Chapter 113: Tiger’s Den (3)
“Ugh!”
“Argh!”
“M-My ears…!”
They might be doing some incredibly embarrassing things, but they’re still the executives of the Triad.
Fortunately, the sound wave impact didn’t result in any severe injuries.
Of course, I did use as little force as possible.
If I had cast it with the intent to fight, those injuries would have been real.
However, the shock was strong enough that some staggered or even fell over with their chairs.
Good, at least it’s quiet now, right?
“Everyone, please! I haven’t finished talking yet! Could you wait for a moment?!”
Since the effect of the magic hadn’t completely worn off, the furniture in the room rumbled and vibrated every time I spoke.
Hmm, I can’t keep talking like this.
“Ahem, ahem. Ah, alright. Now, young miss.”
“Ye-Yes?”
I completely dispelled the magic and spoke to Jeong Hyeon-ah.
“Before you leave, I have one more question. It’s really important, so I’d like you to answer seriously.”
“Seriously…?”
“Is that really what you want to ask of me? To fight Red Head? Is that truly what you want? Is that why you called me?”
“I, well, I…”
“Tell me. What is it that you really want?”
Jeong Hyeon-ah’s expression crumbled.
The forced stern look, the tense posture, and the attempt to appear strong. It was all too much for a young student to handle.
A shaky voice came out of her mouth, accompanied by tears that seemed to spill out of her eyes.
“Please, please find my dad…”
Haaah.
Although I expected her to burst into tears like a child, Jeong Hyeon-ah barely held back and started wiping away her falling tears.
It’s a bit sad that she couldn’t just act her age.
I intentionally waited a moment before speaking.
“I understa—”
“This brat is mocking us!”
A sudden explosive shout interrupted me.
Huh? That’s unexpected.
I expected something like this might happen, but it wasn’t Goo Jin-cheol who exploded; it was the executive with an eyepatch. Now that I think about it, he had been noticeably siding with Goo Jin-cheol.
“How dare you cast magic on us!?”
To follow through with their plan, they needed to forcefully drive me out.
Just shouting wouldn’t be enough. Yes, gathering magical power in his hand like that might do the trick, exactly!
Boom!
His fist shattered the large mahogany table in the center with a single blow.
Crash!
The terrible sound of the table breaking filled the room as its pieces scattered everywhere.
“Ahhh!”
“Young miss!”
An old executive pulled Jeong Hyeon-ah back and started retreating. He was the one who had supported me during the heated debate a little while ago.
“Hey, wait!”
Chae Tae-won also tried to intervene, but his position was not favorable. Standing by the entrance, there were too many obstacles in his way.
“Hold on!”
Moreover, one of the executives beside him reached out and restrained Chae Tae-won from stepping forward. That guy was the same one who had cursed at me earlier.
The remaining people were divided between those who watched the situation with interest and those who looked flustered while trying to protect themselves.
Including Chae Tae-won, the eight executives seemed to move according to their own personalities, but ultimately, they were moving in a direction that was advantageous to them.
And then there was that man with the eye patch.
It’s a bit awkward to keep calling him the man with the eye patch.
Though not important enough for me to remember his name, thanks to my extreme intelligence stat, I recalled that his name was Shim Young-hwan. It wouldn’t have mattered if I didn’t remember it.
Anyway, the crucial point right now was that no one was stopping the enraged Shim Young-hwan. Should I try to stop him?
“Hey, Director Shim Young-hwan? Please calm down.”
“Calm down?”
He lifted the heavy chair he had been sitting on and threw it at me.
“Calm down? Take this!”
Boom!
Wow, listen to that sound. Did he throw it with magical power? Isn’t this attempted murder? Would something that size be distorted?
[Distortion Field]
Whiiing!
The chair that had been flying towards me with a threatening force veered off course the moment it contacted the distortion field.
As expected, large objects are a bit difficult.
Although I managed to alter its trajectory, the angle was a bit too close for comfort.
Bang!
What?
The chair’s skewed path coincidentally directed it towards the door.
Since I hadn’t cast any magic other than sound wave refraction, the door shattered like paper.
Today, my luck is really bad.
Being in this situation in the first place marked the start of my misfortune.
How happy would I be just lying down and eating jam-covered bread peacefully in my haunted house?
“What’s going on here!”
Boom!
A scene straight out of a noir film unfolded.
Thugs in black suits rushed in before drawing their pistols.
With the synchronized clatter of guns being cocked, dozens of barrels pointed at me.
“Oh, Director, if you act like this, it becomes difficult for me to just smile and chat, you know?”
“Who was the one who fired the magic first? What nonsense!”
“You’re making a big deal out of raising my voice. Do you really want me to fire some real magic at you?”
“What did you say?! You punk, have you said everything you wanted to?!”
By the way, having multiple gun barrels aimed at the back of my head felt quite unnerving.
[Protection Shield]
[Distortion Field]
[Radiance of the Eagle]
[Agility of the Fox]
[Dance of the Swan]
Though they weren’t magic experts, it was a place where people could sense or wield magic to some extent.
Noticing that I had started activating the spells I had cast on myself, the faces of the executives turned pale.
“Stop! Everyone, calm down!”
It was Chae Tae-won.
“And you all! It’s nothing, so get out immediately!”
“Get out? Where do you think you’re going? Shoot that arrogant bastard! He attacked us!”
It wasn’t easy to put away a gun once it had been drawn.
As conflicting orders were shouted, the thugs from the Cheong-ho faction hesitated and kept waving their gun barrels at me without knowing what to do.
Shim Young-hwan who could not stand it any longer ended up kicking the ground and charging toward me.
Shim Young-hwan’s magic concentrated in one of his fists. The Cheong-ho faction had many straightforward and intuitive fighters. Like Chae Tae-won, Shim Young-hwan also had a combat-type magic amplification.
“I’ll finish you off!”
No matter how you look at it, how can he utter such a cliché line?
There was no need to engage in a fight with Shim Young-hwan.
[Invisible Hand]
I activated telekinesis and swatted Shim Young-hwan away like a flying insect.
“Arghhhh!”
Crash!
“Ack!”
The subsequent scream didn’t come from Shim Young-hwan.
Shim Young-hwan crashed precisely where Goo Jin-cheol stood.
Though Goo Jin-cheol had some annoying abilities, I had been watching him rather than Shim Young-hwan from the beginning.
[Evil Gaze]
This spell forcibly exerted influence on targets with malicious intent. Due to this spell’s effect, Goo Jin-cheol was frozen and unable to move.
“You bastard!”
Shim Young-hwan who had yet to grasp the situation got up defiantly.
“Ugh, can we stop this? If you keep this up, I’ll have no choice but to retaliate.”
“Do it! You bastard! I’ll crush you today!”
Rumble!!!
Magical power swirled around Shim Young-hwan’s body. Ugh, is he really angry? It looked like he was about to use a technique that could be called a secret move or a deadly attack.
“Stop it!”
“Why are you doing this here, where the young miss is!?”
“Wait…! Stop! Stop!”
The final cry to stop came from Goo Jin-cheol. It seemed he had sensed something.
Adjusting the effect of Evil Gaze… Huh? He’s holding out quite well.
[Spell Enhancement: Maximization]
I enhanced the spell and dispersed the magic that had been concentrated around Shim Young-hwan’s body.
“Huh? What, what is this!? You? What did you do to me!?”
I gestured as if I didn’t understand and looked at him again. But it wasn’t over yet.
[Great Whirlwind]
Whoooosh!!
The fragments of the mahogany table scattered on the floor were hurled at Shim Young-hwan and Goo Jin-cheol, who was right behind him.
Crash!!
“Aaaah!”
The conference room wasn’t just filled with mahogany tables. There were also thick books piled up in a presumably decorative bookshelf (Rustle, rustle!), and… oh, what’s that? A grotesquely designed statue of a blue tiger, placed purely for decoration (Whoosh… Bang!). And as a bonus, I threw the water bottle that was sitting on the corner table (Crash!).
Now, Goo Jin-cheol and Shim Young-hwan were bruised, injured, soaked, and in complete disarray.
But anyway, this wouldn’t be enough to calm these tough guys down.
I now looked directly at Shim Young-hwan.
[The unique effect of the L-rank accessory ‘Carcosa’s Mask’, ‘Yellow Dominance’, has been activated.
Yellow Dominance: Adds the effect ‘Spell Enhancement: Instill Fear’ to certain spells.]
I added the Instill Fear effect to the already activated Evil Gaze. Blue light shone from the four eyes of the mask.
“You, you? Those eyes? Those eyes?!”
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
I took one more step toward Shim Young-hwan.
“Do-Don’t come closer! You monster! Get away! Aaaah! Aaaah!”
He broke out in a cold sweat before backing away until he finally fell to the ground.
I knew these old men had stepped back from the front lines to count money and handle administration, but the difference in level between our power was big.
If I had used a bit more power, he might have wet himself… Ah… I apologize. At his age, it’s not easy to control that.
“Hmm, I didn’t intend for this to happen. I’m sorry for that…”
I finally turned away from Shim Young-hwan, who had indeed wet himself, and spoke to Goo Jin-cheol who had also taken a hit.
“So, what do you want to do now, sir?”
“M-Me? I, I…”
With the attention now on him, Goo Jin-cheol stuttered with a thoroughly flustered expression.
“You have no evidence, so if you want to change your stance, now’s your chance. Or would you rather wet yourself too?”
“No, I, I don’t know anything! It was you guys fighting!”
Then Goo Jin-cheol let out an “Aaaaaaaaaah” scream and retreated.
Oh? Ah. The Instil Fear effect hasn’t worn off yet.
“So? What’s your decision?”
A bright blue light was still emanating from the four eyeholes of my mask.
“So, I… Ah, no, no! What I mean is? I… As I mentioned from the beginning, didn’t I ask the fixer to help us? The reward! Yes! I was the one who proposed the reward!”
Wow, this is unbelievable.
Though the term “strong against the weak, weak against the strong” is commonly used, seeing it so blatantly displayed left me without the energy to beat him further. Even the surrounding executives were now looking at Goo Jin-cheol with disbelief.
“Well, fine.”
I turned my head towards the gathered executives in the room.
“Let’s make this clear again. The chairman is…”
Finally, the executives were properly listening to me.
“Oh, but this is a secret, right?”
I turned to Goo Jin-cheol.
“—Can those guys join the meeting?”
The henchmen who had burst in with guns earlier were still in the room. Realizing he had been utterly humiliated in front of his subordinates, Goo Jin-cheol shouted.
“What are you looking at! Get out now!”
“Ah, understood.”
Only then did the henchmen start to shuffle out of the room.
Hmm, good.
Glancing around, I noticed Shim Young-hwan still sitting on the floor with a troubled expression. Ugh, someone should help that guy up before leaving.
Anyway, I waited until the door was completely closed before speaking.
“First, let’s address the chairman’s disappearance.”
Yes, the issue is the disappearance of Cheong-ho.
And that disappearance… might be my fault.
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