Chapter 137

The orphans of Ground Zero were said to be enough to make even a crying adult go silent, but in reality, there wasn’t much to their strategy.

It was simply waiting for the moment the opponent let their guard down to stab them in the back in the most underhanded way possible.

For example, it went like this.

“Whew, got him. Hey, someone give me some handcuffs to restrain this kid!”

“Sniffle, Mister… are you going to kill me?”

“What?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for taking food out of the fridge and eating it. I was just so hungry.”

“No, that’s not it…”

Min-cheol, a zero-year rookie from Division 4, had been hit by a literal rushing train at the start of the battle and was currently in a coma.

His older brother, Min-seok, who had joined the fray while shouting his brother’s name, was a 1-year senior who had entered the same unit last year.

Though only Lower Level, he possessed excellent intuition and had easily suppressed an orphan charging at him with a knife using a simple spell.

However, his heart wavered the moment the child lying on the cold stone floor began to sob.

“Calm down for now, kid. We aren’t bad people.”

“Sniffle, really?”

“Of course. Once this situation is sorted out, the Bureau will register your identity and give you something to eat. Are you hungry?”

“Yes…”

“Is there anything you want to eat?”

“Your blood.”

“Huh?”

“I want to fill this starving belly with your blood!”

“Aaagh!”

In an instant, the child sprayed sand he had been hiding in his hand into Min-seok’s eyes.

Taking advantage of the blinded vision, the boy pulled something out of his pocket: ‘Sensory Play Slime,’ made from tentacle fluid.

When he threw the toy he usually played with at the orphanage, the slime swallowed Min-seok whole, acting like a tentacle that had discovered its prey.

Cases like this, where agents were suppressed despite having the upper hand, were frequent.

They weren’t monsters or demons, nor were they from criminal organizations or even Awakened.

Faced suddenly with little kids who only reached their waists, the agents couldn’t help but be shaken when the children showed a pitiful side.

The fact that most of the subjugation team consisted of rookies who lacked cold-blooded judgment was another factor.

However, not every agent was that naive.

“Whew, I’ve caught one. Does anyone have handcuffs? I think I need to restrain this child…”

“Sniffle, Mister… are you going to kill me?”

“What?”

Among the current zero-year rookies, this recruit was evaluated as the strongest, excluding the likes of No Yeon-hwa, Kang Nabi, and Alexei.

The only Middle Level mage in Division 3, a symbol of justice and conviction praised by the public as the ‘Light Mage.’

Above all, a mega-sized VTuber with 400,000 followers on the massive internet broadcasting platform ‘Jjijijik,’ and the unofficial number one in this month’s donation rankings.

“Mister?”

“…”

“Hey, Hayan, here are the handcuffs—”

“Ah, there’s no need.”

“Really?”

“Yes. He just happened to ‘die of natural causes’ while being subdued. It seems he’s stopped breathing. Regrettably, I was too late.”

“Hyung, Hyung! Please, I’m still alive, Hyung!”

It was me, of course.

To me, a fellow native of Ground Zero, the children’s struggles looked like nothing more than a cute talent show.

I continued to suppress the orphans using nothing but my sheer momentum, but there was a limit to overturning a tilted battlefield alone.

In the end, the Special Unit agents who let their guard down were essentially defeated by the orphans.

“Dammit, you cold-blooded brats…!”

“You guys over there should just give up too.”

“We told you we’d send you back after cutting here, cutting there, and cutting everything off, didn’t we?”

A few agents, including myself, were resisting in a corner, but it was only a matter of time before the formation collapsed.

Just as it became a foregone conclusion that most of the agents would be suppressed and the raid on the first floor of the Magic Tower would end in failure—

A small anomaly occurred.

“Everything is cleared on this side.”

“There are a lot of mages. Thanks to that, we’ve gathered plenty of loot, khehehe.”

“Since it’s come to this, should we launch a counter-raid on the Bureau? I heard all the strong Awakened are currently incapacitated.”

“…”

“Hyung? I mean, Disciple Yeon Parang?”

“It’s nothing.”

The gaze of Yeon Parang, the eldest of the orphans, lingered on Moon Ah-rin for a long time.

Having failed to show any activity during the battle, she was huddled in a corner, her white wings trembling as she received protection from the remaining agents.

Naturally, it was impossible for Moon Ah-rin, who was merely Middle Level, to handle the orphans.

In the first place, her ability was specialized for exterminating monsters.

“Let’s wrap this up and send them back.”

“Why is that?”

“She is the Saint of Salvation.”

“That woman?”

“Now that you mention it…”

The orphans knew who Moon Ah-rin was, but they weren’t particularly shaken.

Partly because they believed her strength had faded due to the corruption of her mana, but also because the Saint of Salvation’s reputation was somewhat low in Ground Zero.

The reason was that this place was a blind spot for welfare—so much so that not even a relief center from the Magic Tower had been established here.

“Haha, why is such a precious person in a humble place like this?”

“She probably came here hoping to snatch some achievements.”

“Exactly. Why else would she show her face here at a time like this when she’s usually nowhere to be seen?”

“Heeugh. Those wings… they look appetizing…”

“Hic!”

One of the orphans, who had been licking a poisoned blade while staring at Moon Ah-rin’s wings, suddenly collapsed in a fit.

Looking at him with pathetic eyes, a subordinate cautiously made a suggestion to Yeon Parang.

“How about we squeeze a hefty ransom out of them? I bet we could get a lot if we cut off something like a finger and send it over.”

“Public sentiment will turn ugly if she dies. They said she’s a Transcendent Level Awakened—there’s no telling when she might recover her mana.”

“But just letting them go like this is…”

“Calm down. Our goal is only to defend the tower, not to wage war with the Special Unit.”

If someone saw this, they’d think he was planning to run for office.

Yeon Parang looked more mature than Ha Yeri, who usually jumped around in joy just because she’d grown an inch.

However, even that mature attitude didn’t fool my eyes.

Sensing a strange flicker of emotion in his gaze directed at Moon Ah-rin, I quickly opened a Channel.

『Ah-rin, Ah-rin.』

『Eek?! Hayan, where are you right now?!』

『I’m one of the agents lying at your feet.』

『Why on earth are you doing that?!』

『That’s not important. More importantly, do you happen to know that boy over there?』

I extended a finger from beneath my robe and pointed at Yeon Parang.

Moon Ah-rin looked at him, her brow furrowing as if she were searching through her memories, before speaking in an uncertain tone.

『Come to think of it, I feel like I saw him a long time ago. I’m not entirely sure, but…』

『Where?』

『It must have been at one of the relief centers.』

Relief centers, places that cooked meals for the poor.

However, just because someone went there didn’t mean they could get a meal.

To receive a ration, one needed an ID card proving they lived in that specific district. It was a natural measure to prevent people who weren’t actually poor from taking relief goods from multiple centers.

Supposedly, the criteria have become even stricter lately because there were cases of Bureau employees—who earn over 8 million won a month—abusing these welfare benefits.

The food there actually tasted better than the staff cafeteria, so it was a shame.

『It happens sometimes. Truly impoverished children whose parents didn’t even make them IDs, so they have to move from center to center just to scrape by.』

Among them, there were those who demanded extra rations, claiming their other family members were starving.

In such cases, one technically shouldn’t give in, but Moon Ah-rin—who was the softest person in the Special Unit next to me—occasionally snuck those children leftover supplies.

There were so many of them that she couldn’t remember every face, but it seemed Yeon Parang hadn’t forgotten that moment.

『He was probably one of those kids. I think I remember helping him because he said he needed food for his younger siblings…』

『Ho, I see.』

『You aren’t planning something strange again, are you, Hayan?』

『Not at all. I’ve simply found a way to reach the next floor.』

Having come up with a good idea, I picked myself up from among my fallen colleagues.

Then, before the other agents could react, I stood behind Moon Ah-rin, pressed a carrot knife I’d just snatched from an orphan against her neck, and shouted.

“That’s far enough, you filthy orphans!”

“Huh?”

“It’s your loss! Clear the way if you want the Saint of Salvation to remain unharmed!”

“Mister, what the hell are you doing? Isn’t that lady your teammate?”

In contrast to the other bewildered orphans, Yeon Parang couldn’t hide his agitation.

After calming his siblings, he stepped forward, desperately feigning composure.

“What is the meaning of this sudden act?”

“You heard me, didn’t you? I told you to let us up to the floors above if you want to save Ah-rin’s life.”

“You surely don’t think we’ll fall for such a ridiculous threat.”

“Actually, I do.”

“What?”

“Does it look like I’m joking to you?”

This was the second time I had faced him directly.

The first time, I was wearing Patel’s mask.

Even then, he had read the sincerity in my eyes and tucked his tail.

A fellow native of Ground Zero.

Moreover, having endured suffering that Yeon Parang couldn’t even imagine, he felt the sheer difference in our levels.

“You should have been more careful in front of your siblings. Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

“You bastard… Grrit!”

“Hayan?”

“Ah-rin, stay quiet. And put those wings away; they’re in the way.”

If you want to live, you must not make anyone precious to you.

If you don’t carve out your emotions with a knife, you cannot survive in this hellish world.

If it were the ‘me’ from before I met Mala-nim, I certainly would have said that to him.

“The moment you show weakness, you get hollowed out like this. You know that too, don’t you?”

“Uugh…!”

“Hayan! The poor kid is crying!”

However, there was no need to be that cold-hearted now, nor did I intend to stop Moon Ah-rin as she shook off my arm and ran toward him.

From the moment I had turned a blind eye to the cult looking after the orphans, their safety had already fallen within the scope of my responsibility.

I simply wanted him not to forget.

That if he didn’t want his peaceful daily life to be trampled by a calamity that could arrive at any moment, he needed power to match it.

“Are you okay? Don’t be too startled. We just want to figure out what’s going on here.”

“…Go on up.”

“Really? Is it okay if we go?”

“My sisters will be waiting for you up there anyway. Just get out of my sight.”

Thanks to the permission from Yeon Parang, who barely managed to swallow his tears, we were able to find the stairs leading up to the sublevels.

After some thought, I decided to leave the other agents behind and go up with only Moon Ah-rin.

It would only get more dangerous from here, and we needed people to keep an eye on the orphans.

And so, when we reached the central area of the Magic Tower…

“Hm? You’ve arrived? You took longer than I thought.”

The one waiting for us was a demon with horns on both sides of her head.