Busan (2)
Busan (2)
Sang Cheol-woo.
37 years old.
Male.
Section Chief of the Awakening Association Seoul Branch Information Department.
Sang Cheol-woo, who had followed an elite career path and secured a respectable job, had a secret.
That secret was that Sang Cheol-woo was in a state of being brainwashed by a Fiend.
The time was about a week ago from the present.
While returning home late at night after finishing work at the Association, Sang Cheol-woo was attacked by a Fiend.
To be precise, it was less of an attack and more of an abduction.
Anyway, when he regained consciousness and opened his eyes.
That place was neither his comfortable home, nor the Association he sometimes wanted to quit.
It was a sealed room, pitch dark, where he couldn't see even an inch ahead.
"H-hello...? Is anyone there?"
He called out in a voice that seemed to creep quietly, but no answer came back.
Instead, the door to the sealed room opened and someone entered.
The someone who entered the sealed room walked towards Sang Cheol-woo with plodding steps, without saying a word.
And click.
A bright light shone on Sang Cheol-woo's face.
In the narrow, dark sealed room, finally able to see ahead under the sole light, he couldn't help but tremble.
Because he could see people wearing masks lined up to his left and right inside the room where he thought no one was.
"W-why are you doing this... I-I'll give you as much money as you want!"
"I-I'm just a Section Chief, I don't know anything! I don't!"
"Sniff... Please, spare my life..."
He pleaded with all his might, but the masked people gave no answer at all.
Instead, the man who had opened the door and entered, wearing a mask reminiscent of a sheep, took one step. One step. Slowly approached Sang Cheol-woo.
And placed his hand on his face.
"Gyaaaaaaah!!"
Something was wrong.
He couldn't help but think so.
A small, viscous, and dark magic power flowing in through his captured face.
The moment he saw it, being a member of the Information Department, he realized these beings were Fiends, but.
It was already too late.
The Fiend's magic power swept through his head once and flowed back out.
And when the magic power flowed out, the Section Chief of the Association's Information Department, Sang Cheol-woo, was no longer there.
In his place, only a man remained, brainwashed by the Fiend to believe he was the Fiend's spy.
"Go back and gather information on the Black Dragon."
"Understood!"
Sang Cheol-woo answered the command in a calm voice, unbelievable for the man who had been trembling and begging for his life just moments ago.
He pretended to be the same as before being brainwashed and diligently gathered information on Nidhogg.
He accessed everything he could with his authority, scraping together all information and delivering it to the Fiend.
However, even the information the Association had amounted to nothing more than immeasurable strength and the rare materials emerging from inside the gate.
That's why Sang Cheol-woo approached Baek Yeon.
He manipulated things using busy Association employees to cause an administrative error and, pretending it was a coincidence, went to see Baek Yeon.
With a friendly face, he offered her coffee, planning to slowly extract more information by emphasizing that basic information would be sufficient.
His only mistake was.
Not knowing that Baek Yeon could detect lies.
"So you're saying that if I just tell you that, the Association will preemptively block any matters that would trouble Nidhogg-nim? And also prevent the information from leaking out?"
"Yes, that's correct."
Thus, Sang Cheol-woo, knowing nothing, affirmed Baek Yeon's words without any suspicion.
"Then, could you please stand up for a moment?"
"Huh? Ah, yes."
Not knowing what was happening, he stood up from his seat as Baek Yeon requested.
The moment he stood up from his seat.
Thwack!!
Baek Yeon's fist, swung at super high speed, struck his Adam's apple, solar plexus, and vitals in rapid succession.
"Gurk..."
Sang Cheol-woo, having been hit in three consecutive spots, any one of which would be fatal, couldn't even scream and collapsed on the spot.
"Wh-what the?"
I was taken aback by the sight of Baek Yeon, who had just entered the room, making a man who looked like an Association employee collapse, foaming at the mouth.
Wait, did he collapse?
The sight of her grabbing the fallen man's collar and lifting him up was truly that of a supreme ruler.
Without realizing it, I made a sound, and Baek Yeon only turned her head to look this way.
"Nidhogg-nim. And Haeryeong-yang, you're here too."
Her attitude, no different from usual, made it impossible not to ask.
"Did that man do something wrong?"
"Ah, this person? I've apprehended him for now on suspicion of being a spy from somewhere."
"A spy?"
"Yes. After a brief conversation, it seems he intended to gather information on Nidhogg-nim and pass it somewhere."
"You figured that out just from a conversation?"
"I do have the ability to distinguish lies, don't I?"
"Oh, right, you had that."
"Since I rarely have a chance to use it."
As Baek Yeon said, she gained the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood after accepting my power.
However, since she usually had no reason to use that ability while hunting monsters, I had forgotten about it living day to day. Who would have thought she'd use it like this?
Still, thanks to that ability, she caught a spy.
Should I say we were lucky?
"Good thing you didn't report it separately to the Association."
"I thought so too."
Baek Yeon gently set the man, whose collar she was holding, down on the floor to avoid injuring him and offered us seats.
Following her invitation, we went and sat on the sofa. Soon, Baek Yeon placed a cup of coffee and juice each in front of us and said,
"Please wait a moment. I'll go bring someone right away."
"Who are you going to bring?"
"Even though it's been a while, I used to be on friendly terms with the Association and got to know quite a few Awakened."
Baek Yeon smiled confidently as if to say not to worry and left the room.
Haeryeong and I, trusting in her confidence, waited, drinking our beverages while keeping an eye on the unconscious Association employee so he wouldn't wake up.
Not long after, Baek Yeon returned.
However, contrary to her confident attitude, the person she brought wasn't some high-ranking Association employee.
Baek Yeon returned with a woman with long purple hair, wearing a black suit and black overcoat, with deep dark circles and a tired-looking expression.
"I'm back."
"Ugh..."
"Is she a zombie?"
"No. Despite appearances, she is the Deputy Director of the Association's Information Department."
"That?"
"Yes. That."
The woman, who seemed almost dragged in, crawled over as if on the floor and chugged the coffee I had left in one go.
Then a change occurred.
The woman, who had looked half-dead just moments before, revived in real-time.
It was no lie or exaggeration; her dark circles diminished and vitality returned to her face, reminiscent of an undead being resurrecting.
"Aah. I feel alive. Hello. I'm Choi Soo-young, Deputy Director of the Association's Information Department."
"The introductions are done, so why don't you check that one first?"
"Eh, even so, we're meeting for the first time, we should at least introduce ourselves. Ah! Okay. I'll check right now, so don't look at me like that."
Unable to withstand Baek Yeon's gaze, which was full of displeasure as if asking 'What do we do about this?', Choi Soo-young approached the fallen man and checked the ID badge hanging from his neck and face.
And not stopping there, she proceeded to flow magic power into him, fiddled with his face this way and that, and only after performing every possible check did she stand up and say,
"He is indeed Section Chief Sang Cheol-woo of our Information Department."
"But he's a spy."
"That can't be..."
She spoke in a completely puzzled voice while kicking the man named Sang Cheol-woo repeatedly.
Contrary to her defending words, her actions held no emotion, like kicking aside trash lying on the street, making one doubt if the fallen man was really her workplace colleague.
"We conducted thorough background checks before he joined the Association, and since joining, he's never been caught in the annual background checks conducted by the Audit Department. Are you sure you're not mistaken?"
"I didn't really want to reveal this, but... I have the ability to distinguish the truth and falsehood of words."
At Baek Yeon's words, revealing her hidden ability, Choi Soo-young stopped kicking her subordinate, rushed over, grabbed both her shoulders, and shook them vigorously.
"R-really?! No. Wait. You're not the type to lie about something like this. Still, I'm curious, can I test it?"
"I don't particularly mind. But how do you plan to test it?"
"Well, of course by having you guess whether what I say is true or a lie."
Choi Soo-young, releasing Baek Yeon's shoulders, took a step back and spoke with a deliberately serious expression.
"I ate a salad with scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning. Truth or lie?"
"It's a lie."
"Wow! You really got it right. Actually, I've been working overtime a lot lately, so I slept at the Association yesterday too. I woke up and got dragged here by you right away, so I haven't eaten anything."
Growl-
Timely, Choi Soo-young's stomach growled.
Feeling sorry for her face, which was slowly dying as the energy filled by coffee ran out, I pushed the refreshments towards her.
"You really didn't have to do this."
"No. Watching you, I felt sorry. Just eat it."
"Thank you—Nom!"
Without refusing twice, she picked up a handful of cookies and shoved them into her mouth.
"You're supposed to unwrap them before eating."
"Ah, I forgot. No wonder it didn't taste like anything."
Choi Soo-young took the cookies back out of her mouth, formed her magic power into threads, and simultaneously cut open the cookies' tear lines.
Then gathered them together again and tossed them into her mouth.
The look in Haeryeong's eyes as she watched changed to that of a priest whose god had been insulted.
Whether she noticed that gaze or not, Choi Soo-young, who crammed them into her stomach with a feeling of no time to savor them to replenish calories, looked at Baek Yeon and asked.
"Ah—that was good. Something sweet gets my brain working a bit now. So. We've confirmed your ability, so what shall we do with this guy now?"
"Finding out who's behind him comes first."
"Obviously. I was asking if you plan to interrogate him yourself. You used to do that often, right?"
Often?
It was a bit surprising to hear that Baek Yeon, who would rather hunt one more monster in the time spent on something like interrogation, often conducted interrogations.
Perhaps sensing that look, Baek Yeon glanced this way slightly and said,
"Well... It's nothing great. There was just a group that was intentionally inducing Gate Breaks in other countries..."
"Nothing great, my foot. Every time you just went in and out of the interrogation room with us, our agents couldn't even look at meat for at least a week."
Snap!
Baek Yeon, whose fact she tried so hard to hide was exposed, pulled out her spear and swung it at high speed.
"On top of that, now a truth-discernment ability? You really belong in the Information Depa—Kyaang!"
Choi Soo-young, hit on the forehead by the spear, fell backwards.
It looked like a clean hit, making it seem difficult for her to get up for a while.
"Haha. She must have been very tired."
"No, you hit her."
"Huh?"
"It's nothing."
This time, seeing her about to swing her spear at me, I thought it best not to pry and kept my mouth shut.
"Rather, Nidhogg-nim, what brings you here? Are you feeling better now?"
"Ah."
Now that I think about it, I came here to say I was going out.
Watching such a stimulating scene made me forget.