* * *

“What is this?”

Hyeonyul examined the object as he accepted it from Jihwan.

'A ballpoint pen?'

It looked somewhat like one, but it was clearly different.

“Press the end like you would a ballpoint pen, and it'll produce a mana reaction. That will let me tell where you are, Bro.”

“I'll press it twice for a villain and three times for a civilian.”

“Bro.”

“Yes?”

“You don't have to take everything on alone.”

“I know. Aren't you going to use spatial magic based on this?”

“That's right. Once you let me know, I'll clear them out and freeze them. But let's head out together.”

“Why do we need to do that?” Hyeonyul asked, puzzled.

“Because we're teammates.”

Jihwan held out a closed fist.

“You too, Bro.”

After a moment's hesitation, Hyeonyul held out his own fist, and Jihwan gently bumped it. When Hyeonyul's eyes widened, Jihwan laughed heartily.

* * *

Hyeonyul looked at the building.

This time, the people involved were school students rather than university students. In other words, minors. They looked no different from adults, but legally, they were.

There were minors who operated as villains, too. He hadn't killed them. He had simply taken them away and left them outside a police station. He didn't know whether the police had contacted the Black Eagles afterward or what else had happened.

The Black Eagles were no different. Those who became villains while still minors were to be “arrested.” Honestly, he did have questions about that.

Once they were old enough not to be children, surely they knew what was wrong. Did they need that much protection? Of those protected minors, would more grow into adults who regretted their actions, or adults who didn't?

He hadn't found an answer to that yet.

“Mr. Ye Jihwan.”

With a senior teammate beside him, he did want to find out. Jihwan looked up from the magical three-dimensional model of the building on his palm.

“Yes?”

“This has nothing to do with the mission, but there's something I'd like to know. Could you answer a question?”

“Of course.” Jihwan nodded.

“There have been minors who became villains, haven't there?”

“There have.”

Minors were the sole exception to the Black Eagles' special authority to kill villains; they had to be “arrested.” Of course, punishment was a separate matter.

“So what happened to the ones who were protected?”

Jihwan considered Hyeonyul's question for a moment, then looked at the building. That ordinary-looking building held both villains and students. Some students would have sided with them, while others would have known nothing.

“Statistically, the chance of becoming an ordinary civilian is about... sixty-three percent? Isn't that pretty high?”

“It is. Very high.”

Hyeonyul smiled.

Even over thirty percent would have been high, and this was twice that. It confirmed that what he had done hadn't been wrong.

He slipped a hand into his pocket and checked the pen-like object Jihwan had given him.

“Then I'll go on ahead from here.”

Looking at the crowd up ahead, Hyeonyul informed Jihwan.

“Oh, shall I clear the entrance for you?”

He asked before moving. It was something he could do before they went in.

Jihwan grinned at the question.

“Bro, I'm touched, but it's fine. That's not the only entrance.”

“It isn't?”

“And I'm a mage.”

Jihwan's smile slowly took on a weightier air.

“Anywhere I go can become a door.”

“Is that so?”

Hyeonyul smiled back, then walked forward.

The White Sparrows and police were facing off against the villains. Surrender. Release the hostages. Those noisy demands went back and forth.

'Are these villains weak? Or do they have something else up their sleeves? Or are the hostages already dead?'

The police and White Sparrows had worked together to expose the villains' plans, leaving them on the verge of ruin. The villains he knew didn't take hostages. Hostages were merely a means of buying time.

Hadn't he already confirmed that on his first official mission as a Black Eagle? The residents of the apartment building had supposedly been taken hostage, but they had all been killed already. Once the hostages died, all the evidence disappeared, too. How simple.

But the magic Jihwan had shown him indicated dozens of people on one floor. Common sense dictated that the hostages were alive.

'How should I interpret this?'

Hyeonyul thought for a moment as he moved right up to the building. Black smoke drifted around his body. As he moved inside, as though melting into the building, Jihwan appeared with a cough.

Everyone looked at Jihwan. Noticing the sudden shift in their attention, the villain facing them looked at him as well.

A Black Eagle.

“You're back, you Eagle bastard!”

The villain raised his voice and openly aimed a knife at the student he was holding captive.

Jihwan borrowed a megaphone.

“Hello, villains. I'm the Black Eagle you've been waiting for. Give me a nice, welcoming greeting.”

“Shut up!”

“How rude. Even villains ought to have manners.”

“How many times do we have to tell you we're not villains? We keep saying we're not, so why are you treating us like villains...!”

“Oh, really? Have they been saying that this whole time?”

Jihwan spoke without lowering the megaphone. This was the first he'd heard of it.

“Could you lower the megaphone...”

“Go ahead.”

Jihwan looked at the White Sparrow.

“Yes. That's what they claim, but our investigation with the police clearly establishes that they are villains.”

“What evidence do you have?”

At Jihwan's question, the White Sparrow fumbled for something.

“We have documentation.”

“Documentation?”

“First, the villains...”

Jihwan turned the megaphone toward the White Sparrow. Briefly flustered, the White Sparrow took it and continued.

“Not only did they defend villains, they also forced members to post on online communities claiming that the Black Eagles are actually creating villains. They said it was the only way to increase their rank. Most of the other things members had to do to increase their rank were along similar lines.”

“That certainly sounds suspicious. The Empire broadly classifies people who defend villains as potential villains, too.”

As Jihwan nodded, pretending to consider the matter, something close to a scream came from the villains' side.

“We're not! We're not villains!”

“If you're not, why are you holding students hostage?”

Jihwan asked, but no answer came. All he heard were more denials.

The distinction between a criminal and a villain could be called razor-thin. The dividing line was whether their actions attacked the Empire. The White Sparrows existed to make those determinations accurately. This was clearly the result of days or weeks of investigation.

In other words, that documentation couldn't be false.

“It seems you don't have a reason. In that case, I'll carry out my duties without hesitation.”

Jihwan smiled as he lowered the megaphone.

* * *

Hyeonyul had already checked the hostages' locations using Jihwan's magic. Many were locked in a room. Apparently preparing for various eventualities, the villains had gathered the hostages into a single room on each floor.

Hidden inside the wall, Hyeonyul waited to get a sense of the overall atmosphere. It was the very typical scene that unfolded when people were taken hostage. Some cried, while others trembled in fear. He couldn't call it fake. There was no reason to go this far with an act.

“... Teacher, you shouldn't be doing this. Why are you suddenly acting this way?”

One student asked through tears. It seemed to have taken tremendous courage.

“Quiet!”

“But... we were having class just a little while ago.”

The student looked toward the classroom's blackboard. Mathematical formulas covered it, suggesting that a lesson really had been underway.

“I told you to shut your mouth, didn't I?”

The apparent teacher approached the student and struck them across the face.

SMACK

The student took the blow and stared blankly, tears dripping down their face. Quiet sobbing followed.

“I told you to shut up, didn't I? Just let me hear anyone crying. Then you're all dead!”

Even though the scene still couldn't be mistaken for an act, Hyeonyul watched without moving. He went up to the ceiling and looked down. Not content with binding everyone's hands and feet, they had blindfolded them as well. Both the blindfolds and the blow to the student were meant to maximize their fear.

'But not all of them are hostages.'

Hyeonyul saw about three students clutching something. Whatever those objects were, they should certainly have been confiscated, but they hadn't been. He needed to check whether the students were on the villains' side or had been deliberately given the objects.

He didn't know what they were holding, but taking it was easy. Anything held in a closed hand cast a shadow. Hyeonyul used that shadow to swallow the object.

“...?”

The reaction was immediate, so Hyeonyul also used the object Jihwan had given him.

CLICK

He took the other two students' objects in the same way and used the pen. Its clicking was drowned out by the crying. After also signaling the villains' locations, Hyeonyul examined the objects inside the darkness.

'Miniature bombs...?'

He didn't know what was inside, but he could only regard these objects, smaller than a finger, as bombs.

'Were they going to detonate them when the hostages were taken away? Or now?'

Hyeonyul set those thoughts aside for now and used his wireless earpiece.

<Mr. Ye Jihwan.>

<Go ahead, Bro.>

The three students whose objects had been taken moved at the same time. They seemed to be signaling that something was wrong. At their actions, the villains exchanged looks. They appeared to be considering how to take them aside.

At the very least, those three students were on their side.

<Looking at just the first floor, not everyone is a hostage.>

<... Ha.>

Jihwan let out a long sigh over the channel.

<Why aren't they? I was hoping that wouldn't be the case.>

<That's not all. I've found what appear to be bombs.>

<... What?>

<I'll give you the objects for examination. I'll wait where we spoke earlier.>

Ending the exchange there, Hyeonyul traveled through the shadows to that spot. Moving was utterly natural in the darkness of the predawn hours. He waited quietly.

'I'll release the hostages first, then check the next floor.'

“... Bro!”

Jihwan ran toward Hyeonyul.

“You're here?”

“What do you mean, bombs?”

In answer, Hyeonyul opened his closed hand. Three objects, each smaller than a finger, lay in his palm.

“Please give these to the manager. They're bombs, so please handle them carefully.”

“These...?”

“Yes.”

With that answer, Hyeonyul handed them to Jihwan, who carefully took the bombs.

“I'll go back and release the first-floor hostages.”

“Then I'll handle the villains you marked on the first floor. You can focus on freeing the hostages, Bro.”

Jihwan spoke with surprising composure. That quick understanding was very welcome.

“Understood.”

“Oh, you can still reach the second floor even if I block off the first, right?”

“Yes. I can.”

“That's my Bro!”

Jihwan beamed.

“Then I'll deliver these...”

Jihwan turned his head for only a moment, then looked back at Hyeonyul, but he was already gone.

'He's incredibly fast.'

Jihwan didn't know how he'd done it, but already knew his power was far from ordinary. It was best not to ask, and to pretend not to notice. It wasn't a power Hyeonyul had wanted to obtain.

Jihwan strode briskly forward, then slowed as he became conscious of the bombs in his hand.

'These feel a little... heavy. Is it just my imagination?'

Oh, right.

Setting the bombs on the ground for a moment, Jihwan sat down. When he opened his hand, a three-dimensional image of the building appeared. He could see Hyeonyul's marks on the first floor. He touched the red dots one by one. Long, threadlike lines appeared, along with a magic circle on the ground where he sat. He wove the threads together, pulled them, and drove them down beneath the ground.

'Appear.'

THUD

A faint noise sounded.

As space began to warp, Jihwan quickly picked up the bombs and extended a hand. Human forms appeared in a circular space visible only to him.

'Now!'

He stripped away the heat in one stroke. Ice formed, and winter descended on that spot alone. White breath flowed from Jihwan's mouth.

“What is...”

The surging cold swallowed even the words of the summoned villains, leaving them unable to resist. They all stared at Jihwan in shock, but he didn't stop his magic. Once they had all stiffened like rigid dolls, he approached to check whether they were breathing.

'Good. They're breathing.'

Relieved, Jihwan raised his voice.

“Manager! Manager!”

They needed to be thawed quickly, before they died. Jihwan hurried off at a run, then slowed as he remembered the bombs.

* * *

Having arrived first and hidden inside the wall, Hyeonyul waited for Jihwan's magic. A heavy sensation came over him as magical formulas inscribed themselves in midair.

'Here it comes.'

Just as power seemed to gather above the heads of the villains and those suspected of conspiring with them, a ripple passed through the air, and they all vanished. It was a portal-like power, but it didn't produce a portal-like effect.

'Could I resist that power?'

Hyeonyul considered various ways to counter it. It was simply an old habit.

As the sudden disappearance caused a commotion, Hyeonyul shook off his thoughts and emerged from the wall as though nothing had happened. With neither footsteps nor any sign of his presence, he was difficult to notice immediately. When the students belatedly realized he had approached, they didn't scream. They merely clamped their mouths shut.

“I'm a Black Eagle.”

Hyeonyul identified himself and turned slightly so they could see his insignia clearly.

“A Black... Eagle?”

The look in their eyes changed.

“Yes. Please keep your voices as low as possible. I'll free you now.”

SNAP

At the snap of his fingers, darkness rose from the shadows and cut the cords around their hands and feet all at once.

As the students reacted in surprise, Hyeonyul turned his head. A new door had appeared. Was this Jihwan's power, too? Magic was truly wondrous, no matter how often he saw it.

“Please follow me.”

Hyeonyul took the lead and reached for the handle. An odd feeling made him look back, but the students were simply watching him.

A sense of unease lingered. It was far too faint to be some sort of power. Was it merely their gazes?

'... What is it?'

Keeping his senses sharp, Hyeonyul opened the door—and hastily thrust out a hand. An unfamiliar sensation arose in his palm.

SHUNK

There had been no killing intent. No metallic smell, either. But there had been the sound of air moving. A sharp sound.

“I stabbed a Black Eagle.”

The student who had pierced Hyeonyul's palm laughed.

HA HA HA

“I avenged my mom!”

At those words, laughter spread to the other students, settling over the room like music. Applause joined it in harmony.

CLAP CLAP CLAP

Surrounding Hyeonyul, the applause spread further and further.