The man who was buried headfirst in the ground was still twitching, as if he wasn’t dead yet.
“Hailey!”
The woman behind Choi Jun-hyung screamed in shock, and Ivan muttered.
“Now they’re not six stars, but five stars.”
He looked at me as if to say, what do you mean? And as soon as he noticed my gaze, he started to explain.
“Those people are all six stars, you know. You know who Choi Jun-hyung is… And the woman standing behind him is a healer and supporter who is on par with An Ju-hyuk.”
Ivan chuckled and added.
“That’s what the association says, anyway.”
He also said that the guy who was knocked out was the special forces captain of the six stars.
I lifted my head slightly and looked at him, hearing the obvious mockery in his voice.
Ivan had a face I had never seen before, which was strangely aggressive and contemptuous of people.
This guy also has some personality, huh.
That’s what I was thinking.
“You, bitch…!”
The man who was lying on the ground gritted his teeth and writhed.
He slowly got up and muttered.
“What the hell did you do…!”
The one who answered was not Han Soo-young, but Eun-a behind me.
“Just now, the space clearly…”
She whispered in a small voice, and Choi Hyun-woo nodded.
“He doesn’t even know why he got hit and passed out.”
“Haah…”
Han Soo-young sighed and looked at the man who was staggering up, as if she was annoyed.
Then, from behind, Choi Jun-hyung spoke in a calm voice.
“Stop it.”
“What? But they started it…!”
“I said stop it.”
The man who was bleeding from his mouth glared at Choi Jun-hyung with bloodshot eyes and shouted.
“What is this commotion?”
Suddenly, An Ju-hyuk and Laura Hartmann appeared and stood in the middle, as if to protect us.
An Ju-hyuk glanced at Choi Jun-hyung and opened his mouth quietly.
“We never gave you permission to enter here. And if you want to talk, shouldn’t you go to the reception room?”
“We were just taking a walk.”
“This is a restricted area for non-related personnel.”
Laura said in a quiet voice.
She crossed her arms and looked at Choi Jun-hyung and his companions with a slight glance.
“And you are not related.”
“We might be soon.”
Choi Jun-hyung said that and glanced at me once.
“Since things have turned out this way, I’ll speak frankly. I need to hear some testimonies from Yu Ji-hyuk about the extermination of the Chilak clan a few days ago. I hope you can cooperate.”
“That’s not possible.”
An Ju-hyuk stepped forward and said.
“I’m his attending physician right now. And as a physician’s opinion, he needs absolute rest at this time. I can’t allow anything that could worsen his condition.”
“You don’t have to worry about that.”
Choi Jun-hyung said that and pointed to the Asian woman next to him.
“Here, we have Xiao Jie, a member of our cultivation team. She is a brilliant healer, who can rival even An Juhyuk. She will take over as your chief physician while Yu Ji Hyuk is at the association.”
“Xiao Jie?”
Laura snorted and sneered.
“I’m sure there was someone with that name among the cowards who abandoned their patients and ran away.”
“Um, Mr. Hartmann. Please don’t cloud the issue with false facts. That’s not what’s important right now.”
Laura just scoffed as if she found Choi Jun Hyung’s words amusing.
Then, the man who had fallen to the ground, Hailey, glared at Laura with annoyance.
“Stop messing around and get out of the way, will you? We’re here as representatives of the association.”
He then gritted his teeth at Han Soo Young.
“And you need to fix that bitch’s attitude, who dared to insult me.”
“Is it because you’re so big that your tongue is so long?”
Laura said, looking up at the man who was a head taller than her.
“Why don’t you make me move then?”
“Oh, is that so?”
“As you know, my alias is Paladin. As long as I don’t move myself, no one could ever make me budge…”
Suddenly, Hailey swung her fist with all her might at Laura’s face.
I flinched involuntarily as I saw a fist slam into her face with a loud thud.
“Paladins are bullshit, that’s why I have to mess with them a bit…!?”
“Did you really hit me with your full strength?”
Laura muttered in her usual dry voice as she grabbed and twisted Hailey’s fist.
She looked down at him, who was kneeling with a broken arm, and sneered as she saw the knuckle on his fist.
“Laura.”
“Hmm.”
“You’re bleeding from your nose.”
“I know.”
She muttered, wiping the blood with her free hand, while holding down Hailey with the other.
“This should count as self-defense now.”
She said that and looked at Choi Jun-hyung and Xiao Jie.
“Do you really believe that woman is as good as An Ju-hyuk?”
Then let’s test it out.
As she said that, a horrible sound echoed from Hailey’s arm.
“Aaaahhhh!!!”
“Fix it.”
She tossed him aside, his arm mangled beyond recognition, and spoke to them in a quiet voice.
“Just so you know, I once had two broken bones in my body. But the reason I can walk around like this now is all thanks to Ju-hyuk next to me.”
She said again in a fierce voice.
“I couldn’t do that to you, so I just crushed your arm instead. So hurry up and fix it in front of me. Didn’t you just say that she was as good as An Ju-hyuk? If you don’t treat it soon, you’ll have permanent damage.”
At her words, Xiao Jie ran over and clung to Hailey’s arm.
She immediately began to cast a healing spell, but she gasped and looked at Laura in shock.
“What, did you think I just smashed it with brute force? Luckily, my magic is pure, so you should be grateful.”
It seemed that she had inserted her magic into the wound and tore it apart.
Xiao Jie clenched her teeth and groaned, but Hailey’s arm showed no sign of improvement.
“You can’t fix it, can you.”
Laura said, as if she expected it, and the one who moved was An Ju-hyuk.
He reached out his hand to Hailey, who was writhing on the floor.
A white light flashed from his hand, and the man’s arm was restored in an instant.
“It was a bit barbaric, but I guess this proves it.”
Laura murmured quietly.
“I doubt the level of the doctor you offered to provide, and I can’t hand over Yu Ji-hyuk, who is also a critical patient. You can come back after he’s cured.”
“Can you tell me when he’ll be cured?”
An Ju-hyuk chuckled and laughed at Choi Jun-hyung, who smiled faintly.
“Well, why don’t you ask your expert?”
At his words, a snort came from Xiao Jie’s mouth, who was sitting on the ground.
She glared at him with fierce eyes, but he ignored her and opened his mouth.
“He needs at least six months of rest. So don’t do anything stupid.”
“Stupid, what do you mean by that…”
“Just lay low. We’re pretty sensitive right now.”
As he said that, Laura tapped our shoulders lightly, as if to leave.
And as she touched my shoulder, she secretly handed me something.
It was a small paper crane.
“It’s something that Evangeline asked me to deliver.”
She whispered, looking at An Ju-hyuk and Choi Jun-hyung.
“To be exact, she said she was asked to deliver it too.”
It was Jin Ye-jung.
What did she want to tell me by sending me a paper crane?
I thought it had something to do with the phone call I had with Jin Ye-seul earlier.
“And we’re going to file a formal complaint with the association about this, so you better know that.”
An Ju-hyuk said that and glanced at Laura’s face, which had already stopped bleeding.
“Breaking into an unauthorized place, that bastard Yook Sung threatening young students, trying to take the patient by force, and punching Laura’s face by surprise.”
An Ju-hyuk snickered and sneered.
“People will love to hear this story, won’t they?”
“…”
Choi Jun-hyung was still smiling.
His awkward smile was directed at me, but I had no energy to respond.
[…Can you hear me?]
Surprisingly, Jin Ye-jung’s voice came from right next to my ear, as if whispering.
She continued to speak in a quiet voice.
[I guess it’s hard for you to answer right now, so I’ll just tell you.]
I found the location of the remaining two executives of Big Watch, who had been hiding.
She whispered quietly.
[And Ye-seul left to hunt them down.]
***
“Hmm. One, two, three, four…”
In the mess of the room, Jin Ye-seul started to count something with her fingers.
She counted up to twenty-two and frowned slightly, as if she wasn’t sure.
“I thought there were 23.”
“Uh, ugh…”
She muttered, not sure, and pressed harder on the man’s back, who was lying under her feet.
“Ugh…!”
“Yuck, disgusting.”
He spat out blood with a groan, and Jin Ye-seul stuck out her tongue as if she was repulsed.
Then, with a light movement, she flew up and crouched right in front of him, locking eyes with him.
“Hey, how many were there in total, humans and monsters? You should know, right?”
“Die, Bitch….”
“Ugh, what a nuisance.”
She clearly remembered that the man who lay sprawled on the ground with his limbs severed was one of the Big Watch officers and a disciple of Isaac Maxwell, even though she couldn’t recall his name.
She also remembered that he had come to Orhe Academy as a professor sent from Urea.
“Your friend begged me to spare him, but you asked me to kill him.”
“…What?”
Saying that, Jin Ye-seul lifted the severed head of a woman and shoved it in front of his eyes.
The man muttered the name of his former colleague with a trembling mouth.
“Em, Emilia…”
“Yeah, I remember this woman’s name too. Emilia.”
Jin Ye-seul said with a sweet smile.
“The woman who dared to mess with Ji-hyuk. And the woman who blabbered that she would kill him.”
With a snort, Jin Ye-seul lifted Emilia’s head.
Then she put her finger on her half-open lips.
Jin Ye-seul moved her lips up and down as if she was playing with a doll.
“Hi, I’m Emilia.”
The man was startled by the voice of his headless colleague.
And he realized that the voice was coming from Jin Ye-seul’s mouth.
A beast-like groan of death escaped from his throat.
“I’m so sad, I didn’t want to die. I committed a great sin without knowing it.”
Jin Ye-seul spat out different voices alternately, as if she was playing with dolls.
“What sin did you commit?”
“The sin of targeting Yu Ji-hyuk’s life!”
Jin Ye-seul’s voice.
Emilia’s voice.
“And?”
“The sin of seducing Yu Ji-hyuk with dirty hands, shoes, and charms!”
The voice of the killer.
The voice of the killed.
“More?”
“The sin of annoying Yu Ji-hyuk and belonging to a group called Big Watch!”
“Hmm… isn’t there more?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know!”
“Stop…”
Emilia’s severed head approached the sobbing man’s eyes.
“I really don’t know, I don’t know anything. I told you everything! No, professor! Please! Anyone, professor. Save me! Professor!”
Jin Ye-seul repeated the last words she had uttered before she died, without missing a single syllable.
She had already extracted all the information she needed from her head, so Jin Ye-seul let her rest without any regrets.
To put it more clearly, she just clenched her hands in front of his eyes.
By the way, she had killed a stranger who had attacked her when she was ten by crushing his skull with her bare hands.
“Well, then I have something to ask you now…?”
Jin Ye-seul, who was dusting off her hands, touched the man’s body lying on the ground with a surprised sound.
“Dead?”
He seemed to have succumbed to the pain and grief.
“Hmm, I should have controlled my strength a little more.”
The two dead had amazing but annoying abilities.
Emilia could change her weight as light as a feather, or as heavy as a dump truck.
This man’s body became hard like a small fortress, covered with iron armor, and all kinds of cannons, firearms, and weapons popped out.
“Hmm, where…”
Of course, to Jin Ye-seul, who had all the relics in her hand, they were just curious opponents.
She also killed the intelligent monsters and other humans who were gathered with them in an instant, and took out a thin needle from her bosom.
It was to extract information from his head.
“…Oh my, what’s going on here. It’s a mess.”
As she was doing so, a woman’s voice came to her ears, and Jin Ye-seul put the needle back in with a click of her tongue.
The sound of clicking heels.
The voice of a woman who seemed to be full of vanity.
The perfume smell that stung her nose, and the thick blood smell that hid underneath.
Wondering who it was, Jin Ye-seul looked at the other person and blinked her eyes without knowing it.
“…Professor Alice?”
The other person smiled and chuckled as if she had heard the name.
Her mouth opened and at the same time, her sharp fangs that gave her goosebumps showed themselves.
