Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Loose Ends and Sleepy Eyes
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Juyeol, who had been staring blankly at the dark ceiling, took his bike out without a destination.
He repeated those two actions until his sense of time grew dull.
They say the longer a case drags on, the more anticlimactic its end, but he never imagined the case he’d been chasing would end like this.
He wouldn't deny that his initial thirst for revenge and anger had faded over the past ten years.
But even if it had rusted, that anger was his anchor.
Now, the rope connected to that anchor had been cut in vain.
An anchor with a severed rope doesn't disappear; it sinks and gets stuck at the bottom of the sea. Likewise, he couldn't handle the aimless rage that followed his sense of emptiness.
As he rode aimlessly down the road for a long while, the screw-loose engineer would occasionally come to mind.
*‘What does she even know?’*
Juyeol parked his bike by the dark river and let out a heavy sigh.
Several times a day, he regretted his decision to let Gowon live.
He should have killed him. He hadn't hunted him down just for him to receive this kind of lukewarm judgment.
But then, those thoughts, boiling with rage, would suddenly fizzle out.
It was because his brother had finally been cleared of the stigma of being the one who started the fire.
As he wiped his face, he flinched, the voice that had called out, "Juyeol," echoing in his ears.
*‘She keeps calling me in that weird way...’*
He roughly rubbed the cheek Haon had wiped. The wind against his face felt unusually cool.
She’d chattered on and on with a face that looked like it was about to burst into tears at any moment.
*‘I hired a skilled engineer, and I didn't even get to use her properly.’*
As he forced himself to grumble, his mind went blank again, and a tightness filled his chest.
While he was staring at the river, feeling as if he were sinking into deep water, he sensed a presence behind him.
He reflexively drew his gun and spun around, only to see Hunter.
“Wandering more quietly than I expected, are you?”
“...Should I go set the rehabilitation center on fire?”
The anger that flared up for a moment lost its direction and abruptly died down.
Holstering his gun, Juyeol turned his gaze back to the river.
“You never let me into the First Archive in the end. Not that any clues in there would matter now.”
Standing beside him, Hunter glanced at his expression before also looking out at the river.
“Are you disappointed?”
“...Disappointed?”
He scoffed and continued.
“Were you worried I'd go on a massacre in Macau? Afraid it would turn into a diplomatic issue? No, did you ever even intend to show me the files in the First Archive?”
“...”
Hunter silently watched the river flow.
One minute passed, then five, but no answer came. Only the sound of the water filled the desolate silence.
Juyeol let out a short, bitter laugh, as if he'd expected as much.
“I'm quitting. Being a Hero.”
“On whose authority?”
At the long-awaited reply, he stared straight at Hunter.
“Can't I even quit on my own terms? I was planning to quit after I caught the culprit anyway.”
“You're still on suspension. Use that time to cool your head.”
“What do you want me to do now? There's nothing left for me to do.”
Hunter also turned to look Juyeol straight in the eye.
“Protect. Just like you always have.”
“...Protect what?”
“The place where you live. Not the place where your brother lived, but the place you are living now.”
“...”
This time, it was Juyeol who remained silent for a long while.
Hunter turned her head back to the river and changed the subject.
“I heard Dr. Eun lost her memory and changed.”
For some reason, Juyeol felt a pang of guilt and averted his gaze from Hunter.
“How much has she changed?”
He hesitated before managing to answer.
“Enough that it's easier to believe she's a different person.”
“Want me to check for you?”
The wind whistled past.
“...No, thank you.”
Juyeol's voice was so quiet it was almost lost in the wind.
“Well, look at that.”
Hunter let out a dry laugh, as if surprised by his reaction.
“Do you just want to believe she's a different person?”
Then, she took off her glove and held out a hand.
Juyeol, eyeing the scarred hand with apprehension, hesitantly took it.
“Stop saying such annoying, weird things...”
A red number 4 slowly materialized on the back of his hand.
“Still the same. Guess you didn't kill anyone to blow off steam this time.”
“I'm holding back, so don't provoke me.”
As Juyeol snatched his hand away, the number vanished.
Hunter's ability was to reveal the number of people a person had caused to die.
Sometimes, you had to kill a Villain to save a hostage; other times, you failed to save someone.
Even if it was unavoidable, as long as one felt 'I killed them,' the count would go up.
As long as the number appeared on the back of his hand, every time he held Hunter's hand, those memories would surface with vivid clarity.
Stabbing the robber who broke into the home he shared with his brother.
Shooting a human trafficker during his days wandering the streets.
Killing a Villain shortly after becoming a Hero.
Failing to save a hostage who fell out of a window.
*‘Fuck.’*
Juyeol looked at his own hand with a grim expression before shoving it into his pants pocket.
Hunter, having put her glove back on, spoke.
“The last time I checked Dr. Eun was a month ago. Her number was 11. If she's truly reformed, the number should still be the same.”
“...”
“I'll leave her be for now since she's being quiet, but be careful not to get entangled with her. You know what kind of person Dr. Eun is.”
Juyeol immediately understood she was telling him not to get caught between Eun Haon and Nova and cause unnecessary trouble.
*I won't be seeing her again anyway.* He tried to say it, but strangely, the words wouldn't come out. He couldn't utter such a simple reply.
He couldn't say a word until Hunter, who had been staring at his frowning profile, finally left.
* * *
[Haon. The next person is here!]
Haon, whose head had dropped, jolted awake, her eyes snapping open.
“Huh...?”
She looked around and found herself in the first-floor waiting room and café of the research institute.
Haon let out a tear-inducing yawn and stretched.
She was in the middle of meeting potential suppliers one by one to purchase materials for the Dimension Gate in bulk.
One supplier had just left, and she had dozed off in that brief interval.
Bani cleared the empty cups from the table and asked with concern.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Can you make me an iced coffee?”
“Again? You've already had four cups today. Really strong ones, too!”
“Have I had that many? But I'm so sleepy...”
She pressed her drowsy eyelids and dozed off again.
Bani's expression grew serious.
For the past few days, Haon had been dozing off while sitting, while talking, and even while drinking coffee.
The circles under her eyes had darkened, and her eyes were bloodshot. It would be a disaster if the person who paid her salary collapsed.
“Ah, Dr. Eun! It's been a while!”
Just then, a man in a flashy suit strode in.
Bani tapped Haon's shoulder and moved to prepare a new cup of tea.
Startled awake, Haon staggered to her feet and shook his hand.
“Yes, President Yang. Welcome.”
“Hahaha! To hear Dr. Eun call me President. I've lived long enough to see it all!”
President Yang laughed heartily, shaking her hand up and down with vigor.
Haon, who had stumbled and barely managed to sit on the sofa, picked up the new cup and glanced at Bani.
It wasn't a cold, strong Americano, but just a glass of ice water.
Bani didn't even glance at Haon as she placed a teacup in front of President Yang and walked away.
“I hear you've become more submi— I mean, gentler these days. You look much better!”
He slurped the tea before the green tea bag had even finished steeping.
“You can look forward to the items I've brought. I'm sure you'll be quite satisfied.”
He then thumped a large briefcase onto the table and flung it open.
President Yang glanced at Haon's sleepy eyes and stifled a laugh. He might be able to pull off an even bigger scam than he'd expected.
Rumors had spread that Haon had lost her memory and was no longer taking commissions.
If she'd forgotten how to make her commissioned items, then surely her eye for materials would have dulled as well.
“This is made of titanium, so it's very sturdy, but it's incomparably lighter than products from other places.”
What he took out was a large crank.
Haon listened quietly as he chattered on about how it was made of a hard, non-melting material, and nodded.
President Yang's assumption wasn't entirely wrong. Haon was so sleepy and tired right now that her ability to judge materials was indeed duller than usual.
“Blue. Check it.”
However, it wasn't Haon who was checking the quality of the materials.
[It's not titanium, it's painted copper!]
“...!”
A crack appeared in President Yang's confident smile.
“It says it's copper.”
“Th-that can't be! What on earth is that strange bird?”
“It's a very smart AI software. You can think of it as my secretary.”
President Yang broke into a cold sweat and mumbled, “There must have been some kind of mistake.”
Then he put the crank away and took out some bolts and nuts.
“Then how about this? This is definitely real titanium.”
“Blue.”
[It's made of titanium.]
“See!”
[The signs of wear have been covered up. It's a used item!]
“...!”
President Yang was sweating bullets. How could it possibly know something like that?
He'd thought she'd become an idiot since she wasn't taking commissions anymore, but it seemed she'd acquired even better technology from somewhere.
While he was burning with anxiety, Haon was just yawning.