144. Vacation (3)
144. Vacation (3)
"H-Hello?"
Lee Yu-ri answered the phone, her voice trembling.
─ Yu-ri? What on earth is going on? Strange people suddenly showed up and scared me half to death. Did you get into some kind of trouble?
"M-Mom! Why weren't you answering your phone!!!"
─ Ugh, so loud. Why are you yelling? You know I barely check my phone when I'm working!
"Wh-What about Dad? Is Dad there with you too?"
─ Yeah, he's here. But seriously, what is this? Did something actually happen?
She swayed.
All the strength drained from Lee Yu-ri's legs in an instant.
Jin Yu-ha caught her from behind.
Lee Yu-ri's mother and father were safe.
They had simply been out of reach for a little while because they barely ever checked their phones while working.
Shin Se-hee's quick background check alone had been enough to confirm their safety—truly a stroke of luck.
'But my siblings' location still hasn't been confirmed...'
Lee Yu-ri bit her lip again, hard.
*
"Alright, I've brought in an expert in that field."
Right after Shin Se-hee's call, Kang Do-hee showed up with someone in tow.
A shifty-looking middle-aged man with round glasses—someone who didn't exactly inspire confidence.
"Ah, h-hello... I-I am an... A-Awakened with an analysis-type ability. N-Not a Hunter, I work as a... a private investigator."
He spoke with his head bowed, unable to meet anyone's eyes.
When I shot Kang Do-hee a look that said, Is this guy really the one?, she clicked her tongue.
"Tch. He'll be more accurate than the cops. I've used him a few times myself. He hates going outside, so dragging him out here was a pain in the ass."
"...Thank you, Kang Do-hee."
Lee Yu-ri nodded stiffly, her voice tightly suppressed, and expressed her gratitude.
At that, Kang Do-hee awkwardly scratched her cheek.
"You're the Tank who always takes the most dangerous hits for us. I suppose this lets me repay a little of that debt."
I gave her a slightly surprised look. I never expected those words to come out of Kang Do-hee's mouth.
"...Wh-What are you looking at?!"
Kang Do-hee snarled, apparently catching my gaze.
"Nothing. Just didn't think you were the type to say something like that."
Ahem—!
"I-I'll head over to the police side now. I spent way too much time dragging this guy out here."
Kang Do-hee spun on her heel and launched herself forward.
She seemed to be heading to the police directly to file an investigation request.
"Uh, um, m-may I see the... the scene?"
Just then, the man fidgeting beside us spoke in a halting voice.
"Ah, yes. Right this way."
I guided him to Lee Yu-ri's room.
As expected of someone Kang Do-hee vouched for, his eyes changed the moment he stepped into the crime scene. He slowly swept his gaze across the room, then started speaking.
His voice was no longer the halting one from before, but a hard, clinical monotone.
"Hm, four Hunters, and two children."
"...Children?"
"Yes. Traces of one girl around 150 centimeters and one boy around 140 centimeters. And they moved in the same direction as the four Hunters."
Creak—
The instant she heard that, a murderous teeth-grinding sound came from beside me.
'Kim Hye-ji, you crossed the line.'
"However, those Hunters and the children didn't go together, but separately..."
"Where are they."
The detective tried to continue with further explanation, but those words never reached Lee Yu-ri, who had already snapped.
She had simply taken it as confirmation that Kim Hye-ji had kidnapped her two younger siblings.
"...Kim Hye-ji, that fucking bitch. Where did she go."
The deadly aura pouring off Lee Yu-ri left the detective with no choice but to shut his mouth.
Then he reverted to his stammering self.
"Uh, w-well... I-It seems they did not go far... D-Do you perhaps have a map? A... a paper one would be preferable..."
"Ah, I happen to carry a paper map with me!"
Sofia, who had been listening off to the side, rummaged through her robes and pulled out a paper map.
'Why are you carrying a paper map around?'
I looked at her with that question in my eyes.
Sofia scratched her head.
"Hehe, in case my battery dies while I'm tracking the routes my favorite person takes... Ah, n-no, it's just a hobby! Yeah, yeah! I just p-personally enjoy looking at maps!"
It sounded incredibly suspicious, but that wasn't what mattered right now.
Rustle—
The detective spread the map on the floor.
Then he layered his Mana over it.
Hummm—
Next, he pulled a coin from his coat and flicked it.
Whirrr—!
The coin spun through the air and landed on the map.
Tink.
The coin stood upright on its edge, stuck near Lee Yu-ri's house.
"Hm, somewhere around here. Is there perhaps a space nearby where something could be hidden?"
Lee Yu-ri, who had been staring intently at the map, opened her mouth, her voice low.
"...There's an abandoned factory."
"Then there is a high probability they are there."
Flames sparked in Lee Yu-ri's eyes, her fists clenched tight.
'Kim Hye-ji, you fucking bitch. If you've done anything to my siblings, know that you're fucking dead.'
* * *
The abandoned factory was dark and gloomy even in daylight, barely letting in any light.
Inside, four women were chain-smoking, looking anxious.
One of them was puffing furiously on a cigarette when she irritably yanked it from her lips and crushed it on the floor.
"Hey, you fucking shit, Hye-ji! You swore that shithole house had something in it! It was a goddamn bust!"
They had ransacked Lee Yu-ri's house today.
They'd checked that no one was home and deliberately targeted it.
"Oh, say something, for fuck's sake! Kim Hye-ji!!"
A rough-faced woman snarled.
At that, the short-haired woman called Kim Hye-ji responded, her voice full of even greater irritation.
"Ugh, shut your mouth already! ...Lee Yu-ri, that dumb bitch, definitely made money this time and sent it all home. Where the hell did she stick it? She's gotta have stashed it somewhere..."
"Stashed it my ass, there was nothing! We just kicked a hornet's nest for nothing, didn't we?! She's in the Utopia Party right now!"
Kim Hye-ji swept her gaze over them with a pitying look.
"Hey, you seriously believe that?"
"What? B-But the articles clearly..."
"Hah, well, sure. Lee Yu-ri can put her name on the Utopia Party roster. That part's probably true."
Then isn't this dangerous?
The gathered women exchanged glances.
"But what can someone like her actually do there? Trash that was running E-Rank dungeons with me just a few months ago. You think she's gonna hold a shield or something in a party that has Cheonhwa and Fighting Dog?"
"...Then why's she in there?"
"Probably the same poverty-bait as always."
"...Poverty-bait?"
"Yeah. I mean, her face is decent enough, for one. And that 'head of the household supporting her family' image is perfect for milking a sob story."
The three women slowly nodded.
Because her opinion actually seemed pretty plausible!
"Hah, fuck. Is being poor something to brag about?"
"I've hated that bitch's guts since forever."
"For real, we should've stomped her flat back in school."
Jealousy laced every one of their voices.
Everyone gathered here was Lee Yu-ri's high school classmate.
Of course, back in their school days, whenever they'd tried to use Lee Yu-ri's poverty as a weakness and act tough, she'd beaten the crap out of them one-sidedly.
But they'd long since forgotten a past like that.
Once the mood settled again, Kim Hye-ji nodded.
"Anyway, what do you think those high-and-mighty types are thinking? They'll wring out her sob story, milk some popularity, then dump her. Why would they keep dragging along a beggar like that?"
"...But, doesn't that mean Lee Yu-ri is actually useful to Utopia right now? If this goes on and the Utopia Party comes after us..."
One of the women spoke in an uneasy voice, but Kim Hye-ji just let out a scoffing laugh.
"Hah, her? That'll never, ever happen."
Having known Lee Yu-ri for an extremely long time, Kim Hye-ji also knew her personality very well.
'For a broke-ass beggar bitch... I always fucking hated how she always acted like she was something special.'
When the bitch she'd tacitly considered beneath her suddenly got accepted into Velvet Hunter Academy,
and on top of that, when she heard the news that she'd even gotten into the Utopia Party, the sheer resentment had been gut-twisting.
In the first place, she was a bitch who'd rather die than cause other people trouble or reveal her weaknesses to the world.
Would a girl like that tell Utopia or report to the police just because her shitty house got robbed? Absolutely impossible.
So today was the day.
If they messed with her surroundings while she was boarding at the academy, Velvet Academy would get involved.
And that wasn't a joke—it was the kind of dangerous situation where your life could actually be over.
But today, with the academy on break, was a different story.
'So I was planning to clean out whatever valuables she had piled up in that house of hers...'
But there were three things she hadn't anticipated...
One, all the money that had been wired to Lee Yu-ri's family went straight toward paying off debts, so there was nothing of value left in the house.
Two, with her house in that state and her family unreachable, Lee Yu-ri was currently in a state where she was seeing nothing but red.
And three, a boy and a girl had followed them.
"...Hey, Hye-ji. So what's with the brat?"
"Brat?"
"Yeah, that kid hiding behind the pillar over there glaring at us. Isn't she... the hell? Doesn't she look exactly like Lee Yu-ri?"
In an instant, Kim Hye-ji turned her head. Her eyes went wide as saucers.
"...Lee Yu-na?"
The name slipped from her lips.
At that, as if she'd realized her tail was found out, Lee Yu-na slowly stepped out from behind the pillar.
"...Hye-ji unni, it's been a while."
Lee Yu-na hid her younger brother behind her back and spoke in a rigid voice.
"Oh my, Yu-na! How long has it been? It really has been a while!"
There was a time when they'd all operated as a team under Lee Yu-ri.
Kim Hye-ji as the Damage Dealer, Lee Yu-na as the Porter.
Kim Hye-ji called out to her, affecting a cordial, friendly tone.
"But what brings you here?"
"...Why did you do that to our house?"
"What? Suddenly, wh-what are you talking about?"
Kim Hye-ji and her gang stiffened their expressions.
They'd never imagined she'd witnessed everything that happened at the house and followed them all the way here!
"Hey, you said no one saw!!!"
"W-We're sure no one saw...!"
"Aren't we, like, dead if Lee Yu-ri catches us?"
The gang started babbling, clearly panicked.
Kim Hye-ji gulped too, staring at Lee Yu-na.
"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."
"I... saw everything. You, Hye-ji unni, and the others, trashing our house... then running away. Why did you do it?"
It became clear that Lee Yu-na already knew everything.
Kim Hye-ji's face chilled in an instant.
"Hah, Lee Yu-na. You've grown, huh? You used to never be able to make a peep in front of me..."
"I'm at that age where kids grow fast. So, I'm asking, why did you do that to our house?"
"..."
"Just like last time when you ran off with my sister's money. Do you have some kind of grudge against us?"
Kim Hye-ji really, truly did not like those eyes staring straight at her from a face identical to Lee Yu-ri's.
Eyes so clear, as if they held not a single trace of doubt about her own convictions and thoughts.
Kim Hye-ji bit her lip without realizing it.
"Could it be, Hye-ji unni, that you have some kind of inferiority complex about my sister?"
Twitch—
Those words stabbed sharply, deep into her gut.
"You, fucking bitch... I've had it with you!"
Kim Hye-ji's hand shot up before she even knew it.
Lee Yu-na squeezed her eyes shut.
But then.
Grip.
A solid grip on her wrist.
"Hey, Kim Hye-ji."
A voice that descended with absolute coldness.
Kim Hye-ji's gaze shifted to the person holding her wrist.
"L-Lee Yu-ri...?"
"You fucking bitch. Were you about to hit my little sister?"
"Th-That's not..."
"The Gate fee I covered for you last time, the one you ran off with and stiffed me on—I won't take it anymore."
Crackle—
"Use that as your hospital bill."