‘I clearly met him as an ordinary engineering student last time.’
When the unfamiliar Esper in combat uniform curled the corner of his mouth into a smile, I could see a hint of the face I had met in the past.
They say there’s no crime in an Intelligence Department Esper’s disguise.
Raon sighed in admiration, wondering if an image could change so drastically.
“It took a little time for my ability to isolate the space. Are you safe, Team Leader Han Raon?”
“Yes, thanks to you.”
“I think Esper Yoon Siwoo went a bit overboard, though…”
Jeongwon also looked around the chaotic warehouse with a troubled expression.
However, when he saw K and the Named members lying unconscious, his eyes sparkled.
“Still, the achievement is incredible. I can’t believe you captured three people alone.”
Jeongwon quickly approached and placed the handcuff-shaped ability suppressors on the Named members.
The other Named members, who had been neutralized in the spatially isolated area, were forcibly dragged out.
Unlike the Named members who were dealt with by Siwoo, they were conscious and therefore extremely noisy.
“Damn it, K-nim!”
“You sons of bitches!”
“Yes, yes. We apologize for being sons of bitches.”
They had decided to move in a small number because Dasom might get hurt, so no other Espers had come.
Still, when Jeongwon called, Intelligence Department Espers quickly poured in shortly after.
They seemed to have been waiting nearby.
“Hyung, are you really okay? Does your head hurt?”
“Yeah, I’m perfectly fine now.”
Raon told Jeongwon about what K had done and the item made from dungeon byproducts.
In the meantime, Jeongwon and the Intelligence Department Espers, who had found the evidence, quickly cleaned up the area.
“Esper Dasom is…”
“She is safe, too. Now, please leave this place to us and go back.”
“Yes, please take care of things.”
I said I was okay, but the aftermath of the brainwashing was still there, and my head was throbbing a little.
Raon nodded and leaned against Siwoo.
“Phew.”
“Let’s go home and rest now.”
“Okay.”
Still, they managed to subdue Apophis’s Named members more easily than expected.
I thought a few might escape, or the operation might completely fail if the timing was bad, but capturing all of them was a truly amazing achievement.
‘Although there are still many remnants who aren’t Named members, the Intelligence Department will soon be able to track and capture all of them.’
Apophis, excluding the Named members, is not a significant fighting force.
The Named members were only able to escape easily thanks to M’s warp.
Since M and the other Named members were all captured, the organization of Apophis, having lost its core, would quickly fall apart.
‘It feels a little unsettling, but I guess I can’t help it for now.’
The Dark Blue Gate will open soon, and with this achievement, Raon’s command might return to him.
It was unexpected that Apophis’s Named members were fellow possessors, but Raon couldn’t fully believe their words yet.
So, for now, this was the best option.
‘Besides, I found out that the real Han Raon still remains inside this body…’
Although he himself was now reluctant to come outside, his mere existence was incredibly unsettling.
Come to think of it, the timing of the possession was ambiguous, so the real Han Raon couldn’t have suddenly died or disappeared.
So, it made more sense for him to have remained in the body all along.
‘Ha, I don’t know. Let’s think about it after I get some sleep.’
Perhaps because too much information flooded in all at once, Raon felt like his head was going to explode.
He pressed his throbbing head and let out a long sigh.
‘This is the last chance I can give you, Dojin.’
A while ago, Joonghoo’s serious voice pressed down on a corner of Dojin’s mind.
Dojin glared fiercely at the table.
Materials he was preparing to respond to the next Irregular Gate were scattered in disarray.
“Damn it, Han Raon.”
The gaze and voice of Han Raon, who constantly rejected him, played endlessly in his aching head.
Now, he could barely even recall the sight of him craving his attention.
At this point, he should admit that Han Raon has changed from the past, but for some reason, he couldn’t.
It was as if something was urging him to do so.
However, that confusion was soon pushed to a corner of his mind.
Right now, he was just annoyed at the things that wouldn’t go his way.
“Phew.”
Even though Joonghoo, the Commander-in-Chief, forcibly returned the command authority to him, there were countless people who harbored resentment.
Han Raon’s Guide Team objected to Dojin’s opinions at every turn, and the other team leaders, Inho and Yoonchae, were also not favorably disposed toward him.
Because of this, the team atmosphere was like walking on thin ice every day.
Countless posts expressing anxiety over Han Raon’s absence were posted on the internet, and reporters wrote articles with a similar tone almost daily.
They claimed there would be great damage in the next Irregular Gate.
No, those weren’t mere words; they were curses.
And those curses were still sticking to Dojin stubbornly.
‘Dojin, you must be perfect above all else. And you must be the best.’
Since he was young, he had constantly heard and grown up with those words.
Perfect, and the best.
The people around him continuously instilled in him that any means and methods were acceptable as long as they led to that outcome.
Simply to live a more successful life than others when he was young, and after the Gate incident, to become the greatest hero.
The influence of the adults around him, rather than Dojin’s own will, was behind all these matters.
They hoped that the ruler of the next world would come from their own bloodline.
It wasn’t that Dojin was forced to obey.
Dojin quietly followed the adults’ words.
He, too, liked the blueprint they had drawn.
But that perfect life was ruined by one person.
It was all because of Han Raon.
Everything started to go wrong when he began to disobey his words.
“…Han Raon.”
In the pitch-black darkness, Dojin’s eyes shone fiercely.
Recalling Raon’s eyes, which despised him, an unpleasant feeling surged up from within.
“Ugh!”
At that moment, an unfamiliar headache mercilessly stabbed his head.
He grit his teeth against the pain that assaulted him.
“Damn it.”
Dojin cursed and habitually opened the drawer to grab a pure white pill.
Then he tossed it into his mouth.
It was the drug that substituted for guiding.
“Kugh.”
However, the drug didn’t alleviate the headache; instead, it caused even greater pain.
Ironically, to produce a guiding effect, an Esper’s body must be neutralized.
A terrifying pain swept over Dojin because of this.
“Gasp, gasp.”
Sweat poured down Dojin’s face as he curled his body up.
In a humiliating posture he never could have imagined before, and just like the other Espers he used to scoff at, his whole body trembled uncontrollably.
A moment later, Dojin, who endured the terrible pain of the guiding drug, slowly stood up.
Although he was an S-class Esper unfamiliar with pain, he persistently endured it without even a proper groan.
‘Team Leader Seo Dojin has become quite a sight.’
Everyone mocked him for losing his Guide.
As Hamin, who had a high synchronization rate, reawakened as an S-class Esper and, encouraged by Raon, stopped giving him the time of day, he was permanently cut off from receiving guiding from him.
Dojin himself no longer wanted to receive guiding from Hamin, but everyone else laughed, claiming that Dojin was scorned by Hamin.
Grind, grind.
A chilling sound came from Dojin’s jaw.
He was clenching his teeth as he glared at the table again.
Beep, beep-beep.
“…!”
Just then, a loud sound rang out from Dojin’s watch.
His face hardened as he checked the caller ID.
“What is it?”
-Hello, Team Leader Dojin.
“State your business.”
It was an Esper who was a direct subordinate assigned by Park Joonghoo, the Commander-in-Chief.
He was not someone who would usually call at a late hour, so it seemed something had happened in the military.
The subordinate answered Dojin’s question in a rapid tone.
-You need to return to the base right away.
“Did an Irregular Gate appear?”
-It’s not that. The Intelligence Department just captured Apophis’s Named members.
“What did you say?”
Dojin frowned at his subordinate’s words.
It wasn’t only the Intelligence Department that was tracking Apophis.
Dojin was also secretly investigating the terrorist organization Apophis.
This was to build other achievements besides the gates for the future.
However, the Intelligence Department was reluctant to share information with Dojin, and because of that, he was in the process of finding out about Apophis’s Named members through his own separate channels.
Yet, the Named members were suddenly captured like this.
Dojin bit his lip at the unexpected situation.
As his response was delayed, his subordinate called out to him, confused.
-Team Leader?
“I understand. I’ll be there soon.”
-Yes, understood.
“…”
Dojin hung up the phone, feeling a strange sense of dissonance.
This was due to the feeling that this incident might not have been solely the work of the Intelligence Department.
I didn’t know why I thought that, but the unique instinct of an Esper was sending him a warning signal.
It somehow felt like another unpleasant situation was waiting for him.
Dojin’s eyes sank heavily as he looked out the dark window.
