FLIA 150

“Ugh, uh….”

Among the people who collapsed, the only one who was barely conscious shuddered. Yohan held his breath at the same time. When Lee Hyunmook swallowed the monster, something came to his mind.

‘It feels like a phenomenon from the Abyss….’

It was terrifying, silent, and ominous. It felt like watching a time bomb about to explode. He felt like Lee Hyunmook’s face might have turned into a shapeless, endlessly black mask.

Yohan forced himself to shake off that anxious feeling, and he stepped closer to his lover. Lee Hyunmook, who had gathered up the darkness he had spread across the concert hall floor, turned back. His face looked completely fine. Yohan let out a sigh of relief, the ticking timer had stopped.

“It’s fortunate that it was handled simply.”

“There’s no need to take risks. But….”

Lee Hyunmook’s eyes flickered briefly as he looked back toward the stage.

“It’s truly unpleasant.”

He muttered in a very low voice, but Yohan could hear him clearly. Not only the words, but also the deep disgust and hatred Lee Hyunmook held toward a certain target. His lifeless gaze turned toward the soldier lying on the floor….

Since shivers had been crawling over him, Yohan quickly moved on purpose to stand in front of Lee Hyunmook’s [unauthorized copy]gaze. He then suggested in a deliberately calm voice.

“Um, all these people fell to the parasites. How about purifying one of them and finding out what happened?”

“Hmm, that would be fine.”

His eyes that had looked so eerie just before softened and grew endlessly gentle when he looked at Yohan. He walked over and inspected a soldier with unusually long arms and legs. After carefully examining how dangerous the man might be, he nodded. Yohan quickly laid his hand on the soldier’s body. Light seeped from his palm and absorbed into the man’s body. The long limbs shrank smoothly. The harmful things packed between the cells were washed away and vanished.

“Aargh!”

When purification finished completely, the soldier jolted awake as if he roused from a nightmare. He tried to stand up with a bloodless face, but Lee Hyunmook caught him and pushed him back down. Yohan looked down with concern at the soldier, who was badly shaken, and asked.

“Excuse me, are you all right? Do you know where this is?”

The soldier, who was about to scream in fear, looked at Yohan and relaxed a little. Compared to Lee Hyunmook, Yohan’s appearance was gentle and not threatening. He also instinctively sensed Yohan’s aura.

“Wh… who… I… Lee, Lee Hyunmook…?”

The soldier, who had barely regained his mind, managed to recognize Lee Hyunmook. If someone had to name the most trustworthy awakener in Korea, it was this man. But the man wondered why a moment ago he had been so terrifying, why he hadn’t immediately recognized him, as he panted.

“What happened at the Rift Management Bureau?”

The soldier flinched and hurriedly patted his body. When he confirmed he was intact, he clenched his teeth and then wept. It was a cry mixed with relief, fury, and despair. After a while, when he barely calmed ​unauthorized copy​himself, he told them what had happened. And what he revealed was quite shocking.

“The government, ugh… is carrying out human experimentation…!”

This soldier had been someone who fought monsters and suffered corruption close to severe. He had been about to discharge, body and mind in tatters, when the government gave him a new proposal. They claimed that research on eternal stones obtained from the Taeyang Guild had produced a purification method, and they asked if he would participate in a clinical trial.

The soldier thought nothing could worsen anyway, so he accepted. But what followed was terrible torture disguised as clinical testing…. His corruption worsened, and he was sent into the broadcast station barely sane. Only now had he regained his mind. The soldier who told his story asked in extreme fear.

“What will happen to me now? Must I return to the unit? Please… I never want to go back there again.”

“No. When you wake after some sleep, you will be in a safe place.”

Lee Hyunmook spoke kindly and stretched out his hand, knocking him unconscious in an instant. Yohan couldn’t even see how he did it. Lee Hyunmook explained to Yohan, who was shocked and confused by the soldier’s words.

“The government performed human experimentation. You mentioned earlier that there were unusually many corrupted by parasites, right? They must be civilians.”

“But why? Why would they do such a thing…?”

“It looks like they tried to dump the disposal on me on purpose to put me in trouble. They even pulled dirty tricks, hoping I would get corrupted or caught in an explosion. But… they are clever enough, there’s no proof. Everything is only circumstantial evidence.”

What Lee Hyunmook said was true. The smoke leaking from the metal gas tanks, the soldiers, and the civilians were all people not in their right mind, so they couldn’t testify. Yohan fumed with frustration. Why were they doing this to someone who had risked his life until now to protect people?

“Humans can’t act like this!”

“Yes. But it’s nothing new, Yohan-ah. Even before we fell in the Abyss, it was the same. They laid cunning traps and ran experiments on the corrupted.”

While Yohan lost his words, a voice that had grown weary of these things murmured.

“They’ll probably keep doing it in the future too….”

***

Lee Hyunmook tore down a suitable curtain and wrapped the soldiers up so no one could see them. He couldn’t send them back to the government. It was hard to come up with a reason for why they had been completely purified, and if they went back like this, they would surely be executed to eliminate evidence. So he planned to keep them for a while at the Taeyang Guild’s medical facility.

For this kind of clean-up, Lee Chanha’s ability was very useful. After getting Lee Hyunmook’s call, Lee Chanha drove over right away and loaded the soldiers into the back seat. As the car departed, Yohan watched anxiously and asked.

“Then what do we say to the Rift Management Bureau?”

Lee Hyunmook smiled gently.

“That’s not difficult.”

A few minutes later, Lee Hyunmook left the station and went to the Rift Management Bureau officials and Special Division members who were waiting. From the way they looked at him and Yohan, Yohan caught a flicker of restlessness peculiar to people who had staged something. Lee Hyunmook spoke to the nervous group in a casual tone.

“There was no monster in the station.”

The Rift Management Bureau official opened his eyes wide. He wiped sweat from his forehead and spoke.

“No monster? How could that be? We clearly saw it go inside the building.”

“We searched everything from rooftop to basement, and other than civilians who failed to evacuate, we found nothing. If you don’t believe me, check for yourself.”

Maybe the official held higher rank, because he gestured for the Special Division members to verify. They soon found a hole in the station basement. The hole connected to a tunnel, and the Special Division member’s face went pale.

“It must have dug through the ground and escaped. There was no one in the station.”

“Really… really ‘no one’ at all?”

“Yes.”

The Rift Management Bureau official murmured. He seemed rattled that not only the monster but also the soldiers left there had disappeared. Since things had come to this, he had no reason to hold Lee Hyunmook at the station any longer, so he spoke reluctantly. He felt something was wrong, but since he had a guilty conscience, he couldn’t insist further.

“You worked hard, Awakener Lee Hyunmook. You may return now.”

The two of them left Yeouido without looking back. On the way, the road was clear even though it was rush hour. People had evacuated far away when they heard of the appearance of a rank 8 monster. Soon, when the alert lifted, traffic jams would form.

On the way back, Lee Hyunmook kept his promise and bought a delicious dinner. Yohan gorged himself for the first time in a long time.

After returning home, Lee Hyunmook was unusually quiet. He sat on the terrace, staring off somewhere and lost in thought. The terrace was a place he liked very much at home. It was probably because night and day showed clearly there.

After washing, Yohan went to the kitchen to make coffee. It was late at night, but he wanted to lift Lee Hyunmook’s mood with the drink he liked. He also brought out some snacks to serve with it, arranged them on a plate, and set them on a tray to carry out to the terrace. As if he had seen Yohan approaching, Lee Hyunmook immediately reached out and opened the terrace door.

“Thank you. The aroma is nice.”

Lee Hyunmook took the cup and spoke in a soft voice. Yohan sat beside him. From the high floor, the city lights below and the starlight above glittered together, making a splendid sight. Once, he would have dismissed it as nothing but common daily life, and he never would have felt such a thing.