episode_0105

“Hmm, hmm. Hey, you guy. What if you break the door like that? At least you have to knock and come in… ”

A tall-looking man strokes his beard as if he is embarrassed.

He then tried to put the door back together that was lying on the floor, but when he saw the broken hinges, he gave up and sighed.

“Strength is also good. How on earth did this happen… Anti-particle coating was applied to Stellite alloy… ”

“… ”

Mok Jin-woo’s words make me feel grumpy for no reason. Why was I worried about that person’s safety?

Well, where did Mok Jin-woo go to get stabbed to death?

Obviously, the manager said that. Even if you throw him among demons, he will come back alive with just his tongue…

“Isn’t it the branch manager who told me to come anytime? Either day or night. Any time of the year.”

“Well, that’s true, but… Still, how could I have known it would come today… Even the door was locked… ”

“Isn’t this the headquarters of the General Intelligence Service? But how can you call a woman like that? If my sisters had seen it, not me… ”

“Don’t even mention what they say.”

Mok Jin-woo shook his head as if he was disgusted.

“When I think of the hardships I suffered because of those women when I was in my cradle… When I try to have fun with Jaehyuk, he comes out of nowhere and harasses me like a ghost… Ugh.”

“I think I know why the sisters don’t like the branch leader very much… ”

“Good. I don’t like them that much either.”

It was an unusually firm answer for him.

“And it’s not what you think. That woman from earlier is my informant. He works as a night singer at a VIP club. The mouth is also very heavy… ”

“Then isn’t that more of a problem? How could an informant… ”

“Is there anything you can’t do? That’s how we live our lives. While conveying trends to high-ranking people… If there’s time left… Hehe.”

He shrugs his shoulders and has a shameless smile on his face.

Then he belatedly cleared his throat and changed the subject.

“Keuhum. Let’s stop talking about this now. How about you? Are there any injuries?”

“… are you okay. There was a minor injury, but after a few days of rest, it was almost completely healed… ”

“That’s really fortunate. I was already worried because you didn’t contact me. At least I felt a little relieved after seeing him come out for a hearing… ”

Mok Jin-woo nodded.

“I got a good beating from Paecheon this time. I certainly didn’t know that the young lady would personally lead the private army and storm it. By the way, did you receive my crow? I sent it as soon as it detected movement… ”

“It arrived almost the same as the Paecheon side. It seemed like they couldn’t get in properly because they were blocked by the air defense net.”

“Tsk… Just in case… ”

He frowned slightly and clicked his tongue.

“When I think about it that way, it’s really luck that saved my life. If I were Paecheon, I would have beheaded you and the heir of Jeokhwa on the spot. The justification is also very appropriate… ”

“… Iknow, right. But how did you know I was in Jeokhwa and sent a crow?”

“Our person in the cradle told us. Come to think of it… Hmm.”

Mok Jin-woo suddenly stopped what he was saying and nodded, looking at me as if he had remembered something.

“… At this point, I think it might be a good idea to interact with him in person. Then wouldn’t we be able to exchange information more closely? We weren’t even strangers in the first place.”

“Someone I know is an agent of the General Intelligence Service?”

And at most, maybe one of the faculty members? I was thinking about it, but Mok Jin-woo spit out the name of someone I had never thought of.

“You know? My name is Shin Moo-young.”

***

“Yes?”

I was so dumbfounded that I blurted out a question without realizing it.

As soon as I hear the name, a stern-looking male student wearing glasses immediately comes to mind.

Although his reputation was not very positive, he was one of the few students I spoke to from the cradle.

After the first ranking match, I ran into him in the ward, and before he left for Jeokhwa, I ran into him and told him that I would be leaving the cradle for a while through mentoring and experiential learning.

But he was an agent of the General Intelligence Service…

“Have you put me under surveillance?”

“What is surveillance? Why would we keep an eye on you?”

He lets out a chuckle as if it doesn’t even sound like a word.

“He was decided to enter the cradle long before you. I needed someone who could immediately convey the trends of children from prestigious families in the academy. Muyoung doesn’t even know that you and I are in this kind of relationship.”

“Is that so… I couldn’t even imagine… I never thought that friend was an agent of the General Intelligence Service.”

“Muyoung is a much more capable friend than you think. Needless to say, it’s a rare spirit… know? His temperament.”

If I didn’t know, I couldn’t have known.

I recalled the actions that Mooyoung showed that were close to eccentric.

“Don’t you think that it reacts not only to humans but also to beings close to us?”

“If it is something close to us… ”

“Let’s see… For example… Are they female demons that disguise themselves as young women and prey on men?”

“He can sense beasts?”

The appearance of a demon with all the demon energy removed from its body is no different from that of a human.

Strong individuals of level 2 or higher still emit a venomous scent, but the number of such species is not that large in the first place.

Even the unique and awkward vocal language will be naturally corrected if it has been used for several years.

Even though their numbers are small, I know that it is very difficult to distinguish demons who have lived for such a long time from humans unless you kill them and take out the springs.

Being able to immediately detect such entities is certainly more than capable.

“Okay. In fact, they say that similar things are more difficult to endure than other people. For female demons, orgy is the basic method of reproduction. During the breeding season, dozens of males are replaced… ”

“Orgy… ”

It is a word that has a very muddy sound.

Just thinking about that part made my head hurt.

Without realizing it, I repeated the words he said, but I soon realized it was a mistake.

“Oh? Why are you like that? Do you see any interest? Well, I’m at the point where I’m at the boiling point… ”

Mok Jin-woo’s voice was full of mischievousness as he spoke.

“Or have you already tried it? huh? Seducing innocent cradle girls who don’t know anything about the world… ”

“What… I’ve never done anything like that. I don’t even want to do it.”

“Is that so? I think there’s a lot of potential… ”

His gaze felt sharp as if it could pierce the mask, but he quickly looked away and continued speaking again.

“Well, you will find out little by little. Anyway, that breeding method is very different from that of Muyoung. He is an admirer of platonic love. Should I say that I am a romanticist, which is rare these days… ”

As I listened to his explanation, I suddenly wondered if Muyoung’s reluctance also applied to men? A question passes through my head.

In that case, I’d like to test it on the person in front of me first…

“With plainclothes soldiers waiting around, Muyoung just walks around the back alleys and streets. Then, when he foams at the mouth and has difficulty breathing, they surround the entire area… What next?”

He answers by slightly raising his eyebrows.

“Sometimes misidentification accidents occur… I can assure you that it is superior to any other method I know.”

There was a time when I wondered what to do because I couldn’t see him every day on the weekends, but now I think that question has been answered.

I wonder if it would be difficult to work without holidays, but given his personality, I think he would have been willing to do it…

“… Does the principal even know his identity?”

“Well? We didn’t say it out loud, but they probably knew that we planted people.”

He continued talking, wiping the glass with a dry cloth as if it was no big deal.

“But even if that were the case, I don’t think I would pay much attention to it. We and the principal share a certain level of understanding in the cause of stabilizing the republic. If she had been in the capital, the Red Cross incident wouldn’t have turned into such a big deal… ”

“Is that so… ”

“Okay. But it’s really amazing. Muyoung rarely expressed human interest in someone. I’m sure he said something… A sense of kinship among wounded men… ?”

“… I don’t know what you’re talking about. Rather, let me ask you… ”

After that, I had various conversations with Jinwoo Mok.

And through his mouth, I was able to hear various trends that I couldn’t understand right now.

However, perhaps because I am a person who talks a lot, I needed to go through a refining process to select only the information that was somewhat useful to me.

There is no need for me to know that a new night stage singer with a voice as sharp as an oriole has entered the VIP club, and that she is monopolizing the attention and support of powerful people and arousing the jealousy of others…

“Now that I think about it, should I call you master? The new crown prince of the Black Lotus… ”

“Don’t make fun of me. I’m leaving.”

“It’s not fun. I get it. How can this guy be the same as Jaehyuk even though we are not even related by blood? ”

It was late, and as I was about to stand up, Mok Jin-woo made another practical joke behind me. Aren’t you tired of this guy?

“Ah, over there… ”

“Hmm?”

I was about to say hello and leave, but when I heard Muyoung’s name, the interrupted conversation I had with him in the ward a while ago came back to mind.

‘Anyway, the momentum was really scary. Even when I was dealing with him from a distance, my hands and feet felt tingly. It’s to the point where I wonder if that’s what it feels like when witches are right in front of you… ‘

‘captain. Don’t you know witches? oh my god. As expected, he was a naive person who didn’t know anything. So, 15 years ago… ‘

I turned around again because I remembered something.

“Do you know what a witch is?”

Then Mok Jin-woo pauses for a moment and asks a question.

“… Why is that?”

“It just suddenly occurred to me. I ended up talking about that with Muyoung earlier. It looks like the identification name of some criminal or mutant… ”

“… hmm. Really?”

He trailed off slightly, then nodded slightly and said.

“Well, that isn’t wrong. But I think it would be better to hear that story from Muyoung, who spoke directly, rather than from me.”

“Why? While I was just talking… ”

“That’s because the time for the last shuttle to the cradle is approaching. You probably forgot that tomorrow is Monday, right? If you want to get penalty points for being late on your first day back… ”

“… Ah.”

When I turned my head to hear his words, the second hand of the clock was already pointing to late night.

“… All right. then… ”

“Okay. Please go in safely, master.”

I left the silver halo with Mok Jin-woo’s joke flowing through one ear.

So I walked towards the stop where the shuttle to the cradle was staying.

This slight discomfort I feel right now is probably not just because I couldn’t solve the question that suddenly came to my mind.

When I said the word witch. And when you hear where that question comes from.

A strange expression appeared on Mok Jin-woo’s face for a moment and then disappeared.

Was it my mistake to say that it felt like a sigh of tension and a sigh of relief, respectively?

The word witch… Was it a topic worthy of such a response?

***

The view of the cradle, which I saw again after a long time, was very quiet.

Still, it is a place where I have stayed for a long time, and now it feels quite familiar and familiar.

Because it was already very late, there was not a single person nearby except the security guard and security camera that guarded the cradle’s main gate.

The campus, which was always crowded with students wearing white school uniforms, is also very quiet.

Who was training until this hour? The lights on in the indoor training center were only flickering far away.

I slipped through the bushes in the garden next to the campus.

After walking along the back road for a while, the now familiar view of the beech tree dormitory began to come into view.

Among them, the mansion located in the most quiet and scenic place was Yeon Myeong-ha’s dormitory.

And the moment I climb over the fence near the back door to avoid other people’s eyes.

“… It’s late.”

Even at first glance, someone’s voice that conveys deep pain catches your ear.

A pure white figure appears before my eyes, like a ghost wandering the hallways.

She had her arms crossed and was glaring at me with a sullen expression.

A fierce red light shines in the darkness.

“I told you to sleep first today. It might be late.”

“But it’s too late… I knew something would happen while walking around in these dark times… ”

Do you know who this woman is?

Even for someone who is younger than him.

Meanwhile, at Yeon Myeong-ha’s feet, a small cat can be seen, half cream and half pumpkin.

-Dang!

Peanut ran to my feet and circled around several times, sniffing the air.

Now that I think about it, it’s been a few days since I saw this guy.

Although I was happy to see him on the inside, Peanut seemed to be dissatisfied with something.

It seemed to be sniffing for a while, then suddenly stood upright, raised its teeth, and bit down on my ankle.

The pain was so severe that I almost let out a moan.

I guess it was because it had been so long since I last saw him, so I lifted Peanut’s neck and held him in my arms.

However, Peanut’s dissatisfaction continues.

All of his limbs were restrained as he kept trying to scratch me with his claws.

It may seem like he is having a hard time, or it may be like he is complaining…

“Do you know why he’s suddenly acting like this?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I didn’t hear anything from my dad about where he was or what he was doing, and he came back late at night… ”

“… ”

I don’t think it feels like that.

“Ugh. it’s okay. Let’s go in now. Since there is another academic schedule starting tomorrow… ”

“Okay.”

I was about to follow Yeon Myeong-ha into the dormitory while holding Peanut.

I felt like there was a strange stain on the outer wall that wasn’t there before, so I turned my attention towards it.

And I immediately recognized the identity of the stain.

“This… ”

It wasn’t like a stain, it was just graffiti written in large letters.