Chapter 21
Inside Hotel pink quartz.
The method Max intended to use required him to be completely brazen.
In a Hotel like this, a card key was essential to use the Elevator.
Step. Step. Step.
He entered with confident strides, pretending to be a guest.
Ellen, who entered a step later, stuck to the man’s side.
“Will you be okay?”
“I came because I was worried Oppa was too weak.”
“Thanks for that. I’ll Handle things here, so just follow me.”
“I’m not bad at ad-libbing! I can do it too!”
Bickering with Ellen, he headed toward where Yu Wi-gang’s wife and the affair partner were.
Since they had already called the Elevator with their card key, the plan was to piggyback on their ride.
Ding!
The Elevator opened.
Max and Ellen went in after the two of them boarded.
The light for the 25th floor was on.
“Hmm?”
Max made a small sound, making it obvious that he didn’t need to press a button.
He leaned his back against the cool iron plate and waited for the floors to go up.
Beep!
The Elevator doors opened, and the four people got off on the 25th floor.
A quiet and dark corridor was lined with doors. Standing in the corridor with Ellen, Max deliberately walked in the opposite direction of their targets.
Hiding around the corner, he confirmed the sound of a door opening.
Right before it closed, he quickly checked the guest room the targets had entered.
“Room 2501.”
An easy-to-recognize room at the end.
Max turned to Ellen, who was around the corner.
“Let’s go back down.”
“…Are you trying to get the room next door?”
“I have to try it first. I don’t know if there’s a guest in it, but if not, I’ll get the one right above or below.”
Fortunately, catching the Elevator going down was a system that didn’t require a card key.
If it had been required, he would have found a cleaner or an Employee and bribed him or her to use it.
He felt like he had already saved on costs from this alone.
“Shall we do this quickly?”
Coming down to the 1st floor, Max immediately headed to the Counter.
“Is room 2502 empty? I’d like to stay for just one night.”
Max floated the notepad and pen above his palm on the Counter and spun them.
The Employee, realizing the other party was a Mage, gulped.
“O-of course it’s possible…!”
“The price?”
“…It’s 430,000 credits.”
The Employee who announced the price couldn’t keep his eyes still, rolling them around in tension and fear.
Max didn’t pay it any mind and finished paying with the cash he had withdrawn in advance.
He took the card key and boarded the Elevator again with Ellen.
Press the 25th floor.
As the Elevator moved, Ellen, who had been keeping silent all along, suddenly tilted her head.
Her horns hidden under her hood, she poked Max’s shoulder and warned him.
“I-if you try to do anything weird to me, I’ll shoot electricity at you! Got it?”
“Ellen, let’s focus on the job.”
“Do you think I don’t know that all men are wolves! Ah, saying Wolf pisses me off again… Anyway, don’t get any weird ideas!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
The more he looked at Ellen, the more surprising she was. She truly had a colorful imagination.
The direction her thoughts bounced to easily exceeded Max’s predictions.
'Do I look like I’d do something? Or is it the free imagination that an exceptional Mage possesses…?'
They got off the Elevator and headed to the room.
After the door was opened and the card key inserted, the lights in the room turned on.
“Ooh…!”
Leaving Ellen, who took off her hood and looked around in wonder, Max pressed his ear against the wall.
Sss, he pulled away while making a dissatisfied sound.
“The wall is a lot thicker than I expected. The soundproofing is good.”
“Then what are you gonna do?”
“I have a few methods in mind. Ellen, just make yourself comfortable.”
“Hmph…”
Ellen made a coy sound and started wandering around the room, grabbing the remote control.
When she turned on the monitor to freshen up the mood, explicit images filled the screen.
“??!!”
She turned off the monitor with an incredible reaction speed.
She rolled her eyes to check on Max, but fortunately, Max had his back turned and was preparing something. He didn’t seem interested in her side.
'What kind of place is this… Is it normal to come to a place like this when you’re dating?'
She knew about it from hearing the dating histories of her Academy friends, but it was more explicit than she had imagined.
Did all those friends spend their weekends with their lovers in places like this?
“…How embarrassing.”
Ellen turned her body and opened a box containing disposable items.
She had a rough idea of what might be inside, but she couldn’t hold back her curiosity.
As soon as she opened it, various items came into view.
Things she couldn’t possibly be unaware of even without experience.
'That’s the thing you’d be foolish to mistake for a vitamin…'
And the disposable gel was enclosed next to it.
Out of curiosity, she slightly tore open the tip. Something transparent and sticky gushed out and got on her finger.
“Ugh!”
Ellen scrunched up her face and scrubbed her finger vigorously with a wet wipe.
Ending her wandering, she returned to Max’s side.
“Did you spill something?”
“No. Don’t mind me and focus on your work.”
Max made a face, saying he didn’t understand, then immediately climbed onto the bed and touched the window.
Clack!
Perhaps to prevent people from jumping, the window attached below the full glass pane opened only slightly at the top.
Even so, it was enough for Max to try the method he had in mind.
“With a gap this size, it’s plenty.' - beep! He turned on the video recording on his Smartphone and used Psychokinesis to send it out the window.”
The further the distance, the lower the precision of Psychokinesis and the stronger the magic power required, so this room was perfect.
“Wow, Oppa really uses his brain like a pervert.”
“…That’s a compliment, right?”
“Of course! Right now, it’s a compliment that you’re good at your job!”
As he adjusted his Psychokinesis so the Smartphone wouldn’t break, about two minutes passed.
He safely retrieved it and immediately checked the gallery.
“Whoops, that’s a bit explicit.”
“Let me see too! What did you film?”
“Hey! Kids shouldn’t look at this!”
“Who are you calling a kid here?! Are you crazy?!”
Max dodged the lunging Ellen and sent the video to Yu Wi-gang.
Not even ten minutes later, he received a message asking him to execute the request at the office.
'I wonder if this Mister’s brain is broken.'
Max immediately gathered his outerwear and belongings.
He double-checked to see if he had forgotten anything.
“Ellen. Let’s go finish the job. Pack your things.”
“We finished quickly without using the whole weekend? That’s anticlimactic.”
“It’s a good thing. Once we’re done, I’ll catch you a taxi, so go home and sleep.”
“I-I will…! Did you think I’d share the same bed with Oppa here or something!”
“What are you talking about? I’m going to sleep at the office?”
Ellen glared at him as if she were about to shoot lightning from her eyes, then pulled her hood over her head.
Max let out a chuckle and stepped out into the corridor.
And faced the door of room 2501.
“How are you gonna open it? Psychokinesis?”
“Let’s try knocking first.”
“What are you saying? Like they’d open it?”
“If the guy’s mindset is still the same, he’ll open it.”
“Huh? Ah~”
Ellen chewed over the information she had eavesdropped on at the office.
Soon, she understood and nodded.
Yu Wi-gang, who requested this mission, was an elite.
Even with a weak disposition, he was a Person who had learned Discretion while navigating social life.
If his wife’s affair partner had been a normal civilian in the first place, it would have been an issue easily resolved just by borrowing a gun from his hearty friend who owned a revolver.
Finding evidence of the affair would just require taking some time off work. It wouldn’t be more of a loss than paying a Mercenary.
Even so, Yu Wi-gang had come all the way to the Mercenary Office to make a request.
It meant he had judged that killing the affair partner with his own hands was impossible, and he had made sure to prepare thoroughly.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a Mercenary for a Mercenary - that was the path he had taken.
“To be exact, he said he was a former Mercenary.”
Yu Wi-gang had also handed over information about the specific target to Max.
The affair partner was a Person who used to be a Mercenary before settling down as an Eco Scrap Guard. He wasn’t from the Bohemian Association.
Moreover, it was said that he constantly bragged about his heroic tales from his Mercenary days among the guards. There was even a harsh internal evaluation that he was arrogant and didn’t know his place.
'The information that he’s at the third tier seemed to be correct, at least.'
If the rest of the information was also true, he was a guy lacking self-reflection. Being overly confident in his skills, he had a high probability of opening the door to a knock.
Why? Because a woman was watching, it was a simple reason.
If he didn’t open it, they could just break it down and be done with it.
“Oppa. Can I neutralize him?”
“Hmm…”
“I’ll control my strength. I’m feeling stifled, so I want to do a little Magic Power Release.”
“True, if Ellen does it, you’ll subdue him cleaner than I would. I’ll leave it to you. Try to keep external damage to a minimum.”
“Okay!”
Ellen showed confidence. Max raised the corners of his mouth and knocked on the door.
It wasn’t a knock. He pounded on it as if filled with irritation, thud! Thud! Thud! - who is it!
Max ignored the voice coming from inside and continued to pound on the door.
Click!
The sound of the lock disengaging.
“What kind of bastard is knocking on the - !”
A guy with veins bulging on his forehead showed his face in anger.
Ellen’s finger moved.
[La-Mancha Thunder]
A streak of electric current flowed into the man’s body.
Lightning swam inside his body.
Thud.
The man collapsed just like that.
His exterior was fine, but there was a burning smell.
Following that, Ellen took a step closer to the room.
A musty smell and the thick scent of cigarettes wafted through the open crack of the door. Ellen scrunched up her face and retreated.
“Ew! I don’t want to go in because of the smell.”
“Good job. I’ll go finish up, so wait a moment.”
Max used Psychokinesis to lift the man’s unresisting body and entered the room.
Mistaking the footsteps, Yu Wi-gang’s wife reacted.
“Honey? You didn’t kill someone again, did you? Temper your anger~”
As Max entered the room, Yu Wi-gang’s wife covered her body with the blanket.
“Who…?”
Likewise, he floated her with Psychokinesis.
Lining them up, he took a picture and informed her of the scenario.
“The two of you were making love while leaning against the glass, and then you fell. It’s romantic and nice, right?”
“W-wait a minute! Please save me! Please save me!”
“Don’t worry. There won’t be any pain because you’ll fall after you’re dead.”
“My husband sent you, right! I’ll give you more money! If I divorce my husband, I’ll get a property division, so from that money - !”
CRACK! The woman’s neck was snapped by Psychokinesis.
“Hmm, doing it roughly like this should be fine.”
Max stacked the two bodies, then shattered the glass with Impact Magic.
He threw the bodies out.
* * *
Ellen, who had accompanied Max on his mission, naturally spent the weekend at her Family Estate.
And Monday morning.
As Ellen was about to go to the Academy, a piece of clothing caught her eye.
“Ah, I brought that back just like that. I can return it when I go to work.”
Ellen headed to Minerva Academy wearing the zip-up hood Max had lent her.