The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 37

-Phase power reaction on the building’s top floor! Output is so strong the gauges can’t even measure it all!

-Are you serious, are you serious, are you serious?! Is it really Kim Hyunwoo? He came in person?!

-This is the surveillance unit! Kim Hyunwoo and Jo Seonghwan are engaging! What is that lightning?!

-All reserve personnel on standby, fall back immediately! There are thirty royal guards packed inside that building! If you get caught up in this, there won’t even be bones left to collect! I repeat! Reserve personnel, retreat now——!

The moment lightning began striking from the top of the research building, Hahoe’s radio network at the scene erupted into chaos.

Kim Hyunwoo, heir to the Andong Kim clan.

The mere fact that he had shown himself was enough—but now he had unleashed his phase power as well. The reaction was only natural.

“Even seeing it firsthand, I can’t quite believe it.”

Dark, heavy clouds had gathered in the middle of a street packed with buildings and neon signs.

A storm and lightning surging between them.

Imae mask gazed up at the terrifying spectacle swallowing the upper floors of the building and let out a hollow laugh.

“So he didn’t even need to use something like that on a half-rate like me. Monsters, the lot of them….”

-Still, thanks to that, we were able to slip out. Can’t complain too much.

Hearing the voice through the communicator, Imae mask smiled faintly and nodded. Fair enough.

Kim Changwoon.

The one who had set off the monsters inside the research facility—and the shadow mastermind behind this entire affair.

-The royal guards who stormed the facility are collecting all the evidence and charges. Same with the surviving Pungyang Jo employees and bodyguards. All that’s left is Jo Seonghwan.

Listening to Changwoon, Imae mask recalled the exchange between Jo Seonghwan and Kim Hyunwoo before escaping.

Jo Seonghwan had tried to claim his innocence by bringing up Hahoe’s infiltration—but Kim Hyunwoo had shown no intention of hearing him out.

“It’s surprising that Kim Hyunwoo moved directly against Jo Seonghwan. You’d think he’d at least hear him out if Hahoe was brought up….”

-Ah, that?

Laughter came through the communicator, followed by Kim Changwoon’s voice.

-Someone else might have. But not Kim Hyunwoo.

“Why?”

-Because using Hahoe as cover to bury something is something he already tried first.

“……Ha! Right. That’s true.”

Hearing those words, Imae mask finally understood why Changwoon was laughing.

The assault incident that had happened not long ago.

Kim Hyunwoo had been the one who sent assassins disguised as Hahoe to kill Changwoon.

Not believing Jo Seonghwan’s words was, in a way, the pot calling the kettle black.

-Besides, even if Hahoe’s infiltration were true, it wouldn’t erase the fact that the Pungyang Jo clan conducted monster research in the middle of Hanseong.

Changwoon continued.

-Not only did that come to light, but the monsters ran amok—and on top of that, a Rift was even opened in the heart of Hanseong.

With things this far gone, no amount of blaming Hahoe or anyone else would do any good.

Deliberately triggering a Rift was a capital offense tantamount to treason.

Caught in the act, dragged before the Royal Investigative Bureau for interrogation—and depending on the verdict, stripping of noble status was not unthinkable.

So Jo Seonghwan had no choice but to try to flee by any means necessary.

Unaware that his desperate struggle would only make the situation worse.

‘And in the chaos that struggle created, the ‘real Hahoe’ that had been holding Jo Seonghwan in place slipped out of the research facility without a care in the world….’

The more he thought about it, the more absurd the operation seemed.

The rendezvous with the wako.

The cargo switch.

His own timing for barging in, and the precise moment Kim Hyunwoo arrived.

If even a single one of those had gone wrong, this operation would have failed completely.

‘And all of that was designed and directed by one person alone.’

Playing the role of a collaborator to the Pungyang Jo clan—while secretly working as a spy for the Andong Kim clan from behind, laying the entire board.

At the decisive moment, using them to move every piece exactly as he willed.

The Andong Kim clan, the Pungyang Jo clan, and beyond that—even the Administration’s Royal Investigative Bureau and the royal guards.

The greatest clans and organizations in all of Joseon had danced in the palm of a single person’s hand.

In the palm of a fifteen-year-old boy’s hand.

“So, where are you right now?”

-Me?

A brief pause after Imae mask’s question.

-Pungyang Jo research facility.

“Wh—what?!”

Changwoon’s next words made Imae mask’s expression go rigid.

“Have you lost your mind?! The royal guards are tearing through the entire building—!”

-Don’t worry. The royal guards will be too busy dealing with the chaos on the top floors right now.

“That’s not the point! After everything is done, why would you go back there——!”

-Ah, it’s nothing that important, really.

Changwoon paused briefly, choosing his words.

-Since I went to all this trouble, I figured I’d pick up a few things while I’m at it.

---

Pungyang Jo research facility.

After ending the call with Imae mask, I headed toward the center of the research building through the emergency staircase.

My destination: the research materials storage vault, located in the security zone.

Climbing some thirty floors of stairs left my legs absolutely screaming.

“God, these wretched stairs. Not doing this twice.”

An outsider with no authorization code was wandering through the security zone—yet the alarm systems guarding the area didn’t react at all.

Naturally.

The shockwave from the Rift had knocked out every electronic device in the building, and on top of that, two phase power wielders were going at each other tooth and nail above.

‘If not for that, I’d be a pincushion by now.’

I smiled bitterly, sifting through memories of my past life.

This was one of the most critical facilities in the research building—accessible only to a handful of people.

And here I was, walking through it like my own back room. Given that I’d died and come back, the feeling was something else entirely.

Let’s see.

If I traced back just a little of what I remember from the days I spent as Jo Seonghwan’s doormat….

“Found it.”

A smile crept onto my lips as I searched the darkened storage vault.

A hidden passage at the deepest point of the vault.

A door leading to a special isolation area had appeared.

Rrrmmmmm…….

I gripped the release lever and wrenched it hard. The massive iron door, composed of compound armor, slowly began to open.

A space secured even more strictly than the isolation areas where the monsters were kept.

And what lay inside….

Hmmmm—

A round sphere, enclosed in a dedicated case, radiating a faint blue glow.

Monster cores produced over the past several years in this research facility.

“The mission objective is complete. Now it’s time to fill my own pockets.”

Muttering that, I licked my lips and took stock of what was inside the vault.

One hundred and twenty refined monster cores.

These small spheres, roughly the size of a thumbnail, were rare artifacts that spontaneously emitted phase power.

The culmination of years of monster research by the Pungyang Jo clan—and the secret weapon that would one day serve as the driving force behind the hardliners led by Jo Seonghwan launching their coup.

All of it had now fallen into my hands.

“I’m going to have a lot to spend money on going forward.”

Muttering that, I loaded all the monster cores into the dedicated case I’d brought in advance.

‘To use them properly, I’ll need to build connections in the military supply industry too. Let’s see—what’s a promising outfit at this point in time….’

I was deep in that pleasant deliberation about what lay ahead when—

Kaboom—!

The entire building shook once, and from somewhere above came the sound of an explosion.

A strange sensation swept over my whole body immediately after.

Phase power so dense that even I—a non-wielder—could feel it.

“Sounds like things have been settled.”

I checked the phase power gauge I’d brought.

Until just moments ago, two distinct waveforms had been holding each other in tense equilibrium—but now, one waveform had completely occupied the space.

Kim Hyunwoo’s phase power had utterly crushed Jo Seonghwan’s.

“Thirty minutes. Much faster than I expected.”

As I noted the time it had taken from when Kim Hyunwoo and Jo Seonghwan clashed, Mooyoung’s voice came through the communicator.

-Young master. I’ve confirmed the combat site.

“I confirmed it on the gauge here too. What happened to Jo Seonghwan?”

-While they were evenly matched, he couldn’t withstand the sword strike Kim Hyunwoo unleashed. Kim Hyunwoo seemed intent on killing Jo Seonghwan, but it appeared he lacked the strength to finish it….

“Lacked the strength to finish it?”

I repeated the question. Mooyoung, who had trailed off, slowly opened his mouth.

-He fled the building having lost one arm.

“Tsk.”

I clicked my tongue briefly at that.

If Jo Seonghwan survived this, he would hole up in his clan’s main seat in Namyangju and attempt quiet back-channel negotiations with the Andong Kim clan.

If that happened, the investigation would naturally reach me—the one who had handled the cargo.

If time dragged on, I, who had orchestrated this entire affair, would be in danger.

‘I thought he could kill him in one go, but the finish was sloppy.’

It seemed I’d overestimated Kim Hyunwoo.

However supreme the phase power he was born with in all of Joseon—he was still a boy who had barely turned twenty.

I’d forgotten he was a scholar who had done nothing but swing a sword in a training hall.

It would have been his first time cutting a person down as well—I should have anticipated something like this.

I immediately sank into thought.

‘The key Pungyang Jo figures in Hanseong will be tangled up with the royal guards, so they can’t take care of Jo Seonghwan. Then the only ones who could save him in this situation….’

The clan’s bodyguards, only just now departing from Namyangju.

Then there was still time.

“Mooyoung.”

-Yes.

Mooyoung’s answer came without delay.

His voice carried an expectant edge—as if he already knew what order I was about to give.

‘Come to think of it, wasn’t it Jo Seonghwan who cut off Mooyoung’s arm during the royal guard entrance exam?’

Seeing how fate had wound things around like this, the saying that life turns on a wheel was evidently true.

“Did you confirm where Jo Seonghwan fled to?”

-He burst out of the building and headed toward the lower special management district. I’m tracking him now.

“Good. Then go now and….”

What an older brother fails to finish is for his younger brother to see through.

I paused for a moment, then spoke to Mooyoung in a willing voice.

“Kill Jo Seonghwan.”

---

Shhhhhh—!

The light drizzle that had fallen since early evening had turned into a torrential downpour.

Storm clouds appearing suddenly in the heart of Hanseong.

A byproduct of the wind and lightning they had unleashed.

And through that rain drumming down without pause—Hanseong’s night streets, neon signs and paper lanterns flashing in the wet.

A man in red clothing was running through the rain-soaked streets of Hanseong.

“Hah…! Hah……!”

Fleeing in a wretched state, having lost one arm.

Sinister energy streamed from his bloodshot eyes—but his body, spent and drained of phase power, swayed this way and that as if it might collapse at any moment.

No different in appearance from any common ronin.

No one would believe this man was the famous heir to the Pungyang Jo clan.

Splat—!

Going somewhere crowded meant the risk of being spotted.

Thinking that, Jo Seonghwan left the bright, busy streets behind and pushed deeper into the darker back alleys.

A filthy street he would never have deigned to glance at under normal circumstances.

The lowlifes and trash here scattered from him as if they’d seen a monster—but Jo Seonghwan had no capacity to spare a thought for that now.

He had to hurry, or he would die.

If he didn’t hurry, Kim Hyunwoo—

The monster of the Andong Kim clan—would come and wring the last breath from him!

Before that happened, quickly….

He had to get out of Hanseong, if only a moment sooner—!

“Augh?!”

His foot slipped into a puddle. That was the moment.

Splat—!

With a splash of water, Jo Seonghwan’s body went down, and thick, murky water seeped into every crease of his clothing.

He strained desperately to push himself back up—but his body, exhausted and with phase power utterly depleted, refused to obey him.

He had once laughed at the bodyguards for fitting themselves with artificial bodies.

Now Jo Seonghwan was a man who needed one of those artificial bodies with a desperation that gnawed at him.

“Young master Jo Seonghwan.”

“Huugh?!”

A voice came from just above his collapsed head. Jo Seonghwan snapped his head up in a panic.

Someone from the clan, come to find him?

Or an agent from the Royal Investigative Bureau?

Anxious eyes searched for the one who had called his name—and in a moment—

“You…. you are……?”

The face of the man who had come to him made Jo Seonghwan’s expression crumple beyond recognition.

Not one of the clan’s bodyguards. Not an agent from the Royal Investigative Bureau.

But unmistakably a face lodged in one corner of his memory.

“It has been a while. Do you remember me?”

He did.

The royal guard entrance exam, held long ago.

A nameless swordsman who had stood against him there.

A presumptuous wretch of base birth who had pushed him to his limits.

That face—which he had dismissed with a passing glance—now looked back at him with eyes drained of all feeling.

“Why are you… here?”

“Because my lord commanded it. Here, and in Busan as well.”

Busan.

The place Changwoon had been sent—where Kim Hyunwoo’s scheme had begun.

Jo Seonghwan’s gaze caught the black arm replaced with an artificial body. His expression twisted.

“So it was you who switched the cargo? You became the Andong Kim clan’s dog to pay for that arm?!”

“Similar, but different.”

I bear no feeling toward that clan—no debt and no grudge.

Adding that, the man—Mooyoung—slowly loosed the cord and drew the hwando belted at his hip.

Shring—!

A jade-decorated guard on a hilt wrapped in blue cloth.

The same sword used by members of the Andong Kim clan—the same model that Kim Hyunwoo himself carried.

“I am not of the Andong Kim clan. I am Kim Changwoon’s hunting dog.”

“……What?”

Kim Changwoon? Not Kim Hyunwoo?

In an instant, Jo Seonghwan felt as if he had been struck over the head.

‘Wait. Then this was not Kim Hyunwoo’s scheme, but….’

All of it.

That bastard Kim Changwoon……?

Thwack—!

As that thought took shape, Mooyoung—hwando drawn—had closed the distance to arm’s reach in an instant.

“This is what Young Master Kim Changwoon wishes to convey to Young Master Jo Seonghwan.”

For just a moment, a flash of red flickered in Mooyoung’s otherwise dead, expressionless eyes.

“Thanks for the entertainment, you worthless fool.”

Slice—!

Mooyoung’s sword cleaved through Jo Seonghwan’s body in a diagonal stroke.

A strike that, under ordinary circumstances, he would have deflected with ease.

But Jo Seonghwan now had no room to take a defensive stance—nor the strength for it.

Thud.

The heir of the Pungyang Jo clan breathed his last, cut down by the sword of a man whose name he never even knew.