Chapter 491: VILE - 2032 [The Butcher]

Each Section Chief had their own office. While nowhere near as spacious as the Guild Master’s, it was still moderately sized and well-decorated, offering a clear view of the streets below.

"How are you feeling?"

There was a look of concern on the Hoarding Department Section Chief’s face as he looked at the young woman sitting opposite him.

"I’ve looked through the footage, and I can tell that this was no normal anomaly. I’ve already sent a team to get more information. Although none of you are harmed, I’m just asking again to make sure that nothing is wrong."

"I’m fine."

Catherine replied flatly.

Sitting down cross-legged, she held no real expression.

But it was such an expression that made the Section Chief sweat.

"Are you sure you’re fine? If you want, we can provide you with some sort of compensation of sorts and even hire a therapi..."

The Section Chief’s words stopped abruptly as he stared at the slowly changing expression on Catherine’s face, and he hurriedly shook his hands.

"No, that’s not what I meant. I was just thinking that—"

"Cut the bullshit."

Catherine’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the Section Chief, her tone low as her expression gradually twisted.

"You’re just trying to coax me because you’re waiting for me to renew the contract with the Guild, right?"

"No, that’s far from the case."

"Are you taking me for stupid?"

"As I said, I’m not."

"Bullshit!!"!

Catherine’s hand slammed down against the armrest of the sofa as she stood up, her expression twisting with fury. She grabbed the nearest thing she could find and hurled it at the floor.

BANG!

Glass shattered.

And yet, the Section Chief didn’t show much of a reaction. In fact, he had grown used to Catherine’s tantrums. He had grown used to them for quite some time.

This was her true personality.

It gave the Section Chief many headaches. Thankfully, this personality only carried within the Guild, and not outside. The world knew her as an up-and-coming Paragon-in-the-making with a bubbly personality, while those within the Guild knew her as the Guild’s crazy demon.

She had always been like this, but things truly twisted the moment her parents died.

That was when she became... even more twisted.

"Please, calm down!" the Section Chief said, doing his best to soothe her. "I understand why you’re angry, but I’m not doing this for any ulterior motives. I’m genuinely concerned for you. What happened wasn’t normal, and it’s only natural to have negative feelings about it."

BANG!

Another object shattered.

"That’s not the reason I’m fucking pissed, is it? There are a lot of things that piss me off, and that’s just one more added to the pile."

Grabbing another item, she was just about to toss it when she stopped.

Eventually, she set it down.

"Tsk."

Her tongue clicked.

As if she had grown tired of tossing and breaking objects, she sat down on the chair and crossed her legs while propping her cheek over her raised fist.

"That bitch is about to come soon. I heard that she only recently reached the Fifth Order. I’ve reached that way before her, but somehow, everyone seems to be praising her to the moon. That’s one thing that pisses me off. Let’s not talk about the guy who ended up coming early. That lucky dude."

Catherine clicked her tongue again, this time, her expression marred with even more annoyance.

"Its clear from a glance that he got lucky. Do you know how fucking hard it was to pretend in front of that guy? Pisses me off just thinking about it. Ugh, fuck."

Loosening up her uniform, Catherine turned her attention towards the Section Chief.

"...I wanted to see him in action today, but he ended up ditching. Maybe it’s a good thing that he didn’t go, given what had happened, but the more I think about it, the more annoyed I feel."

Feeling her gaze, the Section Chief calmly bent down and picked up the fragments of the items that she had broken.

In spite of everything that had happened, he didn’t look at all pissed.

"Don’t worry, I’m also quite annoyed by his appearance, too."

"He’s a bit of an eyesore, isn’t he?"

Catherine said, watching silently as the Section Chief bent down to clean up the items she had shattered across the floor.

"Especially with all the attention he’s receiving from the Guild Master. At this rate, he’ll probably be the face of the Guild during the World Congress."

"I know."

The Section Chief replied, rubbing his clean-shaven face as he adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses. He nudged some of the broken pieces aside with his foot before sitting on the edge of his desk and leaning back against the chair.

"Regarding the situation, I’ll keep a close eye on it. And I share your opinion about him as well. You should be the one leading the Guild at the World Congress. If some unknown ’game developer’ who just got lucky with a single Gate ends up taking the lead, we’ll become the laughingstock of the world. I won’t let that happen. Especially when you’re here."

"Good."

Catherine stood up, her expression easing quite a bit.

Adjusting her clothes, she headed for the door.

As she did, the Section Chief stood up.

"Ah, about the contract..."

"I’ll think about it."

Clank!

The door closed immediately after that, leaving the Section Chief frozen mid-motion.

"...Ah."

***

The days at the branch guild passed rather slowly. Well, time flowed the same, but it felt like it moved a lot slower. An incident occurred during the last gate expedition, so the gates were temporarily closed.

Even though I had no interest in entering them, it didn’t mean that I didn’t want to see how the members of this branch guild operated and handled the gates.

In fact, it was a pity.

And because of this, there was essentially nothing to do the entire time.

I just stayed in my office, working on updating the game with the little resources I had, while staying connected with the others to get the update going. The progress was good, but not good enough.

At the same time, I also started to feel better. The voices still lingered, but I was faring much better than before.

"Fuck, I really need them to come faster. At this rate, I’ll never be able to get it done in time."

Time was running short for me.

Clank!

Closing down my laptop, I leaned back and rubbed my eyes.

"Ugh."

Just closing them stung.

This was how tired my eyes were from having stared at my screen for so long.

I was also extremely tired.

So much so that I didn’t even notice the darkness creeping in at the edges of my vision, closing in until it finally swallowed everything.

By the time I opened my eyes again, Kyle looked down on me with the eyes of a grim reaper.

"Are you alive?"

"....."

I checked my heart. It was beating.

"Maybe? I think so. Perhaps?"

"What sort of nonsense..."

"...Oh."

It finally clicked to me then as I sat up.

"You’re finally here?"

"I am... wait, what sort of reaction is this?"

Kyle stepped away from me, his expression containing both annoyance and relief.

"What?"

"I almost died. We haven’t seen each other for so long, and neither of us was even able to get in contact with the other. Is this really your first reaction when you see me?"

"Oh, right."

So this was the reason for his reaction.

I nodded.

"I’m glad you’re back."

Kyle clicked his tongue.

"At least try to sound sincere."

"I am though. I really am."

"Is that so...?"

Kyle tilted his head, examining me closely as he frowned.

He eventually shook his head.

"What?"

"Maybe you really are dead. Those eyes of yours..." He held both sides of his arm, "I’m getting shivers just looking at them. They look so dead."

"....."

"....."

Neither one of us spoke.

And then...

We both grinned at each other.

"Glad you’re doing fine, you son of a bitch."

"Same."