“Seongho-ssi, has all the residual energy in Room 5 been cleaned up?”
“Yes. Please tell them the bereaved family can come in.”
When Espers die, they emit contaminated energy.
So there was a need for a separate cleaner wearing special work clothes to clean it up, and I ended up taking on that job.
I had immunity to contamination, and this place wanted non-regular laborers who didn’t consider educational background, work experience, or criminal records, so it was a collusion where both our needs matched.
“Eat this while you work. Good job.”
The nurse stuck two tangerines into my pocket and made a cheerful expression. I just bowed in greeting and pushed the trolley toward the storage room again.
They say people are the same everywhere, but this place was clearly different.
The people I met when I was a loan shark. The people I met when I was a soldier. The people I meet as a hospital janitor. They were all people from different occupations with different textures.
The world is wide and there are many people.
“No, I don’t want to!”
While moving lost in idle thoughts, I heard a young child throwing a tantrum from some hospital room.
“I don’t want to eat it! It tastes bad!”
“But you have to eat it! Are you not going to listen?!”
It was a kid who had claimed a spot in the Esper-exclusive hospice ward at the age of 13.
He was a child who had awakened when he was even younger than now, was raised almost hidden by his parents, got caught up in a Gate and lost his abilities, then started life-prolonging treatment. Though he looked small and fragile, he had apparently saved over 30 people.
“Why are you being so frustrating!”
Crash!
A stainless steel cup containing water, presumably brought to feed the child, was thrown to the floor.
“Waaaaah—!”
And then the mother burst into tears. Right now, this child-like crying sound was coming from the mother’s side.
I’d seen children cry and throw tantrums many times, but it was the first time I’d seen the parent side cry out in distress.
Swish swish—
“…?”
I silently entered the hospital room and mopped the floor drenched with water. Still, I was in a position of working for money, so I should faithfully carry out what I was assigned.
“…Who are you, ahjussi?”
“Janitor.”
I took out a tangerine from my pocket, pressed one into the child’s hand, and also placed one at the head of the prostrate mother.
The child looked at it, then placed the tangerine from the head of the bed on top of the mother’s head, watching with a mischievous face to see if it would roll off or not.
“Kim Minjun, you…!”
The mother raised her head from the bedside and got up, growling again.
At that reaction, the child in the bed responded as if accustomed to it.
“Anyway, I’m not eating it. Stop bringing herbal medicine. It tastes bad.”
“No, what kind of medicine do you eat for taste…”
The mother mumbled excuses, trailing off saying it was good for the body. Then she took down the tangerine from her head and peeled it with reddened eyes.
“It’s a red-hyang, this one’s delicious. You know that, right? Say ‘ah.'”
“I know. Ahh~”
The mother put a piece of the tangerine, or red-hyang, into the child’s mouth and also put a piece into her own mouth.
Just moments ago they were screaming and fighting, but now the situation concluded without any forgiveness or reconciliation, as if nothing had happened, which was fascinating.
I watched that for a bit, then bent down to pick up the dented stainless steel cup. Seeing the cup, the mother laughed awkwardly, saying “Oh my.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll compensate you. How much is it?”
“Please inquire at the desk, not with me.”
I handed over the cup and turned around to leave the hospital room.
Or rather, I was going to. If not for some figure blocking my way, I would have done so easily.
“If I inquire at the desk, will they tell me how much you cost too?”
It was a guy who had been annoyingly following me around since some time ago.
A person whose observing gaze was subtly irritating.
I ignored my opponent and forcefully shook him off, then pushed the trolley toward the storage room.
“What’s your name?”
Unbothered, he followed me and asked another pointless question today.
There’s clearly a name tag, so just read that. Can’t he read?
“How old are you?”
Rattle.
Only the sound of the trolley rolling on the glossy white floor quietly echoed.
“Do you have time after this is done?”
Finally reaching the storage room, my opponent persistently followed me even inside. It was almost lunch time—at this rate, he’d follow me to where I eat.
“How did you kill Kim Hanseong?”
Flinch.
I stiffened my body momentarily. Soon I thought I’d been drawn into his pace. I should have acted as if nothing happened. It was a mistake.
“Why are you taking the initiative? He’s mine.”
I didn’t answer.
Because carelessly blurting out an answer to an opponent I hadn’t yet figured out was dangerous.
“Still not answering? Is your mouth stuck shut?”
My opponent’s hand approached near my mouth. I smacked it away with a sharp sound.
“Ow~”
“Leave.”
When I spoke aloud, my opponent’s eyes widened slightly as if surprised.
“Wow, you answered for the first time~”
It was a reaction as if he’d heard some rare animal’s cry. All human voices are basically the same, so the overreaction was…
“Did you feel like having a conversation with me?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Just because.”
What conversation am I supposed to have with someone who asks me if I killed a person? Should I tremble and ask back how he found out?
Or should I try to eliminate a witness by committing murder?
Either way, my skill was perfect. There was no evidence anywhere that I killed Kim Hanseong. The money I received from Kim Hanseong was also cleanly laundered money that wouldn’t receive troublesome tracking.
“What should I do to make you feel like having a conversation with me~”
“If you’re going to talk nonsense, pay money and do it.”
If he paid money, there was nothing I couldn’t listen to. I didn’t know what kind of guy he was, but if he tried to buy my time with money, I had the intention to sell it.
At my statement, my opponent laughed lightly.
And.
“I don’t have cash right now~”
Smooch.
My opponent pressed his lips near my ear with a smooching sound and then released them.
“So as advance pay—”
Smack!
“Are you mentally contaminated or something, you fucking bastard.”
I slapped him.
To rub his muzzle on me saying he didn’t have cash. I wanted to slice him up and throw him as animal feed.
“Wow, you’re a Guide?”
My opponent tilted his head and spoke as if interested.
I don’t even know how to do Guiding and have never done it, so how the hell did he notice?
And that white face that didn’t redden at all even though I hit him pretty hard.
“…You must be an Esper.”
My opponent showed me a grin with his canines visible.
He was at least an A-rank or higher Esper. From the sensation I felt when hitting him, the hardness was exactly the hand-feel of beating up those annoying high-rank Esper bastards.
“Your mental contamination level must be quite high? How are you alive? I almost threw up just now.”
The opponent who brought his face close and narrowed the distance in an instant to where our breaths could touch continued questioning.
Whack!
“Pay up, you fucker.”
I landed a direct hit to his face.
He must keep pushing close because he wants to get hit. Or he has no learning ability or no thoughts. Ignorance is also a sin.
“How much is it? Inquire at the desk? Really?”
The guy asked persistently while slightly dodging my fist and looking at me, as if he had no particular damage.
I’d never thought about a concrete amount, so I pondered a bit before soon realizing it was almost lunch time.
“5,000 won.”
It was the employee discount price for a meal ticket at the hospital cafeteria.
***
“Just kill one Esper for me.”
He, who had been slashing the pork cutlet he wasn’t even eating with a knife here and there, suddenly threw out the main point.
“I’m a janitor.”
“Not a janitor who cleans up people.”
Having devoured my meal in under 5 minutes like drinking rice, I felt appropriately full and picked up the toothbrush set I’d brought.
The first habit I picked up after being discharged from the military was brushing my teeth right after eating, and being able to do what I couldn’t do at the frontlines to my heart’s content felt refreshing. Even though it seemed like nothing special, in that place, such small and trivial acts were truly desperate.
“You’re a cleaning expert, aren’t you. Warrant Officer Ha Seongho.”
The guy even made a “kkeuk- kkeuk-” sound while acting like he knew everything.
Having completed a thorough background check on just what kind of bastard he was before coming, I was at a loss for words. This wasn’t a conversation but closer to an order or a threat.
“Let’s not talk nonsense after eating hot rice.”
“How about 1 billion won?”
At the somewhat radical sum, my action of trying to stand up stopped.
“I prefer things that can be solved with money. It’s easy, right?”
My opponent smiled looking at me who had stopped moving.
I got annoyed for no reason. When will that smiling face of his become tearful? Should I really beat him to dust on a rainy day after all?
Such useless thoughts surged up.
“Is this something we should be talking about in public like this?”
“To have a conversation with Ha Seongho-ssi, I need a whole 1 billion and 5,000 won. Too expensive~”
When I looked around again, the cafeteria that had been bustling with people was completely empty without even a single ant.
It’s a unique barrier. He and I were left alone in an illusory world separated from the real world in the blink of an eye.
“I’m an E-rank Guide. My physical abilities are just slightly better than an ordinary person.”
First, I took a step back. Though 1 billion was tempting, I could get into trouble if I took it carelessly. I needed to watch how my opponent would come out.
“But you can kill Espers, right?”
“Didn’t you come already knowing everything?”
“Hearing it from your own mouth is different~”
I looked at my opponent for a moment, then nodded. My opponent, as if satisfied, put down the knife from his hand and rested his chin on the table.
