Neighborhood Patrol (3)
Choi Yeon retrieved the wire embedded in the bridge pillar.
How strong would something have to be to do this?
He hadn’t noticed while reacting on pure instinct, but the snake’s power must have been greater than he’d thought.
The Trainer’s words rose unbidden in his mind.
“I’m going to send you flying and leave,” huh…
Looking at the line scored into the concrete pillar, his head nodded of its own accord. It was hard to deny.
If he hadn’t fired the wire in time—if the hook’s grip had been even a little loose—Choi Yeon might have been launched a very long way.
Once that thought settled in,
“Ugh…”
his left arm, the one that had blocked the snake’s tail, began to ache. It also tingled as if a paralytic had been injected.
He carefully rotated the arm a couple of times. It turned just fine. Unfortunately.
Not enough for sick leave with this, is it?
“Thanks, Choi Yeon.”
“You saved our lives.”
Voices came from behind.
These were the men who, unlike Choi Yeon, had actually been paralyzed.
As Choi Yeon, still gathering up the wire, turned around, the men who had roughly treated their injuries came limping over. The paralysis hadn’t fully worn off; they kept flexing and unflexing their fingers and arms.
“Haa…”
Choi Yeon let out a long sigh.
He understood why they were thanking the man who had attacked and wounded them.
In truth, he had already been guessing something along those lines.
Among the related businesses near Seonhwa-dong, there was no one who didn’t know that Choi Yeon’s “patrols” were really just his way of clocking out on time.
Yet appearing on that street at that hour meant they had another motive—one born from the judgment that it was better for their black-market deal to be exposed and collapse than… well.
In other words…
“So you weren’t just being polite because I was a high-paying customer?”
“Mm…”
“……”
The men looked at each other.
It was a consultative glance, and the conclusion came quickly.
They had dragged Dongdae Hunter Choi Yeon into this of their own accord for convenience. They needed to stay on his good side; hiding information would only backfire.
As they reached a decision and were about to speak, Choi Yeon asked first.
“What kind of people are you?”
“Honestly, we only know the rumors ourselves.”
“Rumors…?”
Choi Yeon tilted his head.
Among all the rumors he had encountered as a Dongdae Hunter, there had never been one about “a Trainer with a giant snake as a partner.”
Nor about “a Trainer who black-markets monsters.”
“It’s natural you don’t know. The guy originally operates in Gangwon-do’s underworld.”
“Gangwon-do? Yeah, that tracks.”
If it had been a rumor inside Daejeon, maybe.
Choi Yeon didn’t even bother with rumors from neighboring Sejong City.
There was no way he would know gossip from Gangwon-do, nearly a hundred kilometers from Seonhwa-dong—especially underworld gossip.
“And it seems he raised various monsters besides the snake.”
“There’s more like that?”
“That’s the rumor. Not confirmed.”
“……”
Well, is it really just a rumor?
He had just watched a snake grow huge right in front of him.
Choi Yeon couldn’t be certain the man hadn’t raised other monsters. The men must have thought the same; that was why they had been so flustered by the Trainer.
“What did the Gangwon Provincial Government do? Not arresting a guy like that?”
“Ah… well, apparently he never directly harmed the province. No—rather, he cleaned up the punks who were acting up inside the province, so he was actually helpful…?”
“So they left him alone? Hmm, does that make sense?”
“What’s not to make sense? You guys don’t dismantle those Nubyeok guys either, and then…”
The man trailed off.
His colleague who had been silent beside him glared so murderously it seemed to scream, You crazy bastard! Why are you saying that now!
Realizing his slip, the man carefully looked at Choi Yeon. With nothing to say, he even forced an awkward, servile smile.
“…Well, we’re just an incompetent Dongdae, after all?”
Saying so, Choi Yeon stared blankly at the men.
Those squinty eyes through which one could never properly see the pupils, the faint smile blooming at the corners of his mouth.
It looked the same as always—yet it was not the same as always.
If you really think that, I’ll do my best to live up to it.
—That was what it seemed to say.
Four palms waved frantically through the air, full of the desperate will to deny it.
“Aigoo, that was just something we said to lure the Trainer! You already know that!”
“That’s right! We brought him because Seonhwa-dong is competent. If we really thought you were incompetent, would we have brought him here? What’s that place… that…”
“Munhwa-dong!”
“Yeah, there! We’d have gone to Munhwa-dong! Of course…!”
“……”
Even at the two men’s words, Choi Yeon remained silent.
Gulp…
Uncomfortable with the silence, the men swallowed dryly.
After a few seconds of carefully watching his mood,
Choi Yeon suddenly asked a question.
“Any other rumors?”
“Huh? Ah, uh…! That’s about all our boss told us.”
“If you’re curious, why not go back and ask the Dongdae Chief? The Dongdae Chief might know.”
“That could be.”
Choi Yeon agreed right away.
Given his position, Dongdae Chief Kim Jaesang tended to pay attention to all sorts of rumors.
“Alright. Then shall we all head to Seonhwa Dongdae?”
“Uh, uh…?”
“We have to go too?”
“You weren’t planning to?”
Choi Yeon pointed past the men—to the place where the steel cages were stacked neatly.
Even though there had been a brief battle, the monsters hadn’t woken up. The sleeping incense they claimed to have manufactured themselves seemed quite potent.
That level would actually be useful.
“Did you get permission from the management office to take those out?”
“…No.”
“Did you get transaction permits from the district office or city hall?”
“That neither…”
“So you were trying to black-market smuggled monsters? And got caught by me, a Dongdae Hunter.”
“Yeah, we did.”
“But you weren’t planning to go to Seonhwa Dongdae?”
“……”
Just like earlier, the men looked at each other.
Their consultative glances reached a conclusion as quickly as before. In their judgment, this matter probably wouldn’t go as far as prison.
Swish.
Thus the two men held out both arms to Choi Yeon and grinned brazenly.
“Of course we were planning to go too!”
“Should we put the silver bracelets on ourselves?”
“No need. If you two put on the handcuffs, who’ll move those guys?”
“Ah, right!”
“Just wait a bit. We’ll load them up quick!”
The two men dashed off and loaded the steel cages onto their backs. They were so fast it looked like it wouldn’t take even a minute to finish loading and stand before Choi Yeon again.
In the meantime, Choi Yeon left a message for Dongdae Chief Kim Jaesang saying he was returning to the Dongdae. Thinking the chief would be on a call with Choi Heeseok, who had chased the Trainer, he avoided calling.
Vrrr!
The moment he switched from silent to vibrate, a notification arrived. It was a message from Dongdae Chief Kim Jaesang.
Had Senior already caught the Trainer?
The message he checked with rising expectations was completely different from what he expected.
…Should I just clock out right now.
That thought flashed through his mind.
Weasels, raccoon dogs, and martens stared at Choi Yeon.
They kept tilting their small heads, and each time their tails shifted to the opposite side—tails fitted with blades and bombs.
“Here you go.”
An iced americano was placed in front of Choi Yeon, who had been looking at the monsters.
Kwak Hye-won, the owner of Seonhwa Animal Cafe who had brought it, sat across from him.
“On the house.”
“Ah. Thank you, ma’am.”
Offering his greeting, Choi Yeon looked at the monsters.
The wildness unique to monsters that had been visible until recently was gone.
“Quite different from a week ago, right?”
“It’s all thanks to you taking care of them, ma’am. Thank you again.”
Choi Yeon bowed his head with genuine gratitude. It was well deserved.
How violently and viciously had the monsters behaved after waking from the sleeping incense?
Because they were evidence of the black-market deal, they couldn’t simply be disposed of, and the situation had been troublesome. Without Kwak Hye-won’s help, Seonhwa Dongdae—including Choi Yeon—would have been in serious trouble.
“To become so docile… as expected, a nationally certified monster tamer is different.”
“Nationally certified…. It’s just a university diploma, but when you put it that way it sounds somehow amazing?”
“It is amazing.”
Choi Yeon acknowledged it without reservation.
If Kwak Hye-won hadn’t taken them in, he would have been stuck dealing with creatures that combined violence and viciousness in equal measure. Just thinking about it made him shudder.
“…But do those guys have a habit of tilting their heads?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Look. They keep tilting their heads.”
“Ah. That’s not a habit—they’re finding it strange. No. They’re curious.”
“Curious? About what?”
As he asked, the answer suddenly occurred to him.
The little ones who had been tilting their small heads while staring at him.
Why are they curious about me?
Kwak Hye-won soon resolved the question for him.
“To the kids, Choi Yeon-ssi looks like he can see even with his eyes closed.”
It was an unexpected and inconvenient truth.
Choi Yeon’s lips twisted in proportion to his dissatisfaction.
“No bad intentions…!”
Kwak Hye-won hastily added. She said it with a consoling heart, but it was of little use.
Slurp. Choi Yeon simply drank his iced americano.
“Ah! Th-that reminds me—what happened to the Trainer who tried to black-market those kids?”
“The Trainer…?”
“I don’t think I heard about it last time. Ah, if it’s inconvenient you don’t have to say.”
“……”
Choi Yeon recognized that she had brought it up to change the subject. Her kind consideration was nice to see—even if the monsters were still tilting their heads.
“Since you’re something of an involved party, it’s fine to tell you. Just be careful it doesn’t leak elsewhere.”
“Of course, of course!”
“We didn’t catch him—that Trainer.”
“Oh my? Hunter Choi Heeseok let him get away?”
“To be precise, the Chungbuk guys let him get away. If Senior had kept searching, he would have caught him.”
“……?”
Kwak Hye-won tilted her head. Coincidentally, the timing overlapped perfectly with the little ones tilting their small heads.
Looking at the identical gestures that transcended species, Choi Yeon explained.
“The Trainer avoided Senior’s pursuit and hid in Guryongsan.”
“Guryongsan… that’s Cheongju, right? You chased him all the way there?”
“We did go way beyond our jurisdiction. But we couldn’t just let him go because of jurisdiction issues either.”
“Ah. That makes sense.”
“Still, problems are problems, so Senior had to explore Guryongsan only for the time Cheongju City Hall permitted. That was two days.”
“Ahh…”
Kwak Hye-won let out a sigh.
Even as a non-hunter, she knew it was difficult to find someone who had deliberately hidden in the mountains. Moreover, as someone who had tamed monsters, he would be an expert in the wild as well. Finding him within the time Cheongju City Hall permitted would have been a remote prospect.
After those two days passed and Choi Heeseok withdrew from Guryongsan, the Trainer must have slipped through the Cheongju hunters and left.
“…Anyway, he wasn’t a guy who was running wild in our area.”
Unlike Kwak Hye-won, who had sighed, Choi Yeon spoke as if it were no big deal. Then he downed the iced americano in one go without using the straw.
Kwak Hye-won immediately understood why he was doing that.
“Leaving?”
“Yes. I’d like to enjoy the leisure, but it’s been forty minutes since I left the Dongdae. If I stay any longer, the Dongdae Chief will pour out his nagging.”
“Ahh.”
“The coffee was good. It was delicious.”
“Glad to hear it.”
After a brief farewell, Choi Yeon returned to Seonhwa Community Center.
In front of the Dongdae’s door on the community center rooftop, a small box had been placed.
There was no sender’s name—only the recipient’s name and address.
“……”
Rip, riiip.
Choi Yeon tore off the tape on the box.
Normally, when the sender was unknown, one was supposed to check the contents through a minimal inspection before opening. But there was no need now.
He thought he knew who had sent it.
Inside the box was a message card and a glass bottle fixed so it wouldn’t break. The fang-shaped bottle held about fifty milliliters of transparent liquid.
The identity of the liquid would be written on the message card.
Thinking so, Choi Yeon picked up the message card and read it.
See you next time.
P.S. I made it with the paralytic you coated your dagger with and my partner’s venom.
Be careful not to touch it when applying.
“Ha…”
A sigh like a hollow laugh escaped Choi Yeon’s mouth.
He looked down at the message card, folded it and scratched his neck a little, then—after that—tidied up the box and entered the Dongdae.