CH 313

As soon as I was locked in a room with a thick iron door, Park Geon-ho asked playfully.

“Didn’t you say you were incredibly strong? You were imprisoned after not being able to resist.”

“These people here are no match to fight against.”

After giving a rough answer, I turned my gaze and seriously asked Cheon Sa-yeon.

“Make Kim Woo-jin the team leader later.”

Even a fun-loving person like Park Geon-ho was doing his best as a team leader, there was nothing that Kim Woo-jin couldn’t do. Cheon Sa-yeon with arms folded nodded his head.

“If you want, it will be difficult right now, but he will look good enough when he has some experience later.”

“How can he hate it when he’s promoted?”

“Kim Woo-jin still doesn’t like to work a lot.”

“That’s the case with everyone.”

When I asked the question without understanding the meaning of what he said, Cheon Sa-yeon let out a small sigh as if he was frustrated.

“I will think about Kim Woo-jin later and organize it first. It seems that Kwon Jeong-han is in the Count’s mansion.”

“Yeah. Ha Tae-heon-ssi, because he is free from being mental controlled, there’s nothing strange about him going somewhere else, but I think Kwon Jeong-han will definitely be in the mansion.”

“Kim Woo-jin is also targeting the witch, so if you persuade him well, he can join us.”

“Persuade…”

I remembered Kim Woo-jin’s sensitive side that I saw earlier. At this rate, let alone persuasion, I would be kicked out of the city.

It was thanks to Min Ah-rin that I was now imprisoned here instead of being kicked out.

“I can’t honestly explain… I have no excuses other than an offer to help retake the mansion.”

“Yeah. You’d better persuade him.”

“Why?”

Even if Cheon Sa-yeon didn’t say it, I was the best, but if I had to point it out like this, there must be another reason. Cheon Sa-yeon, who blinked his eyes slowly, answered.

“From what I’ve seen so far, it seems that the emotions in real life work here as well.”

“Emotions in real life?”

“If you have a crush on someone in real life, even if you are in a state of mental control in this space, you will be affected by the emotions in real life to some extent.”

“Is that possible?”

“Samael didn’t use his ability directly, but it was the effect of the space itself, so there are many possibilities. Above all, everyone has a high rank.”

Cheon Sa-yeon looked at Woo Seo-hyuk, who was quietly standing behind me while explaining.

‘I see.’

It was definitely a reasonable guess. Most of the team members I had met so far had been kind to any role.

“Still, I can’t take it lightly. It seems difficult to overcome mental control with any emotion.”

Cheon Sa-yeon stared at me with unknown eyes.

“So, you have to persuade Kim Woo-jin, Han Yi-gyeol.”

“……”

I immediately realized what Cheon Sa-yeon meant by those words. I couldn’t deny or refute it and only avoided his gaze.

‘Not only Ha Tae-heon, but also Cheon Sa-yeon…’

Even though I had expected it, I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed and uncomfortable when this situation came. Did Kim Woo-jin know that the team members had noticed his feelings?

I didn’t say anything stupid that it was too much to use Kim Woo-jin’s feelings for me. The safety of Ha Tae-heon and Kwon Jeong-han wasn’t known, so we had to do something right away.

“…I get it.”

I sighed and nodded my head.

I didn’t know if I, as a suspicious intruder, would be able to persuade Kim Woo-jin, who had become a nobleman, with only one emotion, but I had to give it a try.

* * *

About two hours later, one of the soldiers who was next to Kim Woo-jin came to the room.

“Only one person comes out.”

As I said before, I went out.

Taking only one person was the most basic method of interrogation like this. If you interrogated the other three in a locked room, you could put a lot of psychological pressure on them.

‘I can’t believe he know all these details…’

Was it Kim Woo-jin’s order? Again, a happy smile came out.

Indeed. Looking back, Kim Woo-jin wasn’t only young, but he was smart, rational, and thoughtful. Besides, he was good at cooking. Now it would be nice to have a girlfriend who was pretty and had a good personality…

‘Wait a minute. This isn’t it.’

As I naturally thought of a girlfriend as usual, I stopped imagining and shook my head.

If Kim Woo-jin really thought of me that way, it would be very rude to think like this now. In the past, I asked him many times if he wanted to have a girlfriend, but… that was when I didn’t know. Now that I knew a little bit, it was probably right to stop thinking like that.

“Shed-nim. I brought him here.”

“Come in.”

Arrived at the room at the end of the hallway on the other side, the soldier gave a light knock and beckoned me to enter. I quickly erased my smile and opened the door cautiously.

In front of Kim Woo-jin, who was sitting with his back to the window, there was a desk with documents scattered around. In the light of the setting sun, the reddish room smelled of old paper.

“Hello.”

Kim Woo-jin raised one eyebrow as I greeted him politely in order to look as kind as possible.

…pretending to be polite or kind to Kim Woo-jin seemed to have only the opposite effect. I lowered the corner of my lips, which I had forcibly raised, and sat down opposite Kim Woo-jin.

“Answer the question honestly. I can’t say for sure what will happen to your co-worker we locked up in the room otherwise.”

Oh my gosh. I covered my mouth with my hand in amazement. Kim Woo-jin threatened me. I seemed to look so proud of what this was.

“Don’t worry. I’m not in a position to spend any more time here either.”

“You’re brave. Great. You said before that your colleagues were being held captive by the witch, did you locate them?”

“I was told that the witch had stolen the count’s mansion. Maybe they’re stuck there. Our colleagues are also the Chosen Ones.”

“The colleagues you are looking for are the Chosen Ones?”

Kim Woo-jin, who asked a question as if it was unexpected, thought for a moment with a serious expression.

“You said you didn’t know the name of your colleagues. You really don’t know or do you mean you don’t want to tell me?”

“You can think of it the way you feel comfortable. Because the name of the colleague doesn’t matter anyway.”

“Why? I know all the faces of the Chosen Ones in this city. You would need my help.”

“Well. Kim… No, doesn’t Shed-nim need talented people to drive out the witch too? It looks like we can help each other.”

“You are very confident in your abilities.”

“You must have noticed it already. The rest of the people locked up in the room, including me, are the Chosen Ones. You will feel the energy.”

Kim Woo-jin frowned at my confident attitude.

“No matter how talented you are, you cannot move with suspicious people.”

“That’s when there’s another way. Are you going to kick your luck so easily in a crisis situation? Also, consider civilians who suffer from the witch.”

“……”

“Besides, didn’t Maria-nim prove our identity once? That’s probably why you didn’t kick us out of town or kill us, but lock us up in the room where the door would fly off if we kicked it.”

The atmosphere completely shifted towards me. Kim Woo-jin, who was pushed back from the momentum, glared at me with a dissatisfied expression.

This part was still weak. The sharp eyes were cute, but it would be difficult to get information from me like this.

“It would be better to accept our offer instead of wasting time on useless measurements. After all, the county has been taken and the witch’s minions are wandering around the city, so there’s no place to back down any further.”

Trying not to smile even by mistake, I reached out to Kim Woo-jin. Kim Woo-jin’s brown eyes looking down at my hand held out in front of him were full of hesitation.

I waited patiently as if I was dealing with a vigilant cat.

Kim Woo-jin blinked his eyes once and slowly raised his hand. It was the moment right before my hand and Kim Woo-jin’s hand were holding each other.

“……!”

Through the window behind Kim Woo-jin, I noticed something flying at high speed. Something that flew through the center of the sky reddened by the setting sun was aimed precisely at the back of Kim Woo-jin’s head.

Instinct moved first before rational judgment. With the hand I reached out to shake hands, I grabbed Kim Woo-jin by the neck and pulled him strongly towards me.

Rumble! Kim Woo-jin’s body was fallen on me along with the desk. I fell over the chair holding Kim Woo-jin in my arms.

“Kuk…!”

As my back hit the floor, a sharp thing passed my face with the bursting sound of the glass shattering.

The identity of the sharp thing was an arrow. Even three of them were stuck on the floor in a row. While holding Kim Woo-jin, I raised my upper body and checked the person who shot the arrow.

‘That outfit is definitely…’

Three unidentified people, covered with black masks and robes, were on the roof of the opposite building.

No, not a person. Those were Abel’s dolls. They were the same dolls I met in Rapunzel’s Tower.

“Cheon Sa-yeon!”

When I saw the three dolls who made eye contact with me turned and jumped under the roof, I shouted out loud. Because Cheon Sa-yeon was SS-rank, he could still hear my voice even from this distance.

As I expected, Cheon Sa-yeon suddenly opened the door and appeared with a loud bang. After that, I saw the soldiers who fell out while blocking Cheon Sa-yeon, and Park Geon-ho and Woo Seo-hyuk, who were chasing them.

Cheon Sa-yeon, who looked at me, Kim Woo-jin, and the condition of the room in turn, grasped the situation at once without any explanation and walked to the window. His long hair fluttered softly as the wind blew in through a tattered window pierced by an arrow.

“I don’t feel anything. They’re gone.”

If Cheon Sa-yeon, who could feel the presence and energy farther distance than others, spoke like that, it seemed that the dolls ran away as soon as they realized that their attack had failed. I said, biting my tongue.

“That’s unfortunate that we couldn’t catch them. I didn’t expect them to surprise me like this.”

“I get a sense of what Abel is aiming for.”

Cheon Sa-yeon turned his gaze to me from the window and asked with his arms crossed.

“So, how long will you two be holding each other?”

“Uh?”

Only after hearing that question did I notice Kim Woo-jin, who was in my arms late. Oh no, I didn’t mean it. (나도모르게 그만, I don’t know the exact meaning)

“I’m sorry. I’m trying to protect…”

“……”

I apologized for fear of him rejecting the offer I made earlier, but Kim Woo-jin’s condition was a bit strange. Kim Woo-jin, who dyed his entire face red, bowed his head with his lips tightly closed.

‘Umm…?’