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Chapter 80: Routed

Proof-reader: Girondono

“So-Soo Hyuk!”

“F*ck!”

The two Demon Guild members screamed when they finally came to themselves . They realised just who they were trying to mess with from the notification .

“P-please wait!”

They continued to shout in panic as Soo Hyuk stared at them .

“L-let’s talk!”

“It’s a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding!”

“We weren’t going to attack you!”

Listening to their desperate screams, Soo Hyuk, who had been planning to leave only one alive, changed his mind . He then asked the two men,

“What are you doing here?”

In response to Soo Hyuk’s question, the Demon Guild members hurriedly answered,

“W-well, we received a job…”

“I know about that . ”

Soo Hyuk had already found out from the 7th Peak that Heron was using the Demon Guild . And so, the moment he spotted them in this building, he realised that Heron must’ve hired them again .

“What I want to know is what kind of job did you receive?”

“…We were told to subdue . ”

The Demon Guild answered after hesitating for a moment .

“Really? Just subdue?”

“Yes . ”

The Demon Guild members nodded furiously at Soo Hyuk’s question .

“Of course, now we won’t even think about our task . ”

Their job was impossible from the beginning . They wouldn’t have accepted it no matter what if they had known from the beginning that the mercenary was actually Soo Hyuk .

“Can we briefly send a message to our guild master?”

“Yes, but first, I want to ask something . ”

Soo Hyuk continued as he answered their question .

“An NPC should be locked in here somewhere . Do you know where he is?”

“Ah, are you talking about the NPC called Romian?”

“Yes . ”

“He’s over that way . ”

One of the Demon Guild members replied while pointing further inside . At their reply, Soo Hyuk walked past the Demon Guild members and headed toward where they were pointing to . Then not long after starting, Soo Hyuk managed to find Romian .

Romian also discovered Soo Hyuk and made a surprised expression . The look in his eyes showed the confusion he was feeling right now .

“I went to the 7th Peak to do a different mission . I met Henkins-nim there and received another task . ”

Soo Hyuk started to speak as he untied the binding on Romian .

“He told me to deliver a letter . But when I came here to deliver the letter, a person called Heron lead me here . ”

“…I see . ”

Romian nodded absentmindedly .

“What about the mercenaries guarding this place…”

There had been three mercenaries guarding him just a few minutes ago, and they had left in the direction that Soo Hyuk had come from . What had happened to them?

“They were close acquaintants so I managed to persuade them . ”

Romian’s jaw dropped at Soo Hyuk’s answer . The bindings also came completely off at that moment .

[You have completed the quest ‘Imprisoned Romian’ . ]

A notification also appeared . Soo Hyuk briefly glanced at the notification then stood up with Romian and opened his inventory . There was still one more quest he had to do .

“This is Henkins-nim’s letter . ’

Romian silently received the letter from him . Then a notification appeared again .

[You have completed the quest ‘Henkins’s Letter’ . ]

Soo Hyuk stared at the notification and thought,

‘Will he be able to give me 10 gold?’

The reward for ‘Henkins’s Letter’ was 10 gold . It wasn’t much . It was comparable to pocket change . However, would Romian be able to give him 10 gold?

‘In this situation, I would be hard pressed to even get 1 gold . ’

After all, Romian had been imprisoned moments ago .

“Hoo…”

Romian sighed deeply as he finished the letter . He then raised his head to look at Soo Hyuk and spoke,

“I’m sorry . ”

“…Eh?”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to pay you right now . ”

Then as Romian continued, Soo Hyuk realised what he was sorry about

“The situation turned out this way…”

Romain continued with a sad smile while stealing glances at Soo Hyuk’s expression .

“Um, could you please help me one more time? If you do, I’ll give you 200 gold extra as well as the 10 gold . You just have to escort me to my room . ”

The moment Romian finished talking, a quest notification appeared .

[Escort Romian!]

Romian cannot stay in the corps any longer . First escort Romian to his room!

[Quest Reward: 200 Gold, Quest – The Secret Cave]

[Quest Fail Condition: Romian’s Death . ]

Soo Hyuk widened his eyes in surprise as he read through the new quest . There was an extra quest reward apart from the 200 gold . It was a linked quest . But the most surprising thing was the linked quest’s name .

‘The Secret Cave?’

The quest name was ‘The Secret Cave’ He made his decision then .

“I will escort you . ”

Soo Hyuk replied to the waiting Romian .

[You have accepted the quest ‘The Secret Cave’ . ]

Soo Hyuk thought as the notification appeared,

‘He doesn’t ask for Heron to be killed . ’

Soo Hyuk had wondered if Romian would ask him to kill Heron, but he hadn’t . Putting the thought at the back of his mind, Soo Hyuk walked in front of Romian and led the way to his room, preparing against any possible attacks .

‘They aren’t here . ’

Fortunately, the Demon Guild members had left in the time he had left them . As a bonus, the locked door had been opened wide at the entrance .

* * *

Crash!

Baal knocked over his chair as he stood up .

‘What the…’

He was staring at the incoming messages with surprise .

-Dururu: Guild Master, something big happened!

Dururu, he was one of the guild members on a mission with the Copine Corps . The reason for his surprise was because of the messages after it .

-Dururu: The mercenary we have to capture is Soo Hyuk!

-Dururu: Right now, Oneshot was killed and only me and Haha are left .

-Dururu: I don’t think just us two can capture him . What should we do?

Baal couldn’t immediately reply to Dururu’s quest .

‘Why again? F*ck . ’

Why was Soo Hyuk involved again?

‘Aoh . ’

Baal sent a reply while scrunching his temples .

-Baal: Give up .

The answer was decided from the beginning . Subduing Soo Hyuk? And with only three guild members? The mission was impossible from the beginning .

-Dururu: Then should we first return to the guild?

-Baal: Yes, return immediately . Don’t do anything .

-Dururu: But Heron’s right in front of us, so what should we do?

-Baal: Just ignore him . No, first notify him . Just so he doesn’t throw a tantrum at us .

-Dururu: I understand . We’ll retreat immediately .

After ending his chat with Baal, Dururu looked at Haha, who had been staring at him so far .

“He said to retreat . ”

“What? Just like that?”

Haha asked back in surprise at Dururu’s answer . He then stared at the locked door and asked,

“What about Heron?”

Currently, Heron was waiting right outside the door . What were they supposed to do about him?

“He said to talk nicely and immediately return .

Dururu answered Haha and approached the door .

Clank! Creak…

A few seconds later, he managed to open the door .

“Did it end…?”

Did he think that the task ended well because of the promised signal? Heron had been waiting with a bright smile, before he faltered as he realised that something was wrong .

Heron stared at Dururu and Haha, his eyes seemingly demanding an explanation . Noticing his gaze, Haha stared at Dururu while Dururu opened his mouth .

“I have to apologise . ”

“What do you…”

“The mission wasn’t what we expected . If we touch the mercenary from earlier, than bad things will happen . ”

Of course, even attempting to touch him would do it . Didn’t he come to the Demon Guild because the corps had no strength anyway?

“I apologise once again . ”

Dururu apologised with a deep bow, then ignoring Heron, ran away at full speed . Haha followed him behind .

Meanwhile, Heron speechlessly stared after Dururu and Haha’s fading backs . When they disappeared from his sight, Heron finally came to himself .

‘Wait, what?’

He couldn’t understand what had just happened .

‘A mission they didn’t expect?’

What did they mean by that?

‘Bad things will happen?’

That was a threat, right? But then, Heron realised something about the Demon Guild members from before .

‘Two?’

There had been definitely three people he had hired, but only two had come out from the building . In other words, one had been killed .

Heron turned around and stared cautiously inside the building .

‘Sh*t!’

Heron cursed in his mind when he checked inside the building . He could see a corpse, and it wasn’t the mercenary who had come to deliver a letter . It was one of the people he had hired, and from the reactions of the previous two people, he had been killed .

Heron kept on looking inside in a flustered manner . Originally, his plan was to capture the mercenary and take the letter himself .

But, the mercenary had been stronger than he had expected . No, he was strong enough to trivialise three members from the Demon Guild he had trusted so much . What if the mercenary harboured ill feelings from this incident? No, he would harbour ill feelings .

Of course, no matter how much the mercenary hated him, he wouldn’t make trouble inside the corps headquarters . If he did? The Heron would be able to use the full strength of the Copine Corps .

No matter how strong he was, a mercenary was a mercenary . If he utilised the strength of the corps, then one mercenary should be easily subdued .

‘No, this isn’t the time for that . ’

Heron, who had been absentmindedly staring at the building, turned around as he planned to escape from here for now .

‘Why…’

While walking to his room, Heron wondered about how things had turned out this way . But there was only one answer . The fact that the mercenary was strong .

‘…Hmph . ’

Heron frowned as he harrumphed in his mind .

‘Romian will probably escape . ’

In this situation, Romian wouldn’t just sit still after receiving the letter . He would definitely use the mercenary’s strength to help him escape .

‘What should I do?’

Heron couldn’t think of any way to capture Romian again .

‘Hmm, I could mobilise the commanders . ’

Heron thought of one way he could use to capture Romian . It was to use the comanders’ strengths .

‘But they would just welcome it . ’

However, he knew that the commanders wouldn’t move . They would instead rejoice at Romian escaping .

‘Even though I manipulated the situation like that . Those bastards . ’

Heron frowned once again as he recalled a past event . It had been a perfect trap . He had successfully made Romian into a criminal sex offender .

But the commanders’ reactions hadn’t been up to par . It was to the point where he received backlash when Romian was imprisoned .

‘No . ’

Heron changed his way of thinking .

‘It’s actually a good thing . ’

From another perspective, Romian escaping wasn’t such a bad thing .

‘I can slowly search for the cave, since I already have the key . ’

Heron already possessed the most important key .

‘Then I can use that to pressure the other commanders . ’

‘I have to quickly take over the corps . ’