Trap (1)
“The city hall search team has captured the executives coming and going from the hideout.”
“Executives… you mean?”
The voices of Choi Yeon and Kim Min-seok echoed quietly in the quiet meditation room.
“They were Yoo Seo-jin, the strategist of Jeokryeohui, and Moon Ki-seop, the action leader.”
“Strategist and action leader…”
“We judged it a chance to gather more information, so we’re planning a raid tonight.”
“It got decided pretty fast, huh?”
“The higher-ups have already had the heat turned up on them.”
If we couldn’t wipe out the organization that kidnapped and experimented on the kids before it was too late, what would happen to the higher-ups?
Would it really just be their heads rolling?
Even Choi Yeon, who had never become one, knew it couldn’t be good for them.
Even if there were a catfish out there, he sure as hell wouldn’t step foot in this matter.
“For reference, the assault team is Senior Choi Heeseok, myself, and my party.”
“Eh? You’re not even going after Amhyanghoe?”
“That’s how serious they are. The mayor, the other higher-ups.”
“I see…”
The determination of those higher-ups to protect their positions was palpable.
Choi Heeseok and Kim Min-seok’s party were Daejeon City Hall’s two strongest forces.
Sending both of them on the same mission meant they were pulling out all the stops.
“It seems a little over the top…”
“Still, better than our usual half-assed approach, right?”
“I agree.”
“Thanks for the heads-up anyway.”
“I figured Choi Yeon-ssi would be worried, so I’ll contact you again after everything’s done.”
“Thanks.”
Choi Yeon gave a genuine thanks.
Honestly, it had been on his mind.
He had already been questioned about Seo Na-yul today alone.
“I’m really glad we kept the younger colleagues close.”
“Me too.”
“…Huh?”
Druk.
Choi Yeon opened the meditation room door and stopped.
People who thought he was playing around would think that, right?
“What is it?”
“…No. Nothing.”
His gaze was innocent, staring straight at him without avoiding it.
It wasn’t a half-hearted remark.
Druruk.
Choi Yeon, the pitifully clueless one who had doubted his junior’s sincerity, opened the door and left.
At the end of the hallway, a group of boys was approaching.
They were scanning their surroundings as if searching for something.
The taller boy among them was a face Choi Yeon knew well.
“Geon-woo?”
“Ah. I see you were here, sir.”
“Were you looking for me?”
“Yes. I have something to tell you.”
“Really? Er…”
“Then I’ll contact you later.”
Kim Min-seok slipped away with a smile, sensing the shift.
The boys, who had been on high alert, didn’t accept it.
Since he knew the situation well, Kim Min-seok left without showing it.
“This one’s name is Seo-hyeon. He doesn’t remember his surname.”
“…Hello, Seo-hyeon.”
Choi Yeon crouched down in front of the two boys.
He had only meant to make eye contact, but Seo-hyeon hid behind Lee Geon-woo out of fear.
It seemed the boy still found adults difficult.
Lee Geon-woo glanced at Seo-hyeon for a moment as if waiting, but she didn’t come out again.
“…She said she’s anxious.”
“Huh?”
“Um… so, if she’s anxious, something bad will happen.”
“Something bad?”
“It’s been like that since before.”
“That’s…”
Choi Yeon stopped himself from asking.
Looking at the trembling hand holding Lee Geon-woo’s arm, he didn’t want to push it.
Anyway, he had a pretty good idea what was going on.
They had gained that ability through an experiment, the kind that lets you feel the bad things coming before they happen.
Still… hearing that they’re anxious on the day of the hideout raid.
A trap was starting to look possible.
Choi Yeon decided to pass along the possibility of an unknown trap.
“Hey, so about this…”
“Hm?”
“I have a favor to ask.”
“What is it?”
“Today…”
Lee Geon-woo hesitated, then slowly opened his mouth.
Today?
＊＊＊
The opening ceremony of Seonhwa Orphanage was in full swing.
Yet Cha Jae-hyeok and Kim In-beom had slipped away to the back because of his appearance.
His strikingly handsome face had stolen the spotlight no matter how you looked at it, and today was no different.
Many eyes kept drifting toward him, forcing him to watch the ceremony from a distance.
Of course, even when he was outside, the stares weren’t completely absent.
Kim In-beom called to Cha Jae-hyeok amid the stolen glances that never quite reached him.
“Hey, leader.”
“Hm?”
“I have a question. Did the senior do anything in the principal’s office or meditation room earlier?”
“Reinforcing the barrier?”
“Yes. You really can’t do that?”
“Yeah. I really can’t.”
Cha Jae-hyeok’s reply came out blunt and flat.
It seemed to irk Kim In-beom, whose mouth twisted slightly.
Why does he get mad when I say I can’t?
Cha Jae-hyeok shook his head.
“In-beom, you tend to overestimate me.”
“Really?”
“Even if it’s true. Do you know exactly what he did?”
“No. Honestly, I don’t know.”
Kim In-beom scratched his neck while muttering.
Images flashed through his mind of the principal’s office and meditation room.
Barriers spewing out light, space warping and shuddering…
He knew something incredible had happened, but he didn’t know exactly what.
“Both barriers were unstable because the mana flow was rough. Inefficient.”
“Yes, I know that.”
He didn’t know how he knew.
How did a non-mage figure out something like that?
Did opening those sleepy eyes make it visible?
“To stabilize the rough flow, he extended the mana pathways.”
“Eh? Is that even possible?”
“It was.”
“…I see.”
It was a stupid question, even in his own eyes.
He had watched the reinforcement and still asked if it was possible…
He would have liked to have seen the new mana pathways forming.
He felt a twinge of inadequacy for his own skill.
“And?”
“And? What else is there?”
“He did all of it with mana that wasn’t his own.”
“Ah…!”
Looking back, it made sense.
Choi Yeon had wrapped the barrier in mana rising from a budding artifact.
Manipulating mana into an object was already difficult, yet he had done it with someone else’s mana.
That level of mana manipulation ability was required to wield aura.
“Senior Choi…”
Memories that had been buried came rushing back.
The scene of Choi Yeon using aura to slice off the arm of the Jeokryeohui team leader.
“Why was he C-class? It’s a whole different level from the other C-class who were causing a ruckus.”
Images of the C-class hunters he had seen before flashed by.
The fools who thought they were the best.
The brainless idiots who acted tough with nothing to back them up.
The idiots who overstepped based only on their ranks.
It was hard to believe those guys were C-class, just like Choi Yeon.
“…That’s exactly why.”
“That’s why?”
“Because he’s stronger than other C-class, do you think Senior Choi Yeon can take on Choi Heeseok?”
“Eh…?”
The sight of him wielding aura, something usually reserved for B-class, was shocking.
Stabilizing the unstable barrier by extending mana pathways was even more astonishing.
Even after hearing the explanation, it was hard to believe.
But if that meant he could take on Choi Heeseok…
“Of course not. It’s impossible.”
There was only one answer.
Cha Jae-hyeok nodded, as if he understood the reasoning.
Indeed.
Thinking of a true B-class hunter, the fact that Choi Yeon was C-class no longer felt like a problem.
The C-class label on those fools and idiots was wrong.
It was all because of the guild that assigned ranks indiscriminately.
“Anyway, you believe me now? That I really can’t reinforce the barrier.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Ugh. I have to explain to In-beom that my mana manipulation is weaker than Yeon-ssi’s….”
Cha Jae-hyeok shook his head.
“Wait. How did that happen?”
Kim In-beom was plunged into a pit of confusion, and Cha Jae-hyeok muttered to himself.
“Still… maybe just barely piercing a hole….”
“Eh? What did you say?”
“…Ah. Looks like the event’s over.”
Cha Jae-hyeok casually stepped forward, changing the subject, and hurried toward Park Jeong-ah, who was greeting the people around her.
Kim In-beom, left alone after the conversation partner left, had a dazed look in his eyes.
He had said two or three A-class hunters would be needed to shatter it, yet it might be possible just to pierce a hole…
It was an uncertain guess, but it was enough to shatter his faith.
“If the two of them are together, there won’t be anything scary…?”
Cha Jae-hyeok and Choi Yeon.
Unfortunately, the image of the vigilantes and Dongdae hunters together didn’t form in his mind.
“Well, that won’t happen…”
Kim In-beom muttered with a sigh.
＊＊＊
Deep in Jangtaesan’s valley, the hideout of Jeokryeohui crouched quietly, swallowing all sound.
From afar, the gray metal building ahead was shrouded in thick fog, with no paths leading in any direction.
Only a pile of boulders covered in vines, making it impossible to approach without permission.
Perhaps anyone who tried would meet a terrible fate.
“It really is different from the hideouts we’ve raided so far.”
“Mhm.”
Kim Min-seok’s words were met with agreement from the hunters hiding among the black trees.
From the outside, it was a place where Jeokryeohui executives came and went.
“City hall entrusted the job to me, but the leader position—”
“No. You’ll do it.”
“Eh? But—”
“You’re not even on my team. I don’t plan to roll down a rock.”
The hunters chuckled at Choi Heeseok’s casual remark.
Rock to pry out a boulder?
How fitting.
If someone was that strong, he should be called a boulder, not a rock that rolls.
Accepting the leader role would be an honor, but his judgment was spot-on.
They had fought together for a long time, and even Choi Heeseok couldn’t fill the gap alone.
“Understood. Then…”
Kim Min-seok nodded and looked at the party’s only mage.
The mage with her hair in two braids gathered mana into her eyes and scanned the barrier.
“Oh… wow. Space perception suppression, memory disruption, access interference, and even an intrusion alarm… She’s done everything.”
While explaining, she gathered mana into her staff.
It was fast enough to make her long hair whip around.
“It would take all night to break it.”
“We don’t have all night, you know?”
“Of course I know. We’ll break it without destroying it—by creating a hole and going through.”
“Ahaha.”
The mage extended her staff into the fog, having gathered all the mana.
Tok.
The tip of her staff touched the fog, something that shouldn’t reach naturally.
Choi Heeseok watched with interest as the mage boasted.
“See? Right now I’m moving the mana circuits of the barrier.”
“Mana circuits?”
“Yes. I’m rerouting the circuits that need to pass through this area to another location, emptying the whole thing.”
“So we can create a hole without affecting the barrier itself?”
“Exactly!”
After saying that, the mage placed a hand on her chest like a refined noble lady and bowed her head gracefully.
A hunter wearing knuckles on her fist mocked her.
“Refined? You said ‘hole’ by mistake, right?”
“Shut up, you muscle-brained idiot. Do you even understand what I said?”
“Of course I do…”
He shrugged with a cheeky grin, but the mage sighed at the fact that he still didn’t get it.
Just as she tried to vent her frustration, Kim Min-seok interrupted.
“So how long will it take?”
The mage stared at the floating barrier in the fog, then…
“One…”
“Oh. One minute?”
“No, ten. Min-seok, are you crazy?”
“…It really takes that long?”
“Long? Long? This is an extremely difficult task! I only managed ten minutes because I’m the one doing it!”
The mage shouted quietly. She couldn’t shout at full volume with Jeokryeohui executives right in front of her.
“The only mages in Daejeon who can perform such precise work are me, Park Do-kyeong, and Kim Ha-seon!”
She shouted in frustration, but the non-mages didn’t understand.
Yeah, they were amazing, so they nodded along.
And that only made the mage even angrier.
“Ugh, this is so frustrating!”