Chapter 150 – Choice (1)

“You have two choices here.”

Once the situation was under control, I took David Henri out of my inventory.

“One is to transfer to my team.”

I made a scouting offer to Henri.

No, to be precise, I plan to put him in the knight order.

I took a look into the bald man’s consciousness and found he has a wife suffering from Mana Stone Disease and a newborn daughter.

So that’s why he fought so tenaciously, knowing he couldn’t win against me.

He truly had a reason he couldn’t die.

“The other is to not transfer.”

“…”

Were the options too simple?

The bald man glanced at me cautiously and asked.

“What happens if I don’t transfer?”

Why ask something so obvious?

“You’ll die.”

“…!”

“Hey, now. You’re the one who threw the first punch. Isn’t this self-defense?”

“Well…”

The bald man clamped his mouth shut, as if recalling the battle from before.

A group of over fifty men had been wiped out by a mere five—no, to be exact, by just me and Siegfried.

The shock must have been immense.

“What if I agree to transfer, but then report this to the Union Hunters?”

Why ask such useless questions?

“You’ll die, won’t you?”

“…”

Was my answer too extreme?

The bald man fell silent.

“However, I can make you an offer.”

“An offer…?”

This bald man seemed to be a decent fellow at heart.

A Korean wife, a Korean mother, and a Korean benefactor who had shown him kindness in his childhood.

His nationality was French, and he looked French, but he had the feel of a foreigner who was practically Korean.

Not only that, but he had never carelessly killed people from other worlds during dimension-clearing operations.

In fact, he had even tried to save them. But he was tied down by crippling debt, unable to move forward or back, just getting dragged along.

I intend to break his chains. And then, I’ll extend my hand.

“Don’t you want to become stronger?”

“Stronger…”

Not by sacrificing and plundering others like his colleagues did, but by becoming stronger through his own pure strength.

I know how.

The bald man has, of course, already reached his growth limit.

But when we fought earlier, I noticed some bad habits and clumsy moments. With a little refinement, he’ll become much stronger.

Honestly, I covet him.

Exceptional talent and skill. And character. He’s a bit older, so his growth might be slower than the two Kims, but his experience, built since the first generation, can be put to good use.

“I hate the organization called the Union.”

I laid my cards on the table first. After all, I already know his.

“So I’m planning to get rid of it.”

“…!”

The bald man’s eyes widened.

Does he think it’s absurd?

A massive organization where the world’s strongest hunters gather, secretly wielding power.

For a single individual to declare he’ll destroy such a place, it’s bound to be baffling.

“Why, you think it’s impossible?”

“No, I don’t.”

The bald man replied.

“But there are powerful individuals there who are beyond comparison to someone like me. You’re ridiculously strong too, but…”

The bald man hesitated.

Seriously, I told him he’d die if he didn’t choose this side, so what’s there to contemplate?

“I want to ask one thing. Just how strong are you?”

He’s noticed that I was holding back during our fight.

Because if I had gone all out, he’d already be dead.

He might become my teammate soon. It’s probably best to be honest.

“I am still in the process of growing.”

“…Ha!”

The bald man laughed as if in disbelief.

He had already made up his mind.

“I would like to see you grow.”

“Bring your wife and daughter to Korea, too.”

“Are you threatening me now?”

The look in the bald man’s eyes changed.

He looked ready for a life-or-death struggle at any moment.

Did he think I was using his family as hostages?

“Mana Stone Disease can’t be cured in that country. If you want her cured, bring your family over.”

“Cured… you say?”

His pupils began to tremble.

He reminds me of Kim In-ho.

He had been struggling with his nephew’s massive medical bills until Katrinne cured him, and I remember how much he cried then.

It’s incredibly painful to watch a family member suffer from an incurable disease, slowly dying.

The feeling of powerlessness, of being unable to do anything, must be even worse.

“As a condition for your transfer, I’ll have her cured.”

To be precise, it’s not me, but our Katrinne who can do the curing.

Explaining it would be complicated, so I’ll just have to entice Katrinne with the promise of food delivery.

The bald man, with eyes as gentle as a deer’s that didn’t match his gruff face, began to shed tears.

“Let me make one thing clear.”

He said.

“If you can cure my wife, I would sell my soul to the devil.”

That’s a bit harsh. As if I’m some kind of devil.

***

The bald man—no, David Henri—has decided to transfer to my team.

He said he’ll go to France to bring his family over as soon as he leaves this place.

He even said he’d change his nationality, so I expect a flood of news articles when it actually happens.

I told him to continue his activities with the Union.

That way, he can keep feeding us information.

The opponents I defeated today didn’t have any real information either.

No one knows what the core of the Union is, or where its central command is located.

This suspicious organization presents itself as the world’s top global hunter group, but it has no physical presence anywhere.

All directives are exchanged through a clandestine network.

In other words, if they get caught, they just cut their losses.

‘For world peace?’

It makes me scoff.

Under the noble cause of protecting national assets and citizens from unknown life forms, they indiscriminately slaughter innocent people from other dimensions for experience points. Is that what they call ‘peace’?

What they’re doing is no different from the Demon King, who invades and conquers dimensions—the very unidentified life forms they claim to fight.

No, they might be even worse than the Demon King.

After all, these bastards were conducting human experiments.

‘I’ll have a lot to do when I get back.’

The previously stalled acquisition of the Hwarang Guild will finally proceed.

Ever since that Demon King bastard took over the group, everything has been moving at lightning speed.

I’ll need to reorganize the team to match, and prepare a new curriculum accordingly.

Most importantly, the task I assigned to the elf Ria was also nearing completion.

I just threw the idea out there, but that girl Ria actually expanded the organization’s influence and has been swallowing up everything, one by one.

She’s now the leader of an unprecedentedly large crime syndicate.

…

But is it okay for a high elf, a guardian of forests and nature, to come to the modern world and run a gang?

I get the feeling she doesn’t quite grasp what she’s doing.

Even with so much to do, I haven’t left the floating island yet.

The reason is the cooldown on my Dimensional Travel Stone.

Apparently, once you buy and use one, you have to wait 24 hours before you can use it again.

Shouldn’t they have written that in the description?

What if I had needed to return to the modern world urgently?

I decided to take a short break on the floating island until the cooldown was over.

Honestly, coming to the floating island after living in the city feels like arriving at a resort.

The Rania territory, nestled in nature with its lush forests, has a charm that the cold, dry landscape of the concrete jungle lacks.

*Buzz, buzz.*

I can see the sashimi-wielding gangster honeybees, peacefully carrying pollen on their hind legs as they flit about, collecting nectar.

They say that without bees, nature cannot exist.

Come to think of it, the bees of Mount Rania are quite diligent. They work hard.

Everything’s great, except I wish they’d stop fighting over territory.

The problem is that whenever those damn turf wars start, they always escalate to gunfire.

If this were a problem between humans, I could do something about it, but since it’s an insect affair, I can’t just interfere.

The territory, which I hadn’t seen in a while, was the same as ever.

Despite being dragged into a dimension they knew nothing about, these people were content with their peaceful lives in the territory.

Perhaps it would be best for the Rania territory to remain here as a floating island.

For the past eleven years, Rania had endured a continuous struggle of blood washing away blood.

I remembered when I first came to Rania.

The former lord, Wilhelm, had taken in a hero who had lost his power and become a wreck.

He was a foolish old man who loved alcohol and gambling, but he was also a man who loved his family fiercely.

The reason he brought me here was also incredibly simple.

To take revenge on the royal family.

The king of Aitesos tried to dispose of me.

The existence of the hero was no longer of any use to him.

At that time, someone opposed it.

It was a woman named Pirien Elibelle.

She was the priestess who had summoned me, the hero, to this other world, and she was also Katrinne’s mother.

She was a kind, wise, and strong person.

When I was first summoned out of the blue, I was angry and bewildered.

Katrinne’s mother, Priestess Pirien, apologized to me. And she promised she would definitely send me back to my original world.

In the end, she couldn’t keep her promise.

Because she was assassinated by the king.

The reason was her opposition to the disposal of the hero.

She argued that the hero had achieved great deeds, and even if he lost his power, he should be treated as a state guest, and they should repay his grace in any way he desired.

Naturally, that greedy old king wouldn’t have liked that.

She died, and the doting husband, the Margrave of Rania, went berserk.

The king claimed that Priestess Pirien was assassinated by the hero, but Margrave Wilhelm, who had met me in person, didn’t believe it.

Margrave Wilhelm, no, my brother, was very fond of me.

Even though I was the cause of his wife’s death.

He swore an oath to me. That he would uphold his wife’s will and protect her honor.

But he too failed to keep his promise.

He was poisoned and killed by a traitor from within.

Having suddenly lost its leader, the Rania territory fell into chaos.

Naturally, the anti-king faction also fizzled out.

I still can’t forget it.

That day, as a light rain fell.

The sight of Katrinne, her small, slender shoulders trembling as she cried.

It wasn’t what I wanted.

But Katrinne’s parents had died because of me, one way or another.

I made a vow.

That in their place, I would protect the young Katrinne until she became an adult.

—It’s all your fault!

Her venomous cry, as she shed what could have been rain or tears.

Katrinne hated me immensely.

No, she considered me her mortal enemy. But she couldn’t bring herself to kick me out.

It must have been because of her late father’s will.

*Consult the hero on all matters, and seek his advice in times of difficulty.*

To her credit, the young Katrinne honored her father’s last words.

When the young Katrinne ascended as the lord, a pack of wolf-like relatives descended upon her.

All of them claiming to be her guardian.

I became Katrinne’s guardian and drove away the pack of wolves.

After that, we spent a long time together.

I don’t know if it was a case of growing fond of someone you dislike, but to me now, Katrinne was family.

[Katrinne: Ajeossi.]

As I was taking a look around the Rania territory, a message came from Katrinne.

I wonder if my current form appears to her as that ridiculous pixelated character.

[Katrinne: What on earth happened…?]

There must be a thousand things Katrinne can’t understand.

I had teleported on my own, even though she hadn’t sent me to the territory.

Honestly, it’s a conversation we need to have eventually, but one we’ve been putting off.

[Katrinne: I know it was dangerous, but no, everything’s gone wrong. Ajeossi, what did you do?]

The future she had seen had changed.

Of course, the future is mutable. It can change with the flutter of a tiny butterfly’s wings.

But the situation she was seeing now must have been vastly different from what she had foreseen.

“That goddess candidate thing, are you going to do it?”

Katrinne didn’t answer my question.

From a munching saintess to a munching goddess.

It feels seriously anticlimactic, but she must have many things she wants to protect.

Right now, the Demon King is invading all sorts of dimensions.

In a time like this, if you can obtain power, you must seize it.

I will respect Katrinne’s choice.