Chapter 158 : Chapter 158

Chapter 158: Outbreak (3)

One day, when Yugen returned from an outing, the hand of a boy was clasped on his own.

[This is Luis.]

There were no other words.

Luis simply mixed in with them and that's how Dorian first met Luis.

[Hi.]

[Yeah.]

Luis was quiet.

He was so silent that at first, I thought there might be something wrong with him.

After living with him for a while, I realized that was just his personality.

He was cold, calm, and held a quiet malice within him.

Unlike Luis, Dorian was the exact opposite.

He was always passionate, confident, ambitious, and had a strong sense of pride.

Naturally, from Dorian's perspective, who was being well-trained as Yugen's successor, Luis was nothing more than a sudden interloper.

Since there couldn't be two people to succeed Yugen, Dorian felt both a sense of crisis and a sense of rivalry.

So Dorian threw more logs of effort into his learning.

[My Master brought Luis here for me.]

[My attitude toward learning has become too lax, so he planted a rival named Luis.]

To not disappoint that feeling and to repay him, Dorian acquired the teachings by staying up all night.

As time passed, the evaluation to assess the thief's abilities approached.

Among the crisis management abilities a thief needed, military might was an especially important one that enhanced a thief's survival rate.

So the evaluation included a match to assess the two children's military might, and Dorian naturally had no doubt that he would win.

Not even a 1% doubt.

[Huh?]

But Dorian realized something was wrong just three seconds after the match began.

In less than ten seconds, he felt a sense of crisis.

Was that why?

[Stop! Get away from him, Dorian!]

When he came to his senses, his dagger was scattering red blood everywhere.

***

Knock! Knock!

With a knock, Dorian's pupils, which had been floating in the past, sharpened.

Dorian let out a hollow laugh.

“Goodness. I guess I'm looking forward to meeting him so much that I'm reminiscing about the old days.”

He shook his head, brushing away the remnants of his memories, and Dorian stood up.

“Who is it?”

[Room service.]

Dorian's eyes reflexively went to the clock.

The hour hand had already passed the number 7 and was pointing to the late evening hours.

‘An hour has already passed.’

Dorian opened the door.

Kwar-uk, the door opened, and a hotelier pushed in a dining table.

Lidded dishes were on the table, and the hotelier skillfully picked up a wine bottle and opener and asked.

“Shall I pour you a glass?”

Dorian waved his hand.

His reason for being here was, after all, because of a request from Bishop Luis of the Darkness Council.

His job was to capture Luis and find out where Shadow's hideout was and where the Skull Mask was hiding.

No matter how perfect a trap he had set, Luis was not an easy opponent who would just be caught.

Drinking could wait until after everything was done.

“You can go.”

The hotelier, who had bowed his head, was about to leave.

Until then, Dorian had not given the hotelier any attention or interest.

He was only thinking, ‘What kind of useful plan would Margo have come up with by now?’, and how to capture Luis.

“Then I’ll leave this here.”

It was quite by chance that he became interested in the hotelier.

Even though he was lost in thought, Dorian was still following the hotelier with his eyes.

His eyes saw the hotelier put the wine bottle and opener on the table, and at first, he didn't even notice anything strange, but…

‘Hmm?’

He felt a sense of dissonance.

So Dorian replayed what he had just seen, meticulously searching his memory, and he easily discovered the source of the dissonance.

It was the fact that there had been no sound at all from the hotelier's movements.

When he picked up the wine bottle and opener.

And when he put them back on the table.

Even the sloshing of the liquid inside the wine bottle.

Dorian’s mouth opened almost at the same time.

“Hey.”

The hotelier, who was about to head toward the door, stopped dead in his tracks at Dorian's call and turned around.

“Is there anything else you need?”

“Yeah.”

Dorian scrutinized the hotelier's face.

It was a clean but ordinary face with nothing special about it.

But having perfectly completed countless assassination jobs and lived his life on a blood-stained blade, Dorian knew very well that there was nothing more foolish than judging a person by their appearance.

“Sorry, but I changed my mind. Come back and pour me a drink.”

At Dorian's request, the hotelier reached for the wine bottle without any suspicion.

But Dorian did not miss the brief moment his eyes trembled.

However, he said nothing and just watched for now.

The room was instantly filled with a heavy silence.

In such a situation, the hotelier smoothly pulled out the cork and tilted the bottle to pour the wine.

The deep, blood-red liquid filled the transparent glass.

Dorian, who was just sitting on the sofa watching the scene, opened his mouth when the wine had filled about one-third of the glass.

“Long time no see.”

It was a light greeting, like meeting a close friend by chance during a walk.

But the hotelier's reaction was a little different.

The hotelier’s face had become stiff.

“Hehehe. Surprised?”

“…”

“Well, of course you are. You wouldn’t have known it was me. Still, if it were anyone else, they would have shown their surprise, but this is what I'd expect from the Master’s successor, huh? Hey, hey, hey, you only need to pour a third of the glass. Is this your first time pouring red wine? It’s going to overflow.”

The hotelier.

No, Luis, who was disguised as a hotelier, just stared down at Dorian, who was being overly fussy with his ridiculous wine etiquette.

Then he parted his lips.

“It was you after all, Hajin.”

“Call me Dorian, you bastard. It's been a long time since I got rid of that name. More importantly, what are you doing? Just standing there. Sit down. It's been a while, we should have a drink.”

“…”

“You don't want to? Then I'll just drink alone. Give it to me.”

Dorian, who snatched the glass from Luis as if he were taking it, immediately brought the sloshing liquid to his lips.

“It’s not bad.”

“…”

“Are you going to keep standing? Your neck must hurt.”

Dorian roughly wiped off the spilled wine and leaned his back against the sofa.

“You came to get that man’s daughter, right?”

Luis simply nodded.

He had been discovered before he could even execute his plan properly.

He thought lying would only make the situation worse.

“Where is Lady Jaygie?”

“In the room at the end of the corridor on the right.”

“Is she alive?”

Dorian scratched the wound on his forehead and chuckled.

“Well, she’s alive.”

For the first time, a crack appeared on Luis’s face, which had been as dry as a desert.

‘She’s alive.’

It was an ambiguous answer that could be misunderstood depending on how one heard it.

The atmosphere in the room instantly froze.

Dorian's expression hardened for a moment at the razor-sharp aura Luis was giving off, but it was just for a moment.

He soon let out a short exclamation of 'Hoo' and took a sip of wine.

“Gah. Hey. Putting on that kind of mood won’t do you any good, you know?”

“...What do you want?”

“Why ask? You know already.”

Of course, he knew.

The Cult and Shadow were currently in a hostile relationship and Dorian was like the leader of the Cult’s action squad.

Naturally, he would be curious about information about Shadow and, most importantly, where the Skull Mask was hiding.

But the words that came out of Luis's mouth were a sudden question.

“Why did you betray us? Was it because of what happened that day?”

“What?”

It was then that a crack suddenly appeared on the face of Dorian, who had been leisurely waiting for Luis’s answer.

“On the day I was chosen as the Master’s successor, you didn't accept your defeat in the match and left Shadow with a face full of discontent and resentment.”

“…”

“Do you still think that you, not I, should have been the Master’s successor? Is that why you told the Cult that Parnaci's Plaza was Shadow's intelligence post?”

Dorian was silent for a moment.

He glared at Luis with burning eyes.

“...I don't know why you're suddenly bringing up the past, but honestly, I wasn't without discontent. I still think I would have won if we had gone all the way. If that damned Master hadn’t stopped us, that is.”

“…”

“But now, I think it was a blessing that the Master stopped me. If I had stayed there and learned those pieces of trash techniques to become a thief, I would have been screwed, wouldn’t I? Just like you are now.”

Dorian was now grinning.

“Look at you now, Luis. All ruined, no money, and hiding because you don’t know when you'll be caught. But what? Rebuilding Shadow? Heh-heh-heh. Are you kidding me?”

“…”

“On the other hand, me? I'm the Vice-Commander of a super successful assassination organization, you bastard. A single command from me and there are enough guys willing to jump into a pit of fire and cut off a noble’s head to fill a whole alleyway.”

Dorian, who had since stood up, spread his arms wide.

The iron chains and battle-ax hanging from his waist clashed and made a sound.

“So why would I resent you? I’m damn grateful, actually. There’s no special reason for the betrayal either. It’s because I wanted to get rid of it quickly. From the beginning, I had no sense of belonging or emotion toward Shadow, so it’s funny to even call it a betrayal.”

Anyway.

“Your courage to sneak all the way here to find Parnaci’s daughter is admirable. But that's as far as it goes.”

“Do you think you can catch me?”

“Heh-heh-heh. The moment you walked in here, you were already screwed, Luis.”

As soon as Dorian finished his words, the room door burst open, and a group of people rushed in.

They were the assassins of Blood who had come to support Dorian.

And.

“Hahaha. To think the target would come right to us. This, this has turned the plans we made a hundred of into scraps of paper, hasn’t it?”

Grand Cleric Margo as well.

“…”

“Do you understand the situation now?”

Luis showed no reaction to Dorian's cocky question.

He just stood there, staring down at Dorian as he had been from the start.

At this, Dorian felt something was strange, and then he inferred the reason and the corners of his lips turned up.

“You’re not putting your faith in those Academy brats downstairs, are you?”

Seeing Luis’s lips twitch for a moment, Dorian finally burst into a roar of laughter.

“Hahahaha! You idiot. How many eyes of ours are in this hotel? Do you think we didn't know what was going on here? And you have to pick your battles, not trust those kids. Tsk, tsk.”

Dorian clicked his tongue in disdain.

It was as if he could already see the outcome of this situation.

Dorian leaned back against the sofa and crossed his legs.

And he asked.

“So. You’re not going to tell me where the Skull Mask is, are you? If you cooperate willingly, I might even spare you, for old times' sake.”

Luis's lips were tightly sealed.

That stubbornness of his was still there, he thought.

Thinking that, Dorian gave a command in a cold tone.

“Get him.”

The assassins of Blood behind him rushed Luis all at once.

Swaaeek!

The Cult's sorcery could open a target’s head and extract the information inside, regardless of the target’s will.

So the assassins had already been told that as long as the head was intact, it didn't matter what happened to the rest of the body.

Was that why there was no mercy in their weapons?

Even as dozens of blades rained down on his neck and heart, Luis's eyes were still fixed on Dorian.

And just as the thought, ‘Something is strange,’ subtly occurred to him as he looked at Luis.

Luis’s hand moved.

It removed the lid covering the dishes.

“You have to see the room service.”

“...!”

“Enjoy your meal.”

Jjjal-kak.

Dorian, who discovered the light seeping out from under the lid, immediately screamed.

“Everyone, cover your eyes!”

But the explosion of a powerful flashbang had already engulfed everything in the room.

A bright light like the sun. The shockwave that occurred immediately afterward turned into a gust of wind that swept through the surroundings.

The only one who remained sane in this situation was Dorian, who had seen the precursor to the flashbang right in front of him.

The others had not yet recovered from the shock and confusion of the sudden flashbang, but Dorian, who had been prepared, could see Luis’s back as he was leaving the room through the blinding white light.

“He's escaping, you fools! Catch him now!”

A group of men with weapons came pouring out of the suite.

Down the hotel corridor, covered with red carpeting, ran the hotelier with assassins chasing behind him.

An unexpected commotion.

A few guests came out into the corridor but fell, spraying blood, from the swinging blades.

“Kyahhh!”

“Ugh, uwaaah!”

“What! What’s going on!”

“Shut up, you bastards. If you don't want to die, close your doors and stay cooped up in your rooms.”

When he growled with killing intent, the man who had been so bold immediately cowered and closed his door.

Dorian grabbed one of his subordinates.

“You go down and seal off the hotel.”

“Yes.”

Now that Luis's plan to save Parnaci's daughter had failed, his top priority would be to escape.

But just because he had escaped the room by detonating a flashbang was no reason to be relieved.

This Ladrier Hotel belonged to the Cult anyway.

Most of the staff were the Cult's pawns, and if they sealed off the hotel, Luis would be like a rat in a trap. This meant that escaping the room was not the end.

The only variable would be the royal elite, such as the Central Knights or the Special Magic Corps, who would respond to this news.

‘I heard the higher-ups are too busy protecting VIPs.’

Dorian's calculation was that they wouldn't pay attention to something in the outskirts of the capital for a day.

Even if reinforcements were to come, it wouldn't be until tomorrow.

‘Then there’s only one thing to worry about.’

Just then, two people, who only appeared after the situation had started, showed up.

Bishop Laitna and High Cleric Vallary slowly approached Dorian and asked.

“Yawn. I was sleeping so well, what is all this commotion?”

“Luis showed up.”

“Who’s that?”

Laitna put her index finger to her lips and tilted her head.

Dorian barely managed to suppress the urge to hit her with his axe.

“He's our target, you moron.”

“What? Did you just call me a moron?”

“Enough. Go downstairs and deal with Chaser Idna. He’ll show up soon and interfere with us.”

As soon as he finished his words, screams and the sounds of combat were heard from the floor below.

Afterward, Grand Cleric Margo, who had just gone downstairs, came back up at a fast pace, his face pale.

“It's Chaser Idna! You have to go down and deal with him quickly….”

“Oh, really? Let’s go down, brother!”

Laitna, as if she had never been angry, grabbed Vallary’s arm and hurried them along.

Her face was already glistening with anticipation and greed over what kind of undead she would make from Chaser Idna's corpse.

“Let's go too.”

Dorian and Margo also followed the two siblings downstairs.

Soon, the hotel’s top floor where they had been was engulfed in a heavy silence.

“…”

It was then.

Deol-keong.

A rustling sound came from somewhere.

The source of the sound was the empty suite, which the owner Dorian and the assassins had all left.

Had someone remained?

But there was no one in the room, not even a shadow.

Deol-keong!

Then, the dining table, left alone in the suite, rattled from side to side once more.

The sound was coming from the dining table, from inside it.

Deol-keong.

Kkiiiiik!

The storage compartment under the table opened wide.

And a black shadow popped out from inside.

“Damn it! I thought I was going to suffocate to death!”

The true identity of it was none other than Dayle.

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