Chapter 65
I’ll translate the chapter into polished English HTML, keeping dialogue separate and styling the in-universe text blocks where needed. First I’m checking the repo instructions, then I’ll render the chapter cleanly end to end.CHAPTER_TITLE: The One Who Left Me Stumped
It took a few minutes of Ye Jiram practically dragging me along before we reached a park near a convenience store.
There, I sat down with Ye Jiram.
She had two cans of beer in one hand and a plastic bag in the other. Inside the bag were dried snacks to go with the drinks.
“Here, drink up.”
“...Yes.”
Being dragged out for a drink, of all things. I definitely wasn’t thrilled about it, and yet for some reason, I kept getting pulled along anyway.
Chssht. I opened the beer and took a small sip through the foam.
Hm.
I still didn’t really understand the taste of beer. Why did people even drink this?
Though I was puzzled, I swallowed anyway. Ye Jiram handed me a squid leg, and I took it and bit down.
“You eat well.”
“...Thank you.”
“So? Feeling a little better?”
“Better?”
I asked, confused. Better about what? Ye Jiram let out a snort.
“Today’s incident. You’ve been thinking about it, haven’t you?”
“...”
At that, I gave an awkward laugh. She’d hit the mark. I had definitely been thinking about it.
“Back in the labyrinth, you looked all incredibly seasoned, but looking at you like this, you seem like a newbie after all.”
“...”
Seasoned, huh.
Well, I guess.
I had the guidebook, and a lot of other things lined up in my favor, so that was probably why I looked that way.
“Bothered by the dead man?”
“...I can’t say I’m not.”
A superhuman gone berserk. That was the first time I’d faced one like that.
It wasn’t the first time I’d seen one, though. I’d already experienced something like it before.
-For the sake of God.
Things I didn’t want to remember. That was why I’d been on edge about this incident too.
“What kind of feeling is it? Guilt? Or regret that you should’ve pushed yourself harder?”
“Not sure.”
If I had to pick one, both were there, but the biggest thing was something else.
“It’s probably a sense of my own inadequacy.”
I’d awakened and gained power, and it was something I’d wanted so badly. But then, in my first real outing, I hadn’t done well enough.
That was the part that bothered me most.
“That’s a pretty childish answer, huh.”
“...”
I’d noticed it before, but that nickname of hers was really irritating.
No, seriously, how much age difference is there even supposed to be?
Anyone listening would think there was a gap of more than ten years.
“So. You dragged me here to comfort me?”
“Something like that.”
“...Something like that?”
“Half of it’s right, and half of it is just because I was bored. I always drink beer after work.”
“Then why me...?”
“Who else was I supposed to drag along? I don’t like the others. They all give off a weird vibe.”
She was talking about O Jimin, I assumed. A weird vibe, huh? Ye Jiram’s instincts seemed fairly sharp too.
“I’m okay, then?”
“You’re fine. You don’t seem like the type to be hiding any dirty little thoughts, and you’re fun to tease. Why? Or what, are you starting to get some dirty little thoughts about your big sister?”
“...Dirty little thoughts?”
No interest. I looked at her in revulsion, and Ye Jiram burst out laughing.
“Look at you. I hear I’m pretty everywhere I go.”
“I know.”
I had eyes too. I knew Ye Jiram was beautiful.
But to have dirty thoughts over that...
Her temper was the problem.
“What are you thinking about, baby? Your eyes are rude.”
“I was thinking you were pretty.”
“Those weren’t the eyes of someone thinking that.”
She really did seem to have good instincts.
She stared at me fixedly. When I averted my gaze slightly, Ye Jiram shrugged.
“Whatever. What I’m saying is, don’t worry about it too much. Everyone’s got a first time.”
“It’s not like I was worrying that much.”
“Yeah, right. One eyeball’s straining so hard it says one thing and the other says another.”
“...”
“Irene too. That woman’s something else, really. Throwing a rookie into the field without even properly training him first. No wonder people end up like this.”
“...Training?”
“What, since you’re a parachute hire, you didn’t know?”
“I suppose not.”
“Oh? So you don’t deny being a parachute hire?”
“Why would I deny something the whole world already knows?”
I was a parachute hire. That was just the truth. It was why I’d been able to become a knight in the first place.
Sure, now that I’m A-class, I’ve got the qualifications.
But I had no real record of operating as a superhuman. For someone not even one year into the job to be working as a knight was the very definition of a parachute hire.
And that’s why I ended up like this.
I didn’t know anything.
Which meant...
“That there’s a lot I need to learn.”
Plink. Droplets of water fell from the beer glass I was holding.
“...Oh?”
At that, Ye Jiram gave me a strange look.
“...What is it?”
“That look just now was pretty good. Almost made me fall for you.”
“...Huh?”
“Ah, come to think of it, you said you knew Yu Jin, didn’t you?”
“...”
At the sudden mention of his name, I paused.
“...Why are you bringing him up?”
“Wow. Your face got worse than before. Guess you two don’t get along that well?”
“...”
“No, I’m not trying to needle you. I just thought it was interesting.”
“What is?”
“Yu Jin. That monster losing to somebody.”
Losing? What was she talking about?
“You mean Irene?”
There were only two people in the world Yu Jin might lose to. One was that lunatic in China; the other was the American leader.
Other than those two, there wasn’t anyone else... was there? I asked in confusion, and Ye Jiram shook her head.
“Nope. I heard he was top of the class in school.”
“Ah, that.”
So that was what she meant.
“...I wouldn’t exactly call that winning.”
The phrase top of the class was almost insulting.
...It was written exams, not practicals.
Written-exam top scorer.
I’d just studied hard, that was all. Yu Jin had been overwhelmingly superior in practicals, while all I’d done was memorize things until I could regurgitate them for a test.
I couldn’t even awaken then, so of course my practicals were garbage.
And beating Yu Jin? That was ridiculous.
“I only did a little better on the written exam. Yu Jin was overwhelmingly better overall.”
“...Overwhelmingly?”
“Yes.”
Saying that, I got to my feet.
“I’ve finished the beer. Thank you for comforting me. I should head back.”
“Huh? Already?”
“Yes. I don’t really have anything else to say... and I think I’ve found what I need to do.”
What I needed to do. I’d finally found my bearings.
“...Hmm.”
Watching me like that, Ye Jiram let out a breath through her nose.
“Can’t really hold you back, can I? You look a lot better than before.”
“...Thank you for the drink.”
“Buy me a meal next time.”
“Yes, I’ll send you a gift card.”
“...What the hell, punk?”
With that, I left the park.
My destination was the lodging. There was a lot I needed to do tonight.
After Lee Jinwoo left,
Chhh. Chhh.
Alone at last, Ye Jiram exhaled a stream of smoke from her mouth.
“Non-rollies are kind of a letdown.”
The e-cigarette in her hand wasn’t her favorite, but she’d recently started smoking it more often.
She took a few small bites of the remaining beer and snacks, then thought back to what had happened just before.
-I only did a little better on the written exam. Yu Jin was overwhelmingly better overall.
That was how Lee Jinwoo had spoken, almost modestly.
At the memory, Ye Jiram laughed.
“Look at this guy.”
Lee Jinwoo clearly didn’t know.
Back when Yu Jin was still in school, that story had already become famous.
That the class Yu Jin had belonged to was the greatest in history; that was one part of it. The practical exam had been absurdly difficult, and so had the written one.
Of course it had. Yu Jin had shown up.
The first SS-class in Korea. For that generation, everything had been prepared at an insane level, and Yu Jin had produced remarkable results not only in practicals but in written exams as well.
Still...
“And yet he still lost.”
He hadn’t managed to beat Lee Jinwoo on the written exam.
Lee Jinwoo had always been ahead of Yu Jin.
He’d lost in practicals too?
After checking, that one was a little ambiguous too.
He was definitely at the bottom. But that alone meant something.
Still, he wasn’t completely at the bottom.
Which meant...
He wasn’t even a superhuman to begin with, yet he got into the superhuman school, and there he wasn’t dead last in practicals.
He’d endured as an ordinary human body against superhumans.
“What is this kid?”
The more she looked into him, the stranger he seemed. He wasn’t some rookie who had merely gotten lucky and awakened.
He’s prepared.
His background was clean, with nothing behind it.
Not only had he lived fiercely, but it was almost as if...
He’d lived as though he knew he’d awaken someday.
The life of someone who had devoted everything to becoming a superhuman.
What is it?
It couldn’t have been because he foresaw it, could it?
What on earth did he have,
that made him live so desperately?
For some reason, she was interested.
“That’s fun.”
Ye Jiram finished the rest of the beer.
She didn’t eat the snacks.
She didn’t really need them.
Yu Jin. Thinking that she might be able to make that bastard eat dirt, oddly enough, made the alcohol taste better.
“...Should I pop another can?”
Ye Jiram stood up. That night, she ended up drinking four cans of beer before finally returning to the lodging.
9 a.m.
I got moving after receiving a text.
It was from Irene.
She’d told me to come in the morning, and true to her word, she called me in right on time.
So I headed to headquarters.
Knight Lee Jinwoo. Identity confirmed.
When I entered the same place I’d visited yesterday, I saw Irene already seated inside.
“...You’re here.”
Irene gave a small nod at me. Sitting across from her was...
Yu Jin...?
It was Yu Jin, smiling with that handsome face of his.
“Good morning.”
“...Uh...”
“Did you eat?”
“...Something small?”
I’d grabbed some chicken breast from the refrigerator. I hadn’t slept at all, so I needed to put something in my stomach.
“That’s a shame. I was going to eat with you.”
“...”
Thank goodness. I almost threw up.
“...Sit.”
“...Yes.”
At Irene’s words, I stepped forward and sat on the sofa.
“You finished talking?”
“Yes, I’ve passed along everything I needed to.”
“...I see.”
“Do you have anything else to say?”
Yu Jin asked. Irene thought about it for a moment, then said,
“...Not really. As for the one in charge on your side... um...”
Her eyes slid around before she continued.
“...I’ll text him.”
“...Text him? Ah, understood.”
For just a moment, I could see Yu Jin’s expression crumple.
If she meant the one in charge on that side, then...
...Wasn’t she talking about the First Knight Order’s commander?
The First Knight Order.
The Association’s elite, the strongest of all the knight orders.
Or so they were called... but...
Now that Irene’s here, well...
There was a lot of talk about whether the newly established knight order was stronger or whether the original number one still held the edge.
Not that it mattered right now.
“Then, excuse me.”
Yu Jin bowed and stepped back, and then his hand patted my shoulder.
“Let’s eat together sometime later too. I’ll wait.”
“...Uh.”
“See you again.”
After saying that, Yu Jin left.
“...Irene.”
I called to her.
“What was that just now...?”
“...A job.”
“A job?”
A meeting with Yu Jin first thing in the morning was a job? Then Irene pointed at me with the tip of her finger.
“...Go do one job for me...”
“...Me?”
“...Yeah.”
“What kind of job all of a sudden...?”
“...Terrorist. I found some information. Go sort it out with the First Knight Order member who just left...”
“...Cooperate? You want me to work with him to search for terrorists...”
Hold on. What Irene had just said sounded off somehow.
“...Who did you say I’m supposed to work with?”
Irene had just mentioned Yu Jin to me.