Chapter 18 - I've Been Kidnapped (2)

* * *

* * *

“... Pfft.”

The laughter escaped before it could be stopped.

He looked ready to kill every subordinate sent his way until they met in person.

Well, that hardly mattered.

“That fellow is quite entertaining, isn't he?”

A masked figure propped up their chin and put a cigarette between their lips. They exhaled a long stream of smoke. Strangely, it was neither acrid nor sharp in the nose. Instead, it spread through the room like a sweet fragrance.

“... Yes, indeed.”

The subordinate remained bent at the waist, unable even to lift their head. They could barely conceal their trembling hands. Having suddenly skipped the intermediate ranks to meet the Poison King alone, their heart could hardly stand the strain.

“Seo Hyeonyul. Seo Hyeonyul, hmm.”

The Poison King spoke the name aloud. Whatever gave him such confidence, the man hadn't even changed where he lived.

“He doesn't seem aware of it himself, but people in our line of work call him a monster. Did he strike you that way?”

“... Yes. He did. Before I could even blink, my c-colleague was dead.”

“Yes, yes. I like him.”

The Poison King's voice was gentle.

Hyeonyul was the test subject everyone wanted.

A living test subject.

What would that be like? How many heads could they take with that monster at their disposal?

Conquering the Empire was, in fact, simply a matter of taking the heads of the king and the prime minister. It was that easy, yet the Black Eagles guarded the central district where those bastards lived, leaving them unable to make so much as an attempt.

With the Empire's massive backing, the Black Eagles were intoxicated with their role as guardians. They tracked their movements and cut them down before they could take root.

What if someone appeared who could attack that place directly?

What if that someone was Seo Hyeonyul?

'Shin Daeho treasured him so much. Surely he can manage that much.'

Every time they met, Daeho had sung that name's praises. It had been an ugly sight.

'Good thing he died. Leaving something like this to me, too.'

The Poison King looked at the subordinate with a faint smile.

“... Ghhhk.”

The bowed subordinate suddenly clutched their throat. In an instant, blood streamed from their eyes and nose.

'I have to get him before someone else snatches him up.'

Ignoring the subordinate's suffering entirely, the Poison King finally smiled in satisfaction.

At last, the decision was made.

* * *

“... Hyeonyul!”

Haeryeon's voice startled Hyeonyul to a halt midway up the hill. He looked up.

She wasn't alone. Sinu was there too.

“...?”

His head tilted of its own accord. Why were they here?

For a brief moment, his eyes wavered.

'Did they... catch me lying?'

Anxiety swept over him. His fingers tensed.

'They said I wouldn't get kicked out for lying, but you never know, do you?'

They might think he had disobeyed an order. Being disposed of for disobedience was only natural.

Would this place be any different?

Hyeonyul looked at Haeryeon and Sinu. For now, at least, they didn't seem angry.

“... Why have you come here?”

He asked quite cautiously.

Haeryeon and Sinu weren't angry. Rather, his reaction surprised them. He looked extremely wary, as though he genuinely hadn't expected them to come.

'... Wait.'

Haeryeon pressed a hand to her forehead.

—Team Leader. I've been kidnapped.

Who wouldn't come after receiving a text like that?

The meeting had just ended, and Sinu had been writing the report in her place, so they had been able to come together.

“How could we not come...? You said you'd been kidnapped.”

Sinu spoke in astonishment.

“What does that have to do with it?”

Hyeonyul's question left them both speechless. He was reacting as though coming here was itself strange.

“It has everything to do with it. That's how things work here.”

Sinu spoke calmly.

At other companies, colleagues were people you wanted to keep on reasonably good terms with—just enough not to become enemies.

But being a colleague meant something different in the Black Eagles. It meant someone you could trust to watch your back.

They were different from other workplaces. It was understandable that Hyeonyul couldn't grasp it immediately.

“Does anything hurt? Are you injured anywhere? What on earth happened?”

Hyeonyul blinked at Haeryeon's rapid-fire questions.

He couldn't help turning various possibilities over in his mind. Only one thing mattered.

'... They didn't come because I disobeyed an order.'

Perhaps he was a fairly decent component after all.

That realization reassured him.

“I'm neither injured nor in pain. This only happened because villains forcibly took me away from here.”

Hyeonyul spread his arms slightly.

“It sounds like they threatened to kill everyone here if you didn't go with them...”

Haeryeon's voice carried her displeasure.

Villains' methods were predictable. They routinely seized the people around their targets and used them as leverage.

Above all, this was a poor hillside neighborhood, with houses packed tightly together. Anyone threatened in a place like this would surely comply.

“Of course they threatened him.”

Sinu let out a long breath. A single bomb here would clearly kill hundreds or more.

Knowing Hyeonyul's power made Sinu feel even worse for him. He must have been unable to fight back despite having the ability to do so.

Hadn't they saved people from becoming test subjects thanks to him?

'... And they accuse someone like this of murder?'

Thinking about it again left Sinu dumbfounded.

[“Hyeonyul has a movement ability. Jihwan on our team has one too, and so do some other Black Eagles, but with the mood the way it is, someone might use that against him.”]

Before they came here, Haeryeon had explained something: if anyone saw Hyeonyul's power, they might suspect him of being the culprit in this case.

[“Don't worry. Dr. Lee Jeongmin, who just joined us, said even Hyeonyul couldn't reach the scene of that incident, which is about an hour away by car. He said that would practically turn his body into particles, so he couldn't do it. It's physically impossible, and he's willing to testify to that.”]

The newly arrived doctor, Lee Jeongmin, specialized in test subjects. Sinu hadn't known it, but he had also treated Hyeonyul for a long time.

That doctor had said it was impossible. Therefore, there was no reason whatsoever to suspect Hyeonyul.

“Yes. They threatened me.”

Hyeonyul didn't so much as blink. He had killed them all, but it was true they had threatened him to make him go with them.

He soon looked around. First, he needed to find the phone he'd left in the bushes earlier.

“This is yours, right?”

Sinu waved the phone. It had turned up while searching the area earlier.

“Yes. Thank you.”

Hyeonyul held out his hand. At last, he could relax. Replacing it would have cost an uncomfortable amount.

“Then shall we go somewhere before getting into the details?”

For a while now, Haeryeon had felt eyes pouring out at them through the houses' windows. They couldn't speak carelessly about anything here.

“Then please come inside.”

Hyeonyul opened the door without hesitation. This was more efficient.

Still, he wasn't particularly pleased. It felt rather like working overtime.

* * *

The moment Haeryeon stepped into Hyeonyul's home, she barely suppressed a sigh.

The first things she saw were medicines and medical equipment. The house had already looked small, but all that clutter left barely any room to stand. She wondered whether he even had somewhere to sleep.

“I'm sorry my home is so small.”

Hyeonyul spoke first.

“N-no, not at all. It's just right for one person.”

Haeryeon tried to smile naturally, while Sinu waved both hands.

“That's right. Just right.”

“I thought this would be better since we'd otherwise have to walk all the way down the hill, but it seems I made the wrong call.”

“Not at all. It was a very good idea, Hyeonyul.”

The corners of Haeryeon's mouth quivered.

[“I'd like my pay to arrive on time. I'd like to eat, after all.”]

She had known that villains had extorted money from him, but his living conditions were worse than she'd imagined. It really brought home how much he spent on medical expenses.

She resolved to make sure he received his medical subsidy sooner.

“Hyeonyul, have you eaten?”

“I ate there.”

Honestly, it had been delicious. It was the most satisfying meal he'd ever had.

“There... where you were kidnapped?”

Sinu asked in surprise.

“Yes. They told me to eat before leaving. As it happened, I had nothing at home.”

His answer made Haeryeon and Sinu look ready to drag their hands down their faces. Certainly, everything in sight was medicine.

“O-oh dear, where's my head? We've come to your home empty-handed!”

Sinu stammered, suddenly raising their voice.

“Exactly. Well said, Sinu. Ha ha.”

As Haeryeon laughed awkwardly, Hyeonyul looked from one to the other.

'Am I supposed to laugh along...?'

He had no idea what was going on.

As a strange silence settled over them, Hyeonyul spoke first, as though accustomed to it.

“Although I was kidnapped, I did obtain information.”

Saying he'd been kidnapped might make him look more incompetent than expected. So he'd extracted information however he could.

After speaking, he looked at the two of them. As expected, their expressions changed completely. Clearly, he'd chosen the right subject.

“The Poison King was indeed behind this incident. Like the business card last time, this was another test for me. I've drawn enough interest now, so next time I'll be able to meet the Poison King in person.”

“Hyeonyul.”

Haeryeon spoke his name gravely.

“Team Leader. I won't go seeking out the Poison King. I'll deal with the Poison King during a mission.”

“During a mission...?”

“I don't know the specifics, but I obtained information that something major is being prepared for the near future.”

“You mean a planned terrorist attack?”

“Yes. The Poison King owns several companies, and I know one of them.”

He had sent away exactly one of the eight people in the restaurant. That person's destination was somewhere they were to make a report.

He had learned its location, too. But he hadn't continued watching.

Reports to the Poison King might pass through several stages. Without knowing what those stages were, he considered waiting a waste of time. Reports to Shin Daeho had gone through the same sort of process, so there was nothing unusual about it.

He judged it more efficient to give the Black Eagles the location and let them investigate their way closer.

“Can you tell me where it is?”

Haeryeon looked at him expectantly. This was a different matter from Hyeonyul going to meet the Poison King.

“I'll mark the location and send it to you.”

Hyeonyul opened a map and checked the spot.

“Oh, did Team Leader Ye Juhyeon tell you there was a collaborator inside the organization?”

Pausing as he marked the location, he briefly raised his head to look at Haeryeon.

“... W-wait. What do you mean?”

Sinu's eyes widened. When Sinu looked at Haeryeon in shock, she nodded.

Shocking though it was, this was something Yang Dojin, the leader of Team Two, had warned her about before.

“Only we know about it so far. At present, we've only found a collaborator among the managers, but we may soon find one among the Black Eagles too.”

“Team Leader. Is that... true?”

Sinu still couldn't hide their confusion.

A collaborator?

It felt like a hard blow to the back of the head.

“Sinu, I'm sorry to spring this on you, but I can't give you a detailed explanation yet. Nothing further has turned up. Hyeonyul probably doesn't know the details either.”

“Yes. Team Leader Juhyeon knows the most.”

Hyeonyul nodded. He'd only given Juhyeon the phone to catch whoever was bad-mouthing him. Some strange affair had simply become entangled with it.

“I've sent the location.”

“Thank you, Hyeonyul.”

After checking the location, Haeryeon looked at him again.

She'd told him stealing was wrong, but honestly, if he hadn't given that phone to Juhyeon, they wouldn't have known anything.

Haeryeon squeezed her eyes shut for a brief moment.

'Still, stealing isn't acceptable.'

When asked who was good and who was evil, she believed the objective dividing line was whether they obeyed the law.

Shaking off those stray thoughts, she asked naturally,

“We have the results of the initial meeting about today's incident. You've been waiting, haven't you?”

“I have.”

Hyeonyul's expression didn't shift at all. His eyes merely seemed duller than usual. If anything, he looked more severe.

Haeryeon wondered whether it was because of the kidnapping earlier. Then another possibility occurred to her, and she asked,

“Hyeonyul.”

“Yes?”

“We'll leave as soon as I finish telling you this. Is that all right?”

“Yes, that's fine.”

Only then did his expression ease a little.

'He really... hates doing extra work.'

Haeryeon made sure to engrave that in her memory. Perhaps he regarded even this as overtime.

“Since it was the initial meeting, we focused on matters concerning you rather than disciplinary measures. There won't be any fallout or harm to you from this incident. Could you tell me what disciplinary action you'd like to see?”

“I know they won't necessarily receive the punishment I want. I simply want to come to work quietly and peacefully. That's all.”

Hyeonyul spoke realistically. Whatever disciplinary action he suggested, they would only truly be punished once the matter was handed over to the police anyway.

“Of course we'll make sure of that. But we'll have an answer on that point after the next meeting, which should be scheduled soon. Nothing like this has happened since the Black Eagles were founded... It's a considerable shock in many ways. Of course, it must be most shocking for you.”

“Team Leader.”

“Yes, Hyeonyul?”

“No matter what I do, no one in the Black Eagles will accept me or like me.”

He spoke with almost resolute firmness.

He had never killed civilians in the past, but he'd still worked for a company run by a villain. No one liked a former villain.

“Whatever I do in the future, rumors will always follow me like a label. People will always put me on the scales and weigh every little thing. I understand that perfectly well, and I believe it's unavoidable. So you don't need to try so hard.”

Hyeonyul explained reality to Haeryeon and Sinu. Those two didn't know how much the world disliked and hated former villains.

As he always had, today and tomorrow he would simply keep moving forward, killing those who got in his way.

“But thank you for always looking out for me.”

Hyeonyul dipped his head slightly, then lifted it again. Whatever else might be true, thanking them for this was only right.

Even when he'd been useful, no one had ever done this much for him.

As Hyeonyul smiled, Haeryeon and Sinu barely swallowed the many words that rose to their throats.

Perhaps it was because the smile was so guileless, so unlike his usual expression, but their hearts ached unbearably. They wanted to strike every person who had ever suspected him, even for a moment.

'This isn't right...'

Haeryeon gripped her knees tightly, and Sinu was shaken too.

This wasn't right.

No matter how many times they thought about it, it simply wasn't right.