Chapter 5: The Director and the Ghosts of War.

“Good morning, Director.”

It’s a title that’s hard to get used to.

Thinking that, Yunia acknowledged the employee’s greeting with a nod.

The entrance door opened when she swiped the card hanging like a necklace, and the inside of the [Encroachment Flood Damage Management Bureau] was revealed.

A vast lobby made up of high glass walls and stairs. Most of the people busily going back and forth there were certified combat ability users or support personnel.

As Yunia passed through them, they recognized her here and there and gave her polite greetings.

“Director.”

“Hello, Director.”

Occasionally acknowledging them, she went up in the elevator, and a wide view of the city spread out beyond the glass wall.

As you can see, the headquarters of the Defense Bureau was in the middle of the city.

For Yunia, who had been stuck on the front lines as a special-class psychic until just half a year ago, this kind of scenery on the way to work still felt very unfamiliar.

But the war was over. The Allied Forces burned all the encroachment clusters without missing a single one, so all that was left was the remnants that barely crawled out from beyond the distant dimension.

Only a very small number of entities can cross the space-time rift, and even then, they come out without even adapting to the Earth’s surface environment. They are incomparably weaker than the evolved mutant species that have been exterminated so far.

The handling of encroachment species, whose risk level has decreased so clearly, was now at a level where it was embarrassing to even call it combat anymore.

So now the jurisdiction has been transferred to the area of civil service.

Naturally, Yunia’s affiliation and position were also changed. Not the familiar captain’s rank, but as the slightly unfamiliar [Director of the Encroachment Flood Damage Management Bureau].

It was a groundbreaking promotion. Especially considering that she was just barely an adult.

But there was no public opposition to these post-war personnel appointments.

As they say, she was the one who killed the most Queens of Encroachment. An overwhelming record, even including all the combat ability users who participated in the war. The undisputed strongest Aegis.

After that well-known fact was recognized by the world, Yunia has now become a symbolic figure too much to be a single psychic.

But fame, popularity among the public, were all meaningless to her.

Although she takes responsibility for and properly performs the tasks she is assigned due to her sincere and upright nature… it was only because she was still bound by the words of a precious person.

‘I hope you will help everyone with the power you have.’

The wish that that person had left the child someday.

So she tried.
She never gave up.
No matter how hard it was, no matter how difficult it was.
She fought and won in the end, and finally safely protected everyone.

But the world that she had struggled so hard to fight and protect,
Didn’t have the most precious person.

After that day, the emptiness in one side of Yunia’s heart was not filled.

Like a big hole had been punched through,
On cold windy days, on cold winter days when it was lonely to sleep alone,
It occasionally ached piercingly.

Her fist was clenched so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
Blood was about to ooze out of her lips that she bit unconsciously.

A knock from outside broke her reverie.

Knock knock-

At that, Yunia composed her expression for a moment.
She swallowed the lingering bitter taste at the end of her lips and answered.

“Come in.”

“Director, hello. There is a matter for which I would like to request approval.”

Yunia carefully checked the documents she received like that and signed them one by one.

This was her usual work. Only the necessary formal approvals, or occasional external activities. There was not much work to do. It wasn’t very demanding or difficult either.

It was safe to say that there was no need to go to the field at all.

The sporadic transfer of encroachment species is now detected and taken care of in advance by the surveillance network that encompasses the entire world. The system was already completed.

Nevertheless, the reason why Yunia took on this position was closer to the result of politics, such as symbolism. The public opinion was that everyone would be reassured if the strongest hero was sitting at the top of the countermeasures agency. The reason why the Defense Bureau headquarters was located in the middle of an expensive important city was also along similar lines.

Because of that, she occasionally felt tired in her current life. There were too many things to worry about and they were too complicated. It might have been more comfortable when she was directly fighting mutant species.

But since the war was already over, it was enough for her role to be sitting in the office like this and quietly moving her pen. It was a reality that she couldn’t get used to.

Still, very occasionally-

“Director, the appearance of an encroachment fissure has been observed. The location is the east-west side of the city outskirts.”

“What’s the scale?”

“It is currently estimated to be B2 grade.”

“Which team is the closest?”

“There is a designated standby team about 2km nearby, but it is a 4-person team composed entirely of 3rd-grade ability users.”

“……It’s ambiguous.”

“Should we additionally summon support teams from other areas? It will take some time, but if we just tell them to hold on until then-“

“No, there’s no need to do that.”

Yunia was already packing her sword.

“I’ll go.”

She pulled the slimy sword tip out of the pile of flesh.
The surroundings were already full of pieces of the fragmented mutant species.
There were no more living creatures.

Certainly, it wasn’t something that Yunia should have stepped up to do.

Had even 1 minute passed since she arrived at the site? She finished everything in the blink of an eye. It wasn’t even enough to be a pre-meal exercise.

Nevertheless, the reason why she bothered to step up was because she wanted to move her body even a little whenever she had the chance.

Like this sword that she polishes every day even after she rarely uses it, she didn’t want to let everything that that person had taught her rust even a little. The touch of her hair that she had tightly tied up for battle after a long time, she could also recall for a moment the touch of the hand that she could always rely on when the girl was clumsy at everything…

Yunia was quietly still.

There were several pairs of eyes watching her doing that.

“Wow, seriously… it’s unbelievable.”

“Yeah…….”

The standby team that had been deployed to the site first from the vicinity. They were sending envious glances with slightly dumbfounded and surprised expressions at the power of the special-class ability user who had suddenly appeared right before the battle and sorted out the situation in an instant.

The diligence of the ‘Director’, who doesn’t hesitate to go to the field even though she has such great skills, was famous within the Defense Bureau. And it wasn’t just her personality. Even her beauty, which was no less than her extraordinary power. She creates such a perfect atmosphere that it’s hard to take your eyes off of her, making you wonder if she’s really the same person.

So she is the object of admiration even among the ability users.

The strongest Aegis. They, who had directly experienced a fragment of that reputation, couldn’t dare to approach her and just watched her from afar.

Meanwhile, the collection team arrived at the scene, and Yunia then turned her head.

She naturally notified the collection team personnel who had come close.

“I’ll leave work early. I’ll leave the clean up to you.”

“Yes, ma’am. Please go in safely, Director.”

After she was far enough away, the remaining people belatedly exhaled. Their young superior was a really great person, but there was an atmosphere that made it hard to treat her easily.

So they belatedly observed the traces of the battle and admired each other in a low voice.

“Wow, she completely destroyed them this time.”

“I feel sorry for them at this point, really.”

“Did the Director have something bad happen to her today?”

“Senior, didn’t you know? Today is ‘that day’.”

“……Uh, uh??”

“No, what are you thinking?! Not that, but you know! The anniversary of that person’s death!”

“Ah-, right… that’s right. Another year has already passed and that time has come.”

“Read the room, really.”

“Ah… I hope I didn’t make any mistakes with the Director today? How could I forget that….”

“Hurry up and carry this, Senior.”

A black sedan that was smoothly running on the road stopped somewhere.

That place was the National Cemetery on the outskirts of the city.
The letters engraved on the white marble tower were particularly noticeable.

[Heroes of the Defense War, rest here.]

Yunia, who got out of the car, took the white bouquet from the passenger seat. And she headed somewhere, seemingly familiar, among the tombstones that were densely lined up.

The place she stopped after a long time was an ordinary tomb.

The blue eyes watching the white tombstone flickered slightly.

After hesitating for a moment,
She quietly placed the bouquet and bowed her head.

She meditated like that for a while.

♫♬~

The loud ringing of the phone bell echoed from her inner pocket.

At the sudden surge of noise, the solemn silence was startled and ran away. And what replaced it was indescribable annoyance.

‘Why now….’

As the person in charge of her position, Yunia has a duty to respond immediately in an emergency.

Therefore, she cannot silence her phone at any moment.

But the people at the Defense Bureau who know what day it is try to refrain from contacting her during this time as much as possible, even if someone has to die.

Therefore, this was the first time in recent years that Yunia had been disturbed during this time.

She was truly annoyed, but then she gave up. Even if an accident happened at this time, it couldn’t be helped. She just let out a deep sigh.

Then she took out her still ringing cell phone.

And on the screen she saw a name she didn’t expect.

[Linesha]

That was… a name Yunia had seen in years.

Linesha, she knows the name.
Not only knows, but at one time, they were even quite close.

Well, because they were classmates who had the same teacher. There was definitely a time when she followed her like an older sister.

But that was all a story from when they were young. Now they were definitely worse than strangers.

It had been like that ever since the teacher disappeared. They had barely exchanged a word for almost several years.

‘But now…? Why….?’

Carrying some doubts, Yunia cautiously answered the still ringing phone. Then a somewhat familiar voice was transmitted from beyond the speaker.

[“Ah, ah-, hello? Hello? Can you hear me?”]

Hearing that, the emotions that had been diluted by time surged up a little, and Yunia retorted somewhat curtly without realizing it.

“…..What’s the matter.”

[“Yunia, it’s been a while!”]

Really, no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t understand.

They had really fought to the death in their last meeting. Even if she greeted her like this now, she would only feel disgusted by it because she knew the other person’s true nature inside and out. There was no way the other side didn’t know that either.

But why…….

[“I suddenly thought of you and called. You’re doing well, right?”]

It’s just absurd.

“I’m going to hang up if you don’t have anything to say.”

[“Eung- Okay, I understand. I just wanted to hear our Yunia’s voice for the first time in a while. That’s all I needed to hear. Take care in the future too, I’m going to hang up~”]

That was the end.

Looking down at the screen where the call had been cut off, Yunia frowned mercilessly.

Then the woman who had finished the call looked straight at Seo Jin.

“She doesn’t know that Teacher is here yet, does she?”

The same sapphire blue eyes as Yunia were glistening with unknown emotions.

Seo Jin couldn’t say anything as if he was bound by that gaze. Like a herbivore facing a bright light in the middle of the night. His thoughts weren’t working properly.

Leaving Seo Jin like that, Linesha approached him step by step. She brushed the slightly disheveled blonde hair over her shoulder. In front of the chillingly cold expressionless face that was approaching, it felt like his breath was being slowly choked.

“Cafe, how interesting. Why a coffee shop?”

“That’s…”

The reason why Seo Jin opened a cafe that wasn’t very good and that he hadn’t learned anything about was…. just because Arcel liked it someday….

But Linesha didn’t seem to be asking for an answer itself.

Just like a judge who does not allow a defense.
She was only unilaterally questioning everything.

“Something, your personality seems to have changed a bit while I haven’t seen you. Is it just my imagination?”

The atmosphere was too unfamiliar to Seo Jin.

He was embarrassed by the gap between the girl who used to follow him well in his memory and the woman who was standing in front of him now.

The fact that she had grown up so beautifully and maturely, the somehow dangerous atmosphere, the coldness towards him, and the traces of unknown emotions were all too unfamiliar.

So before he knew what to say, her eyes, which had come within an inch, were in front of him.

A low whispering voice brushed past his ears.

“There are so many things I want to ask Teacher.”

And the hand that had lightly stroked his shoulder stopped for a moment when it touched the prosthetic on his right arm.

But then she grabbed it tightly with tremendous grip.

“There are really, really many questions left that I have to hear answers to.”

So that he wouldn’t run away again-

“So should I break both legs first so that you can’t run away?”

She pulled him in with all her might and smiled for the first time.