Ch.27The City of Opportunity, Cambria (3)

A place where light doesn’t reach well.

A secluded, dark, and damp place where visibility is poor and the narrow width makes it difficult to move around freely. Back alleys, or what people call slums.

They exist in every city, and the larger the city, the more massive these areas become. Cambria, City of Opportunity, naturally had its slums too. A place where failed adventurers and mercenaries end up, and where criminals hide—like an enormous maze.

Anyone in their right mind.

Anyone living a decent life.

Would feel a chill just by entering such slums, naturally becoming tense and stiff. They would instinctively feel the need to leave immediately.

That’s just how slums are, after all.

But the boy who stepped into this place was a bit different.

Najin felt like he had come home.

His mind, tired from seeing nothing but unfamiliar things for the past ten days, seemed to lie down comfortably the moment he entered the back alley, as if saying, “This is my home.” His tension eased, and his body moved smoothly.

An environment similar to the underground city Attman.

Najin lightly shook his body while swallowing the murky air. After taking several deep breaths, he narrowed his eyes. His sunset-colored eyes gleamed in the darkness.

‘Found it.’

-…What?

Muttering to himself, Najin took a few light steps forward. As he was slowly turning into the inner part of the alley, the moment he sensed a presence with a slight ‘thud’ from far away, he stomped his raised foot onto the ground.

Thump.

A forceful step. In the next instant, a flow settled in Najin’s body. By now, Najin could freely control physical enhancement using mana.

Kwang! After putting strength into his foot, Najin kicked off the ground and sprinted. A moment of acceleration. The man who had been hiding noticed the anomaly too late, and by then, Najin had already approached right in front of him.

“Kuhuk!”

With an outstretched hand, Najin grabbed the man’s nape and lifted him up. Though the man seemed quite built, he was helplessly suspended in the air as Najin raised his arm. Feeling the discomfort of his feet not touching the ground, the man looked down.

Then, he met Najin’s eyes.

In the darkness where light barely penetrated, Najin’s glowing eyes resembled those of a wild beast encountered in the wilderness. The man’s legs trembled as if his knees had gone weak.

“Why were you watching me?”

Najin asked.

The man didn’t answer immediately, so Najin grabbed the man’s fingers with his empty hand. He knew well how to make someone talk.

Crack.

A scream echoed. After repeating the same process several times, when the number of intact fingers out of five dropped below two, the man spilled everything he knew. After getting all the information he needed, Najin knocked the man unconscious with a punch to the jaw.

After carelessly tossing aside the limp man, Najin muttered to himself.

‘So they hired several people as lookouts, keeping their distance from any bounty hunters entering the alley, hiding like that.’

The information the man revealed was simple.

But Najin had figured out how the wanted criminal had been evading capture. Seeing Najin deduce so much from just a few pieces of information, Merlin spoke with disbelief.

-You can deduce that much from just those few details?

‘When you catch and torture enough of them, their methods all start to look the same.’

Najin moved on.

He knew well ‘how’ to catch guys using such methods. There was a safe, slow way, and a fast, dangerous way… Najin chose the latter.

‘How did they do it again?’

Najin regulated his breathing.

Conscious of his walking speed and the area of his shoe sole touching the ground, Najin took a step forward.

‘I think it was something like this.’

The agents who had pursued him in the underground city.

Najin had observed from afar how they moved and how they killed their presence. Recalling their movements, Najin took steps forward.

One step, then another.

At first, small sounds were audible, but by the third step, no sound could be heard. Once he got used to that movement, Najin began running while suppressing his presence.

-…What the?

Merlin, who was watching, blinked. The boy’s movements, which had been heavy just moments ago, had now become as stealthy as those of assassins.

In silence, Najin began running along the wall. Even though he passed right above the head of someone who appeared to be a lookout, the man didn’t notice Najin’s presence. After passing several lookouts like this.

At the center of the maze-like alleys.

There, Najin discovered a man chatting idly. The man was playing cards with people who appeared to be hired bodyguards. Cards and coins were scattered on the table.

Wanted criminal Lopez.

The man’s appearance matched the description on the wanted poster Dieta had given him. After confirming this, Najin jumped down onto Lopez’s head while suppressing his presence.

Then, thwack.

As he jumped down, Najin grabbed Lopez’s head and immediately slammed it into the table. The table shattered, sending cards and coins flying into the air.

“…!”

Seeing Najin appear by slamming their employer’s head into the table, they quickly reached for their waists. It was a fast response that would be disrespectful to compare with those who claimed to have some experience in the underground city.

But speed is always relative.

To Najin, all of it appeared too slow. Najin stomped on the hand of a man trying to pick up an axe from the floor. With a crack, breaking the hand, Najin spun in place.

He stomped on the back of the hand of a man trying to draw a sword from his waist, and immediately grabbed the wrist of another coming at him with a dagger, twisting it backward.

Their attempts to draw weapons were each delayed. And for Najin, that was enough. He subdued them one by one. There was no need to use a sword. A strike to the jaw and a fist to the face were sufficient.

“Urrrgh…”

Lopez, who had been slammed into the table, slowly raised his head. By the time he came to his senses, the three bodyguards who had been beside him were already sprawled on the floor with their eyes rolled back.

“…”

The moment Lopez’s eyes met Najin’s, who was looking down at him among the fallen men, Lopez’s eyes trembled. Just as he hurriedly turned to flee.

Thud.

A dagger pierced Lopez’s calf.

It was a dagger Najin had taken from the Order’s agents and had been using ever since.

“Arrrgh!”

Lopez collapsed.

Fallen, he gritted his teeth and turned his head. Looking at the mysterious boy, he shouted.

“You bastard, you’ve messed with the wrong person.”

Sweating coldly, he took something out from his chest. The moment he gripped it tightly.

Screeeech!

A loud noise echoed. It was a signal to gather his comrades and hired guards scattered throughout the alley.

“This is my and Brother Brom’s territory. You look like a bounty hunter, but you’re screwed, kid.”

He laughed confidently.

Najin responded to Lopez’s laughter. Looking at Najin’s slight smile, Lopez felt something was off.

“That makes my job easier.”

Najin muttered.

After all, the wanted criminal Brom was also Najin’s target.

Listening to the footsteps approaching from all directions, Najin drew his sword. With a shing sound, he lowered the sword drawn from its scabbard and narrowed his eyes.

…It was only after a few minutes that the wanted criminal Lopez realized something had gone terribly wrong.

Najin had hunted while evading and sometimes toying with professional pursuers known as the Order’s agents. Having grown through that process, these alley vagabonds were merely simple prey to Najin.

5 minutes.

That was how long it took for Najin to subdue all the gathered vagabonds and shatter the knees of the wanted criminal Brom, who had been commanding them from a distance, before tossing him beside Lopez.

“That makes two.”

Wanted criminal Brom. Wanted criminal Lopez.

After binding and tossing the two, Najin muttered.

“If I had known it would be this easy, I should have taken all six posters.”

2.

“Guild Master, an adventurer is here to see you.”

Early in the morning, at the secretary’s call, Dieta blinked. This early in the morning? She had just arrived at the guild and was sipping her morning coffee.

“Who is it?”

“A boy with gray hair. I heard he received a request from you yesterday…”

A boy with gray hair.

It was the boy she had treated to a meal yesterday. She had told him the location of the guild where her office was, but had he come so quickly? Perhaps he wanted to ask for more information about the wanted criminals.

She had already given all the information she had.

If he was asking for more, it would be a bit disappointing.

Thinking this, Dieta gestured. A signal to let him in. Then, thump, thump, thump… heavy footsteps were heard from the stairs. After a moment, the door to her office opened.

The one who entered was indeed the boy from yesterday.

However, the moment Dieta faced the boy who opened the door and stepped in, she realized. The boy hadn’t come to ask for more information. What the boy had brought with him were three wanted criminals.

Dieta’s eyes widened.

She wasn’t the only one surprised. Knight Passion, who stood beside her, also had his eyes wide open.

“These are the three people, right?”

Regardless of their reactions, Najin pointed behind him. There stood three wanted criminals, limping. Though only their arms were bound, they showed no resistance, not even thinking of escape.

When Najin turned to look at them, they just bowed their heads deeply as if trying to avoid his gaze.

“That’s… right.”

Dieta muttered blankly.

Brom, Lopez, Miles.

They were indeed the wanted criminals from the back alleys, famous for slipping away like loaches. But contrary to the rumors, the three men were standing in place, extremely docile.

As if they were terrified of the boy standing before them.