153 – Warriors of the Nymphs and the Demon King’s Castle! #3
“Why are you looking at that Illinois with such eyes…? Core Ye-rim, stop looking at Illinois with those eyes right now! It’s a nymph-hating gaze!”
“…….”
Seo Ye-rim was looking at Illinois.
It was because of what happened just yesterday.
Yesterday was the wedding party of Rani, the daughter of the chairman of the Indian corporation ‘Gardagroup.’
It was an event where prominent figures from politics and business gathered, and Seo Ye-rim from the Telos group attended the party with her father.
“Rani! You look so beautiful! You’re getting married!”
“Getting married at twenty-five? Is that too early?”
Seo Ye-rim and her acquaintance Rani had become incredibly beautiful brides.
Rani was busy showing off the jewels she received from her soon-to-be husband to the daughters of conglomerates and politicians.
“Isn’t it beautiful? It’s called the ‘Rune Diamond.’ It has mystical letters inscribed on it, so it’s not just pretty! Kenaz!”
Fwoosh-!
Flames suddenly burst forth in front of the new bride Rani’s face and then disappeared.
The women around all gasped in surprise, some stepping back or even falling over.
But after that brief chaos, they all admired her with bright smiles.
“Wow! What was that!”
“That’s amazing! Is that magic!?”
“Rani! You were a non-awakened one! How did you do that?”
“The letters on this ‘Rune Diamond’ are Kenaz. They signify love and luck while symbolizing flames! That’s why even though I’m not an awakened, I can use fire magic!”
As she said this, Rani glanced at Seo Ye-rim.
Rani, being a non-awakened, held a slight jealousy towards Seo Ye-rim, who was usually a fire power user. It was because she was born as the daughter of one of the world’s top five conglomerates and was still a ‘non-awakened.’
“If I had awakened and made a marvelous mark, every day would feel like I was truly the protagonist of this world!”
However, thanks to the diamond ring she acquired this time, it felt as if that gap was slightly bridged.
Of course, the difference in firepower between the two was as vast as between a gas lighter and a napalm bomb, but that wasn’t something Rani cared about much.
What mattered was that non-awakened individuals were also granted the power of abilities.
This was a remarkable occurrence and signaled another change in the world.
Seo Ye-rim was inwardly greatly surprised because she knew this well.
“Where did you acquire it?”
Seo Ye-rim asked seriously.
Then, the new bride Rani pretended to hide her joy and said nonchalantly.
“My husband, ‘Lion King – Thing,’ is an S-rank awakened from India, right? Of course, you know he’s ranked higher than you, at 19! My husband got this from ‘The Storm of Time’—”
Not long ago, there was the Argonaut expedition.
The S-rank members of a multinational alliance entered an unprecedentedly large T-rank rift and expanded their territory by conquering its tower-shaped structure.
After successfully finishing the conquest of the first floor in that place, the S-rank expedition team entered the second and third floors and were once again amazed.
“They say he obtained it with his life on the line inside that rift. For me! Isn’t my husband Thing amazing? He’s the best among Indian awakened ones!”
Even in the 21st century, India was still a class society.
The 5th industrial revolution shook up that class system entirely with the birth of the awakened class.
Rani took great pride and satisfaction in marrying such an excellent husband.
Moreover, today was her wedding day.
She truly felt like the protagonist!
She stood out more than women like Seo Ye-rim or Tsukki!
“Hey, Tsukki. You went to Argonaut recently, right?”
Seo Ye-rim asked Tsukki as the wedding ceremony was nearing its end.
Tsukki, an unofficial S-ranker from Japan, wore cyborg wear instead of ‘S. Ninja’ and had participated in the Argonaut expedition.
“Don’t speak carelessly. It’s a secret.”
“What happened in there? What about that ring Rani acquired?”
“Oh, that. But that’s still confidential, so I said not to tell outsiders. Seo Ye-rim, you’re an outsider, okay? You didn’t even participate in the operation. It wouldn’t have been easy to conquer parts with your fire abilities.”
“Well, that’s because Haildo went for no reason to China—.”
Seo Ye-rim, who had initially flared up, soon let out a deep sigh.
She knew very well that saying such things was pointless.
Shortly after, Tsukki spoke to Seo Ye-rim.
“It’s an equal exchange of information. If I tell you about the rift’s information, you should tell me what Il-do likes. How about it? A deal? Like the type of girl he likes.”
“Fine. That much is easy to share. I don’t know if you can follow through on it.”
Swoosh-.
Tsukki and Seo Ye-rim held each other’s hands.
It was the moment a strange negotiation was concluded.
“Alright. The second and third floors of the tower-shaped rift felt like a ‘laboratory’ full of futuristic machinery. You know Makcheon City in Korea? Sort of like Neo Tokyo in Japan. It was somewhat like that.”
The second and third floors of the tower were showcasing a cybernetic yet cyberpunk urban landscape.
Mechanical soldiers and mechanical animals were said to roam around, pressuring the S-rank alliance.
They were extremely dangerous machines, and even the S-rank alliance initially struggled against them.
“Did you see the new paper released by Doctor Newgate? They say all kinds of dimensions coexist inside the rift, occasionally transcending time as well. Up until now, the rifts were mostly from the past, called the godly era, but I think that place might be a future we can’t even imagine.”
A threat from the future.
In response to it, the Argonaut members soon divided into their positions and continued their march with a successful conquest.
“Then they discovered something. It was a vending machine.”
“A vending machine?”
“Yeah. A vending machine. The objects inside were things we’d never seen before. Mysterious items like Rani’s wedding ring; that’s what it was, and the only coin that got into that vending machine was this one.”
Swoosh-.
Tsukki took out a coin.
It was an ordinary-looking 500 yen Japanese coin, similar in size to Korea’s 500 won coin.
“To the Greek Ho-Saga, it’s called the ‘Whispering Coin.’ They say if you listen closely, you can hear something, but honestly, I’m not sure. However, it’s quite valuable for collectors.”
A mysterious coin only collected by those who know it well.
It was said to be discovered mostly in Greece, and now that the existence of the ‘mysterious vending machine’ had been found, the value of the ‘Whispering Coin’ would surely skyrocket.
“I can’t help but feel the scent of a past memory coming from this…! That Illinois, I can’t hold back my drowsiness any longer…!”
Tatatatatatatatata.
“Ahhhh~.”
Seo Ye-rim was pulled out of her memories by Illinois hitting her endlessly.
Now, she looked at Illinois again.
“Illinois, didn’t you say you just found that coin somewhere?”
“Hmm, Core Ye-rim is starting to take an interest in the ‘Whispering Coin’…? Of course…! That Illinois can collect Whispering Coins, it’s possible!”
“Hmm, really?”
“I can sense traces of nymphs in the Whispering Coin…! That Illinois can also track nymph traces while taking out coins!”
“Oh!”
Seo Ye-rim was quite pleased.
Until now, all the money Illinois used had been paid from Seo Ye-rim’s personal expenses, and Illinois had been consuming quite a large share of it.
Now, it was finally time for Illinois to prove its worth.
“Illinois, it’s finally your time to shine! That coin! You have some collected, right? Where is it?”
“No matter how much you ask me to find coins, Core Ye-rim doesn’t seem to be that interested, so I’ve given them all to the Inoi sisters…!”
Illinois showed Seo Ye-rim coins it found under the bed, on the sofa, and under the refrigerator.
However, to the wealthy Seo Ye-rim, the ordinary-looking 100 won and 500 won coins didn’t feel very valuable, and she always said, “Illinois, do as you like.”
Illinois had given that money to the nymph sisters, Inoi, who loved to collect coins to fatten her piggy bank.
“Ahhhh~.”
# # #
The world of the underworld was said to be a dreadful organization.
It was not widely known, but there was an atmosphere that everyone feared.
They ruled over the island known as “Paradise Island.”
Behind its facade as a beautiful resort lurked the terror called “Hell Island.”
In reality, the sight of a group of mobsters in black suits roaming around was quite ominous.
After the 5th industrial revolution, it was believed that ‘awakened ones’ would be the only ones to cause problems, and that gangsters and thugs had vanished into the old days.
“That yellow-haired woman. Doesn’t she look familiar?”
“Hey, if you’re planning to make a move, stop. Awakened ones can crush rebar with their bare hands! We, normal people, would have our spines bent!”
“No, she just looks familiar. Where have I seen her…?”
While waiting for someone in a VIP room they were escorted to, the organization members were whispering amongst themselves.
After a while, someone revealed themselves.
He was a man with a sharp impression, wearing a leopard-patterned suit.
His eyes were slanted horizontally like a snake or a fox, and intimidating tattoos filled the exposed areas of his neck and wrists.
“Haildo. The Squirrel Beast Haildo. It’s an honor to meet a famous person here. I am Ma Wong-jun, the A-rank adventurer, just like Il-do.”
Swoosh-.
The man who identified himself as Ma Wong-jun extended his hand to me. Thick rings adorned all his fingers.
I was taken aback.
I expected that the deputy head of an organized crime group, taking over the boss’s position, would behave extremely forcefully and intimidatingly.
But he acted quite gentlemanly.
At least, on the surface.
“You are Jin Ah, right? How’s your sister Sun-A? Is she doing well?”
Ma Wong-jun glanced at Jin Ah.
It seemed that he was genuinely in a romantic relationship with her older sister, Sun-A.
“She got married.”
“Married?”
Ma Wong-jun’s small eyes shook considerably.
Though the eyes were small and squinty, the shining eyes were undeniably trembling with a peculiar sensation.
“Your older sister Sun-A got married. The world never ceases to amaze me. So, I heard that you and this lady Ari are actually in a polygamous relationship with Il-do?”
Swoosh-.
Ma Wong-jun opened his narrow eyes again.
“But, it doesn’t seem like that at all. You two don’t even look like you’re dating. I suspect it might be a lie—what I’m thinking, you know.”
A keen fellow indeed.
The cunning of attaining an A rank seemed no joke.
“Honestly speaking, I, Ma Wong-jun, suspect that you might be agents sent by the government. You’re creating a disturbance to get media attention and then trying to attack me.”
Is this real?
Ma Wong-jun was accurately judging the situation to the point where I wondered if information had leaked.
I tried not to act flustered and asked.
“Why would I do something like that?”
“I wouldn’t know. Il-do is a first batch student, right? First batch students aren’t known for their sane behavior; it’s not a one or two times occurrence. Do you know about the ‘reactive faction’?”
The reactive faction.
I knew well.
That guy was definitely a strange one.
I had heard that he was getting weirder and eventually created a huge uproar.
After all, not all first batch students were noble and sincere.
There were plenty of strange ones who got dragged in without a plan.
Thinking about it, there were quite a few strange people in the male soldiers’ training camp.
It had that kind of vibe.
Pat-.
At that moment, Ari slammed her palm down on the table.
“Are we being called agents? Haha, being suspected of our love is simply the worst. We came to this free Paradise Island to have our love acknowledged. And here, we’re being oppressed for love?”
Swoosh-.
Ari grabbed my face.
“We just need to prove our love!”
