Chapter 69
Chapter 69
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: Things Left by the Director
-----------------------------------------------------------------
As dawn broke, the day at Villain Prison began.
The guards bustled about conducting roll call, while the inmates sluggishly stretched and traded idle jokes.
But the mood inside Wing C was especially grim. The guards running roll call there had to deliberately look away and ignore the stifling tension.
"..."
Crow, gaunt and haggard after just a few months,
Lily, standing meekly at his side for roll call,
Creep, sniffling about why they'd made her sleep outside,
Im Deok-soon, thoroughly cowed today too after getting thrashed every time his bed creaked,
and Scardi.
It was a volatile mix that seemed ready to explode at any second, but surprisingly, nothing major erupted.
Partly because Scardi had Wing C locked down tight, and partly because Creep's head injury had turned her childlike.
Still, every time a guard drew near to check on Crow and those around him, a faint chill crept in.
The man who'd seemed unbreakable was now a shell of himself, barely standing on his own two feet.
"...I-if any patients cropped up overnight, please report it."
They were following the correctional officer's directive to pay Crow as little mind as possible in daily life, but
this felt a bit much.
How could a person change like that?
The refined guy from the news now trembled his lips with a bleak expression, as if the world had ended.
He'd always had sharp features to begin with, and now dark circles and slack pupils made him look less like a man and more like something else entirely.
"Uh, none to report."
Chills prickling their skin, the guard rushed through roll call and fled Wing C. There was far too much to report to the correctional officer today.
Even setting everything else aside,
ignoring Crow in that state felt like tempting a massive incident any moment.
"...I know. I'll handle it, so you just focus on running the facility and tune out upper management's orders."
Of course, Orca knew Crow's state was far from normal. She recognized it more clearly than anyone.
But Orca herself was reduced to pacing anxiously, at a loss.
Confronting the lab would only prove Crow's ability was gone,
and sitting idle with thumbs twiddling felt like her head might burst from the bleak future ahead.
"Um, and Correctional Officer?"
Even the heavens showed no mercy. No one left tormented Orca in peace.
"Justice requested a visit."
"What?"
Unable to shake the sudden chill, Orca peered out the window toward the main gate herself.
Sure enough, Justice stood there.
Brows slightly furrowed in a murky blend of anger and unease, Justice waited for her visit.
"...Ha?"
Orca couldn't help but frown too.
After sending her off with polite words last night, you'd think she'd take the hint and leave—instead, she'd waited right there till morning?
No matter how exemplary a hero, Orca couldn't tolerate the disruption and harassment at a time like this. Not even from her own idol.
"...Send her away again. Tell her Crow's in no condition for visits today."
So she racked her brain for a pretext.
Claim the inmate's health was poor, and she could legally block visits for the time being.
Plus, the guards would trust her call all the more—they'd just gotten the report on Crow's state.
"Yes, ma'am!"
One guard left the office to carry out Orca's orders. But their steps lacked any spring.
Even crossing the prison interior and broad yard, Justice's presence weighed heavily.
She had abilities too, so she knew exactly how formidable a hero Justice was—an utterly terrifying, off-the-charts existence worlds apart from her own...
And that being was staring silently at the guard from afar. Even at a good distance, Justice's piercing gaze bored in.
The guard barely swallowed hard and approached Justice, relaying Orca's message across the towering barred gate.
"Ahem! Justice, it's an honor. But today's visits are impos—"
Or, to be precise,
the instant the syllable for "im" in "impossible" left her lips, Justice clamped the iron bars and stepped closer, cutting her off.
It wasn't rude; the guard was simply too terrified to go on.
Krrrk—
Bars thicker than an arm crumpled like marshmallows. Scarier still, that wasn't even her real strength.
"...Go on."
"...Hic! V-visits are impossible...! C-Crow's not doing well...!"
To spare the public facility more damage, Justice took deep breaths to steady herself. Vivid distortions marked the bars where her hands had gripped.
"Not doing well?"
Provoking Justice's wrath was akin to suicide.
She wouldn't punish a guard serving country and justice, of course—but the sheer pressure of her surging energy had the guard quaking in cold sweat.
"There's a limit to jokes..."
Cut off from all prison happenings, Justice couldn't buy the excuse about Crow's condition.
Everyone else knew he'd devolved into near ruins, but she couldn't picture a frail Crow.
"..."
Yet Justice bit her tongue instead of pressing, because
she couldn't fathom the full scope of Crow's ordeals and suffering.
His face from the visit haunted her.
His bruise-covered body,
and his gaunt face.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Truth be told, at the very start—right when the incident broke—Justice had of course believed in Crow.
Crow would never kill the Director. He wasn't cut out to play villain.
"Cut the stupid talk! Why the hell would Crow pull something like this? Use your common sense!"
Justice had been dispatched to investigate the scene.
What she first encountered was the Director's corpse and Crow's pistol lying nearby. The Director was unmistakably dead, and the gun was definitely one he'd used.
The entire Hero Association seethed with outrage over the Director's death as they investigated. Justice too sought the culprit to honor her untimely passing, but...
"Justice, quit defending Crow like that. Doesn't change that he's the prime suspect."
Every new piece of evidence made it clearer: Crow was the culprit. As forensics piled up, suspicious glares turned on Justice.
His fingerprints on the gun,
the Director slain without a fight...
Even their infiltration times at Association HQ matched perfectly. It looked for all the world like Crow had tailed and gunned her down on purpose.
Even so, Justice held her cool.
Wasn't the whole thing unfolding too neatly? This could be a scheme to frame Crow.
Harboring those suspicions, Justice promptly directed her agents.
"...First off, keep this from leaking today. Wipe any related posts or articles on sight."
To some, it smacked of favoritism toward Crow. Shrinking the incident despite ironclad evidence and a shaky alibi—all to buy him time.
"...Yes, with Justice standing in for Director's duties, we'll carry out your orders at once."
"Justice! Have you lost your mind? Hide it now, and if it blows up later—who shoulders the blame?!"
The Association's mood turned utter chaos. Some backed Crow like Justice; others rampaged over the Director's death, geared up to avenge her on Crow right then.
Watching intently, Justice's sharp instincts pinged: a traitor might lurk inside.
These old-guard types pulled cringey stunts plenty, but they weren't that tight with the Director to flip out this hard.
"...Whatever. It'll sort itself once we verify."
If anyone truly grieved the Director's death, it was Justice and Crow. How many brushes with death had the trio shared?
Only three had access to the Director's files: her, Crow, and Justice.
Closest of friends, tightest of bonds,
comrades who could—and would—sacrifice for one another.
While bloodstains and the gun underwent analysis, Justice pored over the Director's docs—sealed behind a 128-character mash of random letters, symbols, and numbers.
There had to be proof of Crow's innocence and the Director's miscarriage of justice.
Unlike her looks, she'd been a meticulous near-perfectionist; she'd surely documented everything she'd done.
"..."
Justice's face hardened in an instant at what she found. The unfamiliar term "REP Plan" alongside the Director's lingering sentences.
A handful of memos, left like a last testament.
"No... no way..."
In the Director's effects—meant to aid Justice and Crow—irony of ironies,
only words piled up, rendering Crow's guilt all too plausible.
📜 Director's Memos 📜
[The Risk Elimination Project is underway. This bizarre covert op, run secretly from inside the Association, targets the assassination of superpowered individuals and other high-risk figures. Influential civilians make the list too.]
[Discovered agent Raymond was one of their minions. Faked his disappearance mid-op for interrogation. The traitor list he spilled included an unexpected name.]
[Crow.]
[I don't suspect him. He's the only man I can truly trust.]
[Yet digging deeper into REP keeps tangling back to Crow.]
[Bad feeling about this.]
[Too dangerous a man to turn into an enemy.]