Chapter 75. Victoria’s Ordinary Afternoon (1)
“Huh?”
Yukgap tilted his head while checking the cupboard in the middle of preparing food.
Victoria noticed and asked,
“What’s wrong?”
“We’re out of soy sauce. I forgot I was supposed to buy some yesterday. I’ll run to the supermarket nearby.”
Yukgap held up the empty soy sauce bottle.
Victoria immediately raised her hand and stood up as though she had been waiting for an excuse.
“Then I’ll go! I was getting bored anyway.”
“You’re the owner. Should you really be doing little errands like that?”
“Come on. I’m not some authoritarian owner.”
Victoria grinned.
“Besides, I’m bored.”
She seemed delighted to have found something to do.
Yukgap nodded.
“Fine. Then buy some soy sauce.”
“Got it. I’ll be right back.”
Victoria left Restaurant Shelley while humming to herself.
It was late afternoon.
Warm sunlight filled the quiet back alley.
Nothing seemed likely to happen.
It was an utterly normal, peaceful day.
“Hmm-hmm-hmm. Nice weather.”
Yuhyeok carefully watched the woman walking along while humming from behind a wall.
There was no mistake.
The stitched scar across her face.
Blonde hair.
And a towering height close to two meters.
She was definitely their target.
“Is that really the daughter of that famous alchemist, Mary Frankenstein?”
His companion Sewoon asked while gesturing toward the woman.
Yuhyeok immediately nodded.
“Yeah. She’s Mary Frankenstein’s only blood relative. The same Mary Frankenstein rumored to have created the Philosopher’s Stone.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“Her name was Victoria Frankenstein, I think. She might know where the Philosopher’s Stone is.”
Their other companion, Jincheol, spoke excitedly.
“If we actually find the real Philosopher’s Stone, we could leave this back-alley life behind.”
“Leave it behind? The three of us could live like kings.”
Yuhyeok looked at his companions with anticipation.
Yuhyeok.
Sewoon.
Jincheol.
The three had met in prison after getting caught committing petty theft in the back alleys.
They had not met beneath a peach tree like sworn brothers from an old tale.
Instead, they had met behind the cold walls of a prison.
Even so, they had quickly become close and decided to stick together for life.
And now they were watching for the perfect opportunity to pull off one final score that could turn their lives around.
“All right.”
Yuhyeok, acting as their leader, spoke with resolve.
“We kidnap her.”
Jincheol asked nervously,
“Can we really do that? She doesn’t exactly look normal.”
“She’s still just one woman. There are three of us.”
Yuhyeok had clearly already made up his mind.
Sewoon smiled knowingly and took out the tranquilizer gun they had struggled to acquire.
“That’s why I went through all that trouble to get this from the Crescent Moon Auction.”
“They said the drug in this thing could knock out ten grown men. One woman should be nothing.”
Yuhyeok spoke tensely.
“Then we shoot her first and knock her out. Got it?”
“What do we do after that?”
Jincheol asked.
Yuhyeok answered as if there was nothing to think about.
“We kidnap her and make her tell us where the Philosopher’s Stone is.”
They had even prepared an isolated warehouse nearby where nobody would come looking.
Sewoon would shoot Victoria with the tranquilizer gun.
Once she lost consciousness, the three of them would quickly drag her away.
Then they would scare her enough to make her reveal the location of the Philosopher’s Stone.
Simple.
Clean.
That was today’s entire plan.
“Good. She’s coming...!”
Sewoon aimed through a small opening in the wall and breathed slowly.
Their target, Victoria Frankenstein, walked peacefully along, completely unaware of what was about to happen.
The moment she entered range, Sewoon pulled the trigger without hesitation.
“Go to sleep!”
The tranquilizer dart shot forward with a sharp sound.
It struck Victoria squarely in the back of the neck.
“Ow!”
Victoria raised her voice in surprise at the sudden sting.
She reached behind her neck and stared curiously at the dart.
“What’s this?”
Watching from hiding, Sewoon clenched his fist in triumph.
“Good. She’ll collapse any second now!”
But contrary to his expectations, Victoria neither fainted nor fell.
She simply pulled out the dart, tossed it away, and complained,
“Jeez. Who’s playing such a nasty prank?”
Then she casually continued walking down the alley.
Yuhyeok, who had been waiting for her to collapse, shouted in disbelief,
“What the hell? Nothing happened!”
“N-No way! They said that tranquilizer was insanely strong!”
“Did you get scammed?”
At Yuhyeok’s question, Sewoon picked up the dart Victoria had thrown away.
He indignantly protested while tapping the drug-coated tip.
