“Now, let’s get down to business.” The laughter that was in Shim Deok-Gu’s voice disappeared. The only time that happened was when he had something serious to say and Seo Jun-Ho had an inkling of what he wanted to say.
“The orphanage?”
Shim Deok-Gu nodded gravely. “We don’t know the exact location, but we found a lead.”
“That was faster than I thought.” Seo Jun-Ho was astonished.
“We were just lucky. We happened to find something while investigating a bunch of different places.”
“An orphanage? Is that a code word?” The Frost Queen asked. She had been playing with a large orchid.
“No, we’re talking about a literal orphanage.” Seo Jun-Ho explained to her how the Fiend Association was using orphanages to train fiends. She snapped the orchid in anger. “Those wicked, impudent humans!”
“Hey, that orchid’s expensive…” Shim Deok-Gu looked like he was about to cry, but she was already on a roll.
“Lead the way. I will punish those filthy animals.”
“Let’s hear about that lead first.” When Seo Jun-Ho looked at Shim Deok-Gu expectantly, the latter tapped on Vita. A photograph of a man showed up. He was a foreigner with a kind face who looked like he was in his 30s.
“Torres Milo. A level 72 Player who was previously active on the 2nd floor. Abilities unknown. His career was going extremely well when he announced his sudden retirement.”
“Nothing seems suspicious so far…” It wasn’t strange for Players to retire even when they were doing well. Sometimes Players had a sudden change of heart, or they became afraid of their future.
“Look at the next picture.”
Beep—
It was a picture of Torres walking in front of the Colosseum with two children walking behind him.
“An agent who was investigating Rome just so happened to take this picture.”
“And?”
“As far as I knew, Torres never married. But there were kids with him, so I did some digging…” Shim Deok-Gu’s face darkened. “And it turns out that his activities since his retirement are completely unknown. Even if he tried to erase his records, there’s no way it would be so clean.”
“That’s a little suspicious.” Seo Jun-Ho nodded.
“Right? Something felt off, so I went even deeper.” Shim Deok-Gu pulled out a few documents. They were a compilation of reports from Rome. “I think he’s been living around Rome for a few years now. But no one knows where he lives or what he does. It seems that he sometimes goes out in public with children, but the important thing is that they’re never the same set of children.”
“…” Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes narrowed. “He’s getting more suspicious the more you tell me about him. But if he’s really the fiend who runs the orphanage, why is he acting so openly?”
“I wondered the same thing, so I went through crime records from the past few years.”
Beep—
The two men and the spirit stared at the hologram report.
“Almost every time he went out into the city, there would be a missing person’s report within a week.”
“…Of course.” Seo Jun-Ho instantly realized what that meant. “So he goes out to check for himself if the children are worth using?”
“That’s what I think. Of course, it could be something else.” Shim Deok-Gu didn’t sound confident, but Seo Jun-Ho was sure of it. His Keen Intuition was now A-rank, and it was currently screaming that he was right.
“How often does he go out?” asked Seo Jun-Ho.
“Once every two months. He should be going out again next week.” Shim Deok-Gu responded.
“Good. I’ll go.”
“Jun-Ho.” Shim Deok-Gu looked at him worriedly. He wanted to stop him, but he couldn’t quite do it. “I know you’re strong. Hell, I probably know better than anyone how strong you are. But it’s really dangerous this time.”
They didn’t know how many fiends were working at the orphanage. Not to mention that it could be overflowing with children being trained to become fiends.
“I don’t expect it to be easy either,” Seo Jun-Ho said calmly. “But you know how hard I’ve worked to get rid of them. So when they were wiped out, I didn’t think that they would ever appear again.”
But the reality was different. When the 5 Heroes died, the fiends had started to crawl out of the shadows again.
“I can’t forgive the fiends nor do I want to forgive them. You know why, don’t you?” Seo Jun-Ho asked.
“…” Shim Deok-Gu pursed his lips. He had nothing to say.
“If they hadn’t caused trouble, my parents wouldn’t have been killed by monsters.” Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes were cold. Shim Deok-Gu raised his hands in surrender. “…Tsk.?It’s unfair of you to bring up your parents.”
“Either way, I won’t let them slip away.”
“What, so you don’t need any extra manpower? You’re gonna take care of everything alone with just the Frost Queen?”
“It’s Frost Queen-nim.” She corrected.
“…You’re gonna take care of everything alone with Frost Queen-nim?”
“It’s just an investigation. If he’s not a fiend, I’ll come back quietly.”
“And if he is?”
“Well, things will get noisy then,” Seo Jun-Ho said coolly. He seemed to consider something before speaking carefully. “Also, do you know if there is some sort of technology that has been developed that can turn fiends back to normal?”
“…There’s none.” Shim Deok-Gu knew why he was asking. He laughed bitterly and patted Seo Jun-Ho on the shoulder as if to brush away some of the heavy burdens his friend was carrying.
***
Rome was divided up into 15 administrative districts called municipios. Most people gathered in Municipio 1, where the Colosseum was. On the other hand, Municipio 15 was mostly empty because of one large private property.
“It really has been a long time.” A man with a dusty hood looked up at the gates surrounding the private property. Because it was in the middle of the day, he could see clearly into the property through the gates. Dozens of children were laughing and playing.
Creak.
The gate opened, and a priest stepped out. He smiled at the man. “Welcome, brother. What brings you…Keuk!”
The hooded man snarled as he grabbed the priest’s throat. “Call the director.” The demonic energy that emanated from his body made the priest tremble in fear. “A-a fiend…I-I apologize, I didn’t…”
“That’s enough.” A new voice said. A kind-looking man walked toward them, his hands were clasped behind his back. “I didn’t expect the Demon Bow to come to such a humble place. If you had informed me ahead of time, we could’ve avoided making such a mistake.”
Demon Bow, Kal Signer.
“Am I not allowed to come here?”
“Of course not. You are welcome at any time.”
Kal Signer glanced at the children. “Life must be pretty boring here.”
“Haha. After all, we’re not here to have fun. I am working day and night for the sake of the Heavenly Demon’s return.”
“The Heavenly Demon… Are you sure that you can talk about him in front of the children?” Kal Signer was conscious of their vicinity.
“Of course. If you don’t believe me…”
Torres clapped his hands. Suddenly, the children that had been playing with happy expressions, the child on the slide, the child in the sandbox, and the children playing tag—their smiles fell from their faces. Not a single one had an expression on their face as they stared at Kal Signer.
“…Disgusting little things.”
“They’re all training hard so they can become like you.” Torres clapped again, and the children went back to playing. “Come on in.”
The large building was reminiscent of a college dormitory. He led Signer to his office and started to make coffee.
“So…What brings you here? I haven’t received any other orders.”
“I’m not here on Association business. I came here to carry out Nazad Hallow’s orders.”
The director’s eyes widened when he heard the name. He seemed nervous. “H-have I done something wrong…?”
“You must feel guilty about something.” Kal Signer snorted and put his legs up on the coffee table. “It’s got nothing to do with you. He ordered me to bring up some no-name to the 2nd floor.” It would take some time for him to succeed because Seo Jun-Ho had to reach level 30 first.
“Just who is it that Nazad-nim would order to bring up…”
“No one important. Do you know someone called Seo Jun-Ho?” Even as he asked that question, Signer expected him to say no, but Torres nodded immediately. “Of course I do. He’s the hottest topic on the 1st floor right now.”
“…What? You know him?”
“Aren’t you talking about the Korean Player? He reached 1st place in the Cave of Trials.”
“Wait. 1st place in the Cave of Trials?”
“You didn’t know?” ｂ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟ｌ.
Kal Signer frowned. It had been difficult for him to come down to the 1st floor while avoiding the Association. As such, he hadn’t had any time to check the news since he barely made it here with the Pathfinder.
“Well, it’s not like he’s the only one who’s in the 1st place.”
Kal Signer had never been to the Cave of Trials before. Most fiends couldn’t even get close to it because it was maintained by the Player Association, but he thought that he would be able to reach the 9th level if he tried.
“Huh? He’s the only one.”
“What? How is that possible?” Signer pulled his feet off the table. He was confused.
“He cleared the 10th level and set the record for 1st place.”
“…He’s above people like Specter, Rahmadat Khali, and Kim Woo-Joong?”
“Yes.”
“Ha…hahaha!” Signer laughed out in bafflement. “Hasn’t it only been four months since he debuted?”
“That would be correct.” Torres nodded.
“Tsk, he got lucky again.” Kal Signer was greatly underestimating the other party. He had been watching Seo Jun-Ho for a while now, and he thought that the latter’s luck must have also extended to the Cave of Trials. But this was exactly what Seo Jun-Ho wanted.
‘He’s a weakling. The Shadow Brothers could’ve easily taken care of him.’
Kal Signer simply thought that Seo Jun-Ho was extremely lucky. That must be the reason why he managed to avoid the Shadow Brothers and the Las Vegas incident.
‘I wrote in my report that Seo Jun-Ho was deeply connected to the Watchdogs’ deaths…But I don’t believe it myself. It was all the Goblin Guild’s Gong Ju-Ha. Seo Jun-Ho didn’t do anything.’
Seo Jun-Ho wasn’t even level 20 back then. How could he take down the whole team?
“Signer-nim, are you expecting to stay here for a while?”
“Do you have any complaints?” Kal Signer asked.
“No, but…”
“…I owe you one. That monster is wearing me down.” The orphanage was the only place on the 1st floor where he could hide. “This place will be safe.” Kal Signer added.
“Well, make yourself comfortable. However…” Torres hesitated.
“You don’t need to say it. You’re the director here. I won’t impede on your authority.” Kal Signer cut him off.
“Thank you for your understanding.” Torres was relieved that the Demon Bow wasn’t here for him.
‘To think that Nazad Hallow wants Seo Jun-Ho… How unexpected.’
Of course, his thoughts on the matter ended there. It didn’t have anything to do with him.