The Hero Returns - Chapter 211

“Uh… That is…”

“What’s this? Is this the wrong house?”

Step, step-

The three men were flustered by Su-hyeun’s approach and took several steps back.

<< What is Kim Su-hyeun doing here? >>

<< How should I know? >>

<< Is this really the wrong place? >>

<< I said, I don’t know! >>

<< You told us this was the right address! >>

The three of them used the light in their eyes and movements of their lips to communicate with each other.

In the midst of this, Kang Yeong-hoon urgently opened his mouth. “Well, uh, I’m really sorry about this. Looks like we got the wrong address.”

“You’re supposed to enter through the front door, so why did you jump over the wall?”

“Ah, hahaha, y-you’re right. In any case, we are definitely in the wrong address, so we’ll be on our way now.”

“Oh, really?” Su-hyeun observed Kang Yeong-hoon trying to weasel out of this, then shifted his head to look beyond the wall. “All of the CCTV cameras have been taken care of, right?”

Kang Yeong-hoon flinched at Su-hyeun’s words. They were the exact words he had said earlier.

“$2.5 million is waiting for us at the end of this job. We can laze around for several years off of that, so keep your wits about you.”

That was what he had said earlier, outside the wall. Rather obviously, Su-hyeun was leaning close to the wall in question so he had heard their conversation in full.

“Anything you’d like to add?” Su-hyeun asked.

“T-that…”

Of course, they didn’t have anything to say. That didn’t mean they could attack him either, though.

<< Dammit, I never imagined that Kim Su-hyeun would be here. >>

<< We got unlucky. Why today of all days… >>

The connection between Su-hyeun and Kim Dae-ho was already well known. The former’s original sword was crafted by the latter, after all. Despite that fact, both Geneva and Kang Yeong-hoon didn’t believe the relationship between Su-hyeun and Kim Dae-ho was all that significant.

It would be rather difficult to have a close relationship, to begin with. For instance, most awakeners that used Geneva’s swords were interested solely in the products he had produced, that’s all.

A blacksmith maintaining a personal friendship with an awakener? Such a thing wouldn’t be unprecedented, but still, it’d be exceedingly rare.

Furthermore, Kim Dae-ho was a blacksmith who had only recently left the rural countryside to live in Seoul. They should’ve fully considered the possibility of his having an acquaintance here.

“W-we’ll just go on our way. We weren’t doing this because we have any animosity toward you, Mister Kim Su-hyeun.”

There was only one thing they could lean on now—that Su-hyeun would be merciful enough to let them go. Since their target wasn’t him but Kim Dae-ho, it was possible that he might let them off the hook without too much fuss.

“Stop wasting my time, and tell me why you came here. From what I heard just now, someone paid you, didn’t they?”

“Absolutely not. No, we just thought that we might get rich by robbing the storage here…”

“Is that right? That’s weird.”

Crack-

Suddenly, a shadow appeared behind Kang Yeong-hoon and broke his arm.

“Aaaaahk!”

“Didn’t I tell you not to waste my time?”

“Aaahk, aaaahk!”

[Doppelganger.]

A clone with a tangible, physical body. After the ‘Doppelganger’ skill’s proficiency and level rose up, he was able to create clones that possessed a certain degree of a physical body.

Shuffle, rustle-

It wasn’t just Kang Yeong-hoon, either. Two more black shadows appeared next to the other two men. It was then that the trio realized that they couldn’t escape, nor was Su-hyeun planning to let them go.

Plop, plop-

“P-please, spare us!”

“I beg you…”

The other two men hurriedly knelt on the ground.

From the very beginning, they couldn’t even think about attacking Su-hyeun. They had a higher chance of survival by begging rather than fighting back, which could only end in them being mercilessly put down.

Su-hyeun was known as a hero. A man who couldn’t turn a blind eye toward threats facing not just his mother nation, but other countries, as well. A hero like that should have plenty of sympathy to spare.

That’s what they thought.

“You weren’t seen by the CCTV, meaning no one knows you entered here.” Unfortunately, not even a single trace of sympathy could be seen in Su-hyeun’s cold glare. “No witnesses, no CCTV records, too… Well, it’s perfect, wouldn’t you say?”

“T-that is…”

“If you answer my questions truthfully, then I’ll let you all go and I won’t kill you.”

Kang Yeong-hoon, his arm currently bent back painfully, quickly spun the cogs in his brain.

<< For now, let’s survive first. >>

The results of his calculations were simple. He quickly answered.

“I, I don’t know who the client is.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I just… heard that if we kill the blacksmith found in this workshop, we’d receive $5 million. We already got paid $1.5 million in cash as a down payment.”

“What about the facial features or clothing of your client?”

“He was a Korean man with a big physique wearing a pair of black sunglasses. He had a mole on his forehead, and was an awakener like us, probably around C-Rank, at a casual glance.”

“Where are you supposed to meet up with him?”

“Later tonight, the location will be sent to me by text. We were planning to go to the location regardless of the outcome of this job, you see.”

“You don’t know how to contact him?”

“No. Most of the contacts and communications are done in person. We’ve been in contact like this until now.”

“A one-sided contact and meeting, is it…? It’s quite smart, actually. Hand over the phone.”

It was obvious why these men couldn’t contact their client.

<< Either the other guy is using a burner phone or he’s calling from a non-existent number. >>

Also, tracing the mobile phone number and finding the target would take a long time, as well. So, the surest way was to rely on the description provided and subdue the target at the meeting location.

<< Since he’s supposedly an awakener, finding the person shouldn’t be too hard. >>

Su-hyeun got the phone from Kang Yeong-hoon and read through the lists and contents of the calls and texts received so far. The latter cautiously studied the former’s mood before asking a question.

“Can… can we go now? I’ve told you everything I know, so…”

“Maybe.” Su-hyeun shrugged his shoulders, before he spoke again. “Let me ask you one more thing.”

“Pardon?”

“You lot, this wasn’t your first rodeo, right?”

Su-hyeun’s question sent a chill down Kang Yeong-hoon’s back.

“Yet, you still want to live?”

“B-but, you said you’d let us go and not kill us…!”

“This thing called promise, yes it’s important. Weighty, too. The thing is, though, I…”

“Uwaaah-!”

The man on the right realized that Su-hyeun had never intended to let them go, and was the first to pounce toward the target.

He was going for broke. Unfortunately for him, he was facing an opponent so much better than him that simple determination couldn’t do much.

Craaack-

His head suddenly snapped to the side. Su-hyeun’s shadow stuck to the man’s back and reached out and broke his neck with a single motion.

“…I don’t keep promises made to bastards like you.”

Crack, snap-

The moment Su-hyeun said that, the other two men’s necks snapped simultaneously.

Rustle-

The three shadows sunk back underground with three corpses in tow. Su-hyeun muttered while watching this happen. “You, stay near the uncle for the time being.”

Another shadow heeded Su-hyeun’s order and sunk into the ground. At the same time, Su-hyeun, eyes cold, vanished from the spot, as well.

<hr />

One hour later.

Kim Dae-ho finally completed the armor and exited his workshop while pounding on his backside, stiffened from being bent over for so long.

“Have you been waiting for long? I’m finished!”

He yelled out in a loud voice and waited for Su-hyeun’s reply. The latter could hear a noise as small as an ant from far away, so there was no way he’d miss such a loud yell.

But there was no reply.

“Hey, you fool! I said I’m finished!”

Kim Dae-ho headed to the backyard, where Su-hyeun said he’d be waiting.

Strangely, there was no one there.

As Su-hyeun had never broken a promise before, Kim Dae-ho could only tilt his head in confusion.

“Did he go to the bathroom?”

Act 7

Ttu, ttu, ttu-

A deep frown was etched on Geneva’s forehead.

The phonecall failed to connect, yet again. He might have suddenly heaped a whole load of work on the attendant’s shoulders, yes, but even then, it had already been more than an hour since he lost contact with the man he hired at exorbitant costs.

“Just what is he doing right now?” Geneva shoved the phone back in his pocket in irritation. He loosened his tie and sat down on the bed. “Stupid son of a b*tch. Nothing about this process has been satisfactory.”

Geneva then tried to call the attendant one more time.

He had paid a lot of money to hire this person after his business really took off. Although his rank wasn’t high, the attendant was still an awakener who used to work for a distinguished American financial institution, so of course, Geneva would pay big bucks to secure his services.

As the attendant was smart and capable, most of Geneva’s business dealings went through his attention first, including advertising equipment, contracts with auction houses, and even entertaining high-ranked awakeners.

Far too many matters would be stopped dead in their tracks if his attendant wasn’t around to sort them out.

Rrrring, rrrring-

The signal went through. But the ringtone went on and on this time as well. If the attendant was going to answer, he would have by now.

“This bastard, he really…”

Ttuk-

The call connected. Geneva was startled by this and quickly shouted, “You fool! What have you been doing? Why didn’t you pick up your phone?!”

-Sa… save… me…

“What did you say?”

-Save… me…

Something was wrong with the voice coming from the phone’s speaker. The words kept getting cut off, as if the person speaking was about to die.

That voice caused Geneva to shot up from his seat. For some reason, a creeping chill ran down his spine.

<< What is the meaning of this? >>

It wasn’t that the attendant didn’t want to answer the phone. No, he couldn’t.

Then, a lively voice, completely different from a second ago, came out from the phone next.

-We’ll be there shortly.

Shiver-

It was just a voice from a phone, yet Geneva’s entire body shivered from it. He thought he knew who was on the other side.

<< Kim Su-hyeun? >>

Why was he answering the attendant’s phone?

Something didn’t feel quite right. Geneva prepared to leave in a hurry.

Clunk-

It was then that the door was pushed open and two people entered the suite.

“We meet again.”

One was Su-hyeun, with that expressionless face, like always, and…

“Ch-chair… man…”

…The other was Geneva’s attendant, bloodied and battered, being manhandled by Su-hyeun.

Geneva muttered, “W-what is the meaning of this insane…”

“Right, it’s insane.”

Whoosh-

Splat-

Su-hyeun tossed the attendant, still bleeding profusely from all over his body, over to Geneva. The poor man flew through the air powerlessly and collapsed on the floor.

Geneva’s wide eyes were locked onto the attendant.

“You don’t have to worry about him. He won’t die from those wounds. I avoided hitting his vital spots.”

“W-what do you think you’re doing?!”

“For now, why don’t you sit down first? Looks like our discussion might be a little drawn-out, you see.”

“Why should I sit down?! I must lodge a complaint with the Authority…”

“Sit. Down.”

Shudder-

Su-hyeun’s murderous aura shut Geneva’s mouth tightly. The former then closed the hotel suite’s door and leisurely strode inside.

“Money can be a very convenient medium. With money, you can do whatever you want. You can wield power, authority, and even go as far as to kill someone, too.”

“W-what are you even…”

“Why did you try to have uncle Kim Dae-ho killed? You aren’t even acquaintances, so there shouldn’t be any bad blood between you two.”

Geneva’s brows shot up at what Su-hyeun said, and he stared at the attendant still collapsed on the floor.

<< That bastard, did he…?! >>

It seemed that the attendant had run his mouth off on everything that happened so far.

But Geneva was inwardly still confident.

<< There’s not a shred of evidence. >>

Indeed, not a single piece of evidence existed about his plans. That’s why Geneva believed that feigning ignorance would work wonders in this case.

“I don’t understand what you’re trying to say here. It seems like you are mistaken about something, but acting in this manner without knowing anything is simply wrong.”

“Right. I tried to find some evidence, but there was none. There were witnesses, but no physical evidence. A funny little thing where there’s a victim, but no perpetrator.”

“So what do you even…”

“That’s why I also didn’t leave any evidence behind.” Su-hyeun’s shifted over to the hotel suite’s door and then, beyond it. “I got rid of all the CCTV outside, and I’m currently holding an interview on TV so that I can advertise uncle Kim Dae-ho’s products for real now. Products of someone you seem to hate vehemently.”

“W-what was that?!”

“So, it’s a draw, right? You didn’t leave any evidence, and neither did I. If there’s one glaring difference here, then it’s that, unlike uncle, you don’t have anyone to protect you.”

“…!”