Chapter 84 – Agency Occupation (5)

Three hours had passed since the agency was taken.

The Villains had murdered the guards protecting the agency, binding and imprisoning all the staff.

Karin, at least, was fortunate. On account of her youth, she had been locked away with the other children.

Aside from being confined, they were free to do as they pleased.

However.

“P-please… Aaargh!”

The sounds of several hostages being brutally murdered echoed from outside.

Karin squeezed her eyes shut.

The children, fraught with anxiety, refused to leave her side.

As if finding solace in each other’s warmth.

“Hey, you kids. Come on out.”

“Why?”

“Hmm, because it’s better than dying?”

Kei offered a half-hearted reply to Karin’s question as he raised his gun.

Seeing it, the children began to tremble like aspens in the wind.

“Right?”

He spoke as if seeking her agreement, but Karin remained silent.

A smiling subordinate of Kei’s approached to take the children away. They didn’t want to go, but they had no choice.

If they didn’t listen, they would sleep forever like their friends. Then they wouldn’t be able to play or talk anymore.

“Don’t be so angry. It can’t be helped. Someone has to fight.”

“What did you say?”

“It’s what you used to do all the time.”

Kei sat backward in his chair, facing Karin directly.

“How many people do you think you’ve killed? Probably a lot more than someone like me.”

*Hmph.*

Kei let out a low, self-mocking laugh.

“You killed so easily, just by lifting a finger. ‘I want that city,’ or ‘Hmm, I feel like taking that town today.’ Things like that.”

“It was the bare minimum required to protect the people of my domain.”

“Was that really what the people of your domain wanted? Huh? Maybe they would’ve been fine with just a change of leadership.”

“I suppose you haven’t considered what happens to a domain that’s captured after losing a war?”

Kei said, sounding amused.

“True, there are plenty of lunatics who’d hang all the villagers and then have a drink. But the opposite could also be true, couldn’t it? Right?”

“Mister. If someone came running at you with a knife, you’d just stand there, would you? They might not kill you, after all. They might just be drunk, just lost their temper for a moment. Right?”

At Karin’s sarcasm, Kei burst out laughing with a *pfft*. Then he nodded.

“You’ve left me speechless.”

“What, are you losing an argument to a little kid, big brother?”

A woman in a red dress entered through the open door. No, a woman drenched in blood squelched as she walked.

At the sight, the children grew terrified and clung even tighter to Karin.

“If you’re back, you could at least change your clothes.”

“Hehe. I like it this way. Makes me feel like I’m always ready for a fight. By the way, that Hero guy is no joke, is he? He lopped off my arm~.”

Kei replied in a low voice to the red woman, Kim Yeo-jin’s, nasal tone.

“Didn’t you get it treated with a regeneration skill?”

“Nah, some of the others are critically wounded. They said they had to treat them first, or they’d die.”

Kim Yeo-jin, who had been mock-sobbing, turned to Karin with a sly grin.

“That Hero is something else. So decisive. Hacking off a lady’s arm like he’s slicing a radish. Don’t most men hesitate?”

“That’s because the Hero is the ultimate killer.”

“You think so? Then again, how many people have died because of the Hero? He fought the entire continent for the sake of one insignificant little lady of a fiefdom.”

Watching the two of them banter, Karin sighed.

“Ma’am.”

“M-Ma’am…?”

“The Hero swore an oath to protect me from the very beginning. He kept his unbreakable vow and stopped the continent’s misguided rampage.”

The existence of the Demon King had united the Seven Kingdoms.

To eliminate their common enemy.

But the Demon King was far too strong. The Demon King’s army, led by his overwhelming charisma, ravaged the kingdoms despite being outnumbered.

It was then that the Hero appeared, defeated the Demon King’s army, and brought peace to the continent. But the Seven Kingdoms waged a bloody war to claim the empty throne, and more people died than during the fight against the Demon King’s army.

In the end, a king who had grown in power invaded the Rania domain to eliminate the Hero, who he feared might become an obstacle in the future.

The pretext was that with the young Katrinne as its lady, he was concerned for the kingdom’s well-being and offered to act as regent.

The Hero took up his sword once again to protect the domain. And he shed much blood.

Ultimately, a war lasting ten years broke out.

“Must be nice having someone to protect you. Who else would shield you from an entire continent? Hehe. I didn’t have anyone, so I ended up with this wonderful body instead.”

Kim Yeo-jin lifted her skirt.

The moment Karin saw something squirming in her abdomen, her brow furrowed.

The children screamed or vomited at the sight.

“Oh my, how rude. It’s not that bad, is it?”

Kim Yeo-jin continued, laughing cheerfully.

“Still, I’m satisfied now. Thanks to sacrificing all my organs, I gained power.”

Power that would lose to no one.

Kim Yeo-jin kept that last part to herself. After all, she had been utterly defeated by the Hero.

“Let’s go, Yeo-jin.”

“Mission complete. But what about Jay? We can’t just leave him, can we?”

Kei answered Kim Yeo-jin’s question without hesitation.

“We have to leave him behind.”

“Why? That’s such a waste. Jay was the strongest among us.”

“By the standards of ‘us’ up to now. Besides, the only reason he was with us in the first place was because of his pact with *Him*. He has already fulfilled that pact and vanished. He won’t be with us anymore.”

With Jay, everything would be easier. But he always has his eyes on the Hero.

His ideals are completely different from ours.

Kei’s foresight was telling him the answer.

Jay would be a useful wild card, but he could never be on their side.

“Well then, kids. How about we go outside with uncle now?”

At Kei’s words, the children hid behind Karin.

Karin frowned, shielding the children.

“Why are you breaking my heart like this? I thought I made myself perfectly clear.”

Kei muttered, pulling out his pistol again.

The children, remembering how many people had been killed by that pistol, showed signs of reflexive trauma.

“My lady. They aren’t your subjects, so why don’t you stop asserting your rights and hand over the kids?”

“No.”

“Hmm, maybe I was too kind. Right. I must seem like such a gentleman, don’t I, Yeo-jin?”

Kei shrugged as he spoke, and Kim Yeo-jin replied with a sneer.

“Don’t be an ass.”

“Well, fine. Have it your way.”

With those words, Kei pulled the trigger.

*Click.*

Perhaps it was out of bullets; nothing came out of the barrel.

“To be honest, I knew you wouldn’t even blink.”

Saying so, Kei tossed the pistol aside.

The pistol clattered to the floor. In its place, Kei took a magic stone from his coat.

A stone radiating a gloomy, violet aura. The moment Karin saw it, she felt a sense of foreboding.

“Well, it was nice meeting you. See you around.”

The gloomy violet stone’s energy began to seep into the children’s bodies, as if infecting them.

“Ah…!”

Karin tried to stop it, but it was useless. The infection had already begun.

“Sister….”

Yi-ho whispered softly.

Karin looked down at the little girl.

As if she had already given up, Yi-ho gave an awkward smile and shook her head.

Starting with Yi-ho, cracks began to appear on all the children’s bodies.

The light expanded, looking as if it would soon swell and burst.

It was no longer feasible to hold the agency.

A joint attack by the military and Hunters, led by the Hero, was heading their way.

More importantly, other awakened individuals with unknown objectives had infiltrated the building.

Kei knew who they were.

‘So, they chose the Hero in the end.’

It was amusing that those stubborn fools who refused to make a move had finally gotten up.

The hardliners called themselves Residents, brazenly revealing their presence in this world. The moderates, however, called themselves Immigrants, believing they were merely borrowing someone else’s land to live on.

The very same moderates who had repeatedly refused his offers to join forces had now infiltrated the agency.

It probably wasn’t to help the hardliners.

The Hero.

What was so charming about him?

Kei couldn’t understand it.

Time was up.

He had achieved his objective; now all that was left was to escape under the cover of an explosion.

At that moment, the brilliant light faded.

No, it vanished.

“Huh? What was that?”

Kim Yeo-jin’s voice was filled with surprise. No, her comrades around her were the same.

Kei turned to look.

He had planned to have the corrupted magic stone react, cause an explosion, and create a massive gate.

A way to escape the agency safely.

But the children had disappeared.

In their place was a pitch-black subspace exuding a desolate aura, like a black hole.

“A gate?”

A gate had opened without the magic stone humans even exploding.

Kei couldn’t comprehend the situation.

The future had changed.

‘The Hero?’

No, this time, it wasn’t the Hero who had changed the future.

All causal relationships were tangled like the veins of a leaf. As such, there was no such thing as a 100% certainty.

But Kei had strived to create an answer that was as close to 100% as possible.

Yet, this change meant a new variable had entered the equation.

The only one standing there was Karin.

Her gaze had turned desolate and cold.

The innocent girl who had played and laughed with the children was gone.

Her eyes, which looked as numb as a doll’s, slowly began to glow with a cold light as cross-shaped pupils shone within them.

“Foresight?”

No, it wasn’t exactly Foresight.

True Eye.

That was the exact name of the power Kei had been granted.

‘She has the same thing?’

Unlike Kei’s awakening in a single eye, both of her eyes were awakened.

Something stepped out from the newly formed gate.

*Clank, clank.*

The grinding sound of metal on metal. Three medieval knights in full plate armor walked out.

All three were powerfully built and armed with a poleaxe, a longsword, and a mace.

“!”

They were knights.

Seeing them, Kei’s eyes showed bewilderment for the first time.

Something he had never predicted was happening before his eyes.

“The power of a priest. True Eye. Dimensional power. A Saintess.”

Kei’s bewilderment was short-lived. The corners of his mouth twisted into a smirk.

“So, it was you.”

The true power this lady possessed.

There was no way she had suddenly regained this power.

Opening a dimensional gate wasn’t as simple as tossing a fireball.

A power she hadn’t revealed even to the Hero, the one closest to her.

A power hidden even from the one who was like family, her one and only ally.

Why did she hide it?

When the answer came to him, Kei found it so amusing that he let out a hearty laugh.

“So you were the one *He* was looking for. Yes, you wanted to keep it a secret from the Hero, didn’t you? Why? Afraid you’d be abandoned?”

Instead of answering Kei, Karin made a declaration.

“Kill them.”

Upon receiving their master’s command, the light in the knights’ eyes glowed menacingly from within their helmets.

The Villains raised their swords and spears.

The first to attack was the knight with the poleaxe.

He brought it down in a diagonal slash toward his enemy.

*Squelch!*

Unable to block the powerful strike, one of the Villains was deeply cleaved.

The remaining Villains scattered, attempting to attack the knights from the flanks.

They were all clad in suits of armor, so their movements would be slow, and their visors would narrow their field of vision, inevitably slowing their reactions.

“If you hide inside such heavy armor, of course you’d be…!”

The Villain struck the knight’s side with his sword.

But only a dull thud echoed.

The knight looked down blankly at the Villain.

Sensing danger, the Villain tried to retreat, but the knight had already grabbed his wrist.

“Huh?”

Before he could even voice his confusion, the Villain’s head was smashed by a mace, splattering his brains.

“Don’t.”

Kei stopped Kim Yeo-jin, who was about to step forward.

Her arm, severed by the Hero, had yet to be regenerated.

The soldiers summoned by the lady were no mere rabble.

They were well-trained knights.

Of course, that wasn’t all. Their power was currently amplified by their newly awakened master. Their strength and ferocity were terrifying.

Kei looked at the lady’s cold face.

She was feigning composure with her arms crossed, but her complexion was pale. Her legs were also trembling slightly.

With her current power, just opening a dimensional gate and summoning knights was already pushing her to her limit.

‘If I really wanted to.’

If he pressed his advantage now, he could capture the lady.

He’d never imagined she was hiding such a delightful power.

“Damn it.”

But if he captured the lady, the Hero would come.

Kim Yeo-jin, whom he had painstakingly nurtured, would meet a gruesome death at the Hero’s hands, and he himself would be trapped in the Hero’s inventory, have all his information squeezed out of him, and then be killed.

‘Escape is the priority for now.’

He wanted to be greedy. But now was not the time.

“We’re escaping.”

“Says who?”

At Karin’s venomous words, Kei’s lips curled into a smile.

He took out another corrupted magic stone.

“Says me, of course.”

He crushed the magic stone.

“Huh?”

Cracks began to appear on the bodies of the Villains in the room, accompanied by light.

“Uh… Kei…?”

The Villains fighting the knights looked down at their own hands, then turned to look at Kei.

A brilliant light erupted. At the same time, an explosion occurred.