#84
Do-hyeok’s hands gradually tensed up. Though he had somewhat expected it, the fact that his guild member had actually been targeted didn’t sit well with him.
“So hyung’s recent habit of sticking close to Lee Seung-woo was because of that?”
“Yeah. Honestly, the first meeting wasn’t intentional, but somehow I got a strong feeling about it.”
Ha-seong recalled the day he first met Lee Seung-woo. Of course, the first meeting had unintentionally taken place in a dungeon, but excluding that meeting, the day they coincidentally first met at the guild. When he heard that he was this guild’s youngest and newest member, he felt something sweep past the back of his neck.
It happened to be after Yoon Woo-bin had told them to be careful because the murderer might be targeting a Nameless guild member as their next target, which made the feeling even stranger. If the murderer was looking for a target within Nameless, who would they choose? As such questions led to others and he reached a certain hypothesis, Ha-seong’s gaze toward Lee Seung-woo immediately changed.
“So there was a reason for suddenly asking to give Lee Seung-woo a ride home that day.”
“Well, yeah. I thought it would be good to check out the area around Seung-woo’s house just in case. I was also bothered about sending him home alone.”
Of course, the murderer could have chosen another location as the crime scene. In fact, the second incident’s victim, Yoo Su-bin, had been attacked on Item Street, so he had thought the location couldn’t be specified, but hadn’t Lee Seung-woo said it himself? That he was so busy with guild work these days that he mostly just repeated the route between home and the guild.
Anyway, the culprit would definitely choose a place where they could easily find and catch their target. They wouldn’t be crazy enough to commit a crime near the guild building, so the natural candidate was the area around Lee Seung-woo’s house.
And when Ha-seong arrived in front of the studio apartment building where Lee Seung-woo lived in Do-hyeok’s car that day, he quickly scanned the surroundings through the window fast enough that Seung-woo wouldn’t notice. As Seung-woo had said, maybe because it was a cheap area, all the surrounding alleys were narrow and there weren’t many streetlights. Like the scene where the first victim Kang Seong-hyeon had been attacked, or perhaps in an even more isolated atmosphere, Ha-seong was convinced.
The culprit might very likely be targeting this place.
“What’s this screen?”
“Ah, this is one of the items I have.”
With that, Ha-seong explained in detail about the rare item ‘The Living Have Much to Say.’ It was an object that used two small cubes to record all sounds and movements of living beings within a certain radius and check them in real time.
When using the item, Ha-seong set the radius narrowly around the alley next to Lee Seung-woo’s studio apartment building to obtain meaningful information. And not long after, he obtained information that a certain specific person kept standing quietly around that alley at regular times and then disappearing.
“Hyung…”
“What.”
“You’re smart. When on earth did you place that?”
“The day I gave Seung-woo a ride. When you kept telling me to come to the front seat and I got out, I threw it then.”
The more he heard, the more he could only laugh. From a brief conversation with Lee Seung-woo, the possibility that he could become a target, methods to gather information about it, and the action to follow through. Do Ha-seong had reached the current conclusion using everything without missing any aspect.
Moreover, to have thrown the item in the meantime showed remarkable nerve.
“And decisively, this morning. I got a call from Woo-bin-ssi.”
“A call?”
Do-hyeok looked at him with a face that said this was news to him.
“Yeah. A certain someone was too drunk sleeping to know, but here.”
Ha-seong took the phone back from Do-hyeok and this time opened the messenger conversation with Woo-bin to show him.
[Yoon Woo-bin: I can’t reach Do-hyeok.]
[Yes. That guy has become a dog right now so he can’t answer. Is there something urgent?]
[Yoon Woo-bin: I’m a bit curious about the story of how Do-hyeok became a dog, but this is more urgent. I looked into those military unit members you two told me about, and the Hawk members are all already dead. But there was one member who uniquely had a child. Baek Seong-hyeon, who was the captain of the Hawks, had one son, and when I investigated, coincidentally that son is currently missing with his whereabouts completely cut off. I’ll send you the file with that information first. And we should gather again quickly.]
Do-hyeok’s eyebrows twitched slightly as he read the message. He resented Do Ha-seong for making him into a dog regardless of his own will, but since there was karma for what he had done, he couldn’t show it. Do-hyeok opened the relevant file on Ha-seong’s phone.
Soon the file opened and content with one person’s personal information appeared.
“Baek Seong-hyeon.”
Do-hyeok muttered the name quietly. There was detailed information about a person named Baek Seong-hyeon, including his age, photo, and past history. Baek Seong-hyeon was the captain of the special forces unit Hawks and was once called a genius soldier due to his outstanding abilities. But he too, like other members, had passed away quite some time ago. Do-hyeok’s eyes narrowed at a certain part as he looked at his history. One peculiar point caught his eye – as Woo-bin had said, he was the only one among the Hawks members who had a child.
And Do-hyeok opened another file below that. There, his son’s personal information was briefly recorded. The name was Baek Sa-jin. By birth year, he would be roughly in his early thirties, and as Woo-bin had said, his whereabouts were completely cut off from a certain point.
“I thought about it too, and it seemed strange. If it was when the military unit existed, it would be a very long time ago, but for those parties to have been opening gates 10 years ago and now committing this series of murders doesn’t add up, right? No matter how robust a soldier is, they would have aged.”
“Then…”
Certainly Ha-seong’s words made sense. When he heard Dal-pyeong’s words, why hadn’t he thought of that?
“How about ‘father’s revenge’?”
A son’s revenge for his father who was abandoned by the country as they entered the hunter era – that would certainly make everything fit.
“Is this guy certain?”
“According to Woo-bin-ssi. The Hawks organization members at that time scattered and lived separately after the military was disbanded. They each died for their own reasons later, but Baek Seong-hyeon was the only one who married and had children. Baek Sa-jin is also the only connection to the Hawks in this current situation.”
Ha-seong took the phone back from Do-hyeok and put it in his pocket.
“I’ll catch this guy for now. You’d better not show yourself if possible.”
Do-hyeok bit his lip slightly. In the past, he would have felt nothing about Ha-seong saying he would handle it alone. That’s why he had hired Do Ha-seong as an informant. But why now couldn’t he readily say to go ahead? He wanted to follow along. For a moment, that day when Ha-seong had been covered in blood flashed through Do-hyeok’s mind.
“Hey.”
Just then, Ha-seong crossed his arms and bluntly called to Do-hyeok, who was lost in thought.
“I can see what you’re thinking right now, but I don’t go down easily. That day was just an exception, really.”
“…Yes.”
Who doesn’t know that? But even so, Do-hyeok couldn’t help feeling uneasy. Ha-seong didn’t like his attitude and was busy grumbling about how he would show him properly this time, not to look down on people.
“Hyung.”
“What.”
“Call me if it’s dangerous.”
Do-hyeok, who had been sitting at a distance, suddenly closed that distance and approached. Then Ha-seong awkwardly pulled back. It was because last night’s incident came to mind as soon as that guy came close.
How should he explain what happened yesterday? Ha-seong had stayed up all night trying to name that incident. Anyway, he felt it would be somewhat more comfortable on his side if he could define it.
Traditionally, a kiss was a type of skinship commonly shared between people in love, but since Do Ha-seong and Cha Do-hyeok were not lovers to begin with, it couldn’t be seen as a common occurrence.
Then there was only one answer. This was just an accident. An accident that happened when one party couldn’t make normal judgments and couldn’t exercise reason. In other words, Cha Do-hyeok’s dog-like drunkenness.
This was Ha-seong’s definition of that situation. It made him feel somewhat more comfortable. Yes, such things happen in life, and you might even cross over to another dimensional world.
Having made up his mind like that, when that guy suddenly pressed his body close like this, he unconsciously became tense.
“Hmm, that will absolutely never happen.”
Ha-seong moved his butt as far to the opposite side as possible and answered while deliberately avoiding eye contact.
“There are no absolutes in the world.”
“You talk well. Anyway, we need to tell Woo-bin-ssi first, so let’s go to the Management Bureau. And Cha Do-hyeok.”
“Yes.”
“There’s something I need you to do while I catch the culprit.”
A perfect plan scenario was already drawn in Ha-seong’s mind.
* * *
“I see. You cleverly deduced my identity and the next target.”
Baek Sa-jin, who had heard the series of stories from Woo-bin, slowly nodded.
Everything proceeded smoothly after that. Do-hyeok and Ha-seong went straight to the Management Bureau and told Woo-bin everything. Both that Lee Seung-woo would be targeted next and the entire plan to catch him. After hearing the plan, Woo-bin told them to bring the culprit here safely once Ha-seong caught him. To this isolated basement of the east wing that no one visits.
“Then where was the real target at that time?”
“He was with me. Inside Nameless Guild. Lee Seung-woo never left the guild to begin with.”
“I see.”
The time was late dawn on the day Lee Seung-woo had duty. His arrival near his house after leaving the guild would be 3:30 AM. Ha-seong disguised himself by referencing the clothes Seung-woo usually wore to look like him, and entered that alley at that time pretending to be Seung-woo.
At that time, before Lee Seung-woo left the guild, Do-hyeok was holding him back as Ha-seong had instructed. Telling him to hold him back under the pretext of training was all Ha-seong’s instruction. Of course, Do-hyeok had the attitude of asking whether there was really something to hide from Lee Seung-woo, whether they really needed to go that far, but Ha-seong answered like this:
‘Think about it. A kid who’s already depressed thinking he’s not improving – if you tell him he’s being targeted by a murderer, he’ll dig himself deeper into a hole. It’s better for him not to know. Take this opportunity to train with him since you’re his idol.’
It was a truly Do Ha-seong-like idea.
“Now, I’ve told you everything you were curious about.”
Woo-bin smiled and propped his chin.
“Now it’s Baek Sa-jin-ssi’s turn to answer.”
His eyes were clearly smiling, but his mouth wasn’t smiling at all. Watching from behind, Ha-seong unconsciously thought Woo-bin might be scarier than he appeared.
“I’d like to hear the reason you murdered innocent hunters first.”
Now it was their turn to dig into things one by one.
“Hatred toward hunters, or more precisely, revenge for your father, correct?”
“…”
Baek Sa-jin looked around slowly with a blank face. An utterly unfamiliar space.
“You people took away everything from my father.”
There was no emotion whatsoever in his empty pupils. Baek Sa-jin’s eyes were emptiness itself.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
