Thud—!“Agh! It hurts, stop! Agh!”After slamming the man’s head against the ground several times, Uichan finally let go. The villain’s face was a mess of tears and nosebleed as he begged for mercy. Uichan shook out his hand, crouched in front of him, and asked calmly,“I just want to ask you something. I avoided your ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) mouth when I hit you, so you can still talk, right?”The villain nodded frantically, sniffling.“There’s this rumor going around lately. What was it again…? Ah, right. Some villain group backstabbed ‘Aengak.’ That was Lambit, wasn’t it? Judging by that mark on your chest, you’re with Lambit. You know anything?”When Uichan flicked the emblem on his chest, the man flinched and clutched it protectively.“I—I’m just a small fry… I don’t know anything about what the higher-ups do.”The gloved hand rose again over his head, and the villain threw himself forward, bowing until his forehead touched the ground.“Then what about Aengak? Have you ever seen him?”“Aengak… I-I’ve heard the name, but of course I’ve never seen him…”The man’s voice shrank to a whisper, as if any louder might earn him another beating. Uichan studied his face closely. He didn’t seem to be lying.“Why does no one ever know anything? I’m not a nice guy. If you don’t know, you die.”When Uichan picked up a nearby rock, the villain’s eyes trembled like a leaf in a storm.“W-what do you want me to say? Let’s talk, okay? Just talk! W-wait, I just remembered—! I heard that ‘Aengak’ was looking for something! S-something in the Hero Association building!”“I already know that much.”“H-he let loose the goblins, Aengak did!”Uichan’s hand froze midair. The man wailed, screaming his lungs out.“Aengak sent his underlings to find that thing! But I really don’t know what it is! All I know is that some hero took it from him! Please, sir, please let me live. My head’s going to burst.”The “goblins” were Aengak’s servants—two meters tall, with blue horns jutting from their heads. They usually wore white hemp robes, their skin blackened like charcoal, while their hair and eyes shone pale as snow. Anyone who saw them never forgot them.Though cloaked in secrecy, those who had witnessed them called them demonic spirits—blue-horned goblins from folklore, ancient evils hunted by the Hero Association, born of calamity and death.The squirming villain didn’t seem to be lying. For what little he had given, Uichan decided he would dump him somewhere near the patrolling heroes and let them pick him up. But suddenly, the man screamed and rolled on the ground as if his body had caught fire. Uichan instinctively stepped back.“Agh! Aaagh!”The man thrashed in agony, his eyes rolling back as a plume of icy breath escaped his mouth—a cold, unclean blue vapor.[Rebellion… shall be punished by calamity.]A rasping voice clawed at the air, the sound seeming to come from deep within the man’s throat. His neck snapped and twisted violently, his body jerking like a starving ghoul. It was such a grotesque, hideous sight that anyone watching would have fainted on the spot.After a few spasms, he vomited blood and went limp. Uichan rushed over and checked his pulse—he was still alive, but barely. The man’s mind, however, was surely gone.It was one of Aengak’s cruel tricks—he laid horrific curses on those who betrayed him. So the rumor about Lambit’s betrayal wasn’t false after all.“…Guess it ended like this again.”Uichan sighed as he stared down at the motionless man, then stood up and brushed the dust off his knees. The villain looked pitiful, but Uichan decided he’d merely received divine punishment for stealing from others.His stomach rumbled. It wasn’t a total loss tonight, but it was about time to leave before La Épée noticed anything.He took off the bracelet, ruffled his hair, and put on his thick-rimmed glasses. In an instant, he looked like an ordinary passerby—just another civilian walking down the street.Pulling down his hood, Uichan stepped out of the alley and glanced around. If he could just cross the overpass and head home pretending to be a civilian, he could call the day uneventful enough.Alright, let’s go.He had barely taken a step when the sparrow that had been trembling with its eyes covered let out a sharp cry. It flapped frantically, gesturing for him to get back.A villain burst out of a nearby alley, screaming, and right after him came a man who seized the villain by the hair.Uichan froze on instinct. The gloved hand that gripped the villain’s head looked brutally strong—large enough to crush an adult man’s skull. And the man did exactly that.Crunch—He crushed it without hesitation. Uichan quickly tucked the sparrow into his chest. The man who had just killed the villain turned his head slowly toward him. A chilling pair of gray eyes swept over Uichan, sending shivers down his spine. But then, the man’s gaze softened faintly.There was a hazy mist over those gray irises, dulling their focus. Uichan had heard that excessive use of powers could cause temporary sight loss or cognitive fatigue—this must have been one of those moments.Thud—The villain’s body collapsed at his feet. The man flicked the blood off his glove and turned toward Uichan. Uichan stood frozen, unable to move or react.The man’s hair was dark as a midnight forest, his gray eyes faintly luminous beneath it. His features were sharp, his face strikingly handsome—masculine, almost sculpted.La Épée.The strongest man in Korea, they said. Yet for all his fame, his reputation wasn’t good. Most of his critics insulted his origins.He was also a survivor of the Seolhyang Village tragedy.As Uichan hesitated, the man stepped closer and spoke.“Hero?”When that solid, broad frame stopped in front of him, Uichan had to tilt his head back just to meet his gaze. His tone was mild, almost amused, but it carried an eerie undertone that made Uichan’s skin crawl. Afraid of ending up like the villain on the ground, he quickly answered.“No.”“Civilian, then?”“Yes.”The man’s eyes swept over him slowly. Still, they didn’t seem to focus—he could sense that La Épée could only perceive faint outlines, not details. Their gazes never quite met.“The area’s under lockdown. And a civilian just walks in?”Even irritated, La Épée had the unsettling grace of someone who could smile while being annoyed. His words dripped faint sarcasm. Uichan, tense that he might slip up, answered quickly,“I’m sorry. I didn’t come in—I just couldn’t find the evacuation route. I was about to leave when the villain appeared.”Behind Uichan was a wall of old red bricks—no space to retreat. He had to wait for the man to move aside to slip out toward the bridge.“If you’re a civilian… you should be leaving.”With that muttered line, La Épée stepped aside. Uichan seized the chance, turned his shoulder, bowed politely, and began to pass.But he couldn’t move. His shoulder was caught. A black-gloved hand had gripped it firmly.“Your shoulder—why…?”People often speculated that La Épée’s gloves were military inventions designed to amplify his abilities.To wield elemental powers, he had to touch a corresponding medium. Most believed his gloves contained engraved elemental runes—water, fire, ice—letting him draw on those elements at will.But the truth was entirely different.He had burned the runes into his own flesh—into both palms, the backs of his hands, and even the roof of his mouth.And Uichan knew that because, as Under Doom, he had once burned La Épée’s gloves himself.Beneath them had been pale hands scarred with those same runes.“Have we met before?”“No, I don’t think so. Not at all.”“Then why…”The hand on his shoulder pulled him forward. Off balance, Uichan stumbled, and suddenly the man’s gray eyes were right in front of his own. For some reason, they felt achingly familiar. Without knowing why, Uichan shivered.At that distance, even with weakened sight, La Épée could easily see his face. Suddenly, the man reached out, his words brushing Uichan’s ear like a whisper.“Your voice sounds like someone I know.”Uichan flinched as his wrist was caught. The man’s grip slithered like a snake, tight and unyielding.“What are you—ugh…”“For a civilian, you’ve got a Hero Code on you. Code number, 0-1893-56.”La Épée examined the mark on his wrist casually. The Hero Code—tattooed when one registered officially—was as good as an ID among heroes.

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