Chapter 53: The Lunatic Who Got Punched by His Best Friend for Going AWOL on a Date

Unexpected attacks kept coming. The espers who were urgently summoned gathered at the battlefield not long after Jae-hyung received Haejin’s text.

While the espers’ attacks tore through the swarm of beast-type monsters, Jin-woo stood at the very front. In the middle of ripping monsters apart with his bare hands, Jae-hyung’s voice came through.

—Why another fight? No gate even opened.

“Beast-types. Not shadows. These guys look seriously pissed…”

—Is it because hyung took sister-in-law out?

“Dunno. Any contact from that bastard Haejin yet?”

—No. When he shows up, I’m not letting this slide.

Right then—tch-tch-tch—a disgusting rubbing sound from behind. An insect-type monster grinding its antennae.

“Ugh… I hate bugs the most!”

—Rip them apart.

He spun around—a giant mantis the size of two people stacked vertically. While a long-range esper behind stirred up wind, Jin-woo launched into the air and tore its vital spot in one strike.

Tch-tch-tch. Tch-tch-tch.

From the massive mantis’s belly, tens of thousands of tiny mantises poured out.

“Disgusting!”

—You look like you’d chew bugs alive, why are you scared? Doesn’t suit you.

Jae-hyung was teasing—then suddenly screamed.

—Ah! Y-Yong-yong, no! Don’t go. Stay here!

Apparently Yong-yong had begged to come and slipped past the restricted zone.

“What’s going on? Why the dragon?”

—Yong-yong-ah, come back!

It was too early for the dragon to appear. If headquarters espers found out about him, they might capture him alive. A dragon already traumatized by headquarters couldn’t be taken again.

Jae-hyung cut all comms and sprinted to the battlefield. There, human-form Yong-yong was breathing fire.

“FWOOOOSH!”

Every exhale shot crimson flames from his mouth. The mantises crawling menacingly toward the espers were swallowed by fire and subdued.

Jae-hyung waited for the flames to die down, then ran to him and hugged him tight so he couldn’t breathe fire again.

“Ghh… can’t… breathe…”

“Yong-yong-ah, I told you—you can’t join the fight yet. If other espers find out, you’ll get hurt again.”

“That’s why I stayed human! Let go… suffocating…”

Jae-hyung barely contained his anger, then finally exploded.

“No, espers can sense energy! You think they’ll just let a non-esper breathe fire?!”

Yong-yong’s lips drooped.

“Jae-hyung… angry… at me… You said you were a good human… you lied…”

“When did I get angry!”

Jae-hyung forced himself to calm down and grabbed Yong-yong’s hand.

“Right now there are too many espers—they won’t notice individual energies. Come on. I’ll grill you meat.”

“Snff… okay…”

Yong-yong let himself be carried off the battlefield. Only then did Jae-hyung resume comms. Luckily, Yong-yong’s fire had wiped out countless monsters; the situation wasn’t critical.

“Hyung, sorry for cutting contact without warning.”

—Special circumstances today, so I’ll let it slide, but do that again and you’re dead. Legion espers trust you with their lives—remember that.

“Sorry. I panicked.”

—Yong-yong okay?

“Seems fine.”

—…See you back at Legion.

“Yes.”

Haejin arrived at Legion after dropping Lee Chae off and was instantly horrified. It looked like they’d just fought a massive battle—espers sprawled everywhere in the living room. Meanwhile, Jae-hyung was grilling beef without even opening a window, filling the place with meat smell, trying to soothe Yong-yong.

“Why is everyone here instead of going home? At least open a window!”

Even while Haejin opened windows, the espers just stared at him weirdly—no one helped.

“What’s with the vibe? What happened?”

“Captain, you really don’t know? There’s no way the emergency alert didn’t reach you.”

“Alert?”

Only then did Haejin remember—he hadn’t checked messages all day. Not on purpose; he’d drained his battery taking photos of Lee Chae.

“Battery died, couldn’t check.”

The sprawled espers sat up one by one and started complaining.

“You call that an excuse?”

“Where the hell were you all day?”

“You dumped the fight on us and didn’t even pick up—”

He had ignored emergency alerts because he was busy with Lee Chae—his bad. But did they have to gang up on him like this? Lately his personality had softened because of romance, and they were clearly taking advantage. Haejin glared.

“Only high-ranks here, and you’re whining about a few shadow squads? Since when were you all this weak?”

Jin-woo, who had been watching silently, finally spoke.

“Enough. You and I need to talk. Captain.”

Jin-woo’s face was dead serious. Something Haejin didn’t know about had clearly happened. Haejin told the grumbling espers “later” and followed Jin-woo into the meeting room.

The moment the door closed— POW, THUD, BAM!

Jin-woo’s fists and kicks rained down.

After taking a solid beating, Jin-woo panted,

“Cha Haejin. Fine, you were on a date and missed calls. But if you had a shred of sense as Legion’s leader, you never turn off emergency alerts. Even when you’re not here, you should care about Legion!”

“What the hell happened?”

“Beast-types showed up. Not shadows.”

“Beast-types?”

Haejin’s eyes widened. Outside gates, only the lowest-rank shadows appeared. Insect- and animal-shaped beast-types were deep inside gates. Why now?

“Injured? We weren’t even prepped…”

Jin-woo looked at him like he was pathetic.

“Now you worry? It wasn’t a huge swarm. But the problem is…”

“It’s because of me.”

“Yeah. Short and sweet—I like it. Then you’ll understand why I beat the shit out of you the moment I saw you.”

Haejin smirked.

“I’ll get my head straight. Romance on one side, combat on the other.”

“Even if you die, you won’t say you’re breaking up with Japchae.”

“I’d have to be insane to do that…”

After a few more jokes, Jin-woo turned serious again.

“You…”

“…”

“When we first founded Legion, what did you tell me? In a world where individuals are ignored, every single life matters. Let’s gather people like that, give them a sense of belonging—at least among ourselves. Let’s be cool anarchists.”

When Jin-woo got serious, even Haejin had to listen. He was never wrong. But it was one mistake. Was it worth this much guilt-tripping?

Haejin casually slung an arm over Jin-woo’s shoulder.

“I said I’m sorry. One slip-up and you’re acting like this?”

Jin-woo grabbed the arm, twisted— “Argh!”

Haejin yelped dramatically.

“I’m not joking, so listen up. If Yong-yong hadn’t been there today, we’d all be dead. I couldn’t tell the others because they’d panic, but…”

Jin-woo’s eyes darkened.

“A giant mantis burst open and thousands of baby mantises came out… If the dragon hadn’t burned them all at once, we’d have been poisoned.”

“Poisoned? They had venom?”

Jin-woo gripped Haejin’s shoulder hard enough to sting.

“You know what I’m really worried about? People’s lives are unpredictable. Looking at you now, if things ever go wrong with Lee Chae, I can see you abandoning combat, Legion, everything.”

Haejin wanted to deny it—but couldn’t. If something happened with Lee Chae, he wasn’t confident he’d keep his promise to Legion. The fact that he hadn’t even realized Legion had slipped to second place was shocking.

Jin-woo continued,

“Even if you have to break up with Lee Chae, you keep the promise you made to us. That’s loyalty to the people who trusted you and turned against the government.”

“I won’t break up, but no matter what, the promise comes first. Legion is as important to me as Jung Lee Chae.”

“…Good. I believe you.”

Jin-woo left first. Haejin sat a while longer, organizing his thoughts.

Legion falling to second place was shocking enough, but the bigger worry was the increasingly unpredictable enemy attacks.

If beast-types were releasing venomous offspring all at once, they were preparing for all-out war. Had they finally run out of patience after 50 years of stalemate?

Headquarters claimed the monsters inside gates had chosen limited coexistence to calm the public, but Haejin never believed it.

If they were really giving up, they would’ve ended the war somehow long ago. The uneasy feeling he’d had all along was slowly becoming reality.