Bringing Back Even a Lost Appetite
“A deal?”
“Exactly. If a favor isn’t enough, I’ll give you something you want. So reconsider.”
“You know what I want?”
“We can figure that out from here. Is there anything you want?”
“Hah. You’re trying to use the negotiation techniques I taught you on me?”
“At the very least, there’s nothing the National Security Bureau can’t do for you. Domestic or overseas, even things that fall outside the law.”
“That’s a frightening thing to say.”
“That’s how serious I am about this.”
At Baek Jisu’s serious words, Oh Hyeonseong let out a faint chuckle.
He understood exactly what she meant by being serious.
But even so, nothing would change.
“The negotiations are over.”
“Why?”
“Because what I want right now is something that the current you can’t understand or give me.”
“What does that—”
At that moment, Baek Jisu’s gaze snapped toward the outside.
A terrifying killing intent could be felt beyond the house.
And it was approaching them.
Click!
“Senior, stay back.”
She abruptly stood up, drawing the long sword at her side.
Heightening all her senses, she approached the porch. The moment she sensed the presence on the other side, she drew her sword in one swift motion.
CRACK!
The door was sliced apart as easily as if it were made of tofu.
The door shattered into pieces as though someone had torn apart a sheet of paper, but there was nothing caught on the tip of her blade.
And at that very moment, an explosion of light engulfed her.
The range was extremely compressed, but that made it all the faster and more powerful. It was a single strike capable of easily tearing the limbs off a high-level Hunter.
Yet Baek Jisu twisted her sword and accelerated it in an instant, slicing through the explosion itself—dozens of them.
Then the two Hunters became entangled.
CLANG!
Baek Jisu slammed her opponent against the wall.
But the sword she was holding was also knocked away, flying across the room and embedding itself in the opposite wall.
“Baek Jisu. I told you not to pull any tricks. And yet you crawled all the way here.”
“Hah…? Are you really in a position to give me orders? Besides, do you think I need the deputy director’s permission just to come see a Senior who’s been discharged from the hospital?”
“Come see him? You only move when there’s something in it for you. You came to someone who’s already retired and tried to pull some kind of scheme. You think I wouldn’t notice?”
Han Suyeon spoke with contempt in her eyes.
But Baek Jisu didn’t care in the slightest and snorted.
“So what if I am pulling a scheme?”
“What?”
“If we both need something, we can give and take. What’s wrong with that?”
“Is that really something you should say when you’ve barged in on someone who already left the industry?”
“That’s something Senior can decide for himself. And do you really think Oh Senior is someone you need to protect and coddle? You still haven’t gotten rid of that obsessive habit of yours, just like before.”
Han Suyeon let out a hollow laugh before sighing.
“You really are a selfish and disgusting bitch.”
“And you’re a fucking hypocrite. What did you do when your subordinates were dying last year? You just stood there with your hands behind your back, acting all high and mighty between the President and the politicians.”
“Baek Jisu!”
Thick waves of killing intent intertwined throughout the room.
Han Suyeon began drawing out the magical power within her body, while Baek Jisu reached for the dagger hidden inside her clothes.
BANG!
Both of their heads shook violently.
“Ugh…!”
Han Suyeon and Baek Jisu simultaneously clutched their heads and collapsed onto the floor.
When they turned around, Oh Hyeonseong was standing there, looking down at them coldly.
“All of you. Put your heads down.”
“W-What on earth happened here?”
Joo Jihye stood in the yard, staring blankly at the house.
She’d suddenly sensed terrifying killing intent coming from outside, so she’d come out to see what was happening.
And this was what she found.
“Tell me about it. What a complete mess.”
Oh Hyeonseong shook his head.
Wind was blowing straight through the door that had been torn to shreds, while one of the walls had a huge hole punched straight through it from Baek Jisu slamming someone against it.
And perhaps because the house had looked too empty and needed some decoration, the sword that had been knocked away was now sticking out of the opposite wall.
Fortunately, most of the furniture and household belongings had escaped the destruction.
“Yeah, this is my fault! I didn’t teach you properly! What are you, children? You don’t even know that you’re not supposed to destroy someone else’s house! I only taught you how to cut off monster heads!”
Oh Hyeonseong shouted as he searched for tools in the storage shed.
He soon came striding outside.
Three Hunters were lined up in front of him, all being forced to hold a punishment position.
“Um… Why am I…?”
“Collective responsibility. You should’ve kept a better eye on your Senior.”
Choi Jeongil tried to make his case, but it was futile.
He was guilty of aiding and abetting by standing around and watching while the other two came inside radiating killing intent.
As one would expect from elites of this industry, all three of them were maintaining their positions with impeccable form.
They might have wondered whether they really needed to be doing this at their age and rank after already being discharged from the military, but Oh Hyeonseong’s overwhelming justification left them no choice but to obey without complaint.
…What exactly am I looking at?
Joo Jihye stared blankly at the scene.
She couldn’t believe Choi Jeongil was standing there like this.
But the two people standing on either side of him were even harder to believe.
Most of all, the terrifying Baek Jisu from the National Security Bureau was currently kneeling with her head against the ground in the middle of the yard.
No matter how many times Joo Jihye rubbed her eyes, she wasn’t seeing things.
“…Senior, sorry. I’ll clean everything up and leave. I’ll even call a repair company and—”
“Do you think there’s a repair company that’ll come all the way out to these mountains at this hour?”
CLANG!
A pile of tools came tumbling down in front of them.
“Clean it all up before you leave.”
The tools and materials left behind by the original owner of the house were incredibly varied.
Perhaps it had been a hobby of his.
Although Oh Hyeonseong had hardly had any reason to use them until now, they had filled one entire corner of the storage shed since the day he’d first moved in.
The door would have to be replaced eventually, though for now they could put something over it to keep the wind out.
Fortunately, the damage to the remaining walls could at least be patched up temporarily.
“…”
Squatting down, Baek Jisu pasted wallpaper onto the wall with clumsy movements.
During her time in the Special Operations Unit, she’d participated in operations that involved all kinds of backbreaking manual labor, but she’d never had to do anything quite like this.
Every time her awkward hands caused the wallpaper to wrinkle, a deep surge of irritation welled up inside her.
“I told you not to cause trouble.”
She turned her head.
Oh Hyeonseong had approached and handed her some water.
Baek Jisu obediently accepted it and took a drink before turning her attention back to the wallpaper.
Her movements were still clumsy, but she was concentrating seriously.
“You haven’t quit despite being unable to do it, so I guess it’s not completely unbearable.”
“You seem to be doing pretty well with country life yourself, Senior. You look like you’re used to it.”
“Yeah. A quiet life suits me surprisingly well. Maybe I had some hidden aptitude for it that even I didn’t know about.”
After concentrating for a while, she spoke.
“…By now, Senior must have heard from Choi Jeongil.”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“You know about the tainted energy too. The tainted energy we thought was safe has actually been continuously accumulating inside our bodies.”
Oh Hyeonseong was struck right at the heart of the matter and fell silent for a moment.
As he struggled to figure out what to say, she spoke first.
“I’m not going to blame him for telling you. But don’t go around talking about it anymore. Otherwise, it won’t end with just you or me being inconvenienced.”
“I’ve been curious about that myself, so this is convenient. Why are you guys keeping it hidden?”
“You remember, Senior. In the early days, the government did everything it could to control Awakened and incorporate them into the existing system. Back in our time, if they thought someone showed promise, they’d forcibly drag them off to a training camp.”
“I remember.”
Oh Hyeonseong, along with all the other first-generation Hunters here, had careers far too extensive for their ages.
The reason was simple.
They had all been identified while still minors, selected for training, and deployed into the field even earlier because of their exceptional abilities.
It was something that could never happen in the present day.
“Then the governments of various countries began actively elevating the status of Hunters and allowing them to operate openly because they’d realized the limitations of the old system. Raising every Hunter themselves wasn’t efficient, and there were obvious limits to how many people they could train. It took experiencing a crisis before they finally changed, naturally bringing in more personnel.”
She continued.
“But if this problem comes to light, all those plans will collapse at once. Existing Hunters will avoid going into the field, they’ll try to retire earlier, and the supply of new Hunters will also decrease.”
The glamorous side of being a Hunter was always accompanied by one unavoidable truth: they were constantly facing death.
But the money, fame, and pride that came afterward willingly drove Hunters into the jaws of death.
Each of them was willing to risk death for their own reasons.
The media only encouraged that even further, turning Hunters into objects of admiration like they were today.
But if the true reality became known—that the accumulation of tainted energy meant Hunters were inevitably marching toward their deaths—
the impact would inevitably have an enormous effect on the supply of Hunters.
“There are plenty of arguments about how severe the problem really is, but there’s no way we could maintain the current level of social security. The defensive line in the north, where exposure to tainted energy is the worst, would develop huge gaps. And the Special Operations Division doesn’t want that either.”
“But is controlling it forever really the answer?”
“At least as far as I’m concerned, I think this is the best option for now.”
They couldn’t simply drop a bomb without having any countermeasures prepared.
But Oh Hyeonseong couldn’t shake the feeling that if they kept the issue completely sealed away, they might never develop a solution at all.
“Then am I on the National Security Bureau’s list too?”
“I haven’t put your name on it yet… but ever since you regained your strength, you’ve been someone we’re required to monitor and report on regularly.”
Baek Jisu shrugged helplessly.
From the National Security Bureau’s perspective, as the organization responsible for managing and controlling information, they had to be aware of the existence of Oh Hyeonseong, who knew a major national secret.
And if an Awakened person who once possessed that level of power had regained their strength, there was no choice but to treat them as someone requiring attention at the national level.
Just as Joo Jihye, a high-level Hunter ranked at Level 10, was regularly listed with both the Disaster Management Bureau and the National Security Bureau.
But I’d rather avoid that.
Being placed on the list didn’t mean he’d immediately be wiretapped or placed under surveillance, but he didn’t like the idea itself.
And Baek Jisu wasn’t the kind of person who would easily remove his name simply out of affection for an old Senior-junior relationship.
Of course, making the deal she’d proposed earlier just to make this go away would be ridiculous.
Hmm. I’ve got a good idea.
Oh Hyeonseong abruptly stood up.
A short while later, he returned from the kitchen carrying a tray.
“What is that?”
“Eat before you work.”
Oh Hyeonseong said it proudly.
The so-called bribe strategy.
Baek Jisu was a tremendous food connoisseur.
Her palate was extremely demanding, nothing like Oh Hyeonseong or Han Suyeon, who had never cared much about food.
The problem was that she took it to such an extreme that even when she was starving to death during operations, she refused to touch things like military rations.
Oh Hyeonseong had forcibly shoved food into her mouth several times, but aside from him, there had been no one capable of stopping such eccentric behavior, so she had never managed to abandon her gourmet tendencies.
Naturally, delicious food would make her lose her composure.
“This is the meal…?”
Baek Jisu looked bewildered as she received a single bowl.
“Ah, this is called bibimbap.”
“I know what it is.”
A perfect bowl of white rice topped with fresh vegetables and various sauces.
Since it was a dish heavily influenced by the quality of its ingredients, it was practically a cheat code for Oh Hyeonseong.
Baek Jisu picked up her spoon without another word.
“That’s unexpected. I thought you’d refuse to even touch it.”
“Food made by Senior isn’t something I get often. Besides, I don’t avoid foods like I used to.”
She began eating the bibimbap.
Her spoon moved without any noticeable change in expression.
Oh Hyeonseong thought she was activating one of her specialties—the poker face—even here.
To eat something this delicious without letting out even a single exclamation of delight… Even for her, she must have reached an extraordinary level of self-control.
But surprisingly, it wasn’t an act.
Scrape.
The bowl, not even half-finished, was pushed aside.
The first leftovers of his cooking career—albeit a very short one.
“What…?”
Oh Hyeonseong lost his composure for a moment.
He’d been so confident that the result shocked him all the more.
Baek Jisu tapped the scar on her cheek and spoke.
“Sorry. I can’t taste anything.”
Ever since the injury that nearly took away half her jaw…
She had lost her sense of taste.
