"..."
"The mood's changed."
"Yeah, it has."
Yu Siwoo looked around.
Students swept up in the atmosphere came into view.
Just moments ago, they had been ordinary students who hated attending class.
But a few words from the investigator had sent their motivation soaring.
He had briefly met her before, so he’d been about to greet her out of familiarity.
That was, until he’d sensed something off about the investigator as she began speaking to the students.
She felt different from when he’d first seen her. ...Had she always been like this?
"Maybe it’s because she used to work in the field. She really seems to hate villains."
Yu Siwoo couldn’t agree with Amelia’s words.
The investigator he’d first met had definitely been aggressive.
She’d pressured Arte, convinced she was the culprit, and even interrogated me.
But something was fundamentally different. He couldn’t shake that feeling.
Now... how should he put it? It felt like suppressed emotions had suddenly swelled and twisted out of shape.
Even though everything was already over, it was as if she was looking elsewhere.
It was the kind of atmosphere you’d expect from someone seeking revenge.
If only he could dismiss it as his imagination.
But he couldn’t shake the impression that something about her had changed at a fundamental level.
"What’s wrong?"
"No, it’s just... Amelia, remember how I told you I’d met an investigator before?"
"You did mention that. ...So what? Is that her?"
"Yeah. But she feels different now."
"Different how?"
Amelia smiled as she asked him.
"Wait, can you even tell the difference in people’s expressions now?"
"No, it’s not that..."
"Then you must be mistaken. Or maybe your first impression of her was just bad? Being interrogated probably didn’t leave you with a good feeling."
"Maybe..."
Amelia’s reasoning made sense.
Would she really be able to stop Arte? Wasn’t she being too forceful? I didn’t do anything wrong... etc.
None of it had been a good impression.
So was that why he felt something was off about her now?
No, it was different from that.
He couldn’t put it into words, but something *had* changed.
Almost as if an Ability had activated...
"Oh, it’s the teacher. What’s going on?"
"Nothing much. I just wanted to greet the students."
The investigator approached with a kind smile, snapping him out of his thoughts.
She seemed to have been talking with Teacher Claire.
Had their conversation already ended?
"Hello, Yu Siwoo. It’s been a while. Do you remember me?"
"Ah, Investigator. Of course I do."
"Please call me Teacher. I *am* a teacher now, after all."
"Ah, right. Sorry."
As if the earlier tension had vanished, Teacher Hayul smiled warmly.
Unlike Teacher Claire’s stiff demeanor, hers was gentle and soft.
"You don’t need to be so tense. If you’re still hung up on what happened last time, I apologize."
"It’s fine, Teacher."
"I’m glad. It was just part of the job."
She laughed, explaining that her line of work often required her to take a forceful approach during interrogations.
A completely different demeanor from what she had shown just moments ago.
Amelia and Dorothy seemed to sense the dissonance as well.
Well, of course they would.
It was hard to believe this was the same person who had been preaching revenge to the students just a little while ago.
"Teacher, your mood seems very different from before?"
"…Ah. I suppose it could seem that way. It’s nothing. You have to separate work from personal life, don’t you?"
"Ah, I see."
After chatting with Dorothy and Amelia for a while, Teacher Ihayul took her leave.
"Well, I’ll be going now. I’d like to exchange light greetings with the other students as well."
"Goodbye!"
…Was it just my imagination?
After the Weaver Menace attack, I had nearly died and been unconscious for days.
After that, I’d taken some time off to recover, traveling a bit as well.
Maybe that was why? My Ability seemed a little duller than usual.
It had malfunctioned. That had never happened before.
After Yu Siwoo left, convinced it was just his imagination, Hayul dropped her kind smile and muttered under her breath.
"A man who drags incidents along with him."
An ordinary boy. At least, that was all he had looked like to her.
Due to the nature of her job, she had met countless people and seen countless others lie and hide their true selves.
After more than a decade of that life, she had prided herself on her ability to read people.
That was why, even without solid evidence, she had investigated Arte-nim as Arachne. And well… in the end, she had been right.
Hayul trusted her instincts and judgment, which was why she had assumed Yu Siwoo was just an ordinary student.
The only odd thing about him was his closeness to Arte.
…Or so she had thought.
"He really has changed, hasn’t he? Arte-nim."
"Do you think so?"
"Yes. The progress is remarkable."
In just a few months, he had gone from being a student who stood out slightly among his peers to someone who seemed to have skipped several levels entirely.
"It’s surprising you noticed the difference so quickly after seeing me again. We haven’t known each other that long."
"…Wasn’t it more than just a brief encounter?"
"It was. Even Claire, an old friend, took some time to sense something was off, but he realized the moment he saw me. He said I was different."
Hayul pondered.
Now she understood why Arte-nim kept such a close eye on him.
She sometimes muttered to herself about protagonists and plot developments.
At this rate of growth, calling him a protagonist wouldn’t be far off.
If I were five years younger, would I have burned with jealousy?
Last time, his strength had only been on par with one or two executives of a criminal organization.
Of course, even that was absurdly strong for a student, but still—just the level of a mid-tier criminal executive.
There were plenty of people who could handle one or two of those. The world was vast, after all.
He was strong for a student, yes, but still just a promising talent. That was what Hayul had thought.
But after seeing him just now, she realized—
That wasn’t it.
"I don’t think I’ll be able to catch Student Siwoo from now on."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
His speed at detecting changes was exceptionally outstanding.
If he judged it dangerous, he’d vanish from the spot in an instant.
"The moment I turn into mist, he’ll run without looking back. Then I won’t be able to catch him."
Of course, even if her ability allowed her to attack unilaterally, mist took time to spread.
Ambushes wouldn’t work either—there was simply no way to capture him.
"You said his ability was intuition, right? …That’s beyond intuition."
"He’s grown, after all."
Even if he had grown, wasn’t that still excessive?
Hayul let out a hollow laugh.
As Arte-nim said, if he kept growing like this, he’d become someone no one could catch, someone no one could interfere with.
He seemed like a free spirit.
"If he grows even more from there… what will happen?"
Hayul grew curious.
What would he look like ten years from now?
A decrepit, filthy alleyway. Someone in a hoodie staggered forward, barely able to keep their balance.
"Hey, stop right there."
"This is our turf. Do you even know where you are?"
"…."
"Oi, what the hell are you muttering? Get lost, now. Can’t you hear me? You wanna die?"
Swish, swish.
Even as they brandished rusted knives, threatening him, he didn’t so much as flinch. Seeing that, they muttered among themselves.
"Ugh, fuck. Boss, what do we do?"
"What’s there to do? We’ve warned him enough. Hey, we don’t know who you are, but we’ve given you plenty of—"
"…Pa."
"Huh?"
"…I’m hungry."
It happened in an instant.
One of the villains, hearing the mumbled voice, stepped closer—only to have his arm torn off and devoured in a flash.
"Gah—AAAAAAGH! My, my arm! My arm!"
"Become one with us. We can do it. We’ll make everyone equal."
"Y-You crazy bitch! Kill her! Kill her—!"
"What the hell… is that…?"
"Holy shit… what the fuck is that?!"
The wind blew, lifting the hood just enough to reveal what was underneath. They froze in horror.
A grotesque form, a haphazard mix of countless animal body parts.
It was no longer human. Overwhelmed by instinctive terror, they stumbled back.
"You know, you all want to become one too, right?"
"What the fuck are you—! Get lost, you monster bitch!"
"Mir said it. Let’s make the world equal. Yeah, that’s right. Equality. Good girl, Annie, you remember well. Don’t you, Mir? Hehe, praise me."
The villains realized it.
They’d messed with the wrong thing.
They only understood they’d triggered a massive bomb after it had already gone off.
"And Mir said… it’s no use refusing. We only cry for equality. If society can’t handle it, then we’ll mourn it."
"Fuck… we’re screwed…"
"Come on, let’s all become equal."
A short time later, the alleyway was empty.
All that remained were the bloodstains scattered everywhere, silent testament to the horror that had taken place.