Chapter 37
After the death of the Cheongrin Family Swordsman was confirmed.
Max took off his mask and vomited blood.
“Blargh!”
It was the result of overworking his circuits despite the signs of overload.
His insides were ruined. His vision spun, and he felt like he would lose consciousness at any moment.
“Mage! Are you alright!”
Usagi’s urgent voice buzzed and dug into his ears.
He couldn’t even feel the distinct fishiness and coolness brought by the sea breeze.
[···I need to keep my senses.]
His consciousness was hazy like fog, but one thing was certain.
The request wasn’t over. If he collapsed here, he was doomed.
“Urgh!”
Max forced his back straight against the suffocating sensation.
He barely managed to secure his Breath.
“Huu!”
His vision slowly became clear.
Max checked on Steiger, who was on the verge of taking his last Breath, and made a request to Usagi.
“Go ahead and find Bivol first. I’ll move as soon as I catch my Breath.”
The chances of Bivol betraying them or neglecting the request were low.
This request itself would consist of individuals who had passed the Association President’s own standards.
Even so, Usagi was conflicted over Max’s condition.
“···.”
“If you’re a Mercenary, prioritize the request. Didn’t you say you needed money?”
Usagi nodded heavily.
Even if only trivial matters remained compared to the battle, the request wasn’t over yet.
“If there is a problem on Bivol’s end and I get tied down, I will shoot a flame into the sky.”
Usagi’s legs must have been heavy too, as she began to move at a noticeably slower pace than before.
Trudge. Trudge. Trudge.
Having sent Usagi to another location, Max walked straight over to Steiger.
Despite having such a wound and bleeding so much, he was barely clinging to life. It meant that even as a Mage, he was still 4th-Tier.
Max forced his heavy steps forward.
He glanced at the dead Swordsman with a hole in his head.
[He’s an opponent I never want to meet again.]
In Max’s memories, the people of the Cheongrin Family he had encountered at Cheonmyeong Pharmaceuticals generally gave off that kind of vibe.
A sluggish voice and a swaggering attitude in everything they did, as if they couldn’t care less about the nature of a Corporation that desired agile and clever talent.
Even though they wielded their swords like ghosts - enough to draw the interest of a Cheonmyeong Pharmaceuticals Executive - there was no desperation at the tip of those swords, and the Family itself had few members.
If the Cheongrin Family had abandoned their dull, habit-soaked eyes and possessed even a little clarity in their desires, the situation would have been very different.
They might have escaped their position of acting as the hands and feet of Executives, cleaning up messy aftermaths, and become a Prestigious Family proudly situated in the center of Haze.
“Hey. Are you alive?”
“···.”
At Max’s voice, Steiger slightly lifted his head before letting it droop back down.
He seemed to have accepted death and given up on everything.
“Rude bastard. Take off that headpiece first.”
Steiger couldn’t resist Max. As the helmet was removed, his face was revealed.
He was a middle-aged man.
Blood dribbled from his mouth and nose, making a mess of his beard, and the life in his eyes was on the verge of evaporating.
But Max knew.
He could recognize who it was.
[···Hoof Steiger?]
He was one of the adults Max had seen since childhood, always sticking around his father.
However, he had no memory of ever speaking with him directly.
It wasn’t strange. Since Max was treated as an invisible Person in the Family to begin with, there was no Person he had a proper conversation with in Steiger, aside from his mother.
“What orders were you under to be at the harbor?”
“···.”
He didn’t seem to have any intention of answering.
He kept his silence, staring up at the sky.
[He probably thinks that since he’s going to die anyway, not answering is the best way to screw with me.]
Should I say it’s typical of a Steiger to be raising the corners of his mouth in a Moral Victory?
I hate myself for understanding this mindset.
“I don’t know why you keep making me out to be the bad guy. If you’re going to be this uncooperative, there won’t be a beautiful and clean farewell.”
Max approached the corpse of the Cheongrin Family Swordsman and grabbed his sword.
A chill flowed through his grip.
“···.”
Max drove the blade deep into the back of Steiger’s hand. Stab!
[Huh?]
Actually, he had just meant to rest it there and scare him first.
But the blade was so sharp that it sank right in with just a slight touch.
“Kkeugh···!”
Steiger flinched in pain.
Seeing him writhe in agony, it seemed he still had a little time left to live.
“I’ll ask again. What orders were you under to be at the harbor?”
“···I don’t know.”
“There’s no sincerity in your answer.”
Max twisted the embedded blade.
Crunch! A gruesome sound erupted as flesh tore.
“I don’t know! I said I don’t know, you crazy bastard! I was just here because I was told to be!”
It was a desperate scream, hard to believe it came from someone on the verge of death.
Watching Hoof Steiger’s irritation brought his father, Layton Steiger, to mind.
“Such a temper. Since we don’t have time, let’s change the question to something simple. What is the relationship between Steiger and Cheonmyeong Pharmaceuticals?”
“···!”
An unconcealable panic flashed across Hoof Steiger’s face.
Max was satisfied with just that.
“So there is a relationship? That’s enough. Just looking at you, it’s obvious you don’t hold a key position.”
“Who··· the hell are you···.”
Max crouched down next to the muttering Hoof Steiger.
“Hey. Look at my face.”
“···?”
“I’m hurt. I’ve had my face exposed this whole time and you still don’t know?”
Hoof Steiger captured Max’s face in his fading eyes.
After blinking for a long time, he grasped the situation.
“Hah! Did you come looking for revenge, knowing your place?”
“What revenge? We just ran into each other while I was living as a Mercenary. What is there between you and me anyway?”
“···You shameless retard. Someone from a Noble Family working as a lowly Mercenary?”
Hoof Steiger glared and snapped at him, but Max just chuckled and pulled out a Lollipop.
It tasted weird mixed with blood, but it was Melon Flavor. His mood lifted.
“The fact that I feel nothing hearing those words is proof of my growth. I grew up well, didn’t I?”
“Heal me right now! Then I’ll talk to Layton Hyung-nim and─.”
Max pulled out the sword and raised it to strike.
Hoof Steiger cut his words short and shut his mouth.
“You’re useless now. I told you I was disappointed when I saw the face inside the helmet, right? Because I figured you wouldn’t know anything.”
“···.”
Max roughly slammed the blade into the ground next to Steiger’s face.
He continued speaking, as if telling him to listen.
“You know··· I never really had any thoughts of building up my strength to annihilate the Steiger Family or anything like that. Once I grew up, a few words from me would be enough to make Layton Steiger grab the back of his neck and collapse. I thought just seeing that would be enough.”
That was his thought when he first entered the path he believed was right after his regression.
But just when he was about to forget, they kept showing up.
Even when walking without a thought, he tripped over them like stones in the road.
The more information he learned he hadn’t known in the past, the more his intuition told him that unavoidable friction would occur.
“Have you people ever thought about what Family is?”
“···.”
“Sharing blood. Is that it?”
Hoof Steiger gave no answer.
It was exactly as Max expected.
“I feel that my recently acquired younger sister is more like Family and more precious than my father. The amount of time we’ve known each other isn’t all that important.”
At Max’s gesture, the blade moved. It tilted at an angle, like a guillotine right before it drops.
He gave his final notice to Hoof Steiger, whose eyes were trembling.
“I don’t know how Layton Steiger built a bridge with Crimson Howl, but if he’s trying to cause harm, I don’t think I can just sit back and watch.”
“You bastard···!”
“Depending on the situation, I might end up in the worst possible relationship with the Family.”
“Do you think a defective product like you can mess with Steiger and survive!!!”
At the shout that ignored his bleeding, Max raised the corners of his mouth.
“I have to survive. I’ll send your friends to you soon, so you can hear the rest of the news in heaven.”
Slash! The blade severed Hoof Steiger’s neck, and blood erupted like a fountain.
A body completely drained of mana and stamina was so fragile.
[Shall I get moving.]
Max slowly stood up.
In truth, there was a lot he wanted to ask. But Hoof Steiger would never open his mouth to Max.
It was no exaggeration to say that for the vast majority of Steigers, their pride was placed above their lives.
[I don’t have enough time anyway.]
He was satisfied with the information he had figured out on his own.
He could gradually dig deeper into it later.
“···.”
Max turned his head to look in the direction Usagi had gone.
He walked, carrying the Cheongrin Family’s sword and Steiger’s gun.
[It would be best to hand these weapons over to the Mercenary Association.]
First of all, the gun was an expensive item. He didn’t know much about swords, but the moment he grabbed it, he felt it was a masterpiece.
Because of that, selling them directly carried too much risk.
If the Association had any tact, they would calculate it as a bonus and Handle it on their own.
[Ah, I’m tired.]
Max pushed aside his desire to lie down and walked through the harbor.
··
··
After continuing to move, Max found Usagi and Bivol.
Corpses were strewn all around them without a single gap.
“Yo, Mage! You’re alive! I heard you had a rough time?”
Bivol had just finished a battle with a group of 3rd-Tiers who used 2nd-Tier Mercenaries as Meat Shields.
Uncooled heat radiated fiercely from his tattoos. With a broken sword stuck in his back, he looked like a beast.
Since he wasn’t the type to Handle things stealthily like Usagi, he was spotted from the start, and the Mercenaries had swarmed him.
Max thought it couldn’t be helped either.
[Hiding that massive body would be a chore in itself.]
The extent of the injuries was about the same for Max and Bivol. Usagi, with her agile movements, had relatively minor injuries.
That was only in comparison to the two of them; Usagi’s wounds were by no means light either.
“Wait here.”
After speaking, Usagi stepped on a Container and headed toward the Control Tower.
When she returned, she was carrying a box full of medical supplies.
“It’s something I spotted while setting up the kunai.”
It was stocked with various items, starting with powdered hemostatic agents.
Max and Bivol joked that she had saved their lives as they carried out rough first aid.
After recovering enough energy to move, they headed toward the Containers that the forklift had been diligently stacking.
If they dealt with the goods here before the ship arrived, they could clock out early.
What could possibly be inside that made the Mercenaries surround the forklift as it moved, even pointing their guns when it sped up?
“Only the Containers here have stickers the size of a fingernail attached to them. Is this how they marked them?”
“Probably. Let’s not touch the other Containers and just deal with the ones here.”
“The reason?”
Max answered Bivol’s curiosity lightly.
“We have to make it obvious that we were targeting this. That’s what the Association wants, isn’t it?”
“Oho!”
“Besides, destroying all the Containers in the harbor is impossible time-wise anyway.”
“First! Let’s see what’s inside!”
Bivol stepped forward with a hearty voice.
He opened the Container before Max and Usagi even had a chance to open their mouths.