I Bought the Villains With Money - Chapter 24

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 24.
Rumdracks ran his fingers over the smooth stone.
Someone wanting to make contact with him had entered the prison.
‘Who?’
Rumdracks kept his guard up, flicking the stone out through the bars. It was a calculated risk—at this hour of the night, no guards would be walking the corridors.
His instinct proved correct. The stone made no sound as it hit the floor.
‘They were waiting for my reaction.’
Whoever it was, someone outside was watching for a sign from him.
Not a guard. As he’d reasoned, it wasn’t guard patrol hours, and no guard would be stationed beneath his cell window anyway.
So that meant, Rumdracks muttered, and he pressed himself flat against the floor. That’s when a Letter suddenly came through.
“I’ll come again tomorrow.”
With only those words, the stranger vanished.
Rumdracks tried pressing his eye close to the window to catch a glimpse of whoever had delivered the Letter, but it was futile.
Through the floor window, Rumdracks could see barely a hand’s breadth ahead.
Rumdracks nudged the Letter with his foot. Its exterior was unremarkable. He stood there for a long time, debating whether to open it or not.
He had many enemies. Among them were those who wouldn’t even share the air of the world with him.
‘In other words, they want me dead.’
And there were those who didn’t merely think such dangerous thoughts—they acted on them.
More than once, assassins had come to Bunta Prison hunting him.
So Rumdracks wondered if this was another assassination attempt.
‘No. If they wanted me dead, they would’ve killed me just now.’
To slip into Bunta Prison and find himself alone with someone—it was perfect timing for an assassination. Yet the stranger had simply left.
‘So it’s not an assassination.’
If that was settled, there was no reason to hesitate. Rumdracks unfolded the Letter.
‘Damn, I can’t see anything!’
This was a prison night without a single torch—always dark, but night brought a deeper darkness still. The torches that lit the corridors had been extinguished anyway.
With no choice, Rumdracks waited for dawn. He fell asleep easily, his mind at ease.
There was no point losing sleep over the Letter’s contents when it wouldn’t change anything, so he could afford to be calm about it.
Instead, the next day, the moment he heard the torches crackling to life, his eyes snapped open.
Rumdracks quietly opened the floor window and read the Letter by the faint firelight.
The Letter was a seductive dance of temptation. It was incredibly alluring.
A Holy Relic of the Petrola Kingdom—it was bait Rumdracks couldn’t resist.
Rumdracks waited for the visitor from the previous night to return. That long wait finally ended the next evening.
Tap, roll-roll-roll.
Another stone came through. It was a way of confirming he was alive, of checking if he was willing to talk. When he picked up the stone and threw it back, a question came flying through.
“What’s your answer?”
“As you wish.”
Then a Letter came through—much thinner than the last one.
It contained a date, a time, and a brief outline of what Rumdracks needed to do.
The meaning was crystal clear.
They were going to break him out of Bunta Prison.
Rumdracks split his mouth in a wide grin.
“Can I ask a question?”
He called out, hearing no footsteps.
“No.”
The answer came back cold and absolute. Rumdracks took it in stride and stretched his long frame luxuriously.
‘Whoever you are, I’m grateful.’
Help always came with a price. Any other time, Rumdracks would have pried relentlessly to know what they wanted.
But after a year locked in Bunta Prison, he craved the outside air so badly. If they’d just get him out, he’d promise them anything.
‘First things first—get out. We can negotiate later.’
Rumdracks tore the Letter into shreds and put them in his mouth.
Destroying the evidence was necessary.
He chewed and swallowed everything in his mouth with perfect precision.
The quality paper and ink tasted better than the moldy bread the prison served.
‘Who’s the madman trying to spring me?’
After disposing of the evidence cleanly, Rumdracks let out a satisfied belch and sprawled across his cot. His mind naturally turned to the Letter’s author.
If they were caught or if he informed on them, it would mean ruin. Yet they were taking that risk anyway just to get him out. Why?
‘I must have something they want.’
The master of a vast thief’s guild? The leader of some sinister order of black mages? Or perhaps a desperate nation’s king in need of a spy?
In any case, whoever it was wouldn’t be mentally sound. Rumdracks’ heart quickened with a thrilling pulse.
‘I’ll strip anyone bare, doesn’t matter who.’
Even a big shot became a pushover once Rumdracks got his hands on him. Rumdracks was delighted to have found a new fool to make a name for himself.
***
On the day of the operation, late in the afternoon, Bunta Prison began to stir.
“Comfort liquor sent by the Irenber Family. Drink your fill today, you lot!”
The guard who oversaw the underground cells slammed down a large wooden barrel with a bang. The guards standing at the entrance of the chamber let out a unified roar.
“Yeaaaaaah!”
Rumdracks snapped open his eyes. Showtime at last. He pressed his nose to the floor window and bellowed at the top of his lungs.
“You madmen! Since when do government-fed dogs drink on duty?”
Rumdracks’s role was to rile up the guards. Anger made the liquor go down easier.
He needed them dead drunk before he could move freely.
“What’s that fool saying? Shut that mouth of yours.”
A guard slammed his window shut with a bang, glowering as he shouted.
“I thought you’d gone quiet lately. You didn’t get beaten enough, did you?”
The guard who had lost his girlfriend after taking love advice from Rumdracks when he first arrived at Bunta Prison snarled at him.
“No wonder your girlfriend left you!”
Rumdracks kept his distance from the door, continuing to wind them up.
“I’m going to watch that bastard die.”
One guard finally stripped off his shirt and shook Rumdracks’s cell door frantically.
“Easy now, you fool. Has prisoner 1818 been at it for more than a day or two? The man’s insane.”
The other guards dragged away the agitated one.
“Have a drink. The aroma’s exquisite. I hear the Irenber Family’s rich—seems they’ve got a generous heart too.”
The guards settled on the stairs and began to drink.
“With enough money, what couldn’t you do? If I had even half the Irenber Family’s wealth, I’d buy a house for each of you guards!”
Rumdracks watched the guards making empty promises to each other, drinking without restraint.
‘Lying through their teeth. Share money if they had it? Dream on. A passing ant would laugh harder at their bellies.’
After thoroughly mocking the guards in silence, Rumdracks leaned back against the wall. The guards drank as though the liquor were their sworn enemy.
Who wins, who loses—their slurred speech grew more tangled with each drink.
“This one’s drunk!”
The one saying it wasn’t sober either.
One by one, the guards collapsed from intoxication. Rumdracks slowly got to his feet.
‘Time to catch myself a fool.’
Rumdracks grinned wickedly.
***
Before Rumdracks broke out of Bunta Prison, I boarded a Teleportation bound for the Capital City with Choe.
I needed to sever any connection between his Prison Escape and myself beforehand.
A week passed.
Two blocks away from the bustling street stood a Red Brick House, and there I waited for Rumdracks.
“He’s late. Do you think he’s run off?”
Jennis looked out the window and asked me. I rolled the Puzzle I’d brought to pass the time between my hands.
“He’ll come.”
I hadn’t expected him to arrive on schedule in the first place.
The distance from Bunta Prison to the Capital City was considerable. Rumdracks had to cover his tracks as he climbed northward. The week-long deadline was to test his capabilities.
‘A week would be ideal, but even a day or two late can’t be helped.’
I was revising my assessment of Rumdracks when I fitted the last Puzzle piece into place.
Knock, knock.
The sound of knocking came from the door.
“I’ll get it!”
Jennis hurried over and opened the door. A dignified elderly gentleman leaning on a Cane stood at the threshold.
“Who are you?”
Jennis asked.
“Is this the residence of the young lady Anaid?”
The elderly man with a measured voice was looking for someone. He craned his neck and peered into the house.
“Oh! I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong address. I’ve never heard of a young lady named Anaid. I do hope you find her elsewhere.”
Jennis blocked his view by standing in the doorway, then quickly shoved the old man aside lest he catch sight of me, and moved to shut the door.
“Wait.”
“Yes, miss?”
Just as the door was closing, I stopped Jennis.
“Hold on, Jennis. Don’t go, sir.”
I called back the old man who had turned to leave. The old man, whose body had already begun to turn and who had stepped forward with his Cane, merely turned his head.
My gaze and the old man’s met in the empty air.
‘Rumdracks!’
I pushed Jennis aside and threw the door wide open.
“I’m Anaid. Won’t you come in?”
“You’re Anaid? When did you adopt a stage name without my knowledge?”
Jennis whispered under her breath.
“Jennis, it’s Rumdracks.”
I lowered my voice to match hers.
“What? Rumdracks?”
I’d told Jennis that Rumdracks was a young man in his early twenties, but the man before us looked to be at least sixty.
There was no wonder Jennis didn’t recognize him.
“It’s a disguise. Made up as an old man.”
“But he looks like a real old man…”
While Jennis marveled at Rumdracks’ makeup, I stepped back from the doorway to make room for him to enter.
Rumdracks regarded me with obvious interest.
“Please, come into Anaid’s home.”
At my second invitation, Rumdracks broke into a delighted laugh.
“Much obliged for the welcome.”
He answered in the manner of an old man, but the moment he stepped inside, he hurled his cane away.
“Phew. My back’s been murder hunched over like that.”
When Rumdracks straightened his spine, it became unmistakably clear how tall he truly was. He stretched luxuriously and tore off the wig as well, shaking out the silver hair now revealed. He looked around for a chair.
“You should take off the mustache too. It doesn’t suit you.”
“Sharp eyes for a little one. My disguise is masterwork-class, you know.”
In truth, I’d been fooled as well. His makeup was flawless, just as he said.
“How did you see through it?”
I guided Rumdracks to a chair and sat across from him.
Looking up at him is exhausting.
From now on, any conversation with Rumdracks will have to be sitting down.
“Curious?”
“Of course I’m curious. Tell me.”
I Bought the Villains with Money (Serialized)
Author │ Lee In-hye
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd. – Tiramisu
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 11F, 1101, 33-gil Daepo-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Ace Techno Tower 8th Building, 11th Floor)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ http://blog.naver.com/jayplemedia1
ⓒ Lee In-hye 2021
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder,
and its contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
Violation of this may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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