81. The Executioner Im Jaebaek (3)

“Kaoooo!”
“Kao!”

A pod of Scylla cruised through the sea. What had been sixteen bodies when they wrecked the Seagulls’ vessel had swelled to seventy-nine.

“Er, excuse me.”
“I’m listening, so speak.”
“I’m grateful you saved us, but isn’t it a bit much, lingering on the island this long?”

Im Jaebaek fidgeted, yet he got out everything he meant to say. Back when they’d sent the armed boat to the bottom, he’d assumed they would leave this cursed island right away.

And yet Yujin was leisurely hunting the Genocide Salmon.

He reinforced his stats with the life force he’d plundered.

He crafted Scylla from the corpses of the Genocide Salmon. With nearly half a day now spent on the island, the debtors, Im Jaebaek among them, could only feel their mouths go dry.

“Don’t worry. Those bastards can’t come.”

Yujin spoke without a care. The waters all around the island were an erosion zone, which was to say Genocide Salmon territory. Guarding the boat while hunting the monsters underwater? It would take a Hunter at least one Stellar Rank higher even to attempt it, and the Seagulls didn’t have a single one who’d crossed the 5th Rank.

“Even if their boss came in person, it wouldn’t work.”
“They’ll know that too. Without onions, the Genocide Salmon…”
“Better if they do come. A sea battle works more in our favor.”

“Kaoooo!”

One of the Scylla answered Yujin’s words.

‘Lucky, though.’
To think I’d stumble on an erosion zone where Genocide Salmon spawn.

‘Undead like Revenants and Scylla need the right conditions, you see.’
There aren’t many undead you can reinforce with just a corpse, the way you can an Armored Zombie or a Skeleton. The higher an undead’s grade climbs, the more the method for awakening its latent power varies, both by grade and by the corpse you build it from. The Genocide Salmon’s reinforcement conditions weren’t fussy and its results were outstanding — highly cost-effective for modification, you might say.

‘If I station these things around Yeonpyeong Island, even the man-hunters won’t be able to get close.’

‘If I’d brought a Relic along, I could have made more.’

Tsk.
The strong moss that grows around the island. Compared to a Black Herb farm or blood-stone it doesn’t bring in money, but it’s a byproduct with fairly considerable value. This time I’d slipped in easily by playing a debtor — but the next time I came calling, it wouldn’t be so simple.

‘Can’t be helped. Even seventy-nine is more than I could ask for.’

Ocean monsters surface at an extremely low frequency. I should count myself lucky just to have run into a beast as undemanding to modify as the Genocide Salmon.

Satisfied with the unexpected haul, Yujin rose to his feet.

“We’re heading back, so tell them to get ready.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Oh, right. Now that I think of it — is there anyone who knows how to pilot a boat?”

At the question Yujin tossed out offhandedly, Im Jaebaek’s face went slack with shock, and he dashed off toward the debtors.

Hm. Forget a boat — I can’t even drive a car. Well, they’ll figure something out.

Three fishing boats headed west. On the decks, the debtors stared ahead with sour expressions.

“Kaoooo!”

A Scylla swam ahead with a rope lashed around its neck. The fearsome monster that had smashed the Seagulls’ vessel to pieces was now towing the fishing boats.

“Can we really trust those monsters?”
“They’re not going to chuck us out as a packed lunch, are they?”
“And what’ll you do if we don’t trust them? It’s not like there’s another way.”

The crewmen who knew how to pilot a fishing boat had all been caught up in the fighting and killed. There was no one left who could operate the boats moored at the island.

“May I have a word?”

Im Jaebaek had asked that the Scylla be made to tow the boats. Having hit on the very same idea, Yujin grinned and adopted the suggestion. He linked up the pod of Scylla, and the voyage toward land began.

Im Jaebaek made his way past the murmuring debtors and approached Yujin, who stood watching the sea from the bow of the dinky little boat.

“I wasn’t in any state to say so earlier. I will repay the kindness of being saved, without fail.”
“That feeling. Don’t you forget it.”

At Im Jaebaek’s words of thanks, Yujin let out a short little laugh.

“But this matter you wanted to discuss with me…”
“You’re an impatient one. Let’s talk it over slowly, in a quiet place.”
“I’m sorry to say this, but once we reach land, I think I’ll have to leave at once.”
“Because of your sibling?”

Wariness flickered at the corners of Im Jaebaek’s eyes. It had been the same when he’d first set foot on the island; he’d already sensed well enough that Yujin was after him.

But now that the man knew even about his sibling, the tension he’d let slacken a little drew Im Jaebaek taut all over again.

‘Talk in circles and there’s no end to it.’

Yujin knew of the Executioner who had made a name of terror before the regression. He had never seen the man himself, but he was a Hunter so steeped in rumor that anyone would have heard of him sooner or later. On the strength of that intel, he’d tracked his way all the way to the Seagulls’ labor site.

‘It’s not as if I can explain all of that.’

‘Sincerity always gets through, in the end.’

Yujin pushed away Kronos’s thoughts as the Constellation roared with laughter.

“I’ve no intention of explaining how I found out about your situation, or about your sibling.”
“…”
“But I can solve it for you.”

No answer came back. Eyes sharpened with wariness stared straight at Yujin.

“You’ll understand once we get back to land.”
“…We’ll continue the rest somewhere else.”

The pod of Scylla didn’t head for the harbor where they’d brought the debtors aboard, but moved a little farther north instead.

“We came from over that way. Why are we passing it by?”
“If you want to fight the Seagulls, I’ll let you off here.”
“Ah, ah—”

At Yujin’s threat, the startled debtor clamped his mouth shut.

Tsk. No sense at all, the lot of them.

‘If it were only the Seagulls, fine, but there’s a high chance the Rakshasa Guild will move too.’
A situation with no Oak Staff Harboring Lightning and no Relic. And of my undead minions, apart from Song Myeongseok, the lot are Scylla that can only operate underwater. Without the support of the two artifacts, the number I can command is eighty at most.

‘Once a corpse has been made into an undead, it can’t be revived a second time.’
These Scylla I went to such trouble to secure? The ocean undead would be the heart of Yeonpyeong Island’s defense. In the future I’d read about through Memento — hadn’t the man-hunters ultimately landed on Yeonpyeong Island and subdued the Rerics? I’d left it to Fafnir, so it might hold for the time being, but it was about time I needed another measure.

‘I can’t afford to lose even one.’
Other undead, if they perished, I could simply craft anew. But the corpses of the Genocide Salmon — unless I drove the Seagulls and the Rakshasa Guild out completely, there’d be no resupplying them for a while.

Hmm. Maybe I should put in a commission with the black market instead, to look into ocean monster corpses.

‘Before the regression too, I often commissioned the corpses I needed from them.’
A clash with the man-hunters was inevitable. I’d best start preparing for it soon.

His gaze fixed on the sea, he was sorting out his plans for the days ahead when the cries broke in.

“Th-the harbor!”
“We’re finally saved!!”
“We’re free of those damn dogs!!!”

The debtors’ cheers at the sight of the harbor shimmering beyond the horizon lingered in his ears.

Yujin pulled the boat in at a shoreline crowded with tetrapods. He could hardly enter the port with the pod of Scylla still roped to the boats.

“Thank you. Truly, thank you.”
“We won’t forget this kindness!”

The debtors scattered every which way. They had nothing in common beyond having been sold off to the Seagulls, and moving individually would serve them better than traveling in a pack.

“Shall we go, then?”

Without waiting for a reply, Yujin set off with long strides. Im Jaebaek followed, a dubious look on his face.

He borrowed a phone in a village near the shore and got straight in touch with the Madam.

“Mr. Debtor. Did the job go off well?”
“I reek of brine, so don’t call me that.”
“Hoho. It was quite an amusing commission, for my part.”
“How many people sell themselves off to their own creditors?”

Yujin gave a self-mocking laugh, then asked her to send the things he’d arranged in advance: a vehicle, a change of clothes, and the rest.

“It’ll be there within the hour.”
“I never even said where I am.”
“Hoho. Location tracking’s a given, you know that.”

She’d had personnel on standby near Busan, she said, waiting for Yujin to make contact. When it came to preparation, the woman left little room for error.

“And the thing I commissioned separately?”
“That’s been taken care of as well.”
“Good.”
“When will you be coming up? I’ll have things ready.”
“I’ll head up right away.”

Hanging up the phone, Yujin slid his gaze back over his shoulder.

“Did you come to the island on purpose?”
“Yeah. To recruit you into our company.”
“A company?”
“Black Company. I’m planning a federation of several businesses.”

He’d sketched out the same business federation for the Scraps and Shin Junseok before. Having heard Yujin out in full, Im Jaebaek shot back in a deflated, incredulous voice.

“You’re telling me you saw me as a member of this business?”
“That’s right. Cost me a bit of effort, thanks to you.”
“I’m not a man worth that much.”
“The one who decides your worth isn’t you, Mr. Im Jaebaek. It’s me.”

The Executioner was a grim alias. Having climbed to the heights of the 7th Rank, the man had qualities worth using as a Hunter in his own right.

What’s more, there was one more reason Yujin had set his sights on Im Jaebaek.

“The founder of Brothers Produce — that’s surefire business sense, isn’t it?”
“…I never imagined you knew that much.”
“I might not know much else, but my eye for talent is dead certain.”
“That’s all in the past. That.”

He’d been a promising young entrepreneur, stabbed in the back by the very partner he’d co-founded the company with. Common enough a story, as these things go.

“I need your business sense. We’ll settle the figure through negotiation.”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve got something I have to do.”
“You’re turning me down without even hearing what work I’d assign you?”
“I’ll repay the kindness of being freed from that island. But… not right this moment.”

Im Jaebaek bowed ninety degrees and made to turn away.

“How do you plan to get out of the village?”
“I’ll carpool, or run there on my own two feet.”
“You don’t even know where this village is.”

His belongings had been confiscated when he entered the island. Im Jaebaek didn’t have so much as a mobile phone, that essential of modern life.

“My people will be here in an hour. I’ll drop you off in Busan.”
“…I’m in your debt yet again.”

Im Jaebaek could find no further grounds to refuse. Yujin gave a low chuckle and settled himself on a nearby boulder.

An hour later, a military Humvee rolled into the village along a narrow path that ran between the rice paddies.

“They sent a sturdy one.”

A mana wavelength radiated off the Humvee. Its durability was already immense, and the body’s exterior had been reinforced with magic on top of that. A Fireball would do little more than scuff it.

The mercenary who climbed out of the vehicle came straight over to Yujin and bowed his head.

“Master Yujin. I’ve come to escort you.”
“Hey, didn’t a guest come along too?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Tell him I’d like a word. There’s someone I want to introduce him to.”

— Ka-chunk.

The rear door opened. And the instant a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties stepped out of the car, the words came.

“Bro?”
“Jae… Jaeyeong?”

The hardened face Im Jaebaek had kept braced with wariness crumbled.

After being stabbed in the back by an older acquaintance he’d co-founded the company with, Im Jaebaek’s life had plunged into the abyss. He’d started a business again afterward, but each one failed. He was scraping together just the interest payments, barely keeping up, when he awakened as a Hunter.

‘Now I can pay off the debt.’

But.

“Oof. You spent a lot of money running that business, didn’t you. We’ll hold on to your little brother for a while, so you’d best put in some work.”

The Seagulls used the debt as a pretext and kidnapped his younger brother. He’d buckled under the threat that he’d have to do penal labor for four years to get his brother back. Even through the half a year or so he’d spent harvesting strong moss, his spirit at least had refused to break.

‘I survive no matter what, and I get out. And then I save my brother.’

The Seagulls’ word couldn’t be trusted. Surviving four years underwater, where the Genocide Salmon swarmed, was an impossibility to begin with. After long observation, Im Jaebaek had worked out why the Seagulls weren’t attacked by the monsters.

‘The moment those bastards let their guard down, I escape.’

But then. What was this?

“You can just call me Cheon Yujin.”

A debtor who’d just been dragged onto the island had called out a summoned beast and brought down a 4th-Rank-class powerhouse with ease. He’d raised the dead and sunk even the armed vessel the Seagulls took such pride in. He’d even managed the escape from the island, something Im Jaebaek had only been able to picture in his imagination.

‘I’ve received a great deal, but I can’t blindly trust that man.’

Once was enough, being wounded by the betrayal of someone close.

What’s more, the unidentified man who’d saved him had grasped not only his name but his entire situation. Grateful as he was, there was no helping the wariness that rose in him. A distrust cut that deep into the heart isn’t easily shaken off.

‘For now, I think only of saving my brother!’

The Seagulls’ camp would be in disarray about now. A chance to save his brother that would never come again!

It was with that single thought that he’d been waiting for the vehicle when it arrived.

“Why are you the one stepping out of there?”

His one living blood kin had stepped out of the Humvee. The instant he came face to face with Im Jaeyeong, the wariness in his heart came crashing down.