Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Avenger (6)
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Police line set up in the middle of the street.
Red blood splattered everywhere, making it deeply unsettling.
Hwang Ha-rin arrived late and shoved her way toward the police line.
The police blocked her entry.
“Entry prohibited to non-personnel.”
“I’m a hero?”
“Ah… yes.”
She flashed her ID irritably, and the police backed off.
‘Iron-Blooded Invincible’ spotted Hwang Ha-rin and waved.
“Over here.”
“What happened? Did you find Yeon-hwa?”
“That’s…….”
“Speak quickly.”
“Over there, those ashes are ‘Powerlifting’…….”
Powerlifting.
That was Lee Yeon-hwa’s moniker.
Hwang Ha-rin turned her head and saw the pile of ashes along with a single Post-it note.
‘Murder’ was written on it.
“…….”
Pattering rain began to fall.
The ashes that had been Lee Yeon-hwa were washed away by the rainwater.
“No! Cover it with plastic quick!”
The police scrambled for plastic sheeting and draped it over the ashes, but already half had vanished.
‘Iron-Blooded Invincible’ added cautiously.
“Presumed to be the Dark Knight’s work. The methods are highly similar.”
“Why the hell……. Dark Hero my ass! He’s just a psycho villain! What did Yeon-hwa ever do to him!”
“Y-yeah, tell me about it.”
There was nothing Hwang Ha-rin could do right then.
Her opponent was the ‘Dark Knight’.
Name, gender, age, build—all unknown.
Some even questioned if he was human at all.
Maybe just a humanoid monster from a gate.
Hwang Ha-rin gave her statement to the police about the phone call and left the scene.
A bitter feeling settled over her.
‘My friend’s dead, and there’s nothing I can do.’
On her way home, Hwang Ha-rin loaded up on booze at the convenience store near her house.
She planned to drink herself into oblivion tonight.
As she stepped out of the store, a gang of thugs came tense-faced through the door.
She loaded the booze into her car.
The rain grew heavier.
Hwang Ha-rin, soaked like a drowned rat.
She cursed under her breath and climbed into her car.
“Help!”
A scream rang out from the convenience store.
The thugs were menacing the part-timer.
Seeing the part-timer’s neck gripped and lifted into the air, she guessed one of the thugs must be an awakener.
Suddenly, harsh words from the agency flashed through her mind.
[Even off-duty, villains harming citizens right in front of you—how can a hero just stand by and watch?]
[We’re even considering terminating your contract, Ms. Hwang.]
‘Gaslighting assholes…….’
She ignored it and drove off.
Black mist rippled at the convenience store entrance.
Hwang Ha-rin’s house was a standalone home.
She parked in the garage.
Bang bang bang.
A pounding sound came from the garage door.
“What?”
Bang bang bang bang.
The pounding grew more violent.
Irritation bubbled up from deep inside Hwang Ha-rin.
“Ah, fuck. Who is it!”
She stepped out of the garage.
Evening had fully fallen, the sun vanished.
Pouring rain.
A black silhouette slowly revealed itself.
Hwang Ha-rin knew instantly what it was.
“Dark Knight…!”
Hwang Ha-rin immediately activated her ‘Petrification’ skill.
The Dark Knight she knew was an assassin.
Give him even a second, and he’d strike.
“Huh…?”
The Dark Knight who should have turned to hard stone from feet to head walked forward steadily.
He spoke in his signature voice.
“You haven’t changed at all since that day. Same combat patterns.”
He spoke as if he knew her.
The inexplicable information gap annoyed Hwang Ha-rin.
“What bullshit. Do you know me?”
She thought it over.
Killing Yeon-hwa and coming for her meant they had some connection.
‘Acquaintance killer then? Suspects…….’
She mentally tallied everyone from her life who might want her dead.
Ten villains, two heroes, about thirty non-awakeners….
‘Fuck, that’s a lot.’
Hwang Ha-rin rushed into the garage and popped the trunk.
A sword lay inside.
She was an academy graduate too.
Even as a mage type, she had her specialty weapon.
“Fuck, come at me. Don’t think you can take me out too.”
Logically, these weren’t words for someone who’d beaten Yeon-hwa with her ‘Superhuman Strength’ skill—but if she didn’t bluff, her resolve would crumble right then.
“Do you know why you’re going to die?”
“Who’s dying? You are. Cringe-ass middle school dark hero wannabe.”
“Jang Seo-yoon.”
“What? Your mom?”
The Dark Knight paused his advance, impressed.
“Forgot…?”
“What, some bitch with a grudge against me? You think there’s only one or two?”
“Academy annex, second floor women’s bathroom, fourth stall.”
Now something clicked for Hwang Ha-rin.
A crime from her academy days.
‘Jang Seo-yoon……. Phasing ability user?’
Hwang Ha-rin finally remembered who Jang Seo-yoon was.
Admitting guilt was another matter.
“Ah. You her brother or something? She killed herself—that’s on her, not me.”
“…….”
“She could’ve stayed quiet, but she came at us clumsily, fell, and shattered on her own. Fuck, I’m innocent.”
“Amazing. Trash so perfectly drawn like a caricature. Even the K Pharma Villain who sold his soul to the devil wasn’t this bad.”
At Hwang Ha-rin’s self-centered rationale, the Dark Knight—who knew the full truth—let out an exclamation.
He began closing in on her again.
“The promise will be kept.”
Hwang Ha-rin swung her sword.
A clean slash.
But she’d picked the wrong opponent.
The Dark Knight’s body dissolved into black mist upon impact.
The Dark Knight walked toward her.
Hwang Ha-rin slowly backed away.
Harsh reality crushed down on her.
Even Yeon-hwa, a dealer-tank hybrid, hadn’t laid a hand on him.
Her, a one-trick ‘Petrification’ user—without her skill, victory was impossible.
A sense of defeat wormed into her mind, dominating it.
“W-wait a sec. Sorry. That whole thing was my fault. Yeah, I’ll go to jail. Tomorrow at sunrise, I’ll turn myself in at the station. You’re hero trash too—you know letting the law judge me is best.”
The Dark Knight—who’d seemed utterly unflappable—halted.
He smirked unpleasantly and pulled a recorder from his pocket.
“To believe that, I’ll need evidence. The truth of that day—accomplices and bystanders, all of it, no omissions.”
“If I talk, you’ll let me live?”
“Yeah. You promised to self-surrender—that’s enough for me.”
The recorder light flicked on.
Recording had begun.
Tears streamed from Hwang Ha-rin’s eyes.
If this got out, her life was over.
No hero comeback, maybe life in prison.
Even so.
Better than death.
“Hwang Ha-rin, Lee Yeon-hwa, Kim Eun-hee, Na Mi-hyang, Yoo Jae-young. While sophomores at the academy, we killed our classmate Jang Seo-yoon. We petrified her, then in the bathroom…….”
The Dark Knight stabbed her limbs with his knife whenever she phrased it to favor herself.
Before long, the confession ended.
The Dark Knight pocketed the recorder.
Hwang Ha-rin forced a smile and looked up at him.
“N-now you’ll let me live, right?”
“Come to think of it, you called me a dark hero wannabe. Correction: I’m no hero.”
In that instant, Hwang Ha-rin realized the Dark Knight had vanished from her sight.
Hooo.
Whoosh.
A horrific breathing sound in her ear.
“Killing people indiscriminately—how could that be a hero? I’m a sinner.”
“Eek!”
Goosebumps erupted across Hwang Ha-rin’s body.
The Dark Knight was now behind her.
“I act only to safeguard my life and protect this world.”
His dagger danced in a flash.
Hwang Ha-rin’s hands and feet flew into the air.
“You said you’d spare me! You said!”
With no feet left, she couldn’t stand—she began crawling to escape.
“It was a lie.”
His boot slammed down on her back.
Blood spurted from her severed limbs as she writhed.
“Villain! You’re a villain!”
The Dark Knight squatted down, grabbed her by the hair, and forced eye contact.
“Medusa. You didn’t have to kill Jang Seo-yoon. She’d lost an arm, but her life wasn’t in danger. Yet for your own advancement, you killed her.”
He drew an academy training dagger.
The blade dulled from countless students’ use—no risk of even nicking his hand.
The Dark Knight pressed the dagger to Hwang Ha-rin’s throat and sawed it back and forth.
The blunt edge didn’t tear her skin at first, but as he persisted, it began to rip.
After about a minute.
A gash finally opened on her neck.
Blood vessels burst, red liquid spraying out.
“Uu. Hng. Hooo.”
Hwang Ha-rin began to sob.
Death closed in slowly.
She had no means to overcome the terror.
The Dark Knight kept sawing.
Until he could activate his ‘Inheritance’ skill.
That moment came when her neck was half-severed, bone exposed.
The Dark Knight finished the job and pulled a dustpan and broom from his bag.
A different cleanup method than usual.
He swept up Hwang Ha-rin’s ashes.
Then he sprinkled them into her house toilet and flushed.
In the blood-soaked garage, he left the ‘Murder’ Post-it and the recorder.
“With this, your grudge should be settled.”
The Dark Knight muttered to himself and departed.