# Chapter 59
What on earth is going on?
I had no idea where I was being taken or how much time had passed. I swallowed dryly, feeling slightly nauseated from not being able to see anything.
Everything happened without warning. A cloth was placed over my face, and my hands were bound. Though I couldn’t see, based on the circumstances, I was pretty sure I had been put in a car. If I could at least hear something, I might have been able to roughly grasp what was happening, but the cloth must have had some special properties because I couldn’t hear any external sounds either.
Not knowing what was happening and with both my sight and hearing blocked, all I could do was wait quietly as I was taken away by NECC agents.
“Get out.”
After what felt like an hour, I heard a voice in my head. It was the voice of the man who had spoken to me in the parking lot. Given that he could communicate directly into my mind, he appeared to be an Esper.
“Um, excuse me. I can’t see anything, so it’s hard to move. Could you at least untie my hands?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll escort you to your destination.”
Even though he must have known there was nothing I could do against an Esper, he refused to untie me. Instead, he supported my body to help me get out of the car. Afterward, two people flanked me and guided my way. With my shoulders held on both sides as I walked, I felt like a criminal being escorted after committing a crime. I had to walk like this for quite a while.
“We’ve arrived. You’ll be searched now.”
“W-wait a moment!”
Someone began patting down my body. Their hands soon took out the phone from my pocket.
“Your belongings will be returned when you leave. Mr. Son Jaeo, please wait here for a moment.”
The person who took my phone then seated me somewhere. Soon after, my bound hands were released, and the cloth covering my eyes was removed.
“Ugh.”
Unable to adjust to the sudden bright light, I squeezed my eyes shut. When I opened them again, I could see Ha Suan sitting across from me.
“Hello.”
“What, what’s going on? What is all this?”
My mind was in complete disarray. I slowly examined the room I was in. Except for the walls and ceiling being stark white and the lighting being painfully bright, it resembled an interrogation room with only a heavy metal desk and two chairs. Ha Suan didn’t look to be in great condition either. One of his cheeks was red and swollen as if someone had hit him.
“Were you captured too?”
I asked cautiously in a lowered voice, worried that someone might be watching. Ha Suan laughed and shook his head.
“I called you here.”
Ha Suan’s cheerful expression suddenly changed. It was quite different from his usual face that I knew. The Ha Suan before me now had an imposing and somewhat arrogant look.
I couldn’t even begin to guess what was happening. Ha Suan leisurely observed me for a moment, then placed something on the desk. It was a small, round golden badge with “NECC” embossed on it.
“Let me properly introduce myself. I’m Ha Suan, an A-class Esper from the National Esper Control Center. I brought you to the Center’s headquarters because I have something to discuss with you. I apologize for any inconvenience during transport. This was unavoidable due to security concerns.”
“What…?”
The statements made no sense to me whatsoever. With the unfamiliar situation and continuous stream of incomprehensible words, my brain was overloaded. As I sat frozen in shock, Ha Suan relaxed his expression and showed the face I was familiar with.
“That formal way of speaking is too stiff between friends, right?”
“What are you? An A-class Esper? Is this a hidden camera prank? What’s going on? Haha.”
I tried to act nonchalant as if I’d just heard something funny, but my voice trembled.
“Jaeo, are you scared of this situation?”
“…”
“That’s strange. Why would you be scared? You’ve already been in contact with another Esper.”
Ha Suan was referring to Heerim. He knew that Heerim was an Esper. My heart sank as if I had been caught doing something wrong.
“You, you knew?”
“Of course I knew. He’s someone we’ve been looking for for four years. I already got chewed out for not reporting Heerim’s location despite knowing it. See this?”
Ha Suan tapped his swollen cheek. It wasn’t a mark from being forcibly brought here.
“Why is NECC looking for Heerim?”
“Ah, so you really didn’t know. Do you have any idea how many people that Heerim guy has killed at the Center?”
“Wait. Killed… people?”
What is he saying?
I wiped my face with my cold hands. I understood what Ha Suan was saying, but I couldn’t process it in my mind. I was so confused that I wanted to stand up and scream. Ha Suan stared at my pale face, then tapped the desk with his finger. The center of the desk split open, and a small monitor emerged. Ha Suan turned the monitor toward me and played a video.
It was CCTV footage of a research lab corridor.
“Aaaaahh!”
“Uwaaaaahh!”
People in white lab coats were frantically running down the corridor, fleeing from something. Whatever was at the end of the corridor was beyond the camera’s angle, so I couldn’t see it clearly. I watched the screen with intense focus.
“Hurgk!”
One researcher who had been running desperately down the corridor fell. At that moment, a shadow from the end of the corridor elongated and engulfed the researcher’s body.
“P-please! Save me! I’m sorry!”
The terrified man curled up and rubbed his hands together, begging toward the source of the shadow. The shadow’s color darkened to an unbelievable blackness. The researcher, engulfed in the pitch-black shadow, contorted in agony and frantically scratched at the floor. After struggling for a while with a blue face, the researcher’s body went limp.
He wasn’t the only one. As the shadow grew larger, swallowing the entire corridor, the researchers trapped inside fell one by one.
Tap.
Footsteps echoed loudly in the suddenly quiet corridor. Soon, “something” from the end of the corridor appeared on screen.
I felt like my breath stopped when I saw what was on screen. Heerim, with a much younger face than now, passed by the fallen researchers with a completely emotionless expression. As Heerim passed, the shadow enveloping the entire corridor disappeared.
The roughly five-minute video ended.
“Twenty-seven in total. That’s the number of people Heerim killed. An S-class Esper who refused to sacrifice himself for others, killed people purely out of selfishness, and rebelled against the Center’s system.”
Ha Suan’s words didn’t register. My head was filled only with the image of Heerim’s face I had just seen on screen.
“What do you think that company with the ridiculous name he created is doing?”
“…”
“He wants to be treated like a hero all by himself.”
“No, no. He’s not that kind of person. Maybe you misunderstood something?”
Even after watching the video, I couldn’t believe it and found myself defending Heerim. Ha Suan sighed and clicked his tongue.
“This is a problem. Our innocent Jaeo. You’re still saying that after watching this? Why do you think he’s always searching for Rifts while avoiding NECC’s eyes? He’s trying to make his existence known to the outside world.”
He continued with a truly regretful expression.
“Nothing is as dangerous as an S-class Esper acting alone. Moreover, Heerim is looking for ways to attack NECC. Do you know what the orphanages in the recent serial arson cases had in common? They were all sponsored by NECC.”
What?
My heart seemed to stop after racing.
“Earth Peace? Tell him to go fuck himself. That guy is a villain himself.”
The Heerim that Ha Suan described was a dangerous entity that shouldn’t be in society. In the video, Heerim had indeed killed the researchers without any hesitation. And now Ha Suan was suggesting that Heerim was also the one who set fires to orphanages.
I had no idea how to process all this information. I just wanted to pretend I hadn’t heard anything and run away.
“…Then why didn’t you report Heerim’s location when you knew it?”
“The Center plans to capture Heerim and make him work as a national Esper again. They can’t bring themselves to give up an S-class. I fucking hate that idea.”
Ha Suan cursed under his breath with a grimace. I tried my best to organize my tangled thoughts and remain as rational as possible.
“Why are you telling me all this? I don’t work there anymore.”
“I know. That’s why the Center is in emergency mode.”
“…”
“We had planned to use you to capture Heerim, but that all fell through when you quit.”
Ha Suan exhaled a tired sigh. I lowered my head to hide my bitter expression.
So Ha Suan had an ulterior motive when he asked to be my friend.
I had genuinely considered Ha Suan a friend and felt grateful for his care. But now I learned that all those actions were just to use me. Rather than anger, I felt sadness.
“Anyway, Jaeo, we need your help. We can’t let Heerim do whatever he wants indefinitely.”
“…”
“If Heerim keeps poking around everywhere, many people could die in the major Rift that will appear in a few months.”
“You know where Heerim is. Why are you asking for my help specifically?”
I never expected to get entangled with Heerim again like this while trying to move on. If possible, I wanted to refuse Ha Suan’s request for help.
“And how can I trust you? The video could be fake.”
“If that’s what you think, there’s nothing I can do… but do you trust that bastard? More than us?”
I was suddenly at a loss for words. I had repeatedly doubted Heerim and the Earth Peace Research Institute. Even though I had resolved to trust Heerim, the truth was that I didn’t completely trust him.
Seeing my hesitation, Ha Suan continued with a serious expression.
“S-class Espers are different from ordinary people. Their way of thinking is different, and they have extraordinary abilities. Without NECC’s care, they eventually go berserk. And look, even now that bastard is preparing to attack NECC. A major Rift is about to occur, so what do you think it means for him to attack us at this time? It’s nothing short of a coup d’état.”
“No, no. There must be some misunderstanding. I’ll talk to him. And the berserk state can be prevented with Guiding, so…”
The more I listened, the less I could refute Ha Suan’s words. It was true that Heerim had hostile feelings toward NECC, and it was also true that there was a risk of him going berserk. Still, I didn’t want to hand Heerim over to NECC.
“You think you can handle an S-class Esper alone? It might be possible for now. But eventually, it will become dangerous. Jaeo, I’m not just saying this. It’s to save both Heerim and everyone else.”
“If I help NECC? What will you do after that? If it’s something that will harm Heerim, I’m not interested in doing anything.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. We’ll re-educate him to work in the right direction. I completely understand that you don’t trust me. I’m truly sorry for deceiving you.”
Ha Suan even bowed his head to me in apology. I was completely confused.
“Can’t we just leave things as they are? I’ll talk to him and…”
“Jaeo.”
“…”
“If we can’t capture Heerim, the only option is to kill him before he goes berserk.”
Ha Suan, who had cut off my words, sighed and looked at me.
“Is that what you want?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
