## Chapter 83 – (10)
“Hoo.”
The police headquarters never felt familiar, no matter how many times I visited. I took a slow, deliberate step inside.
Entering the Major Crimes Unit with practiced ease, I found the atmosphere unusually boisterous.
“What’s going on?”
“Excuse me.”
A photo was displayed on one of the screens in the Major Crimes Unit.
It was a picture of Brody at the airport security checkpoint, about to leave for Japan as promised.
In other words, Brody was fulfilling his end of the bargain.
“Do you think he’ll keep his word?”
“Even if he doesn’t, if those guys in Japan see Brody all banged up, they won’t be eager to come to Korea.”
The team leader responded to Detective Lee’s question.
He had a point.
Korea wasn’t special enough to warrant taking such a risk.
If Brody hadn’t mentioned leaving Bella in charge, Bella and Alex might have given up on Korea and left as well.
“Are you both alright?”
I asked the two detectives, who had already been discharged from the hospital and were back at work in the Major Crimes Unit.
They both looked like they should still be patients.
Detective Lee was on crutches with a cast on his leg, and the team leader was wearing some kind of neck brace.
“Well, I didn’t get beat up like the team leader, so I’m fine.”
Detective Lee’s injuries were, in a way, self-inflicted.
From what I heard, he had run away as soon as he saw Brody, and in his haste, he hadn’t seen properly in the dark and had tripped, falling off the seawall.
He had injured his foot and knee when he hit the concrete barrier.
Seeing that, Brody hadn’t bothered to attack him further and had immediately chased after us.
In a way, it was fortunate.
It was probably better than taking a direct hit.
The team leader hadn’t suffered any major injuries other than to his neck.
“Thank goodness I was wearing a stab vest…”
The stab vest I had worn under my clothes as a precaution had done its job.
It was an attack that had even shredded the stab vest.
“If I hadn’t been wearing it—”
The team leader shuddered as if the mere thought sent chills down his spine.
“So, what are you going to do about Bella?”
“…Negotiate.”
“I’ll leave it in your capable hands.”
The team leader looked at me with trust, saying he believed in me.
I nodded.
Having successfully concluded negotiations with Brody once before, he seemed to have complete faith in me.
The team leader even said after some deliberation,
“Still, if you need any help, don’t hesitate to contact me.”
“It’s alright. I already have someone who can help.”
I smiled and declined the team leader’s offer, accepting only his good intentions.
I didn’t want to receive help from someone who wasn’t even fully recovered.
Besides, I had someone else who could help me.
Looking at Bella’s wall, I was reminded that there was a woman in this world with a similar wall.
An A-rank hero who, like Bella, was looking for a master, a stronger man than herself.
“Then.”
“Be careful on your way out.”
As I turned to leave, the team leader and Detective Lee rose from their seats with difficulty and bowed to me.
***
“I’m sorry I’m late!”
“You’re on time.”
I smiled at Choi Gaeun, who was bowing with the rigid discipline of a college freshman.
She was flustered that she hadn’t arrived earlier than me, even though she was on time.
She had barely managed to make time, busy with her work as a hero.
Usually, people became more comfortable with each other over time, but Gaeun was acting even more polite to me now than she had during our first meeting.
She had actually seemed more edgy back then.
I asked Gaeun,
“The first time?”
I asked Gaeun about the first time she had felt attracted to me as a man.
Gaeun looked off into the distance, as if trying to recall something from a long time ago.
Then, as if she had remembered something, she nodded.
Since Gaeun liked strong men, I thought it might have been when she saw me fighting, but Gaeun’s answer mentioned a surprisingly different moment.
“The first time I was aware of it… was when you kissed Minji at the coffee shop…?”
Gaeun said, blushing.
Gaeun said her heart had been moved by the public display of affection, which was almost a nuisance to others.
Gaeun herself couldn’t clearly explain why, but she said that watching from the side, she had indirectly felt the intense emotions between us, and it had made her heart flutter.
Would it work with Bella too?
It was hard to be sure, but it was worth a try.
I nodded, thinking that there might be a possibility.
All that was left was to figure out how to naturally show Bella some affection.
“Hmm… Should I film a video and send it…?”
That seemed to be the only way to show her for sure.
But it would be awkward for me to send a video directly, so it would be best if Bella could come across it naturally.
For example, if Bella turned on the TV in her usual hotel room and a video suddenly appeared.
“Ah.”
I thought of people who seemed like they could handle this kind of thing well.
Or rather, a place where people who could handle this kind of thing would likely be gathered.
“I wonder if that place is still safe…”
Gaeun looked at me strangely as I made a worried expression.
“Where?”
“Hmm… Never mind.”
It was a place that was a little hard to talk about with a hero.
…Although I was a hero too.
Choi Gaeun’s phone rang.
Most of the time, when her phone rang, it was because of hero work.
As if this was the case again, she frowned as she looked at the screen.
“Tsk… I think I have to go now.”
“Okay, see you later.”
I felt bad about just letting Gaeun go, who seemed to regret our parting, so I added a word.
“I’ll call you at night next time.”
It might have been a borderline case of sexual harassment, but she nodded with a bright smile and replied,
“…Promise?”
I saw Choi Gaeun off and headed for a familiar back alley.
To enter the villains’ hideout, their own black market.
“Alright, three transporters!”
“I’ll go.”
“Then I will too.”
“Those Wolf bastards, I’ll kill them for sure.”
I entered the black market and chuckled as I saw the market packed with people, as if it were the day before a holiday.
It was too different from what I had expected.
I had thought that Wolf would have destroyed the domestic villain organizations one after another, leaving them empty, or perhaps they would have been attacked and disappeared.
On the contrary, the black market was more active than ever before.
The thought that these were all villains made me want to cause a cool explosion or something.
I made a slightly bewildered expression and squeezed through the crowd, barely managing to enter the bar.
Even the bar was crowded with people, and some customers were standing and drinking.
The number of bartenders had also increased.
“Oh, you’re here?”
A captivating woman slowly walked out from inside the bar.
Violet.
A woman who was like the owner of the black market, whom I had relied on many times in the past.
“What’s going on here?”
“Well, they’re refugees.”
Refugees, an appropriate analogy.
According to Violet,
Most of them were villains who had lost their organizations to Wolf.
Even if Wolf destroyed or absorbed organizations,
Not all organizations could be neatly cleaned up.
Villains began to appear who had escaped or survived.
As a result, the number of villains who had nowhere to go but the villains’ black market increased.
“It’s hard to say this, but I’m a little grateful to Wolf.”
Violet whispered quietly in my ear.
Violet smiled slyly, saying that the bar’s sales had increased and it had reached its highest sales ever.
And at the same time, she said softly as if she was sorry to me.
“So… I’m sorry, but there are no requests I can give you.”
Violet gave a bitter smile, saying that all the villains were taking any requests that came out, regardless of the difficulty, in order to make a living, so there were no requests left.
Well, it had nothing to do with me.
This time, I was the one giving the request.
“That’s fortunate, I came to make a request this time.”
“Really? Good timing.”
I told Violet about my concerns as they were.
She was an inscrutable woman, but she had always been kind to me, so I trusted her this time and told her everything.
Violet smiled as she listened to my story.
“Haha, that’s interesting.”
With those words, Violet picked up her phone and seemed to be talking to someone.
“Put a camera in the hotel room. Yeah, connect the top floor and the bottom floor.”
With a few words of conversation, Violet finished the call.
She solved the request with just one phone call herself.
“I have to solve these interesting requests myself.”
“…How much is it?”
“It’s okay, I have to help you take care of Wolf. I didn’t think of this method, though.”
Even as she said that, she covered her mouth as if she was amused.
Then Violet’s eyes narrowed into a long line.
“You’re the one who hurt Brody, another executive, right?”
I answered Violet’s question with silence.
There was no reason to answer her.
But as if even that was an answer, Violet nodded and muttered as if she was disappointed.
“If you had filmed that, everyone here would have bought it for a huge price.”
Was that how much hatred for Wolf had accumulated?
Then Violet leaned towards me.
“How about it? If you succeed in seducing Bella as planned, do you want to sell that video together?”
And she made a sweet offer.
