Guardian Of Balance (3)

After finishing a brief teatime with Kang Bok-hwa, Kang-hoo moved to Gimhae Airport, then headed straight for Japan.

As Takashi had promised beforehand, the butler he had sent was personally waiting at the airport to greet him.

A white-haired old man.

The old man, who was said to be Takashi’s exclusive butler, looked to be around the same age as his master, the Celestial Assassin.

However, unlike the common impression people had of the word “old man,” his suit fit him very well. He was tall, too.

‘Unlike his soft-looking appearance, his constellation information is plastered all over with evil tendencies. There’s even a constellation that encourages murder.’

The old man’s constellation information, which could be seen in every detail through Scan, was anything but ordinary.

Of course, a constellation’s disposition did not represent the hunter’s personality.

If it did, every hunter contracted with a good-aligned constellation would have to be no different from a living angel.

That was only generally the case. It was not a premise where one could commit the error of hasty generalization.

Without much conversation.

As soon as the butler had Kang-hoo board the safe limousine, he immediately activated its soundproofing and security state.

Thanks to that, Kang-hoo was able to enjoy plenty of personal time inside the limousine while moving to the promised location.

So he decided to examine the Wanted option on the newly replaced anklet, “Guardian of Balance,” in more detail.

When he activated the Wanted option.

Two familiar names appeared.

The remaining three were names he was seeing for the first time, so he could not tell who they were, but he was certain about the two above.

Although they were in black-and-white form, something resembling visualized photos was output together with them, so cross-verifying them was not difficult.

‘Oscar Wolfram is an assassin affiliated with Red Skull. And Tian Yunha is…… someone who will enter The Thirteen Stars.’

He did not know why the owner or constellation of Guardian of Balance was telling him to kill them.

However, what was certain was that the enemies he had to kill to achieve the purpose of the Wanted option were extremely high-level.

Right then.

For an explanation attached to an item, a message appeared as though someone were speaking.

It felt as though he was receiving a constellation’s message. It did not feel like pre-entered information being output in a fixed form.

At times like this, seeing once was better than hearing a hundred times. Kang-hoo asked the constellations through his thoughts.

‘Do any of you perhaps know anything about Guardian of Balance? Even a simple story or clue would be fine.’

Dimension Plunderer’s knife-like answer came out. It seemed the identity of the constellation hiding its identity was displeasing to her.

He himself was curious, and on top of that, it was an existence that made his contractor, Kang-hoo, place unnecessary question marks on things, so that was probably even more the case.

He could not find any clues from the words Cataclysm - Darkness and Seeker of Pure Darkness added either.

So he changed direction.

Since he was wearing the item, he decided to ask the item using thought. It was a kind of experiment.

‘What is the Mark of Disorder?’

It was not a question he had thrown out expecting an answer. Until now, there had been no case where he had “communed” with an item.

But.

An answer was heard.

Although it was overlaid with the packaging of a polite system message, a cold warning could be felt at its essence.

A mark from which no hint could be obtained until it was known. It felt like there were too many things veiled in secrecy.

‘Then putting Wanted aside, what does Vow mean? Are there any conditions you want for the Vow?’

‘Let’s stop speaking as though you’re referring to a third party. Aren’t you Guardian of Balance?’

While Kang-hoo asked back slightly, as though pressing the issue, he quickly grasped the situation.

He thought he understood why it was reacting like that.

The reason Guardian of Balance wanted to form a main constellation contract seemed simple. They would become a community of shared fate.

If it failed to obtain a meaningful contractor while knowing many important secrets, its life as a constellation would be in danger. That was probably the reason.

On the other hand.

Even while it had continued losing sacred power as a constellation, it had not forcibly searched for a contractor and formed a contract.

From the fact that it had waited and waited until now, Kang-hoo also felt a certain belief possessed by Guardian of Balance.

He would have to learn what it was, but he became certain that it had firm thoughts of its own.

When Kang-hoo fell silent for a moment.

Dimension Plunderer and Seeker of Pure Darkness each added their opinions. It meant they supported Kang-hoo’s will.

‘Let’s put it on hold.’

The answer came immediately.

Judging from the circumstances, it seemed quite likely that Guardian of Balance would help him. It also seemed to have the will to do so.

However, he did not want to impulsively fill a main constellation slot that could not be filled lightly.

Dimension Plunderer added a supplementary explanation. Her first reaction had been chilly, but it seemed she viewed it as useful rationally.

Cataclysm - Darkness also added a positive opinion similar to Dimension Plunderer’s.

The world of the Great Sanctuary was too vast even for the constellations.

Thus, there also existed a dark world they did not know. It was only natural for them to be interested in it.

‘Let’s focus on the Wanted option first. In any case, if I only make up my mind, I can proceed with the main constellation contract through the Vow.’

Even the brief, petty dissing match between Dimension Plunderer and Strategist of the Wasteland continued in that instant.

Kang-hoo shook his head at the endlessly stormy relationship between the two and turned his attention elsewhere.

Before meeting Takashi, there was something he had intended to examine when he had time.

It was the information about Underground Adventurer, the constellation he had plundered after killing Vincent before.

He was thinking of activating the information sharing.

In any case, it was not that he would obtain the dungeon information he wanted, but rather that Underground Adventurer would provide it randomly.

Since there was nothing to lose from drawing in advance, he decided to open it while he was at it.

After going through the process of selection and decision, he quickly proceeded with the procedure, and soon, information on three underground dungeons was displayed.

The first things to appear were the dungeon’s external form and location, as well as the nationality linked to them.

‘Japan?’

When he checked because there happened to be information linked to the system, it seemed to be an area under Rikou Guild’s jurisdiction.

However, judging from the fact that it had never been mentioned publicly at all, it was certain that it was an unknown dungeon.

In other words, although it existed in Rikou Guild’s territory, it was an unknown dungeon they had not discovered.

‘I’ll have to think a bit about whether to go alone or bring Takashi or another companion with me.’

It was certain that he would monopolize the benefits first.

However, since there was a high possibility that it was a dungeon he could not clear alone, he thought he needed to choose his partner carefully.

“Finally.”

“Yo, Shin Kang-hoo! Just how long has it been since we last saw each other? We met before I forgot your face, yeah!”

In front of the promised location, Kang-hoo met Takashi—more precisely, his clone—and exchanged a cheerful hug with him.

If he had embraced a person, he would at least have felt warmth, but he felt no warmth at all from the clone.

Only Takashi’s voice, heard resonantly through the attached speaker, allowed him to guess that it was connected to him somehow.

“Is today’s concept a Goryeo warrior?”

“Yeah. I’ve been watching Korean historical dramas on OTT lately, and Goryeo warriors looked really cool. So I dressed it up a bit.”

“You pulled the lower garment up too high.”

Kang-hoo lightly pulled down the clone’s lower garment, which had been worn high enough to be embarrassing.

His eyes were precious, after all.

At the same time, he glanced around.

Right after Kang-hoo had just arrived.

There had been two mansion residents who opened the front door, came out, and smoked in the common hallway.

Thinking that perhaps one of them might be Takashi, he turned his gaze toward them.

But before their eyes could even meet, the two men put out their cigarettes and went inside as though they had made a promise.

Was it a coincidence?

Or was Takashi in one of the homes those two men had entered?

His curiosity about seeing the main body beyond the clone was enormous, but since he knew there must be a reason for it.

Kang-hoo ended it as a pleasant curiosity and followed behind Takashi’s clone, who had just started moving.

“Where is it?”

“Over there. Fujiya Mansion.”

“Isn’t the dungeon entrance too openly visible?”

On the first floor of Fujiya Mansion, the place Takashi pointed to, there was a dungeon entrance that one could not help but see even if one did not want to.

That was probably not it.

That was because he had said it would take a preparation period, as he had to do a certain amount of groundwork so that it would not become known outside.

If it were a dungeon as clearly visible as that, even if he did not want it known outside, it could only become known everywhere in the neighborhood.

Around the mansion were signs prohibiting outsiders from entering, along with notices saying that a building would be erected after reconstruction.

When Kang-hoo tilted his head slightly, Takashi came close and spoke quietly.

“There’s a dungeon I discovered in a corner of Fujiya Mansion’s basement. It took time because I had to buy the entire mansion complex outright because of this.”

“Ah.”

“Reconstruction and all that is a lie. Since I bought all the surrounding land too, I’m just bluffing however I want.”

“I understand.”

That was one large scale of spending.

To think he would buy out an entire expensive mansion complex just to hide one dungeon.

It showed his desire not to have a dungeon that important and precious taken away from him.

At that moment.

Two men and women could be seen walking over, waving their hands toward Takashi in welcome.

They were the party members who would accompany them today. In other words, they were members of Takashi Family.

Unlike Takashi, who was hidden behind a clone.

The two did not try to hide their true appearances with masks or heavy makeup.

They simply walked confidently up to Kang-hoo, each offering a friendly handshake and introducing themselves.

“Hello. I’m Lemon.”

“Shiraishi Mokomichi. You may call me Motko or Mot-chan for short. Nice to meet you.”

It was the moment he personally met Takashi Family, who had existed only as a few lines of text inside the novel.