SOG Ch 73

2:10 a.m.

Before Jae-chan was dragged back to the utility room, he was thinking about the time displayed on the clock on the kitchen wall. It was midnight when the wall collapsed, so about two hours had passed since then.

There were two main reasons for voluntarily becoming a hostage.

First, rescuing Han Roy.

Second, obtaining information related to Black Swan.

Blink, Amplifier, and connections of individuals like Jae-chan himself could be inferred through the process of checking their identities. Capturing them would have been a significant achievement, but he had acquired yet another valuable prize.

The Black Swan’s code, the Black Mark.

The only opportunity to decipher that code was now, at this very moment.

If the government organization directly under the President intervened, all that would be left would be shredded paper. If that happened, the code would be lost. Jae-chan was on the verge of going insane because he was so desperate to decipher the Black Mark.

The first thing he had to do was untie his wrists and ankles. He tried pulling his wrists that were tied behind his back. However, they were tightly secured, making it impossible to release them by hand.

He then wiggled his feet to remove his shoes. The oversized shoes he had deliberately worn came off easily. He immediately turned around, leaving his sneakers behind, and retrieved a small hidden knife from beneath the insole.

‘Ah.’

The movement had given his ankles a bit of space. His feet were naturally smaller in proportion to his stature. He felt like he could just slip his heels out with some effort. After enduring the pain of being chafed through his socks for a moment, one of his feet slipped out of the loop of duct tape.

Jae-chan shifted his attention back to his wrists now that his foot was free. He carefully secured the knife he was holding before beginning to cut through the restraints. He regained use of his hands after a short time.

“Hmph! Uhm-!”

However, this commotion drew the attention of a still-bound Han Roy, who began making noise.

Seon Jae-chan was aware of the child’s presence. It was because Han Roy’s eyes shone intensely in the darkness. That said, Seon Jae-chan never thought the kid would cause an uproar as soon as he was freed from his captivity.

‘Be quiet. I have to go out to save you.’

Seon Jae-chan whispered very softly. “Hmph! Uhm-!” However, Han Roy couldn’t stop himself and kept making muffled noises. In his moment of annoyance, the door latch finally turned. Suddenly, the door opened.

“What’s going on?”

The guard peeked inside.

He looked alternately at Han Roy, who was flapping around like a live fish, and at the new hostage, who was leaning against the wall as if he had been trapped. The hostage frowned.

“I just asked a question. I asked about how long he’s been here, and the kid threw a fit.”

Meanwhile, the child continued to whine with wide eyes. The guard gave Jae-chan an understanding look before saying, “If it gets too loud, you can hit the kid.” And then he left. Seon Jae-chan let out a deep sigh. Han Roy’s outburst helped to end the crisis. Although Han Roy was also the cause of the crisis.

Jae-chan untied his wrists, which he had been hiding by pretending they were tied behind him. He had also removed the blue tape that had been attached only to the front part of his ankles quickly just before the door opened. The tape that had bound his wrists had been neatly cut off with a knife. He wrapped it in the duct tape he’d stretched to free his ankle and hid it behind the boiler pipe.

Until then, Han Roy had his eyes fixed on this side. The man’s words about allowing physical punishment seemed to have an unexpected restraining effect on the kid. However, Jae-chan sensed that he was also prepared to scream if Jae-chan made any sudden moves.

“Uhmm-!”

Han Roy was about to go on a rampage again.

Jae-chan began using his Guide ability.

In fact, he was the one in need of guiding in this situation, and he had planned to use his abilities even more later. But he had no choice but to make a different decision because the child refused to let him go.

Han Roy was an esper.

While he wasn’t aware of it himself, his psychic abilities were in a slightly unstable state. Perhaps it was because he had just recently manifested as an Esper, which made him more sensitive to wavelengths.

‘E-class… No, it’s F-class.’

The fact that Han Roy had very weak wavelengths, indicating that he was an E or even F-class Esper, meant that Won Seong-il or his Guide had most likely failed to recognize that the kid was an Esper.

If it weren’t for his past experiences, Seon Jae-chan wouldn’t have easily noticed it either. Even Han Roy’s parents didn’t know that he was an Esper. The person who had first recognized Han Roy as an Esper was Nam Hae-sol.

Guiding Han Roy was originally Hae-sol’s job.

In the past, it took exactly two weeks for the military to find Han Roy after he was kidnapped.

The Guide teams participating in special missions during this time were limited to teams 1 and 5. The idea was that all teams, with the exception of Team 1, would take turns participating, and this quarter it was Team 5’s turn.

It was said that Nam Hae-sol, a member of Team 5, noticed Han Roy’s very faintly disrupted wavelengths with her sharp guiding senses and immediately provided on-site guiding.

Han Roy would have likely suffered permanent side effects from the disrupted wavelengths if it hadn’t been for Nam Hae-sol’s actions. Nam Hae-sol was appointed as an official Guide immediately in recognition of her excellent situational judgment, guiding ability, and contribution to saving the President’s nephew’s life.

Now… it was all in the past.

Nam Hae-sol was no longer part of Team 5.

‘Still, I never planned to guide him.’

The hostage situation that had lasted three days was shortened to only half a day, so Han Roy was not in a dangerous condition. When the rescue team came later, Jae-chan planned to inform them right away that Han Roy was an Esper and to request that the kid be guided.

Furthermore, he didn’t have the capacity to guide another Esper. Until the rescue team arrived, he considered using his concealment abilities to sneak out and retrieve the cipher for the message.

Around five minutes had passed.

The moon was hidden behind the clouds, and it was quiet outside. Han Roy, whose eyes were wide open for the first time as he received guiding for the first time (he probably didn’t even realize he was being guided), was already asleep. Even his once fierce expression now looked peaceful.

It was fortunate. If he hadn’t fallen asleep, Jae-chan would have had to explain things like ‘You’re an Esper, and I’m a guide, and I’m here to rescue you,’ and so on.

Jae-chan ran his hand through his hair and got up from his seat.

Despite the fact that he felt his wavelength stability had decreased, he ignored it and activated his abilities. A loud buzzing sound immediately filled his ears. Objects around him magnified, as if viewed through a microscope, and danced erratically.

Like someone adapting to motion sickness, he stood still for a moment and then approached the door cautiously. Carefully choosing the ground with better traction, he wore the sneakers he had chosen and moved stealthily toward the door. The shoes muffled his footsteps effectively.

After investing a lot of time, he managed to open the door without making a sound.

‘… Ah, shit.’

Just when he thought he had overcome one hurdle, a new one arose. Jae-chan’s trembling lips turned a little pale. The guard who was supposed to be on duty right now was watching movies on an OTT platform, enjoying a delicious-looking bowl of ramen. The spicy aroma wafted through the air.

‘…’

He partially closed the door and waited. He couldn’t afford to get stuck here, so he started thinking about other alternatives.

Surprisingly, the opportunity came quickly. The guard, who had finished eating instant noodles, turned towards the sink. He turned on the tap. Jae-chan opened the door in response to the sound of water.

It took about 3 seconds to close the door again. The guard didn’t notice anything. He was just busy washing his hands by rubbing his index finger and thumb.

He left the kitchen silently.

The floor in the hallway was very creaky, so Seon Jae-chan had to walk down the hallway like a snail. The fact that there were no people here provided some comfort.

The first place he headed to was the back door at the end of the hallway.

A mountain breeze blew in as he gently coaxed the lock open. He double-checked the path leading to Owol Mountain’s entrance before closing the door. The lock was purposefully left open. He hoped such an event wouldn’t occur, but just in case it was discovered that he had disappeared, it was a contingency plan to make it look like he had escaped outside.

When he arrived at the living room, it was already close to 3 a.m.

It seemed like everyone else had gone upstairs to sleep. Jae-chan sneaked into the innermost study room beyond the living room.

He searched through drawers, shelves, under the desk, bookshelves, and every possible place, but finding the code was not easy. Time was ticking away relentlessly. About 15 minutes had passed, and Jae-chan’s forehead was covered in cold sweat. He wondered if he should leave the study room and look elsewhere for the code.

A voice came from outside the door.

“The hostage is gone.”

The criminals noticed Seon Jae-chan’s absence.

*

“It looks like he ran away. The back door is open.”

Won Seong-il spoke to the panicked leader in an uncharacteristically calm voice.

The leader, who had frozen at the sudden incident, immediately turned his gaze to Won Seong-il.

This guy was the first to report that the hostage disappeared a short time ago. The accumulation of bitterness and ill feelings had led to suspicions combined with the current situation.

Won Seong-il immediately noticed the leader’s displeased gaze.