Chapter 54: The Price of Betrayal

Sagyeol soon arrived at his intended destination. Typically, base camps were moved to each subjugated area to mark the boundaries, but this time was an exception. There was no one around.

Sagyeol, unable to approach further, stared at the new dead end from a distance.

Its color was much lighter than the Black Mist Swarm’s territory, making it appear less threatening. The term “Black Mist” no longer seemed appropriate. Yet, more than ten A-rank hunters had already been swallowed by it.

After circling the area and gazing down for a long while, Sagyeol eventually turned his drone around.

‘Should I try to resolve this like before?’ He hadn’t dismissed the thought, but Lee Hyun-su was a concern.

The capable, sharp-tongued Vice Guild Master had firmly declared that if Sagyeol acted impulsively again, he would resign this time for sure. It wasn’t just an idle threat, unlike other times.

When Sagyeol had suffered from acute mana poisoning, he had seen Lee Hyun-su cry for the first time in a long while. It was the first time since their snot-nosed childhood days.

He had been desperate. Even when the medical staff assured them Sagyeol was fine, Lee Hyun-su had acted as if Sagyeol was on the verge of death.

The sound of him desperately pleading with someone who had already left the guild, begging them to just check Sagyeol’s condition, had reached the hospital room. ‘If I ever see him like that again, I might just die from the sheer revulsion.’

‘Even without that, I have no intention of doing something so reckless again.’ Back then, it had been necessary.

Sagyeol returned to his home, located on the upper floors of the guild building. It was a duplex penthouse.

From the spacious terrace, complete with a swimming pool, the old downtown area was clearly visible. Sagyeol didn’t spare it a glance, heading straight for the bathroom.

The blood that had thoroughly caked him had already dried on the way, so no stains fell. His clothes, including his underwear, all went into the trash.

As he turned on the water, red liquid flowed into the drain for a while. Finishing his shower, Sagyeol immediately gulped down water.

He emptied an entire 500mL plastic bottle, then crumpled it and tossed it. The empty bottle landed perfectly in a net-like bin.

Still naked and undried, he plopped onto the sofa. Several bottles of whiskey and glasses were set out on the table.

Leaning back fully, he operated his terminal. All the indoor lights, save for a single indirect lamp, switched off.

The white wall transformed into a screen.

[…!]

[Your sounds. Don’t hold them back. Let me hear them.]

The screen displayed a scene filled with flesh tones. It was a CCTV recording from an airship, showing his own room.

The colossal Cinderella had left behind a s*x video instead of a glass slipper.

[Does it feel good? It feels good, doesn’t it?]

On the screen, his two-year-old self whispered like an idiot. Sagyeol, a sneer gracing his lips, opened a bottle of whiskey.

He repeatedly gulped down the amber liquid, unchilled by ice.

He didn’t usually drink high-proof alcohol. He detested both the haziness alcohol brought and the sensation of blacking out.

A slight warmth spreading through his body was just right. Ever since he had acquired this sordid recording, Sagyeol would always drink himself nearly senseless, staring at the screen from beginning to end.

As reason receded, instinct took over. At the same time, the scene from that day would vividly resurface in his mind, clearer than the screen itself.

Before he knew it, he would find himself embracing it. The feverish, sweat-drenched skin. That firm physique.

[St-stop.]

It was a faint moan, barely audible unless one strained to listen. The groans were devoid of any sensuality, yet he found them maddeningly sexy.

He kissed the rigid nape, bit it, then licked the spot again. Obsessively, he kneaded the chest, then roughly tugged at the single nipple.

The man, pinned beneath him, was hard and strong. Just as he had shown him a myriad of expressions and emotions.

This act, too, was akin to what the man had offered him. The beast’s belly, encased in its shell, was softer and more tantalizing than he could have imagined.

Once he had it in his grasp, he couldn’t let go.

[…!]

Now, he resolved to seize it, even if it meant shattering its shell.

Sagyeol set down his empty glass. Instead, he grasped something else.

His eyes narrowed as he violated Yeowon in his thoughts. In his mind, the man was bound at every joint by black restraints, utterly immobile, tied to a silver-gleaming iron frame.

Sagyeol roughly pushed into him. He plunged deeper, as if deliberately inflicting pain, becoming aroused by the low moans that escaped after much suppression.

Beep-beep.

The monotonous ringtone of his terminal interrupted his intense reverie. Clicking his tongue, Sagyeol checked the number out of habit.

It was an unregistered number. Yet, he remembered it. It was the back-alley informant he had recently paid a huge sum of money.

“What is it?”

Sagyeol hadn’t revealed his identity, but the informant, being on the receiving end of the request, couldn’t have been ignorant. The visibly tense man spoke in a polite voice.

[I have found the person you requested.]

It felt as though he sobered up instantly. He paused, then pressed the pause button, a button he had never touched before.

“Continue.”

[They have been working as an employee at a cafe called Ifrit in District 3 for the past two years. …It was difficult to find them.]

The informant Sagyeol had hired did not utter superfluous words. That it was difficult to find was not an empty boast.

It meant that someone else had deliberately obstructed the search. As Yeowon’s presence in the city was revealed, the identity of that “someone” also emerged.

“Good work. The remaining payment will be sent tomorrow.”

Sagyeol, having ended the call, leaned his head back. He was clearly looking at the gray ceiling, yet his vision was red. It was the color of fury.

He had thought it was strange. This was a pursuit backed by Credit’s power and capital, not just any ordinary search.

No matter how well someone hid, results should have appeared within a few weeks if they were in the city’s core, or a few months even in the outskirts. Yet, almost two years had passed without a single trace being found.

There were two possibilities. Either Yeowon was living as a recluse deep in the mountains, or Lee Hyun-su, who was assigned the task, had deliberately hidden him.

Until now, Sagyeol had believed the former. No matter how he thought about it, there was no reason for that guy to betray him over something so trivial.

However, as it turned out, Lee Hyun-su had hidden Yeowon’s existence. Once he realized this, the whole picture became clear.

‘Perhaps Lee Hyun-su didn’t even consider it a betrayal.’ ‘After all, Yeowon had choked me before, and since I was obsessing uncharacteristically, he probably wanted to remove any potential instability.’

Until the flood disaster was completely subjugated, Sagyeol needed to remain an impeccable leader. In the long run, that was the way to protect Sagyeol.

At least, Lee Hyun-su must have believed so. ‘That damned bastard.’

Lee Hyun-su owed Sagyeol a debt. A debt that couldn’t be repaid through ordinary means.

As a child, driven by resentment, Sagyeol had pressured him to repay it even if it meant sacrificing his life, and as they grew older, it felt stranger to revoke it, so he simply let it be.

Both Sagyeol and Lee Hyun-su avoided the topic. Consequently, they naturally lived as if they had forgotten it.

‘Having been together for about 20 years, some laxity was inevitable…’ It wouldn’t be bad to revisit it now.

In any case, once he had a clue, Sagyeol could easily deduce Lee Hyun-su’s thoughts. ‘If I could find a returnee of A-rank or higher before the blocked maze appeared, that would be enough.’

‘Even if I couldn’t find them, time often resolves many things.’ ‘Around then, I’ll assess the Guild Master’s condition and report. …That’s what he must have thought.’

Beep-beep.

The informant’s supporting evidence arrived on his terminal. In it, Yeowon, clad in a white shirt and black apron, was brewing coffee with the same impassive expression he’d worn two years ago.

Sagyeol smiled languidly. It was the same chilling smile he had worn two years prior.

He contacted someone.

[What is it at this hour?]

It was Lee Hyun-su.

“If you don’t want to die, get your ass over here now.”

[…….]

Normally, he might have retorted, but the killing intent emanating from Sagyeol’s voice alone was far from ordinary. Lee Hyun-su, sensing the gravity, bowed his head.

Having already left work, he hastily drove to Sagyeol’s home in the guild building.

Sagyeol, who had been drinking while Lee Hyun-su was on his way, hurled the whiskey bottle the moment he stepped out of the elevator. The bottle shattered against the wall right beside Lee Hyun-su.

“…!!”

CRASH! Thick shards and golden liquid scattered wildly.

Lee Hyun-su froze, taken aback by the unexpected situation. He had never before faced Sagyeol in such a furious state.

“The owner of Cafe Ifrit.”

Lee Hyun-su, understanding everything from that single phrase, bit his lip. It was just like Sagyeol not to waste words.

“Don’t make judgments on your own. Have you already forgotten how your life is mortgaged to me?”

“…….”

“If there’s responsibility for my mother’s death, then the blame is split exactly fifty-fifty between you and me.”

Sagyeol’s index finger jabbed his own chest. “The one who leaked it.”

That finger then pointed back at Lee Hyun-su. “And the one who informed.”

A dreadful silence descended between the two men. After a long moment, Sagyeol turned his back on him and commanded.

“Go secure Dongjun immediately.”

“…Yes.”

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