WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Dionysus

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Newbie Civil Servant Hunts Villains Before Going Home ◈

Chapter 3: Job Hunting (2)

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To work for a villain's company, you had to know how to handle something like a bomb.

And bombs weren't all.

Seo Hyeonyul could even make simple poisons.

"...Can you really defuse a bomb?"

When Haeryeon asked, Hyeonyul nodded.

"Is there any reason for me to lie?"

"It looks like you're trying to use people's lives to bargain for a job offer. That's not happening."

At the Team Seven leader's words, Hyeonyul merely shrugged.

"I said I'd help. I never made passing the interview a condition, nor did I threaten anyone."

The Team Seven leader gave a small laugh.

If it was a provocation, it was one. And if Hyeonyul had meant to catch them off guard, he had half succeeded.

"Interesting. You're very interesting."

The Team Seven leader's thumb moved quickly over her phone.

It was an obvious situation.

Everyone had heard it.

They had no choice but to accept Hyeonyul's help.

Even if Hyeonyul asked for nothing, they would naturally owe him a debt.

How was that any different from what Hyeonyul had said?

"I'm honored."

When Hyeonyul smiled, electricity spread beside him.

Crackle.

Even as it flashed, Hyeonyul did not so much as blink.

"Fine. Enjoy this moment while you can."

The Team Seven leader smiled sweetly.

"Kid. Get a hold of yourself and focus on the situation."

The Team Two leader pressed a hand onto the Team Seven leader's head to stop her.

This was no time to raise their voices.

"Get your hand off me, old man!"

"Team Leader Ye Juhyeon, this isn't the time, is it?"

Even Haeryeon spoke up. Juhyeon's eyes softened as she looked at her.

"...Unni."

Haeryeon looked at Hyeonyul.

His relaxed attitude made her uneasy. It was suspicious.

That was probably why Juhyeon had been so sharp with him.

"I'll take him."

Haeryeon volunteered.

For now, the only option was to keep Hyeonyul by her side and watch him herself.

There was no time.

Haeryeon unlocked the handcuffs around Hyeonyul's wrists.

"Follow me."

She hurried him along, and Hyeonyul stood.

"I know you suspect me. So I'll prove myself with results."

After giving the team leaders a slight bow, Hyeonyul followed Haeryeon.

Anything he said right now would only sound unpleasant.

Haeryeon walked so quickly down the hall that she was practically running.

Her fluffy hair bounced with every step.

"Do you know why Black Eagle is called Black Eagle?"

"No."

"Then you'll find out now. We're going to ride an eagle to the location."

Hyeonyul thought for a moment.

Ride an eagle?

What could that mean?

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I hope your desire to join Black Eagle is genuine."

Haeryeon grinned.

If Hyeonyul had been telling the truth, he would be an incredible asset.

Hadn't he accomplished something no one else had managed?

* * *

"...Urgh."

Hyeonyul leaned against a wall with a pale face, covering his mouth.

So that was what Black Eagle was. Magic.

The world he had been reborn into was modern, yet it was a strange place where all kinds of powers existed.

Of course magic existed too.

'Wasn't magic usually more like stage tricks...?'

This was the first time Hyeonyul had seen magic this powerful.

A black eagle shrouded in darkness appeared like an illusion.

Hyeonyul had only stared at it, wondering what it was, when it suddenly snatched him up and flew into the sky.

He had been moved at an absurd speed without even having time to prepare himself.

Hyeonyul had wondered why there were no ordinary cars around the building they called the Nest, aside from buses.

So this was how they traveled.

'...This is the worst.'

Hyeonyul sensed a crisis.

If he joined Black Eagle, wouldn't he have to ride that thing every day?

"Are you all right? You seem rather frail."

Haeryeon smiled awkwardly at the unexpected reaction.

Black Eagle was fast, and it was normal to be startled the first time, but it was so perfect that people did not even get motion sickness.

Yet Hyeonyul had suffered a different side effect.

How weak could someone be despite having such a sturdy build?

"...Yes. I'm unwell."

Hyeonyul checked the time.

It was nearly time to take his medicine.

He turned to Haeryeon.

"That doesn't mean I'm weak enough to be useless. I'm fine as long as I have my medicine, so I'm always grateful for modern medicine."

"Is it a chronic illness?"

"No. I used to be an experimental subject."

"..."

Haeryeon's expression froze.

'...An experimental subject?'

Anti-government forces had tried to raise soldiers with powers to overthrow the Empire.

They experimented on countless people and called them experimental subjects.

The odds of survival were abysmal.

Even so, those bastards kept kidnapping people and turning them into subjects.

'How is an experimental subject still alive?'

A question formed in Haeryeon's mind.

'Is that why he came to Black Eagle?'

One question led to another.

Honestly, Hyeonyul's stated reason for coming to Black Eagle had been far too weak.

But if he were an experimental subject, it was different.

How deeply must he hate villains?

It was practically a miracle that all four of his limbs were intact.

"If you find it hard to believe, you can examine me later. They tore through every part of my body trying to inject strange powers into me."

Hyeonyul spoke while covering his mouth.

His body was unlike that of an ordinary person.

He needed medicine to preserve his form and mind, and that medicine was not free. Without an exploitative company, he could not afford it.

"...No. I saw the records of your countless hospital visits."

Haeryeon spoke hesitantly.

She had seen living experimental subjects a few times, but this was her first time seeing one who had continued to survive.

"I'm glad that saves us time persuading each other. I absolutely have to visit hospitals. Medicine is expensive too. In that sense, Black Eagle's conditions are excellent."

Hyeonyul smiled lightly.

'...This is driving me crazy.'

Haeryeon felt herself wavering.

She knew that the moment Hyeonyul had said "experimental subject," it had begun.

She had rescued many experimental subjects, but every one of them had died.

Maybe it was guilt.

Only then did Haeryeon notice the scars on Hyeonyul's face.

Aside from a few deep scars, there were many faint ones, as though his face had been slashed apart.

They were all traces of experimentation.

'...So that's why he has the power to kill Shin Daeho.'

Understanding Hyeonyul's power, Haeryeon assessed the situation coolly.

There were far too many dangerous factors to judge Hyeonyul on sympathy alone.

'I'll judge Seo Hyeonyul with my own eyes.'

Haeryeon searched through the bag she had brought.

She held out a pair of black-rimmed glasses.

"Put these on."

"Do they have a spell that makes people less likely to recognize my face?"

"No. They're just a disguise."

The spell that lowered recognition was in the smartwatch Haeryeon was wearing.

But she did not tell Hyeonyul any more than that.

She took out her phone and checked several things.

People were being evacuated, and the location had been identified near where they had landed.

'First, the bomb.'

Fixing her goal firmly in mind, Haeryeon activated her smartwatch.

"Do Black Eagles usually operate in such small groups?"

As Hyeonyul put on the glasses and realized no one else was coming, he could not help asking.

"It depends on the mission."

She could have asked why he was prying into everything, but Haeryeon gave a vague answer instead.

"This time, it's a bomb. We need to minimize the damage. I can't sacrifice my team members just because I'm the team leader, can I?"

When Haeryeon smiled, Hyeonyul stared at her blankly.

'...Is she stupid?'

Hyeonyul could not understand.

If the team leader disappeared, the team would collapse.

For the team's sake, sacrificing the team members was the right choice.

But Hyeonyul reconsidered.

'I should learn this.'

What Hyeonyul had learned was the villain's way.

Black Eagle was not made up of villains.

"What kind of power do you use, Seo Hyeonyul?"

Haeryeon needed to know Hyeonyul's power to defuse the bomb.

"Shadows. Or darkness, if you prefer. I don't know exactly what it is."

When Hyeonyul held out a hand, his fingers slowly melted away and fell as shadows.

There was nothing where the fingers had been.

Fingers emerged from the shadow and wriggled.

"You can think of it as roughly this kind of power."

"...Those insane bastards."

Haeryeon swore without meaning to.

What had they turned a person into?

She could not even imagine what had happened before he began melting like that.

"Does it hurt...?"

Hyeonyul was briefly surprised by the question.

Why would she ask that?

'Is she checking my health?'

Hyeonyul shook his head.

"No. I'm fine when I take my medicine. No matter what happens, I will complete this mission before I leave, so you don't need to worry."

Something about his words was quite strange, and Haeryeon blinked.

It sounded almost like a plea.

But Hyeonyul's expression was utterly calm.

"Tell me where the bomb is, and I'll handle it. If you watch how I do it, you'll see that I've earned the right to clock out on time."

Haeryeon raised an eyebrow at the repeated remark.

At first, she had thought it was just her imagination. But after hearing it again, she was certain.

"You seem to value work-life balance quite... highly."

"That's right. I hate being overworked."

When Hyeonyul answered proudly, Haeryeon burst out laughing.

"Honestly, I'd like to tell you that you came to the wrong place, but clocking out on time isn't impossible. If you're good at your job, that is."

Haeryeon walked ahead.

Hyeonyul followed, listening to her.

He had not noticed because of the Black Eagle he had ridden, but the neighborhood was strangely quiet.

"There are always too many villains and too few Black Eagles. The more villains you catch, the better the benefits. You're valuable talent, so you're treated accordingly."

Haeryeon's confident voice made Hyeonyul feel as though he had drunk warm tea.

"...It's a good place. A place that rewards you according to your work is truly, truly rare."

Maybe this place would at least uphold the basics.

That thought made hope bloom inside him.

"I hope Seo Hyeonyul is a good person too."

Haeryeon spoke softly, planting her own small hope.

"I don't know about being a good person, but I'll work to become a good cog."

Hyeonyul knew what companies wanted.

Cheap talent they could use. What else was that but a cog?

The other side could discard him whenever it wished, so it was easier not to think of belonging anywhere.

"That's not a very good thing to say."

Haeryeon's brow creased slightly as she turned away.

She somehow seemed angry.

Not knowing why, Hyeonyul followed her, looking elsewhere.

An empty playground came into view.

There were signs that people had fled in a hurry.

As they entered an apartment complex higher up the hill, more and more belongings lay scattered on the ground.

Hyeonyul pushed up his slipping glasses and took a deep breath.

'The smell of blood.'

The thick scent of blood filled the air.

Sure enough, as he climbed the hill, bodies began to appear one by one.

Hyeonyul's gaze turned toward an apartment building.

'There.'

He did not even need to ask Haeryeon to know where the bomb was.

'Their intelligence network is good.'

They had only just received the report that there was a bomb. How had they already found its location?

'Their timing must be well coordinated.'

There was the team that gathered the information, the team that sent people to the location, and finally Black Eagle, which took action.

Not bad.

"Is it there?"

Feeling satisfied, Hyeonyul pointed to the apartment.

"Yes. The bomb is there."

When Haeryeon answered, Hyeonyul covered one eye.

The eye beneath his palm melted away and vanished, moving toward the apartment.

As it moved with the shadow, a different scene unfolded before the uncovered eye.

It was moving through the apartment interior, searching for the bomb.

"Did something get in your eye?"

When Haeryeon asked, Hyeonyul shook his head.

Two completely different places lay before Hyeonyul's eyes.

Outside the apartment and inside it.

"What kind of power do you use, Oh Haeryeon?"

After asking, Hyeonyul thought for a moment and spoke again.

"Ah, you don't have to tell me if you think it's suspicious."

"I'm an alchemist."

When Haeryeon pulled open her outerwear, it revealed many small bottles.

"I have all sorts of things, including acids strong enough to melt Seo Hyeonyul right now."

"Do you have poison?"

"I do."

"Then could you give me poison that can kill every villain in the room? I'll retrieve the bomb easily."

Hyeonyul made it clear that, bomb or anything else, he would not back down.

"There's a bomb inside. You're going in?"

Haeryeon asked carefully.

"I am."

"You could die."

"I might die in another sense if I don't go. I want to live a long time."

He needed to work to afford his medicine.

Hyeonyul did not know how long he could live, but he needed to live as much as he could while he still could.

"Poison is dangerous no matter what. Don't go in right away."

After hesitating, Haeryeon held out a bottle no larger than her thumb.

"Thank you."

Hyeonyul smiled as he took the bottle.

'It was poison, of all things, so I wasn't sure she'd give it to me. But she really did?'

The male team leader had agreed and the female team leader had opposed, leaving Haeryeon's decision. This sign could only be positive.

Holding the bottle, Hyeonyul erased his hand.

It was as though black rain dripped down.

The hand covering his eye remained raised as it searched for the bomb.

It did not take long.

Exactly eleven seconds.

'Found it.'

There were nine people in total.

The bomb was among them, all gathered in one room.

'They arranged themselves well.'

If things went wrong, all nine could be taken out at once.

Considering they had even planned the cleanup, the villain behind this bombing seemed quick-witted.

'But every advantage has a disadvantage.'

They were, in a manner of speaking, rats in a jar.

Hyeonyul sent the hand holding the poison to where his eye was.

It moved beneath the sofa and smashed the bottle of poison.

When Hyeonyul shifted his eye there, the poison spread like a pale mist.

He grabbed a long nail rolling beneath the sofa.

Moving his eye upward, he found the CCTV camera.

He quietly moved his hand, destroyed the camera, and looked below.

One person collapsed.

As they panicked at the sudden development, two more fell.

When someone tried to operate a radio, Hyeonyul moved his hand and drove the nail into their neck.

Thunk.

Feeling the nail sink into flesh, Hyeonyul looked at Haeryeon.

"I'll be right back."

The enemies had already noticed the poison and were covering their noses and mouths.

It would be troublesome if they escaped like that.

"What?"

Before Hyeonyul could even hear Haeryeon's response, he melted into shadow.

The moment his view changed, he reached toward the door of the room containing the bomb.

Hyeonyul's hand seemed to pass through the door. It seized an enemy trying to flee by the neck and crushed it.

Crack.

He calmly opened the door and entered.

"Nice to meet you."

With that impassive greeting, Hyeonyul looked like a monster to the enemies clutching their throats.

He had come into this poisonous room without a gas mask.

"There's no need to look at me like that."

Hyeonyul had a resistance to poison.

After everything he had endured for the sake of experiments, it would have been stranger if he did not.

He calmly put on gloves.

When someone rushed at him, Hyeonyul took the dagger at the person's waist and stabbed them in the neck.

To keep blood from splattering, Hyeonyul kicked the body away and pulled out the dagger.

'Ah, the window.'

Hyeonyul ran, grabbed the hair of a man reaching toward the window, and threw him to the floor.

He rolled across the ground. Before he could rise, Hyeonyul approached and stomped on his face.

Crunch!

The sound of facial bones breaking rang out clearly.

Hyeonyul swept a glance over the room, then moved a hand to the side.

Shnk.

An enemy who had been quietly approaching now trembled with the dagger embedded in their throat.

Hyeonyul slashed sideways and looked at the last one.

"...M-Monster!"

In that impossible situation, the enemy cried out like a scream.

"Monster or not, if you shout like that, you'll die. Do something with the life you have left. Send your family a message, at least..."

Thud.

At the sound of the person falling, Hyeonyul shook his head.

"I told you not to shout."

Hyeonyul approached the bomb.

No one else was standing in the room now.

He operated the laptop.

The defusal code had to be hidden somewhere.

After moving his fingers dozens of times, Hyeonyul found the code and entered it.

Even if there had been no defusal code, that would have been fine.

There were always other ways.

Hyeonyul looked around, then wiped the blood on his body away with a hand.

He was clean, as if blood had never stained him.

'This is an interview. I can't show up looking disheveled.'

After checking once more for blood, Hyeonyul collected the laptop and the disarmed bomb.

He appeared naturally before Haeryeon.

"I brought these because they seemed necessary."

"...?"

Haeryeon looked blank.

"I disarmed the bomb, and all nine people in the room with it are dead. Does that mean the mission is complete?"

As Hyeonyul gazed at her, Haeryeon rubbed her face.

That was not what she needed to do first.

"First, take the antidote."

"I'm fine. I have poison resistance."

Hyeonyul shook the bomb and laptop he held out.

These were more important.

"I'm pretty useful, aren't I? I solved the case in just five minutes. Doesn't that mean I deserve to clock out on time?"

At the shameless remark, Haeryeon blinked, then covered her mouth.

There could still be enemies around, so she could not laugh loudly.

But she sincerely thought it was incredible.

Honestly, Hyeonyul had just done something absurd.

He had not simply subdued the villains. He had even completed the work of a bomb disposal squad in five minutes.

How many people would it normally take to resolve a situation like that?

Haeryeon set everything else aside and looked only at what Hyeonyul had accomplished.

'At first, I came to keep watch over him, but I need to treat this like a real interview.'

Haeryeon grew serious.

In a way, Hyeonyul was poison.

Poison dangerous to both Black Eagle and villains.

She did not know what result that poison would bring, but Haeryeon asked.

"Are you confident you won't become a villain?"

"Yes."

Hyeonyul answered without hesitation.

He would sooner wipe villains out than ever want to become one again.

At that firm answer, Haeryeon held out her hand.

She could never let Hyeonyul fall into the villains' hands.

"I'm in favor of you joining Black Eagle."

"...Really?"

Hyeonyul reacted as though he could not believe it.

"But you have to join our team, Seo Hyeonyul. That's my condition for agreeing."

Hyeonyul looked steadily at Haeryeon.

He was happy, but what was she thinking?

"I'll protect you, Seo Hyeonyul."

"Protect me...?"

It was such an unfamiliar statement that a crease formed between Hyeonyul's brows.

"Yes. Because I have the power to do that."

Haeryeon smiled brightly.

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