Chapter 108. Action (1)

Tomer read the reply as she bit on her fingernails.

[Fernin Jesus changed his name to Agus Benjamin and smuggled himself onto Korea in 2020.
For an unknown reason, he entered a retirement center rather than starting a new life, and he died in 2024 at the age of 53. He was cremated with standard procedures, and his remains are inside a memorial.
The following is the name of the retirement center he stayed in…]

Immediately, Tomer’s face stiffened.
Dead at the age of 53.
Although she could see the words written on her smartwatch, her brain couldn’t accept the information.

“…Bullshit.”

Tomer strongly bit down on her fingernails, causing flesh to split and blood to ooze out.

“Dead? What right does he have to die?”

Her heart felt like it was burning, as though a heavy fireball had been thrown inside it.
The trash who killed her mother and abandoned her was dead. When she finally accepted this reality, she shot up. Her eyes were filled with tears of resentment.
She glared at the information provided by Truth Agency, then kicked off the ground.

The retirement center he stayed in wasn’t far away.
Tomer ran as quickly as she could. The magic power inside her formed a special sequence, amplifying her physical abilities. It was the magic spell – Haste.
With this spell, she only needed 15 minutes to reach the retirement center.

[Sunshine Haven]

Standing in front of this sign, Tomer took in a deep breath. She wiped away the tears in her eyes, then slowly turned the doorknob.
Kiiik—
An unpleasant sound rang out as the wooden door slowly opened.
First, a faint smell of medicine tickled her nose. It wasn’t as bad as a hospital, but the smell of medicine was definitely present.
Tomer slowly walked up to the counter, where she spotted a nurse who seemed to be in her 30s.
The nurse also spotted her and asked.

“Do you need something?”

“Um… I’m here to find a patient. He’s name is Agus Benjamin…”

“Who?”

The nurse tilted her head as though she had never heard of his name before.

“Agus Benjamin. He’s a Latino like me and also old.”

“Ah~ the Latino man.”

As expected, a Latino man seemed to be rare as the nurse quickly recalled.

“I remember him now. He was an extremely shy and quiet person… but…”

The nurse’s face turned a bit dark.

“I believe he passed away already. About 2 years ago.”

Tomer immediately felt her heart drop and her throat clog up.
Was he really dead? On his own, so peacefully, in such a calm place?
Her hands trembled, and a fiery rage surged up from the depths of her heart.
But no, it was still too early to come to a conclusion.
Until she saw a definitive proof, she refused to believe it.

“Um, this person—”

Tomer rummaged through her pocket, trying to take out a bundle of photos, but her hand lost strength and the photos fell to the floor.
The nurse walked up and helped pick them up.

“T-Thank you.”

“No, it’s fine…. Ah, it is him. He looks a bit younger in the photos, but this is definitely him. I remember clearly because he looked different from all the other patients.”

The nurse explained as she looked at the photos.
Tomer found it hard to maintain her sanity, but she managed to endure her anger and ask.

“Then… what kind of a life did he have here?”

“I’m not sure… he didn’t really talk to any of the nurses or other elders.”

“Then did he leave behind a will or an inheritance?”

“Yes? Ah… um, I’m not sure. But even if I did, I would need to know what relationship you have with him….”

Tomer took out her wallet and showed the nurse her magician license.
[2-star Magician Jamer]
The nurse’s eyes widened in shock.
In a way, magicians were even rarer than Heroes. Even in Korean Magic Academy, the world’s number one academy, only 900 magicians graduated every year.

“I’m Jamer Jesus, and this man’s real name is Fernin Jesus. He’s… my biological father.”

Biological father. That was the best explanation Tomer could give.
Hearing this, the nurse became more compassionate.

“I see… but I really don’t know much about him. I’ve only seen him a few times while I was passing by.”

“Then do you know anyone who would know something about him?”

“Mm… if I remember correctly, there was a volunteer student who often talked to him.”

“Ah, really?”

The nurse nodded.

“Yes, I can’t remember all too well, but they seemed to be close. He even came by recently.”

“Oh, ooh! Can you tell me who that male student is?”

“Well, I’m not too close with him either… the head nurse was close with him, but she’s away on a foreign volunteer trip.”

“…Ah! You have a computer there. Don’t you have a record left?”

“Oh, you’re right. Hold on a minute.”

The nurse began to tap on the computer keyboard.
At that moment, Tomer’s smartwatch rang.

[Tomer, your mission has been terminated. We will deploy a new agent, so return. The disciplinary committee will decide on your punishment for failing your mission.]
[Tomer-ssi~ congrats on getting demoted~~]

“…Fuck that.”

“Duck?”

“Eh? Ah, nevermind.”

Tomer sneered at the fools who cared so much about hierarchy as Djinns.
In the first place, she entered the Djinn society because she thought that bastard became a Djinn.
Now that she had found what she wanted, she could care less about the mission or the disciplinary committee.
She didn’t care about anything else.
Tomer violently pulled off the smartwatch provided by Wicked.

“Ah, found it. It wasn’t recorded in the computer, but in the guest book.”

The nurse muttered as she held up a notebook.

“Really? So what’s his—”

“Kim Hajin.”

“Ah, Kim Ha… Kim Hajin?”

“Yep, Kim Hajin. But it will be hard to meet him because he was admitted to Cube. He’s an aspiring Hero.”

A familiar name and a background that matched too well to be a coincidence.
Tomer fell into a daze.

End of Cube’s break.
Currently, I was walking through a metasequoia road.
Many trees were planted in Cube for the sake of maintaining a certain concentration of mana, making the roads this time of the year a popular date course.
Naturally, I could see many couples walking near me.
If it was like this in autumn, I wondered how bad it would be in spring when cherry blossoms bloomed.
This was all because of lack of discipline. Because dating was only technically prohibited, couples on a date could always say they were friends and no one would really care.

Tok, tok.
While I was walking grumpily, someone tapped on my back.

“Huh?”

When I turned around, I saw a girl staring at me with her arms crossed.
Her black dress shone beautifully, and her smooth, silky hair was perfectly maintained.

“What’s up?”

“Here.”

Yoo Yeonha gave me a document envelope.

“What’s this?”

“The things I promised before.”

“….”

Promise? What promise?
I tilted my head and checked the content of the envelope.
Inside were 20 carefully wrapped pills and several documents.
It was then that I remembered.

“They were made from refining half of the ginseng you gave me before.”

“Half?”

“We needed to keep some to appeal to the market. We’re planning on using the other half in various ways later. We’ll give you company stocks to make up for its cost, and when things turn out well in the future, we’ll make you the other half of the medicine.”

“That’s fine with me.”

She was outright saying she spent half of the ginseng as she liked, but I didn’t mind since I knew Yoo Yeonha wasn’t the type to backstab someone.
In fact, Yoo Yeonha was the type who got backstabbed. Once someone earned her trust, the Yoo Yeonha of this time had the tendency to trust that person too much.
In truth, that was only natural. After all, she was only 17 years old.
The internal power struggle of such a massive guild was too dark and complicated for a 17-year-old girl to overcome.
…Ah.
Come to think of it, that event should be coming up around winter break.
The so-called ‘Yoo Yeonha Arrogation Scandal’.

“How are they?”

“Oh, are these what I asked for before?”

I took out one of the pills from the envelope.

“Yes. They were made from condensing the ginseng and mana crystals together. Each pill should be at least 100 million won.”

“100 million won per pill?”

In other words, I had 2 billion won in my hands.

“Are they worth that much?”

“Not exactly. But, the type of people who buy such pills get more suspicious if the price is too cheap. Also, those pills are a bit special. Using the same ingredients, we could have made 300~400 of other types of medicines. So they have to be expensive to make profit.”

“Mm.”

I checked the pill’s description using my laptop.

===
[Ginseng Pill] [High-intermediate rank] [Consumable]
—A medicine created by neutralizing mana crystal solution with ginseng. A glimpse of a skilled, meticulous technique can be seen.
*On consumption, strength, stamina, vitality, and magic power stats will be permanently increased by 0.001~0.02 over a 24 hour period. (note, the effect will diminish the higher the user’s stats are)
*Chance of Qi Deviation — 0.5% (consuming several within 24 hours will drastically increase this chance)
===

I was satisfied. Not only was it good for raising my stats, I could also modify it as I wanted to show even better effects.

“Eat one a day.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Since I got something good, I returned the favor.

“Oh hey, take this.”

I took out a ginseng I kept stored in my Stigma. When Yoo Yeonha saw its faint brown glow, her eyes shone like jewels.

“Wow, you found another one?”

“Yeah, but Shin Jonghak will be mad if he sees this.”

At my meaningful words, Yoo Yeonha quietly stared back at me.
Even for me, it was impossible to find a ginseng every time I went to a mountain.
But it was a different story if the mountain had an owner, especially if that mountain rarely had human visitors, like Jinsung group’s Wind Mountain.
I whispered softly.

“I’ll leave it to your conscience. You can return it or use it.”

“Kuhum… well, Jonghak forgot my birthday once.”

Yoo Yeonha quickly understood what I was implying and smiled. As an accomplice, I also laughed.
The ginseng that should have entered Shin Jonghak’s stomach was now in Yoo Yeonha’s hands.

“Then I’ll take off now.”

“Yeah, see you.”

Yoo Yeonha turned back, and I continued on my way.
Then suddenly, my smartwatch rang.

[Um, it’s me, Jamer.]

It was a message from Tomer.
Seeing how her messenger ID was different, it seemed that she got a new smartwatch.

[What's up? Are you paying me back already?]

That was what I wrote back.
But no matter how long I waited, she didn’t reply.
She must have gone to the retirement center, so she probably needed some time to collect her thoughts.
I decided to wait for her patiently.

“Hajin, Hajin~ what did you bring back~?”

“Meow~”

As soon as I came back home, Hayang and Evandel ran up to me.

“What, why are you guys so friendly today?”

“Un? We were always friendly~ right, Kim Hayang~?”

Friendly? Yeah, right. And what was up with Kim Hayang?

“Hajin, Hajin~”

Evandel hopped up and down in front of me, urging me to pick her up. I raised Evandel up and put her down on the couch along with snacks.
Today, I brought back a special roll cake.

“Whoa….”

Seeing the cake’s white texture, Evandel’s eyes sparkled.
I sat down on the kitchen table and swallowed a ginseng pill. Then, I checked the official schedule.

+++
[Mission Experience]
*Cadets are to select one of the six missions below to experience.
—Escort
—Tunnel
—Field
—Colosseum
—Group Monster Subjugation
—Dungeon
+++

Mission Experience.
As cadets, we were to experience the various missions Heroes would do. In a way, they were similar to combat training.
Each cadet had the same six options, and if my memory served correctly, Kim Suho and Rachel should choose the tunnel.
This was also when Lancaster slowly started to get active.

Wiing—
My smartwatch vibrated.

[Yo, Kim Hajin.]
[Which mission are you choosing?]
[I’m thinking of going with the tunnel ㅋㅋ]
[(emoticon of a hamster running around)]

It was a message from Chae Nayun.
When I was about to write a reply, a loud shouting rang out from the living room.

“Aaaaang, Hajin, Hajin! She keeps trying to steal my food!”

Looking up, I saw Evandel holding the cake box up high, with Hayang trying to climb up Evandel to get to it.
Just when I was wondering if they became friends…

“…Hayang.”

Hearing my voice, Hayang backed off.
Only then did Evandel put on a look of relief.

“Hajin gave this to me. You have your own food. Eat the cat food over there.”

Evandel scolded Hayang and put the cake box down on the table.
When I looked back down to reply to Chae Nayun, I received yet another message.

[Are you awake?]

The sender was ‘Boss’.
That was what I had her saved as.

[Yes, I’m awake.]

“Ugyak!”

As I sent the reply, another ruckus broke out between Evandel and Hayang.
I didn’t know what happened, but I figured I’d just leave them to sort things out.

[Little Apprentice, do you have a Violet Banquet ID?]

[No, I don’t.]

[ㅋㅋ]

I furrowed my brows.
Did she just laugh at me through texting?

[Do you wanr onw?]
[want one?]
[Typo.]

Laughing, I replied.

[It’d be great to have one.]

[ㅋㅋ]

She was laughing at me again.
What was she doing?

“…?”

Then suddenly feeling that things were too quiet, I raised my head. Weren’t Evandel and Hayang fighting?
When I looked at the living room, Evandel was sitting on the couch pouting.
—I hate you, you always steal my food.
That was what she was murmuring.

“Hmm.”

Seeing how Evandel and Hayang had the same amount of whipped cream around their mouth, I could guess that they shared the roll cake evenly. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say they stole from each other evenly.
In any case, Evandel wasn’t looking at Hayang at all.
However, Hayang was acting a bit strange.

Meow—

Hearing her cry, Evandel glanced at Hayang, but immediately turned back around.
She was pouting hard.
Hayang then sneaked up and sat down next to Evandel.

“Hmph, who might you be?”

Evandel muttered curtly and scooched away.
Meow—
Hayang chased after Evandel. Evandel repeatedly moved away, then plopped down in front of the TV. Hayang continually chased after her, purring cutely and rubbing her body against Evandel’s body.
The corner of Evandel’s mouth twitched.
Now it was only a matter of time before she forgave Hayang.
Hayang seemed to know this, as she continued to be playful.

While I was watching them with a fatherly smile, Boss replied back.

[I thought you’d say that, so I prepared a Violet Banquet ID for you.]
[The access code is qkenpwnkWSD394820##3. The ID is Fenrir, password is ‘youcanchangethepasswordinyoursettings’.]

“….”

The password was complex yet insanely simple.

[Thank you. But why Fenrir?]

[Fenrir. That will be your mercenary code name.]

[Ah.]

Fenrir, a mythical-grade wolf monster that appeared in Northern Europe several years ago.
It was world-renowned for devouring hundreds of Heroes and causing billions of euros of damage in property.
Although it was dubbed Fenrir, no one knew for real whether it was the real Fenrir from Norse mythology. As such, many people also called it the Demon Wolf, reserving the title Fenrir.

[That’s quite a grandiose name. Isn’t it too much for me?]

[I think it’s futtinf.]
[Fitting. You look like a wolf too.]

[Eh? Where?]

[Your chinky eyes.]

I looked at the mirror. Weren’t my eyes pretty round? If anything, it should be because of my beard.

[If it’s because of my appearance, can it be Lobo?]

[Lobo? Like robot wolf? That’s a weird wolf.]

[No.]

I scratched my neck.

[Lobo. Like the wolf king…] [1]

“No, wait, why am I talking like I’m an official member? I never said I would officially join Jeronimo Mercenary!”

[Ah, wait, I still haven’t…

“….”

After thinking about it for a bit, I deleted the reply.
Now wasn’t the time to play hard to get.
Soon, Chae Jinyoon would wake up as a devil. To prevent the tragedy that he would cause, I had to get close with Boss.
I already considered all other possibilities. Killing him was the only option.
The more I thought about it, the more complicated I felt.
I wrote up a reply.

[Do as you want. By the way, what about that 300 million won item we talked about?]

[I’ll sebf it to yoru Violet Banquet ID.]
[Send. Stay online.]

Did she have small fingers? Or was she just bad at typing? She kept making typos.
Then again, Boss wasn’t good with electronics even in the original story. She was weak with technology.

[Yes, I’ll be waiting.]

1. Reference to “Lobo the King of Currumpaw” by Ernest Thompson Seton

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