Chapter 18
I’m translating the chapter into polished HTML now, keeping the special system-style passages in styled blocks and the dialogue split by speaker.CHAPTER_TITLE: The New Knight Order
Another knight order was being founded. At Baek Hyeonho’s announcement, the entire room fell silent.
“The captain of the newly established knight order will be Hale Irene.”
The violent words that followed were enough to throw everyone into chaos.
Click—! Click—! Click—!
Amid the nonstop staccato of shutters, I could hear the reporters’ murmurs rising all around us.
Hero’s Super-sensory even caught sounds from far away.
“Hale Irene is going to be the captain…?”
“...Why would the strongest person in the world?”
There was nothing but confusion. If anything, there seemed to be fewer people who could actually believe what they’d just heard.
Then, once the reporters finally gathered their wits, they hurriedly pressed Baek Hyeonho with questions.
“President Baek Hyeonho...! The creation of a new knight order—was this agreed upon with the government?”
“If it’s a dedicated counterterror unit, does that mean you’ll only be dealing with humans?”
“Is it true that Irene will be taking office as knight captain? Has everything been settled with the United States?”
“In that case, what about Irene’s country of affiliation...”
The flood of questions was almost enough to split my ears in two. With everyone speaking over one another, it only got worse.
“Now, now.”
Baek Hyeonho tried to calm them from among the swarm of reporters.
“As for this matter...”
“...Questions.”
But they showed no sign of stopping, cutting him off again and again. Then Baek Hyeonho clapped his hands lightly.
Clap—!!!
Whoooosh—!!! The brief clap sent a tremendous gust raging through the room. It was strong enough to whip everyone’s hair around. Only then did the reporters finally go quiet.
“I apologize. It was a bit noisy, so I may have been a little rough.”
He smiled politely as if nothing had happened, but he was an S-class superhuman. The instant he let his presence leak out, he felt like an entirely different person.
“I’ll answer the questions after I’ve sent the busy people away first.”
With that, someone came to lead us. Following the guide, we returned to a waiting room larger than the one before.
No sooner had we arrived than the same uproar reached us from beyond the walls. Hero’s Super-sensory was busy catching every word.
...Damn it.
This was way more painful than I’d expected. My head felt like it was going to split. Wasn’t there any way to turn this off? The moment I bit my lip slightly,
Would you like to turn Hero’s Super-sensoryOFF?
...
To my surprise, there actually was a way to switch it off. I hurriedly hit the off button, and the voices that had been flooding in went quiet at once.
“Hoo.”
Once my mind had finally settled, I let out a sigh.
“...What’s wrong?”
“...!”
Irene had spoken to me.
“...Does it hurt?”
“Ah, no. I was just a little surprised.”
“...”
She looked at me with those slightly narrowed eyes. The golden glint in her gaze felt unusually deep.
It was unsettling. Just why was she staring like that?
Is she suspicious of me?
Ever since that conversation about the God of War, Irene had felt prickly to me.
I wonder why she’s looking for the God of War in the first place.
Because I couldn’t understand her reason for seeking him out, it only made me more uneasy. Had I pushed it too far?
There were articles about it...
I’d seen the baiting articles aimed at Irene—pieces that practically shouted that this new powerhouse, the God of War, might be able to beat even the strongest person in the world.
If she was looking for the God of War because she’d been offended by that...
...Am I screwed?
The thought flashed through my head that if I was ever found out, I’d be in real trouble.
Irene took off the sunglasses she’d been wearing, her usual deadpan expression never changing.
“...Annoying.”
“Well...”
Then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, she reached in front of her and went to eat cake again. I hadn’t even seen her take it out. She wore a face that said the whole world was a nuisance.
She really did seem to love cake.
From last time and now this, it was obvious.
“Do you really intend to serve as a knight here in Korea, Irene?”
She took a bite of cake and looked at me.
“...Why? Do you hate it?”
“No. It’s not that... I just wondered why you came all the way to Korea to do it.”
She was the strongest alive, the woman called the symbol of America.
It was strange that she would leave the United States, where she could have stayed and done this just fine, and come all the way to Korea to become a knight captain.
To my question, Irene tapped the cake with her fork a few times and said,
“...I’m not doing it on purpose...”
“Pardon?”
“There’s someone I need to find... so that’s why I’m doing it.”
“Someone you need to find?”
So she was saying she’d stay for a while and then leave? As I looked at her with that thought in mind, she gave a small nod.
“Yes.”
Then, all at once, her eyes turned cold.
“...Until I’ve cleaned up all the trash.”
...
Was the “trash” she meant terrorists?
She spoke of something enormous as if it were nothing.
“...I’ll do it quickly...”
Then she said to me, as calmly as could be,
“...I’ll be counting on you from now on.”
“Huh?”
“A member... like me.”
“Ah.”
A member of the newly established knight order. At that, I nodded.
Even now, it didn’t feel real.
...So I’m a knight now?
If you asked what the hardest exam in Korea was, people would definitely say the knight examination. Since one’s past-life ability determined almost everything, talent was absolutely essential.
I only ever wished, somewhere in my heart, that I could do it someday.
And yet only a few days after awakening, I’d opened my eyes and found myself a knight.
Not just that.
...A counterterror unit.
Wasn’t this supposed to be a knight order that dealt exclusively with terrorists?
My hand clenched into a fist at the thought. Maybe this was the very thing I had wanted most.
“Yes... I’ll be counting on you too.”
As I returned the greeting, I lifted a hand, wondering if I should at least shake hers.
“I don’t... like handshakes...”
Irene said, glancing at my hand. A little awkwardly, I tucked it back down.
“Understood.”
“...And also.”
“Yes?”
“Promise me one thing...”
One slender index finger rose into the air.
“...Don’t get in my way.”
Irene’s eyes were serious.
“That’s... all I’m asking.”
...
It sounded like a warning, a quiet jab to my back. Don’t get in her way?
...Does she just mean I shouldn’t get on her nerves?
I couldn’t help thinking that was what she meant.
...
I could feel the wall between us. I’d sensed it from the first time we met, but now I thought I understood her state a little better.
She doesn’t regard humans as human.
People were just pebbles passing by. That was all she seemed to see—something neither more nor less.
There was no emotion in her gaze at all. It was the look of someone truly seeing others as objects.
That was what made her even more frightening. What kind of life had she lived to become able to look at people that way?
How does someone end up seeing people like that?
That was what scared me.
“Well. That’s enough of that.”
Irene’s golden eyes turned toward the entrance.
Jeon Yuseon was standing there.
“You, too...”
She sounded different from before. I could see golden energy rippling in Irene’s eyes.
Hero’s Super-sensory has been activated.
The Super-sensory I’d just turned off activated again. The instant it came back on, a chill ran down my spine. Something was filling the room.
“There won’t be... a second time.”
The power in her quiet voice made my body tingle.
It was an overwhelming force that couldn’t even be compared to before. From that alone, I could tell how trivial the warning she’d given me had been.
...So this is what it means to have the presence of a true powerhouse?
I’d felt it from Baek Hyeonho, too, but this was a suffocating pressure that was downright unpleasant.
I could see sweat beading on Jeon Yuseon’s forehead as he endured it.
“...Irene. First, calm down. About what happened then—”
“Answer...”
Rattle-rattle-rattle-rattle.
The cake plate and glass on the table shook violently. Only then did Jeon Yuseon bite his lip and speak.
“Understood... I’ll make sure the same thing never happens again.”
He was still an A-class superhuman, strong by domestic standards. And yet, he couldn’t withstand Irene’s presence for even a second.
The gap in rank was painfully clear.
“Mm.”
Tch.
Irene clicked her tongue briefly. Then she walked forward.
“Can I go now?”
“...Ugh... Yes. You may leave.”
“...What are you doing?”
Irene asked me.
“Pardon?”
“Come with me.”
“Ah, yes.”
I followed after Irene as she went ahead of me. Once we stepped outside the entrance and headed straight for the exterior of the building,
At that moment.
Click-click-click—!!! The same shutter sounds from before brushed past my ears.
“Irene...! Please, just look this way once...!”
“Lee Jinwoo, superhuman!!”
There were reporters everywhere outside. Just as I was wondering whether I should turn my head toward the voices, something strange happened—my head wouldn’t move. It felt like someone had a hand around my jaw.
Don’t look...
It had to be Irene’s doing. Not now? Irene, looking perfectly used to this, headed toward the photo zone in front of us.
Baek Hyeonho was already standing there.
As I approached and stood beside him, he smiled and patted my shoulder just as he had before.
Click-click-click! As the shutter sounds continued, Baek Hyeonho spoke to the reporters.
“Ah, and also. There is one more honored guest here today to celebrate the founding of the new knight order.”
At that, question marks seemed to bloom on the reporters’ faces.
Another person was coming?
Then.
Hero’s Super-sensory has been activated.
...
My heart thudded.
Clack.
Even through the mad storm of shutter sounds, the footsteps sounded strangely loud. My head turned. The owner of those footsteps was approaching from beyond the crowd. And then someone appeared.
“Jinwoo!”
A voice rang out. The moment I stepped outside, that was the first thing I heard. At the sound, just as the reporters were trying to photograph me and Irene, everyone turned.
“Huh?”
“Wait, isn’t that...?”
“What?”
They reacted as if they knew the face.
Which made sense. I knew that face too.
No, there was no one in Korea who didn’t know that face.
He pushed through the crowd with long, brisk strides.
“It’s been a while.”
A handsome young man greeted me with a bright smile. The easy way he held out his hand and the effortless grin made me unconsciously look a little awkward.
“...Oh, right. Yeah.”
Suppressing the stiffness in my expression, I took the hand of the man greeting me.
The young man’s name was Yu Jin.
One of only three SS-class superhumans in the world, including Irene.
The one called Korea’s hope.
And...
“It has been a while.”
My many-times-uncomfortable “friend.”