Catching the Thief (3)
What defines a dimension mage?
Dimension mages were, as the name suggested, beings with the power to manipulate dimensions.
They could cut space open to create subspaces, or move by linking one point of space to another, almost like teleportation.
That was about all I knew.
It was knowledge I had pieced together from the hunter handbook.
But the talents of real-world dimension mages varied widely. I had no idea what kind of ability Hareubang possessed.
When you were short on information about an enemy, you didn’t charge in blindly. That was doubly true if the other side was a master.
And yet.
I can’t back down.
A hunter only moved when he was sure he could win.
When a monster mutant phenomenon happened, the proper response was to run and call for support.
But a hero was different.
Even if the enemy was stronger than I was.
Even if the odds of winning were slim to none.
Standing firm and facing them head-on—that was what a hero was supposed to do.
That doesn’t mean I’m planning to lose, though.
By now, I’d built up enough strength to represent the Dio Guild.
This is doable.
I had left Heoksikdo in my carrier.
No need to bring out my trump card yet.
I drew White Revenge from my thigh holster and rushed straight at Hareubang.
Clang!
A pure white dagger blocked White Revenge.
Hareubang tilted his head.
“I was planning to break it, but that’s a better sword than I expected.”
White Revenge was a masterwork blade forged from demon bones.
It wasn’t going to break so easily.
Clang-clang-clang!
We exchanged blows without pause, the two of us moving like a sword dance.
Even while fighting, I kept checking on Ha Se-na between exchanges.
Trapped inside the subspace, she was pounding at the invisible wall to get out.
Good. She’s fine.
Dimension mages could control the spaces they created at will.
A skilled one could even remove the air and suffocate someone to death.
So he’s not trying to kill us.
I didn’t want to kill Hareubang either.
If possible, I wanted him on our side.
To make that happen, I needed to show him the difference in our strength without leaving any room for misunderstanding.
I swung White Revenge.
“Severing Slash, Second Form.”
It looked like a single strike, but in truth it unleashed two slashes in rapid succession—a strange technique.
I was using one of the intermediate forms of Ilcheon-illyu.
The tip of Hareubang’s hat was sliced clean off.
His eyes widened and his lips parted.
I spun White Revenge halfway around in my hand.
“Severing Slash is a technique specialized for a long sword.”
I pointed at the felt cap that had been cut away by the blade.
“If the blade had been longer, it wouldn’t have been your hat that got cut off. It would’ve been your neck.”
I said it calmly, without bluffing or exaggeration.
In other words, I’m holding back.
Hareubang seemed to catch the meaning hidden in my words, and his expression hardened.
“……”
Slowly, he raised the dagger again.
Then he sliced wildly through the air.
Subspaces began to bloom all around us.
So he can make more than one.
The subspaces drifted like smoke, spreading out until they enclosed me from every side.
I’m surrounded.
Hareubang spoke.
“Only Quarter has survived this attack so far. If you back off now, I’ll stop here.”
Then he went on.
“It’s ridiculous for a villain like me to say this, but I hate seeing people get hurt. I approached you because I wanted to judge whether you really had the skill to go up against Quarter.”
“And your verdict?”
Hareubang shook his head.
“No chance. If you go after Quarter with that level of skill, you’ll die a dog’s death.”
He probably meant it for my own good.
If what he said about hating to see people get hurt was true, then he must have come looking for me because he was worried.
And yet.
That’s kind of annoying.
“Heh. Is that so?”
I reversed my grip on White Revenge and settled into a stance.
“What are you going to do about it? I don’t want to die like a dog, and I’m not planning to back down.”
Hareubang furrowed his brow.
“Then I’ll make you go back by force.”
He shoved the tip of his dagger into one of the subspaces.
Realizing something was coming, his subordinates hurriedly moved to one side.
“Damn, boss, he’s using that technique!”
“That one’s way too dangerous. Everyone, get behind the boss!”
Only Ryu Su-hon and Bang Su-hwan, who had no idea what was going on, stood there dumbly.
Hareubang shouted, his voice cracking with force.
“Cannonball!”
Mana bullets fired in a chain from the tip of the dagger.
The bullets swallowed by the subspace poured back out through the spaces floating around me.
Front and back, left and right, even overhead—there was nowhere to run.
Not a single opening to dodge.
In that case—
“Iron Fortress!”
The ultimate defensive technique that could block every attack coming at me from all directions.
The secret art of Ganro-ryu erupted into place.
The mana bullets ricocheted in every direction, and explosions tore through the banquet hall.
Bang Su-hwan smashed one of the bullets away with his fist.
“Prosecutor Ryu, behind me!”
“Gah!”
Ryu Su-hon crouched behind Bang Su-hwan, ducking low.
I didn’t stop at blocking them. I swung White Revenge and cut down every subspace around me.
The slashed spaces vanished one by one, dissolving into nothing.
Through the thick smoke, I emerged standing there.
After Quarter, he was the second one.
Hareubang bit down on his lip.
“...Not bad.”
That should have been enough for him to gauge my capabilities.
“For the record, I didn’t even use a tenth of my real strength. If I went all out...”
If I unleashed my Hero abilities at full power, I was confident I could wipe out not just Hareubang, but everyone else in this place too.
Beside me, Bang Su-hwan swallowed hard.
“B-boss.”
I must have let my killing intent leak out without realizing it, just from imagining it.
I looked at Hareubang.
“So? What’s it going to be? The welcome party ends here. Or...”
I shot a cold glance at the subordinates standing behind him.
“Do you want me to turn this place into a bloodbath?”
In the taut silence, Hareubang let out a long sigh and slid his dagger away.
Then he lightly tapped the subspace where Ha Se-na had been trapped.
With a sharp crack, the invisible wall split apart, and Ha Se-na fell to the floor.
“Ugh!”
Bang Su-hwan rushed over at once and helped her up.
“Noona! Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I’m fine. I let my guard down, and he got me the second I arrived.”
She’d called it letting her guard down, but to immobilize Ha Se-na like that...
He’s strong.
Like me, Hareubang must have been adjusting his strength to keep the fight under control.
If either of us had been serious, one of us would probably have ended up in no shape to walk away.
“Let’s put the body talk aside for now. We should have a real conversation.”
Hareubang still kept his guard up around me as he spoke.
“What do you want to talk about?”
I dragged over a chair that had fallen to the floor and set it upright.
Then I sat down hard.
“I’m hungry. Let’s eat first.”
On the fifth floor of Samda Resort, the restaurant was packed with burly men lined up in a long queue.
The lady serving food ladled thick soup into each bowl.
It looked like something a monster had vomited up, but it smelled surprisingly hearty.
The dish was a Jeju local specialty: momguk, a seaweed-and-pork soup.
At the table sat me, Ryu Su-hon, Bang Su-hwan, Ha Se-na, and finally Hareubang.
Bang Su-hwan slurped down his soup with obvious satisfaction.
“Ahh! The broth’s so hot it’s incredible. Can I have another bowl?”
“Go ask for one.”
I pointed toward the serving counter, and Hareubang clicked his tongue.
“Enough already. You’ve had three bowls.”
Hareubang had taken off both his hat and his glasses.
Seeing his full face now, I had to admit—
He looks ridiculously harmless.
On closer inspection, he wasn’t even that big. His shoulders were actually a little narrower than the average man’s, and he seemed shorter too.
His face was youthful-looking, but his age was still visible if you looked closely.
Late thirties, maybe early forties.
“I’m already broke enough to die from it.”
He muttered and grumbled to himself, which felt strangely different from how he had been during the fight.
Ryu Su-hon took a bottle of soju out of the refrigerator.
“Let’s have a drink! My legs are still shaking—I can’t take this sober.”
“Oh, soju sounds great.”
Ryu Su-hon and Bang Su-hwan paired up like old drinking buddies and poured each other shots.
After I finished my bowl of momguk, I set down my spoon and reached out a hand to Hareubang.
“Let’s do this properly. Typhon of the Dio Guild, Choi Yongki.”
Hareubang took my hand.
“My name’s Ha Chil-seong. Call me Hareubang if you want. Everyone else does.”
Ha Se-na remained silent.
She hadn’t touched much of her soup at all; the bowl was still nearly full.
Even after being dragged into Hareubang’s subspace, she didn’t seem to have a single scratch on her.
She didn’t look injured, either.
So why is she acting like that?
Then Ha Se-na, who had been silent all this time, raised her head and looked at Hareubang.
“It’s been a while, Uncle.”
“Yeah. You didn’t show your face at all after going to the mainland, and now the first thing you do is cause trouble?”
“Trouble? More importantly, your face has changed a lot, Uncle. You used to look really young.”
“Hmph! Playing the villain aged me into this, I guess.”
Listening to the two of them talk, I could guess what their relationship was.
Come to think of it, they have the same surname.
They were both Ha.
Ha Se-na offered me an explanation.
“Uncle Chil-seong and I are related. He had his face covered earlier, so I didn’t recognize him. Oh, right. Give me back my phone.”
“Here. You little brat.”
Hareubang tossed Ha Se-na her phone.
So the text telling me to run wasn’t from Ha Se-na after all.
Ha Se-na spoke again.
“Uncle Chil-seong, how did you end up becoming an executive in the Dark Alliance? You used to be a hunter.”
“Hah.”
Hareubang let out a long sigh.
“Those Dark Alliance bastards kept pushing in from every direction. What was I supposed to do? Hunters have no authority, and the police don’t give a damn. If I wanted to protect the village, I had no choice. I agreed to become an executive on the condition that I’d be put in charge of Jeju Island.”
Unlike the villains who trafficked drugs, ran clubs, and dealt in human beings, Ha Chil-seong had become Hareubang of his own volition in order to protect the people around him.
Like a guardian stone standing watch over Jeju Island.
“And you, Sena. You never even came around for memorial rites, and you didn’t call once. Do you like the mainland that much?”
“...I’m sorry.”
Ha Se-na lowered her head.
“You know why. This isn’t a place I have good memories of.”
“Tch. Fair enough, I guess. That’s on me, then. You little punk.”
The two of them poured out the feelings they’d been sitting on for years, finally airing everything out.
“Sorry to interrupt the family reunion,” I said, cutting into the conversation, “but can we talk about Quarter? Tell me everything you know about him.”
“Up until last week, he’d been hounding me nonstop. I even ran to Udo Island and barely made it back alive. I started thinking I might not live out my natural span at this rate...”
Hareubang pointed at me with his chopsticks.
“But the moment you showed up, he vanished without a trace.”
I had made my position clear to the media: I was going to catch Quarter myself.
“Did he run because of me?”
“I don’t think so. Jeju’s small. If he’d left the island, I would’ve heard about it for sure. And besides...”
Hareubang continued,
“That guy’s frighteningly persistent. Once he picks a target, he never lets go.”
I was getting more and more curious.
Who exactly was Quarter, the man who had wiped out the Dark Alliance executives in such a short time and founded New Dark in its place?
What, exactly, did he want?
“I’ve got one more thing to ask of you.”
I lined up the cola and the glass on the table in a straight row.
“I’m chasing Quarter, and Quarter is chasing Hareubang, which means...”
I knocked the glass over with my chopsticks.
“You’re going to have to be the bait.”
“Got it. That’s a good plan.”
Hareubang agreed without much hesitation.
“I won’t lie to you. It could be dangerous.”
“I know. Well, it’s not like things could get much more dangerous than they already are.”
Hareubang interlaced his fingers and rested his elbows on the table.
“There’s just one condition.”
“What is it?”
Hareubang glanced at Ha Se-na.
“Take care of my niece’s business for me. Jeju can’t stay a place of nightmares forever.”
Ha Se-na dropped her gaze.
So there’s a story there.
We had to move fast. If all we cared about was the efficiency of the operation, we didn’t have time to fuss over personal matters.
But then I remembered what Na Sang-min had told me.
“Mutual benefit is a hunter’s basic mindset.”
It was time to start paying attention to the pasts of the people I’d never really understood until now.
I reached out and gave Ha Se-na’s shoulder a light pat.
“We’ll do that.”