Chapter 78 - Stab (3)

* * *

“...No, hyung.”

Jihwan had just told Hyeon-yul that the men were denying they were villains, but he had not expected Hyeon-yul to slam one of their heads into a wall. Startled, Jihwan hastily cast a spell on the wall.

“There are students right here.”

Even though he had used magic to seal off the sound, he lowered his voice without thinking.

“I know.”

“You know?”

“I wanted to show you something.”

Hyeon-yul pointed toward the students. After seeing what he had just done, they were trembling with anxiety.

“Go and listen to them for a moment.”

Jihwan moved aside as instructed. Once he stepped outside the area covered by the soundproofing spell, he could hear the students.

“...Mom. Mom!”

“Please save us! Somebody save us!”

“...Sob.”

They were obviously terrified. How could anyone possibly call that acting? Hyeon-yul's earlier words seemed almost like a lie.

‘...Did those students really attack Hyeon-yul hyung?’

Jihwan looked bewildered as he walked back.

“Did you hear them?”

“...Yes.”

“Doesn't it sound as though I lied to you?”

“...Hmm.”

“You can be honest.”

“That's... how it feels, yes.”

Jihwan answered reluctantly. He did not want to doubt Hyeon-yul. They were teammates, after all.

“Tell them you're a Black Eagle. Then you'll understand what I mean. But don't untie them. You'll be injured. Don't let their words or emotions deceive you.”

“...All right.”

Suppressing his unease, Jihwan left the range of his spell once again. The students were still begging and crying for help. Their hands and feet were bound, and blindfolds covered their eyes. His heart pounded anxiously at the sight. He wanted to free them as quickly as possible.

“I'm a Black Eagle. Please wait a moment. We'll have you out of here soon.”

Jihwan stepped toward them as he spoke. For an instant, he felt a strange chill.

‘...Didn't the crying just stop?’

Or was that sudden silence just his imagination?

“...Ah! We're saved. We're really saved!”

“Please untie us! Hurry!”

“Our teacher betrayed us! He was going to kill us!”

Some expressed relief, others begged for rescue, and still others protested that they had been wronged. It was a familiar scene, one that tugged at the heart. How frightened they must have been. Yet Jihwan could not forget the chill he had felt a moment before. Was it because of what Hyeon-yul had told him? An inexplicable unease wrapped around his body.

‘Hyung told me not to untie them.’

Believing Hyeon-yul would not have warned him for no reason, Jihwan pretended to begin freeing a student and deliberately stepped closer.

“...Please, hurry and untie me.”

“Just a moment.”

As Jihwan bent down in response, the ropes around the student's hands came loose, and the student lunged at him like a wild animal. Jihwan calmly pointed a finger. The student was flung backward, and Jihwan hastily drew a line in the air. An invisible wall formed.

Bang!

Boom!

“...”

Jihwan drew a deep breath and watched the students. There was something far more disturbing about the way they were staring at him than the way they were pounding on the barrier. Not even villains had ever looked at him with eyes like those.

It was revenge. At last, he understood the word Hyeon-yul had used. His heart was racing.

‘...What on earth is happening?’

“Do you see now?”

Hyeon-yul's voice came from behind him. He was dragging the captured villain by the neck.

“That's the condition they're in. Isn't it strange?”

“Extremely strange...”

Jihwan lowered his gaze, unable to find an answer.

“What should we call this?”

Hyeon-yul threw the man to the floor and planted a foot against the back of his neck.

Press.

The villain flailed his arms like wings for a moment, then went still under the pressure.

“If you use your ability, I'll break your neck immediately. If you try to stand up, I'll break it.”

Hyeon-yul pressed down harder as he gave the warning.

“I mean what I say.”

He made his intentions unmistakably clear. If the man disobeyed, surely it would only be right to follow through on the warning. Hyeon-yul raised his head and looked at Jihwan.

“Can you capture just one of the students?”

“Hyung, you can't treat a student like that.”

“I know. But don't we need to hear what one of them has to say? It will help us understand the situation faster.”

Jihwan glanced at the students, then at the man whose neck was pinned beneath Hyeon-yul's boot. Was this really how they should be doing things? He had his doubts, but there was no denying they were running out of time.

“Leave it to me.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Hyeon-yul thanked him and looked down at the villain, who appeared a little bewildered.

“You heard all that. Now tell me, if you're not villains, what are you? What exactly are you doing here?”

“...Who knows? What are we? What are we doing?”

Hyeon-yul tilted his head at the bizarre answer. Did the man think this was a joke?

“Can you even break my neck?”

The man sneered up at him.

“Go on, try it. I dare you.”

The repeated provocations made Hyeon-yul reconsider something.

‘Is he really not a villain?’

After meeting many villains during his time as a Black Eagle, he knew they often found the organization's behavior ridiculous and mocked its officers. They assumed the Black Eagles would never go so far as to break a prisoner's neck. But this man went beyond mere assumption. He seemed completely certain that a Black Eagle would never harm him that way.

‘Why is he so sure?’

Hyeon-yul wanted to turn that suspicion into certainty. He raised his dagger threateningly, but the man only kept laughing at him. *As if you'd dare.* That was exactly what his expression said.

Then Hyeon-yul would have to show him.

“It's going to be noisy for a moment.”

He warned Jihwan so he would not be startled, then brought his dagger down without hesitation onto the back of the man's hand.

“Aaaaaagh!”

The scream made Jihwan jump, and the wounded man himself reacted as though something impossible had just happened. It was a subtle difference, but this was not quite how an ordinary villain reacted. Only now was Hyeon-yul certain.

“You deny it, but you are a villain.”

He saw no need to recite the definition of a villain. The White Sparrows knew that better than he did. Trusting specialists was important.

“The fact that you used to be a Black Eagle doesn't prove that you aren't a villain now.”

Both the man and Jihwan looked astonished. Jihwan even stopped working the magic he had aimed at the students and stepped closer.

“Why are you so surprised? Did you think I couldn't work that out?”

A faint trace of laughter entered Hyeon-yul's voice as he addressed the man.

“...He was a Black Eagle? Really?”

Jihwan could scarcely believe what he was hearing.

“Yes. Quite a few former Black Eagles are among the villains. They know how the Black Eagles operate, which makes them particularly vicious. Surely you know that.”

“I've never... seen one myself.”

“You probably have. They simply wouldn't tell you they used to be Black Eagles. If you've encountered a villain who was unusually difficult to deal with during a mission, there's a good chance they were a former Black Eagle.”

“...Shut your mouth.”

Blood ran from the man's nose. Hyeon-yul gave a contemptuous laugh.

“See? He's getting worked up. They once devoted themselves to eliminating villains, but now that they've become villains themselves, they refuse to admit it. Isn't that ridiculous? That's why they keep insisting they're not villains. Isn't it?”

Hyeon-yul stared down at the man pinned beneath his boot.

“...You fools. The Black Eagles aren't justice! Why are you falling for this? Look at what you're doing! Look!”

The man shouted as though delivering a furious lecture. He was extremely loud.

“I met someone recently who kept spouting the same nonsense.”

The familiar claims reminded Hyeon-yul of another fool who had repeatedly insisted that the Black Eagles were not justice.

“The Poison King.”

At the name, the man immediately shouted back.

“Don't put me on the same level as that piece of trash!”

“What's different about you? I said the same thing to him, but who gets to decide what justice is? You take minors hostage, threaten them, beat them, and try to kill them. Is that your idea of justice?”

This behavior? This kind of garbage? Hyeon-yul could hardly believe the nerve of it. He already knew what the man would say next. There would be talk of necessary means, of some noble mission, and all the other nonsense he had heard before. Still, he gave the man time to speak for Jihwan's sake. Some things could only be understood by witnessing them firsthand.

“Do you think we wanted to do this? We're doing it for everyone's sake! Everyone's being fooled by the Black Eagles and by the Empire that supports them!”

The man said exactly what Hyeon-yul had expected. Hyeon-yul looked at Jihwan, whose expression was growing rigid.

“There was a time when I believed the Black Eagles represented justice too. ...But they don't! The Black Eagles are evil! They're the evil that has to be destroyed before the villains are!”

He shouted with all the bitterness he could muster. Once he began, he seemed incapable of stopping. It was as though years of suppressed anger had finally broken free.

“Do you know what the Black Eagles did? They made deals with villains! They were raising villains just to protect their own interests! Our teammates died, and other Black Eagles died too, but we kept going because we believed we were serving the Empire and its citizens. We believed in that one thing and carried on in silence. But it was all a lie!”

Despite the man's heartfelt screams, Hyeon-yul regarded him indifferently. He had no idea what the man had seen, but as someone who used to work for villains, he thought the accusations sounded absurd. Villains hated the Black Eagles. They cursed the organization constantly for interfering with everything they did. The notion that villains and Black Eagles were secretly cooperating was like claiming oil and water could blend together. They simply could not coexist.

On the other hand, Hyeon-yul could understand the theory that the Black Eagles were deliberately cultivating villains, however far-fetched it sounded. If every villain disappeared, wouldn't the Black Eagles have to disband?

‘But this isn't the time to worry about that.’

There were still far too many villains in the world. They could think about what happened after eliminating nearly all of them when that time actually came.

“The Black Eagles deceived us! They insulted the memory of everyone who died! They stole my pride and everything else I had! What did any of our actions mean? What were we even fighting for?”

“What did you see?”

Hyeon-yul was genuinely curious about what had driven him this far.

“Do you have any evidence?”

At the second question, the man abruptly fell silent. A moment ago, he had been screaming as though he would never stop. Now he was so quiet that it hardly seemed possible he was the same person.

‘...?’

Hyeon-yul studied him. The man was afraid. That was clear, but it was not the important issue right now.

“I asked you what you saw.”

“...I can't tell you. I can't talk about that.”

“Then there's nothing to be done.”

Hyeon-yul spoke as though he were about to give up, but the foot pressing down on the man's neck did not move.

“I used to be a villain.”

The man flinched at the confession.

“You say the Black Eagles deceived you and took things from you, but do you know what's truly funny? If you want something, take it. If someone gets in your way, kill them. Those are practically the basic principles villains live by. Even if the Black Eagles did what you claim, I can't see how that would make you and the villains any different.”

“Shut up! Don't compare me to those villains...”

“You've stared into the abyss for too long. You've already become a monster.”

Wham!

Hyeon-yul decided he had heard enough. He lifted his foot and kicked the man in the face. Once he confirmed that the man was unconscious, he turned toward Jihwan. His face had gone completely white. Was the revelation really so shocking?

“Don't let his words sway you.”

“...It's a bit of a shock.”

“What he said might be true, or it might not. Until we know what really happened, we have to keep both possibilities in mind. But remember this: the Poison King said the same thing.”

The Poison King had been a major figure among the villains. The fact that a lesser villain was repeating something so similar was suspicious in itself. Jihwan still looked uncertain, so Hyeon-yul continued.

“If even this man is repeating the same claims, shouldn't we suspect that someone is deliberately creating this situation?”

“I can accept that some individual Black Eagles might have done something like that... But I trust the Black Eagles themselves. They're the ones who saved me.”

Jihwan finally smiled. How could he ever forget that moment? The black uniforms had looked like death itself arriving to bring everything to an end, yet rather than grim reapers, the people wearing them had been a light that gave him an entirely new life.

“And you're right, hyung. I don't know whether these people used to be Black Eagles, but they're villains now.”

They had reduced the students to this state. That alone deprived them of any right to excuse their actions.

“Then it's time to hear what one of the students has to say. But first, we need to change the order of things.”

Hyeon-yul took a radio from the unconscious man's body.

Crackle.

A transmission was coming through. That was not a good sign.

Third floor. Fourth floor. Fifth floor. It was time to subdue the remaining villains quickly.

* * *

Fifth floor.

Hyeon-yul appeared behind the man holding a student hostage. It was the same villain he had seen before entering the building.

“Just try it! I'll kill this kid!”

The villain screamed down toward the people outside.

“Yes.”

With that simple reply, Hyeon-yul grabbed the man by the back of his neck.

Clack.

Before the dagger could fall from the villain's hand, Hyeon-yul's darkness caught it and delivered it to him. Trusting Jihwan to take care of his own responsibilities, Hyeon-yul carried out his part of the plan. He drove the dagger into the man's thigh without hesitation and hurled him to the floor. Then he strode over and kicked him in the face until he lost consciousness. He considered hitting harder, but restrained himself because the student was watching.

The student stared at him blankly.

“He's not dead. I only stabbed him lightly in the thigh. It isn't even a fatal injury.”

Hyeon-yul made sure the student understood.

“...”

The student could not bring themselves to speak.

“Hyung! Hyung!”

A door opened abruptly in the wall, and Jihwan called out urgently.

“Don't attack the student!”

“I know.”

Hyeon-yul walked forward at an even pace and used his darkness to seize the student by the neck. He had only restrained the neck, so surely that was sufficient.

“You hate the Black Eagles. Go ahead and tell me whatever you want.”

October 14, 2026