Hiding a House in the Apocalypse-Chapter 114.2: Ronin (2)

We decided to let the man in.

Judging from various circumstances, he was alone.

No signs of an entourage or any particular scheme.

Of course, before that—

"Take off your clothes."

We had to make sure.

"Everything except your pants."

Normally, I wouldn't go this far, but the fact that he came here alone meant he was prepared to die. And someone prepared to die might just strap an I.E.D. to themselves and go for a suicide attack.

The man complied without resistance.

"You’re quite suspicious, aren’t you?"

His body was lean, with visible muscle, and covered in various scars.

To some, he might appear like a seasoned warrior, but to me? Not so much.

Were those really battle wounds?

There were no injuries in critical areas like the joints or abdomen, which would leave lasting damage. Instead, his scars were scattered across his arms, shoulders, and back, all carefully avoiding ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) the spine—shallow, but prominent.

The placement of those scars, combined with the evenly spaced tattoos, suggested they were more for show than anything earned in real combat.

"Come inside."

I opened the door.

Beside me, Chun Young-jae asked.

"Can’t we just kill him?"

"I have questions."

There was another reason I didn't mention.

I looked beyond the outer wall.

There it was.

A black figure lurking in the abandoned farmland below.

A feline mutation.

It was the same one that had played cat-and-mouse with me when I headed to Dies Irae's territory. For some reason, it had followed me all the way back here.

It was highly intelligent and had clearly encountered armed humans before—it never left itself open.

The moment I aimed a gun, it would vanish into the distance.

Of course, if Kim Daram were here, she could end it in three days at most, but at this point, even I had no idea what she was up to.

Beep—

With the buzz of the intercom, the steel door unlocked.

As he picked up his soaked clothes and slipped them back on, the man whistled. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

The rain had washed his face clean, revealing a guy about my age.

"What kind of guy is he?" I asked Defender as we descended from the outer wall.

"A pretty tough one among the Academy Hunters. Not quite a leader, but he had his own crew."

As we stepped down the stairs, Defender glanced at the man and muttered,

"Did they all die, or...?"

Before he could finish, we reached the man.

He had a crooked grin as he looked around at us.

His eyes met Defender’s, and for a brief moment, he looked surprised—but he didn’t react beyond that.

Then, he turned to Ha Tae-hoon.

"You the Professor?"

I shot back.

"The person you're looking for is me."

The man scoffed.

"Oh, I was just looking for the one who fits the codename best."

Ha Tae-hoon wore glasses.

Not always, but when working on delicate tasks, he did.

Defender and Chun Young-jae both looked at me at the same time.

They were waiting for me to decide.

Naturally, I had no intention of recruiting this guy.

Nor did I plan to let him live.

If I felt even slightly generous, I might settle for just kicking him out—but after recent events, I had learned firsthand how dangerous it was to let potential threats walk away.

So, I led him into my bunker.

I tossed him a dry rag instead of a towel to wipe himself down and gave him a cup of hot water.

No coffee, no tea, not even some cheap powdered drink mix.

But in an apocalypse, even a cup of properly purified hot water was a generous offering to an enemy.

The man seemed satisfied as he finished his drink.

"Wow."

He glanced around my bunker.

"Nice place."

His gaze settled on the central toilet.

"What’s that? Some kind of torture device?"

"Just answer my questions."

The interrogation began.

What I wanted to know most was the current state of the Legion faction’s hunters.

Defender had brought back some intel, but he and his sister had gone into hiding before things truly erupted.

This guy, on the other hand, had been on the ground when it all went down.

He would know what had actually happened to the Legion faction hunters and what their situation was now.

But he had no intention of talking.

"Hell if I know. I was too busy getting my own ass out of there. You see a radio on me? All I know is that damned Kim Daram betrayed everyone."

His grin never wavered.

That smirk, that defiant expression, and those occasional, challenging glances at me—it was obvious.

This guy had no plans to help us.

He’d come here with a different purpose.

So I asked.

"Then why the hell did you come here alone?"

The man shook his head and suddenly turned to me with a sharp gaze.

"I came for you."

"For me?"

"Yeah, Professor. I wanted to see for myself how impressive you really are."

"Have you seen enough?"

The man shook his head.

"One thing left."

"And what would that be?"

He pointed his finger straight at me.

There was no need for more words—I could already tell what he wanted.

His eyes flickered to Kim Pil-seong’s machete, hanging on the wall.

"Kim Pil-seong. You killed him, huh? He was strong. More mouth than skill, but still."

Then, as if he’d made up his mind, he turned back to me.

"But what about me?"

Like Pil-seong, he wanted to challenge me with some meaningless melee duel.

"..."

I let out a slow sigh, feeling my interest fading fast.

He sneered.

"What’s wrong? Scared? Pil-seong was afraid of me too. No matter how many times I asked him to fight, he always ran."

Defender leaned in and whispered,

"Want me to drag him out?"

I was still debating when the man suddenly pointed at the wall.

"Let’s make this simple. If you’re too much of a coward to fight me, just give me that blade."

"You want that knife?"

"Yeah. Hand it over, and I’ll leave. If not, go ahead—be a coward and shoot me. Or have your crew gang up and beat me down. But you guys are noble, elite School Hunters, right? You wouldn’t resort to something so pathetic, would you?"

Despite myself, my curiosity was piqued.

"What do you plan to do with it?"

I didn’t believe in magical relics or legendary weapons.

But this guy did.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

"If I have that blade, I can gather my people again."

"I don’t follow."

"Not my problem. Either fight me or play dirty."

Then, out of nowhere, he turned to Defender.

"You know me, right?"

Defender remained silent.

"You know my callsign. Why aren’t you saying anything? We had some good times killing together."

I shot Defender a look.

Only then did he reluctantly nod.

"Lawyer?"

I was the first to speak his callsign.

The man grinned.

"Glad someone remembers me."

It probably wasn’t an official callsign.

Academy Hunters weren’t assigned unique ones like we were.

They were just another disposable unit, their callsigns shifting based on their squad’s designation.

"Did you actually study law?"

"Almost."

The man leaned back in his chair.

Tilting his head slightly, he smirked at me.

"My dad wanted me to go to law school. And honestly, I could have. My grades were good, my family had money, and the exams were a joke for me. I even had connections. But you know what? I did a brief stint as a court clerk."

I didn’t react.

He continued speaking with that same smirking face.

"Wasn’t anything fancy. Mostly helping staff, checking people at security. But one day, I overheard a phone call. The guy was pissed. Something about a correction order. Then he suddenly asked which judicial class the judge who signed it was from."

"You came all this way to rant?"

I had no patience for long-winded stories, so I cut him off. But the man had no intention of stopping.

"Can’t you see it? That damn military prosecutor talking about ‘judicial class’—don’t you get what he was really trying to say?"

The man stood up.

Ignoring our cold stares, he walked past the central toilet and reached for the machete mounted on the wall—the one that had belonged to Kim Pil-seong.

Running his fingers along the blade, he muttered.

"It’s the same everywhere. There’s always a hierarchy. A real joke when you think about it, but in this messed-up world, people act like it’s some insurmountable four-dimensional wall. Take hospitals, for example. Plenty of guys out there can perform surgery better than a licensed doctor, but if they didn't go to medical school, they end up in prison."

Defender shifted slightly.

There was a clear hint of killing intent in his gaze.

I stopped him and stepped forward.

The man grinned.

"You and I—aren’t we the same? Neither of us looks all that special, but some people treat one of us like a living legend, while the other gets treated like a worthless nobody."

"Have you ever done it?"

Srrrng—

I unsheathed my axe.

The grin on his face stretched so wide it almost looked unnatural.

"What, you wanna fight me?"

I advanced.

Then I asked again.

"Have you ever killed a monster?"

I stopped only when we were close enough to reach out and touch each other.

But the distance remained.

Because he was the one who took a step back.

Sweat formed on his forehead.

Just from a single, sudden, and unhesitant advance, he had already flinched.

"Wh-What does it matter?! Even if I did, you guys would just steal all the credit anyway!"

"And?"

I took another step forward.

"W-What?!"

As if by instinct, he stepped back again.

Thud.

His back hit the floor.

I could see the tension on his face.

He forced a smile, struggling to suppress the fear creeping up.

"What, are you gonna kill me?"

"No."

Srrrng—

I drew another axe.

"You’re going to take the bar exam."

For the first time, a flicker of confusion crossed his tense face.

"The hell for?"

"Why?"

"You didn’t hear me before? There’s no point. I’d just be treated like an outsider. It wouldn’t mean anything."

"You always think that way, don’t you?"

I never cared for categorizing people into types.

But now, I understood exactly what kind of man this ‘Lawyer’ was.

I locked eyes with him.

"Don’t you get tired of judging everything based on half-baked assumptions? You don’t even try."

"What?"

"How about Kim Pil-seong, the guy you looked down on?"

I pointed at myself with the axe.

An invitation.

The confidence that had been in his eyes when he first arrived?

Gone.

All that remained was desperation—searching for a way to negotiate, to beg, to crawl his way out.

"At least the owner of that blade—"

I moved first.

"O-Oh, stay back!"

He swung the machete wildly as he retreated.

Clang!

The sword clattered to the ground in just two swings.

The ringing of steel echoed in the bunker.

I pointed my axe at the now-disarmed man.

"Wasn’t a coward like you."

I jerked my chin toward the door.

"Get out."

The man began to shuffle sideways like a crab.

I thought that would be the last time we’d ever see him.

But humans have a way of surpassing even the highest probabilities.

"W-Wait, that sword...!"

The man suddenly spoke up.

"...Can’t you give it to me?"

"?"

I stared at him.

"Please. I’m begging you. Can’t you?"

For a moment, my brain stalled.

I had to process what I was seeing.

He was begging.

Here? Now?

Was this the direction this conversation was going?

Could a person really switch stances that quickly?

"I need that sword. Let me take it back with me."

"What the hell are you saying?!"

Chun Young-jae practically flew across the room, grabbing the man by the collar.

"You pathetic piece of shit!"

With wild eyes, Chun Young-jae pressed a dagger to his throat.

I held him back.

Let the man finish his last words.

"If I have that sword... the guys who abandoned me will come back under me."

He bowed his head.

"When that happens, I’ll repay you. No—I swear I will!"

And that’s when I finally understood what had been bothering me about him.

He was different.

Even though we were both human, there was a difference between us so vast, I couldn’t comprehend it.

And honestly?

There was no reason for me to try.

I glanced at Defender.

Click.

Defender pressed the muzzle of his gun to the man’s temple.

"Get out."

"W-Wait, wait!"

The man turned to me.

His eyes, wide with desperation, glared at me.

"Why?!"

"?"

"Can’t you help me?!"

"Why the hell would I help you?"

"You were famous! You made a ton of money! That’s how you built this fancy bunker, right? After reaping all those benefits, what’s one lousy sword to you?"

"Then let me make you an offer."

I spoke.

"An offer?"

"There’s a mutation nearby."

"A mutation?"

"A feline mutation."

"A single one?"

The man, who had been trembling just moments ago, suddenly scoffed.

"You want me to kill one measly mutant?"

I stared him down.

"That should be nothing for a hunter, shouldn’t it?"

"A single one, right? Black fur?"

"Yeah. It’s the black one."

"I saw it. The damn thing bolted the moment I aimed my gun."

The man left the bunker.

He picked up the rifle he had dropped earlier and waved at us.

He even mentioned something about how this wouldn’t take long.

Unbeknownst to him, Da-jeong’s drone followed him.

It carried a single brick underneath.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunshots rang out amidst the ceaseless rain.

But they didn’t last long.

*

"Man, that cat’s a real bastard."

The road leading up to my territory now had a severed head sitting on display.

The twisted expression of terror belonged to the man who had visited yesterday.

The one who called himself ‘Lawyer.’

"What about the rest of his body?"

Chun Young-jae asked Defender.

"Gone. Guess the cat only brought back the head."

Defender casually picked it up and carried it away to dispose of it.

While he handled that, we discussed our next move.

"We need to kill it."

"Yeah. But we’ll need a damn good marksman. Someone who can hit a target from at least 1,200 meters without hesitation."

"Let’s try reaching out to Bang Jae-hyuk again."

"Bang Jae-hyuk?"

"Yeah. Give that guy a 7.62mm, and he’ll take care of that cat without a problem. He’s one hell of a shot."

Chun Young-jae stretched and gazed up at the now-clear sky.

Still looking up, he asked,

"What if that bastard had actually killed the cat?"

"That would’ve been impossible."

"What if he just ran away instead?"

I thought for a moment.

Then, with a sheepish chuckle, I answered.

"That... probably wasn’t possible either."

Chun Young-jae shot me a glance.

I didn’t say anything.