Chapter 13

The speedboat yacht tore across the night sea, its engine screaming.
Far off on the horizon, the silhouette of a five-hundred-ton ferry loomed like a mountain.
As it drew closer, the ferry’s towering hull became a cliff that seemed to block out the sky, while the yacht pitched precariously beneath that massive wall of steel.

As the yacht approached, a crane hook began moving from the ferry.
The iron cage secured to the speedboat’s deck was caught by the hook and lifted easily into the air.
Each time the cage swayed grotesquely in the sea wind, the glowing tips of the Japanese yakuza’s cigarettes flickered above.

“Hey! Drop the ladder!”

Once the cage had been hauled all the way up, one of the thugs aboard the speedboat shouted.

Clatter-

A rope ladder dropped from the ferry like a snake.
The ferry’s enormous hull served as a breakwater against the waves, but the currents churning through the gaps still shoved the yacht around violently.

“Move! Hurry it up!”

One of the thugs planted a foot on the yacht’s rail as it heaved with the waves and threw himself toward the ferry’s hull.
He barely caught the ladder, while the black sea gaped beneath his feet like a pitch-dark maw.

“Fall in and you’re dead, idiots. Move your asses.”
“Yes, hyung-nim!”

Above them, the cage hanging from the crane disappeared into the ferry with a grotesque screech, while the rope ladder, crowded with clinging thugs, swayed dangerously.

“Climb faster!”

The rope ladder stretched taut beneath their weight and scraped against the ferry’s steel hull.
The unpleasant metallic rasp mingled with the sound of waves across the night sea.

The yakuza watched the thugs below with cold eyes.
To them, the Saenara Gang thugs were less partners than bothersome deliverymen who had brought them their merchandise.
Just as the Saenara Gang had killed all the men who delivered their kidnapped victims to silence them, the yakuza were thinking along the same lines.
They too understood just how dangerous what they were doing was.

Takahachi, the yakuza boss seated in the wheelhouse, gave a sinister smile and muttered softly to himself.

“The dead don’t talk.”

The orc protecting their boss, Jeong Dong-hyeok, was a considerable obstacle, but Takahachi had heard that the orc would do anything for money.
He didn’t know how much the orc was being paid, but if they offered him all the money from this deal, he might even betray the tribe he took such pride in.
If so, that wall would simply change sides, from a barrier guarding the outside to one guarding the inside.
And he had another contingency prepared in case something went wrong.
All they had to do was get the ship into Chinese territorial waters.

“They’re so mad for money they actually kidnapped a real elf. Impressive bastards.”
“Indeed. They’re like racehorses with blinders on.”
“Good analogy, Kuroda.”
“Hai. Thank you.”
“They can only see what’s in front of them, just like racehorses, so they probably never noticed the tail behind them. Once they’re all aboard, sink the speedboat and send them to the conference room.”
“Hai!”
“And as for that tail…”
“Should we sink it?”

Takahachi slowly turned his head.
Very, very slowly.
When his gaze met Kuroda’s, one corner of his mouth curled upward.

“Is our ship… a warship?”
“Sir?”
“How exactly are you planning to sink it? That yacht looks like it’s at least a hundred tons and practically plated in money. What are you going to sink it with?”
“Ah… Well… My apologies.”
“Tsk, tsk. You always speak before you think. Onmyoji¹ Amagata said nothing would go wrong. Stop saying stupid things and just do what you’re told.”
“Hai! Understood.”

After Kuroda left, Takahachi watched the bright lights of the yacht approaching from afar.
In his mind echoed the confident voice of Onmyoji Amagata, who had given him special instructions before they set sail.

“Don’t worry about a thing. There is no ill fortune surrounding this deal. As a precaution, offer those Korean gangsters as sacrifices to the sea. That will be enough. If you succeed in that, the guardian deity will protect you, and nothing will be able to interfere with this transaction.”

Out on the boundless sea, with nowhere else to turn for help, Takahachi had a large ship and plenty of men. His confident smile never faded.

Even from a distance, the other ship looked enormous as it gradually grew larger.
Its outer hull towered far above the yacht Jun-gyeong was riding.
He glared irritably at that wall of steel from a short distance away.
If it were up to him, he would simply sink the whole thing and pluck out the dwarf and elf afterward, but he had no practical way to do that.

-How many meters can you jump?
“Are you telling me to jump over that wall?”
-Something like that. Just not from this boat.

Jun-gyeong raised an eyebrow.

“Explain yourself properly.”
-Luxury yachts like this always have a secondary boat. A recreational jet boat that’s much faster and more maneuverable.
“…”
-The jet boat on this yacht is completely black too, so there’s no way they’ll spot it in the middle of the night. We use this yacht as bait, then you approach in the smaller boat and get aboard.

Jun-gyeong’s brow twitched.

“That’s not a bad plan.”
-As long as this big yacht doesn’t approach too closely, they won’t be on guard. Better yet, once the smaller boat launches and the yacht changes course, they’ll probably assume it’s just some expensive fishing boat. Use that opening to board the ferry.
“A feint to the east, then a strike to the west.”
-Something like that. The jet boat is at the stern. It handles a lot like a motorcycle, so it shouldn’t be difficult to drive.
“I’ll go now.”

VROOOOM-

The jet boat sped into the deep shadow beneath the ferry’s massive stern.
Up close, the ferry’s towering hull looked less like part of a ship and more like a pitch-black steel cliff.
Each time the waves washed over the rusted hull near the waterline, its blackened underside appeared like the gaping jaws of Hell.

-You need to ride the next wave. I’ll give you the signal.

As Ok-hee spoke, a massive wave surged beneath the jet boat.

-Two, three! Now!!

The boat shot upward at an almost vertical angle, just before it could slam into the ferry’s hull.
Jun-gyeong kicked off the deck and launched himself through the air as the jet boat rode the wave and quickly slid back out.
His target was a palm-sized metal drainage outlet protruding from the ferry’s stern.

Clack-!

Had he missed, he would have smashed into the cold steel wall and plunged into the sea gaping below like the entrance to Hell.
But Jun-gyeong’s body, strengthened through training to nineteen percent synchronization, made it possible.
His fingers hooked perfectly over the rusted, jagged edge of the drain like claws.

Creeeak-

The rusted steel screamed and crumpled beneath his grip.
His entire body arched through the air like a massive bow, his hardened muscles contracting to generate tremendous recoil.
Using that momentum, his body defied gravity and shot vertically up the ferry’s hull as though sprinting straight into the sky.
The upper-deck railing, ten meters above, rushed into view.
Jun-gyeong kicked off the wall and cleared the railing with ease.

Before the cigarette smoke from a yakuza smoking in the corner could even scatter into the wind over the open sea, Jun-gyeong had already landed soundlessly on the ferry’s rear deck.

The first-floor cargo deck of the five-hundred-ton ferry spread before him like a vast cavern.
The ceiling was high and steel walls enclosed it on every side, leaving the space dark and oppressive.
Jun-gyeong leaped from the stern railing and slipped into the darkness between containers and vans at one corner of the first-floor deck.

Most of the first-floor deck was open to accommodate vehicles, but the area where he hid connected to the second floor and was roofed over, blocking out the moonlight.
Three vans were secured to the floor on one side, rocking with the ship, while sparse sodium lamps mounted along the ceiling and walls beyond cast a damp, ominous yellow glow.

The acrid air was laced with the oily tang of fuel.
The tie-down rings embedded in the deck seemed to writhe grotesquely beneath the yellow light.

“I’m aboard. I’ll find the dwarf first.”
-Haah~ The elf is the important one.

Jun-gyeong didn’t answer and moved quickly.
He slipped between the vans and surveyed his surroundings.

Thum, Thum- Splash- Thum- Slap-

The vibration of the engines came from the machinery room, mingling with the waves slamming against the ship’s hull.
Amid those sounds, the quiet voices of patrolling yakuza drifted toward him.

“Sore de, ima zen’in koroshita no ka?”
(So, did they kill all of them?)
“Iya, mada da. Ato de matomete katazukeru sō da. Tori…”
(No, not yet. They’re going to deal with them all at once later. First they want to make sure that yacht turns back.)
“Ja, aitsura ga hikitsurete kita 『shippo』 ja nakatta no ka?”
(So it wasn’t the ‘tail’ those guys brought with them?)
“Aa, kakunin shite mitara Kankoku no zaibatsu no yotto da sō da. Zaibatsu-sama ga nani ga kanashikute anna baka na chinpira-domo o tasukeru n da yo.”
(Yeah. Apparently it’s a yacht belonging to some Korean chaebol family. Why would people like that bother helping a bunch of stupid punks like them?)
“Sō da na. Tokorode, konna umi no mannaka de junkai nante nan no imi ga aru n da?”
(True. But what’s the point of patrolling in the middle of the damn ocean?)
“Tada no pafōmansu da yo. Tekitō ni yatte modorō ze.”
(It’s just for show. Let’s half-ass it and head back in.)

Jun-gyeong frowned deeply and spoke under his breath.

“What are they saying?”
-Looks like they’re planning to kill everyone from the Saenara Gang. And it seems they’ve stopped suspecting us.

His gaze sharpened.

“They’re going to kill them?”
-Yes.
“Then I’d better hurry before they steal my turn.”

The Ghost Mask appeared over his face, and his eyes turned red as the fires of Hell.
At some point, Seolhwa, the blade Smith had newly forged, had appeared in his hand.
It did not catch the moonlight and betray the edge of its blade.
Instead, its black surface seemed to swallow the moonlight, hiding itself as it quietly waited for prey.
The smaller blade would have been more than enough to deal with two yakuza, but Jun-gyeong wanted to be thorough.
Men who kidnapped women, raped them, and sold them.
And men who bought those women.
He didn’t need to see for himself where those women would end up once they reached Japan or how they would be treated.
Even the lowest-ranking thug patrolling in the dead of night carried sins of rape and murder.
He had no intention of forgiving a single one of them.

Jun-gyeong calmly surveyed his surroundings.

Pat-Patter-

Heavy raindrops began falling from the pitch-black sky.
Even veteran sailors could never predict the whims of the open sea.
Or perhaps the heavens had sensed his rage and sent the rain to aid him.

“Hey, it’s raining. Let’s head inside.”
“You go ahead. I need to take a piss.”
“You crazy bastard. Why the hell do you insist on pissing off the deck when there’s a bathroom?”
“Feels good out here. And the toilets on this ship are fucking filthy.”
“Haah, asshole. Hold onto the railing. Fall in and you’re dead.”
“Shut up, asshole. Quit nagging and go.”
“Heh heh. I’ll be by the stairs.”

One of the yakuza headed toward the stairs while the other approached the edge of the deck.

“Haah, what a nag. Who does he think he is, my mother?”

Thk-

A blade sank into the back of the yakuza as he stood at the railing, about to relieve himself into the sea.
His lung collapsed in an instant, the air leaking out as he found himself unable to draw in another breath.

“Hhk-”

He couldn’t even breathe, much less scream.
Terrified, he turned around, his eyes stretched impossibly wide.

“When you get to Hell, tell them I sent you. They’ll treat you well.”

Jun-gyeong gave him a light shove into the sea.

Splash-

The sound of his body hitting the water, blood pouring from his back, vanished beneath the rain.
Jun-gyeong’s gaze grew colder still.
And Seolhwa, having tasted blood, began to gleam in the darkness and reveal its true form.