“I thought it would be better to apologize properly once more.”
Yoon Seul-hye said that and bowed her head slightly to me.
And then she showed a relaxed smile to Yuna.
“…”
She was looking at this side, or rather, my condition.
She must have come to see if her magic power… that is, her addictive magic power had worked on me.
“Huh…”
I pretended to have a dull expression, and she nodded as if that was the case.
“You don’t need it, so just go on your way.”
Yuna muttered in a bad mood and turned her wheelchair to the side.
Then Yoon Seul-hye said to Yuna with a smile still on her face.
“Are you two dating or something?”
At that, Yuna stopped moving for a moment.
“What did you say?”
“No, you keep making me unable to talk… If you were really dating, I would back off.”
“Hey, what are you talking about?”
“No, I just want you to tell me this. Are you two dating?”
Yoon Seul-hye giggled softly.
“You don’t seem to like me, but whenever I see you, people who seem like they’re going to steal your boyfriend or heroes act like that to me. They glare at me with double eyelids and threaten me.”
“…What are you talking about?”
Yuna muttered as if she couldn’t believe it.
And she turned her wheelchair so that Yoon Seul-hye was out of my sight, and then she spun her body around.
“Hey. You.”
I could easily catch the anger in Yuna’s voice.
I thought I should stop her, and then I heard a low sound.
A message had arrived.
I opened my phone right away and checked the contents, and then I put my hand back down.
“What does it matter if you’re dating or not, and what are you going to do if you’re not? If I’m dating Ji-hyuk, you’re being a huge nuisance right now, and you’re a nuisance even if we’re not dating. He’s a patient right now.”
“Oh, so you’re not dating?”
“…”
Yoon Seul-hye smiled softly and raised her voice.
Whether or not, I quickly moved my fingers and sent a reply to the message.
“I just want to be friends with you. The association told me to come here and force you to play like a child. Choi Joon-hyung also asked me to do that, and he added that it doesn’t matter if I do more than that.”
Yoon Seul-hye said that and walked around us in a circle.
She was carrying a backpack and stepping to the beat, and her appearance had something that scratched people’s nerves.
“…Can you tone it down a bit?”
“Hmm, but why are you so quiet? What, are you really not dating? Or… do you not have the strength to answer?”
“Hey!”
“Ah, you scared me.”
Yoon Seul-hye exaggeratedly made a surprised expression and flinched.
“But what’s the problem? Isn’t it better for everyone to get along? I’m not trying to fight, and I’m not telling you to cooperate with the association unconditionally. I just want to be friends, like classmates. You all act like I’m holding a knife or something, and you react so excessively.”
…If you think about it, she has something more scary than a knife.
While I was thinking that, Yoon Seul-hye walked up to me.
She looked at me and made a smiling expression with her index fingers on her lips.
“I want to be friends with you, you know? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all smiled like this and got along? Then we would all be happy. Come on, try it. Smile happily?”
I couldn’t take her behavior lightly when I thought her ability was like a drug.
In the meantime, Yuna, who seemed to be barely holding back her anger, snapped her fingers and said.
“Enough, you’re really annoying.”
She said as if she was barely suppressing her rising anger.
“I’m just listening because there’s a patient next to me. Do you think I’m mute and just listen to what you say? If you keep bothering me…”
“Bothering you?”
Yoon Seul-hye smiled with her eyes.
“Are you going to kill me or something?”
“…”
Yuna didn’t say anything more.
I felt her magic start to shake from her hand, and I quickly reached out and grabbed her wrist.
“Yuna. Stop.”
“Ah.”
She was startled and lost her magic.
I didn’t forget to tap her wrist a few times as if it was okay.
“Wow, I barely heard you talk.”
Yoon Seul-hye smiled brightly and kept looking at me.
She seemed to believe that I had already fallen for her magic without doubt.
So she blatantly ignored Yuna and provoked me with her words.
I looked at her as if to say, go ahead and try.
“I heard you’re from the main house of the World Tree clan?”
“Yeah. Why, are you interested?”
“Who wouldn’t be interested? It’s the World Tree clan, after all. And even though I look like this, some of the World Tree clan members approached me and offered to sponsor me.”
She said that and looked at me with a subtle expression.
“But… hmm, I like you more than those old men. How about it? Do you want to date me?”
I heard a small sigh from behind.
And I could feel her checking my complexion, and also a slight relief when she realized that my energy was not disturbed.
“It would be great if we could get a lot out of each other. And I’m not bragging, but wouldn’t you feel good if you were with me? Honestly, there aren’t many people who are as successful as me, right? Guys like that, showing off to others.”
I laughed softly at her confident words.
Yoon Seul-hye’s eyebrows twitched at the obvious mockery.
“Well… honestly, I think it would be better to be with Yuna than you.”
I said that and sat down in a relaxed posture and looked at her.
“If I had to choose between you and Yuna, I would definitely choose Yuna. Of course, I don’t think Yuna would accept someone like me… Anyway. Even if you brought a truckload of people like you, I would choose Yuna.”
And I looked at her up and down as if to examine her.
“But where does that confidence come from? What makes you think you’re someone who can show off to others… Oops.”
I nodded as if I had made a mistake.
“I don’t know why you’re saying such incomprehensible things, Ms. Yoon Seul-hye.”
“Wow, do you think you look rational and cool when you use honorifics?”
Yoon Seul-hye answered with a mocking voice as if she couldn’t believe it.
She snapped her fingers at me with a confident expression, as if she could control everything.
“…Huh?”
But when nothing happened, she widened her eyes in disbelief.
I smiled faintly as I looked at her.
“Why. What’s not going your way?”
But now, something even worse was about to happen.
She narrowed her eyes at me, as if she had misheard me.
“…What did you say?”
“Never mind that. Do you have to stay here? I think things are going to get very busy from now on.”
“What are you talking about….”
Then, a cheerful ringtone sounded, out of place with the situation.
It was her phone.
She picked it up and glanced at me with a suspicious look, and I gestured for her to answer it.
“…Hello?”
She answered the phone cautiously, and soon her face turned pale. She glared at me with furious eyes, as if she wanted to kill me.
I ignored her gaze and opened her phone. I started to read out loud the internet articles that had just popped up.
“Hailey, the leader of the assault team of the Training Department, suspected of frequent sexual harassment of the heroes affiliated with the Association. Shaojie, of the Training Department, who ran away using his injured colleague as bait… Shocking. Likewise, the leader of the Training Department, Choi Jun-hyung. Indicted for betrayal, embezzlement, and tax evasion… He claims it’s all false.”
This was the beginning of the moment that Ye-eun had spoken of, the moment that would destroy the Association.
The Association and the Training Department had tried to manipulate public opinion and pressure us with their cheap propaganda, and Ye-eun had chosen to fight back with the same method.
As always, when the morality of someone who makes a claim is doubted, their claim naturally loses its power.
I said this wasn’t all, but it wasn’t a bad choice for a prologue. That was my honest opinion.
Especially since I could see her distorted face right now.
“Yun Seul-hye, the idol of the Training Department…”
I deliberately read the article slowly and looked at her.
“Suspected of habitual use of hallucinogenic drugs? Wow… And on top of that.”
She looked at me incredulously and her face turned red.
She looked at a loss, filled with anger and embarrassment.
“Questions raised about the promotion exam… Suspicions of the Association’s favoritism, some internal opinions say that the name of the Training Department is not suitable.”
I put down the phone and asked her quietly.
“Who said there’s no one who’s succeeded that much at that age?”
***
“It must be a mess over there.”
-Well, I guess so. Not just one, but the whole Training Department and many of the Association’s top brass were involved and exploded at once.
Lydia answered like that.
She was the one who gave Ye-eun the big information that only insiders could know, along with the evidence.
And as soon as Ye-eun confirmed that the information she received from her was true, she immediately mobilized her connections and sent out a massive amount of articles.
“Besides, won’t you be suspected if you do this?”
-It doesn’t matter. I also exposed some of the wrongdoings of the person I’m pretending to be. As long as I don’t confess, there’s no risk of being caught.
“Then I’m glad. Thanks to you, it’ll be quiet for a while.”
-This is just the beginning. When the thing I’m preparing now explodes, the Association will be hit so hard that they won’t be able to express their opinions for a while.
“The children of Milted. Right?”
― Yes. You are right.
They will choke on their own words.
Lydia kept silent for a moment, as if giving me time to sort out my thoughts.
― …Well, thanks to you, we got something out of it too. It was a good deal.
“I’m glad to hear that. I always felt like I was making you suffer.”
― Suffer?
Lydia laughed softly.
― And there is one more thing I want to tell you. A warning, to be precise.
“A warning?”
― Yes.
Lydia spoke in her characteristic lullaby-like voice.
― They started collecting information on the members of the Seven Evil Races during the extermination war. I think they are trying to cut off your surroundings and get rid of you.
At that, my eyes narrowed.
I pressed the caller that Shin Woo-seok had given me, thinking of the bastards who still played dirty tricks.
***
“AAAAAAAH!!!”
A loud noise echoed along with the hysterical scream of a woman.
Yoon Seul-hye, who stood in the middle of the already messed-up room, couldn’t contain her anger and swung her fists and stomped her feet.
“AAAAAAAH!!!”
She threw whatever she could get her hands on.
A chair with an antique design shattered into pieces over the broken glass fragments.
Yoon Seul-hye, it was a chair that she had specially ordered and made.
I had been throwing and smashing the tools for a long time.
“Are you going to lose your voice like that? Calm down, will you?”
“Shut up!”
I glared at the sarcastic voice that came from the side.
Next to me was a man with a lanky figure, looking at me with his arms crossed.
“That’s why I told you to take it easy on the drugs. If you want to get high, just smell your own sweat. Why did you have to touch things and make such a mess… ugh.”
He shrugged his shoulders as if he was high, dodging the glass that flew towards his head.
He held out his fingers and asked.
“How many?”
“If you keep talking…”
I clenched the frame of the stand lamp in my hand so hard that it bent. Yoon Seul-hye spat out each word as if she was chewing them.
“I will kill you for sure then.”
He shrugged his shoulders again, as if he had given in to her sharp threat.
“Fine, fine. I’ll stop.”
Then he looked at Yoon Seul-hye and asked her what she was going to do now.
“Why didn’t you just listen to me from the start? Why did you make things so difficult for yourself?”
“…”
“You got yourself into this mess because of your weird pride, didn’t you? Right? Just like I said?”
“Shut up, will you?”
She shouted at him, her ears ringing. He frowned at her, displeased.
“Look at you, look at you… You’re older than me, but you’re screaming and cursing like a child.”
He clicked his tongue and turned away from her. Yoon Seul-hye reached into her pocket and threw something at him.
It was a small ampoule that flew towards his face.
He shook the ampoule he had easily caught, making the liquid inside it slosh.
“…This is my blood mixed with liquefied magic and specially processed.”
Yoon Seul-hye sighed as if she felt empty and sat down on the only decent sofa.
“It will take effect as soon as it is injected through the mucous membrane.”
“How much?”
“If it’s my command, they will do anything I say. They will die if I tell them to die, and they will bark like a dog if I tell them to bark.”
She bit her thumbnail and made a frustrated expression.
“That damn woman interrupted me and prevented my magic from penetrating properly. If it wasn’t for her, I would have…!”
Yoon Seul-hye groaned as she said that.
“That insolent bastard, I’ll make him crawl like a dog in front of me first. How dare he mock me…?”
“Wow, scary.”
He muttered under his breath and slowly lowered his head.
Then he carefully put the ampoule that Yoon Seul-hye had thrown into his chest and said.
“Then I’d better go quickly before our princess gets more upset.”
“How long will it take?”
He snorted as if he couldn’t believe her question.
“You’re asking me that now? If I want to, I can shove this into his mouth right now.”
He smiled slyly as he said that.
“Don’t you know me yet? I’m Manchas of Yook Sung. Manchas, who was even called a phantom thief. Do you think there’s a place I can’t sneak into? Is there anyone who can catch me? Let alone the opponent is just a kid?”
Manchas said that and lifted his head with a confident expression.
“To face me, they would have to bring the Shadow Walker who was said to have died long ago.”
