Silence fell upon the hall. No more laughter could be heard.
‘What’s going on?’
Vaches had a shocked expression.
His body definitely didn’t show any signs of training. That much was clear.
Nevertheless, the movements that he’d just displayed were in no way lacking when compared to top-class hunters.
It was strange.
The power of the body could never be hidden. When one reached Vaches’ level, one could infer the level of one’s opponent just by looking at an exposed forearm.
And according to Vaches’ eyes, Lukas was a weak man who could have been overwhelmed with just a pocket knife.
“This place looks shabby, but it’s completely soundproof. It’s made of concrete, the wallpaper is made of soundproof material, and the window and door frames all have a silicone finish. So no screams will be heard.”
Lukas pointed behind him.
“There’s only one entrance. Once someone enters this house, escape is nigh impossible. Or that would have been the case if the two idiots who were blocking the entrance didn’t collapse.”
“You bastard.”
“I will rip your tongue out.”
The surrounding men threatened him with angry expressions on their faces. But they wouldn’t have been able to shoot their guns here.
It was clear between a majority and a minority that the majority would be at a disadvantage if they were to open fire in such a small space.
Lukas judged that they weren’t stupid enough to be ignorant of the dangers of ricochets.
Vaches spoke in a confident tone.
“Are you going to escape? You better give up. My men are all over this area. You’ll be caught before you can even take ten steps. Then we’ll be the ones with the last laugh. You’ll scream and shout everything that you know by the time we’re done with you.”
Lukas, who was thinking about something else, paid no heed to Vaches’ words.
These men were all humans.
No Demon, Demonic Humans, or possessed humans.
This fact was very important to Lukas.
He walked towards the iron door.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
“Catch him!”
Click-
“…”
The bodies of the gang members, who were about to rush forward, froze when they heard the unexpected sound of the door being locked.
Vaches’ expression also hardened.
This was because Lukas had deliberately made the room a half-enclosed space.
‘What’s going on?’
Vaches knew that if he and his men were to surround them, even Titled Hunters would falter.
Even if it was a bit unusual, Lukas’ action wasn’t a big problem. Numbers were the most overwhelming form of violence, and Vaches knew how to use them well.
But at that moment.
For some reason, he felt that it wasn’t Lukas had trapped himself. It was they who were trapped there with Lukas.
* * *
Bang!
“Kuk…!”
Vaches’ slid in his blood for a few seconds as his face collided with the floor.
His head was spinning. And it wasn’t only because of the pain.
‘What’s going on?’
Even with the pain that seemed to come from every part of his body, he couldn’t understand.
What just happened?
Was it one minute? Was it longer? Was it shorter?
He didn’t know.
Vaches had 25 men waiting in the house, and all of them were veterans who wouldn’t lose even if they were to go head-to-head with hunters.
Yet they were all annihilated. They didn’t even have a chance to reach for their handguns.
Despite seeing it with his own eyes, he still couldn’t believe what happened.
But he definitely remembered what happened next.
Lukas had overpowered him in three seconds.
‘He’s a monster.’
He didn’t use any special powers like magic, sorcery, or witchcraft. He simply read their movements.
Surprisingly, this feeble-looking blonde man had taken out the Red Mafia’s most elite group with nothing but his physical ability.
“What’s your name?”
The soft voice sounded threatening, and Vaches shook as he replied.
“Va-, Vaches Bondarenko.”
“Who gave you the order?”
“I-, I can’t say…”
As he said this, Vaches clenched his teeth. He thought that pain would follow. Perhaps there was a high chance that the man would break a finger or an arm.
‘I’ll try.’
He wasn’t afraid of such pain. The same went for dying. He always knew that a day like this would come from the moment he joined the organisation.
Above all, Vaches knew that betrayal now would come with consequences that were far worse than death.
“…”
But Lukas got up from his seat without doing anything.
Then, he simply walked out of the house.
‘What the hell…?’
Where was he going?
He looked at the door with anxiety.
If he had been in a good condition, he would have tried to escape, but currently, his head was the only part of his body that could move.
Vaches could only look at the iron door in fear.
Click.
Then, the door opened again and a group of people walked in.
When he saw the faces of these people, Vaches’ expression crumpled.
They were hunters from the European Branch.
* * *
“Those Red Mafia bastards… just because I looked the other way a few times, they got really ballsy.”
Nina swore angrily.
“Vaches Bondarenko is one of the Young Bosses in charge of Sochi.”
By Young Boss, it meant that he was in charge of a single division of the organisation instead of the entire Red Mafia.
“How is the interrogation coming?”
“Not very good. As you know, they’re not afraid of pain…”
“Then you don’t need to keep being nice to them.”
When Nina said these words in a cold voice, Ludwig’s eyes shook.
“You mean…”
“Regardless of what method you use. Get the information out of them without breaking their minds.”
Basically, it was an instruction to no longer mind the administration of drugs or use of magic.
Regardless of how inhumane the President’s orders were, Ludwig simply bowed.
“I’ll do as you command.”
Just before leaving the room, he glanced at Lukas, who was drinking coffee while sitting on a sofa in the corner.
‘…who exactly is this man?’
He went in and out of Nina’s office as if it was his own place, and he had even been given a free pass that only the President could issue.
In all honesty, it didn’t look good. After all, from Ludwig’s perspective, Lukas was still an unknown.
However, he could have clearly seen that Nina had extreme trust in this man.
In fact, it made him feel a bit jealous. Even Ludwig, the Vice President, had rarely seen Nina smile so comfortably.
Then he suddenly went outside and suppressed every single organisation in the city under the Red Mafia. He defeated every one of their best fighters, including the Young Boss, Vaches. This was something that would have been extremely difficult even for Titled Hunters.
‘I don’t think she’d tell me even if I asked.’
Ludwig tried to suppress his curiosity and left the room.
“You seem to like it a lot.”
Nina spoke up while watching Lukas drink the coffee mix.
“I haven’t tasted anything like this since a long time ago.”
“Huhu.”
Nina chuckled for a moment before her expression changed.
“…Master, did you know about the Red Mafia?”
“I did.”
“If you had told me about it in advance, I could have assisted you.”
“If they were Demons, I would have.”
Lukas took a sip of coffee.
“It seems there are spies in the headquarters.”
Nina wasn’t surprised by that, so instead, she nodded.
“I’m sure there are a lot of them. There’s probably no other headquarters as mixed as this one.”
Nina sighed heavily.
“Can I do anything about it? Europe is now in such a desperate situation that we’re literally grasping at straws. We can’t check and monitor the reinforcements sent from each region. We can’t afford to.”
Lukas nodded.
He understood what Nina meant by ‘mixed’.
The European Branch probably had some of the world’s most diverse hunters.
“Not everyone is who they appear to be. As you know, this place is on the front line, so they have no choice but to send their informants here.”
“One of them targeted me.”
“Yeah. If I had to guess, it was probably Neil’s doing…”
Lukas’ expression became gloomy.
This was because the name Nina had just mentioned was the person who was his first disciple before Min Ha-rin.
“Have you met him recently?”
“No. I haven’t had a reason to go to America.”
“…”
Nina was being honest.
The United States was the region with the fewest amount of Demons. In the first place, the Demons hadn’t stretched their hands too far in North America when compared to the other regions, but it couldn’t be denied that America had handled the problem better than any other country.
In fact, there were many people nowadays who called America the Land of Paradise. Even if it was a utopia built on ruins, it was clearly the safest and most peaceful place on the planet.
‘Although, the Association took the place of the government.’
And now, that man was sitting in the seat as Head of the Association. He was the strongest, greatest, and most powerful person Nina knew.
“Neil seems to be looking for you, Master. It’s been like that for over 10 years. Do you have any plans to meet him?”
“I will see him soon. In about 3 months.”
Nina’s eyes shined.
“Are you going to show your face at the world conference?”
“Right. I intend to talk about the establishment of Argento Spell there.”
It was the right call.
Argento Spell would act as an independent organisation, but support from the Hunter Association would be indispensable. If the relationship between the two grew sour, it could lead to bad results.
The existence of the organisation should have at least been revealed, even if it didn’t obtain the support he wanted.
“I’m sure there will be a lot of people who’ll oppose it, but…”
An armed organisation that was outside of the control of the Association and that could, at times, act upon arbitrary judgements was certainly something that many high-ranking members of the association would definitely not be pleased with.
“That’s right. But it would be possible if we got the consent of one Director and three Branch Presidents.”
“Three Branch Presidents.”
Naturally, Nina would follow Lukas’ judgement regardless of what happened. But they would still need two more.
“Do you have anyone else in mind?”
Maybe there was another person with a powerful influence among the transformers whom Lukas had saved.
Nina asked that question with this expectation, but Lukas shook his head.
“No.”
“Then how…?”
“I’ll have to negotiate.”
“Huh?”
Lukas spoke with a calm voice.
“I’m thinking of meeting the President of the Asia Branch.”