Chapter 9
"Vincent Jo, why are you here..."
The potbellied man stood frozen in a foolish expression.
Judging by his inability to continue speaking from sheer surprise, he seemed to have had no idea Vincent was coming.
'Of course he couldn't have known... Has it even been an hour since I arrived?'
I turned to Vincent.
"How did you get here?"
"There are things you don't know. We'll explain everything after we deal with those guys."
Swoosh!
With a single gesture from Vincent, the whip split in two. Obviously, it was a mana-stone weapon.
It was something my claws hadn't even scratched.
"......."
"......."
That single gesture seemed to make everyone at the scene realize something.
That if they moved carelessly, they would die.
The potbellied man sheathed his dagger and spoke.
"......You do know who we are, don't you, Mr. Vincent?"
"Why should I know you?"
"With all due respect, yes. We're a team that tracks criminal Awakeners. We're currently investigating the murder of the alternative-service administrator, and that girl is the prime suspect..."
"Whoa, hold on. That's too long."
Vincent casually raised a hand.
Then he shaped his fingers like a pistol and pointed them at the potbellied man with a chuckle.
"I don't care who you are. To me, you're just thugs who laid hands on my family."
"Excuse me? F-family? What are you talking about...?"
The potbellied man's eyes blinked in disbelief.
Then Vincent casually draped a hand over his left shoulder. The gesture was blatantly intimate, as though he were showing off their closeness.
"Looks like these old men can't understand plain speech. Now, say your name properly, Naraebi."
“Name?”
Name...
'Ah...! My name!'
I realized which name I was supposed to give.
I slowly opened my mouth.
"Raebi N. Tiernected Douglas Kim. ......That's my name."
"What?"
"Huh?"
"F-fucking bullshit! Don't mess with me!"
'As expected, they nearly fell over.'
Their reaction was exactly what I'd expected.
Both the tall man and the potbellied man stood there with their mouths hanging open, pointing at me with trembling fingers.
"Th... th-this is a joke..."
They glanced sideways at Vincent as though checking whether it was true. But Vincent's expression was colder and more serious than ever.
"Does it look like a joke?"
"No, that's not it...! Why?! Just who the hell is she?!"
"......Phew."
Whoosh!
Vincent vanished in an instant, as if he'd teleported.
A limp afterimage appeared behind the potbellied man, and then—
Bang!
"Urk...!"
With an explosion of force, the potbellied man was slammed into the ground.
Vincent had somehow seized him by the hair and forcibly lifted his head.
"Ugh..."
"I told you, she's family. Watch your mouth unless you want your neck broken."
"......Pff! Ptui!!"
The potbellied man spat out sand. After catching his breath for a moment, he glared at Vincent.
"Haa... ha... Even if she is Douglas Kim, that girl is the prime suspect in a murder. Whatever your circumstances, that fact doesn't change."
'Wow...'
Even in that situation, his convictions were impressive.
Well, he wasn't exactly wrong. Whatever the reason, it was a fact that I'd killed Kim Young-hak.
After that, the potbellied man began rattling off my alleged crimes one by one, while Vincent simply stared at him in silence.
‘…’
I looked at Vincent worriedly.
I began to worry about what judgment he would make after learning the whole story.
"Are you finished?"
A little while later, when the potbellied man's mouth finally stopped, Vincent asked.
The potbellied man's mouth fell open in disbelief, as if asking why Vincent's attitude hadn't changed at all.
"Excuse me? No... I was just explaining..."
"Looks like you're finished. Kid, how should we kill him? You decide."
"What?"
'......Huh?'
"...Excuse me, what did you say?"
"Tell me how to kill him."
"......."
It was a completely unexpected response. I'd thought he would at least confirm the facts, but he was merely looking at me with a bright smile.
Had he even listened to the story?
I was beginning to understand this situation about as little as the potbellied man did.
"Um, Vincent. Kill him...? Putting everything else aside, he's a government official, isn't he?"
"But he keeps calling you a murder suspect. If he keeps spouting nonsense, we'll have trouble, so we should kill him here to avoid any future problems."
...Crazy. He was treating this mountain of evidence as nonsense?
Could Vincent end up getting in trouble because of me, too?
I hesitated for a moment before speaking again.
"No, I... I don't know if I should say this, but what if his claim is true?"
Vincent's expression turned stern. Then he spoke to me firmly.
"Then we should kill him even more."
"......Huh?"
"Don't understand? He knows Douglas Kim's dirty secret. Of course we have to kill him."
"......!"
My mouth fell open.
The potbellied man and the tall man also widened their eyes helplessly, then began twitching their hands.
As if they were wondering whether they should fight back even now.
But no matter how many times they ambushed Vincent, there was no way two C-ranks could defeat him, so they clenched their fists and forced themselves to stay calm.
Vincent wasn't a mage but an assassin-type. If they tried anything foolish, their heads would be gone in an instant.
“Kid? You have to say something.”
“……Well.”
'What should I do.'
I began to think.
Although this was an outrageous use of force, they were ultimately an arrest team. They had only faithfully carried out their assigned roles and hadn't done anything deserving death.
But if I let them live, I would be the one in serious trouble.
If I were in an ordinary person's body, I would have left the matter to the law to sort out... Damn it.
But then, another voice came from behind me.
"Not sorted out yet, Vincent?"
'That voice...'
It was Lee Chang-jin's voice. I slowly turned my head.
"M-Mister? How are you here too?"
Lee Chang-jin chuckled.
"What do you think? I came to catch the bad guy who's been murdering people and disposing of corpses like it's his day job."
"Ah..."
He knew everything.
This was bad.
No matter how crazy Vincent was or how strong his family loyalty was, the ambassador had directly named me as a murder suspect, so things were getting complicated.
Besides, I was the one who'd lied to them in the first place. I couldn't even make excuses.
"……."
‘Even so, like it’s his day job.'
I was hurt by his choice of words. With my head bowed, I murmured softly.
"I only killed one person... Really..."
Something heavy came flying down onto the crown of my head.
Thud!
"Ouch! What was that!"
"Hey, try reading the room. Does it look like I came to arrest you?"
"Huh? Th-then what?"
A dopey voice slipped out before I could stop it. My brain was reacting strangely to the constant reversals.
Lee Chang-jin clicked his tongue at me, then walked over to the potbellied man.
"Park Sang-tae."
"A-Ambassador..."
The potbellied man addressed him in a dazed voice. Judging by his expression, he seemed to have realized that Lee Chang-jin wasn't on his side.
But... Ambassador?
‘Look at him groveling all of a sudden.’
For some reason, I suddenly felt a surge of emotion. I pointed at him and shouted.
"Mister! E-earlier, that man said you were a 'broken measuring device' and badmouthed you informally!!"
"Oh-ho—really?"
Lee Chang-jin spoke with interest. Under his gaze, the potbellied man began to rage.
"N-no, Ambassador! How dare I—y-you crazy bitch! When did I ever say that!!!"
'Oh, did he not?'
The situation had been so frantic that my memory was unclear. Besides, he looked genuinely aggrieved...
But he didn't get to continue his excuses.
"I'll shut your mouth... Pff!"
"I told you to watch your mouth, didn't I? That's two strikes. Next time, ambassador or no ambassador, I'll just snap your neck."
"Uurp... ngh...!"
With his face buried in the sand, the potbellied man nodded.
Vincent lifted his head again, and Lee Chang-jin squatted down before him with a delinquent air.
"Hmm..."
The tall man cautiously opened his mouth.
"Excuse me, Ambassador. What do you mean by murder and corpse disposal? Surely you're referring to Team Leader Park...?"
"That's right. I'm going to ask him directly now. ……What do you say, Park Sang-tae? Tell me the truth, and I'll spare your life."
Lee Chang-jin's cold gaze returned to the potbellied man. The potbellied man—or rather, Park Sang-tae—looked too stunned to continue speaking.
'Murder and corpse disposal?'
I began to feel uneasy.
Was this really a situation where the team pursuing murderers was involved in murder themselves?
The situation was so confusing that I couldn't think at all anymore. Except...
......One possibility suddenly occurred to me.
'Kim Young-hak tried to kill me without a second thought.'
Even if the other party was a criminal, that was an excessively brazen thing to do.
He could easily have ended up in handcuffs, so how had he been so confident?
In the first place, if the tracking skill really was that incredible, as someone had said, he should have been found out long ago.
I looked at Park Sang-tae.
"A-Ambassador, you're joking, right? There's no way I would do something like that!"
'...Could that guy be...?'
"I don't know whether he did the actual work himself, but you're his accomplice, aren't you? When Kim Young-hak killed them, you pretended to use your skill and disguised the deaths as suicides or accidents."
"W-what are you talking about! I've never done such a thing! Don't spout nonsense!"
"Heh...!"
A hollow laugh escaped Lee Chang-jin.
He stroked Park Sang-tae's chin and spoke again.
"Never...? Then how did so many alternative-service convicts die in just these few months? And what happened to the organs that disappeared?"
"How would I know? Are you insane? Whatever Kim Young-hak did, I know nothing about it!"
"……."
Smack!
Park Sang-tae's head snapped to the side.
Drops of blood splattered from his mouth.
"You sure are getting damn disrespectful."
"U... urk..."
‘Wow… How hard did he hit him.”
Park Sang-tae grimaced in pain, unable to close his mouth.
Lee Chang-jin stroked his head and spoke again.
"Sang-tae... Do I look like some pushover to you? Since I sit quietly at the ambassador's desk, do you think I'm some feeble old man now?"
"N-no, sir."
"I won't ask twice. Were you in on it or not?"
"......"
'Oh, god... Just answer him.'
"Hmm? Sang-tae."
"……."
"Phew—."
Smack! Smack!
"Kgh...! Hk! Hk...!"
'Oof, that must hurt like hell. If the evidence is so damning, why is he holding out this long?'
His eyes were clearly filled with fear. But his mouth still refused to open.
Thinking this couldn't continue, Lee Chang-jin leaned close to his ear and whispered.
"Park Sang-tae. You're not the only tracker, you know. Right?"
"......!"
Only then did Park Sang-tae's eyes widen.
Though he made no sound, his sweat-drenched face plainly conveyed the feeling:
‘We're screwed’
—that exact feeling was written all over it.
When Lee Chang-jin raised his hand again, Park Sang-tae finally began spitting out words in a frantic rush.
"I-I did it! I'm sorry! I'll tell them everything honestly in court, so please just spare my life!"
"You should've said that sooner, bastard. Then I'll leave him to you, Vincent Jo."
"Understood."
Whoosh—! Vincent took him and disappeared somewhere.
The whole situation had happened and ended in the blink of an eye.
Only then did I think, 'I'm alive,' and slump down onto the ground.
"Haa..."
"Get up. We need to head back."
"I-I can't. I've been hurt so badly that my legs won't support me..."
"Really? Then, Team Leader Ahn, I guess you'll have to carry her back instead."
The tall man began blinking.
"I'm not the team leader, though."
"......Why are the juniors so stupid these days? If the original team leader is out of commission, isn't it common sense that someone should take his place?"
"Ah...!"
Only then did the tall man approach and pick me up. He, too, was sweating profusely.
'I get it. Anyone who stayed sane in this situation would be a psychopath.'
It was ironic. I was being carried in the arms of the very person who had been trying to beat me to death moments ago.
I chuckled and drifted off to sleep.
***
A few hours later.
Lee Chang-jin came to see me after hearing that I'd woken up.
"Feeling any better?"
"No..."
"You are. You're excellent at pretending to be sleepy because you don't want to get interrogated. Follow me."
“……Hehe.”
Damn it.
If he knew, why ask? He could've just told me to follow him.
I grumbled as I followed him.
‘Though, actually, pretending to be sick made no sense after an A-rank healed me.’
Indeed, Lee Chang-jin had requested cooperation from the Egyptian government. While I was asleep, one of their Hunters had come and treated me, and I'd recovered in an instant.
......Right. This was probably for the best. I had plenty of questions too.
Although I was worried that the whole incident with Kim Young-hak had been exposed,
it didn't seem like they planned to do anything to me right away.
Creak—
When the office door opened, Vincent greeted me.
"Ooh, did you sleep well, Wolverine?"
Huh?
If he meant Wolverine... my claws?
'But I put my claws away before Vincent showed up.'
"H-how did you know?"
"Know what? The long things sticking out of your hand?"
...!!!