Choi Gyodo tried to understand the situation with a stupid face.

Okay, some bad guys kidnapped a guy. I followed them to an abandoned factory. I heard the sound of people being beaten inside. Of course, Choi Gyodo thought that the kidnappers were beating up the poor part-time worker! The first priority was to monitor Min-ki's transition, but to protect her from anything that might happen.

Oh no, those cowardly Awakeners are beating up ordinary people! It's the common morality of the Awakening, the special law, and I wanted to die, so I rushed through the door of the abandoned factory.

Bang.

But an ordinary Awakened was beating the Awakened.

"Ugh...."

There were even several people who had already been beaten and fallen!

The door was kicked in so hard that the cold wind from the sea blew in.

A black apron with full footprints fluttered. The part-timer let go of the man clutching his collar. The bleeding man, his face swollen like a steamed bun, dropped like a doll falling off a string. There was another flinch on the floor.

And silence.

Our eyes met.

Without looking at the hand that tried to grab his ankle, the tight, trampled part-timer opened his mouth, a new scream playing in the background.

"Hey."

"What?"

My voice cracked as I hurried to respond. I swallowed my saliva. Footprints on a black apron with sky-blue toads on it, blood on his hands, and even wet and disheveled hair. His face was well groomed for someone who had been abducted.

In fact, the most emotional expression was the most frightening. A clean face, as if nothing had happened to the person who had just been beating people.

Wasn't he just a part-timer in a regular Haejang-guk house? At least he's a D-rank reviver. What is this terrifying momentum? I was on the verge of losing the strength in my legs because my chills were numb. The silent part-timer asked.

"Same group?"

"What? No! No way! Absolutely not!"

"Every time I ask them, they say no. It's boring."

I say no because I'm not! Choi Gyodo was frustrated. I was on the verge of tears, whether from frustration or fear. I slowly backed away, but not before he said,

"Don't try to run away."

In a word, I stopped in place. The part-timer did not look at me. He just stands there, getting wet and cleaning his messy hair. Still, my feet didn't move. Cold sweat flowed. Choi Gyodo tried to make an excuse.

"Oh no, I really..."

"Don't strain yourself, .... won't take long to catch you."

It wasn't a threat, but a timely reminder. I felt like I would be caught and dragged back here even if I ran. And I'd end up on the ground like her. I shut my mouth and sat down on the dusty floor. The part-timer murmured contentedly.

"Good boy."

As he approached silently, he crouched in front of me, who sat down. He was like a bully, not matching his sweet face. The part-timer raised his hand with an expressionless face.

"So."

"What?"

"What were you going to say? Go ahead."

"Ah."

"If you don't hurry..."

Cold eyes scanned the people around me. The part-timer took the time to tell me how generous he was, and warned me personally that if I didn't tell him quickly, I would become like them. I pulled out my wallet and slid him my business card in the fastest way possible.

Pado Guild Battle Support Team 1

A-Rank Romantic Opener

"I, I'm a Romantic Opener from the Pado Guild!"

Ui-jae casually asked the familiar and disgusting guild name.

"Pado?"

"Yes! The guild leader sent me to you. To protect you."

I never thought that the business card Bae Won-woo had given me would be so helpful. Reflecting on the days since I had acted immaturely by saying that I didn't need it and that my face was my calling card, I decided to repay him for this favor.

After choosing the menu, I looked at the part-timer in front of me. The part-timer, who was flipping through my business card, raised his eyebrows.

"A member of the Pado Guild."

Suddenly, the atmosphere changed like a cold snap on a warm spring day. Ui-jae, who was reading his business card, asked me.

"Your name is... Romantic Opener?"

"Yes, that's right, Romantic Opener..."

"Aha."

In the atmosphere of an interview, I answered without knowing it, with a little bit of fear and excitement. It was the first time I had been so nervous since the final interview of the Pado Guild with Lee Sa-young.

While I was thinking about this and that, Ui-jae suddenly pushed his bloody hand away. I started to roll my head like a new employee who is suspicious of his boss. What was it? What did he want? Do you think I should wipe your hands because they're dirty? Did I bring a handkerchief?

Cha Ui-jae didn't want to get anything, but he spoke naturally.

Was.

"Mr. Romantic Opener."

"What? Yes."

"Are you quick-witted?"

"What?"

If he had been quicker, he wouldn't have said "Yes?" so quickly, but that's the beauty of a romantic opener. Ui-jae smiled.

"Well... I wouldn't mind if you weren't so quick-witted."

Immediately after that, Ui-jae suddenly bowed his head. It was all very dramatic.

"Well, as you can see, I'm in a pretty bad mood right now."

So.... I'd like to hear an explanation of how that happened.... But it was effective. For one thing, the blood on his hands was intense, adding to the tension. I nodded eagerly.

"Yeah, it looks like it."

"They kidnapped me when I was about to take a break after closing the shop."

That's a lie. Ui-jae was not kidnapped, he was just kidnapped in a hurry. Even I had an old intuition about his movements and every move he made until the moment he was kidnapped, but I could only agree.

"Oh, my God."

"Not only did they kidnap me, but they kicked me for not answering their questions. They hit me with a pirogue. They hit me with a nailed bat."

"Those trash!"

To be clear, Choi Gyodo was not an empathetic person. In other words, I'm someone who would ask my friend, 'Dry shampoo? Do you like it?' when they say, 'I got dry shampoo because I was so tired every morning.

But today was different. I tried my best to sympathize with him because I was reminded of his empathy ability that he sold when he was young. When the song was well received, he grabbed the skirt of an apron with his thumb and forefinger, which was full of dirt marks.

"You see these footprints?"

"Oh, my God. How badly did you get hit?"

"Don't even say it. I got hit a lot."

"Those motherf***ers. They should be fed to the piranhas!"

Of course, Cha Ui-jae's claim to have been "hit a lot" seemed perfectly fine... but what matters to me now is not authenticity. As the saying goes, the dead have no words!

I nodded my head vigorously with my soul. Fortunately, the young man in front of me seemed to like my intense reaction, and he sighed heavily, tucked his chin into his cheek, and continued.

"So I took care of the kids a little."

"...Y, you did."

All the flinches on the floor were so swollen like steamed buns that they couldn't even recognize their faces. If this is a little controlled, what happens when you're really controlled?

A shiver ran down my spine for a moment, but I shook it off. The blood-dried fingers twitched painfully, drawing my attention to them, but I just closed my eyes and thought, "What a merciful thing to do, kidnap him, beat him, and hang him for the lives of his fans.

What a merciful thing to do, I thought, to save the lives of the men who kidnapped and beat him. If it had been Lee Sa-young, he would have melted them down without a trace. Thinking about it, the ashes of the car in front of him felt like raw fire.

I nodded mechanically and said what I felt without adding or subtracting anything.

"You are so merciful."

"Yes. Well, Mr. Choi Gyodo."

"Yes!"

"Will you please shut up?"

"What?"

As he said this, a cold smile suddenly appeared on his face, and it was not just a blossoming cold, but the surface of a frozen lake somewhere in Siberia. When the top yogi stared at him, unable to follow the leap of logic, he let out a short sigh and began his eye-level instruction.

"I do not have the ability to cleanly erase memories."

"....."

"I have to use physical methods to erase them..."

He clenched his fist with his bloodied hand and gently lifted the corners of his mouth. But Choi Gyodo, who saw the face, became as pensive as when he saw the harrowing scene.