WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Newbie Civil Servant Hunts Villains Before Going Home ◈
Chapter 78: Stab (3)
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* * *
“...No, Hyung.”
Jihwan had just said that they denied being Villains themselves, but he had not expected Hyeonyul to slam an enemy’s head into the wall.
Startled, Jihwan hurriedly used magic on the wall.
“There are students here.”
Even after using magic to contain the sound, Jihwan unconsciously lowered his voice.
“I know.”
“You know?”
“I wanted to show you.”
Hyeonyul pointed at the students.
The students were trembling with anxiety after Hyeonyul’s actions just now.
“Go listen for a moment.”
At Hyeonyul’s words, Jihwan moved away.
Once he left the range of the magic, he could hear the students’ voices.
“...Mom. Mom!”
“Please save us! Please save us!”
“...Sob.”
Anyone could see that they were terrified.
How could this be an act?
Hyeonyul’s words felt like a lie.
‘...Did those students really attack Hyeonyul Hyung?’
Jihwan moved again with a confused expression.
“Did you hear them?”
“...I did.”
“Does it not seem like I was lying?”
“...Hmm.”
“You can be honest.”
“It does... feel that way.”
Jihwan responded as though he was uncomfortable saying it.
He did not want to be suspicious.
They were on the same team, after all.
“Tell them Black Eagle has arrived. Then you will understand what I mean. But do not let them go. You will get hurt. You must not be fooled by their words and emotions.”
“...All right.”
Hiding his discomfort, Jihwan left the range of the magic again.
The students were still crying out for someone to save them.
Seeing that their hands and feet were bound and even their eyes covered, his heart pounded uneasily.
He wanted to save them quickly.
“We’re Black Eagle. Just wait a moment. We’ll save you soon.”
Jihwan spoke as he approached them.
For an instant, he felt an inexplicable chill.
‘Did the crying... not stop?’
Was it just his imagination?
“...Ha. We’re saved. We’re saved!”
“Please untie us quickly!”
“The teacher betrayed us! They were trying to kill us...!”
Some were relieved, some begged to be saved, and some pleaded their innocence.
It was familiar, but still a situation that moved his heart.
How frightened must they have been?
Yet the chill from earlier kept lingering in his mind.
Was it because of what Hyeonyul had said?
An unidentifiable discomfort wrapped around him.
‘Hyung told me not to let them go.’
Thinking Hyeonyul would not have said that without reason, Jihwan pretended to untie them and deliberately moved closer.
“...Please untie us quickly.”
“Just a moment.”
As Jihwan bent down at the student’s urging, the rope binding the student’s hands came loose, and the student lunged at him.
They were no different from a wild beast.
Jihwan calmly pointed a finger.
The student was flung backward.
Jihwan hurriedly drew a line.
An invisible wall appeared.
Bang!
Boom!
“...”
Jihwan took a long breath and looked at the students.
More than the sight of them pounding on the wall, the way they looked at him was strange.
Even Villains had never looked at him like that.
Revenge.
Only now did he understand what Hyeonyul had meant.
His heart raced.
‘...What is going on?’
“Did you see?”
Hyeonyul’s voice rang out.
He dragged the Villain over while gripping the back of his neck.
“That is how they are. Is it not strange?”
“It is very strange...”
Jihwan lowered his gaze.
“What should we call this?”
Hyeonyul threw the man to the floor and stepped on the back of his neck.
Press.
The Villain, who had been flailing both arms like wings, went still.
Pressure came down on his neck.
“The moment you use your ability, I will break it. If you try to get up, I will break it too.”
Hyeonyul pressed down with his foot as he warned him.
“I will.”
He made it very clear.
If the man still did it, then Hyeonyul had to follow through on his warning.
Hyeonyul raised his head and looked at Jihwan.
“Can you hold one of them?”
“You cannot do that to the students, Hyung.”
“I know. Should we not hear what they have to say? That way, we will understand the situation faster.”
Jihwan looked at the students, then glanced at the man whose neck was being crushed beneath Hyeonyul’s foot.
Was it right to act like this?
That thought crossed his mind, but there truly was no time.
“Leave it to me.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
Hyeonyul thanked him and looked at the man.
He seemed somewhat flustered.
“Now that you have heard everything, tell me. If you are not Villains, what are you? What are you doing right now?”
“...Who knows. What are we? What are we doing?”
Hyeonyul tilted his head at the strange answer.
Did the man think this was a joke?
“You can break my neck?”
The man sneered at Hyeonyul.
“Go ahead. Do it.”
After the repeated provocation, Hyeonyul briefly changed his mind.
‘Is he really not a Villain?’
Having encountered many Villains as a member of Black Eagle, Hyeonyul knew that they found Black Eagle’s actions distasteful and even mocked them.
Would you really break my neck?
There was the certainty that they would not.
But this man showed certainty beyond that.
He was certain Black Eagle would not do it.
‘Why is he so sure?’
Hyeonyul wanted to turn this suspicion into certainty.
He held up a dagger threateningly.
Yet the man continued to sneer at him.
As if to say, Would you really do it?
Then Hyeonyul had to show him.
“This will be loud for a moment.”
After telling Jihwan so he would not be startled, Hyeonyul drew the dagger.
Without hesitation, he plunged it into the back of the man’s hand.
“Ahhhhh!”
As the scream spread, Jihwan was startled. So was the man whose hand had been stabbed.
He reacted as though something impossible had happened.
It was subtle, but different from a Villain’s reaction.
Only then was Hyeonyul certain.
“You deny it, but you are a Villain.”
He did not bother mentioning the definition of a Villain.
White Sparrow would know that part better than he did.
Trusting experts was important.
“Even if you were once Black Eagle, that does not prove you are not a Villain.”
The man and Jihwan both looked shocked at Hyeonyul’s words.
Jihwan stopped using magic on the students and approached Hyeonyul.
“Why are you surprised? Did you think I would not know even that?”
A faint laugh mixed into Hyeonyul’s voice as he looked at the man.
“...He was Black Eagle? Really?”
Jihwan’s voice was full of disbelief.
“Yes. There are quite a few former Black Eagle agents among the Villains. They know Black Eagle, so they are particularly vicious. You know that, do you not?”
“It is my first time... seeing one directly.”
“You have probably seen many. They would not tell you that they used to be Black Eagle. If you come across someone who seems unusually persistent during a mission, most of them are former Black Eagle agents.”
“...Shut up.”
When the man spoke through a bloody nose, Hyeonyul sneered.
“Look. He is getting angry. They once took the lead in eliminating Villains, yet now they deny becoming Villains themselves. Is that not ridiculous? That is why they prattle on about how they are not Villains. Is that not right?”
Hyeonyul looked down.
“...You idiots. Black Eagle is not justice. Why are you being fooled by this? Look at what you are doing! Look!”
The man shouted grandly, as if lecturing them.
He was very loud.
“I met someone who spouted the same nonsense not long ago.”
Hyeonyul could not help thinking of someone at those familiar words.
He knew an idiot who had repeatedly told him that Black Eagle was not justice.
“Poison King.”
At the mention of that name, the man immediately raised his voice.
“Do not compare me to that trash!”
“What is different? I told him this too, but who exactly gets to define justice? Is threatening, assaulting, and trying to kill minors what you have done justice?”
This?
This disgusting trash?
Hyeonyul was dumbfounded.
He already knew what the man would say next.
He would spew nonsense about it being a means to an end or a noble mission, but Hyeonyul waited for Jihwan’s sake.
He needed to see things like this for himself to understand.
“Do you think we wanted to do this? This is for everyone. Everyone is being played by what Black Eagle says and by the Empire’s words defending them.”
The man said exactly what Hyeonyul had expected.
Hyeonyul looked at Jihwan.
His expression was hardening.
“There was a time when I thought Black Eagle was justice too. ...But it is not. Black Eagle is evil instead...! An evil that must disappear before Villains do!”
He raised his voice as though overcome with rage.
Once he had started talking, he would not stop.
It was as if he were letting out everything he had always endured.
“Do you know what Black Eagle did? They made deals with Villains! They were even raising Villains for their own security! Our teammates died, other Black Eagle agents died, yet we believed in only one thing, that we were doing this for the Empire and its citizens. We believed in that alone and kept moving forward in silence, but it was not true...!”
Though the man shouted with all his heart, Hyeonyul watched him indifferently.
Whatever he had seen, from the perspective of someone who had been a Villain, it was nonsense.
The ones Villains hated were Black Eagle.
How much had they cursed Black Eagle for interfering with everything at every turn?
Black Eagle working with Villains.
They were oil and water.
They could never stand side by side.
Still, he could understand the claim that Black Eagle raised Villains, absurd as it was.
If Villains disappeared, would Black Eagle not be disbanded as well?
‘But this does not seem like the time to think about that.’
There were still far too many Villains to consider that.
It would not be too late to think about it after they caught almost all of them.
“Black Eagle deceived us! They insulted our deaths...! They took away my pride and everything else! What were all the things we did? What were we moving for?”
“What did you see?”
Hyeonyul was curious because he wondered why the man was going so far.
What had he seen?
“Do you have any evidence?”
At the repeated question, the person who had been shrieking as though fighting for his life until moments ago fell silent.
“...?”
Hyeonyul looked at the man.
He was afraid.
But that was not important right now.
“I asked what you saw.”
“...I cannot tell you. I cannot tell you that.”
“Then there is nothing I can do.”
Hyeonyul spoke as though he would back down, but the foot pressing on the man’s neck did not move at all.
“I was a Villain.”
The man flinched at Hyeonyul’s words.
“You say Black Eagle deceived you and took something from you, but do you know what is truly ridiculous? Taking whatever they want and killing whatever gets in their way. That is practically the basic ideology of Villains. Even if Black Eagle did that, I do not see what is different between you and Villains.”
“Shut up! Do not compare me to Villains...”
“You have stared too long into the abyss. You have already become a monster.”
Thwack!
Deciding there was nothing more to hear, Hyeonyul raised his foot and kicked the man in the face.
After confirming he had fainted, Hyeonyul looked at Jihwan.
His face had gone pale.
Was it really that shocking?
“Do not be swayed.”
“...It is a little shocking.”
“Those words may be true, or they may not be. When we do not know what the truth is, we cannot help but think that way. But remember this. Poison King said the same thing.”
Poison King was a major figure.
The fact that this man said something similar to such a figure could be considered a very strange situation.
Even so, when Jihwan hesitated, Hyeonyul continued.
“Should we not suspect that someone is deliberately creating this situation, if even that man is saying these things?”
“I will leave open the possibility that some members of Black Eagle may have done that... but I believe in Black Eagle itself. Black Eagle saved me.”
Jihwan smiled belatedly.
How could he forget that moment?
The black uniform had looked like a reaper come to end everything.
But rather than a reaper, it had been the very light that gave him a new life.
“And you are right, Hyung. I do not know if they were Black Eagle, but they are Villains now.”
Had they not brought the students to this state?
That alone stripped them of any right to say anything.
“Then it is time to hear what the students have to say. But first, we must change the order.”
Hyeonyul took a radio from the man’s body.
Bzzzt.
Someone was contacting them.
It was not a good sign.
Third floor, fourth floor, fifth floor.
It was time to subdue them quickly.
* * *
Fifth floor.
Hyeonyul appeared behind the man holding a student hostage.
He was also the one Hyeonyul had seen before entering the building.
“Go ahead! I will kill them!”
The Villain screamed fiercely while looking down.
“Yes.”
With that simple answer, Hyeonyul grabbed the Villain by the back of the neck.
Clack.
Before the dagger in the Villain’s hand could fall, darkness caught it and placed it in Hyeonyul’s hand.
Trusting that Jihwan was handling things well, Hyeonyul did his part.
Without hesitation, he stabbed the man in the thigh and threw him to the floor.
Hyeonyul walked toward the Villain and kicked him in the face, knocking him unconscious.
He considered hitting him harder, but restrained himself because the student was right in front of him.
The student stared blankly at Hyeonyul.
“He is not dead. I only stabbed his thigh a little. It is not a critical injury.”
He made that clear.
“...”
The student could not readily speak.
“Hyung. Hyung!”
A door suddenly flew open by the wall, and Jihwan spoke urgently.
“You cannot attack students.”
“I know.”
Hyeonyul strode over and used darkness to grab the student by the neck.
He was only holding the student’s neck, so that should be enough.
“Since I am the Black Eagle you hate, say whatever you want.”
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