Fire Moths
We handed the wheel to Kim Woo-jin, the most experienced driver among us, and made it back safely to the Baek Ya-seong Headquarters building. Jeong Yoon-hyuk, who'd been grazed by a bullet on his arm, headed to the infirmary inside, while the rest of us followed Jin Yeon-ah to report to Jin Hyun-cheol.
"......Snipers?"
"Yes, Father. It was definitely a sniper attack."
Jin Hyun-cheol, who had been handling paperwork while listening to the report, suddenly stopped at Jin Yeon-ah's mention of the sniper. And it didn't end there—his hand began to tremble faintly with rage.
"They openly snipe right in front of the Special Agency Administration Office managed by Central? And at Yeon... no, at us of Baek Ya-seong?"
From that slip of the tongue, it seemed less about Baek Ya-seong being attacked and more about his daughter being targeted, but no one pointed it out. Either way, as Jin Hyun-cheol said, having Baek Ya-seong blood sniped in a place squarely under Central's watch was something that shouldn't exist. Turning both Baek Ya-seong and Central into enemies at once? There was no way to describe that other than sheer madness.
"I should grab those bastards and kill them right now. No...... It'll be hard to catch them before Central does, so better to ask Central to hand them over without killing them."
He muttered that while struggling to suppress his anger. He clearly wanted to catch and deal with the ones we described himself, but Central was getting involved this time too. Judging that we couldn't beat them to it, Jin Hyun-cheol seemed intent on requesting their handover.
"Um...... Could I say something?"
"What is it?"
But at his words, I had no choice but to tentatively raise my hand. Jin Hyun-cheol shot me a glance. His eyes said to brace myself if it was nonsense, since his anger hadn't fully subsided, but what I had to say wasn't nonsense.
"From what I see, those guys are going to come straight at us first."
"What?"
"They targeted Baek Ya-seong, used firearms banned by Central, and pulled that stunt right in front of the Special Agency Administration Office, right? Guys like that are usually the absolute dregs of the dregs."
"Explain in detail."
Jin Hyun-cheol's eyes, still burning with anger, turned icy cold at my words. The three behind me nodded along as they listened. As Back World natives themselves, they knew it well—and so did I. The ones who ambushed us today were the kind who'd sunk even lower than the Back World's lawless underbelly.
The Back World's outlaws scrape by at rock bottom, but they thrash around just to survive. To claw their way up from that pit. But the ones I was talking about had given up even that thrashing. Lives with no hope left, just waiting for death after abandoning any will to keep going. Most end it themselves before reaching that point, so you don't see them often, but every now and then, they pop up.
They've got something to lose now, so they don't want to off themselves. They crave some flashy, self-styled grand finale instead. And that's what we called them.
Fire moths. The dregs of the dregs. In crude terms, crazy bastards...... But anyway, the name isn't the point right now. The key is, they took this job fully intending to die from the start.
"So...... since they're already set on dying anyway, instead of running to survive, they'll charge straight at us?"
"Exactly. For them, the most important thing is going out in a blaze of glory. Terrorizing the Baek Ya-seong Headquarters? That'd be plenty flashy in their twisted minds."
"......Fire moths indeed."
Jin Hyun-cheol grimaced, having grasped what they might pull next from my words. Jin Yeon-ah beside me looked the same. And as if to prove my point, Do Jin-hyeok—Jin Hyun-cheol's exclusive assassin, who'd pulled out his phone to check something—spoke up.
"Master, an unidentified helicopter is approaching the headquarters airspace right now."
"......That must be the fire moths you mentioned."
"I think it's safe to say so."
At Do Jin-hyeok's report of the unidentified chopper closing in, Jin Hyun-cheol glanced at me once more. Hearing my confirmation, he immediately said,
"Any visitors scheduled today?"
"None, Master."
"Then shoot it down. Even if it's not fire moths, we can't just land a chopper that approaches without a word."
"Understood."
No sooner had Jin Hyun-cheol given the order than Do Jin-hyeok fiddled with his phone. The next instant, two missiles streaked toward the helicopter.
Shwoooosh───
A crash on the ground was inevitable with the chopper going down, but it beat letting fire moths into the building. The missiles soon arced through the sky and engulfed the flying machine in a brilliant explosion.
Kaboom───!!!
The sudden chopper blast over the city skyline. People on the ground below screamed and scattered in panic. But amid the chaos outside, all our eyes in the room were fixed on one spot—not the frantic streets, but the five figures descending by parachute.
"Those must be the fire moths."
"I'll dispatch personnel right away, Master. Shall we restrain them as they land?"
"Yes, make sure to capture them alive without killing a single one......"
As Jin Hyun-cheol and Do Jin-hyeok conversed watching them, I cautiously raised my hand again. Jin Yeon-ah startled and grabbed it. She then whispered so Jin Hyun-cheol and Do Jin-hyeok, who were looking back, wouldn't hear.
"What? Why again?"
"Well...... if possible, we'd like to handle those guys ourselves. After they pulled that on us, it feels wrong just handing them off without doing anything."
"What? No need to go that far......"
Jin Yeon-ah gave me a puzzled look, questioning why bother. Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one thinking that. I pointed behind us, and her gaze followed my finger.
There stood the three others, sharing my exact sentiment.
"You guys too, same as Se-rin?"
"Well, if you tell us not to, Miss, we'll hold back...... but it'd be better if you let us."
"We ate the first punch; feels unfair if we don't get to hit back."
"Plus, unlike before, this is one-sided now."
Jin Yeon-ah's face clouded with dilemma at their words—should she listen to us or just leave it to Jin Hyun-cheol? But her indecision didn't last.
"Ugh...... Fine. I'll ask."
Clearing her throat with a hem, she stepped forward to speak up.
"Father, I have something to say."
"Hm? What is it?"
Jin Hyun-cheol's furrowed brow softened briefly at her call, then hardened again. Facing him, Jin Yeon-ah puffed out her chest confidently.
"Let my assassins wrap this up."
Hand this incident over to us.
In the end, Jin Hyun-cheol approved Jin Yeon-ah's request. Excluding Jeong Yoon-hyuk in the infirmary, he assigned the fire moths to me, Kwon Ji-yul, Kim Woo-jin, and Lee Kang-woo. But of course, it wasn't unconditional full authority.
"Yes, perfectly clear."
I nodded on our behalf toward Do Jin-hyeok's phone, from which Jin Hyun-cheol's voice emanated. The enemies were still descending by parachute. Their trajectory made it obvious they'd land on the rooftop, so we were riding the elevator up.
Just before the doors opened on the roof, Jin Hyun-cheol, still on the line, added one more thing.
"We need to subdue them within 10 minutes?"
"Eh, 10 minutes is more than enough."
Whirr───
We stepped out through the opening doors, replying to Jin Hyun-cheol. Greeting us were Baek Ya-seong assassins already waiting on the roof per Do Jin-hyeok's orders. Word had spread that we had priority, and their stares stabbed at us like thorns as we exited the elevator—dismissal, jealousy, anger, scrutiny, mockery, you name it.
But we'd endured harsher gazes in the Back World; this lukewarm stuff didn't faze us.
"Everyone ready?"
"Of course. Hey, did you see that earlier? When they said just us, Yoon-hyuk was losing it."
"Hahaha! Saw it clear as day. First time that old guy's glared like that."
"Kuhahat, creepy as hell."
The three bantered lightly in response to me, trading idle chit-chat. Ignoring the stares, we pushed through the encircling assassins.
Passing the last one revealed the wide-open rooftop. And right ahead, five enemies calmly folding their parachutes.
Four from the Special Agency Administration Office earlier, plus one presumed sniper. The leader-looking one spotted us and sneered.
"Sending this big a crowd just for five of us? Baek Ya-seong's rep must be all hot air."
"Don't worry. The ones behind are just spectators. Only us four are handling you."
"......Hah, big talk."
He glared for a moment at my words before scoffing. Personally, I didn't like his vibe one bit. Hell, no assassin likes seeing someone play cool in the face of death. Pathetic.
So I drew my stiletto and took stance.
"See for yourself if it's bluff or not."
Subduing the fire moths before hundreds of spectators. Time to show everyone that Jin Yeon-ah—our master—hadn't made a vain request.
Through the overwhelming gap in skill.