Chapter 13

This was all part of the plan to take Yu Pado back from Eun Morae. That’s why they had let her leave.

“That’s right. You’re the thoughtful type. And we don’t even know what kind of relationship you two have…”

There was no way they could have told him to return to the Hunter Association in front of Morae.

As the villain princess, Morae would have undoubtedly thrown a fit and refused to let Pado go. If that happened, Pado would have been burdened by guilt.

It’s not easy to abandon someone who has given you no reason to betray them. To be honest, it wasn’t something he wanted to do.

The team leader understood Pado’s state of mind perfectly. He knew exactly why Pado had left and what he felt indebted over.

“Don’t make a foolish decision just because you feel guilty. They’re not your friends or your family. There’s no reason to ruin your life because of them.”

At the words ruin your life, Pado’s eyes sharpened slightly.

“This is your only chance, while you haven’t committed any crimes. The moment you get involved in something over there, you’ll never shake off the label of an underground Hunter.”

The floating city was a haven for outlaws and fugitives.

From its very foundation, it had existed outside the law. It was where people who had committed serious crimes, those who couldn’t fit into society, and those defeated by life gathered.

If you committed even one major crime in a place like that, you would never return to respectable society. Every country treated underground Hunters harshly.

It wasn’t the kind of place where someone who made one mistake and ran away could stay with half-hearted resolve.

“You don’t want to spend the rest of your life in prison, do you? Make amends and live an honest life.”

Lee Yeonhee’s words cut deeply into Pado.

The end awaiting underground Hunters was either the grave or prison.

Pado’s mother, who had spent the ten years of his childhood behind bars, ultimately died in prison.

He hadn’t even been there for her final moments. The only things left behind were a few shabby belongings she’d used inside the prison.

It had been such a lonely end that he never wanted to think about it.

“…”

The more he thought about it, the more perfect the timing seemed.

It had been half a year since he stormed out of the city in a fit of anger. He had already grown weary of his new life in the West Sea Legion and had begun considering transferring elsewhere.

If they had come for him three months earlier, he would have attacked them without even listening.

But now they appeared before him at exactly the right moment, promising to solve every concern weighing on his mind as if by magic.

They would pay off his debts.

They would sever his ties with Eun Morae.

They wouldn’t force him to do anything. He could live however he wanted.

If he agreed, he could enjoy a peaceful, comfortable life in a place where sunlight reached.

He could work only when he felt like earning money and otherwise live however he pleased.

They were offering conditions no underground organization could ever hope to match as they tried to recruit him.

“I…”

If he took one step forward, he would return to where he had originally belonged.

It wouldn’t be freedom, but it would be a cozy place with far fewer worries.

—“We’re planning to conquer the world together, so he can’t do that.”

Morae’s cheerful voice suddenly interrupted him.

The source of the sound was the bag slung over his shoulder.

With a sharp beep, a device inside the bag played Morae’s voice. Even Pado, who hadn’t known it had that function, instinctively looked around for one of Morae’s dolls nearby.

—“Once you’ve had a taste of freedom, there’s no going back to some boring life.”

“Where are you watching us from? Are you spying on us?”

A member of the Justice Enforcement Division shouted as they looked around.

As if to answer, Morae immediately burst into laughter.

—“You were recording with a pathetic drone that doesn’t even have security on it. Did you seriously think I wouldn’t notice? Idiot.”

“So you only pretended to leave peacefully.”

Pado let out a disbelieving laugh at Morae’s bold betrayal.

He had thought she’d understood the situation and backed off.

Instead, she’d only retreated temporarily, waiting for the chance to strike back.

It was such an audacious betrayal that it made him feel ridiculous for worrying about loyalty to her.

…Though he didn’t dislike it.

—“I’m above the waterfall.”

Everyone looked up.

The empty air peeled away like the skin of a piece of fruit, revealing Morae.

The moment Pado saw her toss aside her optical camouflage cloak, a bad feeling washed over him.

Morae wasn’t strong enough to face all of them alone.

If she’d revealed herself anyway, she had to be planning something reckless.

—“I’m not going down without a fight.”

Something slipped from Morae’s hand atop the waterfall.

The instant everyone’s eyes followed the falling object to the water’s surface—

A massive explosion erupted.

A towering wall of spray surged up as though it would sweep everyone away, and the waterfall itself collapsed.

Even Morae, who had been standing precariously on the edge, was thrown down with it.

The shocking sight jolted Pado’s mind awake, and memories flashed through him like scenes in a lantern carousel.¹

He had let his guard down.

Looking back…

Eun Morae had always been daring.

And terrifying.

Pado met Eun Morae for the second time six months earlier at the Ilyeon Hunter Shelter.

“Hi. We meet again.”

She appeared as if by magic and greeted him with innocent cheerfulness.

Her bright smile looked as though they’d happened to run into each other on the street or at a shopping mall.

“What are you doing here?”

Pado stared at her in disbelief.

The Hunter Shelter wasn’t a place someone like Eun Morae could casually stroll into without a care.

“I came to see you. Aren’t you happy?”

“Why would I be? I went through all that trouble to save you, and then you crawl into this place.”

The Hunter Shelter was a correctional facility where Hunters awaiting prison, Hunters guilty of relatively minor offenses, or experimental subjects were kept.

Since it housed not only powerful Hunters but also underground Hunters who lived outside the law, its security and surveillance were extremely strict.

Seeing Eun Morae—the princess of outlaws—casually wandering into a place like that left him dumbfounded.

Especially when he had personally saved her from almost being taken there not long ago.

“I heard you were being punished because you saved me. How could I not come? I may be a bad bitch, but I’m not the kind of girl who forgets a favor.”

Smiling brightly, Morae wrapped her hands around the iron bars.

From the chair on the other side, Pado slowly looked her up and down.

The last time he’d seen her, her face had been filled with nothing but hostility.

Now, seeing that same face blooming with such a lovely smile should have been pleasing.

For some reason, though, it only irritated him.

“If I saved you, you should’ve stayed quietly at home. If you come here, what does that make me?”

“A dumb idiot? A fool who got swayed by sympathy?”

Morae grinned as she teased Pado.

But she wasn’t truly mocking him.

Beneath her playful words lay a quiet warmth and genuine concern.

“You’re an idiot. I’m not dangerous just because I’m my parents’ daughter. I’m dangerous because that’s who I am. I haven’t killed anyone yet, but I’m definitely not someone to be taken lightly.”

Three weeks earlier, Pado had saved Morae.

He had been forcibly assigned to the Hunter Association’s Operation: Capture Eun Morae, and he’d opposed the plan from the very beginning.

The idea was to kidnap the commander’s daughter and use her as a hostage to keep the West Sea Legion on a leash.

It sounded despicable no matter how you looked at it.

Sure, holding their beloved daughter hostage would have been convenient.

But what decent person would do something like that?

Eun Morae had grown up under the protection of the underground Hunters, cherished beneath their wings.

But she herself hadn’t done anything wrong.

She had simply been born and raised among underground Hunters.

Using her background as an excuse to take her hostage was cowardly.

Thinking that, Pado knocked down the Hunters who strongly opposed him and let Morae go.

Any half-hearted resistance sank into the depths along with them.

That day was the first time Pado had ever seen Morae.

It was the day he first learned she existed.

The day they spoke for the first time.

It might also have been the last.

The outlaws’ daughter had no reason to come back and repay a favor.

Letting her go brought him nothing.

Even so, he did it.

Because it felt like the right thing to do.

Because he couldn’t stand watching innocent people be taken hostage to force someone else’s hand.

So he let Morae go, despite the cold way she’d treated him.

The price was being locked up in the Hunter Shelter.

Yet the very person he’d saved was brazen enough to break into the shelter without a shred of fear.

That made Pado feel like a complete idiot.

“If you’re just here to make fun of me for falling for your trick, then—”

“So what if I am? I like that about you.”

Those words made it feel as though something had lightly struck his chest.

Pado couldn’t tell whether he disliked Morae or not.

She had ruined all of his efforts, yet stood there smiling at him so gently.

“I like a man who’s stubborn enough to stick to his principles, even when he knows it’ll cost him.”

“…”

“Besides, it’s not fair to say I tricked you. I never asked you to let me go, and I never pretended to be weak. You let me go because you hated what they were doing. Unless you’re saying you fell for me.”

“As if.”

The denial slipped out before he could think.

He didn’t want anyone misunderstanding his reasons for letting her go.

Only after the words left his mouth did he wonder if he’d been too cold.

He glanced at her expression.

Morae, however, was smiling softly.

Her blue eyes sparkled like polished glass.

“That’s why I liked you. I decided I had to save you.”

Morae reached a hand through the bars.

“Come with me.”

Before he could even ask, Where?, another thought came first.

Is that even possible?

The Hunter Shelter housed Hunters powerful enough to shake the world.

Naturally, it was equipped with security systems capable of containing them.

In fact, Yu Pado was both an inmate there and part of those very security measures.

The price for releasing Morae had been a sentence of five years of penal labor.

“You’re angry, aren’t you? Those people came up with such a cowardly, underhanded scheme, and then they shamelessly sentenced you to penal labor.”

Somehow, Morae already knew.

Come to think of it, something else was strange.

It had been at least two minutes since she’d appeared, yet the staff in the control room—who should have noticed her on the CCTV by now—hadn’t reacted at all.

“I heard they even suspected the people who went with you of secretly working with me, even though they’d never met me before. They humiliated all of you. Must’ve been rough. They’re always so eager to pretend they aren’t judging people while branding them because of where they came from.”

Pado’s mother had belonged to a small underground organization.

The day the Hunter Association discovered them, she was arrested, and young Pado was sent to a facility.

From that day onward, he’d never been free of the labels attached to him—the son of a mother in prison and an unknown father.

Under normal circumstances, a five-year sentence of penal labor would have been unthinkable.

But once the Hunter Association accused him of colluding with underground Hunters because of his background, Pado had no way to fight back.

None of that should have been information that ever reached the outside world.

Yet Morae somehow knew everything and had come to visit Pado behind the bars.

Pado decided to admit that the Hunter Association had been right about one thing.

As they said, Eun Morae of the West Sea Legion was anything but ordinary.

She might be innocent today, but tomorrow she’d probably be turning the whole city upside down.

The word criminal didn’t fit her—it felt as ill-fitting as borrowed clothes.

But villain suited her like a second skin.

“So what if I said I wasn’t joining your little gathering of criminals?”

“That’d be a shame. I’d have to crush you so thoroughly right here that no one could accuse you of colluding with us.”

She was bold and arrogant.

Kind, yet utterly fearless.

She would walk into the most dangerous places without hesitation, and she’d willingly accept a loss if it meant repaying a favor.