Chapter 29. Hunting the Beast (1)
“W-What did you just say?!”
Baeksu Guild Master Baek Hyeong-gyu shrieked.
“They caught Yang Chi-seok? The Association did?”
“To be exact, the Special Division.”
“Same thing!”
Baek Hyeong-gyu was normally not a talkative man.
The humanity worn away inside the Aeso Gate.
The dignity of a Guild Master.
Together, they made Baek Hyeong-gyu seem like a wild beast.
But after the Special Division's recent visit, one thing had changed.
“Where the hell did they catch Yang Chi-seok?! No, who caught him?! Don't tell me. No. Please tell me it wasn't him...!”
Anything involving the Association, or more specifically the Special Division, now made him extremely frightened and unusually talkative.
“Didn't we confirm that bastard was in the Back Alley?! How the hell does someone hiding there get captured by the Special Division?!”
It was all because of Kim Si-hyeon.
Ever since that encounter, Baek Hyeong-gyu suffered from the same nightmare every night.
“Baek Hyeong-gyu. Baek Hyeong-gyu. Baek Hyeong-gyu.”
Kim Si-hyeon, dressed like a Grim Reaper, stood beside his bed and repeatedly called his name.
Baek Hyeong-gyu had barely slept since then.
The dark circles beneath his eyes had practically reached his jaw.
Then the Vice Guild Master said something that would make his insomnia even worse.
“...They captured him in the Back Alley.”
BOOM!
Baek Hyeong-gyu slammed his hand onto the steel table and broke it.
He occasionally smashed tables when angry, so this one had been made from steel to prevent that.
CRACK!
It still split cleanly in half.
“How does that make sense? The Special Division went into the Back Alley and captured Yang Chi-seok? Were they trying to start a war—”
Baek Hyeong-gyu stopped mid-sentence.
No... If it was Kim Si-hyeon, then that's completely possible.
The Back Alley was certainly troublesome.
A powder keg nobody wanted to touch.
But that was from the perspective of ordinary people.
Baek Hyeong-gyu had survived the Aeso Gate.
He had seen humans become monsters.
And in his eyes, Kim Si-hyeon was the kind of man who would do absolutely anything to achieve what he wanted.
“What happened to the Back Alley?”
“What?”
“The Ganghwa Back Alley! Did he wipe it out? How many died? How did he kill them?!”
As he asked, Baek Hyeong-gyu's face grew whiter and whiter.
If Kim Si-hyeon decided to blame Baeksu Guild...
They might end up looking exactly like the Back Alley.
“There are rumors that Park Se-min died, but they're not reliable. Apparently there wasn't much damage overall.”
“...How does that make sense?”
“It's true, Guild Master.”
Baek Hyeong-gyu bit his nails.
“What the hell did that monster do...?”
He couldn't imagine how it was possible.
Yet somehow...
He could perfectly imagine Kim Si-hyeon walking calmly into the Back Alley in a Special Division combat suit and cutting off Park Se-min's head.
“Vice Guild Master.”
“Yes, Guild Master.”
“That... thing we found. We haven't sent it to the Special Division yet, right?”
Baek Hyeong-gyu had genuinely tried to find Yang Chi-seok after Kim Si-hyeon left.
They confirmed Yang Chi-seok was hiding in the Back Alley.
They had even prepared to capture him through Baeksu's own channels.
“We need merit.”
“What?”
“We need to accomplish something! That's the only way we're going to survive this!”
Baek Hyeong-gyu would do anything to survive.
He was more desperate than he had been inside the Aeso Gate.
“What if that lunatic Yang Chi-seok starts babbling that we're involved too?!”
“If the Special Division compares all available information, surely they'll confirm our innocence.”
“Bullshit!”
Baek Hyeong-gyu slammed the already-broken steel table again.
Now it broke into three pieces.
“Look at Kim Si-hyeon's eyes. That kind of person doesn't listen to explanations. He looks like the type to kill first!”
“...He didn't seem quite that bad.”
“You don't know what you're talking about! Anyway!”
Baek Hyeong-gyu hurriedly put on his coat.
“We need to achieve something! Something big enough to prove we have nothing to do with Yang Chi-seok!”
Fortunately...
Baek Hyeong-gyu had found an opportunity.
They had located the broker who forged Yang Chi-seok's identity.
“Should we inform the Special Division?”
“Are you insane?”
Baek Hyeong-gyu growled.
“I need to earn this achievement myself.”
His face was deadly serious.
“Something big enough that he won't kill me.”
“It hurts... It huuurts...”
The Association's underground interrogation room.
Among Hunters, it was spoken of as though it were the underworld itself.
Hunters were heroes who protected the world from Gates and monsters.
But if they abused their strength...
They could become more dangerous than almost anything else.
This place existed to interrogate and contain such Hunters.
“It huuuuurts!”
Rumor said a Hunter brought here would never return.
There was even advice that if you were ever dragged into the Association's underground interrogation room...
It would be better to take your own life first.
Of course, not every criminal Hunter came here.
Only those whose crimes directly threatened national security.
But...
“Aaaaaaagh!”
Despite all the terrible rumors, the room itself looked surprisingly ordinary.
There were specialized devices for suppressing Hunters.
But otherwise, it wasn't very different from any other interrogation room.
Yang Chi-seok sat inside, screaming continuously.
Across from him...
“...”
Park Min-ho sat in silence.
Then...
BANG!
The door flew open hard enough to nearly break.
Choi Ji-woong rushed inside.
“It huuuurts! Spare me! No, kill me!”
“Director! What the hell are you doing?!”
Choi Ji-woong had heard Yang Chi-seok screaming and came running.
“...”
