Chapter 26

“Hah, so I got it wrong. Oh well. Listen carefully, Pado. Age isn’t what matters when it comes to building relationships. It’s about time you stopped judging everything by seniority.”

“You’re all talk…”

“There are plenty of things more important than that when it comes to building trust and friendship.”

“Like what?”

“Your incredible ability.”

“Want to die? I literally just said I hate people only looking at my body.”

Yu Pado glared at the headhunter, who didn’t even bother coming up with a convincing excuse.

He wasn’t expecting emotional understanding or sympathy.

But even so…

The man’s response was unbelievably half-hearted.

Maybe it was because they were underground Hunters.

Everyone who came to recruit him had been anything but easygoing.

The man in front of him wasn’t even half as strong as Yu Pado…

Yet still treated him like some inexperienced rookie.

“Pado, you’re young, so you don’t get it. Someday you’ll appreciate people chasing after you just because they want your body.”

“Cut it out! You sound like a middle-aged married man!”

“No, seriously. If women are throwing themselves at you because of your body, you should be thanking them. Just wait until you’re older. Then you’ll—”

Yu Pado stood up right in front of the man, who continued joking as casually as ever.

The man had already promised to introduce him to some work that could help him repay his debts.

Their business was finished.

He’d dealt with the persistent members of the Downtown Workshop.

He’d spent time learning which organizations suited him.

And he’d finally found the answers to the questions that had been bothering him.

He couldn’t exactly say he was satisfied.

But he had accomplished something.

Just as he gave a brief nod and turned to leave, the seated man called after him.

“Everyone’s only going to look at your abilities.”

The man grinned at him as though speaking to a younger brother he’d known for years.

He himself was a fairly promising Hunter.

The problem was that he’d never become anything more than “promising.”

Still, that alone had been enough to keep him alive while avoiding the government’s pursuit.

Having once attracted attention before Yu Pado ever had, the veteran Hunter offered one final piece of advice.

“If you refuse to accept that and act all uptight about it like you’ve got some kind of obsession, you’re just being an idiot. If I were you, I’d make the most of it.”

Yu Pado walked away as though he hadn’t heard a single word.

As he headed for the exit, the man called after his back.

“You don’t have anything you really want to do anyway. So why not just give people what they want?”

“I hate doing what people expect.”

“What a rebellious kid. Doesn’t it bother you that you’re wasting your talent? Put it to good use. Don’t end up living like those people in the Legion.”

“I’d rather die.”

Yu Pado slammed the door shut behind him.

A part of him felt suffocated.

He couldn’t simply accept those words without resistance.

He walked through the streets, letting the wind hit his face.

White City’s canals ran everywhere.

Normally, you’d need a boat or a jet ski to get around.

But to a water ability user like Yu Pado…

They were nothing more than an open field.

He casually crossed the canal on foot.

In the city, where using abilities was heavily restricted, something like that would draw everyone’s attention.

But this was White City.

No one even looked twice.

His ability was undeniably convenient.

But right now…

He was sick of hearing about it.

Abilities.

Abilities.

Abilities.

He was utterly fed up.

The water manipulation ability that had made him an A-rank Hunter had been evaluated as an A-rank whose usefulness and destructive power were both close to S-rank.

It was overwhelmingly powerful.

An ability that could stand against anyone.

An ability anyone would covet.

Even before he’d trained seriously, he possessed a level of power most people could never achieve in an entire lifetime.

In a world where a Gate could appear anywhere at any moment…

It was considered a blessing.

Society had changed to the point where being an average Hunter handling miscellaneous jobs was often a better career than becoming a doctor or another respected professional.

Even so…

Yu Pado had complicated feelings about his own ability.

You could call it a love-hate relationship.

He wouldn’t go so far as to call it a cursed ability.

But he’d often thought…

That life would’ve been much easier without it.

When he was a child, his mother had been arrested by Hunters and thrown into prison.

That, too…

Had happened because he’d lost control of his power.

Mother and son had lived quietly in an isolated contamination zone near a Gate.

A peaceful place.

Far from everyone else.

Then…

Young Yu Pado accidentally burst a water pipe.

Still unable to control his strength, he’d turned the entire area upside down.

The government discovered them.

The Hunter Association came all the way out to that remote place.

They took Yu Pado away.

They dragged his mother off to prison.

They claimed they were protecting children with the potential to become Hunters.

But everyone knew the truth.

It was surveillance.

Every child taken into those facilities knew it.

The public outside knew it too.

There wasn’t much opposition.

Both the government and ordinary citizens wanted children with powerful abilities kept under strict control.

Children with reliable guardians enjoyed relatively more freedom to use their powers.

Children like Yu Pado, who had no one to stand up for them…

Were treated differently.

He was separated from his mother immediately and confined to one of those facilities.

After that…

They never lived together again.

His mother, Jeong Misuk, had been charged with so many crimes that he could barely remember them all.

But there was one thing he never forgot.

Her sentence had been made even harsher because she’d concealed a child with exceptional abilities.

And that…

Had happened because of him.

None of his childhood memories were happy ones.

Because of his ability…

He’d been taken away to that facility.

Because of his ability…

He’d been separated from his mother.

Because of his ability…

He hadn’t even been able to stay by her side when she died.

The childcare facility, which claimed its purpose was to properly raise the next generation of Hunters…

Wasn’t an entirely terrible place.

At the very least…

The quality of the facility itself had been excellent.

Everything he needed to eat and wear had been provided.

He’d never gone hungry.

He’d never spent a freezing night shivering in the cold.

Whenever he said he wanted something, they brought him something similar.

Whenever he said he wanted to try something, they usually accommodated him as much as they could.

Logically speaking…

He knew it had been a good place.

Compared to the desperate days he’d spent scraping by in the contamination zone, it had been almost like a dream.

The impoverished people who had lived nearby probably would’ve gladly accepted that kind of supervision if it meant living there.

Even so…

Yu Pado had never once felt grateful for the comfortable room they gave him.

Because those people had always been obsessed with keeping a leash around his neck.

He would’ve rather slept beneath a filthy blanket on the freezing streets than live among people who feared him, watched him, and constantly tried to tame him.

He treasured the simple days he’d spent playing with his mother and the scruffy neighborhood children far more.

“And they never shut up about women either.”

Remembering the instructors and Hunters from the facility, Yu Pado grimaced in disgust.

The education given to young Hunters there had bordered on obsession.

They relentlessly drilled ethics…

Morality…

Responsibility…

Duty…

Into the children’s heads until they were sick of hearing it.

They did everything they could to burden them with guilt.

Even if the children eventually went astray after leaving the facility…

They almost always carried some twisted sense of guilt deep inside.

But for some reason…

The people responsible for teaching Yu Pado had taken things even further.

They had been desperate to keep women away from him.

Or perhaps…

They’d been trying just as desperately to keep him away from women.

Either way…

Whenever they saw a girl who looked like she might grow close to Yu Pado, they immediately stepped in to interfere.

Sometimes they scolded him.

Other times they spent three hours talking a girl into tears.

If he seemed particularly close to one of his classmates, they’d visit her parents and lecture them about how dangerous Yu Pado supposedly was.

When a female college volunteer came to help teach the children, they even spread rumors accusing her of harboring inappropriate feelings for a minor, forcing her away from him.

Their lectures dragged on and on.

But they all came down to one thing.

Keep Yu Pado away from women.

It wasn’t because dating was forbidden at the facility.

Nor was it because Yu Pado had been an especially troublesome child.

Neither was true.

They were simply harsher toward him than anyone else.

He never understood why he alone was treated that way.

No matter how many times he asked…

They always gave him the same answers.

“You’re dangerous.”

“You don’t understand women.”

If he believed them…

Then every woman in the world fell into one of two categories.

Pitiful victims who would inevitably be overwhelmed and manipulated by Yu Pado.

Or trash who wanted to mock him and take advantage of him.

Sometimes…

They claimed a woman was both.

They’d treat some girl as though she were a helpless victim unable to speak her own mind because Yu Pado supposedly intimidated her.

But the moment she admitted she wanted to date him…

They’d immediately tear her down as some scheming girl with ulterior motives.

Naturally…

Yu Pado never listened to them.

There were books.

Movies.

The internet.

And besides…

He wasn’t blind.

Those same people constantly preached equality and consideration for others…

While treating him by an entirely different standard.

There was no way he wouldn’t notice.

Still…

After hearing the same things repeated until his ears hurt…

Some part of him had inevitably been affected.

They mocked him relentlessly, insisting that bowing and scraping before women just because he wanted physical affection was pathetic.

Eventually…

His interest in dating had withered away.

Every time he thought about getting close to a woman…

The expressions on those people’s faces resurfaced like old scars.

If that had been their goal…

Then they’d succeeded.

If only out of spite…

Yu Pado had backed away.

That old wound was also why he always lashed out whenever Morae started talking about women.

He understood that much.

But…

Scars didn’t disappear just because you understood them.

“I’m sick of it.”

Why had the people at the facility gone that far?

Probably because they wanted to keep him on a leash.

So he wouldn’t fall in love with some woman and run away from the facility for her sake.

So he wouldn’t do anything reckless trying to impress a girl.

They’d wanted to use someone with exceptional abilities however it suited them.

After all…

Love could completely change a person.

Until the day he broke away from the Hunter Association…

He’d been forced to work for the state against his will.

More than once, they’d thrown him straight into disaster zones without warning.

Using the excuse that he was strong and useful…

The Hunter Association had worked him to the bone.

They’d even sent him on the mission to kidnap Eun Morae without giving him any prior explanation.

So what else could he expect?

Every bit of it…

Had happened because of his extraordinary ability.

If he hadn’t possessed such overwhelming power…

He might have earned less money.

But he probably could’ve lived a quiet, ordinary life.

He thought that kind of life would’ve been nice too.

Though…

It was nothing more than an impossible dream.

He let out a long sigh filled with weary annoyance.

“Come out.”

Yu Pado stopped in an empty space between two buildings where few people passed.

Standing with the large building at his back, he deliberately boxed himself into a corner.

“I know you’ve been following me this whole time, so stop hiding. I even came all the way here where there’s barely any water.”

He was getting tired of all the things that came with being powerful.

This…

Was the part he hated most.

He wasn’t even that old.

Yet he could already picture exactly how the rest of his life would play out.

A faint rustling echoed nearby.

The people following him had reacted to his words.

Whoever they were…

They’d been tailing him since that morning.

When he’d first noticed Eun Morae hiding behind a wall, he’d assumed she was the one following him.

But even after separating from her…

He’d continued sensing someone else’s presence.

Which meant…

These people were something else.

An enemy.

An assassin.

A rival.

It didn’t matter.

There were always plenty of people who couldn’t stand someone stronger than themselves.

Some hated seeing someone powerful acting confident.

Others wanted to defeat him so they could earn recognition themselves.

There was never any shortage of reasons to pick a fight.

He’d experienced it so many times that it almost made him yawn.

“If I’ve gone this far to accommodate you, the least you can do is show yourselves.”

He fixed his gaze on the path he’d just walked with unmistakable intent.