BSA Ch 27

“I said that because I wanted us to get along well. Wouldn’t you want to return home sooner if our teamwork is good? Still, I have a feeling we’ll get along well. Your insight is much better than expected, and you know when to step back when the time is right.”

A low-pressure front finally began to form on Gwanchang’s forehead. He had made up his mind to yield a notch, but there was no way his blood pressure wouldn’t rise again at Lee Hwanmae’s tone. That lecturing tone! That slick tone! My god, how could someone be so annoying!

Still, let’s endure it. Let’s endure it! The guy in front of him is not an adult male of thirty-two, but a snotty-nosed kid! A child! Liu Bei made three visits to the thatched cottage just to get Zhuge Liang! Lee Hwa is Zhuge Liang to me! Without Lee Hwanmae, I cannot receive Zhuge Liang’s directives! So let’s endure it! Let’s endure it! The man in front of me is a child! A kid!

“The sound of the wind is noisy.”

In front of Gwanchang, Lee Hwanmae picked his ear nonchalantly and pushed his way through the reed field.

It was only a long while later that Gwanchang managed to recover his reason. By this point, worries began to creep in. Gwanchang was fundamentally a person who rarely got angry. No matter how bizarre the phenomenon, he prioritized logically insighting it to find the cause, and he had almost never gotten blindly angry.

Yet right now, he had gotten this angry. How many minutes had it been since he exchanged words with Lee Hwanmae?

If that too is a talent, I suppose it’s a talent.

At the ominous premonition, Gwanchang unconsciously shivered. Among Lee Hwanmae’s various monstrous flaws that exploded like landmines, his infantile aspect was the most unsettling. The reason a mature child is praised is because mature children are rare. Lock a child and an adult in a room together and open the door three hours later. Nine times out of ten, the one who collapses will be the adult, not the child.

Having received Lee Hwa’s favor since a young age and risen rapidly through the ranks, Lee Hwanmae’s mental age was an infant. Gwanchang, on the other hand, was an adult. An adult who had honed only how to endure for a full ten years while serving as a lowly security officer beside Mukso.

The future is already visible in my mind’s eye.

Instinctively, his whole body turned chilly, but Gwanchang desperately tried to think positively. If I endured that King of Murder for ten years, can’t I tolerate Lee Hwanmae? Surely Lee Hwanmae doesn’t have any other bizarre flaws besides self-absorption, religious fanaticism, zero consideration, infantile malice, arrogant and rude speech, and a talent for getting on people’s nerves, right?

Gwanchang fixed a steady glare on the back of Lee Hwanmae walking ahead. Flaws aside, the white-faced man walking ahead of him right now, casually humming a tune, was undoubtedly useful enough in terms of ability. All this side had to do was appropriately cater to Lee Hwanmae’s temperament, faithfully receive Zhuge Liang’s advice, and rise to the throne.

Alright, settled.

Gwanchang decided to go back to having lewd thoughts for now. When relieving stress, having lewd thoughts was simply the best. He couldn’t even count how many times he had imagined raping Mukso and his sons and humiliating them during the ten years since joining the military.

If the guys who pigeonhole this side as a timid, moderate-faction security officer were to peek into his head, they’d pass out from shock. My head is a hell. A brothel. A cesspool.

Preparing to plunge the object currently stressing him out into a brothel, Gwanchang narrowed his eyes. Still, Lee Hwanmae seemed like he’d offer a more beautiful landscape of rape than Mukso’s gang. His face was quite decent-looking. He looked a lot like Hopi, the cruel and pretty private first class. He looked enough like him at a glance to seem like close relatives. The long, cruelly slanted eyes, and the exceptionally white and smooth skin unbefitting a warrior were particularly similar. If Hopi was pretty, Lee Hwanmae deserved the expression ‘beautiful’. A strong guy was even beautiful to boot. His tall, slender physique wrapped in an ascetic black uniform was also as exquisitely chiseled as a statue. Very stimulating. Right, the more a guy like that is, the more satisfying it is to pin him down and fuck him.

Gwanchang entered into a full-fledged rape fantasy. Just as he was about to imagine forcing Lee Hwanmae to his knees and slapping his cheeks soundly with his cock—abruptly, Lee Hwanmae whipped around toward this side. That movement was so flash-like that Gwanchang couldn’t help letting out a gasp of “Hah.”

“W-What?”

For a split second, Gwanchang looked around, wondering if a wolf had appeared nearby. Aside from the sound of reeds rustling against each other, there was no sign of life at all. Lee Hwanmae stared blankly and steadily at Gwanchang.

“What is it? Huh?”

Gwanchang kept asking. Especially since he had just been having lewd thoughts targeting Lee Hwanmae, he felt a bit guilty. On top of that, what was with that terrifying gaze staring him down as if to devour him, as if he had literally eavesdropped on this side’s thoughts?

A bizarre suspicion arose. How many times is this? Aren’t coincidences happening excessively often?

As much as he enjoyed logical thinking, Gwanchang also believed in statistics. The number of times coincidences had repeated so far was excessively high. Could it not be a coincidence? Could Lee Hwanmae genuinely know how to read people’s minds? Is that why he was handpicked for a lightning promotion by Lee Hwa right after graduation? Not just because he’s cruel and clever, but because he possesses telepathic abilities?

“Hey, you…!”

It was the exact moment Gwanchang opened his mouth. Lee Hwanmae said.

“Got a cigarette?”

“Huh?”

To the bewildered Gwanchang, Lee Hwanmae repeated, “I asked if you have a cigarette.”

“I don’t smoke. I don’t have any.”

“I see.”

Lee Hwanmae whipped his back around and walked off, parting the reed field. His movements were as nonchalant as if nothing had happened, but Gwanchang quietly stared at Lee Hwanmae’s retreating back.

Is it a coincidence? Or not.

The figure of Lee Hwanmae walking away while whistling was chillingly nonchalant. However, Gwanchang was clearly convinced. It is not a coincidence. The prophet Lee Hwa exists. There is no law saying a telepathic ability user like Lee Hwanmae cannot exist. The reason Lee Hwanmae had said he only needed to listen to the snakes’ words, and the nonsensical bullshit of ‘I am God’s messenger, so do not curse me even in your heart and keep your manners’ actually had a valid reason lurking behind it.

The actual culprit who frequently struck his troublesome third-cousin—who cursed him like mad in his mind—with divine punishment was not Lee Hwa, but Lee Hwanmae himself. Lee Hwanmae wasn’t a lunatic. Those lunatic-like absurdities turned out to be a kind of humor that only Lee Hwanmae himself understood.

Gwanchang gave a low, dry chuckle. But come to think of it, that fellow compares himself to Lee Hwa on the sly, doesn’t he?

If he were Lee Hwa, he would have struck Lee Hwanmae’s calves several times by now. Isn’t this like a grandson pulling his grandfather’s beard just because he was shown some affection? No matter how close he is to Lee Hwa, how could he compare himself to Lee Hwa like that? Truly arrogant.

Just how on earth does he live?

Once the shock from Lee Hwanmae’s wiretapping ability faded, all sorts of questions flooded in. How on earth did a guy with that kind of ability endure during ritual ceremonies involving hundreds of people? Wouldn’t his eardrums burst? Didn’t his ears hurt?

“Not that, snake.”

A chuckle spilled from ahead. Gwanchang hurriedly raised his head.

Lee Hwanmae spoke while continuing to push his way through the reed field.

“You can just think of it as opening and closing a circuit. If you want to eavesdrop on a specific target’s thoughts, you open the circuit and tune the frequency; if it’s annoying, you just shut it. It requires training. Of course, in loud places like a ballroom, no matter how much you tune the frequency, you can’t hear well. I figured it out on my own, but my troublesome third-cousin couldn’t control it and almost had his eardrums burst once.”

“You’ve been listening to my thoughts this whole time? The shortcut guidance was just an excuse, and you were actually checking whether I’d harbor any ill intentions…”

Gwanchang couldn’t finish his sentence and furrowed his brows. Wait, could that guy—?

“Yeah, Hopi is my very own troublesome third-cousin. I assigned him to keep tabs on you and ordered him to wiretap, too. As you’ve seen, Hopi and I look a lot alike. Well, to explain a bit more, once you master this ability, you can infiltrate a person’s consciousness and scoop out information. Your past, your thoughts, and your anger that I mentioned earlier weren’t hints given by God, but things I found out entirely through my own ability. A talent like this is probably only me in this world, right? Most people just catch the sounds the opponent mutters out loud to themselves and stop there. Haha, I suddenly remember how very useful I found this ability when I killed that bastard with the last name Lee in the past.”

“Shut the circuit right now.”

Gwanchang demanded bluntly. Lee Hwanmae let out a faint smile.