Chapter 12

The situation became crystal clear. Morae swept her sharp, icy gaze over the six people in sight.

Just in case there were people hiding, she had thrown out a generous number like ten to probe them, but they had answered with utter confidence. They clearly possessed the pride of someone who didn’t care if their numbers were exposed.

Gauging where the remaining two might be, Morae gripped the hem of Pado’s shirt.

“I heard the two of you stick together a lot. Given your personality, it probably wasn’t easy pandering to a princess, so you must have worked pretty hard.”

Yeonhee pointed a finger at Morae, who was craning her neck to peer past Pado’s shoulder.

“Even so, it seems like he treated you pretty well. You’re normally not one to go soft on a pretty face, yet he was spending money quite freely, wasn’t he? Or maybe—”

A massive water droplet flew through the air and burst right in front of Yeonhee’s face.

Soaked to the skin, Yeonhee coughed and spat out the water that had entered her mouth.

“Stop poking at our princess’s temper and get straight to the point.”

It didn’t cause physical damage, but soaking her to the bone ruined her makeup and hair, thoroughly souring her mood—making it a remarkably effective attack.

Morae felt a wave of satisfaction while Yeonhee fumed, making it an exquisite strike.

However, just as mentioned earlier, this team had been handpicked with Pado in mind from the very start. Sparks flared in midair, drying Yeonhee’s soaked body in an instant.
Combat matchups were a grave matter. The moment Pado showed signs of agonizing over who to take down first, the team leader raised one hand. Pado’s gaze instinctively followed his hand.

Just as it looked like the palm was turning toward Pado, the index finger pointed straight at Morae.

“Play it smart. We’re here to talk. First off, send Eun Morae back. Having that woman meddling around just makes things a pain for both of us.”

“Why? No way.”

Treated like a piece of baggage, Morae snapped back sharply.

Everyone present was older than Morae, and more than half were vastly her senior.

A wet-behind-the-ears young woman tossing short, blunt remarks around was hardly going to win any favor. Yet the Hunters of the Justice Enforcement Division acted as if Morae’s atrocities were completely unheard of, refusing to even look her way.

“I’ll say it again, we came fully prepared. You wouldn’t want that woman getting dragged into a brawl, would you?”

They spoke exclusively to Pado, acting as if Morae didn’t even exist in this space.

To put it politely, it was mature treatment; to put it bluntly, it was outright contempt.

Thoroughly ignored, Morae jabbed Pado in the back, making her deeply unpleasant mood painfully obvious. While her begging him to get angry on her behalf had a cute side to it, this was hardly the time to respond to that.

Eight to two. Since he couldn’t unleash full force with Morae around, it was effectively eight to one, and the opponents had come fully prepared.

While he wouldn’t lose in terms of raw firepower, the equation changed entirely if they had brought along Hunters specifically selected for favorable matchups.

Yeonhee, who had attended the same school as the team leader who had subdued Pado on several occasions, was a Hunter equipped with abilities ideally suited for suppressing Pado.

Even dealing with just the two of them would be tricky, yet there were a staggering eight Hunters brought specifically to counter Pado. This was no ordinary situation.

“I’m fighting, too.”

Morae, stoking her fighting spirit from behind, could not be fought with full force.

Though she wasn’t overwhelmingly strong, she was still a Hunter, so fighting alongside her would raise their odds of winning just a fraction. Yet, as the Justice Enforcement Division warned, she would undoubtedly suffer severe injuries.

The target was none other than Eun Morae. The title of the West Sea Legion’s sole daughter struck fear into ordinary people, but it made Hunters’ mouths water.

The Hunter Association had been eyeing Morae with greedy anticipation. It was glaringly obvious which of the two—Pado or Morae—was the more delectable prey for the Justice Enforcement Division.

“If I don’t make it back in one piece, you’re dead.”

Pado dropped his combat stance and straightened his posture. It was a sign that he was willing to accept their proposal.

Yeonhee let out a sigh of relief, and the team leader scratched the back of his head, where strands of white hair were mixed in.

“I keep telling you to break that habit of picking fights first. You’ve spent half a year among underground hunters and you still haven’t tasted enough bitterness? Jeez, you need to grow up… Fine, go on.”

“Who says I have to go just because you tell me to? I’m not going.”

Morae yelled sharply at the team leader, who was waving his hand dismissively. Pado realized that, in her own way, she had actually been quite gentle with him.

Even when giving orders, her tone when commanding her subordinates and when shouting at an unwelcome enemy were entirely different. Toward the team leader, her voice carried a level of utter impudence that made you wonder how anyone could be so abrasive.

Without looking back, Pado tapped Morae firmly on the flank.

“Go on back first.”

“No.”

“Go. Do you want to see someone die? If you get hurt and crawl back, everyone’s going to tear me apart.”

Getting hauled off by the Justice Enforcement Division was a worry for later. If she got injured during a fight, the legion members who hyper-fixated on protecting Morae would never let Pado off the hook.

Since victory couldn’t be guaranteed, a disaster would happen the moment Morae took even a scratch. Therefore, his strategy was to get her safely out of there first.

Knowing the reality of the situation, Morae twitched her lips and let out a deep sigh. She gave Pado’s back a sharp slap.

“You’d better wrap your business up fast. The moment I step foot back on the city, I’m calling in reinforcements.”

Swishing her long hair in a wide arc, Morae walked away across the surface of the lake.
Right in the middle of eight enemies, walking across a lake, she showed not a single shred of hesitation.

She trusted that the Justice Enforcement Division would keep their pact with Pado and not attack her, and that Pado would fashion footholds for her in the nick of time.

Yeonhee watched Morae walk away with her back turned to Pado, her eyes wide with undisguised astonishment.

She had expected her to be thorny and fiercely proud, so seeing her cleanly back down without throwing a stubborn tantrum came as a surprise. As was the fearless, dignified swagger with which she strolled past a group of Hunters vastly stronger than her.

“She’s actually leaving.”

“I told her to go.”

“Fair enough.”

He hadn’t expected her to actually just march off like that.

While Yeonhee stood there looking put out, Morae vanished beyond the lake, out of earshot. Glancing once at Morae’s departing shadow, the team leader locked eyes with Pado, who still hadn’t taken his eyes off the spot she disappeared into.

The team leader carefully opened his mouth.

“Come back, Pado.”

The narrow slit of Pado’s eyes—which had been ready to go wild the moment Morae vanished—tightened further. He chewed over the words he had just heard and asked,
“What did you say?”

“You’re pardoned. I’ll pretend the crimes from half a year ago never happened, so come back.”

“Now of all times?”

Half a year had passed since Pado left the city where he was born and raised. The people who had kept their heads down all this time suddenly showed up in a pack, telling him to come back. It was not only absurd; it was entirely unbelievable.

“Do you think I don’t know you? I’ve watched you since you were a kid, of course I know you inside and out. I figured your hot head would cool down after half a year, so I waited. If we’d chased after you right away and forced a fight, things would’ve blown up to a point where you could never come back.”

The team leader acted like he knew all about Pado.

To be precise, it wasn’t just acting like it. He had known Pado from long before he was a team leader in the Justice Enforcement Division. Counting strictly by years, it had been a decade. The length of time they had known each other didn’t even compare to Morae.

“Don’t look at me like that. Back then, you were twisted every which way and would’ve tried to beat me into the ground. And not just me, either. If you had gone all out back then, the entire area around the Han River would’ve sunk beneath the water. That’s when things get serious.”

He wasn’t wrong. If they had clashed with the Justice Enforcement Division right after his escape half a year ago, Pado would have been blind to everything and turned the surrounding area completely upside down without a second thought.

The team leader popped an electronic medicine capsule into his mouth.

“Anyway, you really made a splash this time. I never expected you to tail Eun Morae. When you get back, you’re going to get a thorough tongue-lashing.”

“Don’t go running your mouth. I never said I was going back.”

“And what’ll you do if you don’t go back?”

The team leader twisted his thick eyebrows and pulled the device containing the electronic drug away from his lips. Thin, cigarette-like smoke billowed and drifted out from beneath his lips.

“You’re getting bored, aren’t you?”

The team leader’s words pierced straight to Pado’s core. Bored… The moment he heard it, he felt a hollow ache in his chest knowing it was the exact description of his state.
The team leader swaggered and sneered nonchalantly, as if reading Pado’s inner thoughts clear as day.

“You bolted on an impulse, but you don’t have a goal, you don’t hate our guts to the death… you probably have nothing to do. That’s what happens when you run away blindly. I thought maybe you fell for Eun Morae, but things don’t look like they’re working out between you two either. If that’s the case, running away from home is about due to lose its fun.”

He hated having his decision summed up with a petty phrase like “running away from home,” but every single point hit the mark.

Having watched Pado for a long time, he pinpointed Pado’s psychology more accurately than anyone else.

They didn’t exactly have a good relationship. He was the man who had repeatedly been assigned as Pado’s warden precisely because he possessed an ability advantageous for dealing with Pado.

Once a teacher, once a supervisor. Since he was the man who always showed up whenever Pado rebelled against the association, fond memories were rare, but they had known each other for ten years nonetheless. He knew Pado better than anyone here. Even down to the fact that Pado was slightly miffed he hadn’t come to catch him right away.

As Pado fell silent, the team leader slowly walked toward the lake. A delicate trail of ice formed over the water’s surface wherever he stepped.

The team leader strode right up to Pado’s nose. The medicinal smoke he exhaled blocked Pado’s vision. It was odorless, but packed with awakening agents.

“Think carefully. If you come back now, we can write it off. I promise I won’t touch Eun Morae if you’re the only one who comes. Of course, only if you want that.”

“…I have 500 million in debt to pay off.”

“I’d love to tell you why you should bother paying those guys back, but if it’s eating at you that much, I’ll pay it off for you instead. It’ll just end up as a debt to me straight, but owing the association is better than owing underground hunters.”

“You’re feeling awfully generous.”

Offering to bury the crime of utterly wrecking a detention center and breaking out, claiming they wouldn’t demand compensation for the damaged facilities, and even offering to lend him 500 million. Every single term was shockingly favorable.

When the conditions are this good, it sounds like a lie. As Pado looked at him with suspicious eyes, the team leader puffed continuously on his electronic drug.

“Honestly, you leaving is a massive loss for us. Look at you right now. Eight people swarmed just to catch you one. How many do you think are waiting behind us? Do the math, and you’ll realize right away that the association isn’t just blowing hot air.”

“Though I’d prefer it if you just disposed of him right here.”

A Hunter who was a stranger to Pado raised his voice as if wanting to be heard.

“Tsk, watch your mouth. Anyway, that’s how it is. The association made sure of it this time around. We can’t keep forcing you to do things you hate to the death.”

“You could have figured that out a lot sooner.”

“I wish we had, but what can you do when it’s late. Anyway, come back. Come back, pay off your debt, and live an ordinary life. The Blue Star Guild will even make a spot for you.”

Yeonhee, the second-generation heir of the Blue Star Guild, waved her hand and fingers. Watching her, Pado suddenly realized why he had made sure to send Morae away just moments before.

It hadn’t been out of consideration for the weak, nor was it out of fear for the legion retaliating because of Morae.

“That probably wasn’t something fit to be discussed in front of Eun Morae.”