Chapter 34: The Price of a Geas

Sa-yoon and Han Do-hoon maintained their relationship purely out of business necessity.

It was a symbiotic arrangement: they took what they needed from each other, but never delved into personal matters. No matter how friendly Han Do-hoon acted, they remained complete strangers.

Sharing the details would require them to reveal the specifics of their individual missions. Neither could ask, nor could they tell. Sa-yoon rose from his seat.

“You should finish eating. My mission location today is quite far, so I’ll be heading out first.”

Where had Han Do-hoon truly been yesterday? Since Han Do-hoon was aware of the demolition plans in Songjeong, it was highly probable his mission was related.

Yet, Sa-yoon knew nothing of it. That alone struck him as odd. For demolishing buildings and compacting foundations, Sa-yoon’s abilities were far more efficient than Han Do-hoon’s.

Han Do-hoon, seated opposite him, also stood up.

“I also have work starting this morning, so I must get going.”

“You just returned at dawn, and now another morning mission? Your schedule is quite demanding.”

This was a stark contrast to Sa-yoon, who had received missions taking less than an hour for two consecutive days. Their workloads were so disparate that anyone observing them would assume they belonged to different affiliations.

It was no wonder Chae-jun would complain that their team was being overlooked.

Sa-yoon checked the location of his current mission on the map. It was precisely opposite the location of his mission yesterday.

‘I suppose I’ll have to investigate the details myself.’

Once he finished his work and returned, he felt he should stop by yesterday’s location. Though he suspected it was nothing serious, he knew he needed to see it with his own eyes to quiet his uneasy intuition.

However, Sa-yoon’s wishes did not materialize as planned. That evening, an urgent summons came for Sa-yoon.

With all team-leader-level Espers out of Seoul, an urgent matter had arisen that needed immediate attention. Team leaders with outstanding missions were unable to move.

Sa-yoon, having comparatively fewer missions, had to hastily take a flight back to Seoul.

The man gasped for air.

He ran until his thighs burned.

He darted across the deserted construction site, searching for a place to hide. In the desolate space, marked only by protruding rebar and piles of lumber, he pulled a discarded tarp over himself.

How had he ended up like this? When it had all begun, he certainly hadn’t anticipated this outcome. The capital’s power grid was supposedly clear, and their preparations had been meticulous.

That monster was the problem. The monster, with its striking face, had strolled in leisurely and ruined everything.

Watching high-grade Esper mercenaries slammed into the ground in an instant was a sight almost impossible to believe. It was an overwhelming power that left no room for resistance.

“Hah. Hah.”

He covered his mouth with both hands, trying to suppress his ragged breaths. He just needed to get out alive. Then he could wash away this humiliation…

“Found you.”

The tarp covering the man’s head flew into the sky. Beneath the bright moon, a figure looked down at him. He shimmered darkly like a grim reaper in the moonlight.

“Hello? You know me, right?”

“Jin… Sa-yoon.”

The man spat out the monster’s name, as if chewing and tearing at it. In contrast to his tightly pressed lips, his fingers trembled.

Sa-yoon sighed. Tonight’s overtime was finally drawing to a close.

“You know me well. Why would someone who knows me so well do such a thing?”

Sa-yoon kicked the last remaining remnant of the organization responsible for the incident. The sound of a person tumbling echoed repeatedly through the dark, abandoned factory.

“Alright, now you’ll have to spill everything you can, won’t you?”

“Hah.”

The man, swallowing sharply, trembled with fear. Sa-yoon couldn’t fathom why this fellow, lacking even the courage to resist, insisted on causing trouble and exhausting everyone.

Sa-yoon looked at the man sprawled on the floor and smoothed his black gloves.

“Do you know why these gloves are black? It’s because getting dirty blood on white gloves feels disgusting. Today, I’ll let these gloves feast on blood—”

“Don’t bother with the threats, Team Leader Sa-yoon. You always say you dislike white because it gets dirty too easily when you’re working.”

Chae-jun chimed in from behind Sa-yoon, who had been trying to set a menacing atmosphere. Sa-yoon glared back, his dramatic moment shattered, but Chae-jun merely shrugged.

“Besides, Team Leader, your abilities don’t get blood on anything. You’re not actually beating anyone directly, are you? At most, you just trap them between rebar, twist them, or crush them.”

The man, curled on the floor, flinched. Now, he buried his face into the ground, his entire body trembling.

Sa-yoon stared at Chae-jun, who had just uttered such chilling words with a perfectly innocent face.

“You’re even worse.”

Chae-jun simply shrugged at Sa-yoon, then approached the man again and squatted down.

“It’s rare for Team Leader Sa-yoon to do such things to people. But, mister, if you delay your confession any longer, who knows what might happen. We’re on overtime, so we’re a little sensitive.”

At Chae-jun’s smiling threat, the man lifted his head, his eyes wide with terror.

“I’ll tell… I’ll tell you everything.”

“That’s a good decision. Come on, spill everything. Your sentence might even be reduced, you know. The purpose of this incident, the mastermind, your future plans. Let’s talk about it all.”

The organizations arrested this time had illicitly smuggled Rain into the port. They had then seized a ship and incited a riot.

Even with a full confession, the minimum sentence was life imprisonment, but Chae-jun spoke with feigned kindness, patting the criminal. Anyone watching would have thought him a truly gentle person.

“So, let’s discuss why this incident occurred, following the five W’s and one H.”

“Uh, a foreigner approached us recently and commissioned us. They told us the capital would be empty today, so we were to cause a disturbance at the port. Then they delivered a package. It was a box, slightly larger than a person.”

A foreigner and a mysterious box. Just hearing about it, the combination smelled fishy.

“What was inside?”

“They told us never to open it, so I don’t know what was inside. Really.”

“That’s not enough. Team Leader Sa-yoon, should we ‘twist’ this guy a little?”

“B-but I heard something moving inside the box. Not like Rain, but like a person… Ugh, gasp,”

The man, who had been speaking, clutched his throat and writhed on the ground. He clawed at his neck, pounded his chest, and kicked his feet.

“Cough…. Gasp… Choke…”

Startled by the sudden fit, Chae-jun quickly stood up and took a step back. The man, thrashing wildly, began to foam at the mouth, then his eyes rolled back, and he slumped lifelessly to the floor.

His arms fell limply.

“He’s dead, Team Leader. This is…”

“A geas.”

Sa-yoon nudged the now lifeless man with his foot. The foolish man hadn’t even realized he was under a geas.

An ability user who could unilaterally cast a geas without the target’s consent.

“How many people are capable of such a geas?”

“None in the country.”

“This is going to be a headache.”

“Exactly. Whoever is behind this incident, they don’t seem like an ordinary individual.”

A geas could only be used by Espers with a rare specialty in biological control, even among those with special abilities. They typically exercised their abilities by controlling animals, insects, or plants, but high-grade Espers could even control people.

If the geas was so potent that the affected party remained unaware of its constraint, then only a handful of Espers worldwide would be capable of using it.

“Just who could it be?”

“There haven’t been any reports of foreign Espers entering the country recently, so it must be an unregistered Esper.”

“Hmm…”

Sa-yoon ruffled his hair. If the individual Sa-yoon had been pursuing had met such a fate, then the remaining factions scattered elsewhere would likely have suffered the same end.

He had hoped to finish quickly, even if it meant some late-night work, but things had become truly complicated. Sa-yoon switched on his terminal and marked the coordinates.

“Well, the Director will handle it.”

Intellectual battles were not Sa-yoon’s domain. Once he delivered the information, the Director would make the appropriate judgment.

Sa-yoon spoke to Chae-jun, who was wrapping the body in a tarp.

“Go past the right corner, about 10 meters, there’s a cart. Don’t carry it by hand; put it on the cart and bring it over.”

“Thank you. Truly, your ability is useful, no matter how I look at it.”

Chae-jun, who had been poking the corpse, quickly went to retrieve the cart. Carrying a body that had collapsed, foaming at the mouth, was certainly not a welcome task.

As he moved the cart, Chae-jun checked the overturned corpse once more and shook his head.

“This person who used the geas… it’s such a powerful ability, so why are they committing crimes? They could live a life of prestige if they joined the state. High-grade Espers in the special abilities category are particularly rare, aren’t they? Ah, but it might be difficult to be colleagues with a criminal, I guess.”

Chae-jun’s voice trailed off as he quickly shook his head. The abilities possessed by Espers were broadly divided into five categories.

According to their offensive nature, these were fire, water, earth, wind, and electricity. Though it sounded like something from a magical girl anime, for convenience’s sake, they were classified into these five major attributes and called ‘natural Espers.’

Then there were those who wielded special abilities unrelated to these attributes, like Sa-yoon. They were known as ‘special-type Espers.’

Sa-yoon’s team, in fact, was entirely composed of special ability Espers. If the culprit in this incident had properly registered with the state and enlisted, they might have even joined Sa-yoon’s team.

“Well, they might not have ended up on our team. There’s one more team, after all.”

“But they’re not even active right now.”

Indeed, there was one more team comprised solely of special ability Espers. It was an unnumbered team, commonly known as ‘Zero.’

The team leader was the last of the three S-rank individuals existing within the country.