"Hello?"
Japan's number one ranked Awakener answers the phone. The caller is a subordinate of Imabari, who had been sent out to investigate in place of the top-tier Awakener assigned to guard the event venue. With help from the police, Ito's assistant reviewed the footage from the CCTV installed at the scene.
"Oh, the cara footage?"
And based on various recordings, the truth began to surface. Additional revelations ca to light.
"I expected it, but..."
The fact that there were absolutely no witnesses to the incident—that too, the subordinate began to explain, was thanks to that foreign Hunter nad Kim Giryeo.
"It's a confirmation kill."
However, upon hearing this, Ito simply nodded as if it were obvious. Initially, he had suspected why Kim Giryeo was at the scene. But based on the testimonies of those present at the exhibition hall, he had already grasped a general overview of the incident.
"I'll have to check it myself anyway. Record the security cara footage with your phone and send it over to as well."
"Yes. I understand."
But as expected, seeing reality with your own eyes feels quite different from just imagining it.
At last, the surveillance footage from Building A was received. It clearly captured the entire sequence of events leading to Kim Giryeo's arrival at the scene.
First, here's how things unfolded before the cut out. The Korean man in the suit strolled leisurely through the exhibition hall, one hand casually tucked into his pocket. From ti to ti, he would stop to intently examine an artifact on display or a poster hanging inside the venue. If one were to describe his deanor overall—it was that of a spectator. His calm, unhurried attitude gave the impression of soone from the upper class quietly appreciating an art gallery.
"Kim Giryeo really didn't care in the slightest whether there were other rankers in Tokyo or not, huh."
There are no less than three S-rank Hunters in this city who had once attacked him. And yet, he's leisurely admiring an exhibition in a place like that. Can sothing like that really be so easy to do?
Ito continues to focus intently on the footage he received for a while longer. Thanks to his unique trait that completely concealed his mana, it seed the surrounding visitors had no idea for quite so ti that the blond man was a Hunter...
"Hmm."
The atmosphere changed in an instant. The blond Korean who had been observing the exhibition stepped out into the hallway—and suddenly set off a nearby fire alarm.
"Wait a minute."
If not for the fire alarm at that mont, the visitors in Building A might have been helplessly attacked by the red-eyed guards that appeared on the skybridge.
However—there was sothing unsettling about it, sothing that kept it from being seen as purely a good deed by that Korean man.
"It really rang like this right away?"
According to the record comparison, Kim Giryeo took action just three seconds after the escape commotion began in Building D.
The rampage of the security company, driven mad under the influence of an artifact—along with the ensuing ergency, as they fled and dashed across the second floor of Building D.
And yet, the fact that Kim Giryeo, who was in the neighboring building, suddenly triggered the alarm in an exhibition hall where nothing seed out of the ordinary...
"Was it the sound? Or did he sense the flow of mana leaking from Building D?"
Either way, it was unbelievable.
"What is it?"
Buildings A and D were connected by a skybridge, but in terms of actual distance, they were over 50 ters apart.
"What, how could the perception be so..."
"What's wrong, Ito."
Before long, the Awakeners on the rooftop stared in disbelief as they reviewed the subordinate's report. From the perspective of these Japanese onlookers, the incident appeared as though Kim Giryeo had sohow detected a crisis unfolding from an incredibly distant location—and, within less than a minute, had already begun evacuating civilians. After all, when the Korean triggered the alarm, the CCTV footage showed no signs of fire whatsoever.
"If there's no fire, and he went out into the hallway to press the button, there's only one reason why!"
In so ways, it was a misunderstanding that could easily be cleared up with just a single word from the person involved.
"So that's why the fleeing visitors kept asking if there had been a fire...?"
However— sohow, things started to take a strange turn. The truth was, there was a fundantal and critical difference in perspective between them and the visitor.
"Hey, take a look at this. One of my subordinates just recorded the CCTV footage with their phone and sent it over. What do you think?"
"Hmm."
"Don't you think, no matter how you look at it, our theory was right all along?"
"You're right. Even I can see there's no sign of a fire anywhere, yet he randomly used the fire alarm system."
"As expected... the reason Kim Giryeo triggered the fire alarm was..."
"I read sowhere on the internet that Hunters in Korea place a lot of importance not just on combat, but also on learning how to evacuate civilians. And it's true, huh. How could he think of using that thod for civilian evacuation the mont he realized Awakeners were coming?"
Imabari found it extrely difficult to request investigative cooperation from Kim Giryeo due to the incident back in Kagosho. From their standpoint, even a mont's reflection would make it painfully clear why.
"Ugh. As if it wasn't hard enough to even lift my head after the dragon raid...!"
Anyway, just how troubleso is this whole situation? That blond Awakener had once willingly helped Japan when it was in crisis, and even when Imabari's side repaid that kindness with hostility, he let it go without making an issue of it—a man of truly great character.
"I'll let it slide just this once. Japan still needs people to manage its Gates, after all."
For such a gracious stance, the reason he gave sohow felt chillingly dry and emotionless.
Anyway, no matter how you put it, it was true that Imabari owed a debt of gratitude to that Hunter. So even after handing over a hundred billion, they still faced the constant risk of conflict—all because of a single issue: possessing the [Legendary].
"Ha..."
And with such a background, they couldn't even stop the guards' rampage, exposing the venue's complete lack of security—and on top of that, they only managed to protect the citizens of Tokyo by relying on Kim Giryeo, who just happened to be passing by?
"The worst."
How could anyone even think of wasting more of the Korean S-rank's ti with all this ss? For Imabari, forcing Kim Giryeo to stay and give testimony felt like an enormous burden. So they deliberately chose not to ask the blond man for investigative cooperation. Instead, they just persuaded him to enjoy the rest of the event and sent him on his way. After all, if the culprit was truly at fault, wouldn't the CCTV footage and criminal investigation reveal the circumstances?
"Representative Ito. Co to think of it, Iori sent a couple of texts saying 'die' on my phone earlier."
"He's probably blaming for the delayed response because I got held up by a politician. I've tried so hard to improve my relationship with Iori, and this might ruin all of that."
"I just got another ssage saying 'idiot'..."
Incidentally, the event poster that one alien had targeted for arson was damaged along with the collapse of Building A's roof.
Torn apart. Ripped off. And on top of that, so fragnts were struck by a stray electric shock and actually caught fire—causing the evidence to unexpectedly disappear.
Since the security caras naturally focused on the exhibits, the poster's location—essentially a blind spot—soon led Mortake Ito to fall into a misunderstanding.
"When trouble broke out in Building D, he was quicker than anyone else to notice them approaching via the skybridge—and imdiately took action."
The incident where Kim Giryeo abruptly sounded the fire alarm was entirely packaged as a thorough act of goodwill.
"Thanks to that hunter's foresight, the spectators were protected."
"So, how are you planning to cover this up? Have you talked to the governnt yet?"
"It's probably going to be explained as a malfunction of the explosive artifact that was being transported..."
Simple mismanagent. And the sudden rampage of the Japanese security guards would carry a completely different weight once publicly announced. Ito, who was in charge of wrapping up the incident after consulting with governnt officials, thought to himself. In the end, it was all thanks to that hunter that they could maintain their dignity despite such trivial distortions.
"If it weren't for his quick evacuation, there would have been a lot of witnesses."
To put it another way, if even a single overseas visitor had been hard, they would have faced international condemnation—and on top of that, chance of covering it up through lobbying. But as Ito was lost in thought, he suddenly felt a chill run down his arm.
"How on earth could soone make such a judgnt in just three seconds?"
Just a few seconds.
Co to think of it, Kim Giryeo's actions in this incident were too strange to be explained by speed alone.
"..."
If he try to vaguely guess the thought process of that Korean hunter at the ti, from an ordinary person's perspective, Ito speculated that Kim Giryeo imdiately recognized the chaos in Building D, and when he sensed their mana approaching Building A, he used the alarm to quickly evacuate the visitors.
But the problem was—even if he found himself in a similar situation, he had no confidence that he could respond the way Kim Giryeo did.
"It's enough to make you sigh."
What Kim Giryeo did was nothing short of predicting everyone's movents in his mind, fully anticipating what would happen next—and having complete confidence in his own abilities to act accordingly. It was truly overwhelming. There wasn't a hint of hesitation in his deanor as seen through the surveillance caras.
"Honestly, most ordinary citizens, even when there's an actual fire, usually hesitate to press the fire alarm..."
As expected, the world is unfair.
Mortake Ito had often privately doubted the S-rank Hunter from across the sea—wondering every ti he saw Jung Haseong if he was really the sa kind of person, questioning how soone could achieve such strange feats without resorting to so trickery. But as of today, all those doubts lted away like ice under the sun.
"I really don't know whether I should laugh or cry."
Even soone as chanical as Jung Haseong probably wouldn't be able to demonstrate this chillingly precise efficiency.
"This whole incident just made realize that Hunter's abilities even more vividly."
Korea's first S-rank Hunter at least shared the sa attribute as him, which gave to a sense of familiarity. But now, faced with soone who could make the optimal decision in an instant,
he found himself at a loss—even to form a proper impression.
The blond man gave off a chilling aura, and despite his young age, his inner nature felt strangely alien—like a dark dragon coiled tightly within him.
"When the ceiling collapsed, the security cara's neck also broke, so we couldn't see the battle scene—but it could be that the unconscious guards were restrained by [Binding] like last ti?"
He's truly a scary person. For various reasons like these, Mortake couldn't bring himself to speak to the Korean guest and instead, simply continued to deduce the other's actions on his own.
"Hmm..."
Of course, the truth of the incident was slightly different from what he had imagined.
"Ha... Anyway."
Even for a great mage, it's hard to be aware of problems in other buildings that they weren't paying attention to. But the Japanese, unaware of this, simply changed the subject of conversation.
"Looks like we owe another debt to Ranker Kim Giryeo."
Mortake Ito grabbed at his black hair so tightly it almost got ruined. The whole series of events had caused him imnse stress. He even wished, at tis, that he could go back in ti just to punch himself. Seriously, with dungeons already existing in this world, why on earth is there still no ti machine?
"Damn it! If only my past self hadn't pulled those crazy stunts, my relationship with that Hunter would be so much better right now..."
"Exactly. It's not like we could even use the thing—so what were we being so greedy about?"
It was right around the ti they were sighing and muttering bitter lines to themselves. The Guild Master of Imabari received yet another call on his phone.
"Uhm?"
As soon as Mortake checked the screen of his phone, he suddenly said he needed to head inside.
"What is it? Is it such an important call?"
He said it would be hard to take this call properly in the middle of such a noisy construction site.
When his colleague looked at him in confusion, Mortake didn't answer—he simply held up his phone screen in silence.
[Magic Power Technology Bureau ♂]
On the rooftop of Building A, where Awakened construction workers were gathered to carry out repairs, after waiting a few minutes, Mortake Ito—who had stepped away—was seen returning with a noticeably brighter expression on his face.
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