Episode 146
Chapter 48. The Nameless (5)
“Hey, Jin!”
Beradin grinned broadly and waved.
“Good to see you, my friend!”
As Dante smiled and stepped forward, Jin aimed Bradamante at them.
“I’m a bit on edge right now. You’d better explain exactly why you’re popping up here, at this very moment.”
“Hmm, so you’re not happy to see us?”
“Of course, if we’d just bumped into you at some tavern, I might’ve been a little glad. But this isn’t that, is it?”
“A little glad…?”
Dante lowered his eyes, looking hurt, and Beradin grabbed his shoulder.
“To say you’d only be a little glad even at a tavern… that’s harsh.”
Beradin’s lament left Jin utterly baffled.
‘Is that what matters right now? Or am I being too harsh?’
A strange pang of conscience stirred within him.
Sighing, Jin reluctantly lowered Bradamante.
“If you knew how hard we worked to find you, you wouldn’t say that!”
“That’s right! At the end, we even had to dip into our secret funds to get the nameless token.”
“Alright, alright. Just explain already. How and why did you come looking for me?”
“Well, here’s how it went…”
Beradin began recounting the story of their search.
They had sifted through every transit record in Bimont and the duchies, tracking down 45 people named Jin Gray, then hunted each one down personally.
In the end, they’d met fourteen different Jin Grays before finally finding the real Jin.
“When we reached the central duchy of Kon, I had a hunch and checked every dock and coachman in all directions. This is where Samil is, right?”
“You’d recently killed Kidad, so you figured this was the place. And our instincts were right! Can you imagine how much trouble we went through?”
Jin’s mind went blank for a moment.
‘Insane…’
He’d never encountered such relentless determination before.
“Okay, I get the method. But what’s the reason?”
“You want to know why we came looking for you?”
“Yes.”
“Simply because we wanted to see you. Because we missed the nights in the arena.”
“The three of us meeting up doesn’t need a grand reason, does it?”
“Fine… I suppose that’s fair. But then, why were you crouched in the corner of that restaurant after finding Samil?”
“Oh, that. It looked like you were causing some serious trouble with the nameless. We thought if you got tangled up, it’d be a disaster.”
“We arrived about three hours ago, intending to find you. Then suddenly the city got noisy, and from what we could tell… you were rampaging like you were going to tear the whole place apart.”
“And I was starving. We’d spent all our emergency funds on getting the nameless token, so we had no money left for food.”
“So you were in the restaurant to quietly grab a bite during the chaos?”
Dante shook his head vehemently.
“We had no intention of stealing! We planned to ask you to pay later. It was just coincidence that you happened to be there.”
“Yeah, we’re not the type to sneak food. You know that.”
A brief silence fell.
Then Jin noticed sauce smeared on Dante and Beradin’s mouths and couldn’t help but chuckle. They looked at each other and burst out laughing.
“I’ll cover the meal.”
Jin pulled out a dozen gold coins from his pocket and handed them over.
“Good! That’s the right thing to do.”
“But you’ll earn your keep.”
Jin’s smile vanished as he stared at them.
“Earn your keep…?”
“I mean, help me deal with the troublemakers from now on. Beradin, watch your back.”
“Huh?”
Swish!
A group of cadets just entering the restaurant threw daggers. Jin deflected one past Beradin, and Dante, already on his feet, took a defensive stance.
“Did I just almost die? Wow, Samil is something else.”
“Don’t talk nonsense—you knew I’d block it. Get your magic ready. It’s time to unleash the poison mist.”
Beradin grinned and began gathering magic in both hands at a terrifying speed that even surprised Jin.
Once again, Jin confirmed that Beradin was casting three spells simultaneously.
‘I caught a glimpse of this when he healed Dante in the arena… he really can do triple simultaneous casting.’
Casting three spells at once means nearly triple the efficiency from the same amount of magic.
The magic swirling in Beradin’s hands was composed of fire, wind, and ice elements.
‘And Dante… whatever he’s been doing, his blade has become even sharper.’
Dante, now moving, displayed swordsmanship far beyond what Jin had seen in the arena.
Jin would have to use either his spiritual energy or magic to guarantee victory.
Though Dante had three more years of training, his progress in just a few months since the arena was astonishing.
“Dante! Don’t kill him!”
“I had no intention of that, Beradin.”
The senior cadets’ assault resumed, but Jin faced them with a calm mind this time.
‘I’ll consider their arrival as part of the plan, rather than holding back my true strength.’
If he’d used magic and spiritual energy openly, these senior cadets wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Whoosh, crackle!
The wind from Beradin’s hands swept the poison mist out of the restaurant as he advanced.
At the same time, flames spread in straight lines, and Dante blocked attacks from cadets entering through the windows.
“If we stay inside, it’ll never end. Let’s break out.”
“What then? It feels like the whole city is after you.”
“Same as before. Now that you’re with me, more cadets will come. Maybe even a real nameless assassin.”
“I was trying to stay out of it to avoid trouble, but this changes everything!”
“Consider this the price for invading my privacy and tracking me down.”
In the end, Dante and Beradin had no choice but to join the chaos.
But they didn’t mind. From the start, they’d sensed that trouble would follow once they found Jin.
Though the incident was bigger than they expected.
Yona sat on the rooftop of the Nameless Hall, letting out a long sigh.
“Annoying! What the hell are those guys?”
She exploded with frustration, tinged with a strange jealousy.
“Hmm… Yona, what’s wrong?”
A man approached, cigarette in mouth. Pale-skinned, wearing the black belt reserved for only one person in the Nameless at his waist.
Nameless King Owl.
“I was playing nicely with the youngest, and suddenly these weird people barged in and ruined everything. I’m so mad, Owl. And they seemed close to the youngest. I haven’t even had a proper conversation with him yet!”
“So you’re upset?”
“Yes! I think this is the angriest I’ve ever been.”
“Is it really that bad?”
“You wouldn’t understand, Owl. I was so happy… I even wanted to open my third eye for him! Those bastards! Oh, and don’t tell anyone that the youngest is our family’s heir, okay?”
“I know that already…”
Owl shook his head awkwardly.
‘The next heads of Ziphl and Hailan… I’ve never seen Yona this angry. Hopefully she won’t kill them.’
“I’m going to kill them!”
“Oh, Yona, you mustn’t.”
“Why not? I will. My little brother came to find me for the first time, and they ruined everything! A white-haired mage and a kid with a sword. I remember their faces clearly.”
“Do you really have to kill them? It could cause trouble for the entire Nameless.”
“I can’t hold back this time. I’ve given in so much already. I’ve killed people I didn’t want to, even when the main family sent someone.”
Owl grimaced.
With powerful forces stirring, Owl believed that Nameless had narrowly escaped destruction thanks to Yona.
Without her, this generation—or at most the next—would have been the end.
Yona’s importance to the Nameless was immense.
But Yona’s personality was far from ordinary. At twenty-three, she still had a childlike innocence.
In other words, she was capable of anything. And what mattered to her could change in an instant.
‘Dangerous. If Yona acts directly, those two won’t survive. To protect them, I’d have to kill or cripple Yona. I don’t even want to imagine that.’
Not because Owl lacked skill, but because Yona’s abilities surpassed any assassin in history.
Born to kill, a reincarnation of self-sacrifice.
Nameless assassins called her that. The few who knew her fully described her as a blade soaked in chaos.
Fortunately, Owl was one of the few who understood how to handle Yona.
“Then how about this, Yona?”
“Tell me.”
“Think of it as a game. Send three real assassins, not cadets. If they die, you win. If they survive, you lose.”
Of course, this was a proposal with no benefit to Yona whatsoever.
But then Yona’s expression suddenly grew serious as she began to ponder.
“Hmm, if that’s the case, the chances of the youngest sibling dying go way up. I really hope the youngest doesn’t die. They play with me all the time. The kid’s just too adorable.”
“If you want to spare them, I’ll let it slide. Your sibling lives, and so do they.”
“I don’t like that either… hmm…”
Her hesitation didn’t last long.
“Alright! Let’s do it—this game. But Owl, you absolutely can’t interfere. If you help those guys or anything…”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“Hehe, see you later then. I’m off to pick the assassins.”
Watching Yona beam so brightly, Owl let out a wry smile once more.
“By the way, Yona, do you know how many houses collapsed in Samil today?”
“No idea.”
“Thirty-seven. This is the result of you sending people to your sibling, so you’ll be writing a reflection report.”
“Yes, sir!”
Humming a tune, Yona headed down from the rooftop.
‘Phew, at least I stopped Yona from acting directly. But will they be able to hold out…?’
Even if the assassins killed Veradin and Dante, Ziphl and Hylan wouldn’t have a reason to strike at Mumeong right away. After all, they were involved in the city’s destruction.
But as the pressure kept mounting, Runkandel would surely come for Yona before things escalated further. After that, Mumeong would likely face ruin or be absorbed by a larger power, losing its autonomy.
No matter how formidable the Mumeong assassin group was, the great powers who lost their next head would retaliate without weighing the costs.
‘I never imagined Mumeong’s fate would become so precarious over something so absurd. I should take a look at Runkandel without Yona knowing.’
Owl pulled out another cigarette, lost in thought.