Chapter 21
Chapter 21
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: Loose Ends
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Haon, who had been silently watching the scene with Solmae, asked with a bewildered expression.
“Are they really just going to leave like that?”
“Seems the person who wanted to buy the whole building changed their mind.”
“That’s a relief, but…”
Unsure if everything was truly resolved, she tilted her head.
In the meantime, Chacha was hoisting the heavy machine gun over her head, cheering with the others.
“With this, I have nothing to fear!”
She felt bad seeing how happy Chacha was, but she couldn't just leave the machine gun be.
‘What if she tries to rob a bank with that thing?’
Haon pointed the top of her phone toward the machine gun and sent a glob of mana, heated like lava, flying at it. It was something she had decided to do since coming to the Old District.
“Aaaah! What the—!”
The instantly heated barrel melted down to the belt's connection point. A look of shock and despair washed over Chacha's face.
“No! My baby! Aaaaargh!”
Seeing her collapse in front of the machine gun's remains, clutching her head, didn't exactly put Haon at ease.
‘I should give her back the rest of the payment.’
* * *
A man stumbled out of a container at the docks and collapsed. A pool of blood formed where he lay sprawled.
Bang, bang!
Gunshots echoed inside the container.
Leaning against the wall, a slumped gang member from District 4 looked at his groaning, fallen comrades and gritted his teeth.
“You bastard… You think we don't know you're suspended? What gives you the right to cause a scene!”
“Go ahead, call the cops. Though that'd be you turning yourselves in for smuggling.”
Juyeol replied nonchalantly, reloading his magazine with a frown. Blood dripped from his elbow.
Even for an Awakened, taking on several armed men at once made injuries inevitable. Hiding in the shadows didn't make him invincible.
“I don't get why you all give the same answer when I ask what you saw there ten years ago.”
“Because a fire just broke out, that's what happened!”
“Hah.”
Juyeol scoffed as if the idea was ridiculous.
There was no way a fire could just start in a house with no gas or electricity.
Besides, it was even raining that day. Someone must have intentionally doused the place in oil and set it ablaze. In fact, the remains of an oil can had been found in a nearby alley.
He had no intention of leaving the investigation into his sister's death solely to Haon. She wasn't someone he could fully trust.
Not only was it unclear when she'd be back to her senses, but even though he could see her mind working, it was hard to guess what she was thinking.
Having been born and raised on the edge of District 3 in the Old District, he had started shaking down every gang that roamed the area as soon as he became a Hero.
His house was just a few steps from the border where Districts 2 and 4 met, so there was no shortage of people to investigate. Busting crimes along the way was just a bonus.
“For a fire to start, someone has to light it. Right? Was it Gowon?”
“There must have been an arsonist! But how the hell are we supposed to remember the details of something from ten years ago!”
“I remember it in irritating detail.”
A crooked smile spread across Juyeol's face.
The drizzling rain, the dampness that the flames seemed to erase. The house burning fiercely, and his sister's charred body.
He had never forgotten it for a moment. He even vividly remembered that it all happened while he was out getting discarded food from a convenience store.
“I'm tired of this conversation. If you don't want to die, start talking. Give me someone who might know where Gowon is.”
The gang member swallowed nervously at his thuggish tone. Standing over him with a defiant posture, Ghost looked more like a Villain than a Hero.
“I-If you kill me, it won't just end with a suspension. You think Hunter will let it slide?”
The hand skillfully twirling the gun came to a sudden halt.
“That's a peculiar way of saying you want to die.”
“……!”
A chill ran down the man's spine, and he instinctively glanced at his gun lying some distance away. It was close enough to reach if he lunged for it.
But while he didn't know how that house burned down ten years ago, he did remember a boy who used to wander the streets with murder in his eyes.
The venomous glare of the boy who had stabbed a bulky thug's leg with a broken piece of glass was still just as intense.
That was before he'd even joined a gang, and he had thought a kid like that would surely grow up to be a gang boss.
But that kid had ended up becoming a Hero, so he decided to give up on the gamble of grabbing his gun.
He was certain that if he made a rash move, he wouldn't make it out alive.
“…Don't tell him I told you. He's the type to retaliate for sure. That bastard joined the Halla Gang.”
“The Halla Gang?”
Juyeol's brow furrowed. The Halla Gang was supposed to have fought in District 2 today. It would be a problem if he was already dead.
“Ghost!”
Just then, someone rushed into the container.
With reddish-brown hair and wearing a tracksuit adorned with an ogre emblem, it was the Hero, Chaser.
Chaser scanned the container with a stunned look before grabbing Juyeol and whispering.
“Are you crazy? You know I just came back today, how could you call me for something like this?”
“Then who should I call? Hunter?”
“You shouldn't have done this in the first place…!”
Chaser, who had just returned from a month-long break, was at a complete loss.
It was bad enough that his suspended colleague had called him to a smuggling bust alone, but he had also beaten all the gang members to a pulp.
He was already dreading how to explain this to Headquarters, but Juyeol didn't seem to care.
“You're the one who found this.”
He just gestured with his chin toward the boxes stacked in the container and turned to leave.
“Wait! You're leaving just like that? Ghost!”
“I just handed you a major bust on your first day back. Just take the credit.”
“Is that really the problem right now? Where are you going now?”
“None of your business. And don't even think about tracking me.”
Juyeol checked the time and got on his bike. It was the time of day when the Old District became most dangerous.
* * *
Sitting across from Solmae in his clinic, Haon's eyes sparkled with the expectation that she was on the verge of a breakthrough.
Solmae, who had politely offered her a cup of warm tea, looked at Haon's unfamiliar expression with suspicion before speaking.
“So, what have you come to ask about today?”
“I heard I've been visiting you often lately. What did I ask about Juyeol—I mean, Ghost's sister?”
“You mean Hyeseong, who died ten years ago?”
A look of bewilderment crossed Solmae's face.
“We never talked about that child.”
“…What? You mean you don't know who set the fire that day?”
“How would I know that?”
Haon was flustered by the unexpected answer. Based on the circumstances, she had been sure Solmae held a clue.
“Then what did we talk about?”
“This and that. You mostly asked me about the human body.”
“The human body? Was I sick? You mean we had medical conversations?”
“More specifically, about things like drug side effects and genetics.”
Haon was confused.
Disappointed that the topic was completely unrelated to the clue she was hoping for, she also began to wonder what ‘Eun Haon’ had been up to.
‘Drug side effects and genetics…? I don't think there were any medications she was taking in the penthouse.’
She thought meeting Solmae would solve a lot of things, but now her head was even more jumbled.
‘Don't tell me she was trying to scam him for the Awakening Sphere without even knowing who the culprit was.’
The suspicion she had hoped was wrong suddenly seemed like it might be true.
“Sir. You're not just messing with me because I lost my memory, are you?”
“Why would I do that?”
“……”
If ‘Eun Haon’ really had tried to use Juyeol without finding out anything, that would be too cruel to him.
She continued to ask Solmae various questions after that, but she couldn't get any clues about the arsonist.
In the end, Haon left the clinic with slumped shoulders, trying to think positively.
‘Still, I've linked to the research institute's central system, so I should be able to access all the important data. There might be a clue there.’
She'd been so busy coming to the Old District that she hadn't even had a chance to look around after completely changing the administrator to herself.
The thought of exploring the tightly locked floors and being able to change them to her liking lifted her spirits.
“Blue. How many areas in the institute have I not opened yet—ugh—”
A hand suddenly shot out of the darkness, choking her and slamming her against a wall.
As the suffocating pain choked her, Haon's eyes, blood rushing to them, widened.
“Bl—mmph…!”
She tried desperately to call for Blue, but her mouth was covered. A sharp sense of danger sent a shiver down her spine.
Blue's defense system was designed strictly for mana engineering. There was no function to automatically repel physical attacks.
“Who are you trying to call? What were you doing with that old man that took you so long?”
The man glaring at her, gritting his teeth, was the Villain, Checker, his nose in a splint and bandages.
“You completely smashed my nose, and you have the nerve to set foot in District 2?”
‘My nose… You were the one who tried to stab me in the neck with a knife!’
As Haon struggled with an indignant look in her eyes, his grip tightened.
“Why didn't you send the item I ordered? Why!”
‘You didn't even give me your address!’
“If I'd just had that, the machine gun would have been nothing!”
“Ugh…!”
Thrown to the ground, Haon scrambled to pull out her phone and aim it at Checker.
Mana began to form into a sphere, but Checker didn't wait for her, swinging his fist.