Im Ilseong and Kim Hyeonki walked into the lobby of Hotel Naru. A grand space t them, but the exquisiteness of such buildings had stopped to baffle them for a long ti now. They walked up to the receptionist, a lady who seed to be in her early twenties, and got straight to what had brought them there in the first place.
“Good morning, sirs,” the receptionist greeted. “What can I assist you with?”
Kim Hyeonki took the initiative. “We’re here to et with Greta Kaufmann,” he said. “Can you let them know we’re here?”
The receptionist’s brows jumped up. “Ah. Mr. Im Ilseong and Mr. Kim Hyeonki?” She sounded very elated. Then she bowed deeply. “Thank you for all you do to keep us citizens safe. We may not ntion it, but we are all truly grateful.”
Im Ilseong felt a small lump in his throat at those words. It had been a while since he’d felt like he had actually managed to do anything to keep anyone safe. His students were constantly placed in the midst of danger, and he couldn’t even manage to keep his own staff safe. He was undeserving of her thanks.
“Ms. Greta did let us know about your arrival,” the young lady continued. Then she turned to another staff mber, who was standing so few steps away, sneaking glances at the two n of renown in the world of Mages. “Will you take them to her, John?”
John nodded and hurried over. “Right this way, please?”
Im Ilseong and Kim Hyeonki followed behind the lad, and they were led into the hotel’s restaurant. Just like the lounge, it too was a splendid sight to behold, ensuring the exquisiteness of the hotel was not even for a second in doubt. But the most fascinating sight of it all, was that it was overlooking the Han river.
This wasn’t news to Im Ilseong. But staring at the river just on the other side of the window panes of the restaurant reminded him of how things had escalated with the Blackguards in the past few days, and the death of Dmitri Volkov. Regardless of what the man had been involved in, he was still not only a lecturer at Prestige Academy, but Nikolai’s brother. Im Ilseong had lived in the presence of death before, and yet he was still unsure how to break the news to Nikolai.
“There she is,” the lad said, gesturing at a lady seated at the end of the restaurant, close to the window, her legs crossed as she filled her mouth with the food before her.
“Thank you,” Kim Hyeonki said, patting the lad on his shoulder. Then he walked towards Greta Kaufmann. Im Ilseong did the sa.
Not long later, they arrived before the lovely lady. She raised her green eyes to behold them, picking up a napkin to wipe her relatively thin lips. Then she tucked a strand of her quite short light-brown hair behind her ears, and for so reason, that action made her straight pronounced nose and her strong jawline unmistakable.
“Welco,” she said, smoothening her white blouse. Then she gestured at the seats across from her. “If you will?”
Kim Hyeonki and Im Ilseong cleared their throats in sync before settling down into their seats. They took a brief glance at themselves, the discussion they’d had in the past few days and while in the car, replaying in their heads as they decided which route they would take the conversation.
The first thing was to be polite.
“It’s a pleasure to et you, Mrs. Greta Kaufmann. I hope your flight was well.”
“Miss,” she corrected.
Im Ilseong pursed his lips and nodded. “That is my mistake, Ms. Greta.”
“Please, call Greta,” she said. “As for my flight. Köln to Seoul is quite the distance. I was just one second away from jet lag before we landed, thankfully. Besides that and the fact that I had to starve myself for about twenty hours, it was good, thank you.”
Hyeonki blinked. “My experiences made believe that food is usually served in planes.”
“Oh, they are,” she replied. “But they could have been poisoned. You can never be too careful in this line of business.”
Hyeonki and Ilseong exchanged looks, then glanced at the empty plates before her and slightly tilted their heads.
Greta noticed that.
“I made it a point to have the chef serve my al himself,” she said with a smile. “That way, if anything happens there’ll be a specific culprit to apprehend and the proceedings will proceed far smoother; unlike with an aircraft which will make the whole process a lot more complicated. The less people involved in an assasination, the easier it is to find the culprit. That is my rule. But enough of the topic of near-death experiences. Let’s talk about death, shall we? What do you have for ?”
Hyeonki raised a brow. “We sent every detail about the events to the Council of Mages. There is no way they have sent you here without briefing you, right?”
Greta humd. “They did brief . But act like I know nothing on the matter. I would very much love to hear the unedited version of the events which passed through eyes of scrutiny before being sent. Give it to raw.”
Ilseong resisted the urge to glance at his old pal one more ti. This had not been part of the plan to ensure this conversation did not drag out more than was necessary.
The Council of Mages were complicated people. There was a possibility that this case would not be solved by just finding out what exactly had happened to Dmitri Volkov, but end when so sort of dirt has been picked on from Ilseong and Hyeonki, enabling them to be sanctioned, and if possible, removed from their positions.
This would be the wrong ti for such a thing to happen.
Hyeonki sighed. “Understood,” he said. “Then, if you will be all ears.” Greta folded her arms and nodded. “The Blackguards, as we know them, is the na of a criminal organization in the shadows of Seoul, perhaps even in the whole of Korea. What we assu they are engaged in, as stated in the incident report, is in the unusual appearance of Dungeons in the last few months, contributing to an excruciating increase in the number of casualties in both Mages and citizens, and also in the production of a psychoactive drug. This drug is being sold in the Mage black market, passed around mostly Mages classified as D-Class, as they are rather adamant on seeking any ans to enhance their capabilities. However, it has a dangerous side-effect. Which is turning whoever uses it into a Berserker. A rampager, losing all their senses and on the search for destruction.”
“Which was what happened to the boy, Nikolai Volkov, I assu, Mr. Im Ilseong?” Greta asked, her attention shifting from Hyeonki to Ilseong.
Ilseong nodded. “I take full responsibility for that.”
“Oh, I’m sure you will,” she said, still wearing her smile. But nothing about her words were amiable. “On the other hand, it’s quite a nasty thing that has happened to the Volkov family under your roof, headmaster. Care to touch on that?”
Ilseong took a deep breath and exhaled. “It is no excuse, but I had no idea what Professor Dmitri Volkov was involved with, and not that he was particularly aggressive to his brother.”
“That just speaks volus as to your carelessness, headmaster.” Greta shrugged.
“A rather harsh judgent, don’t you think?” Hyeonki chid in.
“You’re not any saint in the matter, guildmaster,” she retorted. “I’ll get to you soon enough.” She turned back to Ilseong. “You see, it is my job to get to the bottom of this matter, determine how much danger these ‘Blackguards’ pose to the world of Mages at large, and rate how severe your incompetence—you both’s incompetence—are in the grand sche of things. And I’ll be honest, things aren’t looking good so far.” She leaned back into her seat. “Let give you the benefit of the doubt here. Assu that Dmitri was in possession of so fabulous art to escape your scrutiny as a headmaster and involve himself with a villain organization, and even push his own brother into associating with them. After the whole incident with the boy, what did you do to ensure that no such thing happened again?”
“He reported the matter to the Consortium Guild,” Hyeonki said, his tone a lot deeper. “It was not his place to take action.”
“Ah. But it was, dear guildmaster,” Greta replied. “If I’m correct, Dmitri Volkov kept on being a professor at the academy after the incident, yes?”
Ilseong’s heart raced. But he tried his very best to subdue his emotions. He’d been in such situations more than a few tis in his life. He knew it was best to remain calm.
“You are right,” he said.
“I know I am,” Greta said. “Well, defend yourself.”
Ilseong knew that it would most likely not help exonerate him of the accusations, but he was well aware that this conversation was being recorded—they always were. Silence in such a situation would help solidify that he was entirely to bla. Even if it was a feeble lifeline, it was one nonetheless; he would take it.
“My responsibility is the success and wellbeing of my students. After I reported the incident to the Consortium Guild, I decided that it was no longer my place to be involved in the matter as I had passed it to the rightful authorities. Now, I understand how that might sound, considering that event put one of my students in a coma, but I assure you I took every variant into consideration. Suspending or relieving Professor Dmitri Volkov of his duties after such an incident would have roused suspicion between the students. Teenagers are prone to gossip and assumptions. They would have claid Professor Dmitri was at fault for what happened with his brother. That would take away their trust in their professors, and if that had happened, it would have affected their studies. Furthermore, I had no evidence that Professor Dmitri was actually involved. As stated in the incident report, Nikolai Volkov lost his mories, and he is the only one who knew what exactly happened.”
Greta listened attentively, took a deep breath, and exhaled.
“And this lack of evidence is why you were unable to pin the cri onto this Club Spiral?” she asked.
“Yes,” Hyeonki replied. “We searched the building, but there were no signs of drugs or anything incriminating.”
“And did you conduct this charge yourself?”
Hyeonki frowned. “My subordinate did. Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious? You both are very good friends. I assu if one of you could manage to be so undersighted that he didn’t notice a professor in his academy was in cohorts with a villain organization, then I will not put it past the other one.”
Hyeonki’s brows twitched. And despite the fury flashing onto his face, he managed to hold himself back from raining down fire onto the lady seated across from him.
“Set up a eting with this subordinate of yours. I would like to speak to him.”
Hyeonki took a second to answer. “I will.”
“Now. On the matter of Dmitri Volkov’s death.” She glanced at the Han river. “He was found on that shore, correct?”
“Correct.”
“And that’s how far from this Club Spiral?”
“About fifty miles.”
She picked up her pad and began to scroll through sothing.
“Images puts him at Club Spiral,” she mumbled, confirming to Ilseong that it was the pictures he had attached to the incident report sent to the Council of Mages. “Ti of death?”
“18:00,” Hyeonki replied.
“So six hours from when this picture was sent to you, right, Mr. Im Ilseong?” she asked.
Ilseong nodded.
She put down the pad and folded her arms again.
“Where did you get these pictures?” she asked.
“Like I noted in the report, they were from an anonymous email,” he replied.
“Yes, I got that. Let rephrase. Have you found the person who sent you these pictures?”
Ilseong paused. This was the whole point of why he and Hyeonki had co up with the whole plan of trying to make sure this whole conversation didn’t drag on for too long.
They had failed.
Finding out the person who had sent him the pictures hadn’t been that much of a hassle. A shoddy vpn stood no chance against the vast technology the Consortium Guild had in their possession. However, Ilseong had no intention of dragging the boy further in all this. He was to pretend like he never found out, and keep the secret of the death of a professor going on for a while longer until everything was resolved.
“Well, headmaster, is there sothing you want to say?” Greta pushed.
Ilseong took a second more, then sighed.
Lying would be foolish and definitely have its consequences. But he had no other choice.
“No,” he said. Hyeonki stole a brief glance at him. “I have no idea who sent those images.”
Greta narrowed her eyes on him. “Is that so?”
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