Chapter 32
#032
1.
After learning magic and taking a shower.
Ceres and I dove into a strategy meeting to stop Project Z.
“From now on, we should keep contact between you and me to a minimum.”
“Why?”
“I'm thinking of starting with Xian Yiming of the Hyun-gwi family. He's a suspicious bastard, so I'll prepare your new identity.”
“Couldn't you just kill them all, Lady Ceres?”
“Of course. From there on, it's war.”
“What about getting the other Overnus guys to poke at Project Z?”
“If I did that, I'd be openly turning traitor against Twilight Resource Development.”
“Oops.”
My future knowledge fused with the underworld know-how Director Ceres had.
That was the big plan to stop the evil scheme to turn 250,000 slum dwellers in Necropolis into zombies.
After a marathon meeting that lasted well over eight hours,
“You... approached me from the start... just to do this...?”
“Hey, that's a misunderstanding.”
“No, that's not... wait... stop... I'm talking right now!”
Well.
That happened.
I said it would be best to keep contact to a minimum...
but we ended up in a relationship with way too much touching.
No, I'm honestly a little flustered myself.
This run wasn't really supposed to go like this.
Ceres mama's charms are definitely attractive to me as a man, but I'd already been promised quite a bit of money as operating expenses.
My, my~ Chairwoman Ceres! A generous donation of 1 million Bios!
Enough to comfortably cover Arbel's medical bills and the deposit for my new studio apartment (New!).
On top of that, she'd promised to support me again if needed later, and I didn't need augmentation either, since I'd learned magic this run.
Cedric was no longer a cheap host, damn it!
So what the hell was going on?
‘I'll be on my way now.’
A moment earlier, at the exact time I was about to head back after the meeting,
‘It's late. Since one room is empty, you can stay the night if you want.’
‘Whaaat?! Is that really okay? Do I deserve such kindness from you, Cedric?’
‘Don't make such a fuss.’
Ceres stopped me as I was heading for the elevator and said,
It was a perfectly reasonable kindness to extend now that we'd crossed this bridge together.
The house had one main bedroom, and another room with a slightly smaller bed.
But from this point on, my instincts were shouting, ‘What is this?’
Because it was weird, wasn't it?
Except for the day Project Z happened in the previous run, Ceres had never once been the first to tell me to stay the night.
Even when we'd gotten close as driver and boss, she always went home to sleep.
That was how stingy Ceres was about letting anyone into her personal space.
And today was the first day, no less.
Suspicious.
Wondering if this was it, I tried testing the waters.
I casually broke into Ceres's bedroom, where she was diligently reading documents even in bed.
‘What? You can't sleep alone?’
‘Yes, well, seeing death was a little scary, so if someone could stay beside me I'd feel more at ease...’
‘Sigh... I should've just sent you off earlier.’
‘Hng.’
‘Do as you like. Go back home, then.’
‘So I guessed wrong after all?’ just as I was thinking.
‘...Or, you could drink with me a little longer.’
She threw the boldest flirtation in history at me with that insane mama move.
What followed flowed along like a predetermined sequence, but...
the question still hadn't gone away.
Why, exactly?
Ceres Cassian was naturally very suspicious.
Given the run that went to hell because of a moment's carelessness, that was understandable.
In Necropolis, where schemes and machinations ran rampant,
the inept couldn't survive.
And yet today, she was flaunting her mama power in a strangely blatant way.
Because I'm a genius necromancer? Because we built a united front to stop Project Z?
Or because I promised to lift her restrictions?
And the strange points didn't end there.
When I first met her, I thought Ceres was a widow from Nethan New City who spent her time in steamy affairs.
The kind of woman who brought men into her bedroom whenever she got bored.
But when I think back on the runs that followed,
I never once saw Ceres in bed with another man.
As the driver who accompanied her everywhere, I knew that for certain.
Fine cigarettes, and expensive wine stocked on the rack.
And aside from brunch at Le Jardin, Ceres's life was extremely ascetic.
From what I'd observed, it meant I was the only one granted access as far as her bedchamber.
What is this? Seriously, what is this?
Was my first impression wrong?
Or was Cedric's face really her type, even in Run 1?
Back to the present.
“Haa... haa... haa...”
“Would you like some water?”
I helped her rehydrate since she could barely hold herself up.
I mulled over the last lingering inconsistency.
“Cedric.”
“Yes?”
“I... I can't seem to get any strength in my lower back...?”
Tsk.
No matter how I looked at it, this was far too sloppy.
I figured there was no point in just thinking about it by myself.
Thinking back on the tips I picked up as a former host-club ace who used to go after young housewives in Gangnam...
A satisfying relationship is basically a noodle machine.
It pulls truth out of even the heaviest mouth like noodles.
That's why counterintelligence agencies use honey traps, after all.
I once squeezed good intel out of a housing corporation executive's wife and built my seed money by making a filthy killing in speculation.
In other words, if I had something I was curious about and wanted to ask, now was the perfect time.
After tidying up the area,
I massaged her shoulders.
I'd even peeled some fruit and set it beside us.
“Lady Ceres, why are you being so good to me?”
Ceres, who had been relaxing as I served her, stiffened.
“Don't get the wrong idea.”
“It's hard to call it a misunderstanding when you taught me magic and are being like this...”
“You're a bit too self-conscious, aren't you? Since we're on the subject, let me point out one thing.”
Ceres snorted softly.
“Don't read too much into today's events. That's better for you too.”
Her cold eyes looked down at me with a stabbing chill.
“You didn't really think you were the only toy I have, did you?”
It was a cold sneer, as if warning me not to mistake kindness shown to a mangy stray for affection.
“How amusing.”
“...”
My understanding of Ceres Cassian went up a little.
Our Ceres mama....
Her body is honest, though.
And she's also very good at lying.
2.
And so, Run 5 progressed more smoothly than ever before.
The first thing I did was change residences.
Since I already knew exactly when Arbel would be rocket-delivered to my studio apartment, I was laying the groundwork for our future love nest in advance.
The location was the second floor of a shophouse in the unlucky Chinatown C-22 sector, which I'd had my eye on before.
Deposit 400,000 / monthly rent 70,000 / maintenance fee separate.
For a bottom-rung nobody with nothing to his name to move into a place like this, you'd have to sell what shouldn't be sold in a steam bath.
As a side note, it's in a prime spot where steam from the dumplings being cooked on the first floor rises all day long.
Free heating, hell yeah.
Honestly, the condition was a bit poor for the price.
It was cramped inside, the wallpaper was rippling from the damp, and in the corners of the place, not only mold but actual mushrooms were growing.
Still, compared to the studio in E Sector, it was a heavenly improvement in every way.
At least here, the house had a bathroom that doubled as a toilet, and I wouldn't have to worry about catching frostbite.
Watching the lively nightscape dissolve through the misty steam, I felt it once again.
“Humans really are creatures of adaptation.”
To think the Cedric of all people had become satisfied with a two-story house and a Chinatown view.
Anyway.
Run 5, which I'd started by scraping together every last bit of capital, was already on its third day today.
To briefly go over what had happened in the meantime...
‘I'll cooperate, but there's a condition. I'm the one in charge, no matter what.’
Ceres mama ended up as the control tower for the grand plan to stop Project Z.
Thinking about it logically, that was right.
I'd already told her almost everything I knew from the future.
After that, it made sense for Ceres, who was stronger than me, had higher standing, and more experience, to coordinate the plan.
“So why am I this uneasy....”
Ceres mama didn't look it, but she had a surprisingly sloppy side.
‘Here are your new identity papers and ID. From now on, you're the 7th-rank fixer Rowen, so remember that.”
‘What? I can't choose my own name?’
‘It'd be more natural if you had a track record than if you just suddenly appeared as a 7th-ranker, right? Your cover story is that you were injured in the 'Gap' and took a year off. In reality, you're already dead, though.’
‘I hate such an uncool name.’
On the forged ID with my photo on it, the indelible name Rowen was stamped on like a brand.
How frustrating!!! I'd even learned cool magic, and I really wanted to be Acard!!!
‘Cut the nonsense. Your first job is simple.’
‘Ugh... yes, ma'am.’
‘...You are to dig into Xian Yiming, the Hyun-gwi family's incense master (香主).’
I've said it many times: Overnus Pharmaceuticals is ruled by the three families of Red Dragon, Hyun-gwi, and Geumri.
Some of you may have already guessed...
They're not really family.
The 'ga' in Hyun-gwi'ga' is closer to the 'family' in a mafia family.
In other words, Overnus Pharmaceuticals was basically a triad-like entity brought together by three mafia organizations.
Among them, the traitor from the previous run, Xian Yiming, was a senior executive of the Hyun-gwi family and a 2nd-rank mage.
He was the incense master in charge of poison and narcotics research.
‘He has a half-brother who does his errands. Quietly deal with him and take his place.’
‘No, if I kill the half-brother, won't Yiming try to turn Cedric into salted fish?’
‘You need to handle it quietly. He doesn't seem to have any family affection. It looks like he only uses him as a convenient fixer in the first place.’
As expected of Cedric mama.
She really had a plan for everything.
‘I'll give you the intel. Lie low and take out that fixer bastard. I'll set up a way for you to contact Yiming in the meantime.’
Today, I'm going to take care of Yiming's little shit-wiper.
Recalling the 0th-tier spell 'Death Sentence' I'd refined over the past two days, I headed to the place Ceres had told me about.
-thud thud
Passing through the bustling Hongshen Market, my steps eventually reached a quiet place.
Coincidentally, this was the underground passage where I'd been butchered to death by Kisara.
The cracked, unrepaired tiles, the mud squelching on the floor, and even the mercury lamps with half their glass broken were all the same.
I put a cigarette in my mouth, leaned against the wall, and checked the state of my mana.
-woooom
Death mana bloomed in a puffy little cloud above my hand.
“A fine night.”
Ah, I can feel it.
Tonight's Cedric was in peak condition, in top form.
I knew this feeling very well.
The high-pitched buzz of the mercury lamp grew deafening, like the engine of a light aircraft right before takeoff.
-thud thud
Breaking the silence,
a man who would fight me to the death appeared in the opposite passage, like a gladiator entering the Colosseum.
A blue changpao, and a massive rocket hammer slung over his shoulder.
His vicious presence warped the air around him with every stride; even Xiang Yu, the Supreme Hegemon, probably couldn't compare.
-tuk
He spotted me as I flicked away my cigarette butt.
“Yo.”
Without asking anything, he started up the rocket hammer.
“Ha, I thought I'd stepped in shit in my dream today. Now some random little shitfly bastard's latched onto me.”
-sssssh
Steam-like smoke puffed out from between the bastard's teeth as he grinned like a beast.
“Long time no see.”
“What, you know me?”
“Of course.”
Right.
Coincidentally, tonight's target and Yiming's half-brother was my greatest rival.
“Sun Ming, the strongest 7th-rank fixer.”
I formed a hand sign as I watched Sun Ming, steam curling all around his body.
“Mortal, you were merely born in an era without me.”
Today, I will kill him.
And Cedric Montraven will prove he is the strongest 7th-ranker.”