The Security Bureau's Junior

The boss entity of the lurking-type monster had fallen silent.

With follow-up support arriving promptly, the remnants of the nest were wiped out without a trace.

Most important of all, this entire incident was brought to an end without a single casualty.

The hunters and villagers who had been dragged off by the monster were all rescued alive.

"Hye... Hyeon-seong?"

Lee Ha-na, Gwon Gyeong-min's wife, had awakened.

Becoming aware that she was being carried on Oh Hyeon-seong's back, she flinched in surprise and looked around.

"Wh-what happened? I was definitely evacuating with my husband, and then... did something go wrong?"

Still dazed, she swayed unsteadily, but soon regained her balance and stood on her own two feet.

"Don't worry. Everyone's safe. It's all over now."

At the front of the village hall, where cars were parked in every available space, Oh Hyeon-seong gently set Lee Ha-na down.

At that moment, a man came sprinting toward them.

"Ha-na!"

"Oppa!"

Husband and wife threw themselves into each other's arms and wept openly.

A reunion snatched from the jaws of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠death. It was the same for the other villagers who had returned alongside the hunters—worried families rejoiced and shed tears of relief.

"Thank you, Hyeon-seong. Thank you, truly..."

Gwon Gyeong-min stepped forward and pulled him into a crushing embrace, tears still streaming down his face.

With a faint smile, Oh Hyeon-seong simply patted his back a few times before slipping away. The couple had earned some time alone after all they'd been through.

"So you... actually pulled it off."

Seo Jae-ho approached and bowed his head deeply.

"Thank you, truly. You didn't just save our colleagues—you may have saved hundreds, thousands of lives. The Bureau owes you a debt we can never repay."

Lurking-type monsters were impossible to measure in terms of the damage they could cause. They didn't stop at wiping out a single village beside their nest; they were the type of monster capable of true mass slaughter. To have killed one before it could even leave the nest where it had been discovered was nothing short of a godsend for the Bureau, which could have spent months wringing its hands over the crisis.

But Oh Hyeon-seong shook his head.

"Forget about the debt. If you can, leave my name out of the report, too."

"I... beg your pardon? But why—"

"I quit being a hunter. Five years ago now."

At the sound of footsteps approaching from behind, Oh Hyeon-seong turned smoothly around.

It was Choi Jeong-il, returning after handing off the wounded.

Oh Hyeon-seong gave him a wry smile.

"Since you're here, you might as well stay for a meal."

Though the village had been thrown into chaos, the Bureau's swift cleanup restored it to its former self in no time. The injured received medical care, and restoration work and compensation for the damaged households moved ahead at a remarkable pace.

Ordinarily, things could never have moved this quickly—but Han Su-yeon had made a point of pushing everything through personally.

Since it was a major incident involving a lurking-type monster, reporters descended on the village and became something of a nuisance, but beyond that, people quickly returned to their daily lives.

It was much the same at the Hyeon-seong household.

The only real difference was that the family had grown by one.

"Wh... what exactly am I looking at?"

Seated at the dinner table, Choi Jeong-il stared in a daze, as though his mind had short-circuited.

He couldn't even remember to set down the chopsticks in his hand, and at his hollow, dumbfounded expression, Joo Ji-hye burst out laughing.

"Ahaha! Director, I have never seen that look on your face before!"

"You... you knew about this?"

"Of course I did. I've been staying here for days. Come to think of it, you hadn't tried any of it yet, had you?"

Joo Ji-hye chuckled, a strange flicker of pride washing over her—at least when it came to these real foods, she had gotten here first.

Not that Choi Jeong-il was in any state to care what she thought. He was far too busy reeling.

"Joo Ji-hye. Out. Now."

"What...? Do I really have to go? Honestly, I'd love to film this."

"Let the man eat in peace."

Joo Ji-hye sulked, but at Oh Hyeon-seong's words she obediently shuffled outside.

With the two of them alone in the living room, Oh Hyeon-seong spoke.

"Glad it suits your taste."

"No, this is... this is beyond suiting my taste..."

Choi Jeong-il's words cut off mid-sentence.

His mouth was stuffed full—he'd been busy shoveling in the piping-hot white rice.

With his famously strict discipline, he would never have shown such a disgrace in front of his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠senior, but right now, he simply couldn't help himself.

"...My apologies."

"Don't worry about it. Just eat."

Oh Hyeon-seong waved a hand, chuckling. Watching a junior enjoy his cooking filled him with nothing but quiet pride.

Besides, he'd recently developed a hobby for cooking—a field he'd never once cared about in his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠entire life. It was thanks to the transcendent quality of his ingredients, sure, but nothing pleased him more than people reacting to his cooking, praising its flavor, and coming back for more.

Nginging!

Just then, the spirits that had been hiding between the drawers and under the furniture poked their heads out.

And then they went charging straight for Choi Jeong-il, feet pattering across the floor.

"Ah... you little ones."

Choi Jeong-il looked down at the spirits clinging to his thighs. The moment Joo Ji-hye left the room, they had apparently recognized him and revealed themselves.

These were spirits who shied away from strangers, but with Choi Jeong-il, their acquaintance stretched back nearly as far as it did with Han Su-yeon.

A fond smile spread across Choi Jeong-il's face as he stroked their heads.

"It's been a while. Your spirits, I mean."

"Funny you mention that. There was something I wanted to talk to you about, along those lines."

Oh Hyeon-seong asked with a knowing look, and Choi Jeong-il nodded.

"I saw the traces at the site. Traces that someone like me could hardly fail to recognize. Your spirit... Alvern. Has he truly returned?"

"He has. Defeating Grimhell was only possible with his help."

"But... wasn't Alvern completely destroyed in the battle against the Queen?"

"That's right. And yet he came back to me recently. Healthy and whole, no different from before!"

Oh Hyeon-seong said it with a casual shrug of his shoulders.

Even to him, it was a hard thing to believe. He still couldn't fully wrap his head around how such a thing could even be possible.

He reached down and scooped up one of the spirits lounging on the floor. The spirit giggled and squirmed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as though being tickled, but Oh Hyeon-seong's expression was utterly serious.

"The food you're eating right now. Every bit of it was grown by these little guys. And the reason any of this has been possible—the crops they raise are what made it all happen."

Choi Jeong-il stared back in open disbelief.

But Oh Hyeon-seong had expected exactly that reaction, so he sat down and explained everything, slowly and carefully: how the crops could possibly taste like this, what had happened with Joo Ji-hye, and how she had recovered from aftereffects that should have been irreversible.

When he finished, Choi Jeong-il could not hide his astonishment.

"That's... truly remarkable."

"The spirits' crops work on injuries and their lingering aftereffects—both the mind and the body. So at first, I assumed it was simply some kind of restorative power. Something that repaired a broken body back to its original state."

Oh Hyeon-seong paused.

"But it's something different from that. Resummoning a spirit that had been destroyed was impossible before, even back when my body was in far better shape than it is now."

"You suspect there's something more at work, then."

"Exactly. That's why I wanted to talk to you. In this field, you're the closest thing to an expert there is."

Choi Jeong-il nodded, then fell silent for a moment. He seemed to weigh something in his mind before speaking.

"There are things I know about hunters' lingering aftereffects. But first, there is something you must understand."

"Which is?"

"Everything I'm about to tell you is information controlled directly by the National Security Bureau. In a word—classified."

Thud!

"AAAAH! What the hell are you people?!"

A man with a blindfold over his eyes thrashed wildly. But he was dragged limply across the floor all the same and forced down into a chair.

"Hhkk...!"

The blindfold was ripped away, and his vision snapped into focus. He was sitting in a dim interrogation room. Across from him sat a man with a clean, composed face.

"What... what is the meaning of this?"

"Mr. Kim Han-soo. Is that you, per the documents here?"

"Are you cops? This is a violation of my rights, you bastards! Do you have any idea who I am? Who do you think you are, kidnapping me?!"

The man slammed his cuffed hands down on the table, screaming himself hoarse. As a senior official in the executive branch, he wielded considerable power, and he counted plenty of high-ranking police contacts among his acquaintances.

And yet here he was—knocked unconscious in his own home with no warrant and no due process, and hauled off to god knew where.

"Mr. Vice Minister, we don't care who you know. Whether your connections run to the police chief or the prosecution's office, it makes no difference to us. We don't sit at the same table as you bureaucrats anyway, so what good would showing off do you?"

"W-wait a moment... Don't tell me you—"

Only then did the man's gaze drop downward. To the bottom of the document the investigator had slid across the table.

The words were stamped there in vivid ink.

Only now realizing where he'd been taken, the man's breathing turned ragged, and his whole body began to tremble.

"Sorting out traitorous vermin like you who would sell out the country—that's our job, isn't it? Convenient timing, too, with your family already off studying abroad. You've been smuggling classified project documents overseas lately, haven't you?"

"I... I don't know anything... I know nothing about it."

The man muttered, eyes cast firmly at the floor. He clenched the fabric of his trousers in his fists and forced his trembling breath under control.

There was no evidence. He'd been told the investigator had already arrested his contact and that this was merely cross-verification, but he hadn't believed a word of it.

The same old tricks, the same old threats.

Clang!

But just then, the heavy door swung open and a woman walked in.

In stark contrast to her deathly pale skin, the clothes she wore were painted head to toe in blood—and the man flinched violently at the sight. The mere fact of her approach was enough to send a wave of blood-stench rolling through the room.

But above all, the man knew her face.

Given the nature of the National Security Bureau, the identities of its agents were almost never made public—yet she was a figure so monumental that even outsiders far beyond the industry could not help but know her name.

The moment her frigid gaze touched him, the man felt as though his heart had stopped.

AAAAAAAHHH!

A scream rang out from somewhere beyond the walls.

Until moments ago, the soundproofing had smothered everything—but now the screams were seeping through the gap of the open door.

The woman scraped a chair across the floor and sat down.

"We crossed paths just a few days ago, so you should at least understand my voice... And I'd rather not waste a fellow citizen's blood, so let's do this quickly."

She spoke flatly, without inflection, as she looked at the trembling man.

A few minutes later.

A little more blood had spattered around, but the interrogation was over, clean and simple.

Clang!

As she stepped out of the room, the woman dabbed at the blood on her cheek with a handkerchief. When she returned to the office, the Bureau's agents all rose to their feet in unison; with a light wave of her hand, she bid them return to their work.

And yet, in one corner of the office, a news broadcast was playing.

"Have you seen that, ma'am?"

"What's that about?"

"Apparently a lurking-type monster had burrowed into some backwater village, and the Management Bureau somehow managed to flush it out in advance. Hard to imagine those soft-handed fools finding it on their own. They'll be strutting around with puffed-up chests for a while yet, haha."

"Hmm..."

The woman stared at the broadcast in silence.

Then, almost imperceptibly, her brow furrowed.

"Changyeong-ri? Why does that sound familiar..."