Chapter 2
Job Hunting
Bang!
Someone slammed a clenched fist down on the conference room floor.
Deep furrows creased his wrinkled face, and his sharp expression brimmed with frustration.
“How does this make any sense?!”
Bang!
The muscles in his thick forearm tensed as he brought his fist down again.
A Black Eagle emblem was emblazoned on his clothes.
“We found out where that bastard was, and it turned out to be a fake! A fake…!”
“Sir, you’re going to give yourself a heart attack.”
The woman glanced at the middle-aged man while fiddling with her phone.
“Who checks their phone during a meeting?”
“Sir, as long as I can hear you, what does it matter? Why are you acting like such a grumpy old man today?”
Click.
The woman winked to one side and snapped a photo.
“What…? That’s because your Team Seven didn’t do its job properly!”
“You’re the one who should watch what you say, Sir. You were in charge of the operation to catch Shin Dae-ho. How were we supposed to know the location was a decoy? We only ended up destroying an innocent building.”
A smile spread across the woman’s face. The middle-aged man trembled with anger.
“You know who gave us that information, don’t you?”
“Oh, right. It was our Team Seven. Sorry.”
The woman looked at the middle-aged man and stuck out her tongue. A star-shaped emblem was attached to her face.
“Come on, both of you, calm down. Getting worked up won’t bring Shin Dae-ho back.”
The woman with light brown, tightly curled hair smiled kindly.
“We missed Shin Dae-ho, but we haven’t lost his trail. You said we caught his subordinates at the building, even if it was a decoy. That was thanks to the two of you—Team Seven and Team Two—working together.”
She was trying to ease the tension.
If this went on, the rift between Teams Seven and Two would only grow. The teams often had to work together, so they needed to get along.
But their team leaders were always at each other’s throats, as if they couldn’t wait to tear each other apart.
“You heard Haeryeon, right, Sir?”
“I heard her. You heard what Haeryeon said too, didn’t you?”
“Sir, I spoke first.”
“This is why you can’t reason with young people. So childish.”
“You want to try me, is that it, Sir?”
“Fine. Let’s try.”
As the argument flared up again, Haeryeon stepped in.
She set something down on the table: a bottle filled with thick, green liquid.
“Drink this and you’ll be friends for about three minutes. Should I force it down your throats, or are you going to stop fighting?”
Haeryeon’s eyes narrowed.
She was the kind of person who meant it when she made a threat, so the two men cleared their throats.
“Ahem.”
“But can the three of us really decide this on our own? Not every team is here.”
Teams Two, Three, and Seven were in the room.
“Haeryeon, didn’t you hear?”
The woman asked, looking at Haeryeon.
“Hear what?”
“They said they were sick of watching Sir and me argue, so they left and told us to decide everything ourselves. They handed all the authority over to us.”
“Good grief. The young ones these days! Instead of staying to break up the fight, they just leave!”
“Maybe they all leave because you keep acting like a grumpy old man.”
The woman raised an eyebrow. The middle-aged man looked at her with displeasure.
In terms of age, she could’ve been his granddaughter. Her constant backtalk irritated him, but he couldn’t bring himself to hate her.
“How is that my fault? It’s those brats’ fault for saying nothing but nasty things when they get assigned a mission.”
The man added a detail the woman had left out.
“So we can decide whatever we want among ourselves? Anything at all?”
Haeryeon’s lips curled into a smile.
The woman and the middle-aged man both shouted at once.
“Not that, Haeryeon!”
“That’s not what they meant, Haeryeon!”
“Of course it is. They handed over all their authority. We’re all busy, so why should it matter what we decide?”
Haeryeon smiled sweetly and cracked her knuckles.
Perhaps she could start by lifting some of the suffocating regulations.
“Where should we start? Maybe we should figure out how to make up for our staff shortage. Since we’re at it, we could raid the national treasury too…”
Bang, bang, bang!
Just then, someone pounded urgently on the door.
All three of them turned to look.
“I’ll get it.”
Haeryeon stood and opened the door.
“W-We’ve got a problem! There’s a crazy guy outside!”
“Pardon…?”
Haeryeon looked bewildered.
A crazy guy?
This was the Black Eagle headquarters, home to the people who hunted down villains. Who would be foolish enough to pull something crazy here?
“H-He says he brought Shin Dae-ho’s head.”
“...?”
A flood of question marks filled Haeryeon’s mind.
“…Good heavens.”
Haeryeon stared at the test report in her hand, unable to speak.
The results matched Shin Dae-ho.
This was really Shin Dae-ho’s head.
Someone had just told her that a man had arrived carrying a severed head. That was certainly enough to earn him the label of “crazy.”
The middle-aged man beside her burst out laughing.
“Sir, are you seriously laughing right now?”
The Team Seven leader narrowed his eyes.
“He brought us Shin Dae-ho’s head. How could I not laugh?”
“How was that even possible? We’ve been trying so hard to catch him!”
The Team Seven leader held his phone and rapidly tapped at the screen.
How had that man killed Shin Dae-ho when none of them had managed to?
Still looking stunned, he took a picture.
Click.
“Did you just take my picture?”
The man’s voice came through the speaker. He was sitting bound in an interrogation room, yet he didn’t seem particularly bothered by the situation.
“No, I didn’t. I took a picture of myself. Was I allowed to take one?”
The Team Seven leader seemed pleased by his answer.
Aside from the unusually large number of scars, he was very much the leader’s type. His untidy black hair fell across his face, and the ponytail tied loosely at the back suited him well.
“Of course you can.”
The man answered bluntly and shook his head. His hair, which had been pushed up, fell back over his eyes.
“Can you hear us?”
The Team Seven leader asked, surprised.
They hadn’t turned on the microphone yet.
When Haeryeon stepped outside, the Team Seven leader looked at her in surprise.
“Where are you going, Haeryeon?”
“To see him in person.”
Haeryeon entered the interrogation room and sat down.
“My name is Oh Haeryeon, Team Leader of Black Eagle’s Team Two.”
She started by introducing herself.
That was the proper thing to do.
“I’m Seo Hyun-yul. I’m currently looking for a job.”
Haeryeon chuckled softly at his answer. Whether it was a joke or not, at least he seemed very cooperative.
“First, I’m sorry for the inconvenience. You’re being held temporarily as part of our procedure. Are your wrists hurting?”
Whatever Hyun-yul’s intentions were, he was an outsider. Regardless of the circumstances, they could temporarily detain anyone who arrived without an appointment.
“I’m fine. I think it’s a reasonable procedure.”
Hyun-yul answered calmly.
He had shown up carrying a head, after all.
“Have you confirmed Shin Dae-ho’s identity and mine?”
He’d cooperated as much as he could.
“Yes. We’ve completed the checks.”
Haeryeon nodded.
Seo Hyun-yul was exactly who he claimed to be.
He had no criminal record, either. The unusual things in his file were that he hadn’t even completed basic training and that he’d visited the hospital an excessive number of times.
Why was he at the hospital practically every other day?
Is he actually sickly, despite how he looks?
Haeryeon wondered.
“First, I’d like to ask if you killed Shin Dae-ho.”
“I killed him by myself.”
“By yourself? You… killed him alone?”
Haeryeon’s eyes twitched for the briefest moment.
How could that be possible?
Shin Dae-ho was a major villain, by any measure.
“Yes.”
“…How were you able to kill him?”
“I stabbed him in the neck with a dagger. Did you see the surprised look on his face?”
“…I did.”
“I guess he didn’t expect to die.”
Hyun-yul chuckled softly. Haeryeon took note of his expression.
It was rather chilling.
“Then why did you kill him?”
As she asked, Haeryeon recalled what she’d heard earlier.
—“H-He said it was Shin Dae-ho’s head, and then he asked something about… the four major insurances? He asked if we provided them. He’s crazy.”
“I brought that bastard’s head here so I could apply for a job.”
“…”
Haeryeon blinked.
She couldn’t see how job hunting and Shin Dae-ho’s head were connected.
“I saw the special recruitment posting.”
“…You mean Black Eagle’s recruitment notice?”
Haeryeon’s eyes began to waver.
“Yes. What other posting would I mean?”
“I’m sure the notice said to capture the target, not kill them.”
Haeryeon’s voice rose slightly.
“Isn’t that the same thing? Black Eagle has the special authority to kill villains, so you were going to kill him anyway.”
There was plenty of information like that on the internet.
The right to kill someone in a modern society—it showed how determined the Empire was to wipe out villains.
Villains weren’t one large organization so much as a collection of individuals. Sending in the army would only create an even bigger uproar. But leaving them alone would let them grow stronger. Black Eagle had been created to prevent that.
“Mr. Seo Hyun-yul, you’re an ordinary citizen.”
“I know. But I also know the law tends to let individuals off when they kill villains. So there shouldn’t be a problem.”
Hyun-yul pointed out the legal loophole.
He’d spent some time looking up past rulings and found they were heavily biased.
Since he had a point, Haeryeon hesitated to respond.
Either way, it didn’t matter.
“In any case, the notice didn’t say I couldn’t kill him. So I meet the requirements, don’t I?”
“You do.”
Haeryeon answered after a brief pause.
By and large, he did meet the requirements.
“The qualifications said there were no restrictions. That means my past doesn’t matter, right?”
Hyun-yul asked, just to make sure.
Sometimes the terms changed once you got to the interview.
“Yes. There are no restrictions on the qualifications.”
Haeryeon told him firmly.
They were short-staffed as it was. They couldn’t afford to raise the bar any higher.
“And the benefits are exactly as listed?”
“They are. Otherwise, why would we put them in the posting?”
“Terms and benefits often change once I get to the interview.”
“What…? Who does something that despicable?”
Haeryeon was so appalled that she trailed off.
Putting up a job notice with the intention of deceiving applicants…
“It happens a lot.”
Hyun-yul kept his answer brief.
This was practically an interview now.
“I’ll carry out Black Eagle’s mission and wipe out the villains at their roots.”
Hyun-yul spoke with conviction.
They’d promised him the four major insurances and never provided them. They’d stopped him from taking vacation or sick leave. They’d made him work overtime constantly without paying him for it.
Garbage like that needed to disappear.
“I thought it would be better to show what I can do than just talk about it.”
“What kind of work have you done until now?”
Haeryeon played along with his assumption that this was an interview.
There was no record of him attending school or working at a company.
“I worked at companies run by villains.”
“Did you choose to work there, or were you forced?”
Haeryeon was startled, but did her best to stay composed.
“Few companies could cover my hospital bills. One of them recruited me.”
“…What?”
It was the Team Seven leader, not Haeryeon, who reacted in disbelief.
“He recruited you?”
“It’s true. You can think of me as a villain if you want, but I sincerely want to join Black Eagle.”
Hyun-yul had handed them the decision.
Now it was up to them.
I hope they don’t reject me.
This was the only job where he could kill villains as part of his work and get paid for it.
Even if they turned him down, he was going to ask whether he could still collect the bounty.
“First, I’d like to ask you something.”
Haeryeon spoke calmly.
She couldn’t recall a case like this ever happening before, and doubted one would come up again. It was a headache of a problem, but that only made her more excited.
“If you’re hired here, you may be treated unfairly because of your past as a villain. Would that be all right?”
“What kind of unfair treatment are we talking about? Would it affect my salary, sick leave, or annual leave?”
Hyun-yul’s eyebrow lifted slightly.
Surely they wouldn’t do that sort of thing.
“No. I mean the way people might treat you.”
“Oh, then it’s fine. I can ignore them.”
Hyun-yul was relieved.
That’s all?
“Great! That’s the spirit! I like it!”
A deep male voice rang out.
Hyun-yul didn’t miss it.
One more.
There were three people in the room.
“Sir! This isn’t something we can decide so easily!”
A woman’s voice rang out in alarm.
“Sir! Where are you—”
Bang.
The door swung open.
A middle-aged man stepped in. He was heavily muscled and wore a hearty grin.
“We have seven teams in total. As luck would have it, only three team leaders are here today. We’ve been given the authority to accept whatever decision is made. I don’t care if you were a villain or anything else. I’m in favor.”
The Team Two leader was decisive.
Hyun-yul’s lips lifted slightly. Things were off to a good start.
Tap.
The door opened in a hurry.
The Team Seven leader came out.
“I’m against it. I don’t see why we should accept him just because he has no work history and brought us Shin Dae-ho’s head.”
“Well said. It’s Shin Dae-ho we’re talking about. He took that bastard on by himself. What more do you need to see? We’re Black Eagle.”
The Team Two leader appealed to common sense as he looked at the Team Seven leader.
From their argument, Hyun-yul learned something he hadn’t known.
That bastard Shin Dae-ho must’ve been more important than I thought.
He’d been useful even after he was dead.
“I understand what you mean. Strength is good. But the fact that he did it alone makes me uneasy.”
The Team Seven leader lowered his phone.
What kind of power did Hyun-yul have to pull that off?
And what would happen if he turned that power on them?
That was what unsettled the Team Seven leader.
Hyun-yul naturally looked toward Haeryeon.
She was the only one left to decide.
Just as Haeryeon was about to speak, something buzzed.
Bzzzzzz.
The smartwatches worn by Haeryeon and the Team Two and Team Seven leaders all lit up at once.
“What’s going on?”
Haeryeon asked as she checked hers.
The message came through the wireless earbud in her ear.
<One minute ago, we received a message from a villain. They claim to have planted a bomb in a village about ten kilometers from here. The bomb appears powerful enough to destroy the entire village.>
Grit.
Haeryeon clenched her teeth.
The timing couldn’t have been worse. It was almost as if someone had arranged it.
“…Understood.”
She ended the call and looked at the team leaders.
“Contact the bomb disposal team. I’ll check whether any teams are already deployed there.”
“…Haeryeon.”
The Team Seven leader spoke up.
“The bomb disposal team isn’t available right now.”
“She’s right. There’s a bomber on the loose.”
The Team Two leader’s expression had hardened too.
The timing really was terrible.
But they couldn’t help it. Their opponent was a bomber. One wrong move and an entire city could be blown away.
“Are you in a bind?”
Hyun-yul spoke up, and everyone turned to look at him.
He added the rest, looking pleased.
“I can handle it.”
You can?
That was what their expressions seemed to say.
“Do you need my help?”
Hyun-yul’s lips curled into a slight smile.