52 chapter - Preliminary Skirmish (2)
Tesla Model M.
This vehicle, which uses Mana Stones as fuel, costs a staggering 300 million won.
Vrrrrrm.
With almost no engine noise, no fossil fuel use, eco-friendly, and a zero-to-hundred in just over one second—this monster of a machine.
That was why Hong Yura cherished it.
Ring ring. Ring ring.
[Hello?]
“It’s me.”
[Team Leader Hong Yura?]
“I’m almost at the lab now.”
[W-what? N-now?]
“Yes, I’ll be coming in.”
[T-team leader, wa—]
Click.
Hong Yura hung up and refocused on driving.
Brrring. Brrring.
[Director Kim Sanghyeon]
The call came again, but she didn’t care at all.
At last her car rolled to a stop before a Gate that blocked vehicle traffic.
A burly security guard came up to her window.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Hong Yura, Team Leader of the Taeseong Guild.”
Scanning her ID, the guard nodded.
“Confirmed.”
Though her title was only team leader, Hong Yura was an A-Rank Hunter.
Because of that, her authority within the guild was considerable.
With just an ID check, facilities like this, managed by Taeseong Guild, were practically a free pass.
“Thank you.”
She parked in the underground garage, and as she moved to enter the research building, Director Kim Sanghyeon and several researchers hurried up.
He looked flustered.
“Huff, huff. T-team leader Hong Yura, what brings you here so suddenly…”
“Take me.”
“…Excuse me?”
“To the place with the vampires I sent you.”
“T-that…”
“Where is it?”
Her expression hardened.
“I said, where are they?”
The director dropped his head low.
“I’m sorry! Due to my mistake, the vampires all died!”
“…What?”
“It’s all my fault! I didn’t realize they would be that vulnerable to sunlight. They all burned to death.”
Hong Yura glared down at him.
“You expect me to believe that? You’re telling me to accept that?”
“…”
“I need to see it with my own eyes. Personally.”
Looking down at the tearful Director Kim, she went on.
“Take me to the place where the vampires burned to death. Right now.”
After some hesitation, the director slowly rose.
“…This way.”
He led her to a lab on the second floor above ground.
One wall was made entirely of glass.
“Here.”
Staring blankly at the lab, Yura asked,
“This room?”
The director stepped into the control room beside it and pulled up CCTV footage.
[Kwaaagh!]
[Kyaaaagh!]
[Kughk! Gghhk! Grooaghhh!]
On screen were vampires writhing in agony, their bodies igniting as sunlight struck them.
“This is the proof.”
Yura stood there staring for a long time.
[Kyaagh!]
[Kraaagh!]
Then she spoke.
“Who gave the order?”
“…What?”
The director’s eyes darted before he answered.
“As I said earlier—it was a mistake. It was research, to test just how deadly sunlight was to vampires—”
“Don’t play dumb. If it was research, you’d have tested one at a time. A researcher of your caliber wouldn’t stupidly expose them all to sunlight at once.”
“Well, I appreciate the compliment, but…”
Yura cut him off suddenly, striking.
“Was it Director Ryu Sumin’s order?”
The way his face froze told her everything.
“So that’s the answer.”
He stammered,
“H-how did you—”
“In this guild, there aren’t many people who could treat research material I personally delivered this way.”
Face twisted with fury, Hong Yura stormed out of the lab.
The director, grim-faced, made a call.
“Director Ryu Sumin. Team Leader Hong Yura just came by the lab.”
**
With the burial complete, Jo Cheolho’s funeral was over.
I lay in bed, watching YouTube for the first time in a while, when the phone rang.
[Hong Yura]
♪♬♩♬~
Since late-night calls were common, I answered without concern.
“If it’s about Soo-ah, she’s with Yuna right now.”
I naturally assumed it was about Hong Soo-ah.
But Yura’s response was unexpected.
[Sorry.]
“…What?”
For a second I wondered what she meant—then realized she might mean calling at this hour.
Was she suddenly being polite about that?
“It’s fine. Not like it’s the first time.”
But what came from her was entirely different.
[The vampires I was supposed to manage—all dead.]
“…What?”
It took me a moment to understand her words.
[The only thing learned was that sunlight is fatal to them. The feral ones combusted the moment they were exposed. How’s Yuna? She hasn’t been in sunlight, has she?]
I was startled but answered anyway.
“She has, but she was fine. The moment the sun rose, she turned human again.”
[Hm? What do you mean?]
I explained Yuna’s condition.
“In the chaos I forgot to tell you, but Yuna becomes human when the sun’s up, then turns vampire again after dark.”
[Really? So that’s how it is…]
I knew from countless calls—she was about to hang up.
Quickly, I cut in.
“Tell me your side too. What happened? Did you seriously expose them all to sunlight as an experiment?”
She was silent.
“Noona?”
Only when I pressed did she speak heavily.
[There’s a rat in the organization.]
“A rat?”
[Yeah. A damn big one. It ordered their disposal.]
“Wait—that means whoever gave the order outranks you?”
Again silence.
This time I waited.
Finally, after long hesitation, she broke it.
[I believe it was Ryu Sumin.]
“What?”
The name made my [N O V E L I G H T] mind go blank.
“The Flame Emperor Ryu Sumin?”
[Yes.]
The man most associated with fire abilities in Korea.
One of the country’s foremost A-Rank Hunters.
The Flame Emperor—Ryu Sumin.
“That’s… impossible…”
Ryu Sumin was among the most powerful of even the A-Ranks.
And that man was backing the vampires?
‘The board is bigger than I thought.’
At the same time, it made sense.
How else could a monster faction that fed on humans exist openly in the heart of Seoul?
I remembered him wearing sunglasses when we first met.
“Is Ryu Sumin a vampire too?”
[Calm down. It’s only suspicion. No hard proof yet. We need to dig deeper.]
“…”
She said,
[If I find anything new, I’ll contact you. Wait until then.]
“…I was planning to request official guild support on my next trip to Gangwon-do.”
[Not a bad idea. If anything shifts on my end, I’ll let you know.]
“Okay.”
After hanging up, I buried my head in my hands.
‘I may have to fight an A-Rank Hunter.’
Yura herself was A-Rank, but specialized in support.
Her true ability was water-based healing.
Control over water was just a side effect.
Of course, as an A-Rank, even that made her strong, but taking on a combat-type A-Rank Hunter was another matter.
‘I’d never win. Unless it was out in the middle of the sea.’
And he wouldn’t fall for such an obvious trap.
‘In the end, we’d need at least one combat-type A-Rank on our side.’
Chief Lee Yechan.
Only if he personally stepped in would we have any chance.
‘Is that possible?’
The justification was more than sufficient.
As Hunters, we couldn’t just ignore a monster faction in the center of Seoul.
‘But with what we have now, it’s not enough to move the guild.’
The only proof of their existence was the video Juhui had sent.
‘We need more evidence.’
Enough to compel Lee Yechan himself.
Then—
Ding-dong.
The doorbell rang.
It was ten minutes to 1 a.m.
Naturally, I thought it was Yuna and Soo-ah.
‘Late-night snack?’
I was a little hungry myself.
Should we go with chicken, or something different? I was mulling as I opened the door.
But at the door were not Yuna and Soo-ah—just two men in suits.
“Who…”
The slimmer one closer to me beamed.
“Ah, nice to meet you. My name is Oh Jeongjin. Are you Choi Changshik?”
“…Yeah. And?”
“Good, we came to the right place.”
As he smiled, I spotted sharp fangs in his mouth.
And his pale, bloodless skin.
‘Vampires!’
The grinning bastard threw a punch at my chin.
I jerked my head back just in time.
Had I realized a moment later, it would have landed.
“Oh? Your reflexes are impressive.”
I kept my eyes on them as I slowly backed toward where my gear was.
Then the larger man spoke.
“Enough. We didn’t come to fight.”
“Huh? But—”
“Stand down.”
Reluctantly, the slim one stepped back.
“Choi Changshik. We came today to ask you something.”
“What is it?”
“To be blunt—do you know where Kang Juhui’s body is?”
I met his eyes.
“Answer my question first. Why is Black Fang after me?”
At my mention of Black Fang, his face twisted briefly.
Then, feigning composure, he replied,
“Because you interfered with our member.”
“Member?”
“Kim Taehun, the one you killed, was part of Black Fang.”
I thought a moment, then remembered.
“You mean—the culprit of the F-Rank Gate disappearance cases? That Kim Taehun?”
“That’s correct.”
“He not only invaded another’s Gate, he tried to kill me. What should I have done? Spared him?”
“If you had just recovered the body, things wouldn’t have spiraled like this.”
“The body?”
“Yes.”
At his words, the image of Yuna drinking Kang Juhui’s blood came to mind.
Afterward, she regained her mind and gained control over the vampires.
She had inherited Juhui’s power.
‘So that’s it.’
Circumstances suggested Kim Taehun too had been a vampire.
Likely one with reason, like Yuna.
‘But I left his corpse inside the Gate.’
And corpses that vanish inside Gates can’t be recovered.
‘So the power couldn’t be inherited.’
That had angered them.
“Tell us where Kang Juhui’s body is. Then Black Fang’s grudge against you ends tonight.”
They were fixated on her corpse.
From that, one conclusion.
‘Rational vampires are rare, even to them.’
Vampires with reason—
The number was likely limited.
If a corpse was lost and the power couldn’t be passed on, their numbers would shrink forever.
I smirked.
“You’re a bad liar.”
“What?”
“You say that with eyes itching to kill me? How could I believe you?”
His face hardened.
“Then we have no choice. We’ll force it out of you.”
At that moment—
Crash!
“Kyaagh!”
Vampires smashed through the window behind me.