Chapter 139
Chapter 139
In the Case of Irena (2)
There are temptations in this world that are simply too hard to resist.
"Is that… true?"
"You fucking bastard, I told you it was true, you son of a bitch! What the fuck do I have to do to make you believe me?!"
With his collar gripped tightly, the man struggled as his throat was being squeezed, barely able to gasp out a reply.
"The Treasury Chief's daughter! She’s after you! You’re fucking dead, you piece of shit. She knows you’re hiding underground, too."
Through a recent regular qualification assessment, the capabilities of Kairus, Irena, and Nora had already been evaluated.
Whether Irena could actually capture Colby Devendish or not wasn’t something that really mattered to the guy getting choked.
"I—I’ll help you! You can’t gather rumors on your own anyway, right? So please, fuck, just let me live!"
Watching the man squirm like a bug dying from insecticide, he tightened his grip.
With a sickening crack, the man’s neck snapped, and his body, which had been writhing for survival, went limp. Colby tossed him to the floor with a flick and grinned.
"So that’s how it is."
Colby Devendish had also succumbed to a temptation too irresistible to pass up.
‘The Treasury Chief’s daughter. The Kellogg family.’
A prey on a whole different level than before. And fundamentally, abducting a woman always provoked a more entertaining reaction than abducting a man.
Especially when that woman was the daughter of the Treasury Chief, one of the Empire’s key figures. For Colby, who already held a ticket to hell, it was a temptation he couldn't—and didn’t want to—refuse.
"I need to… prepare."
Like a chef facing exquisite ingredients, he had to act delicately and thoroughly. It was a target worth employing every bit of know-how he’d accumulated until now.
Colby clanked the gauntlet on his right hand as a malicious smile spread across his face.
His figure shimmered, then slowly disappeared. Except for the heat haze-like ripple left behind by the distorted light, nothing remained in sight.
As Colby moved with his target in mind, Irena too was carrying out her part.
"Ugh…"
Plop. A rotting lump of filth that had clung to the ceiling dropped right in front of Irena’s nose. Inside the slimy mess were a few maggots and some wriggling, blood-red worms.
Of course, sewers were filthy. It wasn’t like she hadn’t expected this. Casting her gaze briefly over the disgusting sludge, Irena raised a glowing orb and scanned her surroundings.
‘As expected.’
Many people moved through the sewers beneath the city. Even down here, beneath this city, the traces of countless hands were present.
Irena had no intention of finding Colby Devendish herself down here. Her plan was to make him come to her.
While Kairus lured his targets with bait and hunted those who took it, Irena chose to become the bait herself and draw her target out.
“…What are you looking at?”
Several people had already crossed paths with Irena underground. Once word spread that she was wandering down here, Colby would come looking for her. But for that to happen, she needed to live in the sewers for a few days.
‘Ugh…’
Irena wasn’t the only one suffering from her decision. Nora, who was tagging along behind her like a guardian angel, was also enduring this incredibly irritating situation because of Irena’s choice.
“♬♪”
Even so, Irena was doing her best to enjoy the situation in her own way.
She took out a charcoal grill and placed a few chunks of meat and strips of bacon on top to cook. The sizzling sound of meat hitting the grill filled the space as the fat dripped onto the charcoal, releasing an intense aroma as it burned.
This wasn’t for eating. No matter how tasty the meat and bacon were, no one would be desperate enough to dig in under these conditions. But the smell of cooked meat was strong, and it tended to linger in one place for quite a while.
“Hurry up and come.”
Muttering that to herself, Irena stood up. Just like that, by deliberately leaving behind traces and scents, she spent a total of four days underground.
“Damn, smells good.”
On the morning of the fourth day, Irena was using ingredients she’d brought from the surface to cook a pungent fried rice.
As she shook the frying pan back and forth, footsteps approached from behind.
“Smells delicious. Would you mind sharing a bit?”
Irena stirred the contents of the pan with a spatula, then set it down as she replied.
“Took you long enough. I practically begged you to find me. A man who keeps a lady waiting just isn’t charming.”
“I was just wondering if you had some escorts tagging along.”
Crack-crack. The sound came from behind her. Turning around, she saw that it came from the right arm of a slightly hunched man.
‘A gauntlet with five blades.’
It was Colby Devendish—her target. His question about escorts was his way of checking whether Lukas’s Children had followed her here, explaining the delay.
“Well, I guess it’s fine since you’re here now.”
As Irena drew her sword, Colby licked his lips while eyeing the frying pan.
“Shouldn’t we eat first?”
“Oh, should we?”
With a smile, Irena responded to Colby’s suggestion—then promptly kicked the pan, spilling the food all over the floor.
“Here, eat.”
“There are probably so many poor people starving without food like this… what a waste.”
“Is there anything more wasteful than shoving it into the filthy mouth of human trash like you?”
As much as she wanted to kill him right here and now, the objective was capture. Even in a situation like this, Irena hadn’t forgotten that.
Once again, the sound of scraping metal rang out as the blades ground against each other.
She saw him lowering his stance and charging at her, swinging his arm.
Not what was happening now—but what was about to happen.
“…!”
Blade met gauntlet in a violent clash, and for a moment, Irena was pushed back slightly as she inhaled sharply.
“Sometimes, you see lions wearing sheep’s clothing just to hunt wolves.”
Colby Devendish’s eyes gleamed menacingly as he swung his gauntlet in a flurry. Irena swiftly dodged the attack and slashed her sword at his legs.
Their weapons collided, sparks flew, and the dim underground lit up for a fleeting moment before darkness fell again.
“But you’re not one of them.”
From their brief exchange, Colby Devendish had already confirmed his advantage.
“Cut the bullshit.”
Irena snapped coldly and darted to the side. The gauntlet whooshed through empty air, and in that moment, her counterattack went for Colby.
“A shield?”
Her strike never reached his body. A strong repulsive force stopped the tip of her sword in mid-air—right where there was nothing visible.
It was the power of one of the daggers. Irena stepped back while shifting her stance. Suddenly, a fierce gust surged through the underground space.
“I know your tricks. And I know the flaws too.”
Those who used Swift Blade rarely favored protective shields for self-defense.
The principle of a shield was, essentially, isolation from the outside world.
Swift Blade relied on moving the body to generate wind currents and used that to seize and control the surrounding air.
A barrier that separated the user from the environment through a repulsion field did not mesh well with Swift Blade.
“Kuhuhu. I should shave off all your hair, make a wig out of it, and send it to your dear old dad. That’d be a laugh.”
Colby’s mind was brimming with twisted ideas.
“Then your wrinkly old daddy can wear that wig and dress like a woman and dance in front of everyone.”
The thought alone made him want to double over, clutching his stomach from laughter. Naturally, Irena’s expression grew ever colder as she listened to his sick fantasy.
It wasn’t about money or any kind of gain. He simply enjoyed watching people squirm under his control.
“Fucking psycho.”
“Once your daddy finishes his dance, everyone else will be saying the same thing! Just imagine it!”
As his imagination ran wild, Colby Devendish’s attacks didn’t wane—in fact, they only grew stronger.
‘I can do this.’
Even so, Irena was still managing to predict his movements. Colby Devendish’s skill was greater than hers, but not to the extent that it surpassed her ability to anticipate his actions.
She could respond.
“Hah, here we go again.”
Just as Colby prepared to move, a fierce gust of wind tore through the path he was about to take. Charging forward would require him to endure damage. In the end, Colby had no choice but to halt his rush.
Disrupting his movement didn’t even require Irena to shift her body.
‘Seven times now. Can she see the future, even if just a little?’
Colby, his charge cut short, continued to scrutinize Irena with sharpened eyes. She had already interfered with his movements seven times.
Only a fool would believe all this was just coincidence. For now, the only explanation Colby could think of was the stained-glass battle gear Irena wore—it was clearly no ordinary item.
‘I can do this.’
Irena decided to take a slightly more aggressive approach. She had to acknowledge the gap in skill. Just as Kairus and Lukas had said, she was still somewhat lacking when it came to capturing someone of his caliber.
But—she could predict how he would move.
‘Just barely.’
She believed she could avoid getting hit. In this situation, the only way to subdue him was with a counterattack.
She had to evade his attack by a hair’s breadth and then strike at the opening it created.
‘The flask…’
She wouldn’t use it. If she couldn’t see it, she couldn’t predict it. In this moment, it wasn’t necessary.
Colby charged again. This time, Irena didn’t intercept the attack in advance.
‘Just one moment… just one! He’s coming. Now!’
His attack would come down diagonally, from above. If she could manage an extremely narrow dodge, it would open the path to victory.
“Now!”
The attack grazed her. Had Irena leaned even slightly more forward, the blade would have sliced across her nose.
“Huh?!”
Just as she succeeded in evading and prepared to swing her sword—Colby’s body turned transparent.
The sudden change made Irena hesitate, and in that moment, his figure reappeared.
“So you’re not seeing the future, after all.”
“You… bastard!”
Just as Irena moved to strike at the reappearing Colby, bluish-white sparks erupted in every direction from his body.
“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!”
A shriek tore from Irena’s throat as the electric shock struck her directly. The sparks clung to her body, relentlessly jolting her. Her muscles spasmed uncontrollably, and flashes of light burst across her vision.
Seeing the future and predicting it are not the same.
Prediction is rooted in information. Anticipating an opponent’s attacks and defenses is something any seasoned fighter can do.
Irena simply did it instinctively—and with exceptional precision. But when it came to unknown techniques, she had no choice but to fall victim.
“Fucking pain in the ass.”
Irena had been neutralized. And Colby was the type to take people alive—of course he had methods for incapacitating his targets.
A metallic scraping sounded from Colby’s gauntlet. From one of the blades, a black ribbon unfurled and writhed like a snake, slithering around Irena’s body.
“Khugh…!”
Still paralyzed from the shock, Irena had no way to resist.
“Shaving off a pretty girl’s hair makes her look ridiculous, no matter how pretty she is. Kinda curious how you’d turn out.”
Colby slowly walked toward the restrained Irena.
‘I got careless.’
Only now did Irena realize the flaw in her own talent. In hindsight, it should’ve been obvious.
Just like how Swift Blade didn’t pair well with barriers.
Her predictions were precise—but she couldn’t react to techniques she didn’t know. If she hadn’t been so overconfident, this wouldn’t have happened.
‘I should’ve kept the fight going, forced him to show all his cards—and then…’
Only then should she have gone on the offensive and subdued him.
In the end, Colby had stayed calm. Irena had put too much faith in her own ability. Tears welled up—not because she’d been captured, but because she felt like such a fool.
Like a child giddy with a new toy, throwing it around with excitement. And the price? An irreversible blow to her family—and to her father.
“Start thinking about what you wanna write in the letter to Daddy. I bet you’ve got a lot to say.”
With Colby’s laughter, the blade on his gauntlet moved closer to Irena’s hair.
Snap.
Just as Irena resigned herself to a miserable end, she heard the sound of a stick breaking.
A perfect, impenetrable darkness fell over the dim underground.