You! Don’t Press that Button! - Chap 116
Deep in the mountains, the wind brushing past ears felt desolate. Densely tangled leaves collided with each other, creating a chaotic atmosphere. Crunch—fallen leaves, depleted of vitality and faded, crumbled helplessly at the slightest impact.
Karhan’s stiff shoe soles ruthlessly crushed through the grass as if grinding the earth. This was exactly his third time standing before this cave.
Karhan’s jaw muscles tensed rigidly as he looked up at the entrance baring its teeth fiercely. Unsurprisingly, not once had there been a pleasant moment when coming here.
One step, two steps. His fearless stride suddenly hesitated and stopped. In a place without sound or light, Karhan’s silver-gray eyes gleamed ominously.
“Asmil.”
Karhan spoke slowly, rolling his tongue as if ready to chew up those three syllables. As silence enveloped his body, with a crack of fingers rubbing together, the surroundings brightened. Whether through magic, he suddenly found himself in a warm room.
“Being popular is quite tiring, isn’t it?”
No trace of fatigue could be heard in Asmil’s voice as he said this. Buried in a plush chair, he showed a loose smile.
“Today we have an esteemed visitor. What brings you here?”
An ice-cold gaze pierced Asmil’s indolent face. Karhan, who had been standing still, quickly approached Asmil with angry steps as if concentrating his rage. He reached out his sturdy hand, grabbed Asmil’s collar, and forcibly lifted him up.
“You made quite an excuse about looking for your subordinate. Is playing with lives so entertaining?”
While his navy eyebrows furrowed together, one corner of his mouth twitched upward.
Despite being suddenly grabbed by the collar, Asmil stared at Karhan’s eyes without changing expression. His eyelids moved slowly as if the situation bored him. He slightly twisted his head, raised his arm, and covered the hand gripping his collar.
“What’s this sudden violence against an innocent person?”
In truth, Asmil wasn’t uninterested in this situation. Rather, a slight expectation stirred at his feet at this novel development. What had Asdion done for his amusement?
His red eyes examined Karhan’s lips, which were trying hard to show contempt, and traced the veins bulging on his forearm.
A precarious silence flowed as the psychological warfare continued. Even Karhan seemed unwilling to back down easily this time, refusing to release Asmil’s clothes. As the choking force increased with time, Asmil shrugged his shoulders first and turned his gaze away.
“How would I know anything without a detailed explanation? I’m not the great Atlena god.”
Asmil let out a sneering laugh and tapped Karhan’s hand, urging him to remove it.
He wanted to hear what had happened rather than continue this tedious situation. A hot sensation crept up from his toes.
As soon as the choking hand disappeared, Asmil slumped back into the chair.
“It seems the esteemed one can’t explain properly.”
He fixed his disheveled collar with one hand and nodded toward Doel. Maintaining a subtle smile, he narrowed his eyes. Doel, who had been standing tensely, blinked at Asmil’s indication.
“Ah, well…”
Doel glanced cautiously at Karhan. Though Karhan still didn’t hide his chilling aura, he didn’t inflict further direct harm on Asmil. Doel quietly assessed the situation before approaching Asmil.
When he rummaged in his clothes and handed over the portrait he’d received from Karhan, Asmil raised his eyebrows in curiosity. He took the paper and unfolded it deliberately slowly, as if trying to provoke Karhan.
“Hm?”
His languid eyebrows rose. Asmil, who had been sprawled in his chair, sat up straight with a questioning look. He stretched his neck out and examined the paper carefully before speaking.
“Why do you suddenly have Baron Valdez’s son’s portrait?”
Baron Valdez? Karhan’s eyebrows twitched at the minor lord’s name he hadn’t heard in a while, creating deep furrows between them. Asmil playfully held up the portrait with one hand and fluttered it. Karhan snatched it away irritably with an annoyed look and asked:
“Baron Valdez’s son?”
“Ah― You might not have seen him. Such a busy young master he was.”
Asmil said with a sardonic smile.
“Like father, like son. No, was he worse? Couldn’t get his head straight from drugs and prostitution.”
Even Asmil hadn’t seen him often since he rarely stayed at the mansion. It was quite possible Karhan didn’t know his face since he had stayed in the territory Karhan purchased for less than a month.
Karhan crumpled the portrait while quickly searching his memories. Though he’d never seen the baron’s son, he had heard about him.
‘Well, Scott gave it to the young master instead of the lord last time, and got even more.’
‘That lunatic gave more money?’
‘From what I heard. The noble young master’s been busy with drugs lately, hasn’t he?’
When pretending to be taken to the minor lord’s mansion, the knights had snickered while bringing up the baron’s son.
Who would have thought this would come back around after closing the case without proper investigation due to the baron’s suicide in prison? Karhan, busy with other matters at the time, hadn’t paid much attention to the problems of the son who had been driven out without a penny. As he traced back the past, Karhan held his head. Thinking carefully, even the baron’s suicide had been Asmil’s plan.
The fact that everything was because of the bastard before him made it feel like pus was flowing inside him. He was overwhelmed by the urge to take out the magic stone in his pocket and stab it into Asmil’s body.
Karhan massaged his temples as he started to feel his head throbbing. His irritably furrowed eyebrows twitched.
“Revenge?”
“Revenge? Well…”
Asmil raised his voice at the end as if amused. Unlike their first encounter, his red eyes held a strangely pleasant look that seemed suspicious, making Karhan glare steadily.
“From what I saw, that guy definitely doesn’t have such a grand purpose as revenge.”
Though Asmil had thought Asdion might have planted someone in the Barthes duchy, he hadn’t expected him to boldly send Baron Valdez’s son. But in some ways, it was understandable. After all, it would be hard to find someone else so pathetic.
Asmil, who had been meaninglessly wiggling his legs, slowly rose from the chair. His languid red eyes caught the chandelier’s light and flashed clearly.
“Shall I help?”
He licked his red lips with a snake-like tongue.
“While looking for what’s mine. Two birds with one stone.”
Karhan frowned in displeasure at Asmil’s pretense of magnanimity. Without erasing his irritated expression, he spoke in a sarcastic tone:
“I don’t need help from someone who can’t even manage one possession.”
“You’re not any better at managing things yourself.”
When Asmil shrugged and returned the sarcasm, Karhan’s lips pressed together stubbornly. Asmil smiled languidly and brushed past Karhan’s shoulder to approach Doel.
“I know his favorite places well. If we just narrow down the town, want to come with me?”
Then he curved his lips thinly and threw out an invitation Karhan couldn’t refuse.
🐤
The pleasure district, tinged with red everywhere, bustled with countless people. Though ordinary taverns were quite visible at the entrance, the red atmosphere deepened as one went further in, and soon it overflowed with prostitutes of both genders.
Doel showed awkwardness throughout his body as if this was his first time in such a place, and his naive appearance was enough to look like prey to wicked people. As he walked staring at the ground, his body completely stiff and not knowing where to look, people stroked his forearms with sexually suggestive gestures. His well-built muscles were enough to stimulate their lust.
Just as he was about to fall far behind, getting caught by people, Asmil slowed his pace to approach Doel’s side.
“Sorry, but he’s taken.”
When he spoke playfully with narrowed eyes, the people who had approached Doel backed away as if enchanted. Doel barely swallowed the sigh trying to escape.
“…Thank you.”
“It’s nothing.”
Asmil showed a deep smile at Doel’s grudging thanks that clearly showed his reluctance. After staring blankly at his rigidly frozen face, he casually threw out a question.
“You don’t seem to have been here before, how did you know about the brothel here?”
When Doel heard that Baron Valdez’s son frequently visited brothels, he had immediately pointed to this town. So Asmil had thought Doel had been here before, but judging by his current behavior, he seemed like someone who had never had such experiences, let alone visited.
At Asmil’s question, Doel’s eyes trembled slightly. Though it was just a moment, the scene was captured slowly in Asmil’s eyes. Asmil pretended not to notice, curved his eyes into a smile, and turned his gaze away.
Finding ‘Hans’ was much easier than expected. Whatever nerve he had, he seemed to have moved around quite noisily after causing such big trouble. When showing the portrait and asking around, everyone recognized his face. Since he apparently didn’t have deep connections with the brothel owners, they spilled detailed information about his whereabouts for just a small amount of money.
The place the three found was a building built with quite luxurious design. If not for the location, it could have passed for a high noble’s mansion. Even at first glance, people wearing quite valuable clothes and accessories came and went.
Karhan strode past them with large steps and held out the portrait to the person guarding the entrance. After checking the portrait, the person examined Karhan through sparrow-like eyes while wearing a pleasant smile. Seeing his obviously luxurious clothes and appearance, thinking he’d be good business, they bowed and greeted him.
“We have an esteemed guest. Perhaps this is your first-“
“Do you know this person?”
“Pardon? Well… I’m not sure just looking at this. My memory’s a bit fuzzy, hmm…”
Their fidgeting with clasped hands while dragging out words seemed natural. Watching this, Karhan unhesitatingly took out two gold coins from his clothes, and the employee bowed deeper and said:
“Ah! I remember now. He’s our customer.”
“Is he staying here?”
“Due to customer privacy, that’s a bit…”
Insatiable greed crawled in the man’s eyes. Without hiding his sneer, Karhan took out more gold coins and threw them to the floor. The round gold coins rolled until hitting the wall.
The employee hurriedly bent down and picked up the coins as if afraid they might grow legs and run away. Then, letting out an unpleasant laugh, he guided the three to the upper floor of the establishment.
One step, one step. Moving heavy feet, they stood before a firmly closed door. A voice both familiar and unfamiliar squeezed through the door crack and reached Karhan’s ears. A cold light swirled in his half-lowered silver-gray eyes.
