Chapter 90 - I Know You (2)

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Hyeon-yul looked ahead. There were four of them, and that was no problem at all.

Swords were already floating around their throats. It was Shinwoo’s power.

“If you shout, you die.”

Hyeon-yul kindly explained the rule, then drove his dagger into the throat of the closest man. The others’ eyes widened. It was meant as a warning.

“I’ll ask one simple question. Have you heard anything about someone infiltrating the building?”

Only then did the villain notice what Hyeon-yul was wearing. His eyes trembled.

The uniform made the answer unmistakable: a Black Eagle.

“If you know, blink quickly. If you don’t, keep your eyes open.”

Hyeon-yul stepped closer as he spoke. When the villain began blinking, Hyeon-yul asked another question.

“So you know?”

Hyeon-yul reached up and took hold of the sword circling the man’s neck.

“You damn bas...”

Before he could finish, Hyeon-yul used the sword to cut his throat. He looked down at his own hand.

‘...It feels good.’

The sensation in his hand was surprisingly satisfying.

‘Should I ask for one? Would that even work?’

Coveting Shinwoo’s sword, Hyeon-yul moved to the next villain and tilted his head. The man was desperately forcing his eyes to stay open.

“You don’t know?”

Hyeon-yul steadied the sword for him.

“...I only did what I was told.”

“Is that so?”

Hyeon-yul answered calmly, then used the sword to pierce the man’s throat.

SHNK.

It went in far more easily than expected.

‘As I thought. It’s good.’

Hyeon-yul looked at the last man.

“You don’t know?”

“...Go to hell, Black Eagle!”

Hyeon-yul watched him. The man’s upper body was already shifting forward. Apparently he planned to charge.

Hyeon-yul simply waited. Before the villain could even take a full step, the sword floating around his neck plunged inward.

Looking down at the body sprawled near his feet, Hyeon-yul sent a message.

<None of these four knew there were White Sparrows inside. It doesn’t look like that information has spread.>

Hyeon-yul looked toward the place where Nayun was positioned.

<No one’s coming up for now. Stay there a moment.>

<Do I need to clean this up?>

Hyeon-yul asked while looking at the bodies.

<It’s fine. There shouldn’t be a problem until the shift changes.>

<Understood.>

Before leaving, Hyeon-yul pulled out a thin metal rod and wedged it beside the door. It was a precaution in case something unexpected happened.

<Jihwan.>

<Yes, noona.>

<Looks like we need to hit the control room. I checked whether we could slip through by watching the CCTV angles, but it’s impossible. Turning the system off is our best option.>

<Jihwan, do you have enough mana to open two doors?>

Shinwoo joined the conversation with another question.

<I can do it.>

<Good. Hyeon-yul, stand in front of the wall.>

Following Shinwoo’s instruction, Hyeon-yul moved to the wall.

<Wait there.>

Shinwoo gave another instruction. Hyeon-yul waited for the door to appear.

About fifteen seconds seemed to pass before a door materialized. The instant it did, Hyeon-yul opened it and stepped through.

Every villain inside had swords hanging around their throats like bombs waiting to go off.

“You can work comfortably now.”

Shinwoo smiled and pointed at the machines. This method was clearly faster.

“Yes.”

Hyeon-yul answered while shoving aside the villain sitting in the most important-looking seat. The instant the man moved, the swords swarmed him like a pack of dogs.

“...K-kgh.”

Even as the sound of the villain dying with his throat pierced filled the room, Hyeon-yul calmly began operating the equipment.

Fear needed to settle into the room. Otherwise, the villains might move recklessly after they left. It had to be built up one layer at a time.

If the villains came away feeling utterly helpless, even better.

“If you speak, you die.”

Hyeon-yul warned them while watching the screens. Shinwoo glanced at him before adding something of his own, smiling at the other villains.

“If you’re curious, you can test it.”

Shinwoo’s gaze traveled across the room before stopping at the dead villain. That was Hyeon-yul’s way of doing things.

Shinwoo had no intention of criticizing it right now. He kept watch over the room while thinking.

‘I guess I’ll just keep restraining villains.’

“Are you going to keep holding them like this?”

Hyeon-yul’s question came almost at the same time. Shinwoo turned toward him in surprise.

“It would be faster to kill them. They’ll only get in the way.”

“I know.”

“Understood.”

Hyeon-yul did not ask again. If Shinwoo refused to take the faster path despite knowing it existed, that was Shinwoo’s choice.

After extracting every useful piece of information from the CCTV system, Hyeon-yul used darkness to sever the internal wiring.

“It’s done.”

“Why not just destroy the whole thing?”

“I did. Since I was already interfering with it, I also secured the CCTV records. We’ll be able to check what happened here in more detail later.”

Hyeon-yul walked to the door and locked it.

“Good work.”

“It was nothing.”

“No, seriously. We’re moving really fast.”

Shinwoo’s admiration was genuine. It was not simply that they had gained one more person. The fact that the additional person was Hyeon-yul changed their speed completely.

The lack of hesitation was a concern. Hyeon-yul seemed to lack the brakes that ordinary people naturally had.

That was something they would need to coordinate later, not something Shinwoo needed to bring up in the middle of the operation.

Hyeon-yul gave a small nod and looked over the villains. He approached one who seemed relatively high-ranking and grabbed the sword hovering at the man’s throat.

“What did you hear from your superiors?”

“Kill me, you bastard!”

The man clenched his teeth as he answered. Hyeon-yul simply watched him.

The look in his eyes clearly said he should go ahead and try.

According to a book Hyeon-yul had read, that kind of defiance appeared with a sixty-nine percent probability when someone knew something important. Supposedly it came from an instinctive awareness of one’s own value.

“Looks like he knew something after all.”

Hyeon-yul shoved the villain. The moment he moved, the sword sank deep into his throat and blood sprayed outward.

The chair had wheels, so the dying man slid across the room and crashed into another villain.

“Don’t... kgh!”

Before the second man could finish speaking, a sword pierced his throat too.

‘This is convenient.’

Hyeon-yul thought while watching the villains die. He did not even need to move his own hands. Shinwoo’s power handled everything for him.

“Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean to kill both of you.”

Hyeon-yul apologized belatedly, then looked at the remaining villains. They hurriedly shifted their eyes away from his gaze.

Shinwoo noticed that the atmosphere had changed from before.

Was Hyeon-yul doing it deliberately? If so, that was impressive in a completely different way.

There were many moral restrictions Black Eagles were expected to follow precisely because they were Black Eagles. Hyeon-yul was breaking through those restraints.

That did not mean Shinwoo thought it was entirely good. There were still aspects worth watching carefully.

“Are you afraid of me?”

Hyeon-yul read Shinwoo’s stiff expression and asked. Plenty of people had feared him even when he was a villain.

He had once wished the leaders of villain factions would treat him with that kind of fear, but all they had ever done was use him. They had not even honored a single line written in his contracts.

“No.”

Shinwoo answered the question with complete honesty.

“It’s just unfamiliar. You have to give me time to adjust.”

“Is that so?”

Whatever Shinwoo meant by unfamiliar, Hyeon-yul accepted it without much reaction.

“That’s all. You’re holding back too.”

“...You noticed?”

Hyeon-yul’s fingers abruptly stopped moving at those words.

“Of course I noticed. That’s exactly why I’m not scared.”

Shinwoo laughed as though the question itself were absurd. The fact that Hyeon-yul was restraining himself meant he was paying attention to how they saw him. How could Shinwoo be frightened by that?

Hyeon-yul had only just left the world of villains. How could anyone expect him to adapt instantly?

“There isn’t even a rule saying Black Eagles aren’t allowed to kill villains. You’re staying within the law, so what do you think I’m going to say?”

There were simply very few Black Eagles who could actually kill villains without hesitation. The moral values learned in childhood and reinforced by society held most people back.

Shinwoo was the same. Even when he thought someone deserved death, hesitation still came.

Seeing Hyeon-yul’s fingers remain still, Shinwoo suppressed a laugh. Had his words really shocked him that much?

Shinwoo went back to watching the villains, only to hear one of them begin breathing faster. He stared in disbelief.

“Ah... You didn’t realize we were Black Eagles?”

Even though their entire appearance practically screamed Black Eagle, the villain had somehow failed to recognize them. It was an oddly novel experience.

<You can move now.>

Nayun’s message appeared, and a door formed in front of them.

<You can go straight through.>

Jihwan added another short confirmation over the channel.

“We’ll be gone for a moment. Don’t move. As you’ve already seen, moving means dying.”

The room turned cold at Hyeon-yul’s warning.

‘This part is actually nice.’

Shinwoo finally understood the Hyeon-yul effect. How many villains had looked down on them because Black Eagles supposedly could not kill them?

It was technically true, but knowing that did not make it any less infuriating.

“Let’s go.”

Shinwoo headed for the door in an oddly cheerful mood. The instant he stepped through, he scanned the surroundings.

It was a break room. When he turned left, he found a startled woman staring back at him.

She nearly dropped something in her hand but caught it at the last second. It looked like a snack.

“Shh.”

Shinwoo raised a finger to his lips. The woman began nodding, then looked at Hyeon-yul and startled again.

Apparently the helmet had surprised her.

Hyeon-yul took out his phone and compared her face with the photos of the four White Sparrows they had been assigned to rescue.

“Is it her?”

“Yes.”

At Hyeon-yul’s answer, Shinwoo suddenly raised a finger and began pointing at different places on his own body.

It might have looked meaningless, but it was a signal. An infiltrator could change their face as part of a disguise.

The woman calmly touched the corresponding points on her body.

“What team are you from?”

Shinwoo asked, and the woman answered.

“Team 32.”

“That’s correct.”

Before moving, Shinwoo touched his wireless earpiece.

<We’re clear to go, right?>

<You have enough time.>

Nayun answered him immediately over the communication channel.

“This way.”

Only then did the woman glance at the CCTV camera before throwing the snack she had been eating into the trash. The knowledge that she no longer needed to worry about the cameras changed her expression immediately.

“Are the others okay?”

“For now, just come with us.”

Shinwoo did not answer. They were on the same team, so telling her could shake her concentration.

The woman did not ask again. She moved where Shinwoo directed her.

<We’ve arrived. I’ll open another path separately toward noona.>

At Jihwan’s message, Shinwoo asked another question.

<Is your mana okay?>

No answer came back. No new door opened either.

Shinwoo leaned his head through the doorway that had not yet closed. Jihwan was standing there blankly.

“...Could you shake him a little?”

Shinwoo asked the White Sparrow they had just rescued. She grabbed Jihwan and shook him.

After several attempts, Jihwan finally came back to himself.

“...Did it happen again?”

“That part is fine. Don’t worry about it. More importantly, is your mana okay?”

Shinwoo was more concerned about Jihwan than what had just happened.

“I’m fine.”

Jihwan nodded to confirm that he was still fine.

“Then we’ll stay beside you for a moment.”

Shinwoo stepped through and waved for Hyeon-yul to follow. Hyeon-yul looked behind him.

The door leading to the control room had disappeared.

‘I should check once before we leave.’

He had never left villains alive before, so it bothered him.

Still, he followed Shinwoo through the doorway.

<Except for the White Sparrow who was captured, the other two have changed their routes.>

Nayun’s next message appeared almost immediately afterward.

<One was working at a desk, but now they’re heading to a break room. The other was cleaning the hallway and is moving toward a restroom. The break room is a different one from the place you just visited.>

“The targets are moving to different places at the same time.”

Shinwoo rubbed the tip of his chin and looked at Jihwan’s condition. Jihwan sometimes blanked out, but today it was happening more frequently.

The large scale of the building was probably the reason.

‘Is he really okay?’

Shinwoo was worried. Jihwan smiled, and Shinwoo smiled back before turning his attention to Hyeon-yul.

“Looks like we’ll have to split up. What do you think?”

“That’s fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’m fine.”

After hearing the answer, Shinwoo walked over to Jihwan and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Can you open two places right now?”

“I can. Ah, I’m really sorry, but if I start spacing out again, could you shake me like before?”

Jihwan looked awkward as he asked the White Sparrow for help.

“Of course.”

She nodded after immediately understanding what he meant.

“You can relax a little now, hyung.”

Jihwan smiled. Hyeon-yul looked between Shinwoo and Jihwan.

Now he finally understood why they had never planned to send Jihwan in alone and why he had not gone in by himself during the previous mission either.

‘He spaces out more often than I thought.’

Hyeon-yul stored the new information away.

While waiting for the next instruction, he pretended to scan the area, then turned his back so the others could not see his face.

One of his eyes melted and flowed away toward the control room. He had warned the villains, but leaving them alive still bothered him.

‘This is uncomfortable.’

Hyeon-yul had discovered another thing he disliked.

The eye swam through the darkness and stopped above the control room. Looking down, he saw everyone frozen in place and filled with fear.

Shinwoo’s ability was excellent no matter how many times he saw it.

‘Everything’s fine here.’

Hyeon-yul restored his eye and looked at Shinwoo and Jihwan. Nayun had not issued another instruction yet, so they were waiting too.

Hyeon-yul pretended to walk around casually. Inside his helmet, one ear melted and flowed downward.

Earlier, several locations had appeared on the map that formed in Jihwan’s palm according to Nayun’s directions. Hyeon-yul recalled one of those marked points and moved his ear toward it.

The basement was the obvious location. It was also the most suitable place to interrogate someone.

After sending his ear underground, Hyeon-yul followed the sounds. He heard breathing, rapid enough that the person sounded close to suffocating.

“Talk, you bastard!”

“...Haa... haa.”

“Who are you? Who sent you?”

“...N-no. That’s... not it.”

The faint voice had to belong to the captured White Sparrow. Their condition sounded worse than what Nayun had seen. A few more hits might stop their breathing entirely.

“You expect me to believe that? You think I didn’t notice you secretly pulling information?”

THUD!

“...Kgh.”

A groan followed the sound of a blow.

‘They’re only beating him?’

Hyeon-yul found that strange. Why were they being so gentle?

A door opened soon afterward. The villain inside audibly swallowed, followed by the faint movement of air.

“...Welcome, sir!”

‘High rank.’

“President!”

Hyeon-yul reacted immediately to the word president and subtly lifted his gaze.

‘...The president is here.’

The corners of his mouth nearly rose. The man had come here personally, of all places.

<Wait.>

Nayun had clearly noticed the same change as well.

<Someone just went to the White Sparrow I said was captured. The atmosphere changed.>

<How is it different?>

Shinwoo immediately asked for a clearer explanation.

<I think we should change the order.>

Hyeon-yul sent his response without the slightest hesitation.

<I’ll go. Baek Shinwoo hyung, please focus on extracting the other two as quickly as possible.>

At the sudden request, Shinwoo and Jihwan both looked at Hyeon-yul, but he had no intention of yielding.

That man’s neck belonged to him.