Truth Serum Goes Both Ways

Kang Howon stared at the man in front of him without a word.

Na Hwiyeon sat with his legs spread wide, looking back at him, and the exhaustion on his face was unmistakable.

He's a pretty decent actor, I'll give him that.

It was almost funny, watching his teammates fall for that innocent-looking face hook, line, and sinker. Fine, maybe the Team Leader could be forgiven for it — but what in the world was Lee Seohyeok's problem?

Soft on him doesn't even begin to cover it.

Lee Seohyeok would, at the mere glimpse of the back of Na Hwiyeon's head from across a hallway, trip over himself to bow or empty out everything in his hands as a gift.

"Seriously, why do you lose your mind every time you see the Dolphin Class teacher?"

"I have many sins to atone for, sir."

Ask him a question and all you got back was that maddening non-answer — no wonder it grated on his nerves.

...The truth was, ever since that interview in the Field Team Na office, Kang Howon had kept a close eye on Na Hwiyeon. And while quietly digging through the data network accessible only to field-active hunters, he'd made a discovery: this teacher was a far less ordinary character than he appeared.

He'd been toying with the idea of arranging an "opportunity" to probe him openly when that very opportunity had come walking in on its own two feet — a summons from the Field Team Ra leader, currently on leave.

"Something urgent came up at the kindergarten. Can you get here right now?"

Hoping to snag even a scrap of a lead on Na Hwiyeon, he'd sprinted over without a second thought... and the result was this perfectly natural opening for a conversation.

Granted, he had never expected it to unfold into such an embarrassing fiasco.

Tch. Whatever.

There's more than one or two things I want to ask.

Kang Howon scrapped his careful plan to work through a prepared list of questions and simply fired off the first thing that came to mind.

"Your ability doesn't seem to be a Tamer's... So what exactly is it?"

It was on a clearly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠different level from any D-rank Tamer he knew of — no, a completely different dimension altogether.

An ability that could puppet an A-rank hunter like a doll with a few words? He was obviously, deliberately concealing his true awakening.

"......"

But Na Hwiyeon didn't open his mouth easily. Kang Howon had anticipated this too, so he decided to press harder.

"Something I learned while digging into your background — you're always at the scene when something big goes down. The underground dungeon case involving a spatial-mobility offender, that EX-rank dungeon tied to our Team Leader, and most recently... you were tangled up with that massive cult bust too?"

Laid out in a row like that, every single entry was spectacular. And while he could let the rest slide, the fact that an ordinary kindergarten teacher was implicated in a newly arrested cult criminal case went beyond suspicious and straight into chilling.

And yet... still no answer.

Na Hwiyeon gazed vaguely at empty space with a blank expression, and before he knew it, hostility was blooming in Kang Howon's chest.

No facial reaction either?

"Be honest with me. You're either an informant for the government, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠or a spy. Or else you're a criminal hiding your ability."

These were the only conclusions possible once you pieced the circumstances together. And where Kang Howon's suspicion leaned was clear.

A criminal hiding his ability. Most likely.

But Na Hwiyeon simply shook his head side to side without a word. At that insolent attitude, Kang Howon clenched his teeth.

"If I'm wrong, then refute me."

"......"

See? I'm right.

"So the reason you won't answer is—"

"No reason to answer. And I'm not answering because you got everything wrong."

Kang Howon's eyebrows twitched.

"Wrong about what, exactly?"

"Do I have any obligation to hand you a nice, tidy answer?"

With nothing to say, and facing an opponent who only grew more brazen, his temper boiled over. Right. This was exactly why he'd prepared a truth serum item — because he'd expected the man to come out swinging like this.

And in the end he couldn't even use it. Completely useles—

"Well, this is getting tedious, so how about this — we each ask one question and answer it. Fair?"

With that, Na Hwiyeon shoved something into his mouth.

"......!"

With no time to stop him, Kang Howon rolled the object around with his tongue — and there it was. A familiar taste. A familiar texture.

Truth serum?

"Why... would you give this to me?"

Kang Howon, who was all but certain Na Hwiyeon was a criminal, lit up at this ambiguous move, eyes gleaming.

But the man—

"It'd be unfair if you were the only one unilaterally tearing information out of me. I don't have the slightest personal curiosity about you, but a fair trade makes it sting a little less, doesn't it?"

Saying that, invoking fair exchange as his pretext, he rummaged through his own pocket, pulled out a spare truth serum, and — in an act of pure madness — swallowed it himself.

Who... who is this guy?

An informant for the government, or a spy, or a criminal, he says...

The sheer absurdity of having to defend myself against a question like that triggered a full-blown reality check.

And yet, I swallowed the truth serum with practiced aplomb.

Live long enough, and the day will come when you cram a truth serum down your own throat with your own two hands. You really do see everything if you stick around.

...Still, I figured I had to put on at least this much of a performance if I wanted this idiot to grasp my sincerity. Once he did, he wouldn't come at me with today's nonsense again the moment I stepped outside.

Granted, there's a risk of voluntarily exposing a secret I've worked so hard to bury — kicked and clawed at by a field-team hunter, no less...

But that's it. I'm cracking open his secret too.

Insurance matters.

I rested my chin on my hand.

Let's see. His first question was...

"You're asking if I'm really a Tamer? Yes. If you're that suspicious, go ahead and try snatching my Awakener Certification. And as for this ability..."

I gave Kang Howon a leisurely once-over with my eyes. The sight of him holding his own hand up on my command was proof enough that I had something beyond mere Taming.

Can't hide this one.

"...It's something like a sub-skill."

"An unregistered one?"

"...Yeah."

To be precise, it wasn't that I hadn't registered it. It was that I couldn't.

What exactly am I supposed to do about an ability that the testing machines can't even detect?

Besides, even among Awakeners, sub-skills are usually kept under ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wraps, so he wasn't likely to find it strange.

"What exactly is that sub-skill?"

"I believe it's my turn to ask a question now."

"......"

"No matter how I look at it, going this far over a 'suspicious' guy like me having some connection with your teammates reads as an overreaction... So there's another reason, isn't there?"

"......"

The way I saw it, Kang Howon was about as far from the cautious type who needed to knock on even a stone bridge before crossing as you could get.

Which made the current situation feel, well... like someone acting wildly out of character and then flooring the gas pedal mid-derailment.

And sure enough—

"Let's just say it's because of that Team Leader of ours, whose survival-sensor instincts are flatlined... You wouldn't know this, but those of us in field work sometimes get stabbed in the back by the very people we thought were on our side."

...Hearing that, Yoo Jinchae's trauma surfaced in my mind unprompted.

A teammate died from a backstab by someone from the Dispatch Team, after all.

In that light, it wasn't incomprehensible. He'd been trying to confirm whether I was the kind of person who'd stick a knife in his teammates' backs.

By resorting to somewhat violent methods, granted.

But here's the thing — what he just said could be taken a very different way.

"Sounds like there's something wrong with your Team Leader."

Normally, a teammate doesn't convulse into action like this just because the boss is a little incompetent.

And as it happened, having already seen Moon Chaeyoung's status window, I could easily call to mind what that "something" might be.

"Is there something wrong with her head?"

"......!"

Bingo.

Judging by Kang Howon's expression, that must be this man's secret.

He looked like a person whose weakness — the one he never wanted discovered — had just been exposed.

Not a fan of this part, honestly.

Look, I was digging for secrets to leverage into a little blackmail(?), but using this as a bargaining chip felt a bit...

Kang Howon's face flickered with momentary panic, but he recovered into perfect composure as if nothing had happened.

He didn't quite manage to hide the flustered undertone, though.

"So what is your real identity?"

"I don't know what kind of answer you want... but I'm an ordinary kindergarten teacher. Not a government informant, not a spy, and not a criminal hiding an ability."

I'd taken the truth serum, so I spoke nothing but the truth.

Which meant Kang Howon couldn't refute a word of it.

And so, after several seconds of silence that felt like a weighing of scales, it finally came.

"...You're telling the truth."

Why the disappointed face?

Whether it was disappointment or emptiness, I couldn't tell, but with half his soul visibly sucked out of him, Kang Howon threw out another question.

"Our Team Leader... how did you know her head hurts?"

Not your turn, but... fine, whatever.

"Sub-skill."

"Is there a way to cure it?"

"Why are you asking me that?"

"Then... then it really was all coincidence? All of it?"

"I told you, didn't I."

My head was starting to ache. I pressed my fingers to my temples and bowed my head for a moment, and by the time the ringing in my skull had dulled and I lifted it again—

The man of flames was mentally, completely, unrecoverably broken.

See it now? You picked the absolute wrong person to mess with, you lunatic.

"N-no, wait, then why did you act so suspicious at the EX-rank dungeon? And how did you end up tangled with the cult?"

"I don't see why I owe you a point-by-point breakdown. The only thing that needs establishing here is that I'm an ordinary person who hasn't done anything wrong... Do I know why incidents and accidents keep erupting around me? No! I don't! Getting to work every day is already killing me! I'm suffering too! But a man's gotta eat, you know!"

"......"

"I clawed my way into this job, I can't even quit, and I'm getting suspected and chased around for things I never did — do you have any idea how that feels? No! You don't!"

"......"

The rant snowballed out of me as the injustice piled up, but I regret nothing.

His mentality had shattered; watching his mouth hang open and flap uselessly told me this was finally over.

I'd cracked his secret and cracked his psyche. And since I'd even thrown in the answers he wanted, he had no reason left to keep me here.

I rose from my seat at once.

"My turn to ask a question now, right? Where's the keycard."

"...H-here."

Keycard in hand, I turned toward the sealed steel door. The moment I pressed it to the recognition sensor... the door slid open.

As the corridor came into view, I glanced back at the still soul-drained Kang Howon.

"If you feel even a little sorry for me, keep the Elumis business between us, yeah?"

Now that I look again, the slot was empty.

Without another word, I abandoned Kang Howon where he sat and left the underground. The way out, conveniently, required no security bypass.

The instant the elevator delivered me to the surface, I tossed the keycard I'd been carrying straight back inside.

In the darkness, where not even the small flame of his lighter reached, Kang Howon dragged a rough palm down his face.

His body was free — the ability holding it had dissolved at some point — but for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to move.

His mind was a storm.

Everything Na Hwiyeon had said was true. If it had been a lie, the sentence would have cut off awkwardly mid-stream and registered as silence — that was how the serum worked.

And though he hadn't shown it to the man, none of the serum's other effects had appeared either.

Nothing of the sort had occurred.

Which meant only one thing.

He had spoken nothing but the truth.

Na Hwiyeon really was no government informant, no spy — and no criminal either.

Just... an ordinary kindergarten teacher. That, too, had rung out clear and clean.

"Damn it."

So I was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wrong?

After a long, agonizing hour of denial, Kang Howon finally reached his conclusion.

...He'd been wrong.

I grabbed hold of the single worst possible person to grab.

Worse, he'd done it to a man before whom no amount of groveling could ever suffice.

And he found it out. Exactly.

That Moon Chaeyoung's head hurt.

That was classified information even within the company — a fact unknown even to Choi Unseong and Lee Seohyeok, his own teammates.

Kang Howon clenched his fists.

Years ago, mid-mission, a piece of rebar had lodged in Moon Chaeyoung's skull. She'd been treated by a healer at the time of the injury.

But the treatment had never been complete.

And more than ten years on, not a single cause had ever been found.

Yet Na Hwiyeon had found it.

Pointing, dead-on, at Moon Chaeyoung's head.

He said he learned it through his sub-skill. I'm certain of it.

Kang Howon could not let this opportunity slip. Even if it was a thread barely a hair's width wide.

He quietly swallowed.

How... am I supposed to clean this up?

I am so, so sorry.