Transmigrated into the Gacha Game I Abandoned for 10 Years

The next day.

Kim Hyunwoo called Elena, who was heading down to the fourth tier, and gave her a gift.

“…What’s this?”

Elena asked with a surprised look.

To that, Kim Hyunwoo responded with a smile.

“It’s an axe made from the materials of the Magdaora we caught last time.”

“Excuse me? Magdaora, as in that Disaster of a…”

“Yes, that one.”

With those words, Elena, who took out the axe, looked at Kim Hyunwoo with an astonished expression.

The axe in her hand looked extremely good, as if it was appealing to be a very expensive entity just by its appearance.

‘It’s actually good too.’

Although it wasn’t a weapon for a 5-star hero to use, a weapon made from Magdaora’s materials was quite a decent weapon for up to 4 stars.

“Isn’t this gift too much for me?”

Elena looked a bit burdened, but Kim Hyunwoo reassured her with a smile.

“Too much? Not at all.”

“But still-”

“If you really think so, I’d appreciate it if you dedicated yourself even more to training. I sincerely believe that Elena will become a strong hero.”

Kim Hyunwoo’s words.

Upon hearing this, Elena widened her eyes and looked at Kim Hyunwoo, then nodded her head with a slightly reddened complexion and said,

“…I will definitely try to become like that.”

“I believe in you. Then, have a good trip.”

After accepting Elena’s response with a smile, she immediately moved outside the Lord’s castle, and Kim Hyunwoo, watching her,

[Elena's affinity has increased!]

[Elena's affinity has reached the maximum level!]

“Oh.”

He unwittingly smiled at the pop-up notifications.

‘Of course, it’s just that the affinity reached Level 5.’

In Arteil, even if the affinity reaches Level 5, it doesn’t mean the hero character has fallen in love, but rather that the trust has become very strong, making it easier for the favorability to increase.

‘Well, even in the current state, I’ll sufficiently receive a stats increase due to the affinity.’

While Kim Hyunwoo thought so,

knock knock.

He turned his gaze towards the sound of knocking on the office door.

“It’s been a while, My Lord.”

“Ah, please come in.”

Kim Hyunwoo greeted Mila with a smile as she entered the office, asking her how she had been along with a warm welcome.

Since officially scouting Mila, Kim Hyunwoo and Mila hadn’t had a significant meeting.

‘Normally, it would be good to meet often.’

But currently, Kim Hyunwoo had a lot to do, including making the Magnifying Glass, and above all, because he found Mila’s characteristics trustworthy, he didn’t specifically arrange to meet and talk with her separately.

After exchanging simple greetings for a while, Kim Hyunwoo was able to get to the main point.

“So, what brings you here?”

It wasn’t Kim Hyunwoo who had called Mila.

Rather, she had requested to see Kim Hyunwoo first, so he asked with curiosity.

Mila, having received the question, seemed to ponder for a moment before speaking.

“Well, it’s about forming a Mercenary Guild, I was wondering if I could get a little help with that.”

“Help?”

“Yes. Well-”

Mila, looking quite troubled, soon began to tell Kim Hyunwoo about the current situation.

After listening quietly to Mila, Kim Hyunwoo nodded in understanding as she finished speaking.

“…So, to put it essentially, the Mercenary Guild is unable to receive financial support due to political fighting… Is that what you mean?”

“Yes…”

Mila, making a face as if feeling quite disgraced just by thinking about it,

“…Well, to be honest, even if you don’t support us, the Mercenary Guild will probably be properly built eventually. But if that happens-”

“Mila, you mean you’ll be pushed out by politics and won’t be able to stay in Lartania?”

“Yes.”

Upon Mila’s words, Kim Hyunwoo made a thoughtful expression, nodding his head and sighing peculiarly.

‘Indeed, wherever people gather, political fighting is the same.’

Kim Hyunwoo looked at Mila with a sympathetic expression.

It made sense because, based on the story Mila had given, it seemed she was essentially being treated as a thorn in the side by the Mercenary Guild.

‘…Since Lartania definitely seems like a winning lottery ticket, they deliberately make various excuses to block the funding for the Mercenary Guild, thinking that if Mila gives up, they’ll send another mercenary…’

It was clearly a very petty act.

Certainly, if the Mercenary Guild acted like this, Mila had no choice but to be affected.

According to what she had said, if the Mercenary Guild isn’t properly built within half a year, the authority to build the Guild would be transferred to the other side.

However, upon cold consideration, this situation was infinitely unfortunate for Mila but also infinitely advantageous for Kim Hyunwoo.

After all, Kim Hyunwoo’s ultimate goal was to fully recruit Mila to Lartania.

But.

“Alright. I’ll help you.”

“Excuse me?”

He said those words to Mila without hesitation.

Mila, looking at him with a blank expression for a moment, asked with a somewhat confused look,

“Uh… really?”

“Yes, really. You’ve come to ask for help with difficulty; I wouldn’t lie about this.”

“Well- if I may ask, why…?”

Mila’s question.

She looked at Kim Hyunwoo with eyes that couldn’t comprehend.

Mila was aware of herself.

Her story might be pitiful, but he had no real reason to help, and not helping her right now would not harm Kim Hyunwoo in any way.

However,

“As I’ve said, I really want to bring someone as talented as you are here. So, I’m earning points in advance.”

Kim Hyunwoo said this, looking at Mila.

“Besides, if you leave, it would also be troublesome for me to fulfil my contracts further.”

“Ah…”

Mila let out a low exclamation.

“Anyway, so I will help you with the matter regarding the Mercenary Guild.”

Seeing her, Kim Hyunwoo smiled and continued.

“Really, thank you so much… If it weren’t for you, My Lord, I would’ve…”

Seeing Mila, who briefly wore a blank expression before bowing her head deeply, Kim Hyunwoo intuitively felt that his thoughts were correct.

‘As expected, she had no intention of leaving the Mercenary Guild.’

Kim Hyunwoo had already somewhat grasped that the Mercenary Guild’s politicking wasn’t just this one time when he heard about Mila’s situation.

The word ‘again’ had come up quite often from her.

The fact that she had gone through such an ordeal again made him realize that this wasn’t the first attempt Mila had made to establish her Guild.

Moreover, since she had no particular intention of leaving the Mercenary Guild even for the large amount Kim Hyunwoo had suggested, he had roughly inferred the situation.

‘…Well, I’m not sure exactly why she doesn’t want to leave the Mercenary Guild.’

Ultimately, from Kim Hyunwoo’s perspective, he decided to help without hesitation to build up as much favorability as possible before recruiting her.

“Hmm, this conversation might take some time, so let’s talk about it later… I’ve been quite busy recently and haven’t been able to check on the soldiers’ condition. How are the apprentices doing?”

At the same time, to pivot away from the suddenly awkward relationship, he quickly changed the topic to the training status of the apprentices.

“Ah.”

Mila, as if deeply moved, cleared her throat with slightly reddened eyes.

‘…I mean, is helping with the Mercenary Guild really that moving…??’

Right after Kim Hyunwoo made a slightly puzzled expression, Mila, with a flushed face, said after clearing her throat several times,

“The training of the apprentices is progressing very quickly. To be honest… the effort of the apprentices is incredible. They are becoming strong very quickly.”

She said that.

“Oh, is that so?”

Kim Hyunwoo, smiling with satisfaction upon hearing Mila’s words, turned on the status window of the apprentices for the first time in a while,

“…Huh?”

He couldn’t help but make a surprised expression unknowingly.

---

While Kim Hyunwoo was looking in surprise at the apprentices’ information window.

“……”

Merilda, sitting on a hill for a while, was lost in thought with a worried expression.

The reason was that she had encountered a sinister dragon a few days ago.

In fact, it wasn’t because she had met the sinister dragon that she was lost in thought.

Moreover, it wasn’t because she was unable to share consciousness that she looked depressed.

…She was a bit depressed, but that wasn’t the main reason.

The immediate reason for Merilda’s depression…

…was because she realized she alone had no solution.

Through the last meeting, Merilda was able to understand why the Absolute Ruler of Darkness and the Crimson Dragon couldn’t return to Lartania.

The Absolute Ruler of Darkness was because of infamy like hers, and the dragon was due to a year-long ban.

The dragon’s situation was different from hers, but it could return to its owner after just one more year.

The Absolute Ruler of Darkness had accumulated infamy like her, but it seemed to be diligently removing its infamy through its own efforts.

However, Merilda was unable to reduce her infamy right away.

More precisely, she had no clue how to reduce her infamy.

Because, as Merilda herself knew, her infamy was tremendously high.

But that didn’t mean she was going to give up on returning to her Master.

‘Is there no way…? A way to return to Master a bit faster than those guys…’

Merilda had been pondering this for the past few days.

“Boss, what’s going on?”

Ryu, looking at Merilda, who had limited her daily raids on the Lord’s castle to once a day and was maintaining silence, asked her as she pondered.

“Huh?”

She asked with a low exclamation, as if suddenly realizing something.

“Ryu.”

“Yes?”

“What was the reason those guys came to deal with the Red Eyes when we settled down?”

“…Ah, are you talking about the intruders?…Well, I think most of them came for treasure?”

“What else did they gain by capturing us?”

“…When the intruders dealt with us? Well- maybe honor or favorability from the surrounding territories?”

“That’s it.”

“…What do you mean?”

“The way to eliminate my infamy, that’s it.”

“Ah.”

With Ryu’s exclamation, Merilda smiled.

She herself thought that eliminating the already overflowing infamy would take too much time.

But what if she could gain honor and favorability from territories by defeating villains?

Eliminating infamy quickly wasn’t an impossible task because of this.

‘I’ll return faster than that sinister dragon or the hysterical woman.’

Merilda, who immediately stood up,

‘To my Master.’

Resolved, she smiled.

“I just have to beat all those infamous guys, right?”

Merilda’s words.

Upon hearing this, Ryu made a momentarily blank expression.

“That… Yes?”

He asked again.

“If I defeat all those infamous guys, won’t the favorability of those territories, who have infamy with me, increase?”

“That… makes sense?”

“So, if I defeat all those infamous guys, my infamy will disappear too.”

Following this dizzying logic, Ryu made a flustered expression, as if he might unwittingly slap his forehead.

Honestly, the conclusion Merilda came to was quite dizzying, and not something one would typically think of to eliminate their infamy.

“…But, wouldn’t that be a bit difficult?”

Therefore, Ryu asked, perhaps out of concern.

“Why? The logic is sound, isn’t it?”

Following Merilda’s response,

“…The logic, it does make sense. Logically…”

Eventually, he nodded as if giving up.

“Where’s the most infamous place around here?”

As Merilda asked,

“Hmm-”

After a moment of thought, Ryu brought Giral and Gram.

“…So, you’re saying to beat all the infamous guys and clear the infamy?”

“Yes.”

Giral and Gram inadvertently opened their mouths slightly at Merilda’s confident nodding.

“…Ahem.”

Soon, Giral quickly closed his mouth.

Honestly, the idea of eliminating all infamous individuals to clear one’s own infamy wasn’t something that could come from a normal line of thought.

After all, considering how many villains are in this world, how could one possibly find and defeat them all?

But,

‘…From her expression, it’s clear she won’t give up.’

After thinking this, Giral, seeing Merilda’s confident expression, spoke,

“I believe the most infamous place around here is the Trikram territory.”

“Trikram territory?”

“It’s a territory ambiguously belonging to the Calan Kingdom, infamous to the extent that despite being a territory, it’s practically filled with nothing but slaves.”

“..Then, wouldn’t meddling with it worsen our relationship with the Calan Kingdom?”

“Considering the infamy, the favorability might actually increase. Moreover, killing that lord might not affect our relationship with the Calan Kingdom, but it will definitely eliminate the Boss’ infamy.”

“Really? Is that so…”

Giral nodded in response to Merilda’s question,

“Let’s go right away.”

She immediately opened her mouth with a deep smile.