Chapter 472: Driving a Wedge (3) |
Kim Hyun-Sung, the Guild Master of the Blue Guild…
Kim Hyun-Sung’s job was unknown, but it was highly likely that he was a swordsman. His weapon was an Above-Legendary weapon, and his job was probably Legendary as well. I[1] presumed that his agility stat was over 90 points, and despite his close-ranged job, he had a high magic stat. There wasn’t much information about him, so it was hard to figure out his personality.
Everyone also knew that he spent most of his time training and working, so he barely has any free time. What stood out the most was that he would avoid drinking with a woman as a typical model student.
Lee Ki-Young, the Sub Guild Master of the Blue Guild, Hero of Laios, the Honorary Cardinal of the Sacred Democratic Country, and a dragon’s chosen.
He was with Kim Hyun-Sung during the tutorial dungeon, and he cleared the dungeon with Jung Ha-Yan, the mage, and Park Deok-Gu, the tank of the Blue Guild’s First Party.
I presumed that he was a Legendary alchemist at the very least, but the exact name of his job was unknown. His physical stat was low, but I presumed that he had a holy power stat of at least 95 points.
He was a devout follower of Benigoa, and he liked talking to people, regardless of their status. He often did volunteer work and was a righteous person with a selfless devotion to sacrifice himself for others.
I couldn’t help but smile upon recalling the report I had read earlier.
‘Geez… I’m not sure how people like them managed to get this far.’
It was so shocking that I couldn’t help but be surprised by how they managed to survive and grow this much on this continent. They were known as the duo with enough power to control the entire continent, but I was disappointed by their ordinariness.
Obviously, power was important in this world, and I was sure that Kim Hyun-Sung’s power had helped in increasing their reputation. However, power wasn’t enough to survive in this world.
I had no idea what exactly happened in the Sacred Democratic Country, but it was safe to presume that humans would be the same no matter where they were.
Naturally, I got curious about how they managed to grow this much and become known as one of the three major guilds of Lindel.
The intelligence division actually looked into that part and was able to obtain a lot of information.
I felt kind of disappointed when I heard the reason, but we also screamed in delight.
‘The Red Mercenary Guild and the Black Swan Guild.’
Kim Hyun-Sung and Park Yeon-Joo, the Guild Master of the Black Swan Guild, and Lee Ki-Young and Cha Hee-Ra, the Mercenary Queen, were close to each other. There wasn’t a lot of information regarding Kim Hyun-Sung and Park Yeon-Joo, but on the other hand, we had received information that Lee Ki-Young and the Mercenary Queen knew each other when they were still on Earth.
I finally understood why the Black Swan Guild and the Red Mercenary Guild temporarily set aside their rivalry to work together with the Blue Guild.
‘It’s not even funny.’
The reason was ridiculous and shocking, but it was good enough for us to dig even deeper. Naturally, we discovered that the duo of the Blue Guild was at the center of Lindel, so if we managed to split them apart, then the Blue Guild’s power would split into two as well.
It was possible that the Black Swan Guild and the Red Mercenary Guild would start fighting each other again, which would cause the collapse of the Great City Lindel Alliance.
The news would definitely make the other nations, cities, and guilds erupt into cheers.
‘Are we just going to watch as the three major guilds of Lindel monopolize every market out there?’
One of the authoritative figures of the other nations probably had that thought.
‘I feel kind of bad, but it can’t be helped. We need to split you apart for us to have room to breathe…’ I inwardly said and chuckled to myself. Of course, I couldn’t actually laugh because I was currently working on splitting them up.
“As expected, the Blue Guild is amazing,” I complimented.
“That’s not true, Miss Kylie Yale,” Kim Hyun-Sung said.
“No, it’s truly amazing. It has only been five days, but the joint training’s scale is already this massive… Did you bring all the supplies from Lindel?” I asked.
“Yes. We tried not to bring too much, but Mr. Ki-Young doesn’t like to see the guild staff members suffer…” he replied.
‘How nice of him…’
“The supplies we brought here are actually the surplus from Rift Land. They’re mass-produced, so they can be assembled with a simple magic spell. You’re using a crude tent right now, but you and the other guilds will soon be living in a building like this,” said Kim Hyun-Sung.
“What? Is that true?” I asked.
“Yes,” he answered.
“W-What about… the cost…” I asked.
“You don’t have to worry about that. We have already agreed that the Blue Guild will take care of everything,” he answered.
“Is that… really okay?” I questioned.
“Right now, the Continental Joint Training is the top priority, and we need results. I hope that the others will only think about the training and nothing else, like what our guild has been doing so far. In addition, great sleep and great food will increase everyone’s efficiency and morale,” he replied.
‘They’re really rich.’
I couldn’t tell how much money they had.
‘They’re going to provide this for free?’
My jaw dropped unknowingly. He described it casually, but the building he said that he would provide to every guild here was a large and luxurious guild house.
It actually seemed bigger than our Manhattan Guild House back in the kingdom—no, I was sure that it was bigger than our main Guild House, and that wasn’t all…
He said that the building was mass-produced, but the materials used to create the building didn’t look cheap at all.
‘Magic? Or is it through alchemy?’
It didn’t really matter because all this was going to collapse anytime soon.
‘He’s really a pushover…’
I could swear that there wasn’t anyone out there who was as nice as them.
Lee Ki-Young built a dorm so that the useless guild staff members of the Blue Guild wouldn’t suffer, while Kim Hyun-Sung provided everything for free so that the joint training would go smoothly.
I actually couldn’t help but think that they were idiots.
‘That’s probably why they’re being tricked like idiots right now.’
The result wasn’t there just yet, but I could already deduce what was going to happen because our plan was already in progress.
There wasn’t much information about Kim Hyun-Sung, which was a bit disappointing, but that wasn’t the case for Lee Ki-Young. I had already figured out his overall personality, and I was actually slowly getting influenced by his personality.
‘Who could have known that it would be this easy?’
Innocent people had always been the easiest to corrupt. Therefore, Lee Ki-Young was the perfect target for us to corrupt. I didn’t really care if his goal was to preach or whatever, but he was the type of person who liked spending time with other people.
No, he actually seemed like the type who would easily get swayed by the words of other people and the type who would have a difficult time declining the requests of other people.
At last, it finally became clear why the senators of the Sacred Democratic Country liked him a lot.
‘It’s definitely because he’s easy to manipulate.’
That was probably the reason why he had gotten invited to many different events all over the nation. However, it was a bit surprising that he was able to maintain his righteousness and innocence despite being manipulated by other people all this while.
‘Righteous and innocent? Bullshit. A person like that doesn’t exist in this world.’
I was convinced that Lee Ki-Young only managed to remain that way until now was that he had no access to them. Whether it was alcohol, women, or drugs—I was confident that I could provide him with a good time, which was incomparable to the tea time he would often have with the nobles of the Sacred Democratic Country.
Surprisingly, my presumption ended up being correct…
Lee Ki-Young was pretty passive on the first and second days, but from the third day onwards, he definitely started enjoying himself because he was hanging out with those scums, even though he didn’t even get invited.
If the citizens of the Sacred Democratic Country had seen him, they would have definitely rubbed their eyes in disbelief.
I was sure that they would find it hard to imagine the Honorary Cardinal Lee Ki-Young being drunk, being touchy-feely with a woman, spitting out all sorts of dirty remarks, and revealing a sleazy smile.
It had only been five days, but the white canvas named Lee Ki-Young was already being tainted black.
‘If I’m lucky, I could turn him into a puppet…’
It was simple. I could spike his drink or use a woman.
Obviously, we would only use those methods after he completely split up with Kim Hyun-Sung, but they would soon split up, so it wouldn’t be too early to think of the apropos method to turn him into a puppet.
Kim Hyun-Sung would continuously hear bad things about Lee Ki-Young, and he would get disappointed with the latter.
I looked around while talking with Kim Hyun-Sung and saw we were already about to arrive at the restaurant. It was completely different from the cafeteria used by the common soldiers, so I couldn’t help but gasp. I saw people eating with each other.
There was a pale woman and a large-framed man in front of a table. Someone had their hair tied up, while there was also someone who looked like a student.
They were obviously…
‘The elites of the Blue Guild...’
It was Jung Ha-Yan, Park Deok-Gu, and the party members of the Blue Guild’s First Party.
They were the ones who displayed monster-like results during the mock battles.
They had to have finished eating because I saw them quietly greeting us with their eyes.
I did flinch for a moment, but I didn’t think that it was a big deal because I wasn’t here to do anything bad.
“Please have a seat. They’ll bring out the food soon,” Kim Hyun-Sung said.
“Thank you for being considerate, Guild Master of Blue,” I told him.
“No, I should be the one thanking you, Miss Kylie Yale. I actually wanted to thank you because I feel like you’ve been helping with the training all this while,” he said.
“No. It’s nothing compared to what the three major guilds of Lindel are providing us. What our guilds have been doing all this while are trivial…” I muttered.
“Your serious participation in the training is—”
“Of course. You worked hard to set up this joint training, so we should do our best to grow as much as we can while the training is ongoing. The atmosphere is kind of disorderly, but I’m sure everyone will get used to it soon enough,” I interrupted him.
“That would be nice…” he commented.
“I’ll be helping you,” I added.
“I’m truly grateful that the Manhattan Guild has been taking the training seriously. Please eat, Miss Kylie,” he said.
“Do you always eat this late?” I asked.
“I usually eat later than this. It gets really late by the time I finish my work, so recently, I’ve been trying to eat simple dishes. If you hadn’t come, then I would’ve eaten something simple tonight as well,” he replied.
“You should eat whenever you can. You’re not the only one who’s working, and you have Father Lee Ki-Young as well,” I pointed out.
“Mr. Ki-Young is—”
“Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen him lately. Does he go to sleep early?” I asked.
“No, I’m sure he’s with the others right now. Recently, he’s been getting close with the people from the other regions…” he answered.
“Ah… so the rumors were true,” I commented.
“Rumors?” he asked.
“You haven’t heard of them?” I asked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about…” he said.
‘I should use a soundproofing spell here…’
“I’m not sure if it’s okay to tell you this, but… recently, it seems like Father Lee Ki-Young has been hanging out with the wrong people,” I started.
“What?”
The more exaggerated a rumor was, the more effective it would be…
“The people here aren’t as nice as you. They’re from the same city as us… have you heard of Sir Gellahan?” I asked.
“I think… I’ve heard of him,” Kim Hyun-Sung answered.
“Actually, he’s a famous troublemaker even in our region. He’s skilled, but… his personality isn’t… that great… I think Mr. Lee Ki-Young has been spending time with him and his people… He still hasn’t participated in the training as well, and this is just a baseless rumor, but there have been rumors that he has been bringing women into his room…”
”Of course, I don’t actually believe that he would do something like that, but have there been any instances where he didn’t come back to the guild house, especially in the past few days?” I asked.
“...”
I was sure that this was more than enough to stupefy the huge nerd standing in front of me.
As expected, I saw his dark expression, but for some reason, I started trembling.
‘Huh?’
A voice rang in my head, but it didn’t belong to Kim Hyun-Sung. The voice reminded me of a buzzing television, and it made me feel a shiver down my spine as goosebumps broke out all over me.
— That… r-r-rumor… who did you… hear it from?
1. Kylie’s POV ☜
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