Murim Login - Chapter 730

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

Chapter 730
Knock. Knock.
The sudden sound of knocking drew everyone’s attention toward the door.
Even the janitors of the Ares Guild knew that all the executives were gathered in the Council Chamber discussing matters of importance.
So for someone to knock under these circumstances could only mean one of two things.
Either the matter was critically urgent, or the person had already submitted their resignation.
And unlike Seok Go-jun, who would have cursed first and asked questions later, their new City Lord didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow despite having his favorable momentum interrupted.
“Come in.”
Click.
A middle-aged man appeared through the partially opened door.
The Secretary Director approached Choi Min-woo directly and bowed his head.
“My apologies for the interruption during your meeting, Sub-Guild Master.”
Choi Min-woo replied calmly.
“It’s fine. Provided there’s a good reason for it.”
The Secretary Director swallowed hard.
Though it hadn’t been long, he knew well that his employer was someone who dispensed both reward and punishment with absolute certainty.
Moreover, the report that had come up from the Security Team in the Lobby just a minute ago was a matter beyond his authority to handle.
“An important guest has arrived.”
Swish.
A trembling hand extended forward alongside those words.
Choi Min-woo’s eyes darkened as he gazed at what the Secretary Director offered.
‘This is…’
Multiple thoughts flickered through his mind in that moment of recognition.
But his hesitation was brief, and Choi Min-woo made his decision.
“Where is the guest at the moment?”
“Still in the Lobby…”
“Please escort them to my Private Office. I’ll be there shortly.”
“Understood.”
As the Secretary Director, who had answered as if he’d been waiting for this, left the Council Chamber, Choi Min-woo turned to face the executives seated around the table.
“It seems the urgent matters we needed to discuss have been largely concluded. What do you all think?”
“Pardon?”
“Sub-Guild Master, do you mean to say…?”
“If you’ll all bear with me, I believe we should conclude today’s meeting here.”
Several executives stared at Choi Min-woo with expressions of disbelief.
This was too much, even by any standard.
No matter how important the guest was, it made no sense to end a meeting like this—one that had brought together branch directors from overseas.
Screech.
“Sub-Guild Master!”
The moment one executive, gathering his courage, shot to his feet.
Bang!
A sudden thunderous crash swallowed the voice whole.
Jin Tae-kyung, who had left a palm print etched into the alloy table, muttered under his breath.
“What the hell? Did something hatch? Why do these damned insects keep flying around? Maybe I need to have the council chamber completely gutted and redone.”
“…!”
“Ah, my apologies. Please, continue with what you were saying. Sub-Guild Master, what was it you were about to say?”
At Jin Tae-kyung’s question, the executive who had stood alone regarded Choi Min-woo with a hardened expression.
“Since things have come to this, I’ll speak my mind.”
His voice carried the resolve of someone who would not back down this time, and several executives’ eyes gleamed with interest, while Choi Min-woo simply nodded with composure.
“Yes, please do.”
“Then, might I be permitted to leave early?”
“….”
“You see, today is our wedding anniversary….”
The other executives regarded their colleague with eyes turned cold and bitter.
He was already a divorcee—divorced three years prior.
* * *
The Choi Team Leader I know is an exceedingly rational man.
Even if he possessed the power to crush an opponent, he knew when to yield at an appropriate point, and he invariably concluded matters with the utmost composure and gentleness.
In other words, he was not the sort of person to dismiss dozens of executives with merely a few words over trivial matters.
Which made me all the more curious about the identity of this unexpected visitor.
Ding.
“It’s because of that person, isn’t it? The important guest?”
The moment the private elevator doors closed, I spoke, and Choi Team Leader answered me.
“Half and half. I gathered the executives to reassure them. There was never any real cause for trouble to begin with.”
“True enough—most of the executives who’ve remained are fairly supportive.”
“Even if someone harbored discontent, there was no reason for the Guild to oppose this matter of going public.”
“Cheon Tae-min…. Or rather, Choi Team Leader, your maternal grandfather is still in good health, then?”
“Yes. The reason Ares Guild’s standing hasn’t matched what it once was is precisely due to my grandfather’s absence. In that sense, Jin Tae-kyung’s proposal to leverage his reputation was the best course for all of us.”
Certainly, in this world, the existence of a man named Cheon Tae-min is nothing short of a cheat code.
With merely three characters of his name, he commands the world’s attention and sends jackals lurking in the shadows scrambling backward—a true colossus.
Much like….
‘Yes, like the Martial God himself.’
The thought that flitted across my mind lingered on my tongue before scattering away.
Choi Team Leader continued in a low voice.
“But unlike the executives of Ares Guild, for someone else, this news would have been far from welcome.”
“Someone else, you mean….”
Choi Team Leader extended his hand and passed something to me.
“The owner of this business card.”
Ding.
The elevator doors opened. We continued our conversation as we crossed the now-empty corridor, following instructions.
“A business card? This one?”
I narrowed my brow, studying the object I’d just received.
In size and shape, it was unmistakably a business card, yet I questioned whether it truly deserved that name.
The platinum-gleaming surface bore no name, no title, not even a phone number.
The only inference I could draw was that its owner possessed staggering wealth.
“Given how heavy this is, it seems like genuine platinum, not just a façade. Could the person be Middle Eastern royalty?”
“If that were the case, we would have concluded the meeting and left.”
“Then what?”
“Examine the edge of the card carefully.”
Following Choi Team Leader’s instruction, I scrutinized the card once more.
Only then did I notice two birds engraved in relief on both sides.
“This is…”
“Can you identify what kind of birds they are?”
“I’m not sure.”
“They are ravens.”
“Ravens?”
“Their precise names are Huginn and Muninn.”
“What do you mean ravens have names? A raven is just a raven.”
“Those unfamiliar with mythology might not know. They are beings from ancient legend.”
“Mythology?”
“Yes, ancient Norse mythology.”
Thud. Thud.
Footsteps echoing unusually loud. Choi Team Leader continued speaking as the office door gradually drew near.
“Huginn and Muninn—these two ravens symbolize a certain deity from Norse mythology.”
“Who is that?”
“Odin.”
…!
“A name you’ve heard before, haven’t you?”
After a moment of silence, I nodded.
Though I’d never heard the names Huginn and Muninn until today, Odin was different.
‘Yes, very different indeed.’
Not merely because it was a deity famous enough to have been heard somewhere, or a character from an entertaining hero film I’d watched in childhood.
The name Odin was known worldwide by everyone.
Because Odin itself was the universally acknowledged greatest Guild in the world.
Thud.
The final footstep had arrived.
Beyond the door blocking our path, I sensed an immense, carefully contained presence.
Choi Team Leader’s calm voice glided across the quiet corridor.
“Let’s go.”
Click.
At last, the door opened.
A figure standing before the fireplace slowly turned around.
* * *
At first, everyone dismissed it as a minor incident.
Work was hectic, minds preoccupied with pressing matters that demanded immediate attention, and ‘that incident’ had occurred and concluded in the blink of an eye.
But it was far from a minor incident, and the first to realize this truth was the Junior Employee working in the Evidence Storage Room.
“Um, Manager Kim? It looks like one of the evidence items is missing?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Well, I just did a count check and it seems one item is unaccounted for….”
“For crying out loud, recount instead of spouting nonsense. We haven’t removed anything from the storage room in over a week.”
The frowning Manager Kim scanned the stock chart with his legs crossed.
It wasn’t until thirty minutes later, when the Junior Employee returned scratching the back of his head, that everything changed.
“Manager Kim, it really does seem to be missing. One item related to Seok Go-jun has disappeared.”
“Hey, didn’t I just tell you? The storage room was locked all week. I’m already frustrated about the stock hitting the lower limit, and you keep spouting nonsense——”
The irritable Manager Kim suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
“What did you just say?”
The Junior Employee answered with a subdued expression.
“I told you. It really has disappeared.”
“No, not that. Right after that—what did you say?”
“Yes? Oh, items related to Seok Go-jun?”
“…!”
At the name that flowed from the Junior Employee’s lips once more, the Manager felt a chill run down his spine.
Seok Go-jun.
Of all things, evidence related to the Seok Go-jun case had vanished.
“Hey, Moon. Moon! Open the storage room right now! And the others—no, wait. Don’t call them yet!”
The Manager bolted from his seat in a panic and rushed to the Evidence Storage Room.
After combing through the storage room meticulously with the Junior Employee for several hours, he finally understood.
‘Damn it….’
It was gone. Truly gone.
The Junior Employee’s report wasn’t mere rambling, and the stock he’d bought recently hitting the lower limit was now utterly insignificant.
If this fact came to light, his entire career would hit the lower limit.
‘What in the world is this?’
The dazed Manager looked around the Evidence Storage Room with a blank expression. It made no sense whatsoever.
The last inventory check had been just last week.
Yet from a storage room that no one had entered for the past week, an item had vanished without a trace.
Moreover, neither the anti-theft magic installed on each evidence item nor the alarm magic cast over the entire storage room had been triggered.
‘And of all things, it had to be evidence related to Seok Go-jun.’
The disappearance of evidence alone would normally warrant a written apology, but if evidence related to Seok Go-jun had vanished, no ordinary disciplinary action would suffice.
Even though the higher-ups had already confiscated the important items, it had been such a massive case.
“…I’m losing my mind, seriously.”
The Manager felt darkness closing in on his vision. No matter how long a government employee’s tenure, it could be severed unless it were made of steel.
Thinking of the tiger-like wife waiting at home and the rabbit-like children, I couldn’t muster the courage to tell them this truth.
‘Yes, I’ll ask. For now, I’ll just ask and assess the situation.’
If I could just handle the Junior Employee who still knew nothing, I could find a way out later.
With his resolve hardened, Manager Kim called out to the Junior Employee somewhere in the vast Evidence Storage Room, using the gentlest voice in the world.
“Are you there?”
“Ah, yes. I just arrived.”
“Where have you been? Well, come here for a moment. I have something urgent to discuss with you….”
And the moment he turned around, Manager Kim could see it.
The Junior Employee with eyes shining brightly, and the Security Team Leader standing behind him like an iron tower.
“What is it? I heard there was a problem.”
“…?”
“Manager Kim?”
Damn it all.
Manager Kim, barely swallowing the curse, opened his mouth with a tone of despair.
“It’s gone.”
“Pardon?”
“The necklace that came in as Seok Go-jun’s personal effects. It’s disappeared.”

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