So That's Why My Luck Was Running High
So that's why my luck seemed good today.
The moment I stepped into the ambassador's office, I hit my first obstacle: Vincent, grinning ear to ear as he drank in my flustered expression.
...No, wait.
It could be fine. He'd come back when I was completely drained and had given up, after all.
I ran my hope-circuit through every plausible scenario. If he'd actually seen my claws, that would mean he'd witnessed everything from the very start — in which case he should have rushed out to help long ago.
"Sh-sharp? What do you mean, sh—"
Crack!
"Aigoow! Would you look at that, this corner is sharp. Sharp as somebody's fingernail, honestly. Tsk tsk... Ambassador, we really ought to replace this furniture, don't you think?"
...Is this guy seriously talking out of his ass right now?!
"It was perfectly fine until a second ago! If Vincent hadn't grabbed it and torn at it on purpose, it would've lasted another ten years!"
The words burst out of me before I could swallow them back. Could you blame me? Who in their right mind smashes a table just to mess with someone?
Vincent's eyes went wide.
"What's that supposed to mean? It broke because it's old, and you're throwing a tantrum over nothing. What, still salty that you got beaten back by two C-ranks even with an attack skill?"
"You...! You...!"
"Okay, okay, both of you, that's enough. Keep this up and we'll be here all night. Raebi, have a seat here."
Lee Chang-jin's hand pressed down on my shoulder.
Vincent stood in front of me, and Lee Chang-jin himself settled into the center chair between us. He took a sip of the tea set before him, then looked my way.
"Raebi."
Right. This is no time for bickering.
The humor had drained from his gaze entirely.
I knew instinctively that the real interrogation was about to begin.
Murder and rank fraud — he'd caught wind of both, and both were serious crimes. From here on, I would have to defend myself with everything I had.
I swallowed hard and answered.
"...Yes."
"I'll ask you straight. Who are you?"
"...I'm sorry?"
I hadn't expected that question.
At most, I figured he'd ask why I killed Kim Young-hak, or why I'd hidden my strength. I never imagined he'd cut straight to the core like this.
...Who am I? That's a question even I can't answer.
I opened my mouth hesitantly.
"Who... who I am. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to answer that."
"It's simple. Where you came from, who gave you the name 'Raebi,' and when you gained your power. Answer honestly and completely."
As he spoke, Lee Chang-jin bored his gaze into my face, studying it intently.
He was determined not to miss so much as a flicker of micro-expression.
And at that look, I thought:
Lying in front of eyes like that is pointless.
I'd be caught the moment I tried.
That much I had learned, crystal clear, from experience.
I took a deep breath, then looked him dead in the eye.
"...I came from inside a Gate."
"What?"
"Aaah, hot!"
Vincent knocked over the teacup that had been steaming away not a moment before. He scrambled about, then pulled the napkin from his breast pocket and dabbed at himself.
True to A-rank form, he hadn't taken any real burn, but his brain had clearly blue-screened.
"Ah..."
"Hold it."
Lee Chang-jin stopped me just as I rose to help. Pointing downward with his index finger, tap tap, he said:
"He's fine. Finish what you were saying."
"Yes, of course."
"Whew."
The sigh escaped him the instant my rear hit the seat again. Folding his hands together, Lee Chang-jin leaned in toward me.
"...A Gate? What exactly do you mean by that?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. I suspect that this one answer has made every other question on your list redundant."
"You're saying you're a magical beast?"
A magical beast.
My lips wavered for a moment, then I shook my head.
"I don't know. Maybe I am — but I don't know a single thing about myself, either."
"...Don't know anything, huh. So the name was one you came up with yourself?"
"That's right."
"Ha... what on earth. What do you make of this, Vincent?"
Lee Chang-jin's head turned.
Somewhere along the way, Vincent had already straightened himself up, tidy as ever. He stretched a finger out toward me, then flicked it up toward the ceiling.
"You. Bring that thing out again."
"My claws?"
"Yeah."
"Okay."
Ding—
Blade Claws
Emerald-tinted nails extended to around five centimeters. Lee Chang-jin and Vincent began turning my hand this way and that, examining them closely.
Vincent was the first to speak.
"Hmm... interesting, sure, but there's nothing special about them? Or is it just that I'm so goddamn strong that every scrub out there looks exactly the same to me?"
A transparently baiting remark. I didn't hesitate to twist my face into a scowl.
All he does is brag about himself. ...Huh? Uncle? Old man?
But before I could fire back, I noticed Lee Chang-jin staring at Vincent with a strangely wounded look on his face.
Catching that gaze, Vincent flinched.
"Ah — that is —"
Heh heh. That's what you get for doing your AoE math wrong and firing it off anyway.
"C-cough! Well, anyway, I can't tell much just by looking. What do you say we run a measurement kit? We haven't tested it since it sprouted out, right, Ambassador?"
"...Yes. Quite right."
"I'll, I'll go fetch it! And you, Raebi, you little rascal — no causing trouble. Sit there and behave!"
Thwack!
"Owch!"
Oww, that hurt. I'd always known one of these days the collateral damage would land on me.
It wasn't as if getting smacked dissolved my embarrassment, so why did he have to do it like that?
And yet, even mid-swipe, his power control was masterful. Reading exactly what my body could take and dialing his strength to suit it — that's no small feat, even for an A-rank.
Calibrated, mind you, to hurt just enough. Precisely that much.
So this is the assassin's touch?
I found myself oddly impressed as I stared at the door he'd vanished through.
"...Raebi."
Lee Chang-jin's voice called me back. I straightened my head.
"Yes?"
"You really have no memories from before, do you?"
"That's right."
None of this body's memories, at least.
"...It honestly doesn't sound like a lie. Then how on earth did you end up running into Kim Young-hak here?"
"I met him after coming out of the Gate. He tried to kill me, and I had no choice but to defend myself."
"I know that much without being told. I'm asking how you got out of the Gate."
...Funny. I'd like to know that too.
"I don't know the process myself."
"Hmm... all right. Then just one more thing."
"Ask away~"
My brain had already gone into standby, so I resolved to answer diligently.
Without his cooperation, after all, I'd never be able to live comfortably in this body.
Lee Chang-jin scratched his head once, then spoke.
"The truth is, there's an alternative service worker who went missing from the very place you killed Kim Young-hak. His name is Na Jihun."
...!
Me. He was talking about me.
"A junior of mine who knows him well arranged to send him here, thinking it would do him some good... Now that it's gone wrong, his conscience is clearly weighing on him. Do you know anything?"
"...Ah."
So that's how it was.
To be honest, I had doubted him a little at first. Wondered if he'd shipped me off to this godforsaken place just to see me suffer.
And I'd thought, if that were really true, I'd lose all will to go on living in this world — but it wasn't true at all.
Ohhh.
A tight, hot feeling welled up in my chest.
Before I could even try to hold it back, tears came streaming down.
"Huh...? Why are you crying? Do you know something?"
...I know him.
I knew him very well.
...The only person who showed me any warmth after I hit rock bottom.
I'd assumed no one in the world cared what happened to me — and yet he'd carried that sense of responsibility all the way to the end.
And for a convicted criminal, no less... How could I not be moved?
I can't bring myself to wound a heart like that.
With my fists clenched tight, I spoke slowly.
"I met him. We even exchanged names."
"Wha—? Really?"
Lee Chang-jin asked with a startled look. He clearly hadn't expected anything.
I nodded slowly and answered.
"He's probably the one who opened that Gate. He was already half-dead from the beating Kim Young-hak had given him, but we managed to talk for a little while."
"...So he is dead, then."
"Yes."
There was no hiding a death. By now, the blood I'd coughed up while taking his beating would have been found.
And claiming he was still inside the Gate would be crueler still.
I looked at Lee Chang-jin's conflicted face and said:
'He had no family, no one — and to the very end, he was grateful to Detective Kang Il-hwan. So there's no need to blame yourself.'
'Measuring rank...'
A short while later, Vincent returned with a portable measurement kit, and my mana was tested once more.
This time, with my claws extended. I was curious about the difference myself, so I waited for the results with genuine excitement.
"Oh, here it is."
"Wh-what is it? What did I get?"
"Uh... D... no wait, C! It's C!"
O-oh my god. Seriously?
I'm a C-rank?!
Doesn't that mean I can hold my own among hunters now!
Granted, it had flickered to D for a moment, so technically I was scraping the bottom of C — but still, a C is a C!
My clasped hands trembled. It was the physical manifestation of an uncontrollable surge of happiness.
At which point Vincent jabbed a finger reproachfully into my cheek.
"Doesn't change the fact that you're the weakest of Douglas Kim's brood. Don't get cocky just because you leveled up a bit."
"......"
I chomped down on that finger.
"Gah?! You—! What the hell was that for!"
"Vincent hit me first. Besides, what's an A-rank doing with the dramatics?"
"Because you're filthy! Filthy! Aghh... Ambassador, the napkin, please."
Lee Chang-jin chuckled, looking thoroughly amused, and passed over his own coaster.
All that fuss over absolutely nothing.
The teacup earlier, and now this — how long has the aristocratic system even existed, and they're still reacting like this?
Honestly, it felt like the whole world had lost its mind, with me as the only sane one left.
"Anyway, tsk tsk... Uncle. Can I go rest now? I think we've more or less covered everything."
"Hmm... you remember the story we pieced together, right?"
"Of course."
Once the matter of 'Na Jihun' was settled, Lee Chang-jin walked me through the script.
The scenario was simple. To put the conclusion first: I was a victim.
Kim Young-hak, who exploited and murdered alternative service workers like it was nothing, had in fact been a pedophile — and he had abducted me.
During the abduction, I'd been struck on the head and lost my memory; afterward, by sheer luck, I awakened and managed to escape from him.
And in the course of all that, 'Na Jihun' had tried to protect me and become the victim.
"That's the story, right?"
"You're missing one thing. What rank did they give you?"
"E."
The point was to keep my situation as murky as possible.
Whatever the circumstances, if you kill a person, you're supposed to be investigated — and the moment that happened, my secret would come out, it was only a matter of time.
But registered as E-rank, I'd be ruled out as a suspect entirely, and a simple statement would end the whole affair.
Incidentally, Kim Young-hak's body had already been cremated. Cause of death: 'suicide.'
'The little details shall be buried under the name of Douglas Kim...'
Excellent!
"Can I go rest now?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because..."
Lee Chang-jin smiled slyly.
"We've got a plane to catch. Private jets don't just take off whenever you feel like it — we're short on time."
"Huh...? Really?"
"Yep. And you need to meet your bodyguard. You've got nothing to pack anyway, do you? Come along."
"Eh? Huh?"
...Bodyguard?
Scratching my head, I followed behind him.
But right then—
"Ambassador!! Ambassador, we have a problem!"
A man came sprinting down from the far end of the corridor — an embassy staffer I'd barely exchanged two words with.
The moment he got close, before Lee Chang-jin could even open his mouth, he shouted:
"A-a Dungeon Break! High-tier, even among B-ranks! We need to evacuate, now!"