Chapter 111: Rising Star of the City (3)

When an anomaly appeared on the chairman’s heart monitor, his female secretary promptly presented ice water. The chairman poured it into his mouth as if spilling it down his throat.

Crunch crunch.

Only after slapping an ice pack onto the back of his neck did the chairman snap back to his senses. The heart rate on the tablet his secretary constantly monitored finally entered the stable range. The jagged line evened out into a flat one.

“My apologies, Sword Master Muyachi.”

The chairman said.

“My age being what it is, I sometimes react like this to shocks. Now, please continue.”

“They say many people who lived passionately in their youth end up with heart problems. I sincerely hope you stay healthy for many years to come.”

Even when the chairman suddenly started gasping for breath, Muyachi didn’t show the slightest change in expression. His employment terms were for ‘bodyguard duty,’ not ‘aide.’

The Sword Master’s stoicism left the chairman with a faint look of displeasure, but that was the extent of it. In Lake City, distasteful matters never escalated to emotional conflicts. All paths led to contracts, and people spoke with money, not words.

The chairman forcibly set aside his discomfort.

“You’re young, yet you know well.”

“One shouldn’t judge a martial artist at face value.”

“How old might Sword Master Muyachi be, if I may ask?”

“Not young.”

“Around my age, perhaps…?”

“……”

Cultivating martial arts really did slow aging, it seemed. Especially for a Ten Wings powerhouse like him—it wouldn’t be strange even if he looked like a fresh youth. Meanwhile, chaebols grafted on cybernetic prosthetics just to look younger, yet their Ten Wings hires outlived them by centuries.

“…Wait a moment.”

Something didn’t add up.

The chairman’s lips parted slightly. A half-melted ice chunk rolled around in his mouth.

“That person you say killed the Left Luminary. Didn’t you mention they’d only recently arrived in Lake City? And that they were incredibly young?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“How young, exactly?”

“Around twenty, give or take.”

The chairman swallowed hard.

“Couldn’t they be a hidden master like you, Sword Master Muyachi, whose aging has been slowed by martial arts?”

“Even if aging slows, the organs still age. From sensing their presence and roughly gauging their qi pathways, that age fits.”

Presence Detection had excellent versatility for this reason. Lee Taebaek and his team hadn’t made it a powerhouse exclusive for nothing.

Being able to scout an opponent easily secured the advantage. Just as Megacorps obsessed over intel gathering, martial artists had to prioritize enemy reconnaissance.

“My apologies. Hearing so many outlandish things has tangled my thoughts. So, to clarify what you’re saying, Sword Master—that ‘he’ killed a Ten Wings member right after turning twenty? No, let’s start there. What makes you think he killed the Illusion Master? Surely there’s some basis.”

Muyachi seemed to ponder for a moment. What could plunge this jaded monster into contemplation?

He was curious too, but it paled next to what came next. As silence dragged on and the chairman’s patience frayed, the Sword Master finally spoke.

“To clarify first—that doesn’t mean the guy overwhelmed him with raw violence.”

“Please elaborate.”

“He probably engineered a situation where the Illusion Master had no choice but to die. To do that, he’d have spread info provocative enough to rile up powerhouses on his level from every faction. Using various groups, periodically.”

Muyachi’s deduction cut sharp.

In truth, Lee Taebaek had quietly disseminated such info. Mobilizing every group he knew: Resistance, Hundred-Fold Sect, Lilith Order, even the Beggar Clan. Slight variations, but all tied to ‘one outcome.’

“Is that even possible?”

“He pulled it off, so that’s how he killed the Illusion Master.”

“It’s not even confirmed the Illusion Master died by his hand… but let’s assume you’re right, Sword Master Muyachi. If he spread that info, it should have reached our Megacorp ears too, no?”

“Difference in perspective.”

“Perspective?”

Muyachi suddenly nodded toward the window.

“The City is strictly divided into upper and lower layers. Upper layer has its own circulating info, lower layer its own. He spread the rumors in the lower districts, not upper.”

“So his main stage is the lower layer?”

“I’ll keep that under wraps.”

Muyachi read the greed flickering in the chairman’s cybernetic eye.

“…Fine. Back to the point—even if everything went exactly as you say, Sword Master Muyachi. Questions remain. Ten Wings are evenly matched, aren’t they? And Ten Wings wouldn’t…”

He didn’t voice the rest: Those proud bastards wouldn’t team up with just anyone.

“…You don’t think they’d collaborate without Megacorp orders.”

“Lumped in with me as they are, I know their mindset to some degree. Correct. Myself included, we don’t ally with anyone. We might cooperate briefly if interests align, but once it’s done, we turn on each other.”

“A frank assessment.”

“I inferred what you were thinking, Chairman.”

The chairman flinched. Muyachi tilted his head diagonally.

“Kidding. Not funny?”

“…Please continue.”

As he spoke, the chairman snapped his fingers repeatedly. While the secretary fetched more ice packs and water, Muyachi pressed on.

“So.”

His next words made the chairman’s heart feel like it froze. Even the secretary dropped her tray. Glass shards clung densely to her shoe heels.

“The Magic Tower Master must have been maneuvered into killing the Illusion Master.”

“M-Magic Tower Master? Kergel Magic Tower Master—the Heavenly Demon? N-No, how could she?! No, why would she even move personally? No, no—how do you maneuver her directly?!”

“With a contract.”

All paths led to contracts, words replaced by money. Lake City’s cold law.

“What kind of contract could…?”

“No idea on that.”

Muyachi rose from the sofa. The ruminating chairman snapped alert and reached out desperately, but the Sword Master showed his back.

“I did tell you. Better to stake your claim on him early.”

“Wait, just a moment!”

“Too late now.”

With that, the chairman’s office door shut. For a brief moment, only the chairman and secretary remained. Then shouts mixed with shattering glass erupted.

Muyachi didn’t leave the door. The chairman’s fury pounded against it.

After listening briefly, he dialed somewhere.

“Delivered your message as instructed.”

[I see.]

“But are you really settling that old ‘debt’ with something like this?”

[If a trifle clears the debt, that’s fine for them, right? Why the dissatisfied tone?]

It felt like squandering a hard-won favor. Muyachi was a mercenary. He liked clean accounts. Even when receiving, he upheld that banner.

[I calculated it works for me, that’s why I asked.]

“Understood, then.”

Before hanging up, Muyachi’s lip twitched.

“Looking forward to it, Lee Taebaek.”

>> Auto-saving…

>> Applying patch.

Curses must be severed by curses.

But finding the curse’s owner was notoriously difficult—even in this City teeming with tangled races.

Even if found, a bridge was needed. And locating that bridge was far harder than finding curse-bearers. Only three existed in all Lake City.

They said getting struck by lightning seven times in a row was like finding a curse-bearer; a hundred for the bridge.

Words that didn’t apply to Lee Taebaek. He wasn’t the one struck—he was the striker. Truth mattered little. If he believed, thought, and willed it, the universe bent.

“Rock.”

After sending off the 9th Battalion, he’d asked only Rock to stay. Kang Hyeonseong readily permitted it. Yu Dahui’s glare at Goeun was on the verge of exploding. One wrong move, and blood would spill.

Kang Hyeonseong was still hung up on Lee Taebaek’s phone call with ‘someone.’ But he’d decided to trust him materially and morally. Trust and resignation were a paper’s width apart.

Thus, the room held Lee Taebaek, Yu Dahui, and Rock—one man, two women. To the awkwardly standing Rock, Lee Taebaek tossed out.

“You’re a Curse Speaker, right?”

“…!”

Rock startled. He couldn’t have been told her secret! Fumito wouldn’t blab—they’d had zero contact lately.

“Come with me and her somewhere.”

-…Where?

Rock asked with her eyes. Lee Taebaek answered.

“Red-Light District.”

Rock’s breathing quickened. Was he really insane?

Lee Taebaek’s gaze was steely. He meant to take the two women to the Red-Light District in earnest. Not to sample the City’s vulgar winds, but to meet the one who’d bridge them to their stepping stones.

Plus, Lee Taebaek eyed a possessor perk. Clashing curses would rebound massive magic power. Magic’s Big Bang. Absorbing it could stack elixir-equivalent inner energy in his dantian—ten pills’ worth.

“……”

“……”

As Lee Taebaek stayed serious and Rock froze, Goeun burst into hollow laughter around her long pipe. In jianghu terms, curses were severed meridians.