Chapter 40: Corporate War (3)

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

w

Chapter 40: Corporate War (3)

Boom!

As soon as the door opened, a powerful green whirlwind greeted them.

"Johan."

"Y-Yes."

The man called Johan drew his sword again.

A swift draw, so fast it could be called instantaneous, slicing through the concept of the whirlwind itself.

"Whew, quite a rough welcome, isn't it...?"

Even after cutting through the whirlwind, Johan couldn't easily let down his guard.

It was due to the massive presence felt across the lobby.

"S-Sorry!"

From the far end of the lobby, someone was running toward them in a flustered manner—a cute girl with green hair.

It was Mari.

‘...Was she the one who unleashed that strike just now?’

Judging by her outward appearance and the atmosphere around her, she was definitely a 7th-rank employee.

‘A 7th-rank employee capable of delivering a strike like that?’

Johan felt a chill run down his spine from the force of the blow.

However, his doubts didn’t last long.

His gaze fell on the weapon the green-haired girl was holding as she ran toward him.

The bow in her hand was radiating an ominous aura.

Johan knew exactly what it was.

‘...A rare-grade weapon!’

It was undoubtedly a rare-grade weapon.

At first glance, it could be mistaken for C+ equipment, but its potential was something that couldn't be ignored.

Johan signaled with his eyes as if he'd caught a clue.

"As I thought, there’s something unusual going on here."

Even Vampir, who had been indifferent until now, showed interest after seeing Mari's bow.

"…For once, it seems your intuition isn't wrong."

At that moment—

“Ahh?! Where did he run off to after causing that mess?!”

Suddenly, a piercing voice echoed, startling Mari.

"Eek!"

Frightened, Mari quickly dashed behind Johan and Vampir for cover.

It would’ve been natural to question who the unknown person rushing in was, but Mari seemed too scared to care about that right now.

Of course, Mari wasn't the only one too flustered to pay attention to the small details.

"Heh, I didn’t expect a 3rd-rank creature to be here..."

"…It's not an ordinary creature. We can't let our guard down."

"Geez, we don’t have much time... Terrible timing."

"If you have time to talk, you should focus on setting up a shield."

Johan and Vampir raised their guard to the highest level as they sensed the presence approaching from the other side of the corridor.

The overwhelming presence wasn’t something an ordinary creature could emanate.

Johan analyzed the situation, considering one possibility as he stared at the approaching figure.

“Is this a containment breach?”

Vampir immediately shook her head at Johan’s suggestion.

“If it were, this place wouldn’t be so peaceful. That’s not the case.”

“Ha, you’re right about that… Then what could that thing be?”

Situations always seemed to arise suddenly.

Whether it was top-tier company employees suddenly showing up or those employees encountering Mordred.

“Huh? Who the hell are you guys?”

Mordred surveyed the situation with an amused expression.

"…I don’t know what's going on here, but if you're going to block my way, I'll entertain you."

A creature that could communicate.

Moreover, it wasn’t excessively violent.

‘It’s not a hostile entity if it’s not initiating an attack…?’

While Johan calmly analyzed the situation, Vampir responded to Mordred’s provocation.

“Hah, stepping in to contain another company’s mess goes against our company’s regulations, but... fine. Consider this a bit of entertainment.”

As Vampir began to gather ominous energy, Johan quickly intervened in alarm.

“Your Majesty, please calm down. We didn’t come here to fight. Our company isn’t in the best state right now; getting on the headquarters’ bad side wouldn’t do us any favors.”

Johan wasn’t the only one trying to stop this fight.

“M-Mordred, these people aren't enemies! They might be guests! W-We should try talking first…!”

“P-Please calm down!”

By now, the commotion had attracted other employees, who were nervously sweating as they tried to hold Mordred back.

“Huh? Can’t you see they’re on edge?”

Despite her words, Mordred didn’t seem to be seriously trying to push away the employees.

If she had been, they would have been gravely injured by now.

“...Fine. I’ll listen to what you have to say.”

Finally, Mordred backed down a bit, placing her Clarent sword on the ground, which she had summoned at some point.

“…What am I even witnessing?”

“…You’re probably seeing the same thing I am.”

A bizarre scene of 8th and 7th rank employees tearing apart a creature.

Witnessing this, Johan and Vampir regained their composure and relaxed their stances.

At the same time, Johan was convinced that his hypothesis was correct.

"Bingo. I don't know how they managed to coexist... but this is definitely a special company."

As the tension, which seemed like it could explode any moment, subsided, Mordred gestured with her chin and asked.

"Hey, now that you seem willing to talk, I'll ask."

"..."

"No response, huh? Well, I'll get straight to the point—who are you? Why did you kidnap Mari?"

Johan was the one who responded to Mordred's question.

"......We came here to speak with the manager of this place. It seems there’s been a misunderstanding. We don’t even know who this 'Mari' is, and we certainly haven’t kidnapped anyone."

At the mention of Mari's name, a girl who had been hiding behind Vampir flinched and slowly crept forward, awkwardly raising her hand and laughing nervously.

"He... heh. That 'Mari' is me."

"..."

"I’m so confused, I don't even know what to say."

Johan remained silent, and Vampir let out a deep sigh, holding his head as if he was suffering from a headache.

“I-I apologize!”

Mari, bowing her head at a 90-degree angle in apology, quickly dashed over to Mordred.

Mordred pinched Mari’s cheek.

Squeeze.

“Ugh, you troublemaker.”

“Oww! That hurts!”

Still pinching Mari’s cheek, Mordred asked another question that had just occurred to her.

“So, why are you looking for our manager?”

Johan and Vampir exchanged a glance that seemed to say, ‘You’re asking that now?’

After a moment, Johan responded to Mordred's question.

"...That’s difficult to explain."

Though it wasn’t the answer Mordred wanted, she let it slide since she wasn’t an employee or the manager of the company.

Instead, she thought:

'It wouldn’t be a bad idea to watch over them until the manager comes. I do owe them something...'

After a calculated decision, Mordred decided to keep the two around.

With no restrictions on Clarent now, she was confident she could protect the company, no matter what they tried... though she wasn’t planning to make the first move.

‘They could be people the manager called, and I don’t know the situation, so I shouldn’t act rashly. For now... let’s just observe the situation.’

Mordred only wanted to make sure they owed her something in return.

After shrugging her shoulders, Mordred continued, as if gauging their reaction.

“Well then, how about waiting until the manager returns?”

Yon responded to Mordred’s suggestion.

“That might not be a bad idea. In fact, the manager would probably tell us to do the same.”

Yon’s reasoning was simpler than Mordred’s.

Unexpected visitors, employees suddenly involved in accidents, and the manager’s words about being busy when he returned.

Yon began putting the puzzle pieces together in his head and arrived at his own interpretation.

'Maybe the manager said he’d be busy because these guests were coming.'

It could all be part of the manager’s plan.

Considering the visitors' unusual power, he figured he was at least half right, and because of that, he couldn't just let them leave.

Although Yon and the employees welcomed them warmly...

“Thank you, but...”

Vampir and Johan didn’t seem pleased.

“We don’t have much time, so we need to head back soon.”

Johan and Vampir had only squeezed out some time to briefly visit.

With the company short-staffed and work piling up, they couldn’t afford to waste any more time.

Johan, sensing that "today is not our day," persuaded Vampir.

And since they couldn't just leave empty-handed, Johan handed a business card to Mordred.

“This is our business card. If you give it to the manager, he might know who we are.”

The business card symbolized many things, but simply put, it established a point of contact.

Whether the manager’s side initiated contact or the government made the first move...

“We’ll be back to visit soon.”

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

w

Since there was no reason to stop them, Yon and the other employees responded with light nods.

Johan and Vampir opened the door they had entered through and left once again.

A brief silence followed.

“Hmmm... why did they even come here?”

Mari propped her chin in her hand, looking at the main door.

“There are monsters crawling all over outside... I hope they got back safely?”

Her tone was full of doubt and worry, but Mari wasn’t really in a position to be worrying about anyone else.

Behind Mari, something in the shape of a goblin appeared.

“You don’t have time to worry about things like that...”

Creak.

Mari shuddered at the ominous voice and slowly turned her head.

There, standing behind her, was Mordred, cracking his joints and glaring down at her.

“Huh? Aaaah! A monster!”

“What do you mean, monster?”

Mordred glared at Mari with cold, dead eyes.

Mordred glared at Mari with cold, lifeless eyes.

Then, grabbing Mari by the collar, she began dragging her toward the training ground.

“No violence, please!”

Mari, on the verge of tears, was dragged away, but no one could help her.

After all, it was Mari who had caused this whole mess in the first place.

Yon looked back and forth between Mari being dragged away and the main gate, sighing with a face full of worry.

“How am I supposed to explain this to the Administrator…”

Although some mysterious guests had guarded the main gate, the training ground…

As he subtly turned his head, the sight of the training ground, with its walls partially collapsed, came into view.

Just as he sighed once again—

Bang!

The main gate burst open.

All the employees’ eyes immediately shifted to the gate.

“Hey, what’s going on here?”

There stood Seongjin, breathing heavily.

* * *

“That’s roughly what happened.”

Yon briefly explained the recent events.

“Hah, so that’s how it went down?”

“Yes, that’s what I’ve gathered.”

I looked at the gaping hole in the training ground and held my head in my hands.

“... Does any of this make sense?”

“Mari’s weapon must have been far beyond what we imagined.”

It was definitely beyond imagination.

A rare weapon.

One that had a third-grade spirit attached to it, no less.

“Well, let’s leave that as it is for now…”

Rubbing my aching head, I tried to organize the situation.

“You said those guests seemed unusual?”

“Yes, at first, I thought the Administrator had summoned them.”

“... Did you find out which organization they were from?”

Yon pulled a piece of paper from his pocket.

It was a business card.

“They left this card. Honestly, I can’t make heads or tails of it.”

I examined the card Yon handed me.

[Joseon Government (Challenger)]

[Vampir (rank 2)]

[Johan (rank 3)]

‘… I think I get the gist of it.’

As expected, the company from my old account was still in operation.

‘Well, that’s not really a huge surprise.’

What surprised me wasn’t that.

‘They should be stretched thin, with all employees below rank 4 wiped out…’

Just before I reincarnated, every single employee in my account had died suddenly.

If that wasn’t a bug, then the remaining rank 3 or higher employees would be scrambling to keep the company afloat.

I figured I’d have more breathing room for a while.

‘… Well, I anticipated this problem when I used my main account’s unique code.’

The unique code was like a social security number.

Each company is assigned a specific code that allows the headquarters to verify your identity.

Since I had used such a personal number, I expected pursuers to come after me.

The issue was that they came much faster than I’d anticipated.

‘I was nearly frozen with fear.’

Anyone would think that, seeing both Vampir specialized in grand magic battles and Johan, who specialized in physical combat, acting at the same time.

'Still, at least I found out why my return ability got disabled…’

Vampir was a character I had raised for grand magic battles.

The fact that my ‘recall’—which interferes with mana to move between dimensions—was disabled could all be explained by Vampir’s unique traits.

‘Ugh, that mana detector…’

Of course, their visit wasn’t all bad for me.

In fact, the visit from the employees of the Joseon Government benefited me.

I recalled the massive dragon corpse that had been lying in front of the company.

“That monster corpse outside must be the work of the Vampir and Johan…”

A creature from a diamond-rank company was something we couldn’t possibly handle with our current resources.

They had taken care of such a creature as a courtesy during their visit.

I slipped Johan and the Vampir’s business card into my pocket.

“Sigh, let’s deal with the pressing matters first.”

“What will you do about the company that targeted our employee?”

Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t explained what I’d been doing before returning to hear the situation.

I was about to recount the series of events when I suddenly remembered Yoo.

- Well, dealing with a buster call isn’t my specialty. You’ll have to handle that yourself. But I’ll make sure the two companies that broke the headquarters’ law are thoroughly punished.

Well, knowing him, he would definitely see it through, so I didn’t need to worry about Madari or the Warrior’s Union making a comeback.

I chuckled at the thought of the disaster that would befall Madari and the Warrior’s Union.

“… I have a strong ally taking care of that side of things, so there’s no need to worry.”

Of course, my smile didn’t last long.

There was no time to dwell on other matters when the company itself needed immediate attention…

I turned to the damaged training ground and sighed.

“Let’s take care of this mess first…”

Now that I had some breathing room, I could clean things up and explain everything later without rushing.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

w