The Archmage’s Swordsmanship Is Too Strong - Chapter 65

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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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65
Episode 65. How to Tear the Serpent’s Jaws
***
Jung Chan-hyeon.
Just placing that name on my tongue seemed to summon a sharp, metallic taste.
The face of the man I’d first encountered in that chaos at the Goblin Nest Gate burned itself vividly into my retinas.
Skin slick with excess oil, those arrogant, repulsive eyes that looked down on others as insects.
‘We’re just following protocol! Leave the Mana stone and get out.’
The bone structure of that face aligned with the assassin’s visage that Lee Do-hyeon had etched into his retinas in his final moments—horrifyingly, perfectly.
The process of fitting together fragments of truth was violent in its swiftness.
The visual information I had injected directly into Ryu Gang-jin’s mind, borrowing the Power of Lucifugus, was enough to shake the very foundation of beliefs he’d spent a lifetime constructing.
Though his memories had been erased, the “certain doubt” carved into his soul became a tsunami that consumed Ryu Gang-jin.
It was before dawn had even fully broken when the returned Ryu Gang-jin began to dance with his blade.
Armed personnel from the Jeolyeok-gwa thundered through the Gate Management Bureau Headquarters in heavy tactical boots, shattering the silence. The target was clear. The Administration Division Office.
Before Jung Chan-hyeon could even feel the warmth of his freshly brewed coffee at his desk, cold steel cuffs bit into his wrists.
He was dragged away like a beast, beneath the shocked gazes of his colleagues.
The investigation unfolded exactly along the trajectory I had drawn in advance, without so much as a hair’s breadth of deviation.
So Jung Chan-hyeon was not merely a corrupt bureaucrat.
He was the lethal wedge that Asia’s largest narcotics organization—the Hong Hyeol-maeng—had driven into the heart of the Gate Management Bureau, rotting the Republic of Korea from within.
Throughout the morning, I dissected the life of this man called Jung Chan-hyeon alongside Kim Dae-han in the Ability Management Team Office.
Between the lines of the personnel records spilling across the monitor, there lay the inevitable stench of his corruption.
Surprisingly, his start had not been in the Administration Division where he worked now. He had originally been a promising elite combat operative under Ryu Gang-jin in the Jeolyeok-gwa.
But the wall of talent was cruel. The appearance of a prodigy who emerged like a comet, the rookie boxer Bae Hyeon-gyeom, had shoved Jung Chan-hyeon to the cliff’s edge in an instant.
In the Jeolyeok-gwa, where the logic of force reigned supreme, the only option left for those cast aside was obvious: demotion to the Administration Division, pen-pushing.
That bitter inferiority complex and hunger for power had been the driving force that made him reach out to the viper called Hong Hyeol-maeng.
‘Now the pieces fit together.’
The rumors that my sister Kim Min-seo had uncovered through her intelligence network.
The source of the underground gossip that the Jeolyeok-gwa had colluded with Hong Hyeol-maeng was Jung Chan-hyeon himself, who had leveraged his title as a former Jeolyeok-gwa operative to become the tail of the organization.
He sold the internal secrets of the Jeolyeok-gwa, exchanged bribes with corrupted private guilds, and built towering walls of vast corruption.
His abnormal obsession during the Goblin Gate incident was also no accident.
It had been the thrashing of a mad dog trying to eliminate factors that threatened the interests of his backer, Hong Hyeol-maeng.
I completely cleared my suspicions about Ryu Gang-jin when he sent me a covert message asking me to accompany him during Jung Chan-hyeon’s interrogation.
If he had truly been the puppet master behind everything, he would never have taken the risk of bringing an outsider like me into the underground heart of the Gate Management Bureau.
***
“Gwanghwamun Square……”
A dry sigh leaked from between my lips.
My feet had touched the very center of Gwanghwamun Square, the symbol of the Republic of Korea’s politics and administration.
For me, this place was far more than an ordinary city block. It was the source of the apocalypse, where the Gate—humanity’s last fortress—had opened, where the Demon Dragon Zephyros had descended and reduced the world to ash.
Countless comrades had spilled blood and collapsed here, and it was the final battlefield where Kang Tae-yoon had handed me the Return Stone and fallen.
After my return, I had obsessively sought out this place.
I had scanned every gap in the paving stones, every wisp of residual Mana drifting through the air, searching for any harbinger of apocalypse. But the result was hollow.
There were no traces of tragedy in today’s Gwanghwamun.
Only the massive glass tower soaring up to pierce the sky dominated the view.
Among the surrounding high-rises, this building alone emanated an unusually cold and oppressive presence.
It was the Gate Management Bureau Headquarters, the nation’s nerve center and the extrajudicial authority that controlled the legal framework governing Awakened Ones.
“The atmosphere inside the Bureau must be like a stirred hornet’s nest right now,” Kim Dae-han whispered beside me, his voice low as we moved toward the main entrance with heavy steps.
“They must feel like they’re cutting into their own flesh,” I said.
I answered briefly while heightening my sensitivity to the surrounding atmosphere.
Before my return, I had been an Archmage concerned solely with pursuing the ultimate nature of Mana, moving from one battlefield to another where blood was spilled.
I had never walked into the heart of political intrigue and administrative order with my own feet.
Perhaps that was why the coldly polished marble lobby and the rigorously controlled flow of air felt strangely foreign and unpleasant.
The noise inside the building was suppressed to an extreme degree. It must have been due to the strict gag order issued regarding Jung Chan-hyeon’s arrest.
But the shuffling footsteps of passing staff, the taut, keen gazes of the armed Awakened Ones positioned throughout—these could not be hidden.
A massive unease churning beneath the surface pricked at my skin.
“From the Ability Management Team,” Kim Dae-han said, presenting his ID at the security desk in the center of the lobby.
The moment he did, the gazes of the armed guards converged on us in unison.
The employee behind the desk looked us over with mechanical movements, then handed us temporary access badges in a voice drained of emotion.
“We have confirmed the orders from the Jeolyeok-gwa chief. Please use the security-exclusive elevator on this side.”
Following the employee’s guidance, we entered a section strictly off-limits to civilians. The interior of the elevator was layered with fingerprint recognition and Mana wave scanning devices.

The employee tagged the master key, and the elevator began its descent with a subtle vibration, dropping vertically into darkness.
The floor indicator plummeted toward the basement levels. Five, ten, fifteen……
“Basement Level 17. They’ve basically built a fortress underground.”
Kim Dae-han murmured low, arms crossed in the sealed compartment. As they descended further from the surface, the pressure against his eardrums intensified.
The deeper they went, the more the air itself seemed to thicken with something beyond mere physical depth—a sticky, hostile vigilance that clung to the atmosphere.
Ding.
The elevator lurched to a stop. Thick steel doors hissed open with a dull hydraulic grind, parting to either side.
……
Beyond the elevator doors stretched a faded gray concrete corridor.
And standing dead center in that entrance, waiting to receive us, was a familiar silhouette.
A crisp Bureau suit—but the man’s right arm hung in a thick cast around his neck. It was Bae Hyeon-gyeom.
“You made it. Kim Do-jin.”
He adjusted his glasses, greeting us with his characteristic dry, metallic tone. This was the arm I’d broken myself. The sensation of splintering bone still seemed to linger at my fingertips.
“It’s healing fine. No need to worry.”
Noticing my gaze lingering on his arm, Bae Hyeon-gyeom turned the subject brusquely.
“I didn’t say anything. Not worried either.”
“What?”
“Show us the way.”
“……This way.”
Bae Hyeon-gyeom clicked his tongue and turned. The shoulder without the cast was barely perceptible in its tension.
Click, click.
In the sealed corridor, only our footsteps echoed like ghosts, long and hollow. A perfect windowless chamber.
“The air here is suffocatingly stale.”
Kim Dae-han, surveying his surroundings keenly, furrowed his brow.
“This place was designed for that specific purpose.”
Bae Hyeon-gyeom answered without looking back. His words were more than mere metaphor.
My senses had already begun analyzing the malformed structure of this space. The fundamental breathlessness came not from a lack of ventilation.
Every wall, floor, and ceiling in this deep basement was coated in layers of high-density Mana-blocking alloy.
A space where not only external electromagnetic waves but even the natural Mana and Aura flowing through the air were blocked at one hundred percent. For Awakened Ones, Mana is breath itself.
But here, there was no Mana to inhale at all.
A harsh, suffocating deprivation—as if cast into the abyssal depths or the vacuum of space—compressed my entire body.
‘No variables allowed, then.’
My thoughts crystallized into cold clarity.
Whether an imprisoned Hunter riots or an intruder breaches the walls, this perfect execution chamber slowly drains them of life by cutting off the recovery of internal Mana. A perfect trap.
If combat erupts here, I’ll have only the residual Mana stored in my Core to work with.
‘Stay quiet for now.’
I sent the command into the deep recesses of consciousness where Airi slept, shifting her into power-saving mode to prevent unnecessary Mana expenditure.
Thud, thud.
Heavy footsteps broke the silence, winding through the labyrinthine corridor dozens of times until a colossal steel door finally blocked the way ahead.
***
The Observation Room beyond the steel door was as bleak as a frame from some cheap noir film.
Beyond the massive one-way mirror that cut across the center of the space, the interior of the Interrogation Room lay exposed below us.
This place was a sacred sanctuary of the Gate Management Bureau—where absolute power wielded itself without restraint.
In matters concerning Awakened One crimes, the Bureau held precedence over the judicial system itself.
A grotesque structure where the Director alone could render independent judgment without even the formality of prosecution.
At the sound of the door opening, the large man standing before the glass turned slowly.
“You’re here.”
It was Ryu Gang-jin, Chief of the Power Division. His face bore the same exhausted weariness from when I’d altered his memory using the Power of Lucifugus.
Ryu Gang-jin acknowledged us with a slight jut of his chin, his voice low and grave.
I offered a shallow bow and immediately fixed my gaze beyond the glass.
……
Inside the Interrogation Room, flooded with white light. Across from a sturdy metal table sat a man in restraints, tilted awkwardly in his chair.
It was Jung Chan-hyeon.
His white dress shirt hung open disgracefully, buttons torn away—evidence of the physical violence during his arrest—and his shoes were caked with dirt.
Yet despite his disheveled appearance, the way he reclined against the chair back showed not the slightest trace of anxiety.
If anything, his posture exuded a vicious, contemptuous mockery of the interrogator before him.
Through the observation room speaker, the interrogation unfolded with crystal clarity, without a trace of static.
[……Damn it, how many times do I have to say I don’t know!]
[Are my ears broken, or can’t you understand what I’m saying?]
Jung Chan-hyeon brought his shackled hands together and slammed the heavy metal table. Crack! The dull metallic boom tore through the silence of the interrogation room, scattering outward in all directions.
Across from him sat a woman in a black suit, utterly composed. She was an investigator from the Inspection Department of the Gate Management Bureau.
Her eyes, cold as ice, methodically turned each document over one by one.
“The forensic analysis is already complete, Jung Chan-hyeon.”
Her voice carried a mechanical precision to it.
“Three days ago, you made contact with a Hong Hyeol-maeng liaison. This is the SIM chip from the burner phone you discarded in the sewer to destroy evidence.”
Investigator Lee Min-young flicked a small chip inside a transparent evidence bag onto the desk.
“Our information team successfully recovered it.”
“The fire and corrosion left us with only five percent, but that’s more than enough to hang you.”
“Still going to deny it?”
Precise, merciless pressure. Yet even before such damning physical evidence, Jung Chan-hyeon’s lips twisted upward in a bitter smile.
“So what? What are you gonna do about it, you bitch? You got proof that’s mine? Pull something you found on the street and pin it on me?”
He let out a bizarre cackle, dragging his shackled hand across his face.
Even as he hurled curses at the investigator’s face, his pupils gleamed with unmistakable confidence in victory.
“If it weren’t for Investigator Lee Min-young, we’d never have gotten this far.”
Ryu Gang-jin, observing beyond the glass partition, folded his thick arms and muttered quietly.
“There is progress, isn’t there, Director?”
As Kim Dae-han adjusted his glasses and asked, Ryu Gang-jin released a heavy sigh.
“As you can see. He’s admitted to the clear bribery and collusion with Hong Hyeol-maeng—he’s got no choice. But…”
Ryu Gang-jin’s eyes narrowed sharply.
“On the most critical matter—the assassination directive against Hunter Lee Do-hyeon and the upper chain of Booster distribution—he’s frothing at the mouth denying everything. Insisting he’s just a small-time tail who pocketed chump change.”
Through the speaker, Jung Chan-hyeon’s bitter laugh echoed through the observation room once more.
‘He’s brimming with confidence.’
I studied Jung Chan-hyeon beyond the glass with precision. There is only one reason a man can remain this composed while dragged into the heart of state power and subjected to interrogation.
He was certain he would never be destroyed here.
A belief that someone would pull him out when this questioning ended, or at the very least spare him from the most fatal charges.
It was unmistakable proof that some enormous, solid backing was supporting him from behind.
‘If time keeps flowing like this, it’ll play out exactly as he’s planned.’
The worst-case scenario flashed through my mind.
Jung Chan-hyeon would admit only to minor offenses and negotiate his sentence, while the true nature of Hong Hyeol-maeng and the Booster distribution network would be perfectly buried under a cut-tail cover-up.
The mastermind behind Lee Do-hyeon’s assassination would vanish forever into darkness.
The investigator’s logical pressure couldn’t tear open that serpent’s mouth.
The framework of normal law and procedure was already factored into his calculations.
I pushed off from the wall where I’d been leaning in silence.
Cutting through the cold, heavy air, I moved slowly toward the thick steel door leading to the interrogation room.
“Hunter Kim Do-jin?”
Startled by my sudden movement, Ryu Gang-jin called out in his deep voice. I didn’t stop walking—I merely grasped the door handle and turned my head slightly.
“You can’t go in without authorization.”
Instead of answering, I looked at Ryu Gang-jin and Bae Hyeon-gyeom in turn.
“Let me have a conversation with him.”

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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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