After conquering Serena’s Ice Palace, Sirius kept a low profile. Perhaps because the damage Sirius suffered was too great to call it a successful conquest. Without even announcing what spoils they had obtained, Sirius quietly laid low.
Saying they would announce information about the Ice Palace later in print, Sirius spent time quietly without the huge events that usually followed conquests.
No matter how much reporters dug, they didn’t release any information.
But even for Sirius, who had been curled up like that, there came an event they couldn’t avoid.
The charity exchange meeting held by the Awakener Association. At this New Year’s party to welcome the new year, all the hunters who were said to be flying high in Korea gathered.
Sirius also sent a few hunters. Since they had been so quiet after conquering Serena’s Ice Palace, attention focused on them at once.
Among them, people’s attention especially focused on Yoo Seon-je. But no one easily approached Yoo Seon-je. After all, Yoo Seon-je was more famous for his temper than his abilities.
“Hello.”
Jeong Ho-san approached Yoo Seon-je, who was standing against the wall.
Though they weren’t close friends at the academy, Jeong Ho-san wasn’t cold-hearted enough to pretend not to know after hearing he nearly died.
“I heard you had a hard time. I’m glad you survived.”
He had no intention of digging for information from Yoo Seon-je like others. He was just going to greet him briefly and leave.
“Well, take care.”
“You were friends with Kang Yi-sin, weren’t you?”
Jeong Ho-san turned his head at Yoo Seon-je’s words.
“What?”
“Right, I remember. You were famous for always defending that guy. You said you were friends since childhood, right?”
What is this guy suddenly talking about? Surely he’s not trying to provoke him because Kang Yi-sin is wanted as a murder suspect? Jeong Ho-san’s face instantly turned fierce.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to say, but…”
“I met your friend.”
At those words, Jeong Ho-san faltered. Jeong Ho-san approached Yoo Seon-je and asked sharply:
“What do you mean? You met Yi-sin? When? Where?”
Yoo Seon-je smirked and said:
“Shall we go somewhere quiet and talk?”
Jeong Ho-san quietly followed Yoo Seon-je.
“Tell me straight. When and where exactly did you meet Yi-sin?”
“Well, where did I meet him?”
At that ambiguous answer, Jeong Ho-san clenched his fist.
“If you’re thinking of joking around, you’d better stop.”
Kang Yi-sin was Jeong Ho-san’s sore spot. Even for the good-natured Jeong Ho-san, there was a line that shouldn’t be crossed.
Yoo Seon-je still looked at Jeong Ho-san with an unreadable face.
“Really, you met him?”
“Yes. I met him recently.”
“Then tell me. Where is he?”
“Why?”
“How can you ask that! I need to find him and bring him back. Do you know what situation Yi-sin is in right now? He’s being publicly wanted as a murder suspect.”
At those words, Yoo Seon-je tilted his head slightly.
“He’s not as weak as you think. He doesn’t need anyone’s help. He didn’t hide out of fear in the first place.”
The Kang Yi-sin that Yoo Seon-je saw had some kind of goal. He was just hiding for his goal, not looking like a loser who hid out of fear of being wanted.
“The fact that he didn’t come to you means you’re not needed for his plan.”
“Ha, then what about you? Are you saying he met you because he needed you for his plan?”
At those words, Yoo Seon-je twisted the corners of his mouth and said:
“Yes.”
Enough to throw himself to save me.
* * *
“Achoo!”
Suddenly my nose itched like crazy. Nam Ju-hyeon screamed in surprise at my sneeze.
“Ah, sorry, sorry. Please continue.”
All I knew was that Nam Ju-hyeon ended up here while digging into the Bomnal Orphanage incident. I hadn’t heard exactly what happened. So I was planning to listen carefully from now on.
“A-at first, I started digging into the Kang Yi-sin case.”
I frowned at my name suddenly coming up.
“Why that case? It doesn’t seem like much.”
“Well! It’s strange no matter how you look at it. It’s true that he committed murder in an illegal Gate, but he released the people who were there, right? Aren’t the really bad guys the ones who were operating such illegal Gates?”
At those words, I blinked.
Well… that’s true.
“Besides, there’s no way there’s only one such illegal Gate. But no one investigated that. The media just started another awakener witch hunt, calling it a crime among awakeners. But it’s strange. In that kind of business, there are many more cases where non-awakeners are involved than awakeners.”
As Nam Ju-hyeon said, it was often non-awakeners who operated illegal Gate mining. Especially in Korea, those with that level of capital and power were often non-awakeners.
If they were high-ranking awakeners themselves, they’d be more likely to conquer high-rank Gates or deal with monster byproducts rather than trying to make money like that.
“Originally, I was going to dig more into that side. But the problem is that illegal Gate has already disappeared. Swoosh! Along with the evidence that was inside. And you know what? That person named Im Hyeon-su who had been recruiting people for that Gate also mysteriously died in prison?”
Nam Ju-hyeon’s voice lowered. It seemed Nam Ju-hyeon had been digging into all this alone all this time.
“That’s when it clicked. Kang Yi-sin was just bait. The culprit of the Han Jo-hee murder case that happened afterwards might not be Kang Yi-sin either. When I thought about it, it was strange. That he would kill someone he had just saved. Everyone was fooled by the sensational message.”
—Well, at least there’s someone who knows your innocence.
Nam Ju-hyeon continued speaking passionately, forgetting even her fear of me.
“So although I couldn’t dig deeper into that case, when I looked into it, I found another case that was buried by the media in this way. The Bomnal Orphanage incident.”
“Ha.”
Lucky or unlucky. Nam Ju-hyeon had linked the two cases exactly.
“While the illegal Gate had a strong one-time nature so I couldn’t find more evidence, the orphanage had been operating in that place for quite a long time. At least 15 years? So I could find information.”
So that’s how you found out about Kim Seong-deuk.
Now I understand.
The reason Nam Ju-hyeon became noticeable much earlier than in the past is because of me.
Due to what I did, the illegal Gate incident and the Bomnal Orphanage incident were revealed, and Nam Ju-hyeon with her special intuition digging into it became a problem.
“Bomnal Orphanage was operated with donations. And those donations came from someone associated with Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk. That person claimed he donated to other places besides Bomnal Orphanage, but unlike other places where he only made one-time showoff donations, he donated to Bomnal Orphanage for 15 years.”
“So you followed Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk’s trail?”
Nam Ju-hyeon nodded at my question.
“No wonder they tried to kill you.”
Nam Ju-hyeon’s face turned pale at my words.
In the past, Nam Ju-hyeon was the person who came closest to Seol Rok-jin’s secret. While being an ordinary person who couldn’t even awaken.
It’s clumsy now, but later with that animal-like intuition, she digs up even the secrets that Assemblyman Seol Rok-jin has hidden tightly.
The problem is that Nam Ju-hyeon doesn’t have the ability to protect herself.
In the past, she eventually caught Seol Rok-jin’s eye and died.
“T-then why did you intervene in this matter? W-why did you save me?”
I widened my eyes at Nam Ju-hyeon’s question.
“Where did the ch-children taken from the orphanage go!”
“That’s none of your business.”
Though it’s admirable that she’s trying to continue the interview even in this situation, I drew the line.
“You said you’d tell me the truth.”
“Yes, only about Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk. Don’t think about digging into me.”
I said to Nam Ju-hyeon:
“The reason I’m cooperating with you is because I also dislike Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk. So don’t cross the line.”
As I slightly revealed my killing intent, Nam Ju-hyeon’s face turned pale again.
She’s so timid yet jumps into things that could cost her life without hesitation, she was a strange woman in many ways.
I decided to tell Nam Ju-hyeon some of the ‘truths’ I had kept bottled up.
“You know that healing-type awakeners are rare, right?”
“Y-yes.”
“And that’s why they use potions.”
Potions that instantly heal external wounds are not exclusive to hunters. Of course, since it uses mana, it can’t be used carelessly by ordinary people, but few would refuse a medicine that can instantly heal wounds that would normally take months to recover from if used in appropriate amounts.
“As you thought, Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk operated that orphanage. The purpose of that orphanage was to create awakeners. To artificially create awakeners and human weapons, they continued various experiments. And they needed medical knowledge and equipment to conduct those experiments.”
I shrugged and added:
“And I think you know very well what company Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk came from.”
“Hy-Hyeonmu Pharmaceuticals?”
I nodded.
Hyeonmu Pharmaceuticals was Korea’s number one pharmaceutical company. Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk’s son is the chairman there. Although his son holds the chairman position, the real power is practically Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk’s.
“They’re the originators of human experimentation. Bomnal Orphanage is like a slightly harder version of Hyeonmu Pharmaceuticals. It means Hyeonmu Pharmaceuticals itself was a place that experimented on people from the start.”
“What?”
“Didn’t you ever think Hyeonmu Pharmaceuticals’ healing medicine was ‘too’ perfect when it first came out?”
While healing medicines made in foreign countries often had side effect issues, there were few such problems with the potions made by Hyeonmu Pharmaceuticals.
“No way…”
“It’s all thanks to human experimentation.”
The crimes committed by Hyeonmu Pharmaceuticals are not just human experimentation.
The environment for making potions is toxic.
Sometimes they use materials from other dimensions, so they had to put awakeners into the manufacturing process, but most of the people working at Hyeonmu Pharmaceuticals were ordinary people.
It’s perfect for being ground down by mana addiction. Just as many people died of cancer in semiconductor companies in the past, many people lost their lives here to a new disease called mana addiction.
“There’s only one reason this news didn’t leak outside. The people who went into that work couldn’t come out.”
Trafficking and human experimentation were already taking place at Hyeonmu Pharmaceuticals. On a scale incomparable to Bomnal Orphanage.
“Bomnal Orphanage is laughable compared to Hyeonmu Pharmaceuticals. In fact, it was created for Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk’s wish to become an awakener. It was operated almost as a hobby.”
“Y-you knew all this?”
“Yes.”
I’ve known since I opened my eyes to this world again.
“Why did you stay quiet when you knew?”
“So what if I know? Are you saying I should have committed terrorism?”
Nothing can be changed through terrorism. Hyeonmu Pharmaceuticals officials would just come out and play the victim.
“Nothing would have changed no matter what I did. The security would just become stricter.”
Nam Ju-hyeon listened to my words with a hardened face. A face that couldn’t believe such things were happening in 21st century Korea.
People often misunderstand.
The expectation that human nature has improved as much as civilization has advanced. But regardless of the speed of civilization’s development, humans as a species are still primitive.
Such things are still happening in this world.
“But if we let people know about this…”
“We’ll end up like you.”
Most media companies are all entangled with the opposition party, or even if not the opposition party, with high-ranking officials.
There’s no way they could break such news. Even if a reporter writes an article and submits it, it gets blocked from above. If you break it individually, it’ll be deleted immediately. No, before that, you’ll disappear knowingly or unknowingly while digging into this.
Even in the off chance that the article breaks and somehow gets through to the public, they’ll clear away all evidence before an actual investigation comes.
In the end, it’ll just end up as a conspiracy theory floating around the internet.
“Th-then what should we do?”
“I don’t know, not my problem.”
Handling the media isn’t my area of expertise.
“You have to think of the answer. Think about how you can break this case well.”
Well, even though I say this, it’ll be difficult right away. Just as I was about to open my mouth.
Nam Ju-hyeon’s eyes flashed and she exclaimed:
“O-okay! First, could you give me a laptop?”