“…”

“The atmosphere has changed.”

“It sure has.”

Siwoo looked around.

He saw the students swept up in the mood.

Just a moment ago, they appeared to be ordinary students who didn’t want to listen to the lecture.

But with a few words from the investigator, the students’ motivation seemed to skyrocket.

Since he was someone Siwoo had briefly met before, he wanted to greet the investigator out of gladness to see him again.

That was until he felt something off about the investigator as he spoke to the students.

It was a different feeling from when they first met…

Was he always like this?

“As expected of someone who worked in the field, I guess he really hates villains.”

Siwoo couldn’t agree with Amelia’s words.

The investigator was definitely aggressive when they first met.

Thinking Arte was the culprit, he pressured her and interrogated him as well.

But something was different.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that a fundamental part of him had changed.

Back then, he seemed like someone who acted out of a sense of justice.

Now… How should he put this?

It felt like emotions that had been suppressed had suddenly swelled up and twisted due to some trigger.

As if he was averting his gaze in a different direction even though everything was already over.

It was an atmosphere befitting the avenger the investigator had spoken of.

It would be easier just to think it was his imagination.

But he couldn’t erase the impression that a fundamental part of the investigator had changed.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, he’s just someone I’ve met before. Amelia, remember when I mentioned meeting an investigator before?”

“You did say that…So what about it? Is it that person?”

“Yeah. But it feels like his atmosphere has changed.”

“His atmosphere?”

Amelia asked with a laugh.

“You can differentiate people’s expressions now?”

“No, that’s not it…”

“Then you must be mistaken. Or maybe you just didn’t have a good first impression? Your impression might not have been good since you were being investigated.”

“Is that so?”

Amelia’s words made sense.

Certainly, Siwoo had mixed feelings towards the investigator back then.

Wondering if he could really stop Arte. If he was being too forceful in his questioning. The wrongness, knowing he did nothing wrong.

It wasn’t a particularly good impression.

Was that why he felt something off about the investigator?

No, it was different from that.

He couldn’t express it in words, but it felt like something had changed.

As if his ability had awakened…

“Oh, it’s the teacher. What brings you here?”

“Nothing much. I just thought I’d greet the students.”

The investigator approached with a friendly smile, interrupting Siwoo’s thoughts.

It seemed like he had been talking with Claire.

Was their conversation already over?

“Hello, Siwoo. Long time no see. Do you remember me?”

“Ah, Investigator. Of course I remember you.”

“I’d appreciate it if you called me teacher, Siwoo. I’m a teacher now, after all.”

“Ah, yes. I apologize.”

As if the atmosphere from earlier had vanished, Ha-yul smiled gently.

It was a soft atmosphere, unlike Claire’s stiff one.

“You don’t have to be so tense. If you’re worrying about what happened last time, I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright… teacher.”

“I’m glad to hear that. It’s part of the job, after all.”

He laughed, saying that due to the nature of his profession, he often had to be forceful during interrogations.

It was a completely different appearance from what he had shown earlier.

Amelia and Dorothy also seemed to feel something off about this.

Well, it was only natural.

After all, he didn’t seem like someone who had just been preaching revenge to the students.

“Teacher, your atmosphere is quite different from earlier?”

“…Ah. I can see why you’d think that. It’s nothing much. You have to separate work and private life, right?”

“Aha.”

Ha-Yul took his leave after chatting with Dorothy and Amelia for a while.

“Well then, I’ll get going now. I want to greet the other students as well briefly.”

“Goodbye!”

‘…Is it my imagination?’

After the attack by Übermensch, how many days was he unconscious after nearly dying?

After that, he went on a trip to recuperate as well.

‘Is that why? My ability seems to have dulled a bit.’

To malfunction like this. It’s never happened before.

***

After Siwoo left, thinking it was his imagination, Ha-Yul muttered quietly, his friendly smile disappearing.

“A person who will bring about incidents.”

An ordinary boy. At least, that was all he saw Siwoo as.

Due to his profession, he had met countless people and seen many lie and hide their true selves.

Having lived that life for over a decade, he thought he had confidence in reading people.

That’s why, even without definitive evidence, he had considered Arte to be Arachne and investigated her. Well, he turned out to be right in the end.

Ha-Yul trusted his intuition and discernment and viewed Siwoo as an ordinary student.

The only thing unusual about him was that he was close to Arte.

… That’s what he had thought.

“He’s certainly different, Arte.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. He’s made remarkable progress in such a short time.”

In just a few months, he seemed to have leaped several levels from a student who stood out only a bit among his peers.

“To think he’d sense something off about me after briefly seeing me. We haven’t talked that much in the first place.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yeah. Even Claire, a long-time friend, took some time to notice the oddity, but he noticed it as soon as he saw me. He said something about me had changed.”

Ha-Yul thought to himself.

He felt he understood why Arte was keeping a close eye on him.

She sometimes muttered to herself about the protagonist this, plot development that.

With that level of growth, it wouldn’t be wrong to call him a protagonist.

‘If I were five years younger, would I have burned with jealousy?’

He was sure that his skill level was only about that of one or two executives in a criminal organization last time.

Of course, that was still excessively strong for a student, but that was it.

There were plenty of ways to deal with one person somehow.

Outstandingly strong for a student but just an exceptional prospect. That’s what Ha-Yul had thought.

But after seeing him just now, he realized.

That wasn’t it.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to catch Siwoo in the future.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

His speed at detecting changes was exceptionally fast.

If he judged it to be dangerous, he would instantly leave.

“The moment I turn to mist, he’ll flee without looking back. If that happens, I won’t be able to catch him.”

Of course, even though his ability allowed him to attack people unilaterally, the mist needed time to spread.

Trying to ambush him wouldn’t work, and there was no way to capture him.

“You said his ability was intuition?… That’s not on the level of intuition.”

“He must have grown.”

Even if he grew, isn’t this too much?

Ha-Yul laughed helplessly.

If he continued to grow as Arte said, no one would be able to interfere with him, let alone catch him.

He seemed like a free spirit.

“If he grows even further from here…”

Ha-Yul became curious.

Just what would he be like ten years from now?

***

In a run-down, dirty alley. Someone wearing a hood was staggering, unable to steady themselves.

“Stop right there.”

“This is our turf. Do you know where you’ve come, punk?”

“…”

“Hey, what are you mumbling about? Get lost. Can’t you hear me? You wanna die?”

Swish, swish.

Even as they threatened, swinging around rusty knives, the hooded figure remained motionless, prompting them to mutter.

“Ah, fuck. Boss, what should we do?”

“What can we do? We’ve given enough warning. Hey, I don’t know who you are, but we’ve sufficiently warned…”

“…Hun.”

“Huh?”

“…Hungry.”

It happened in an instant.

As one villain approached, having heard the mumbling, his arm was ripped off and devoured in a flash.

“Aaa-aaaargh! My, my arm! My arm!”

“Let’s become one. We can do it. Make everyone equal.”

“Cr-Crazy bitch! Kill her quick! Kill her qui…!”

“What the, what is…”

“Shit…! What the hell is that?!”

As the wind blew back the hood, briefly revealing what lay beneath, they were horrified.

A terrible sight of body parts from various animals haphazardly mixed together.

Feeling an instinctive fear towards the inhuman form, they stepped back.

“Hey, you guys want to become one too, right?”

“What kind of crazy nonsense…! Get lost, you monster bitch!”

“Mir said. Let’s make the world equal. Yeah, that’s right. Equality. Good girl, Annie remembers well. Right, Mir? Hehe, praise me.”

The villains realized. They had messed with the wrong person.

They had disturbed a huge bomb, a fact they only grasped after it had already exploded.

“And Mir said… It’s no use refusing. We only shout for equality. If society can’t withstand it, let’s offer condolences.”

“Fuck… We’re screwed…”

“Hey, let’s all become equal.”

After a short while, the alley was empty.