Chapter 4
The New Recruit
…10:40 a.m.
Hyun-yul checked the time again and again.
How could they tell him to show up by eleven on his very first day?
It’s actually possible to start work at this hour?
Once again, he was moved by the realization.
Unlike the day he’d arrived carrying Shin Dae-ho’s head, he now stood in front of the building called the Nest.
It felt different.
This is where I’ll be working from now on.
Hyun-yul stood still, gazing at it.
The Nest was on the outskirts of the city. It was quite large, so they must have put it there deliberately.
There was no subway, but they had a shuttle bus, so this time he’d had a comfortable ride.
Even now, the place looked so much like an ordinary company that it felt strange.
There were other buildings on either side, too, but he had no idea what they were for.
“Mr. Seo Hyun-yul.”
At the familiar voice, Hyun-yul turned around.
The woman with long, fluffy hippie-permed hair was clearly Haeryeon.
“You’re twenty minutes early.”
“Being on time is important. Thank you for coming out to meet me.”
Hyun-yul bowed deeply. Haeryeon gave an awkward smile.
He looked as if he’d been thoroughly drilled in military discipline.
“You don’t have to bow so formally.”
“It’s a habit. I’ll correct it from now on.”
His words sounded almost as if he were trying to keep them to a minimum, so Haeryeon paused to think.
…Did something bad happen if he didn’t act this way?
Hyun-yul had worked at a company run by villains.
That alone was enough to spark all kinds of assumptions.
Had they beaten him, for example?
“Team Leader.”
At Hyun-yul’s call, Haeryeon looked slightly startled. Then she nodded.
“Did the meeting turn into a mess?”
Looking at Haeryeon’s dazed expression, Hyun-yul couldn’t help asking.
That day, he’d joined Black Eagle by majority vote. Even though it had been an official process, there were bound to be people who resented it.
“Oh, it’s fine.”
Haeryeon smiled, but she remembered the meeting she’d just endured.
It had been very, very loud.
—“No, giving us the authority to decide doesn’t mean we can do this!”
—“You’re saying we should hire someone who worked for a villain’s company? He could be a spy, and you just accepted him without a second thought. How does that make any sense?”
Then why did they hand over the authority in the first place?
If they were upset, they should’ve stayed that day.
…Now that I think about it, I’m getting annoyed all over again.
Haeryeon almost laughed bitterly.
The process had been official, and no rules had been broken. It was almost absurd that anyone thought they could overturn the decision just by protesting.
“I expected as much.”
Hyun-yul read Haeryeon’s expression.
Of course they weren’t going to accept it without complaint.
“You said I might be treated unfairly if I got hired, Team Leader.”
That was all that had happened: her warning had come true.
It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.
“Still… All right. I understand.”
Haeryeon started to say something, then stopped.
Hyun-yul looked so completely unbothered that she felt like she was the one making a fuss.
Even so, wrong is wrong.
Whether Hyun-yul cared or not, as team leader, it was her job to put a stop to this.
Right. I’m the one who has to protect my team. Who else will?
Haeryeon planted her feet firmly and strode into the building.
“I’ll explain the basics first.”
Once they were inside, Haeryeon spoke again.
“First, we work in four shifts: 1 a.m. to 6 a.m.; 6 a.m. to noon; noon to 7 p.m.; and 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Each team works one set of hours for a whole week, then switches to a different shift the following week.”
“So four-shift work actually exists…?”
Hyun-yul asked, amazed.
The companies he’d worked for had acted as if shifts didn’t exist, making him work nonstop. This was all very unfamiliar.
“They do. They’re just not common.”
“Then why is the overnight shift so short?”
“Because working overnight is hard.”
Haeryeon’s answer seemed obvious, but her next words hit Hyun-yul like a blow to the back of the head.
Is this a dream?
Hyun-yul slapped himself.
He could feel it.
…So this isn’t a dream?
The overnight shift was short because it was hard.
He’d really heard her say that.
Even his lips were trembling.
“And any additional work earns you paid leave. Everything else is exactly as stated in the posting.”
“Why… do you do things this way?”
Hyun-yul felt as though he were floating.
None of it seemed real.
“What do you mean, why?”
“You don’t make people work long hours, and you even give them paid… leave when they work overtime. Does this place actually function properly?”
“Of course. We’re civil servants. We’re a little unusual, so in some ways we’re like a public corporation.”
“Do you do this because you’re worried about what the government thinks?”
Hyun-yul was genuinely curious.
“That may be part of it, but we exist to deal with villains who threaten the country. The police handle ordinary crimes. You can think of us as taking care of crimes that are more serious and dangerous.”
Is that why the name Black Eagle sounded so familiar?
Hyun-yul thought about it for a moment.
When he worked at villain-run companies, the phrase he’d heard most often was “those damn eagles.”
“We have to take on a lot. And we carry a lot of responsibility.”
The generous benefits came with equally significant burdens.
“…Of course, there are times when we have no choice but to work extra.”
Haeryeon met Hyun-yul’s gaze as she spoke.
His eyes quickly turned hard.
“Even with paid leave, I want the overtime to stay reasonable.”
Haeryeon looked awkward at his chilling tone, then tried to joke.
“Or are you going to cut my head off?”
“That’s what I’m planning.”
“…Wow.”
Haeryeon’s shoulders tensed slightly at his unexpected response.
She hadn’t thought he’d take her up on it so easily—but there was a hint of sincerity in his voice.
“…Well. You’re intimidating.”
“I’m not going to deny it.”
“You do understand that emergencies happen, right?”
“I understand.”
“Then we’re fine. If you cooperate with me as much as possible, it won’t come to that.”
Haeryeon was brimming with confidence, so Hyun-yul felt relieved for the moment.
He relaxed as they walked, then noticed people staring at him.
They couldn’t have been reacting to the conversation he’d just had. The people passing through the hallway were looking at him sharply.
They weren’t Black Eagle members.
He recognized the sparrow emblem he’d seen before.
My reputation must’ve spread already.
It was happening so quickly that someone must have deliberately spread the story.
“The same goes for me.”
Hyun-yul watched them quietly, the corners of his mouth rising.
He could put up with more.
“By the way, Team Leader, who are the people with sparrow emblems?”
Hyun-yul asked, looking at the plaque by the door that read “Team Three.”
“Oh!”
Haeryeon turned the handle, then stopped and looked at him, as if she’d just remembered.
“They’re here to support us. Their official name is the White Sparrows. You can just call them managers. Before we head out into the field, they investigate cases we receive from the police. They also handle office work and help us with all sorts of things.”
“So if they don’t like me, I’ll have to do all that work by myself?”
Hyun-yul had to ask. He couldn’t let it interfere with his work.
At his question, Haeryeon stopped short of opening the door.
“What do you mean?”
“The people we passed didn’t look at me very kindly. A rumor about me has probably spread. They might deliberately leave out information…”
“Which bastard would do that?”
A loud voice suddenly rang out from inside.
Hyun-yul turned toward it.
A tall man walked over—so tall Hyun-yul had to look up at him.
“Who’s giving our new recruit a hard time?”
“…What are you doing here? Aren’t you on a mission?”
Haeryeon looked at the man with surprise.
“I just finished, Team Leader.”
He addressed Haeryeon respectfully.
“Then you should be going home. Why are you here?”
“I heard we had a new recruit today.”
“You always find these things out at lightning speed.”
“I hurried over, and now I hear someone’s leaving out information for our new recruit? Who is it?”
The man, whose name Hyun-yul still didn’t know, was getting angry as if the matter were personal.
The first thing Hyun-yul noticed was his dark brown hair, which fell just past his neck.
…What do you call hair like that?
Hyun-yul simply watched him.
“Okay, Shin-woo. Let’s keep it down. Mr. Hyun-yul, come on in.”
Haeryeon gestured inside.
Before Hyun-yul could enter, the man named Shin-woo leaned toward him.
“We’re Team Three. Nice to meet you, rookie. I’m Baek Shin-woo, the senior here.”
Shin-woo confidently held out his hand. Hyun-yul stared at it, then looked at Shin-woo as he started to reach out.
“Shin-woo, do you want him to run away again?”
Haeryeon smiled. Shin-woo immediately lowered his hand and just gave them a cheerful grin.
“Who’s running away?”
Hyun-yul asked, blinking.
“Our team is… a little short-staffed.”
Haeryeon let her sentence trail off.
Team Two’s leader, Yang Do-jin, was currently eyeing Hyun-yul.
“Why is Team Three the only one short-staffed?”
“Each team has its own… atmosphere, you know?”
Shin-woo chimed in.
“I see.”
“We usually have a welcome party where…”
“Oh, it’s nothing. Really, nothing at all, so don’t worry about it! I mean—please don’t worry about it!”
Haeryeon stammered, and Hyun-yul sensed something suspicious.
Is it some kind of welcome ceremony where they kill each other?
He’d changed jobs so many times that he’d been through countless welcome parties.
At one company, they had a rule that only five new recruits would be allowed to survive, so they made them fight one another.
Hyun-yul didn’t know why they’d done it. Watching new hires die at a welcome party while everyone laughed and said it was fun had left a bad impression.
That was what he thought of as a welcome party.
“I used informal speech just now by mistake. I was just…”
“Team Leader, you can speak casually to me. One person here already does.”
Hyun-yul glanced at Shin-woo.
“Did that bother you?”
Shin-woo asked. Hyun-yul shook his head.
“I was just wondering why you called yourself my senior.”
“Because I’m older than you.”
“…Ah.”
Hyun-yul nodded as if he understood.
“Right. It’d be strange for me to keep being so formal with you, wouldn’t it?”
Haeryeon readily accepted his suggestion.
In fact, she seemed to have wanted to speak casually from the start.
“My name is Seo Hyun-yul. Have you heard where I came from?”
Hyun-yul asked Shin-woo.
“I have. You joined through special recruitment, right? Team Leader, where did you find such a great new recruit?”
Shin-woo sounded delighted.
Only a handful of people had ever joined Black Eagle through special recruitment.
Hyun-yul was one of them.
What a remarkable person to have on his team!
Hyun-yul didn’t look away from Shin-woo’s sparkling gaze.
He was simply suspicious.
He’s trying to find out what I can do, isn’t he?
That look and smile were just like those of the villains who’d recruited him before.
I’m not falling for it again.
“I didn’t bring him in. Mr. Hyun-yul came here on his own.”
Haeryeon shrugged.
“A treasure just fell into our laps! So what did he do to qualify for special recruitment?”
Shin-woo eagerly awaited her answer.
“Mr. Hyun-yul brought us Shin Dae-ho’s head. Shin Dae-ho—the one we lost.”
Haeryeon emphasized it twice.
There was opposition within the organization, but it would soon be sorted out.
Hyun-yul knew about the company Shin Dae-ho had run. They couldn’t ignore that information.
“His head? You mean this head?”
More than anything else, Shin-woo seemed fascinated by the word head.
“That’s right. His severed head.”
“…Wow. That’s incredible.”
Shin-woo looked as though he might clap at any moment.
Hyun-yul wasn’t going to be fooled. He voiced the question that had been on his mind.
“What was special about Shin Dae-ho? Why were you looking for him so desperately?”
What could an alcoholic like that possibly have had?
Shin Dae-ho had been too drunk to resist when Hyun-yul killed him.
“We suspected that one of the big corporations was being run by villains. We followed that lead, and Shin Dae-ho’s name came up. We needed him to take down the company.”
“I remember who Shin Dae-ho did business with. Do you need that information?”
“We do! Very much!”
Haeryeon looked as if a lingering discomfort had finally lifted.
They must have been pursuing the case for a long time.
Was Shin Dae-ho really that important?
Hyun-yul still didn’t understand.
A lot of people seemed to know him. Plenty had been looking for Shin Dae-ho.
Since he’d used Hyun-yul like a bodyguard, Hyun-yul had had to see their faces even while working.
That information could come in handy.
“Oh, I should give you this first. Just a moment.”
Haeryeon walked to her office, picked up a box from her desk, and brought it back to Hyun-yul.
“Try it on.”
Hyun-yul opened the box without changing expression.
Inside was a smartwatch like the ones Haeryeon and the other team leaders wore. It looked no different from an ordinary smartwatch.
“It doesn’t have an official name, but people call it a notification watch. It’s used for assigning missions, showing you where to go, and letting team members contact one another, among other things. It has a spell that makes people less likely to recognize you, so it’s best to wear it all the time.”
“So that kind of spell really does exist?”
“That’s right. If you want to cover your face, we’d have to make you a mask. Do you want one?”
“Is it optional?”
“Surprised? Some villains once tried to hack us so they could reveal the identities of Black Eagle agents. It was a huge mess. The funny thing is, we ended up finding a weakness in their system and hacking them instead. After that, the villains…”
Bzzzzzz.
The smartwatch suddenly buzzed.
Haeryeon’s face, animated as she spoke, turned serious.
What timing.
“This means a mission has come in.”
After explaining briefly, Haeryeon operated the watch with practiced ease.
<Thirty minutes ago, a mass murder took place.>
The words mass murder didn’t faze Haeryeon much.
She was used to it.
“Anything unusual?”
“Understood.”
Haeryeon replied and looked up.
Shin-woo happened to be there. He seemed like a good person to take Hyun-yul along for his first mission.
“This may seem sudden, but we start with fieldwork. You’ll mostly be observing, but it helps us weed people out.”
“…So I haven’t been fully hired yet?”
Hyun-yul’s expression grew serious.
Could she really lie to him like this?
“No, you’ve been hired. Sometimes people get hired and then run away when they see what it’s like in the field. I know you won’t, but you should understand that we learn the theory after fieldwork, too.”
Haeryeon gave him a thorough explanation.
It was funny to say they learned the theory after fieldwork, no matter how many times she repeated it.
“Anyway, are you okay with that? You need to be able to handle seeing something gruesome.”
“I can handle it.”
“I like that attitude. You’ve already got field experience, so honestly, I could send you out on your own. But during your probationary period, you have to be accompanied by someone.”
Haeryeon pointed at Shin-woo.
Far from looking surprised, Shin-woo smiled as if he’d expected it.
“He’ll be pretty reliable.”
Hyun-yul glanced at Shin-woo.
“At least I won’t hold you back, so don’t worry.”
Shin-woo pointed his thumb at himself.
“I’ll go.”
Hyun-yul calmly accepted the assignment.
Honestly, it made no difference who went with him or what kind of villain they faced. He’d still have to take them down.
He had to complete the mission, and cutting off a head was easy.