Could I Get an Autograph?
“Could I get an autograph?”
“Hmm...”
“Um... Aide? The atmosphere feels a little strange somehow...”
“I was thinking the same thing. Did you do something wrong while we were out?”
“Ah... no? Nothing like that happened at all...”
After finishing the reconnaissance mission, my colleagues and I stepped into the temporary headquarters to deliver our situation report. The moment we did, however, we began to sense a peculiar atmosphere completely different from the one we had left behind only a short while earlier.
From the instant we entered the building, every gaze in the place locked onto us. Feeling the tremor and faint wariness contained in those stares, I found myself automatically seized by questions.
What on earth is going on? Did I really commit some mistake without realizing it? I don’t think I did anything that would get me in trouble...
All I had done was experiment with a matter I had always been personally curious about while carrying out the reconnaissance mission on the side. The operation had been conducted with official permission, so there was not a single element that could be considered a violation of military law. Even the combat I had drawn us into had ended without a single scratch on anyone, so there should have been nothing to raise an issue over.
Despite having done nothing that would make me feel guilty, the unsettling mood pressing in on me still made me shrink back a little.
Just then—
“Ah... um... over there...!”
People came sprinting toward us from the far end of the corridor. Judging by their uniforms, they belonged to the same unit as the adjutant who had previously lent us the fighter jets. They skidded to a halt right in front of us, chests heaving.
“Huff... huff... You’re... Adjutant Lee Jinhyun of Dreamouth... correct?”
“...Yes. That’s right. I’m Lee Jinhyun. What is this about?”
The female adjutant stared at me as though she had something urgent to say. A male adjutant stood just behind her. She continued in a slightly trembling voice.
“Um... that... so... first...”
Still panting, she began fumbling for something. The strange atmosphere already hanging over the room combined with her actions, and the A-class hunters around me tensed. I felt a faint edge of wariness myself as I watched her carefully.
And what she finally pulled out in front of me was—
“…? What... is this?”
“So... could I... get an autograph... please?”
“…What?”
She held out a sheet of paper and a pen, her voice thick with earnest pleading. It did not sound like a joke; genuine sincerity radiated from every word. My confusion and bewilderment only deepened.
“Pl-please! My name is Park Haeun, and... just one page with a word of encouragement...”
“Hey, Ms. Park Haeun... that’s not how this works. In front of everyone like this—”
“B-but...”
“Personal business later. Work comes first right now.”
“Ugh...”
The male adjutant spoke to Park Haeun in a tone of pure disbelief. Then he turned to me with a calm expression and a polite voice.
“I apologize. My colleague is rather immature...”
“Ah... no. It’s nothing to apologize for. That aside, I still don’t understand the situation. Could you explain what’s going on?”
“Yes. I’ll do so as quickly as possible, but first I’d like you to move somewhere else. The atmosphere here is a bit... well.”
“I understand.”
With this many eyes fixed on us, any normal conversation would be nearly impossible. So I followed the two adjutants, the hunters falling in behind me.
Guided by the air-force adjutants, we arrived at a room that looked as though it was normally used for conferences. The sight waiting for us there was nothing like what I had expected, and fresh bewilderment washed over me.
I had assumed we would be taken somewhere quiet so the adjutants could explain the strange atmosphere. Instead, standing before us were Adjutant Song Dana—the very person who had first offered to lend me the fighter jets—along with three or four other high-ranking adjutants.
These were the people who currently held practical command of the Hamhung frontline. Finding myself unexpectedly face-to-face with the core staff of the entire theater, I felt a deep tension settle over me.
Song Dana looked at me and spoke with a calm smile on her lips.
“Welcome, Adjutant Lee Jinhyun. I truly regret calling you in so suddenly.”
The slightly arrogant manner she had shown at our first meeting was gone; her tone now carried genuine courtesy. I answered, still a little off-balance.
“Ah... no, I’m fine. But if it isn’t a problem, could you explain this situation before anything else?”
“Of course. I’ll gladly do so. First, however, I’d like you to look at this.”
She rose slowly from her seat, switched on the large screen at the front of the room, and began playing a short video.
“Huh?”
“This is definitely...”
The footage that appeared on the oversized screen was unmistakable.
This is the recording from the reconnaissance mission I just flew... but why are they showing it?
It was certainly an impressive piece of footage. It contains a method for neutralizing the Abysses’ anti-air network.
Even so, obtaining and reviewing it this quickly feels excessive. Looking at the timeline, they must have been watching us from the moment we first sortied.
I understood the value of the video well enough. Properly applied, it could dramatically raise the return rate of allied aircraft and conserve enormous resources and combat power. Yet the speed of their reaction was far too swift to be coincidence, and a few suspicions began to surface.
Come to think of it, handing five eighty-billion-won fighter jets over to a mere mercenary adjutant who isn’t even regular army was strange from the start. And this reaction now... it means they knew from the beginning that I would come back with something like this.
The thought that I might have been under surveillance the entire time left an unpleasant taste. Still, I decided to hear what Song Dana intended to say, keeping my guard up as I watched her.
A short while later the video—remarkably brief compared to the full length of the mission—ended. Song Dana turned to me with a bright smile.
“As you can see, I watched Adjutant Lee Jinhyun’s performance carefully. I already knew you were far from ordinary, but I never imagined you would show us something this remarkable.”
She spoke with genuine admiration. I answered carefully, a thread of wariness still in my voice.
“That sounds as though you had considerable expectations of me from the start. If it isn’t rude, may I ask why?”
Depending on how she took it, the question could have been as sharp as an awl—Who exactly are you to know me so well? Is there something behind this?—the sort of probe that digs into a person’s identity and background.
Yet Song Dana only smiled more brightly, almost to the point of being burdensome, and replied,
“Of course. It isn’t particularly a secret, so there’s no reason not to tell you.”
With that she slowly handed me her phone. A moment later, scanned copies of documents that felt strangely familiar began to fill the screen before my eyes.