Chapter 138: The Hypocrite’s Love

“I don’t need that.”

“Just spill your secrets quietly.”

“It’s quite fascinating. Do you realize this is the first time Sa-yoon has ever listened to me? What kind of incident could have changed you so much?”

Levian Christine’s eyes gleamed. He recalled the times he had warned Sa-yoon in the past, scoffing at the foolish Sa-yoon of yesteryear.

“I told you repeatedly to be careful of Han Do-hoon.”

“Let’s move past that story.”

Sa-yoon’s lips tightened at the unpleasant topic. It was a story that had ended years ago.

It was the past, a painful memory that could not be undone.

“I’m painfully cautious now, so you don’t need to remind me.”

“Now? You’re cautious of the current Han Do-hoon?”

Levian Christine’s eyes widened as he repeated the question, then he burst into laughter, clutching his stomach until his face contorted. The handcuffs on his arms clinked.

“Ah, I never thought I’d feel pity for that Han Do-hoon. You really should have just handed him over obediently when I said I was coming to arrest you. Then you wouldn’t be going through all this trouble, and I would’ve had some fun too. Right?”

Sa-yoon stared at the cackling Levian Christine with icy eyes. As Levian Christine’s incessant laughter continued, Sa-yoon started to walk away, but Levian Christine hastily grabbed them from behind.

“Wait, just a moment. You really need to hear this before you go. I called you here to give you truly valuable information.”

“Speak.”

“You know that Han Do-hoon is acting strangely now, and you’ve probably figured out that the Commander-in-Chief is the root cause, haven’t you? So, do you know where those two are right now?”

Sa-yoon eyed Levian Christine with suspicion, who seemed all too willing to divulge information. The details he was about to reveal bordered on top secret. The current whereabouts of the Commander-in-Chief and Han Do-hoon were precisely what Airain was most eager to discover.

“Why would you tell me such a thing?”

“You’re still complaining, even when I’m offering good information. The truth is, I dislike Han Do-hoon quite a bit. So, I’d like him to suffer more, and using Sa-yoon is the quickest way to achieve that.”

As Levian Christine once again mentioned Han Do-hoon, deliberately blurring the point, Sa-yoon snatched a nearby utensil and hurled it. A sharp fork embedded itself in the wall behind Levian Christine’s blonde hair. Despite the weapon narrowly missing his head, he continued to cackle.

“Weren’t you two friends?”

“Friends? Friends?”

Levian Christine’s mirthful expression vanished, replaced by a sudden, serious look.

“Shall we talk about old times?”

“I’m not interested.”

‘He’s probably going to bring up the past again,’ Sa-yoon thought. ‘The time when I was unknowingly used by Han Do-hoon.’ Sa-yoon firmly refused, but Levian Christine shook his head.

“A very, very old story. Would you be more interested if I said it was about the first time I met Han Do-hoon?”

“…That might be worth hearing.”

“It will be interesting. It’s a story I’ve never told anyone else before.”

Levian Christine’s gaze drifted into the distance. He quietly recounted a distant past before opening his mouth.

“I, you see, was born into a wealthy family and raised cherished by harmonious parents. Moreover, I even awakened as an S-rank Esper, so my life was absolutely perfect. Naturally, I was certain my future would be bright.”

“How splendid.”

“Then one day, my parents were arrested. For secretly harboring an Irregular.”

The wistful tone of his voice, as he recalled the past, hardened abruptly. Levian Christine’s usually sly face became eerily grim.

“Unlike me, my parents were soft-hearted people. So they rescued an Irregular who had been dragged to a laboratory. They protested, saying it was too cruel for fellow humans, and that human experimentation should be abolished.”

“……”

“And then, my parents were secretly executed without any trial, under the pretext of rebelling against national policy.”

It was a tactic the Alliance frequently employed. To prevent human experimentation from being exposed, they would fabricate other charges and dispose of individuals without allowing them a chance to defend themselves.

“And the person who arrested my parents back then was Han Do-hoon.”

“What did you say?”

Sa-yoon knew that Han Do-hoon had worked for the Alliance since he was young. They knew he had been active since he was a minor, but they never realized he had been involved in such matters even then.

“Well, at that time, he was probably just following the Alliance’s orders. He might not have known the truth about the Alliance, or perhaps he knew and simply didn’t care.”

Levian Christine shrugged his shoulders.

“Anyway, my parents died like that, and I enlisted in the Alliance. It might seem like a strange choice, but there was no other way. If I didn’t prove that my opinions differed from my parents’, I might be secretly killed at any moment, and to prove my innocence, I had no choice but to actively serve as an Irregular Hunter.”

Speechless, Sa-yoon quietly watched Levian Christine. Since Levian Christine had always presented a lighthearted facade, this past was utterly unimaginable. He, too, was a victim entangled in the cowardice of Irregulars and the Alliance.

Seeing Sa-yoon’s somber expression, Levian Christine shrugged.

“You don’t need to pity me. Unlike my kind parents, I was naturally a rough sort, and being an Irregular Hunter suited me quite well. In the beginning, I even resented Irregulars a bit, thinking they were the root cause that had ensnared my parents. And that’s where I met Han Do-hoon again.”

Levian Christine smiled sinisterly, watching Sa-yoon’s gaze harden.

“He didn’t recognize me. Of course, it’s only natural. He wouldn’t recognize me, having only briefly seen me when he came to arrest my parents. So I stuck by his side. I was curious about Han Do-hoon, the one who had arrested my parents. And the Han Do-hoon I observed…”

Levian Christine, who had been cackling, suddenly changed his expression.

“He was a truly hypocritical and disgusting bastard.”

Han Do-hoon believed the Alliance’s views were righteous, and that their work benefited the world. He arrested countless innocent Irregulars and Rain without ever doubting that fact.

“It’s laughable, isn’t it? To live as the Alliance’s dog yet pretend to be noble. How utterly sickening that sight was.”

“Han Do-hoon thought he had been rescued by the Commander-in-Chief.”

Unbeknownst to Sa-yoon, they found themselves defending Han Do-hoon’s situation against Levian Christine’s malicious words. Levian Christine smiled.

“Well, that might be true. But that’s Han Do-hoon’s situation, and in my eyes, he was simply obnoxious. So I thought, ‘I hope the day comes when that bastard will hit rock bottom and regret his past actions. I hope he suffers to death for the things he did without a shred of doubt.'”

“……”

“That’s why I want to be good to Jin Sa-yoon. I want to give you all the information I have, and tell you everything I know. I’m truly grateful and want to do everything for you.”

Levian Christine smiled like a snake. He clapped his hands loudly, with a sneering gesture, saying he was immensely grateful to Sa-yoon for fulfilling his long-held desire. His eyes gleamed as he watched Sa-yoon’s expression harden.

“Ah, this is so much fun. I’ve never been this happy in my life. What would it feel like to be rejected by someone you cherished so dearly? Would it feel like your heart is tearing apart? And to think that person is an Irregular.”

“Han Do-hoon didn’t cherish me. He was just a Guide, so…”

“Hahahaha. Oh, my stomach hurts. I’m going crazy. Hahahaha.”

Levian Christine, who had been laughing so hard he nearly collapsed onto the floor, gasped and wiped away tears. He stared at Sa-yoon with the gaze of a snake eyeing its prey.

“Do you know how long it takes, on average, to arrest an Irregular? A week at most. But that Han Do-hoon stayed by Sa-yoon’s side for months. He endured a mountain of work, yet he refused to return from Korea. Do you think that was simply because you were a Guide?”

“That’s…”

Han Do-hoon was always busy when he met Sa-yoon. He performed his duties without complaint, despite the overwhelming workload. Seeing him unable to properly take holidays, Sa-yoon had merely assumed it was due to Han Do-hoon’s exceptional abilities. This was the first time they learned it was a side effect of his prolonged stay in Korea.

As Sa-yoon stood with their mouth agape, Levian Christine took a step closer and stared directly into their face.

“That guy used to take all sorts of medication because guiding was difficult, yet he never sought other treatments and remained complacent with his reality. A man who lived as if his most basic desire to live without pain had been castrated—would he betray the organization he had followed his entire life just for comfortable guiding?”

Levian Christine was the one who best knew how much effort Han Do-hoon had put in for Sa-yoon. Even if he went abroad for a short while, he would take a flight back to Korea late at night. For missions that needed to be handled in Korea, he would take on even the trivial tasks he would normally never bother with, all to legally stay in Korea for a little longer.

“Do you know what was written in Han Do-hoon’s final report? In that report, which stated you were dead, he wrote that Jin Sa-yoon was not an Irregular. It’s quite funny, isn’t it? It’s a fact everyone who knows would know, yet he stubbornly wrote that you weren’t an Irregular.”

This, too, was a story Sa-yoon had never heard before. Sa-yoon utterly failed to grasp Han Do-hoon’s intention. As Levian Christine said, the fact that Sa-yoon was an Irregular was not known only to Han Do-hoon. Any fellow Irregular Hunter could have known, yet he specifically marked Sa-yoon as not an Irregular.

He did so knowing it was utterly useless for someone already dead, and knowing Sa-yoon would never find out.

“Why, exactly…?”

“That would be Han Do-hoon’s way of loving. Disgustingly so, in fact.”

Han Do-hoon had grown up in a situation where he could not harbor even a single doubt that Irregulars and Airain were evil. The best he could do, then, was to record for the world that Jin Sa-yoon was not an Irregular. It was a unilateral and selfish expression of affection.

“I never wanted that.”

“Which is why you ended up in this pathetic state, isn’t it? A miserable state, abandoned even by your imprinted Guide.”

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