Chapter 70

“I heard this from my team leader too, but Apophis apparently refused the search.”

“They refused the search?”

I asked back in surprise.

Apophis.

A mercenary company formed by retirees from the Special Management Bureau.

“Weren’t those people supposed to lead Team Leader Cha’s rescue operation?”

As I said, this rescue operation had been planned with Apophis as the main force.

The reason, of course, was the Bureau’s chronic manpower shortage.

During this Intensive Suppression Week, almost all of the Bureau’s Field Division agents had carried out missions in Special Zones.

Even Group 6, the reserve personnel for emergencies, had been deployed to quarantine 「Ant Hill」, so for now, there was no way to move them.

But they also could not gather Group 1, who had barely come out alive from the 「Island」, and push them back in there.

In the end, Field Division command staff requested help from Apophis.

So after various coordination, Apophis and Bureau agents were supposed to cooperate and conduct the rescue operation.

It was yesterday evening that I had felt relieved after hearing that, so why had the situation changed again……?

“The rescue team entered the 「Island」 early this morning, but apparently all the communications equipment was dead.”

“The equipment?”

“Yes. So it seems the people from Apophis pulled out, saying they couldn’t conduct such a dangerous operation…….”

Huh…….

“They say only our people are standing by at the entrance now.”

“Then what happens now?”

“I don’t know either. To start the search, they have to resolve the communications failure first, but they say they haven’t even identified the cause yet…….”

In the end, it meant no one knew when the search would resume.

Then what would happen to Cha Si-eon?

Were they simply going to give up?

At the shock pressing heavily on the crown of my head, I shook my head internally.

No, it is too early to conclude that.

If it is Team Leader Cha Si-eon, won’t he somehow accomplish self-escape, as he so often mentioned?

Right, he is the person who threw down only a rulebook and shouted, “Citizens, please work hard on your self-escape.”

It is about time he showed leading by example and consistency between words and actions at least once.

So…….

No, it was all nonsense.

The place Cha Si-eon was in right now was no other place than 「Island Where Blood Falls」.

It was a space where the Bureau’s elites had entered at platoon scale, and half of them had become casualties.

Now the reorganization phase would have ended too, so it must have activated again.

On top of that, the more serious problem was supplies.

Would Cha Si-eon have enough water and food?

As far as I knew, he had nothing beyond his personal canteen.

He might have some snacks secretly packed in his pockets.

Even if so, 3 days’ worth of food would be nowhere near enough.

How long could he endure without eating or drinking?

“If Kwak Jae-gyeom finds out, he’ll make another scene.”

“That is certainly true…….”

“So please watch him from beside him. If he causes trouble again here, it might really become a big problem.”

Yu-ju appealed to me with an anxious face.

“The disciplinary committee is one thing, but the Response Team 4 people are really furious too…… My team leader said if Kwak Jae-gyeom goes any further here, it’ll be really dangerous.”

This was probably not Yu-ju’s opinion, but her team leader’s.

I agreed with part of it too.

The Bureau right now did not have the magnanimity or leeway to treat Kwak Jae-gyeom’s violent act as youthful recklessness.

Kwak Jae-gyeom’s team leader had gone missing, but Response Team 4 had watched their team members die before their eyes.

It was never a situation where either side could carelessly lose their temper.

But punches had already been thrown, and thanks to that, the atmosphere between the teams was uglier than ever.

Meanwhile, even the team leader who would have handled the situation or protected Jae-gyeom was absent.

So if the matter grew any bigger, it would truly become difficult.

It was definitely true, but I felt Yu-ju’s worry was too excessive, so I spoke as if soothing her.

“Jae-gyeom probably won’t go that far either. He’s clever enough in his own way…….”

In truth, even the fact that this clever guy had swung his fist at someone else was quite unexpected to me.

But if I considered that it had happened right after he came out of the 「Island」, I could understand it to some extent.

Tension and excitement must have piled up all the way to the crown of his head.

But by now, his head should have cooled enough.

I said it because I thought Kwak Jae-gyeom was not that reckless or emotional.

“No, Agent……. That kid will absolutely not stay still.”

But Yu-ju shook her head fiercely and refuted my words.

“Long ago, the person who rescued Kwak Jae-gyeom and brought him to Page was Team Leader Cha Si-eon.”

“…….”

At Yu-ju’s explanation, I was rather shocked.

And belatedly, I recalled it.

That Kwak Jae-gyeom too had been a minor victim rescued after losing his family in a Special Zone, and that he was from Page.

But the person who had rescued Jae-gyeom was none other than Cha Si-eon?

I had only just learned that.

And after hearing this, Yu-ju’s concern abruptly struck home.

Kwak Jae-gyeom was a guy with a lot of lingering affection.

So when Ha Yu-ju, his Page cohort, had been hurt, he had been irritable as if he himself had been injured.

Then what about Cha Si-eon?

If, to Kwak Jae-gyeom, Cha Si-eon was not merely a high-handed workplace superior, but the lifesaver who had rescued him when he was young?

If that kind of person had ended up in danger while rescuing him again?

And if even that person’s rescue operation had been suspended…….

“……There is no way he would stay still.”

Damn.

I finally understood Ha Yu-ju’s worry.

“All right. I will watch Jae-gyeom from beside him.”

Perhaps her throat had tightened at my words, because Yu-ju only nodded several times.

Then she added in a slightly hoarse voice.

“You be careful too, Agent.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Of course, they probably won’t go as far as doing that to you, Agent…… but still, just in case, be careful not to bump into people.”

Yu-ju said this while looking around the empty waiting room as if checking the atmosphere.

“Everyone’s nerves have gotten sharp. At times like this, a big fight can happen for no reason.”

A big fight in the Bureau. I had never even thought about such a thing.

But looking at the thin-ice atmosphere of the Field Division, I could understand Yu-ju’s request.

Group 1 had failed all its missions.

The fragment of 「Big Cat」 secured during the 12th engagement was also lost during the 13th engagement.

Their original mission, resetting the Special Zone, had also been suspended in a half-hearted way, and 「Island Where Blood Falls」 had successfully completed its awakening.

The only result was that they had repelled the mercenary entities 「Gardener」 and 「Echo」.

But this had not been Group 1’s main mission to begin with, and compared to our side’s losses, it was far too meager a result.

This devastating failure had even occurred amid the expectation that they might be able to end the war against Special Zones.

The drop between hope and despair was shockingly deep.

At this bone-painful failure, the Bureau’s mood had sunk to its lowest, boiling soundlessly like a bomb that might explode at any moment.

“Yes, I’ll be careful. It does seem like the atmosphere will be vicious for a while.”

When I added this with a troubled feeling, Yu-ju looked at me silently.

Then she spoke in an even lower voice.

“It isn’t for a while.”

“Pardon?”

“It isn’t for a while. This is the Bureau’s original atmosphere, Agent.”

This time, my gaze stopped on Ha Yu-ju.

Ha Yu-ju looked back at me for a moment, then murmured with a gloomy face.

“Rather, the mood has been overly good since you arrived, Agent. For a while.”

---

I left the break room carrying the snacks Yu-ju had given me.

Then I crossed the empty corridor at a quick pace.

Surely no one would do something that rash, but if someone told Jae-gyeom about the search suspension, I would have to be beside him to stop him.

I walked hurriedly with that concern, then wondered what I was doing and let out a sigh.

I hated this unsettled air.

I hated the air of death that kept clinging no matter how I shook it off.

I hated my own position too, awkwardly hovering in the middle of all this, neither an insider nor an outsider.

So I walked down the empty corridor at my usual pace and thought with no sense of reality.

Would Cha Si-eon really be alive?

Baek Sa-ra had said he would obviously be alive.

Without playfulness or exaggeration, she had boasted that he would be stubbornly attempting self-escape.

But, well.

Even if he was still alive in this situation, how much longer could he endure?

Was it not time to fold away futile expectations and slowly face reality?

It felt strange that I could think of this so calmly.

So I asked myself.

What would I feel if Cha Si-eon died?

I am sorry, but it probably would not quite feel real to me.

I did not know him well enough to grieve his death.

We had spent 3 months seeing each other face-to-face, but that was all.

Even if something truly went wrong with him, I did not think I would feel especially pained.

Rather, I would probably be more concerned about the changes to my own circumstances, things like, “Who will be assigned to me from now on?”

Unfortunately, and also fortunately, the person named Cha Si-eon was not very important to me.

Thanks to that, I had gained the privilege of overlooking this situation without fear or desperation, but damn it.

Thinking that someone I knew might die was still unpleasant.

Even if he died, I would rather it not be in this way.

For the sake of the people around him, even if not for Cha Si-eon himself.

So I hoped he would return alive if possible…….

At that moment, the corridor that had been brightly white suddenly darkened.

“……!”

But I did not even have time to be flustered by the sudden change in illumination.

My eyes met a man sitting on the floor.

……It was Team Leader Cha Si-eon.

“Uh……?”

As I discovered Cha Si-eon and became flustered, Cha Si-eon pushed off the floor and lunged at me.

At the pressure that felt like a tiger pouncing, I retreated and hurriedly shouted,

“Team Leader Cha……!”

But damn it.

Before I could even finish one syllable, Cha Si-eon grabbed me by the collar.

Then my body floated up, and the world turned upside down.

THUUD—!

At the end of an exhilarating zero gravity, impact surged into my lower back.

At the same time, realizing that I had been thrown down mercilessly, I shouted soundlessly.

Hey, you bastard……!