* * *

Without letting the atmosphere sweep him along, Hyeonyul quickly assessed the situation. The wound wasn't particularly deep. Looking down, he saw three fingers piercing his glove. It had been reinforced enough to withstand a bomb blast. The fact that those nails had penetrated it spoke to their incredible strength.

'About half a finger joint deep?'

Apparently, the student's ability was something like sharpening their nails, but there was no smell of drugs. How had they pierced his glove? For now, the reason didn't matter. What mattered was that they had.

Watching the student charge at him, Hyeonyul hid himself inside the wall.

'Ah.'

BANG!

Watching the student pound wildly on the wall, Hyeonyul finally understood everything.

'They were trying to use the students to kill the Black Eagles.'

Students. In other words, people they were supposed to protect. With the students being held hostage, who would readily assume that they, too, were villains? Apparently, the plan relied on that alone making the Black Eagles lower their guard.

It was an excellent method. Even he might have let his guard down if not for that uneasy feeling. No, if he hadn't heard the rush of air, he might already have turned his back on them. Because they were students, his options for dealing with them were limited. How was that any different from fighting with his hands tied?

"Should we just smash the wall?"

The student was laughing.

HA HA HA!

The laughter never stopped.

"Shall we?"

"Let's!"

"Yeah, great! Let's do it!"

"Smash it. Smash it to pieces. We're going to smash it!"

There seemed to be madness in them. Was it brainwashing? Yet something was different. It wasn't drugs, nor was it a power. If it was neither, what on earth was this? The emotion in their eyes was fierce. It looked like a thirst for revenge.

Watching them strike the wall mercilessly, Hyeonyul decided to head to Jihwan for now. This was something he had never experienced before. Normally, he could simply take them all into his darkness, but right now he was wearing a Black Eagles uniform.

* * *

Hyeonyul quietly appeared beside Jihwan. Blood dripped from his hand. He took off his glove and immediately pulled out a syringe to inject himself. It wouldn't stop the bleeding right away, but it was better than doing nothing.

"There are no students. Only villains in there."

"..."

Jihwan froze at the sight of Hyeonyul's hand.

"I don't know whether to call it brainwashing. They are definitely reacting to certain words. It's strange."

"... B-Bro."

"Yes."

"Are you... okay? What... what happened?"

Something was wrong with Hyeonyul's palm.

"A student stabbed me. If you look here..."

"Manager!"

Jihwan called for the White Sparrows. Seeing Jihwan's deathly pale face, Hyeonyul immediately spoke up.

"I'm fine."

"... No, you're not."

Jihwan desperately suppressed the urge to raise his voice.

["There's something all of you need to hear. It's about Hyeonyul's physical condition."]

While Hyeonyul was attending a theory class, Haeryeon had once gathered everyone to speak to them.

["A side effect of the experiments keeps his blood from clotting properly, so even a small wound can be dangerous. If he's bleeding, I want you to take him off the mission immediately."]

How did that make any sense? Jihwan had thought the same thing back then. Blood transfusions were essential for anyone subjected to experiments. Surely they would change the body to make wounds heal better, so the fact that his bleeding wouldn't stop was quite contradictory. Hyeonyul's body was covered in scars. There was no telling how extensively they had torn him apart.

"I've administered first aid."

Hyeonyul looked at his palm, drawing his eyebrows slightly inward.

"That's not the point, Bro. You're still dripping blood."

As a stopgap, Jihwan took medicine from the first-aid kit a White Sparrow had given him, applied it, and quickly wrapped the hand in bandages.

"That's normal for me."

Hyeonyul answered calmly. The bleeding wouldn't stop until the wound healed completely. His wounds didn't heal gradually. They simply healed all at once at a random moment, so even he didn't know when it would happen. It was easiest to assume that most wounds requiring urgent attention would invariably heal within a day.

"Bro. There's nothing normal about this."

"This isn't important right n—"

"It is important! It's incredibly important!"

Jihwan finally raised his voice. His gaze hardened, too.

"Bro. Your health matters more. Nothing is worth trading your life for. So step away from the mission. Manager, please take him back to the Nest."

Hyeonyul's expression rapidly hardened. Being taken off a mission. There was nothing he hated hearing more. How was that any different from being told he was useless?

"I cannot do that."

"Bro! You're still bleeding!"

Though the bandages had only just been wrapped, they were already entirely red. Jihwan feared he might go into shock at this rate.

"This poses no problem whatsoever. Doing this is itself a waste of time. I clearly told you beforehand that my physical condition would not interfere with carrying out missions."

"That's not it, Bro. I'm trying to protect you and keep you safe."

"There is no need."

Hyeonyul gave Jihwan a cold look. Once he was excluded the first time, it would be far easier from the second time onward. He couldn't allow that.

"I'll pick up the pace to resolve the mission."

Hyeonyul's firm words made Jihwan feel like heaving a long sigh. Why was he so defensive about being told to take care of himself? Those eyes said he would never quit the mission, no matter what Jihwan said. As Jihwan wondered what to do, his frustration slipped out.

"... You're stubborn as a mule, Bro."

"Am I?"

"I'm not asking. I'm telling you."

"While we argue like this, the situation inside will be changing. There is a very strong possibility that everyone we identified as a hostage has become a villain."

"Bro. Doctor Jeongmin will scold you if you keep going with the mission like this."

"... He will."

Hyeonyul answered hesitantly.

His palm had been pierced. It was still bleeding. Jeongmin might smack his own forehead when he saw it.

"That may be so, but the mission must continue. This is what I'm here for."

To earn his salary and everything he currently enjoyed, he had to prove how useful he was. Wouldn't being taken off a mission over one injured hand amount to announcing that he was useless?

"Isn't that what all of us are here for?"

Despite his appeal, Jihwan's expression remained stiff. What on earth was he imagining? Hyeonyul couldn't read his thoughts. With no other choice, he unwound the bandages. Seeing the flowing blood made the crease between Jihwan's brows deepen further. Hyeonyul took out his own first-aid box. With practiced movements, he applied a large adhesive dressing and wrapped it in bandages.

"This dressing was made specifically for me. Do you see? The blood is no longer seeping through."

Hyeonyul held out his bandaged hand and waved it about. It would keep this amount of blood from leaking for fifteen minutes at most.

"Have you calmed down now?"

Instead, Hyeonyul was the one asking Jihwan.

It was a serious wound for him, but not for an ordinary person. Jihwan should have viewed it as something a hospital could fix.

'... Ah, the Team Leader must have told him.'

Only then did Hyeonyul understand the situation and look around. Everyone was watching him with peculiar expressions. They were so unfamiliar to him that he struggled to recognize them.

"I'll explain the situation inside again."

What Hyeonyul could do now was help them understand the unfolding situation.

"After I freed the students I believed were hostages and was about to escape, one of them stabbed my palm."

"... Did you perhaps fail to notice?"

A White Sparrow asked cautiously.

His opponent had been a student. Abilities generally reached maturity in adulthood, so students were relatively weaker than adults. Exceptions existed, but this man was a Black Eagle. The question was inevitable.

"Correct. No drugs were used, nor was any power acting on them. They simply changed abruptly. It was a situation where anyone could have let their guard down, like someone approaching with a smile and then stabbing you."

"Is it brainwashing?"

Jihwan's expression was still troubled. Yet this was information he needed to hear, leaving him with mixed emotions.

"I don't know. It felt different from ordinary brainwashing. A thirst for revenge. That is the emotion I saw in those students' eyes."

"Revenge...?"

Jihwan couldn't make sense of any of this. Why would they want revenge against the Black Eagles?

"What matters is that the students are no longer hostages. They could turn on us and attack at any moment. However, they are also hostile to the group that held them hostage."

The police and White Sparrows were appalled by Hyeonyul's words. What kind of bizarre relationship was that?

"To summarize further, the students and the Black Eagles are enemies. Those villains and the students are also enemies. The villains are enemies of the Black Eagles as well."

Students versus Black Eagles.

Villains versus students.

Villains versus Black Eagles.

A strange three-way conflict had emerged. Hyeonyul looked at Jihwan.

"The villains can kill the students as hostages whenever they wish. But the Black Eagles must rescue the students, while also facing attacks from those same students."

"... That's a tricky situation."

Jihwan finally managed to speak. They had to rescue the students, yet could be attacked by them.

"In that case, should we classify students who attack the Black Eagles as villains?"

Hyeonyul raised the most important issue. Given that they had attacked the Black Eagles, the students could no longer be afforded protection.

"It's too early to say for certain. So we can't kill them."

Jihwan quickly assessed the situation and reached a conclusion.

"Understood. I'll recover the bombs the students are carrying, then deal with the villains first."

Hyeonyul answered just as quickly. Their priorities hadn't changed. Only the sequence had.

"Let's go in together, Bro."

Jihwan believed speed was important. That required close cooperation, rather than acting as they had earlier.

"Very well. We'll need to subdue the students on the first floor first. Do you have a way?"

Putting the students inside his darkness was dangerous. Or could he simply knock them all unconscious at once?

"Don't worry, Bro. Just follow me."

With a rather smug smile, Jihwan led Hyeonyul away.

Once they disappeared, the White Sparrows looked at one another. The Black Eagles and the White Sparrows were both here for the mission. Hyeonyul's earlier words had stirred something strange in their hearts. Given what the White Sparrows had done, their relationship with Team Three could hardly be good. Yet hadn't his saying that amounted to acknowledging them? Their view of Team Three was changing.

* * *

Jihwan opened a door, and Hyeonyul entered through it. As soon as it closed, the door in the wall vanished. Jihwan had connected that door to the floor.

"Is your mana all right?"

"..."

"Mr. Ye Jihwan?"

"... Yes?"

Jihwan snapped out of his daze and spoke in surprise.

"Is your mana all right?"

"It's fine. Thank you for worrying."

Jihwan smiled. This much was manageable.

"I've heard that running out of mana is very painful."

"It hurts, but I have plenty of mana. What scares me most isn't running out. It's the dazed spells that strike without warning. They leave me wide open in an instant, you know?"

"Does that only happen when you use magic?"

"That's when it happens most often."

"... Ah, one moment."

After checking the time, Hyeonyul took out a syringe and medicine.

"Take your time, Bro."

Jihwan opened his palm to display the 3D map. With his other hand, he drew a square around the area where the students were gathered.

"I learned this kind of magic for just such an occasion. No one will be able to get out."

Jihwan didn't stop there. That space now belonged to him. He took away its air. People tended to faint when oxygen suddenly grew scarce.

Hyeonyul paused while injecting his abdomen as he heard the sound of bodies falling. It didn't sound ordinary.

"That's right. That was me, Bro."

Jihwan's smile widened.

"I didn't lay a finger on them. This way, we'll be fine even if their parents complain."

"They complain?"

"They do. We're civil servants, after all. We have to at least pretend to listen to the public."

"No, I mean, they complain even in situations like this?"

They had saved students who could have died. In other words, they had saved those people's children's lives.

"They do. But the complaints don't reach us personally."

"Why is that?"

"It was a long time ago, but one Black Eagle took their own life after receiving fierce complaints and criticism from the public. That's why they don't come to us."

"So you literally mean you only pretend?"

"Exactly. Anyway, I hate people who complain. It's not as if they're complaining about something reasonable. They'd understand if they thought just once before complaining, but I don't know why they won't. Their children aren't the only children in the world, are they?"

"Aren't they usually called nightmare customers? I've seen them in videos."

"It's worse for us. They actually try to kill us, as if we're their sworn enemies. Say a company run by villains disappears—they blame us for it."

"I don't understand."

"Sometimes I don't either. The villains are the ones they should really blame."

Jihwan chuckled in agreement with Hyeonyul. Perhaps it was because they seemed like easy targets, while the villains frightened people.

"Then I'll go to the second floor and recover the bombs first."

"I'll wait a little."

Jihwan decided to stay on the first floor until Hyeonyul had marked everyone. It would be disastrous if he wandered around the second floor with him and got spotted.

"Oh, I spoke to the villains earlier, and they said they aren't villains. Though anyone would call them villains after looking at the documents the managers gave us."

Hyeonyul considered that briefly, but found no answer.

"I'll find out."

With those words, Hyeonyul seeped into the wall.

'... How is he going to find out?'

Jihwan wondered as he stared at the wall where Hyeonyul had disappeared.

* * *

The second floor.

Hyeonyul found students carrying bombs here as well. He wondered how it differed from the first floor. The moment he told Jihwan the villains' locations, he felt magic being used. Formulas appeared on the wall, and a door suddenly opened.

"You're all going to freeze."

Jihwan drained the heat from the villains Hyeonyul had marked.

HISSS...

Cold spread rapidly through their bodies, beginning at their feet.

As Jihwan grinned at the sight of their bodies stiffening, he saw one of them charge toward him.

"...!"

Before Jihwan could use magic, a loud noise rang out.

BANG!

Hyeonyul grabbed the villain by the scruff of the neck and slammed him into the wall.

"I deliberately left him unmarked."

"What?"

"We need to ask, don't we? I needed one of them."