Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Song Seokhwan (5)

Bisang Guild.

One of the oldest guilds in Korea.

It had maintained a top-ten position in the Hero Association's annual guild rankings, and for the past twenty years, it had never fallen below the top five—a true elite institution.

Bisang, Geumok, and Dangun Guild were commonly grouped together as Korea's three great guilds.

Among those who ranked Bisang first, the most cited reasons were its legitimacy and long history.

Neither Dangun nor Geumok could boast a history as long as Bisang's.

For Bisang, legitimacy and history were synonymous with pride.

That was why Bisang Guild valued tradition above all else.

And within such a Bisang, the question of succession was a sore spot.

—I heard the Bisang Guild Master's kids died.

—The Guild Master must be devastated.

—Anyway, what about Bisang's succession? The Song family has always led it.

One day, Song Jihyeok's two sons lost their lives.

Cause of death: an accident in a dungeon.

Those around him offered sympathy, but Song Jihyeok was a cold father.

Upon hearing that his children had died, he offered a brief thought.

'If I have new children now, they won't be ready to inherit by the time I retire.'

Since things had gone sideways anyway, Song Jihyeok decided to look on the bright side.

He'd publicly claimed they had talent, but in truth, they hadn't possessed an ounce of it.

Sons he felt no loss over whatsoever.

Using the pretense of missing his dead children, he resolved to find a capable replacement.

'Find me the most exceptional child in the country.'

It didn't take Song Jihyeok long to find a suitable candidate.

An orphan with the greatest talent among his age group in the entire nation.

Song Jihyeok gave the child a name.

'From now on, your name is Song Seokhwan.'

And so Song Seokhwan became the heir of Bisang Guild.

—The Guild Master's son?

—An adopted heir leading Bisang? Unacceptable.

At first, Song Seokhwan was shunned by everyone.

In a guild that prized tradition, he received no recognition.

No matter what he did, the same word followed.

Adopted.

Adopted adopted adopted adopted adopted......

He was sick of it.

His head felt like it would split open.

Song Seokhwan despised that word.

Then one day, everything changed.

—You're Song Seokhwan of Bisang?

A social party where the children of famous Hunters and conglomerate families mingled.

It was there that Song Seokhwan met An Sehyeon of the Geumok Guild.

An Sehyeon was the king of the party.

Heir to Geumok, one of the three great guilds.

Everyone at the gathering followed An Sehyeon.

Song Seokhwan was also an heir—to Bisang—but blood set them apart.

Song Seokhwan was adopted. An Sehyeon was born into it.

That difference had made Song Seokhwan an outcast in high society and turned An Sehyeon into a king.

—Song Jihyeok's adopted son? A filthy nobody from who-knows-where—keep your head down from now on.

Again with the exhausting "adopted" talk.

Song Seokhwan hated hearing it so much.

So he steeled himself—ready to be expelled from the guild—and laid waste to the whole room.

The man called the heir of Geumok turned out to be nothing special.

—That kid just did that to An Sehyeon...

—Bisang's heir beat Geumok's heir!

It was strange.

He'd expected to be punished. Condemned.

But instead of condemnation, everyone spoke well of him.

—I heard the young master beat the Geumok heir?

—Ha, that's the difference talent makes.

—That's our young master.

That wasn't the end.

For the first time, Song Seokhwan saw his father smile.

'My son shouldn't be looked down on by Geumok. Well done.'

Well done.

That short praise echoed in Song Seokhwan's head for a long time afterward.

The first compliment he'd ever received was intoxicatingly sweet.

He'd never tried drugs, but if he had, it would feel exactly like this.

'I need to be recognized.'

That moment changed Song Seokhwan.

He had to be superior to everyone. He couldn't afford to be looked down on by anyone.

He wanted to become Bisang's proud heir—his father's proud son.

'My son Seokhwan, you are exceptional.'

'Yes, sir.'

'Can you become the best in the nation?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Go to Florian and become the best.'

Florian Academy, where only the nation's brightest gathered.

If he became the best here, it would prove Song Seokhwan was the most outstanding person in the country.

'Huh?'

But reality was cruel.

Second place.

That was the rank Song Seokhwan received.

'I have to be the best. I have to be......"

Outranked by Park Seohu. Dismissed by An Seri. Broken by Cha Eunwoo.

Every day at the Academy was the worst.

Each day felt like hell.

The harder he struggled, the deeper he seemed to sink into the mire.

【Kill him.】

When had it started? A voice began speaking.

Every time he heard it, murderous intent surged.

Heroes exist to protect people.

They must never kill.

They mustn't, and yet the urge to kill was impossible to suppress.

The professor who'd made him like this.

If only Cha Eunwoo disappeared, he could go back to being the outstanding heir, the beloved son.

'I'll kill him. I'll definitely kill him.'

The flames inside Song Seokhwan blazed ferociously.

***

Hero ranks are divided from S to F based on ability.

At lower ranks, one could advance just by building a decent track record, but from D-rank onward, genuine skill matching the rank was required.

A single rank might seem trivial, but the gap between ranks could be insurmountable.

Ryeoun was a B-rank Hero.

He was on a completely different level from the C-rank Heroes I'd faced so far.

SHHHK—

In an instant, a dagger aimed for my throat.

By the time you heard the sound of air being cut, it was already too late to move.

You had to feel the tremor in the air against your skin and react preemptively to dodge.

SHING!

"Kgh!"

Ryeoun's dagger grazed my skin.

Not a deep wound, but the spot burned as though it were on fire.

He'd coated the blade with poison.

A graze here and there was manageable, but if the poison accumulated, I'd be in real trouble.

Ryeoun attacked again, one-sided, then vanished into stealth.

SLINK—

"This bastard, fighting dirty......"

Hide. Stab with a poisoned dagger. Hide again.

The assassin's textbook.

In other words, fucking filthy and underhanded.

"A man who can barely manage this much had the nerve to boast about saving the young master?"

Using a sword was pointless—I had no way to close in on someone who struck and retreated that fast. Using magic was unreliable—landing a hit was nearly impossible.

WHOOOM!

I swung my sword wide at the approaching Ryeoun, but it didn't connect.

He outstripped me in speed by a mile.

"As I thought, you don't have the right to save the young master."

Still, I was starting to see a thread.

Ryeoun's stealth wasn't top-tier.

Just before attacking, when he got close, his form flickered into view for an instant.

"So that's it."

There was a reason this goddamn game's players had screamed about the difficulty.

For one thing, skill mechanics were needlessly granular and complex.

Not all stealth was the same.

Each school that passed down the skill had its own mechanics, and the strategy to counter each one differed accordingly.

Ryeoun was a named NPC, but since he mostly operated behind the scenes, he'd had no combat scenes.

So even I didn't know which skills he used.

But now that I was facing him directly, I could tell.

How to bring him down.

"Class is in session. Today's topic: how to counter an assassin."

"Nonsense—you can't beat me!"

***

CLANG!

A rapid strike from stealth.

Then back into hiding.

A simple pattern, but the one on the receiving end couldn't tell what had hit them or how.

This was the assassin's winning formula.

No mere professor could escape it.

"Wind Burst!"

WHOOOM!

Wind exploded outward like a bomb.

It was the fastest of the Big Four elements, yet it didn't reach Ryeoun.

Too slow.

And the magic was off-target besides.

You'll never beat me.

'Wow, you're incredibly strong. With Ryeoun around, can't you beat anyone?'

'No, sir. A wretch like me is nothing but a grain of sand in the vast world.'

'Hey, then what does that make me? You're saying my right-hand man is a grain of sand.'

'That's......'

'Ryeoun has to be strong. That way your master gets praised too.'

Young master.

The kind soul who smiled at a wretch like him.

Your servant can kill anyone.

"Wind Arrow!"

"......!"

FWOOSH—!

An arrow of wind shot straight at Ryeoun.

Ryeoun crossed his daggers and deflected the spell.

But he couldn't hide his shock.

He'd been in stealth. How—

"How......"

"I figured out your stealth is nothing but a cheap trick. You project a light-refracting barrier in the direction you want to deflect line of sight—that's all. When I kicked up a big gust to stir up the dust, there was a patch where the dust moved unnaturally."

He'd been seen through already.

He'd fought countless battles against other people, but he'd never encountered anyone like this.

As expected—no ordinary man.

A professor—and one with immense authority at Florian, at that.

Perhaps—perhaps this man really could—

'Young master, who was always so kind.'

Just being by Song Seokhwan's side had been enough for happiness.

When he smiled, Ryeoun smiled too.

When he grieved, Ryeoun grieved too.

Song Seokhwan was the one who'd saved Ryeoun.

—You dipped into guild funds for your family?

—A measly E-rank Hero, thinking he's special! Everyone's got a family to feed!

Even now, the memory of that night when he'd committed an unforgivable sin burned vivid.

The night he'd thought it was all over.

The one person who'd extended a hand to Ryeoun.

'Well, this guy's a riot. Give him to me.'

'Th-that is dangerous, sir. How could a criminal be placed with the young master......'

'I make the decisions. Your family's struggling? I'll help. Sell me everything—your body and your soul.'

From that day forward, Song Seokhwan had been Ryeoun's everything.

A man with a warmer heart than anyone.

That was who he'd been—until one day, he changed.

Ryeoun closed the distance in a flash and drove a dagger at Cha Eunwoo's brow.

CLANG!

He reacted by a hair's breadth.

Ryeoun's dagger was caught on Cha Eunwoo's sword.

Stealth was useless now, but that didn't matter.

Ryeoun's greatest weapon was his speed.

Leaving no room for counterattack, he unleashed a barrage of dagger strikes.

Cha Eunwoo appeared to struggle with defense alone.

'Even I, who've been by the young master's side, couldn't change him.'

Right.

What a foolish thought.

Entrusting the young master to someone else—absurd.

"Professor Cha! I couldn't save the young master. So what makes you think someone weaker than me can? Is this the level of skill you had when you ran your mouth about saving him?"

He lashed out with his blades like a torrential downpour.

Ryeoun's blades were coated in a lethal poison effective even against Heroes.

Dismissing those as mere scratches would invite disaster.

Apparently sensing as much, Cha Eunwoo made his gamble.

SHHHK!

He parried Ryeoun's dagger and let his own blade ride along it, aiming for the body.

Ryeoun reacted instantly, twisting aside.

'I already know your sword!'

SLINK—

The blade path bent sharply.

Ryeoun was already mid-dodge from the first strike. The timing exploited the gap perfectly.

Cha Eunwoo's best attempt at a decisive blow.

'Let me teach you there's always a bigger fish.'

THWACK!

Substitution jutsu.

Ryeoun's body vanished, replaced by a wooden log.

Cha Eunwoo's sword cleaved the log in two.

"......!"

Cha Eunwoo scanned his surroundings, searching for Ryeoun.

Nowhere to be found.

Then—above.

Cha Eunwoo raised his sword high, bracing for an aerial attack.

Ryeoun smiled.

"Too bad. Below."

CRASH!

The ground beneath Cha Eunwoo's feet caved in, and Ryeoun emerged.

With his sword pointed upward, there was no way to block an attack from below.

Ryeoun's dagger drove straight at the heart.

"GKHAAH!"

As I thought—you don't have the right to save the young master.

A man who can't even beat someone like me—how could he save him?

Cha Eunwoo twisted his body and barely dodged the strike to his heart.

Fine, whatever.

If I finished him completely with the next attack—

"......!"

What.

When had he—?

Ryeoun's arm was caught in Cha Eunwoo's grip.

Impossible.

This wasn't something reaction speed alone could account for.

'Could it be?!'

A trap.

From the moment he'd raised his guard upward—every single move had been a trap.

This man had been planning for this from the very start.

"Fast opponents are done once you grab them. Class dismissed."

A massive surge of mana.

Ryeoun knew by instinct.

Ah. This is the end.

"Thunderbolt!"

A blue bolt of lightning struck Ryeoun.

A spell powerful enough to one-shot a tank.

Not an attack an assassin's fragile body could endure.

When Cha Eunwoo released his arm, Ryeoun crumpled to the ground.

"...How did you cast a spell of that magnitude in such a short window......"

"Just tell me what happened to Song Seokhwan."

He'd gambled with his own life.

If the dagger had angled just a fraction more toward a vital point, he'd be dead.

He'd known that—and still, without hesitation, he'd left the path to his heart wide open.

I see.

This man is beyond anything someone like me can compare to.

He's strong.

Overwhelmingly strong.

"The young master changed... What could have made him like that......"

Could this man save the young master?

If not him, then who?

He knew it was a shameless request.

But he had nowhere else to turn.

Wringing out every last ounce of strength, Ryeoun made his plea like a drowning man clutching at straws.

"Professor Cha... please, the young master... I beg you......"

With those final words, Ryeoun lost consciousness.