GGC
“Welcome.”
Kim Nari’s face as she greeted us in her office looked brighter than I had ever seen it. Looking at that radiant smile on such a beauty, a smile of my own rose unbidden to my lips.
“I heard the news about your sister. I’m glad she’s all right.”
“It’s all thanks to the hard work you put in, Jungmin. Allow me to thank you once again.”
Kim Nari bowed at the waist toward me. Was this the third time already with that exact greeting? She was a good person. For the leader of a crew this size, she could have easily swaggered around, yet consideration seemed woven into her very nature.
“I heard you wish to join our crew. I can give you bonus points for what happened this time, but… for joining the crew based on this alone, you’re still a little short, Jungmin. I recommend you come back after becoming at least a C-class Keeper.”
After a brief exchange, Kim Nari spoke with polite firmness. It seemed Garam still hadn’t told her about the magic. I was a little surprised. When she called me up to the office, I had assumed she already knew I was a mage. Yet Kim Nari still thought of me as nothing more than an F-class Keeper with good ears—and she was still taking my proposal seriously. If this whole thing was just an act, I almost felt I ought to play along and get thoroughly fooled.
I glanced sideways at Garam. He was wearing a rather proud smile. I had to admit it. With a leader of this caliber, that smile was well-earned.
“If I were just some ordinary F-class Keeper, that would be true. But what if I were a mage?”
“…Excuse me?”
Aside from the matter of her sister, she had never once lost her composure—until now. Surprise flickered across her face.
“It’ll be faster if I just show you.”
Whoosh. Shaaa. Flash.
I created a mini fireball, an ice arrow, and a light spell in turn. With every new spell, Kim Nari’s expression shifted by the second. By the end she was staring at me with dazed eyes.
“…Nari?”
“Ah… I’m sorry. That was unseemly of me…”
Kim Nari snapped right back to her usual self. The fact that she could recompose herself so instantly, as if nothing had happened—maybe that was her awakened ability.
“So? Are you willing to take me into the crew?”
“Of course.”
There wasn’t a shred of hesitation in her answer. Someone like her would understand my value better than anyone. In the end it was all Gate-dependent, but not just anyone could grow a crew to this scale.
“Even if I join the crew with an unidentified Keeper?”
“Hmm… Is that a secret from me as well?”
“For now.”
“Then that’s fine. If you say you’ll tell me someday, I’ll do my best to make that day come sooner.”
I hadn’t said a word, yet she seemed to know exactly what I wanted. With a mind like that, wouldn’t she also know how to find the culprit? Down in the café earlier, Keira, Garam, and I had put our heads together, but nothing useful had come of it.
“Then I’ll be in your care from now on, Leader.”
“The pleasure is mine, Jungmin. If you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to speak up. As leader, I’ll help you with everything I have.”
Perfect timing.
“I’m sorry to ask on day one, but may I make a request?”
“…What is it?”
Even so, no one had ever done this on their first day. Kim Nari looked faintly flustered. But this wasn’t my business—it was hers.
“About your sister’s case. There is a separate culprit.”
“…What did you just say?”
That day, I saw the face of a demon. The dazed look after my magic, the sorrowful expression when she worried for her sister—none of that had been Kim Nari’s true self. This was the real thing.
It was Soyeon.
“What are you talking about? I saw you just yesterday.”
Soyeon was someone who knew every last one of my secrets. Neglecting her simply wasn’t an option. She held all the cards; I was the one who had to play along.
Three weeks had already passed since Keira and Soyeon first met. In that time the two of them had grown incredibly close. I never thought such a development was possible, yet somehow they had become like sisters. Could you really get that friendly with someone who was basically your crush’s girlfriend? Maybe if no one had confessed yet—but they had already laid everything bare with each other. The way kids thought these days… it was too hard to keep up. Of course, it was probably all thanks to Keira’s charm, which overrode every other consideration.
“I saw you too while I was at it, so that counts.”
“Ah… that…”
Lately I hadn’t been able to enter Gates with Soyeon. More precisely, not since I joined the crew. From the moment I joined, I had been going into the Gates belonging to crew members. That naturally meant three people moving together: me, Keira, and Garam as the introducer. There was no room to squeeze in Soyeon, who wasn’t even a crew member. Later, once I was a bit better known among the crew, I might be able to work something out.
“That’s because you don’t have the skills. So hurry up and hit C-class at least. Then I’ll find a way to get you into the crew.”
“Then you should just become Keira’s boyfriend.”
“An unrequited love that can never be… How tragic, Soyeon.”
“Sure. Looking forward to it.”
The call ended there. Once it was over, I wondered what kind of conversation that had even been. I had just said whatever came to mind, and only afterward did it occur to me that some of it might have hurt her. But then I looked at Keira beside me, completely absorbed in her tablet, and suddenly none of it seemed to matter.
“Keira, ready to head into the Gate?”
“Mm. You?”
“Finished a while ago.”
Today we were entering a Gate again. Specifically, Kim Nari’s Gate. And it was also the day Kim Nayeon, Kim Nari’s twin sister, would be making her return.
“Keira, ready to catch the culprit?”
Keira nodded at my words. Today was also the day we would catch the one who had poisoned Kim Nayeon.
The culprit is highly likely to attempt the crime again.
That was what Kim Nari had said on the day I decided to join the crew. She was right. Kim Nayeon had ultimately survived, which meant the culprit had failed. So of course they would try again. Anyone who would choose to kill a person wouldn’t give up after a single failure. The culprit was already riding the tiger. Once you took that step, there was no running away.
So we decided to wait for Kim Nayeon to recover and reappear at the Gate. There was no other method. A few people were under suspicion, but we had no evidence. Catching them red-handed was the only path forward.
“Is it in here?”
Garam asked. He was one of the people who knew our entire plan. For the past three weeks Garam had been personally hunting for the culprit behind the previous goblin mutation incident. He hadn’t turned up a single clue. The one silver lining was that Park Jaehyeok, the Keeper who had been the victim of that incident, was still alive. Garam had advised him not to enter any Gates for a while—had he actually listened?
“It’s not in here.”
Dozens of crew members and staff filled the auditorium of the crew house. Keira, standing beside me, was currently scanning the entire hall, and she still hadn’t given any signal. That meant there was no mana-overlap mass capable of causing a monster mutation—or anything equivalent—inside this room.
“Then only a few people are left. If it’s among them…”
“It might not be among them either. But what if it is?”
“…The fallout will be huge.”
Garam’s expression darkened. I didn’t even need to hear the rest; I already knew the broadcast. Anyone arriving late would be either a key figure in the crew or an old acquaintance. If one of them turned out to be the culprit, the shock would be considerable.
“Nothing we can do about it. Still, better to root it out now for everyone’s sake.”
“I agree.”
Over the past three weeks, multiple anomalies had occurred inside Gates. Whether they were man-made or natural phenomena was impossible to tell. Even if they were man-made, there was no way to know whether the culprit was the same person as in this case. But there had to be some connection. Or rather, I hoped there was. Otherwise the accidents were frequent enough that people would start questioning the stability of the Gates themselves.
“Ah, they’re here.”
Following Garam’s words, I turned my head. People were entering through the auditorium doors. Two men, one woman, and the twin sisters who could be called today’s main characters.
First through the door was GGC’s leader, Kim Nari. The force she carried as she walked in, her ponytail swaying down to her waist, was as impressive as ever. Next came Kim Nayeon, who looked exactly like her. If her hair hadn’t been short, no one would have been able to tell them apart—face, height, figure, even their makeup. Only the aura was slightly different. If Kim Nari was a single drawn sword, Kim Nayeon radiated the force of a cannon. Kim Nari might be leading with a leader’s charisma, but she couldn’t fully block the halo pouring from Kim Nayeon’s talent. Kim Nayeon was a current A-class hunter, a woman of insane talent already being discussed for S-class.
(She’s over there.)
While I had been looking at Kim Nayeon, Keira must have finished her scan—calm and fast. She spoke quietly in Archenian so no one else would overhear. Only I could understand that language.
(I sense a magic formula on the left chest of the man standing at the very front.)
Magic? I almost made a sound without meaning to, but barely held it in. Right now, suppressing the enemy quickly mattered more than whatever power they were using.
“The one coming in at the front… that was Keeper Park Changsik, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct. Don’t tell me…”
“Yes. That’s him. He’s hiding something on his left chest.”
“That can’t be…”
Garam’s expression was grim. Clearly this was someone he never would have believed capable of such a thing.
“…The choice is the leader’s. You understand that, right?”
“I understand.”
Garam approached Kim Nari. The crew member named Park Changsik, still completely unaware, was climbing onto the stage. Garam, Kim Nari, and Kim Nayeon exchanged a few brief words below the platform. A moment later, Kim Nayeon’s lion’s roar slammed through the auditorium.
“Hey! Park Changsik!”
Even though it wasn’t aimed at me, my ears felt like they were about to split. I hurriedly covered them. I wasn’t the only one—everyone in the auditorium clamped their hands over their ears.
“Urgh.”
If everyone else was in this state, there was no way Park Changsik was fine. Blood flowed from his ears. Naturally, his stance collapsed.
“How could you do that to me—how the hell could you!”
Kim Nayeon climbed onto the stage and began thrashing Park Changsik. He took the beating one-sidedly. From what I knew he was on the strong side even among B-class, but once he ate the first hit there was nothing he could do. This was why Kim Nayeon’s Keeper rank had skyrocketed. She knew how to wield sound.
Riiip.
Kim Nayeon tore open the left side of Park Changsik’s suit. From it she pulled out a sheet of paper with geometric shapes drawn in red on a black background. Just looking at it gave off an ominous feeling.
“Wow… it’s real. You piece of shit. Explain this! Explain it right now!”
The auditorium had been silent for a while already. That was the power of a voice filled with pure betrayal. Everyone held their breath, waiting for Park Changsik’s answer.
“Kh… s-sorry…”
“You bastard.”
Thud.
Kim Nayeon’s fist smashed into the side of Park Changsik’s face. Even so, he only passed out.
(Caught more easily than I expected.)
Keira was right. I had thought the culprit would put up more of a denial, but he confessed right away. Looking at the rotten expressions on Kim Nari, Kim Nayeon, Garam, and most of the crew members, though, maybe “easy” wasn’t the right word.
A bitter ending, then.