Chapter 62
Among superhumans, they were exceptional even by exceptional standards. They were powerful figures officially recognized by the Association, men and women born to preserve justice and peace under the Association’s name.
Their work ranged from handling incidents caused by superhumans to taking care of things ordinary people could never hope to resolve.
They also managed the rifts that appeared in reality—the Rifts—and kept whatever happened inside them from spilling over into the real world.
In a sense, they were elite soldiers.
Though they belonged to the Association, they were also closely tied to the government, which meant they enjoyed far more privileges than ordinary superhumans.
Tax deductions, special loans, and that sort of thing existed, but those details weren’t important enough to dwell on.
So in the end, if I had to define what a knight primarily did, it was the same thing I’d said before.
They solved incidents caused by superhumans.
That was the most important part of the job. The title might change from country to country, but the work itself was the same everywhere.
Ordinary people couldn’t deal with what superhumans caused, so superhumans stepped in and dealt with it themselves.
That was the knight’s duty.
“The 6th Knight Order has arrived—”
“Who’s in charge here……?”
And now, I was stepping out for my first mission as one of them.
“……”
In front of me stood a collapsed building buried beneath piles of wreckage. Ambulances and fire engines crowded the surrounding streets.
Police were blocking off the area, while terrified civilians stared at the scene from beyond the cordon.
It was a disaster. That was what Jongno looked like right now.
“We’ve confirmed people inside the first floor! Hurry and evacuate them……!”
“The structure on the third floor is shaking……! At this rate, entry will be difficult……!”
“Damn it……! If this keeps up, the fire……”
I frowned amid the clamor.
Urgent voices rang out from every direction.
Then—
“Are you the knights?”
Someone approached us.
It was a middle-aged man wearing a hard hat.
“I’m the site supervisor, Kwon Deoksin. Are you the ones from the Knight Order……?”
“Yep. That’s right.”
Before I could answer, the woman beside me spoke instead. A beauty with a bored expression. It was Ye Jiram, the Black Night Witch.
“……The Black Night Witch?”
Kwon Deoksin widened his eyes when he saw Ye Jiram’s face barging in on the conversation.
At his reaction, Ye Jiram let out a small laugh.
“That’s right. The infamous Black Night Witch who’s supposedly got no manners. But do you really have time to be surprised right now?”
“……Oh.”
Only then did Kwon Deoksin regain his composure. He cleared his throat and hurried on.
“I-I’m honored to meet the members of the Knight Order. I’ll brief you on the situation right away.”
He looked a little flustered, but he seemed used to dealing with knights and quickly recovered his bearings.
“At the moment, a superhuman of unidentified identity has gone berserk.”
A superhuman rampage. The result was the complete destruction of a building. One of Jongno’s famous high-rises had collapsed like a stack of cards.
“Judging from the extent of the damage, we believe the rank is A-class……”
“Is he in a berserk state?”
“……Yes.”
At Ye Jiram’s question, Kwon Deoksin nodded.
Berserk state.
That phrase caught my attention.
A berserk state?
The berserk state of a superhuman was a chronic problem that stemmed from their past life.
A side effect of rising Synchronization Rate.
The Synchronization Rate linked a person’s past life and current life. The higher it climbed, the more likely superhumans were to develop a certain problem.
That problem was the growing gulf between their past and present selves.
The immense sense of distance created by the difference between who they had been in this life and who they had been before.
The higher the Synchronization Rate, the more the past life and present life were meant to merge into one. But every so often, a superhuman would break down in a way like this.
We used to think of it as a kind of superhuman mania.
“An A-class superhuman in a berserk state…… Sounds like he had one hell of a weird past life.”
Ye Jiram clicked her tongue at the report.
“Haven’t seen a case caused by berserk syndrome in a while.”
As she spoke, someone cut in. I bit my lip lightly as I recognized the voice.
O Jimin.
It was O Jimin, whom I suspected was a terrorist.
He had come to Jongno with me, and this mission was supposed to deal with the current incident.
Ye Jiram had been assigned as the person in charge for this operation. She was the deputy leader, after all.
At first, when I heard I’d be working with O Jimin, I had to think through a thousand different possibilities.
Is this okay?
Was it really fine for me to go? I still couldn’t understand why Irene had suddenly told me to go along.
And didn’t she just warn me it was dangerous?
Only recently she’d been scolding me for running around recklessly and causing trouble, telling me I knew full well how dangerous that was.
And yet……
She sent me on a mission with the person who looks most dangerous of all—O Jimin?
I couldn’t make sense of Irene’s intentions. Was this really all right?
Tch.
I frowned.
In the middle of that, O Jimin spoke to me.
“Lee Jinwoo.”
“Ah, yes?”
“What are you thinking about so hard?”
O Jimin came up to me with a kind smile on his face. I had to do everything I could to make sure the suspicion boiling inside me didn’t leak out.
“Nothing really…… I’m just a little nervous.”
“Nervous, huh? Well……”
O Jimin nodded as though he understood.
“You only recently came back, right? I heard you had some trouble with terrorists.”
“……”
At the word he’d used on his own, I secretly swallowed.
“……That’s right.”
“I never imagined something like that would happen at the Gwangju branch. I can’t even begin to guess how far those vile bastards have infiltrated.”
There had been a clash with terrorists in Gwangju.
At the same time, word had also gotten out about the incident involving the direct bloodline of the Yuseong Group.
I didn’t know if it was because he was a knight, but it seemed the inner circle had already learned a fair amount of the information.
“……We should catch every last one of them and wipe them out.”
O Jimin said it with a face full of resentment.
Hero’s Super-sensory has activated.
Looking at that expression, I felt a strange sense of discomfort.
Something’s off.
He looked unpleasant and angry, but it was subtly different.
He’s lying.
He was hiding his emotions.
It was close to perfect, but not quite perfect enough, and my super-sensory caught it.
“And to think we’re dealing with a terrorist attack on top of that…… Jinwoo, you really are impressive. At such a young age, too.”
“……It’s nothing.”
“It’s definitely not nothing. That’s really incredible. I’ve even heard you were the hero of Yeouido. Weren’t you afraid?”
I had been afraid.
The masked terrorist who had been hurling fire at me. When I had clawed my way back from the brink of death, I had been more terrified than I’d ever been in my life.
“If it were me, I’d have been absolutely terrified.”
O Jimin said it as if he genuinely sympathized.
It was absurd.
“……Is that so?”
“Of course. How could anyone stand up to those cruel, vicious bastards? I know I couldn’t have done it.”
He kept praising me, one line after another. What was this? What did he want? I kept watching his reactions closely. Then—
“Ah, sorry. I was talking too much in the middle of a mission, wasn’t I? I just wanted to get a little closer to you personally, Jinwoo.”
“……Closer to me?”
“Yes. And there was what happened at the Choyeon Building, too…… I also watched your spar with Jin Yeonhui. You looked amazing.”
He smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. Even that felt hard to believe.
No, it was more accurate to say I couldn’t believe it.
Still.
Is he really a terrorist?
I had to question this man’s identity. A man who hid both his name and his past life.
Was that enough to make him a terrorist in my eyes?
Not yet. Suspicious, yes—but I had no proof to confirm it.
“You there.”
Just then, Ye Jiram’s voice cut in between the two of us.
“This isn’t the time for small talk, you know? Focus.”
“Ah, sorry, Deputy Leader.”
“……I’m sorry.”
Ye Jiram let out a long sigh.
“We’re on our way to find a berserk superhuman, and you two are acting so calm. You must be very confident in yourselves, huh?”
She wasn’t wrong. We were inside a building that had already started collapsing.
It hadn’t completely fallen apart, so we could still climb, but there was no telling when it would come down.
Even so, we still had to go up. The culprit was inside, and we were superhumans—so even if the building collapsed, we’d survive.
“They should’ve at least sent us someone with a search skill. What are we supposed to do by sending just the three of us?”
Ye Jiram spoke in a frustrated tone.
“All we’ve got is someone who can catch and beat people up. I have no idea what that guy’s thinking.”
None of the three of us specialized in tracking. She had every right to be irritated, but—
“He looks slow as hell, but somehow he’s got a sneaky side to him.”
Ye Jiram bit her lip and waved her hand irritably.
Whoooosh—
Her shadow trembled.
“He must’ve known all along. How did he know?”
“……Know what?”
When I asked because her muttering sounded strange, she fixed me with a sharp look.
“What do you mean, what? He clearly knew I had a search skill and sent us together.”
“Yes……?”
She had a search skill?
So she wasn’t sent here just because she was the deputy leader?
As I was wondering about that, her shadow split apart and spread down the corridor.
“……Oh.”
O Jimin watched in fascination.
That black shadow stretching outward looked like her search skill.
“I didn’t want to get exposed because of this.”
After the Black Night Witch said that, about ten seconds passed.
“……Found him.”
She said it in a flat voice.
“Let’s go. The upper floor……”
Right after the Black Night Witch announced she had found the superhuman—
Kwa-gaga-gagang—!!!
A harsh noise tore through the ceiling. The floor above us was collapsing. I was startled by the sudden explosion, but—
Wooooong—!!! A circular barrier around us blocked the damage.
“Are you all right?”
O Jimin spoke up. It seemed to be his skill.
“Told you having a tank around makes things easier.”
Ye Jiram sounded pleased.
“Let’s get this done. The faster we finish, the faster we can leave.”
Chaak!
She drew out her whip.
My eyes, however, were fixed straight ahead.
“……I…… Why am I…… Why am I in a place like this……?”
There, in front of us, was a figure clutching his head and trembling violently.
His eyes were bloodshot, and saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth.
[■ Kim Hyeonyun : Sand Sorcerer (A)]
The one we had come to find.