Chapter 25

It annoyed Morae that Yu Pado acted as if her body was already his to take whenever he wanted, without ever having to beg for it.

Whether he genuinely believed she’d slept with him only for the sake of the experiment, or simply thought the experiment was an excuse she’d made for herself, either way, his attitude irritated her.

He acted as though he were doing her a favor.

It made her want to punch him.

It should have been better than watching him get lured away by those women trying to steal him.

And yet…

She couldn’t let it slide so easily.

“That won’t happen anymore.”

Letting go of the handlebars, Morae spoke coldly.

“Why?”

“Because it had nothing to do with sleeping together. I misjudged it. You just broke through your limits with your own strength. You did it yourself. So there’s no reason for us to keep doing this.”

“Really? So you had absolutely no influence, and I just suddenly got stronger on my own?”

“What you really wanted was probably never to go back in the first place. With the strength you had back then, you couldn’t have fought all eight members of the Justice Enforcement Division. You must’ve broken through your limits and grown stronger during that crisis. If you overcame it with your own power, then… good for you.”

That morning, the realization had weighed heavily on her.

Even just moments ago, she’d been wondering how she should tell him.

Part of her hadn’t wanted to say it at all.

After all…

She was about to admit two painfully embarrassing mistakes.

But her stubborn pride pushed her forward.

The words had come out before she could stop them.

Now that she’d confessed the results of her experiment, regret quietly settled inside her.

The fact that those emotions rarely showed on her face was both Morae’s greatest strength…

And her greatest weakness.

“…I see.”

Yu Pado slowly lowered his eyelids.

“I figured as much. Things aren’t ever that convenient. I thought maybe it was just wishful thinking.”

With his eyes half-closed, he clicked his tongue.

“…Maybe it’s still too early to jump to conclusions. But what do I know? I’m not an expert. If you say that’s not how it works, then it isn’t.”

His fingers lightly brushed Morae once or twice before pulling away.

Then he hopped off the back of the jet ski.

They were in the middle of the canal.

But that posed no problem.

He simply walked across the surface of the water as though it were solid ground.

“Then I guess we don’t have any reason to see each other anymore. Good thing you won’t have to do something you didn’t want to.”

Having said only what he wanted to say, Yu Pado calmly walked away across the water.

Morae, who had listened carefully to every casual word he uttered, hurriedly restarted the jet ski.

“Where are you going? Do you have to be rude all the way to the end? You know you enjoyed it. Is it really that hard to admit it?”

“I’m talking about you.”

‘Me?’

The moment the words left his mouth, Morae understood.

He wasn’t talking about himself.

He was talking about her.

The subject of “Good thing you won’t have to do something you didn’t want to”…

Was Morae.

Yu Pado continued as though it were nothing.

His tone was light…

But every word carried weight.

“It should be good news for you. Imagine if I’d really gotten stronger because I slept with you. You would’ve had to keep spreading your legs for a guy you didn’t even like, just so he could get stronger.”

“It wouldn’t have gone that far…”

She knew he was exaggerating on purpose.

That didn’t make her immune to it.

Just hearing the phrase “spread your legs” made her face burn.

Gripping the handlebars tightly, Morae’s eyelids trembled.

She squeezed her eyes shut so hard that even her eyelashes quivered.

“Unless you’re the kind of easy woman who’d spread your legs for any guy as long as it helped the Legion… which you obviously aren’t. I was the one who took your virginity.”

“Listen to yourself!”

“I lost mine too, and you lost yours. What’s the problem? It was your first time, wasn’t it? If you’d already had experience, I’d be the one getting the short end of the stick.”

“If I’d had experience, why would you be the one losing out?”

The way he spoke made it sound as though a woman having previous experience was somehow a disadvantage.

Morae immediately bristled.

Steering the jet ski alongside him, she glared fiercely.

Yu Pado didn’t so much as blink.

Instead, he let out a loud, mocking laugh.

“If I gave away something precious—my first time—then of course I’m the one who lost out. Do you think yours was the only precious one? I turned down plenty of women who wanted me because I wanted to save it. Then you came along and gobbled it right up.”

Yu Pado poked the bridge of Morae’s nose with his index finger.

His finger gently pushed her head back before sliding downward.

The moment it pressed against her lips…

Morae bit it out of sheer frustration.

She carefully controlled her strength as she chewed lightly on the tip of his finger.

Yu Pado tilted his head slightly.

“You should practice biting more.”

“…?”

Morae stared at him in confusion, lips still closed.

He let out a quiet chuckle through his nose.

“You never know what you’ll end up biting later. Just don’t bite too hard.”

“Hey!”

She had no right to call the women from the Downtown Workshop shameless.

Yu Pado himself kept dancing right on the edge of the line.

While Morae opened her mouth to yell, Yu Pado smoothly pulled his finger free.

With a flick of his foot, he split the water beneath them, widening the distance between himself and the jet ski.

“I’ve still got things to do. Head back first.”

“Who are you going to meet this time?”

The water beside the jet ski parted like the Red Sea, causing the craft to rock violently.

As Morae leaned to keep her balance, Yu Pado stepped closer.

Bending down, he whispered beside her ear.

Without either of them noticing, even more people had gathered nearby.

He couldn’t raise his voice now.

“If I ever feel like firing off a round, you’ll be the first person I come looking for. So stop worrying.”

Leaving behind a remark that sounded somewhere between a provocation and a tease, Yu Pado leisurely walked away.

Morae wrapped her arms around her stomach and dropped her forehead onto the jet ski’s handlebars.

“I’m so pissed!”

She cried out as heat spread through her entire body.

What made her feel even hotter…

Was knowing she wasn’t flushed simply because she was angry.

Yu Pado hadn’t gone off with those women after all.

No matter who he met or what he did…

He would be back in his room tonight.

And yet…

The heat inside her refused to fade.

To make matters worse, the fact that he’d admitted it had been his first time too kept replaying over and over in her mind.

There was no way to prove it.

But Morae believed Yu Pado.

More accurately, her heart naturally chose to believe him.

It had been his first time too.

As of now, she was still the only woman who had seen Yu Pado naked and shared a bed with him.

The heat inside her bubbled even more fiercely.

Morae dipped her feet into the canal, trying to cool herself down.

“You’ve got the ability to help us reclaim Seoul!”

“Our boss believes you’re qualified to become their successor. They’d like you to compete against the other candidates.”

“The leader over there has broad shoulders, but no ambition. He’s just a rat who only cares about surviving. His daughter’s ambitious, but she doesn’t have the strength to back it up. Yu Pado, it’d be a waste to let your talent rot there.”

After parting ways with Morae, Yu Pado busily met with one person after another.

Every single one wanted to recruit him into their organization.

He met each of them individually, politely declining their offers or telling them he’d wait until he officially left the West Sea Legion before giving an answer.

He was still uncertain about where he belonged, and part of him genuinely wanted to hear what the other organizations had to offer.

During those meetings, he learned several new things.

First…

The West Sea Legion wasn’t quite what Eun Morae proudly claimed it was.

It was the ruler of White City.

A prestigious underground organization with a long history.

But it wasn’t respected.

Among underground organizations, prestige wasn’t measured by honor.

It was measured by how violent and fearless you were.

How many powerful Hunters you’d defeated.

How much damage you’d inflicted on the government.

The assault on Seoul.

The attack on an S-rank Hunter.

The fire that engulfed an entire city for four days without going out.

Those were the kinds of accomplishments that earned respect.

If brute force wasn’t your style, there was another path.

Conquering contamination zones no one else dared enter.

Or slaying terrifying magical beasts.

Either achievement could earn instant fame.

The West Sea Legion failed miserably in that regard.

Much of it stemmed from the personalities of its leaders, Eun Jisung and Han Nokyeong.

When the Gates first appeared, White City had risen from beneath the sea.

After taking control of it…

They simply settled there.

No matter how much influence they gained, they never tried expanding inland.

Twenty-seven years.

Long enough for children born there to grow into adults and become the second generation of outlaws.

Yet even then, the couple had never tried to return to the mainland.

Several factions within the Legion had demanded they attack the Hunter Association or wage war against the government.

Those disagreements had sparked multiple internal conflicts.

The Legion had even split into two at one point.

Even so…

Eun Jisung and Han Nokyeong remained in White City.

While everyone else challenged impregnable Gates or fought desperate battles against the government…

The two of them simply managed White City.

It was simply their nature.

Eun Jisung cared only about research.

Han Nokyeong cared only about her quiet country life.

Neither possessed much ambition.

Nor much pride.

They had only become underground Hunters because they wanted to escape being used as government laboratory test subjects.

Naturally…

Their reputation outside White City was terrible.

Despite being one of the oldest and largest organizations controlling White City, people called them cowards.

Runaways.

The nicest thing people said about the couple was that they were “a waste of talent.”

That alone spoke volumes.

Han Nokyeong, in particular, was someone even the government supposedly lamented losing.

There was some truth to that.

She possessed Invulnerable to Water and Fire, an ability that let her withstand both water and flames.

She also possessed Diamond Body, a power said to make one’s body as indestructible as diamond.

Either ability alone could have made someone one of the world’s greatest Hunters.

Yet all Han Nokyeong ever did with those incredible gifts was knit…

Sew…

Make crafts…

Grow vegetables…

Bake bread and pastries…

And decorate her home.

A quiet, domestic life.

In other words…

The perfect example of the kind of person Morae had once described—

“Someone who lives exactly as they please, yet somehow leaves everyone around them feeling strangely disappointed.”

That person…

Was her own mother.

Having fought Han Nokyeong before, Yu Pado understood that feeling.

Even in her fifties, she completely overwhelmed him.

He couldn’t even imagine how terrifying she’d been in her youth.

Second…

Because of all that, members of the West Sea Legion constantly received recruitment offers.

Some criminals came to White City, spent time as new recruits, then transferred elsewhere.

Others spent ten years in the Legion before leaving to pursue personal revenge.

Which meant…

Yu Pado would probably continue receiving endless offers in the future.

That led to the third thing he’d learned.

He’d met all kinds of outlaws.

But every one of them wanted exactly the same thing.

His overwhelming firepower.

“You’re all after my body!”

He’d managed to endure the first four recruiters.

But when the fifth one started talking…

Yu Pado finally snapped.

He slammed his hand onto the table and raised his voice.

The neatly dressed young man sitting across from him nearly jumped out of his seat.

“Why are you saying things that sound like someone who’s only been dating for a week and suddenly became overly sentimental and insecure? That’s creepy!”

“You are after my body! All you ever talk about is my abilities! The only things you people know about me are my name and that I’m a guy!”

“I know your age too. You’re twenty-three.”

“That’s wrong!”

Out of the basic trio—name, gender, and age—

They’d already gotten one wrong.

Yu Pado squeezed his eyes shut.

Even he had assumed they’d at least remember something as simple as his age.