Chapter 37 - Festival (2)

* * *

How could he fail to recognize that familiar smell entering his nose as he breathed in?

Hyeonyul's eyes darted urgently. So many people were mingling that he couldn't even tell who had just walked past. Picking out any one person in these circumstances was difficult.

'... But the Poison King was definitely captured, wasn't he?'

The Poison King was the reason this festival had become dangerous. After Shin Daeho's death, the Poison King's greedy bid to expand his power was supposed to lead to a massacre here. Now that he too had been captured, that danger should have disappeared.

'And yet someone died here?'

Had someone taken up the Poison King's cause?

Why?

Hyeonyul felt thoughts come crashing in. Who among all these people was a villain? Who was he supposed to kill?

Feeling the warmth of the little hand tightly gripping his own, he thought more deeply.

'Does no one know yet that someone has died?'

Suddenly, a wind blew. It was no ordinary wind.

Hyeonyul's roaming gaze caught on someone and stopped. It was impossible to miss them, with the eagle emblem proudly displayed on their arm.

It was Jihwan.

When their eyes met, Jihwan smiled, looking ready to call out "Bro" at any moment. Jihwan raised a hand and pointed to someone.

Hyeonyul turned that way and saw Sinu, who held up one finger.

One more.

That seemed to be exactly what he meant.

'Is Chu Nayun here too?'

Sinu waved his hand as though shaking something off.

Go have fun.

Hyeonyul felt as if he could hear those words clearly. The tension packed into his shoulders slowly eased.

Team Three was here.

'Do they know someone has died?'

BZZZZ.

The phone in his pocket vibrated.

[Senior Baek Sinu: Nayun probably saw the guy who passed by you.]

[Senior Baek Sinu: I'd like to make sure you have nothing to worry about, but I can't promise that this time.]

[Senior Baek Sinu: There are so, so, so many people.]

[Senior Baek Sinu: Contact me if you notice anything strange.]

[Senior Baek Sinu: Have fun.]

They had noticed. But it seemed they were having just as much trouble.

"... Hyeonyul?"

At Jeongmin's voice, Hyeonyul looked at him. He was anxious.

"Are you really all right? Do you feel like throwing up?"

"I'm fine."

"Here, eat this first."

Jeongmin held out a candy. Hyeonyul grimaced the moment he saw it.

"Can I have one too?"

Serin swung the hand clasped in Jeongmin's.

"This is really, really sour, so you can't. You'd cry as soon as you tasted it."

"I'm good at eating sour things."

"Not this. It tastes truly awful."

Hyeonyul sighed and put the dreadful candy in its yellow wrapper into his mouth.

Surprisingly, it was homemade. It had been made specifically for him, so no one else could eat it. It wasn't medicine; the sourness was simply meant to bring him to his senses. Taking too much medication wasn't good either, so this was Jeongmin's stopgap remedy.

Hyeonyul placed the candy in his mouth.

"That wakes you right up, doesn't it?"

Jeongmin smiled, but Hyeonyul grimaced. It was sour enough to snap him fully alert.

"... It's awful."

"You look better now."

Jeongmin smiled at Hyeonyul, then looked at Serin. He had expected a tantrum, but the child was being patient.

"Serin."

"Yes?"

"What would you like to eat?" Jeongmin asked, looking at the child.

"... Can I really say?"

Serin spoke more cautiously than before.

"Of course you can. Since I couldn't give you any candy, I'll buy you something even tastier."

Only when Jeongmin smiled did Serin give a shy smile in return, tightening the grip on his hand.

"I want to walk around and look."

"Won't your legs hurt?"

"I'm strong!"

"What a brave little thing."

Jeongmin smiled and praised Serin.

The child was mature for that age. How had Serin become involved with Hyeonyul? Jeongmin was worried.

As though to dispel his worries, Serin walked excitedly ahead, swinging the hand on Hyeonyul's side and looking up at him.

"Mister, mister, there are really, really lots of people!"

Everything fascinated Serin. The child had never seen so many people, and none of them were giving Serin strange looks. It seemed as if there were as many sparkles in those eyes as there were people.

"Festivals have a lot of people. I didn't know there would be even more on the last day."

"They're all smiling."

"I understand that's what happens when people come to a festival."

"Are you happy right now too, mister?"

"I'm not sure."

"... Then, you know... could my mom and dad be here too?"

"I don't know."

Jeongmin was horrified by Hyeonyul's answer.

Why would you say it like that?

He barely swallowed the words rising in his throat.

'... He is adjusting well, isn't he?'

So this was Hyeonyul socializing. Seeing it firsthand was devastating. Knowing Hyeonyul's condition, Jeongmin himself was moved enough to applaud, but other people wouldn't see it that way. Hyeonyul was doing even worse than when he was with him.

Jeongmin checked on Serin. He had expected sadness, but instead the child was smiling. The smile spread.

"You're funny, mister!"

"Am I?"

"Everyone gets surprised when I ask that. So I don't ask."

Serin didn't know exactly what those looks meant, but didn't want to face them. The child didn't understand why people looked that way.

"I don't know who my parents are either."

"You don't know either, mister?"

"No."

At Hyeonyul's answer, Serin squeezed his hand.

"But can you see?"

Hyeonyul gazed at Serin. The child was small. From that height, what could Serin see besides people's legs?

"Yes. I can see people."

"Not that. Can you see anything you want to eat?"

Serin hesitated at his question.

"... What if I hurt you, mister?"

When Serin got excited or too happy, fire burst from the child's body. Even now, Serin was struggling to hold it in.

"I won't get hurt."

Such tiny little flames wouldn't even reach him.

Hyeonyul held out his hands just as Jeongmin had done for him. Serin hesitated, looked at him, then slowly reached out with both hands.

Hyeonyul picked Serin up. As the view rose higher, the child's plump cheeks lifted into a smile.

"Can you see properly now?"

"Yeees!"

Hyeonyul frowned at the shout, loud enough to hurt his ears. Did they learn how to shout together at kindergarten?

He walked slowly onward.

"Doctor."

"... Yes?"

Jeongmin's voice trembled. Apparently, he'd already been moved again. Hyeonyul didn't know how he found so many things to be moved by.

"Come to think of it, didn't we watch fireworks together when I was little?"

"Oh, yes, we did when you were little."

"Was that a festival?"

"It was. About as big as this one, or a little smaller."

"Why didn't I know?"

"Because we watched from far away."

Jeongmin pushed up his slipping glasses and answered casually. He thought of how long it had taken for Hyeonyul to be able to stand here without distress.

"Doctor."

"What is it? Is there something you want to eat?"

"No. Is a festival about looking at people?"

Hyeonyul disliked being unable to move as he pleased. He could smell food, but the people lining up kept him from getting a proper look at it. Performances had scheduled times, too. What was he supposed to look at until then?

"It's a little different from the book."

The book had clearly listed countless good things about festivals: unusual experiences, sights one didn't normally get to see. Yet the farther he walked, the more it looked like nothing but a street lined with stalls.

What was he supposed to look at?

"Hyeonyul, first of all, do you know what kind of festival this is?"

"A light festival!"

Serin answered for Hyeonyul.

"That's right. You know all about it, don't you, Serin?"

"I watched a video, and it said everything sparkles a lot. That's why I wanted to come."

"You heard that, right? It's beautiful once it's night."

"Even so, there doesn't seem to be anything here."

"Wait a little, and the sun will set."

Jeongmin looked at the sky. Sunset colors were spreading across it. Before long, the sun would go down and night would come.

Hyeonyul was about to follow his gaze upward when he heard something fall with a thunk. A short distance ahead, something resembling the new weapons, but much smaller, had fallen to the ground.

A chill washed over him.

"If we get something to eat and wait over at that stage, the sun will be down in no time."

"Doctor."

The unusual weight in Hyeonyul's voice made Jeongmin sense something was wrong.

"What is it?"

"I'll have that."

Jeongmin and Serin turned toward the spot Hyeonyul pointed to. In the meantime, he hid the weapon in the darkness.

'... They've chosen this place to test the new weapons.'

Only then did he know for certain what the villains were planning. There was one way to secure an even firmer grip on the area the Poison King had intended to take.

'Make a show of it with a massive incident.'

Everyone attending a festival guarded by the Black Eagles had died from weapons used by villains.

Wouldn't such a sensational story be perfect for establishing a rallying point?

Who would be behind it?

'... Asan.'

Those weapons had been the work of Asan, the woman called the Red Witch, from the start.

Perhaps the blood he had smelled earlier, and whatever they had done to cause that smell, had all been bait for the sake of the new weapons.

'They're planning something interesting.'

Of all days, his day off. That was the day they'd chosen to act.

"... Woooow! I want that too!"

Serin finally managed to see the food through the crowd. Chicken skewers. The sight of the plump meat threaded onto skewers made the child's mouth water.

"You want that?"

At Jeongmin's question, Serin nodded.

"Doctor, why don't you go with the child?"

At Hyeonyul's suggestion, Jeongmin reached for Serin without hesitation. He couldn't take Hyeonyul to such a crowded stall. It would only trigger his trauma, and he had also vaguely noticed that something had happened.

"Shall we go together and see how they make chicken skewers?"

Serin nodded at his suggestion.

"Yes!"

Serin went into Jeongmin's arms, and Hyeonyul pointed somewhere.

"Then I'll be under that streetlamp."

Jeongmin followed his finger. There was no one around it.

"All right. Stay there, and don't go anywhere."

"Yes. I'd like the mild sauce, please."

"All right. Wait there."

Only after hearing Jeongmin's reply did Hyeonyul turn away. Everyone looking at him flinched at the icy look in his eyes.

'... Today is my day off.'

If the incident grew this big, his leave would naturally be canceled. After the endless overtime and keeping him from even going home, they were now ruining his day off too.

'I thought I was finally free of overwork, and now you're pushing me into it again?'

Rage seethed inside him. If Asan really was behind this, he intended to kill her no matter what. Whatever else he might tolerate, he would no longer put up with being made to work on his days off.

Why here, of all places? They could have caused trouble anywhere outside his sight.

Hyeonyul took out his phone. Who should he tell? After a moment's consideration, he looked at his messages.

[Ma'am. They've dropped an unidentified object. Please keep a close watch from a distance.]

Nayun was perfect for this sort of thing.

* * *

As Hyeonyul leaned against the streetlamp, someone approached.

"I just got word. What's going on?"

It was Sinu's voice. Hyeonyul glanced at him and saw that he had come without his coat.

"Exactly what I told her."

"When did you start calling Nayun... Never mind. Do you have the object?"

At Sinu's question, Hyeonyul briefly lifted it into view, then hid it again.

"It resembles the new weapons we saw before. The only difference is that it's smaller. It probably contains poison. Has an antidote been made, by any chance?"

"Not yet."

Sinu trailed off. A new weapon had been used on a mountain near the city yesterday. Had that been a test for today's operation?

"Then we'll have to find them."

"Find what?"

The weapons, or the people carrying them? Perhaps he meant both. Sinu waited for Hyeonyul's answer.

"Both."

"In that case, Nayun and Jihwan are already tracking them. You know how good Nayun's eyes are, right?"

"I do."

"Once Nayun sees them, Jihwan shares her vision through magic and marks their location. Then I'll go to the marked spot and deal with them. Feel better now?"

"Then you only need to give me the weapons."

"... What?"

"I can stop them."

Sinu looked at Hyeonyul at those words.

"I'll show you right now."

He had played with those toys yesterday. He had also figured out how to stop them.

"... A-are you crazy?"

But Sinu was horrified.