Ch.37Call Me a Lawyer (2)

In the blink of an eye, I was transferred to the interrogation room of the Hero Association in City A.

This was a sealed space where not a single ray of light entered.

The only source of light in the narrow room was a single lamp hanging from the ceiling.

And sitting across the desk from me were two intimidating investigators.

But they were…

“……”

“Um…”

“…Would you like some candy?”

“No, thank you…”

“”……””

They seemed just as bewildered as I was.

Well, it made sense. They were used to dealing with criminals, and now they had an elementary school boy sitting in their interrogation room. Their reaction was understandable.

Whispering.

“Hey, this isn’t a classroom. Why is this boy here with us?”

“I don’t know. I heard an S-Class Hero brought him in personally. Don’t you think they got the wrong address?”

“Yeah. If we’re not careful, we could be charged with child abuse.”

The investigators, despite their intimidating appearance, showed a timid attitude as they quietly offered me candy.

In this awkward situation, only an uncomfortable silence filled the interrogation room.

A moment later.

Clank.

“He is a monster.”

“…!”

“Salute! Hero Yoon Ha-eun. You’re here.”

“Yes. You two, step outside for now.”

“”Yes, ma’am!!””

The interrogation room door opened.

Yoon Ha-eun, dressed in her usual bulletproof vest, entered and sent the two investigators outside.

“Um… Teacher?”

The awkward atmosphere became even more awkward.

No, perhaps “heavy” would be a better description now.

Yoon Ha-eun sat down across from me without responding to her student’s call.

The look in her eyes as she stared at me was, how should I put it?

Her pupils still had that heart-shaped glow of infatuation, but right now, rather than looking loving, they seemed to be pulsing like a predator that had found its prey.

“Jang-hoon.”

“Yes, Teacher…”

“Answer my questions honestly from now on. If you don’t, I might throw you into the monster detention center in the basement of this building right away.”

“Ah, yes…”

Where did her suspicion begin?

Even in the original story, it was rare to see Yoon Ha-eun this serious.

And the fact that she was showing this side meant, in other words:

‘She has confirmation!’

It meant she had something concrete beyond mere suspicion.

“First, when we were returning to our original world, what were you doing?”

“Oh, I was just… in the bathroom you made for us, Teacher.”

In truth, I had pretended to be there while actually going beyond the fog to defeat the mosquito monster, but I obviously wasn’t going to tell her that.

And I had definite witnesses for my alibi.

Namely, Carmilla and Miss Hoshino.

I was feeling somewhat relieved thinking about that, but at that moment:

Slam!

Yoon Ha-eun slammed her palm down on the desk in front of us, as if to pressure me, and refuted:

“Of course, that’s true. The two children who usually stick with you would confirm that you went to the bathroom.”

“Then that should settle—”

“But! There are several contradictions in your statement.”

First:

“Jang-hoon, you said you were in the bathroom for about 30 minutes.”

“Yes, that’s right…”

“Then why wasn’t there any waste in the container I set up?”

“?!”

Ah, I see.

Certainly… I was supposedly sitting on the toilet for 30 minutes, and it didn’t make sense to stay that long without a phone.

“I had constipation…”

“Even with constipation! People usually at least urinate when they sit on a toilet. But the toilet you sat on was clean, with absolutely nothing in it.”

“T-that’s because! Honestly, I was too nervous, so nothing came out!”

But not to be outdone,

I desperately defended myself.

“It was such a scary situation, and honestly, I just wanted to be alone, so I went into the bathroom!”

“…!”

“Besides, I was the only boy in there! I felt even more isolated and scared!”

Children of this age typically feel lonely when separated by gender.

I used this point to successfully overcome the first question by implying that I hadn’t gone to the bathroom to defecate in the first place.

Then came the second question:

“Hmm~. Yes, if that’s the reason, it makes sense that the temporary bathroom I created was clean.”

“R-right?”

“But then how would you explain this?”

“…What?”

“The large hole in the restaurant window, big enough for a person to fit through, that appeared right after you went to the bathroom!”

“!!”

Right, that hole.

Since I didn’t have the ability to fix it, I somehow managed to finish by putting the piece back in place after returning.

But I was caught after all.

And as if that wasn’t enough:

“Jang-hoon, as an S-Class Hero, Teacher has extraordinary physical abilities that ordinary people couldn’t even imagine.”

“Um… is that so?”

“Well, yes.”

Yoon Ha-eun suddenly bragging about her specs?

I tilted my head at this abrupt statement.

“The Horned Mask monster.”

“?!”

“I saw it with my own eyes, fighting some giant insect-like monster beyond the fog.”

Damn…

I never thought she would have seen that.

Was it because of my sudden disappearance right after the situation ended, and because I was too focused on making sure the mosquito monster was completely eradicated?

It seemed Yoon Ha-eun had witnessed the entire battle between me and the mosquito from beginning to end.

“Ordinary people, and even most heroes, wouldn’t have been able to see that scene if it weren’t for me.”

“Ah… I see.”

“But isn’t it strange?”

“What is?”

Gulp.

“That the Horned Mask monster appeared precisely while you were in the bathroom, and conveniently defeated the monster that was presumably trapping us.”

Um…

Well……

When she puts it that way, it does sound suspicious.

In simple terms, the timing was too perfect.

But that’s still just circumstantial evidence without physical proof.

“Objection!”

“?!”

If I stayed quiet, I felt like I would lose based on the atmosphere alone.

So I decided to take control of the flow by slamming my hands on the desk, just as Yoon Ha-eun had done earlier.

“How does that have anything to do with me being a monster?”

“W-well…”

“Don’t tell me… you think I’m that Horned Mask monster?”

“I haven’t said that yet!”

“But it sounds like you’re about to say exactly that?”

“Ugh…!”

Don’t panic.

She doesn’t have any concrete evidence anyway.

I thought I was going to successfully…

“Objection!”

…get past Yoon Ha-eun’s unexpected deduction, but:

Slam!

Just like I had done earlier, she slammed the desk and objected to my objection.

“Yes, honestly, Teacher suspects that you, Jang-hoon, are that Horned Mask monster.”

“I’m not a monster!”

“Right! Looking only at this restaurant incident, it might seem that way.”

After a moment of panic,

She returned to her usual composed S-Class Hero demeanor and began showing me other evidence.

“But how would you explain this?”

“W-what is this?”

“These are all the reports containing records of when that Horned Mask monster appeared.”

“W-what?!”

She had investigated this far?

The documents Yoon Ha-eun handed me contained traces of everything I had done since possessing a body in this <Monster Frontline> world.

In other words, detailed records of the monsters I had defeated after transforming and the locations where it happened, all documented with chilling precision.

“The first appearance was in City Y, which had been reduced to ruins by the Violence Monster.”

“…!”

“Right after it defeated the Violence Monster, a boy was rescued from there within just a few hours. That boy was none other than Kang Jang-hoon!”

“Guh!”

A mysterious boy who appeared right after the Horned Mask monster vanished.

Moreover, when asked why he was there or how he had survived, nothing could be discovered due to the ‘convenient setting’ of ‘amnesia.’

“B-but that…!”

“Yes, I know. It could be a ‘coincidence.’ I’ve heard many stories about nomadic tribes surviving for years in monster-inhabited areas.”

But.

Can you really raise a definite objection to ‘this’ next piece of evidence?

With a shrug as if to say that, Yoon Ha-eun continued her questioning, presenting what she claimed was more conclusive evidence.

“But the more I investigated, the more strange points I found.”

“…Such as?”

“The second area where the Horned Mask monster appeared was City E, managed by the Okami family.”

“!!”

“The public believes that the Horned Mask monster harmed Head Okami Makoto, but the family themselves maintain silence on the matter.”

Of course they would.

A family of heroes couldn’t publicly announce that they received help from a monster.

And as if noticing this fact, Yoon Ha-eun’s heart-shaped pupils pulsed even more intensely.

“And you, Jang-hoon, were there too.”

“Ah, n-no, that’s…!”

“Right. Maybe by coincidence, your path crossed with that monster’s twice in a row. But you know…”

The third appearance location of the Horned Mask monster.

The day when Yoon Ha-eun and I officially encountered each other for the first time.

She said she saw it clearly.

“A few days later, when the Horned Mask monster appeared in City C, you, Jang-hoon, were in City D?”

“Y-yes! I was in City D that day!”

“Right! You were in City D, where the Horned Mask monster first appeared, and you were in the ‘same bathroom’ as that monster!”

“?!”

Oh no.

Did she investigate that far?

With those words, Yoon Ha-eun showed me CCTV footage from near the public bathroom where I had briefly stopped to transform into a monster to chase Carmilla, taking advantage of the chaos caused by the monster alert in City D at that time.

Gulp…!

“Look! Just seconds after you entered the bathroom, the Horned Mask monster came out!”

“Guh!!”

“Can you still raise an objection with evidence like this?”

This definitely…

called for exercising my ‘right to remain silent.’

“I-I want a lawyer!”

“After coming this far, just confess!”