Chapter 17 - Might as Well Make It a School Bus

'The government is one thing, but I didn't expect the Infinity Guild to be directly involved.'

Before rescuing the children, Limon had considered fleeing the country. He had thought it would make it easier to shake off the government and keep the children safe.

The problem was that the children had been held in an Infinity Guild safe house. No matter how prestigious one of the ten great guilds might be, abducting innocent children and using them as hostages was not something people would simply overlook. What if the Infinite Monarch took action to cover it up?

Leaving the country would do no good. Unlike nations bound by borders, the Monarchs' influence reached across the world. Limon and the children could end up spending their lives on the run.

'If I'm going to draw him out as planned, I'll have to make sure the kids are safe first...'

To catch a snake, you struck at its head. Limon had a plan to draw out the mastermind behind this plot, but it was no use while he was moving around with twenty-three children in tow. He needed a way to move freely and still protect them.

*'Isn't there a safe place to hide them somewhere?'

Hiding the children was the first solution that came to mind. Of course, that came with demanding conditions. It would have to be somewhere beyond the government's and the Infinite Monarch's notice, yet somewhere the children could escape from if its location was discovered. It would need to provide, or be able to provide, the bare necessities of life. And if there were someone there to protect the children in his place, so much the better...

'Tch. As if a place like that exists.'

Even to him, the requirements were absurd. With no money and the label of traitor hanging over him, finding such a perfect hiding place was impossible. No, it would be the same even if he had money. In this country, the only places that could escape the notice of both the government and the Infinite Monarch were...

"Huh?"

Limon blinked, then muttered in disbelief, "... Come to think of it, there is one."

There was exactly one place that met all those nearly impossible conditions. It would not even cost him anything.

But Limon was not pleased. If anything, he frowned. There was a reason such an unlikely place had never occurred to him before.

*'It's a gamble, but...'

Limon tapped his sword. A perfect hiding place was no guarantee of safety. If things went wrong, he could find himself in far greater danger than he would facing the government. But he did not agonize over it for long.

"To catch a tiger, you have to enter its den... Isn't that how it goes?"

He let out a brief chuckle, took his hand off his sword, and picked up the phone. He dialed a number he only vaguely remembered.

"Well, now that I'm a traitor anyway, I might as well live it up a little."

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

He dialed 114 and asked for a phone number, changed the last three digits of that number to 116 before calling it, then pressed 111 while the line rang. After entering several strange sequences, Limon finally reached a recorded voice.

["The number you have dialed is not in service. Please check the number and try agai..."]

"The Crouching Dragon and Fledgling Phoenix—the hidden dragon rises to the heavens when its time comes."

["..."]

Limon's lips curled slightly. It had been so long that he had worried the call might not go through, but the recording's abrupt silence told him he had at least reached the right number. A moment later, a voice on the other end confirmed it.

["Who are you?"]

"I didn't think your people asked that."

["It's different when someone contacts us using an antiquated covert code that hasn't been used in decades."]

The old man's voice carried the weight of years, but it was utterly firm. Limon chuckled. This response was far more accommodating than he had expected, though it did not change what he had to say.

"Tell her."

["Her? Who do you mean..."]

"Tell her the Sword Lord got fired from his civil service job."

["...!"]

Limon could tell that the man had caught his breath at the mention of that title. He had gone as still as a statue, with only his heart pounding as though it might burst.

It was understandable. Judging by his voice and his memory of the code, he had to be at least sixty. Anyone of that age was bound to react strongly to Limon's identity—especially someone in a position to answer this call.

"You've already found my location, I assume. Come pick me up."

["..."]

A heavy silence followed, as if the man had heard something outrageous. Yet he gave no hasty answer, and his heartbeat had quickly turned steady again. Limon smiled at the composure befitting the person in charge of that place, then added, "Oh, and don't forget to bring a school bus."

* * *

His hand moved smoothly. From slicing through the meat with his knife to cutting off a suitable piece of steak, dipping it in sauce, and putting it in his mouth, every motion was precise enough to be an art. Even a tutor who had spent a lifetime instructing royalty would have marveled at such a perfect display of courtly etiquette.

But Park Hyeon-gun could not appreciate it. Cold sweat ran down his face as he waited for the man to finish eating.

"Around 150 high-level players, not counting the Liberation Brigade. Fifty members of Unit 909 armed with advanced weapons. And two duke-class players."

Park flinched when the man spoke. It was the first time he had said anything before finishing his meal.

"Did I hear you correctly?"

"Yes."

"Every last one of them was wiped out, and the PAB director died as well?"

"... That's correct."

Even as he answered, Park wondered whether his words sounded believable. When he had first received the information, it had felt like a sick joke to him too. He had cross-checked it several times before reporting it, yet he still could not shake the feeling that something was wrong.

All of them killed by one person. And that person was not a Monarch—or even a player—but an ordinary human. To Park, it was a more absurd and impossible claim than being told the world would end tomorrow.

"A hero who saved the nation, humanity's guardian deity..."

But the man did not grow angry. He merely repeated Limon's epithets and nodded, as though savoring an unexpected delicacy at a cheap street-side restaurant.

"It seems he didn't earn those titles for nothing."

Startled by how readily the Infinite Monarch, Lee Cheon-gi, accepted the situation, Park hastily bowed his head.

"I apologize. My investigation was inadequate."

"There's no need for you to apologize, Chief Park. No one could have expected us to fail after assembling a force of this size."

*'Ah...'

Park understood why Lee Cheon-gi was not reprimanding him: Lee found the outcome every bit as unexpected himself. It would be different if their preparations had been lacking. But this was like bringing a gun to hunt a chicken, only for the chicken to deflect the bullet and peck the hunter to death. It would be ridiculous to assign blame.

In this age, players were the dominant force. That a mere Sword Master who could not even use skills possessed such power was as unexpected as it was disconcerting. At least, that was how the two of them understood the world.

Still, Park could not relax. Even setting aside their failure to deal with Limon, he had something else to answer for.

"So where is he now?"

"We've confirmed that after raiding our safe house, he stayed at a guesthouse near Bukhansan, but..."

Park hesitated over whether to report the rest. The failed trap had sounded like a joke; this would sound like the ravings of a madman. But he knew he had no choice. Squeezing his eyes shut, he continued.

"We lost track of him after he left on a school bus."

"... What kind of bus did you say?"

"A school bus. One of those yellow..."

"..."

Even Lee Cheon-gi, who had calmly accepted the deaths of some two hundred people, was at a loss for words this time. An odd silence lingered. Perhaps his throat was dry; he picked up the wineglass beside him and took a sip. Then, with a perfectly composed expression, he asked as if nothing were strange, "I believe you said we lost track of him. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"How unexpected. I wouldn't have thought our guild's Tracers so incompetent that they could lose someone traveling by bus."

In other words, Are you the incompetent one?

Park swallowed hard. He had been lucky to escape blame earlier; he could not count on luck again. If he were in Lee's position, he would want to fire a subordinate who could not even track a school bus. Fortunately, this time he had an answer.

"I can't be certain, but I have an idea where he might be."

"Do you?"

"Yes. There are only a few places in the country our Tracers can't follow him into."

Lee Cheon-gi's eyebrow twitched. His influence in this country was nearly absolute, and the guild's Tracers were experts who could easily penetrate most defenses. Whether it was the inner reaches of a government agency or a corporation's private property, they could investigate it by legal means or otherwise. There were very few exceptions: places under another Monarch's protection, or...

"You mean the Leviathan Hotel?"

A hotel with a long history that had held its place at the top for ages.

"For now, it's only a possibility."

Lee understood. The chance that Limon was anywhere other than the Leviathan Hotel was vanishingly small. Otherwise, Park would never have offered him something as flimsy as a possibility.

"Limon Aspelder and the Leviathan Hotel... What an interesting story."

In truth, interesting did not begin to cover it. Anyone who knew even a little of what the Leviathan Hotel was, and what it would mean for Limon to go there, would find this story more astonishing than either of the previous two reports. But Lee had reason to consider the absurd possibility seriously.

"Chief Park."

"Yes."

"Are you certain she made contact with Limon Aspelder?"

"I'd stake my life on it."

"It would be nice if you could say the same about her whereabouts."

Park fell silent at Lee's matter-of-fact remark.

At least he could hazard a guess about Limon. Only after assigning a whole team of his best Tracers to her and failing had Park realized she truly could not be tracked.

Lee did not press him further. He simply said, "If she's brought Limon Aspelder into this, she must be quite desperate."

"..."

"Chief Park, use every resource the guild has to watch the Leviathan Hotel."

"Do you think she'll appear there?"

"Let me turn the question around. If he isn't going there to meet her, why would Limon Aspelder go there under these circumstances?"

Park saw his point. Without an understanding between Limon and her, even Limon would be walking into certain death.

Instead, Park sought to clarify Lee's intentions.

"What should we do if we find her?"

"Secure her by any means necessary."

"... Are you sure that's wise?"

The question slipped out before he could stop it. Anywhere else might be one thing, but laying a hand on her at the Leviathan Hotel could be dangerous even for Lee Cheon-gi, one of the Monarchs.

"Remember this, Chief Park."

Lee did not withdraw the order. His eyes cold and still, he looked at Park and continued in a low voice.

"Whatever the cost, we must secure the Black Dragon Clan's most precious treasure."