Lakis was in a bad mood today as well. He leaned against the chair with his jaw on his hand while a violent aura swirled around him. Currently, he was in a place Odin prepared for him after stating that he couldn’t serve Lakis in such a shabby place; until recently, it was some rich guy’s villa.
Receiving Lakis’ chill straight-on, Odin’s shoulders shrunk, and he carefully asked.
“Um, should I give my report?”
“Talk.”
“Yessir!”
Hearing the answer that was just as cold as his aura, Odin quickly opened his mouth.
“The crows brought news today and it seems the fake bastard has currently captured two mutants.”
He began to report to Lakis what he had been working hard on investigating. Lately, what Odin had been looking into under Lakis’ orders was about the fake Lakis…in other words, Milliam.
Like he thought, the bastard seemed to be able to use the ruin’s power to steal other mutant’s powers. So it looked like he was secretly looking for mutants and gathering them.
“But the two of them don’t seem to have much of an ability so there’s nothing to worry about!”
However, because they hadn’t found any mutants with a useful ability yet, they seemed to be searching in other regions too, not just Carnot alone.
“In the first place, isn’t it just bastards like that foolish watchdog or that gum-like bird prick that get caught by such fake tricks?”
Then Odin made a veiled reference to Leo and Siren who got caught by the slave traders a while ago. Somehow, his swearing seemed spiteful so Lakis slightly raised a brow.
Not noticing this, Odin puffed out his chest like a bird spreading its wings, then he proudly added.
“As Lakis-nim’s right hand man, capable mutants like myself or our Arachne aren’t caught that easily so from the start, that foolish fake bastard’s method was wrong…”
And one of the words Odin used rubbed Lakis the wrong way.
“What, ‘our Arachne’?”
A grim voice came from Lakis whose mouth had been shut all along.
“Gasp, did I say that? This damned mouth!”
Odin was startled and smacked his mouth as the cold gaze in front landed directly on him.
“Please forgive me, Lakis-nim! Sometimes, my mouth talks rubbish on its own! I really have no one but you, Lakis-nim…! You know how I feel, right? This Odin’s loyalty…!”
Odin seemed to think that the reason Lakis’ mood turned fierce was because he doubted his loyalty. Lakis was annoyed by Odin acting like this.
“What do I care about your blasted loyalty.”
“What?! How can you not know, are you stupid?”[1]
“…What did you say just now?”
“Gasp! My mouth again—!”
Smack, Smack!
The sound of him hitting his mouth harder than before echoed in Lakis’ ears. Lakis’ face crumpled as he looked down at Odin.
He was definitely subservient to Lakis but just like now, he would unconsciously swear at Lakis or stealthily blabber about Arachne in a special manner. It seemed Lakis’ power only achieved an incomplete domination of Odin because Odin was a mutant.
Lakis faced Odin who was still smacking his mouth and spoke in a cold voice.
“Stop barking and finish your report.”
“Thank you for forgiving me, Lakis-nim.”
Odin cried as if he was moved by Lakis’ mercy. Of course, this wasn’t mercy or anything; Lakis was simply too annoyed to deal with Odin.
“So it seems that arrogant fake bastard is trying his hardest to find other mutants.”Either ways, Odin went on to finish his report like Lakis ordered.
“It looks like there are people involved in the east too, so I need to investigate a little more to find out who is in the upper chain.”
“Then go and investigate right now.”
After giving Odin that order, Lakis got up from his seat. As he watched Lakis stand, Odin asked.
“Is what we planned to carry out yesterday going to be done today?”
“I’ll decided when the next time is so watch it and don’t cross the line.”
“Yessir! I won’t.”
Odin quickly shriveled at Lakis’ chilly words. Like that, Lakis left the villa.
‘I think I need to go see her now.’
His mind was filled with thoughts of Yuri. This was why he was in a bad mood the entire time he was facing Odin. He was even more worried because she looked like she was avoiding him.
‘She said she was going to the shopping district.’
And so, Lakis sped up to go meet the person that had been lingering in his mind for a good while now.
* * *
After Lakis left, Odin turned into a crow and also left. He was set out to faithfully accomplish the orders of his master, Lakis.
“…”
As he flew across the sky, Odin suddenly felt a pair of eyes watching him. He dived in the direction the gaze came from.
Chirp-Chirp!
A moment later, Odin’s large wings struck a passing sparrow. At the sudden sneak attack, the bird stumbled and cried out. However, this was certainly not an ordinary sparrow but a sparrow that was being controlled by someone just now.
‘That gum-like wench dares to spy on me?’[2]
Odin immediately realized who was controlling the bird and ground his teeth. A ferocious flame surged in his pink eyes. Soon enough, Odin changed directions and took to the skies.
~
And after a while, he arrived at the monastery that was Leo’s hideout.
“Oi, Siren!”
Seeing Odin suddenly storm into the hideout, Siren’s beautiful face twisted into a mess.
“What is it all of sudden, you bird twat! You surprised me!”
“How shameless! Do you think I don’t know you ordered a bird to secretly follow me?”
“Ah, someone’s doing something big, I don’t see why I can’t take a look!”[3]
“This crazy bitch?”
Boom-boom-boom!
The very next moment, a thunderous noise rang out in the monastery.
“You! Do you have death wish?”(Siren)
As she was attacked by Odin, Siren yelled irritatedly and flew out of the dust filled pit.
“You’re one who has a death wish! You won’t even stay away from Arachne, you f*cking leech!” (Odin)
Odin attacked Siren again.Bang!
Siren also attacked Odin back, not losing out.
“How ridiculous! You’re the one who left Arachne saying you were busy with other things, you bird head.”
“Indeed! I am doing great work for the great one!”
“Seriously, what the hell are you saying, you lunatic?”
Although she found Odin by chance and spied on him for a bit, she didn’t see when he was with Lakis before, so she was puzzled by what Odin said.
Boom-boom!
Siren was yet to fully recover from the wounds she sustained during her capture by the slave traders. However, because her opponent was Odin who was like her natural enemy, she was fueled with spite and the two of them were almost matched in strength.
They soared through the air and moved around the monastery as they clashed.
Bang!
And then, the statue in the prayer room was destroyed, revealing the object underneath. It was the ruin’s fragment that Yuri was keeping.
“A, A ruin’s fragment? Why is this here?”
“What? A ruin’s fragment?”
Instantly, Odin’s eyes sparkled.
Fortunately, the glass container did not break because Yuri had used her threads to protect it beforehand.
Odin hurried flew forward and reached out to touch it.
“Hey, wait!”
Siren quickly tried to stop Odin, but it was already too late. In that moment, a trap was activated.
“Uwaa…!”
The threads covering the ruin’s fragment suddenly spread out like a spider web and covered Odin and Siren before they could avoid it. It bound them up and lifted them to the ceiling in the blink of an eye. If this was any other time, they would have put up a defense at least.
But because they were fighting like enemies who were meeting for the first time in a while, their emotions were heightened and they were caught off guard by the sudden situation.
The more they struggled, the stronger the power binding them became. Because they were very familiar with Arachne’s power since their days at the institute, Odin and Siren eventually stopped moving.
“Ugh, dammit.”
“Arachne…!”
They couldn’t move an inch in their binding to the ceiling and cried out bitterly for Arachne. Of course, their voices didn’t reach Yuri who was quite far away.
* * *
After a while, Yuri entered a building that was massive enough to fit a handful of shops in a row. It was a new high-rise building that was completed almost half a year ago. It had a display of various items like a department store and you could see everything on sale at once.
Yuri walked inside and looked around. If a gift was too expensive, it would feel burdensome for the recipient but as expected, it was difficult to find something good at a modest price.
“Then how do we solve the opening issue?”
“Sort that out yourself. I’m already busy with managing the alchemist tower, why should I concern myself with this too?”
Then suddenly, Yuri heard a familiar voice from the side and unconsciously turned her head. And as she expected, a familiar face came into her sight.
Only
It was Damon Salvatore.
Translator’s Corner:
[1][X신이세요] is what I translated to [are you stupid] but as you can see, it’s censored so I honestly don’t know what he said. From context, I can only assume it’s either [등신] or [병신] both of which are insults that mean [stupid] or [retarded] respectively.
[2]I’ve come so far translating this as gum-like but I’m starting to thing glue-like is more apt.
[3]I’m not too sure what she means by this sentence so I translated it literally.