Chapter 331

Thwack.

Before the President could even open his mouth, a raw egg flew through the air and broke against Sa-yoon’s head. It was a pathetic attack he could have easily blocked with a skill, but now was not the time. He wiped the slimy liquid from his face with the back of his hand and found the furious face in the crowd. The woman’s bloodshot eyes were so swollen it looked as if she hadn’t stopped crying for days. Tear tracks stained her cheeks, and though she was a civilian, he could feel a palpable killing intent radiating from her. Sa-yoon’s gaze fell to the sign hanging around her neck.

‘Please kill Sa-yoon, who killed my son.’

It hadn’t been written with a board marker. From the rough, red letters, his S-Rank senses detected the distinct, metallic scent of blood. Sa-yoon stared for a long moment at the woman, whose fingertips were tightly wrapped in bandages. As he stood there lost in thought, perhaps looking vulnerable, two more eggs flew in from another direction.

My life is like a movie.

It was a scene you wouldn’t even see in most films or dramas, a spectacle more suited to the 2010s. He felt this must be a rare experience in its own right. He raised an arm, and the sleeve of his suit was instantly soaked with the sticky liquid. Satisfied that he had at least prevented it from splashing into his eyes, he turned his attention to the reporters, who were throwing eggs, stones, and insults, all while shouting questions until their throats were sore.

“What was your reason for joining Noah while still being the leader of Night Rat?!”

“Kwon Sa-yoon-ssi! Do you have anything to say to the families of your terror attack victims?!”

“What is the current relationship between Night Rat and the Korean Association?!”

His ears ached. They were screaming with such life-or-death desperation that, for a moment, they almost looked like people driven mad by their duty to the public’s right to know and their journalistic mission. Amidst the chaos, the President began to speak. Though it was called a press conference, the scene was no different from a chaotic marketplace, yet he managed to project the image of a high-ranking official.

“I am Bae Min-cheol, President of the Korean Hunter Association. First, I would like to apologize to the citizens for causing such disappointment and anxiety. I keenly feel the weight of my mistake in judgment regarding this recent controversy, and I offer my deepest apologies.”

“Does that mean you are admitting to some kind of collusion between the Night Rat guild and the Association?”

“…Everything began with the threat and uncertainty of the Gates. The appearance of S-Rank Gates and the system updates… as the President responsible for managing the nation’s hunters and protecting its civilians, they placed an immense weight upon my shoulders. As time went on and the Gates grew stronger, I felt the need for even greater power. It was then that Guild Leader Kwon Sa-yoon and I came to an agreement to join forces, which led to the creation of the Swallow Guild. At the time, it was a choice made to overcome the immediate crisis, but looking back, it was a foolish and deceptive act. I fully understand the sense of betrayal the people must feel, and I have nothing to say but that I am ashamed.”

Click, click. Min-cheol bowed his head before the endless, rhythmic wave of camera shutters. The reporters, as if fanning the flames, raised their voices and unleashed a barrage of sharp questions. The President answered them all faithfully, but exercised his right to remain silent on the questions designed to further slander or disgrace Sa-yoon. Watching his back, Sa-yoon had to suppress a sneer.

Even if he remained silent a hundred times, in this overheated atmosphere, his silence would only fuel more suspicion; it would never extinguish the flames.

It was a noble gesture, but a foolish one.

“Can you tell us why you are choosing to avoid questions about Kwon Sa-yoon-ssi?”

As expected, a reporter sharply pointed out the flaw.

“I am not avoiding them. I am choosing silence because they are questions I cannot answer. They are not for me to speak on. However, I can say one thing: when Team Noah was formed, neither the Korean Association nor the Night Rat guild intended to harm the public. On the contrary, Team Noah worked tirelessly to protect the people and the nation. I believe Team Noah’s track record and the actions of Guild Leader Kwon Sa-yoon under the alias ‘Sa-yoon’ have more than proven the meaning of Team Noah’s existence. Therefore, I will not respond to any slander or speculation related to Noah.”

As Min-cheol drew a firm line, the reporters’ target naturally shifted to Sa-yoon. The sharp questions and insulting words they couldn’t direct at Min-cheol now flew at him. Amidst the many voices clawing at his consciousness, Sa-yoon’s gaze remained fixed on one spot.

The people standing in solidarity beside the woman with the sign. They too had signs hanging around their necks, all with similar messages, invoking the names of children, lovers, and parents killed in terrorist attacks and wishing for Sa-yoon’s death.

There were more than just one or two. The crowd of reporters numbered in the hundreds, but the group of victims was at least several dozen strong. And that was likely excluding those who were too afraid to step forward. Assuming that scared group made up ninety percent of the total, the number of victims far exceeded his initial estimation.

At least in the thousands.

He made the calculation and had to hold back a laugh.

For someone who had chosen to live, guided by the few who wanted him to save them, while trampling on the wishes of the hundreds, the thousands who wanted him dead, this situation felt like the blackest of comedies.

He felt a little empty, a little relieved, and… a very faint sense of misery. The reality of standing at the center of this uproar hit him anew. He had been dismissing the voices as mere noise when a shout of “You piece of trash!” made him look up.

“My mom died because of you, you son of a bitch!”

“……”

“Does saving a few people now make it all okay? What good does that do?! The people who are already dead aren’t coming back!”

A girl, who looked to be about high school age, was nearly sobbing. She began to wail, screaming at him to bring her dead mother back. She pushed through the hands of those trying to restrain her, clawed her way through the reporters, and struggled desperately to get one step closer to Sa-yoon, the veins in her neck bulging. The reporters, meanwhile, did nothing but capture her image with their cameras; they did not make way. Some even shouted their own questions for their articles, their voices drowning out the girl’s.

This is a madhouse.

As he looked on with an unintentionally cold expression, thinking he had never seen such chaos, the girl flinched and her face contorted.

“What, are you going to kill me, too? Go on, kill me! I dare you, you fucking demon!”

The people with her urgently tried to hold her back, worrying that something terrible would happen, but the girl only repeated her words, her voice breaking into sobs. Even if you save a hundred people, it won’t bring back the one who died. You shouldn’t live like this. Faced with her raw grief, Sa-yoon clenched the hand he had hidden behind his thigh.

It would have been less jarring if it had been a young man, or someone the age of a new parent. But the sight of a girl, not yet an adult, screaming for her lost guardian, targeted his own past from a bizarre angle, intensifying his guilt.

Moved by the girl’s cries, the other victims began to add their own voices, their tears flowing freely. The press conference had devolved into a complete mess, leaving nothing but the protests of those who had lost their loved ones. The reporters stoked the flames, whipping the people’s anger into a frenzy. Pelted with accusations, the President bowed his head again and again, and finally announced his resignation. The murmuring grew louder, but the chaos did not subside.

Hearing the cries for him to take responsibility as well, Sa-yoon officially announced the disbandment of the Night Rat guild. Thwack! A stone flew through the air and struck him on the forehead. The impact cut his statement short. He took a quiet breath and opened his blood-red lips.

Drip.

A cold drop of water fell from the sky. The sky, which had turned a sullen gray, began to pour down rain, but no one moved to take shelter. No one even raised a hand to cover their head. As everyone’s gaze was fixed solely on him, Sa-yoon lowered his head.

He needed to say he was sorry, but the moment he looked down at his own dress shoes, his throat tightened. The downpour soaked his hair, his clothes, his feet. The rain left his skin damp, but his eyes remained dry. Below his neck, his insides were a chaotic storm of hot, cold, and injustice, but the emotions seemed to be caught on something, refusing to rise to his face. The words wouldn’t come either. He was biting his lip when…

“……”

A jacket fluttered down and was draped over his head. A delicate hand then adjusted it, carefully tucking it in to shield him from the rain. The atmosphere grew noisy. Who is that? What? Suddenly… Amidst the confused reactions, Sa-yoon looked up.

“Why would you come alone if you were just going to stand here like this?”

The sullen voice was tinged with a melancholy, as if it were grieving on his behalf.

“…How did you get here?”

“Don’t overestimate the executives’ skills. I’m strong enough that they couldn’t hold me back, even with Jaehee fighting alongside them.”

“…And why did you take off your mask again?”

“Because I don’t want to hide like a coward.”

At Geon-joo’s calm reply, Sa-yoon was at a loss for words. In truth, his thought process had simply shut down. He stared blankly, unsure of what to say, as Geon-joo surveyed the scene, which had fallen into a momentary silence at his sudden appearance. His dark eyes took in each and every person before he spoke, his voice carrying in Sa-yoon’s place.

“A war will soon begin.”

“……”

“He must certainly pay for his sins, but does it have to be right now?”

His cold voice questioned the participants.

“If you blame the past, if you cripple our strongest weapon like this, will the Gates disappear? Will the impending war simply end? There is nothing to be gained, so why do you walk this foolish path to self-destruction? If this man hadn’t stopped the Gate Break, even at the cost of passing out, none of you would even be here to complain.”

“……”

“If it doesn’t feel real to you, then try losing him and see. See who stands to lose more if you lose Sa-yoon.”

With a sneer, Geon-joo pulled Sa-yoon into his arms and kicked off the ground, soaring into the sky in an instant. It was a movement so agile that not even an S-Rank hunter could easily follow. To the people at the press conference, it looked as if the two had simply vanished.

“Where did they go?”

“Find them, now!”

“Dammit, what…”

A noisy commotion erupted below. Geon-joo, who had climbed so high that the people looked like tiny dots, held Sa-yoon tight and steadied his own ragged breath, the tension of the moment finally hitting him.

Sa-yoon stared at Geon-joo with disbelief at the events that had unfolded in the blink of an eye. Instead of shielding himself from the rain, Geon-joo was letting the downpour soak him completely.

Heh.

A laugh burst out of him at the sheer absurdity of it all.

“What are you doing?”

“What do you think I’m doing? I’m helping you escape this selfish den.”

Geon-joo shot back coolly and kicked off the air again. Sa-yoon’s lips trembled slightly.

He should be angry. The audacity was breathtaking. He had ruined his plan. This was the moment to shout and teach him a lesson.

And yet, strangely, he couldn’t stop smiling. The emotions that had been boiling up to his throat had cooled, as if they had never been there, and it was easier to breathe. Selfishly admitting that his heart felt lighter, Sa-yoon leaned against Geon-joo and closed his eyes. The steady rhythm of a heartbeat soothed his mind and body. Geon-joo glanced down at him.

“We’re a community of fate, hyung. There’s no ‘your side’ or ‘my side.’ We have to be together.”

“What nonsense is that?”

He had just been about to get some sleep, but the ridiculous assertion woke him up. He lifted his head, annoyed that the boy’s nonsense had increased in his short absence, but Geon-joo only held him tighter. Without looking at him, staring straight ahead, he continued.

“So let’s be together.”

“……”

“This time, I’ll be the one to help you escape.”

Han Geon-joo whispered like a serpent. A faint, ephemeral smile touched Sa-yoon’s lips.

In the end, someone has to take responsibility for their sins.

Just as he was doing now.

But was an eternal escape from one’s sins even possible?

It was nothing but a thin daydream. Knowing this, but too exhausted to delve deeper, Sa-yoon closed his eyes with a sigh. The sound of the rain grew louder. The two sinners, leaning on each other, moved to a new location.

To the den of sinners, Night Rat.