Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Sahyeon, gripping the branded wrist.

Every eye in the vicinity converged on his black glove.

"And what are you supposed to be? Cosplaying as the Interrogator?"

One hunter let out a snicker.

At the mocking tone, the frozen atmosphere shattered into raucous laughter.

"Is it Halloween today?"

"Hahahaha, why not bring the mirror mask while you're at it?"

"How'd a little brat like that even wash up in here?"

I heard the kids hooked on dark hero stories these days run around playing Interrogator!

As everyone burst into laughter—

"......"

There was one person who couldn't laugh.

Min Yong, frozen solid with his wrist held fast.

'...Those eyes.'

The gaze he'd met head-on beneath the hat brim.

Facing those chilling grey eyes, his heart lurched against his will.

Just then, one hunter's words snapped him back to his senses.

"Hey, baby boy~ you know where you are, getting cocky like this? The guy you grabbed is A-rank. Fresh out of the joint, no less!"

...Right. There's no way the Interrogator would be here.

Physical mutations like eye color changing after Awakening were common enough.

Grey eyes like those — there had to be plenty.

Getting spooked just because the eye color matched.

I must've been too on edge.

Just as Min Yong, sneering at himself, was about to shake off the gripped arm—

"Looks like you don't quite grasp the situation......"

...No, wait. Why won't my arm move?

No matter how hard he strained, the seized arm wouldn't budge an inch.

A hunter stronger than me exists...?

Unlike the bewildered Min Yong, his opponent was serene.

"I think you're the one who needs to grasp the situation......"

Sahyeon lowered his eyes and cocked his head.

"Seems like you weren't quite rehabilitated. Is it because you didn't fill out the whole two hours?"

"......!"

Min Yong's breath caught.

T-Two hours...?

A voice raced through his mind.

— Number 18, I'll finish you up in two hours, special treatment.

"Since we've met like this, shall we fill the remaining time?"

The Mirror Mask's eerie, voice-modulated tones overlapped with the gentle voice.

"......"

A chilling shiver crawled up his neck.

It's him.

Why is the Interrogator here? Don't tell me he caught on to the deal and came to take me back? Wasn't he supposed to never come to the surface?!

The terror branded throughout every part of his body paralyzed Min Yong's brain.

And finally, an overwhelming premonition arrived.

'I'm screwed.'

The hand Sahyeon had seized began to tremble violently.

***

The hunter gambling den, a private room.

In the silent room, two people sat in starkly different postures.

Sahyeon, reclining at an angle in the head seat, and Min Yong, kneeling pitifully at his feet.

Is that his real face? He looks gentler than I expected? ...And he seems oddly familiar too.

Just as Min Yong was stealing a glance at Sahyeon's face — disguised by the item beneath the hat—

"How you got out so fast is obvious without even asking......"

Sahyeon spoke, propping his chin on one hand.

Min Yong's massive, muscular body flinched.

"The deal with the Director went well, I take it?"

His boast about getting out of prison in no time hadn't been empty talk, it seemed.

"H-How did you know that......"

"It's obvious."

Sahyeon let out a small scoff.

"That brand isn't carved on so you can show it off like you did earlier."

He jerked his chin toward the brand inked on Min Yong's wrist.

The Director's skill.

As long as the brand remained, the target's location could be tracked.

It was a skill primarily used on those released after committing vicious crimes.

"Given you've still got it, it's not a jailbreak. Which means the Director personally let you out."

"......W-Well, that's......"

Min Yong, hit dead center.

Shoulders three times the size of Sahyeon's shrank to half their width.

"But what brings you to the surface... were you perhaps dispatched here?"

He swallowed and asked with a servile smile.

He's not here to drag me back, is he? I never want to go back to that underground!

"Something like that."

Sahyeon answered lightly.

Min Yong's heart sank.

Sahyeon leaned forward and met his eyes.

"That broker you work with. You're going to connect me."

"A-A broker?!"

This absolutely cannot happen, Min Yong denied it, sensing danger.

But Sahyeon let out a small snort.

"No use playing dumb. Your head's already been picked clean by me."

Down to your bank PIN.

At the mocking addition, Min Yong squeezed his eyes shut.

This devil bastard!

Still, this one thing absolutely could not happen.

That broker was someone even I barely got introduced to!

When Min Yong clamped his lips shut, Sahyeon hummed low and readjusted his leather gloves.

...That hell started right after he took those gloves off, didn't it?

Just as Min Yong's pupils were shaking violently, Sahyeon spoke.

"Are you going to do it willingly, or should I dig it out of you myself and pay them a visit?"

Min Yong immediately cried out.

"I-I'll do it!! Just say the word!!"

He'd rather die than ever endure that agony again.

Only then did Sahyeon leisurely get to the main point.

"You happen to know anything about the red stones found inside Gates?"

"Red stones?"

"A boss ate one and went berserk, and the Gate grade jumped two levels......"

"What? I've never heard of anything like that......"

Then what should I do.

When Sahyeon gave him a look, Min Yong answered briskly.

"I'll find out."

Sahyeon raised an eyebrow with satisfaction, then opened his inventory and pulled something out.

The Core and the reward item taken from the mutated boss.

"Investigate these too."

When Sahyeon tossed them over, Min Yong fumbled to catch them.

"Y-Yes! Understood."

"Have it found by this time tomorrow."

"...Tomorrow?! That's way too tight...!"

Min Yong jerked his head up.

And met Sahyeon's eyes at the same moment.

"...I'll do everything I can."

Min Yong immediately lowered his gaze and forced the corners of his mouth up.

Sahyeon rose from his seat and lightly patted Min Yong's shoulder.

"Unless you want to fill out the two hours you missed downstairs, do well."

Min Yong's lips quivered.

"Y-Yes. Of course."

"Lastly, there's the most important thing."

Again? You give me one day and ask for this much?!

Min Yong grumbled internally as he bowed his head.

"Yes, just say the word."

Sahyeon's eyes settled into something chilling.

"You're going to find someone for me."

***

The next day, the Academy faculty building.

KNOCK KNOCK—

A knock that broke the silence stabbed Sahyeon's eardrums like an awl.

When he scrunched his brow and barely managed to lift his eyelids, bright sunlight pierced his eyeballs unfiltered.

"...Should get some blackout curtains or something."

Sahyeon spat a coarse curse and pushed himself up.

Wasted skills left and right yesterday and now my head feels like it's splitting.

He shuffled slowly toward the presence beyond the door.

CLICK—

"Ah, Mr. Sahyeon! You made it back safe and sound!"

Haeseong, welcoming him with what seemed like relief.

Sahyeon leaned a shoulder against the doorframe and pressed his thumb hard against his brow.

"What is it."

"Ah, it's just that......"

Haeseong held out the bundle of papers he'd been cradling.

"I came to brief you on today's class schedule. Your first class today is at 10 a.m. — a joint 'live combat' session for Combat Class A and Combat Class B. And this is a report I wrote. I summarized the materials from the classes Mr. Haje used to run."

Sahyeon flipped through the papers with a half-hearted hand.

Print packed densely across every page.

"Gives me motion sickness."

Sahyeon shoved the bundle right back into Haeseong's hands.

"Combat Class A will be those three dimwits from the Gate yesterday. What's Combat Class B?"

Haeseong, cradling the report again with a flustered look, answered crisply, snapping to attention.

"Ah! Combat Class B are second-semester students who've passed one test. Three of them, all A-rank."

So three more of the same kind, then.

Sahyeon nodded vaguely as if to say understood and checked his wristwatch.

Roughly two hours left until class.

'Should I sleep some more.'

Just as Sahyeon was narrowing his eyes in deliberation, Haeseong spoke up.

"Have you had breakfast? The Academy cafeteria is famously delicious. I heard the Chancellor hired a chef with a culinary-related trait."

"Money to burn, as always."

Should've put that money toward Return Stones.

While Sahyeon let out a cynical remark, Haeseong added with sparkling eyes.

"Today's breakfast is bulgogi hotpot with Korean beef seaweed soup!"

When he reported it boldly, as if he'd uncovered something momentous, Sahyeon let out a brief scoff.

"Memorizing all sorts of things."

"I committed the Academy guide I received yesterday to memory perfectly. The meal schedule was attached to it."

Using the Chronicler trait just to memorize the lunch menu.

Sahyeon let out a sigh.

Wasting talent this badly bordered on a crime.

'I'll need to remodel him into something usable......'

Sahyeon's gaze traveled slowly from Haeseong's feet to the top of his head.

"Skip the food. Did you do morning training?"

Haeseong asked back with a puzzled expression.

"...The students? Ah, I did see Euno out running on the training grounds before dawn."

"No, you."

"...Me?"

Haeseong blinked, then smiled with an unsure face.

"...Yes, I did do some, in my own way...... Though it's laughable compared to other Awakened."

After going to the Gate with Sahyeon yesterday, Haeseong had felt it to the bone.

That he was dead weight in the field. At this rate, he was nothing but a useless Awakened.

But his drive outpaced everything else; as a non-combat Awakened, he had no idea where to even begin.

Just then, Sahyeon's eyebrow rose.

"Perfect."

"Pardon?"

What's perfect about it? Before Haeseong could even harbor the doubt, Sahyeon asked first.

"Are there practice monsters here?"

"...Ah! Yes, of course!"

Haeseong immediately pulled out his tablet.

"There's a separate specimen management wing beneath the training hall, with creatures captured for practice drills. Mainly D-rank and E-rank monsters."

"That so?"

Sahyeon answered, lazily cracking his neck side to side.

"Then I'll get ready and come out. Pick out some suitable specimens and memorize their stats."

"Yes, understood. The specimens needed for class?"

"That, and also for training."

"You're going to train with practice monsters, Mr. Sahyeon?"

Haeseong asked, puzzled.

The gap in scale was far too overwhelming for an S-rank like Sahyeon to bother facing them.

Sure enough, Sahyeon scrunched his brow as if it were absurd.

"As if it'd be me."

"Then......"

"You."

Sahyeon said it breezily and tilted his chin toward Haeseong.

In that moment, Haeseong's brain hit a buffering screen.

A beat late, his mouth dropped open.

"...Me?!"