The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 6

Thwoom—!

I shot another arrow before they could regain their senses.

The arrow flying at fierce speed.

But seeing it, the assassin sneered dismissively.

“Even if it’s military-grade, it’s still an arrow. No matter how well you shoot, it can’t have proper speed.”

The moment the muttering assassin turned his neck to dodge the arrow.

“I know that too, you moron.”

Krrbooom—!

The arrow grazing past his head exploded on the spot.

“What?!”

The shockwave hitting his face.

Only then did the assassin who turned his head clench his teeth.

“You little brat, with such cheap tricks…!”

What was attached to the arrowhead was a small solid explosive.

The moment the arrow grazed past his head, I’d activated the detonator to make it explode.

“…Wait.”

And the moment he noticed that fact, his gaze was directed not at me but toward his own arm that the arrow had hit.

Naturally.

If the second arrow had a bomb attached.

“Obviously I’d attach one to the first arrow too.”

Krrrbooom—!

With that triumphant phrase, an explosion occurred inside his arm.

The internal mechanical devices unprotected by armor plates were instantly destroyed.

“Damn it…!”

Losing one arm in a moment of carelessness, dismay appeared on the assassin’s face.

And in that brief gap.

“I’ll return those words right back to you. Youngster.”

Taewoong, who’d been watching for an opportunity, didn’t miss this chance that finally came.

Taewoong, grabbing the man’s face with a hardened expression, spoke.

“You should play with me, where are you looking?”

“Y-you son of a…!”

Crunch!

As Taewoong applied force to his hand, the assassin’s head was crushed like a watermelon.

Grip strength that completely crushed a head wearing protective gear.

This was only possible with a first-grade military artificial body, on a different level from civilian combat bodies.

“What, he died in one hit?!”

“That stupid bastard, getting close to a power clan guard…!”

As one person holding the front line fell, disturbance arose among the other assassins waiting at range.

“What’s going on? This is different from what we were told! They said only one person had combat ability, so why is that brat shooting arrows?!”

“Is now the time for that crap?! Just shoot something!”

At one person’s command, two of the remaining three pulled the triggers of the rifles in their hands.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!

“Tsk!”

What they were shooting were small-caliber anti-personnel rifle rounds.

Taewoong, raising his arm to block the bullets, turned toward me.

“Young Master. Are you alright?!”

The artificial body equipped on Taewoong could pierce through that level easily, but the problem was me standing behind him.

Though the clothes I wore had some protective treatment, blocking that number of bullets was impossible.

As Taewoong stood blocking before me without moving, triumphant smiles appeared on the three remaining faces.

“The guard’s feet are tied!”

“Prepare heavy weapons, quickly!”

“Are you crazy? The target is only that guard bastard! If we use that, the brat will get caught up too…!”

“Then let’s all go to the afterlife here together?! Just do it when I say, f*ck—!”

Only that one bastard had an artificial body.

But even while fighting without a focal point, their coordination was flawless.

When one person’s ammunition ran out, another continued shooting.

Meanwhile, the reloaded shooter fired again.

While skillfully taking turns like that, the remaining one began assembling a recoilless rifle the drone transported.

“Damn it, this wasn’t in the plan…!”

A rocket launcher being assembled with an urgent voice.

Seeing it, Taewoong’s eyes widened.

“Anti-tank rocket! Young Master! At this rate…!”

“Just keep blocking!”

Even with a military artificial body, if hit by that, no body would remain.

One mountain after another.

I positioned myself behind Taewoong and drew the bowstring without delay.

“Huuu…!”

Literally death-like suffering.

My hand shook mercilessly from the explosion’s aftereffects, and blood drops flowed from the bowstring I gripped.

Only one chance.

Tension strangled my entire body, but I rather raised the corners of my mouth as if pleased.

“Absolutely won’t die.”

I’ll survive.

I’ll survive to the end and mock those power clan bastards struggling.

I’ll watch with these two eyes the wretched state of the revolutionary flames burning this nation of Joseon and you bastards!

Thwack—!

By the time I finished thinking, I’d already released the bowstring.

The arrow leaving the string flew straight without hesitation and precisely pierced through the face of the assassin assembling the rocket.

“Grrk…!”

As the alloy arrowhead crushed his brain, the man collapsed backward with strength drained.

The hand gripping the launcher, stiffened by that horrific pain, unconsciously pulled the trigger.

“N-no…!”

The rocket launcher fired toward the ground completely shredded the two people shooting nearby without a trace.

Krrrbooom—!

With a roar, dust and stone powder that shot up in all directions swirled chaotically.

Taewoong hunched his body to protect me from the fragments, but that was brief.

Confirming the situation had ended, Taewoong released his stance and immediately began examining the surroundings.

“There might be more assailants. First to my hideout…”

“No. There won’t be more attacks.”

And even if there were, I’d be safe.

As I muttered that, Taewoong turned toward me as if asking what I meant.

“Didn’t you hear what those bastards were saying?”

“What they said?”

I moved my steps while clutching my trembling legs.

Where I headed was the military support drone that fell to the ground from the explosion’s aftermath.

After tearing off the broken drone’s armor plate, I found the voice module inside and forcibly played it.

Bzzt. Bzzzzt.

-The guard’s feet are… prepare heavy weapons quickly!

-Are you crazy…! The target is only that guard bastard! The brat behind will get caught up…!

-Then let’s all go to the… here together?! Just do it when I say…!

The assassins’ urgent voices.

As if he’d had no time to listen during combat, Taewoong’s eyes narrowed.

“Kim Hyunwoo has a nasty personality, but he’s not stupid. And just last week, he confronted me at the family mansion. The followers behind him saw that scene too… by now, rumors have probably spread completely through the other aristocratic families.”

“…”

“In this situation, I’m attacked and die? By Hahoe? Would the high-ranking power clan people believe that?”

“They wouldn’t.”

Taewoong also knew well the psychology of power clan aristocrats.

Finishing his thoughts, he looked at the assailants’ corpses with a heavy expression.

“In other words, they never intended to kill you from the start, Young Master?”

“Exactly. But we need to think one step further.”

I turned my gaze to a corner of a shabby building.

A small camera hanging on a utility pole, watching me.

Kim Hyunwoo was still watching me even now.

“They weren’t trying to kill me, but to let me live.”

Crack!

The moment he noticed my gaze, the camera shorted out and burst.

Swift evidence destruction.

Looking at Taewoong who belatedly noticed, I told him the script they’d written.

“Me losing my guard from a Hahoe assault and fleeing in a half-dead state. If Kim Hyunwoo personally rescues me like that, wouldn’t the picture be quite good?”

“…!”

Kim Hyunwoo won’t kill me.

More precisely, he doesn’t feel I’m worth killing.

What he wanted was just to instill fear in me.

Through a warning that he could kill me anytime, his intention was to make me submit.

“So the real target of this assault wasn’t me but…”

“Your guard, Young Master… which was me.”

Taewoong, speaking with a heavy voice, looked at the assassins’ corpses sprawled on the ground.

“Taewoong.”

“…Ah, Young Master. I apologize.”

Brief silence.

But as if snapping to attention at my voice, Taewoong approached and examined my body.

“We need to treat your wounds. I’ll arrange for someone. And these corpses…”

“Are you okay?”

“…!”

Taewoong’s voice, about to say more, stopped.

Taewoong, opening and closing his mouth as if to answer something.

But in the end, no voice came out.

Understandable.

“The price for over ten years of dedicated loyalty and devotion is your life. And the reason is their petty pride fight?”

Muttering as if voicing Taewoong’s inner thoughts, I turned to him with a hollow laugh.

“Taewoong. How long will you stay loyal to this kind of family?”

“…!”

Hearing those words, Taewoong couldn’t continue speaking with a complicated expression.

I could fully guess what his feelings were.

Nothing is more pitiful than unrewarded loyalty.

Taewoong’s face, clenching his fist and trying to control his emotions.

Watching that face, I…

‘According to plan!’

Was desperately holding back laughter.

The reason? Simple.

The guard candidate who’d become my hands and feet from now on.

More important than ‘that person’ I was going to meet now was Seo Taewoong.

‘If I can obtain this guy, risking my life for this crazy act was worthwhile.’

After entering as the family’s guard, he’d protected me his entire life.

The cheap reason of being like his deceased son.

But beneath that, there was the stubbornly rigid mindset peculiar to warriors—that once you pledge loyalty to a family, you remain loyal to the end.

‘So this guy would dedicate his life for me, but wasn’t completely my person.’

His caring for me until the day he died.

That loyalty was directed not at me but at the family that ordered him to protect me.

But this assault created cracks in that firm loyalty.

Then what I should do in this situation was one thing.

Widen the cracks created by this assault and insert something else into that gap.

Disillusionment with the power clans.

Treasonous thoughts.

And finally, loyalty directed not at the family but at me.

Weeeooo—!

While thinking that, siren sounds echoed from far away.

Only arriving now.

Taewoong, exhaling roughly unlike himself, powered down the activated artificial body.

“First I’ll secure the corpses. I’ll handle the case investigation and cleanup, so Young Master, first your wounds…”

“What’s so serious about scraped fingers? More importantly, Taewoong.”

“Yes.”

After shaking off the scabbed hand, I told Taewoong.

“These assassins’ corpses here. Burn them all. Leave no trace.”

“…What?”

Taewoong, thinking he misheard, asked back with an absurd expression.

“Young Master. These corpses are among the few pieces of evidence that can prove the assault.”

“I know that well.”

“Then that’s more of a problem! When we barely have enough to secure properly, you want to eliminate them? Then the evidence to prove this assault will disappear…”

“If we prove it, what, will the Royal Investigative Bureau throw Kim Hyunwoo in prison? They won’t.”

They’d just issue some idiotic statement denouncing the Hahoe assault.

Muttering that, I picked up the Hahoe mask the assassin bastards wore.

“Whatever we say about this assault, Kim Hyunwoo won’t even pretend to listen. The family elders are all on his side… no matter what uproar we cause, there’s nothing we can do.”

“Even so…”

“So let’s do the opposite.”

Not wood but carbon fiber material, a crude replica printed with a 3D printer.

There was nothing good about provoking ‘them’ already with this kind of thing.

“Our car today wasn’t attacked by Hahoe but a traffic accident from autonomous driving malfunction. The explosion was from battery overheating.”

“Young Master. That means…”

“Right.”

I spoke with a mischievous smile.

“This assault. Let’s cover it up from our side.”