Hidden on the Rooftop
I climbed the stairs toward the rooftop. My heart kept pounding. My entire body throbbed in time with each beat. Tension and anxiety gripped my heart like a vise. Every so often, my breath caught in my throat, forcing me to stop and steady myself.
The path to the rooftop wasn't long. But to me, it felt endlessly so. To be honest, going up there terrified me. Not because I'd assaulted the commander of the Northern Knight Order. What if I got to the rooftop and the knight and Jeong Yun-ah weren't there? What if my mistake meant Jeong In-ah could never see her sister again? Those thoughts filled me with dread.
Right now, nothing mattered more to me than Jeong Yun-ah.
I reached the top of the stairs. In front of the firmly shut door, I just stood there, frozen, unable to do anything. Opening it felt impossible. All I could manage was to place my hand on the doorknob and swallow hard, over and over.
[Open it.]
That's when Legba's voice rang out. It was calm as always, but carried more force than usual.
I drew in a deep breath. A cough escaped me. Only then did I notice the acrid smoke smell I'd somehow overlooked until now. After a fit of coughing, my reason returned, cutting through the paralysis of anxiety.
I had to open the door anyway. Whether Jeong Yun-ah was on the other side or not.
Kiiiii...
I pushed it open. The neglected, abandoned building made the hinges screech eerily. The rooftop came into view. Smoke obscured any sign of the knight or Jeong Yun-ah.
I summoned Bade's wind to clear the haze. The desolate rooftop landscape emerged.
There was nothing on the rooftop. No knight. No Jeong Yun-ah. Just the green-painted floor and a dust-caked water tank left to rot.
I scanned around desperately, but there was no trace of them. My legs gave out. I nearly collapsed.
"...Where could they have gone?"
Standing there doing nothing felt too pathetic, so I muttered aloud. If I didn't say something, the despair would crush me.
Where had they gone? I had no idea. No matter how hard I thought, I wouldn't figure it out. Helplessness washed over me. There was nothing I could do. It was happening again. Because of my wrong choice, once more...
"Cult Leader?"
Then, a familiar voice called out. I whipped my head around. It came from behind the water tank.
I dragged my crumbling body toward it, barely holding myself up. My heart raced. Tension, anxiety, and now expectation made it pound wildly.
I kept walking. I wanted to hurry, but my body wouldn't obey. Stumbling unsteadily, I finally reached the source of the voice.
Behind the water tank, two figures huddled in hiding. The knight and Jeong Yun-ah.
The knight was covering the still-unconscious Jeong Yun-ah's mouth and nose with his sleeve, probably to keep her from inhaling smoke.
"Ah..."
Thud.
The moment I saw them, my legs buckled completely. My frantic heart began to settle, bit by bit.
At last, it was over.
*
"I'm O Hui-jin, a paladin with the Eastern Knight Order! Is anyone—"
"Eastern? Hey, is that bastard from earlier one of your lackeys?"
The Northern Knight Order members, faces twisted in anger, were the ones to greet O Hui-jin upon his arrival. He pocketed his radio and approached them. Up close, the commander's face was drenched in blood. His nose looked crushed.
No way Do Seon-woo did that?
"...One of my subordinates seemed to come this way, so I came to check. We have no intention of interfering in a fire suppression outside our jurisdiction, so please don't worry."
O Hui-jin forced down his ominous premonition as he spoke. No way Do Seon-woo would do something like that. Sure, the guy was a little crazy. But even so, he wasn't the type to smash the Northern Knight Order commander's nose.
"Yeah, that subordinate! His name's Do Seon-woo, right?"
"Yes... That's correct. Do Seon-woo."
"That bastard did this to my nose!"
"Ah... Do Seon-woo did."
Facing the fuming commander, O Hui-jin nodded dumbly, his mind blank. So Do Seon-woo really had smashed the commander's nose. He'd thought the guy was a bit off, but apparently not. He was full-on insane...
O Hui-jin opened his mouth, thinking it over.
"So... um, you're saying Do Seon-woo did that to your nose?"
"Yeah, and this ain't getting swept under the rug. Do Seon-woo, that bastard, and you too—you're all getting dragged into this—"
"Actually, Do Seon-woo the apprentice paladin has a physical therapy certification. Maybe he was giving you some treatment and it got out of hand...?"
"...What?"
"No, disregard that. We'll take full responsibility for this at the Eastern Knight Order."
O Hui-jin had blurted nonsense in his daze, then snapped back and bowed deeply. The commander still glared at him discontentedly, snorting. O Hui-jin chewed his lip, head still lowered. He had no clue how to resolve this mess.
An apprentice paladin had punched the commander. In Gyeonggi's north, outside their jurisdiction, he'd smashed the Northern Knight Order commander's nose. At this point, the urge to quit outweighed any desire to fix it.
"Then, shall I contact Commander Han Dae-ho now? If you two can settle this amicably..."
"What? Why call that jerk here? I don't even wanna see his face."
"W-well, then what do you want...?"
"What I want? Nothing. Just handle it by the paladin code."
The commander rubbed his crushed nose and spoke firmly. O Hui-jin felt a chill run down his spine. By the paladin code. That meant military law.
Under military law, Do Seon-woo wouldn't escape punishment. O Hui-jin mentally tallied the charges: assault, insubordination. Without full details, it could even include obstructing official duties. Worst case, expulsion from Florence Academy.
"I-I'm truly sorry. Why not talk it over with Commander Han Dae-ho first? Escalating to discipline would be a hassle for everyone..."
"Hassle for everyone? Are you threatening me? Telling me not to report it?"
"It's not a threat. I just..."
O Hui-jin bowed repeatedly to the commander. But the man wouldn't listen. He was furious about his broken nose from some apprentice paladin. And all his subordinates had witnessed it. Punishing that punk was a matter of his dignity as commander.
Meanwhile, O Hui-jin was sweating bullets. If the commander reported Do Seon-woo, responsibility would fall on him too. He might face discipline himself, or at least a brutal scolding from Han Dae-ho.
"I'm really sorry. Please, just reconsider reporting it..."
"What good's your apology? The guy himself needs to grovel. Bring Do Seon-woo here!"
"Yes, understood."
What a petty jerk, making a fuss over one apology.
O Hui-jin thought that as he scanned around. He was looking for Do Seon-woo. But the guy was nowhere in sight. Just Northern paladins and medics everywhere.
After searching frantically, O Hui-jin turned back to the commander, sweating profusely.
"Uh, where's Apprentice Paladin Do Seon-woo...?"
"...Huh? Didn't he come out of the building with us earlier?"
The commander seemed clueless about Do Seon-woo's whereabouts too. Unease crept onto his snarling face. He called over a subordinate and asked about Do Seon-woo.
"Hey, did you bring that Do Seon-woo punk out?"
"Pardon? No, I didn't. I was supporting you, sir..."
"..."
The commander fell silent, face hardening. Now that he thought about it, he didn't remember anyone escorting Do Seon-woo out. That meant Do Seon-woo was still inside the building.
The commander and O Hui-jin looked up simultaneously. The fire in the abandoned building was mostly out, but smoke still lingered. The interior had to be choked with it by now. Do Seon-woo might have passed out from inhalation.
The commander grimaced, rubbing his forehead.
"Damn, what the hell—!"
Whoosh—!
Sudden fierce winds blew. At the same time, someone fell from the building.
The commander stared, mid-sentence. It was a woman with scars marring her face. Winds swirled around her like a vortex.
The gusts had cushioned her fall; even from that height, she seemed unscathed. As if the wind itself was aiding her.
"...Wind."
O Hui-jin muttered upon seeing it. The Voodoo cult leader wielded the power of a Loa called Bade to control wind. The gales around that woman were unmistakably Bade's.
O Hui-jin wasn't the only one unnerved. Every Northern paladin, the commander, and even the medics there vaguely suspected her identity: the Voodoo cult leader, or at least a cultist.
"Don't just stand there! Catch her, now!"
Whatever she was, she sure as hell wasn't Romanica. At the commander's shout, his men snapped to and pursued her.
The woman unwound her muffler from her neck, clutching it as she fled the paladins. She was fast. The paladins chased desperately, invoking blessings, but she knew how to use the terrain: vaulting walls, scaling to rooftops, every trick to shake them.
But the paladins' tenacity was fierce. They twisted ankles jumping fences, fractured bones falling from climbs, yet kept after her. The gap closed quickly.
She was nimble and quick, but no match for paladins empowered by blessings.
Soon, they were close enough to grab her.
"Got—!"
One paladin lunged, seizing her hair.
Riiip!
The woman tore the muffler apart. Purple mist billowed from the shreds.
The smoke enveloped the pursuing paladins' faces, seeping into noses and mouths. The fanatic determination in their eyes faded.
Thud.
The paladins' eyes rolled back as they collapsed.
The woman glanced at the fallen men.
"...Mission complete, Cult Leader."
She muttered pointlessly—the cult leader couldn't hear—then slipped away with agile movements.
*
While the paladins chased the woman, O Hui-jin was stuck, unsure what to do. Part of him wanted to join the pursuit. She might be the Voodoo cult leader, after all.
But Do Seon-woo, still missing from the building, weighed on him. Plus, this was Northern territory; chasing her could worsen tensions.
"...Damn it."
How had things spiraled like this? He had no idea what to do now. Or rather, what he should have done.
Should he not have sent Do Seon-woo alone? Made them search in pairs? Or skipped the long-term missing persons op entirely?
He couldn't pinpoint where he'd gone wrong, or what choice to make next. O Hui-jin sighed in frustration and sank to the ground.
Step, step.
Then, someone emerged from the abandoned building. Smoke parted around a face smeared black with soot. On his back was a small girl.
O Hui-jin shot to his feet. Do Seon-woo, whom he'd assumed trapped inside, had emerged unscathed. Surprising, but the real shock was...
"...Long-term missing person, Jeong Yun-ah. Found."
Do Seon-woo said. A faint smile played on his lips.
The girl on his back was Jeong Yun-ah, one of the long-term missings.
(To be continued in the next chapter)