025- Elves on the Mountain Fortress

The swerving vehicle crashed into the guardrail. Smoke rose from the engine as the car came to a stop.
Daggers poured in from all directions toward the stopped vehicle. Ordinary daggers would have just stuck in the car's body, but these were coated in a pale energy.
He didn't know what it was, but it was something empowered by mana. It could probably pierce a thin sheet of iron with ease.

"Get down!"
Chartia shouted, pulling out wood fragments and scattering them.
The fragments flew like a whirlwind and stuck to the inside of the car's body—th-th-thak—then extended wooden bark to reinforce it. The daggers that could pierce iron couldn't penetrate the bark Chartia had deployed.

'Where are the enemies?'
Simultaneously, Chartia began searching for the enemy. But she couldn't sense anyone. Only passing cars, startled by the accident.

"Chartia, I'll leave this to you."
"What? Jinwoo?"
Just as she was setting up a solid defense, Jinwoo leaped out of the car. There was no time to ask where he was suddenly going.

Shwish-shwish-shwish-shik!
A hail of daggers poured down on Jinwoo, who had willingly left the safety of the car. As he dodged, he could see the daggers piercing the asphalt as if it were tofu.

'Just as I thought, they're not ordinary daggers.'
They were coated with mana through some ability.
Putting away his Fang Dagger and drawing the White Gem Sword, Jinwoo ran toward the spot where he sensed a Blue Flame.
Halfway up a nearby telephone pole. A single Blue Flame flickered in a spot that was invisible to the naked eye.
He immediately leaped up and swung his sword. The transparent air tore open, revealing a person clad in black martial arts attire.

"H-How!"
The panicked assailant fell and tried to draw a dagger to face him. He thrust at Jinwoo with one of the daggers coated in the same pale energy that had easily pierced the asphalt.

'He's fast, I'll give him that, but his sword path is too sloppy.'
His movements themselves were quick, but his swordsmanship was a mess. There was no way he could lose to such skill.
Jinwoo easily dodged and plunged his sword into the man's chest.

'Next.'
This wasn't the only enemy. Jinwoo ran again, toward the next Blue Flame.
This one was also quite flustered, hastily unleashing a volley of daggers, but with his position and timing completely exposed, there was no way he could hit his mark.
Jinwoo lightly parried the daggers and once again pulled a hidden assassin out into the open and cut him down.

'Next.'
And so, another one, and then another.
After he had killed four, the last one let out a shriek and fled. Now, there were no more hidden Blue Flames.

'Five of them.'
That was quite a few for a simple robbery. He couldn't gauge their skill.
An assassin's skill depended on how well they could hide, but since Jinwoo could see through any form of stealth, he couldn't properly judge their abilities.

"Jinwoo! Where are the enemies!"
Chartia came running over, a little too late. Looking at the car crashed into the guardrail, she saw it was completely covered in wood, turned into a solid bunker.
It seemed she had laid Ikeda down in there and come to support Jinwoo, but it hadn't been necessary.

"They're gone now."
"Gone?"
"These four were all of them. There was one more, but he ran away."
Chartia looked at the four corpses strewn on the ground and was visibly surprised.
She seemed amazed that he had found and dealt with every one of the assassins she couldn't even locate.

"How is Ikeda?"
"He's injured, but it's not life-threatening. He'll be fine with some simple treatment."
"So the daggers weren't poisoned."
Jinwoo grabbed a dagger embedded deep in the asphalt with two fingers and pulled it out. Swoosh.
It was an ordinary dagger with nothing applied to it. It was a generic, mass-produced dagger with no decorations or maker's mark.
Jinwoo surveyed the surrounding chaos. The car crashed into the guardrail was covered in wood, making it extremely conspicuous, and the asphalt was riddled with holes.
Items that had fallen out of the inventories of the four corpses were scattered about, creating a messy scene.

"Should we call 911 first?"
It looked like the area needed to be cleaned up.

Ikeda was transported to a hospital, while Jinwoo and Chartia went to a nearby police station.
Because Ikeda had vouched for their identities before he left, they weren't treated harshly, but the police officers' attitudes made it clear they found the whole thing a nuisance.
Jinwoo, who didn't know Japanese, stayed quiet while Chartia gave most of the testimony. From what he gathered, incidents like this were commonplace in Tokyo.

"It seems the police don't like to get involved in matters connected to the assassination guilds."
"Even when they're running wild in the city like this?"
"They say getting involved out of some misplaced sense of justice never ends well."
In Tokyo, assassins were like gangsters or yakuza, so even the police tended not to mess with them.
Unless they were detectives specifically assigned to that beat, regular police officers tried to stay as uninvolved as possible.

"The ones who died this time were apparently from the Tsukikage Guild. It means 'Moon Shadow.' They're a bunch of thugs who'll do anything for money."
"Aren't all people who kill for money thugs?"
"These guys don't just kill people; they sell drugs, sell women, they do it all."
"Good grief."
They knew who was behind it, but there was nothing they could do.
The last one had escaped, so they couldn't interrogate him, and they didn't know the location of their hideout.

'I did get a good look at the last guy's flame pattern, though.'
He felt like he would recognize him if they crossed paths... For now, he had official business, so maybe he'd look for him after taking care of that.
After a short wait at the police station, a new employee from the Management Bureau arrived.
Handed over to him, the two arrived at their scheduled hotel and checked in without further incident.

"Haaah, we can relax now that we're here. There are plenty of guards, and this hotel is particularly famous for its security, so it should be safe."
The new employee finally let out a big breath and spoke.
Like Ikeda, he seemed to have been tense, worried they might be attacked on the way.
"You just arrived today, and you've had an unpleasant incident, so please get some rest. If you need a guide, we can arrange one for you."
"That's alright."
Chartia declined the employee's offer. She had been to Tokyo before, so a guide wasn't necessary.
"More importantly, can you tell us about the Tsukikage Guild? The ones who attacked us."
"They're just thugs you can find anywhere. Their skills are decent enough that they've formed an organization, but they're trash with no honor or pride."
"Instead of that, do you know their hideout or a club they frequent?"
"I'm not sure about that... Should I look into it?"
"Please do."
The employee said he would and withdrew. After he left and the two were alone in the room, Chartia pushed her hair back and spoke.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up. He's making a fuss about looking into it, but he doesn't seem to have any intention of actually doing it."
"That's what it looks like."
"Well, I've traveled around the world a lot, and in the end, you have to take care of yourself. Foreigners aren't as uniformly kind as you might think."
"I got a look at the face of the one who ran away. Let's look for him later."
"So you have no intention of letting this go either, Jinwoo."
Chartia clapped her hands, pleased. As someone who had wandered foreign lands with no connections, she had her own philosophy, and one part of it was to never let the locals look down on you.
Once they looked down on you, you'd be endlessly picked on and taken advantage of. You needed the mindset to always pay back what you received.

"Anyway, get some rest today. Just in case, keep this in your room."
Chartia took out a potted plant and placed it next to the bed. It was a plant with thin, thread-like vines that hung down below the pot, and at first glance, it just looked pretty.
"If an intruder comes in during the night, it will tie them up on its own. Still, don't let your guard down completely. Be careful."
"Yes, thank you."
He thanked her for her consideration and they parted ways. Chartia's room was right next door.
After she left, he flopped onto the soft bed and closed his eyes.
For a 5-star hotel, it had a rather plain feel. It seemed to focus more on security than on flashy decorations.
The security was said to be excellent, and the interior design seemed to further emphasize that feature to the guests.
On the way up to the rooms, not just in the lobby, they had encountered several security guards in black suits and sunglasses, all of whom were said to be at least B-class Hunters.

'Being a Hunter doesn't mean you just go into Gates all the time.'
There were people like the current Jinwoo who took on side jobs when no Gates were open, and there were also many who treated Gates as a side job and had a main profession.
The agents working at this hotel were probably similar. The labor costs must have been astronomical, but the room rates were just as high.
In any case, the Tokyo Management Bureau was covering all their expenses during their stay, so it was no concern of Jinwoo's.
Jinwoo took a nap during his brief downtime and woke up in the evening.

He then ordered the room service he'd only ever heard about and had dinner with Chartia. It was worth the high price; the taste was outstanding.
"This fish is quite good."
"I agree. It pairs well with the wine, too."
The main dish was a white fish fillet drizzled with a creamy white sauce.
For Jinwoo, whose experience with fish dishes consisted of simply grilling, boiling, or chopping it up for a spicy stew, it was a dish he was tasting for the first time.
The aroma of the fish that filled his nasal passages was fragrant and not at all fishy. It was cooked to perfection, crumbling apart the moment it entered his mouth.
They finished off the dessert of fruit and a roll cake and passed the time idly while looking at the night view.
After such a satisfying "hotel-cation," the next day came.
The employee who came to the hotel lobby had a woman Jinwoo had never seen before with him.
With Chartia acting as interpreter, Jinwoo exchanged greetings with her.

"Hello! I'm Ayaka from the Shirata Guild! I'm A-class, and my main position is a shield bearer."
"I'm Kang Jinwoo. As you've heard, I'm E-class. It's an embarrassing rank to introduce in front of an A-class."
"Oh, not at all. Your rank is something that eventually goes up if you frequent Gates. If anything, it's people with unique abilities like you, Mr. Jinwoo, who become great later on."
She was a talkative woman who was good with flattery.
He knew she was just saying it, but it didn't feel bad. It meant she was trying to be considerate, after all.

"This might be a rude question, but... is the Shirata Guild also an assassination guild?"
In contrast, Jinwoo's question showed no such consideration. But he couldn't not ask, so he put it to her directly.
Ayaka immediately jumped up and denied it.
"Of course not! We don't have any hyenas like that in our guild! We're a traditional guild where everyone has raised their rank by properly exploring Gates!"
It didn't seem like she was lying...

"Jinwoo. Could I talk with her for a moment?"
Just then, Chartia asked for a moment and took Ayaka somewhere with her.
He wondered where she was suddenly taking her, but Jinwoo waited patiently.
A short while later, Ayaka returned, her face looking somewhat dazed, with a trace of drool at the corner of her mouth. A strange purple powder was smeared on her cheek.
"It's certain they're not an assassination guild."
Bringing back Ayaka, who looked anything but normal, Chartia smiled brightly and said.
What on earth had she done...? Did she feed her some kind of truth serum?

'An S-class is an S-class, I guess.'
She was always so kind to him that he hadn't realized, but an S-class was an S-class.
It meant she had survived in Gates for that long, so it was plausible she had a few methods for extracting information.

"Hah!"

Ayaka's senses returned about ten minutes later. Only then could Jinwoo properly discuss the matter at hand.
"The job is simple. Ten members of the Shirata Guild, including myself, will accompany you as the breakthrough team. All you need to do, Mr. Jinwoo, is point out the Core's location. We're all A-class, so you can leave the fighting to us."
"I heard Elf monsters are appearing..."
"Don't worry. We've prepared perfect countermeasures."
Ayaka's plan was simple.
What made Elves tricky was their mobility and their long-range attack capability, represented by their bows.
If you tried to catch them, they would flee with their quick mobility, and from a distance, they would shoot their bows again. They were difficult opponents to chase down and finish off.
But conversely, it meant they had almost no stopping power.
"That's why our Shirata Guild was chosen as the assault team. When it comes to defensive abilities, no one in Tokyo can match us."
"That's reassuring."
Jinwoo recalled his chase with the Dark Elves. Indeed, just having a shield could block most arrows.
If they had defensive abilities on top of that, it would be even better.

"Shall we head out right away, then?"
"What? Right now?"
"Do you need to prepare?"
"No, the guild members are all on standby, but I didn't expect you to be so motivated."
She meant that since it was another country's problem, she hadn't expected him to be so proactive.
To the grateful Ayaka, Jinwoo shrugged and replied.
"Something else has come up."
It was better to get necessary tasks out of the way quickly. Jinwoo was the type to finish his vacation homework as much as possible in the first week.

Ayaka had chartered a 25-seater bus and had her guild members on standby.
After exchanging greetings with the Shirata guild members on the bus, including the driver, Jinwoo took a seat.
The bus started with a loud roar and departed for the outskirts of Tokyo.
Jinwoo sat alone by the window with his eyes closed, while Chartia, sitting next to Ayaka, was getting information about the Erosion.

"This Erosion occurred over a mountain, and the tricky part is that it's located where a mountain fortress is."
"A mountain fortress, as in an old castle?"
"Yes. In reality, it's an old cultural heritage site that would crumble easily, but inside an Erosion, objects become much harder, don't they? The fortress has become almost like a real stronghold."
"The fact that it's on a mountain is another headache."
A castle built on flat ground would have been tricky enough, but this one was built on a mountain. And to top it off, the ones roaming inside were Elves with bows.
Just hearing about it suggested a difficult conquest.
"Still, there's no guarantee the Core is there. If it's on the flatlands instead of the mountain, it'll be over quickly."
Ayaka said with a measure of optimism.
And a short while later, the party arrived in front of the Erosion, entered nervously, and...
"Hmm, the Core seems to be over on that mountain."
As Jinwoo pointed to the mountain where the fortress was located, Ayaka wiped her face.
As they say, a bad feeling is always right.

"It can't be helped. Let's go."
They couldn't give up just because it was in a difficult place. The Erosion had already progressed significantly and might reach the city if it grew any larger.
With support having come all the way from Seoul, and even an S-class Hunter with them, they had to clear it now, no matter what.
"This is the entrance. You have to be really careful from here on."
The party, already tense, visibly stiffened at the mountain's entrance.
All ten members were holding shields large enough to cover their entire bodies, and Jinwoo and Chartia also received shields to block the front.
Like that, the party advanced into the mountain as if they were a single body.

Fwoosh-sh-sh-sh-shik!
As soon as they entered, a rain of black arrows poured down from the sky. Arrows made from the Erosion's energy.
Arrows with more power than ordinary ones battered the shield formation countless times.
"Don't stop, advance!"
"Yes, sir!"
At Ayaka's signal, they began their ascent toward the mountain fortress.
In the past, the fortress would have been built on rugged mountain terrain, but in modern times, it was a tourist spot. The path was relatively well-maintained, making the advance more manageable than expected.

'Still, it doesn't look easy.'
But even taking that into account, the rain of arrows was no simple matter.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of arrows poured down without stopping, making his recent fight with the Dark Elves feel like child's play.
The most important difference was that the Dark Elves did not have an infinite supply of arrows. But the arrows the monsters were firing now were made from the Erosion's energy, making them practically limitless.
Even if they had lost their sense of self and become monsters, Elves were master archers. Positioned in the mountain fortress and firing a bottomless quiver of arrows, there was no easy way to break through.
But then, suddenly.
Jinwoo felt a very strange sense of unease.

'What is this?'
An unease that only he could feel in this place.
He lowered his shield and, as if possessed, stepped forward and out of the shield formation.

"Jinwoo!"
"Mr. Jinwoo! Where are you going!?"
Chartia and Ayaka immediately screamed. But Jinwoo was preoccupied with confirming the source of his unease.

'What. What are they trying to do?'
Among the arrows pouring down enough to cover the sky, not a single one was aimed at Jinwoo.
They were all shot only at the party members beside him; there wasn't even an arrow that landed at Jinwoo's feet.
Even when he lowered his shield and stood with his arms spread wide, they all missed.
It wasn't that Jinwoo had some kind of telekinesis that bent the arrows. And it was impossible for the master archer Elves to have missed.
They simply weren't shooting at him.
Belatedly noticing the same sense of unease, Chartia and Ayaka stared at the scene, their faces filled with shock.