Doing Good Deeds Will Bring Blessings¿

The three of them, who had infiltrated the house prepared to risk their lives, were left utterly dumbfounded.

“What the hell is this…?”

Han Jaeyeong was the first to recover enough to speak, but before they could say more, the summoned creature sprinted straight to Jeong Daon and threw itself at her.

“Woof! Woofwoofwoof!” Judging by the enthusiastic barking and furiously wagging tail, it was clearly demanding praise.

Jeong Daon stroked the puppy as if this were only natural. “Good job. You worked hard finding the way.”

The sheer peacefulness of the scene was so absurd that Lee Pyeonghwa snapped, “Hey, Jeong Daon!”

“You don’t have to yell. I can hear you.”

“What the hell is going on here?!”

This was supposed to be a kidnapping victim, yet she was lounging leisurely on a sofa like this! And more than anything else—

“You had your phone this whole time, so why didn’t you contact us?!”

There was a phone right there in Jeong Daon’s hand!

“Are you insane?! Do you want to die?!”

“Ah, there was a reason.”

“What reason?!”

“When I think about it, I’d only been using Wi-Fi at the hospital. I never bought a new SIM card. And there’s no Wi-Fi here, so I had no way to contact anyone…”

“You could’ve just used roaming! Do you not even know how to do that?!”

“Aren’t international calls expensive?”

“Is that really what you should be worrying about right now?!”

Thump! Lee Pyeonghwa grabbed a cushion that happened to be on the sofa and hurled it at Jeong Daon. It brought back, all too vividly, the rage she’d felt toward Jeong Daon during basic combat training.

Watching the sitcom-like chaos unfold, Han Jaeyeong finally managed to speak. To be honest, they were just as stunned.

“…No, seriously. What is going on here? Explain.”

“Yeah. I was actually waiting for you to ask.” Jeong Daon, who had been blocking Lee Pyeonghwa’s cushion attacks with one hand, shifted into a proper sitting position. “Listen. I came up with a plan—”

Just then, there was a rustling sound from the kitchen connected to the living room, and soon a woman emerged, limping slightly as she stepped into view.

“Leila Lopez!”

Still reeling in shock, Lee Pyeonghwa immediately tossed the cushion aside and drew her longsword. Shing! She might not be much help compared to veteran Hunters, but if she could at least carry out the planned hit-and-run maneuver properly—

“Wait. Hold on.” Jeong Daon waved her hand. “She’s not an enemy.”

"...What?" Lee Pyeonghwa blinked. “No, she’s the one who kidnapped you—”

“She says there were circumstances.”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

“She thanked me for understanding those circumstances, too. Right?”

"Yes."

Leila Lopez smiled as she spoke, but her expression was stiff and strained.

Lee Pyeonghwa turned to look at Han Jaeyeong and Yu Hanul. They were seasoned veterans. Surely they could offer some guidance on what to do in a situation like this…

"...”

"...”

Seeing that the other two were reacting much the same way she was, Lee Pyeonghwa squeezed her eyes shut. Seriously, what on earth was this situation?

After a moment of silence, Han Jaeyeong spoke first. Their tone was serious for once. “Hanul.”

“You’re being creepy.”

“Are you sure you didn’t misunderstand something? I mean, what if we, no, what if Daon kidnapped Leila Lopez instead?”

“…My cognitive abilities haven’t deteriorated that badly.”

“No, you’ve been off since the last dungeon. And no matter how you look at it, the one who got attacked is Lopez. Look.”

As Han Jaeyeong said, Leila Lopez had her calf tightly wrapped in white bandages. Worse still, the wound didn’t seem to have been treated properly. Blood was still seeping through.

Yu Hanul fell silent, at a loss for words. Just as he had sensed outside, there was someone injured, and he was relieved it wasn’t Jeong Daon.

But he had never imagined that the injured party would be the kidnapper.

Leila Lopez gave Han Jaeyeong a small nod of greeting. “…It’s been a while, Jaeyeong. I regret that we’re meeting again under these circumstances.”

The translator’s mechanical voice somehow sounded especially bleak. On top of that, she kept stealing cautious glances at Jeong Daon. Anyone could tell she was walking on eggshells.

She didn’t used to be like this.

She was a woman who had risen to become a senior official at the Hunter Association headquarters. With a position like that came pride and a strong sense of self-worth. Yet here she was, visibly cowed… If someone unaware of the situation had walked in, they would have thought Leila was the one who’d been kidnapped.

Han Jaeyeong looked back and forth between Leila and Jeong Daon. “Seriously, can someone explain what’s going on here? Why are you two sitting here so peacefully together?”

“Perfect timing. I’ve got tea ready. Sit down.”

Tea???

As Han Jaeyeong wondered what she meant, Leila limped over and set five teacups down on the table.

"…"

What even was this?

They found themselves sitting around the table before they knew it, but none of them had ever experienced a tea time this uncomfortable.

Holding the teacup handed to her by the kidnapper, who was acting like a dutiful housekeeper, Jeong Daon spoke with a blank expression. “A kidnapping. Honestly, I was so shocked.”

Lee Pyeonghwa snapped back incredulously, “You don’t look shocked at all.”

Of course, she was relieved that Jeong Daon didn’t seem hurt, but at the same time, she felt deeply wronged.

“So what is it, then? Why does a kidnapping victim look this cozy with her kidnapper?”

“I told you, there were circumstances. It’s a bit long, so listen carefully.”

The process by which a smoke-related item, strictly controlled in the United States, ended up appearing in the Gwanghwamun Dungeon Break. The way Leila Lopez, who had devoted herself to the organization she belonged to, was framed and discarded. It was a long story, but also a simple, all-too-familiar one. For all the talk about humans being social animals, wherever people gathered into organizations, problems inevitably arose.

“So basically…” Han Jaeyeong spoke after hearing the whole story. “James Chen is the mastermind behind all of this, and Leila Lopez did nothing wrong?”

“Right.” Jeong Daon nodded. “Can you believe it? A senior official at Hunter Association headquarters, James Chen, framing Leila and trying to turn me into an experimental subject. Isn’t that shocking?”

“Wait. Hold on.” Han Jaeyeong frowned and waved a hand.

Jeong Daon raised an eyebrow. “What? What’s the problem? It’s a perfectly plausible, logical story.”

“It’s not the content. Why are you talking like you’re acting in a play?”

Jeong Daon’s eyebrow twitched. “…Since when?”

“You’ve been like that the entire time.”

Especially the part where Leila explained she’d been framed after kidnapping Jeong Daon, and Jeong Daon sympathized with her circumstances, leading them to join forces to deal with James Chen—the true culprit.

“It sounds fake.”

Although they hadn’t known Jeong Daon for many months, there was one thing Han Jaeyeong had learned about her during that time: Jeong Daon was surprisingly terrible at lying. Her face was so expressionless that it was hard to tell at first, but once you got used to her, it became easy to see through her.

“I’m not lying.”

As Jeong Daon said this without even blinking, Han Jaeyeong let out a long sigh. Maybe it was because she usually spoke her mind so bluntly that when she suddenly had to fabricate something, it showed this badly. It was painfully obvious.

“I honestly have no idea what you’re thinking, Daon.”

“I’m not really—”

“No matter how kind someone is, there’s no reason to go out of your way to protect the person who kidnapped you, is there?”

As they said that, Han Jaeyeong cast Leila a deeply suspicious look.

"..."

Leila, meeting their gaze, looked wronged. Perhaps because she’d just been labeled a kidnapper. But regardless of whether she’d been framed, it was undeniably true that Jeong Daon had understood her story and chosen to believe her. She had even stepped forward to defend Leila herself.

Did Lopez threaten her or something?

Lee Pyeonghwa seemed to be thinking the same thing, because she poked Jeong Daon in the side. “Hey. Be honest. Did that woman threaten you into lying or—”

“Who’s threatening whom?”

The one who snapped angrily was Leila Lopez herself. Though oddly enough, her anger faded the moment she caught Jeong Daon’s eye.

What on earth happened between them…?

This didn’t look like a kidnapper and a victim. It looked more like a master–servant relationship.

Or maybe a blackmailer and their target.

…Except somehow, Jeong Daon looked closer to the former.

“Then what about your leg injury?”

At Han Jaeyeong’s question, Leila glanced cautiously at Jeong Daon before answering carefully, “This… happened while I was on the run. It was already like this before I met Hunter Daon.”

“Hm.”

Given that she’d been fleeing, it wouldn’t have been strange for Leila to get injured.

"Daon." Yu Hanul, who had been quietly watching how things unfolded, finally spoke up. “Anyway… I’m glad you’re safe.”

At those words, both Han Jaeyeong and Lee Pyeonghwa flinched. Come to think of it, that should have been the first thing they said. But the situation had been so absurd that it had slipped their minds.

“And personally, I owe you an apology. Leaving my post was a misjudgment.”

At Yu Hanul’s apology, one of Jeong Daon’s eyebrows rose sharply. That was clearly a sign that she didn’t like what he’d said.

“How is that your fault? A fugitive broke into the embassy and kidnapped me. How were you supposed to predict that?”

Was that…her way of comforting him?

“Are you some kind of god?”

No, she was genuinely annoyed by what Hunter Yu Hanul had said. Listening from the side, Lee Pyeonghwa found herself oddly understanding.

Yeah. That’s just how Jeong Daon is.

Yu Hanul apologizing implied that Jeong Daon couldn’t have handled the situation on her own, so that apology itself probably irritated her. Still, for someone like Yu Hanul to apologize so sincerely, and for her to immediately take offense…

She’d known it already, but Jeong Daon really did have an extraordinary personality.

Jeong Daon spoke decisively. “Anyway, that’s not what matters right now.”

“Well, that’s true. But Daon, even if Lopez was framed, shouldn’t we report this first—”

“No. That’s not it.”

“…What?”

“Law enforcement won’t help at all in this situation.”

“…It’s true that public authority isn’t helpful in most situations, but let’s hear it. What are you trying to say?”

“James Chen or Leila Lopez. It’s all the same in the end.”

Leila, who had been named, flinched.

“They all think I’m an easy target. That’s why they keep coming after me.”

That much was true. The Truelight Sect that caused the Gwanghwamun Dungeon Break, James Chen who handed the smoke item to them, ultimately, their goals were the same. And perhaps even the person who had used Lee Seunghui within the military to engineer a dimensional stranding incident.

Their methods might have differed, but all of them wanted the same thing: to get their hands on Jeong Daon, the rising new star. Leila Lopez had been no exception.

“Reporting her to the police would be just like Lee Manbok case. Even if I go back to Korea like this, the number of nobodies targeting me won’t decrease. The fact that I’m an easy mark won’t change.”

“…Well. That’s true, at least for now.”

Aside from the fact that Hunter Association executives and cult leaders weren’t exactly “nobodies,” she wasn’t wrong. No matter how skilled she was with true speech, Jeong Daon was still just a newly minted adult. It was inevitable that far more powerful people would underestimate her.

“But in the end, it’s only a matter of time, isn’t it?”

This girl with countless secrets would clearly grow stronger very quickly by methods Han Jaeyeong still didn’t understand. And the stronger Jeong Daon became, the more carefully people would weigh the cost and benefit of provoking her.

“Plus, once basic military training is officially over, you’ll be joining the HP Guild. You’ll be safer then.”

“No. That’s not enough.”

“Not enough for what—?”

As Han Jaeyeong asked, they met Jeong Daon’s eyes—and flinched. For the first time since meeting her, emotion was visible in those eyes that always seemed so numb.

“I’ve been patient long enough. Now it’s time to solve this problem at the root.”

It was a blazing, burning anger.

…Wait, what is wrong with her all of a sudden?

For someone so out of character, Han Jaeyeong found themselves genuinely a little scared.

“No, what exactly are you planning to do…?”

“Tonight, James Chen is coming here.”

“Wh-what?”

“Daon, what do you mean—”

“Why would he come here?”

As all three questioned her at once, Leila raised her hand to draw their attention. “…I called James. I used Jeong Daon as bait. He’ll definitely come.”

That revelation was even more shocking. Who used whom as bait to lure who?

“So, Han Jaeyeong.”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to need your help.”

“…Me?” Han Jaeyeong’s eyes widened. "Me?"