Chapter 75

"What exactly is the providence you speak of?"

"Why did you choose to become a hunter with that power?"

The question was returned. Tae-un stared at her for a moment before answering first.

"I thought it was the path that would save the most people."

"The fact that there are people like you who go against it and people like me who protect it is providence."

"What are you talking about?"

Soram narrowed his eyes at the inconsistent words. Tae-un bluntly continued his questions.

"Did you have any personal contact with me?"

"No."

"Then it didn't matter who the hunter was that appeared there, you would have attacked them regardless?"

The culprit looked at Tae-un with a smile.

"You think I went there to harm you? Not at all. If you hadn't broken the rift, you wouldn't have gotten hurt. I only went to protect the rift."

The expression that had been continuing her words darkened as if genuinely regretful.

"It just so happened that the rift appeared in the sky and you were faster. Ah, I should have protected it."

"..."

The eyes of the two police officers standing behind met each other. The glance contained the meaning, "As expected, she's not in her right mind."

Tae-un also had no intention of understanding her feelings.

"Are there more people who think like you?"

"Of course there are others everywhere. Plenty of them."

The culprit's lips rose to the fullest.

"That's why the balance of the world is being maintained, isn't it?"

"Who are they?"

"I don't know who they are. But I can sense it."

"..."

Tae-un let out a deep sigh and gripped the table with both hands. His face came close to Soram's side.

"You said you came to the school to protect the rift. Can you roughly guess where a rift will occur?"

"Ah."

Soram's eyes widened. If you think about it the other way around, that would be the case.

"Was your special ability in that direction?"

The culprit, who had been silent for a moment, shook her upper body.

"Hoo, hoo hoo, kik, kuk..."

Revealing all her teeth, the culprit let out broken laughter. It felt even more bizarre because she had been speaking in a refined manner.

"That's the kind of thinking young children steeped in peace would have. A group of hypocrites led by a hypocrite!"

"Who are you calling..."

The handcuffed hands pointed at Soram and Tae-un. By this point, Soram's patience had also worn thin. He was increasingly irritated by her behavior, acting as if others were living in peace while she was in a storm, even though the 3rd and 4th Great Rifts hadn't even occurred yet in this world. The current world was also a place that Park Jae-seon, who stood at the forefront of the hunters, had protected by risking his life.

Should I just flip her over? If I cause a disturbance in the police station, I'll be sent to the guard floor for a few days. Soram was calculating.

"Those are the words of someone who commits crazy acts disguised as ideology. In the world, hypocrites are better than criminals who swing knives in broad daylight."

A monotonous voice was heard from the side. Ah, right. In this life, he was good at being sarcastic and retorting. The surging emotions subsided and Soram let out a hollow laugh.

"Han Tae-un ssi, you should really go back to college and become a judge. I'll diligently break all the rifts that person likes."

"Enough. What's with you all of a sudden?"

"Just because."

Soram shrugged his shoulders and called the culprit "You."

"If you stabbed someone with a knife, I hope you were prepared to be stabbed yourself. You can't say you don't have any close people around you either. My recent motto is to pay back double what I receive."

Until Soram finished speaking, the culprit just stared at the two with her head tilted. There was no answer after that either. The moment Soram and Tae-un felt puzzled, the culprit strongly lunged her upper body forward.

"Because you lived without knowing any problems or hardships in the world like you did, you were able to have a prayer steeped in peace! With the ability you obtained because the wish was so simple and easy!!!"

Bang!

"What..."

The table in the middle was pushed hard. The iron table hit Soram's body sitting across from it with a creak, but it didn't have a big impact on him. The 5th-grade would be in more pain.

However, the culprit didn't stop there and pushed the table again with her whole body. Tae-un grabbed the table, and Soram got up from his seat. The culprit kept pushing the table and shaking her body. She hid the paleness and cold sweat that appeared on her face like that. But even that didn't last long. Soram wasn't the type to just watch and endure it.

The culprit, who collided with the blue mist, rolled back. The police hurriedly approached the culprit.

"Kiiaaaah!"

The culprit screamed, twisting her limbs as if being attacked by something invisible. At that moment, urgent footsteps approached from outside.

"Hunter-nim, I think you need to come outside for a moment!"

Soram pushed Tae-un's back while looking at the culprit who was struggling amidst the police's restraint to the point of trying to strangle her own neck.

"You go out and see."

"What about you..."

Even if there was hesitation, there was no time to falter because of it. Tae-un went towards the door as instructed. As if switching places with him, other police officers entered.

"You guys who could swarm in like this! Why! Why did you arrive so late back then!!!"

Such a scream was heard behind Tae-un's back as he left the interrogation room. Tae-un, who tried to look back, couldn't slow down his steps due to the urging police officer.

The place the police officer took Tae-un to was the waiting room with the information desk and offices. It was the place that appeared right when you opened the door of the police station, and it was the area where the most people were stationed inside. Moreover, there were reporters right outside the door now.

Tae-un understood why he had hurriedly rushed. A very foreign-looking black crack had appeared in the middle of the waiting room.

"Hunter-nim, that, that's a rift, right?"

"..."

It was also Tae-un's first time directly seeing a rift being created. It was like squeezing a very narrow gap and starting from a small size of a finger, trembling and gradually increasing in size. While Tae-un was reporting the situation over there and running here, it had grown by about the length of a fingernail again.

As Tae-un appeared in the police station that had become chaotic, cameras stuck to the front of the door even more. The gap in the door rattled as if it was about to open, and several police officers hurriedly went in front of it and blocked it with their bodies.

"This is Chief Han Tae-un of Team 7. A rift has occurred inside the police station."

Normally, the principle is to eliminate the occurred rift as quickly as possible after the Reconnaissance Bureau's grade measurement and surrounding investigation. However, there are exceptions in urgent situations such as when there are many people around indoors. This was exactly that moment.

The Reconnaissance Bureau also acknowledged that it was an unavoidable situation. Since there would be CCTV inside the police station, it would be possible to measure the grade to some extent by analyzing the footage of Tae-un breaking the rift or the revealed size.

Tae-un's fist, which he had swung with all his might, was driven into the rift that had somehow become about a span in length. The size of the rift decreased with a loud bang.

However, it did not disappear. Based on his experience so far, he thought it would be completely eliminated with this much power, but the rift repeatedly increased and decreased the remaining gap as if struggling.

Feeling a sense of discomfort, Tae-un drew the sword at his waist and struck down the rift. When he attacked with force, a sharp sound rang out, and after that, only a white halo remained in the space where the rift had been.

Tae-un, who confirmed that the rift had disappeared with twice as much caution as usual, slowly put the sword back in.

"Wow, that's cool. Nice."

There was only one person who would approach with playful words in this situation. Soram came to his side, clapping half-heartedly.

"Let's go back now. There's nothing more to gain by staying longer."

"Aren't you going to interrogate the suspect further?"

"That means the culprit, right? We can't do it today. She collapsed... no. Should I say she had a seizure? She's in a state where she can't move anymore."

Although his tone implied there was no other way, a hint of irritation was revealed. He stood next to Tae-un and lowered his voice.

"You heard her screaming earlier, right? After struggling like that for a while, she fell to the side and stiffened like someone having a seizure all over her body."

"Suddenly?"

"Yeah. So some of the police seem to suspect that I did something."

Tae-un knew that wasn't the case, but seeing a person who had been engaged in a battle of nerves with a 1st-grade with transcendent power collapse, it was a circumstance that could arouse suspicion.

"Is it not an act?"

"The stiffness and screams were real. I think she gained sympathy from a few people here yesterday, saying they were like her sons. If I make a fuss here, it seems like it will only have the opposite effect."

Much more investigation seemed necessary, but they might refuse to transfer her to the headquarters. Soram spoke in an indignant voice. Tae-un briefly wrapped his hand around the shoulder he had touched earlier and let go.

"I understand. Let's go back."

"...Yeah. Ah, it's frustrating."

In the end, the two returned to the headquarters, leaving a message to inform them when the investigation results came out. A silence of being lost in their own thoughts flowed as they went.

When they opened the office door and entered, Ayoung had already arrived at work. Ayoung asked, looking at the two who had come in together.

"Where did you two go together?"

While Tae-un was searching for words to say, Soram spoke first.

"I followed Han Tae-un to his dispatch location. To protect our frail new chief in case he gets stabbed again."

"Soram oppa, why are you bothering Tae-un oppa again..."

Ayoung shook her head back and forth with her chin resting on her hand. Thanks to Soram's words, Team 7 returned to its usual appearance.

* * *

Before the three of them got off work, an investigation report came from the police station.

The culprit, who had collapsed with convulsions, remained in a state where her body was stiff as if she had a seizure, although she was conscious. Then she woke up, and unlike how she had been holding out until now, she cooperated with the investigation. She admitted that the reason she attacked Tae-un was due to dissatisfaction with the organization called the headquarters and anger towards the hunters belonging to it.

That was also the answer given to the reporters who had flocked even more after the occurrence of the small rift in the police station waiting room. People who read the article reasonably accepted the culprit's motive. In addition, the culprit, who was determined to have a seizure disorder, was separately isolated.

Drip, drip.

The stream of water pouring over Tae-un's head stopped. It was an unsatisfactory conclusion. Especially for him who had confronted the culprit, the question "Is that all?" remained.

Although unrelated to the incident, one more thing he heard as a peculiarity was that the culprit had lost her child about 10 years ago. Soram, who had received the report together, was silent while looking at his cell phone until it was time to get off work. After work, as soon as he arrived on the dormitory floor, he went straight into his room.

Tae-un put on comfortable clothes and placed a towel on his head. With short hair, it was even rarer for him to use a hair dryer.

"Han Tae-un."

The voice that was heard came from not far away. Soram was sitting in Tae-un's living room. He also seemed to have just finished washing, his hair subdued. He was also wearing a light short-sleeved t-shirt and sweatpants.

Tae-un stopped and looked at Soram. For a moment, the corners of his mouth stiffened, but he shook off the moisture, pretending to be calm.

"Your house is over there."

"Why? We have something to do, don't we?"