TS 047

The saccharine voice had a way of luring people in more than the mermaid’s song. Yoon Taehwa glanced down at his captured wrist. His wrist had been caught like this before.

“It’d be troublesome if you tied my hands here.”

“Then do you do this for your other team members too?”

“Do what.”

“Cover their eyes…”

It seemed he had no intention of keeping them obediently closed. The feeling of his long eyelashes fluttering and tickling his palm was vivid. Then, his beautifully shaped, half-moon nails slowly scraped at the tendon of his wrist.

“What are you going to do for me next?”

The singing grew louder. Han Suryeon slowly lowered the hand that had been covering his eyes.

“..…”

Yoon Taehwa silently stared into the gray eyes that were looking at him. On the palm that had been tickled by his eyelashes just a moment ago, he felt a soft piece of flesh. It was the lip his canine had bitten last night.

“I don’t do this for my team members.”

Yoon Taehwa, in that state, pressed Han Suryeon’s cheek firmly. The pale cheek was squashed by the grip.

“They don’t fall for it easily, even if a monster tries to mesmerize them.”

Contrary to his expectation that he would pout his lips and act pitiful as usual, the long corners of his eyes curved shallowly. The shape of his slowly parting lips could be felt perfectly through his touching palm. A pointed tongue licked the curve between his fingers.

It was more ticklish than when his eyelashes had touched, so Yoon Taehwa squinted one eye.

“I don’t think even a son of a bitch would lick like this.”

“I’ve even kissed you, Team Leader, so I can’t just lick you like a son of a bitch.”

When he removed his hand, Han Suryeon, who had smiled sulkily, clung to him as if he were shy.

“I shouldn’t have drunk.”

Yoon Taehwa muttered, letting out an ambiguous breath that was neither a sigh nor a laugh. It must have been the intoxication. The kind of intoxication that could be passed off as a mistake just once.

“Is your drunken habit kissing?”

“What kind of bullshit is this now?”

“I guess not. I almost thought our Team Leader was promiscuous, you know?”

Yoon Taehwa let the nonsense wash over him and checked the railing. In the short time they had been talking, the number of mermaids leaning their arms on the railing had increased considerably.

The low singing was so beautiful it could melt one’s ears.

‘This could be dangerous if handled wrong.’

Citizens mesmerized by the mermaids’ song could approach the bridge and get into an accident. The Center was in control, so a major incident was unlikely, but it was a 2-kilometer-long bridge. There was a high possibility that there were still people who hadn’t been able to get out.

‘This is why it’s troublesome when monsters escape from a Gate.’

Yoon Taehwa, ignoring the mermaids who were smiling bewitchingly as if to tempt him, was lost in thought.

The last time a monster had escaped from a Gate on Korean soil was 18 years ago. That’s how extremely rare it was for a dissipating dungeon to spit out a monster instead of exploding.

“It’s been 18 years, so I thought it would happen one of these days…”

Currently, the most likely hypothesis was that they had failed to discover a dungeon that had formed under the Han River, leading to this disaster. However, there were too many suspicious aspects to be certain.

“Looking at the type of monster, it seems to be A-class. There’s no way we wouldn’t have noticed an A-class dungeon.”

“I’m thinking it’s strange too. The Han River isn’t even that deep, so how could we not have detected it?”

The occurrence of a high-grade dungeon was inevitably accompanied by natural changes. Gusts of wind, downpours, and tidal waves were representative examples. It was strange that an A-class dungeon had appeared, and yet the Center had not detected it until now.

“Well, I guess we’ll know if we wait until the one with the core comes out.”

A clamorous atmosphere arose from all over. His sensitive hearing picked up the confusion from a distant place.

Yoon Taehwa swept his hair back, looking at the mermaids clinging to the railing.

“It seems they’re trying to mesmerize people.”

Once an attack began, the surroundings would turn into a scene of chaos. Unless the monsters attacked first, he was hesitant to make a move rashly.

“The suggestion seems stronger than I thought…”

Han Suryeon muttered, subtly sidling up to Yoon Taehwa. The reason he was sure the mermaids were A-class was not because of their rarity. It was because of the power of the suggestion that drew people in.

Like other large guilds, the members of Kasatka underwent regular training to avoid being toyed with by mental abilities. Han Suryeon was no exception. In fact, due to his special position as a descendant of the guild master, he was a peculiar case who had been trained since he was very young.

‘And yet I’m a little dizzy right now.’

It seemed to be a mermaid with siren attributes added to it. When he rolled his eyes to follow Yoon Taehwa’s gaze, he saw a mermaid with its long hair hanging down, resting its head on its arm and grinning. Its bloodless lips parted, and an enchanting song flowed out.

‘This feels strange…’

A furrow formed above his straight eyebrows. With this level of power, the Espers who could deal with the mermaids would have to be A-class or higher. The Beastmen, with their developed hearing, wouldn’t be of much help, so it was an inconvenient situation in many ways.

‘If I just clamp their throats…’

It was a problem that could be easily solved with his ability.

Han Suryeon inconspicuously observed Yoon Taehwa. He could fully guess the reason why he wasn’t moving right away. It was probably because of the monsters’ habit of not stopping once an attack began. It seemed it would be better to stay quiet to avoid being disliked.

“The Team Leader seems to be unaffected.”

Yoon Taehwa seemed fine. Did they do that kind of training in Korea too? It didn’t seem likely that he, who was said to be from a chaebol family, would have undergone harsh training from a young age, but to say that wasn’t the case, his attitude was too calm.

At the mutter spoken as if for him to hear, Yoon Taehwa’s gaze rolled over. Whenever those cool eyes, revealing their whites, focused on him like this, a bottomless greed boiled up.

His smoothly drawn lips stretched long, and the mole beneath them twitched.

“It doesn’t work on me.”

“Do you mean the monster’s suggestion doesn’t work?”

“Temptation doesn’t work.”

It was an ambiguous statement, where it was unclear whether the subject was the mermaid or Han Suryeon himself.

‘Is it because of his nullification?’

Han Suryeon interpreted it as he pleased and stared at the black hair fluttering in the wind. Perhaps because of the mermaid’s song that was also fluttering along, it was difficult to endure the boiling thirst. He wanted to climb onto his body right now, like last night, crush his lips, and mix their tongues.

“Come here.”

Yoon Taehwa, who had started to walk first, beckoned with his finger.

“Yes.”

Han Suryeon skillfully hid his true feelings and followed obediently. Yoon Taehwa, who had approached the railing, gestured with his chin at one of the mermaids.

“I’m going to catch one, so if anything happens, you stop it. The other Espers will be late to join because of the singing.”

“If you’re trying to check its attack pattern, wouldn’t it be better if I caught it? It would be more helpful to watch from a distance.”

Monsters had fixed attack patterns. Especially those that mesmerized humans, like this one, tended to attack only after performing a certain action, so it was good to check before a full-scale battle.

“Alright. Then you catch it.”

Yoon Taehwa nodded his head after a moment of silence.

He had no intention of moving rashly, but he couldn’t just wait forever for the support team to arrive. It seemed to be taking time to control the people, so it was better for them to make the first move.

‘Above all, if we start attacking, the mermaids’ attention will be drawn this way.’

If the mermaids started to move in earnest, the singing would also disappear.

“If I get mesmerized, you have to save me, Team Leader.”

Han Suryeon, with his hands on the railing, made a request in a frail tone, as if he were a little scared.

“I’ll save you before you get dragged under.”

“I think it would be better to be dragged under and faint. It would be nice to wake up to the Team Leader’s kiss.”

At the blatantly revealed intention, Yoon Taehwa raised his lips askew.

“I don’t have a hobby of kissing lips that some other bastard has rubbed against…”

“..…”

“Do it properly.”

When he ordered, gesturing with his chin at the mermaid, Han Suryeon’s eyes softened.

“Our Team Leader keeps making a man’s heart flutter…”

At the shallowly rising corners of his eyes, the beauty mark beneath them curved slightly.

“Anyway, I got it. I’ll do my best. It would be sad to be dragged under and then abandoned. Should I kill this one?”

“Kill it.”

It resembled a human’s appearance, but it was just a monster.

“Yes.”

To grasp the attack pattern, a cautious approach was necessary. Yoon Taehwa watched Han Suryeon kneel down below the railing, facing the mermaid, and also checked the surroundings for presence. He could feel the mermaids’ gazes becoming more intense on his skin.

‘Is the pattern to attack immediately if one gets caught? But then again, there was no reaction when I pulled one up at first.’

The mermaid extended a pale arm and cupped Han Suryeon’s cheek. The movement of it swimming with its tail and slightly lifting its upper body looked like lovers about to kiss. Its smooth shoulders, mysterious appearance of an unknown gender, and long, flowing hair shone beautifully in the sunlight.

As Han Suryeon bent his waist a little more, as if mesmerized, the mermaid slowly lowered its body toward the water below. It was a scheme to drag him under the water just like that.

‘It’s about time to move.’

Since he had ordered him to kill it, it was about time to move. But Han Suryeon didn’t even stir. Like a sailor completely fallen for a siren’s temptation, he only lowered his posture toward the mermaid. It seemed that his red lips would soon meet the pale lips and be swallowed whole.

A faint annoyance washed over him, and Yoon Taehwa unknowingly furrowed his brow.

“Ha…”

Swallowing a curse with a sigh, he immediately walked toward Han Suryeon.