Chapter 83 - Now Even the Small Fry Are Acting Up (3)

* * *

“There aren’t a ton of them, but you see one once in a while. Actually, now that we’re talking about it, why the hell are you pretending to be a Black Eagle? I almost killed you.”

The villain frowned with his e-cigarette in one hand. His words were proof that someone else had already gone around pretending to be a Black Eagle.

‘No idea who it is, but this problem is going to get even bigger.’

A group calling themselves former Black Eagles had appeared, but there was no evidence proving they were responsible for the impersonations. Hyeon-yul pointed a finger at the Black Eagle insignia on his uniform.

“Yeah, that. It looks disgustingly real. I almost attacked you because of it.”

The villain glanced around, then pulled several items from his pocket and held them out.

“For now, take one of each and try them or leave them alone, whatever you want. The effects are damn good. How much do you need?”

“How much can you produce?”

Hyeon-yul silently accepted the drugs the villain handed over.

“Not much. Some of the ingredients are a pain in the ass to get. Your next stop is here?”

“So this is where you manufacture them.”

Hyeon-yul became certain of the truth. This was one of the places producing the drugs.

‘Probably only one branch of the production line.’

The real people behind it would have no reason to act this openly, but catching small operators like this was the only way to get closer to the real source.

“What did you say?”

“I am curious how much the other places produce.”

“You don’t need to know. This place is the cheapest. If you don’t believe me, then get lost.”

“So there are several places after all.”

Hyeon-yul raised his dagger and stepped closer.

“Hey. Put that down. I’ll knock another ten percent off. You already killed seven of my men.”

The villain pointed at the dagger and crooked a finger, an amused smile hanging from his lips.

“It seems you’re misunderstanding something, so let me correct one point.”

The edge of Hyeon-yul’s dagger moved toward the villain’s wrist.

SLASH.

He cut the wrist cleanly and then kindly explained the misunderstanding.

“I am a Black Eagle.”

“...!”

For several long seconds, the villain simply stared at Hyeon-yul, unable to process what had happened. Then he looked at his missing hand and screamed as though tearing his throat apart.

“You crazy bastard! I said I’d give you a discount...! What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you have any idea how much it costs to reattach a wrist?”

“I’ll say it again. I am a Black Eagle.”

Even after Hyeon-yul repeated himself, the villain did not believe him at all. Sharp, blade-like protrusions extended from the man’s body until he resembled a hedgehog.

“You insane bastard! Cut the bullshit! You think I’m going to give you drugs after this?”

The villain charged forward. The protruding blades looked hard as well as razor-sharp, making his entire body a weapon.

‘They would certainly be weapons if they touched me.’

Hyeon-yul smoothly avoided the villain’s swinging fist. Every time the man thought he had stabbed him, Hyeon-yul was already somewhere else. He deliberately kept slipping toward the side where the arm had already been severed because the shorter reach made it much easier to evade.

‘Cutting it off first was the right choice.’

Hyeon-yul spotted an opening. The moment the villain swung his remaining arm, black power coated Hyeon-yul’s dagger and he drove the blade upward.

“AAAAAAGH!”

The villain’s arm rose along with Hyeon-yul’s dagger. Hyeon-yul made a point of drawing another dagger and aiming it at the man’s shoulder.

“Can’t you see the Eagle insignia? You call yourself a villain, yet you spill information this easily?”

“...Fuuuck! How the hell are you a Black Eagle? Stop talking bullshit, you crazy bastard! You’re not getting any drugs!”

“Would you believe me if I cut off a little more? I suppose I have no choice.”

The moment Hyeon-yul’s hand moved, the villain hurriedly opened his mouth.

“I believe you! I said I believe you, you bastard...!”

His eyes said something completely different. He was still suspicious of Hyeon-yul.

“What organization are you with? Where are you based?”

Hyeon-yul kept watching the man as he asked. The villain was searching for a chance to escape, so Hyeon-yul decided to help him find one. He deliberately lowered the dagger he had been aiming and pulled out the radio-like phone.

“Please wait a moment.”

The instant Hyeon-yul lowered his gaze, the villain raised his arm. Ignoring the blood spraying everywhere, he drove his remaining fist toward Hyeon-yul.

THUD!

Hyeon-yul deliberately lowered his body so the punch struck his helmet, then staggered backward.

“Bwahahaha! You think I’d tell you that? Die! Die, you bastard!”

The villain fled, and Hyeon-yul simply waited. He would lead them to the place on his own.

After watching the villain disappear, Hyeon-yul removed his helmet. He had wondered why the man sounded so confident, but the attack had actually pierced through it. Hyeon-yul wiped away the blood running down his head.

‘I thought the helmet would stop it, but his ability was tougher than I expected.’

Knowing Jeongmin was going to lecture him, Hyeon-yul took out a syringe and injected it near his shoulder. Then he pulled a bandage from the emergency kit and applied it to his head before using the phone-radio.

“Hello.”

<Yes. Go ahead.>

“I captured two and one escaped.”

Hyeon-yul delivered the brief report in the same calm voice.

<...Excuse me?>

“I’ll give you the location.”

Hyeon-yul pushed himself upright and looked around the area.

“Ah, as for where I am... Can you see my location from there?”

<No. We cannot.>

Hyeon-yul relaxed at that answer and looked around.

“Please wait a moment. I’ll tell you shortly.”

His legs began melting into darkness, but he suddenly stopped. His fingers were dissolving on their own as well.

‘...Dr. Lee is really going to tear into me this time.’

* * *

SLAP.

When Jeongmin smacked Hyeon-yul across the back, Haeryeon flinched in surprise. She had not expected the doctor to actually hit him.

“Um, Doctor...?”

“How long has it been since you injured your palm, and you’re already back here hurt again? When I changed your medication, I told you to take it easy, didn’t I?”

“It was unavoidable.”

Hyeon-yul answered as though nothing were wrong, prompting Haeryeon to glance at Jeongmin. The doctor had the exact expression of someone whose blood pressure was rapidly rising.

“Unavoidable, my ass. You think I don’t know you? What was it this time? What happened?”

“I thought the helmet was sturdy.”

“The helmet? You blocked it with the helmet...? How sturdy do you think that thing is? Why would you try to block an attack with it?”

“...It is made of sturdy material.”

Haeryeon muttered the words, but the helmet Hyeon-yul had brought back looked as though it had barely stopped the attack by the narrowest possible margin.

“Why don’t you just claim helmets can block every attack in the world?”

Jeongmin snapped sarcastically, and Hyeon-yul stared at him.

“Doctor. A helmet cannot block every attack in the world. Did you not know that?”

“You think I don’t know? That’s exactly why I’m asking why you did it.”

“I did not know that attack could pierce the helmet. After considering the situation, I concluded that taking a penetrating wound directly to the body would prevent me from continuing the mission, so using the helmet to absorb the impact was unavoidable.”

“And this?”

When Jeongmin pointed at Hyeon-yul’s face, Hyeon-yul turned toward Haeryeon.

“It is not a penetrating wound. It is only a scratch.”

“...What?”

Haeryeon recoiled in shock and immediately drew in a deep breath. She had been played. That was the only thought that came to mind.

—As far as scratches go, I’ll try to understand that much. But nothing can pierce you.

She had indeed said that, but only now did she understand why Hyeon-yul had accepted the restriction so easily.

‘I didn’t think he’d exploit the wording itself.’

Haeryeon felt the back of her head throb.

“You see, Team Leader Haeryeon? Do you understand why I hit Hyeon-yul? Doesn’t he turn your insides upside down?”

“He really does. More than I expected, actually.”

Haeryeon studied him with genuine fascination.

“Your insides cannot actually be turned upside... Ah. They can.”

At Hyeon-yul’s answer, Jeongmin took off his glasses and rubbed a hand down his face. He had heard countless stories about Hyeon-yul’s internal organs literally being taken out and rearranged during the experiments.

“Enough. Lie down. I told you not to overdo it today, didn’t I?”

“I did not overdo anything. I simply used my power a few times and my hand started melting.”

“That part is my fault.”

When Haeryeon stepped in, Jeongmin shook his head.

“Do you think I don’t know Hyeon-yul? You did nothing wrong, Team Leader. I was the one who failed to push hard enough for leave under the attending physician’s recommendation.”

“About the leave...”

The moment Hyeon-yul opened his mouth, Jeongmin smacked him across it. Hyeon-yul’s eyes tightened slightly, but he did not try to speak again. He had already expected Jeongmin to scold him. What he had not expected was for Haeryeon to be present for it.

“You have my sympathies, Team Leader Haeryeon. Hyeon-yul looks like he listens well, but he really doesn’t, does he?”

“There is a slightly crooked side to him. I thought he looked like a model student.”

“He looked like that to you? I’m glad he at least gives that impression on the surface.”

Jeongmin sounded delighted, as though he had forgotten he had been furious only moments ago. If nothing else, it seemed he had managed to educate Hyeon-yul well enough to look respectable. Haeryeon laughed, but halfway through, Jeongmin suddenly remembered something.

This was not why Haeryeon had been urgently called here.

“Things like this do happen sometimes when we change his medication. It doesn’t interfere with his work, so you don’t need to worry too much.”

Jeongmin began explaining himself. Haeryeon had come because Hyeon-yul was injured, but that did not appear to be what she actually wanted to hear about. She was probably here because of the side effects that appeared after changing Hyeon-yul’s medication, the same matter Jeongmin had reported to her earlier that day.

“That’s not what I mean. I’m talking about the medication Hyeon-yul takes. May I see it? I hold a pharmacist’s license, so you can trust me with it.”

“...Give me a moment. Let me get the IV started first.”

With a troubled expression, Jeongmin set up the IV in Hyeon-yul’s arm, then stood and walked toward the office inside the room. His steps looked strangely slow.

“Team Leader.”

Hyeon-yul lowered his voice until he was almost whispering.

‘He’s whispering because Dr. Lee just told him not to talk, isn’t he?’

Haeryeon felt laughter threatening to escape, so she covered her mouth and nodded.

“I brought back drugs from the villain who escaped earlier. May I examine them first before giving them to you?”

Hyeon-yul pulled the drugs from inside his clothes and showed them to her.

“Where... did you get these?”

“I received them.”

“You received them? From who? A villain...?”

Haeryeon asked with disbelief already filling her voice.

“Yes. A villain gave them to me.”

“...?”

Haeryeon stared at Hyeon-yul with wide eyes and wondered whether she had heard correctly. Why would a villain hand Hyeon-yul drugs? The very idea made no sense.

“He gave them to me because he did not think I was a Black Eagle.”

“You were wearing the uniform...?”

Haeryeon was becoming dumbfounded by the growing pile of questions. What did someone have to do before a person in a Black Eagle uniform was still mistaken for anything else?

She considered several possibilities, then her expression rapidly hardened.

“...Someone has been impersonating Black Eagles?”

“Yes. He thought I was one of them.”

“Now even every random small fry is running wild.”

Haeryeon suppressed the anger surging through her. It was not as though this had never happened before. When Black Eagle had first appeared, impersonators had been common. She had thought the problem had been dealt with long ago, yet now they were crawling out again.

‘...The former Black Eagles.’

Haeryeon immediately thought of the likely culprits. Nobody could imitate the uniform better than people who had once worn it themselves.

“Something... seems to be moving behind the scenes.”

Hyeon-yul voiced the uncertain theory. He did not know exactly what it was, but he could see that the organization he had joined was slowly beginning to change. These were methods the enemy normally would not have bothered using. They had hated even the word ‘Black’ in Black Eagle, yet after learning that someone stood behind the Poison King, Hyeon-yul could see the pattern more clearly.

“It might be easier to think of this as a desperate last struggle.”

“That may be the case.”

“At least we can predict one kind of attack they might try.”

“They may deliberately lure Black Eagles somewhere, then approach while pretending to be Black Eagles themselves...”

Hyeon-yul stopped speaking midway because he heard the door open.

“Hyeon-yul.”

At Jeongmin’s voice, Hyeon-yul closed both eyes. It was ridiculous because Jeongmin had clearly heard their whispering anyway.

“Whatever Hyeon-yul asked you for, you don’t have to agree to it.”

Hyeon-yul opened his eyes at Jeongmin’s words and filled them with quiet indignation.

“It wasn’t anything like that. He was only telling me what happened today.”

When Haeryeon whispered the explanation, Jeongmin finally let out an awkward “Ah” and smiled sheepishly. He had assumed Hyeon-yul was trying to coax Haeryeon into helping him do something reckless again.

“Here it is. I can’t allow this information to leak, so could you read it here and hand it straight back to me?”

What Jeongmin gave Haeryeon was a sheet of paper.

“I need to dispose of it quickly.”

Jeongmin tried to hide it, but unease remained in his eyes. The information on that paper was practically Hyeon-yul’s heart itself.

Hyeon-yul had developed resistance to countless drugs. Jeongmin had removed one substance after another from consideration, excluding everything Hyeon-yul had already been exposed to until he finally found a combination that worked. The prescription was still being changed constantly, and that uncertainty made the information even more dangerous.

If someone learned the composition of the medicine Jeongmin prescribed and then injected Hyeon-yul with another drug designed to neutralize it, nobody knew what would happen. Could Hyeon-yul survive that too? There was no answer because it belonged entirely to the realm of speculation.

The hand Jeongmin extended toward Haeryeon trembled visibly.

“Doctor.”

Haeryeon reached out, placed her hand over Jeongmin’s arm, and patted it gently.

“I understand what this means. That is exactly why I could not bring myself to ask carelessly.”

Simply asking him to trust her was nowhere near enough. This information had a life attached to it.

“I have watched countless team members die. I have felt helpless more times than I can count. There is only one thing I wanted to protect in the past, and it is still the same now.”

Her team members were what mattered. As a team leader, Haeryeon wanted to protect the people under her. That resolve had never changed.

“I already gave my neck to Hyeon-yul.”

If she ever failed to honor the contract, he could cut it off. That was what Haeryeon herself had told Hyeon-yul.

“Truthfully, this was work we should have done. We were late, we failed to do it, and because of that you were forced to carry all of it alone.”

Haeryeon lowered her head in a sincere and deliberate bow.

“Let me apologize first.”

It had already been decided that the other team leaders would also come apologize to Jeongmin soon. They would not be coming alone either. A department director above them was scheduled to come as well because that was the right thing to do.

“...”

Jeongmin was briefly unable to speak. What he was hearing was so unexpected that he wondered whether it could really be true.

Even when he had worked at a major hospital, he had lived under constant pressure to produce results. He had been criticized countless times for clinging to work others considered meaningless. Hyeon-yul was the only known living test subject, and because attacks could come at any time, Jeongmin could not even reveal the case properly to the wider medical community.

“This is also my personal wish, but it is for the sake of other people who may still be alive after being experimented on. Would you allow me to work with you?”

Haeryeon asked carefully. This was work that needed to move quickly, but Jeongmin also needed time: time to adjust, time to understand what kind of place this was, and time to observe what kind of person Haeryeon truly was. A man who had fought alone for so long needed every one of those things.

Jeongmin finally turned his attention toward Hyeon-yul beside him.

“...Hyeon-yul. What do you think?”

Everything depended on Hyeon-yul’s choice. Hyeon-yul looked at Haeryeon, who appeared almost desperately earnest. It was intense enough that he wondered whether he was reading her correctly.

‘She really means it.’

Hyeon-yul found that part strangely fascinating. What could she possibly gain from this? Did she simply want to make better use of him? Even if she explained her reasons, he was not sure he would understand them.

“Team Leader.”

Instead of answering aloud, Haeryeon nodded when Hyeon-yul called her.

“To be frank, you will probably face a great deal of disappointment and despair. It would be better to abandon hope as well. Even the miracle keeping me alive may stop working at any time. I cannot recommend getting involved.”

No matter how skilled Haeryeon was, Hyeon-yul had seen Jeongmin’s despair and disappointment from the closest possible distance. He understood enough to know how painful those emotions were.

“Do you still want to do it?”

Hyeon-yul asked as though they were discussing somebody else’s life.