You Tricked Me!
After everything was over.
“What the hell are you talking about right now?”
Lee Ryeonhwa was dying inside as she reported over the phone to Yu Sobeom.
“I’m telling you, Mu Yeonghui cut through space itself!”
Even when she explained exactly what she had seen, Yu Sobeom refused to believe her.
“I can accept that she sliced a ghost dozens of meters tall. She already demonstrated that level of firepower against the Wendigo. But raw power and cutting through space are two completely different things.”
Yu Sobeom’s logic was perfectly reasonable.
The problem was that Mu Yeonghui was the very embodiment of the unreasonable.
“Please, just believe me! The moment Mu Yeonghui stepped forward, the ground shook! The sky darkened, a gale erupted, and boulders flew through the air before shattering!”
“…”
“There were plenty of other witnesses besides me!”
Lee Ryeonhwa gathered the combat personnel around her.
As if they had been waiting for the chance, every single one of them shouted at once.
“It’s true!”
“She just walked forward and the ghosts split in half and died!”
“She literally cut open cracks in space!”
“This is ridiculous.”
Yu Sobeom was at a loss.
With so many people testifying, it didn’t seem like a lie, yet the story was utterly absurd.
“Then what kind of ability is this supposed to be?”
“I don’t know.”
“…She wouldn’t answer even if we asked, would she?”
To Yu Sobeom, Mu Yeonghui was an extremely arrogant woman.
He doubted she would willingly explain her abilities.
“Understood. At the very least, it’s certain that Mu Yeonghui dealt with the ghost that was causing trouble, right?”
“Yes. And then some.”
“What is she doing now?”
“She’s burying the ghost’s props.”
“What?”
Lee Ryeonhwa switched to video call and showed him the scene.
A short distance away stood Mu Yeonghui, surrounded by grotesque floating corpses.
She had lifted the corpse-like props the ghost had created into the air and brought them over.
When she looked down at the ground, it exploded, creating two pits.
She placed one corpse in each pit, and the earth filled itself back in, forming two graves.
“What the hell is she doing now?”
Even if he accepted that she was using some invisible force as her unique ability, why on earth was she using it to bury ghost props?
“Hey, switch the call right now!”
“Yes!”
Lee Ryeonhwa hurriedly handed the phone to Mu Yeonghui.
“Hey. What exactly are you doing?”
“I fail to grasp the intent of your question.”
Mu Yeonghui, who had been praying for the repose of the fictional characters Ham Gyeong-o and his friend, frowned.
Why are they making such a fuss when I’m simply burying innocent victims?
Even if these had been real corpses, there would still have been problems.
If there were bodies, one should locate their families and hand them over, not bury them indiscriminately.
Her long years in Murim, where there were no proper mortuaries, had led to this misjudgment.
“It seems your foolishness has clouded even your eyes. This body is now realizing the final rest that is burial.”
“So why are you burying them?! Hand them over to us immediately. We’ll examine them and then incinerate them!”
Yu Sobeom stated the obvious procedure for handling ghost-related items, but Mu Yeonghui was shocked.
Examination is one thing, but incineration? No matter how strangely they’ve changed, these are the remains of innocent people!
No matter how she looked at it, that was no way to treat the dead.
“I must decline such a discourteous request.”
“What’s discourteous about it? Why are you refusing?”
Yu Sobeom could not understand why Mu Yeonghui was so adamantly rejecting the disposal of the props.
Don’t tell me this woman is trying to start a power struggle with me right now?
In the end, Yu Sobeom had no choice but to misunderstand her intentions.
He believed Mu Yeonghui was deliberately doing something outrageous to pressure them—saying that no matter how absurd her actions, they had to obey her.
That damn bitch!
He barely swallowed the curse that rose to his throat.
In truth, he was in a position where he had to overlook her strange behavior no matter what.
After all, she had safely resolved a situation far more serious than expected.
“Fine. Do as you please.”
“More importantly, what has become of the promise we made in our contract?”
“…I intend to keep it.”
However, he added a condition.
“A hunter as powerful as you wandering around this city while it’s defenseless is something the mayor would not appreciate. While you’re here, agree to let us monitor you.”
“Surely you don’t intend to attach a tracking device to me?”
“We have no intention of going that far. You simply need to stay at the lodging we designate. It’s originally a place for important guests from other cities, so the quality is guaranteed.”
When Yu Sobeom spoke as if doing her a favor, Mu Yeonghui sneered.
It’s the same thing either way. Who knows how many hidden listening devices or surveillance equipment are planted in that lodging?
I’m not a criminal, so why should I be treated like one?
Mu Yeonghui was about to refuse again when the atmosphere was about to turn cold.
“Ah, then how about coming back to our house instead!”
Lee Ryeonhwa cut in.
“I heard Mu Yeonghui doesn’t have anywhere else to stay anyway. So staying at my place like yesterday should be fine, right…? If she stays with me, since I’m part of the countermeasures team, her location will be known, so the mayor should be satisfied as well.”
The compromise she offered was far more reasonable than expected.
“If it’s that arrangement, the mayor probably won’t have any complaints.”
She probably wouldn’t plant surveillance devices in her own subordinate’s house. This woman doesn’t seem the type either. Ignoring the awkwardness of staying at a woman’s place, it’s not a bad deal.
In the end, both parties accepted the compromise.
It was decided that Mu Yeonghui would stay at Lee Ryeonhwa’s house while she remained in the city.
“Alright, everyone, let’s head back now.”
They began returning to headquarters with the combat personnel.
Lee Ryeonhwa and Mu Yeonghui were about to hitch a ride when Lee Ryeonhwa asked,
“I feel a bit gross. Want to take a bath together when we get back?”
“…”
Faced with the sudden question, Mu Yeonghui could only answer with silence.
Five days later.
At the Ghost Countermeasures Division headquarters.
“This isn’t living, it’s just existing.”
Yu Sobeom muttered blankly in his office.
Nothing particularly major had happened in the meantime.
But the absence of major incidents didn’t mean there was nothing to worry about.
The main combat personnel were still out of commission, and the only reliable person, Mu Yeonghui, was a woman with a broken personality.
He was so anxious about how they would handle the next ghost that appeared that he could barely sleep.
“Haaah!”
He let out a heavy sigh and began clearing the coffee cans piled on his desk.
At that moment, the news he had been waiting for arrived.
“Team Leader, everyone’s awake!”
“Really?!”
The real combat personnel, who had been unconscious all this time, had finally regained consciousness.
“Who woke up first?”
“All of them. Strangely enough, they all came to around the same time!”
It was a bizarre occurrence, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on it.
Yu Sobeom rushed out of his office and headed for the infirmary.
The moment he roughly opened the door, he saw Han Bori, one of the division’s veterans.
She stood in the middle of the room wearing an oversized hospital gown that didn’t suit her small frame.
Her richly braided brown hair was undone, and she was staring blankly at her own palm.
After a moment, she noticed Yu Sobeom’s presence and turned her gaze toward him.
“Team Leader, did you do something to me?”
“What do you mean?”
Yu Sobeom was flustered by the abrupt question.
“If you’re asking whether I did anything, of course I did. You were all collapsed, so we treated you…”
“No, I’m asking if you did something more fundamental than that.”
“…Fundamental?”
When Han Bori saw Yu Sobeom’s genuinely confused expression, she narrowed her eyes.
“If you really don’t know, then fine. So it wasn’t you who did something.”
“Did something go wrong with your body? You were unconscious for several days, so that’s understandable.”
“It’s more like the opposite.”
After speaking in riddles, Han Bori’s eyes lit up.
“It’s not urgent, so let’s talk about it later. More importantly, what happened? Did you find that disaster-level ghost?”
“We didn’t find it.”
“Why not?”
“How were we supposed to find it when you didn’t even tell us what it looked like!”
Yu Sobeom replied irritably, still annoyed by all the trouble the so-called disaster-level ghost had caused.
“Are you sure it even exists? We’ve had minor ghosts appear, but nothing we could identify as disaster-level has caused any commotion.”
“So you’re saying minor ones did appear. Since we ended up like this, you must have been short on personnel. How did you deal with them?”
“A hunter visiting our city happened to be here, so we borrowed their strength.”
“Really? Thanks for that. I’ll have to thank them later.”
“…You’d better not.”
Yu Sobeom answered curtly and urged Han Bori on.
“Now that you’re awake, tell me straight. What exactly does this disaster-level ghost look like?”
“From the outside, it looks like an extremely beautiful woman. Not just beautiful—she gives off a chilling aura.”
“Be specific.”
“Jet-black eyes like the night sky, black hair, and wearing a black dress. Especially her hair—it’s rolled up like drills, which is distinctive. Her skin is white, creating a strong contrast. Her face looks delicate and youthful, like a finely crafted doll, but her figure is incredible.”
Han Bori described the image that was still vivid in her memory even after waking from several days of unconsciousness.
“…What?”
Yu Sobeom’s face looked like a pigeon hit by a slingshot.
His body began to tremble as he rummaged through his pocket and pulled out his phone.
“D-Don’t tell me you’re talking about this woman?”
“That’s her! That’s the one!”
When he showed her the video of Mu Yeonghui that was still trending online, Han Bori immediately confirmed it.
Yu Sobeom’s trembling grew even stronger.
It wasn’t from fear.
It was from rage.
He had been played.
From beginning to end.
Completely!
“I will never forgive you, Mu Yeonghui!”