"Lee Minseong, that bastard…"
Somehow, only the hunters of the Reaper Guild were kidnapped without getting killed.
Lim Taegyu was furious.
When he remembered Lee Minseong's usual behavior, he realized what he wanted to do.
He had been frantic to upgrade his position even within the Reaper Guild all along.
To become higher than Taegyu, his friend and the guild leader!
'I don't know what kind of skills you bought with money, but did you have to take our members to be your subordinates and even made them look like this?! What the hell are you… What are you doing this for?!'
Looking at the mutants who had already lost their human appearance, Lim Taegyu gnashed his teeth and pulled the bowstring.
Swook-!
Magical arrows were created along with blue air currents in the S-Class weapon, 'Reaper's Bow'.
One, two, three, four.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
A total of five magic arrows flew in different directions and pierced the scattered bodies of the mutants.
Screams came out from the mouths of the mutants who were once in the same guild as him but now became monsters.
For some reason, Lim Taegyu seemed to hear that scream like a painful cry.
"Ahhh…!"
However, the mutants moved even with Lim Taegyu's arrows stuck in their bodies.
He was taken aback by their tenacity.
Perhaps because they were senior hunters before they were mutants, their physical abilities were considerable.
Besides, since they were still wearing the armor when they were kidnapped, it seemed unreasonable to be able to kill them with one or two arrows.
Lim Taegyu gritted his teeth and looked back at the fine guild members he had brought.
They were hesitant to attack as their colleagues who they had been laughing and chatting with until a few days ago had turned into monsters.
Lim Taegyu shouted as he pulled the bowstring again.
"Don't hesitate! Those mutants are not human! They're not the guys we used to know anymore!"
"Y-Yes, Sir!"
"It's useless to empathize because they have already become zombies! Target their legs to slow down their movements, then cut off their limbs!"
"…!"
The guild members, who were brought under the extremely cruel yet resolute order, gritted their teeth and took up their weapons.
Even in such a situation, being decisive was the true character of Lim Taegyu, an S-Class hunter who had led the Reaper Guild up until now.
The guild members who came to their senses at his lightning-like shouts began to attack the mutants urgently.
"Is this what the Reaper Guild is like…"
Association hunters who were rescuing citizens admired their performance.
The Vice President's issue was still the same, having many controversies… but, the Reaper Guild was still the Reaper Guild.
One of the top guilds in Korea.
Its potential was most evident in emergency situations like that.
"Ahhh…!"
But the problem is that the mutants were also members of the Reaper Guild.
Even though they lost their minds and became monsters, the experiences engraved in their bodies did not easily disappear.
"Mutants spread! Hide!"
The mutants escaped the Reaper Guild's attack and hid inside the building.
Soon after, the citizens inside the building became their victims.
"Kyaaaagh!"
"P-Please save…!"
The guild members who saw the unexpected counterattack of the mutants were perplexed.
"Stop!"
"Don't let them enter the building!"
Eventually, they chased the screams coming from all over the building.
That was a trap.
Wiiiing-!
"W-What?!"
"There is a swarm of bees in the building…!"
Contaminated wasps waiting for the hunters to enter the building attacked.
"Wasps?!"
"These are not ordinary bees! They are insect-type monsters!"
"Poison! Never get stung by the bees!"
Things got messy.
They chase the mutants and enter the building.
Then, there was a swarm of bees.
No matter how well-trained the Reaper Guild was, it was inevitable to panic in such a situation.
Lim Taegyu realized.
Unlike the appearance of mutants, they were moving strategically.
This meant that someone was manipulating them from behind.
It was obvious who it was.
"Lee! Min! Seong!"
A scream filled with magic erupted from Lim Taegyu's mouth.
"Where are you?! Where are you hiding?!"
The echoing voice of the S-Class hunter shook the air like a shock wave and shattered the windows of the buildings.
"Your ears! Cover your ears!"
Association hunters shouted urgently while rescuing citizens.
At the center of the chaos, Lim Taegyu held the Reaper's Bow and aimed towards the sky.
Multi-shots.
Swoosh! Swoosh!Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Numerous arrows with magical power shot toward the sky and fell to the ground in a parabolic arc like a fountain.
Some of the arrows hit the top of the heads of mutants who were roaming the streets.
Some of the arrows penetrated the broken windows and into the torso of the mutants who were attacking people inside.
Not a single arrow among them accidentally harmed the citizens.
"Woah…"
Team Leader Han Jaehyeok of the Association Hunter could not keep his mouth shut at that amazing skill.
"If they had something like this, they should've used it sooner…"
Even with that said, there was a huge gap in such skills.
It was understandable that Lim Taegyu cherished that.
The effect was certain.
"Ack…!"
The mutants whose bodies were pierced by the arrows could not even get up and struggled on the floor.
The arrow threaded their entire torso to the floor and fixed them as they were.
The Reaper Guild members rushed at them and cut off their limbs.
Their colleagues who they were laughing and chatting with just a few days ago…
"I'm sorry, Jaeseob."
"I…!"
Killed.
The association hunters breathed a sigh of relief.
With the help of the Reaper Guild, the number of mutants was noticeably decreasing.
'Good. At this rate, sooner or later this place will be tidied up.'
But that was then…
Something odd happened.
"Ack…"
A sound was suddenly heard from somewhere.
There was Lim Taegyu, looking down at the sword that pierced his stomach with a puzzled expression.
His mind was blurry.
'It's poison.'
However, what surprised Lim Taegyu more than that was the fact that he did not see it coming.
Who the hell could deceive the senses of an S-Class hunter and attack from behind!
He immediately looked back and confirmed the identity of the person who stabbed him, and his mind went blank.
"Cough. W-Why did you.."
The person didn't simply attack from behind.
Ever since, 'he' had been standing right behind him.
Always had.
"Sorry, boss."
"Secretary Oh…"
Secretary Oh, who had stabbed Lim Taegyu, smirked.
"It's still too early. Vice President Lee Minseong needs to be a little more aggressive."
* * *
Suho asked Arsha.
"You don't seem to care much about that, do you?"
Even though Lee Minseong is imitating the queen bee and creating her own army, Arsha, the real queen bee, seemed unconcerned.
"Ugh. I'm pretty perplexed. Was he really a hard-raised worker bee?"
"Then, you should have sent the lancers to catch him as soon as he ran away."
"I was going to do that at first too. But no matter how much I send ordinary lancers, I can't do anything about him."
The contaminated lancers were C-Class or lower level hunters.
No matter how many of such worker bees went after him, it was impossible to catch Lee Minseong, who was an A-Class hunter.
Just like how Suho defeated them all and arrived at that place.
Arsha frowned, crossed her legs, corrected her posture, and sat down.
"I also have a lot of headaches, too. Originally, my plan was to quietly hide here and follow in the footsteps of Querehsha. So I lived a really quiet life."
"The number of lancers you had was too many for that."
"This is rather small. I gathered them up little by little so that I wouldn't get caught in the association. If I had planned to collect them quickly, wouldn't I have collected 100 times more?"
"I guess so."
Suho agreed with that.
As he heard, the way to make a lancer was simple.
Feed them royal jelly.
Nothing more, nothing less.
If one was lucky enough to take in royal jelly well (?), they would become a lancer, otherwise they would die.
"Actually, it takes a lot of work. First, I have to tame each bee that lives on Earth into my own power, and I have to put my royal jelly in the bee sting."
[Those words coming from a queen bee, don't you sound like a beekeeper instead?]
Beru unintentionally mocked Arsha with an innocent look.
Arsha looked a little hurt.
"I couldn't help it. Crossing the dimensional rift, I lost all of my worker bees, so I had to find new ones, one by one."
"You must have had a hard time. I'm sorry. I killed all the lancers you worked so hard for today. Lee Minseong also ran away."
"Apologizing with an expression that doesn't feel sorry at all…"
Arsha responded in a bewildered manner at Suho's soulless apology,
Then she smiled and crossed her arms proudly.
"Well, it's okay. Although Lee Minseong, whom I worked hard to raise, became a disloyal worker and ran away, his instincts are still working faithfully for me."
"For you?"
"Yes. He must still be working hard to make me the Queen of Insects. Of course, you may not be aware of it yourself."
"…"
At Arsha's words, Suho felt a strange sense of deja vu.
According to the Baekho Guild's briefing, all Minseong did in the past few days was raiding and kidnapping hunters.
'Why did he kidnap the hunters to create his own legion, and kill?'
Ah.
'What if killing people is the goal itself?'
A flash of light struck Suho's head momentarily.
He finally realized.
To succeed the dead monarch.
To become the new monarch.
He has seen that process before.
[The King of Beasts, Fang Monarch, chuckles and looks at his pontifex.]
Just in time, as if in response to that realization, Rakan sent a message.
Suho said while glaring at Arsha, who was sitting peacefully despite losing all his ground.
"You need a sacrifice."
Flinch.
"As many offerings as possible to hold a sacrifice for the dead Querehsha."
"…"
Suho was convinced when he saw Arsha's reaction as her expressions gradually hardened at his words.
"Lee Minseong is performing the sword dance outside for you right now. Seeing how only hunters are killed, I guess Querehsha needs a sacrifice imbued with magic."
"… Well, it would be strange if you didn't know that. It may be different, but you must have done something similar to become a descendant of the Fang Monarch."
He was a pontifex, not a descendant, but it was good.
Suho shrugged and asked.
"But, will you be okay? The Reaper Guild is firmly targeting Lee Minseong. If he stood still, I'm afraid he would be tied up in one barrel. Besides, to catch the A-Class Lee Minseong, of course, the S-Class guild leader would have to step up…"
Stop.
Suho then kept his mouth shut.
Arsha, who had Lee Minseong by his side for a long time, could never have known that fact.
The fact that if an S-Class hunter steps forward, Lee Minseong will be caught in an instant.
She became uneasy.
"You yourself planted the traitor, Lee Minseong, next to the Guild Leader."
Flinch.
Scared of Suho's words, a genuine expression appeared for the first time on Arsha's relaxed face.