Next, the woman slammed Jeong Min-jun straight down onto the bottles on the table.
A sound like a bomb going off rang out. Fine shards of the bottles drove into the back of Jeong Min-jun's neck, the back of his head, and his back.
Jeong Min-jun was said to handle a sword better than anyone in Han-eol's class. Naturally, as befitted a swordsman, his body techniques were excellent as well.
Yet that same Jeong Min-jun could not break free of the woman's grip and was being swung about like a toy.
The tall woman pinned Jeong Min-jun to the table by the throat, then dragged over the surrounding bottles one by one and smashed them mercilessly into his face.
Before that overwhelming violence, even Kim Hyu-in could not make a peep.
The 1st Assault Corps ability-holders, so full of swagger only moments before, froze stiff and plastered themselves against the wall.
‘What a sight.’
Han-eol clicked his tongue inwardly.
Just then, women with sharp eyes filed into the room one after another.
“You are still not finished clearing up? The Commander will be here soon, so you had better hurry.”
The words came from a short woman in glasses, snapping her gum as she spoke.
“The Commander?”
Kim Hyu-in reacted to the word. Then he saw the bow-shaped badges pinned to the collars of these terrifying women and went pale as a corpse.
“The... the Artemis Knights.”
“Huh? Seriously?”
The instant the words left Kim Hyu-in's mouth, the faces of the 1st Assault Corps ability-holders turned black.
The Artemis Knights were Shinseong Group's strongest armed unit.
Reporting directly to the chairman, this order of knights was distinguished by being composed entirely of women.
The order was also famous as the unit the group deployed strategically whenever one of the Pioneer Corps' assault corps ran into a powerful demon beast and struggled.
Hence the epithet attached to the Artemis Knights: the ‘Demon Beast Slayers.’
In terms of individual martial power alone, the only ability-holders within Shinseong Group who could stand shoulder to shoulder with the Artemis knights would be the Red Team's ‘Silent Assassins.’
This was a top secret matter, but in fact the Artemis Knights were an organization created by Lee Cheol, Shinseong Group's founder and Elder Patriarch, to protect his younger sister Lee Hyeon.
Lee Hyeon, the ruler of demon spirit energy, was a natural predator of the Highland's demon beasts, but she had vulnerabilities against ability-holders from other cities.
Under the conviction that ‘Shinseong Group can prosper only if Hyeon is protected,’ Lee Cheol gathered only the strongest female ability-holders and founded the Artemis Knights.
Then, after Lee Hyeon disappeared, the Artemis Knights' mission changed and they came to serve as the backbone of demon beast subjugation in the Highland.
“That is enough. You will kill the kid at this rate.”
A woman of petite build, barely approaching 155 centimeters, pinched the temple of her glasses between thumb and forefinger, nudged them up slightly, and stopped the tall woman.
At that, the tall woman who had been mercilessly beating Jeong Min-jun took her hand off him at once.
“My apologies. I will have the room cleared immediately.”
The tall woman was thoroughly cowed before the short one.
The short woman put her glasses on and took them off, over and over, then shook her head.
“Looks like they're 1st Assault Corps kids. You think this lot knows how to clean anything? I've already spoken to the club, so never mind the cleaning and just get them all out.”
“Yes, Vice-Commander.”
So the short bespectacled woman was the Vice-Commander of Artemis.
Kim Hyu-in swallowed hard.
Just then a booming voice came from behind.
“The Commander is entering.”
“Already?”
No sooner had the words landed than the women knights blocking the entrance split cleanly to either side.
The Vice-Commander scowled at Kim Hyu-in.
“Get lost, quickly. Don't go upsetting the Commander for nothing. Move.”
At the Vice-Commander's low growl, Kim Hyu-in and the rest of the 1st Assault Corps ability-holders bolted outside as though fleeing.
The blood-soaked Jeong Min-jun staggered after them.
They made their escape by the emergency stairs at the back rather than the staircase the Artemis Commander was coming up.
Han-eol moved along with them, wedged among the seniors.
Then his gaze fixed on one woman.
She was a beauty with long, straight hair, dressed in pure white outerwear. The lovely woman climbing the club stairs surrounded by the women knights seemed to be the Commander of Artemis.
Frankly, the Commander's looks were breathtakingly bewitching.
Even the 1st Assault Corps seniors, scurrying off as though scalded, lost themselves for a moment and stared at her.
Even Han-eol could not take his eyes off the Artemis Commander, as though spellbound.
It was not that he had been captivated by her dazzling looks.
Han-eol had been able to see other people's souls since he was young, and as a result he tended to focus on the soul rather than on the face.
Now, too, Han-eol was not taken with the Artemis Commander's appearance but fixed on a different point.
‘Huh? There are two Images?’
Han-eol's pupils dilated slightly.
Within the pure white soul of Lee Byeol-ha, Commander of Artemis, reflected in his pupils, two Images were slowly rotating.
The first of them was a whale radiating a holy golden light.
The second Image she possessed was a whirlwind colored in pale blue.
Among all the people Han-eol had met until now, not one had held two or more Images. Excluding Han-eol himself, who had a full four Images, Lee Byeol-ha was an exceptional case.
‘Frankly, it's hard for me to say I fully possess four Images either.’
The full-color hand, the first of Han-eol's Images to manifest, had now taken on a fairly respectable coloring.
Perhaps thanks to that, Han-eol was able to use the full-color hand.
But the remaining three Images were not only dim in color; he had no sense of how to use them.
‘Which means I still have only a single Image.’
Commander Lee Byeol-ha, by contrast, had color in both of her Images, the whale and the whirlwind. The whirlwind's color was faint, but it seemed to have finished activating all the same.
From that standpoint, the Artemis Commander was clearly superior to Han-eol as he was now.
‘Tch. I'm still nothing but a frog in a well.’
It was while Han-eol sat somewhat deflated, pressed down by Lee Byeol-ha's talent.
WHOOSH—.
A hand came flying in from the side and snatched at Han-eol's hair.
‘Huh?’
Han-eol jerked his head away on reflex.
Thanks to the effect of Pyros' Ring, Han-eol's Agility now stood above 100. At that level, his reflexes surpassed those of the average ability-holder.
Unfortunately, the tall woman who had aimed for his head was a powerhouse well beyond the average ability-holder.
“You dodged that?”
The tall woman flinched, then bent the path of her hand twice in a row in midair and pressed the attack.
FWAP-FWAP-FWAK!
Her grasping hand flew in like a flash of lightning.
In the end, Han-eol surrendered his head to her.
With his hair seized in a brutal grip, Han-eol apologized at once.
“Ngghh. I'm sorry.”
The tall woman yanked his hair hard, put her mouth to his ear, and growled low.
“You crazy bast*rd. You dare rake those filthy eyes over the Commander? Should I rip your eyeballs right out?”
“Urgh. I'm sorry. I was wrong.”
Han-eol bowed his head over and over.
Fortunately, the Vice-Commander cut in at just the right moment.
“Hey, hey, hey. Don't go disturbing the Commander for nothing. Just let him go.”
“But, Vice-Commander.”
When the tall woman tried to protest, the Vice-Commander shot a sharp look over her glasses.
“I said let him go. The Commander glanced this way a moment ago.”
“Wha—? Is that so?”
At the news that Lee Byeol-ha had been watching, the tall woman started in surprise and released Han-eol's hair. Instead she shoved his chest hard with her palm.
“You. Count yourself lucky.”
“Urgh.”
“What are you waiting for? Get lost.”
“Ngghh. Yes, yes.”
Unable to make a sound, Han-eol left as though fleeing.
Han-eol hurried down to the first floor, and as he was about to leave the club, another fateful encounter at the entrance brought his steps to a brief halt.
A girl came face to face with him. Dressed like a delinquent, with a silver ring pierced through her lower lip, she delivered a shock to Han-eol.
The girl looked very young.
Perhaps she was only a first-year in high school?
Yet between the piercing set in her lip and the tattoos on her arms and collarbone, the innocence peculiar to a young girl was nowhere to be found, and a strong air of delinquency came off her instead.
When Han-eol stared at her blankly, the girl raised her eyebrows.
“What are you looking at? Gross.”
The girl's sharp reaction froze Han-eol in place.
“Uh……. I'm sorry.”
Han-eol gave her a quick bow of the head, then brushed past the girl.
But before long, Han-eol looked back.
At exactly that moment the girl turned her head as well, caught Han-eol in the act, and furrowed her eyes even more deeply.
‘Oh no.’
Embarrassed for nothing, Han-eol hurried out of the club.
The reason Han-eol had not been able to take his eyes off the girl just now was not that he liked her, but her soul.
Every human Han-eol had met until now had no protective barrier around the soul.
He had seen some outstanding ability-holders realize an Image inside the soul, but even they were defenseless on the outside of the soul.
The same was true of Han-eol.
Han-eol too had only four Images inside his soul, and nothing at all outside it.
Highland demon beasts, by contrast, were different.
Demon beasts raised a solid fortress around the soul.
On the fortress' outer edge they arranged offensive mechanisms suited to their own traits.
And the demon beast's soul then took root in the safest place, at the fortress' center.
‘But that girl just now, it was like looking at a demon beast's soul rather than a human's. Unlike some of Mid-Land Seoul's ability-holders, who build an Image inside the soul, the pierced girl seemed to be a case of building a fortress of unified attack and defense outside the soul, protecting the psyche and anima while striking at enemies. Hmmm~.’
Han-eol wondered where such a difference came from.
Left to his own inclinations, he would have liked to find out more about the two chance encounters of the day, namely Artemis Commander Lee Byeol-ha and the pierced girl from a moment ago.
But that was far too dangerous a thing to do.
‘I think I could yank the souls of those two right out, the same as a demon beast's…… but if I caused an incident that big in the Mid-Land, the cleanup afterward would be rough, wouldn't it?’
Han-eol suppressed his unnecessary curiosity.
Two days later, on August 14.
At last, the settlement of the merits Han-eol had earned was complete.
Shinseong Group precisely appraised the mana crystals, medicinal herbs, and assorted new materials Han-eol had brought back from the Highland, and set his incentive accordingly.
Shinseong Group also carried out a special appraisal of the demon spirit stone Han-eol had extracted from the male Girit's chest and added a further incentive on top.
As a result, the full reward breakdown that appeared on Han-eol's intranet today read as follows.
1. Prize Money
Payment details:
— 4.3 billion won before tax
Payment method:
— To be paid as part of next month's salary
— Entire prize amount processed tax-free
2. Prize Goods
Payment details:
— 3 bottles of A-grade recovery potion
— 1 custom-made armament commission
Payment method:
— Full armament crafting cost borne by the group
— Demon spirit stone to be inserted into the armament (the portion corresponding to the demon spirit stone brought back from the Highland by the meritorious party on May 22, 2056)
Han-eol had submitted one demon spirit stone to Shinseong Group on May 22, 2056.
That was the triangular demon spirit stone pulled from the throat of the male Girit.
Then, a short while ago, on August 9, 2056, Han-eol finished his third Highland expedition and, upon returning, submitted one more demon spirit stone to the group.
This one had come from the male Girit's chest; in form it was triangular, the same as the stone submitted after the second expedition, but it was distinctly larger.
A demon spirit stone the size of two adult fists put together. This would rank among the top results the 1st Assault Corps had achieved this year.