Chapter 78: Deeply (3)
“……No, Brother.”
Although he himself had just said that they denied being villains, to think he would smash the enemy’s head against the wall.
Ji-hwan was startled and hastily used magic on the wall.
“There are students here.”
Even though he had used magic to confine the sound, Ji-hwan unknowingly lowered his voice.
“I know.”
“You know?”
“I wanted to show them.”
Hyeon-yul pointed at the students with his finger.
Due to Hyeon-yul’s recent actions, the students were trembling with anxiety.
“Go listen for a moment.”
At Hyeon-yul’s words, Ji-hwan moved.
As he moved out of the magic’s range, the students’ voices could be heard.
“……Mom. Mom!”
“Save me! Save me!”
“…Sob.”
Anyone could see they were terrified.
How could this be called acting?
Hyeon-yul’s words felt like a lie.
‘……Did those students really attack Brother Hyeon-yul?’
Ji-hwan, with a confused expression, moved again.
“Did you hear?”
“…I heard.”
“Doesn’t it sound like I’m lying?”
“……Hmm.”
“You can speak honestly.”
“It… does feel that way.”
Ji-hwan reacted as if speaking was awkward.
He didn't want to doubt.
Weren't they on the same team?
“Please inform them that Black Eagle has arrived. Then, you’ll understand what I mean. But, don’t untie them. You’ll get hurt. You mustn’t be deceived by those words and emotions.”
“…Alright.”
Ji-hwan, hiding his unease, went outside the magic’s range again.
He could still see the students wailing to be saved.
Seeing them not only with their hands and feet tied but also their eyes covered made his heart pound anxiously.
He wanted to save them quickly.
“It’s Black Eagle. Just a moment. I’ll rescue you soon.”
Ji-hwan said, approaching them.
For a moment, Ji-hwan felt an inexplicable chill.
‘The crying… didn’t it stop?’
Was it just his imagination?
“…Ha. Saved. I’m saved!”
“Untie me quickly! Please!”
“The teacher betrayed us! He was trying to kill us…!”
Some were relieved, some begged to be saved, and some pleaded their innocence.
It was a familiar but heart-moving situation.
How scared must they have been.
However, the chill from a moment ago kept lingering in his mind.
Was it because of what Hyeon-yul had said?
An unidentifiable unease enveloped his body.
‘Brother told me not to untie them.’
Thinking that he wouldn't have said that without a reason, Ji-hwan pretended to untie them and deliberately moved closer.
“…Untie me quickly.”
“Just a moment.”
At the student’s urging, just as Ji-hwan bent down, the ropes binding their hands came undone, and they lunged at Ji-hwan.
They were no different from wild beasts.
Ji-hwan calmly aimed his finger.
The student was flung backward.
Ji-hwan hurriedly drew a line.
An invisible wall appeared.
Kwang!
Kwaang!
“…….”
Ji-hwan took a long breath and looked at the students.
More than their pounding on the wall, the way they looked at him was strange.
Even villains hadn't looked at him like that.
Revenge.
He finally understood what Hyeon-yul had been talking about.
His heart pounded fast.
‘……What is going on?’
“Did you see?”
Hyeon-yul’s voice was heard.
He came dragging the villain, clutching his throat.
“That’s their state. Isn’t it strange?”
“It’s quite strange……”
Ji-hwan lowered his gaze.
“What should we call this?”
Hyeon-yul threw the man to the floor and stomped on the back of his neck with his foot.
Kkuuk.
The villain, who had been moving his arms like wings, became quiet.
Pressure was on his neck.
“The moment you use your ability, I’ll break it. Even if you try to get up, I’ll break it.”
Hyeon-yul warned, putting force into his foot.
“I will.”
He clearly informed him.
If he did it despite that, wouldn't he have to show him as warned?
Hyeon-yul raised his head and looked at Ji-hwan.
“Can you just capture one?”
“You can’t do that to students, Brother.”
“I know. Shouldn’t we hear them out? That way, we can grasp the situation more quickly.”
Ji-hwan looked at the student, then glanced at the man whose neck was being crushed by Hyeon-yul’s foot.
Was it right to do this?
He thought so, but they didn't have time right now.
“Leave it to me.”
“Yes, thank you.”
Hyeon-yul bowed and looked at the man.
He looked somewhat flustered.
“If you’ve heard everything, now speak. If you’re not villains, then what are you? What are you doing right now?”
“……Well. What are we? What are we doing?”
Hyeon-yul tilted his head at the strange answer.
Did he think this was a joke?
“Can you even break my neck?”
The man sneered at Hyeon-yul.
“Try it. Go ahead.”
At the successive provocations, Hyeon-yul briefly changed his mind.
‘Is he really not a villain?’
As a result of meeting various villains as Black Eagle, they often found Black Eagle’s actions displeasing and even ridiculed them.
Surely, you wouldn't break my neck.
He could see that kind of certainty too.
But now, the man showed not just certainty but conviction.
He was convinced that Black Eagle wouldn't do it.
‘Why is he so sure?’
Hyeon-yul wanted to turn this doubt into some kind of certainty.
He raised his dagger threateningly.
But the man kept sneering at him.
Surely you wouldn't do it.
That was exactly how he looked.
Then he had to show him.
“It’ll be a bit noisy for a moment.”
Hyeon-yul told Ji-hwan so he wouldn't be surprised, and then took out his dagger.
Without hesitation, he stabbed the back of his hand.
“Aaaaargh!”
As the scream spread, Ji-hwan was startled, and so was the man whose hand had been stabbed.
He reacted as if something impossible had happened.
It was subtle, but different from a villain’s reaction.
Hyeon-yul was finally convinced.
“You deny it, but you are indeed a villain.”
He didn't bother to mention the definition of a villain.
White Sparrow would know that part better than him.
Trusting experts was important.
“Even if you were Black Eagle in the past, that doesn’t serve as proof that you’re not a villain.”
At Hyeon-yul’s remark, the man and Ji-hwan looked surprised.
Ji-hwan stopped using magic on the student and approached Hyeon-yul.
“Why are you surprised? Did you think I wouldn’t know that either?”
A hint of laughter mixed into Hyeon-yul’s voice as he looked at the man.
“…He was Black Eagle? Really?”
Ji-hwan voiced his disbelief.
“Yes. Among villains, there are quite a few former Black Eagles. Because they know Black Eagle, they’re very vicious. You know that, don’t you?”
“It’s the first time I’ve seen it… directly.”
“Probably, you’ve seen many. They wouldn’t say they were Black Eagle. If you think someone was quite tenacious during a mission, they were most likely a former Black Eagle.”
“……Shut up.”
As the man spoke, blood dripping from his nose, Hyeon-yul sneered.
“Look. He’s getting worked up. Isn’t it ridiculous that they themselves once spearheaded the elimination of villains, and now they deny being villains? That’s why they blabber that they’re not villains. Isn’t that right?”
Hyeon-yul looked down.
“…You idiots. Black Eagle is not justice. Why are you being fooled by this? Look at what you’re doing! Look!”
The man shouted loudly, as if lecturing.
It was quite noisy.
“I met a guy who babbled like this not long ago.”
At the familiar sound, Hyeon-yul couldn't help but think of someone.
He knew an idiot who kept telling him that Black Eagle was not justice.
“Poison King.”
As that name came out, the man immediately raised his voice.
“Don’t treat me the same as that trash!”
“What’s different? I told him too, but who exactly defines justice? Is what you people did, kidnapping, assaulting, and trying to kill minors, justice?”
This?
This kind of trashy behavior?
Hyeon-yul was dumbfounded.
What would come out now was obvious.
He knew they would spew bullshit about means, noble missions, but Hyeon-yul waited for Ji-hwan’s sake.
This kind of thing had to be seen directly.
“Did you think we wanted to do this? This is for everyone’s sake. Because everyone is being played by what Black Eagle says, by the words of the Empire that defends them.”
The man spewed the expected words.
Hyeon-yul looked at Ji-hwan.
His expression was hardening.
“There was a time when I also thought Black Eagle was justice. …But it’s not. Black Eagle is actually evil…! Evil that must be eliminated before villains disappear!”
He raised his voice as if filled with malice.
Once his mouth was opened, it wouldn't stop easily.
Rather, it seemed like he was finally letting out words he had always suppressed.
“Do you know what Black Eagle did? They made a deal with villains! They were actually cultivating villains for their own safety! Our teammates died, other Black Eagles died, and we only believed in that one thing, that we were for the Empire and the citizens, we only believed that and silently moved forward, but it wasn’t true…!”
Even as he poured out his heart, Hyeon-yul looked at him indifferently.
He didn't know what he had seen, but to him, who had been a villain, it was bullshit.
The existence villains hated was Black Eagle.
How much they cursed, saying they interfered with everything.
Black Eagle and villains joining hands.
They were oil and water.
They could never be side by side.
However, the claim that Black Eagle was cultivating villains, though absurd, was understandable.
If villains disappeared, wouldn't Black Eagle be disbanded as well?
‘But I don’t think it’s time to think about that.’
There were still too many villains to think about that part.
It wouldn't be too late to think about that after catching almost all the villains.
“Black Eagle deceived us! They insulted our deaths…! They took away my pride and everything! What was all that we did? What on earth were we moving for?”
“What did you see?”
Hyeon-yul was curious why he was going this far.
What did he see?
“Do you perhaps have any evidence?”
At the repeated question, the man, who had been screaming as if in a frenzy until a moment ago, became unbelievably quiet.
“…?”
Hyeon-yul looked at the man.
He was afraid.
But that wasn't important right now.
“I asked what you saw.”
“……I can’t say. That, I can’t say.”
“Then there’s no choice.”
Hyeon-yul spoke as if he would back down, but the foot stomping on the man’s neck didn't budge.
“I was a villain.”
The man flinched at Hyeon-yul’s words.
“You say Black Eagle deceived and took something, but do you know how ridiculous that sounds? Take what you want, kill if it’s annoying. That’s a basic ideology for villains. Even if Black Eagle did that, I don’t see how you and villains are any different.”
“Shut up! Don’t equate me with villains……”
“You’ve gazed too long into the abyss. You’ve already become a monster, haven’t you.”
Ppaak.
Hyeon-yul, thinking there was nothing more to hear, lifted his foot and kicked the man’s face.
After confirming he was unconscious, Hyeon-yul looked at Ji-hwan.
His face had turned deathly pale.
Was it that shocking?
“Don’t be swayed.”
“……It’s a bit, shocking.”
“Those words may or may not be true. In a situation where you don’t know the truth, you can’t help but think that way. However, remember this. Poison King also said those words.”
Poison King was a big shot.
The fact that he was saying similar things to such a big shot could be seen as a very strange situation.
Nevertheless, as Ji-hwan hesitated, Hyeon-yul continued.
“The fact that even this guy is saying such things, wouldn’t it be right to suspect that someone is intentionally creating this situation?”
“Some of Black Eagle… I’ll leave open the possibility that they did, but I believe in Black Eagle itself. Because it was Black Eagle who saved me.”
Ji-hwan smiled belatedly.
How could he forget that moment?
The black uniform was like a grim reaper who had come to end everything.
But far from a grim reaper, it was the light itself that had given him a new life.
“And you’re right, Brother. I don’t know if they were Black Eagle, but now they’re villains.”
Hadn't they brought the students to this state?
That alone meant they had no right to say anything.
“Then it’s time to listen to the students. But first, we need to change the order.”
Hyeon-yul took a radio from the man’s body.
Jjijijik.
A call came.
It wasn't a good sign.
3rd floor, 4th floor, 5th floor.
It was time to quickly subdue them.
5th floor.
Hyeon-yul appeared behind the man holding a student hostage.
It was the same man he had seen before entering the building.
“Go ahead! I’ll kill you!”
The villain shouted, looking down.
“Yes.”
With a simple answer, Hyeon-yul grabbed the villain by the scruff of his neck.
Tak.
Before the dagger the villain was holding could fall, the darkness caught it and placed it in Hyeon-yul’s hand.
Hyeon-yul, thinking Ji-hwan was doing well on his own, fulfilled his role.
Without hesitation, he stabbed the man’s thigh and threw him to the floor.
Hyeon-yul strode over to the villain and kicked him in the face, knocking him unconscious.
He considered attacking more forcefully but held back because a student was in front of him.
The student looked at Hyeon-yul with blank eyes.
“He’s not dead. He was just stabbed lightly in the thigh. It’s not a fatal wound either.”
He clearly informed them.
“…….”
The student couldn't rashly speak.
“Brother. Brother!”
A door on the wall burst open, and Ji-hwan spoke urgently.
“You can’t attack the student.”
“I know.”
Hyeon-yul strode over and grabbed the student’s neck with darkness.
Wasn't just grabbing the neck enough?
“Since I’m the Black Eagle you despise, say whatever you want.”