Ch.98Yesterday’s Enemy, Today’s Ally

The servants who had been serving Rokyu suddenly found themselves all thrown out onto the streets.

They wanted to follow the young master who had suddenly fired them all without warning and enter the mansion together to at least ask for a reason.

However.

“The Kitsune Family mansion may only be entered by those of the family bloodline and the servants who follow them!”

“””…!!”””

“You are no longer people of this place but outsiders, so if you try to enter without permission, you must be prepared for criminal punishment according to Japanese law!”

The young master who had lived with them with smiles until just yesterday suddenly called them outsiders.

Shocked by this fact and also because of the law he mentioned, none of the servants followed Rokyu into the mansion.

“…Miss Sophia.”

“Young master. Sudden dismissal? What happened?”

Sophia had secretly entered the mansion during this commotion.

Facing her, Rokyu really had something he wanted to say, but.

“When you first tried to enter the Kitsune Family mansion…”

“…?”

“The reason was to cure your sick younger sister’s white disease, wasn’t it?”

“That was just a lie…”

“Of course I know. But still, since you came all this way, you should have at least a souvenir when you leave.”

Help me.

Or fight alongside me.

He wouldn’t make such burdensome requests from the start.

Instead, though he had wanted to give it in a more romantic atmosphere as severance pay.

“Miss Sophia. Your hand.”

“…?! Th-this is?”

“My mother’s keepsake. It has the power to enhance a Beast Hunter’s abilities.”

He couldn’t put it on the ring finger that signifies a token of love after all.

They had only known each other for three days at most.

Enduring that time, the finger where Rokyu placed his mother’s keepsake ring on Sophia was the index finger, which symbolizes friendship and trust.

“Do you like it?”

“It’s not just a matter of liking it… can you really give me something like this?! You said it’s your parents’ keepsake!”

“Haha. Even though she was my mother, honestly she was a woman blinded by wealth and power. Since I lived like a ghost with my parents anyway, that keepsake ring was something I found distasteful and couldn’t even wear myself.”

“But! But, even so…”

Since Beast Hunter was a rare profession among Hunters, equipment made exclusively for Beast Hunters was so expensive and precious that you could name your price.

So much so that not only Sophia, a B-rank Hunter from America, but even Lee Seokgyu, Korea’s Army Chief of Staff, couldn’t afford to wear one.

And he was giving that as a farewell gift.

“Think of it as severance pay and please accept it.”

“B-but young master! Even so, this is…”

“Of course it’s not free. It’s too much for severance pay. So if you grant me one wish here, I’ll consider it given for free.”

“A wish?”

A wish worth giving Beast Hunter exclusive equipment.

What could that possibly be?

No, before that, could I even fulfill a wish of that level?

Sophia was worried with such thoughts, but.

“Miss Sophia.”

“Y-yes! Young master.”

“Please remember me forever.”

“…Huh?”

Rokyu’s wish was very simple.

Just to be remembered by Sophia as a good person forever.

Not as a passing stranger A, but to live with her at least in memories under the name Kitsune Rokyu – that was his wish.

“I just… want to remain in your memory as a good person.”

“……”

“I-I just said it! Of course if it’s really impossible, it can’t be helped but… Ah! Still, since I already gave you that ring, just take it…”

Maybe he had wished for too much after only knowing her for three days.

Well, he had never even held a woman’s hand, let alone dated anyone.

So Rokyu was breaking out in cold sweat wondering what he was doing and tried to cancel the wish he had just made.

But.

“I’ll remember.”

“…Huh?”

“I’ll remember. Young Master Rokyu. For my entire life.”

“…!”

Sophia answered without a moment’s hesitation.

And Kitsune Rokyu, who could hear such an answer from her.

“Thank you.”

“Young master…”

“Really, thank you. Thanks to you, it feels like all the countless worries I’ve been having until now have disappeared at once.”

While thinking to himself that he was glad he spoke up.

“Then farewell. Miss Sophia.”

Smiling refreshingly, he was finally able to let go of his last attachment to this world.

***

Evening came.

As promised, the forces Kurumi sent to protect me were…

“As expected, none.”

Naturally, not even a shadow of a person could be seen.

“In a way, it’s natural…?”

For the first time in his life, he enjoyed the quiet stillness of the mansion.

As he walked through the well-maintained garden under the night sky, the ‘fixers’ sent by the family had surrounded Rokyu and were kneeling on one knee.

“We meet Kitsune Rokyu, second son of the Kitsune Family.”

“…Who are you?”

“Yes. We are the family’s exclusive ‘ninja’ who carry out missions under orders from the Kitsune Family’s upper echelons.”

“Ninja…! Are you the family’s fixers I’ve only heard rumors about?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

A group of traditional Japanese experts thought to have disappeared after the war era.

Ninja.

Also called ‘shinobi,’ they had existed only as rumors even within the family, so Rokyu was quite flustered.

But what mattered now was their purpose for coming here.

“Following Young Master Rokyu’s defeat at this family head succession ceremony…”

“You bastards…”

“We have come to give that ‘punishment’ under the elders’ will. So please do not resist and stay still.”

“Such insolence…!”

The ninja wrapped in hoods each emanated the presence of at least professional Hunter level.

In other words, for Rokyu, who was only C-rank level just barely treated as a professional Hunter, each of them was a formidable opponent difficult to defeat.

However, since he had no intention of just taking it lying down.

“Fire!”

“…!”

Even if his limbs were torn apart, he tried to counterattack with all his might, but.

That was when it happened.

“Hey you bad guys!”

“What are you doing to the young master!”

“?! Y-you people…!”

The moment the ninja’s coordinated attack was about to cut all of Rokyu’s tendons in an instant.

As if they had been waiting, nearly a hundred former servants of Rokyu’s household forcibly opened the mansion doors and poured in en masse.

“You people… I definitely fired you, didn’t I?”

“Young master, we’re disappointed!”

“Did you think we were only close enough that if you said ‘you’re fired~’ we’d just say ‘we’ve been fired~’ and leave?!”

“Young master! How long has your nanny raised you! I can never leave the young master’s side until I die!”

They had all been employed by Rokyu and had spent years moving around the mansion with him, already thinking of Young Master Rokyu not simply as their master but as family.

The young master who, unlike a noble, always worried about them like a friendly colleague.

There must be some reason why such a young master suddenly fired them.

Thinking this way, about a hundred servants pretended to be fired and chased to the edge of the family territory, but with all their experience moving around the domain.

Whether bribing other household servants standing guard or sneaking in through back roads, they had gathered here again.

“This is a murder scene right now!”

“I’m recording this on video right now! Just try touching our young master!”

“The moment this gets on broadcast, you’re all finished!”

Their own way of fighting alongside the young master.

They all took out their phones and started filming every detail of Rokyu, who had almost been permanently immobilized, and the surrounding ninja.

Click! Click! Click!

But.

“Leader. Should we retreat for now?”

“No, the internet doesn’t work within the Kitsune Family territory anyway. That means they need to go outside the territory to upload those videos.”

“…! You mean.”

“Right, before our identities are revealed, we’ll take the lives of everyone here, though it will be much more spectacular than the original plan.”

“Understood.”

“Wh-what?!”

No.

The servants’ return was actually counterproductive.

As a side effect, the ninja instead began taking out their exclusive weapons like kunai to draw blood.

“Everyone run! Hurry!!”

Rokyu shouted for the servants’ sake, but.

“First, one person.”

“Nanny!!”

“Young master…?”

A ninja had already leaped right below the nanny who was at the front of the servants and was about to take this old woman’s neck first with the kunai in his hand to create fear.

“Stop!”

Clang!

“Puhup?!”

But.

One of the ninja was subdued with his face buried in the ground after being hit by a fist that had somehow approached above his head.

“…Who are you.”

The ninja leader immediately noticed the skilled fighter with brilliant blonde hair swaying among the servants who were all civilians.

“Miss Sophia…?”

“Young master, you were right!”

“Right about what…?”

“About this ring! It’s too expensive an item for just granting one wish!”

Sophia showed the ring on her index finger while speaking to the stunned Rokyu.

“You gave me something so precious, so naturally I should at least fight alongside you, shouldn’t I?!”

“…!”

“Isn’t that right, everyone?”

“That’s right!”

“We came to fight too!”

The servants, who thought they couldn’t fight, each held cooking knives or cleaning brooms, all burning with the will to fight.

“Young master! Please let us fight together!”

“We want to fight and die together too!”

“Rather than committing seppuku, wouldn’t it be much more honorable to fight together until death like Korea did during the Korean War?!”

“All of you…!”

Moreover.

“Leader.”

“Even so, nothing changes. If we sweep them all away…”

“Can we join that fight too?!”

“Huh?”

“Who…?”

A trio who had missed their timing to appear earlier but revealed themselves on the mansion roof to join Rokyu’s side, which seemed to lack some strength.

“We’re just passing ‘Villain’s Troupe’ members. We came to steal something since we’re broke~.”

“Vil…”

“Villain’s Troupe?!”

At those words, not only Rokyu and the servants but also the ninja, who had heard that infamous name like daily bread even in the underworld they lived in.

“That face… no mistake!”

“Why is the Villain’s Troupe leader here!!”

Villain’s Troupe members who had been enjoying an Osaka trip for a week after receiving Shinwoo’s contact.

“Should I apologize to Miss Sophia for keeping our identity secret?”

Villain’s Troupe leader Katarina.

“I-I can just watch from above, right? Leader?”

Villain’s Troupe mascot Dorothy.

And.

“How’s your hometown after so long?! Ookami.”

A mysterious man wrapped entirely in bandages over the Villain’s Troupe’s characteristic black coat.

Villain’s Troupe action captain Ookami.

“…Since we’ve entered the territory anyway. Can’t we burn everything down on our way out?”

“Stop it. We didn’t come here to wage war today. We’ll do this moderately and pull back. Got it?”

“……Understood.”

So under the night sky after the calm before the storm.

Crash!

“Mother, I’m sorry, but I can’t just watch from this side anymore either.”

“Jaewon?”

“I’ll join as well to prepare for any possible situation.”

As if the real storm was just beginning, all the Kitsune Family ninja units were swiftly heading toward Rokyu’s mansion under the leader’s orders.

Their battle had finally begun.