INV 50

Originally, Kwon Yihyeon’s eye color was hazel. His pupils, deeper and darker than beige, would sometimes shimmer with gold when they caught the light on a sunny day.

Still, if someone were to ask Kwon Yihyeon if his eyes were a vivid gold, he could have asserted they were not. It was only natural. They were his own eyes. He faced them in the mirror every morning when he woke up to wash his face.

However, there was something Kwon Yihyeon did not know.

He did not know that every time his spirit eye awakened, an enchantingly deep gold swirled within them. He also did not know yet that spiritual power possessed attributes.

In a way, it was only natural.

Because he hadn’t been trained!

It was the damaging result of today’s intern training schedule being blown away, but since Kwon Yihyeon lacked self-awareness, he didn’t even know there was a problem.

Since he didn’t know how appalled the people beyond the magic mirror were, he was all the more unbothered.

‘Well, I couldn’t care less whether that lot is appalled or not.’

Anyway, this was exactly why Assistant Manager Woon had asked him a while ago if his eyes were originally this color.

She had witnessed this very kind of moment.

“It, it is not demonic energy. What is this…”

“Why is a celestial energy felt from Jae Angshin’s contractor…!”

Those who were watching Kwon Yihyeon from behind the magic mirror reflexively covered their mouths with both hands.

But no matter how much they blathered on, not a word of what they said inside the magic mirror could be heard.

So, Kwon Yihyeon smiled kindly.

‘His eyes are clearly clear and harbor a pure energy, so why is it so terrifying?’

The answer was derived immediately in the next moment.

⋆˙⟡

When his eye color changed, Kwon Yihyeon sensed his entire body suddenly becoming sensitive, and in particular, his pupils harbored an unnaturally strong heat. Was it because the heavy mission of having to protect the world uplifted him? He wasn’t quite sure, but this moment was a chance.

Particles that were previously invisible were caught in his sight again.

In the past, the particles were a bit larger, but now they appeared to be broken down into finer pieces.

As the tiny particles gathered and floated around, it all looked like a mist.

In the past, Kwon Yihyeon was able to change the color of the particles. At the same time, he instinctively felt that it would be difficult now.

But somehow, it felt like doing it this way would be easy.

Grab.

Kwon Yihyeon grabbed the fallen investigator by the scruff of the neck. Then he walked toward the magic mirror.

Screeeeeeech…

The sound of the bat’s end scraping against the floor was hair-raising.

Regardless, Kwon Yihyeon looked directly at the magic mirror and spoke.

“You there, you can see me, right?”

Kwon Yihyeon, raising one corner of his mouth crookedly, then cracked his neck side to side as if loosening it up.

It was truly the behavior of a thug, and Kwon Yihyeon had borrowed Gwak Deukcheon as a model to show off this violent and arrogant appearance.

It was a statement that would have made Gwak Deukcheon roar in anger if he heard it, but Kwon Yihyeon was serious.

There was no one better than Gwak Deukcheon to help with a ruffian impersonation!

“About this matter, it seems Governor Gangnim doesn’t know…”

However, the attitude of dragging out the end of his words and applying subtle pressure was taken from Chacha, not Gwak Deukcheon. Chacha, while watching Kwon Yihyeon’s practical acting class where he was used as a reference, burst into laughter and collapsed.

Regardless, Kwon Yihyeon maintained a threatening stance.

He lowered his gaze and pulled up the corners of his lips brightly. He created a sense of incongruity between his eyes and his mouth. Making it impossible to tell what was sincere. Pressuring them so they couldn’t even breathe properly from the tension…

“Who planned this?”

“…”

“Huh? No one is answering?”

When it came time to release the tension, he let go completely. He just let it go.

Instead, Kwon Yihyeon smiled innocently.

On the inside, a heated debate was breaking out over whether they should answer or not, but naturally, the commotion inside could not be heard outside the magic mirror.

So, Kwon Yihyeon decided to prepare a Sprite shower for Chacha in the simplest way.

Crash! Smash!

He simply smashed the magic mirror to pieces!

“…!” “…!”

In Kwon Yihyeon’s eyes, the particles the investigator possessed were close to gold, but they weren’t a brilliant color like honey or a bountiful ear of grain like his own. However, in order to utilize the investigator’s bat “to its full potential,” he had to copy his color. So, Kwon Yihyeon walked to the magic mirror while clutching the investigator’s neck and smashed the magic mirror with the bat.

This was exactly the reason and the secret story of how Kwon Yihyeon was able to break the magic mirror.

Of course, since this world is the Underworld overflowing with the occult, the magic mirror was not left alone without any barriers. Rather, at first, it was packed so tightly with protective barriers that he was at a loss as to how to break it.

Then, the bat the investigator had left behind like a “Giving Tree” caught his eye.

Kwon Yihyeon couldn’t understand the talismans attached to the bat, but it was at least possible to manifest the power sleeping within the tool. He felt like he knew how to use it just by holding it. That was all.

And so, Kwon Yihyeon blew up the magic mirror…

Kwon Yihyeon didn’t know this, but only three people in the history of the Underworld had broken the magic mirror.

Governor Gangnim. Gwak Deukcheon. And Kwon Yihyeon.

─ What a spectacle! Hahat! Hahahahahat!

Chacha laughed uproariously by himself, and Kwon Yihyeon, who didn’t know the circumstances, didn’t feel bad either.

Kwon Yihyeon crossed over into the interrogation room area while smiling like a good-natured person.

Just as a strange fear was crawling up and scratching the bellies of the crowd, Kwon Yihyeon opened his mouth.

“Did you all enjoy your voyeurism?”

“H-how did you break the protection charm!”

Was his appearance quite threatening? One old man shouted as if having a fit. Judging by looks alone, he seemed at an age where age spots should be blooming on his face, but his skin was quite clean. He appeared to be a human who had extended his longevity thanks to a contract with the Underworld. Kwon Yihyeon, stopping in his tracks for a moment, stared at him quietly, and after confirming his energy was a muddy brown like a rotten quagmire…

‘Ah, I’ve gone and seen something others can’t see.’

He realized he now had two secrets that had to be unconditionally hidden from everyone.

He was able to realize quickly that he had seen something others couldn’t see.

‘Because if everyone else could see it, they wouldn’t have put an old man with such murky energy into a high-ranking position…!’

Yet, he sat in a dignified chair as if respected.

Even though someone with much purer spiritual power was standing at the very back…

‘Ah, no. Sink the thoughts below the surface.’

Kwon Yihyeon desperately hoped his thoughts wouldn’t float to the surface where Chacha could read them.

Kwon Yihyeon had realized two of his own abilities.

The ability to see through the spiritual power of others. The ability to manipulate the spiritual power of an opponent he touched.

‘This must never be known. Not even to Chacha. This… I feel like I must hide this at all costs.’

It wasn’t anything else; his intuition was screaming it.

‘At the most critical moment, when no one knows, I must strike the weak point.’

The only saving grace was that the color of the investigator’s spiritual power and his own were similar, and since the investigator was unconscious, there was no way to prove that Kwon Yihyeon had stolen someone else’s ability. So, Kwon Yihyeon pushed the abilities he had realized far away in his mind and gave a broad smirk.

“Nice to meet you. We’ve finally become a relationship that can share a horizontal gaze.”

At that sight, those who were reminded of Gwak Deukcheon once again shuddered and recoiled in disgust.

While slowly looking around the crowd, a familiar face was standing at the very back.

Kwon Yihyeon smiled brightly as if truly glad to see him.

“Pervert eyes… Sunglasses Sunbae?”

It was a crazy thing to say.

“Sunbae, you were here too! Good to see you! I actually had something I wanted to ask you.”

At the sight of madness flashing in those clear eyes, the investigator unconsciously gulped dryly.

Kwon Yihyeon, with the bat loosely slung over his neck, walked toward the back with a fast stride.

Then he stopped in front of the pervert-eyed man wearing sunglasses.

He asked the thing he had been curious about.

“Are you by any chance that ‘Geom Biyeon’ fellow or whatever? The one who desperately wants to kill me…?”

“That is correct, Intern-kun.”

In the next instant, the blade Geom Biyeon drew moved at an invisible speed. Kwon Yihyeon only saw him sheathing the sword. Even with his spirit eyes open, he hadn’t caught Geom Biyeon’s movement.

Thud, thud-thud.

Only a moment later did two mosquitoes that had been flying through the air fall to the floor.

Kwon Yihyeon looked at his opponent, who burned with a hostility intense enough to be bewildering for a second meeting.

“If you’ve even found out my name, I don’t know what kind of nerve you have to stand before me.”

The man named Geom Biyeon was shining with a vivid murderous intent from behind his sunglasses.

In a posture that seemed to boast he could draw his sword again at any moment.

‘Stay still, Mister Priest.’

Trust me. I’ll give you a Sprite shower again.

Kwon Yihyeon blurted out those thoughts as if to be heard.

Clap, clap, clap-clap, clap-clap-clap-clap…!

He began to applaud.

“…?”

Naturally, no one clapped along with him. However, Kwon Yihyeon didn’t mind the awkward atmosphere.

He was simply preparing a sweet “screw you.”

“Wow! You are truly amazing, Sunbae! Two mosquitoes! With a single draw of the sword, mosquitoes! Pests that suck human blood! A horrific evil that shouldn’t exist! To have exterminated two enemies of humanity!”

“…”

“Ah, this is truly the act of protecting the world itself! A savior has descended upon this place…!”

⋆˙⟡

Gangnim, who had received a report that the investigator in charge of Kwon Yihyeon had been replaced from someone within Gangnim’s reach to Geom Biyeon’s faction, opened the interrogation room door to whisk Kwon Yihyeon away, only to have his eardrums assaulted.

“Shut up! Do you truly want to die?”

“I don’t want my savior to fall because of me! Please don’t become a fallen angel for my sake! Because… that’s not like you, Savior! That’s just how it is!!”

He felt like closing the door and walking right back out.

Even while Great King Yama agonized, the nonsense only grew in volume. Moreover, it wasn’t as if trouble had only broken out here. At least Kang Taerim was being investigated quietly, but in the interrogation room holding Gwak Deukcheon, who was awaiting an evening trial, the thirteenth investigator was running out in tears, and Man Juhae was in the middle of a one-on-four brawl. Of course, the skinny Man Juhae was on the side of the four.

In other words, the Haetae Department, having been subjected to an absurd investigation, had escaped, regrouped, and were now fighting.

“Why, why are you only hitting me?! The other bastards talked shit to you too! So why hit only me…?!”

“We only hit one guy!”

“Once that bastard croaks, we’ll pick another one! So croak already! That way we can hit the next guy!”

“Son of a… gurgle!”

Today, too, Underworld Company Co., Ltd. was going out of its mind in grand style.