The Price of Justice
I am descending a long, spiral staircase that is damp, dark, and so claustrophobic that I can barely see a step ahead. A foul, fishy stench tickles my nostrils. I can only pray that it isn't the smell of blood.
“It seems... this is the right way. There might be traps, so stay close behind me.”
Lee Seungjun began to descend the endless staircase, step by slow step, as if he had known from the very beginning that this was the path we were looking for.
Just how many floors underground is this...
I was curious about his confidence, especially since he had muttered, “I knew it was here,” as we started down. I asked him, “Did you know this was the way from the start?”
“No. I just made an educated guess based on my intuition while interrogating that toothless guy earlier. Maybe 80/20 odds? You get a feel for these things after doing this work for a long time.”
You’re the one who knocked those teeth out, though...
“Then why... did you send the others elsewhere?”
“Well... hmm.”
Lee Seungjun stopped, looked back at me once, and then resumed his descent. “Before the first battle started a little while ago, everyone on the team except for me was shaking. It was likely a fundamental aversion to killing. Even after the fight ended, they were trembling in their hands and feet, looking mentally exhausted. Everyone except for you, Seonghyun.”
“Is that why you chose me?”
“Yes. There might be an even more horrific scene unfolding down there. Those three might lose their will to fight if they see it.”
“You speak as if I’ll be fine.”
“Of course. You looked the most nervous before the battle started, yet when the fighting began, you cut down the enemies without a moment’s hesitation. Are your hands shaking now? Do you feel any guilt?”
My head felt complicated. It was true that I had been overwhelmed by tension when facing the enemies, but once the fighting actually started, I felt calm and relieved.
The guys I cut down... I avoided their vitals as much as possible, but they could still die from blood loss before the support team arrives...
Even as I repeated the thought that I might have committed murder, I didn't feel like I had committed a sin.
“Those three are probably descending much slower than us. Their instincts are gripped by fear, hoping that someone else will finish this operation a step faster than them.”
“...”
“I apologize. I’ve brought up a heavy topic.”
“Oh, no, it’s fine.”
“Then shall we talk about something else? I heard you were training camp peers and close friends with Bureau Chief Kang Hyena.”
“Yes.”
“May I offer you some advice?”
Advice...?
“Sure, go ahead.”
“Don’t get too close to Bureau Chief Kang. Keep it to a friendly relationship where you just trade jokes.”
“What? Suddenly, why...”
Does he not get along with Hyena?
After that, we descended in silence for about ten seconds before Lee Seungjun sighed and spoke again.
“Do you know... that the power struggle within the Association is severe?”
“I’ve heard it as a rumor.”
“It’s not just a rumor. When the organization was small, the Association President’s personal charisma was enough to control it, but that’s not the case now that it has become bloated. The conflict is already at an irreparable level.”
“I see...”
It was quite an interesting conversation. Lee Seungjun was telling me things that only someone with deep knowledge of the Association’s internal affairs could know.
“Of course, there is Choi Seojin, the Association President’s disciple and a direct S-rank Hunter, but he lacks popularity and is ignorant of internal politics. We are in desperate need of a powerful successor to assist the President. The Information Bureau is already increasingly acting in defiance of the Association’s policies.”
“Does that... have anything to do with why I shouldn’t get close to the Bureau Chief?”
“Yes, it’s advice I’m giving you because I like you, Seonghyun.”
“I don’t understand at all.”
“Bureau Chief Kang Hyena is... a good person who is passionate and knows how to shed tears for others. I acknowledge that. However, she is far too ignorant of internal Association politics. Her sense for solving things politically is close to zero. She’s a fool who believes that everything can be solved with a sense of justice and honesty.”
“...”
Lee Seungjun was starting to make me feel uncomfortable, though I wasn't sure what he was trying to say. Soon, we reached the end of the stairs. In front of us stood a bleak iron door, rusted in places. Lee Seungjun took the card he had swiped from the unconscious man and held it to the reader.
Beep! Click.
“That bastard... he knew, but he pretended not to until the end.”
He grabbed the handle, turned it, looked at me, and said, “A superior who doesn’t understand politics is an incompetent one who leads their subordinates to a dog’s death. Shall we go in, Seonghyun?”
As we opened the door and stepped inside, a scene unfolded that was the complete opposite of the gloomy, bleak staircase: clean operating rooms that looked like state-of-the-art medical facilities were lined up. The smell of all sorts of chemicals stung my nose. And what I saw were doctors inside the operating rooms, carefully packing organs.
“Ugh...!”
I barely swallowed the nausea rising to my throat.
“What are they?”
“H-hey, you son of a bitch... how did you get in here?”
About ten organization members looked at us, startled, and jumped up from their chairs.
“Seonghyun, over there!”
Lee Seungjun pointed to the end of the underground operating room. There, organization members were hurriedly dragging away young children tied with chains.
You... son of a bitch... you bastards are worse than animals...
My hands began to tremble, not from fear, but from rage.
“Hey, couldn’t you guys have stayed outside for just ten more minutes?” one of the organization members said, spinning an axe as he approached us.
Lee Seungjun said quietly, “Seonghyun... I’ll open a path, so run to that door and secure the children.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Lee Seungjun rushed forward with incredible speed and slashed the throat of the man holding the axe.
Slice!
“Huh? What the... you son of a bi...” The man with the axe muttered as if he didn’t understand, then immediately sprayed blood from his neck like a fountain and collapsed on the spot.
“Kill them all!”
“Buy time until the boss gets out!”
The organization members rushed at us in unison.
“Run, Seonghyun!”
“Yes!”
I ran at full speed along the path Lee Seungjun had opened. The organization member who was sending the children out the door seemed surprised that I was approaching much faster than he had expected, and he began to kick and throw the children out the door. Just as I reached the door, having moved all the children out, and he was about to close it, I threw my dagger into the door gap.
Clang!
“What the... son of a bitch...!”
The dagger wedged in the gap fell, and just as the door was about to close, I arrived, grabbed the handle, and pulled it open.
“Hoo...”
As I opened the door, the organization member stepped back a few paces and drew a knife from his waist.
“Ah... son of a bitch, useless little brats... I told you to move faster...”
The twenty or so young children had chains tied around their limbs and necks, and their eyes were hollow, completely devoid of life. They were clearly special chains made to control Awakened. And the children’s completely lifeless eyes... made me certain that they had been injected with drugs.
I stepped inside and closed the door.
Thud—
“What are you doing? Do you think you can win in a 1-on-1?”
“Hey... capturing you alive is the goal, but... I can’t let you live in one piece.”
“Forget it... I have to kill you and go meet the Chinese buyers quickly, anyway. Let’s start right now.”
I put my dagger back in its sheath and stroked the hair of the child next to me.
“Close your eyes...”
The children nodded and closed their eyes.
“Equip.”
Click!
A gauntlet was equipped on my right hand. An unprecedented rage and power surged into my right hand.
“What are you... you son of a bi...”
The organization member swung his knife at my neck, and I grabbed his wrist.
Snap!
“Gyaaaaah!”
The knife-wielding member’s right wrist was crushed like tofu.
Clatter!
He dropped the knife, clutched his right wrist, knelt on the floor, and began to howl.
“Get up. I’m not going to kill you.”
I grabbed the left shoulder of the kneeling man and hauled him up.
Crunch!
“Gyaaaaah! You crazy bastard! Son of a bi—!!”
The man hung in the air, his left shoulder completely shattered, his left arm dangling limply. When I threw him to the floor, he began to crawl toward the exit, both arms dangling.
“Son of a bi... ugh! What is that dog bastard...! You son of a... huff... Don’t come! Don’t come, you son of a bitch! I said don’t come!”
I followed the crawling man and stomped on both his ankles with my fist.
Thud! Thud!
“Guaaaaah...”
The man fainted, foaming at the mouth. Both his ankles were dangling as if they were about to fall off. A few syringes fell out of the man’s pocket. They looked like either the drugs they had injected into the children or narcotics.
I don’t know what they are, but...
I picked up a syringe, grabbed the fainted man’s face, and injected the liquid into both of his eyes.
If he goes blind, that’s lucky; if not, oh well.
“Hoo...”
I had done something terrible to someone who had done terrible things. I felt no guilt. If anything, I just felt dirty.
“Unequip.”
Click.
Leaving the fallen man behind, I went to the children, knelt on one knee, and stroked their hair.
“You can open your eyes now... It’s time to go home...”
The children didn’t seem to have any nutritional problems, likely because they had been raised for organ harvesting, but their eyes were already the eyes of the dead.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Seonghyun! Are you inside?!”
Lee Seungjun pounded on the door urgently, as if he had finished his work. When I opened it, he saw the fallen man and the couple of syringes dropped around his face, nodded, and patted my shoulder.
“Good work. The support team is entering the building now, so we just need to wait here for them.”
“Yes...”
***
The operation ended in a massive success. Baek Gwanghyun fled overseas, but he is already a wanted criminal on the Red Notice, and most of the key executives have been captured and are being interrogated by the Association. The Awakened children who were targets of human trafficking are mostly orphans or were sold off by their parents. The Association has decided to protect these children as well.
Out of the 35 Hunters deployed, there were no casualties, excluding the 8 injured. The 8 who were hurt are said to have only minor injuries.
“Haa... when do I get to go home again...”
Just as I was about to head home after hearing the explanation of the follow-up procedures, I received a text from Nahyun.
- Hotel [XX], Room [XX]. Until 7 PM.
It made me laugh, as if someone were reading my mind. I felt like I wanted to soothe this complicated heart in a woman’s arms right now.
“Yeah... let’s go.”