How foolish.

Yeo Myung-hwon clicked his tongue softly. He hadn’t expected them to push such an unreasonable demand. The move lacked foresight. If he complied, Myung-hwon would become an international criminal. But that was all. Even if he became a criminal, he wouldn’t go to AGT, the very people who threatened him with Ju-eon, and play along with their plans.

“You’re not seriously considering accepting such an absurd proposal, are you? We’ll find a way to rescue him.”

“…I can’t rely on such hopeful and slim possibilities.”

Myung-hwon looked down at Seo Yun-jin, who nervously crossed her arms and repeatedly tucked her hair behind her ears. The neatly pressed sleeves of her beige blazer now showed visible wrinkles. She looked up at him with anxious eyes, trying to persuade him against making a rash decision.

But both knew that without complying with the demand, the chances of rescuing Ju-eon unharmed remained slim.

Seo Yun-jin suddenly raised her voice, struck by an idea.

“What if we say… that you can’t use your ability? That you’ve sworn not to? Wouldn’t that work?”

When entering the conference hall, ability users had to swear an oath using a special item that prevented them from using their abilities. Myung-hwon had undergone the same procedure, a mandatory safety measure for gatherings of high-profile individuals.

“They know full well that such measures can’t suppress me.”

Not a bad idea, but the problem was that their opponent was also an ability user, and the person who knew Myung-hwon’s abilities best—Yeo Han-ol.

The item used before entering today’s meeting was an A-class item. Most ability users would feel its binding force, and everyone inside the hall trusted the item’s effectiveness. However, without an S-class or higher item, it proved useless against an S-class ability user like Myung-hwon.

“Ha… They know that? This drives me crazy.”

The binding force failed to affect Myung-hwon. Fully suppressing his abilities required an item of a higher grade.

“…Is it possible they don’t know? There’s a chance they might not…!”

“They’ve already used that item on me before.”

“What?”

Seo Yun-jin’s eyes widened in shock. Myung-hwon quickly explained to prevent misunderstandings.

“I got away with it by playing with words back then.”

“Then lying about it now would only provoke them further.”

Han-ol likely knew that Myung-hwon had previously circumvented the binding oath with wordplay. Any clumsy excuse would only anger him more. Especially since someone had already fooled him once before.

“I didn’t follow you just to see you agree to something like this, Myung-hwon.”

“……”

“I’ve received contact from the person we planted. They said they’ll find an opportunity to extract him.”

Seo Yun-jin grabbed Myung-hwon’s arm urgently, trying to stop him from considering the demand. Myung-hwon remained silent for a moment. He recognized the people who trusted and followed him, and the weight of that responsibility. But that didn’t mean he could reject the demand outright. His eyes narrowed.

“But I can’t outright refuse and risk putting Ju-eon in danger.”

“Myung-hwon!”

At Seo Yun-jin’s shocked exclamation, Myung-hwon shook his head. His ambiguous response greatly unsettled her, but her gaze soon fell on his hands. His palms clenched so tightly that his nails had left deep marks. Myung-hwon restrained himself the most in this situation. He exercised murderous patience to avoid making a single, definitive choice.

“When I take the podium at the end, I’ll act then.”

For now, he could only buy as much time as possible.

Back to square one. Had he known it would come to this, he would have explained the situation to Ju-eon and kept him close. He wanted to show Ju-eon that he had become a better person—not someone who would cling to him pathetically. He wanted to preserve his pride. But without Ju-eon, none of it mattered.

The ground beneath him seemed to collapse, leaving him sinking into a swamp. Veins bulged on the back of his hand.

Thump.

Ever since receiving Ju-eon’s guidance for the first time in years, suppressing his energy had become harder. The feral force within him, wanting to destroy everything—including himself—bared its teeth and demanded Ju-eon. He wanted to lock Ju-eon away where only he could see him. Then he wanted to sink his teeth into Ju-eon’s delicate neck, letting his scent calm the raging storm within him.

Myung-hwon’s jaw tightened. The dense air around him rippled violently. Even ordinary people with no magical energy occasionally glanced in his direction, unable to ignore the oppressive atmosphere emanating from him.

Seo Yun-jin stared at the back of Myung-hwon’s head, her gaze filled with unease, watching him like a ticking time bomb.

“Phew…”

A sigh escaped her lips before she realized it. Straightening her hunched shoulders, Seo Yun-jin adjusted her posture. Everyone here pretended to be composed, but no place felt more suffocating than this.

The only silver lining was that the ticking time bomb still had some time left. They had to rescue Ju-eon before it went off. Clearly, the moment Myung-hwon took action himself, everything would fall apart.

Seo Yun-jin’s face betrayed her thoughts.

“The legalization of private guilds isn’t about immediate gains but a plan for mutual growth over the next ten years. If we continue to impose obligations without granting rights, it will only lead to collapse.”

“Then how do you propose we ensure public safety?”

“That’s a simple matter. We just need to grant rights proportional to the risks they face.”

The discussion steadily moved in the anticipated direction. The occasional raised voices made the whole scene feel like a well-rehearsed play.

Beep-beep-beep—

A long-awaited signal sounded in Seo Yun-jin’s earpiece. She swallowed dryly before answering the call. All of Myung-hwon’s senses focused on her. At this distance, he could hear the entire conversation.

Even Yeo Ji-woong, seated nearby, glanced briefly in their direction.

Seo Yun-jin pressed the answer button, her face filled with desperate hope for good news.

“We lost him.”

The voice on the other end, accompanied by labored breathing, delivered the devastating news. Seo Yun-jin’s expression turned blank. As the words reached him, Myung-hwon’s shoulders stiffened noticeably.

“Why.”

Yeo Ji-woong spoke without even glancing at Myung-hwon. From a distance, he appeared calm, seemingly discussing the ongoing meeting.

“Did you hear that someone’s gone missing?”

A faint trace of amusement lingered at the end of Yeo Ji-woong’s words. Both Myung-hwon and Seo Yun-jin turned to look at him. The pointed nuance in his tone made clear who he referred to, even without naming names.

“…What…”

When Myung-hwon asked in a bewildered voice, Yeo Ji-woong finally looked at him.

“Did you think I wouldn’t know by now?”

“I didn’t think you knew, but I already figured out that someone else took him. Isn’t that why Kang Yun-jae is missing as well?”

“…Tsk. Jumping to conclusions so easily is nothing short of pathetic.”

“……”

“But let’s say you’re half-right.”

It became clear why Kang Yun-jae was absent. At some point, Yeo Ji-woong had learned that someone had kidnapped Ju-eon. Naturally, this exposure likely included Kang Yun-jae as well. Given his established position and the importance of today’s events, any action against him had been delayed. But he, too, was a candle about to burn out.

The ominous tone in Yeo Ji-woong’s voice made Myung-hwon’s throat tighten. Despite claiming to know AGT had taken Ju-eon, Yeo Ji-woong’s unchanging demeanor hinted at other possibilities.

“Did you take Ju-eon yourself?”

“You don’t seem surprised.”

Yeo Ji-woong tapped the table with the pen in front of him, muttering with boredom. With age, one’s gaze often carried fragments of their life experiences. Behind his eyelids, Yeo Ji-woong’s inhuman coldness betrayed no emotion.

“I already knew you had more people under Han-ol than anyone else.”

Even his own child was nothing more than a cog in the machine to him.

“Is that so?”

“I also know about the incidents your subordinates orchestrated under Han-ol’s name and the ones you pinned on AGT.”

“Indeed. But that kid still remains oblivious, rampaging around playing terrorist. It’s convenient how easy he is to manipulate.”

Instead of showing surprise at Myung-hwon’s accusation, Yeo Ji-woong smiled with satisfaction. He smiled like someone confident that no matter how damning the secrets Myung-hwon knew, he could suppress them.

Yeo Ji-woong’s grand design involved countless cogs. AGT wasn’t a terrorist organization solely created by Han-ol. While Han-ol might believe he had built it all himself, that remained a delusion.

AGT was an engineered evil. A common enemy was necessary to unite the remaining people. Even Han-ol, the leader of AGT, had been deceived. Yeo Ji-woong had planted his own people within AGT and deliberately orchestrated acts of terror when needed to create a shared enemy for society.