“Yes, it’s nature-type. I can manipulate a little water.”
Thanks to the magic stone limiting his wavelength, all Hae-il could currently do was barely spurt thin streams of water from his fingertips.
Kang Cheol-hyeon, who directly confirmed that appearance, put away his rough eyes and smiled brightly.
“Useful.”
Even calling that an ability, he’d be called in whenever fights broke out with other organization members, and he also took charge of various odd jobs that were clearly involved in all sorts of crimes.
After several more months passed, he also came and went from the factory that made those strange health supplements. After just picking up supplies at first, later he got somewhat involved in production too. Like a water purifier role where water would never run out and movement was free.
Living diligently as a criminal like that every day, sometimes doubts came along with slight regret.
‘The suffering is the same either way, so isn’t it better to suffer as a Special Abilities Agency Esper than to suffer as a criminal?’
However, he couldn’t become someone who just suffered in vain by abandoning work he’d already gotten deeply involved in halfway through. Whether it turned to porridge or rice, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and endure.
Hae-il was steadily recording everything he’d experienced and information about Ban, heading deeper and deeper into the organization’s interior.
After about a year of such suffering, Seo Hae-il turned 27 years old and became a 4th-year Esper. Though it was questionable whether one of those years spent living as a criminal should even count as career experience.
Anyway, only after reaching that point did an opportunity finally come.
“Hey, Seo Hae-il. We got promoted.”
“Promoted?”
Kang Cheol-hyeon smiled with a beaming face and thwacked Hae-il’s shoulder.
“That’s right, man. They praised us from above for having the best performance, praised us, really, keu. You should know you’re lucky too. Promotion in just a year. Back in my day, you know, huh?”
At signs of chatter about to continue at length, Hae-il quickly blocked it with skilled, soulless empty words.
“It’s all thanks to hyung-nim. Meeting hyung-nim back then was heaven’s luck for me. Thank you, hyung-nim!”
“Uh uh, right. That’s enough if you know.”
“So when are we moving? Where are we going?”
When he casually asked while Kang Cheol-hyeon was puffed up with pride, he excitedly rattled on.
“Icheop City. You probably don’t know well, but that’s not a place just anyone can enter. Only executive-level people or those who serve directly beside those people can barely set foot there.”
If it was that level of position, he’d definitely have easier access to core information and criminal plans. Finally, he could see the possibility of gathering proper information and carrying out his mission.
Hae-il packed up faster than anyone with a joyful heart and wrapped up his sick-and-tired low-level gangster life.
***
However, that ending was right now, right in front of Moon Woo-shin of all people.
Seo Hae-il faced Moon Woo-shin with wavering eyes.
The last time he’d seen that face was in January of the year he turned 22, so it had already been 5 years. A time period that was short if short and long if viewed as long—Moon Woo-shin had matured exactly that much.
At one point he’d even searched for him with worried feelings. The face that felt unfamiliar looked annoyingly fine, which made him angry for no reason.
Hae-il, who belatedly came to his senses, forcefully shook off his hand.
Moon Woo-shin, who obediently released his hand, straightened his slightly bent waist. As the distance widened a bit, his gaze naturally rose a little higher.
Moon Woo-shin was the only person that Seo Hae-il, who reached 185cm, had to look up at. The height difference, exactly the same with not a single error from memory, was still irritating.
Thanks to that, Hae-il, who even regained his reason, feigned composure and let out an ordinary greeting first.
“Long time no see, senior.”
He resolutely ignored the gaze that scrutinized him thoroughly as if gauging his intentions. The current Seo Hae-il entering his late twenties was different from the Seo Hae-il in his early twenties. He had to be different. How many years had he worked as an Esper?
Hae-il, who gritted his teeth and caught his breath for a moment, slowly spoke.
“I also heard that senior didn’t attend graduation and disappeared just like that. Among the rumors was one that you got scouted by a criminal organization. It was true, that you became a criminal.”
There were countless rumors about Moon Woo-shin, the top graduate of Special Abilities University who disappeared as if evaporating overnight.
They say he received an enormous price offer from overseas and immigrated, they say he got a terminal illness and went to recuperate, they say he miraculously found his family and quit dangerous work….
What he’d just said was also one of the many rumors about him.
“So.”
Moon Woo-shin, who snickered, tapped his toes again. The small contact that was nothing felt intimidating.
“I’m a criminal so I’m here, but what are you doing here, Hae-il?”
As expected, clumsily deflecting wouldn’t work. Flimsy excuses would be completely out of the question with that bastard too.
Since it was do-or-die anyway, it was better to just lay it out and break through head-on.
“What am I doing? I’m carrying out a mission. Is it fun threatening people after figuring everything out the moment you see them?”
“Maybe because it’s been a while, it’s fun.”
“Senior is still irritating even after a long time. So, what are you going to do? Expose me as a spy and have me killed?”
“I wonder. Killing people isn’t my preference. It was pretty boring.”
Then what, monsters are your preference so you kill them?
Hae-il, who only sneered internally, checked the window with his peripheral vision without showing it. A full window covering almost one entire side of the room. He’d secretly removed the ring the moment Moon Woo-shin approached earlier.
There was no second hesitation.
A thin stream of water suddenly generated from Hae-il’s fingertips shot out. The target was Moon Woo-shin.
The strongly condensed stream of water was like a sharp bullet. Shot with a fierce sound, it rushed toward the target in an instant.
However, that thing with enough power to pierce his throat only barely grazed the side. It was a hair’s breadth difference.
A long red scratch remained on Moon Woo-shin’s white neck, and with a thwack! sound, the water that hit the wall scattered and disappeared.
‘Damn it.’
It was because Moon Woo-shin had twisted his body in advance as if he’d predicted Hae-il’s attack.
He didn’t think he’d obediently take the hit, but it was more agile movement than expected.
Hae-il shot several more streams of water in succession without giving him a gap while kicking off toward the window. With his right hand he checked Moon Woo-shin, and from his outstretched left hand, water drawn out to its fullest swirled, forming a bomb-like sphere.
He intended to break the window and escape like this. The moment the giant water bomb that had swelled in size in an instant was shot toward the window.
“Stop.”
At the same time as the chilly voice fell, Hae-il was firmly nailed to that spot. The water floating in the air was too.
As if time had stopped, all movement in the room ceased at once. This wasn’t Seo Hae-il’s will.
“Ah, shit….”
It was Moon Woo-shin’s ability. Mental-type ability that manipulated living beings’ bodies.
Before absolute ability power, a mere human resisting was meaningless. Hae-il had no choice but to stand frozen while chewing on curses.
The experience of his body moving according to another’s will, beyond his head’s control, was still unpleasant even experiencing it for the first time in years.
Along with leisurely footsteps, Moon Woo-shin, who walked forward, grabbed Hae-il’s outstretched wrist. At the same time, the water sphere that had been floating in the air and the water streams that had extended far lost their strength and splashed down to the floor.
Due to the water that completely soaked the floor, everything from his feet to the hem of his pants got damp.
“I told you not to do unnecessary things.”
A sharp gaze as if seeing through even his mind. A sense of crisis rose enough to make the back of his head feel chilly.
Can he easily control this much now without even making eye contact? I thought it was already a cheat-like ability, but in just a few years he appeared as an even bigger monster.
He hadn’t anticipated that Moon Woo-shin’s ability would have become stronger. In this state, escaping him wouldn’t be easy either.
“Listen when someone tells you once, Hae-il.”
The face smiling with narrowed eyes and the name called pretending to be affectionate were quite contrasting with the content of those words.
That made him feel worse. Even though he knew with his head that this was a time he should prostrate himself, a blunt voice burst out.
