Ring ring— Ring ring—
The bell rang busily. The top floor of a tall glass tower. Sung Yohan, who’d been sitting at a desk with one wall made of transparent windows showing a clear blue sky as the background, frowned and picked up his phone.
“Yeah.”
—Um, Guild Leader. The thing is…
“Don’t blur your words, speak clearly.”
Papers were already piling up because of the dispute over interests with Jupiter Guild, giving him a headache, and now this was grating on his nerves. Every little thing was stimulating his sensitive state. Sunlight leisurely settled on his deeply frowning face, but Sung Yohan lifted his head with an annoyed expression and cracked his neck this way and that.
“What.”
—…That Yeongwon, they say he didn’t go to school.
“…Do I have to worry about even trivial things?”
—I’m sorry. However, his phone is currently disconnected, and he apparently shook off the bodyguard who was watching him and ran away. Fortunately, we found his location, but he says he absolutely won’t go unless the Guild Leader comes—
“…Haah.”
Sung Yohan pressed his brow firmly and leaned his body deep into the backrest. The child called Yeongwon was a third-year middle schooler whom he was taking care of due to certain circumstances. Because he’d been lenient about this and that, lately the kid kept crossing the line like this. That said, he couldn’t treat him coldly either. That child was also necessary to him. Sung Yohan closed his eyes and stayed still for a moment, then answered the voice calling him.
—Guild Leader?
“I’ll go, so send me the location.”
—Yes. Thank you!
Sung Yohan sighed and got up. The trip to catch a problem child was just annoying.
***
Walking from Miyang-dong to Gwangcheon-gu where Dumang Mountain was located took roughly an hour. Igyeol, who’d been strolling along dressed like an unemployed bum, passed through an alley and walked, then backpedaled to look at the alley.
Inside the alley where old low houses were tangled together, someone was being dragged into another connected alley. A bag and school uniform. Behind them, a delinquent group chasing while laughing sloppily. Igyeol clicked his tongue.
Isn’t this the time they should be at school? This clearly looked like a scene of a gang of punks shaking down an ordinary student…. Do these kinds of bastards still exist in this day and age? If he’s any later, gathering Hunters will thoroughly clean out the C-rank dungeon. Igyeol deliberated.
‘Should I not tolerate injustice, or just pass by pretending not to see.’
Even as he thought that, Igyeol’s footsteps were already moving into the alley. Igyeol muttered with an extremely annoyed face.
“I’m going to be late.”
When he put his hands in his pockets and strode into the connected alleys, hazy cigarette smoke greeted him first. When he waved his hand roughly, inside were three people who appeared to be high schoolers, and one person being beaten. The small one looked to be about a middle schooler. One male student crouched down and poked the forehead of the child with his head deeply bowed with his fingertips.
“Our cute Yeongwon-ah, what did I tell you. When you show up, you have to pay tribute, don’t you. You said your noona left you a fuck-ton of stuff. You bragged about it with your own mouth~”
“Ah, because of this bastard, the homeroom teacher called me yesterday, you know? Asking who’s going around bullying kids these days. Right, who’s bullying. We’re close, aren’t we.”
“We’re just asking you to share a little~ since you have a lot. What the fuck, did we make unreasonable demands of you? It’s not like we asked you to enter a dungeon and catch the boss.”
The child collapsed on the ground had a completely wrinkled uniform, and his face and exposed forearms were full of wounds. The student bit his lips firmly at the humiliating gestures and glared at the male student with resentful eyes.
“Ah fuck, there’s nothing in the bag.”
“This bastard, seriously. Our cute Yeongwon now thinks he’s smart so he doesn’t even carry books? Where’d you hide the money?”
Another student who’d been rummaging through the bookbag threw the bag at Yeongwon with a bored face. Igyeol leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and watched the scene.
“No, fuck, you should keep the words you said with your own mouth!”
“Did we ask for something big? We’re just saying to share the small stuff, you bastard!”
“This is why you get beaten to a pulp.”
“Ah—”
Thoroughly annoyed, the male student stood up abruptly and stomped on Yeongwon with his feet. The frail shoulders flinched and trembled as they shrank. The male student seemed irritated that he didn’t let out a single groan, so he took out a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth.
Then, one male student who happened to turn his head discovered Igyeol leaning against the wall and flinched in surprise a beat late, backing away.
“Ah fuck— I’m shocked!!”
“Wh-what? When was that person there?”
The three male students looked at Igyeol with flustered faces, making a fuss. Igyeol smiled brightly.
“You students have such good camaraderie.”
The male students quickly grasped the situation, looked at each other, and chuckled.
“Ahjussi, don’t butt into someone else’s business and just go.”
“You look like fucking trash. Is that gray hair? Ahjussi, got any money?”
The male student who’d been sucking on his cigarette until his cheeks hollowed sneered while grinning. Igyeol separated his body from the wall and clicked his tongue. This makes you want to earnestly step forward—that’s human psychology. Igyeol looked at the students mocking him and muttered quietly.
“They say kids these days are scary….”
The male students giggled.
“Kids these days are scar— Gack—!”
The moment they laughed, Igyeol in front of them disappeared. The moment the male student’s eyes widened as if they’d pop out, Igyeol, who’d grabbed the collar of the nearby male student, shoulder-threw him as is. Kudangtang—! After that, Igyeol struck the ankle of another male student to make him fall, then turned his body and extended his fist toward the remaining male student.
Swooosh—
The sound of cutting through wind rang out viciously.
“Huk… heok….”
The fist that stopped right in front of his eyes stayed without moving, then soon changed to a finger. Igyeol pushed the male student’s head straight with his index finger and said.
“You wanna get beaten to a pulp, or just go.”
“Cra… crazy. A-Awakened?”
“If a Hunter hits a civilian—”
“You want to get beaten to a pulp.”
“Uwaaaah!”
The three male students fled the alley with their tails between their legs. Igyeol dusted off his hands and picked up the bag of the student who’d been beaten, shaking off the dust. Then he extended his hand to the student collapsed on the ground.
“Can you get up?”
The student who’d been looking at him with a dazed face chewed his lips, then slapped Igyeol’s hand away and stood up abruptly. On the student’s chest was a name tag. Kang Yeongwon.
“Give me my bag.”
“Hmm…. Here.”
“Are you an Awakened?”
“Why?”
“……”
Kang Yeongwon looked at Igyeol with an expression as if he had something to say, then bit his lips firmly. Then he snatched the bag and dashed out of the alley. Igyeol narrowed his eyes and stared at that retreating figure.
It wasn’t that he’d tried to save him to take credit, but still, he thought the kid would at least know to say thank you, but there wasn’t even that. Did I step forward for nothing? Igyeol awkwardly scratched the back of his head and set out on the road again to go to Dumang Mountain.
On the way out of the alley, as he was moving his steps, something shiny was lying on the ground. Looking closely, it was a name tag. Kang Yeong Won. It was that child’s name tag from earlier. Igyeol bent down to pick it up.
At that moment, a tall man who’d entered from the bent alley discovered the name tag like Igyeol and reached out his hand. From Igyeol’s hand that had grabbed the name tag, the man snatched the name tag away cleanly. Though the moment their fingertips brushed was fleeting, Igyeol felt a peculiar chilliness that made his hair stand on end. He approached without any presence, and snatched away what was in my hand?
“…Who are you, and why were you trying to pick this up?”
A low, pleasant baritone voice was heard. Igyeol raised his eyes and looked forward. A young man wearing a jet-black coat. Black hair and elegant jawline. A man with a face beautiful as if drawn with a brush was looking at him.
On his pure white face, his particularly transparent yet jet-black eyes stood out. Upon meeting those eyes, he naturally became unable to think of anything. Igyeol recognized the man before his eyes. The man urged Igyeol again.
“Do you know this child?”
Sung Yohan. The face he’d seen on TV was right before his eyes.
