Chapter 286. The Two Masters (1)
“Wow, the weather’s great today! Frost, do you want to go out?” Seo Jun-Ho asked cheerfully as he swiftly opened the curtains. He had significantly recovered after resting for about five days.
“Hm.” The Frost Queen stared straight up at Seo Jun-Ho and shook her head. “…Contractor, you’re having mood swings.”
“Yeah, right. I just feel better now, that’s all.”
“You were deeply depressed up until yesterday, and you suddenly feel great? That is what they call bipolar disorder…”[1]
“Why are you saying I’m mentally ill all of a sudden? If you keep saying that, you won’t get any snacks for today,” he warned.
The Frost Queen shut her mouth. She looked away, grumbling to herself, “You always threaten me with snacks whenever I do something… It is not as if I cannot live without snacks…”
“What was that? I can’t hear you.”
“I said nothing. I wish for a strawberry cake today.”
After medicating her cake with Spirit Crystal shavings once again, Seo Jun-Ho took off his apron.
‘I should buy more Spirit Crystals soon,’ he thought. And that wasn’t all that he needed to buy. ‘I need armor, too.’
Piglet was only the latest incident. Seo Jun-Ho had been lucky that the fiend only possessed telepathic abilities. If Piglet had some sort of physical enhancement skill, he might have been in trouble.
“Oh, I should read his memories, too,” he realized. His original plan had been to look at them with Rahmadat after the battle, but he had been too mentally exhausted. Today was the first time he felt functional in a while, and the things he needed to do had already piled up like a mountain.
“Did I put it here? Oh, I did.” Seo Jun-Ho took out the ice statue he had thrown into his Inventory. And with a hammer and chisel, he began to crack the ice.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“I just need his head, right?” After all, Confession of the Dead only required him to place his hand on the head of his target to activate. “Confession of the Dead.”
A hologram playback window appeared before him. He settled down on his bed and watched it with potato chips and coke.
“…Hmm.” He was looking out for any information about the skills of each Squadron leader, the location of the Fiend Association, and what was going on with them.
“The location…” Frankly, it would be hard for him to get in. To get there, you had to go to a specific region in Outland and meet the person in charge. It would be hard to get through if you weren’t a fiend.
‘But it might be possible with Skaya’s help.’
After all, he had once managed to disguise himself as Gouf and slip through the cracks with her assistance. However, the security of the Fiend Association’s headquarters was bound to be much more thorough, so he wasn’t sure that it would work.
“And there are still four Squadron leaders…”
Seo Jun-Ho had killed Pride and Piglet, while Rahmadat and Skaya killed the Envy Squadron leader, Lust, down on Earth.
‘Still, Piglet was ranked pretty high.’
In the Fiend Association, he had been all the way up in 15th place.
Piglet also vaguely knew the skills of the other Squadron leaders.
‘It doesn’t matter, I can defeat them all if I ever run into them.’
After fighting Piglet this time around, Seo Jun-Ho became more confident about the fact that the Fiend Association’s Squadron leaders had no chance against him.
‘They would have to be at least be an executive for them to have a chance against me.’
There were a total of seven executives in the Fiend Association. They were so powerful they couldn’t be touched even if one of them was attacked by several Squadron leaders at the same time.
‘And there are three Heavens among them.’
Thank the heavens that the Heavenly Demon was already dead. If he had lived longer, he would have caused plenty of problems for him.
“What are they doing now?” Seo Jun-Ho wondered. According to Piglet’s memories, the Fiend Association was unstable at the moment. The ship had lost its captain, and no one was at the steering wheel.
“What in the world are they thinking?” he muttered as he closed the window.
Did none of the seven executives have a thirst for power?
‘But even if that’s the case, their direct subordinates are running wild… But, they’re just letting them do what they want?’
He just couldn’t figure out their line of thinking.
The Frost Queen chimed in; she had been watching the playback next to him. “Hm, something smells strange.”
“…Is it the smell of the cake you just ate?”
“No! What I mean is that they are suspicious.” The Frost Queen slapped his arm and continued, “If a leader disappears, the hierarchy and those in it become unstable. Such as those Squadron leaders.”
“That’s right…”
“Those in the lower ranks are acting out like that, but their superiors haven’t lifted even a single finger. This can only mean one thing.”
“What is it?” Seo Jun-Ho asked, sitting up straight.
“…It means that the new leader has already been decided,” she concluded.
“That quickly?”
“The Fiend Association should have someone only second to the Heavenly Demon. They would have seized power right away.”
“Then why are they letting the Squadron leaders do as they please?” Seo Jun-Ho asked.
“Fresh wine should be stored in a new barrel. Do you know of this saying?”
“…I see.”
That meant they were still choosing who to kick out to have a fresh start. Seo Jun-Ho nodded. The Frost Queen’s reasoning made sense.
“That means we don’t have any time to fool around,” he said.
The Fiend Association looked totally chaotic from the outside, but somewhere in the shadows, they were preparing to transform anew.
‘Something smells dangerous.’
His instinct told him that things would become much more dangerous and vicious than before.
“We should also get moving…” For some reason, Seo Jun-Ho felt like he was being shooed out. He packed his bags in no time and headed to the auction house.
“Do you have something you want to buy here? Ah, is it armor?” The Frost Queen babbled, sticking to him like gum on a shoe.
However, Seo Jun-Ho was a professional spirit-user now. He knew how to effectively deal with her.
“Just this and that. Huh? Look, they’re selling cotton candy over there.”
“Cotton candy?!” The Frost Queen licked her lips and swallowed. Seo Jun-Ho got the sense that she wanted some, but she didn’t want to act on it outright because of her pride as a queen.
“It has been a while since we’ve come to the market, so you should get some snacks. Here, take some pocket money.”
“Really?! Thank you so much, Contractor!” She took the money and ran excitedly over to the man at the cotton candy stall. Seo Jun-Ho took the chance to quickly buy Spirit Crystals. He had to pay a premium because he was paying the asking price instead of bidding for it. Still, it was more important to get it as quickly as possible.
Seo Jun-Ho grinned when he looked at the pouch full of Spirit Crystals.
“Nice. With this much…” It would easily last him for at least two months. As soon as he put the pouch into his Inventory, the Frost Queen scampered toward him, waving her arms. She had a stick of blue cotton candy in one hand, and red on the other.
“Cotton candyyy!” she exclaimed.
“Is it good?”
“Yes. It’s very sweet.”
For some reason, he felt proud as he watched her giggle.
After that, Jun-Ho headed to a brewery. “30 barrels of this, please.”
“…Do you mean 30 bottles?”
“No, barrels.”
It had been a while since there had been such a customer, so the manager gave him two complimentary bottles of their finest liquor. Seo Jun-Ho put them all away in his Inventory and headed to the dwarves’ city, Del Ice.
“It has been a while, my friend!” The chief of the White Anvil Tribe, Graham greeted him with a gruff smile.
Seo Jun-Ho smiled as well. “Have you been well?”
“Yes, well…Just take a look around.”
After migrating, the new Del Ice changed a lot. The city had once been cold and dead, but now, it was warm and full of life.
“That’s good to hear,” Jun-Ho said.
“Hehe, it is all thanks to you chasing the ice witch away.”
“Well, it’s not like it was for free.” Seo Jun-Ho took out the beer from his Inventory and presented it to him. “I bought these on the way here. I heard that you like Earth-style beer.”
“Hm, Kim Woo-Joong must have told you,” Graham said, drooling over the 30 barrels of beer. He called over the other dwarves. “Drink as much as you want!”
“Thank you, Seo Jun-Ho!”
“Our human friend!”
The dwarves cheered. They brought snacks from each of their houses for the festivities.
Graham looked pleased as he watched them. He gestured at Seo Jun-Ho to sit. “So, do you like the equipment I gave you?”
“Yes, very much so.” He especially liked using the spear made of Cold Iron, though he had yet to use the sawtooth sword. “I came back here to ask for another selfish favor.”
“Hm, a favor? What is it?”
“The armor you saw last time got destroyed.”
“Tsk, tsk… You should have been more careful.” Graham clicked his tongue, recalling how fine White Armor had been.
“So, I came here to see if I could get a new set of armor.”
“Hm? What about the blacksmith who made that armor?”
“Well… He said that with his level of skill, he can’t make something that’ll protect me anymore.” Seo Jun-Ho took out the Sword of Ambition and showed it to Graham. “The last thing he gave me was this sword he worked on for decades. Now, he has retired.”
“Give it.” Graham took the Sword of Ambition and inspected it from top to bottom. “Hm… You said he’s human?”
“Yes? Yes. He is human.”
“And he does not have any dwarven blood?”
“…If he did, Palmo wouldn’t have come out looking like that,” Seo Jun-Ho muttered, thinking of the blacksmith’s mountainous build.
“Hm? Well, in any case, you are saying that he does not have any dwarven blood.”
Cling.
Graham looked amused as he flicked the blade. “Humans live such short lives… Yet, he managed to put his soul into his work… Just how old is he?”
“Uh… I think he’s turning 100 this year.” Any other person would have retired decades ago and spent time with their grandchildren at that age. “Personally, I’m relieved that he retired. He’s old, yet he’s always working so hard…”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Graham clicked his tongue again. He gave Seo Jun-Ho a sidelong look, seeming a little reproachful. “Your poor friend. Even if you are not the most social person I know, I did not know you were this tactless.”
“…Pardon?”
“There’s a saying among blacksmiths. We hammer iron before we become of age.[2] The same should be true of this human.”
“That’s true.” Kwon Noya was the 17th Patriarch of the historical Kwon clan, a famous family of blacksmiths. While other children played with toys, Kwon Noya had to have been playing with a hammer and metal.
“We want to die before the forge fire, just as we lived. That is what all blacksmiths wish for.”
“…”
“Did you somehow think that he was happy to retire?” Graham asked.
“Yes…”
He thought so. Kwon Noya was old so Seo Jun-Ho thought that it was a good choice to retire now that he had an excuse to do so. However, he had never considered how Noya felt when he decided to retire.
“Tsk, tsk. If you do not believe it, go ask him yourself. Actually, let us go together.”
“Pardon?” Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes grew wide as Graham stood up.
“What are you staring at? I said, we should go meet him together,” he said.
“Well, that’s…” Seo Jun-Ho knew that it was possible for those from Frontier to go down to Earth. After all, Kwon Noya had told him he had met an elf from there. But as far as he knew, the process was pretty fickle.
‘…Well, does it matter?’
If that ended up being a problem, he had his secret weapon, Shim Deok-Gu.
“Are you actually going down?”
“Yes. You said you needed a new set of armor, did you not? It has been decades since I have met such a skilled human blacksmith, so I wish to take this chance to speak with him. He is also a blacksmith from another planet, so it will be an interesting meeting.”
The impatient dwarf told him to wait for a moment as he began to pack his equipment.
Next to them, the Frost Queen quietly ate her cotton candy.
“It’s yummy,” she muttered.
