WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Newbie Civil Servant Hunts Villains Before Going Home ◈
Chapter 66: Extra Pay
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“Initially, I thought the guy who came into our room was the leader. He had strong mental powers, so it was a natural assumption.”
Hyeonyul tightened his grip on the man’s throat and lifted him.
“But he wasn’t.”
The man struggled helplessly, his feet kicking.
Even as his face turned red, Hyeonyul watched him.
“Then that only left the Saint, didn’t it? Even if it seemed obvious, obvious answers are often correct. I even wondered if it was so straightforward that it was meant to make us suspicious.”
“...Kghk.”
“But I saw very thin strings attached to the Saint’s back and everyone else’s. Like the strings used in puppet shows.”
Hyeonyul threw the man to the ground and pressed his foot against his throat.
“Was playing puppeteer fun?”
“...You crazy bastard.”
“Where did you get that drug?”
“...You, Black...”
“What does that have to do with anything? As long as you stay alive, isn’t that enough?”
Hyeonyul took his foot away for a moment and looked at his right hand.
Strings too thin to easily see with the naked eye were tangled around it.
It was absurd.
“You knew you wouldn’t die, so what does Black Eagle have to do with it? Why must Black Eagle always stay within the lines?”
Call it censorship, perhaps. Those called good were always expected to exercise far too much restraint.
To Hyeonyul, that situation seemed strange.
Evil took advantage of knowing it wouldn’t die and was willing to kill him without hesitation, yet he was expected to keep even people like this alive.
Wasn’t that why they buzzed around like gnats?
People like that needed to be crushed just the same.
They had to be beaten until they were nearly dead, until they could never even move their eyes again.
Then they would never look this way again.
Some might lump even his thoughts together under the name of evil, but honestly, Hyeonyul didn’t know what good and evil were.
Was Black Eagle truly noble and pure white without a single stain?
The very act of talking about nobility was strange.
Weren’t good and evil parts that everyone possessed?
No matter what anyone said, he intended to walk his own path.
“Unfortunately, this won’t work on me.”
Hyeonyul tensed his arm and absorbed the strings.
Watching the man’s face twist, he kicked him.
The man’s face jerked violently, and blood streamed from both nostrils.
Hyeonyul drew his dagger.
He spun it once, then drove it through the man’s palm.
“AAAAARGH!”
“Are you still certain you won’t die? Can you really be certain?”
Hyeonyul looked at him.
His face was full of panic.
So that was Black Eagle.
It was a look Hyeonyul had often seen in Villains facing him.
Hyeonyul’s eyes curved.
He just had to avoid killing him.
Seeing Nayun and Sinu approaching, he pulled the dagger from the man’s palm and drove it into one of the fingers lying still beside it.
“...Y-you crazy bastard!”
A scream burst from him, his face flushed.
Tears streamed from the man’s eyes as he looked at Hyeonyul.
“I’ll ask again. Where did you get that drug?”
“How could I tell you...?”
“Unfortunately.”
As Hyeonyul moved the dagger, the dangling finger came completely off.
The man’s body shook violently as blood flowed.
He seemed to have instinctively realized something was wrong.
As he slowly turned his gaze toward his hand, Hyeonyul obligingly raised the man’s hand while holding the dagger.
One finger was gone.
The man’s eyes shook wildly.
“You’ve killed countless people, yet you’re acting this weak after losing only one finger? Shouldn’t you be prepared to offer up your own life before trying to kill another?”
Hyeonyul could practically say he had died countless times while being experimented on.
He thought he had killed quite a few Villains, but it still wasn’t as many times as he had died.
“...Y-you.”
The man’s breathing quickened.
His face was etched with an expression of denial, as though he couldn’t accept reality.
“I’ll ask again. Answer quickly, and at least you’ll preserve the rest of your fingers intact. It’s very inconvenient to lose fingers. I speak from experience, so I recommend you don’t hold out. As you can see, I’ll do it.”
Smiling, Hyeonyul drove the dagger into another finger.
Along with another scream, the man’s eyes changed.
That bastard really would do it.
That realization was branded into him.
“...I-I bought it too.”
“From whom?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
As Hyeonyul’s eyes narrowed, the man hurriedly continued.
“I really don’t know! Someone just came up to me and asked if I wanted one!”
“Is that so?”
“It’s true. Honestly, in this line of work, drugs and weapons with killer effects matter more than trust, right? It was cheap too, and I thought it would be good to have one.”
“Do you know what it was?”
“They said it gave powers to people without abilities. They died not long after, but why should I have cared about that? It was something incredible that could help me lead my followers. Right...?”
The man forced up the corners of his mouth.
“So?”
“Th-the transaction records! Yes! I can show you those!”
Cold sweat poured down the man’s face.
Hyeonyul showed no reaction.
“So you’re saying you bought it solely because it worked well, without even knowing what it was?”
“I got scammed too... Honestly, the side effects were far worse than I expected! They kept dying, and I was sweating bullets trying to hide it! Then you people caught wind of it and came!”
Hyeonyul stared at the man before pulling out the dagger.
This was all he could get from him.
‘He did well at gathering followers, so why is he so stupid about this?’
Puzzled, Hyeonyul stood and faced Nayun and Sinu.
They stared at him with wide, startled eyes.
“I didn’t kill him.”
Hyeonyul informed them that he had followed orders.
“I know. More importantly, are you hurt anywhere?”
At Sinu’s question, Hyeonyul blinked.
Could they not see the man’s severed finger?
Hyeonyul shifted slightly to the side so they could see him better.
“He didn’t do anything to you, did he? We don’t even know what his ability is. How could you charge in so recklessly?”
Nayun scolded him while worrying about him.
Hyeonyul only watched her.
Did they not know he had cut it off?
“I cut off that finger. If you can’t see it...”
“It’s fine if it’s cut off!”
“What’s one finger!”
Sinu and Nayun shouted almost at the same time.
They had wanted to cut off fingers too.
Especially today.
Perhaps they had lacked the courage to go that far, or perhaps they had still seen Villains as people.
Hyeonyul had merely done it, and he had followed the mission orders.
Who could say anything about that?
They were simply proud of him.
How had he known?
How had he realized that man was the real one?
It had been Hyeonyul who discovered there was a traitor in White Sparrow too.
If not for him, they might have been the ones caught.
“...Is that so?”
Hyeonyul spoke hesitantly.
He had expected them to look at him with disgust, but this was unexpected.
Sinu first took out a handkerchief and wrapped it around the man’s fingers.
It was only a measure to keep him alive.
“You don’t need to be tense. We’ve seen all kinds of things too.”
Sinu raised his foot and stomped down on the man’s face.
Smack.
The man’s eyes rolled back before closing.
“Can I go catch the others now?”
There were still other Villains, so Hyeonyul asked.
“No. Hyeonyul, stay here with me. We can leave the rest to him.”
Nayun pointed at Sinu.
“Right, right. Leave the rest to me. It’s cold, so go inside the building once the Managers arrive.”
Sinu grinned as he moved.
He put his hands in his coat pockets and took a large step forward.
The farther he walked, the more his smile slowly vanished.
He could hear the swords he had scattered everywhere crying out beside his ears.
Footsteps accumulated behind Sinu, one by one.
When he entered the building, countless swords were circling the Villains’ necks.
There were even people with blood flowing from their necks because the swords had cut them when they moved even slightly.
All they could do was stare in shock, unable to move anything but their eyes.
Please save us.
They had that look in their eyes, so Sinu didn’t smile.
He looked at them like prey with dark blue eyes and pushed back his hair.
“Managers.”
Sinu spoke quietly.
“Let’s make the arrests.”
It was time to take them all away.
* * *
“...Hyung. Aren’t you cold?”
The car door opened.
Hyeonyul, sitting in the seat, turned his head and took the paper cup Jihwan held out.
“There are no hallucinogens in it. It’s tea made with clean water.”
“I know. However, I don’t understand why I have to sit here.”
Nayun had brought him over here.
He had wondered whose car it was, but she told him to sit, so he was sitting.
Jihwan laughed loudly at that.
“The situation’s over, and everyone’s cleaning up. You’d have to keep standing outside otherwise, and that would be tiring.”
“I’m not tired. The cold doesn’t affect me either.”
“Hyung, you did enough on this mission. No, you did more than enough. You have every right to sit here. Normally, we even play rock-paper-scissors because we want this seat.”
“Choo Nayun nunim said the same thing.”
Hyeonyul answered calmly.
Nayun had also brought him something and explained how nice this place was before leaving.
Jihwan giggled at that.
Refusing such a good spot and furrowing his brow as though he didn’t understand it were both very like Hyeonyul.
No matter what anyone said, Hyeonyul was the one who needed to sit here.
Jihwan completely agreed with Nayun as well.
It was about Hyeonyul’s health, but really, who wouldn’t welcome having five days’ worth of work reduced like this?
Honestly, Hyeonyul was practically a god right now.
“Hyung, how did you know that person was a Villain?”
“It was just a feeling.”
Hyeonyul answered calmly.
He had killed countless Villains.
He thought he would have died long ago if he hadn’t developed that kind of instinct.
“You can just feel it?”
“Yes. Villains have a distinct sort of chill about them. I’ve seen it countless times. ...Ah, I don’t mean that Mr. Ye Jihwan has never seen Villains. I know you’ve faced plenty of them.”
“I know what you mean. I never misunderstood.”
“That’s a relief.”
Hyeonyul was still aware that he was bad at communicating with people.
He felt most natural when talking to Jeongmin because, no matter what he said, Jeongmin wouldn’t misunderstand him.
He wanted to speak as briefly as possible, but Black Eagle kept asking for his opinion, which made that difficult.
“Mr. Ye Jihwan, did the leader have a computer or tablet or something? I’d like to know who gave him the drug.”
Hyeonyul wanted to check the transaction records the man had mentioned earlier.
They had to pursue this.
“I’ll look into it and be right back.”
“Thank you.”
“And, Hyung.”
“Yes.”
“You did great.”
Jihwan raised both thumbs, then lightly ran off.
Hyeonyul started to raise his own thumbs too, but stopped.
‘Everyone keeps saying difficult things...’
Once again, something he couldn’t understand had happened today.
“Hyeonyul. You were amazing today. I mean it.”
Nayun had said that too.
‘Am I not disgusting?’
That couldn’t be.
Hyeonyul immediately denied it.
After all, one of the things he had heard countless times in his life was that he was disgusting.
Bzzz.
Hyeonyul took out his phone.
“Yes, Team Lead.”
<Are you hurt anywhere?>
“No.”
<That’s a relief. I got so many calls that I thought something terrible had happened.>
“Something terrible did happen.”
<Right. Something terrible did happen. I didn’t know there would be such a gap... We kept inspecting them. We really did inspect them continuously.>
“They weren’t caught in the inspections because they had power greater than the person doing the inspection.”
<...That’s impossible. A Team Lead inspected them?>
“Ah, was it another Team Lead who inspected them?”
<Yes. That’s why I said it was impossible.>
“Team Lead.”
<Yes...?>
Haeryeon answered hesitantly.
“How much do you know about the drug?”
<The drug that appeared today?>
“Yes.”
<I was told it was a drug used in experiments and that it had been disposed of.>
“That drug has different effects depending on the person. Some people gain tremendous power from it. I don’t know how powerful the other Team Lead was, but they must have gained power greater than theirs. Hasn’t this been proven this time?”
<That’s... true. It’s been proven. Hyeonyul, you showed us something we didn’t know.>
Haeryeon’s voice grew quieter.
Was she blaming herself?
“Still, please don’t worry too much. The fact that taking that drug leads to death doesn’t change.”
<...Could it be? No. It’s nothing.>
“I took it too.”
Hyeonyul said it without hesitation.
There was no reason to hide it.
He expected that saying he had taken it would make his words more credible.
“I don’t remember whether I was originally someone without abilities because my memories are gone, but I survived.”
He had an innate resistance to that drug.
Wasn’t that why he had been made like this?
<...Are you okay?>
“Are you asking whether I’m sad?”
<Yes. That’s what I wanted to ask.>
“Perhaps I was. I don’t know now.”
<Then forget my question. You worked hard today, Hyeonyul.>
“Can I get off work once I return?”
<Just get off work? You’re taking the remaining four days off.>
Hyeonyul blinked for a moment.
What had he just heard?
“Did I... hear that correctly?”
Hyeonyul asked haltingly.
<The work had been set aside from the beginning, and since you handled it early, of course it’ll be replaced with vacation. Of course, you can work if you want. Your pay for those four days would be about twice as much.>
“I’ll work.”
Hyeonyul answered without hesitation.
It was a chance to pay off his debt.
<All right, for now. You can think it over more slowly and let me know.>
“Yes. I’ll think about it quickly and tell you.”
Hyeonyul turned his head.
Knock, knock.
He opened the door at the sound.
“Hyung, are you done with your call?”
“Did you wait long?”
“No. We found the computer. Do you want to go together?”
“I’ll go.”
Hyeonyul put aside his happiness and got out of the car.
“But, Hyung.”
“Yes.”
“Did something good happen?”
“They said that if I work for the remaining four days, my pay will be about twice as much.”
The moment Jihwan heard that, he let out a cheer.
Anyone could tell it was good news.
* * *
Hyeonyul’s hands stopped over the keyboard.
‘...It’s true.’
After checking through the computer, Hyeonyul realized that what the man had said earlier was true.
There was no record of who had supplied the drug.
Only the transaction records existed.
The man who had accepted it was foolish, while the other party seemed quite meticulous.
Moreover, hiding their identity was, in other words, proof that they had something to hide.
“Do you want to pursue it?”
Nayun, who had been quietly watching from beside him, asked.
“Yes. I want to pursue it.”
“Then let’s pursue it.”
As Nayun answered as though it were obvious, a question mark appeared in Hyeonyul’s mind.
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