AAGULT Ch 101

Chapter 101

He instinctively scrunched his face. His heart was pounding violently. He wasn’t sure whether this was the shock from having actually shot someone, or simply because of the pain.

And then, silence.

“……”

“…?”

It wasn’t the reaction he had expected. Don’t people usually scream or panic when they get shot? But the man simply stared at him blankly, still in the same position as when he’d been talking to Ido, without the slightest sign of surprise.

“Oh, right. The gun.”

“…Haa.”

A chill ran down Jaeha’s spine. It wasn’t just the horror of witnessing something bizarre—it was the strange, vaguely familiar sensation that unsettled him. Someone kept coming to mind.

Regardless, the man didn’t move his wounded foot, instead pressing down harder as he chuckled. Blood gushed from the wound, soaking Jaeha’s chest, and a few messy drops splattered across his face.

He felt nauseated. As he groaned in pain, the man furrowed his brows slightly and bent down to peer at him.

“I think I kind of get why Beomwoo is so fond of you.”

“Ugh… kgh…”

“Hey, you didn’t say you could read thoughts, right?”

“Seo Taegun.”

Once again, a warning voice was faintly heard from the side, but Taegun didn’t stop. Instead, he leaned down even further. His long, wavy hair lightly brushed Jaeha’s body. Like curtains, his hair dropped down on either side of Jaeha’s head. The glaring white lights of the lab were dimmed by the shadow of his head, making the view more comfortable—but looking directly into his eyes stung so much, it was terrifying.

“Read me.”

There must have been tears in his eyes. That was probably why the man’s gray irises appeared slightly blurred.

As their eyes met instinctively, and he read what the man was thinking, Jaeha’s eyes gleamed an eerie shade of teal. At the same time the man grinned deeply, Jaeha realized.

He finally understood who this man had been thinking of the whole time.

‘As you know, my body isn’t exactly in perfect condition.’

‘I make mistakes sometimes.’

A low, arrogant voice echoed through his head. It was a memory so vivid and intense that he could never forget it.

So that was it. That’s what it was…

And in that fleeting moment of realization, Jaeha read everything.

A chaotic flood of information violently surged into his mind. During the brief moment when the tears welling in his eyes rolled down his temples, he saw the man’s past.

He saw what the man had done before becoming an Esper, what the Black Magpie unit was, why he couldn’t feel pain… And above all the minor, fragmented details, one truth struck like lightning and scraped raw against his core. He knew that the shock would leave a wound that would never heal.

Jaeha closed his eyes. Tears streamed down his face—not merely because of the physical pain.

It was because he now knew.

“Got it?”

A lazily mocking voice washed over his ears, dulled by the ringing. The strength drained from Jaeha’s hands, which had been desperately clawing at the man’s ankle. If his intent was to incapacitate Jaeha by showing him “this information,” then it had been a truly brilliant and cruelly effective choice.

“All of this is within Baek Beomwoo’s grasp.”

The man’s snickering laughter echoed.

“It’s all Baek Beomwoo’s doing.”

Yes.

Jaeha had seen it.

The moment the boss murdered his parents.

“I knew he couldn’t feel pain.”

Aiden muttered dully as he adjusted his grip on the gun.

“I just didn’t expect him to be this much of a hassle.”

The man before him was excruciatingly stoic, so there was no real joy in talking to him.

He’d caught him because he felt it was necessary to confront him at least once, but Aiden had never truly expected the man to allow himself to be caught. So, partly out of boredom and partly for fun, he tried provoking him with some guiding.

It hadn’t been a particularly gentle attempt, so it must’ve hurt. But for someone who couldn’t feel even that kind of agonizing pain from such a horrific psychic resonance, there was no reason to expect a need for guiding or even a reaction. Still, it had slightly agitated him.

“What are you so mad about?”

“……”

“Ah, I see.”

Aiden smiled faintly. He knew he was more irritated than necessary, but since he also understood the reason, it didn’t bother him much. So he dug even deeper into the man’s feelings with glee.

“Pissed off ‘cause I stole your favorite toy?”

“……”

“Haha, how tragic. That’s gotta sting.”

But Baek Beomwoo was no pushover. Being a guide, Aiden could sense the man’s psychic waves ripple violently, indicating how furious he was. Yet, regardless of what was happening inside him, Beomwoo simply stared at him impassively. He was, unexpectedly, an amusingly twisted bastard.

Aiden endured the lack of reaction without complaint. Normally, he wouldn’t have bothered with such a pointless exchange, but this was different—this was that kind of situation.

“You thought if you kept crushing him, Song Jaeha would fall in line. You should’ve treated him more gently.”

“……”

“Thanks to you, I got to have him.”

Bragging about a lover.

It was too smug and shameless to be considered a genuine boast—words that would make the person involved feel deeply ashamed. In short, it was morally wrong.

And despite spouting all this, it didn’t bring Aiden any real satisfaction. On the contrary, it itched, and it irritated him. Like a child, even though he tried to hide it, he couldn’t suppress the resentment bubbling out.

Aiden cheerily checked the magazine of his gun. With a click, he reloaded it and looked at the man again.

The man was notably massive, and his presence was just as imposing. The white shirt, sleeves rolled up to the elbows, strained to contain his broad shoulders and muscular arms. The large and small scars on his exposed forearms only made his arrogant, expressionless face look sharper and more intimidating. His overall appearance radiated strength. Though a gun was holstered in his harness, he didn’t seem inclined to use it.

In short, he was seriously bad news.

Hmph. Was this jealousy? Realizing his own emotional state, Aiden accepted it easily. He knew he had a petty side, but he didn’t expect it to be this bad. What really annoyed him was that Song Jaeha was still clearly emotionally tethered to Baek Beomwoo—and he wanted to mess with him because of that.

“You should’ve been born a guide.”

“……”

“Jealous?”

“—Who knows.”

Baek Beomwoo finally spoke. He pulled off his gloves. The sound of the leather brushing his skin wasn’t normal, and Aiden slightly frowned as he looked on.

His bare hands were revealed.

The man then turned the gloves inside out and shook them. A considerable amount of dark, reddish-black grit fell out onto the floor, like there had been coarse sand packed inside.

“You won’t need these soon.”

“…Hah.”

“Jaeha’s going to become a normal person.”

It was laughable, but Aiden felt uncomfortably stung by the words. It was exactly what had already been bothering him, and now Beomwoo had said it out loud.

After all, the only reason he’d even been able to seduce Song Jaeha in the first place was because of the guiding.

“But you know…”

Still, Aiden couldn’t look away from the man’s hands.

His hands were a deep reddish-black. At his fingertips, crystal shards of the same hue clung to his skin. Every time he moved his fingers, the shards cracked and fell like blood dripping from open wounds. Tiny fragments hit the floor with a quiet clinking, a sharp and unsettling sound that carried a subtle menace.

As the crystals split along the movements of his fingers, blood welled up from the gaps. But even that blood quickly began to harden. He clapped his hands slowly, brushing off the crushed crystals like dried blood. The casual way he slipped his gloves back on made it clear this wasn’t a new condition for him.

And despite standing in front of Aiden—a clear Association member—he showed no sense of urgency or concern as he revealed his condition.

“You dying?”

“That too… who knows.”

“That’s a problem.”

It really was a problem. Aiden recognized the disease. It was the first time he’d seen it in a psychic-type Esper, but this was hematocrystallization syndrome.

A condition where certain substances in the patient’s blood crystallize abnormally, damaging the interior of their blood vessels, slowly expanding from localized areas until eventually paralyzing the entire body. So far, only Espers had been known to develop it—primarily those who engaged in combat. Though it was cautiously speculated to be related to psychic waves, the cause remained unknown and the disease was still incurable.

To emphasize again—it was a serious problem.

Because…

“It’s hard to win against someone who’s already dead.”

It might just ruin his honey trap.