“it’s okay.”
Putting down the smartphone she was holding in her hand, Panoa said with an open face.
Mana answered as if she had been waiting.
“Has the council finally given permission?”
“They said it wouldn’t matter as long as it could be cleaned before the inspection. That much time is enough.”
“It wasn’t worth hitting the lobby for an entire month to roast the old men of Congress.”
As Mana said, rubbing her eyes tiredly, most of the work of the project team led by Panoa has been focused on lobbying the city council.
Even if everything goes perfectly well, it cannot be finalized without permission from the city government.
In other words, it was tantamount to saying that if the city council could turn a blind eye to it, Panoa would be able to pour all its energy into Cigar Bang without filtering.
“If it wasn’t for the agreement with the Dominion, this result would not have been possible. City government can’t afford to look elsewhere right now. We need to get things done quickly before the old people wipe their mouths.”
“I’ll have to tell the half-mage-nim about this.”
“okay. Before using our hands on the other side, we should attack first—”
Quaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!
Before Panoa could speak, the building shook faintly with the sound of an explosion coming from outside the window.
The wide-eyed Panoa and the hard-mouthed Mana gazed out the window at the same time as they gripped the armrests of the chairs.
The revolving door in front of Dyke’s headquarters was completely broken, and a body was strewn about in a large pit dug between them.
Seeing the bomb vest wrapped around her body and her exposed back, Mana sighed.
“Looks like you know you don’t have much time over there either.”
“……Is it a gang?”
“yes.”
Maya answered.
“It looks like the invitation was sent directly from the boss.”
Large letters written in blood on the fleshy back.
There was a message from Cigar Bang’s boss, Eden.
[Look at his face.]
Lennok
walked slowly into the bar, feeling the sharp stare sting his face.
Recently, I feel that the number of people recognizing him has increased considerably.
In the meantime, I have completed quite a few requests, but it was after the railway station operation that I felt that my gaze had changed decisively.
To be precise, it was after rumors began to spread that he killed Beck Clinton himself.
Since the magician faced and killed a spearman from the front, is it unavoidable that speculation about his ability is rampant?
A strange vigilance where goodwill and hostility coexist.
A strange feeling of uneasiness that they might meet somewhere in the future is conveyed through the drowsy air of the bar.
“………”
Although it was a little intrusive, Lennok wasn’t necessarily burdened by this kind of gaze.
I didn’t decide to team up with Dyke just to quickly build a reputation like this.
Although the process of bearing fruit did not go according to Lennok’s intention, he gained a lot from dealing with a gang that was holding onto an area like Ciger Bang.
To the point where I could feel it just by Jenny’s reaction.
“My profile views on the deep web exceeded four figures.”
“what?”
“It’s proof that your prospective customers have started to increase significantly. If Beck Clinton’s name is added to the career accumulated so far, it will gradually become a task to choose a commission.”
“…wasn’t he acquainted with Beck? You seem calmer than I thought.”
“I was just an old man obsessed with a useless name. How much shit did you usually do to get a seat in District 49? It’s rather fortunate that such an old bully is gone.”
There seemed to be no blur in Jenny’s words as she responded calmly.
“Did you see the message from Panoa?”
“okay. They said they sent a direct message from the gang boss.”
Lennok frowned as he said that.
Even though he sent a nuance that he wanted to talk about suicide bombing, the way he did it was too radical.
Or is the message just a justification and he just wanted to vent his anger?
“It is an ambiguous time. It’s too late to sort things out, and it’s too early to surrender.”
Lennox responded to Jenny’s murmur.
“It would be correct to see it as an intentional goal.”
“i think so too. Especially since Beck Clinton didn’t move right away when he died.”
The movement of the gang boss, who had not expressed any position until now, while sending reinforcements to the Scavenger 48 branch.
From Lennox’s point of view, it was a flow that had no choice but to be concerned.
Even more so when you consider that the opponent is a madman who carries out a terrorist attack on the company’s headquarters.
“Is it a coincidence that the raid happened just after Panoa had obtained tacit permission from the city government? He broke the unwritten rules of this floor, but considering the circumstances, he might have thought that he had to break the flow once.”
Jenny seemed more interested in inferring the thoughts of the gang boss than the current situation itself.
“You seem very interested.”
“It can only be. It’s a story that you can’t find easily even on this side of the earth, a wizard who came from Thorburn’s Mage Tower and came to this city and became a gang boss.”
She flashed her eyes sharply.
“If you are from those war entrepreneurs, it is understandable that you promoted the arms business together with the soldiers. Isn’t it natural that that’s what I learned from watching?”
Come to think of it, when Jenny first met Lennok, she said that she misunderstood that he was a wizard belonging to Thorburn’s Mage Tower.
Now that you’ve seen and heard how Lennok fights, you seem to know that he doesn’t just use thunderbolt magic, but if he uses lightning magic that much on this floor, it means he thinks of Thorburn.
Thorburn Mage Tower. Located in the remote desert of the southwestern part of the continent, it is the home of lightning-type magicians, the most popular and well-known lightning wizards, and money-crazy businessmen.
Beyond simply working as a mercenary, he extremely prefers to actively intervene in warfare and expand his influence to the outside world through such projects.
Because they strictly judged their position based only on their skills and performance, and ruthlessly discarded talents that fell behind, those from the Thorburn School generally meant those who could not overcome the fierce competition of the Mage Tower and were weeded out.
“I’ve worked with them before.”
“………..”
Lennok and Jenny turned their heads in silence at the voices coming from the side.
Dylan, who was sitting in the corner of the bar and munching on a sandwich, waved lightly.
“…..driving me crazy. When did you crawl in again?”
Jenny said it with an expression of disgust, but Dylan winked at Lennok without batting an eye.
“Have you been a partner for a long time?”
“Who is your partner?”
Dylan shook his shoulders with an exaggerated gesture at Lennox’s sullen reply.
“It’s a pity that you erased it from your memory already. Where is the close friendship that we forged while dealing with old crocodile together?”
“……The person whose back was folded by the Croken talks a lot.”
In fact, at that time, it was Lennok’s job to somehow gain time against Croken.
It wouldn’t be strange if Evelyn found them a little later, but the two were found with cold bodies.
Dylan twitched his lips behind the mask as if he was unfair.
“No, that was a problem that could not be solved even if our boss was there. Who the hell is dealing with a monster worth billions of cells?”
“…”
That is correct. It was just nonsensical to encounter such a strong person in the first request.
After working on this floor a few times, Lennok didn’t attach much importance to it anymore.
“Anyway, have I ever worked with the Thorburn School mages?”
“Okay, let’s talk about it sometime.”
Hearing Jenny’s reply as if he was fed up with it, Dylan excitedly began to unravel the story.
I came across them by chance at a request to transport supplies to an unknown front line, and all of them had extremely high noses and strong pride, and others said they didn’t treat them as human beings.
In the meantime, Lennok, who had been listening in one ear to the long speech mixed with obvious self-confidence, said that it was Dylan himself who contributed the most to the execution of the commission.
“So what do you want to say?”
Lennok has only worked with Dylan once, but not insignificant times he has chatted with him while sitting in a bar.
I can’t claim to know all that much about the man Dylan O’Casey, but at least Lennok knew a little bit about what a seasoned warrior he was.
He wasn’t careless enough to interrupt a conversation simply out of boredom, talking about a request he had experienced.
I can’t help but think that there is something else.
It was only then that Dylan shoved the rest of the sandwich into his mouth and cleared his throat.
“Big, these days, the cost of living is a lot… not enough.”
“I’m going crazy.”
Jenny muttered with an expressionless face.
“Even if Antares doesn’t have to work, he’ll take care of the basic salary, but he’s running around doing nonsense so he doesn’t have enough money for living, you stupid bastard.”
“I went to the casino these days… No, what am I talking about. Anyway, I need a client who can hire me behind the scenes.”
Dylan looked at Lennok as he said that.
“……..”
“This madman has even dabbled in gambling. Can I contact Antares?”
“Ah, I’ll just collect the principal and leave!”
Lennok let out a small sigh as he looked at Dylan, who behaved like a child.
It’s a person who can’t tell if he’s pleasant or innocent.
However, it was clear that he was at least a reliable colleague in the work area.
“Two thousand.”
Their eyes widened as if they didn’t know that Lennok would offer the ransom first, but Dylan came to his senses first.
“Four thousand. Instead, I will cooperate until the gang boss is decapitated.”
“Have you been listening all along?”
“There are rumors on this floor, but how can you not know?”
Lennok laughed as he watched Dylan bicker with Jenny.
“You’re repeating the sound of asking for 3,000 at a long time.”
“call.”
If you can hire one reliable potential for 30 million cells, that’s great.
Anyway, if you put the cost in front of Dyke, Panoa will take care of it. Originally, it was not even necessary to negotiate.
Looking at the two men shaking hands as if they had promised, Jenny shook her head.
“I think you and Van get along with Dylan and become similar.”
“Be careful what you say.”
She stuck her tongue out with an absurd face and suddenly put her head on the laptop under the bar.
“…I got a call from Panoa. He wants to talk about the last request.”
Lennox smiled faintly when he heard that.
Finally, this long collaboration with Dyke was coming to an end.
