The next morning.
Jeong Yusin entrusted the shop to Silba and went to the Demon Disassembly Site.
When he returned after his third trip to the Labyrinth, Darmong said that the site’s manager who had been away was back.
The former manager once ruled over the Eastern Sector’s back alleys—a mischievous Demon Disassembly manager.
An elf who had been reformed after being beaten like a dog by the spirit teacher Simuth.
Though he had quit his reckless ways, he still held influence in the Eastern Sector and likely had information about slave hunter groups.
After walking for a while into the Western Sector, Jeong Yusin arrived at the Demon Disassembly building.
It was a familiar smell of blood, long missed.
Upon entering the disassembly site, Malron recognized Jeong Yusin.
“Hey! Aren’t you that Barbaroy?”
“Yes. Where is the manager?”
“Here.”
An elf wearing an eyepatch emerged from amidst the chopped-up demons. The elf in a baggy work uniform exuded a decadent aura.
Demon Disassembly Site Manager.
Aldein Ashwood.
“What is it?”
Aldein, with his hands in the pockets of his work uniform, slowly approached and asked.
“Do you know anything about the slave hunters?”
Jeong Yusin’s question made Aldein smirk.
“Yes, I do. Didn’t Darmong talk about me?”
“What are their names? Where are they located?”
Aldein came closer, staring intently at Jeong Yusin.
Jeong Yusin frowned.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Aldein grinned.
“It’s nothing. I’ll help you, but it’ll take a day. However, there’s a condition.”
“What is it?”
“Help me with some work.”
Jeong Yusin’s expression hardened.
He managed Darmong’s inn and wanted to return quickly.
“Right now?”
“That’s my condition.”
“Hmph. Understood.”
Jeong Yusin changed into a work uniform and worked alongside Malron. Thanks to his Level Up and improved insight, he could disassemble demons more smoothly.
Once he started working, he was fully immersed. All distractions vanished. He focused on cutting, slicing, and tearing apart demons.
His anxious mind calmed.
Evening arrived.
After finishing their tasks, the workers gathered in the disassembly site’s courtyard. They laid down grills and started roasting meat.
Jeong Yusin declined their invitation.
He had left the inn unattended all day. Silba must have managed everything herself; he felt apologetic. He wanted to at least make a quick appearance.
As Jeong Yusin was about to leave, Aldein called from behind.
“I’ll go with you tomorrow evening. Keep the area clear.”
“Yes.”
Jeong Yusin hurried back to Darmong’s inn.
The inn was quiet. Silba appeared to already be sleeping or had finished her day on the first floor.
Jeong Yusin inspected the inn once, scratched his head, and then climbed the stairs to his room on the second floor.
Tired, he entered his room and dropped onto the bed. Darkness settled in.
*
The next morning.
Feeling guilty, Jeong Yusin got up early to help Silba clean the inn’s hall and do the dishes in the kitchen.
Jeong Yusin and Silba tirelessly worked from morning to night.
With the last guest out, they tidied up the inn’s hall.
Jeong Yusin and Silba sat on the steps at the inn’s entrance with a bottle of alcohol.
After Silba took a sip of the drink, she sniffed.
“It looks like it’s going to rain.”
Jeong Yusin looked up at the sky.
It was a dark night, making it hard to distinguish.
The night breeze carried a sense of dampness.
Is this the first rain of early summer?
His heart was restless.
‘That’s right!’
He needed weapons and equipment. His longsword broke at the fifth level of the Labyrinth, and his light armor was torn to shreds.
The only usable weapon he had was a small dagger taken from the slave hunters.
It was taken from the son of Dito.
“I need to quickly visit the blacksmith. Silba, go rest.”
Silba tilted her head in confusion at Jeong Yusin’s words.
“Right now? There are some places that are open at this hour, but why not come tomorrow?”
“There’s something I need urgently.”
Jeong Yusin stood up and rushed toward the blacksmith in the Western Sector.
Boron’s blacksmith shop was closed.
“What’s going on?”
He grabbed a passing dwarf and asked.
“Huh? Boron? His assistant accidentally hit him with the hammer, and now he’s lying down.”
It seemed the one with the water attribute seal, Einhofer, had finally done something.
Jeong Yusin turned around and headed back to the inn.
There was no other blacksmith he could visit.
He hadn’t brought enough money, assuming he could purchase gear at a lower price.
‘Damn it.’
His frustrations were mounting; nothing was going his way.
It wasn’t wise to visit the blacksmith so late in the evening anyway.
Jeong Yusin walked quickly.
His head grew hot, and his heart began to race.
A few raindrops began falling under the dark night sky.
‘Why am I like this?’
Jeong Yusin swept his increasingly soaked hair off his forehead and slowed his pace.
After walking for a while, he returned to the inn.
Creak!
He opened the inn’s door and entered.
The dark inn was deathly quiet.
Most of the guests were out in the Labyrinth, so the inn was always quiet at night.
However, this silence felt different.
Jeong Yusin’s head slowly turned.
A wooden box sat on the table where he often sat, the closest to the counter.
Drawn to it, Jeong Yusin approached the box.
A strong smell of blood emanated from the box.
With trembling hands, he opened it.
Creak.
As the box opened, its contents were revealed.
One head of a middle-aged female Nuum.
Three heads of young Nuum children.
One of the small heads was someone he already knew.
All four heads were missing their eyes, and their mouths were cut to their ears.
Coins and mashed food were stuffed inside their mouths.
The children’s faces were severely contorted, as if they had suffered until their last breath.
“Uuuuuugh!!!”
Jeong Yusin bent over and vomited.
The reason Dito betrayed his party.
The reason Dito tried to kill him.
The answers lay inside that box.
Creak!
The inn door opened.
Jeong Yusin looked up.
Standing there was Aldein.
“It’s suddenly raining, isn’t it? I thought the weather was odd.”
Aldein, wearing his baggy work uniform, glanced at the box and said,
Thump. Thump.
Aldein wiped the water off his work uniform and approached Jeong Yusin.
Creak.
Bang.
Aldein closed the box on the table.
Jeong Yusin stared blankly at Aldein.
“What are you staring at so blankly?”
Aldein leaned down and placed a hand on Jeong Yusin’s shoulder.
“Snap out of it.”
Aldein tapped Jeong Yusin’s shoulder.
“You can’t snap out of it?”
Squeak!!!
Jeong Yusin’s face turned. His cheek burned.
The light returned to Jeong Yusin’s eyes.
Aldein smirked.
“I’ve brought information. Do you want to hear it?”
Jeong Yusin nodded.
Aldein stood up and shouted.
“Hey, come in.”
A few people entered the inn entrance with discipline.
There was a boar humanoid, a cat humanoid, a lizard humanoid, an elf, and a dwarf. Some familiar faces from the Demon Disassembly Site were among them.
“Check if there’s an ambush somewhere around here. Get rid of that thing.”
Aldein pinched his nose and pointed to Jeong Yusin’s vomit.
One of Aldein’s subordinates spread out across the second floor and kitchen, while another grabbed a mop and broom from the storage and cleaned up the vomit.
“Sit down.”
Aldein sat at a nearby table.
Then he pointed at the opposite side.
Jeong Yusin silently sat where Aldein gestured.
Aldein took out a piece of paper from his bosom and waved it.
“Can you read?”
“Hardly.”
Jeong Yusin’s hoarse voice came out.
“I’ll read it for you.”
Aldein began reading.
“The name of the slave hunter group is Crimson Hunters.”
“They are people who came from the Western Empire, laundered their identities in southeastern Lionel Kingdom, and gathered here in the Labyrinth City.”
“These bastards have a lot of money. They’ve made quite a fortune by kidnapping people from the Eastern Union. Even though Karin tried to stop them, it was futile.”
“…Junior officers: 30. Senior officer: 1. That’s all.”
Aldein finished reading all the letters written on the paper and yawned.
Jeong Yusin looked at Aldein.
“Where are they now?”
“In the Eastern Sector.”
“Why does Labyrinth City just let them be?”
“They’re just bottom-feeders who only care about money. There are many such groups. The high-ups in the Labyrinth City have other things to do. The city guard is busy, too.”
“Why the hell…”
“Are you here to petition me?”
Aldein tilted his head sideways.
“Did you come here to say that the law in the Labyrinth City is wrong and that there’s no justice? Stupid hybrid Barbaroy, wake up. Just because you’re hanging around good people doesn’t mean you’ve made it.”
Jeong Yusin glared at Aldein.
Aldein scratched his eyepatch with a finger.
“Darmong, Karin, Mion, Simuth, Luke, Ashur.”
“One of the yard guards reported finding a wolf humanoid in the storage shed. It seems they forcibly administered a strong drug.”
The cat humanoid who emerged from the kitchen interrupted Aldein’s speech.
“I’m talking right now, rookie.”
Aldein glared at the cat humanoid with his remaining eye, twitching.
“S-sorry, boss.”
The humanoid trembled and bowed his head.
Jeong Yusin gritted his teeth.
‘Silba.’
The smiling face of the humanoid quietly flashed through his mind.
Aldein tapped the box.
“Can’t you see? The slave hunters don’t bother the powerful. They go after the weak, those without backers, the vermin of the city. Look at that white wolf humanoid. He’s only doped up, but his limbs are intact, right?”
Aldein leaned back in his chair and continued.
“What are you going to do? Cower under Mion’s skirts? Cling to your sword teacher’s pants? Can’t you stand on your own without people around you?”
The intent to kill began rising.
Not only were these the ones targeting his life, but they were also the ones who handed a little money to starving children and ordered them to kill.
They were the ones who gouged out the eyes and tore the mouths of the families he had kindly helped.
Jeong Yusin lifted his head.
“I’ll kill them. All of them.”
A dark shadow flickered in Jeong Yusin’s eyes.
Aldein stared into Jeong Yusin’s eyes for a while, then smirked.
“That’s the spirit. You’ve returned with the same look from when we first met. No, you’ve improved. That’s a good look.”
Aldein’s subordinates gathered behind him, having thoroughly searched the inn.
“Bring it out.”
Aldein ordered indifferently.
“Yes.”
The elf responded and took out a piece of clothing from a leather bag, placing it on the table.
A black coat.
“You don’t have equipment, right? Put it on. It’s made from demon skin and can withstand normal slashes.”
Jeong Yusin looked at the coat and nodded.
Clang.
Aldein unsheathed his sword from his waist and placed it on the table.
“It’s the sword I use. Go ahead and try to draw it.”
The subordinates who quietly stood behind him trembled.
Without saying a word, their eyes widened to the size of lanterns.
A long sword with a reddish hue.
Jeong Yusin grabbed the hilt of the sword.
Aldein observed every single action of Jeong Yusin, as if promising not to miss anything for even a moment.
Swoosh.
Under the dim lighting of the inn, the sword revealed its form.
It wasn’t a common double-edged sword.
A thin single-edged blade.
It seemed easy to cut flesh but difficult to slice through armor.
“It seems like it would be difficult, but it actually cuts well.”
Thud.
Jeong Yusin sheathed the sword.
“Why are you helping me so much?”
At Jeong Yusin’s question, Aldein rested his chin on his hand and thought deeply.
The inn was so quiet that even the sound of a pin dropping could not be heard.
Aldein’s mouth slowly opened.
“When there’s work to be done, I assign it. When advice is needed, I offer it. When there’s a guy with strong killing intent, I want to give him a weapon. In short, it’s just how I feel.”
Aldein stood up from his seat.
“That’s all I can do for you. Be careful. Those slave hunters are deep within the Eastern Sector. I’ll assign you a guide. I can’t fight alongside you, though.”
“…”
“If they don’t want to go, they can come back. Take care of this box and the wolf humanoid too. We’ll keep them safe until your mission is done.”
“Yes.”
The boar humanoid bowed deeply in response.
“I’m going.”
Aldein stood up and walked away, but abruptly stopped.
Then he turned around and placed his hand on Jeong Yusin’s shoulder.
“I should have told you this, but I forgot.”
The one-eyed manager’s eye curved into a crescent moon shape.
“Welcome to the Labyrinth City.”
