84. Tentacle-Style Expansion (1)

When the little dinghy pulled in close, Fafnir came over to meet it, a blue flame blazing where his eyes should have been. The undead’s eye-fire had deepened a shade, and the energy pouring off his whole body had turned fierce.

“So you’ve reached the 5th Stellar Rank?”

— Oh. That’s right. You caught on quick.

Fafnir tugged his lips up a fraction and preened. He must have filled his spirit-power to the brim on the mana stones he’d absorbed clearing out the Reric remnants. He looked so natural now that nothing about him suggested a corpse at all; that smile was something he could produce only by working the cheek muscles, stiffened with spirit-power, one at a time.

Astonishing, as ever.

His command of spirit-power manipulation had been honed to the very limit. Given that Park Haneul’s living-day realm had only reached the 6th Rank, the feat bordered on the impossible. It simply failed to register, since what he’d chosen to flaunt with that ability was a smile.

— Master. You’ve brought another curious undead along, haven’t you?

“From here on, the Scylla will be in charge of guarding the shoreline.”

— Hm. A sturdy-sounding name.

“Don’t get competitive over an undead’s name.”

— Fair enough. I think Fafnir is a fine enough name too.

What’s with getting competitive over a dead thing’s name?

Yujin got straight to the point.

“When did the man-hunter bastards start their attack?”

— Three days ago.

“You held out well. They were no pushovers.”

— Heh heh. You told me to hold, so I gritted my teeth and did.

Excuse me. Sir.

The gap in their forces wasn’t something sheer guts could plug.

When a dubious light flickered at the corner of Yujin’s eyes, Fafnir laughed airily.

— They took their sweet time sizing us up. Seems they thought the Rerics were still here.

“Makes sense. The fog was thick, so they wouldn’t have realized the island had fallen.”

A cargo ship big enough to haul monsters made an enormous target. The Rerics might have poor accuracy, but something that size would be hard to miss, and there was only so much defensive magic could do.

— If an assault like today’s had kept up for three days, it would’ve gotten rough.

“That’s not like you. Spouting weak talk.”

— You told me to defend the island. At times like this, you’ve got to judge coolly.

Fafnir muttered primly.

What if Joo Yeongmin, the 6th-Rank Hunter, had thrown caution to the wind and forced a landing? With his Stellar Rank raised, the Fafnir of now might just manage to stop him, supposing it came down to mutual destruction. The innate racial correction of a Draconian, stats effectively doubled by the [Martial-Mage] trait, the Dragon-Scale Armor on top of that, a command of Dark Fighting-Aura that fell no short of Joo Yeongmin’s own: there was a real chance of victory.

The problem is the rest of the force.

The Revenant had played a decisive role in the mutant-Reric hunt. Incomplete as it was, it could still wield Aura, and its physical abilities were outstanding enough to put it at near-5th-Rank capability. But that only held up because the man-hunters’ main force was the 5th-Rank Ogre and the 4th-Rank Troll. And worn down as it was from forcing a crossing of the sea, set against an Ogre?

The Revenant couldn’t hold its own.

They were inferior both in numbers and in quality. The fog the Black Obelisk threw up had veiled the enemy’s line of sight and led them to misjudge; the man-hunters’ own caution had ended up tripping them up.

— Anyway, that was one bold declaration of war you made.

“It’s a fight we can’t avoid anyway. No need to play humble.”

— Heh heh. A new enemy. I’m looking forward to it.

“You won’t be disappointed. They’re a pretty formidable foe.”

— That’s just what I want.

Right. This was exactly what made him Yujin’s minion.

After handing control of the Scylla pod over to the Black Obelisk near the shore, he set off for Ground Zero.

Inside the Galaxy Pub, the VIP room that only a select few could so much as enter was, for some reason, packed.

“When’s Bro getting here?”

.

Kang Minyeong muttered, tossing a handful of the high-end snacks laid out on the table into her mouth.

Across from her, the two of them sat side by side. The Im siblings surveyed the room with sour looks.

“Never thought I’d set foot in Ground Zero in all my life.”
“Still beats the Seagulls. Even so.”
“Beats wearing a diving suit, too.”

The Im siblings were setting foot in the notorious Ground Zero for the very first time. Still, set against the days they’d spent in the labor camp or under the Seagulls’ thumb, their lot now was vastly better.

— Rrrrumble—

With a ponderous groan, the iron door at the far end of the VIP room swung open.

“You’re all looking well.”

Yujin strolled in at a leisurely pace and greeted them placidly.

Blue eye-fire wavered beyond the door.

— Master. I can’t get in here, can I?

“Well, you’ll have to wait outside.”

— Too cruel.

“Or do you want to cut your legs off and come in? I can just reattach them after.”

— That’s a surprisingly tempting offer.

Fafnir and Yujin ran through their grisly little comedy routine, and the Madam let out a brief “Hoho” as she parted her lips.

“We can’t permit such barbaric conduct in our pub.”
“Coming from a place whose door runs away from home every time, that’s a bit…”
“Master Yujin. Would you kindly keep quiet?”
“Yes’m.”

Strike a sore spot, and the Madam’s composure crumbled for a fleeting instant.

I’ve hardly ever seen Oh Hyeonjeong drop the act.

To pull off something that hard — Yujin, I’m proud of you!

‘Pipe down, if you please. Lord Constellation.’

‘Because I had no wish to hand over my soul.’

The Evil-God Constellations took a target’s soul as collateral, the price of their patronage: roughly the same deal-with-the-devil that turns up so often in novels and films.

‘The additional contract terms were absurd, too.’

When all-out war with House Romanov became unavoidable, he’d even rushed to the Tower of Babel to make contact with the Evil-God Constellations. What was it those bastards had said back then?

Those were the conditions they’d laid out, supposedly the price of their blessing. Insane bastards. Human sacrifice, and of infants? The heads of people who’d done no wrong?

‘And that was just a first-stage blessing. To receive a stronger blessing, they demanded yet more offerings.’

‘My realm was the 9th Rank. Had I set my mind to it, I could readily have met the conditions.’

‘I have standards of my own. Even me.’

The days when killing had stirred any aversion in him were long past. Even so, he hadn’t come so undone as to slaughter innocent people for a scrap of power. And there was more to it besides.

‘It was too late, besides.’

‘Even if I’d obtained an Evil-God Constellation’s blessing, I couldn’t have wielded it as deftly as Dmitri.’

Odin, the founder of rune magic, had paired excellently with Dmitri, who’d attained the very pinnacle of magic. The Evil-God Constellations who’d extended a hand to Yujin, by contrast, were each and every one a poor fit for his temperament. Even with a blessing granted, he’d have needed time to adapt to it.

‘I simply made the choice to fight with the power familiar to me.’

He frowned at Kronos’s booming laughter. Dredging up old memories left a sour taste in his mouth. Yujin pushed aside the voices ringing through his head and turned his attention to the people in front of him.

“The executives of the Black Company. Pleased to meet you.”

A few of them nodded. Someone else watched him with eyes full of curiosity and doubt.

Now then. Shall we get down to business?

The first to speak up was Im Jaebaek.

“Um, Master Yujin. If it’s no rudeness, might I ask a question?”
“As many as you like.”
“I’d like to know what it is you’ll have me do.”
“From now on, you’ll be in charge of overseeing the Company’s Ground Zero branch.”

The Red Spider ran a whole spread of businesses. The blood-stone trade and the Black Herb farm brought in the most, but there were several smaller ventures besides, small only in name, since in truth each was enough to keep an entire organization fed.

‘You think keeping hundreds of organization members running is a trivial thing?’

The Red Spider numbered over two hundred Hunters on its own. Given that a Hunter’s earnings towered far above an ordinary person’s, the sums the Red Spider had to be raking in were easy enough to work out. None of it could be left to the undead.

“Hoho. He’s someone you’ve known only a short while. Can you trust him?”
“Don’t worry. He’s got the skill for it, and he owes me a great debt, so he won’t slack at the work either.”

He had a sharp eye for business, and his potential as a Hunter ran extraordinarily high. Above all, his sense of debts owed and grudges held was firm, which made him someone the work could be trusted to.

“…I’ll do my utmost.”

Im Jaebaek answered in a heavy tone, making no effort to hide the weight the words laid on him.

“We can’t go on calling you by name forever, so shall we settle on a title within the company?”

Yujin, who’d been fiddling with his chin, let out an “Ah,” and went on.

“Director Im. Not bad. Sounds the part.”
“Uh, um. Thank you.”

Im Jaebaek couldn’t wipe the sour look off his face, and it was understandable. Going by the mood in the VIP room alone, the whole thing felt like a game of make-believe.

And yet not a single person there took Yujin’s words lightly.

Master Cheon Yujin is trusted.

Im Jaebaek had some experience running an operation of his own. At the Seagulls’ labor camp, he’d led the debtors with a natural gift for leadership and earned himself the title of Director.

And more than that, Im Jaebaek had seen Yujin’s power with his own two eyes back at the labor camp. Coming from a man like him, even an offhand remark carried entirely different weight.

“How shall I relay this to Mister Black?”
“I’ll be in and out of the borderlands for a while. Tell him to take his time with the handover.”
“We’ll have things ready on our end as well.”

“By the way.”

Yujin cut himself off midway and shot the Madam a sidelong glance.

“You leaving or not?”
“Hoho. This Company business. I’m interested in it too, you see.”
“Once you hear it, you can’t get out. If you’re fine with that, stay right where you are.”
“How hurtful. Aren’t you being a little too cold, between the two of us?”
“What are we to each other?”
“Business partners.”

The Madam kept a respectable distance while showing not the slightest sign of leaving the VIP room.

She smells money.

The Black Company, the allied enterprise the man before her meant to build out. Once she’d caught wind of it from the story the Scraps let slip, the Madam had felt the urge to dive into the venture herself.

Cheon Yujin. This man isn’t one to be satisfied with Ground Zero.

She’d known him a little over two months. Back at the time of the [crimson camouflage] clearing commission, she’d taken him for a skilled rookie and nothing more.

But now? What about now?

One of the Three Powers of Ground Zero, and he’d gnawed away nearly half the Red Spider’s strength. He’d brought down Song Myeongseok, the man the Arahan Guild had been grooming as their Supernova. He’d even cured Mummification Disease, an affliction the present age called incurable, proving his Priest ability outstanding on top of everything else.

I absolutely cannot let him slip away.

The Madam was certain. Should this man’s realm climb any higher, he’d grow into a colossus capable of tilting not just the northern reaches of Gyeonggi Province but the whole of Korea, no, the entire balance of East Asia.

“Well? Don’t you think that, that much, makes me a splendid business partner?”
“Saying it about yourself takes a bit of the charm off, no?”
“Hohoho. It’s the charm of honesty.”

She wouldn’t give an inch. Yujin twitched his cheek and circled back to the topic he’d set down a moment ago.

“What I have in mind is a business consortium.”

He walked them through the draft of the Black Company he’d already sketched for the Scraps and Shin Junseok, and partway through his explanation, the Madam raised a hand.

“Hold on a moment. Master Yujin. No — Representative Cheon.”
“Got a question?”
“This consortium you mentioned. Isn’t this tentacle-style operating?”

“You’re not wrong.”

The business model Yujin had laid out was a single enormous consortium spanning the entire theme of ‘Hunters.’ The idea was to weave together everything a family, a guild, or a corporation might do.

“Representative Cheon. Can you really handle it?”
“It’s possible.”
“You’re short on manpower, and your infrastructure lags behind guilds and corporations already established in society.”
“You just gather the finest Hunters in each field.”

A single genius carrying a field was nothing new, and after the Great Cataclysm the pattern had only grown more pronounced. A single 7th-Rank Hunter’s might outstripped that of ten 6th-Rank Hunters.

And he’d already gathered a roster of standout talent: the Madam, the Scraps, Shin Junseok, Im Jaebaek. The road ahead for the Black Company was bright.

Representative Cheon’s trait, could it possibly be…?

Yujin’s declaration came out with total confidence, and for an instant a preposterous notion took shape in the Madam’s mind.

Could it be that he can see other Hunters’ latent potential?

Both Shin Junseok and the Scraps had been unremarkable Hunters right up until they met Yujin. And yet ordinary college students had gone on to overwhelm the prospects of the Arahan Guild, the nation’s number one, and an employee a major corporation had cast aside was now drawing notice as the first person in the world to mass-produce mid-grade potions.

Coincidence?

He’s confident.

Yujin had cleared no end of challenges that struck everyone else as reckless. There had to be solid grounds behind even this business plan, arrogant as it was, overweeningly so.

“What’s my role in this?”

The Madam gave up pressing any further.