Chapter 40: Heavenly King Guild

The Hero’s party recalled traces of a person they had found in the Kaema Plateau.

“Well, that’s true. We did see some ruins, but it looked like the traces of a person were quite old, and with the constant snowstorms…”

There had indeed been ruins that seemed to be from a long time ago.

However, they were entirely buried under the snow.

“To be fair, anyone else would’ve probably died in this kind of cold.”

“Ah, then maybe this will help.”

Maria pulled something out from her coat.

“What’s that?”

“It’s the saintess’ hair.”

Karina’s hair?

“Where did you get that? I don’t recall seeing her losing any hair.”

“Oh, back when we were researching the curse from one of the Demon King’s four generals. The stress caused her to get some bald patches. She didn’t have a lot of hair to begin with, so I thought she might end up bald.”

That day was still vivid in Maria’s memory.

She had been researching a spell to break the curse on a village afflicted by one of the Demon King’s generals.

Although she eventually broke the curse, it left her with stress-induced alopecia.

-Mage, did you change careers to become a barbarian? Your hair is a bit… giggles.

She had been furious at the sight of people rolling on the ground, laughing.

But at that time, only the saintess had been able to offer a solution.

Though she was strange, constantly bashing people and monsters with a mace, maybe she could perform a miracle to restore hair.

-Saintess, isn’t there a miracle for restoring hair?

-If you look hard enough, you might find one. But as you can see, I’ve got plenty of hair, so if you want, you can take some of mine.

She hadn’t performed any miracles but instead mockingly cut or pulled out some of her own hair.

Maria had been quite annoyed at that.

“Wow, she did that in front of someone going bald…”

“Well, anyway, I thought we could use this for a tracking spell.”

“Why didn’t you say that earlier?!”

Snow elf Erin, who had turned completely pale, cried out in frustration.

Maria raised Karina’s hair in both hands.

“How does it work?”

“If you have a part of the person’s body, the spell detects their unique molecular structure and naturally tracks down the person.”

As expected of a great mage, developing such a spell.

“So, could this track other hairs too?”

“The spell prioritizes the closest match in molecular structure, so it’ll lead us directly to the saintess.”

Maria activated the spell, and a blue light from the magic circle pointed in a direction.

“From the look of it, it seems to be pointing south. I can’t say for sure since the compass has been acting weird, but it should lead us to the city where the saintess is currently living.”

“Then let’s follow the spell.”

The hero’s party started walking in the direction indicated by the tracking spell.

Thus began their long journey to find Karina.

Finally, the Hero’s party crossed the Yalu River and headed into China.

*

At one point, there was a lot of discussion about whether they could take down the Heavenly King using an elf tricked by a Nintendo console.

Some thought agreeing to such a plan seemed too hasty.

I summarized the opinions of everyone.

The explanation took a while, but it all boiled down to one thing.

“So, just to clarify the plan—we’re going to break the skulls of the Heavenly King Guild, right?”

Yeah, that’s pretty much it.

I don’t know why everyone talks so much when it’s that simple.

Hunters abuse their power in this world without even following laws, so what’s the big deal about taking down some Heavenly King scum?

No, that’s not the point.

“Stop talking about killing them, focus on diplomacy first! Why do we keep repeating this conversation?”

Sure, diplomacy is fine.

But diplomacy only works if the other side is open to it.

Can you reason with the Heavenly King Guild, who only understand power and thuggery?

In this case, an ambush would be more effective.

This is where we’ll need the saintess’ silver tongue.

“But, think about it, that’s not all there is to it.”

I said, not just because I was itching to crack some skulls.

“What do you mean?”

“If we try to negotiate and it doesn’t work, we’ll have to fight anyway. If the Heavenly King Guild suspects anything, they’ll be prepared.”

I know I won’t be caught off guard.

The Heavenly King surely knows who I am by now.

If negotiations fail, they’ll definitely be on alert.

They know what I’ve done with the Silver Lightning Gang and other heroes.

“Well, that’s true…”

“But, saintess, it wouldn’t be the honorable thing to do.”

Where did honor come from all of a sudden?

“Since when did you care about honor, Cheonma?”

“As the leader of the Cheonma Cult, I should uphold certain principles. How could the saintess, who serves a goddess, act otherwise? It wouldn’t be right.”

Our goddess demands death and devotion—acting like someone with a middle school syndrome.

Our poor goddess is stuck in some kind of edgy phase.

That’s why she keeps asking for sacrifices.

-Shall I explain in detail who’s to blame for turning me into a fallen goddess?

Never mind that.

“Anyway, how do we even find the Heavenly King Guild? We can’t fight or talk with them without knowing where they are.”

“Oh, here.”

The elf pulled out a business card from their pocket.

The card had the name of the Heavenly King Guild’s master, Jeon Tae-yeon, written on it, along with a phone number.

“Oh, the Heavenly King Guild Master, Jeon Tae-yeon?”

“Yeah.”

Now that I think about it, there’s also the Overlord Guild, right?

“Just curious—are the Heavenly King Guild and the Overlord Guild like archrivals?”

“They seem to be. When you check the forums, it looks like members of both guilds fight each other pretty often.”

Well, that’s not really important.

“Oh, we could use that! We could tell them we’ll take care of the Overlord and make them owe us.”

“What if that doesn’t work?”

“Then we’ll just wipe out both of them.”

Taking down both the Overlord and the Heavenly King would be fine.

Especially since the Overlord has a troublemaker on their side.

It would be fun to pit them against each other too.

“Please, don’t do that. Why are you trying to take down the Overlord too? Just stick with one.”

“Then I’ll take down the Heavenly King.”

“Usually, orcs are the violent ones. Why is the saintess the violent one? It’s completely backward.”

The elf said this while stuffing a waffle into their mouth.

For someone so slim who eats like that, they sure have a lot to say.

Who do they think got us here?

“As I’ve always said, if you want to talk, then you should wear a revealing, sexy mage outfit.”

Seriously, a mage in dolphin shorts?

Ugh.

“By the way, I remember seeing a debt collector before.”

The elf said, crumbs on their lips from the waffle.

“A debt collector?”

“Yeah, someone came to collect money. I think their name was Jeon Tae-yeon.”

“Are you sure?”

“She was a black-haired woman with an eyepatch.”

Definitely her.

Oh, an eyepatch-wearing woman.

She seems like she’d be good at theft.

She definitely has the image of a loan shark.

People like that are better dealt with through conversation first.

The more cocky they are, the more you can squeeze out of them during negotiations.

“Hm, let’s try talking first.”

“Talking? Just because she’s a woman?”

“No, Orc, if I approached things just because someone was a woman, there wouldn’t be a troublemaker in the Overlord Guild with a leg injury collecting disability checks.”

What are you talking about?

I treat everyone equally, whether man or woman.

In the end, they’re all just skulls to crack.

In fact, I’ve probably broken more female skulls than male ones because they tend to be more annoying.

There’s a reason they say a woman’s worst enemy is another woman.

“I think it’s time to reach a conclusion. So, is it decided that we’ll talk?”

“I don’t think the elf should come. It should be me, battle mage, Cheonma, and maybe the orc as lookout.”

“Why am I always the lookout?”

Just look at you—you don’t exactly scream “main party member.”

You’re more like one of those common cards in a TCG or gacha game, the kind you pull ten of at once.

It’s better to bring out the SR-level or better cards for something like this, don’t you think?

“Isn’t it common knowledge that orcs are naturally suited for lookout duty?”

Even in the other world, orcs were used as lookouts.

“Still…”

“Or can you use that bulky body of yours to overpower the Heavenly King Master, Jeon Tae-yeon?”

Like in one of those adult orc-themed stories where the orc ambushes a woman and takes compromising photos to blackmail her.

“Isn’t that a bit extreme?”

“Why should I care? It’s not like I’m the one getting attacked.”

“I think this saintess is a demon.”

You’re the one who looks like a demon, Orc.

“Anyway, that’s the plan. Having women in the meeting will make things easier from their perspective.”

-Then doesn’t that mean we don’t need the orc at all?

The orc is just backup.

Like in mobile games, when you don’t have enough team members, so you throw in a low-rank one to fill the gap.

Same idea.

*

The Heavenly King Guild’s building was pretty impressive.

A five-story building, and considering this isn’t the Earth from 15 years ago, it had a sleek, modern design.

Must be all the wealth they’ve accumulated from their loan-sharking.

Even the receptionist looked sharp and professional—not like that other rundown place, Seolhwa Guild.

We approached the well-dressed receptionist.

“Hello.”

“What brings you here today?”

When someone asks what you’re here for, it’s only polite to answer.

“I’m here to share the teachings of the Buddha.”

“Is she serious?”

The mage muttered, clearly annoyed.

What part of me seems crazy?

Starting with small talk like this is a perfectly normal way to break the ice.

“I’m sorry, but our guild is secular.”

Secular, huh?

This won’t do.

I need to convert them to Karina’s faith immediately!

“Is that so? Well, I’m here to see the guild master about a financial issue.”

“Understood. May I have your name?”

“This is Karina, and these three are my companions.”

Since I’m the main person here, I introduced the others briefly.

“You don’t have an appointment?”

“No.”

“Could you wait for a moment, then?”

Wait, huh?

Maybe cracking some skulls would be faster.

Making us wait already shows they lack basic manners.

-But we didn’t even make an appointment!?

I calmly ignored the goddess’s comment.

“They seem to be running a pretty tight ship.”

“Yeah, looks that way.”

“You can’t judge a loan-sharking business just by appearances.”

On the surface, the guild looked like a well-run organization.

Suspicious.

“There were plenty of organizations in the martial arts world that looked like legit companies on the outside but were really just gangs on the inside. We need to talk, but stay on guard.”

“Understood.”

As expected of Cheonma.

“They said we could go in now.”

I thought it would take longer since we didn’t have an appointment.

Now, let’s see Jeon Tae-yeon’s face.

If I don’t like her, I’ll smash her skull.