I’ve Been Kidnapped 17: Chapter 17.
I’ve Been Kidnapped * * * “…U-Ugh.” The man groaned, but the deafening music swallowed the sound.
“Why do people think they’re safe just because they’re surrounded by a crowd?” Hyeon-yul asked, genuinely puzzled.
“I can see anywhere and go anywhere, you know.” He had already obscured the security cameras.
Pretending to place a friendly hand on the man’s shoulder, Hyeon-yul extended his fingers.
A black power enveloped his index finger, sharpening it into something like a blade, which he silently drove into the man’s throat.
“Did you think you could threaten someone else’s livelihood and walk away unharmed?” If they hadn’t interfered with his livelihood, he’d never have dreamed of biting them.
If all they’d done was bark, he would simply have let the noise pass him by.
“You won’t be going alone.
If there’s an afterlife, wait for the others there.
I’ll send them along one by one.” Hyeon-yul stepped back, walked naturally into the crowd, and vanished.
THUD.
The man slumped over his table.
While the music thundered around him, he quietly bled out.
* * * ‘Ms.
Choo Nayun taught me something useful.’ Hyeon-yul climbed the hill toward his house with a light step.
She’d told him that the smartwatch recorded the time whenever he left a building while wearing it.
During today’s theory class, he’d learned something else: it also automatically updated the times he boarded and got off buses.
They said the feature wasn’t an invasion of privacy but a measure designed to protect Black Eagles.
For example, if there was a record of someone boarding a bus but no record of them getting off, the organization would assume something had happened and dispatch personnel to investigate.
The time the man he’d just killed died and the time he’d gotten off the bus differed by only two or three minutes.
‘I wonder what they’ll try this time.
Maybe they’ll keep quiet.’ As he considered the possibilities, he took off his smartwatch and reached the top of the hill.
A long, irritated sigh escaped him.
“…Hah.” There was an uninvited visitor outside his home.
The Poison King had obviously sent her.
And he’d already had an exhausting day.
“What is it this time?
Get straight to the point.” He looked at the woman, and she silently held out a letter.
Hyeon-yul lowered his eyes to it, chuckled briefly, and opened the envelope.
[Because of an inexperienced subordinate, a business card coated with poison was delivered to you.
I would like to apologize for the incident by treating you to a meal.] The words looked polite, but Hyeon-yul didn’t find them sincere in the slightest.
It was only a pretense of courtesy.
“Is he angry because I haven’t contacted him?” Hyeon-yul asked with a smile.
Only one woman stood before him, but several dozen people had already surrounded the area.
Why else would they have brought so many?
The message was obvious: refusing meant death.
“I know nothing about that.
I was merely told to escort you,” the woman replied politely.
“And if I refuse the meal?
Are you supposed to drag me there by force?” “Please, we ask that you accompany us.” “Will the Poison King be there?” “I don’t know.” Hyeon-yul’s eyes moved past the woman toward the distance.
“Do you have any idea how troublesome it is when this many people come into a hillside neighborhood like this?” While the woman was still blinking, he disappeared, reappearing behind the man hiding farthest away.
Just as everyone began searching for him, Hyeon-yul clamped a hand firmly on the man’s shoulder.
“You’re drawing attention to me.” The man flinched and slowly turned toward him.
“Don’t you agree?” Killing intent seeped from Hyeon-yul’s fingertips, making the man tremble.
There was something different about it, something intensely cold and sticky.
“Would you tell them to get lost unless they all want to die?
I don’t particularly enjoy being the center of attention.” Whether they were hiding or not, the knowledge that they were all watching him made Hyeon-yul feel sick.
It reminded him of when he’d been trapped in a transparent container, put on display for others to gawk at.
“If you don’t answer, I might decide what your silence means for myself.” Hyeon-yul waited, then sensed a powerful wave of hostility directed at him.
‘They have no consideration for others at all.’ Did they know he worked for the Black Eagles, or did they truly have no idea?
Either way, one thing mattered: they were the ones who’d shown killing intent first.
“Do you really think you can subdue me with such a small number of people?” An incredulous laugh escaped him.
They ought to know what he’d done.
He’d cut off his superior’s head, slaughtered every person who’d fought back, and effectively erased an entire company.
“Are you really going to try?” Even after his warning, their attitude didn’t change.
He honestly didn’t want a commotion right outside his home, so he asked one more time.
“We’re only following orders.” Hyeon-yul smiled quietly at the answer.
“Very well.” If that was what they wanted, so be it.
Hyeon-yul glanced up at the sky.
Summer had already passed, and darkness was falling earlier now.
Something resembling smoke stirred in the shadow beneath his feet.
Whatever powers they possessed, whatever they tried, it was useless unless they could stop the night itself.
He was an experimental subject whose body had become darkness, or perhaps shadow.
All of this place was, in a sense, part of him.
‘Into the darkness.’ Power stretched out of the shadows like grasping hands and seized their bodies.
At its touch, they felt an indescribable revulsion.
Before they could even struggle free, they were plunged into the shadows.
It was as though they had fallen into a hell where they could do nothing but descend forever.
Every breath forced countless smells into their nostrils until their heads felt ready to split.
Seas, mountains, buildings, someone’s bedroom, the interiors of companies: innumerable places were tangled together there, and the sight burned their eyes as if they were on fire.
They wanted to scream from the pain, but even that was denied them.
CRUNCH.
After a noise like something being chewed and swallowed, they stopped breathing.
Hyeon-yul looked down, and gleaming white teeth emerged from the shadows.
The sight of what looked like a bright, expectant grin, as if asking whether it had done well, filled him with intense disgust.
‘…You’re the ones who made me this way.’ They had turned him into a monster rather than a human being.
Hadn’t they wanted a monster capable of destroying the Empire?
Hyeon-yul covered his face with one hand, then slowly lowered it.
His expression was completely blank.
He pulled a phone out of the shadows.
He’d taken it from one of them before the darkness devoured its owner, and now he called a recently contacted number.
“Is it really so difficult to ask whether I have time before inviting me somewhere?” He was already off work.
He’d been looking forward to getting home and relaxing.
‘If I meet him, I’ll kill him.’ <It seems my people have been rude.> “Whether I eat with you is my decision.
You’re not my superior, so why the hell are you acting like one?” Why didn’t this person realize that dealing with him this way would only make Hyeon-yul more satisfied about refusing?
<I’ll send someone again.
Could you wait a little while?> “Why should I?” <It won’t take long.
Aren’t you curious about me?> Without answering, Hyeon-yul swallowed the phone into his hand.
He watched it vanish silently beneath the darkness before taking out his own phone.
‘What…
should I tell the Team Leader?’ Normally, he’d have had no reason to tell her anything.
To a company run by villains, people were no more than replaceable parts.
He’d thought things might not be all that different here, but Haeryeon had said something to him before.
—Don’t even pretend you’re going with them.
That alone is dangerous.
So what was he supposed to do in a situation like this?
He closed his eyes for a brief moment and recalled another piece of advice.
—Come up with a reason your superior can at least understand.
‘Understand…?’ He thought for a moment, then slowly widened his eyes.
There was only one phrase that fit his present circumstances.
[Team Leader, I’ve been kidnapped.] Wasn’t being taken away suddenly and against one’s will commonly called kidnapping?
He hadn’t even pretended to go willingly.
Since he was about to be dragged off by force, he wasn’t disobeying Haeryeon’s instructions, either.
To make the story more convincing, Hyeon-yul switched his phone off immediately.
‘I should leave it near my house to make things look plausible, right?’ He considered leaving it right outside the door, then carefully set it down in a nearby thicket.
He’d only recently replaced it, and losing it would be inconvenient.
‘Stay right there and behave.’ * * * Perhaps the location was meant to remain secret, because they blindfolded him on the way.
But it did nothing to Hyeon-yul.
He moved his eyes, observing every building around them and tracking exactly where they were headed.
‘We switched cars twice, and after all that, it’s actually a restaurant?’ The place stood some distance outside the city.
It appeared to be a high-end restaurant, and he immediately felt sick at the sight.
When he’d been forced to act as Shin Daeho’s designated driver, that man had often visited similarly large restaurants.
They might even have rented out the entire establishment.
His escorts obscured the surroundings, used stairs to confuse him about which floor he was on, and led him into a completely enclosed space where it would be difficult to determine the location.
As someone began removing his blindfold, Hyeon-yul withdrew his power.
When the cloth came off, he found a woman wearing a mask seated before him.
He understood her intention was to conceal her identity, but he almost laughed aloud.
‘So it isn’t the Poison King.
Just as I expected.’ “Thank you for accepting our invitation.” It was the voice he’d heard over the phone earlier.
“I don’t know whether this counts as accepting.
I came to see the Poison King, not you.
Is he coming?” “You’ll be able to see him next time.” “Is that a guarantee?” “If you agree to join forces with us, yes.” She smiled gently.
He was dumbfounded.
“Do I look like someone you can take lightly?” “Of course not.
But surely you understand that we have to be somewhat cautious ourselves?” “That’s a good attitude.
However…” Hyeon-yul drew a dagger from his grasp and drove it into the table.
CRACK!
The impact shattered the table, and the corners of his mouth rose.
“You should have considered who you were dealing with.” Hyeon-yul looked at the villain seated opposite him.
“Do you think you can leave here alive?” “…” The smile on her face rapidly vanished.
“…Please forgive my rudeness.
I was acting under orders too.
But I’ll do my best to satisfy your demands.” “Every person who’s recruited me until now has been the owner of a company.
Do you understand how disrespectful this is by comparison?” There were ranks among villains, too.
This arrangement was outrageously presumptuous, and Hyeon-yul fixed her with an openly defiant stare.
A dense wave of killing intent filled the room, making her tremble.
“I’m hungry now, so I’ll eat first.
We can think things over slowly while I eat.” “We’ll prepare your meal at once.” “Oh, and if he wants me that badly, would you tell him to come in person next time?
Also tell him that if he keeps playing these pointless games, I’ll kill whoever he sends.” “Understood.
I’ll be sure…
to pass that along.” Hyeon-yul looked at the frightened villain and lightly waved his dagger.
“One moment.” His eyes moved quickly.
There were exactly nine people in the building.
“There are nine of you here, aren’t there?” He needed someone to provide information and someone to convey it to the Poison King.
One person would be more than enough for both tasks.
Hyeon-yul smiled faintly.
He might have finished work for the day, but he was a Black Eagle now.
The thought of simply allowing villains to leave struck him as ridiculous.
“Which one of you would like to deliver the message?” Hyeon-yul asked casually.
What did the Poison King want, anyway?
He was the kind of man who wouldn’t bat an eye if every one of his subordinates died.
Hyeon-yul saw the expression of the villain opposite him stiffen.
“But I still have to explain the conditions…” “Have you forgotten how villains do things?” Force was met with force.
Whatever they wanted, they took without concern for the means.
“I’m putting that philosophy into practice to raise my price.
Why are you interfering?” Hyeon-yul sounded genuinely incredulous.
He was acting like a proper villain, so what was the problem?
“Don’t like it?
Then win.” “…No.
You’re absolutely splendid.” “Let’s begin after I finish eating.” He spoke as brightly as possible.
They’d brought him here by force, so naturally they would have to accept at least this much.
The person he’d killed to secure his job had been Shin Daeho, a major figure in the underworld.
Hyeon-yul turned his gaze.
In the next instant, he disappeared from his seat and stood before one of the men.
“Oh, what a shame.
Now there are eight.” As though predicting the future, Hyeon-yul swept his hand across the man’s neck, and his head fell away.
“One fewer competitor.
You should be happy.” He smiled as blood sprayed around him.
In the room where everyone held their breath, the sound of Hyeon-yul’s footsteps rang out clearly as he began to walk.
‘That crazy bastard.’ None of the villains present could think of him as anything else.