Chapter 292 - Chapter 290: Episode 290
Everyone has something they terribly regret in life.
It's not always because of a mistake or a wrongdoing.
These are actions you regret in hindsight, but at the time, they didn't seem like a mistake or error at all.
For instance,
-I should've bought that coin back then-
-I should've sold that stock back then-
-I should've helped-
-I should've stopped them from going swimming alone-
-I shouldn't have forced them to go on the school trip when they didn't want to-
-I shouldn't have gone to the military-
And so on.
People say they make the best choices at the time,
but in a world where everyone's life is swirling in chaos, the best choice isn't always a good one.
Ahn Min-seo was the same.
Ahn Min-seo woke up at dawn today as well, blankly clutching her necklace.
To be precise, the pair of ruby rings hanging from it.
'I should've dragged Do-jin to the Lava Zone, even if I had to force him.'
'No. If I had, would Do-jin have been in danger in the Lava Zone?'
'I should've broken my plans with my friends and teamed up with Do-jin instead.'
'If I had been with Do-jin back then....'
'Do-jin... I miss you....'
It had been nearly a month of days filled with sobbing and regret.
She woke up in the now-familiar field barracks of the Villain Suppression Squad, got ready, and headed to her sister's quarters.
Her sister, Ahn Seo-yeon, had also been assigned a field barrack and was waiting for her to visit after finishing her own personal maintenance.
"You're here?"
"Yeah. Sister."
"How are you feeling today?"
"Still not great. I feel like I need to kill at least 10 villains today to sleep soundly."
"...Right. Don't push yourself too hard."
Ahn Min-seo was about to start her day while drinking the coffee Ahn Seo-yeon handed her, as usual.
Then, she suddenly noticed a few photos lying on Ahn Seo-yeon's makeshift desk.
"Sister. What are these?"
"...Ah, this? One of my juniors joined the intelligence department for monster reconnaissance.
Remember Jung Ah-reum? The one who was in the Holy Sword Department but left after graduating early through a special appointment.
One of her missions is monster reconnaissance and observing abnormal signs...,
she said she recently detected a massive surge in monsters and strange movements in Gangwon-do...,
and she asked me for advice on what this might be.... But, I don't really know either.
Min-seo, do you want to take a look? You're the top of your grade and smart, maybe you'll notice something?"
"Hmm.... I don't know."
Ahn Min-seo didn't have much interest, so she just scanned through them.
She was just pretending to look closely because her sister, Ahn Seo-yeon, asked her to.
Who cares about monsters?
Right now, her head was filled only with a thirst for revenge against the villains who turned Kim Do-jin into a corpse that was hard to even find.
It seemed that other humans were the real problem, more so than monsters or ghosts.
Ahn Min-seo was casually looking at the reconnaissance photos when she flinched upon seeing the name of the region where the photos were taken.
It was a region name that was now very familiar, yet one she hated to hear.
"...Sister, ...this region is?"
"...Hm? Ah..., oh..., ...yeah. That region. ...Where the Military Hospital that Do-jin died in is."
"......."
Ahn Min-seo was speechless.
The neighborhood where Kim Do-jin died.
It was a cursed place.
But contrary to that feeling, she now had a little bit of interest in these photos.
Ahn Min-seo stared more intently at the satellite reconnaissance photos and the high-magnification aerial reconnaissance photos.
In the neighborhood where Do-jin died.
What on earth is happening there, she wondered.
'...Huh?'
Was it because she kept thinking about Kim Do-jin?
She saw something strange in one of the high-resolution aerial reconnaissance photos.
It was a very faint shadow, one that everyone would just pass by.
An extremely minute part of the photo that probably wasn't even a few pixels.
Ahn Min-seo saw something strange here.
'...Legs. It looks like the shadow of a boy's legs. The actual body is hidden by the trees, but the shadow is cast... A boy's legs? Where the monsters are...? Hmm... Just a kidnapping of a boy for the monsters' breeding purposes, which could happen anywhere? But why... why does this bother me so much...? This leg shadow, it's like... the curves...'
"Min-seo, are you okay?"
"Huh? Why, why...?"
"You're shaking all over right now. Why are you like this? Are you not feeling well? Do you want to rest today?"
"No, no. ...That's not the important issue right now. Sister, where is this..., exactly? I need to go here right now."
"...Huh? Why are you suddenly...? Did you notice something in this photo...?"
"It might be my imagination, it probably is, but I have to go there right now. Absolutely. My reason says it's just my imagination, but my intuition is telling me to run there right now. I have to go."
"...Why are you like this? You need to explain the reason to me."
"I think Do-jin is alive."
"......."
"......."
"...Min-seo, you..., sigh..., never mind. ......, No, but.... Still, I have to say this. Min-seo, let Do-jin go now. He's already...."
"Sister. I'm not crazy. I'm in my right mind.
...I just thought of one strong hypothesis, please listen for a moment.
Don't have the prejudice that I'm mentally unstable, just listen without any preconceptions. Please.
You said monsters suddenly proliferated here, right? Do you remember what Do-jin's signature ability was?
Why the country was so shocked when Do-jin died,
why the stocks of baby product companies plummeted as soon as the news of Do-jin's death was announced,
why the Ministry of Health and Welfare denied the reality that Do-jin was dead, don't you remember?"
"...Kim Do-jin's signature ability? If we're talking about Kim Do-jin's signature ability, that insane, overwhelming conception ability..., multi-pregnancy ability.... The one that was fine even with thousands, tens of thousands of Pregnancy Mana Links..., don't tell me...?"
"......."
"......."
"..., Sister. This is possible, right...?"
"Uh.... It is...."
Ahn Seo-yeon and Ahn Min-seo.
These two sisters announced that they couldn't take on work for a while because something urgent came up at the Villain Suppression Squad headquarters.
The headquarters approved it immediately upon receiving the report, as it was a request from the Ahn sisters, who had built up such distinguished achievements, and it happened to be a bit slow lately.
It was also because the Academy female students and staff, including the Ahn sisters and Lee Ji-eun, who had lost their minds over Kim Do-jin's death, were grinding up villains like slaughterhouse machines, so the nearby villains had been wiped out.
#
At the moment the Ahn sisters left the Villain Suppression Squad.
Lee Ji-eun clicked her tongue inwardly as she heard the news at the strategy meeting and briefing place this morning.
Like the other personnel who had already left,
gossip spread that they had left because their thirst for revenge was fading and field life was too hard.
Lee Ji-eun thought similarly.
'so that was the extent of them, those Ahn sisters. In the end, I guess I'm the only one who truly cares about Do-jin. Even so, they used to act all high and mighty with me. They were probably just holding out out of pride and taking their anger out on me until now. When I see them next, they won't even be able to meet my eyes out of shame. Or maybe they'll be shameless and try to get angry instead?'
Just as she was about to acknowledge the Ahn sisters' achievements in her heart to some extent, as she also constantly faced danger and went around slaughtering villains like them.
The Ahn sisters left, perhaps because the grueling field barrack life was too hard, or perhaps because that was the extent of their feelings for Do-jin.
They left by saying that something urgent had come up and they couldn't take on work for a while,
but this was an excuse used by most of the personnel leaving the Villain Suppression Squad.
They would do this and not return for over a week or ten days, then send a registered letter asking for official departure permission in writing.
"Tsk."
It wasn't like they were conscripted like the military,
and since the Villain Suppression Squad was formed through pure support and volunteering, it was hard to stop these factors of departure.
Moreover, even the Villain Suppression Squad headquarters, which should have treated such departures as desertion and actively stopped them, was implicitly condoning it, saying there was no work to do these days.
As a result, it seemed like the number of such departures would gradually increase.
Perhaps they were planning to dissolve the Villain Suppression Squad at some point by letting the number of departures increase like this.
'Maybe they even received orders from above? To leave? Those Ahn sisters are power-hungry bitches. Ahn Seo-yeon is in the Holy Sword Department, Ahn Min-seo is in the Student Council. The two sisters are trying to take everything for themselves.'
The Holy Sword Department and the Student Council.
They are the two axes of power within the Academy,
but from outside the Academy, they were places where juniors with a lot of ambition for power gathered.
Just as people's personalities don't change easily,
usually, the kids who join these two groups continue to show off that ambition even after going out into society, always aiming for high positions and power.
As a result, those from the Holy Sword Department took the power route in the military,
and those from the Student Council tended to take the civilian route, like politicians.
The common point between both was that they wanted to become future power holders.
And that they listened well to the current power holders for that purpose.
Her position was different from Lee Ji-eun herself, who belonged to a revolutionary circle and could shout at them to screw off.
'I will not leave until the very end, until they officially push me to leave.'
As Lee Ji-eun made that resolution,
while listening to the morning briefing that had always been there and had no nutritional value,
she saw a text message that had arrived on her phone.
[ Stupid Female Goblin Minion ]
The minion goblin that used to inform her of Kim Do-jin's movements and information every day when Kim Do-jin was alive.
The female goblin she had bribed with money and was using sent a text for the first time in a month after Kim Do-jin died.
Lee Ji-eun brought her finger to the smartphone to unlock the fingerprint lock to check the content of the text.