WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
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◈ The Newbie Civil Servant Hunts Villains Before Going Home ◈
Chapter 37: Festival (2)
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* * *
How could he fail to recognize that familiar scent whenever he breathed in?
Hyeonyul’s eyes darted around urgently.
The crowd was so dense that he could not even tell who had just passed him.
In a situation like this, it was difficult to identify anyone.
‘...The Poison King was definitely caught, though?’
The Poison King was why this festival had become dangerous.
After Shin Daeho died, the Poison King had planned a slaughter here out of greed to expand their influence.
Now that the bastard had been caught, that danger should have disappeared.
‘But someone died here?’
Had someone inherited the Poison King’s will?
Why?
Hyeonyul felt his thoughts crashing down on him all at once.
Among all these people, who was the Villain?
Who was he supposed to kill?
Feeling the warmth of the small hand tightly gripping his, Hyeonyul thought harder.
‘Does no one know that someone has died yet?’
A sudden gust of wind blew.
It was no ordinary wind.
As Hyeonyul’s gaze swept over the crowd, it landed on someone and stopped.
There was no way they could go unnoticed.
An eagle emblem was boldly stamped on their arm.
It was Jihwan.
When their eyes met, Jihwan smiled.
He looked ready to shout, “Hyung!” at any moment.
Jihwan raised a hand and pointed somewhere.
When Hyeonyul turned that way, he saw Sinu.
Sinu held up one finger.
One more.
That was what it seemed to mean.
‘Is Choo Nayun here too?’
Sinu made a shooing gesture with his hand.
Go have fun.
Hyeonyul could practically hear him say it.
The tension in his shoulders slowly eased.
Team Three was here.
‘Do they know someone has died?’
Bzzzt.
His phone vibrated in his pocket.
[Senior Baek Sinu: Nayun probably saw the person who passed by you.]
[Senior Baek Sinu: I wanted to make sure nothing happened, but I can’t guarantee it this time.]
[Senior Baek Sinu: There are way, way, way too many people.]
[Senior Baek Sinu: Contact us if you notice anything strange.]
[Senior Baek Sinu: Have fun.]
They had noticed.
But they seemed to be in just as difficult a position.
“...Hyeonyul?”
At Jeongmin’s voice, Hyeonyul looked at him.
He looked worried.
“Are you really okay? Do you feel like you’re going to throw up?”
“I’m fine.”
“Here, eat this first.”
Jeongmin held out a candy.
The moment Hyeonyul saw it, he frowned.
“Give one to Serin too.”
Serin swung the hand clasped with Jeongmin’s.
“This is really, really sour. Serin will cry the second they eat it.”
“Serin is good at eating sour things.”
“That won’t do. It tastes truly awful.”
With a sigh, Hyeonyul put the awful candy, wrapped in yellow paper, into his mouth.
Surprisingly, it was handmade.
It had been made specifically for him, so no one else could eat it.
It was not medicine. It was simply meant to wake him up with its sourness.
Since taking too much medicine was not good either, this was Jeongmin’s temporary prescription.
“Feeling wide awake now?”
Jeongmin smiled, but Hyeonyul frowned.
It was sour enough to wake him right up.
“...It’s awful.”
“You look more alive now.”
Jeongmin smiled at Hyeonyul, then looked at Serin.
He had expected Serin to throw a tantrum, but they were holding back well.
“Serin.”
“Yes.”
“What do you want to eat?”
Jeongmin looked at Serin as he asked.
“...Can Serin say?”
Serin spoke more cautiously than before.
“You can say anything you want. Mister couldn’t give you candy earlier, so I’ll buy you something even tastier.”
At Jeongmin’s smile, Serin finally gave a little smile.
Their grip on his hand tightened.
“Serin wants to walk around and look.”
“Won’t your legs hurt?”
“Serin is strong!”
“What a brave kid.”
Jeongmin smiled and praised Serin.
They were mature for their age.
How had they gotten involved with Hyeonyul?
Jeongmin worried about Serin.
As though trying to shake off those worries, Serin eagerly walked ahead.
They waved the hand holding Hyeonyul’s and looked at him.
“Mister, mister, there are really, really lots of people.”
Everything fascinated Serin.
They had never seen so many people before, and no one was looking at them strangely.
It was as if the sparkle of every person there had settled in their eyes.
“There are many people at festivals. I didn’t know there would be even more on the last day.”
“Everyone’s smiling so brightly.”
“I understand that’s what happens when people come to a festival.”
“Is Mister happy right now too?”
“I’m not sure.”
“...Then, um, do you think Serin’s mom and dad might be here too?”
“I don’t know.”
Jeongmin was horrified by Hyeonyul’s answer.
Why would you say it like that?
Jeongmin barely swallowed the words rising to his throat.
‘...He is adapting well, right?’
So this was Hyeonyul’s social life.
Seeing it in person was grim.
Since Jeongmin knew Hyeonyul’s condition, he was nearly moved enough to clap, but other people would not see it that way.
He was doing even worse than when he was with Jeongmin.
Jeongmin looked over Serin.
He had expected them to be sad, but Serin was smiling instead.
Their smile spread.
“Mister is funny!”
“Is that so?”
“When Serin asks that, everyone gets surprised. So Serin doesn’t ask.”
Even though Serin did not know exactly what kind of look people gave them, they did not want to face it.
They did not know why people looked at them that way.
“I don’t know who my parents are either.”
“Mister doesn’t know either?”
“Yes.”
At Hyeonyul’s answer, Serin tightened their grip on his hand.
“But can you see?”
Hyeonyul stared at Serin.
They were small.
At that height, what could they see besides people’s legs?
“Yes. I can see people.”
“Not that. Can you see anything you want to eat?”
At Hyeonyul’s question, Serin hesitated.
“...What if Serin hurts Mister?”
When they got excited, when they became too happy, fire burst from their body.
Even now, they were holding it in.
“You won’t hurt me.”
Such tiny flames would not even reach him.
As Jeongmin had done for him, Hyeonyul held out his hands.
Serin hesitated, looked at Hyeonyul, then slowly stretched out both arms.
Hyeonyul picked Serin up.
As their view rose higher, their chubby cheeks lifted.
“Can you see well now?”
“Yeees!”
Their voice was loud enough to make his ears hurt, and Hyeonyul frowned.
Did they teach children to scream together at kindergarten or something?
Hyeonyul began walking slowly.
“Doctor.”
“...Yeah?”
Jeongmin’s voice trembled.
He seemed moved again already.
Hyeonyul did not know what there was to be so moved about.
“Come to think of it, didn’t we watch fireworks together when I was little?”
“Ah, we did when you were little.”
“Was it a festival?”
“It was. It was probably about the same size as this one, or a little smaller.”
“Why don’t I remember?”
“That’s because we watched from far away.”
Jeongmin pushed up his slipping glasses and answered as though it were nothing.
It seemed to him that it had taken a long time for Hyeonyul to be able to stand here so casually.
“Doctor.”
“What? Is there something you want to eat?”
“That’s not it. Is watching people what a festival is?”
Hyeonyul did not like being unable to move as he pleased.
He could smell food, but the people standing in line kept him from properly seeing it.
There were even set times for performances. What was he supposed to look at until then?
“It’s different from books.”
Books had clearly listed countless merits of festivals.
There would be unusual experiences or sights one could not normally see.
But the farther they walked, the more it felt like they were simply looking down a street lined with stalls.
What exactly was he supposed to see?
“Hyeonyul. First, do you know what kind of festival this is?”
“It’s a Light Festival!”
Serin answered for Hyeonyul.
“That’s right. Serin knows all about it, don’t they?”
“I watched a video. It said it gets really sparkly, so I wanted to come.”
“You heard Serin, right? It only becomes beautiful at night.”
“Still, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything here.”
“The sun will set if we wait just a little longer.”
Jeongmin looked up at the sky.
The sun was setting.
Soon, it would go down and night would come.
Hyeonyul was about to look up at the sky after Jeongmin when he heard something land with a soft thump.
A little ahead of them, something resembling a new weapon, though much smaller, had fallen.
A chill swept over him.
“Why don’t we fill our stomachs and wait by the performance stage over there? The sun will set before long.”
“Doctor.”
Jeongmin sensed something strange in Hyeonyul’s unusually weighty voice.
“What is it?”
“I’ll have that.”
Jeongmin and Serin turned toward where Hyeonyul pointed.
In the meantime, Hyeonyul hid the weapon in the darkness.
‘...They chose this place to test a new weapon.’
Only then did he understand exactly what the Villains were trying to do.
There was one sure way to seize the entire area the Poison King had wanted.
‘Show them with a huge incident.’
Everyone attending a festival protected by Black Eagle would die from a weapon used by Villains.
Wouldn’t that make the perfect sensational issue to rally people around?
Who could be leading this?
‘...Ahsan.’
That weapon had originally been created by Ahsan, the one called the Red Witch.
Perhaps the blood smell he had caught earlier, and whatever had caused that smell, were both bait for the new weapon.
‘They’re planning something interesting.’
Of all days, it was his day off.
They had chosen that day to cause trouble.
“...Waaah! Serin wants to eat that too!”
Serin finally saw what the food was through the crowd.
Chicken skewers.
The sight of plump pieces of meat on sticks made their mouth water.
“Do you want that?”
At Jeongmin’s question, Serin nodded.
“Doctor. How about you go with the child?”
At Hyeonyul’s suggestion, Jeongmin reached for Serin without hesitation.
He could not take Hyeonyul to the crowded stall.
It would only trigger his trauma, and Jeongmin had vaguely realized that something had happened.
“Want to go with Mister and see how chicken skewers are made?”
At Jeongmin’s suggestion, Serin nodded.
“Yes!”
Serin let Jeongmin pick them up, and Hyeonyul pointed somewhere.
“Then I’ll be under that streetlamp.”
When Jeongmin followed his finger, there was no one around it.
“All right. Stay there, and don’t go anywhere.”
“Yes. Please get mild sauce.”
“All right. Wait there.”
Only after hearing Jeongmin’s answer did Hyeonyul turn away.
Everyone looking at Hyeonyul flinched at his cold gaze.
‘...Today is my day off.’
If this incident grew this large, it was only natural that his leave would be forcibly canceled.
They had kept him from going home with endless overtime, and now they were ruining even his day off.
‘Just when I thought I was finally free of overwork, they’re pushing me into it again?’
Anger boiled inside him.
If Ahsan truly was the ringleader, he intended to kill her no matter what.
He had no intention of letting anyone get away with making him work on his day off.
Why here, of all places?
They could have caused trouble anywhere beyond the reach of his eyes.
Hyeonyul took out his phone.
Who should he tell?
After thinking for a moment, he sent a message.
[Noona. They dropped an unidentified object. Please keep a close watch from afar.]
Nayun was perfect for this sort of thing.
* * *
As Hyeonyul leaned against a streetlamp, someone approached him.
“I just got word. What the hell happened?”
It was Sinu’s voice.
When Hyeonyul glanced over, Sinu had come without his coat.
“Exactly what I told Noona.”
“You, when did you start calling Nayun... Never mind. Do you have that object?”
At Sinu’s words, Hyeonyul briefly lifted the object, then hid it again.
“It resembles the new weapon we saw before, except it’s much smaller. I think it contains poison. Has an antidote been made?”
“Not yet.”
Sinu trailed off.
A new weapon had been used in the mountains near the city yesterday.
Had that been a test for what was happening today?
“Then we need to find it.”
“Find what?”
The weapon, or the person carrying it.
Perhaps he meant both.
Sinu waited for Hyeonyul’s answer.
“Both.”
“If that’s what you mean, Nayun and Jihwan are chasing them right now. You know Nayun has good eyes, right?”
“I do.”
“When Nayun sees them, Jihwan uses magic to share her vision and mark their location. Then I’ll go to the marked location and deal with it. Feel better now?”
“Then give me the weapon.”
“...What?”
“I can stop it.”
Sinu looked at Hyeonyul at those words.
“I’ll show you right away.”
He had played with that toy yesterday.
He had figured out how to stop it too.
“...You, you’re insane.”
But Sinu was horrified.
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