Ch.290290 – The Rat That Snuck In

<290 – A Rat That Snuck In>

Zhang had been moving around the cruise ship while concealing his presence, thinking.

The operation of this cruise ship alone required enough money to potentially cost an Academy professor their head.

What was the Foundation thinking, making such an enormous expenditure?

In a world where money equals power.

The Foundation is not an organization that enjoys luxury and waste.

‘The Wiheomhae Foundation’s motto is extreme efficiency.’

All unnecessary impurities and those who fall behind meet their fate of disposal through harsh “directives.”

Only those who overcome difficult directives and prove their worth again can maintain their positions.

Interpreting it this way, this cruise ship journey clearly has something at stake equivalent to a professor’s head.

‘The point auction. Was their intention to gauge the preferences and discernment of Ishtar, the hero who will become a major figure on the continent?’

At first, I thought that was all.

After all, the only figures of massive investment value invited on this ship were the hero and the Second Imperial Princess.

Only after the fifth day’s auction ended did Zhang realize.

That had been his misconception.

There was another real VIP.

Oknodie.

The Foundation’s top scholarship student.

A prodigy with the finest talent the organization had acquired, comparable even to the world’s hero.

“Would you all like to come to my house?”

“If you don’t want to, that’s fine! But Papa has prepared gifts for my friends, so that’s a shame!”

“I don’t know what they are, but I heard they’re very special gifts! He said everyone would be happy with them. And if you don’t receive them in time, you’ll really regret it!”

When persuading Dorothy, Oknodie had said:

That Papa had prepared gifts.

That she had been asked to invite her friends.

That “request” was essentially an order.

Who would consider it merely a request coming from a powerful figure who controls countless scholarship students across the continent through directives?

“Do you know how they raise elephants in the circus?”

Once, when Professor Sadaco was teaching how to escape without falling when being chased by ghosts at night, she told an exhausted Zhang a story.

“Elephants sold to the circus from a very young age grow up tied to a stake. The young elephant tries to pull but cannot uproot the stake, and eventually gives up and complies.”

“I cannot pull out the stake. If I cause trouble, I’ll be tormented with a heated poker. I don’t want to experience pain without results.”

“That’s how elephants, even after growing to full size with sufficient strength, remain tied to stakes. Without realizing their true power, fearing the pain.”

Titosoga asked with an innocent face:

“What does that have to do with us?”

“The spirit chasing you now is the vengeful ghost of an elephant that died trapped under a burning tent after living tied to a circus stake. If it catches you, you’ll be completely flattened.”

“Waaah!”

“…”

Regardless of Titosoga’s foolish crying, Professor Sadaco’s story became a lesson.

Even elephants, which could easily kill humans by stomping on them with their weight, can have their aggression neutered if raised by trainers from a young age.

The same thing is happening to Oknodie now.

She’s being gaslighted by the Foundation.

Like an elephant tied to a stake.

Like an elephant that experiences pain when it resists.

Growing up bound to the Foundation, she probably harbors somewhere in her heart the fear of being sold to a brothel.

For someone like her, refusing Papa’s “request” is naturally impossible.

The friends she brought along.

The princess seemed to think the rest were mere baggage and the real purpose was to draw out the hero, but Zhang thought the opposite.

The hero came along as a bonus, and the real targets were those close to Oknodie.

At least, that’s what Zhang sensed was the aim of the Foundation’s chairman, Oknodie’s Papa.

‘Could threatening to sell her to a brothel really serve as a stake for Oknodie?’

That’s impossible.

That child is strong.

Even if she truly believed those words, she clearly recognizes how useful she is, how strong she is.

She wouldn’t have even the slightest concern that such a future of being discarded as useless would befall her.

Then what is Oknodie’s stake?

A stake is a person’s fear.

It’s a shackle that seals away even enormous power like an elephant’s.

What is she bound by, what makes her hold back her power?

Zhang already knew the answer.

‘Friends.’

Yes.

If the Foundation knows this fact, then this is a place to firmly drive in a new stake.

It’s a threat that Papa of the Foundation is making to Oknodie.

The friends she worked hard to make over half a year.

The Foundation already possesses the weaknesses of all of them.

That they could reveal those weaknesses to anyone.

That they could completely upend a person’s relationships at any desired timing.

“Oknodie.”

“Yes?”

“Am I in the way too?”

I don’t want to be an obstacle.

So tell me.

That you need my help.

“Hmm. Zhang is strong, but…”

“…”

“I wonder~?”

“…”

“Maybe you can, maybe you can’t?”

Is she teasing me now?

When I glared at her with intensity, a startled Oknodie quickly answered.

“Just stay and keep watching!”

I did it.

I’ve been acknowledged.

Zhang felt genuine happiness.

An assassin shouldn’t have such expressive emotions.

If you can’t hide yourself, you die.

But I couldn’t suppress the smile that leaked out.

‘I’ve stayed on the deserted island longer than Hestia, Son Ocheon, or Giselle.’

Could I interpret this to mean that among the people Oknodie trusts and follows, I’m the most reliable?

That’s definitely what it means.

Even if it’s not, that’s how I’ll interpret it.

Zhang with shoulders full of confidence!

But there was something concerning about Oknodie’s statement.

“Not ‘protect me’ but ‘keep watching’…?”

“Yes. Keep watching me!”

It’s true that I’ve been chosen as a trusted companion.

But the nuance is different.

Not a comrade who stands shoulder to shoulder, but a comrade in the sense of being permitted to watch her actions.

“Just hold out as long as you can, then leave!”

She even thinks I’ll drop out on my own at some point.

It means that while I’m better than her other companions, I’m still not enough to stand beside her.

My pride was hurt.

I’m the successor who inherited the sole secret technique passed down by the Life Thief, one of the Ten Great Thieves of the Continent.

I can hide from not only the hero but also professor-class detection, and even deceive that Jona Wiheomhae’s eyes, but that’s still not enough?

I know Oknodie is strong.

But isn’t this too harsh?

I can’t accept this.

Stubbornness.

Or what could be called defiance rose up in my heart.

‘Hmph. I’ll really just watch until you ask for help first.’

With a determination to extract an apology from Oknodie, Zhang slipped stealthily into the shadows.

“Squeak!”

“…?”

Zhang noticed a rat gnawing on a rock near the shadows.

[Blue Metal Rat]

[It constantly gnaws on hard substances and mana-infused materials to increase the purity and efficacy of the rare metal that makes up its body.]

It was a rare monster Zhang had learned about from the monster encyclopedia in the Academy’s monster studies lecture.

Finding one is like getting a free rare metal, which feels like a lucky find, but if you find two, you should be tense, and if you find three, you should run away.

The reason was simple.

Mana-infused materials.

The Blue Metal Rat’s teeth target prey indiscriminately, whether living beings or objects.

Stab

Ignoring the resistance at the tip of the dagger, Zhang killed it with a quick thrust, but cracks appeared from under the rock.

“Squeak?”

“Squeak squeak?”

“Squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak!”

Not just three, but dozens.

Sensing the presence of countless Blue Metal Rats from the island’s floor, Zhang realized the true meaning of Oknodie’s words about watching only as long as he could endure the auction.

This auction venue.

The longer time passes, the more dangerous it becomes to hold out on the deserted island.

* *

“Hey, bookworm. Don’t you regret leaving first?”

“I purchased the item that came up for me and escaped, so I have no reason for regret.”

Giselle spoke calmly in front of Son Ocheon, but looking at the scene reflected in the <Peeping Doll> she had left on the island, she realized how lucky she had been.

Blue Metal Rats.

If she had spent even one night on that island where such vicious predators were hiding, and they had suddenly emerged from beneath her feet, it would have been difficult to preserve her life.

‘They detected mana and emerged.’

The doll, scurrying around the island with its tiny feet, realized that the rats were gathering at the cave where combat had occurred between participants and at the terrain where Rozini’s embers remained.

If rats that escaped to the surface like that start following people’s mana, it won’t be long before combat between humans and Blue Metal Rats begins.

They might win one fight.

But if more traces of mana remain from that combat, and more rats crawl up from beneath the island?

It could become a situation where they’re chased by so many rats that they’d beg to be sent back to the cruise ship.

‘Perhaps our little lady sent us away first out of consideration for our weak combat abilities.’

While I appreciate the thoughtfulness, Giselle had her own concerns.

Oknodie had already engaged in combat with the Heugmag princess.

This means she’s been selected as a “tracking target” by the rats.

At this rate, Oknodie and the princess will naturally be chased by more rats than the hero and tire more quickly.

Without a clever solution, the next ones to cross over to the cruise ship on the lifeboat might be the princess’s team and Oknodie’s team.

‘Let’s have faith. Our little lady can hold out sufficiently. We should do our best where we are.’

Using her merchant’s eye and calculation skills, Giselle thoroughly searched the warehouse with Son Ocheon to calculate the remaining food supplies, checking cargo lists and quantities.

When they opened the food container, they found the Zigoku pirate crew sitting together around a lantern playing poker.

“…It seems the rats aren’t only on the deserted island.”