By Zephyria 
“Umm. I don’t smell anything.”
That was only natural. If he could find people he’d never met before by their scent in this crowd, that would be more frightening than anything.
Instead, Joo-oh kept looking around, seemingly searching for any suspicious signs. His ears were perked up slightly, as if he was listening for sounds amidst the chaos.
Perhaps it was because the smile had vanished from his lips. His intensely focused face felt strangely cold. Mu-hae grabbed the stiff Joo-oh and dragged him around, closely observing whether his expression changed.
“Wait.”
Finally, Joo-oh reacted. He stood firmly rooted to the ground, stopping Mu-hae from moving elsewhere.
Shhh. Before he could even speak, a white finger pressed firmly against his red lips. After giving that brief warning, he cautiously walked to one side.
The edge of the park, where there were relatively fewer people. It was less decorated than other areas, but the large sculpture in the center was faintly visible.
Someone stood rigidly in front of a shining planet-shaped decoration. A black electric wheelchair glided up beside them.
“I knew you’d be here.”
Joo-oh recited the words as if he were translating, repeating the distant voice verbatim.
“No matter how busy I am… I can’t just not come.”
“Especially in times like these. It reminds me of my younger days.”
A quick glance at their profiles confirmed that they were the humans from Gu-reum’s files. One face was obscured by shadows, but it was probably the Vegan Society guy who had some mobility issues.
As they mingled with the crowd and got closer, they began to faintly hear the men’s conversation. Only then did Joo-oh stop acting like a recorder and cling to Mu-hae’s arm.
“By the way, it seems that person isn’t coming today?”
“I haven’t contacted them separately, but they’ll probably come. The atmosphere is so ominous these days that they must be sweating bullets.”
“Well, they’re the closest person to that woman. It’s ridiculous how much fuss was made over one incompetent mercenary.”
Mu-hae’s shoulders twitched slightly without him realizing it. The only mercenary story they would be talking about was Jin Mu-hae.
Was the Vegan Society’s sudden attempt to expand its influence due to the NPS after all?
“We should avoid getting caught and lie low for a while.”
“Even though they pushed the son so hard… in the end, that woman will seize power.”
“Wouldn’t she? In terms of brains, guts, and skill, no one can compare. That person must have had their niece in mind since they were young.”
That person? And that niece…
It was hard to understand what they were talking about yet. He just sensed that it was something significant and made sure to remember it clearly.
“The good thing is, we still have one weakness of hers in our hands. She probably suspects as much, so she won’t act rashly.”
“Even though that fool was kicked out by his father, it’s fortunate that he gave us something to hold over her. Ah, here he comes.”
The person in the wheelchair waved to one side. A gray-haired man walking in the middle of the path approached them with a delighted expression.
Mu-hae pretended to fuss over Joo-oh to avoid arousing suspicion.
He smoothed his hair and brushed off his coat collar, and Joo-oh rubbed his cheek against him, oblivious and happy.
“I see you’re all here.”
“We’re always here around this time. I heard you’ve been very busy?”
“Someone made a mess, so it’ll be annoying for a while. Ms. Woo is foaming at the mouth, saying it wasn’t her.”
“Being so careless, it’s still too early to involve you in important matters. Attracting attention so close to the trial.”
Perhaps they thought it was a sensitive topic to discuss in public. The conversation paused for a moment.
The men quietly admired the shining surroundings before preparing to part with light bows.
“Before that, you should take a look at it below. Are you keeping that item safe?”
“There’s no chance of it being stolen without my knowledge, at least.”
With that last remark, their seemingly coincidental meeting came to an end. It was hard to believe that the final member had just joined, given how quickly they dispersed.
Mu-hae grabbed Joo-oh, who was still burying his nose in his hand, and headed to a nearby bench.
“Did you hear everything?”
“Uh-huh. There weren’t any whispers that Jin Mu-hae couldn’t hear.”
“So what I heard was everything.”
Even so, it only left him with a sense of mystery. Still, he clearly remembered the story of ‘that person’ and their niece, who the Vegan Society was paying attention to.
“Is your work for today done?”
“Mostly. It would be suspicious if we followed them now.”
“Then what do we do now?”
Joo-oh, whose exploration mode had ended, reverted to his blank expression as if he had never been alert.
Mu-hae pressed his warm cheeks a few times despite the chilly wind, then grabbed his arm and headed to the center of the park.
“We should go back. Let’s look around while we’re here.”
“Are we playing?”
“Playing? No. We’re just looking around a bit more, just in case.”
He gave a pointless rebuke and turned his head. Joo-oh’s tongue, which he glimpsed, was blue. He should have stopped him from eating that weird cherry candy earlier.
“Jin Mu-hae. Are you cold?”
“Would I be cold?”
A mercenary who had carried out missions in even harsher environments, getting rained on, wouldn’t catch a chill in weather that only required a coat.
Even so, he rummaged through his bag and pulled out a red scarf. Before he could ask where he got it, he stood on tiptoe and wrapped the soft fabric around his neck.
“What’s this?”
“I bought it. Earlier.”
“Earlier?”
“They were selling it next to the snacks, so I thought it would be nice to see Jin Mu-hae wear something like this.”
He really had money to burn. He should probably cut back on his allowance. The faint smell of new knitwear brushed against his nose, stirring something in his chest.
Snap, Joo-oh tore off the tag at the end of the scarf with his hand. He looked like he was hurrying to make sure he couldn’t return it.
“You wear it.”
“No. It’s Jin Mu-hae’s.”
The guy, who had been expressionless for the past few days, smiled as if he was blooming. Mu-hae didn’t try to stop him and just roughly adjusted the scarf that Joo-oh had haphazardly wrapped around him.
After that, they wandered around the lighting event, which he didn’t find particularly interesting. Since he had the scarf on, Joo-oh’s red eyes seemed extra sparkly, and even though he kept sweeping up the remaining snacks, it wasn’t that annoying.
The information gathered so far was as follows.
Three long-time members of the Vegan Society and West Wind, who was somehow connected to them.
They talked about ‘that person,’ whose identity was unknown, and their niece, referred to as ‘that woman.’
They also knew one of that woman’s weaknesses, which the gray-haired man was supposedly keeping well-hidden.
Aside from the headache-inducing information, daily life was too peaceful, so Mu-hae had plenty of time to think about the conversation he had overheard that night.
The woman they mentioned was probably West Wind. Half the world was women, but in that situation, the only person the three targets would be talking about was someone related to West Wind.
That story seemed as important as finding the location where the Vegan Society members had agreed to meet. Jin Mu-hae immediately visited Teacher Jung and spread out the organizational chart that he had practically memorized by now.
“Mu-hae. I’m a busy man too.”
“Think of it as a time to check if my wound has healed properly.”
“I already removed all the stitches. I have a ton of new clients to meet because of you.”
“Are there any people here who might benefit from family ties?”
Teacher Jung stared at Mu-hae without a word. His transparent gaze seemed to understand what he wanted immediately.
But not a single question about whether he was looking for West Wind was asked. He simply walked silently to one side of the treatment room and sat heavily in a chair.
“These kinds of relationships are mostly based on regional and family ties. Just look at the Councilors faction here; they all have different surnames but are all related through multiple marriages.”
“If you were to pick out only the figures who would support their niece?”
“Hoo… I don’t know.”
He tapped a few places with the end of his pen. He thought there would only be one or two, but surprisingly, the tapping sound came four or five times.
“There’s no reason not to support them. They’re helpful relatives to them, right?”
After speaking, Teacher Jung took off his glasses and rubbed his face. He didn’t say anything, but he looked troubled.
He put the pen back in his pocket and then opened a drawer as if something had occurred to him.
It was a puzzle with wires intertwined in the shapes of an elephant and a giraffe. It seemed like a pathetic attempt to change the subject by turning his attention to Joo-oh.
“Oh. This is new too.”
The problem was that it worked terribly well on Joo-oh. The guy who had been holding the pad turned around and jumped onto the bed.
The sight of him sitting there enjoying the puzzle was exactly like a crazy person again. Mu-hae didn’t have the energy to retrieve the stolen pad and just stared blankly at Teacher Jung.
“…Is it a judgment that it’s necessary for the Return flight?”
“To be exact, the research results that person has. Getting that is what will complete everything.”
“I already know that you and Director Gil were whispering behind my back.”
“……”
“It’s obvious without even looking, that bastard. Unnecessarily yielding in everything.”
He briefly touched the long scar on his face and then put his glasses back on his nose.
Despite his displeased expression, he seemed determined to do his job, and he opened his mouth without further hesitation.
“How far have you gotten?”
“I’m tracking the opposition. They supposedly have West Wind’s weakness.”
“In my opinion, recovering that seems urgent. After that… maybe I can finally tell you too.”
All sorts of emotions swirled in the eyes of the usually cold man. It was the same look that Director Gil had. A feeling that was somehow uncomfortable yet overwhelming, bittersweet, and slightly unpleasant.
“They were confident that the item wouldn’t be stolen without their knowledge.”
“It’s not an object, then.”
“So it’s data or something…?”
“You wouldn’t know, but in Central, they usually don’t entrust even ambiguous documents to family members. They have a safe nearby to keep them secure.”
Teacher Jung tapped his arm. The moment he did, the moment when he caught the Thorn wolf flashed through his mind.
An old man who had gone senile and been eaten whole by a Beast. To confirm the will he had left behind, the mercenaries searched from the half-digested corpse.
“Bio Chip……”
He realized information that was obvious to someone else only through Teacher Jung. No matter how much better his circumstances had become, he had grown up in a different environment, so his view of the world was different.
Damn it. Before he could lament his shortcomings, Joo-oh, who had left, returned. He held the separated giraffe and elephant in his hands.
“I solved it all. Is this it for today?”
“Yes. Do you remember the people I pointed out earlier?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Tell Mu-hae about them. I’m really busy today.”
Joo-oh nodded reliably. Mu-hae sent a regretful look at the indirect dismissal, then led the excited group out of Teacher Jung’s residence.
Finding the three people they had seen at the lighting event wasn’t difficult.
It was thanks to being invited to events in Central for several weeks. He remembered overhearing the locals call areas outside of Central ‘below,’ which he found offensive.
It wasn’t common for people of that status to leave Central and gather in one place at the same time.
Jin Mu-hae roamed around several areas of Central without suspicion under the guise of filming a Company promotional video. Thanks to that, he managed to awkwardly extract the schedule of one of them, who was working as the CEO of a partner company.
“He’s going to meet a friend in Taeul District.”
To be exact, Joo-oh had overheard someone’s conversation. Really, with him around, everything went surprisingly smoothly.
Of course, accidents kept happening in the middle, but didn’t they eventually turn out well? Thanks to that, Mu-hae now thought it was fortunate that he hadn’t abandoned him.