Chapter 58: The Mastermind

“…The egg found the girl?”

The first to cast doubt on Karelin’s words was Vasquez, who had been conversing with her just moments ago.

“Yes. When coincidences tangle together that tightly, it can only be inevitability. Shed your preconceptions about its appearance and think. What kind of egg is that? Couldn’t it already possess a sense of self and will, even before being born?”

“That… might be possible.”

Hearing it, the words sounded plausible. That egg was no ordinary egg. Everyone here knew that. The egg’s true identity was the egg of a god served by the Demon Beasts beyond the Gates. It wasn’t impossible for it to have a sense of self before birth.

“That’s also why I’m not reproaching you for having the egg stolen.”

“…”

Honestly, Vasquez felt it was less “stolen” and more “wrested away.” He wanted to argue that point. That girl’s combat power had overwhelmed the Earth Dragon and was evenly matched with his own.

In the first place, it was Karelin herself—no one else—who had suggested leaving such an important egg there. She’d said that if they put it somewhere unknown where no one cared, no one would find it, and that place was an unopened Gate.

It was then. As Vasquez recalled a past conversation with Karelin, a thought bloomed in his mind.

“…Come to think of it, the Gate where that egg was opening might not be a coincidence either.”

At first, he’d thought it was just bad luck that the Gate opened, but if the egg had a will of its own?

Just as Karelin could teleport into an unopened dungeon, if the egg had the power to open a Gate…

Then it was highly likely that the girl entering that Gate wasn’t a coincidence either.

“Does that make sense?”

One of the round table members spoke.

“Wouldn’t someone need to guide her to the Gate with the egg? No matter how omniscient that egg is, there’s no way it could guide a girl who suddenly appeared out of nowhere.”

“Shouldn’t we also consider the possibility that someone who knows about the egg guided the girl?”

“…That’s true.”

Karelin affirmed the others’ conversation. Through Mateo’s clairvoyance, she had heard the exchange between Vasquez and the girl. The girl seemed to know nothing about the egg.

Even if the egg had a will, it was impossible for it to guide a girl it had never met while unable to move or speak.

But the only ones who knew of the egg’s existence were those at this round table.

“So you’re saying there might be an informant within the guild that arranged that Gate.”

“Ha! An informant?”

“Though we gathered for mutual benefit, aiding the egg goes against the will of everyone here, doesn’t it?”

“I knew this would happen. What, now we have internal strife—is there any reason to stay? I’m pulling out of here.”

The round table began to grow noisy, starting with an enraged voice. The one who quelled the commotion was the ponytailed man, who had been sitting silently the whole time.

*THUD!*

He slammed the round table, then glared around with a murderous gaze, saying nothing. Yet no one refuted him.

“Calm down.”

It was Karelin, the one who had gathered them all, who spoke in place of the silent ponytailed man.

“An informant… I expected one would appear someday. Don’t worry. I’ll find them soon.”

“Trust, once broken, is hard to restore.”

Someone said. But Karelin answered with a composed demeanor.

“I’m the one who gathered everyone here. I’ve been investigating information about all of you for a while. Personality, values, preferences, and so on… If I piece those together, I can find out who the informant is without much difficulty.”

“However,” Karelin added.

“I won’t catch them right now. I still need every single person here. But when the time comes, if anyone tries to go against us, you’d better be prepared.”

Her words also meant she would let it slide this once. As she’d said, everyone here was essential for her plan to succeed.

“Even expelling them right now wouldn’t be enough…”

“Let’s wait and see for now. I’ve invested a lot in this. I can’t just give up easily.”

“If necessary, I suppose there’s no choice.”

Opinions diverged on how to handle the informant.

“For now, you all know it’s not me, right?”

Vasquez gave an awkward laugh. He’d had the egg taken from him by the girl, but at the same time, the fight he’d put up there proved he wasn’t the informant. Maybe that was why no one argued with him.

“Hmph, to think you got it stolen by some brat like that.”

Instead, a voice of displeasure rang out. These people had watched his fight through Mateo’s Clairvoyance. A Hunter who went into D-Rank Gates would be, at best, a C-Rank Hunter, yet Vasquez had lost there.

“I’m telling you, I gave it my all! That young lady, my ability didn’t work on her!”

He felt wronged. If his ability had worked from the start, he would’ve brought the egg back without needing to fight at all.

“Wait, what do you mean your ability didn’t work?”

Karelin asked, her face shocked by Vasquez’s words.

“Ah, well…”

In that instant, Vasquez sensed he’d made a mistake. For an Awakened One, having their supernatural ability fail meant revealing a fatal weakness and, at the same time, losing their reason for existing.

Every single person here was a top-tier powerhouse. They were a group gathered out of necessity. And none of the people in this room were known to the public.

If he wasn’t careful, he might be eliminated. A chill ran down his spine at that horrifying thought, but Vasquez was quick on his feet.

‘…Right, if worst comes to worst, I can just use my ability to dominate them.’

As Vasquez saw it, this group wasn’t fully united yet. If it was one against many, that was one thing, but one-on-one, he was confident he wouldn’t lose.

That girl was the strange one; he’d already secretly confirmed that his ability worked on these people. Even the ponytailed man sitting there, commanding the atmosphere, had been successfully dominated when he tried it on him.

“Well, I’m sure everyone here saw it too.”

Vasquez began speaking in a nonchalant tone.

“That young lady isn’t an ordinary mage. My ability didn’t work on her. The mind-control one, I mean.”

Vasquez deliberately lied about his ability. He figured he needed to keep some cards hidden so he could survive even if he got kicked out later.

“That put me at a disadvantage from the start. And that’s not all. Everyone knows what happens when a mage’s Mana Shield gets destroyed in one hit, right? Especially you, Karelin — you’re a mage, so you’d know better than anyone.”

Karelin nodded as if she understood.

A Mana Shield could be turned on and off manually, but if it took an impact so powerful that the mage couldn’t handle it with their own mana, draining all the mana in their body, it caused serious aftereffects. In the worst case, it could even lead to brain death. There were plenty of cases like that.

“Honestly, I’m confident in my skills. I’ve killed countless people, Hunters, with my own hands. But that girl… she was the first.”

“Stop dragging it out and get to the point! You loser, Vasquez!”

“That’s a bit harsh. Anyway, that young lady kept manifesting her Mana Shield infinitely. I destroyed it in one hit, and she immediately brought up a new one. You all saw it, didn’t you?”

“A Mana Shield? From what we saw, it just looked like you flailing around in the air.”

“I did hear some kind of sparking sound, though.”

“Yeah, that’s it! That’s the sound of a Mana Shield breaking!”

Vasquez pointed a finger at whoever had spoken, as if they’d hit the mark.

“That girl’s Mana Shield is special. It has no color. It’s transparent, so you can’t even tell it’s up. But the moment you touch it, you know. It keeps repairing itself even after it should’ve been destroyed!”

Vasquez raised his voice, pleading his case. He was a man who had always inspired fear in his targets. But now, for the first time, he’d met an opponent his ability didn’t work on, and that opponent had even called him pathetic — of course he was furious.

“Anyway, when you guys face her yourselves, you’ll react the same way I did.”

“Hmm… is that so?”

Even though Vasquez said that, everyone’s reaction was lukewarm.

“…Your supernatural ability doesn’t work on her, she took down the Earth Dragon you dominated, and she’s a girl who doesn’t lose ground against you… Maybe the egg chose her.”

Except for one person: Karelin.

“I think so too, Lady Karelin.”

“Yeah, that guy’s an S-Rank Hunter too, there’s no way he’d just lose for no reason.”

“She did have a mysterious air about her.”

Once Karelin chimed in, voices agreeing with her opinion started trickling out. Seeing that reaction, Vasquez breathed a quiet sigh of relief, thinking he probably wouldn’t be cast out by them for now.

“If I may be so bold, Lady Karelin.”

Mateo spoke, turning to Karelin with a kindly smile.

“What is it, Mateo?”

“As for this girl, it’s not yet a situation where the entire group can move at once. So would you entrust this matter to me?”

What Mateo said was true. Just because the girl had taken the egg didn’t mean the whole group could mobilize at once. The egg was an important item, but recently they’d become aware of an unidentified group tracking them. Since everything had to proceed in secrecy, they couldn’t afford to let that group pick up their trail, so moving rashly was out of the question.

That was why they’d sent Vasquez, an assassin deemed suitable for the job, and yet he’d failed.

“To you? Won’t you stand out too much?”

But Mateo was the head of a religion. That religion was far from small in scale, so there was a worry that if he moved, he’d draw too much attention.

“It’s fine.”

However, as if to dispel that unease, Mateo asserted with his smile still in place.

“I can feel it.”

“Feel it? Feel what?”

“I can’t go into detail, but I would very much like for you to entrust this matter to me.”

“…If you’re going that far.”

In any case, judging by the looks of those gathered around the round table, it didn’t seem like anyone else would step forward. If anything, having someone like Mateo volunteer first was actually more convenient for her.

And yet, for some reason—

“…Heh heh heh.”

Though it was supposed to look like a benevolent smile, to Karelin, Mateo’s grin felt somehow sinister and sticky.

“Then I’ll conclude this meeting here. If any of you obtain information on that girl, I’d like you to contact me immediately.”

With her words as the signal, those gathered at the round table vanished like mist. Except for Karelin and the ponytailed man.

“…You’re not leaving?”

At Karelin’s question, the ponytailed man, who had remained silent the whole time, rose from his seat.

“In case you’ve forgotten.”

He, who had been quiet until now, finally spoke.

Judging by his behavior at the round table, he seemed to be on Karelin’s side, but unexpectedly, the man’s gaze toward her now was cold and sharp.

“I am here only until I find my missing senior.”

“I know.”

What the man said was the condition he had set when joining this place. Karelin had accepted him and brought him in.

“The moment I find my senior, I will leave this place. So please, do not develop any personal feelings for me.”

“…What?”

For an instant, Karelin’s pupils dilated. Personal feelings? What nonsense was this man spouting?

“Wait, what nonsense is that—”

Before Karelin could even finish her sentence, the ponytailed man dissolved into mist and vanished.

“Unbelievable.”

Karelin let out a short sigh toward the spot where the man had been. She’d thought he was about to say something important, but instead he came out with something completely out of left field.

‘Kim Jihyeok…’

He showed up at every meeting without fail, making it seem like he obediently followed her, yet he was a man she could never quite get a read on.