The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 44

“Anyone here?”

The lowest tier, as run-down as ever.

Opening the old church door and stepping inside, the children who had been clustered together chattering in the corner pricked up their ears.

“Big brother Changwoon is here!”

The place I had come to was the bottom-tier church run by Father Jeong Suhan.

The urgent business had wrapped up and I finally had some breathing room, so I stopped by for the first time in a while.

And while I was at it, to buy these kids something good to eat.

“Our patron! Our money pot! Our wallet!”

“Brother, brother! When are you coming next? It’s my birthday soon——can’t you buy me the new DX Transforming Combination Hong Gildong No. 14?”

Seeing the kids come charging at me screaming like that, I didn’t feel too bad.

But a transforming combination Hong Gildong? No. 14?

“That’s the cartoon that started airing last week. It already has fourteen combination robots?”

“Yeah! You crack open a random box and get one of No. 1 through No. 13, right? Then if you collect all of them and combine them, there’s a five percent chance No. 14 gets sent to your house!”

Insane.

Selling toys for children in random boxes was already enough to drive anyone mad——but a full-set gacha?

I shuddered at the sheer malice of those robot cartoon producers.

Just how desperate for money do you have to be to come up with something like this?

“You come bearing such precious things every time…. I truly don’t know what to do with myself. Young Master.”

While I was deep in playing with the children, Father Jeong Suhan came out from one side of the church and greeted me.

“How could I come empty-handed? These are people who got tangled up in treasonous affairs they had no part in——and all because of me.”

As I said that, my gaze moved to the surveillance equipment installed throughout the church.

While I was confirming everything was in order, Father Jeong tilted his head and asked,

“Treasonous affairs? What do you mean by that?”

“……Pardon?”

Is this man being serious?

I stood in a daze for a moment, then looked at the baffled priest and walked him through it step by step.

“Now, Father. Listen carefully.”

“Yes.”

“Not long ago, you housed Iron Tiger General Yoo Sanghyeon and his daughter, correct?”

“We did. Meeting someone I’d only seen on the news in person——it was truly an honor.”

“Then you would also know that the power clans sent people to kill those two.”

“Yes, well, that’s…….”

I elaborated for the priest, who was nodding along.

“In other words, Father, you are now someone who provided shelter and hid an assassination target of the power clans.”

A brief silence.

“……Wh, what?”

“If the nobles were to discover that fact, what do you suppose would happen to you, the owner of this church?”

At those words, Father Jeong Suhan’s face went pale——belatedly.

Watching his expression contort like an abstract painting moment by moment, it seemed he genuinely had not known.

“Give up, Father. The moment you got tangled up with that Young Master, our lives were already done for.”

Jeong Yurim slowly crawled out from the workshop in the church basement.

“Just look at me. I’ve been cooped up in the workshop for a whole week and this is the first time I’ve come out…. ugh, I’m exhausted.”

I tossed a canned coffee to the half-dead Jeong Yurim, and she drank it down gulp by gulp as though it were the water of life.

The dark circles under that reasonably pretty face of hers had a simple enough explanation.

The Pyeongwoon Tavern members working at our casino—

Their artificial bodies had all been ordered from here.

“But you’re making quite a bit of money because of it, aren’t you? Just the work I brought you this month should amount to a fair sum.”

“Then, Young Master, give all that money back, and take me out of this revolution business or whatever it is. Can’t you do that?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Ugh.”

And right in the middle of that exchange between Yurim and me——impossible to tell if it was a joke or not—

Thud!

“Ah, ah……!”

It seemed Father Jeong had finally grasped the situation. He stumbled back a few steps and collapsed to his knees on the spot.

“Lord, why hast thou sent me such a, such a trial……!”

“Oh! Hey! Father is receiving a divine revelation!”

I thought, what kind of divine revelation is a Catholic having, and watched——but honestly it deserved the name.

He spent a long while reciting what seemed to be the Lord’s Prayer, trying to collect himself.

When that didn’t calm him down, he burst into song for some reason.

And in the end, he repeated a series of strange movements that were impossible to tell apart from prayer or a breakdown, before collapsing with foam at his mouth.

“That I, that I should be a traitor……!”

The priest fell with those words as his last, like a dying man’s final utterance——the whole thing taking about five minutes.

The children who had been chewing on the snacks I bought them were watching and giving enthusiastic applause.

“Incredible. I’ve never seen Father that scared before.”

“Dummy, that’s not being scared. The shock was so big he went to meet God for a moment.”

“Seeing Father like that, God must actually exist. I shouldn’t run away during prayer time anymore….”

Ugh, I almost got convinced.

I watched the priest come to terms with his situation for a short while.

“Stop teasing my dad!”

Yurim, who had lightly smacked the giggling children, put on a deliberately cross face.

“Sister Yurim is mad! Everyone disperse!”

“Disperse!”

With a chorus of cheers the children scattered like a storm.

They were now starting to play among themselves throughout the church, each with one of the snacks I had brought clenched in their mouths.

For a moment I was about to add another word to the children running wild in every direction—

But when Yurim saw the wide-open expressions on their faces, she relaxed her own and let out a faint laugh.

“Still, as you can see, our church’s situation has improved considerably.”

Yurim plopped down onto a church pew and spoke.

“Thanks to the Pyeongwoon Tavern people coming by regularly to provide security, there’s nothing dangerous to worry about——and Auntie Bokja shows up now and then to play with the kids.”

“Auntie Bokja…. the proprietress?”

“Yes.”

Come to think of it, she had mentioned coming here to pray.

I’d thought she seemed a bit more at ease lately——seems like faith actually does something after all.

“When I think about how we’ve come this far from being back-alley beggars…. treasonous affairs might be more manageable than I thought.”

“Well——we’ll go further still.”

Because this church would have a great deal of work ahead of it.

I watched the children running and playing in the church and asked in passing:

“How’s the atmosphere in the area these days?”

“You must have seen something on the way here, Young Master.”

Having said that, Jeong Yurim lit a cigarette and opened her mouth.

“The lower-tier black market is in an absolute boom. Weapons, artificial bodies, organs…. listings flooding in, and buyers flooding in just as fast.”

“And why is that?”

“What else.”

As she said that, Yurim raised a finger and pointed upward.

“There was a purge at the top tier. And not just any purge——the Andong Kim clan hunting down and crushing the entire Pungyang Jo clan! Everyone in this whole neighborhood has gone wild trying to grab a piece of the chaos.”

“That’s right!”

At those words, the children who had been playing on one side of the church started jumping up and down, each rushing to say their piece.

“That’s why going outside right now means scary men everywhere! Father told us not to go out!”

“We’ve been stuck in here for a whole month!”

“I want to go play! I feel like I’m going to die from being cooped up…. ah! Sister Yurim, you took my snack!”

Jeong Yurim, scooping up a handful of the children’s snacks and crunching away.

Yurim, looking amused at the thoroughly indignant face that appeared, gave a smirk and said:

“Didn’t I say not to cut into grown-ups’ conversations? This is punishment for not listening to your sister.”

“It’s not a grown-up conversation! Big brother Changwoon isn’t a grown-up!”

“Oh, sharp.”

Look at those puffed-up cheeks.

The little kid, face all swelled up like a pufferfish in season, swung their arms with fierce energy.

Still——seeing the children like that, the situation really did seem serious.

“See you, big brother Changwoon!”

“DX Transforming Combination Hong Gildong No. 14! You remember, right?!”

After offering additional tribute in the form of three boxes of same-day-delivery snacks and five whole seasoned chickens to the children seeing me off—

I waved to them and stepped out of the church.

My feet carried me at a relaxed pace to an old park far from the church.

The ground was fairly elevated, and below the park railing the lower tier’s junkyard spread out at a glance.

Click.

After confirming there was no one nearby, I pulled out the Choraengi mask supplied by Hahoe from within my clothes and put it on.

My vision darkened for just a moment.

[Access Level: Grade 1. Authentication Complete]

With that brief message, a VR display appeared before my eyes.

I was sitting in a graceful pavilion floating in the middle of a lake.

Looking up at the sky, an innumerable scatter of characters stretched out like the Milky Way.

“Incredible. These lunatics——they’d been holding onto all of this?”

I had heard my access level had gone up, but not to this degree.

What spread before my eyes was the database Hahoe had accumulated over the years.

Classified information on major corporations collected from across Joseon, network access codes, and all manner of records.

So then——in this vast sea of data, how would I find the information I wanted?

I was briefly worried, but it turned out to be simpler than expected.

The moment I thought of what I wanted to know, dozens upon hundreds of screens began appearing before me.

Shuffle shuffle shuffle shuffle—!

With a sound like pages of paper flipping, footage from journalist drones, articles, reports, and editorials packed the view.

Among them, the most numerous by far were document files that had been redacted with a ‘CENSORED’ mark.

Materials scrapped for failing to meet the Administration’s press guidelines.

“They were out there claiming Hanseong was safe and all that nonsense——it’s a disaster.”

As the noble class was thrown into chaos by the purge, Hanseong’s public order had also begun to unravel.

Inevitable, considering that one of Joseon’s largest noble houses——the entire Pungyang Jo clan——had risen up at once.

From the fortified Namyangju, cannon fire was ringing out day after day, and the subsidiary companies and branch families were unleashing their private soldiers to begin sabotaging the Andong Kim clan’s facilities——and those of the families siding with them.

To suppress this, the Administration had mobilized royal guard troops, tactical modules from the Training Command, and on top of that, even the security modules and police operated by the constabulary office.

‘It would be Kim Jungheon who moved the Administration’s AI. He’d calculate that ending this situation as quickly as possible is the most efficient course.’

But by pouring all focus into suppressing the Pungyang Jo clan, a gaping hole had been punched into Hanseong’s formerly solid public order.

And it was Sword Pact that had wedged itself into that gap.

The relatives, more or less, of Dokgo Seong——the human garbage who had sold people to Jo Seonghwan.

‘If that man had still been alive, Hanseong’s public order probably wouldn’t have deteriorated this badly. Even as a lowly figure, Dokgo Seong’s Sword Pact was an organization with the backing of the power clans.’

The memories from my past life confirmed as much.

Dokgo Seong’s Sword Pact had originally served as a kingpin among the various Sword Pact factions, maintaining balance between them.

A man who, even as human garbage, never crossed certain lines.

That was how Jo Seonghwan had collaborated with the underworld——managing things so the filth flowing beneath Hanseong never splashed to the surface.

But now, Jo Seonghwan the manager had been branded a traitor and beheaded, and Dokgo Seong, who had served as the counterweight, had become a corpse washed down Hanseong’s sewers.

With the massive organization that had kept them in check gone, the mid-sized Sword Pact factions coiled in Hanseong’s underground each grabbed their weapons and burst onto the surface—

And began ransacking banks in Hanseong’s middle tier, component factories, virtual currency mining operations, anything within reach.

The butterfly effect of killing Jo Seonghwan was reaching even here.

“And among them, the most problematic ones are…. these.”

In the constabulary’s wanted list there was one particular Sword Pact faction.

Killing Pact.

Organization that kills nobles——it was an organization that attacked mid-sized noble families nesting in the middle tier.

One interesting thing was their behavioral pattern.

If you’re attacking a noble’s house, you should be taking data chips or virtual currency or anything valuable out with you——but there was none of that whatsoever.

‘On the contrary, as though they have no interest in any of that, the moment a job is done they immediately move to find their next target….’

As if killing nobles itself was the sole purpose.

People moving as though, for as long as this chaos lasted, they wanted to kill as many nobles as possible.

I had seen it countless times in my past life.

“Revenge.”

I removed the Choraengi mask and tucked it back inside my clothes.

I had no particular intention of sympathizing with their resentment——but their abilities were quite appealing.

Considerable hostility toward nobles, impossible to buy off with money, and clean in their work.

They were excellent recruits in every possible sense.

“So now the question is——where do I find these Sword Pact people….”

What to do.

Their family members’ addresses were listed there too, so should I go pay them a visit and drag someone off?

Thinking that and working through movements and plans—

“Hey.”

A voice calling out to me made me turn my gaze behind me.

“……Oh?”

The owner of the voice was a man staggering heavily drunk.

Disheveled hair and hollow eyes. A durumagi no better than rags.

A loose-limbed gait and a left arm and leg composed of crude artificial body parts.

And despite that shabby appearance, a changpo sword radiating a sharp edge all along its length.

Identical to the personal information of the man I had been reading about moments ago.

Speak of the devil.

A Sword Pact man.

“Hey, kid. You’re not from around here, are you?”

“No. What would bring me to a dump like this?”

The question came thrust out along with a blade, but I answered without showing any sign of fear.

Perhaps it bothered him that I answered back without flinching.

The Sword Pact man paused briefly, bared his teeth, and pressed again:

“So where are you from? Judging by your clothes, somewhere pretty fancy, I’d say?”

“That’s right. From quite a distinguished family. You’d be surprised if you heard.”

“Heh heh, is that so?”

The Sword Pact man sneering and snickering like that——in an instant, he wiped every trace of the smile from his face.

“Then die.”

The next moment, a blade too fast to react to came pouring down toward my head.

Claaang—!

It was only when the changpo sword was nearly upon me that I realized he had attacked, but fortunately my head was not split vertically in two.

“……Taewoong.”

The changpo sword, stopped dead right before my face by Taewoong’s artificial body. (+) ^[1] TLN: Changpo sword is built like a double edged short sword but more smaller in width.

Watching the blade glowing red and trailing smoke, I opened my mouth in a voice brighter than usual.

“Don’t kill him. Understood?”

• 1. TLN: Changpo sword is built like a double edged short sword but more smaller in width.