/
“Now, let’s get down to business.” The smile was gone from Deok-gu’s face, his voice serious. Seo Jun-ho sensed what he was about to say.
“The orphanage?”
Deok-gu nodded gravely. “We don’t know the exact location, but we found a lead.”
“That was faster than I thought.”
“We were just lucky. We happened to find something while investigating a bunch of different places.”
“An orphanage? Is that a code word?” The Frost Queen asked. She was playing with a large column.
“No, we’re talking about a literal orphanage.” Seo Jun-ho explained to her how the Fiend Association was using orphanages to train fiends. She banged on the column in anger.
“Those wicked, impudent humans!”
“Hey, that column’s expensive…” Deok-gu looked like he was about to cry, but she was already on a roll.
“Lead the way. I will punish those filth.”
“Let’s hear about that lead first.” Seo Jun-ho looked at Deok-gu expectantly, who then tapped on his Vita. A photograph of a man showed up. He was a foreigner with a kind face who looked like he was in his 30s.
“Torres Milo. A level 72 player who was active on the 2nd floor. Abilities unknown. He announced his sudden retirement while his career was peaking.”
“Nothing suspicious so far.” It wasn’t out of the ordinary for players to retire even when they were doing well. Sometimes, players had a sudden change of heart or became scared for their future.
“Look at the next picture.”
Beep—
It was an image of Torres walking in front of the Colosseum with two children walking behind him.
“An agent who was investigating Rome just so happened to take this picture.”
“And?”
“As far as I know, Torres never married. But there were kids with him, so I did some digging…” His face darkened. “And it turns out that his activities since his retirement are completely unknown. Even if he tried to erase his records, there’s no way it would be so clean.”
“That’s a little suspicious.”
“Right? Something felt off, so I went even deeper.” He pulled out a few documents; they were a compilation of reports from Rome. “I think he’s been living around Rome for a few years now, but no one knows where he lives or what he does. It seems that he sometimes goes out in public with children, but the important thing is that they’re never the same.”
“……” Seo Jun-ho’s eyes narrowed. “He’s getting more suspicious the more you tell me about him. But if he’s really the fiend who runs the orphanage, why is he acting so openly?”
“I wondered the same thing, so I went through crime records from the past few years.”
Beep— The two men and the spirit stared up at the hologram report.
“Almost every time he went out in public, there was a missing persons report within a week.”
“…Of course.” Seo Jun-ho instantly realized what that meant. “So he goes out to check for himself if the children are worth using?”
“That’s what I think. Of course, it could be something else.” Deok-gu didn’t sound confident, but Seo Jun-ho was sure of it. Keen Intuition was now A-rank, and it was screaming at him right now.
“How often does he go out?”
“Once every two months. He should be going out again next week.”
“Good. I’ll go.”
Deok-gu looked at him, worried. He wanted to tell him off, but he couldn’t quite do it.
“I know you’re strong. Hell, you know better than anyone how strong you are. But it’s really dangerous this time.” They didn’t know how many fiends worked at the orphanage. Besides, the place was overflowing with fiends in training.
“I don’t expect it to be easy,” Seo Jun-ho said calmly. “But you know how hard I’ve worked to get rid of them. So when they were wiped out, I didn’t think they would appear again.”
But things didn’t always work out the way you wanted them to. After the Five Heroes had ‘died’, the fiends had started to crawl out of the shadows.
“I can’t forgive the fiends. I don’t want to forgive them. You know why, don’t you?”
“……” Shim Deok-gu pursed his lips. He had nothing to say.
“If it weren’t for them, my parents wouldn’t have been killed by monsters.” Seo Jun-ho’s eyes were cold. Deok-gu raised his hands in surrender.
“…Tsk. It’s unfair of you to bring up your parents.”
“Either way, I won’t let them slip away.”
“What, so you don’t need any extra manpower? You’re gonna take care of everything alone with the Frost Queen?”
“It’s Frost Queen-nim.”
“…You’re gonna take care of everything alone with Frost Queen-nim?”
“It’s just an investigation. If he’s not a fiend, I’ll come back quietly.”
“And if he is?”
“Well, things will get noisy, then,” he said coolly. He seemed to consider something. “Also, do you know if some sort of technology has been developed that can turn fiends back to normal?”
“…There isn’t.” Deok-gu knew why he was asking. He laughed bitterly and patted Seo Jun-ho on the shoulder, as if to brush away some of the heavy burdens his friend was carrying.
* * *
Rome was divided up into 15 administrative districts called municipios. Most people gathered in municipio 1, where the Colosseum was. On the other hand, municipio 15 was mostly empty because of one large private property.
“It really has been a long time.” A man with a dusty hood looked up at the gates. It was the middle of the day, so he could see clearly into the property. Dozens of children were laughing and playing.
Creak. The gate opened, and a priest stepped out. He smiled at the man.
“Welcome, brother. What brings you—Keuk!”
The man took off his hood and grabbed his throat. “Call the director.” The Demonic energy that emanated from his body made the priest tremble in fear.
“A-a fiend… I-I apologize, I didn’t…”
“That’s enough,” a new voice said. A kind-looking man walked toward them, his hands clasped behind his back. “I didn’t expect the Demon Bow to come to such a humble place. If you had informed me ahead of time, we could’ve avoided making such a mistake.”
Demon Bow Kal Signer.
“Am I not allowed to come here?”
“Of course not. You are welcome at any time.”
Kal Signer glanced at the children. “Life must be pretty boring here.”
“Haha. We’re not here to have fun, after all. I am working day and night for the sake of the Demon King’s return.”
“The Demon King… Are you sure you can talk about him in front of the children?” He was conscious of their vicinity.
“Of course. If you don’t believe me…”
Torres clapped his hands. Suddenly, the children all stopped. The child on the slide, the child in the sandbox, the children playing tag; their smiles fell from their faces, and they stared at Kal Signer, expressionless.
“…Disgusting little things.”
“They’re all training hard so they can become like you.” Torres clapped again, and the children went back to ‘playing’. “Come on in.”
The large building was reminiscent of a college dormitory. Torres led him to his office and started to make coffee.
“So… what brings you here? I haven’t received any other orders.”
“I’m not here on Association business. I came here to carry out Nazad Hallow’s orders.”
The director’s eyes widened when he heard the name. He seemed nervous. “H-have I done something wrong…?”
“You must feel guilty about something,” Kal Signer snorted and put his legs up on the coffee table. “It’s got nothing to do with you. He ordered me to bring up some no-name to the 2nd floor.” It would take some time for him to succeed because Seo Jun-ho had to reach level 30 first.
“Just who…”
“No one important. Do you know someone called Seo Jun-ho?” Signer expected him to say no, but Torres nodded immediately.
“Of course I do. He’s the hottest topic on the 1st floor right now.”“…What? You know him?”
“Aren’t you talking about the Korean player? He reached 1st place in the Cave of Trials.”
“Wait, 1st place?”
“You didn’t know?” Signer frowned. It had been hard coming down to the 1st floor while avoiding the Associations; he’d barely made it with the Pathfinder. He hadn’t had any time to check the news.
“Well, it’s not like the only one who’s 1st place.”
Kal Signer had never been to the Cave of Trials before. Most fiends couldn’t even get close to it because it was maintained by the Player Association, but he thought he’d be able to reach the 9th level if he tried.
“Huh? He’s the only one.”
“What? How is that possible?” He pulled his feet off the table. He didn’t understand.
“He cleared the 10th level and set the record for 1st place.”
“…He beat Specter, Rahmadat Khali, and Kim Woo-joong?”
“Yes.”
“Ha… hahaha!” He let out an amused laugh. “Hasn’t it only been four months since he debuted?”
“That would be correct.”
“Tsk, he got lucky again.” Signer was greatly underestimating him. He’d been watching Seo Jun-ho for a while, and he thought that his luck had extended to the Cave of Trials.
It was exactly what Seo Jun-ho wanted.
He’s a weakling. The Shadow Brothers could’ve easily taken care of him. Signer just thought that he was extremely lucky—that it was how Seo Jun-ho had avoided the Shadow Brothers and the Las Vegas incident.
I wrote in my report that Seo Jun-ho was deeply connected to the Watchdogs’ deaths… but I don’t believe it myself. It was the Dokkaebi Guild’s Gong Juha. Seo Jun-ho didn’t do anything.
He hadn’t even been level 20 back then. How could he have taken down the whole team?
“Signer-nim, are you expecting to stay here for a while?”
“Do you have any complaints?”
“No, but…”
“I am indebted to you. That monster is wearing me down.” The orphanage was the only place on the 1st floor where he could hide. “This place will be safe.”
“Well, make yourself comfortable. However…”
“You don’t need to say it. You’re the director here. I won’t impede on your authority.”
“Thank you for understanding.” Torres was relieved that the Demon Bow wasn’t here for him.
To think that Nazad Hallow wants Seo Jun-ho… How unexpected.
Of course, his thoughts on the matter ended there; it didn’t have anything to do with him.