Chapter 200: Reality (1)
TL: SHW
Frustrating.
I had never realized that not being able to handle things however I wanted could be this stressful. I'd spent my life thinking that cleaning up messes people made outside my sight was about as stressful as things could get.
Things like this had almost never happened at the Ability Management Agency. What happened inside dungeons was technically the Raid Team's responsibility, so once I drew up a strategy and handed it over, there was hardly anything left for me to deal with. Han Tae-kyung's license suspension had been... annoying to clean up, but once we pinned the blame on that lunatic, fewer arrows of criticism than expected were aimed at the Agency. Han Tae-kyung's bizarre behavior was famous, after all.
On the rare occasion something serious enough happened that either Father or I had to step in.... Most of the time, Father left it entirely to me. I would make full use of Hong Seok-young's face and name and somehow shrink the scale of the incident until it quietly fizzled out.
The people working at the Agency were used to that system too. Honestly, it wasn't as if I'd ever made completely unreasonable demands. I couldn't say I'd never pushed through anything somewhat excessive, but I had still resolved things within legal bounds. I'd never forced some pointless overseas business trip into the schedule either.
So.
“Of course you can't!”
“Why not?!”
“Are you out of your mind?!! America, at a time like this? Absolutely not!!”
It's not like I said we should go to America for fun!
I stared Lee Mi-seon down, openly displeased.
“No.”
“…….”
“What.... Staring at me like that won't change anything!”
Lee Mi-seon didn't avoid my gaze. If anything, she widened her eyes and glared right back at me.
“You're not a child. You already know all this, Teacher Woo. Things are sensitive enough as it is, so we need to avoid doing anything conspicuous.”
“Sensitive?”
Was the dungeon issue from the Myeongdong incident still causing trouble? The media had made plenty of noise for several days when authority over dungeon management passed from private guilds to the state. Of course, it hadn't lasted more than a week. I'd just thought, So that happened, and moved on.
Well, that was how civilians saw it. The government's perspective would naturally be different. Lee Mi-seon had warned me about it too.
No, but still, this was different. It wasn't as if I'd fabricated something out of thin air or suggested we go sightseeing in America.
I was saying we should go because a bastard named Henry Lehman was in America.
In the end, we had squeezed Alex Hope for everything he had.
...We weren't finished with him yet, but at the very least, we'd made him give us solid personal information on Henry Lehman, another one of Noah Michel's agents.
German national. U.S. permanent resident. He moved around frequently, but kept a small apartment in Chicago as his private space and used it often.
When I'd first suggested going after the bastard, the words had slipped out impulsively after I'd been tormented by one thought after another. But that night, lying in bed, I'd thought it over carefully.
We should go after all.
Or not? Was I still being impulsive?
...No. Going really did seem like the right choice.
“Yes. A sensitive time!”
Lee Mi-seon snapped irritably.
“Honestly, there are way too many things going on all over the place!”
“That's your problem, Hunter Lee.”
“Whose fault do you think all of that is?!”
Surely not mine.
I shrugged.
“Teacher Hong?”
“Yes! That man is responsible for about eighty percent of it!!”
Lee Mi-seon shrieked.
If Hong Seok-young had been here, Lee Mi-seon might finally have lost all self-control and started ripping his hair out.
I rubbed my chin.
There was currently no one particularly suitable for keeping watch over Alex Hope. The hunters from Daseon, Lee Mi-seon included, couldn't handle Hope, and as for me.... I didn't think I'd lose in a fight against him, but if he seriously tried to run, I wasn't confident I could catch him. Not that I thought Hope would flee like that while Gamble was still here.
Instead, I looked at Hope's confiscated phone. We had come up with new precautions for dealing with him. Do not leave him alone with Sandra Gamble. Remove every means the two could use to communicate.
“And!!”
“Yes?”
“What was that?!”
“What was what?”
“A son! You said son?”
“Oh. That.”
I'd forgotten that Hope had been there when Hong Seok-young first started going on about me being his son.
Back then, that hadn't been the important part.
Honestly, I still didn't think it was important now.
“What is it?! What exactly did you two talk about?!”
Was this more interesting to her than Henry Lehman?
I answered indifferently.
“Apparently he wants to take my little brother as his son.”
“...I-rok?”
“Haven't you noticed Teacher Hong trying to get chummy with I-rok lately?”
“Uh, um.”
Lee Mi-seon hesitated.
“It'd be stranger if he ignored a kid wandering around.”
“...That's true.”
I gave a casual shrug.
Getting worked up and raising my voice here would only make me look more suspicious. Stay calm.
“Anyway, I don't really know whether he genuinely wants to make him his son or just wants to play family....”
“Hunter Hong wouldn't say something like that even as a joke. If he really said it, then he means to do it.”
“…….”
For some reason, Lee Mi-seon interrupted me with an utterly exhausted expression.
She'd already looked tired lately from being overloaded with work, but now she seemed drained in a slightly different way. I wanted to ask her why, but the moment I opened my mouth, I realized the reason.
Right. Hong Seok-young would never casually let words like family, especially son, leave his mouth.
I didn't want to talk about this subject anymore. I deliberately ignored Lee Mi-seon's complicated gaze and returned to the original topic.
So why exactly was going to America to capture Henry Lehman out of the question?
“Is it because Hunter Hong attracts too much attention whenever he makes a move?”
“What?”
“Why you're against us going to America.”
A hunter who represented South Korea naturally had the fame to match. There were plenty of people who paid attention to Hong Seok-young's every move.
“You said Hunter Hong has been creating more work for you. It'll be a problem if your only reason for refusing is that it'll add to your workload.”
“What do you take me for, a child?!”
“If Hunter Hong can't go, I'll go by myself.”
I wasn't sure... how much of what Hope had said I could trust, but according to him, Henry Lehman was much weaker than Noah Michel, barely more than an ordinary human.
It would be best if I could deal with Henry Lehman right now, but even if that wasn't possible, we at least needed to see how Ark operated in the Americas. I also wanted to confirm with my own eyes that the children Gamble had taken there were safe.
Truthfully, I'd never handled this kind of covert operation before... but no one got to do only the things they wanted in life. Judging by everything we'd uncovered about Ark so far, we couldn't simply sit still and wait for Ark to roll into our hands. If there was something we wanted, we had to move to get it. Whether that was information or anything else.
Besides, weren't the people in the Association Secretariat's Special Activities Division skilled at this sort of operation? Surely Lee Mi-seon wasn't going to tell me to go alone.
“That's even more impossible.”
But Lee Mi-seon answered with an even stiffer expression.
“...I can't?”
That answer was completely unexpected.
“Leave Henry Lehman to me. First we'll determine how much of what Hope said is true, then we'll deal with him.”
My chest tightened again as a surge of irritation welled up.
“So....”
“He's not an ordinary criminal. If Hope was telling the truth, he's running a criminal organization tied to the South American black market. If we go after someone like that without thinking it through, and then somehow let him slip away after making contact, it'll be a disaster.”
“…….”
“And I don't think we're the only ones after him.”
“...What do you mean?”
Lee Mi-seon's expression softened slightly.
“Look at what he's involved in. Hunter corpses are one thing, but there are drugs, illegal weapons.... Gamble dodged the question, but I'm sure he deals in looted artifacts and stolen goods too.”
“…….”
“He isn't just some eccentric Archmage's subordinate. He's an international criminal. The FBI and NSA are probably after him, and South American countries will be too. Our Ability Association is obviously pursuing him as well, and I wouldn't be surprised if Interpol had put out a notice on him.”
“Hmm.”
“Investigative jurisdiction is going to be tangled beyond belief.”
“Can't you do something about that, Hunter Lee? Hunter Hong is here, isn't he?”
Most complicated problems tended to get resolved once Hong Seok-young's name was invoked.
Why would this time be any different?
“Ah. Right. If Hunter Hong gets involved, the procedures probably would get a little simpler.”
“Yes. So.”
“But that only applies to Hunter Hong. Teacher Woo can't go.”
Lee Mi-seon's face stiffened again.
“Well... this part is partly my fault too.”
“What?”
“Actually, calling it my fault might not be right.... Maybe I should call it humanitarian. Hunter Hong isn't exactly the type to care much about this sort of thing either, and your motive was so obvious that we'd been turning a blind eye to it somewhat.”
Lee Mi-seon let out a long sigh.
“Teacher Woo, haven't you been forgetting a little too completely that you escaped from Ark?”
“…….”
“Your identity. You do remember that we created it for you, right?”
“…….”
“We can't let you leave the country. Naturally, you wouldn't get permission either.”
All at once, I realized that this wasn't the Ability Management Agency.
The Lee Mi-seon standing in front of me wasn't a woman who would smile dryly and obediently follow whatever Father said. There were no employees here who would flesh out the details of whatever Father or I ordered and come back carrying reports.
Right now, I wasn't in a position to give orders. I was the one who had to follow them.
Right.... From the very beginning, Hong Seok-young had abruptly shoved an employment contract at me and told me to become a teacher at Pilot High School, so I'd gotten confused too. I'd still been wary when I was first subjected to all sorts of questioning in the Awakened Crime Investigation Office. But that employment contract had been so shocking that every other emotion had simply evaporated.
“...Teacher Woo?”
“No. Now that I think about it, you're right, Hunter Lee.”
Lee Mi-seon looked slightly uncomfortable, but she didn't take back what she'd said.
Lee Mi-seon wasn't the one who needed to get this situation under control. I was.
“I was too impatient. Ark....”
“Ah.”
“Ark, well. You know. I got impatient.”
“That's understandable.”
“Now that someone I can actually hold responsible has appeared, well. Noah Michel is one thing, but the Archmage isn't someone we can touch right away....”
“No, I understand what you mean. If I were in your position, Teacher Woo, I'd be impatient too.”
Had Hong Seok-young calculated it all when he'd shoved that employment contract at me at exactly that moment?
Maybe he'd been waiting for my guard to drop just enough for me to make a mistake.
Judging by the Hong Seok-young I'd seen since coming to the past, it seemed entirely plausible. Apparently Father had been a far more meticulous man than I'd thought.
“And even putting that aside, you really can't go right now. There's already enough controversy surrounding Pilot High School.”
“Pilot High School?”
“There are rumors that Hunter Hong is trying to use government funding to create his own private guild....”
Ah.
How... could this not have changed at all? So many other things had changed. Couldn't little things like this have changed along with them?
Even as I watched something Father had gone through twenty years ago play out exactly the same way before my eyes, all I could do right now was sigh.
***
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