Chapter 209

Whoosh-

Abgrund was currently flying in circles on Lea’s workshop ceiling, and Lea’s head spun around and around in sync with the black sword as her eyes followed it. He had headed to her workshop after treating Eun-Ha to a hearty meal to show her Abrgrund.

“Oh... oh wow...”

Even just feeling the waves of mana radiating from it, Lea could sense how extraordinary the sword was; its incredible craftsmanship captivated her. But she eventually noticed Se-Hoon’s gaze on her, prompting her to awkwardly clear her throat.

“

Ahem!

So, is this the final version?”

“For now.”

“I guess any more tweaking would just make it messy...”

The stronger the weapon, the easier it was for its enchantments to wear out—one of the primary reasons high-tier weapons were notoriously difficult to enchant.

And Lea understood that. She could understand why Se-Hoon had chosen to complete the sword without asking for her input, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t a little frustrated.

If this was how it was going to be, he shouldn’t have promised to let me enchant it...

She had studied relentlessly, pulling all-nighters, to seize the opportunity that would only come if she became the honor student of her department. She had even prepared dozens of enchantment designs over the past few days, just in case Se-Hoon came to her with any outrageous requests.

But now, all of that hard work felt pointless, making her pout in frustration.

“It's already a mess,” muttered Se-Hoon.

He called Abgrund down from the air and tapped the blade lightly.

“I managed to fixate the power of Boundaries in place, but the process of drawing it out is still too rough. While the sword is usable, its efficiency drops quickly, so it won’t last long.”

Lea’s eyes lit up. His words indicated that there was still room for improvement.

“How does it look? Can you fix the issue?” Se-Hoon asked.

“Of course!”

Far from being intimidated by the idea of enchanting a Legendary weapon, Lea’s enthusiasm burned even brighter. Her confidence, which had grown significantly upon becoming the honor student in her department, made Se-Hoon chuckle.

“Great. Do you already have some designs prepared?”

“Yup! I made plenty of them just for you, Boss.”

Wasting no time, Lea quickly went over to her desk and brought back a thick file full of enchantment patterns. Receiving it, Se-Hoon flipped through them casually.

Hmm, these connect the concept of celestial bodies and the night sky well.

Luckily, many of the designs aligned with what he had in mind, so there were plenty of options to work with. He continued flipping through the pages, stopping on one particular design that caught his eye.

“These... are these my Inkstone Bracelets?”

His eyes had landed on a page with drawings of four bracelets.

Looking over, Lea nodded in response. “Yeah, that’s right. Since you’ve been using them for a long time and they have a resonating feature, I thought they would make a suitable control device.”

“That’s... not bad.”

The idea was to inscribe each bracelet with an enchantment related to a specific celestial body and then connect them to Abgrund for control whenever needed. It was a solid activation method that used the Inkstone Bracelets, which had become less and less useful as Se-Hoon’s physical abilities improved. Overall, it was a great idea.

Deciding it was worth exploring further, Se-Hoon took off the Inkstone Bracelets from his wrists and ankles and handed them to Lea, along with Abgrund.

“Go and take a look. We still don’t know if it’ll work in practice.”

“

Ooh.

Got it. I’ll take good care of these.”

Lea accepted the bracelets with both hands, grinning as she grabbed some measurement tools and began examining them alongside Abgrund.

“Oh wow... these are in better shape than I thought.”

Her eyes sparkled as she inscribed a light enchantment onto the Inkstone Bracelets and Abgrund, observing their reactions. She looked like a child with a new toy.

Chuckling at the sight, Se-Hoon returned to reviewing the remaining designs. With the two of them quietly focusing on their tasks a peaceful silence fell before it was broken by Se-Hoon, who suddenly remembered he hadn’t said something important.

“Oh, right. I fought a Single Number in Germany.”

“Really? Glad you didn’t get hur—wait, what did you just say?”

Lea, who had just been absentmindedly responding while focused on her work, suddenly looked up in shock. Her behavior was a stark contrast to Se-Hoon’s, who was still casually flipping through designs.

“I said, I fought a Single Number. It seemed like it was there to kill me.”

“...”

Unable to find even a hint of seriousness in his tone, Lea just stared at him. She felt foolish for even being so surprised and couldn’t help but sigh in exasperation.

“Forget the designs. Explain everything in detail,” she demanded.

“So...”

Se-Hoon briefly summarized the attack by Hraesvelgr, the Single Number. Then, when Lea heard the full story, she narrowed her eyes.

“It sounds like she was making good on a threat.”

“Probably. She warned you not to stand out, but then you got picked as the honor student, so...”

“...”

Lea’s eyes darkened as she listened. Puppeteer had seriously attempted to kill or injure Se-Hoon as a warning for not heeding her earlier threat. It made her feel both anger toward Puppeteer and guilt for being the reason Se-Hoon had faced danger. And those emotions simmered inside her, becoming an even stronger rage.

“

Whew

...”

Yet she quickly calmed herself, rubbing her face with both hands before sweeping her hair back and then asking calmly, “Did you manage to find out anything?”

Rather than regretting what had happened, she chose to focus on finding a solution. It made Se-Hoon smile; she finally learned to regain her composure.

“I discovered the location of Puppeteer’s hidden base. It’s where the Single Number tried to escape at the end, so I’m pretty sure it’s legitimate.”

“Her hidden base, huh...”

Lea’s expression grew complicated. Typically, a hidden base would be a critical location where one could uncover the enemy’s secret, but with Puppeteer, it was different.

It’s most likely... just another warehouse.

Puppeteer and her puppets could endlessly revive themselves in new bodies as long as their main bodies remained intact. Because of that, they often hid their main body in a base, which usually just stored materials for creating new bodies. That was why rarely any useful clues would be found when fighting one of her puppets.

And if it gets discovered, they abandon the base immediately.

To Puppeteer, both the Single Numbers and her normal puppets were mere tools. If she perceived a direct threat to her, she would unhesitantly cut them off completely.

So then, was there actually anything to be gained from the information? Troubled, Lea’s thoughts became complicated.

“Don’t worry.”

But then Se-Hoon smiled confidently and reassured her.

“If the base is still there, it’s definitely not an ordinary one.”

His tone wasn’t speculative; it contained near certainty.

Lea looked at him curiously. “How do you know?”

“Because the Chairman already cleared out a bunch of them before.”

After the attack by Puppeteer at the Black Lotus Seas, Ludwig took action himself to eliminate many of Puppeteer’s bases. Knowing his personality, it was likely that he had destroyed every single base he could possibly find.

Plus, since that Single Number tried to flee to it, it’s probably a relay station.

Puppeteer’s relay stations were command centers for controlling bases and puppets. While it wasn’t the main headquarters, if they were lucky, they might be able to find clues there that led to it.

“

Hm...

What’s your plan, then? Are you going to gather a squad and launch a surprise attack?”

“No, I’m thinking about infiltrating first.”

“Infiltration, huh...? That sounds really tough.”

Lea frowned at the thought of sneaking into a stronghold valued by the meticulous Puppeteer. The security would be no joke.

Seeing Lea’s apprehensive expression, Se-Hoon calmly reassured her.

“Don’t worry too much about it. As long as we’re well prepared, it’ll be easier than you think.”

“That’s easy to say.... So? When are you planning to move?”

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

“She’s probably on high alert, so I’ll wait a bit. Besides, I have somewhere to go tomorrow anyway.”

“...You’ve really got some nerves of steel, huh?” She looked at him in disbelief.

Se-Hoon had barely escaped an assassination attempt by a Single Number just a few days ago, yet he was talking about leaving Babel again. Lea couldn’t help but think that maybe the Demon Force would mistake Se-Hoon for having some hidden leverage, and that’s why they hadn’t taken him out yet.

Smirking, Se-Hoon nonchalantly replied, “It’s all about confidence. It’s no big deal.”

“No big deal, my ass.... Anyway, why are you going out this time?”

At her question, Se-Hoon snickered as he fiddled with the designs in his hands.

“I’m planning to pull a switcheroo.”

***

In the outskirts of Aarhus, Denmark—a port city by the sea—the first-floor lobby of a massive factory was bustling with people. They were all promising students who gathered from across the world to participate in the field study. Each of them was a skilled and well-known talent in their respective fields, recognizing one another as peers and exchanging greetings.

“I hear the new automaton models are no joke.”

“They’re saying they’ll be able to handle B-rank danger zones by themselves soon.”

“The prosthetics sector is also seeing some strong progress thanks to their collaboration with the Pilgrimage Church...”

Given the setting, most of the conversations were focused on topics related to the Marionette Factory. However, one topic not related to the factory made their gazes keep turning in one direction as they chatted.

“...”

“...”

On one of the lobby sofas, a black-haired young man slouched lazily. And next to him, with one seat in between, was a silver-haired girl focused on her phone. They both had such fierce expressions and intimidating auras that no one dared to approach them.

So that’s Lee Se-Hoon.... He seems more laid-back than I expected.

It's actually the person next to him who makes it harder to approach.

Meanwhile, the two in question remained entirely uninterested, ignoring everyone conversing around them. But at some point, the silver-haired girl, Luize, couldn’t ignore the continual glances toward them anymore, so she raised her eyes from her phone and shot a sharp look at her surroundings.

“

Ahem.

”

“So, what were we talking about earlier?”

Intimated, the others all quickly averted their gazes, fearing they might provoke her. And at the sight, Luize frowned briefly and then tapped Se-Hoon’s leg with her foot.

“Hey, because of you, people keep staring at me.”

“What are you, a kid? Getting annoyed over people looking at you?”

Ignoring him, Luize continued to tap his leg with her foot. To an outsider, it would seem like she was irritated, but in reality, her actions were more about masking her nervousness.

Is this how she hides her feelings?

If she showed any signs of anticipating an attack, their enemies would realize that their presence had been discovered. Se-Hoon found it impressive how quickly Luize had adapted, despite not being with him for long.

Looking toward her, he asked, “Well, what do you think?”

“About what?”

“About the facilities here.”

Quickly understanding what he meant, Luize subtly surveyed their surroundings.

“I’m not sure yet.”

“Take a closer look. It might be useful later on.”

Although he could sense most things, Luize could possibly pick up on details he hadn’t. Nodding, Luize went back to scanning the area, and that was when the guides who had gone inside earlier returned.

“Attention, everyone.”

Lan Fei, who was in charge of the group from Babel, gathered the fifteen students and held up a badge.

“You must wear this access badge at all times while inside. If you enter an unauthorized area, security will be on you immediately, so try not to cause any trouble.”

Se-Hoon eyed the badge with interest.

An access badge...

If these badges regulate access to two different areas, obtaining someone else's badge might allow him to move around more freely. He pondered different possibilities as Lan Fei continued his explanation.

“The factory is divided into three sectors. Today, we’ll be touring the prosthetic manufacturing facilities and witnessing a simple production process. Any questions?”

The students remained silent, so Lan Fei began handing out the badges.

“Come up and get one each.”

Each student received a badge, and upon receiving his, Se-Hoon examined the structure carefully as he put it on. A bit later, after he had gained a rough understanding of how it worked, Lan Fei suddenly called out to him.

“Lee Se-Hoon.”

Se-Hoon looked up in mild surprise.

“What made you join this field study?”

Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Se-Hoon asked in return, “Do I need a specific reason?”

“It’s not that, but...”

Lan Fei struggled to say something before eventually shaking his head.

“Never mind, just forget I asked.”

He brushed it off as if nothing had happened, but Se-Hoon couldn’t help but find his behavior suspicious.

What’s up with him?

Clearly, Lan Fei was hiding something, and he wasn’t doing a great job of concealing it. But after a moment of thought, Se-Hoon decided to let it go for now.

I’ll deal with him later.

His priority right now was Dawn. Lan Fei's problem could wait.

Fully setting those thoughts aside, Se-Hoon contemplated how to proceed with his investigation of the facility.

“Ah, so you’re Lee Se-Hoon?” A voice suddenly called out to him from the side.

Turning toward the voice, Se-Hoon found a young man in a suit approaching.

With dark green hair and a friendly expression, the man seemed awkward in his suit, looking more like a technician than a salesman.

“I’ve heard a lot about you. You look even more impressive in person. You’re taller than I expected, too.”

The young man looked at him in awe, as if he were meeting a celebrity. Confused, Se-Hoon glanced sideways at Lan Fei for an explanation.

“This is Allen Morgan, the chief researcher at the Marionette Factory. He’ll be guiding us today.”

At the introduction, Allen extended his gloved right hand with a bright smile. “Pleasure to meet you.”

Se-Hoon hesitated for a moment. Everything about Allen’s appearance and demeanor seemed ordinary enough, so Se-Hoon shook his hand. But then the moment their hands touched, Se-Hoon felt something.

Throb-

A greenish wisp of mana surged into Se-Hoon’s body. Examining it, Se-Hoon became certain.

“The pleasure’s mine.”

The man before him, Allen Morgan, was a Region.