Ch.166Rina Lee Wants to Catch a Mole! – 1

Minseong Kang’s grandson Dokyung Kang and granddaughter Jisoo Kang.

When they suddenly requested a sparring match, I went along with it casually.

Since they were A-grade, their basic skills were definitely solid.

I thought, so that’s why they’re called the future talents who will lead the Kang family.

So what did I do? Naturally, I gave them my sincere best in my area of expertise.

Digging into their few weak points to help them identify their vulnerabilities.

It might be quite challenging, but if they succeed in addressing these issues, it could be an opportunity for significant growth.

“Thank you, Arbiter Seojin Baek. It was a good experience.”

“Thanks to you, I can see the path a bit more clearly! Thank you for your hard work!”

When the two of them said that, I felt like some of my remaining debt had been cleared.

After all, I was the one who first received a kind of favor from Minseong Kang.

If it weren’t for his wind path and storm, I would have been in quite a predicament.

After finishing the sparring session and heading home.

Soohyun, who came to meet me, shared some very welcome news.

“While you were sparring, I talked more with my dad.”

Soohyun has become more proactive and confident while spending time with me.

Thanks to that, she seems to have gained the courage to express some of her hurt feelings.

Though it’s just a little, and not everything, this is enough.

Improvements in Soohyun’s situation are good for me too.

At this rate, they’ll eventually have a normal parent-child relationship…

“Seojin!”

Startled, I looked up to see Jiyoon Han’s face.

The dark circles under her eyes make her look extremely tired.

Understandable. From what I’ve seen at the Academy lately, she’s been working herself to death.

“Focus, focus! The meeting is about to start.”

“Ah… yes. Sorry.”

Meetings are fine. But why does it have to be at this hour?

The current time is 6:40 AM. No, at this point it might as well be called dawn.

Of all the possible times, I really don’t understand why we need to meet now.

“It’s obvious. Everyone’s busy, so we meet in the morning like this.”

Rina, slumped over the desk, grumbles as if reading my mind.

She lets out a long yawn and continues complaining.

“Seriously. Why do we have to meet face-to-face? What era are we living in? Just do a video conference. Or better yet, just send messages. What is this all about?”

For once, I couldn’t help but completely agree with Rina.

At such an early hour, gathering all these precious human resources.

Instead of everyone getting tired preparing to come out, wouldn’t a video conference be so much better?

Even better would be creating a group chat and just posting an “announcement”!

“What can we do? The meeting topic happens to be about eliminating Elders from around the world.”

Another S-grade person sitting across from me shrugs.

Though even as they said this, traces of fatigue and irritation remained on their face.

The other S-grades also showed clear signs of exhaustion.

Every day is hard labor, and now they want us to come in at dawn too. Understandable.

Honestly, at this point, can we even blame the Elder? What is this all about?

“Everyone’s here.”

Right on time, none other than the Association President entered.

Well, after gathering all the S-grades, sending someone of middle rank would make even less sense.

“Let’s start the meeting right away. Director Cha? If you please.”

The middle-aged man called Director Cha nodded and pressed something.

The black screen immediately brightened, revealing other faces.

“Huh? What’s this? Aren’t those all S-grades?”

“You’re right! I’ve seen that one in Japan. And the one next to them is from Russia.”

“So it’s not just us, Mr. President?”

From what I gathered from those around me, the people on the screen were S-grades from various countries.

America, Britain, Germany, Japan, China, Russia, and more… they’re all present?

So that’s why they gathered all the busy and tired S-grades here.

“…Now I will explain the Elder elimination operation.”

Though the speaker was clearly a foreigner, what came through the speakers was fluent Korean.

Newly appreciating the greatness of simultaneous interpretation, I focused on the meeting content.

“Ah, I’m dying of sleepiness…”

I pushed away Rina, who was trying to lean on me, or rather, trying to snuggle up to me.

The hour-long meeting can be summarized as follows:

– Multiple armed conflicts confirmed among Elders recently –

– Some Elders presumed dead in civil war –

– Villain forces reduced due to multiple gate appearances and monster upheaval –

– Each country now has some stability and a bit of breathing room –

– If this opportunity is missed, it will be difficult to deliver a critical blow to Elders and villains in the future –

The point was that it’s not just ability users who are struggling.

Villains are also having a hard time with monsters whose levels have suddenly jumped.

In fact, without national support, they might be having an even harder time, or so they say.

Meanwhile, there’s been fighting among the Elders, almost at the level of civil war.

I don’t know why, but according to reports, several Elders have already died.

“Is that information from a reliable source?”

Several people questioned that part.

If it’s false information deliberately leaked by the Elders, we’d be in trouble.

But the person who received the information insisted the source was reliable.

They had doubts too, so they verified it, and many details matched up.

They even added that it must have come from an Elder or their subordinate.

‘…Could it be?’

Hearing that, Sujin Hyun came to mind, but I decided to keep quiet.

If she’s moving in that way, she must have her reasons.

Anyway, the arguments that followed were similar.

If we miss this opportunity, they might develop a sense of crisis and band together more tightly.

Before that happens, we need to strike all at once and eliminate as many as possible.

To avoid wasting reserve forces, this is absolutely necessary, they said.

“Then let’s organize available personnel for a joint operation.”

“To finish off the Elders in South America, we need support from the US…”

“…We’ll take care of the villains located at the Eastern European border…”

And our Korean side would once again move with the Russian side.

The reason was both funny and understandable—

“Mr. President! I’ll go after that bastard. That damn Mole! He stabbed me and ran away thinking he’s done for! I’ll definitely kill him with my own hands!”

Rina, who rarely shows interest in work, volunteered to go from Korea.

She must still be upset about what happened with the Russian Elder known as The Mole.

Due to Rina’s strong request, or rather, strong insistence, a decision was made.

She would be sent to Russia to receive support there to catch The Mole.

‘…But why, for fuck’s sake.’

Personnel assignment for the support mission to capture the Elder, “The Mole.”

Not only was Rina’s name there, but mine was too.

Did I volunteer? As if that would happen.

“Whew. At least I’m not going alone. That would have been super boring.”

Says Rina, giggling beside me.

She was the very culprit who suddenly added me to the personnel list.

A somewhat sudden opinion that backup would be needed just in case.

Everyone was surprised when Rina, of all people, mentioned backup.

That’s when I should have realized what she was aiming for by saying backup was needed.

She didn’t need “backup”—she just needed a “pretext” to take me along!

“…Good luck, Seojin.”

Jiyoon pats my shoulder a few times with pity.

The other S-grades leaving the meeting room had similar reactions.

They all seemed to think I was unfortunate for having to clean up after Rina…

They’ve all got it wrong. What I’m despairing about isn’t the cleanup.

This isn’t about cleanup—it’s about “night work” that I should be worried about.

“I’m counting on you.”

After all the S-grades left, the Association President came over, offered a handshake, and said that.

I felt a surge of anger and wanted to say something, but I couldn’t.

The reason was the incredibly desperate look I saw in the President’s eyes.

– Please, I’m begging you, somehow control Rina so she doesn’t destroy something and cause another major incident. From what I’ve seen, she seems to listen to you somewhat. –

I’m sure that’s not just my imagination.

Anyway, with that desperate look, the President held my hand with both of his.

They’re sending Rina because she has the skills, even though they have no way to control her.

But since she’s like an unpredictable bomb, they need someone who can control her by her side.

Seeing his pleading expression, I could only nod.

“I’ll go and return quietly.”

BOOM!—

“…”

Why the Association President was so worried, why he sent me along.

I understood the reason less than an hour after arriving in Russia.

“Hey!! Come out, Mole, you bastard who stabbed me! If you don’t come out, I’ll flip everything over!”

A massive villain hideout that even the Russian authorities didn’t dare raid.

Rina was literally turning it into mush, one area at a time, while shouting.

“Come out, Mole. If you come out now, I’ll kill you nicely. If not, I’ll grind you up and drink you!”

She’s calling The Mole, whom even Russian S-grades are wary of, like she’s calling a neighbor’s dog.

By this point, he should come out if only to preserve his pride as an Elder.

If not for that, then to maintain the morale of his villains.

But The Mole that Rina was looking for remained completely silent.

“Not coming out? This bastard’s scared. Well, can’t be helped then.”

Smiling brightly, Rina started destroying not only the ground but also underground.

After promising to be moderate, this is her level of restraint.

If I hadn’t accompanied her… well, Russia might have experienced an 8.8 magnitude earthquake.

Rumble—

CRASH!—

“Come out— Come out—!”

…Well, she’s definitely a madwoman, that’s for sure.