Chapter 54
I’m translating the full chapter now and will preserve the required HTML structure, including styled blocks for system messages. After that I’ll do a quick consistency pass to make sure names, ranks, and terminology stay aligned.CHAPTER_TITLE: A Reason to Intervene
Tae Yongjin, forty-eight years old. That was the information on the middle-aged man running an enchanter shop near Gwangju.
Instead of buying a cake and going home, I’d been dragged into the enchantment shop just after Yu Seongin had torn the place apart.
“Oh dear... I’m afraid this is all I have to offer the knights.”
Tae Yongjin carefully poured us coffee. I gave a small smile at the sight of it.
“Not at all. Thank you.”
Honestly, I couldn’t stand coffee, but I couldn’t exactly show it, so I stayed quiet.
I took a sip. Ah. Bitter.
As I was secretly savoring the taste of regret, Tae Yongjin asked us, “Um... first, I’m sorry for bringing up such a sudden request. Are you really knights?”
At his worried question, I fished around inside my coat. I wasn’t sure I’d brought it... ah, there it was.
My knight’s badge. I showed it to him.
“Ah...! You really are knights.”
Only after seeing that did he seem to believe us. Relief, maybe?
“What’s the matter?”
Was it really that big a deal to hear the word knight? At my question, Tae Yongjin hesitated.
“Well...”
After a brief silence, he continued, “I was rude enough to come to you because I wondered if I could ask for your help...”
“What kind of help?”
“...Do you remember the young man we met earlier?”
“The one who said he was the son of a gene company owner.”
Yu Seongin, an A-class superhuman.
As Tae Yongjin mentioned him, a shadow fell over his face.
“...Yes.”
“What about him?”
“For the past few months, Yu Seongin has been making our shop’s life miserable.”
“For months?”
So what I’d seen earlier wasn’t just a simple tantrum?
“Yes... It probably started a few months ago, when he brought a relic here.”
Two or three months ago, Yu Seongin had come to find Tae Yongjin late at night.
Back then, Yu Seongin had brought in a relic and requested an appraisal.
When Tae Yongjin heard he was from the gene company, he’d gotten tense and appraised the relic.
Up to that point, there had been no problem.
But then—
“The problem started when he checked one item in our home.”
“An item?”
When I asked in confusion, Tae Yongjin stood up.
“Please excuse me for a moment.”
After disappearing briefly, he came back carrying something from inside the shop.
It was a pure white box.
“This is?”
What was this? The moment I focused on the box—
[Corka’s Illusion activates.]
The skill activated.
[Silver Crystal Fragment 4]
It is the fourth fragment of the SS-class relic, Silver Blessing.
The current bound holder is Tae Yongjin.
...What is this?
A fragment of an SS-class relic?
As I stared wide-eyed at the information Corka had given me—
“It’s my father’s keepsake.”
“A keepsake...?”
That?
“Yes. He brought it home saying it would someday bring about a miracle... But Yu Seongin seems to know it’s in our house.”
“So Yu Seongin is after that?”
“Yes.”
“...Do you know what that is, sir?”
“I don’t. I’m an enchanter in name, but... my rank is too low to view information on an item like this.”
It was a fragment of an SS-class relic. How many enchanters in Korea could casually read information like that?
To see the information on an SS-class relic...
At the very least, you’d need to be an S-class enchanter.
And there’s only one S-class enchanter in the country.
On top of that, he was known to be holed up in the mountains and had no intention of coming down. There was no way Tae Yongjin could identify it.
“So Yu Seongin knows that item exists and is threatening you, demanding you hand it over?”
“...That seems to be the case.”
“...I see.”
I scratched my cheek as I listened.
“That’s a little strange.”
The explanation felt off the more I heard it.
“...Would he really need to go to all this trouble to threaten you? He doesn’t even seem to need to come here in person to harass you.”
It felt like a ridiculous amount of effort. It was the same if Yu Seongin had come after that fragment.
“B-but...”
Tae Yongjin stammered, flustered.
“Short of that, there’d be no reason for him to keep tormenting me like this. It started the moment he confirmed that the fragment was here.”
“...Hmm.”
Tae Yongjin didn’t look like he was lying.
Then—
“So what exactly are you asking us to do?”
“...Could you stop Yu Seongin from harassing our shop any further?”
“...”
I narrowed my eyes. I had expected that request.
“Did you report him to the authorities?”
“Yes...! I tried everything. But...”
“Nobody listened.”
Jin Yeonhui, who had been silent, cut in. She hadn’t touched even a sip of the coffee in front of her.
“If it’s a gene company, it’s been rooted in Gwangju for a long time. Taking them on isn’t easy.”
“So even though he’s acting like that, everyone’s just looking the other way?”
“That’s right.”
Jin Yeonhui nodded coolly.
“I understand what you’re saying.”
Then Jin Yeonhui looked at Tae Yongjin and said, “I understand why you came to us, but this isn’t our jurisdiction.”
“Knight...”
“On top of that, it’s an out-of-area matter. I don’t think we can move on this.”
When she finished, Jin Yeonhui stood.
“Lee Jinwoo. Let’s go.”
“Jin Yeonhui.”
“Get up.”
Her expression was sharp and cold. It was obvious she’d lose patience if I pushed any further.
“...Alright.”
I followed her outside. I could see Tae Yongjin’s face darken in an instant.
* * *
The moment we were outside, I said to Jin Yeonhui, “Couldn’t you have been a little less cut-and-dried about it?”
Jin Yeonhui turned to look at me.
“I appreciate your sense of justice. But stopping Yu Seongin—that’s the line. Anything beyond that isn’t our place.”
“If they’re really being threatened with malicious intent—”
“Then the police in this area should move, not us. A knight isn’t here for things like this.”
“...”
“Especially knights like us. You know that as well as anyone.”
She was right. Knights weren’t the ones supposed to run around solving these kinds of problems.
And if it was a knight squad built to deal with terrorists, then even more so.
“I get what you’re feeling, but this is their problem. If we get involved, it’ll only get bigger. Especially when a company’s involved. Can you handle that?”
“So you want me to just stand by and watch someone in trouble?”
“Who said anything about watching? I’m saying you should interfere only when you have a reason that makes sense. This isn’t one of those cases.”
Her voice rose. I knew she was being rationally correct, so I had nothing left to say.
“...Alright.”
I couldn’t push any further. Stopping it in front of me—that much was probably the limit of what I could do.
Rationally, I knew that too.
I knew it, but...
For some reason.
I kept wanting to interfere. It felt like I should be the one to step in.
“...Good. If you understand, let’s head back before it gets late.”
Jin Yeonhui moved toward the car we’d come in. Watching her, I started to follow slowly—
[Hero’s Super-sensory activates.]
I froze.
Something caught in my senses. I turned around immediately.
What?
Where was that feeling coming from? Narrowing my eyes, I stared in the direction the sensation had penetrated.
The position was on top of the commercial building across the street.
Someone was there.
- ...!
The moment they noticed my gaze, the figure hid at once.
[Eye of Enlightenment activates.]
But by then, my eyes had already caught the information.
[??? : Orgah’s Killer (S)]
At the same time—
A mask.
Before disappearing, I’d seen the mask that bastard had been wearing.
That mask. Definitely—
“Lee Jinwoo. What are you doing...?”
“...Wait a second.”
I drove strength into my legs. My muscles swelled, power surging through my body.
Then—
BOOM!
I launched myself violently and chased after the spot where the figure had vanished.
“Lee Jinwoo...!”
Jin Yeonhui’s voice grew faint behind me.
* * *
Where is he?
Where had he gone? I focused every ounce of my senses on the place where he’d vanished.
[Hero’s Super-sensory activates.]
My heightened senses kept scanning for the vanished figure’s trail, and fortunately, the hyper-sensitive perception finally caught a trace of him.
Left.
I moved fast. Before long, I’d entered the forest far beyond the road. Going a little deeper, I spotted—
An abandoned factory?
A large building came into view. It looked like a factory that had already shut down. Had he gone inside?
Tap.
When I arrived, tension sharpened inside me. My super-sensory quickly picked up movement around me. There was someone inside.
This...
It seemed like there were several people in there.
Narrowing my eyes, I carefully slipped inside.
Slowly. I circled farther from the place where I could feel the presence.
What the hell.
Why was I here? Only after noticing did I realize this was the place.
...Aren’t you doing something dangerous?
I knew it. This was dangerous. I shouldn’t have followed him at all.
Not chasing him, but—
I should have come more safely.
I should have reported the strange feeling to the Association, or at the very least come here with Jin Yeonhui.
Why?
Why had I come here alone? Before I knew it, I’d run out on my own.
Even I thought that was strange.
Click.
I slowly moved toward the source of the presence. Even as I thought it odd, I didn’t retreat.
I had this overwhelming feeling that I needed to go.
And once I entered the building—
“So, you noticed?”
I heard a voice from inside.
“I’m not sure he noticed, but our eyes did meet.”
“That means he noticed, doesn’t it? Damn it!”
The sound echoed through the space. It was loud enough to shake the whole place.
“Now, now. No need to raise your voice like that.”
It was a voice mixed with amusement. Since I’d come up to the second floor, I looked down over the railing.
The floor below was cracked here and there. Two people stood on it.
“...!”
One of them was a familiar face. The man scowling and growling in irritation was—
Yu Seongin?
It was the same Yu Seongin I’d just run into earlier. Why was he here?
And the other one was—
...A mask.
A man wearing a mask and facing Yu Seongin.
The bastard who had been looking at me earlier.
[??? : Orgah’s Killer (S)]
The information appeared before my eyes. His name didn’t show up. Was it because of that mask?
“I told you to just check what kind of guy he was and rough him up a little if needed, and you got spotted the moment you went? Are you crazy?”
“Crazy? I wasn’t spotted.”
“You said he noticed.”
“We made eye contact.”
“You call that not being spotted?!”
“Don’t worry. I’m not a rookie dumb enough to leave a trail. There’s no need for our young master to fret.”
“...Keh.”
At that, Yu Seongin ground his teeth.
“You’d better do your job properly. I’m not paying that much money so you can half-ass things.”
“Oh, come on. I know that well enough. Our side has high expectations of you too, young master.”
“...Quit wasting words. Go deal with that enchanter already. I won’t be able to do anything until you bring me the fragment.”
“As if that’s easy. You know the fragment disappears when the bound holder dies.”
What?
I widened my eyes at their conversation. The fragment they were talking about—was that the one Tae Yongjin had?
Looks like the shop owner was right.
It did seem like Yu Seongin had approached him after the fragment.
The problem was—
That mask.
That bastard.
No matter how I looked at him—
A terrorist.
He looked connected to those people.
Which meant—
...Doesn’t that give me a reason to step in?
The reason Jin Yeonhui had talked about.
It looked like I’d just found it.
And in a very nasty way, at that.