Ch. 33 - Why me? (2)

"Team Leader, you seem to be in a good mood these days?""Oh, is it that obvious?"

Park Oh-Jin noticed my cheerful demeanor as soon as I walked into the office, phone in hand and a smile on my face.

Indeed, I've been feeling unusually upbeat lately.

"It's because we're just relaxing and not expecting any new work to land on our laps for a while."

"You sound pretty confident. Do you know something we don't?"

"Yeah, I do."

But I'm not about to spill the beans on my foreknowledge of future events. Revealing that would only create chaos.

Anyway, I'm going to enjoy a bit of an easy salary for a whil—

"Hey, is Hye-Rim around?"

...Or so I thought until the section chief barged into our office.

What's he doing here? He's not usually one to seek me out.

"Section chief, what's up?"

"Why else? I've come to ask you to do something."

"...What do you need me to do?"

"Nothing much. I need you to accompany the heroes in capturing a monster hiding in the Awakened Academy."

""What do you mean, 'nothing much,' dammit!"

No, why should I be the one to do this? Isn't this the heroes' responsibility?

Why does someone from the Awakened Crime Division have to do it?

"What's going on? No, why am I being roped into this in the first place?"

"Well, the President of the Hero Association specifically requested your help, so what else can I do?"

As the section chief explained, it dawned on me why I was being singled out. I had once claimed to have the ability to detect monsters.

Given that this monster can shapeshift at will, finding it won't be easy. Even in the original manga, the protagonists struggled to identify the monster masquerading as a student.

And what's worse is that it's not just assuming one identity—it keeps changing, infiltrating the academy, regaining its power in the academy, and posing a threat to the vulnerable students.

It would be convenient if someone had the ability to detect monsters in situations like this.

The problem is, I don't possess any such ability.

"The safety of the students is at stake here, Hye-Rim. I need you to capture that monster."

"No, that..."

"I've already talked with the President of the Awakeners Association. It shouldn't be too much trouble for you to handle a monster, right?"

"W-well, technically, yes, but..."

I, I don't know who the monster is disguised as?

Damn it. There's no backing out now. I've painted myself into a corner.

"Go to the Hero Association right now. I'm sure the President is already waiting for you."

"......"

With that, the section chief left the office, leaving me standing there, feeling utterly helpless. Park Oh-Jin couldn't resist a smirk as he remarked from the sidelines.

"Team Leader."

"...What?"

"Didn't you just say we wouldn't have any work in the future?"

"Damn it. Shut up."

I didn't see this coming.

"Team Leader 5, you're here!"

As soon as I stepped into the Hero Association, they whisked me straight to the president's office. It was the president himself who summoned me, with a clear intent to resolve matters swiftly and discreetly.

"Hello, I've been briefed. So, a monster in human form has infiltrated the academy?"

"Yes, that's right, so I called Team Leader 5, who has the magic to find the monster."

"...But are you absolutely certain there's a monster within the academy?"

While it's a fact that a monster is currently lurking in the academy, the Hero Association can't definitively confirm this just yet.

"Yesterday afternoon, a student was attacked by a monster at the Awakened Academy. The student claimed that the assailant transformed into his own form and fled into the academy."

Since the initial sighting, no further reports of the alleged monster have surfaced. Currently, speculation suggests that the monster may be hiding within the confines of the academy.

"Even if it's not inside the academy, I believe it's only a matter of time before it's located, especially given Team 5's track record of uncovering the Monster Association's monster lure devices across Seoul."

"......"

Why the hell did I say that? I should have come up with a better excuse.

"The Hero Association will do everything in our power to assist you in locating the monster, Team Leader 5. If you require anything, please don't hesitate to ask my secretary."

His secretary, standing nearby, nodded in affirmation. I could sense his impatience, as this incident was evidently taxing his patience.

But truth be told, I was feeling just as overwhelmed.

"...I understand."

I replied, trying to appear composed while internally scrambling for a solution.

How am I going to get out of this? How am I going to bullsh*t my way out of this so that I can dump this work on the main characters?

"I'll head to the academy first and see if there really is a monster; hopefully my magic can catch it once and for all."

"Thank goodness you're here, Team Leader 5. Hahaha!"

I forced an awkward smile at the president's relieved expression as he grasped my hand, feeling the weight of the situation pressing down on me.

Hahaha. What am I going to do with this?

"It's been quite some time since I last set foot in a school."

Standing at the entrance of the Awakened Academy, I was momentarily lost in nostalgia at the sight of a school I hadn't seen in a while.

I also graduated from high school in this world. Though I didn't go to this Awakened Academy, I still have vivid memories of high school.

While my classmates were hanging out with their friends after class or participating in clubs, I was looking at the balance in my bank account, wondering how many monsters I needed to kill today.

I turned away all the classmates who attempted to befriend me and declined every invitation to go out with them, instead dedicating myself to the relentless pursuit of monster carcasses. Simultaneously, I immersed myself in my studies, consistently maintaining top grades.

While this lifestyle provided me with a stable income, it came at the cost of personal connections. By the time graduation arrived, I found myself utterly alone, without any meaningful relationships to speak of.

Haha, now that I think of it, it's not a good memory.

"Are you Team Leader 5, by any chance?"

As I swallowed back a bitter laugh while looking at the view of the academy, a middle-aged man approached me. It was the chairman of the board of the Awakened Academy.

According to what I heard from the Hero Association President, he had already spoken to him.

"Yes, hello, you must be the chairman, right?"

"That's right, I heard you're here to capture the monster that's hiding inside this academy."

"Yes, that's right, but there's a problem."

"A problem?"

The chairman's expression tensed at my words.

All the way here, I've been thinking as hard as I could. It's not like I can go out and find the monster right now and catch it. If so, I'd have to come up with some sort of excuse that it was beyond my power.

But I still need to convince them that the monster is inside the Academy. That way, the heroes don't have to waste time looking in the wrong place, which is not the Academy.

I have a solution. If I do it like that, it'll be perfect.

"Umm... No, let's look around the Academy first, because we need to find the monster first."

"Yes. I understand"

I stepped into the academy, the chairman following behind me with an uneasy look on his face.

It was class time, so students and teachers were all in their classrooms, making it easy to move around without bumping into anyone.

"By the way, Mr. Chairman, I was wondering about something."

"Yes, what is it?"

I asked the chairman because I was curious about something other than the monster itself.

"Why allow classes to proceed as usual, knowing a monster is at large? Isn't there a risk of further attacks?"

The monster had already claimed one victim yesterday. I was curious about the chairman's reasoning for allowing the students to come to school.

His response caught me off guard.

"It's because I was told that Team Leader 5 would be coming."

"What? Me?"

"Yes. If there's a monster hiding in the academy right now, the best course of action is to catch it before it escapes elsewhere. If we take a hard line against it right away, it's certain that it will notice something strange and run away."

In other words, they're trying to keep the monster here to prevent it from wreaking havoc elsewhere.

"So, it was the Hero Association's and my plan to have you, Team Leader 5, handle it while it's within our jurisdiction."

"...Is that so."

It dawned on me why such a bold move had been made.

The idea of losing the monster had never crossed his mind in the first place. He believed that everything would be solved the moment I arrived.

Haha! But what am I to do? I don't have any abilities like a monster radar.

I'm going crazy. I never anticipated that one lie would snowball into such a predicament. The director's decision to keep the monster inside the academy doesn't affect the flow of the story, but their unbounded trust in me does.

"I have faith in you. As the leader of Team 5, the one who thwarted the Monster Association's terrorism and single-handedly killed a thousand monsters in one attack, locating a lone monster shouldn't pose a challenge." sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ Nʘvᴇl(F)ire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

"Ha, haha... I'll do my best to find it."

......Why does it seem like it's getting harder and harder to lie?