for a certain reason. If that reason disappears, and if there is a chance for it to disappear, I am ready to betray them at any time."
"And you think helping me will let you seize that chance?"
"I will by no means be negligent in your work. I promise it on my name."
"That'll be worth nothing, then."
Geon-mu shot back doubtfully, but Lumia's eyes were shining straight and clear.
Whatever she staked, Geon-mu intended to push ahead regardless, so he answered offhandedly.
"Lead the way."