Chapter 49 - It Always Starts With the Little Things (3)

* * *

“Hyeonyul!”

Haeryeon called his name, overcome with emotion.

“... Yes?”

“You’re a blessing, Hyeonyul!”

This was insane. He could identify villains from nothing more than emblems and marks that everyone else dismissed as insignificant. If that wasn’t insane, what was?

Unable to keep up with Haeryeon’s emotions, Hyeonyul merely blinked.

'Why am I... a blessing?'

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand. As far as he knew, people used that word for someone or something immensely precious. Its meaning didn’t fit him at all.

'Have I misunderstood what it means?'

Hyeonyul gave the matter serious thought.

“Anyway, tomorrow you can just sit here and look at the things I give you. You don’t have to identify everything. Just confirming whether the information we’ve gathered is correct would be a tremendous help.”

“Absolutely. A tremendous help.”

Sinu nodded in agreement.

“I sent you out for an easy day today, too, and look how big the case became. Let’s do this tomorrow, Hyeonyul.”

He needed to recover, and serious cases following him around weren’t helping. It would be better to change things up like this, even for a day. Only then did Haeryeon feel at ease.

“That really is a good idea.”

Sinu was equally supportive.

For a new recruit, he’d been given far too many rough assignments. He needed a break around now. If he started running full tilt already, he might burn out and leave later.

'... No. He can’t leave.'

Sinu swallowed the desperate words threatening to spill out.

“Then... would that count as a workday?”

Hyeonyul asked very cautiously. Perhaps she might allow it. He did find himself hoping so.

“Of course.”

“...!”

Hyeonyul’s eyes widened in surprise.

'... That’s allowed?'

Wasn’t he merely looking at corporate logos and emblems? It was even simpler than paperwork. In fact, even if he looked at them, there was no guarantee he would recognize them all.

'Is it because of my injuries after all...?'

He was almost completely healed. Did they not consider someone incompetent here just because they were injured?

'If that’s not it...'

CLAP!

Hyeonyul blinked at the sound of clapping.

“What should I say to you, Hyeonyul?”

Seeing the faint crease between his eyebrows, Haeryeon knew he was digging himself into a hole again. This wasn’t a matter of self-esteem or anything like that. His environment was largely to blame. He was simply floundering because he had never experienced anything different.

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

Her question itself seemed terribly difficult for him. What should she say? After a moment’s thought, Haeryeon explained.

“It does count as a workday. If I have any other intention, it’s only that I want your injuries to heal quickly.”

As soon as she finished, she gave him a gentle smile.

'... Wait.'

Hyeonyul thought of a way to make efficient use of this situation.

The Red Witch had tried to take over the territory the Poison King had vacated. Now that she was dead, the only outcome left was a clash between dozens of factions. He now had a natural way to pass along the information Yujong had brought him.

“Team Leader.”

“Yes?”

“May I look through them tomorrow, and then tell you more as I look through them on future occasions?”

“You’d do that for us...?”

Instead, it was Haeryeon who asked in delight.

Taking down a villain’s faction was harder than one might think. She was grateful enough that he could help at all, and now he was offering to do more.

“I can—”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Haeryeon approached and patted his shoulder. When Hyeonyul froze, Sinu patted his other shoulder.

“Hyeonyul’s looking awfully shy, isn’t he?”

“I am not.”

Hyeonyul denied Sinu’s remark.

It was something else. How could he put it?

'... They’re like the Doctor.'

That was the closest comparison Hyeonyul could come up with.

It didn’t feel bad. If anything, it was closer to good.

'Things are going well, aren’t they?'

Haeryeon didn’t know what had made Hyeonyul happy, but she was happy too.

'Is now the time?'

She was itching to say it. Wouldn’t this be the perfect moment? Wasn’t now the time?

Oh, to hell with it.

“Let’s have a welcome party, Hyeonyul!”

Riding the momentum, Haeryeon finally said what she’d wanted to say all along.

It would be a gathering to welcome him to Team Three. Surely they needed something like this for him to feel he belonged.

“...”

Hyeonyul remained silent, and his reaction flustered Haeryeon.

“... Team Leader.”

Sinu cautiously spoke up.

“... Don’t say it.”

One look at Hyeonyul’s expression told Haeryeon everything, without any explanation.

“It seems you’ve made a mistake.”

“I know...!”

Under Hyeonyul’s cold gaze, Haeryeon clutched her long, fluffy hair.

'He hates welcome parties this much?'

Eating delicious beef, chatting, singing songs—it was so much fun. But she had already ruined everything. She could feel it all too clearly.

“Hyeonyul, could you not look at me like that either? The Team Leader was the one who suggested it.”

When Hyeonyul turned that same cold gaze on Sinu, Sinu immediately abandoned Haeryeon. That earned Sinu one more piercing stare, but Sinu laughed at Hyeonyul. What else could be done? With anyone else, perhaps, but Sinu had absolutely no idea how to soothe Hyeonyul when he was angry.

“... Yes. I’ll do it.”

Hyeonyul exhaled as he answered. He hadn’t even prepared, but the inevitable had arrived.

「101 Ways to Make Workplace Life Run Smoothly.」

According to that book, a welcome party was a very important occasion.

Unlike the welcome parties he knew, it was something of a decisive event that could alter all his future relationships. There were various skills a new recruit needed to master. The correct angle for pouring drinks. The right timing for laughing at jokes, whatever those jokes might be. All of those things were difficult for him.

“May I choose the time?”

Hyeonyul asked cautiously.

“... You really are okay with us having one, right?”

Haeryeon’s question was equally cautious. He seemed to be bracing himself awfully hard.

“Isn’t it something I must go through once?”

“Well, yes, but are you really going to be okay? You don’t have to if you don’t want to. The Team Leader isn’t the sort to force you, either.”

Trying to make up for the earlier betrayal, Sinu defended Haeryeon while gently sounding Hyeonyul out.

“I’ll prepare and be ready for it.”

Hyeonyul was about to continue when he felt a vibration.

“Excuse me while I take my medicine.”

Once Hyeonyul stepped away, Haeryeon and Sinu looked at each other.

“... What kind of preparations does he mean?”

“I don’t know either.”

Haeryeon and Sinu whispered to each other.

“Could he... be planning to buy gifts? Ever since we bought him all those things last time, he’s kept asking me if I need anything.”

“Me too. I told him not to worry about it.”

“So did I.”

When that exchange ended, they both smiled at once.

“Oh, Nayun and Jihwan are going to be jealous, aren’t they?”

“What can you do? That’s why you should always treat people well.”

Sinu shrugged, basking in self-satisfaction.

“Absolutely. Oh, we should keep this welcome party a little low-key, right?”

“Of course. Low-key and mellow. Enough that he won’t run away.”

“... The problem is, I don’t know just how low-key that needs to be.”

Haeryeon swept her hair back.

Gatherings. Getting together. Her team was quite famous for seeming to consist entirely of people who loved all such things. There had even been a teammate who fled during a welcome party.

In that respect, Hyeonyul was different. He was like an expensive piece of porcelain.

“Neither do I. When I ask him what he’s doing, about four hours later he replies, ‘I’m knitting.’ That means he’s been knitting for four hours straight.”

“... Wait a minute.”

Haeryeon gave Sinu a look bordering on a glare.

“Didn’t we agree to be careful? Why are you the only one sending him messages so freely—”

“I’m back.”

At Hyeonyul’s quiet announcement, Haeryeon and Sinu screamed soundlessly.

“S-Sinu, it looks like you have another assignment?”

“R-Right. I’ll go. See you when I get back.”

“Yes. Take care.”

Hyeonyul was about to bow when Nayun’s voice suddenly came to mind.

[“Don’t bow your head. Wave, Hyeonyul. Do it for me, okay? You can do that, can’t you? Hmm?”]

After Nayun’s request, Jihwan had been the first person he’d waved to. Jihwan had kept sending him mobile gift vouchers, telling him to get something to eat, and it had been weighing on his mind.

[“... Wow. After all that, at least give a wave. Why are you playing so hard to get?”]

Perhaps it had been impulsive. When he asked Jeongmin why Jihwan was giving him those things, the strange look Jeongmin gave him was unfamiliar, and that might have been why he’d done it. What was so special about a wave? Yet Jihwan had been delighted.

'Will Sinu be happy?'

After a moment’s hesitation, Hyeonyul waved to Sinu too.

On the way out, Sinu stopped short, eyes widening in surprise, then smiled and waved back.

'... It does make people happy.'

Hyeonyul had learned one thing: waving made people happy.

* * *

“... Hyeonyul. Whatever happens, you need to stay calm.”

Before they went inside, Haeryeon decided she needed a few promises from him. Hyeonyul wouldn’t show villains mercy.

“Yes.”

“They might get furious when they see us and lash out, but you still need to restrain yourself.”

“Understood.”

“Using force when we capture villains is fine, but laying hands on them after they’re captured is a different matter.”

“What problems would that cause?”

Normally he would have said, “Understood,” and left it at that, but the look in his eyes had already changed. He acted as though, depending on the problems involved, he would go as far as he could without causing any.

No, surely not.

“You can’t touch them unless the special prison for criminals asks for help. They’re outside our jurisdiction now.”

“Would I be disciplined if I did?”

“Yes. We each have our own departments, and we need to respect their authority. Otherwise, we’d be disregarding them, wouldn’t we?”

“... Ah. That would be the case.”

Hyeonyul nodded. In short, all he needed was a situation in which the special prison for criminals requested help.

He turned to look at the building. From the outside, it looked like any other prison. But the countless spells drawn over even its walls told him this was the real thing.

'Why don’t they kill them?'

That had been his first thought when he learned this place existed. His thinking hadn’t changed since, and it remained the same now.

“All right. We’re mentally prepared. Let’s go in.”

As Haeryeon headed toward the prison, Hyeonyul started walking about two steps behind her. If he hadn’t met Jeongmin, wouldn’t he be in this place? The thought suddenly lingered in his mind.

* * *

“... Fuuuck! You Eagle bastards, what’s there to look at...?”

“Shut your mouth.”

“You’ll lick those Eagles’ assholes raw, you fucking bastards!”

The guard jabbed a long rod directly into the villain-turned-prisoner.

BZZZZT!

It apparently carried an electric current, because the villain who had been screaming so relentlessly moments before began to convulse.

'Like bugs.'

Hyeonyul watched them impassively. With their hands and feet bound, all they could do was crawl on their bodies.

“Team Leader.”

“Yes...?”

Haeryeon tensed.

There had been no trouble at the entrance. She’d greeted the warden, exchanged idle chatter with a guard she had met several times, and introduced Hyeonyul. The trouble came when they passed the prisoners on their way to the Poison King. The moment the prisoners saw their Black Eagles uniforms, they unleashed every curse imaginable.

She could dismiss it as dogs barking, but Hyeonyul was different. He might find the piercing noise so irritating that he wanted to kill them all.

“Doesn’t the Empire hate villains? Why go to the trouble of spending money to keep them alive?”

Hyeonyul could no longer contain the questions that had flooded his mind the moment he saw them. They looked like bugs, but they were alive. In reasonably clean spaces, wearing reasonably clean clothes. They were living very well. He’d expected them to be miserable, but they weren’t. They were living like human beings.

“... Why are they living like human beings?”

Hyeonyul’s eyes didn’t blink. He simply seemed unable to understand any of this.

'Oh.'

Looking into his eyes, Haeryeon belatedly realized how little thought she’d given this.

'... I made a mistake.'

Hyeonyul could withstand the Poison King’s power. She’d agreed based on that simple fact, pleased that he had asked her for something. She shouldn’t have.

The emotion Hyeonyul harbored was anything but trivial. It felt as though she were looking into a fathomlessly black hole.

“... Because there’s a lot of information we need to extract. I probably feel the same way you do about this. Every time I see them, I wonder why they’re still alive.”

“Then do you kill them afterward?”

“Some of them. We can’t kill them all.”

“Why not? Is there a reason to pour money into those things?”

There was madness in Hyeonyul’s eyes as he looked at the imprisoned villains. There was no other way to describe it.

“The outward reason is human rights. Secondary reasons include their families and the possibility that they were being used. And...”

Haeryeon watched Hyeonyul’s expression throughout her explanation. He seemed to be slowly settling down.

“There are various conflicting interests.”

Haeryeon kept her explanation brief. She even looked as though further questions would put her in a difficult position.

“So villains have human rights too, then.”

The remark was sarcastic. Hyeonyul closed his eyes, then opened them.

What could he do? Even those villains the Empire hated treated test subjects like worthless things to be abused.

“... Hyeonyul.”

“Yes.”

“You can still wait outside if you want.”

Haeryeon spoke cautiously. How painful would it be for him to keep seeing this?

“... No. I’m sorry.”

Hyeonyul belatedly apologized. Seeing them living well simply didn’t sit right with him.

Anger. Yes, he was angry. How foolish he had been to imagine they would be crawling about in greater misery.

'... Even if I capture villains as a Black Eagle, they’ll all live like this, won’t they?'

In that case, killing them was indeed the answer.

“You don’t have to apologize. This is my fault.”

Hyeonyul didn’t understand what Haeryeon meant. She said incomprehensible things more often than anyone else. She outranked him, too. As Team Leader, she held authority over personnel and could fire him whenever she wished.

“I should have explained how those pieces of trash live first.”

“How do they live?”

“Come with me.”

Haeryeon changed their route without asking. The guard walking ahead of them spoke in surprise.

“T-This way, please.”

“Just a moment.”

Addressing the guard, Haeryeon showed Hyeonyul the prison’s true face.

Normally, this was forbidden. Especially in front of the Black Eagles.

* * *

They descended so far underground that it became impossible to tell where they were going. Along the way, the imprisoned villains howled noisily, but some fell silent at the sight of Haeryeon.

The prison’s basement. The instant they entered, they heard screams.

“In life, there are times when someone has to do the filthiest, most disgusting work.”

Haeryeon walked toward the source of the stench.

“Money alone isn’t enough. Some jobs require a sense of duty, don’t they?”

Hyeonyul listened quietly, looking ahead.

“But in this Empire, no one needs to feel that sense of duty.”

Haeryeon pointed downward. Hyeonyul followed her gesture with his eyes.

Villains were moving about in a place filled with every kind of garbage and sewage. Right beside the sewage treatment area, almost touching it, stood a workshop for sorting trash. Without proper ventilation, they were down in the lowest depths alongside the filthiest things. The intent to make their lives utter shit was plain to see.

“Because the captured villains will do all of it for us.”

Finishing her explanation, Haeryeon looked at Hyeonyul.

Hyeonyul smiled.

He smiled very brightly.