WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Newbie Civil Servant Hunts Villains Before Going Home ◈
Chapter 70: Welcome Party (2)
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* * *
Hyeonyul looked at the computer.
He examined the experimental-subject information he had received from Ahsan.
The names of the former experimental subjects were not listed, but photographs from before the experiments remained.
There had been 2,084 people in the first experiment.
Only two remained by the last.
The experiments had lasted two years.
Short, if you considered it short. Long, if you considered it long.
Only two had remained after just two years.
The money invested had also been enormous.
He looked through various records, but there was no explanation for why Ahsan's child had died.
He confirmed that the goal, the child's “resurrection,” had remained the same then and now.
‘Judging from the records alone, some of the drugs overlap.’
This had happened countless times.
The records only revealed the drugs' effects and side effects.
What Hyeonyul remembered were their smells, effects, and side effects.
He was searching based on that, but when he actually found and checked them, they were very different.
That was not the smell.
It even felt as though they were imitating the drugs used on him.
‘At least it's fortunate they wrote down where they got them.’
These records had been made for their own convenience rather than external distribution, so they stated where the drugs had been purchased and how they had been mixed.
If a mixture was wrong, they had to change it quickly. That was also why they kept such records.
However, these records were always destroyed first, so there were times he could not obtain them even after reaching an experiment site.
‘Still, I got something this time.’
Today was his day off.
Hyeonyul did not rush.
He went to a missing-person board and compared the photographs.
Since he had done this many times, he ran a program he had made in advance.
2,084 people.
He found them and removed them from the list.
He had previously told each family that the person had died, but their responses were always predictable.
That couldn't be true.
They would sue.
After realizing they could not accept the death, he stopped telling them.
If that was what they wanted, then that was how it had to be.
The family he wanted to find was one that had continued searching for him until now.
‘...What meaning does this have?’
He thought about it every time, but he never knew.
What would he say if he found them? Even if he did, why did he need to meet them?
Still, shouldn't he at least let them know he was alive?
Bzzzz.
[Senior Baek Sinu: Hyeonyul, what are you doing?]
Hyeonyul frowned as soon as he saw his phone.
[Senior Choo Nayun: Are you crazy? It's your day off.]
[Senior Baek Sinu: You complained when I contacted Hyeonyul separately.]
[Senior Baek Sinu: Should I contact him separately?]
[Senior Baek Sinu: Should I?]
[Senior Ye Jihwan: No! Do it here!]
[Senior Ye Jihwan: It has to be here!!!]
Hyeonyul almost turned his phone facedown, but forced himself to stop.
He looked around the house for a moment.
The sight of the spacious home made him feel calmer.
‘I've been tricked.’
He finally understood why Jeongmin had laughed when he said he had joined the group chat.
Whenever someone said even one thing, messages kept coming, again and again.
Even if he did not check for a moment, more than two hundred messages had piled up.
He could not leave this chat with the Team Lead and the other team members in it.
[Team Lead Haeryeon: Everyone on the team is here. Why contact him separately?]
[Team Lead Haeryeon: Mr. Sinu, have you been doing better lately?]
[Senior Baek Sinu: No, Team Lead! Absolutely not!]
Once he saw Haeryeon as well, Hyeonyul let out a long breath and moved his thumb.
[I'm looking for something.]
[May I say what I'm looking for?]
He knew that whatever he said would sour the mood.
He asked just in case before saying it.
[Team Lead Haeryeon: Of course, of course.]
[Senior Choo Nayun: I'll help look. Tell us.]
[Senior Baek Sinu: Nayun's good at finding things. Her eyes are sharp.]
[Senior Ye Jihwan: I'll look with magic too.]
[Senior Ye Jihwan: There must be something I can do.]
Would it really be all right?
After hesitating, Hyeonyul moved his fingers.
[I'm looking for my family.]
[It's difficult because drugs erased my memories.]
After sending the message, Hyeonyul waited a moment before turning away.
He knew how they would react.
They would pretend not to know.
They would tell him to stay strong.
‘Then why did you ask?’
Hyeonyul looked at the computer.
He had removed so many names from the list that it seemed he had cut down the remaining names considerably.
Though there was still much more to reduce.
Bzzzz.
His phone vibrated even more.
[Senior Ye Jihwan: What should we do?]
[Team Lead Haeryeon: Is that so?]
[Team Lead Haeryeon: That was it?]
[Team Lead Haeryeon: I'll help too.]
[Senior Ye Jihwan: We will definitely find them!]
Jihwan sent an emoji of a crying fox.
[Senior Choo Nayun: Hyeonyul, I don't know if I told you before, but I have a lot of connections.]
[Senior Choo Nayun: Give me even a small hint and I'll look. We can find them quickly.]
[Senior Baek Sinu: Ah, I know some places too.]
[Senior Baek Sinu: I understand how you feel.]
[Senior Baek Sinu: I searched everywhere for my dead younger sibling too.]
‘......?’
Hyeonyul was startled for a moment.
Was it all right to casually say that his younger sibling had died?
[Senior Ye Jihwan: I don't know about manpower or locations, but I'll look with you! I'll give up all my leave to search!]
Jihwan also sent a fox emoji expressing fierce determination.
Hyeonyul blinked as he watched the messages continue.
They said they would help him search.
They did not brush off his words or pretend not to know.
It was a heavy subject, yet they were discussing how best to find them.
‘......This is strange.’
It was strange.
Very strange.
[...Let's have a welcome party.]
That was what Hyeonyul sent.
He could not think of anything else to say.
His phone vibrated even harder, and Hyeonyul soon regretted it and smacked his mouth.
Smack.
* * *
“Before we head out on the mission, there's something I need to tell you.”
Haeryeon looked at everyone.
“Recently, we found signs that several groups believed to be Villains have been clashing where the capital region meets the non-capital region. We verified it repeatedly, decided it was certain, and informed you right away.”
“Team Lead, Poison King's faction showed its strength only recently, so it seems too soon to say this happened because their power was left vacant. Why do you think this is happening?”
Nayun raised her hand and asked.
Not long ago, Poison King had triggered the poison he had planted.
It was the same poison discovered during the festival.
Was he not continuing to announce that he was alive?
“Good question, Ms. Nayun.”
Haeryeon welcomed the question gladly, as she had expected it.
“We believe that incident was meant to show that Poison King may have disappeared, but he is still alive and well. That was exactly what the Team Lead meeting focused on. We think Poison King's faction may be fighting other factions coming into the capital region to show that they are still standing even without Poison King.”
“That makes sense. Poison King gave the signal first. They aren't so oblivious that they'd fail to take advantage of it.”
Sinu nodded several times.
Just when they thought everything had ended, Poison King sent them a signal. How exciting must that have been from their perspective?
“We investigated closely to determine whether they were really fighting or merely pretending to fight. Honestly, it was suspicious, wasn't it? But several factions have actually disappeared. One of the factions we had been watching was the Red Witch's. That fact made the meeting run long.”
Haeryeon naturally mentioned what had been classified information.
Poison King's faction had defeated the Red Witch's faction.
“...What?”
Jihwan swallowed dryly in surprise.
“Team Lead, the Red Witch's faction really disappeared?”
Unable to believe it, Jihwan asked again.
Who was the Red Witch?
She was a gravity mage.
The force represented by gravity was enormously heavy.
“It is true. That was the shocking classified incident I mentioned last time.”
“...Hah.”
Sinu let out a hollow laugh.
Poison King should not have been there.
How could that be possible?
Was Poison King's faction that large?
Then how incredible was Hyeonyul, who had caught Poison King?
“So Poison King's faction fought the Red Witch, and Poison King's faction won?”
Nayun clicked her tongue as she asked.
She could not believe it.
“That's right. Poison King's faction won their fight. We currently presume the Red Witch is dead.”
‘Did Ahsan's faction rush at Poison King's faction after I killed Ahsan? Or was it the other way around?’
Hyeonyul only listened quietly.
He had killed Ahsan, the Red Witch, but he did not know what had happened to her faction.
Whatever had happened, the collapse of one faction was good news.
“We are continuing to watch the situation, and I want you to know that we may be deployed there at any time. It is quite rare for Villain factions to gather like this.”
“But, Team Lead.”
As questions flooded in, Jihwan raised his hand.
Haeryeon nodded at him.
“If the Red Witch is dead, did someone new appear in Poison King's faction?”
“I think so too. I believe it may be that being Jihwan and Nayun saw.”
At Haeryeon's answer, Hyeonyul tilted his head.
“Who is that?”
Was there someone besides him?
They could speculate, but they could not know it was him.
“We don't know yet. They tried to release a new weapon in a city, and they possess it. If it is truly that person, they will be extremely dangerous.”
‘...Isn't that me? It has to be me.’
Hyeonyul was uncertain.
He had taken over Poison King's faction.
However, he would destroy a new weapon, not try to release one, and he did not possess one either.
‘Is someone spreading false rumors? Or is there something besides me?’
Hyeonyul suddenly remembered what Haeryeon had said before at the Special Criminal Detention Center.
‘No, Mr. Hyeonyul. It's not certain yet, but a new Villain has appeared. Poison may not work on them.’
‘Did a new Villain really appear?’
Why would there not be a Villain who wanted to use his situation as if they had done it themselves?
There was no way.
It was something he had not heard from either Yujong or Seungyu, the figurehead boss.
‘But this is Black Eagle.’
Black Eagle was not likely to have mistaken something.
The quality of their information was different.
‘I'll keep watching.’
Hyeonyul came to that conclusion.
This was not the time to make a judgment.
“If it is real, it certainly is dangerous.”
Hyeonyul chose neutrality as he spoke.
“Still, don't worry. We finished neutralizing the poison in Poison King's new weapon today.”
Haeryeon's expression showed exhaustion rather than joy.
She raised a finger and pointed at herself.
I did it.
Clap, clap, clap.
Nayun was the first to clap, and the others followed.
“I knew you could do it, Team Lead! Who else could?”
“As expected of you, Team Lead.”
“You'll have a paper published soon, won't you?”
Nayun, Sinu, and Jihwan raised their thumbs as they flattered her.
Since they all shouted together, Hyeonyul watched their reactions before clapping as well.
“...That is impressive.”
“Pfft.”
Haeryeon burst out laughing.
The others had always acted like that, but Hyeonyul was visibly trying to follow along.
There was absolutely no feeling in his words.
“You don't have to force yourself to join in. The other team members do it even if I tell them not to, so I just let them.”
“...Ah.”
Hyeonyul immediately lowered his hands.
“More than anything, this is the role I have besides being Team Lead.”
She was not Black Eagle's only alchemist, but she could safely say her skills were not lacking.
“To continue, we confirmed that the drugs found in the work Hyeonyul helped with yesterday were the same as those discovered during the mission we completed. Team Lead Ye Juhyeon of Team Seven will handle the transaction records and everything related to both missions.”
Juhyeon handled nearly all matters like this.
No one in Black Eagle could surpass Juhyeon in that regard.
Everyone had something they excelled at.
‘If it's Team Lead Ye Juhyeon, she's worth entrusting it to.’
Hyeonyul nodded as if satisfied.
He knew Juhyeon did not like him much, but ability was separate from that.
He had already seen her capabilities several times.
‘Information will come from both sides, right?’
All that remained was to see whether the information overlapped or differed.
“Team Lead.”
Hyeonyul raised his hand slightly.
“Go ahead, Mr. Hyeonyul.”
“I'm curious about the plan we found before to turn Black Eagle into experimental subjects. What is happening with that?”
He wanted Black Eagle to investigate that as well.
That unidentified man he had met in the secret base.
That man who had used strange power.
“We're still investigating it. First, we need to determine who that secret base belonged to, but it was destroyed, apparently to eliminate evidence.”
Haeryeon let out a long breath.
‘There is nothing there.’
Hyeonyul looked at Haeryeon.
He had destroyed it so it could never be used again.
Had that man who used power like a portal not told him to do whatever he wanted?
‘Well, that was a wasted trip. Even if you wreck this place, I won't bat an eye. I have plenty of money. I can make as many of these as I want.’
Whenever he found a place like that, he intended to destroy every last one as he pleased.
He was also curious just how much money that man had.
“For now, the plan exists, but nothing like that has actually happened. That doesn't mean we're letting down our guard. We will examine that point closely at every experiment site we have found and every site we find in the future.”
“They really would do it... I think they really would.”
Jihwan spoke hesitantly.
He could not bring himself to look toward Hyeonyul.
It was terrifying even to him, so how much worse must it be for Hyeonyul?
“They will. That is what they are like.”
At Hyeonyul's answer, the atmosphere grew heavy for a moment.
After all, the words had come from Hyeonyul, who had been an experimental subject.
“...I hope they don't. Please, I hope they stop doing things like that.”
Jihwan answered belatedly.
He wanted to say they would not, but it was too difficult.
“We can stop this just by watching for Black Eagle personnel to disappear.”
Hyeonyul did not offer hope, but a fact.
The reason they could not stop ordinary people from being taken as experimental subjects was that it was virtually impossible to monitor everyone.
But Black Eagle was structured so that if someone disappeared, the Team Lead would have no choice but to know.
“I think so too. So let's work hard again today.”
Haeryeon gradually wrapped up the discussion.
It would not be good to drag it out further.
“And today, you know, right?”
Haeryeon changed the subject to shift the mood.
Starting this week, their shift hours had changed from 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
She grinned at Hyeonyul.
Today was the day of the welcome party.
Tomorrow, everyone was taking a group day off for it.
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