* * *

"... Wait, Bro."

Jihwan had just told him that they denied being villains, but he hadn't expected him to slam an enemy's head into the wall. Startled, Jihwan hurriedly cast magic on the wall.

"There are students here."

Despite having cast a spell to contain the sound, Jihwan unconsciously lowered his voice.

"I know."

"You know?"

"I wanted to show them."

Hyeonyul pointed at the students. They were trembling with anxiety after what he had just done.

"Go listen to them for a moment."

At Hyeonyul's words, Jihwan moved away. Once outside the spell's range, he could hear the students.

"... Mom. Mom!"

"Please save us! Please save us!"

"... Hic."

Anyone could see they were terrified. How could this possibly be an act? What Hyeonyul had told him felt like a lie.

'... Those students really attacked Hyeonyul?'

Looking confused, Jihwan walked back.

"Did you hear them?"

"... I did."

"Doesn't it seem as though I lied?"

"... Hmm."

"You can be honest."

"It does... feel that way."

Jihwan responded as though it pained him to say it. He didn't want to doubt him. Weren't they on the same team?

"Tell them the Black Eagles are here. Then you'll understand what I mean. But don't untie them. You'll get hurt. You mustn't let those words and emotions fool you."

"... All right."

Hiding his unease, Jihwan stepped outside the spell's range again. The students were still crying out to be saved. Seeing them blindfolded on top of having their hands and feet bound made his heart pound anxiously. He wanted to rescue them quickly.

"I'm a Black Eagle. Just a moment. I'll get you out soon."

Jihwan spoke as he approached. For an instant, he felt an inexplicable chill.

'Didn't... the crying stop?'

Was he imagining it?

"... Ha. We're saved. We're saved!"

"Hurry and untie us! Please!"

"Our teacher betrayed us! They tried to kill us...!"

Some expressed relief, others begged to be saved, and others protested the wrong done to them. It was a familiar scene, but one that moved him nonetheless. How frightened must they have been?

Yet that earlier chill kept lingering in his mind. Was it because of what Hyeonyul had said? An inexplicable uneasiness enveloped him.

'Bro told me not to untie them.'

Thinking Hyeonyul wouldn't have said that without reason, Jihwan deliberately drew closer, pretending he was going to free them.

"... Hurry and untie me."

"Just a moment."

As Jihwan bent down at the student's urging, the cord binding the student's hands came loose, and the student lunged at him. It was no different from a wild beast.

Jihwan calmly aimed a finger. The student was flung backward. He hurriedly drew a line, creating an invisible wall.

BANG!

CRASH!

"..."

Jihwan took a long breath as he looked at the students. More unsettling than the way they pounded on the wall was the way they stared at him. Even villains had never looked at him like that.

Revenge.

Only now did he understand what Hyeonyul had meant. His heart raced.

'... What is going on?'

"Did you see?"

Hyeonyul's voice reached him. He approached, dragging the villain by the neck.

"That's the state they're in. Isn't it strange?"

"Very strange..."

Jihwan lowered his gaze.

"What would you call this?"

Hyeonyul threw the man to the floor and planted his foot on the back of his neck, pressing down firmly. The villain, who had been flapping both arms like wings, went still under the pressure on his neck.

"The moment you use your power, I'll break it. If you try to get up, I'll break it too."

Hyeonyul pressed harder with his foot as he warned him.

"I will do it."

He had made himself clear. If the man did it anyway, shouldn't he demonstrate exactly what he'd warned him of?

Hyeonyul raised his head to look at Jihwan.

"Can you restrain just one of them?"

"You can't do that to a student, Bro."

"I know. Shouldn't we hear what they have to say? That will help us understand the situation faster."

Jihwan looked at the students, then glanced at the man whose neck was pinned beneath Hyeonyul's foot. Was this really the right way to act? The thought crossed his mind, but they certainly didn't have time to spare.

"Leave it to me."

"Yes, thank you."

After thanking him, Hyeonyul looked at the man. He seemed somewhat flustered.

"Now that you've heard everything, speak. If you're not villains, what are you? What are you doing here?"

"... Who knows? What are we? What are we doing?"

Hyeonyul tilted his head at the strange reply. Did he think this was a joke?

"Can you even break my neck?"

The man sneered at Hyeonyul.

"Go on, then. Do it."

The repeated provocations briefly changed Hyeonyul's thinking.

'Is he really not a villain?'

From meeting numerous villains as a Black Eagle, he knew they resented the Black Eagles' actions and sometimes even found them laughable. He had also seen their assumption that surely a Black Eagle wouldn't actually break their neck.

But this man went beyond assumption. He was certain. He firmly believed a Black Eagle would never do it.

'Why is he so sure?'

Hyeonyul wanted to turn this suspicion into certainty. He raised a dagger threateningly, but the man kept sneering at him. His expression said it all: Surely you wouldn't do it.

Then he would have to show him.

"It will be loud for a moment."

Hyeonyul warned Jihwan so he wouldn't be startled, then brought out the dagger. Without hesitation, he drove it into the back of the man's hand.

"Aaaaaargh!"

The scream startled Jihwan—and the man whose hand had been stabbed was just as shocked. He reacted as though something impossible had happened. It was a subtle difference from a villain's response, but a difference nonetheless.

Only then was Hyeonyul certain.

"You deny it, but you are a villain."

He didn't bother bringing up the definition of a villain. The White Sparrows would know that better than he did. Trusting the experts was important.

"Even if you used to be a Black Eagle, that isn't proof that you're not a villain."

Both the man and Jihwan looked shocked at Hyeonyul's remark. Jihwan stopped casting his spell on a student and approached him.

"Why are you surprised? Did you think I wouldn't even know that?"

A trace of laughter colored Hyeonyul's voice as he looked at the man.

"... He used to be a Black Eagle? Really?"

Jihwan sounded incredulous.

"Yes. There are quite a few former Black Eagles among the villains. They're particularly vicious because they know the Black Eagles. You're aware of that, aren't you?"

"This is my first time... seeing one in person."

"You've probably seen plenty. They wouldn't tell you they used to be Black Eagles. If you've encountered anyone unusually difficult to take down on a mission, most of them were probably former Black Eagles."

"... Shut your mouth."

The man spoke with blood running from his nose, and Hyeonyul sneered.

"Look. He's getting defensive. They once led the charge in eliminating villains, yet now they deny becoming villains themselves. Isn't it ridiculous? That's why they spout this nonsense about not being villains. Isn't that right?"

Hyeonyul looked down.

"... You idiots. The Black Eagles aren't justice. Why are you falling for this? Look at what you're doing! Look!"

The man bellowed pompously, as though lecturing them. He was exceedingly loud.

"I met someone spouting the same nonsense recently."

The familiar words inevitably brought someone to Hyeonyul's mind. He knew an idiot who had repeatedly told him the Black Eagles weren't justice.

"The Poison King."

The moment that name came up, the man raised his voice.

"Don't put me on the same level as that piece of trash!"

"What's the difference? I told him this too, but who decides what justice is? Is threatening, beating, and trying to kill minors your idea of justice?"

This? This garbage?

Hyeonyul was incredulous. What came next was obvious. He knew the man would spout bullshit about necessary means or some noble mission, but he waited for Jihwan's sake. This was something one had to see firsthand to understand.

"Do you think we wanted to do this? This is the path for everyone's sake. Everyone's being manipulated by what the Black Eagles say, and by the Empire that defends them."

The man spouted exactly what Hyeonyul had expected. Hyeonyul looked at Jihwan. His expression was hardening.

"There was a time when I thought the Black Eagles were justice too. ... But they're not. The Black Eagles are evil instead...! An evil that must disappear before the villains do!"

He raised his voice in a furious shout. Once he started talking, he could hardly stop. It seemed more as though he was releasing words he had spent his life holding back.

"Do you know what the Black Eagles did? They made deals with villains! They were fostering villains for their own safety! Even when our teammates died, when other Black Eagles died, we believed in one thing—that we were serving the Empire and its citizens. We kept moving forward in silence with only that belief, but it wasn't true...!"

Despite the man's heartfelt outburst, Hyeonyul watched impassively. Whatever he had seen, to Hyeonyul, a former villain, it was bullshit. The Black Eagles were the ones villains hated. How often had they cursed them for interfering with every single thing they did?

Villains and Black Eagles joining hands? They were oil and water. They could never stand side by side.

Still, though the claim that the Black Eagles fostered villains was absurd, he could understand the reasoning. Wouldn't the Black Eagles disband once the villains disappeared?

'But I don't think it's time to worry about that.'

There were still far too many villains to consider that possibility. It wouldn't be too late to think about it once almost all of them had been caught.

"The Black Eagles deceived us! They insulted our deaths...! They took my pride and everything else away! What was everything we did? What the hell were we working for?"

"What did you see?"

Hyeonyul was curious about what had driven him this far. What could he have seen?

"Do you have any evidence?"

At the follow-up question, the man fell so quiet it was hard to believe he had been screaming desperately just moments before.

"...?"

Hyeonyul looked at him. He was afraid. But that wasn't important right now.

"I asked what you saw."

"... I can't tell you. I can't talk about that."

"Then it can't be helped."

Hyeonyul spoke as if he were backing down, but the foot pinning the man's neck didn't budge.

"I used to be a villain."

The man flinched at Hyeonyul's words.

"You say the Black Eagles deceived you and took things from you, but do you know how ridiculous that sounds? If you want something, take it. If someone gets in your way, kill them. That's essentially a villain's fundamental ideology. Even if the Black Eagles did those things, I don't see what makes you any different from a villain."

"Shut up! Putting me on the same level as a villain..."

"You've stared too deeply into the abyss. You've already become a monster."

WHACK!

Deciding there was nothing more worth hearing, Hyeonyul lifted his foot and kicked the man in the face. After confirming he was unconscious, he looked at Jihwan. His face had gone deathly pale. Was it really that shocking?

"Don't let him sway you."

"... It's a bit of a shock."

"What he said may or may not be true. When we don't know the truth, that's all we can conclude. But remember this: the Poison King said the same thing."

The Poison King was a major figure. The mere fact that the man was saying similar things to someone of that stature made the situation deeply strange. When Jihwan still hesitated, Hyeonyul continued.

"If even this man is saying it, shouldn't we suspect that someone is deliberately creating this situation?"

"I'll leave open the possibility that some Black Eagles... did those things, but I believe in the Black Eagles themselves. They were the ones who saved me."

At last, Jihwan smiled. How could he forget that moment? The black uniforms had looked like reapers who had come to end everything. But far from being reapers, they had been light itself, giving him a new life.

"And you're right, Bro. They may have been Black Eagles, but now they're villains."

Hadn't they reduced the students to this state? That alone stripped them of any right to say anything.

"Then it's time to hear from a student. But first, we'll have to change the order."

Hyeonyul took a radio from the man's body.

BZZZT.

Someone was calling. It wasn't a good sign.

The third, fourth, and fifth floors.

It was time to subdue them quickly.

* * *

The fifth floor.

Hyeonyul appeared behind the man holding a student hostage. He was the same man Hyeonyul had seen before entering the building.

"Go ahead! I'll kill them!"

The villain screamed as he looked down.

"Yes."

With that simple reply, Hyeonyul grabbed the villain by the nape.

SMACK.

Before the dagger in the villain's hand could fall, darkness caught it and placed it in Hyeonyul's hand. Trusting Jihwan to handle his part, Hyeonyul did his own. He stabbed the man's thigh without hesitation and hurled him to the floor.

Hyeonyul strode over to the villain and kicked him in the face, knocking him unconscious. He considered hitting harder, but held back because the student was right there. The student stared blankly at him.

"He's not dead. He only has a small stab wound in his thigh. It's not a fatal injury."

He made that perfectly clear.

"..."

The student couldn't readily find words.

"Bro. Bro!"

A door in the wall flew open, and Jihwan spoke urgently.

"You can't attack the student."

"I know."

Hyeonyul walked over and seized the student's neck with darkness. Surely merely holding the neck was enough?

"I'm one of the Black Eagles you hate, so say whatever you want."