Bosingak Square, where misunderstandings and misconceptions were tangled together.
In a situation where no one could move carelessly, the first to break the silence was neither the Collector nor Sihyeon.
“Age really does make the body what it used to be no longer…”
“Same here, Director.”
It was Jihun and Dojin, who had been struck by the girl and sent flying dozens of meters away.
“Cough…! I think my ribs are broken… How about you?”
“My left leg and right arm won’t listen to me.”
“Ha ha, and here I thought I was fairly strong. I never imagined I’d be beaten so absurdly.”
Even though they were Awakened, with physical durability far superior to ordinary people,
there was not a single part of their bodies left unharmed.
Step.
Even so, they did not stop advancing toward the square.
Even as broken ribs stabbed into their lungs with every breath, the two men’s gazes were fixed on only one place.
“Is that black gentleman the Phantom everyone’s been whispering about?”
“That seems likely.”
The pitch-black man who had suddenly appeared in Bosingak Square and was holding the girl.
‘What in the world is that being?’
Why had a destruction-class urban legend approached him first and embraced him?
Why was he unshaken amid all of this?
And above all else, what they wanted to know was—
“Phantom, what exactly are you?”
Whether or not he was human.
“Why are you saving us?”
【……】
Phantom gave no answer to Dojin’s question.
His deep, unfathomable eyes merely held the darkness in silence.
So much so that it almost felt as though he was deliberately refusing to answer.
“It seems the black gentleman has no intention of chatting with us.”
“…It doesn’t seem like he’s someone we can coax with words.”
There was one thing the two men had realized while facing urban legends.
The stronger the being, the less readily it opened its mouth.
‘Phantom… It feels like I’m facing a massive wall…’
However,
no matter how powerful the opponent seemed, Jihun and Dojin could not retreat.
The lives of the citizens gathered in Bosingak Square rested on their shoulders.
Step.
“Phantom, why are you holding that girl—”
The moment Dojin took one step forward and spoke,
“Don’t come closer.”
“…?”
The Collector, who had been held in Phantom’s arms, turned her head slightly and warned them in a firm tone.
“…Don’t come closer…”
Immediately after the girl’s small warning fell,
Rumble, rumble, rumble—
A black-red aura erupted explosively, and an invisible force began to swirl through the space.
“Don’t come… He’s mine…”
The girl was merely speaking in a low voice, her golden eyes glowing.
Rumble—
So what in the world was this absurd pressure?
“Director… I can’t move… even one step…”
“…It’s shameful to admit, but neither can I. I can’t even lift a finger.”
As though crushed beneath immense gravity, the two men could not move from where they stood.
It bound them.
Pressed them down.
And in the end, even broke their will to resist.
The “absolute influence” emitted by a destruction-class being.
A power that crushed the will to survive and forced one to simply kneel.
That power was swallowing not only Bosingak, but all of Seoul.
‘A-at this rate… not just the Awakened, but ordinary citizens too…!’
They had to stop it.
If that girl released any more of her power, an enormous mass casualty incident might occur!
Thinking that, they tried to move forward.
Tremble, tremble.
“Ghh, urgh…!”
But just as an ant could never overcome the strength of a giant human,
the two men could not possibly pierce through the aura containing the killing intent of a destruction-class being.
‘Don’t tell me it ends this pointlessly…!’
Was there truly nothing left they could do?
Just as despair was about to take hold,
Tap.
“……!!”
Phantom, who had shown no reaction until now, quietly placed his hand on the Collector’s head.
【Collector.】
Phantom’s noble, low voice spread gently across the square.
“……?”
【Stop.】
Just one word.
With a gentle gesture, he had spoken only one word.
“……Okay.”
The girl nodded slightly and withdrew all of her aura.
As though nothing had happened at all.
* * *
‘Ah, I seriously feel like I’m going to throw up.’
I’m not joking. I really feel like I’m going to puke.
Squeeze—!
The Collector had both arms wrapped around my waist, her face buried against my chest.
From the outside, she was clearly just a tiny, adorable girl.
‘What the hell kind of grip strength is this?’
She was holding my waist so tightly that I was having trouble breathing.
She clung so hard that I couldn’t answer a single question from the Guild Master.
Not that I really wanted to answer, honestly.
—Phantom, what exactly are you?
If you ask what my identity is, then answering you is only natural!
…Would’ve been the normal reaction, sure.
‘What, do you think I’m Team Rocket? I’m just an ordinary human!’
Of coooourse, I do turn weird at night!
But I’m still a normal person! A person! Human!
That was what I wanted to tell them.
However,
‘Judging by the look in their eyes… explaining won’t do any good.’
The expressions of the people looking at me.
They were the expressions of people looking at something frightening—or perhaps something awe-inspiring.
Honestly, I understood.
Even to me, objectively speaking, my “night form” was kind of cool, should I say…?
It was a little like that.
A black gentleman with an aura like a black vortex wrapped around his entire body.
Judging by appearances alone, it felt like I should be saying lines like, “Heh heh… I can see the lines…” or “This eye… sees darkness clearly.”
While I was thinking that, our dear Collector(?) apparently found something else displeasing.
“Don’t come closer…”
Rumble, rumble, rumble—!!
She was threatening people while emitting an utterly terrifying aura.
‘My head already hurts, so why are you acting up too?’
Wasn’t there a saying that when a person was pushed into an extreme situation, they actually became calmer?
From the moment I was embraced by the Collector, I had been desperately thinking of a way to escape this situation.
‘Now that I’ve already been caught by the Collector, I can’t run away carelessly anyway.’
A silver-haired girl like a princess.
Just as her name, “Collector,” suggested, once she took a liking to something, she never let it go.
An urban legend who would obtain what she wanted even by crossing space itself, no matter where it was or how far away it might be.
‘Right. Since it’s come to this… the best thing I can do is settle the situation as much as possible first, then leave.’
—『Sihyeon, please save her.』
It pissed me off a little that I seemed to be granting the request of that damn notification window.
But watching people die right in front of me didn’t sit well with me either.
And most of all,
Clutch—
for some reason, the silver-haired girl holding onto the hem of my clothes as though it were precious weighed on my mind.
‘So please, you calm down too—’
The moment I thought that, my body moved on its own, and I placed my hand on the Collector’s head.
Tap.
‘What the fuck?’
When I became my night form, words or actions would sometimes slip out on their own.
But I never thought it would happen now…!!
I just put my hand on a destruction-class being without permission.
Am I going to die now?!?!
But unlike me, who was scared stiff,
“……?”
the Collector only tilted her head slightly and stared up at me.
She showed no sign of slicing off my neck or unleashing some ultimate move.
‘I-I survived this…?’
For now, I knew she didn’t dislike my touch.
So let’s take just one more step!
Hoping as carefully as possible that the girl would calm down, I opened my mouth.
【Collector.】
“……?”
【Stop.】
Honestly, I wondered if this would work.
No matter how interested she was in me, would the Collector really listen to the words of someone who was nothing more than an ordinary human?
“……Okay.”
…Huh?
She listens better than I expected?
Sssss—
The Collector quickly calmed down and withdrew her aura.
I had no idea what was going on, but it seemed she would listen to me to some extent.
‘Then if I ask her to please let go of me…?!’
Clutch.
‘…Mm, maybe that’s too much to ask?’
As expected, she seemed to have no intention whatsoever of separating from me.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
‘Haa…’
For now, it was good that I had managed to calm the Collector down.
But perhaps because the Collector had obediently listened to me instead,
“Phantom… what on earth are you…?”
“Huh, can that being calm urban legends?”
the way the people around me looked at me seemed even more exaggerated than before.
‘Screw it. I don’t know anymore either!’
To be blunt, in this state, I couldn’t explain anything anyway.
And above all, too many things had happened all at once, so I wanted to rest a little now.
‘So please, just take me back home, notification windooooow!!!’
Ding!
『Activating “Shadow Movement.”』
Swaaaaash—!
‘Oh? This actually works?’
As if it had read my mind, a black whirlwind like the one that had first sent me to Bosingak began wrapping around my body.
“Uh, uhh…?”
“Phantom is trying to leave…!”
“W-wait a moment, Phantom…! Who exactly are you?”
The eyes of the people who sensed I was leaving widened.
Some finally thought they had survived and burst into tears.
The Guild Master and the Response Headquarters Director were shouting, begging me to tell them something—anything.
‘Mm… Still, it would be better to clear up the misunderstanding before I go, right?’
As if answering my question, a message quickly appeared in midair.
Ding!
『System Proposal: Would you like to automatically output a line to reassure the people?』
『YES / NO』
‘Is it some kind of function that answers for me automatically?’
It should be fine to leave this much to the system or whatever.
Tap!
As though signing a personal information consent form that had already been leaked countless times,
I instinctively pressed “YES.”
* * *
“Have the guild members quickly control the area around Bosingak and send the citizens home.”
“Yes, sir! Understood!”
As the master of a large guild, Dojin was efficiently handling the aftermath.
Considering that an unprecedented urban legend called “destruction-class” had swept through, it was fortunate that the number of casualties was still low.
“Haa, I suppose I should be grateful it ended at this much.”
A sigh mixed with anxiety and relief.
The incident had been settled, but flowers of doubt were still blooming in Dojin’s heart.
—【I am not your enemy.】
“An urban legend, yet not our enemy… is that it?”
The words left behind by the pitch-black man shrouded entirely in mystery before he departed.
For some reason, the sentence “not your enemy” kept circling in his mind.
‘There’s no answer to be found no matter how much I worry about it now.’
Click.
Dojin set aside his complicated thoughts and lit a cigarette while looking at the spot where Phantom had disappeared.
“Phew…”
Dojin exhaled smoke toward the sky along with his unease.
Beside him, the vice master of Light of Dawn slipped in quietly.
“Master. I believe I’ve told you several times that cigarettes are bad for your health.”
“Ahaha, let me off just for today. I’m feeling rather unsettled.”
“Haa…”
Shaking her head from side to side, the vice master took a place beside Dojin.
Having assisted Dojin for a long time, she immediately understood why he was acting this way.
“…Is it because of what Phantom said?”
“Mm…”
At the vice master’s question, Dojin blankly stared at the burning tip of his cigarette.
“Aren’t you bothered by it too?”
“I am, but… among urban legends, there are many that deceive and trick people with lies, so I think it would be best not to believe him if possible.”
“Mm… I suppose that would be best.”
Urban legends were humanity’s enemies.
Beings that treated all mankind like toys, killing and devouring them.
‘Yes… They’re certainly such beings…’
—【I am not your enemy.】
So why did Phantom’s words keep circling in his heart?
“…I still don’t know.”
In the end, Dojin could not find an answer to that question.