Koon has just finished talking with someone on his Pocket about the new Slayer candidate, and meets with Edin Dan, a fast Scout. Dan names his price for catching a silver carp, but Koon actually wants to recruit him onto his team. He makes a deal: if Dan can get out of the café and evade all the Regulars in the café, he will get a chunk of pure suspendium. If he can’t, he will have to join Koon’s team. Koon also mentions that every Regular in the café was hired by him. At first Dan is unconfident, but notices an escape exit and runs for it. But this actually led to a dead end which Koon lured him to with the lie that every Regular in the café was hired. Dan is surprised, but is still able to dash past Koon and head towards the exit. However, it turns out that Koon had planned for this and hired only the cashier, who shot Dan with a tranquilizer dart.
Ran and Novik fighting
He wakes up in Koon’s team’s house, and Novick brings him to see the rest of the team. After being briefly introduced, Novick challenges him on the pretence of fighting Ran again and quickly pulverises him. He is then resuscitated by Michael and watches the battle between Novick and Ran in awe.
Meanwhile, Koon comforts Rachel who had nightmares about Baam and after a while leaves. Afterwards, Rachel gets up and walks around the room. Outside, Koon calls Leesoo on his pocket and tells him that they had finally gotten all the team members. Then he says that he’s certain Rachel tricked them.
Six years ago, he met up with Leesoo and told him this, saying that Lero-Ro had called a doctor, who had said that the injury was minor and didn’t need fixing. He tells Leesoo to lead the team up first and he would stay and build the fence that would both protect and watch her. He begged Leesoo not to tell anyone, because he “wanted to preserve the team that Baam wanted to protect, and the thought that Rachel betrayed them was so cruel, that only the cruelest among them should bear it.
That night, he gathers his teammates and tells them that they’d be climbing the Tower again. He tells them of his ambitions to succeed Koon Eduan. He tells them to protect Rachel, comfort her, be kind to her but “never to get attached to her, never think of her as a friend, so you can ignore her cries of pain someday. Despise her, because she is the one he killed my closest friend”.
| ← Part II (The Return of the Prince) → | |||||||||
| |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|