Chapter 31 –
Reunions are Emotional

After the S-Rank mana stone disappeared, the two remaining people naturally became the suspects in that situation. 

Ban Hana and I were handcuffed and taken away by dozens of heroes.

Amongst the heroes, talk about my identity came out in their conversation.

It seems that I became quite a celebrity in the outside world during the time I disappeared.

They looked at me with doubt.

“…Isn’t he that kid? The one who got recently kidnapped…”

“Huh…? Now that you mention it, I think he is…”

After the Black Dawn member, Angela, had left, Hana and I were the faces of the crime scene.

That was why, there were some people among the heroes who noticed that I was that kidnapped individual, “Han Sijoon”.

Well, I can explain it to them later. It shouldn’t matter.

I’d be given time to explain myself anyway, so what I had to do now…

“You…You tricked me. Han Sijoon!”

The delusional Hana exclaimed as her hand on my sleeve trembled.

All that remained was calming her down.

But before that, let’s tease her a bit.

“You’ve been caught. You’re gonna live in prison from now on. The awful prison. You’ll never be able to escape.”

“C-Coward! A villain! This is a villain!”

What do you mean by villain?

Hana kept crying out “villain”.

I didn’t understand what she meant by that, just the fact that she felt wronged.

As she continued to behave that way, one of the heroes who had been pulling us shouted at us, most likely annoyed by our lack of nervousness.

“Pipe down! You two are being arrested! Be quiet!”

“Yes…”

“Hic…”

That was how we were handcuffed and arrested as the suspects in the robbery of the S-Rank mana stone.

***

1. AGE.

This place was a world inside an RPG game, modeled after Earth, yet there were things that were dissimilar to reality.

It was a real world where you had to go to the police if you committed a crime.

However, there were two organizations in this place that replaced the police.

There was the “Hero Association” which had information about all the heroes in general. They had the right to arrest villains, and had their own set of decent skills.

Holding up against such an association was the “Hero Autonomous Union.”

They were heroes who broke away from the association and came together as a group, capable of exercising various rights in the form of a guild.

Their fame was growing by the day.

It’s a good thing that we’re being escorted away by them.

What if it had been the Hero Association that escorted the two of us?

Then they’ll put me right back with the organization that requested for my death when I just barely managed to escape.

It’s dizzying just thinking about it.

It was extremely fortunate that the Union came to escort me.

As I was thinking that, the interrogator sitting in front of me, who was as big as a gorilla, slammed down on the desk.

Bang!

“Focus. Don’t let your mind wander, focus. You two are arrested as suspects right now. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“I do…”

Normally, because of the severity of the crime, it would be common grounds to immediately throw the suspects who stole the S-Rank mana stone into the “Infinite Prison”. However, the fact that the suspect was “Han Sijoon,” who had been kidnapped for a week, and the unusual case of Ban Hana not being on any records… We were at the Hero Autonomous Union instead, currently being questioned in the general interrogation room by the organization commonly referred to as the Hero AU. 

“…Let me confirm one thing and then you can go. The S-Rank mana stone. Did you really steal it?”

“We did, but we didn’t do it because we wanted to…”

“Expand on that.”

I explained my kidnapping to the man: how I was kidnapped by the Black Dawn on the day of the incident, what they wanted from me, what they tried to steal, and upon achieving their purpose, I mixed in the lie that the Black Dawn had abandoned us.

“She was also kidnapped and abandoned with me. We’ve gotten close throughout the week. Right, Hana?”

“I-I’ve…been raised since a long time ago! I-I’ve…been abandoned! That’s right! Abandoned!”

Hana stuttered as she explained.

If there was anyone who knew her, it would be easy to find out what she was saying was a lie.

“Hmm…”

The interrogator sent a dubious glance at Hana.

If the truth of Ban Hana being a member of Black Dawn came out, it’d also put me in a difficult position. Hence, I decided to add one more comment to Hana’s matter.

“As you can see, she isn’t too bright in the head.”

“Ah… I understand.”

Seeing the absentminded look on Hana’s face convinced the interrogator.

Fortunately, he didn’t seem to be the suspicious type, that, or Hana actually looked lacking in intellect.

Hana reacted fervently to that comment of her not being too bright.

“I… I’m not an idiot!”

She hammered the wedge in making her look even more dense.

“…Tsk.”

The interrogator clicked his tongue and made a look that said she wasn’t worth talking to. Then he got up from his seat to indicate they were done here. He headed out the door with his written documents of what we discussed.

“You two. Wait for now. A guardian will come to pick you up. Since you two are still suspects in this case, the charge against you has not been cleared, so don’t do anything foolish.”

The interrogator left after saying that.

For starters… It turned out well?

A crime that we were forced to commit because we had been kidnapped.

As someone with no mana, I was exploited and had no choice but to steal the mana stone.

There was also a new existence called Ban Hana, who had been in the Black Dawn hideout.

I explained everything perfectly, so as long as the Hero AU did not hold any ill will towards us, they should acknowledge the situation to be a special case.

In fact, even if we are guilty to some degree, it’ll be fine as long as we don’t have to go to jail.

What I desperately needed right now…

I can’t wait to go home…

A room to myself.

Since I lived like a loner throughout my life, my communal life with the villains drained a lot of my mental energy.

What I needed right now was a break.

It was time for alone time.

As I imagined myself happily lying in bed by myself, Hana, who was beside me, asked, “Sijoon, you have a house?”

”It’s not a house, it’s a dorm. A place where students live together.”

“Then will I be living there too?”

“Probably.”

“In the same room?”

“…The girls and the boys are separated in the dorm.”

“How come!”

Even if you ask me that, there’s nothing I can do about it.

It looked like Hana wanted to share a room with me.

But what wasn’t not possible was not possible.

When I roughly explained what a school’s dormitory was like, Hana dropped her head, a little discouraged.

“Hiing… I wanted to live together with you…”

“That’s not the problem.”

The issue with Hana was if it was possible for her to enroll in the academy, not if she could live with me.

It was a matter of whether she could enter or not.

Out of ignorance, Hana currently wanted to live a student’s life. I’m not sure if she could be accepted or not, but for now, being a student at the academy was one of the things she desired.

The first obstacle.

The issue with age.

Was Ban Hana old enough to enter?

I immediately asked her.

“No, wait. How old are you? You must be younger than me.”

The matter of age that we silently looked over.

She was shorter than the average female and her intelligence seemed lower as well.

When it came to her age, I thought, “She’s definitely younger than me,” so I moved on with my assumption.

What is Hana’s actual age?

As she slowly opened her mouth, the closed truth had been revealed.

“I… um… If I go by what Grandpa said, I’m about 18… 18 years old! I’m 18!”

Hana giggled.

In contrast, I couldn’t laugh anymore.

She’s older than me…?

A shocking truth.

She betrayed my expectations.

She was one year older than me, who was 17.

”Hana.”

“Huh? What Sijoon?”

“I can’t bring myself to use honorifics. Sorry…”

It wasn’t a matter of pride, but in my brain, being formal to Ban Hana was settled as something that could not be done.

She should understand too.

”…Sijoon, are you younger than me?”

“I mean, it’s not that important who was born first. Right? If you click with someone, you can become friends with them.”

Her eyebrows furrowed, displeased with what I said.

She took a deep breath then channeled her boomer lecture.

“Shush!! Sijoon! Starting now, use honorifics towards me! You young rascal…”

…Oh no.

The hierarchy I felt when I briefly lived in the Black Dawn’s hideout.

Maybe it was because Shin Haeil was Korean, but the Black Dawn seemed to be ranked according to their age.

Ban Hana was a member of the Black Dawn and someone who grew up amongst them. She must have experienced, seen, and learned about the age culture firsthand.

When I didn’t give her any response, she tried to act like a boomer again.

“If you’re younger than me, you have to use honorifics. That’s a rule and regulation!”

“What’s the difference between a rule and regulation…”

“Shush!”

Hana raised her voice as if to say she’d hear no objections.

Even so, what couldn’t be done, could not be done.

No matter how much I think about it, using honorifics towards a pink rabbit was something I could not do.

“Give me evidence. Evidence that you are older than me.”

“Evi…dence?”

Hana couldn’t say anything in response to the talk about evidence.

She had no evidence to prove her age. As soon as she was born, she was moved to the Black Dawn, so there was no way she had a resident registration.

With an easy mind, I could tease her about it.

“So it’s a lie that you’re older than me?”

“I… I don’t lie! Good kids can’t lie!”

“Oh, really? I see.”

At my soulless response, Hana’s face turned pinker than her pink hair, to a dark-red.

“S-Sijoon…come here! I’m going to scold you!”

Without notice, Hana pounced at me. 

I was right next to her, handcuffed to the desk. That act of hers was just great for making me lose balance.

“Huh…?”

“Uwah..!”

Bam!

We ultimately fell off our chairs and rolled on the floor.

“…That was a close one”

Thanks to the desk in the interrogation room, it supported us, preventing us from falling flat. 

That made me not get hurt, but now we’re in a position where Hana was beneath me, and me on top of her.

It was a position that could be misunderstood if I didn’t explain, “We’re like this because we fell down!”

Since I have a fate related to situations like these, this position would definitely be misunderstood by the viewing party.

At this rate, if someone comes in, they’ll misunderstand…

The moment I was about to get up from the floor after the thought crossed my mind… 

Creak…

The door opened, and I saw a woman with a familiar silhouette there.

I seriously want to kill fate.

I hastily greeted her, who I haven’t seen for a while.

“L-Long…time no see. Hayeon.”

“…”

Hahaha.

I tried covering it up by laughing, but it seemed impossible.

Yoo Hayeon.

She was staring at this scene with dead eyes.

“…What’re you doing?”

Hayeon’s ice-cold voice rang out.

The cold air hung over the interrogation room, and I could sense that I was f*cked.