WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Newbie Civil Servant Hunts Villains Before Going Home ◈
Chapter 88: One More (2)
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* * *
“Did you come to observe the factory?”
Hyeonyul asked again.
It was not particularly strange for a Villain to keep an eye on another faction of Villains.
Rather, it was only natural.
This was a drug-manufacturing factory.
Someone spying on a place like this could easily be assumed to have come to steal the manufacturing method because they wanted it.
But today, Hyeonyul saw it differently.
There was only one person.
What could one person accomplish alone?
‘It’s right to assume they were simply spying.’
Then why had they come to spy?
Hyeonyul immediately found the answer.
‘...Ah, is it them?’
Not long ago, they had identified a Villain faction that despised drugs.
It seemed he needed to confirm it.
“Did you come looking for drugs?”
Hyeonyul asked, keeping his dagger lowered.
“...What the hell are you talking about?”
The Villain immediately sounded offended.
They did not look like someone who had come to make a deal, nor did they look like someone who had come to steal anything.
“Do you like drugs?”
“You little...”
The Villain quickly closed their mouth.
The dagger must have been bothering them.
But Hyeonyul had no intention of lowering it any further.
“They sell drugs here, right?”
“They make them.”
Hyeonyul corrected them.
“...What? They make drugs?”
“Yes. Didn’t you know that before coming here?”
“How would I...”
The Villain closed their mouth again.
They seemed quite short-tempered.
“You didn’t know before coming.”
When Hyeonyul answered, the Villain scowled.
“...Dirty bastards. Just because they have no standards, they sell that stuff?”
“Is that wrong?”
“You’re saying something obvious. Where do you think it’ll end up once it starts circulating and circulating?”
“Where?”
“With us! Us! Why would you go that far? Are you going to stop once everyone is addicted? Are you addicted too? Is that why you like it so much?”
‘It’s that strange Villain faction.’
Even as he reached that conclusion, Hyeonyul looked at the Villain oddly.
Saying something like that now made them seem out of their mind.
“Are you really a Villain?”
Hyeonyul asked suspiciously.
They might dislike drugs, but lecturing him like that put them far from being a Villain.
Why call themselves a Villain at all, then?
“That’s hilarious. Since when did whether someone uses drugs determine if they’re a Villain? Why? Because I talk like this, do I look like Black Eagle to you?”
Their behavior was not Villain-like, yet they claimed to be a Villain. Hyeonyul found it deeply contradictory.
‘...Ah. Is that how I look too?’
Only then did Hyeonyul understand how the Villain saw him.
Did they think he was a bundle of contradictions too?
“Keep talking. If I die, I die, but don’t forget that my location has already been exposed. What, scared all of a sudden? What are you going to do? There are so many drugs in this factory that you won’t even be able to move them all today.”
“That’s not it. I’m Black Eagle.”
Hyeonyul calmly identified himself.
“You’re ridiculous.”
The Villain snorted instead.
He was not even wearing a uniform.
More than that, how could those eyes possibly belong to someone from Black Eagle?
Anyone could see they were the eyes of someone who had killed countless people.
“I don’t wish to argue. I really am a Black Eagle agent, so all you need to do is stay still.”
Hyeonyul aimed the dagger at the Villain’s throat again.
They had been investigating in secret, but Hyeonyul had truthfully informed Haeryeon about this part.
So it was right to take them to Black Eagle.
“Bullshit...”
Before the Villain could finish speaking, Hyeonyul moved behind them.
Holding the dagger in reverse, he struck the back of their head hard.
Smack!
The Villain’s eyes rolled back, and they went limp.
He had not thought he would use them, but Hyeonyul bound their hands and feet with cable ties for Villains.
Hyeonyul turned his head.
Jihwan was running toward him.
He was remarkably slow.
Hyeonyul walked forward and told Jihwan.
“They’re a Villain.”
“...So, gasp, pant.”
“They’re from a different faction than the Villains inside. I think they’re worth taking in for questioning.”
“Are you, gasp, hurt?”
“Breathe first. Why didn’t you use magic to get here?”
“...Ah.”
Jihwan stared blankly.
For a moment, Hyeonyul could not continue. Then he spoke.
“It happens.”
At his flat tone, Jihwan choked and broke into a loud cough.
* * *
“...Is that it? Is it in there?”
Sinu pointed at the drugs as he asked.
There were simply too many varieties.
Honestly, he wanted to go closer, but Hyeonyul stopped him.
“Nothing has been confirmed yet, so don’t come any closer.”
After repeating what he had said earlier, Hyeonyul looked at everyone.
They stood beyond the slightly opened door.
“It’s dangerous.”
“Isn’t it dangerous for you too, Hyeonyul? Earlier, you said you shouldn’t put skincare products on carelessly either.”
When Nayun asked, Sinu immediately reacted.
“...What? You said it was fine.”
Sinu’s startled eyes turned toward Hyeonyul.
Nayun had found this place, and he had been the one who asked Hyeonyul whether it was truly safe.
“Skincare products contain many ingredients I have never been exposed to. They are said to be harmless to ordinary people. I’m only taking precautions because I do not know how even harmless ingredients might affect me.”
“Then what about those?”
Sinu felt as though his throat had closed up.
What did that mean?
“It’s fine.”
Hyeonyul answered lightly.
He had probably been exposed to plenty of them anyway.
What he was looking for was not drugs he had received once or twice.
He was looking for drugs he had been given continuously, periodically, over and over.
The fact that they had a relatively high priority meant they were a faster route to the person who had made him this way.
“Step back and close the door.”
Hyeonyul gave his final warning.
It was time to smell them.
Poisonous drugs would have no effect on him, but that was not true for the others.
He did not know what effect even a single drop might have.
Hyeonyul waited.
Only after hearing the door close and the sound of retreating footsteps did he move.
There appeared to be many drugs, but there were actually five kinds.
He opened one of the containers slightly.
‘Not this.’
Hyeonyul closed it and smelled the one beside it.
‘One.’
Then the next.
‘Two.’
Then the next.
‘Three.’
Hyeonyul smelled the last one and put it down.
‘...There are three.’
There were three of them in this place alone.
Hyeonyul hid those three away in the darkness.
‘I was right.’
Finally.
His fingers tensed.
He felt an urge to drive his dagger straight into those bastards’ throats.
‘...No. I can’t just kill them.’
He closed his eyes for a moment, then slowly exhaled and opened them.
He had thought experimental subjects existed to destroy the Empire.
But Ahsan, the Red Witch, had conducted experiments because she wanted to save her child.
Having witnessed that exceptional circumstance, he could no longer believe that experimental subjects were created solely to destroy the Empire.
At first, he had concluded that experimentation itself was a meaningless act, but through the Poison King and Ahsan, had he not learned that the Empire began it first in order to create power?
In truth, the world had become one where most people possessed powers.
The Empire’s experiment had succeeded.
At last, he understood that Villains pushed forward so stubbornly because of those successful cases.
‘...Then why was I created?’
Hyeonyul could not help asking the most fundamental question.
For what purpose?
Why?
What was I meant to be used for?
Even while being experimented on, he had never been told the purpose.
All he had heard were words like, “Get up,” “Sit,” “Lie down,” “Get on your stomach,” and “Eat.”
Perhaps his deteriorated ability to converse had played a part as well.
‘...No. I’ll think about it later.’
Hyeonyul put off his thoughts and took his medicine.
Whenever he began thinking too much, his head grew noisy.
Once that noise began, even medicine could not calm it.
Hyeonyul headed back toward the door.
Before leaving, he wrapped his entire body in darkness.
He did not want that disgusting smell clinging to him.
* * *
“...Doctor.”
Hyeonyul handed over the drugs.
The moment Jeongmin saw them, he jumped in surprise and looked toward the CCTV.
“I received permission from the Team Lead.”
“...Ha. You scared me.”
“Why are you surprised?”
“As Black Eagle, you can’t siphon off evidence.”
“I know that too. I’m procuring what’s needed through another channel.”
“Another channel...?”
“Take them.”
“Hyeonyul. What did you just mean by that?”
“These are drugs that were used on me.”
“...What?”
Jeongmin’s expression completely changed.
What Hyeonyul had just said was important, but nothing could be more important than this.
“These three?”
“Yes.”
“...H-how did you get them?”
Jeongmin reached out to take them, then stopped when his hand began to tremble.
He was afraid he might drop the drugs.
“Before work, I carried out a mission following Choo Nayun’s instructions. I got them there.”
Hyeonyul’s expression stiffened for a moment.
Before work.
He did not like that.
“Did you find who made them...?”
“I don’t know yet. Don’t be happy... No, you may be happy.”
Hyeonyul changed his words.
Jeongmin was already happy.
“How, how did this happen? I can’t believe we found them like this. Really... I can’t believe it. You searched so hard for them. You searched so diligently...”
Jeongmin could not continue.
The corners of his eyes quickly reddened.
Knowing how much Hyeonyul had suffered, this small hope was so precious and joyful.
He wanted to throw his arms around Hyeonyul and spin him around on the spot.
But then Hyeonyul might look at him with contempt.
“Are you happy?”
“...Of course! If I know the drugs used on you, I can make medicine too. Then I can call your name more often, for longer than I can now.”
“That’s true.”
Had he not already lived a long time?
Hyeonyul only thought that. He did not say it aloud.
To him, it was simply an obvious remark, but it made Jeongmin sad.
“If it was going to turn up like this, why couldn’t it have appeared sooner? Why make things so difficult, why make you suffer so much? Really, what is this...?”
“I’ll get more.”
Hyeonyul pulled out a tissue and handed it to Jeongmin.
He always thought Jeongmin cried a great deal.
If he thought of Jeongmin as shedding them in place of his own dried-up tears, it was not so bad.
* * *
Haeryeon carefully looked over everyone and asked.
“...Is everyone all right?”
They had accomplished something enormous before work.
It was not the first time something like this had happened, but Hyeonyul had been part of it.
“I’m fine.”
Jihwan answered.
“I had two cups of coffee.”
Nayun raised two fingers.
“I took another nap, no, another night’s sleep.”
After Sinu answered with a tired face, everyone’s gaze naturally turned to Hyeonyul.
I’m not all right.
I’m absolutely not all right.
Hyeonyul wanted to answer that way.
White Sparrow had arrived and quickly handled the aftermath.
They captured the Villains on their own, separated out the ordinary people on their own, and took all the drugs and documents on their own.
It was convenient, though he did wonder whether they had truly taken everything.
But putting that aside, after returning home to rest and then getting back on a bus to go to work again, life could not possibly be more terrible.
Even if he did nothing at home, even if he only knitted, home was better.
It had become more spacious, and more sunlight poured in. There could be no better place.
‘I want to go home.’
“...Can you work?”
When Hyeonyul said nothing, Haeryeon asked again.
“I can.”
Hyeonyul’s voice was more drained than usual.
Haeryeon looked at his forehead.
“Is your head all right? Does it hurt?”
“No. It has almost healed.”
“I’d like to take you off the schedule, but we have a lot of work backed up today.”
“No, why today of all days?”
Sinu asked in horror.
They had already exerted themselves once.
And when they arrived, it had not even been a small matter.
He had expected their working hours to at least be shortened.
It felt like his hopes were crumbling apart.
“You know how several factions are fighting each other right now?”
“...Have their locations been exposed?”
Nayun asked, unable to believe it.
The reason it was difficult to uproot Villains was because they did not know how far their connections reached or where their true core was.
Until they identified a place occupied entirely by Villains, they had to keep following one trail after another.
Was today not proof of that?
They had found a drug-manufacturing factory, but it was not the real target.
Ordinary people worked there too.
It was an incident that could earn them disciplinary action, so they had been watching Haeryeon’s reaction.
“They have. Only about two factions so far, but I believe more and more factions will be exposed.”
At Haeryeon’s certain tone, Hyeonyul only nodded quietly.
That was why he had swallowed the Poison King’s faction in the first place.
Once they fought and fought, their factions could not help being exposed.
Since they would not be able to stop a fight once it began, was being caught by Black Eagle not the natural result?
‘I only swallowed the Poison King’s faction, yet the effect is considerable. What would happen if I swallowed other factions too?’
Hyeonyul paid close attention to this.
It was not something he had never considered before, but back then, he had not even intended to become Black Eagle.
Black Eagle, which was meant to keep Villains in check, would never listen to him in the first place. Nor did he think Black Eagle would accept him, so he gave up.
“Is the mission faction suppression?”
When Hyeonyul asked, Haeryeon shook her head.
“Not yet. Even if their locations have been exposed, we need more time because we have to raid them simultaneously.”
“Do you mean we’re preventing them from running wild even if their leaders disappear?”
“That’s right. Even if their leaders disappear, they can attach themselves to another side. What we’re trying to do is eradicate Villains. Catching the leaders would be good, but it doesn’t end there.”
Villains were like cockroaches that laid eggs even as they died.
If they did not uproot them all at once, they multiplied.
If information leaked about how Black Eagle had dealt with them, they returned even more evolved.
“Today’s mission is to escort White Sparrow.”
When Haeryeon explained the mission, everyone except Hyeonyul looked unhappy.
There was no one who did not know that Hyeonyul and White Sparrow did not get along.
But apart from that, Hyeonyul could not understand what kind of mission it was.
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