Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 197

Dungeon Journal-Episode 198

74. Reunion

The unwelcome guests, hooded and cloaked, remained unfazed by the surrounding commotion. As if by prior arrangement, they settled into the vacant seats.

The host, ensuring they were all seated, finally spoke again.

“First, I deeply apologize for the lack of prior notice.”

The host, bowing briefly, spoke in a dry tone that clashed with his clown attire.

“The sudden opening of the passage, the endless surge of malice-ridden wraiths—all of you esteemed guests have endured a challenging year. We at the Black Merchant, too, have been forced into silence for a year, as if returned to the most horrific past, where barbarism reigns supreme in the current Underworld.”

The auction house’s uproar gradually subsided.

The suddenly appearing uninvited guests were still glaring with caution and hostility, but the participants in the general seating area seemed to be trying to grasp the situation, feigning attention to the host’s words.

“However, we at the Black Merchant have not merely cowered in fear for the past year. We have strived to identify the cause of this disaster in the current Underworld through maximum effort. But, of course, humble merchants could hardly resolve what even the esteemed nobles could not.”

Already, some impatient participants were rising again at the rather lengthy explanation.

But before they could cause another disturbance, the host, with perfect timing, brought up the main point.

“Therefore, we at the Black Merchant have invited esteemed guests from another Underworld who are directly related to this situation!”

The moment the identity of the uninvited guests was finally revealed.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“What is this place!”

No sooner had the host finished speaking than the participants in the general seating area threw their chairs and snarled fiercely.

“Now, now, please calm down. They are not here to fight you.”

The short host shouted at the top of his lungs, trying to calm the participants, but to no avail. Since the existence of the Underworld, beings from two Underworlds that had always been hostile to each other had met, so it was not easy to calm down.

The participants in the general seating area were baring their teeth and drawing out their claws, growling as if they would rush at the twenty-odd uninvited guests at any moment.

In that very moment, a particularly gaunt man emerged from among the excited general participants.

“Black Merchant. Do you intend to conspire against us by colluding with another Underworld?”

A strangely deep and resonant voice captivated everyone at the auction.

“The humble merchant greets the esteemed Baron of the 11th Floor, the wise Bruntest’s envoy, Tyrenon.”

The auction house’s commotion subsided in an instant at the host’s particularly emphasized voice.

“I have not come to receive greetings. You have not yet answered my question.”

“Misunderstanding, misunderstanding. We at the Black Merchant have never had such thoughts. As I mentioned earlier, our sole concern is the safety of our customers and the stability of the Underworld.”

The murderous participants suddenly closed their mouths and backed down; the man’s identity was extraordinary. Indeed, only a Baron could make his voice heard in such a commotion.

As the commotion showed signs of calming down, the host brightened and replied to Tyrenon.

“I knew he wouldn’t be ordinary, but he’s a Baron.”

Kim Jin-woo, who was watching all this from the VIP room, his eyes gleamed.

The messenger of the Corrupt Lord he had met while handling the association’s affairs was dignified, unlike before.

Even to him, who now looked down on ordinary nobles, his presence was extraordinary. Kim Jin-woo felt a pang of regret for letting him live and return.

He idly smacked his lips at the thought that a Baron’s seal would have been quite useful.

“Oh, are you acquainted with the Lord?”

“Only slightly. More importantly, I wondered how you dared to introduce a group from another Underworld in front of them, but you had prepared such a trick.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb. Tyrenon must have already been in on it.”

It was not very natural for a Baron, not even a Viscount, to be mixed in with the participants in the general seating area.

Although there was a shortage of VIP rooms, the Black Merchant would not treat a being residing on the 11th floor so poorly.

Moreover, judging from the atmosphere, Tyrenon seemed to be quite famous in the Underworld as the King of Schemes.

Perhaps Tyrenon, like the Black Merchant who had already made arrangements with the VIPs, knew all about this situation and was hiding in the general seating area.

“How could that be? Our merchants are not capable enough to tarnish the dignity of such an esteemed being. Perhaps the Baron, feeling uncomfortable, stepped forward because he was displeased with our event?”

Even though he had incurred the wrath of a noble, the black marketeer did not seem worried at all.

Kim Jin-woo, clicking his tongue at the brazen attitude, looked out the window and saw Tyrenon conversing with the host without a hint of excitement.

Because he had come forward, the participants in the general seating area, who were about to start a fight, could not dare to step forward and were only watching.

“Then, Black Merchant, are you saying that they hold the key to solving the chaos in the Underworld now?”

“Exactly as the wise Baron has said.”

Kim Jin-woo’s gaze swept over the Baron and the host, then turned to the group who had deeply pressed down their hoods. Despite the murderous intent and encirclement of the surrounding participants, they did not budge.

“Hmm?”

The gaze that had been scanning their group stopped involuntarily. And as if sensing his gaze, someone who had not moved despite the murderous intent and hostility raised their head.

There was nothing to see. The smallest and most diminutive figure in the group, with only a particularly white jawline revealed.

But despite that, Kim Jin-woo could not take his eyes off him.

As if a predator crouching low before a hunt, his muscles were taut as if about to explode at any moment.

The hidden aura rose without him even realizing it, shooting out beyond the VIP room.

And the opponent’s aura, rising as if to counter it, collided head-on with the presence of the High Lord.

“Therefore, we are…”

“Does the Black Merchant’s thoughts and their thoughts truly align…”

The surrounding sounds faded away. The natural conversation between the host and the Baron, as if reading a script, and even the rough breathing of the murderous participants, soon disappeared completely.

And when all the sounds had finally disappeared, only Kim Jin-woo and he existed in the world.

The window of the VIP room that blocked his view, and the surrounding participants, no longer existed.

-So, it was you.

A strand of thought pierced his mind in that strange world.

-Greetings, new High Lord of the Underworld.

It was an arrogant gaze, like that of an absolute being, and the greeting of another High Lord he had encountered for the first time.

But the exchange was not long, due to the intensity, as the situation in the auction house took a new turn.

“If the Black Merchant’s words are true, why do you still not reveal your faces?”

Tyrenon stared straight at the group from another Underworld who had deeply pressed down their hoods.

“If you truly have no other intentions, swear on the mysteries of the Underworld in this place and make your intentions clear!”

With perfect timing, the extra exited, and the lead appeared. And the curtain rose on the real stage.

“Insolent, how dare a mere Baron.”

The undisguised murderous intent in the displeased voice startled Tyrenon and the Black Merchant, as if they had not expected it.

“However, this is your land, and as guests, we will follow your wishes this time.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than he took off the hood he had deeply pressed down.

“The King who governs the 14th floor of the Underworld, the leader of the twelve Dukes, the Lord of Lament. That is the name that calls me.”

With honeyed blonde hair, delicate features, surprisingly, the Lord of Lament was a human woman.

“What I believe in is not the paltry mysteries of the Underworld, but myself. So, in this place, I swear on my authority and name.”

Contrary to her arrogant attitude, she looked so frail that even the most insignificant Underworld creature could break her.

But no one gathered in this place could underestimate her fragile appearance. It was because of the suffocating aura emanating from her entire body.

“I have not come to fight you.”

Her gaze was not directed at the general participants surrounding the stage. Unlike her words, she was looking at the VIP room with an arrogant gaze, as if provoking them.

“But.”

A blatant sneer appeared on her face as she narrowed her eyes.

“I cannot tolerate those who are not even my equals looking down on me.”

“L, Lord of Lament! Please, our promise…”

One of the Black Merchant’s imps, startled, jumped out and screamed. But by the time the imp stepped forward, it was already done. All the windows of the VIP room were shattered.

“If this side has shown its face, then that side must also show its face.”

The Lord of Lament’s actions turned the entire auction house into ruins. The VIP room collapsed and covered the stage, causing a great commotion in the process.

However, the black marketeers of the Black Merchant stepped forward and skillfully calmed the enraged nobles, managing to avoid the worst-case scenario.

But even such skilled black marketeers did not have the talent to hold an auction in the ruins, so they declared the postponement of the event.

Kim Jin-woo, hearing the news that the meeting that the Black Merchant had arranged after the auction was also postponed, headed to his assigned accommodation.

“Please, I ask for your generous understanding of today’s unfortunate events. It may not be enough to apologize, but we will provide some of the items that were scheduled to be auctioned today free of charge.”

The imp girl who volunteered to guide him apologized to him several times. But he did not seem to be listening to her words at all.

His face, lost in thought as if replaying the events of just now, was as hard as stone.

That was because among the nobles who had revealed themselves when the VIP room collapsed, there was a being he had so desperately wanted to reunite with.

But the expression on his face was not one of joy at the reunion, but a dry, parched face, because the reunited opponent was someone with whom he could never coexist.

The terrible monster who once used him like a slave, the King of Hell Spiders, was right here.