#69
It was definitely a fitting piece. If members of two top guilds had been targeted in succession, it was easy to infer who the next target would be.
“Are you saying the next target will come from my guild?”
“The possibility is high. Don’t you think so too?”
At Woo-bin’s words, Do-hyeok maintained silence for a moment. That could probably be seen as a sign of agreement. And Ha-seong felt the same way.
“As word secretly spreads on the internet that the second victim was a Heukcheon guild member, interest in this case isn’t decreasing but continues to grow.”
Woo-bin looked emotionlessly at the tea leaves floating gently. Looking at him now, his face seemed a bit more gaunt than when they first met. He seemed to be working on this case day and night.
“It seems like that’s what the bastard was aiming for. Killing hunters from famous guilds to draw people’s attention.”
“I think so too.”
While all human lives are equally precious, in this society where specific guilds and specific hunters receive more attention, if a famous person was murdered, that attention would surely not fade easily and would continue for a long time. Perhaps the bastard’s purpose was hoping that as many people as possible would pay attention to this case, and for a very long time at that.
“Anyway, that’s what I found out. Do-hyeok. You should probably tell your guild members to be careful.”
“There’s no one in my guild who would fall for it that easily.”
“Hey, what does that make me when you say that?”
Then Do-hyeok flinched. Come to think of it, wasn’t there exactly one person here who had fallen victim to that bastard? Ha-seong glared at Do-hyeok. As if anyone wanted to fall victim easily.
“Hmm, I didn’t mean to be pointed about it.”
“Oh? Are you dissing me indirectly right now?”
Ha-seong had been mulling over that day’s events endlessly anyway. Thinking about it, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had been foolishly caught off guard, so much so that sometimes that scene would repeatedly appear even in his dreams. In his dreams, the perpetrator would giggle and say, “You call yourself an S-rank hunter while being so careless?” He was determined to catch that bastard and punch him in the face first. That’s what he was thinking, but Cha Do-hyeok was pouring oil on the fire.
“But hyung, you admitted it yourself. That you were careless then.”
“Hey, that’s…”
Cha Do-hyeok was eccentric and crazy, but unexpectedly good with words. It seemed like there had been quite a few times when he was left speechless like this.
“Come to think of it, why were you careless in the first place? I don’t think I’ve heard that reason yet.”
The thought suddenly occurred to him that he shouldn’t have brought up the topic. The reason was that he had been caught while thinking about what his relationship with Cha Do-hyeok would be like in the future if he had caught that bastard there.
“Ah, Woo-bin-ssi. We found out something very important.”
But he had absolutely no intention of saying that. He would never tell anyone that until he died and would take it to his grave. They say men usually take their first love to the grave, but Ha-seong planned to take that ridiculous reason instead of his first love.
When Ha-seong turned his gaze to Woo-bin, Do-hyeok grumbled beside him about changing the subject again.
“Shall we continue the story then?”
Woo-bin looked at the two people bickering again with amusement and brought back the lost flow of conversation.
“We think we’ve identified the perpetrator.”
Woo-bin’s eyes widened. His brown pupils trembled finely, half with surprise and half with confusion. Of course, when coming to meet them, he had vaguely felt that the two had probably discovered an important clue, but he never dreamed they would have leaped straight to the destination like that.
“What do you mean…”
Ha-seong and Do-hyeok told Woo-bin everything they had discovered so far without omission. How Baek Han-bit had handed over the dashcam footage and how they had ghost-like discovered the necklace from it. Coincidentally, everything including how Ha-seong had heard about soldiers from Dal-pyeong that very day.
“I saw the video Han-bit noona gave me too. But that necklace the bastard was wearing… was a necklace worn by soldiers in the past?”
Woo-bin recalled the video Han-bit had handed over, bringing back the memory. He had certainly watched it repeatedly because it was an important clue, but he hadn’t noticed anything about the necklace at all.
“Yes. We asked someone who knows about old times well, and they said there was a unit called ‘Goshawk’ among the special forces of past military organizations.”
Do-hyeok took out his phone from the side and showed a captured image of the necklace seen in the dashcam footage.
“A wing-shaped silver necklace. It was something that unit characteristically wore.”
Woo-bin looked closely at the captured screen. Even though he had watched that video so many times, feeling briefly stupid for not noticing this, Woo-bin fell into deep thought.
“Goshawk…”
“Do you know something about it?”
“I don’t know much about the internal affairs of past military organizations either. But I think I’ve heard the name Goshawk. If my memory is correct, I understand it was a unit composed of soldiers with the highest abilities among the military.”
In the past, as awakened ones emerged and more people with unique supernatural abilities appeared, the abilities of non-awakened soldiers were no longer needed, but ‘Goshawk’ was different. Even without being able to use skills, they had incredibly high physical abilities and in the early days possessed strength that was never inferior to hunters.
“So at that time, there was discussion about whether it would be better to coexist with hunters and increase the nation’s power rather than disbanding such special forces, but it seems it wasn’t well received.”
If they were that strong, it was understandable that they could kill two hunters without difficulty. Especially since they had even engaged in direct hand-to-hand combat with the first victim, Kang Seong-hyeon.
“The gun Ha-seong-ssi mentioned before. I looked into that too, and it was a gun that past soldiers basically carried and used. I never thought things would fit together like this.”
Finally, with Woo-bin’s words, everything became certain. The perpetrator was likely a former soldier who harbored resentment against this hunter society.
“I need data on that past military unit.”
The perpetrator would certainly be among that unit. And such national data was likely to be managed by the Management Bureau, one of the government agencies. Now that hunters and guilds represented the nation’s power, it would be even more likely to be there. When Do-hyeok looked at Woo-bin, he nodded briefly.
“I’ll look into whether there are any materials related to military units among the Management Bureau’s data.”
While saying this, Woo-bin added that it might take some time to investigate since it was from long ago and moreover concerned a disappeared organization.
“Shall we finish our meal here then?”
Woo-bin glanced at his wristwatch. It seemed he had other scheduled appointments following this.
“Um. Woo-bin-ssi. There’s one more thing I’d like to ask.”
“Yes.”
“Are you certain that the second victim was also a hunter who had only recently joined the guild called Heukcheon?”
“Since it’s information I found out as a Management Bureau team leader, it should be certain.”
At those words, Ha-seong slowly nodded.
“Then I’ll contact you when I find the data. Ah, Do-hyeok. Don’t forget to keep your guild members in check.”
We can’t increase the number of victims any further. At Woo-bin’s firm voice, Do-hyeok just waved his hand without saying much.
* * *
“The food was delicious, but I’m not really sure what I ate.”
It was definitely tasty, but the portions weren’t huge, and there wasn’t any particularly memorable food either – it was a bit strange. He used to envy the chaebol protagonists in dramas who always went to high-end restaurants to eat course meals, but this was all it was.
As Ha-seong muttered while coming out of the hanok, Do-hyeok standing beside him chuckled.
“All places like this are originally like that.”
“I think the gomtang I ate with you that time was even more delicious.”
When Ha-seong said this while tilting his head as usual, Do-hyeok paused for a moment.
“…Let’s go again later.”
“Alright. Then.”
It seemed like the first time he had ever said to do something together with someone later. Promises only have value when they are actually kept.
‘Then I’ll definitely come pick you up later.’
Because he was young, he vaguely believed that promise would be kept. The words that person had said were so big and warm that he held them preciously. If he had known those words would shatter into pieces, he wouldn’t have embraced them from the beginning.
After that, Do-hyeok instinctively avoided making promises and talking about the future with anyone.
“Let’s definitely go.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. Let’s go. Definitely. You must have really liked it even though you barely ate anything.”
But now he wanted to. Even if it was just a few days away, even if it was tomorrow which would be embarrassing to call the future. He felt like he definitely wanted to make some kind of promise with Do Ha-seong.
* * *
Creak-
The sound of a rusty iron door opening was heard. A man in a suit entered the container making the sound of dress shoes.
“Work?”
The man sitting at the old table placed alone in the center asked the approaching person.
“Yeah.”
He pulled out a photo from inside his suit and threw it onto the table.
“The next target is that bastard.”
“…”
The man picked up the photo and flipped it over. On the back was written what appeared to be personal information about the one called the target.
“Any method is fine. Just make sure it catches people’s attention. However, I’d prefer to avoid a situation like last time.”
“…I’ll be careful.”
After the person who handed over the photo left, the container became quiet as a mouse again. The man looked at the photo and soon got up to take the robe hanging on the chair beside him. When the man opened the door to leave the container, wind whooshed inside.
The photo on the table flipped over and fell to the floor with a thud.
Guild Affiliation: Nameless
That was written in clear letters on the back of the photo.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
Omg ML is falling so fast🤭