* * *

Yujong couldn't speak right away.

'... He let me get away with it?'

No wonder. So that was why.

Countless words circled in his head.

How could he have investigated the Poison King's backers without getting caught unless someone had let him? When the Poison King was still around, who would have even thought of touching his faction?

'I thought it was all... my own ability.'

It wasn't. He had been mistaken. Mad Dog had set him straight.

Somehow, he felt drained.

"According to my investigation, ...it isn't Prunal."

"It isn't?"

Hyeonyul tilted his head. Yeon had said her investigation showed Prunal was involved, but she had never said it was the true core of the operation.

"Of course, it's a little difficult to say they aren't involved. They have many, many ties to the drugs. I only mean they aren't the real thing."

"You mean they aren't the head?"

"Exactly. The man is certainly a major villain, but he still isn't the real one. ... You know what my power is, don't you?"

Mad Dog didn't so much as blink at the mention of a major villain. He was ruthless.

"I do. It's a psychic power."

"I caught one of their people and questioned him. They weren't the real thing. But I did find out what their symbol is."

Looking drained, Yujong opened a drawer and brought out a sheet of paper. Hyeonyul looked at it.

A snake coiled around an apple.

The moment he saw it, Hyeonyul remembered where he had seen it before. It was the symbol Nayun had discovered at the company of the man who was president of the cosmetics company Linda—the man who had made him this way.

'It was here too?'

He couldn't easily tear his eyes away from the symbol. Whoever had built up Linda and Prunal was the real leader.

Who could it be?

"I think we'll have to dig into Prunal to learn more. So if you could give me a little time..."

"I'll do that. I'll let you know after I get inside."

"Understood."

"Are you shocked, by any chance?" Hyeonyul asked.

Something about Yujong was different from usual.

"I suppose I... did get a little full of myself."

"You're doing well."

Hyeonyul praised him. He had learned that praising someone was the right thing to do when they were feeling down. It had always worked well.

He looked at Yujong to see whether it worked this time too. Yujong was blinking with a dumbfounded expression.

"Didn't I say so just a moment ago? I told you I think highly of your abilities."

"... Really?"

"Why do you think I kept you alive? If you were useless, I would have killed you on the spot."

It was unmistakably Mad Dog speaking, yet something felt different to Yujong. He didn't know what to call this feeling. Afraid he might blurt out something idiotic, he continued reporting what he had learned.

"I-I'm still looking for information about the former Black Eagles. Just like with the Poison King, they're harder to penetrate than I expected. How should I put it... It feels as though some enormous force is at work. And I can't raid the Black Eagles themselves for information."

That wasn't a lie. Yujong drew a deep breath. He couldn't afford to meddle with the Black Eagles anymore. Even gaining superficial access had taken a long time and an enormous amount of money. Doing it twice was out of the question.

"My years of experience tell me it feels like I'm digging into someone who stands out even among the major players."

"Are they cutting off loose ends before you can get anywhere?"

Yujong nodded at Hyeonyul's incisive question.

"... Yes. Something as large as Prunal would have trouble cutting off its loose ends, but everything I catch is just a handful. That's what I meant earlier when I said they seemed like a major player."

Rather than answer, Hyeonyul looked at him, waiting to hear what he meant.

"Even major players have different levels, don't they? Prunal's leader is a major player, but the company he leads isn't. In other words, he doesn't have complete control over the people inside. Usually, even someone in a mid-level position will talk readily if you catch them."

The words spilling from Yujong's mouth distilled all his experience. Hyeonyul agreed to some extent. In the end, no matter how roundabout the route, questioning people directly was faster.

"But major factions are different. Maybe they've been thoroughly brainwashed, because they die when you ask them anything. And they die in all sorts of ways. Even if you catch someone at the same mid-level position and question them, the information is terribly thin. In short, you can safely assume almost no information is given to anyone except the people working at the core."

Hyeonyul nodded, accepting that point too. He had killed every executive to subdue the Poison King's faction. It was the fastest way to take over.

Afterward, however, things had been different. Even after swallowing up the faction, he had struggled to obtain complete information about the Poison King.

Naturally, he had taken the dead executives' phones and examined them, but there was no internal information. It appeared they had all changed phones after the Poison King was captured. They had even changed them on the same date. He had no idea where they had hidden their old phones.

'A wasted effort.'

Hyeonyul stopped thinking about it and waited for Yujong to continue.

"They're former Black Eagles, so I thought it would be easy to dig things up. But I keep going around in circles. Honestly, I'm getting frustrated too."

Yujong narrowed his eyes. It seemed to have become a matter of pride now.

"I'll share anything I learn as well."

The Black Eagles were still pursuing information about their former members. Matching their findings would surely yield something useful.

"Oh, there's a cosmetics company called Linda. Dig up everything about its president."

"Why them? Aren't the Black Eagles investigating them?"

"According to what I know, Linda and Prunal are connected."

"... So you're saying those two... companies are connected through the drugs?"

"That's right. Wouldn't that be worth investigating?"

"Of course! Absolutely!"

Yujong rallied again. There was a scent here. A very strong one.

'The... Drug Merchant!'

He was certain. It was a gut feeling—the feeling that he had hooked something enormous.

"I'm leaving."

"W-wait!"

Hyeonyul stopped on his way to the window and looked at Yujong.

"Well..."

Yujong hesitated, uncharacteristically.

The man in front of him was Mad Dog. He knew that. And knowing it made him hesitate.

He had quit because of Mad Dog, but he had been a villain himself, after all. He knew very well how that world worked.

If you wanted something, you took it. If someone annoyed you, you killed them. Wasn't that the nature of the game?

"Be careful."

Even so, Yujong said it. He wondered what sort of madness had come over him, but suddenly noticing the bandages on Mad Dog's face kept bringing something he had merely heard back to mind.

"Pardon...?"

Hyeonyul doubted his ears. What had Yujong just babbled?

"There's word that someone is planning to attack your faction."

"Understood. Thank you."

Hyeonyul answered impassively, then let himself fall through the window.

'That Mad Dog still says thank you.'

Come to think of it, he always offered greetings and said thank you. His manners, at least, were good.

'Right. If Mad Dog is going to die, it should be by my hand, not someone else's.'

That was right. Wasn't that why he had warned him?

'But what is he doing, running around like that?'

Yujong grew curious about Mad Dog's motives, something he had never wondered about before.

'Well, he did keep showing up with injuries now and then.'

He stared at the window Hyeonyul had left through.

* * *

As soon as Hyeonyul got home, he sank down in the entryway. He took off his shoes and practically collapsed onto his back. Though the floor was cold, it felt comfortable.

'What am I doing, when I'm already working the weekend?'

As a villain, he had often done things he didn't want to do. Becoming a Black Eagle had reversed that.

'I'll overwork myself again.'

He had taken on an additional mission and voluntarily done other work too.

He forced his drooping eyes open. As a villain, he had been fine staying awake for several nights, but things were different now.

'Is it because I have more to think about? Or have I gotten too comfortable?'

Life certainly had become much easier than before. Back then, he had felt his body wearing away and injected himself with medication countless times a day. Jeongmin had constantly voiced concern.

Hyeonyul looked at his hand. It was fine. When he flexed his fingers, they moved smoothly.

'Or perhaps... '

He cut off the thoughts rising within him.

'I'll visit the figurehead president another time.'

With tomorrow in mind, he didn't think he could manage that too. He had work tomorrow as well.

Weekend work.

Hyeonyul slowly raised his body, which felt burdensomely heavy.

DRIP.

Blood fell. He exhaled and went into the bathroom. His bandage was stained bright red.

'So that's why my body felt heavy.'

He replaced it, washed, and came back out.

Moving very slowly, he climbed into bed and reached out. He used darkness to fetch his knitting yarn, then switched on the television beside him and put on an animal documentary.

A turtle appeared. His bleary eyes cleared, and his hands began their familiar movements. As the yarn intertwined, gradually forming something, he occasionally gazed blankly at the sunlight, his expression relaxed.

It was peaceful. What more did life after work need to be?

Hyeonyul picked up the phone resting above him.

BZZZZ.

"Yes, Doctor," he said, switching to speakerphone.

< Hyeonyul. >

"Yes."

< You're at home, right? >

"I'm home."

< You are, right? You're really home? >

"Yes. I can show you."

< ... Ah. Thank goodness. >

"What's wrong?"

< Well, I stopped by the supermarket for a moment and heard that a Black Eagle had attacked someone. >

"What do you mean, a Black Eagle attacked someone?"

Hyeonyul's hands stopped. Then his eyes narrowed.

"I don't attack ordinary people, only villains. You taught me that, Doctor."

< I know. I do, but you get attacked so often. How could I just ignore this when I'm worried about you? They could single you out. You didn't do it! You didn't, but people will keep saying you did! Ugh...! >

Jeongmin's voice grew steadily louder.

"Please calm down. A glass of water would help."

< Aren't you angry? >

"It's been like this for me from the beginning. I didn't expect joining the Black Eagles to go smoothly. I already anticipated this. If I get dragged into it again, so be it."

Answering calmly, he resumed knitting.

"Oh, do you prefer purple or green?"

< Green. No, Hyeonyul. This isn't something you should be so calm about. >

"I know it's a ploy to attack me and undermine the Black Eagles from within, preventing us from coming together."

Hyeonyul changed colors partway through, fetching green yarn.

< Exactly! That's what makes me angry! It's you again. All you did was join them! >

"Doctor. I actually think the more those bastards act up, the better."

< ... Better? >

"Yes. That way, they gradually reveal themselves in the muddy water. Whoever is behind them is clearly a villain. All I have to do is kill them."

Whatever they did, the conclusion never changed. No matter what schemes or methods villains used, their target was the Empire.

Spreading drugs corrupted ordinary people, making them more likely to become villains. It was partly a means of securing manpower, but it was also an attack intended to expose the Black Eagles' incompetence. Mercilessly killing people was the same kind of attack.

Why hadn't they stopped it? Why hadn't they responded?

Such disparagement was meant to shake the organization from within, again and again.

But this time looked a little different.

"The Black Eagles will likely think former Black Eagles are responsible for this attack. But I don't see it that way."

< ... You don't? >

"No. Villains who heard the former Black Eagles were causing trouble are attacking. The former Black Eagles will take the blame anyway. Why would they pass up such a good opportunity?"

Through Yujong, he had put out word suggesting that former Black Eagles had formed a group and were trying to insert themselves into villain factions. He had said the information could be shared freely, so why wouldn't it have spread?

The moment villains saw it, they would surely have thought:

This is it.

< So you're saying the villains are exploiting this again? >

"Yes. That's what's happening."

< I really hope you don't get caught in the fallout. >

"I will. But it's all right."

Hyeonyul looked at the messages appearing on his phone.

[Team Leader Oh Haeryeon: Hyeonyul.]

[Team Leader Oh Haeryeon: I don't know whether you saw it today, but an article briefly went up spouting nonsense about a Black Eagle attacking a civilian.]

[Team Leader Oh Haeryeon: It's fake. We'll find whoever is behind it, and a complaint has been filed against the news outlet that published it.]

[Team Leader Oh Haeryeon: We absolutely won't let any fallout reach you, so don't worry, and tomorrow.]

Haeryeon stopped her stream of messages and suddenly sent a sweating squirrel emoji.

[Team Leader Oh Haeryeon: Tomorrow... let's come to work.]

She sent the same emoji twice more.

< ... Do you really think so? >

"Yes, I do. The Team Leader just sent me a message telling me not to worry."

< T-Team Leader Haeryeon did? >

"Yes."

After answering, Hyeonyul let out a long breath.

< Why? What's wrong? Did she send something else? >

"No. I have another weekend shift tomorrow."

< ... I'd better hang up. Make sure you eat properly. Actually, would you like to come over for dinner? I'll make you something good. >

"I'll come."

< All right. I'll be waiting. >

"Yes."

Hyeonyul waited for Jeongmin to hang up first. When he looked at his phone, more messages had arrived in the meantime.

[Senior Chu Nayun: Are they out of their fucking minds?]

[Senior Chu Nayun: Hyeonyul. If they spout that bullshit about you again, I won't let them get away with it.]

[Senior Chu Nayun: Hey, Baek Sinu! Go quietly cut their Achilles tendons. I'll keep watch.]

[Senior Baek Sinu: You mean it, right?]

[Senior Baek Sinu: You won't stop me?]

[Senior Chu Nayun: Of course not!]

Nayun sent several emojis of a cat clawing at something.

[Senior Ye Jihwan: I want to do it too.]

[Senior Ye Jihwan: It's fine as long as we don't get caught.]

[Senior Chu Nayun: Not you, Jihwan!]

[Senior Baek Sinu: No!]

'...?'

Hyeonyul didn't know why they were trying to exclude Jihwan, but he moved his thumb.

[I'll join you too.]

This concerned him. Naturally, he should do it himself.

[Senior Baek Sinu: You can't either!]

[Senior Chu Nayun: I said no, Hyeonyul!]

[Senior Ye Jihwan: You shouldn't do it, Bro Hyeonyul.]

[Team Leader Oh Haeryeon: Please hold back, Hyeonyul.]

But the response was cold. Everyone was intent on stopping him. He rubbed his eyebrow.

'Why are they leaving only me out?'

Getting along with coworkers seemed very difficult. He had thought he was getting closer to what it meant to be friends.

Apparently, he still had a long way to go.

[Understood. I won't do it.]

'I'll stop by the Bomber's tomorrow morning before work.'

Hyeonyul lowered his phone.