Dragonslayer’s Class Regression 35

Chapter 35

Zeke asked with a puzzled expression.

“Visitors? There shouldn’t be anyone coming to see me at Atlas.”

Zeke left his room and went to the reception room where the guests were.

“Master? Even Instructor Andrei?”

Surprisingly, Duke Draker and Andrei Draker were in the reception room.

Duke waved his hand and said to Zeke.

“My disciple. You’re really something else. In all my life, I’ve never seen someone skip Valhalla enrollment. Didn’t that stubborn old Flaubert say anything?”

Zeke sat down with a tired expression and said.

“I’m actually in the middle of taking a special test.”

“Oh? Then there shouldn’t be any problems.”

Duke, who knew Zeke’s abilities better than anyone, wasn’t particularly worried.

Zeke looked at the two and asked.

“But what brings you both here? What about the Academy?”

Duke replied with an indifferent expression.

“Shouldn’t a master be where his disciple is? As for the Academy, Howard will manage it well.”

Duke had originally just been consuming potions without doing much anyway.

“I understand Master’s case… but why Instructor Andrei…?”

Andrei showed a slightly embarrassed expression.

Seeing this, Duke spoke as if he was fed up.

“Ugh, this leech-like fellow. He keeps following me around even though I told him there’s nothing more to teach.”

Despite his words, Duke seemed to have grown fond of Andrei and didn’t firmly reject his company.

“So are you both saying you’ll be staying at Atlas?”

“Yes. Since you got such a big mansion anyway, let us mooch off you.”

Zeke had no reason to refuse.

Thanks to this, Duke and Andrei became additional dependents in the mansion.

Zeke asked Andrei.

“Instructor, are you going back to the Academy then?”

He shook his head.

“No, I’ve been appointed as an associate professor at Valhalla.”

Considering Andrei’s relatively young age, becoming an associate professor at Valhalla meant his skills had improved remarkably.

Duke, happy to meet after a long time, started drinking heavily even though the sun hadn’t set yet.

Zeke kept Duke company for a while, then passed him off to Andrei and returned to his room to prepare for his night walk.

And when the secretive night came with everyone in the mansion asleep, Zeke went outside using Shadowless Step, a footwork technique that leaves no traces.

He knew well the dark world hidden behind the glamorous metropolis of Atlas.

Zeke entered a secluded alley on the outskirts of the city where ordinary people rarely ventured.

Then he went into a bar with a falling sign.

Inside the bar, dangerous-looking people were drinking.

Zeke scanned the bar interior before sitting down at the counter.

Then he spoke to the bartender.

“Give me a dark beer. And.”

He placed a gold coin and continued.

“Go tell Kei I want to meet.”

At those words, the bartender and the dangerous-looking men around turned their attention to Zeke.

Receiving their gazes, Zeke grinned.

“Don’t get hurt unnecessarily and just quietly go tell them. Say Zeke Draker wants to make a deal with the Syndicate.”

At the mention of Draker, the bartender nodded to a man near the bar.

The man went inside and came back, gesturing to Zeke.

It seemed permission had been granted from above.

Zeke followed the man inside the bar.

True to being a smuggling organization, the Syndicate guided Zeke through an underground passage.

After passing several tightly sealed security doors and multiple intersections, they emerged at what appeared to be a massive warehouse.

They passed through an entrance guarded by several rough-looking men and went inside where the goods were kept.

“Wait here a moment.”

The man went inside first.

Shortly after, the door opened and the man gestured for Zeke to enter.

Inside were various items and cargo boxes piled high.

There was a desk among the cargo boxes where Kei was sitting.

An alluring woman with wavy red hair wearing a low-cut dress revealing her cleavage.

‘Her taste in clothes hasn’t changed from then till now.’

Kei stared intently at Zeke’s gloves.

Then she pointed to the seat across from her.

“Sit down first.”

As Zeke sat down, Kei took out tobacco and put it in her mouth.

After blowing out thick tobacco smoke, she spoke again.

“So, what’s the reason the supernova of House Draker wants to see me?”

If you were to pick outstanding intelligence organizations on the continent, people usually name two.

One was House Draker’s Black corps, and the other was the Rom Empire’s Intelligence Agency.

And there was a lesser-known information network, which was this Syndicate.

Starting as a gathering of local smugglers, it was rapidly growing after becoming a key transporter of drugs from the Southern Continent.

In his previous life, Zeke had connections with this Syndicate, particularly with Kei before him.

Back then, Kei was an executive of the Syndicate.

In his previous life, she had approached Zeke first with a request, and through this, she secured important transport routes, building a solid career within the Syndicate.

Thanks to this, Zeke could easily access important continental information through her.

‘Without Kei, I couldn’t have found the Elder Dragon’s relic that I searched for before dying.’

Though she wasn’t an executive yet, her skill was more than enough, so establishing a good relationship from now would clearly be helpful.

Zeke took off his gloves while using his magic reflection skill.

Crackle!

The magic lamps within the skill’s range flickered severely.

When Zeke put his gloves back on and stopped the skill, the magic lamps returned to normal.

“I showed you that to avoid wasting time with needless suspicion, so let’s skip the power play.”

Kei realized that the young Draker sitting before her was no ordinary person.

Zeke looked at Kei and spoke straightforwardly.

“I want to make a deal.”

At those words, Kei frowned her delicate brow.

“A Draker wants to make deals with us? The Rom Emperor donating to the Holy Kingdom would be more believable.”

“You think Drakers are picky about money? Money from selling Soma or killing people, it’s all the same.”

At the mention of Soma, Kei’s expression hardened.

The Syndicate had only recently started bringing Soma from the Southern Continent to the Central Continent.

That was top secret even within the organization.

An ominous aura emanated from Kei and the surrounding men.

“Why, trying to kill me and bury me?”

Suddenly, tremendous energy poured out from Zeke’s body.

The organization members hidden throughout the warehouse couldn’t move a finger due to the killing intent emanating from Zeke’s body.

Kei thought this young Draker was more dangerous than rumors suggested and cursed internally.

“Damn Drakers.”

Then Zeke took something from his chest and tossed it.

Kei was surprised to see a pair of earrings land on the table.

“An artifact?”

Young Kei had just as good an eye as her future self.

Zeke grinned and said.

“It’s a popular ancient item at auctions. You’ll be more surprised when you see the magic attached to it.”

Kei wore the earrings with a distrustful expression despite herself.

Then she raised her magic power to check the earrings’ performance.

“…Magic recovery?”

Zeke grinned.

Since modern magic technology couldn’t create magic items with this level of efficiency, their value was enormous.

She quietly put down the earrings and said.

“When you said you wanted to make a deal, you meant these earrings?”

“This is just the beginning. I have quite a few better items. Watch the market situation and gradually release them at the Dorta auction house to turn them into cash.”

“As a pureblood awakener of House Draker, you shouldn’t have money problems, so why do this?”

“I don’t think there’s any reason to tell you that much.”

Zeke handed Kei the documents containing his fake identity details as Zeke Murray.

“Open a clean account with this and put the money there. There’s a transaction contract at the back. The items are in North Bank, so process the transfer. Sales commission is 10% per item, with additional incentives for every 10,000 gold exceeded.”

Kei checked the contract Zeke brought. It was a detailed and clean contract, suggesting this wasn’t their first such transaction.

Kei looked at Zeke and asked, 

“Who exactly are you?”

“You’re asking while knowing I’m Zeke Draker. I revealed my identity to build trust. Of course, I trust you’ll keep your subordinates quiet.”

Kei contemplated the identity details and contract before her. She soon nodded and stood up.

“Follow me.”

Kei led Zeke into the warehouse. Inside was her office, equipped with sound and security magic spells for important client meetings.

After Zeke sat down, Kei brought something.

“An oath of allegiance. Quite a magical item indeed.”

Kei wasn’t surprised that Zeke knew she was a mage. She had guessed he came deliberately knowing her identity since bringing the magic items.

She spread out the oath contract and picked up a pen.

“This means you’re the first I’ve acknowledged as a true partner, so I hope you won’t take offense.”

This wasn’t strange to Zeke since he had made an oath with Kei in his previous life.

Kei first pricked her finger with the needle on the pen’s end. She then signed with the blood that flowed to the pen tip.

Following her, Zeke signed the same way.

Then, each other’s signatures appeared on the inside of their wrists.

‘Huh?’

However, Zeke noticed something strange about the signature on his wrist. It appeared as if two signatures were overlapped.

‘Could it be that the oath from my previous life is overlapping?’

If someone breaks a blood oath, the signature on their wrist disappears. This way, you could tell if your contract partner had betrayed you.

While Zeke flinched at the overlapping signatures, Kei didn’t seem to notice anything unusual.

Having confirmed the signatures on each other’s wrists, they agreed to become partners.

“Now that we’re partners, can’t you tell me? Why a Draker pureblood awakened one is trying to sell stolen goods?”

Zeke said to Kei,

 “First, these aren’t stolen goods. They’re ancient items I discovered. Don’t ask where I found them because I won’t tell. Second, being a pureblood awakened one doesn’t automatically mean you’re rich. You need a wealthy sponsoring family for that.”

Since this was inside information about House Draker that was hard to know, Kei listened to Zeke’s words with curiosity.

Then Zeke asked Kei,

 “Is the Syndicate currently dealing with the Mekein Cartel?”

Kei’s expression hardened again at those words.

“How do you know confidential information even within the organization? Even I, the branch manager, only learned about it recently.”

She spoke as if there was no point in hiding it anymore.

“You’re right, we’re dealing with Mekein. But lately, we’re getting pressure from the Favela Cartel to cut ties with Mekein and transport their goods instead.”

Currently, the Southern Continent was in a three-way battle between the major cartels: Favela, Mekein, and Tahuani.

In the lawless Southern Continent, the kingdom’s existence was already nominal.

The cartels’ military power was dozens of times stronger than the kingdom’s knights.

Using this military might, they produced the drug Soma in the jungle and brought it to the Central Continent.

Since the Roman Empire was Soma’s biggest consumer market, transport to the Central Continent was crucial.

The border area they originally used for transport was completely blocked when the Ishtar family who settled there issued an expulsion order.

Even the reckless cartels didn’t want friction with Ishtar, one of the transcendent families, so they had to find another route.

That’s how they came to work with the Syndicate, a smuggling organization. They were now distributing Soma through the South Sea and desert regions to the Roman Empire, Central Kingdom, and Northern Continent.

Demand was always high since Soma became popular among mages when it became known to have not only hallucinogenic effects but also mana-boosting properties.

As a result, the Syndicate, which monopolized the transport of cartel goods, was making enormous money while building distribution and sales networks across the continent.

Zeke, who had personally experienced this situation in his previous life, knew the Southern cartel situation inside out.

As he organized his past life memories, Zeke looked at Kei and said, 

“Hey, Kei. I have a proposal.”

“What kind of proposal?”

Zeke smiled calmly and said, 

“Connect me with Don Juan.”

Surprised by those words, Kei unconsciously raised her voice and said, 

“You want to meet the Mekein Cartel boss!?”

Zeke nodded.

“Yes. If you can do that, I’ll make you the boss of the Syndicate.”