Chapter 14: Danger in Plain Sight

I was waiting for pedestrians to pass to enter the parking lot when I recognized the bag one of them was carrying.

It was an eco-bag sold as merchandise at last year’s concert. Seeing the bag with its musical note and water droplet design, I quickly picked up my phone.

I wrote a post on my personal SNS along with a photo taken in the practice room.

[Cream! The fine dust is bad today, and there’s some bad news, so please don’t go outside.]

Comments from fans came pouring in immediately.

– Lee Young Lee Young, got it!

– I’m in Busan, so it should be okay, right?

– I’m in Tokyo

– Lee Young oppa, be careful too!

As I watched the comments keep coming, I looked for the person who had just passed by, but they had already disappeared from sight. {Are all those people maidens who adore Jaga?}

Baekmung, who usually just spoke even in doll form, was unusually communicating through my mind, but I was too tense and was too dry to answer.

The current time was 11:28 AM. The time of the stabbing threat was 12:00 PM.

– “Eagle Three, waiting at the station entrance.”

“Kite, the apartment management office has broadcast the announcement again.”

– “Eagle One, both the elementary and middle schools are on vacation, so there are no children. Should we move?”

– “Eagle Two, moving to the densely populated apartment area in Ichon-dong.”

my mouth

The radio in Kim Woo-jin’s hand was constantly buzzing with reports. It seemed more police than expected had been dispatched.

I pulled my hat brim down a little further, held the doll in one hand, and got out of the car.

The streets, nearing lunchtime, were filled with the smells of various foods as restaurants prepared for the lunch rush.

There were people coming and going, but not many children or teenagers.

I was careful not to make eye contact with people as much as possible, in case it became known on the community that I was here and even a few fans came looking for me.

But unlike my plain outfit of jeans, a black padded jacket, and a black ball cap, I felt unnecessarily conspicuous holding a doll in my hand. Baekmung should just go into the ring.

{If I’m inside the ring, Demon detection will be delayed.}

Reluctantly, I tucked the doll under my arm and entered the market alley filled with restaurants.

I thought the general market would be quite large since it was called a general market on the map, but when I actually came, it was just a few shops gathered next to an apartment complex.

So, it didn’t take long to go around the entire alley.

There were no children in the children’s playground in the apartment complex either. So, I moved my steps to the jokgu court next to the market.

Just then, Kim Woo-jin called.

– “There’s a large playground further up.”

“I’ll take a look around the jokgu court and go there.”

Only after hanging up did I regret not asking if there were children at the playground, but I didn’t have time to call again.

Baekmung spoke to me as I hurried my steps.

{But can we find it like this? It won’t be easy.}

“That’s why you need to concentrate. You have to catch even the smallest energy from far away.”

As Baekmung said, finding it like this was difficult.

But many police officers were stationed at important places where people gathered, so if someone appeared wielding a weapon, they would be able to stop them.

We had to prepare for the off chance that a Demon would be detected in other places.

{The Demon could appear after we’ve passed by, you know.}

I know. But I couldn’t think of a more efficient way. 

It was my first time looking for someone I didn’t even know.

{…I was being presumptuous.}

As if to show Baekmung, I trudged around the jokgu court. Even after that, I looked again in every corner to see if I had missed anything. There were no children.

I thought there would be children since it was vacation, but it seemed the announcements in the apartment complex had been effective.

“What do we do if there are no children?”

{Then it will harm anyone. It won’t distinguish between children and adults.}

That’s right. It was too early to be relieved just because there were no children. Still, my tense mind relaxed a little.

I was leaving the jokgu court and heading in the direction of the large playground to meet up with Kim Woo-jin when it happened.

– Ping

I stopped at the strange sound.

‘Huh? This sound…’

Various senses flashed through my mind.

Darkness, the screams of panicked people, an unfamiliar presence, and a person with a knife who appeared with a strange sound. 

Even the darkly swirling eyes.

It was the sound I had heard before the chef appeared next to me at the drama production presentation.

{Jaga, did you hear something? May I reveal my true form?}

Baekmung didn’t seem to have heard it, and I wasn’t sure either. 

Besides, there were a few people on the street.

“Not yet.”

I moved quickly towards the sound. 

Entering the alley below the market, I saw the entrance to a fairly large mansion.

As I was about to enter the entrance, the window of the parking management office next to me opened.

“Are you a resident?”

“Ah, no, I’m not. I’m here…”

“You can’t enter if you’re not a resident. It’s already a tense atmosphere because someone said they’re going to run around with a knife today. Don’t wander around in dark clothes for no reason and go away.”

Blocked at the entrance, I stood in front of it and looked up at the mansion building.

The sound definitely came from this direction.

Even if I couldn’t go into each house, I felt like I could tell where it was if I went nearby.

But if I said, ‘I feel a strange energy,’ I would definitely be cursed at and kicked out.

I was thinking about using my National Intelligence Service Kim Woo-jin card when Baekmung urgently spoke to me.

{Jaga, there’s a strange energy over there.}

The place Baekmung was pointing to was the back of the mansion.

I made eye contact with the person who was still watching me, turned around, and left the alley altogether. Then, as soon as I turned the corner, I pressed myself against the wall.

After counting to three, I peeked into the alley, and the window of the parking management office was closed.

But I couldn’t guarantee that they weren’t still watching this way, but I didn’t have time to wait.

‘I have to go in secretly.’

I went back into the alley and looked at the back of the mansion building, where Baekmung had said.

It was a narrow space between the buildings, a place that couldn’t be used as a passageway.

There was no one on the floor with air conditioner compressors, broken drink bottles, and cigarette butts.

But in the air, I saw someone hanging from the window of the mansion.

{That’s it!}

At the same time as Baekmung shouted, the person hanging from the window on the 3rd floor dropped to the ground.

“Gasp!”

Unlike my surprise, the person who fell seemed fine, and as soon as they landed on the ground, they walked towards me.

Looking closely, it was a young face that looked like a middle or high school student.

They were wearing a short-sleeved top and shorts, and were barefoot without socks, and they were holding a fairly large box cutter in their hand.

Unlike their indifferent expression, as if they couldn’t feel pain, their gait was unbalanced, as if one ankle was broken.

The student stepped on the glass bottles and cigarette butts on the floor with a limping gait, passed the air conditioner compressor, and approached me.

I summoned the Four Evil Beheading Sword and held it in my hand.

I was worried that passersby would see it, but I couldn’t hesitate even while seeing the student’s eyes gleaming darkly as they approached me.

“Aaaargh!”

The student, who hadn’t made a sound when falling from the 3rd floor, screamed and rushed at me. 

But the student’s movements were slow, so I could easily avoid them.

After dodging the box cutter, I quickly struck the student’s wrist with the hilt of my sword. 

But the student didn’t drop the box cutter.

I seem to keep failing at wrist strikes since last time, so I shouldn’t try it anymore.

{I will teach you properly later.}

‘Thank you for saying you’ll teach me later.’

But the problem was now. 

The student who had been hit on the wrist repeatedly moved their head from side to side. 

A sense of unease washed over me.

Sure enough, the student’s movements became faster.

“Ugh!”

A few feathers escaped from the padded jacket that had been cut by the blade and flew into the air.

As the student’s movements of wielding the knife became faster, it was all I could do to avoid them. 

I didn’t even have time to swing the sword at the shadow.

“Jaga, this won’t do.”

The doll Baekmung, which had been dropped on the floor, seemed to fly up, and then Baekmung’s true form appeared.

The shadow of a giant white beastman, nearly 2 meters tall, loomed over the student’s face.

For a moment, the student stopped moving. It seemed they were frightened by Baekmung.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity, I began to cut the student’s elongated shadow.

“Into here!”

Baekmung grabbed one end of the student’s shadow and pulled it into the back of the building.

So, if you grab a shadow with your hand, you can grab it. But there was no time to be surprised.

I took advantage of the gap where the student’s shadow was caught by Baekmung and swung my sword faster from the shadow closest to the student’s body to the end.

I had to quickly find where the Demon was hiding.

Right now, I suspected those dark eyes, but I couldn’t stab the student’s eyes.

The shadow was twisting its shape here and there to escape from Baekmung’s hand, and the student was re-gripping the knife and swinging it at me.

“It’s here!”

As soon as I heard Baekmung’s words, who was pulling on the shadow, I threw myself forward. 

At the same time, the student’s knife also came towards me.

At the same time as I felt the blade graze the back of my left hand, I swung the Four Evil Beheading Sword at the shadow Baekmung was stepping on.

In an instant, the long, writhing shadow disappeared without a trace. 

The shadow at noon remained small only under the student’s feet.

The student, with a blank expression, seemed to lose their balance and fell towards me. 

I reflexively caught the student’s body.

“Jaga!”

Baekmung strode over and pulled the student’s body away. 

The student was already unconscious. 

It was the same pattern as the previous stabbing incident.

As I let out a sigh of relief, I discovered that the soles of the student’s feet were soaked in blood. 

Their ankle must have been broken too.

“I need to take them to the hospital. I’ll call Kim Woo-jin.”

“Jaga is also injured.”

Baekmung put their palm on the back of my hand.

The blood flowing from the cut made by the box cutter disappeared into Baekmung’s hand.

Wound treatment? Or bloodsucking?

“Bloodsucking? I’m not a mosquito. Isn’t your blood precious? Fortunately, the wound isn’t deep.”

The blood had already stopped. 

When I thought about it, my shoulder had been stabbed quite deeply at the production presentation, but it had healed quickly.

Was Baekmung a healer?

“Heal that student too.”

“It’s only possible because Jaga is in a covenant with me.”

A healer only for me. It was nice, but a little disappointing.

I looked at my wrist, where the blood had stopped, and picked up my phone to call Kim Woo-jin.

*    *    *

The student woke up that night. Of course, the person themselves didn’t remember writing the post.

“I was studying when I heard loud singing from outside the window, and I got annoyed. And then I fell asleep, I guess?”

The student had broken their ankle, but said they were relieved that they hadn’t broken their wrist, as it wouldn’t interfere with their studies.

Evidence of the stabbing threat post was found on the student’s PC, but they were released with a warning because of their excellent academic record, the fact that the post was written on impulse, and the fact that it didn’t lead to an actual crime.

It seemed the random stabbing threat incident was coming to an end.

But the next day, a post with a photo was uploaded to an anonymous community.

[I think I saw Lee Young in front of my house?]