Chapter 39: The plan
The food place was small, noisy, and packed with lunch customers, which made it perfect for a private conversation.
Nobody paid attention to the two young people sitting in the corner booth near the window. To everyone else they just looked like another pair of travelers stopping for a meal, one quiet boy in dark clothes and one pretty girl with long black hair tied back loosely behind her neck.
A large bowl of noodles sat in front of the boy, already half gone, while the girl picked at slices of roasted meat with a fork like she was eating mostly out of boredom.
The owner passed their table a minute ago and smiled at them, clearly happy to have polite customers for once.
He had no idea he was feeding two agents of the Underworld King.
The girl took another bite, chewed slowly, then looked up at the boy across from her.
"So?" he asked, not looking away from his bowl. "Did you complete your part?"
She leaned back against the seat and crossed one leg over the other.
"Of course I did," she said, sounding faintly insulted that he even needed to ask. "I found exactly what we needed."
That made him pause, placing the chopsticks down and finally looking at her properly, "did you."
She smiled a little after seeing that reaction.
"Yeah," she said. "Someone useless, petty, emotional, and weak enough to grab onto borrowed power with both hands the second I offered it."
He stared at her for a second, then let out a slow breath through his nose, "that does sound useful."
"Not just useful," she said, twirling her fork once before pointing it lazily at him, "it’s perfect."
He stayed quiet and let her keep talking.
"The boy already hates Hajin," she said. "Not the shallow kind either. I mean the ugly kind that sits in your stomach and keeps replaying the same scene over and over until you can’t think about anything else." She tilted her head slightly. "Humiliation is great fertilizer for that."
She looked genuinely pleased with herself now, which was never a great sign for anyone else.
"He got put in his place in front of a crowd, and now he can’t let it go. He keeps thinking about the beastkin too, which makes it even worse. Pride, lust, resentment, wounded ego, all tangled together." She smiled wider. "He was practically begging me to ruin him."
The boy across reached for his drink and took a small sip, "and you gave him demonic essence."
"A little." She shrugged. "Nothing too refined, just enough to get him moving."
His eyes narrowed slightly, "you didn’t overdo it did you?"
She let out a soft laugh, "please. I’m not stupid... I think."
He didn’t answer right away, which made her click her tongue.
"What?" she asked. "That look again. You always do that look when you think I’m about to break the mission."
"You usually are about to break the mission."
"I am creative, that’s my charm, don’t worry, the mission will succeed," she said proudly.
"You really are reckless."
"And yet," she said, leaning forward over the table, "I am the one who found the right piece."
He couldn’t really argue with that, which annoyed him more than he showed.
The girl picked up another slice of meat, "Think about it," she said. "If we attack Hajin directly right now, what happens?"
He answered immediately, "he dies of course, he is too weak."
"Exactly." She pointed at him with the fork again. "And if he dies now, the fragment stays half-asleep, the King gets nothing, and we get blamed for ruining a plan that’s been developing for who knows how long."
She popped the meat into her mouth, chewed, swallowed, then continued.
"But if someone from his own level starts pressing, hurting, chasing and forcing him to move faster, then he grows. He fights harder, digs deeper and gets used to pressure." Her eyes gleamed a little. "And when he wins, he’ll think it was his own effort. That’s the best kind of growth."
The boy listened in silence, his fingers tapping the side of the bowl once.
"You think this one can really push him?"
She nodded right away.
"Not forever," she said. "He’s not some hidden monster or anything like that. He’s trash but that’s not the point."
She tilted her head toward the window, where the capital streets moved under the afternoon sun.
"Hajin is still early," she said. "He just got his bloodline power, if left alone, he will grow soft and all that power will go to waste." Her smile thinned. "So I found someone who will keep trying to bite at his legs."
The boy looked at her for a long moment, "you really think that badly of humans."
"I think accurately of humans," she said. "Especially the small ones."
"I hope you are right," he said, staring at the empty space on the table while his mind replayed the scene from the forest.
A massive black panther lunged from a high branch, its claws outstretched and glowing with a dull red light.
Hajin ran straight at the tree, his boots hitting the bark with a sharp thud before he pushed off, his body twisting mid-air in a tight, controlled spiral that made the panther’s strike miss by inches. He didn’t drop to the ground, instead reaching out and grabbing a thick vine, using the momentum to swing himself up and over another branch.
The stream panel was flashing gold in the corner of his vision, the comments scrolling so fast he couldn’t even read the names anymore.
[ CringeSlayer91: OH MY GOD THE PARKOUR ]
[ ShadowMage44: he’s literally flying right now ]
[ NewViewer_02: that twist was insane! ]
[ ashley (Mod): look at him go, he’s totally showing off now ]
He landed on a branch twenty feet above the ground, his feet hitting the wood with barely a sound while he watched the panther crash into the ground below. It scrambled to its feet, let out a frustrated roar, and looked up at him with bared teeth.
He didn’t give it a second to breathe.
He dropped off the branch, falling straight toward the monster with his short sword drawn. He didn’t just fall, he kicked off the air itself, the mana in his boots creating a faint ripple of golden light that pushed his speed even higher.
The panther tried to move, but it was way too slow.
He landed on its back, the impact driving the creature’s chest into the ground with a violent crack. He didn’t wait for it to recover, instead driving his blade through the base of its neck in one smooth motion. The monster let out a wet, gurgling sound and went limp instantly.
"Too slow," he muttered, flicking the blood off his blade and standing up.
Juna appeared from the shadows a second later, her gauntlets covered in blood while she held two more monster cores in her hand. She looked up at him, her tail giving a sharp, impressed flick.
"That was quite a show," she said, her ears perking up.
He gave her a cocky grin, sliding his sword back into the sheath. "What? Just getting a little practice in before the evaluation. No point in clearing a Gate if I can’t look good doing it."
[ CringeSlayer91: he is literally built different ]
[ ShadowMage44: 10/10 for the landing ]
[ NewViewer_02: i want that parkour skill in real life ]
He ignored the chat and looked deeper into the forest, where the air was starting to feel heavy with a much stronger mana signature.
"The boss is close," he said, his voice dropping into a serious tone. "Get ready, Juna. I think this one is going to be a bit more interesting than the cats."
She nodded right away, her claws sliding out from her gauntlets with a series of sharp clicks. "I’m ready when you are, Master."
He started walking, his eyes tracking the shadows between the trees while the golden ring on his wrist began to pulse with a low, steady heat.