WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Newbie Civil Servant Hunts Villains Before Going Home ◈
Chapter 89: I Know You
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* * *
“Why do we have to escort them? White Sparrow has always operated independently.”
Hadn’t they kept doing that?
Had they been caught?
Hyeonyul had his doubts.
“The Managers who infiltrate places to gather information aren’t only found in places like that cult mission last time.”
“They aren’t?”
Hyeonyul asked again.
“Broadly speaking, there are Managers who work with the police to gather information, Managers who infiltrate suspicious locations, Managers who regularly patrol suspicious places, and Managers who are deployed before and after missions. Their roles differ.”
After giving a brief explanation, Haeryeon continued.
“We received word that the Managers who infiltrated the Villain company can’t escape. That’s why they need an escort.”
“Then why are they all grouped under the name White Sparrow?”
If their duties were that detailed, shouldn’t each group have its own name?
It felt quite inefficient.
“They have teams like us too, Team One and Team Two. They just aren’t referred to by a specific department. The teams take turns handling those duties.”
“Like Black Eagle?”
It was the same here.
Jihwan had casually mentioned that Team Three handled more dangerous work, but they did not have a specific assignment.
They simply did a little more.
“Isn’t it strange for White Sparrow to be divided that way when they aren’t Black Eagle?”
Haeryeon smiled lightly.
“Is there a reason?”
“Not long after Black Eagle was founded, a specific department once gained too much power.”
“Power?”
Hyeonyul blinked.
“I heard things were extremely detailed back then. Instead of being divided into Team One and Team Two, there were groups like an infiltration unit, an incursion unit, a chemical attack response unit, and so on.”
Nayun continued Haeryeon’s explanation.
Ah.
Hyeonyul understood what she meant.
Everywhere had important departments.
It seemed those people had run wild, eager to wield power and indulge their own sense of superiority.
“Black Eagle and White Sparrow used to be organized just as Nayun described. But one department caused a huge uproar by declaring a strike over its workload. Then, of all times, an emergency mission occurred, and many people died. After that day, the Empire identified the problems with that system and changed it to the current one. Everyone takes turns now.”
“In case you misunderstand, not everyone in that department supported the strike. Some people who didn’t support it deployed on the emergency mission. There weren’t enough personnel to prevent the tragedy, but it would have been difficult for ordinary people to know that. Many people blamed them. ...So many people.”
When Sinu quietly added that, Haeryeon looked at him for a moment.
As her gaze deepened, she nodded.
“That’s right. We believe the Black Eagle agents who were driven out then are the former Black Eagle agents identified through the information we acquired recently.”
Sinu reacted strongly.
“...Is that really true?”
He asked as if he could not believe it.
“That information came up at the meeting. I’ll tell you once it becomes more certain. We have the list, so we should know sooner than expected.”
“Please. Tell me. Please.”
At Sinu’s earnest request, Haeryeon smiled.
“Don’t worry, Sinu. I’ll definitely let you know.”
Hyeonyul looked from Sinu and Haeryeon’s expressions to Nayun and Jihwan.
He thought the atmosphere felt dark somehow.
“To continue, our task is to bring back the White Sparrow agents in the Villain faction safely. If we’re going to tear the group down, there’s no reason for them to remain there.”
“So it’s a rescue operation?”
Hyeonyul asked, feeling unfamiliar with the idea.
A rescue.
He had never done one before.
“It looks difficult, but it isn’t.”
Haeryeon read the unfamiliarity on Hyeonyul’s face.
“You just need to bring the targets back alive. Uninjured is best.”
“As long as they aren’t injured?”
Hyeonyul’s gaze lowered.
Haeryeon immediately understood what he meant.
“No, they need to be mentally sound too.”
Lines formed around Hyeonyul’s eyes.
Jihwan, who had been glancing at him, raised his hand.
“Team Lead. Are the four of us going?”
“That’s right. This might be the faction’s real base, or it might not be, but it’s quite large.”
“Then don’t worry. I’ll make sure we can bring them back safely.”
As Jihwan smiled, Hyeonyul nodded.
He was a mage.
Hyeonyul thought he could do anything.
“There’s something else you need to know before we go.”
“Team Lead, that’s a little scary. I don’t like it when things keep coming out like this.”
Nayun fiddled with the desk.
It would have been different if it were an emergency, but Haeryeon bringing up one thing after another was not a good sign.
It meant matters they did not know about were moving quickly.
“I mentioned that a faction was still moving despite the Poison King’s arrest, right?”
Haeryeon was not smiling, and Hyeonyul looked at her.
‘They were told not to touch Black Eagle?’
The Poison King’s faction was too large to escape Black Eagle’s attention.
What else had happened?
“We still don’t know who the leader is, so we decided to call them the new faction. Just remember that. That’s all.”
The moment Haeryeon concluded, Sinu raised his hand.
Haeryeon looked at him.
“If they can swallow the Poison King’s faction, I believe they’re the target we should be most wary of.”
“I agree. But they don’t make any contact with us. A faction of that size should have been noticed, but they run whenever they see us.”
“Run away...? Villains run away when they see Black Eagle?”
Nayun could not hide her disbelief.
Was Black Eagle not what Villains hated most?
People even said they refused to wear black clothes because of them.
“What’s more surprising is that there haven’t been any reports of harm.”
“...What?”
Sinu’s eyebrows rose.
“I understand why that sounds ridiculous. That’s why we’re watching them closely. They run when they see Black Eagle, and they don’t touch ordinary people. That gives us no grounds to touch them either. They become mere criminals. It’s strange for the Poison King’s faction to become mere criminals, isn’t it? That’s why we decided to call them the new faction.”
“But they do attack other Villains.”
At Jihwan’s doubtful words, Haeryeon wore an uneasy expression.
“That’s the problem. They took down a major figure like the Red Witch, so it won’t take long for them to become even larger than they are now. They’re already large, and they might grow beyond that. Nothing could be more dreadful.”
‘Does it only look like they’re expanding?’
Hyeonyul considered Haeryeon’s words.
He had only been helping Black Eagle see them more clearly.
“Whether they plan to ignore us until they grow larger, or truly have no interest in us. In any case, the new faction has exposed two factions.”
“They say the enemy of my enemy is my friend, but that doesn’t fit this situation at all.”
Nayun brushed a hand across the desk and raised the corners of her eyes.
Villains?
That was the first thought that came to mind.
“For now, we’ll keep watching the situation. I’ll let you know immediately if we receive any news.”
As soon as Haeryeon finished speaking, she pointed outside the door.
Hyeonyul stood first.
“Hyeonyul is first again today.”
“Not that. What kind of places are the two factions?”
He at least wanted to know what kind of places they had to deal with.
“Neither is a major faction. It’ll be easier to understand if you think of them as groups struggling to become major factions.”
Haeryeon gave a simple explanation.
That made sense.
What they sold and what they focused on did not matter.
The faction’s real company could be selling completely different products.
The rest were just fronts to conceal the real one.
“They don’t seem entirely insignificant.”
“If the two factions join forces, they could become a major faction. That’s why we need to clear them out quickly.”
“Understood.”
Hyeonyul bowed his head and left the room.
“Hyeonyul is first, right?”
Haeryeon looked at the rest of the team, who had not moved at all.
* * *
「*Incident Begins
―Recent clashes between Villain factions have clearly revealed the outlines of two factions.
*Incident Progress
―White Sparrow agents deployed to the suspected Villain companies A and B, temporary names, in order to determine whether they are the two factions’ bases, have been ordered to return.
―Both identified factions are currently engaged in territorial disputes with other Villain factions.
―Security inside Villain Company A, temporary name, has intensified, making voluntary withdrawal impossible.
*Points of Caution
―White Sparrow’s safety is the highest priority.
―Avoid drawing the Villains’ attention whenever possible.」
After steadying his unsettled stomach, Hyeonyul reviewed the summarized details of the incident and checked the faces of the White Sparrow agents they needed to rescue.
There were four people in total.
‘We’re rescuing four people. I don’t know if the entire team needs to deploy.’
Hyeonyul wondered if Haeryeon had sent too many people.
Come to think of it, locating them was not very difficult.
There was only one problem.
The time it took for someone to go mad after being placed in the darkness varied from person to person.
They would recover with time, but it did not suit the mission.
He did not want to put them in there unless he had to.
It felt like putting filth inside himself.
Hyeonyul looked at the other team members.
“What should we do?”
He could act independently if necessary, but it was right to ask first.
“Hyeonyul, I’ll first explain how we’ve been doing things.”
Nayun told him about the method they had established.
That was right.
“First, Jihwan uses spatial magic on the building itself. You could say that area becomes Jihwan’s territory.”
“To be precise, I can only affect the space itself. People are separate.”
Jihwan filled in what Nayun had left out.
“Jihwan connects that space to me. I don’t know how to explain it, but through that magic, I can adjust the building’s transparency. Simply put, I can see through it. Do you understand?”
“Yes. I understand.”
Hyeonyul nodded.
If they could control space itself, he thought that much was possible.
“My gun can’t cross space and lodge itself in someone’s head. That’s why we need Baek Sinu’s power.”
“My sword can ignore space itself.”
Sinu summoned his sword and waved it in his hand.
“If we seize a Villain using Baek Sinu’s power, Jihwan will open a door. Then grab them and bring them back. That’s how we’ve done it until now.”
Only then did Hyeonyul understand why Haeryeon had sent four people.
The other three had built up that teamwork, and now that he had joined, she intended to build that teamwork with four.
But it did not look as if he had anything to do.
Would he not only disrupt the coordination they had developed for nothing?
“Hyeonyul, how would you handle this mission?”
At Nayun’s question, everyone’s eyes turned to him.
They looked as though they would listen to anything he said.
But Hyeonyul did not simply accept their gazes.
“Are you really asking me for a solution?”
Hyeonyul asked back.
“That’s right. We need to work together.”
“Then you don’t need to ask.”
Because Hyeonyul had spoken so vaguely, no one could say anything.
“I can do anything.”
He could see like Nayun, attack like Sinu, and move people like Jihwan.
He could do it all.
“Put me where you’re lacking.”
Anywhere was possible.
He could be used anywhere.
That itself was his ability.
“That’s good.”
Sinu spoke up.
Anywhere, anything.
At last, they could wage a fast operation.
“That means we can secure them faster, right?”
“That’s right. We can pick up the pace.”
Jihwan nodded at Sinu’s words.
Normally, Sinu was the one who entered.
With Hyeonyul joining them, it was like gaining a sword that could move freely.
“Hyeonyul, for now, you’ll handle bringing them back with me. We can adjust the rest as needed. Can you do it?”
Hyeonyul readily answered Sinu’s question.
“Yes. I can.”
There was nothing he could not do.
He could do more.
Before the mission, Hyeonyul took out a syringe and medicine.
* * *
The target was a ten-story building.
It was unexpectedly large, enough to be called a mid-sized company.
Nayun moved to a place with a clear view of the building.
Even then, the building was positioned so that it could be hidden in the palm of her hand.
Her black uniform fluttered in the wind.
Numerous people were inside the building, whose transparency had been heightened.
They looked as though they were moving through empty air.
Their faces were all different, but when they were all together, one person could seem like another.
Their faces were the only thing that identified them as White Sparrow.
They swarmed like ants, but Nayun did not waver.
She had seen scenes like this countless times.
‘This is awful.’
Still, it was not a scene she could simply overlook.
The lights were on despite it being dawn.
Everyone was working.
Even their working hours were not observed.
How was that any different from the place where Hyeonyul had once worked?
<Jihwan, is the connection working properly?>
<Yes. It’s connected.>
After receiving Jihwan’s confirmation, Nayun moved her eyes.
<I’ll start with the CCTV locations.>
Whenever her eyes paused briefly, Jihwan’s magic automatically marked that position.
From the tenth floor down to the first, Nayun’s gaze moved without hesitation.
No matter how well they hid them, CCTV cameras’ distinctive red lights could not be concealed.
<Next, this is the control room.>
Nayun turned her gaze toward the control room.
It would be faster to restrain the control-room staff than to eliminate each CCTV camera individually.
<And our targets, the Managers.>
Nayun saw one White Sparrow agent sitting and working.
One White Sparrow agent cleaning the building.
One White Sparrow agent eating something in the break room.
She stopped as she looked at the final one.
<...They’ve been caught?>
Messages flooded in at Nayun’s words.
<What do you mean?>
<What? They were caught?>
<No, were they discovered?>
<What is their condition? They’re okay, right?>
Sinu and Jihwan asked one after another.
<They’re injured, but it’s not serious. It seems they came under suspicion.>
<...This is driving me crazy.>
Sinu’s message appeared.
<We rescue them last.>
Hyeonyul’s message followed, and Nayun agreed.
<That’s right. We can’t endanger the other three to rescue one person.>
As Nayun spoke, she lowered her gaze.
<Villains are stationed near the entrance.>
At a glance, they looked like guards around the building, or people simply walking nearby, but Nayun saw what was different.
<They’re not merely stationed there. Even when someone leaves, two or more Villains accompany them.>
She had just seen it.
Two of the people walking ahead abruptly turned around and quickly followed the man leaving the building.
<Now I understand why they need to be rescued.>
Hyeonyul’s message appeared.
<And there are four people on the roof.>
Nayun reported what she saw.
<They’re holding something dangerous, so we should deal with them.>
All four had guns in their hands.
Were they sniper rifles?
The place was currently fighting another faction.
What else could explain them except that they were preparing for that?
<Nobody is coming up, right?>
Sinu asked.
<No. Don’t worry and deal with them. I’d like to shoot them, but the sound might carry.>
<I’ll go.>
Hyeonyul’s message appeared.
<All right. I’ll send you.>
Jihwan replied, and the rooftop door Nayun had been watching opened.
Hyeonyul stepped out silently.
<I’ll deal with them.>
Hyeonyul’s calmness came through.
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