The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 69

“Hmm~ hm hm~”

Defense Commander Seong Ryeoun, with his well-fed, portly frame, sat alone in the pavilion, plucking at his gayageum.

Late at night.

The sky was overcast as always, heavy with dark clouds, but Seong Ryeoun was in the best of moods right now.

And with good reason.

He had won the secret royal inspector dispatched from the Administration over to his side, and through him gained the chance to forge a direct connection to the Administration itself.

‘Until now, Iron Tiger Fortress had been completely separate from the Administration.

‘The Iron Tiger Army was an independently operating armed force that hunted monsters in the north, and the Administration had looked on without interfering.’

A land of death that no one paid attention to.

But now it was different.

A Secret Royal Inspector had been dispatched to the Northeast Frontier, and he had gained the means to communicate with the Administration through that inspector.

‘With the Secret Royal Inspector’s approval, I could receive a data code with a direct line to the Administration. And if that happened…!’

He would become an aristocrat certified by the Administration.

He would become a member of the noble class, with their backing behind him.

‘The Secret Royal Inspector had not held Iron Tiger Fortress in high regard either.’

He could understand that well enough.

At present, Iron Tiger Fortress was a private army that pledged absolute loyalty to a single general, Yoo Sanghyeon, and no one else.

From the Administration’s perspective, it was no different from an uncontrollable warlord situation.

But he was different.

He and his family had put down roots here long before the name Iron Tiger Fortress had even existed.

‘Yes. This land was originally ours.’

This was not a place for military men.

It was a place to be managed by an aristocrat like himself: a family with tradition, governing what was theirs.

And now, at last, that opportunity had arrived.

Seong Ryeoun switched on his communicator in high spirits.

“Is the Secret Royal Inspector doing as I instructed him?”

One of his servants answered immediately.

“Yes, Defense Commander sir. The Secret Royal Inspector is currently conducting an inspection of the 1st and 2nd Forward Bases, going through them thoroughly.”

“Good. Right on schedule.”

From what he had heard, a secret royal inspector’s audit took at minimum a week, and at most nearly a month.

Countless officers would be dragged before the Royal Investigative Bureau, and some would be dismissed.

In that chaos roiling through the organization, what if a monster incursion happened to occur?

And what if, by some chance, they failed to repel it?

‘Iron Tiger Fortress’s entire defensive posture would be paralyzed!’

Yoo Sanghyeon’s carefully constructed defense line would no doubt crumble helplessly.

Several thousand would die, but what did that matter?

The officers holed up at the other bases were good-for-nothing rabble loyal to Yoo Sanghyeon to begin with.

The crying of the bereaved would turn into resentment blaming Yoo Sanghyeon’s incompetence.

All he had to do was use the 3rd Forward Base’s forces to fill that void, and carve the name Seong Ryeoun into the position Yoo Sanghyeon had held.

‘On top of that, funds are more than sufficient.’

The supplies he had been siphoning off and the money he had accumulated over the years.

And the tribute container he had additionally extracted from the Jurchen just yesterday.

Savages from the frontier, but useful in these respects.

“Only one thing remains now. The decisive moment.”

When the time came, the great elder of the Administration, Lord Kim Jungheon, would come to him.

With their backing, the day would come for him to drive out Yoo Sanghyeon and take his place.

That was how he would seize Iron Tiger Fortress before everyone’s eyes, and advance to the capital as the new Iron Tiger General.

He would finally escape this hellish northern land and become a proper noble of the Administration.

The expression on his face grew looser and looser as he plucked the gayageum.

The day he had dreamed of for so many years was drawing close, almost within reach.

But at that very moment.

“D, Defense Commander sir!”

A patrol soldier from the outer perimeter of the Forward Base came running up at full speed.

He cried out with breath barely reaching his lungs.

“At a point one thousand meters ahead!!”

“A large horde of monsters is approaching!”

“What?”

In an instant, Seong Ryeoun’s expression went rigid.

“They’re heading this way, and we have absolutely no idea why!”

“……That’s impossible.”

There was no way they would come this direction.

If monsters approached from this direction,

the sentries would have given warning,

and the Jurchen who had been guarding the outer perimeter

should have already sent a signal.

But, why?

Why were they coming this way?

Why were they in such a frenzied state?

The moment an ominous premonition flashed through his mind.

“Kyaaaaaah-!”

“?!”

A scream.

A chilling scream coming from the courtyard seized Seong Ryeoun’s attention.

“What is it? What’s happening out there!”

The scream had come from his own courtyard.

The container the Jurchen had sent should be there.

But when Seong Ryeoun looked, his mind went suddenly blank.

“……!”

Monster eggs.

Hundreds of monster eggs harboring hideous larvae inside, broken open, were spewing fluid and membranes.

And right beside them.

“Grrrk…. grrrk……!”

A female monster was sweeping the area with maddened eyes.

A circular maw, and thousands of teeth surrounding it.

Those teeth were, even at that moment, chewing and grinding through the arm of the officer who had screamed.

Then the hungry female monster’s eyes turned toward her eggs, scattered all across the courtyard.

“KROOOAAAARRR!!”

A terrible cry burst out like a dam breaking.

It was not simply a sound.

A howl.

The rage of a mother who had lost her young.

And using that rage as a signal, a shriek calling to her kind spread all around.

In answer to that voice, one roar after another echoed without pause from every direction.

North and east.

Immediately after, urgent reports began pouring in ceaselessly from the Forward Base checkpoints.

Countless characters filling the visual interface.

But Defense Commander Seong Ryeoun had no time to pay attention to all those characters.

A tactical map one of his staff officers thrust before him.

On it, more monsters than the characters coming in were charging forward.

“……No.”

In an instant, Seong Ryeoun’s expression contorted beyond recovery.

This base could not hold off an invasion on this scale.

Of course it couldn’t.

Tanks, fighters, missiles, things like those had come in, but there had been no use for them.

He had sold them all off to the warlords long ago.

He could do that because either way the other Forward Bases,

the Jurchen who were under his thumb, would have taken care of the monsters themselves.

And more to the point: that female monster now settled in the middle of his own estate.

Someone had deliberately transported the female monster and her eggs here.

‘Whose doing? Yoo Sanghyeon? Or the Central Plains warlords who had taken issue with his dealings? Or……!’

A torrent of assumptions and theories swirled through his head, throwing Seong Ryeoun’s mind into disarray.

But he had barely a moment to fret over it.

Thud!

With a sound that shook the earth, a desperate report appeared before his eyes.

[77th Battalion defending the 3rd Forward Base, wiped out by monsters]

The defense line had collapsed.

---

“How can you say support is unavailable! What are you talking about! The monsters! The monsters are right on our doorstep-!”

Defense Commander Seong Ryeoun shouted into the communicator, oblivious that his voice had gone hoarse.

The 3rd Forward Base had already become hell.

His stationed soldiers and officers had long since become fodder for the monsters, and what remained were only his own family members posted at the estate and a handful of officers.

They were somehow managing to hold the line by getting the tanks dragged out of the military storage running, but it wasn’t enough to stop the monsters that had pushed right up to the estate entrance.

-Defense Commander sir. The monsters attacking the 3rd Base right now are the minimum-strength vanguard. No special-type individuals have been sighted either…. At this level, your tank battalion at the 3rd Base should be more than capable of handling it, shouldn’t it?

“That’s why I’m requesting support, because we can’t…!”

He was about to answer the operator’s bewildered question, but the words caught in Seong Ryeoun’s throat.

‘There are no weapons.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I sold the weapons meant for monster defense to the Central Plains warlords.’

If he blurted that out into the communicator, what would the people of Iron Tiger Fortress think of him.

“G, Garrison Commander Jeong! Connect me to Garrison Commander Jeong of the wall garrison!”

-Understood, stand by.

Fighting the urge to spit blood, the Defense Commander made the connection and began pleading desperately with Garrison Commander Jeong Hyoyeong.

He would apologize for all the past discourtesies.

The trouble he had caused the wall garrison, the financial compensation, he would give whatever was asked.

So please, pull some of the garrison forces and send them this way.

Seong Ryeoun struggled to put the words together and pleaded. But.

-My sincere apologies, Defense Commander sir.

Garrison Commander Jeong’s reply was cold.

-At present, not only the 1st and 2nd Forward Bases, but our garrison forces as well are being audited by the Secret Royal Inspector.

“You can’t be……?”

-The Secret Royal Inspector’s orders are the Administration’s orders. And the Administration’s orders take precedence over the lives of every soldier. And the Secret Royal Inspector has issued a standing order that… not a single soldier may be moved while the audit is in progress.

“You can’t be……!”

Seong Ryeoun’s hands trembled.

He felt as though he were suffocating.

“You’ve lost your mind…! If we don’t hold the front line right now, the monsters will tear us apart…!”

-And yet, Defense Commander.

The moment he was about to unleash the anger he had been holding back, Garrison Commander Jeong added, flatly, from the other side of the radio.

-I was told this audit… was personally requested by yourself.

“……!”

-Did you not think that a situation like this might arise?

In an instant, Seong Ryeoun’s breath seized.

His throat went thick.

This was… a trap of his own making.

Bind the 1st and 2nd Forward Bases in the audit to paralyze the chain of command, draw in a monster incursion, and seize control of Iron Tiger Fortress himself.

But the one who had fallen into that trap was none other than himself.

“We’re out of ammunition! The monsters have reached…! Ugh, aaaah-!”

“Monsters are burrowing inside the tank! If this keeps up…!”

“The estate wall is coming down!”

“KROOOOOOOAAAARRR!!”

Through the collapsed wall,

a massive shadow came crawling through.

As the monsters breached the defense line and began pouring inside the base, the remaining officers and soldiers were fleeing in every direction.

Abandoned weapons, soldiers frozen in place with terror.

The 3rd Forward Base was falling.

“Hgh…! Hgh……!”

Seong Ryeoun watched soldiers being torn apart before his eyes, his breath coming faster and faster.

There was no holding out here.

If this continued, he would die.

“I have to run. My vehicle, to my vehicle…!”

He turned and made for the estate garage.

And in that moment, already seated in the driver’s seat of his luxury vehicle, was someone who had gotten there first.

“Going out for a little drive, are we, Defense Commander?”

A familiar voice.

A sardonic tone.

Kim Changwoon.

Seong Ryeoun’s body froze.

“……I, Inspector!”

Changwoon smiled lightly.

“You finally come looking for me. You seemed busy for a while.”

Seong Ryeoun grabbed his hand in desperation.

“Send word to the Administration right now for reinforcements! Contact the Administration, the tactical modules…. call that weapon that helped the wall garrison! If this keeps up, the 3rd Base, Iron Tiger Fortress itself will be overrun by monsters…!”

“Out of the question. We’ve already lost three units. You want me to call in more here? I won’t get away with just a written apology for that.”

“A written apology is what you’re worried about?! People are dying…!”

No, stop.

If he lost his temper at the Secret Royal Inspector too, he could fall out of favor with the Administration as well.

Seong Ryeoun checked himself and began pleading with a desperate face.

“Th, the data chips I have hidden at my base! I have tens, hundreds of times the amount I gave you already prepared! So please…. just this once…!”

Changwoon stared down at the pleading Seong Ryeoun for a long moment.

The way one might look at a monkey in a zoo, with a pitying expression.

And after a moment, Changwoon smiled with a look of utter indifference and spoke.

“……Why would I?”

Seong Ryeoun’s expression contorted.

“What did you just…?”

“Why would I keep you alive. I’m better off letting you die here and swallowing everything you’ve stashed away.”

Changwoon answered as casually as if discussing the weather.

The face of someone who had known all of this all along.

It was only then that Seong Ryeoun felt something clicking into place inside his head.

He could feel his breathing going ragged.

His heart pounded wildly.

“……Don’t tell me?”

“The old man’s sharper than I gave him credit for.”

Changwoon smirked and continued.

“That’s right. I called those monsters.”

Seong Ryeoun’s pupils shook.

“Technically it was the Jurchen who sent them. But apparently luring with a female monster is practically common knowledge around here? I thought it was quite a clever method, but everyone and their dog is already using it. Maybe I’ve been getting a bit less creative.”

“Why in the world, why…?”

“Oh, why you ask?”

As a dazed and bewildered Seong Ryeoun asked again, the entire ceiling of the garage where the two of them stood was ripped clean off.

What had torn away the upper portion of the building was a tactical module bearing signs of repairs all across its body.

It was a unit reassembled on-site, cobbled together from parts salvaged from the three modules shot down at the Great Defense Wall defense line.

“Young Master!”

Greeting the bodyguard descending from the tactical module, Changwoon turned to Seong Ryeoun and spoke.

“You’re in the way of our revolution.”

“Revo….lution?”

At that moment, five combat helicopters burst through the heavy dark clouds above.

Had they finally arrived?

No. They had not.

They had been waiting above the clouds, watching until the 3rd Base was destroyed.

-Confirmed monster horde ahead. No survivors. Nothing out there but monsters.

-Gathered nicely for the killing. All units, switch to high-explosive rounds. No need to report back, fire as fast as it loads.

Whirrrrr!

With a harsh motor sound, the miniguns mounted on the helicopters began incinerating the monsters on the ground.

Against the backdrop of red lines traced by tracer rounds, a single figure rappelled down from one of the helicopters.

It was the commander of the Iron Tiger Army, Iron Tiger General Yoo Sanghyeon.

“Ha, haha…….!”

Had he finally arrived?

No. He had not.

They had been waiting.

Until he and all his soldiers were dead.

Waiting until every last one had been violated, left as fodder for the monsters.

“Defense Commander.”

Yoo Sanghyeon, having landed, walked slowly toward him.

A cold expression, like someone who already knew everything. And beside him, Secret Royal Inspector Kim Changwoon.

Seeing that, Seong Ryeoun understood, belatedly.

This man and Yoo Sanghyeon had been on the same side from the very beginning.