Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 95

With the matters in Gyeongju settled, I bid farewell to Valerie.

“Thank you for everything, Valerie.”

“Of course. I was the one who told you about the Evil Eye, the research, the interpretation, and that outfit, too…”

The queen of boasting had arrived.

She started listing all the things I had received help with, and it was endless.

“If it weren’t for the help of this great Archmage Valerie, you would have had a hard time. Got it?”

“……”

She’s so consistent.

But it wasn’t really wrong, so I gave a bitter smile and agreed.

“By the way, I’ll introduce you to someone later.”

“Introduce? Who? Out of the blue?”

“There’s someone. My aunt.”

I’m quite looking forward to what will happen when these two, similar yet different, meet.

“Why suddenly introduce me to your aunt?”

“I think you’ll get along well.”

Valerie looked at me with narrowed eyes.

“Then, I’ll be going now.”

“Ah, wait a minute!”

Valerie took out a small necklace from her pocket and handed it to me.

“Take this.”

“What is this?”

“It’s a stone I made with utmost devotion. An amulet I made when I first created a spell.”

It was a leather necklace with a slight shimmer.

Instead of a jewel, there was a stone the size of a pinky fingernail attached to where the jewel should be.

“I imbued it with a spell for safety and well-being. I don’t know the exact effect, but it’s just an amulet to ward off bad luck…”

“Thank you. I only ever receive from Valerie.”

“No, actually, I also…”

Valerie, who was about to continue, suddenly shut her mouth.

“Valerie also what?”

I scanned Valerie.

“Are you hiding something from me?”

“Ah, no? Nothing~? I was just going to say that I was happy because it was fun too!”

In fact, there is. Something to hide.

Valerie tried her best to act calm.

Lee Cheol will never see the phrase ‘Supreme Superhuman Magic King’s Eye’ written in the draft of the thesis in his life.

So, nothing’s wrong.

‘If you don’t get caught, it’s not a crime, right?’

No, didn’t Lee Cheol allow her to write the research contents in the thesis a while ago in the first place?

How to write it is up to her, the author of the thesis.

‘Surely he won’t read something like a magic thesis that only magic *nerds* like her would read, right? Haha!’

Valerie smiled awkwardly and put a cigarette in her mouth, then hesitantly lowered the cigarette.

It would be a while before they saw each other again, so smoking in this place felt a bit wrong.

“Hmm… a little suspicious, but let’s just say so.”

“Say what? I’m telling you I’m not hiding anything? Haha! More than that… what are you going to do now?”

At Valerie’s words, I briefly checked my smartphone.

Considering the content of the message Jeong Jin-soo sent, it seemed I had to go there for a bit.

“I was originally planning to visit Jirisan, but it seems I have to go somewhere before that. Thank you again, Valerie.”

“Okay, see you next time.”

Valerie held out her hand.

I smiled and shook Valerie’s hand.

“Then, I’ll be on my way.”

I left Gyeongju like that.

* * *

In fact, since the incident at the black market, I had been receiving reports from Jeong Jin-soo via text message from time to time.

There weren’t any particularly great details, and it was just a level of receiving reports on the progress of how things were going in broad strokes.

But the message I received from Jeong Jin-soo yesterday was a bit different.

I abandoned my original plan and came up to Seoul to meet Jeong Jin-soo.

“It’s been a while.”

Jeong Jin-soo greeted me with a slightly tired and haggard face.

“Come this way. It’s a little embarrassing to show you, but it’s slowly starting to take shape.”

The first thing Jeong Jin-soo did with the given capital was to establish an investment company.

It seemed he had built the business through the connections he had been working with.

‘For an office… it’s a bit small.’

That was my first impression as I looked around the office.

I thought the capital would be sufficient, but it was a small office on the outskirts, not in downtown Seoul.

Even that didn’t seem to be bought outright, but rather leased.

‘But the employees’ expressions are good.’

The number of employees was just over ten, and they were all focused on their work.

There was no lethargic or gloomy atmosphere typical of small companies.

Only then did I realize why Jeong Jin-soo started like this.

“Are you a little disappointed?”

Jeong Jin-soo opened his mouth first, reading my subtle expression.

I shook my head.

“I was at first. But I think I know now. Did you deliberately start this small?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Jeong Jin-soo led me to the president’s office.

It was just a small room isolated from the office.

Jeong Jin-soo brought me tea as we sat facing each other on the sofa.

“When you first said you needed money, I thought about it. Did you really want that money for short-term profits? Or did you want a business that would be a stable foundation?”

Jeong Jin-soo took out a few documents he had prepared.

“So, I hired friends who are discreet and talented but still lack experience. I plan to gradually raise them to be able to control big projects. There haven’t been any big achievements yet, but we are growing slowly.”

Even though he was given a lot of money right away, Jeong Jin-soo seemed to have chosen to solidify the foundation rather than move hastily.

And that was exactly what I wanted.

If I really needed money, I would have invested with what I knew about the future, not through Jeong Jin-soo.

What I needed was a foundation, not money.

Money was just a means for that foundation to be free from external forces.

“Perhaps… was my idea presumptuous?”

Jeong Jin-soo looked a little unsure when I didn’t answer.

I chuckled.

“I told you, do as you please. You haven’t shown me anything yet, but go the way you think is right.”

I deliberately gave a vague answer.

I neither affirmed nor denied Jeong Jin-soo’s judgment.

‘If I say he did well, he’ll only think in this direction from now on.’

Of course, this neither-here-nor-there answer might frustrate Jeong Jin-soo a little.

He won’t be sure if he’s doing it according to my intentions or if he’s on the right path.

But at the same time, he will be free.

He will unleash his abilities to the limit without unnecessary shackles.

“Thank you for believing in me.”

Jeong Jin-soo smiled strangely and laughed awkwardly.

I turned my eyes to the documents Jeong Jin-soo brought.

“By the way, what are these documents?”

“It’s paperwork to launder the funds from the black market as if they were Young Master’s funds. The amount of money is not small, so this kind of work is necessary to use it in earnest.”

“Hmm…”

I immediately understood why he went through the complicated procedure.

Even though they were primarily laundered, they were black market slush funds.

The National Tax Service is not stupid, so if a new business operates with a large amount of money from an unknown source, they will investigate.

But if the source was from me, a direct descendant of the Sungmu Lee family, they wouldn’t bother digging into it.

Besides, one more thing.

“You’re practically trying to make me the representative here.”

“That’s right. I’m just becoming an agent to manage Young Master’s funds. Young Master is effectively becoming the representative here.”

I stared at the documents for a moment and chuckled.

“Are you trying to use my background?”

To be exact, he was trying to use the background of Sungmu Lee.

Jeong Jin-soo didn’t panic at my joke and countered.

“You just told me to do as I please, so I’m going to use all the cards I can.”

If it is confirmed that the funds flowing into this business are mine, it will be easier to proceed with the work in many ways.

Not only that, but in fact, although he said that, it seemed there was another reason.

‘He’s trying to establish a clear superior-subordinate relationship.’

It was Jeong Jin-soo’s own shackle.

It was practically a loyalty oath.

“Okay. Do that.”

It may sound a bit harsh, but I have set up Jeong Jin-soo as a figurehead.

And Jeong Jin-soo voluntarily proposed it.

“Then, let’s get to the main point. That’s not why you called me.”

I finished signing everything and looked at Jeong Jin-soo.

Jeong Jin-soo took a short breath and opened his mouth with a firm expression.

“The Kowloon Society has moved.”

The Kowloon Society.

One of the few large forces in the Eastern sphere of influence that has as much status as the Sungmu Lee family.

“Why suddenly the Kowloon Society?”

What reason would the Kowloon Society and Jeong Jin-soo have to be involved?

“In fact, in the process of collecting and laundering slush funds, I learned that the Kowloon Society was involved. Baek Cheol-soo seems to have received some kind of support from the Kowloon Society.”

Baek Cheol-soo was related to the Kowloon Society.

I took a sip of tea.

It wasn’t an impossible story.

The Kowloon Society is a force that rivals the Sungmu Lee family, but the direction is somewhat different.

Unlike the Sungmu Lee family, which extremely hates underworld affairs, the Kowloon Society does not hesitate to engage in illegal activities.

“After learning that the Kowloon Society was involved, I used people to keep a close watch, and I heard the news that they finally moved people.”

Since it’s not a legitimate matter, they won’t be able to move on a large scale.

Strictly speaking, since they are doing business in Korea, which is the territory of the Sungmu Lee family, they won’t be able to approach it properly.

Besides, it was the seventh brother who handled the matter, not someone else.

Then there is only one thing to aim for.

‘Jeong Jin-soo was targeted.’

* * *

During the Great War, China was one of the most fiercely contested places.

As many people lived on that vast land, there was no day without bloodshed due to internal strife, invasions by Western powers, and ideological conflicts.

In an era as chaotic as the recurrence of the Warring States period, people sought places to hide from the war.

Powerful martial arts sects and families joined forces to create a refuge, which was the beginning of the Kowloon Society.

However, as is often the case with human affairs, the original intention changed over time and became corrupt.

The Kowloon Society gathered people during the Great War and gained more and more power.

Moreover, it wielded its power in the post-war chaos and further expanded its power, and from that time on, it was regarded as a city-state rather than a mere organization.

In recent years, the Kowloon Society’s headquarters has become an extraterritorial area that the government cannot touch, and it has become a huge force that dominates the underworld of the continent.

And the headquarters of the Kowloon Society, Kowloon Walled City (九龍寨城) [a densely populated, ungoverned settlement in Hong Kong].

A young man entered a large manor located a little away from the main castle.

“You’re late.”

An old man drinking tea in the manor said.

The lights were not turned on, and the dark shadows were covering about half of the old man’s face.

“I was late because I was handling orders from the main castle.”

The old man knew that there had never been a formal order from the main castle.

At the old man’s words, the young man closed his mouth for a moment.

But soon he opened his mouth.

“It was a request from the elders.”

The moonlight fell on the young man’s face.

He was a young man with somewhat dark skin, tightly closed lips, and a chilling knife scar under his eyes.

The sharply gleaming eyes even in the darkness seemed to indicate that the young man’s life was by no means ordinary.

“The little kid who used to rummage through the junkyard has grown up a lot. You should live by the sword, but you’re trying to become someone who wields the sword.”

At the old man’s words, the young man took a long breath.

“I’m curious about what’s up there because I rummaged through the junkyard.”

The old man chuckled.

“You’ve been playing with the elders who play political games, and your tongue skills have improved more than your swordsmanship.”

After saying that, the old man took a sip of tea and threw something in front of the young man.

“What is this?”

“Anyway, as a teacher, I have to help my disciple if he has ambitions. It’s a request from the main castle.”

The young man took out the request from the envelope and read it.

“It seems that the elders were working on something and it fell apart. It seems that the Sungmu Lee family is involved, so they are trying to figure out the situation. It seems that the immature person in charge of the matter needs a sword to wield, so would you like to go?”

The young man looked at his teacher and nodded silently.

And he got up and paid his respects.

“Unworthy disciple Jang Han. Thank you for your consideration, Master.”

“Be careful. The Sungmu Lee family is strong. It would be a big mistake to think of them as just a force from a small country.”

“They’re just hypocrites pretending to be clean.”

The old man didn’t say anything more, and the young man, Jang Han, silently bowed his head and left the manor.