Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: Incomprehensible
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“Hello? Are you kidding me...!”
The man was fuming, but he didn't come any closer.
As they walked, they encountered a few more people who showed open hostility.
“What good is it to stop giving weapons to villains now! My dad is already dead!”
“I'm not falling for it. I know you took over District 1 because you need test subjects!”
Most of them were people who had lost family because of the weapons Eun Haon had made.
Perhaps that was why. No matter how harsh their words, Haon would simply reply, “Yes. Hello.”
Watching this from the side, Juyeol grew troubled.
It wasn't the first time this had happened, but it seemed to be the first time they had cursed her so openly.
He had a feeling he knew why they were being so bold today. It was because he, a Hero, was with her.
They must have thought that even someone like Eun Haon wouldn't try anything funny in front of a Hero on inspection.
After passing through the shopping district, Haon turned to Juyeol with a proud face. Her arms were now full of snacks.
“The residents of District 1 seem like good people.”
“They were just... all sorts of...”
Juyeol, who had been about to rebuke her, shut his mouth and rubbed the back of his neck, as he had been doing all day.
“Should we have a meal together and talk next week?”
At Haon's words, he drew in a short breath.
The same hopeful expectation she had shown in the office was once again transparent on her face.
He let out a dumbfounded laugh.
“Does it really not bother you?”
“...Huh?”
“Have you forgotten again what you did to me? What in the world am I supposed to do with you?”
“That was, well, that's...”
Haon, who had been stammering like a broken machine, suddenly blushed beet red.
Unable to bear the embarrassment, Haon buried her face in a paper bag.
Juyeol would surely find it strange, but she couldn't lift her head.
Haon realized she had been unconsciously hoping that if she met him every week, they could get along again.
If a terrorist were trying to manipulate him using Parang's death as leverage...
It would be impossible to get along with such a vicious con artist. He wouldn't be able to face Parang.
‘...Ah.’
When her thoughts reached that point, Haon realized that he would never forgive her, if only because of the guilt and debt he felt toward his brother.
As long as he didn't believe she wasn't ‘Eun Haon’, she was nothing but a horrible villain to him.
‘Come to think of it, he's been cold and prickly ever since we met in District 1...’
Even today, the longer he spent with me, the worse his expression became.
‘Of course he'd be furious with me. How stupid of me.’
It felt as if a gaping hole had been punched through her chest.
As Haon sniffled and lifted her head, a tear that had been welling in her eye streamed down her cheek.
Juyeol flinched, his expression souring once more.
“You know.”
Seeing him turn his head away from her, Haon asked tearfully.
“Did you... by any chance... check the video and photos I gave you?”
“...”
His silence was answer enough for Haon.
“You didn't.”
Why don't you believe me?
Haon forced down the words that rose to the tip of her tongue and wiped away her tears.
There was no reason for him to believe her. Because he hated her and...
‘Because Juyeol isn't ‘Juyeol’.’
Haon's heart sank at her own thought. A sense of loneliness, of being all alone in a dark world, washed over her like a tidal wave.
Rustle.
Haon was startled by the sound from her arms. She had unknowingly clutched the paper bag tightly.
‘I'm going back home anyway, so why am I like this?’
It seemed she had come to rely on this world's Juyeol quite a lot.
“Eun Haon.”
Juyeol, watching the discomposed Haon, spoke up.
“Why did you suddenly become something like the boss of a district?”
Haon hesitated for a moment before answering honestly.
“Because I needed a large diamond.”
“That's it?”
“That's it.”
That diamond was safely stored in the secret safe in her lab.
There was also a diamond in the District 1 spoils vault, but only Nova knew it was a fake.
For a moment, Juyeol's hand went to his holster as he spun around to look somewhere.
“I heard we had a visitor, so I hurried over, but I'm a little late.”
The source of the presence was Nova, who had popped out from the alley.
“Nova? You're here early.”
“I finished my work, so don't worry.”
He pressed his lips lingeringly against Haon's cheek.
Haon, who had been quietly accepting the kiss, shifted her gaze in embarrassment and met Juyeol's.
It was an ice-cold gaze.
“...!”
Haon's heart suddenly dropped as if she'd been caught doing something terribly wrong.
“N-Nova. Wait a second.”
“Babe?”
When she bewilderedly pushed Nova away, he put on a hurt expression.
“N-Not right now.”
As Haon fumbled, Juyeol suddenly spun around.
And before she could explain anything, he and River had left District 1.
Haon, who could only move her lips in a daze, felt a strange throbbing in her chest.
‘That just now was nothing...’
There was no reason for him to care, and he probably wasn't curious, but she wanted to grab him and make excuses.
* * *
[Master! You are in danger!]
Ttiyong transformed into a net-like sphere and supported Juyeol's body.
Juyeol, who had been heading to the engineering room after finishing his inspection report, had collapsed, grabbing onto a windowsill.
“Don't talk so loud. My head is ringing.”
Juyeol clutched his head, waiting for the headache to subside before getting up.
It was already the second time this week that he had collapsed, unable to bear the headache.
[Master is too frail.]
“Stop talking nonsense.”
He entered the engineering room, clutching his throbbing head.
On the way back to headquarters, he had received a message that the analysis of Eun Haon's USB file was complete.
“What are the results?”
At Juyeol's question, the engineer began to speak with a hesitant expression.
“According to the analysis with our equipment, it's not CG or AI, but...”
“...!”
“You said the person in the photos and video wasn't Ghost, right?”
“...Yes.”
“We don't know what kind of technology was used to make it, but we've determined that it's been manipulated.”
Juyeol froze for a moment before asking.
“Are you saying it's a new technology?”
“It has to be. Anyone who didn't know better would think it's real.”
It was true that Haon had been using technology he'd never seen before since she lost her memory.
‘Does this mean headquarters' analysis alone isn't enough to be certain?’
Juyeol rolled the returned USB in his hand and lowered his voice.
“By any chance... do you think dimensional travel is possible?”
“Huh?”
The engineer's eyes widened as if he hadn't expected such a question, then he broke into a silly grin.
“There are people who believe in the multiverse, but as for traveling between them...”
As the engineer couldn't stop laughing, Juyeol's face grew hot.
“...You can forget about it. It was just simple curiosity.”
Feeling he'd asked a foolish question, he quickly left the engineering room.
Then, as soon as he reached his dorm, he collapsed onto the bed.
[Commencing charging!]
Ttiyong crawled onto the desk on its own and plugged in its charging jack.
The mechanical hamster was a completely out-of-place existence on the desk cluttered with bullets and a holster.
He lay there quietly, fiddling with the USB.
The day the master of District 1 changed.
He couldn't forget Haon's face, which he had seen for the first time in a long while.
Nor the nauseating feeling as emotions he had tried to bury deep inside kept rearing their heads.
He had even felt happy to see a flicker of affection and welcome in her flustered eyes.
“N-Nova has done a lot of wrong, but he hasn't done anything right now, and he's already hurt, so...”
“Ha.”
Juyeol let out an involuntary, bitter laugh.
The sight of her sticking by Nova's side, defending him.
Not long ago, the one she had tried to protect with that small body was him. He knew it was childish, but his stomach twisted.
River and Chaser must have noticed he couldn't concentrate at all on the scene.
He didn't know what Haon was thinking, becoming the boss of District 1.
What was important was that his engineer, whom he hadn't even gotten to properly work with, was now on the villain list.
And despite that, she still looked at him...
‘Why does she still look at me with those eyes?’
Shouldn't she be upset after being so coldly rejected for something she doesn't even remember?
If not that, shouldn't she feel at least a little awkward about having to meet me every week?
“Should we have a meal together and talk next week?”
How could she hold such an expectation? Her reaction was completely incomprehensible.
He also couldn't understand his own heart, which still pounded for that screw-loose girl.
It would be better if they went back to completely hating each other like before.
Then it wouldn't bother him at all whether Nova kissed her cheek or hugged her.
“...”
He abruptly threw his pillow. When he suddenly sat up, his head spun again, and he irritably ruffled his hair.
‘Why does she just accept that kind of thing so naturally? Is she trying to drive me crazy?’
He didn't like any of it. He was most annoyed with himself for being so stuck.
Dimensional travel, something you only see in movies? He just wanted to believe it.
‘They said it wasn't manipulated. New technology or whatever, they said it wasn't fake. And she was crying so hard—’
As he muttered, he suddenly bent over.
“Ugh...”
Whenever he thought of Haon, whenever his heart pounded for her, the images of a burning house and a charred corpse flickered in his mind. The acrid smoke and flames squeezed his brain.
Juyeol, waiting for the headache to pass, lifted his head at the beep of an alarm.
It was time to go see his brother.