What the Hell Was That Guy?
'What the hell was that guy?'
Out of nowhere, a man Arina had never seen before lunged at her from behind. Well, strictly speaking, it wasn't the first time she'd seen him. She vaguely remembered crossing paths with him in front of that dragon-and-tiger illumination when they first arrived in the city. Still, that single encounter was all there was, so it might as well have been no connection at all.
'Why target Arina?'
Was he some old enemy like that woman with the weird eyes? But his gaze and movements felt off. If he'd planned this, he would've struck at night, not in broad daylight. Back then he'd barely glanced at Arina, so this sudden attack was strange.
'Doesn't matter, I guess.'
He'd find out later if he looked into it. After all, Jealousy was already in the city. With that thought, Kain quietly dispersed the mana he'd gathered in the other dimension. In a way, the man was lucky. If Professor Karlsen hadn't stepped in at the right moment, he would've ended up like Decken Nasara—tortured to death over and over without being allowed to die.
"Professor Karlsen just disappeared all of a sudden. Where do you think he went?"
Arina tilted her head at the empty spot, completely unaware she'd been attacked.
"No idea."
Kain only gave her a disinterested reply before lowering his eyes back to his smartphone screen.
＊ ＊ ＊
Blue Mild Seven. The familiar smoke of her usual brand clung stickily to her lungs with every breath. Was it just her imagination, or could she feel her health deteriorating in real time? Yet the tightness in her chest eased in inverse proportion. Julia gave a self-deprecating smile. This was exactly why she could never quit.
She ground out the barely-smoked cigarette under her heel and looked straight ahead.
"So you're saying this man is a professor at Benedict Academy?"
This gloomy creep with the unpleasant smirk? She asked again, unable to believe it. Even after the third confirmation, Togun kept nodding vigorously, and Julia finally accepted the truth.
"I'm sorry. I misunderstood for a moment."
She bowed ninety degrees without hesitation. Karlsen waved his bony hand as if to say it was fine.
"It's all right. I'm used to this kind of misunderstanding."
He'd watched her refuse to believe Togun and Jeon, asking the same question three times. Even though he'd stepped in to protect a student from an unprovoked attack, he'd nearly been cuffed with mana restraints and thrown behind bars because of the misunderstanding. He'd grown accustomed to situations like this over the years, so it didn't bother him much. That said, his face looked strangely gloomy, and his eyes glistened with unshed tears.
"I'm truly sorry!"
At the sight of those tears, Julia bowed even deeper, nearly 120 degrees.
"It's really fine."
He'd briefly considered teaching her a lesson the way he'd dealt with the girls who bullied him as a child, but seeing her apologize so sincerely made him decide against anything that harsh.
"Besides, that's not what's important right now, is it?"
Karlsen turned his head. Laden sat with both hands bound in the mana-restraint cuffs Julia had personally applied, under the watchful eyes of Jeon and Togun. He looked far too calm for a criminal caught by the police. He'd been staring blankly at the picture frame he'd been clutching since earlier. Sensing that Karlsen and Julia's conversation had ended, he finally lifted his head toward them.
"Are you finished talking?"
"Yeah, more or less."
At Karlsen's prompting glance, Julia stepped forward.
"Then, could you listen to what I have to say?"
"What is it?"
"Would you please release me?"
Jeon's face twisted at Laden's request.
"Do you really think that's possible?"
He couldn't hold back and shouted, his voice low and vicious, as if he might bite at any moment. Laden glanced at him, then bowed his head again, pleading earnestly.
"I'll pay for my crimes however you want. Just give me a few days."
He clutched the picture frame tightly to his chest. Without even wiping away the tears falling onto it, he spoke quietly.
"I'm a truly worthless human being."
He used to be an ordinary young man working at a small trading company. The pay wasn't much, but he saved well and never felt particularly lacking. He even dated occasionally and talked about marriage. When the fruit of their happiness appeared earlier than expected, he'd been flustered and scared. Holding his worried girlfriend's shoulders, he'd felt responsibility for the first time in his life—the desire to protect someone. Aside from being abandoned by parents he'd never met and growing up in an orphanage, his life had been perfectly ordinary.
Until a coworker from the same company dragged him to a gambling den for fun, saying he should try it just once.
Pleasure was the fastest, most effective way to drag a person to rock bottom. At first he'd been thrilled. Without any effort, a large sum of money had landed in his hands. But as time passed and the money disappeared, he realized something was wrong. Just win back the principal. Just recover what he'd lost. Even knowing he should stop, that pathetic thought kept him from walking away.
Oddly enough, he only came to his senses after squandering every last coin of his savings and drowning in debt. It was when his wife, who'd worked herself to the bone to repay his debts, collapsed from overwork and died, and their only daughter grabbed his arm.
Regret always comes too late. The day his wife died, he held his daughter tightly and said he was sorry. Truly sorry.
"That's when I started working in the underworld."
The gambling debts were mountainous, and realistically he had no way to repay them all. If things continued this way, the debt would ruin his daughter's life even after he was gone. He couldn't let that happen. So he left his daughter with his in-laws and went straight to the underworld, never imagining the choice would become a lifelong regret.
"I did anything that could make money, like a madman."
He'd begged and clung to them, crying and pleading. Said he'd do whatever they told him. Asked them to give him work that could pay off the debt. Eventually, he caught the eye of one of Greed's subordinates and threw himself into all sorts of life-risking jobs.
"The debt disappeared quickly."
High risk, high return. He'd faced countless dangers, died many times over in close calls, and somehow survived. Thinking of his daughter waiting for him, he'd endured and clawed his way through. Finally, after four years, the mountain of debt was gone, and Laden went to Irumu Territory to see his daughter.
Then he realized it was far too late. Unable to endure the abuse from her grandparents, his daughter had died two years before he arrived.
"I couldn't bear it."
His vision went red. His father-in-law had the audacity to get angry at him after killing his daughter. So he killed them. His father-in-law, his mother-in-law—those damn old people!
"I don't deserve to live. I planned to kill those bastards and then end my own life."
Laden's voice grew heated, his eyes filled with rage and hatred as he recalled the emotions of that time. But soon his head drooped weakly, and he stared blankly at his daughter's face in the picture frame.
"But this photo I found back then made me hesitate."
He couldn't remember exactly how old she was. It was from before he'd started gambling, when his wife was still alive and his daughter had just begun learning to talk and loved chattering. One day she'd seen Vivaldi Territory on TV and begged to go, saying it looked so pretty. He'd found it adorable and taken the photo. Back then he'd said, "Yeah, let's go as a family when we get the chance."
"It's late, but I still want to keep that promise."
It was a cowardly excuse, nothing more than self-consolation. But he wanted to ease his guilt, even like this. With only that thought, he'd walked nonstop toward this place. Just to see the territory with his daughter's photo, evading the police.
"Please. You can watch me the whole time. After I've seen everything, you can kill me. I'll accept it gladly. Could you just give me a little time?"
……
When Laden finished, Jeon's eyes, which had been filled with disgust at the absurd request, wavered greatly. The deep, raw emotion in his words indirectly proved there was no lie. And that sincere plea shattered one of Jeon's long-held beliefs.
'Criminals are evil people who steal happiness from others.'
Laden had lived a wrong life. But he'd repented and struggled to change. From Jeon's perspective, he was both a criminal and a victim. So he hesitated. Was it right to take him in?
'You're still young.'
His conviction was shaking. Julia, sensing Jeon's inner conflict, quietly shook her head. With a resolute expression, she stepped forward and spoke to Laden, who was staring straight at her.
"No."
Everyone in this world had their own story, and criminals were no exception. While a small number committed evil without reason, there were plenty like Laden who became criminals for heartbreaking reasons. If the police overlooked everyone's circumstances, their very existence would lose all meaning.
"Don't arrogantly try to distinguish good and evil on your own. We police are simply an organization that objectively arrests criminals according to the law."
What mattered wasn't whether Laden had circumstances or not. What mattered was whether he'd broken the law and committed a crime. In that sense, Laden was clearly a murderer, and once caught, he had to face judgment regardless of his reasons.
……
Jeon's mouth snapped shut at the pointed remark clearly aimed at him. Julia's words had shattered the framework he'd built after the dark mages' terror—his belief that all criminals were evil.
"……Is that so?"
In contrast, Laden gave a bitter smile at Julia's unwavering gaze that allowed no compromise.
"That's a shame."
With those words, Julia rushed at him. She grabbed his jaw with her right hand, applying enough pressure to keep him from closing his teeth.
"You think you can pull that cheap trick in front of me?"
In the underworld she usually dealt with, plenty of people tried that. Hiding small poisons between their teeth—common among assassins who killed for hire. Compared to their professional training, Laden's attempt was far too clumsy.
Crack.
She dislocated his jaw with sheer grip strength. It must have been excruciating, yet Laden didn't scream once. He only looked at her with resentful eyes for stopping him from taking his own life.
"I said it before—you have to pay for your crimes. That's why I appeared before you, and that's why you absolutely cannot die."
That was the unshakable belief of Julia Evergreen of the Special Investigation Unit. Without such a firm personal standard, no one could operate in the Special Investigation Unit.
……
Watching her retreating back, Jeon clenched his fist tightly, the momentary wavering gone.