WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 21: The Best Way to Clear Your Name
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“What’s the situation over there?”
[No changes yet.]
Park Hyeon-gun.
More often called Manager Park than by name, Park Hyeon-gun took pride in the work.
Of course, being a secretary was not a position that commanded much respect.
But that depended on who one served.
From guild and asset management to running all kinds of companies and conducting political negotiations.
Park Hyeon-gun’s influence was far from insignificant, carrying out Infinite Monarch Lee Cheon-gi’s orders in every field.
Even a nation’s president, the head of a major guild, or the chairman of a large corporation had to watch Park Hyeon-gun’s reactions.
Some mocked Park Hyeon-gun behind their back for borrowing the Monarch’s authority, but Park Hyeon-gun did not care.
Compared to the benefits gained as the Monarch’s right hand, that kind of ridicule was nothing.
That was why Park Hyeon-gun’s face was twisted into a fierce scowl at that very moment.
“You still haven’t found anything?”
[As I said, there have been no changes.]
“How does that make any sense?!”
Bang!
Park Hyeon-gun slammed a hand on the desk.
Then Park Hyeon-gun savagely pressed the person on the other end of the phone.
“Do you know how many Tracers I assigned to you? And yet you can’t confirm the Black Dragon Princess’s location? What the hell have you been doing all this time?”
[No matter how many Tracers there are, there is no way to confirm anything if the target does not move.]
“If the target won’t come out, you should go in and check for yourself!”
[That is impossible.]
“What?!”
[You should know that Leviathan is not just a hotel.]
“I know Leviathan is one of the Seven Dragon Group’s holding companies. But...!”
[I mean its standing in the underworld, not in respectable society.]
“...”
Park Hyeon-gun fell silent at the other person’s point.
As the Infinite Monarch’s right hand, Park Hyeon-gun could not possibly fail to understand what that meant.
[Let me be clear. Even on the Monarch’s orders, I cannot undertake something so suicidal.]
“Could you say that to the Master’s face?”
[I would like to ask you the same. If I infiltrate Leviathan and botch the job, can Manager Park take responsibility for that failure?]
That insolent bastard...!
Park Hyeon-gun gritted their teeth.
But Park Hyeon-gun could not bring themself to say they would take responsibility.
Instead, Park Hyeon-gun could only spit out another order.
“Then at least find some trace of Rimon Aspelder. You’re not so incompetent that you’d lose track of a school bus that big, are you?”
[Isn’t it only speculation that Rimon Aspelder is here?]
“Enough excuses. Find something. If things are still like this tomorrow, you will not get away unscathed!”
Leaving only that one-sided warning, Park Hyeon-gun irritably hung up.
It was unlike Park Hyeon-gun.
No matter how much Park Hyeon-gun was Lee Cheon-gi’s secretary, the other person was still the guild’s best Tracer.
Even as one of Infinity Guild’s highest-level Players, they were not someone Park Hyeon-gun could simply order around.
Yet Park Hyeon-gun was forcing the issue out of desperation.
Damn it! I have to get results somehow!
Lee Cheon-gi was not a merciful Monarch by nature.
He gave ample rewards for success, but mercilessly cast people aside when they failed.
That made this dangerous.
Park Hyeon-gun had lost the trail of the Black Dragon Princess, whom Lee Cheon-gi had been watching closely, and had even failed to deal with Rimon.
This is my last chance!
Park Hyeon-gun knew instinctively.
If this failed as well, Park Hyeon-gun would never regain Lee Cheon-gi’s trust.
And for someone who had built up countless grudges while handling every sort of business as Lee Cheon-gi’s close aide for so long, that would be no different from a death sentence.
That was why Park Hyeon-gun had no choice but to throw everything into this matter.
I only need to confirm that Rimon Aspelder is at Leviathan.
Park Hyeon-gun thought calmly.
If I have the pretext that she sheltered a traitor, I can seize the Black Dragon Princess.
No matter how immensely wealthy the Seven Dragon Group was, all it possessed was money.
It was not enough to surpass the Monarchs’ influence, who controlled Dungeons, the foundation of all modern industry.
Moreover, the Black Dragon Clan was the most declined branch even within the Seven Dragon Group.
If Park Hyeon-gun had the pretext, even the Seven Dragon Group would not shield the Black Dragon Princess to the point of making an enemy of a Monarch.
If I have to, I’ll take hostages again...!
Murderous intent filled Park Hyeon-gun’s eyes.
Considering that Rimon had gone out of his way to rescue those children, he was probably softhearted, just as one would expect from someone called a hero.
Park Hyeon-gun believed that if Park Hyeon-gun took people close to Rimon hostage, namely Kang Jeong-su’s father and entire family, Park Hyeon-gun could draw Rimon out.
But Park Hyeon-gun did not know.
That Park Hyeon-gun had misjudged the Seven Dragons Society.
Or how absurdly mistaken Park Hyeon-gun was to think hostage-taking would work on Rimon.
There was one fortunate thing.
Park Hyeon-gun would never realize the former.
There was one unfortunate thing.
Park Hyeon-gun would get the chance to realize the latter.
And it would come through a route entirely unrelated to the informants stationed everywhere or the guild’s intelligence network.
Namely, through a subordinate employee who suddenly threw open the door and rushed in.
Bang!
“Manager Park! We have a big problem!”
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
Seeing the subordinate employee’s deathly pale face, Park Hyeon-gun scowled fiercely.
The very fact that a mere subordinate had entered the office without permission was utterly unacceptable.
“Get out at once! Where do you think you are that you dare...!”
“This is not the time for that. TV, turn on the TV!”
“What?”
Park Hyeon-gun was briefly taken aback by the sudden statement.
Still frowning suspiciously, Park Hyeon-gun picked up the remote beside them.
[Ah, microphone test. Microphone test.]
The moment the TV came on, Park Hyeon-gun understood.
No, Park Hyeon-gun had no choice but to understand.
[Can you hear me? You can, right? You’d better be able to hear me.]
Why the subordinate had burst through the door in such a frenzy.
Why this was no time to worry about appearances.
A white-haired man grinning broadly as he occupied the TV channels of nearly every domestic broadcaster.
The scene surrounding Rimon Aspelder brought realization to Park Hyeon-gun as Park Hyeon-gun’s jaw dropped.
[If this broadcast doesn’t reach the Infinite Monarch properly, this bastard’s head will roll.]
...
Park Hyeon-gun had made an enormous mistake from the moment Park Hyeon-gun tried to take hostages against that lunatic.
* * *
Let us turn back time for a moment.
Several dozen minutes before Park Hyeon-gun froze in front of the TV with eyes that looked ready to pop out, there were others who had frozen with similar expressions.
That was quite rare.
They had been trained to handle most unexpected situations without batting an eye.
Yet there was only one reason they had frozen.
Something far beyond an ordinary unexpected situation was happening.
“What are you doing, you bastards?”
A young face and immaculate white hair.
A faint scar at the corner of his eye.
And a sword slung over his shoulder.
A man who had once been famous, but whose reputation had declined in recent years until many had forgotten him.
Yet after an emergency directive had gone out yesterday, he had become a traitor whose face was widely known throughout major institutions as a person of interest guilty of high treason.
Rimon Aspelder sneered at the frozen guards.
“If a suspicious person shows up, you hit the emergency alarm right away and activate the response protocol. Huh?”
“Y-You crazy...!”
They trembled all over.
Then, unable to help themselves, they screamed at Rimon, who stood there as calm as could be.
“This is the Blue House, you fucking lunatic!!!”
The presidential residence, the very heart of the nation.
A traitor, not merely some common criminal, had appeared alone and openly at its front gate with his bare face exposed.
The Blue House security team’s scream at this unprecedented situation, one never seen since the country’s founding, received a simple answer from Rimon.
“So what?”
As if challenging the very idea that he had come somewhere forbidden.
Rimon cocked his head arrogantly, looking thoroughly unimpressed.
Their faces turned red, then blue, as they finally began doing what they were supposed to do.
They sounded the emergency alarm, activated the response protocol, called for reinforcements, drew their guns, and caused a general uproar.
Wheeeeeee!
“Don’t move! Move and we’ll shoot!”
“Raise both hands and get on your knees! Get on your knees!”
“What is it? What the hell is going on that...! Gasp!? Rimon Aspelder?”
“I-Is that really him?”
Shouts all over the place, telling him to stay still and get on his knees at the same time.
Conscript police officers who had apparently not even been properly informed of the situation, arriving with only shields and batons and then panicking.
The security team only crawled out after more than a dozen police cars arrived.
Tourists in the distance filming the scene with their smartphones as though they had mistaken it for some event.
Standing his ground before the Blue House’s front gate and watching the situation unfold, Rimon looked dumbfounded.
“Hey, who the hell is in charge of you lot that things are this pathetic...? No, forget it. Don’t tell me.”
He did not need to see it to know.
Nine times out of ten, some bastard had gotten the position through bribes or connections.
It had been a long time since the wars ended.
These days, even important posts... No, especially important posts were often occupied by people who could not do a damn thing.
That was why he had come here.
Rimon clicked his tongue as he recalled his original purpose.
Then, deciding there was no need to wait any longer, he properly gripped the sword hanging from his shoulder.
As he began walking forward, he spoke.
“I came to find that out anyway.”
Slice!
“...Huh?”
The armed guards froze.
Not merely because the instant he seemed to take a step, he had already passed between them.
Their guns had been cleanly cut in half and lay scattered across the ground, even though they had not blinked once.
And the sight of countless colleagues holding only gun handles, just as they themselves did, left them rooted in place.
They understood instinctively.
When he had passed them just now.
If Rimon had harbored murderous intent.
What lay scattered on the ground would not have been gun fragments, but pieces of them.
“I don’t know whether he’s hiding in a bunker, running away like hell, or still sitting right where he is like an idiot.”
As though time had stopped.
The man walked forward alone, utterly at ease in a space where no one could move or even breathe.
“Someone tell that bastard calling himself the president.”
Humanity’s last Sword Master.
A hero who had saved the nation, humanity’s guardian deity.
But to enemies such as the Seven Dragons Society, he was infamous as a mad dog beyond even those illustrious titles.
A relic of a bygone age who firmly believed that, rather than suffer a false accusation, a real man should boldly accomplish a great undertaking.
With a casual horizontal sweep of his sword, Rimon split apart the Blue House’s firmly closed front gate.
Then he grinned cheerfully.
“Tell him a traitor has come to commit treason.”
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