KEG 65

***

When I came to, I saw the ceiling of a tent.

The smell of antiseptic and a stinging pain.

I was glad to hear that the treatment was complete, but the excruciating pain made me feel like I was going to pass out.

“Seongho-ssi, are you awake?”

It was Son Miryeo.

She briefly explained that I had been treated by a medic from the National Tax Service’s Special Mobile Team.

“They put twelve medical staples in your chest.”

She told me they had only managed to staunch the bleeding as a temporary measure due to the urgency of the situation. She added that I should hear the details from the doctor who would be arriving soon, her gaze filled with concern.

“I ran a background check and found out you’re a Guide. A former warrant officer.”

“Yes, but I can’t do guiding.”

“Not that you won’t?”

Son Miryeo gave me a suspicious look. Did she already know everything and just want to confirm it? If she’d checked my records, it would’ve been noted under ‘special remarks.” Why was she pretending not to know?

“I can’t.”

I emphasized it once more. Son Miryeo said nothing further and apologized for her suspicion.

“After seeing you with the vigilante group, I just…”

“Am I not supposed to be with them?”

“It’s because they’re particularly aggressive toward us.”

Son Miryeo explained that the villagers were venting their anger and resentment toward soldiers and National Tax Service officials regarding the current state of national control.

“We’re just doing our jobs…”

I continued to gaze at the snowy nightscape outside the tent.

The red cross lights on the church were the only source of illumination in the village. There were an unusually large number of them for such a small village.

“It’s possible the tax evaders and the vigilante group have colluded.”

I recalled the cigars the vigilante group members had been smoking. I also thought of the high-performance snowplow they drove and the expensive down jackets they wore.

“Yes, this is the outcome we expected. It looks like it’s going to be a tough fight.”

The village runs on the tax evaders’ money. The mana stones were likely distributed by them too.

What would happen to this place if the people at its center were captured?

“I feel like I’ve become a bad person.”

I paused at Son Miryeo’s words.

A village that would disappear even if left alone. And an act that hastened its demise.

Could that really be judged as evil?

“Did the vigilante group bring me here?”

“Yes. You have no idea how panicked they were…”

“That must mean this place’s medical system is already broken.”

Bringing a patient to the opposing side for treatment while in conflict was nothing short of a declaration of defeat, an admission that their own system has collapsed.

“The guy who came with me said something like that.”

I recalled what Lee Yuksam had said at the police station.

“In a mountain village without law, everyone in the village becomes a bandit.”

Son Miryeo lifted her head and looked at me. I didn’t meet her gaze and continued staring at the snow-covered village.

“This place is a den of thieves.”

Whether they fought a desperate battle against monsters or saved me out of goodwill, they’d joined forces with criminals. In that case, we would just do our respective jobs.

The vigilantes and tax evaders resist.

The military and the National Tax Service suppress them.

And I get out of this village alive.

“The choice is up to each of you.”

Whether you give up or keep moving forward, you have to do it yourself.

As soon as I finished speaking, a doctor entered the tent and examined my injuries. Son Miryeo watched for a moment, then turned her back and walked out of the tent.

‎

‎

‎

“Ho-hyung….”

I was resting after being prescribed painkillers when Lee Yuksam came to see me.

“Ho-hyung, I really thought you were going to die…”

“I almost died because of you.”

“Waaah…”

Seeing his messy face streaked with thick tears made me feel uncomfortable, so I threw the pack of tissues sitting on the bedside table at him. The tissue box hit Lee Yuksam’s face.

“Do you have some kind of trauma or something?”

A person I hired without any loss.

But there was a risk that the hire itself could become a loss. I needed to assess the problem and decide whether to keep him or let him go.

“It’s fine, so please be honest with me.”

Perhaps my words sounded comforting, because Lee Yuksam calmed down a little.

Lee Yuksam pulled a tissue from the pack that had hit his face, wiped his tears with it, and replied.

“It’s just… whenever I smell blood, I lose my mind…”

So he had such a fatal flaw.

No, actually, on the battlefield, isn’t that a strength? If dropped right in the middle of enemy lines, he’d go berserk and attack.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

An Esper who loses his mind at the smell of blood is dangerous.

Even in the ward where he worked right now, dozens of people were bleeding. It was a fatal flaw that required isolation from society.

“I’m fine with most blood smells…?”

“Is the smell of human blood okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine with humans.”

So the smell of monster blood was the problem.

He was useless at a time when we had to move quietly.

“But.”

For a moment, Lee Yuksam stopped sniffling. Then he stared at my chest.

That gaze made me feel tense, and I instinctively lowered my posture.

“The smell of a strong monster’s blood, like Ho-hyung’s, is a problem.”

Lee Yuksam was calling me a monster.

Could it be related to my mental contamination level?

I remembered the time when Hunter Park Suheon’s silver cup had turned black.

“In what way is it a problem?”

I had to figure this out. Only then could I avoid it.

“Um…”

Lee Yuksam paused.

No, he wasn’t just pausing.

He was licking his lips.

It was as if…

“I’m getting hungry.”

He looked like he was about to devour me.

***

When I first took Baek Yejun in, he didn’t eat much.

It wasn’t so much that he lacked an appetite; he treated the act of eating itself as unnecessary. Because of that, he’d stare at me with a curious expression every time I chewed and swallowed something.

“What are you looking at?”

“I was just wondering if it tastes good.”

The fork scraped against the side of the can, making a metallic clink. Before I knew it, I’d finished the whole can.

“Should I open another one for you?”

I was annoyed by this bastard acting like he was feeding a hamster.

“I’m full.”

“Oh, so you’re full.”

His reaction made it seem like he hadn’t expected that.

Doesn’t he know that eating the same thing over and over get boring?

“When you awaken and your body becomes stronger, your senses dull.”

Baek Yejun started explaining how an Esper’s body becomes desensitized to various physical pains and changes.

“Though it varies from person to person.”

“So what?”

“But sometimes the opposite happens. There are cases where only certain senses become overly heightened.”

He kept talking as if he hadn’t heard me.

Faced with his rude attitude, I ignored his rambling too.

You bark all you want; I’m going my own way.

“I’m hungry.”

It was an out-of-the-blue remark.

“What, you want food?”

“Yeah.”

“Go get it yourself.”

“No.”

It was my day off from the hospital. Baek Yejun must have been off too, since he hadn’t gone out.

On our days off, we both tended to stay cooped up at home. Because of that, we were bound to run into each other.

It was exhausting.

“Sit down.”

I checked the time, it was noon. I was [Read on]already full from the rice porridge I’d had earlier, but it was time for a proper meal.

I’d just add a little extra to my portion and set out an extra set of chopsticks.

I opened the cupboard and found some pasta I’d bought ages ago lying around. In the fridge, there was also a bottle of sauce that was about to expire.

It would take no more than ten minutes to cook.

“There are cobwebs on the pasta.”

“You won’t die from eating a little spider.”

I brushed off the dust and cobwebs from the package. Then I put water on to boil and cooked the pasta.

I stared at the pot as bubbles rose to the surface.

“Espers have a dulled sense of pain.”

As I stood there, Baek Yejun, who had approached from behind, continued.

“The higher their class, the more they feel like they’ve just tripped over something even if an arm is severed.”

“I heard even a pre-med student could suture it back on.”

A high-class Hunter who lost an arm in battle, treated by a pre-med student.

I recalled a recent article that had praised the success of that procedure.

“I bet it would have reattached even if a tailor had done it.”

Baek Yejun said this with a playful smile. But it sounded like a plausible scenario.

That was how much an Esper’s body transcends its limits.

“If you had been an Esper, you wouldn’t have a body like this.”

Baek Yejun ran his hand over the scars and wounds beneath my short-sleeved T-shirt.

I wear long sleeves even in summer. I don’t wear light-colored, thin clothes either. Because it would be a problem if my scars and tattoos were to show through.

So, I only felt comfortable wearing a white short-sleeved T-shirt like this one at home.

“Don’t touch me.”

I swatted his hand away and stirred the simmering pasta noodles with a pair of long cooking chopsticks. The noodles loosened up as soft as rubber bands.

“Do you not like it when people touch you?”

I could feel his fingers tracing my back.

His touch lingered on the center of my back and certain specific spots.

I knew without even looking that they were touching the yaksha tattoo.

“I don’t like it. I don’t like you looking at it either. Get lost.”

“What kind of tattoo is this?”

I couldn’t quite remember what it was. I just had the one that looked the most menacing inked on.

It had a name like ‘Vajra’ or something.

“Why did you get it?”

“Because someone said it was their lifelong wish.”

“Who?”

It was the hyung I used to work for.

Maybe he felt sorry for me – since I’d been trying to make it as a gangster from a young age, other gangs were constantly picking on me – so he gave me money, claiming it was his lifelong wish, and told me to get a tattoo on my back. It was a pretty big sum.

I got a really intense design so it wouldn’t look like I’d just pocketed the money.