I looked at the scene as Kim Horak missed Kim Hajin and barrelled into the wall.
Shameless, as the rich usually are.
Despite my inner thoughts, I continued rolling the coin in my hand.
"You… son of a bitch."
Kim Horak stood up. For someone who attacked first, he sure was angry.
I looked at Suho who looked surprised but also as though his anger would boil over soon.
"I think I need to teach you a lesson." Kim Hajin pointed his gun at Kim Horak, but was separated by a wave of magic. Kim Suho had a metallic gray sheen emanating from him.
"If you're that suspicious, just ask Nayun! Yoo Yeonha!"
He shouted at Yoo Yeonha. Kim Suho's furious look even made Yoo Yeonha shrink.
It's good to see someone kicked off their high horse like that.
"...Wait one minute."
Yoo Yeonha clicked her tongue and turned on her smartwatch.
She called Chae Nayun and asked if what Kim Hajin said was true. Chase Nayun carefully explained what happened the day before, and it was exactly as Kim Hajin said. In fact, Chase Nayu went so far as to make a definitive claim.
"There's no way Kim Hajin is a Djinn", is what she said.
Kim Hajin stomped out of the room so Kim Suho and Yi Yeonghan went after him, disbanding the meeting.
I looked at the three remaining in the room.
"What are you looking at?" Shin Jonghak looked at me with an apathetic expression.
"Nothing, I just think you should be a little less close minded. You never know, it might actually be Yun Hyun."
Shin Jonghak scoffed so I opened my watch and messaged someone.
I'll submit a report to Noona and cover a couple things up so I'm not suspected if they make a move because of a report.
Their theories would be better if they actually knew how Djinns worked. I pointed them in the right direction but it seems they're still just kids.
Though… I am the same age as them…
"That was your Gift, right?"
I heard Yoo Yeonha talk to Kim Horak. His gift was a simple one, it instantly amplified his body's explosive and destructive power.
"..."
Kim Horak dodged Yoo Yeonha's gaze. He wasn't feeling sorry about wrongfully accusing Kim Hajin, only embarrassed.
If I were to mock him right now… it would probably be a bad idea. Considering there's three of them and one of me.
I got up and walked out of the room past the crack in the wall.
"If the others come back tell them I'm going to look at the other cases."
"Why?" Shin Jonghak asked disdainfully.
Because unlike you, I have places to be.
"Just going to check if there are any patterns… apart from the fact they're all women."
Jonghak rolled his eyes.
…
At 9:15 PM, I walked out of Cube.
Looking at the silent park I flicked my coin high into the sky and watched it glint with moonlight before falling back into my palm, to which I flicked it to my other palm and then did the same.
After a while of walking I came across someone.
Kim Hajin, looking at the sky silently.
He looked lonely.
He turned his head to me and without a word, I understood.
I let the night air seep silence into my bones. Loneliness despite being surrounded by people was a feeling many know.
It gets tiring to an extent. Which I why I asked.
"Are you tired?" I spoke calmly.
The soft rustle of clothes was heard as Hajin looked at me from the corner of his eyes.
"..." Hajin remained silent for a moment before opening his mouth.
"No."
I felt myself smile.
He lies through his teeth, but he isn't a very good liar.
"Good."
I stepped away from him with a new perspective on the character, Kim Hajin.
…
On Saturday, Minori arrived in Norway in order to hunt a troll with a mysterious person.
Although the Portal operator gave me a strange look when I said I wanted to go to Norway, she quickly smiled when I said it was to hunt trolls.
Apparently there's a Troll epidemic in Norway, it is the origin of Trolls after all.
Unlike Korea the Portal Gate in Norway was far from the city, as though the portal was constructed long after the city had filled with people.
In other words, I, with my empty luggage, short sword and combat outfit, had to take a bus to the city with a bunch of businessmen.
"Oh? Did the Troll killahs come alrady? They've ben quite roady as of lete. It's gud that you're here." A balding man with lots of wrinkles spoke in a broken but friendly korean.
"Ah, yes. I'm just in the advanced squad, the others won't come for a while." I spoke back with a nod, not feeling the slightest bit of guilt for lying to his face.
When I disembarked the bus I immediately felt the fresh spring air hit me. It was cool and felt clean, as if devoid of mana, or at least not oversaturated with it.
The trees and buildings were still covered in a thin layer of snow despite it being mid to late may by now.
I tapped my watch and took out a map that showed me a path to the hotel I had booked for the weekend.
The streets were clean and there were almost no beggars. My boots made soft crunching noises as I strode down the road.
I acutely noticed that most people were walking in between the houses and not on the main road.
Their expressions were tired and solemn as if this was the usual. I soon found out why.
"Troll Warning. Troll Warning. Please return to your homes. I repeat-" An announcer yelled from the roof of a building, he was wearing something between a mage's robe and a three piece suit. He yelled in both Korean and English.
When he spotted me, he jumped down from the roof and scrutinized me.
"Hey, young man, it's dangerous to be here. Didn't you hear me about the Troll warning?" He spoke in proper Korean.
He then paused to take in my outfit.
I was wearing a fully black outfit that had many pockets, attached to my waste was my training short sword Cube gave me. I was wearing a face mask to keep my face a secret.
"Hello. My name is Uso. I'd like to know where these Trolls you speak of are." I took a proper look at the man as his jaw dropped.
He had blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a white three piece suit with red and gold accents, over top was a white robe.
He then smiled, grabbing me by the wrist and jumping back onto the roof. My body felt weightless as the two of us soared. I held tightly onto my suitcase but felt it lose its weight as well.
Gravity Magic!
I felt genuine surprise but didn't let it show.
"It's great to meet you! I'm Monument, you can call me Vatz. You couldn't have come at a better time!"
"What do you mean?" I asked as we moved through the air gracefully.
"Well. The walls have just been branched and the capable heroes have yet to arrive. Which means only the mages from the mages tower are here to hold them off!"
I felt myself descend as the Mage brought us to where a plume of dust had risen into the sky.
"I'm only paid to hunt for a single pair of Troll eyes though." I objected with a small frown.
"I can get you a weapon to match with the Omen blade if you'd like? Sword and dagger is quite a popular combo these days."
"How much are they worth?"
"Uhh, probably 60,000,000 won each?"
Mages really are rich.
"If I can keep the travel funds it's a deal."
"Hahaha! Of course! I'm Vatz Morgan after all!"
He spoke proudly as we landed on a rooftop overlooking a crater which used to be a house.
Inside was a Troll sniffing the air, it was around 8 feet tall with a big beer belly. Its skin was gray and stony, a mix of concrete and flesh.
A dozen others were patrolling the streets, acting similar.
"... Isn't this excessive?" I spoke with a deadpan as I dropped my bag and took out my training sword.
"Welcome to Norway, Uso." He let out a good hearted chuckle and began lifting rubble slowly.
They formed comets as invisible mana buzzed through the air.
The trolls all turned their eyes in the directions of the comets.
"Go get their eyes, Uso. Make sure they aren't damaged and I'll handle the rest." Vatz smiled as the comet slammed into the trolls, pinning them to the ground.
Without wasting any time I jumped down.
I made my way to the closest Troll and plunged my blade into the edge of its eye socket.
With a sickening squelch the blade pierced between its skull and the squishy lens.
It tried to blink but I grabbed its bottom eyelid and kept gouging.
It was tough and I felt it squirm and shake, only wedging my short sword further into its eye socket.
I grit my teeth and felt my heart pump faster, my pupils dilating, my body growing stronger. My blood burns the poison in my system as it converts rapidly to energy.
With a wet pop, blood splattered onto my face, an eyeball the size of my fist, covered in gorey red floated into the air while I was still reeling.
The socket pulsed violently as it closed and reopened the wound over and over again.
"Good job, now get the other one! The more the better!"
A voice snapped me out of my stupor as I straightened up and went for the other eye.
Let's be quick, I need to make sure I dont over burn right before midterms.
…
I kept gouging one eye after the other, every Troll had been pinned in rubble and allowed me to extract their eyes.
Despite a Trolls' notorious regeneration ability, their eye sockets only pulse disturbingly, unable to close their wounds and eventually forming a thick gray mucus that pumped from their eyes.
"You're a real prodigy young man. Thank you so much. We even got a number of eyes before the professional heroes showed up." Vatz, the man who pinned the Trolls down, held a total of 16 eyes. They floated around him like a gruesome halo.
"No, it was only because you pinned them down that I could do this. I never expected this much help when I first accepted your request." I nodded to him.
He smiled and laughed boisterously.
"You're a good man Uso! I'll definitely ask for your help again." He patted my back.
The moment he did, the blood forcibly exploded down my body, cleaning my outfit of gore.
"Now, let's head to my place. I'll go get you the Omen Blade and the dagger."
He grabbed my wrist again and we began flying, leaving the trolls for the Heroes to deal with.
"Hey Vatz? Why aren't the heroes killing the Trolls?" I looked back to find heroes binding the trolls onto a large trolley of sorts.
"Oh, that's because once we remove their eyes, they can't heal them back. Soo by releasing them back into the wild we're hoping that the following generations of Trolls will be blind." Vatz answered patiently.
"Why don't you just kill them all if Norway has such an epidemic?"
"We've tried that already but the government won't let us. The reason is because Troll blood is the best ingredient for healing potions."
"The people on the Bus mistook me as a Troll Exterminator though."
"Haha! Is that what happened? Well, that's because the public are told that every single year. It's to glorify heroes while making sure the Troll population still has a healthy amount to keep Oslo as the Troll blood capital of the world."
I went silent when I heard the reason.
… I wonder how many have been sacrificed for this…
"Don't feel too bad, as long as the Morgan family wins the election this year, we'll make sure that the culling is ended and we switch to an alternative to endanger less lives."
I widened my eyes.
"Vatz Morgan…"
"Oops… I said too much."
"...please hire me in the future more often." When I spoke those words Vatz let out a hearty laugh and we continued flying towards the edge of the city, where a mansion resides.