Chapter 689

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 689: Kidnapping (1)

Passenger of the Earthship.

The moment he heard those words, Subua felt his heart sink.

After all, boarding a Planet Ship—called one of the Wonders of the Universe—was the sort of experience a person would be lucky to have even once in a lifetime.

So naturally, his heart pounded.

But at the same time, he also felt crushing guilt and humiliation.

Because that Earthship was also Salzeo’s sworn enemy.

—Y-you want me to board your Planet Ship?

As Subua reflexively shook his head and tried to step back, Yeongwoo casually pointed Bastard at Dots and warned him.

“Where do you think you’re going? You think you have a choice here?”

—What?

“Didn’t you hear me earlier? You’re being ‘kidnapped’ too.”

—…….

“If you don’t obediently board the Earthship, I’ll slit this bastard’s throat.”

A threat made for the sake of threatening.

Of course, Subua understood now as well.

The Planet Ship Lord probably had no intention of actually taking Dots Salzeo’s life.

Now that the Young Patriarch himself had entered the negotiation table, wouldn’t Dots have to remain alive for the sake of speaking with him?

Even so, Yeongwoo’s threat had the effect of easing Subua’s mind, if only a little.

After all, from Subua’s perspective, it gave him a sort of justification for following this man’s orders.

Step.

At last, Yeongwoo headed out of the office with Dots and Neheren Salzeo in tow side by side, and Subua followed behind them while speaking quietly.

—Still, it seems a Planet Ship isn’t invincible after all. Judging by how quickly you’re running away with your tail tucked between your legs.

At this, Yeongwoo turned back and shamelessly replied,

“That’s why I’m working hard to save up money so I can become invincible. You saw the head of the household personally running around the field and still don’t get it?”

—…….

“And you, seriously, get a grip. Just because you failed your security duties, they’re going to execute you immediately? Does that even make sense? Why are you so loyal to a family like that?”

—Because that is the honor of a Subua.

At the answer that came without even the slightest hesitation, this time it was Yeongwoo who fell silent.

He could instantly feel that their ways of thinking were fundamentally different.

So he changed the question.

“How old were you when you started living as a Subua?”

At that, Subua tilted his head.

—What do you mean, how old? We become Subua the moment we take our first breath.

“Ah. I think I understand a little better now why you ended up like this.”

As Yeongwoo spoke with a sneer, Subua instantly flared up.

—Just because you’re a Planet Ship Lord doesn’t give you the right to mock my honor, you arrogant bastard!

Yeongwoo immediately shot back as though he’d been waiting for that.

“Then what about Salzeo?”

—…What?

“Salzeo’s about to take not only your honor, but your life too, right? Why do they have the right to do that?”

—…….

“Are they upright and kind people like the virtuous ones of Doatel or Delmir? No. Then are they overwhelmingly strong? Judging by how they’re getting beaten senseless by me, that’s not true either.”

—But they are my family.

“Why are the Salzeos your family? They’re these bastards’ family.”

Yeongwoo lightly jostled Dots Salzeo, whom he had slung over his shoulder, and Subua’s mouth finally shut.

“I trust our acting captain, but I don’t expect that old man to throw away his life protecting the Earthship. There’s no need for him to do that either. If he did his best, then he did enough. Why stake your life on it too?”

At Yeongwoo’s words, Subua no longer responded.

Not only could he think of nothing to say, but everything he had learned throughout his life as a Subua was being denied outright.

Then, as though something had suddenly occurred to him, Yeongwoo asked,

“By the way, what’s your name?”

—…What?

“Your name.”

—…I.

He had been about to answer, I am Lord Dots Salzeo’s Subua, but stopped midway.

Because he realized that wasn’t what the other man was asking.

So after taking a moment to steady his breathing, he finally spoke aloud the name he had not uttered in a very long time.

—Kengdal… Kengdal Subua.

“So Subua gets attached as a surname too. It really is a lifelong profession, huh.”

After letting out a hollow laugh, Yeongwoo glanced toward Kengdal and spoke.

“You don’t need to use the surname Subua anymore, do you? As a Subua, you’re basically already dead anyway. So now you’re just Kengdal. It’s a pretty unusual name too, so it won’t be easy to forget.”

After arbitrarily deciding that on his own, Yeongwoo finally stepped outside the building.

There, standing tall amidst the sprawled-out Hiseras, was Poachi Shalmoram.

—Have you finished your business?

“Yes, let’s head back now. As promised, no one died.”

Yeongwoo lightly hoisted Dots Salzeo on his shoulder to show him off before activating the Return Stone in his possession.

“Looks like we picked up even more guests. Everyone’s probably going to complain again.”

While Yeongwoo muttered to himself, a massive pillar of light shot down from beyond the atmosphere of Planet Tspodal and engulfed them all.

* * *

Earthship.

Among the ten Planet Ships that had existed throughout the history of the universe, it was the most recently born—and probably the pirate ship that had caused the most trouble within the same span of time.

And among all those forces, wasn’t Salzeo unquestionably the faction that had clashed with the Earthship the most recently?

So from the perspective of Kengdal, who had once been Salzeo’s Subua, it was only natural for him to be extremely tense.

After all, he had effectively leapt straight into the heart of unknown enemy territory.

But what he actually saw differed greatly from his expectations.

Piaaaaat!

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Arriving in the helm alongside the light of the Return Stone, Kengdal instinctively drew his sword almost immediately.

Seeing that, Jiseon tilted her head and remarked,

—Looks like there’s a guest who arrived before finishing their conversation?

Even so, she made no effort to prepare for battle.

After all, gathered here were none other than Stellar and several Grade-3 Virtuous ones, as well as Planet Ship Lord Jeong Yeongwoo, whose improvisational abilities were rapidly approaching the best in the universe.

If someone wanted to cause trouble in the helm of the Earthship, at minimum, Chairman Dogo himself would have to show up.

“What now? What are you trying to do at this point? Stop wasting your effort.”

After casually glancing at the sword in Kengdal’s hand, Yeongwoo tossed Dots Salzeo onto the floor as though it were nothing.

Kuuuung!

Dots, who had been half unconscious, snapped his eyes open and frantically looked around.

—W-where is this now?

“Where else? The helm of my Planet Ship.”

—Planet Ship……?

“You won’t be staying here long anyway. Your brother’s already waiting with the money for you.”

As Yeongwoo once more pulled out the Young Patriarch’s unofficial communication device, Neheren cautiously spoke up.

—Then what… happens to me now?

At that, Yeongwoo shrugged.

“As promised, you’re free.”

—Free?

“Yeah. If you want, you can leave right now. I could even drop only you back down onto Tspodal.”

The moment Yeongwoo said that, Dots bared his teeth and glared at Neheren.

—Free? Don’t make me laugh. Isn’t it because you volunteered to become their lackey that I ended up like this? You too should hang your neck upon the execution platform together with my incompetent Subua!

Dots’s shoulders trembled violently with rage, and seeing that, Yeongwoo made an awkward expression.

“I was thinking of handing the two of you over to the Young Patriarch if things went smoothly, but maybe that was the wrong call.”

From the perspective of Dots and the Young Patriarch at least, wasn’t Neheren a traitor?

Not only had he helped bypass Tspodal’s anti-air defenses using the access codes, but it was also obvious that he had been the one who pointed out this place as the Planet Ship Lord’s next destination.

And on top of that, every single one of those accusations was undeniably true.

“So what now? What do you think?”

At Yeongwoo’s question, Neheren asked back with a half-lost expression.

—W-what do you mean, what do I think? Are you asking where I’ll go now?

“Yeah. If you want, I’ll release One-Arm here and hand you over to the Salzeos together with him. But if you don’t want that……”

—If I don’t want that… then what are you planning to do with me?

“If you truly want it, I could even drop you off on the opposite side of the universe. Somewhere beyond the reach of Salzeo’s power, where you could start a new life.”

The opposite side of the universe.

Usually, that was just an idiom meaning somewhere extremely far away.

But the “opposite side of the universe” Yeongwoo spoke of literally meant exactly that.

—B-but I…….

Neheren couldn’t keep his gaze fixed in one place.

Because he truly had nowhere to go.

If he returned to the family, then just as Dots said, there was an extremely high chance he would be executed under the disgraceful label of traitor.

But even if he fled somewhere else in the universe, there was no way he could survive alone in such a brutal world.

“As a last option, there’s also the possibility of living aboard the Earthship. But you’d have to pay living expenses, so you’d need to earn your meals somehow. Like actively helping out with the next kidnapping.”

—…….

At that, Neheren made a horrified expression, and Kengdal—who had remained silent until now—finally spoke.

—Send me with him. To that ‘opposite side of the universe’ you mentioned.

“You? Together with this one?”

As Yeongwoo pointed not at Dots but at Neheren while saying this, Kengdal nodded.

—I’ve lived my entire life as a Subua… as someone who protects another’s side. So I want to continue living according to the way I learned from my very first breath.

But if he returned to the Salzeo family, he would never draw another breath again.

So rather than that, he intended to become the new Subua of Neheren, who had now become a fugitive.

And from Neheren’s perspective, this would mean obtaining his very first Subua.

“Really? You don’t object either? You’re about to head into an unfamiliar universe together with an assassin who could kill you without anyone ever noticing.”

Yeongwoo asked in a rather frightening tone, but unexpectedly, Neheren’s expression brightened.

—Subua do not harm Salzeos, so it’ll be fine.

“It’s difficult for me to understand. But I suppose no one can understand everything in the universe.”

After nodding, Yeongwoo pointed Bastard at Dots.

“Fine. Once I receive this bastard’s ransom money, I’ll drop the two of you off on the opposite side of the universe. If luck’s on your side, maybe you’ll even discover a forgotten myth or a planet in crisis nearby.”

The instant Yeongwoo said that and determined the new fate of the two fugitives, multicolored light flashed through the air.

Piiiiiing!

「Hypocrisy Occurred!」

‘What the—’

The Hypocrite Encyclopedia had activated.

[Escape from Destiny]

|Grade Evaluation: B+

And on top of that, this hypocrisy was ranked B+, a grade Yeongwoo had never seen before.

_Your unpredictability twisted the foremost futures of Neheren Salzeo and Kengdal Subua.

_Two destinies intertwined, creating a new fate and accumulating into powerful karma.

Once all the hypocrisy details had finished displaying, Yeongwoo’s Hypocrite Encyclopedia—whose collection value had been 6—changed to 9.

Piing!

[Hypocrite Encyclopedia]

〔9〕

‘9……? It jumped by 3 all at once?’

The instant Yeongwoo’s eyes widened, follow-up messages lined up through the air.

「‘Neheren Salzeo’ has been added to the Hypocrite Encyclopedia.」

「‘Kengdal Subua’ has been added to the Hypocrite Encyclopedia.」

Then special effect notifications corresponding to each faction appeared.

「From now on, you receive 5% less damage from all ‘Salzeos.’」

「From now on, you receive 5% less damage from all ‘Subua.’」

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]