Chapter 50

Kim Na’s eyes burned holes into the information window. His face turned red, then pale, blood rushing all the way to his head until he looked ready to explode. But instead of letting it burst, he pressed down on the fury boiling at its limit and muttered under his breath.

“Fuck.”

His reaction was so grim that the other guild members quickly opened the mushroom’s information themselves. One by one, they blinked in disbelief, rubbed their eyes, or sucked in sharp breaths.

“Hyung, what do we do?”

Orange asked, his face drained of color.

“What do we do? We catch that bastard and tear him apart.”

Kim Na snarled, veins bulging at his temples.

If Blaine was listed as the registered discoverer of the Bayan Mushroom, then it had to be the Father and the Guest Guild who had been raiding them this whole time. He didn’t know how Blaine had ended up tied into it, but once they had him in their hands, they could wring the whole story out of him.

Kim Na stormed out of the cave first, barking out Blaine’s name.

“Blaine, you little shit!”

“…?”

For a moment, Kim Na blinked, stunned. Then his expression twisted even darker. So that’s how it was. The bastards had planned this out.

Grinding his teeth until his jaw ached, he called out the one ID he remembered.

“Father.”

After returning from Rakvana, Theo and Blaine had often gone out fishing together. Today was no different. They had barely dropped their lines into the sea when Father’s voice came through the guild chat.

[Guild] [Father: Theo, Blaine, where are you?]

[Guild] [Theo: Us? Out at sea.]

[Guild] [Father: Fishing?]

[Guild] [Theo: Yeah.]

[Guild] [Blaine: Yes.]

[Guild] [Theo: Why?]

[Guild] [Father: Because the Chief just blew up my whispers, demanding where you are.]

[Guild] [Father: If you run into them, things might get messy, so I was going to tell you to stick close to home.]

[Guild] [Blaine: What?]

[Guild] [Noquia: Holy shit, those idiots finally found out? lolololol]

[Guild] [Holanghee: What are they saying? lol]

[Guild] [Father: Just “cancel the registration,” but looks like they still don’t know about the royalties?]

[Guild] [Theo: How long’s he been ranting?]

[Guild] [Father: Just now.]

[Guild] [Theo: Then they’re probably still in the Nilam region?]

[Guild] [Father: Most likely. Unless they’re already on their way across the sea.]

Theo mulled it over in silence, then reeled in his fishing rod and took the helm.

[Guild] [Theo: …I’ll bring Blaine back to the guild house.]

[Guild] [Father: Huh?]

[Guild] [Theo: If those bastards come swarming, the guild’s the safest place, isn’t it?]

[Guild] [Father: …That’s true, yeah.]

[Guild] [Theo: Hey, if anyone wants to watch the fireworks, come to the guild.]

[Guild] [Noquia: LOL this is gonna be gold, I’m in.]

[Guild] [Holanghee: Count me in too, lmaoo.]

Not a single person said they’d stay out of it.

A short while later, guild members started pouring into the guild house, abandoning whatever they had been doing. The first to arrive, naturally, were the twins. They burst in noisily and immediately latched onto Father, bombarding her with rapid-fire chatter.

By the time their nonstop stereo voices were enough to give someone a nervous breakdown, Marco, Red Snapper, and Yorkshire strolled into the guild house.

The three entered leisurely, chatting casually, and when they saw Father being harassed by the twins, they didn’t bat an eye. They simply bowed or waved as if it were a daily occurrence. Father, exhausted, returned their greetings with a weary smile.

Then her brows furrowed. A strange smell had started to seep into the air.

“What is this smell?”

“Ugh, it stinks!”

Clearly, she wasn’t the only one to notice. The twins pinched their noses and chimed in, then began looking around for the source.

A moment later, they spotted a set of footprints stamped clearly across the guild hall floor.

“…?”

They all froze, staring. Footprints? Where the hell had those come from? Their eyes followed the trail with puzzled faces, and then, as one, they turned to look at someone.

Yorkshire.

The trail of footprints, like Hansel and Gretel’s breadcrumb trail, led straight to him.

Father glanced back and forth between the prints and Yorkshire. Then she realized what the footprints were made of—and her expression twisted instantly.

Her voice boomed like thunder.

“Strip his shoes off!”

At Father’s command, the twins shot forward like lightning, tackling Yorkshire to the ground and ripping his shoes away. Nobody else had a clue what was happening, their eyes wide as they watched the twins at work. Then the twins checked the shoes—only to shriek in horror and hurl them across the floor.

“Eugh! This bastard stepped in shit!”

“You shitty mutt!”

As the twins raged, every gaze turned toward Yorkshire’s footwear. The soles were caked in horse manure.

“This asshole did the same thing last time too!”

“Who the hell walks in here after stepping in crap, huh?!”

Yorkshire lay on the floor, flinching under their verbal barrage, staring in disbelief at his discarded shoes. But there was no denying it—the soles were smeared thick with dung.

Above his head, the twins chanted “Shitty mutt!” again and again. Yorkshire finally broke, shouting in despair,

“I’m not a shitty mutt!”

Soon more guild members began arriving. As they entered the guild house, each one gagged at the stench and recoiled at the trail of filthy footprints streaked across the floor. Theo, Blaine, Holanghee, and Noquia all grimaced as they stepped inside.

To vent the smell, they threw open the main doors and windows wide. But the footprints and the filthy shoes remained, untouched—nobody wanted to deal with them. Naturally. Father barked at Yorkshire to clean it himself, but whether out of shame or spite, he just curled up sulking in a corner and refused to move.

They scolded, coaxed, even tried to comfort him, but Yorkshire wouldn’t budge. Finally, Father snapped, shouting at the top of her lungs,

“Clean it up, you mangy cur!”

The words struck like a thunderclap. Yorkshire’s head shot up.

“…Mangy cur?”

He looked around at everyone standing behind Father. Every one of them was biting back laughter. Well, except for Noquia, who was laughing so hard she was rolling on the floor.

Yorkshire’s face twisted in anguish. He whimpered, “I’m not a mangy cur…” His voice cracked with humiliation.

The pitiful sight made Father falter, but Holanghee seized laughing Noquia and smacked her across the back. Marco, Bastard Kid, and Blaine hurried to console Yorkshire, though their eyes still darted uneasily toward the dung-streaked floor.

Even as the guild hall filled with noise, another clamor rose from outside. A group of players stormed up, voices booming.

“Blaine, come out!”

Inside the Father and the Guest Guild’s house, you had to climb half a flight of stairs past the front door before reaching the central hall. Which meant that even with the doors wide open, no outsider could peek inside. Besides, there were only three ways into someone else’s residence: being invited, knocking and receiving permission, or having built up enough intimacy between players. Kilimanjaro had no way to just barge in.

They didn’t even know where Blaine had moved to after leaving Polia. The only lead they had was the guild he belonged to. Which was why they came straight here.

Surrounding the front gate like they were staging a siege, Kilimanjaro’s guild members bellowed for Blaine to come out. But no one inside responded. Not a soul. The silence felt like deliberate mockery, and fury boiled over. Kim Na stormed up to the open doors and glared inside.

“?”

It was noisy within. And… was that smell? Wrinkling his nose, Kim Na craned his neck, trying to peer inside. That was when something shot out like a bullet and smacked him square in the face. He toppled back instantly.

His guildmates shrieked and rushed over, but recoiled just as quickly, their hands flying off him in disgust. What had hit him was a shoe—Yorkshire’s shoe—still caked with manure. And now, the mess was smeared all over Kim Na’s face.

Reeling from the impact, he staggered to his feet only to gag at the stench radiating off himself. He swiped at his face, stared at his fouled hand, and let out a pitiful scream.

From inside came howling laughter. Kilimanjaro’s members whipped their heads toward the sound, just in time to see Noquia rolling down the stairs, clutching her stomach as she roared with laughter. Behind her came Father.

The sight of Father made Kim Na spring up in outrage, shoe still in hand. He tried to shout a protest, but Father just scowled and kicked him hard, sending him sprawling back. Then she flicked her foot as if to shake off filth.

“A guild should have a watchdog, but instead we’ve got a shit-dog. Covered in crap inside and out, disgusting.”

Her grumbling only made Noquia laugh harder. She wheezed between breaths,

“Y-you’re the one who threw it!”

Father snapped back,

“I was already in a foul mood, and then they had to start this crap outside. How could I not throw it?”

“Still, how did you nail him dead-on like that? Right in the face! Shit-mask deluxe!”

Father glanced at Kim Na again, curling her lip in disgust.

“Fits the way he looks, doesn’t it?”

The brazenness of it left Kilimanjaro dumbfounded. Kim Na’s face burned scarlet. He jabbed a finger at them, about to shout—but before he could, someone burst out from behind Father, wailing.

“My shoe!”

Yorkshire barreled out, snatched his manure-smeared shoe straight from Kim Na’s hand, shot him a glare, and darted back inside.

Sure, he got his shoe back. But it was still caked in filth. Yorkshire pinched it between two fingers, arm stretched as far away from his body as possible, looking miserable. Father only sighed in disappointment and barked at him to hurry up and clean the damn floor.