Chapter 30

◈ Episode 30: Madam Anne propped herself against the wall, a round tray tucked under her arm, one hand shoved into the pocket of her apron.

She looked so at ease, so completely absorbed into the atmosphere of the Anaconda tavern, that you'd never guess she was a member of the Imperial Army—let alone the Special Forces.

Of course, once I get back to the unit, I'll have to sand the smoothness out of my own speech.

"Hey, Mago! Take the order sheet!"

My senior shouted from across the room.

She was the same woman who'd shown me around on my first day. Since yesterday, at her insistence, I'd been calling her "senior."

I took the order sheet from her and headed up to the second-floor kitchen.

It was the same routine, over and over.

From the second floor, I watched the stairs leading to the third.

"To think they wouldn't even let me set foot on the third floor, let alone the fourth..."

A staircase I couldn't climb.

Only half of the Anaconda building was permitted to me.

It felt like an enormous fortress wall.

The forbidden spaces—the third and fourth floors.

I suppose I could force my way through if I really wanted to.

But.

"Senior, I haven't seen the manager in the shop at all."

"Madam Anne? She's away on business."

"Business?"

"Some punk took the manager's cash and skipped town. She's chasing him to the ends of the earth."

"Is that really what you'd call a business trip?"

"It's still tavern work, isn't it?"

She shrugged.

"Yeah, that's right—he looked just like that..."

She pointed at a customer.

A man with short-cropped hair, a curled-up mustache catching my eye.

"Huh? Yeah, just like that..."

"Why?"

"Because he looks almost identical!"

"Couldn't it just be him?"

"It could be... You know, you're right!"

Without another word, she grabbed a mop, held it like a club, and went after him.

"Do you know where you're waltzing in?!"

"Wait, wait...! I came back to put the money in! Swear to heaven, I don't want to get struck by lightning!"

The man ripped off his fake mustache in one motion and waved his hands. The customers on the first floor stared at him with wide eyes.

"Here! I'll return everything! See? It's fine once I give it back, right?"

He upended his leather bag and shook out a bundle of cash.

"There, satisfied? Please, put in a good word for me with Madam Anne."

"Get lost," my senior snapped, still gripping the mop.

"Ah, okay! I wasn't planning on showing up again anyway. So... we're good?"

The man fled out of the tavern. The customers on the first floor quickly averted their eyes, going back to their conversations as if nothing had happened.

"Senior, aren't you going to chase him?"

"It's fine..."

My senior set the mop down properly.

"He returned all the money, sure, but does that make it right? Can things really just end like that?"

"Madam Anne will deal with it her own way."

"Still..."

I pushed open the tavern door and scanned the street for the man who'd thrown down the cash and bolted.

I spotted his retreating back in the distance.

He was too far gone to catch now.

That's what I thought.

Then a thunderclap split the air, rattling my eardrums.

I knew what it was the instant I heard it. Memories from my past life surfaced on their own.

– Swear to heaven, I don't want to get struck by lightning!

The thief had said he feared divine punishment, feared lightning.

It wasn't just a figure of speech.

A thick trunk with thin branches.

A whip-like bolt of lightning appeared.

A thunderbolt out of a clear blue sky.

The blue discharge shot horizontally.

Not from top to bottom, but from left to right.

It streaked like an arrow.

And in the blink of an eye.

Literally.

The blinding flash forced my eyes shut.

Blue, then afterimage.

The light was so intense it lingered on the inside of my eyelids, refusing to fade.

A hole tore through the back of the fleeing man.

He crumpled, lifeless.

"Madam Anne..."

To continue my earlier train of thought:

I could probably force my way up to the fourth floor of the Anaconda by sheer power alone.

It's what comes after that I can't handle.

Just as Marjelo Arnis had a sword that gave life and a spear that took it, Madam Anne—the Vampire Lord—wielded a magic tool as well.

If I'm not careful, it'll be my body that gets punched through by that lightning.

The bolt's effective range was nearly infinite.

It reached everywhere.

Until it hit an obstacle, it kept going, brazen and unstoppable.

Dodging was also impossible.

No one can evade lightning by sight.

Just like that thief who'd stolen from the tavern.

Once you become the Anaconda's prey, there's no escape.

If you fall under its suspicion, that massive body coils around you and squeezes the breath from your lungs.

The red sword I received from El.

That cross-shaped blade is the only counter.

Until I could use it, I had no choice but to keep playing the role of a staff member and investigate the Anaconda from the inside.

"Oh, my knees..."

Madam Anne shuffled past me.

She looked like a woman in her mid-sixties. Silver hair. An old lady.

She was wearing a dress with almost no skin showing. It didn't really suit her.

She walked over to the man who'd been killed instantly.

"You dared to run off with my money?"

"Madam Anne."

I called out. She turned her head.

"He returned the money before he died."

"Returned it? Now, of all times?"

"I figure he decided his life was worth more than the cash. Looks like it was too late, though."

"I see. And who are you?"

"My name is Mago. I'm the new hire at the Anaconda. This is my third day."

I offered a respectful nod to the Vampire Lord's crimson eyes.

*

"In the end, she didn't even come back to the Anaconda."

Madam Anne had just walked away without another word.

Yeah, keep up the good work, Majo.

That was it.

She even got my name wrong.

And of all things, she called me by that unlucky nickname.

The other half of the Anaconda—the third and fourth floors—required Madam Anne's approval to even glimpse.

Changing her indifferent attitude toward me became my first goal.

Beyond that, earning her trust.

"Madam Anne's busy preparing another tavern," my senior answered.

"Another tavern?"

"She bought another building recently. She's getting it ready. Still just a warehouse for now."

"Must be nice. Owning a building."

"Don't envy her too fast. She owns most of the entertainment district."

"So that's why it's fine?"

"What do you mean, fine?"

"She killed a man in broad daylight on the street."

"The rumor that the Anaconda's funds were stolen had already spread everywhere. Everyone knew how furious Madam Anne was. No one in the entertainment district can defy her. She owns the place, after all."

"Hmm..."

After that, I worked like crazy.

Before I knew it, it was dawn.

My senior started turning off the first-floor lights one by one.

"Mago, you should head home too."

"That's strange. I've been working here for three days, and I've never once stayed for closing."

"Huh?"

"Why do you always send me off first? I'm the rookie, aren't I?"

"Exactly because you're the rookie. You don't know the ropes yet, so just go home early. Oh, Mago. Where do you live?"

"Are you running some kind of extra shift?"

"What are you talking about? We want to go home too!"

"That's fair. Of course you'd want to clock out early."

"Yeah, everyone's like that."

"Yeah, everyone. Any person... would naturally think that way."

*

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Hyung-nim?"

Three question marks.

And three people to match.

The moment I stepped out of the Anaconda, two men emerged from the tavern across the street.

"Hyung-nim!"

One of them, a square-jawed guy, waved his hand eagerly.

"Mago hyung-nim!"

The fourth round of the training camp.

Simultaneously, the second invasion.

The thieves who'd delivered the wagon loaded with orc models to the training grounds.

It was the thief boss and his right-hand man.

The boss let out a long sigh.

He seemed to have given up on his right-hand man calling me "hyung-nim" at this point.

"White Hair, what brings you here?"

"Working."

"Huh? Shouldn't you be here?"

"What do you mean?"

"You don't belong in a place like this. Unless it's part of some mission?"

"I'm here as a free man, not a soldier. Want me to show you the mark?"

"Never mind, never mind. So Majo's 'ma' is here. Where's the 'jo'?"

I'd heard that nickname twice today already.

"None of your business."

"Did you quit the Imperial Army or something?"

"Pfft, is that really true, hyung-nim?"

The right-hand man's eyes went wide as he stepped closer.

"If you've got something to say to me, let's find someplace quieter."

"What's wrong with the entertainment district? Enjoy yourself while you can, White Hair. You never know when you'll kick the bucket."

"You've been hiding out in the capital, and now you're finally starting to feel it, huh?"

"Yeah, you're right."

The thief boss's expression hardened.

"Now I get it."

He crossed the narrow alley and stopped right in front of me. His right-hand man hesitated before shuffling after him.

"If you hadn't warned us, we'd have been wiped out in the capital. I heard about it too. While we were gone, the citizens hid in the tunnels we dug. That's why you told me to take the kids and run, isn't it? To empty the tunnels. All that talk about a price... in the end, it was you who leaked the Imperial Army's information..."

"Sharp as ever. Guess that's the thief in you."

"You saved countless lives. I'm not going to thank you. If anything, it pisses me off. White Hair, I don't like that you played with our lives like that. Got it?"

"Small-minded."

"You son of a bitch...!"

"Hey!"

It was Madam Anne's voice.

She shouted from the second floor of a nearby building.

One hand holding a thick cigar.

The other clutching a glass of liquor.

So the whole entertainment district was Madam Anne's turf.

She really could pop out of any building.

"If you're going to fight, do it somewhere else. Don't go spreading bad rumors around here. Especially you two ugly mugs."

"Madam Anne...! I'm sorry! Come on, you two, let's go. Somewhere quiet."

Whether he was a thief boss or a Special Forces soldier.

Right now, he was just some guy getting chased off by a tavern owner.

We moved away from the entertainment district to a nearby park.

The three of us squeezed onto a single bench, filling it completely.

Somehow, I ended up in the middle.

I stared blankly at a decorative waterwheel spinning endlessly in circles.

"Why are you guys here anyway?" I asked first.

"The capital got wrecked."

"Who doesn't know that? I asked why you're in the entertainment district."

"Mind your own business. It's the entertainment district. What does it matter why..."

The boss was itching to pick a fight over every little thing.

So I turned to the right-hand man instead.

"You called her Madam Anne earlier, right?"

"Y-yes... hyung-nim."

"The reason you came out of the shop across from the Anaconda... is it because you work there?"

"White Hair, I've got some pride, you know... Do I look like I'd work as some low-level grunt in someone else's joint?"

The boss was still grumbling.

That's when I turned around and spoke behind me.

"Madam Anne... why did you come all the way here..."

"M-Madam!"

The boss's head snapped around.

There was nothing there.

He'd taken the bait just like I'd thrown it.

"Oh, so your pride was back there, huh?"

"Goddammit..."

The boss rubbed his forehead.

"You guys are broke, aren't you?"

"Hey, White Hair..."

"You followed my advice and got out of the capital, thinking you were being tricked. You left with nothing, just a light heart, and then the invasion really happened. Monsters fell from the sky."

"Yes, that's right, hyung-nim..."

"You left everything you owned behind in the capital and came south. Now the capital's in ruins. You can't go back. So you're stuck here, scraping by day to day. Am I right?"

"Yes..."

The right-hand man hung his head.

"I can see why you'd hate the Imperial Army."

"That's what I'm saying. You guys need to retake the capital, dammit..."

"You never paid taxes. You made your money as a thief. I don't think you've got the right to whine. And like I said, I'm not here as part of the Imperial Army. Blaming me won't get you anywhere."

"Are you sure?"

"I already told you. I work at the Anaconda."

I pointed a finger toward the Anaconda tavern. It was a four-story building, so it was visible even from a distance.

I hadn't expected to run into these guys here, but it was lucky.

I could use them again.