Chae Nayun slammed the door to her room and jumped on her bed. She simply went to ask them out for a nighttime snack, but heard an interesting conversation and eavesdropped.

— I’ve been thinking about her for far longer than you. And I’ve been watching over her all this time. So I know far more about her than you.

It was the first time she had heard something so direct. She usually prevented such situations and few men would ever confidently approach her.

“Is he crazy?”

Kim Hajin’s words still lingered in her ears.

Should I wash my ears? Or should I have smacked him? Chae Nayun bounced around on her bed.

“What’s going on…?”

Chae Nayun’s seemingly drunk act woke Yoo Yeonha.

“Nayun… What are you doing?”

“H-Huh?”

Chae Nayun flinched as Yoo Yeonha glared at her. Why was this girl beating up a poor bedsheet?

“Are you sick or something?”

“I-It’s nothing.”

Chae Nayun couldn’t tell her what she had just heard. She couldn’t imagine telling anyone something that personal.

“Then sleep. I’m tired.”

Yoo Yeonha muttered and plopped back to bed.

“Uh, yeah, good night. I’m sleeping too.”

Chae Nayun buried herself under her blanket.

Right, it doesn’t matter. I only overheard it. Regardless of Kim Hajin’s intentions, I just have to ignore them.

Chae Nayun pulled the blanket over her head.

However, she couldn’t fall asleep. Thinking about her… Watching over her all this time … Fragments of Kim Hajin’s words kept wandering in her head.

Watching over me all this time? Is he a stalker? No, if he was, I would have noticed.

Sharpshooters had extremely keen senses. A stalker who secretly took pictures, followed women late at night, and things like that…

Kyaaaak—!!

Suddenly, a high-pitched voice rang out in the mansion. Chae Nayun opened her eyes and shot up.

“W-What!? Ah, aaak!”

Yoo Yeonha also woke up and fell as she tripped on her bedsheet. She glared at Chae Nayun with her hands on the floor.

“Chae Nayun! Y-You!”

“No! It wasn’t me this time!”

“Then who was it!?”

“… Outside.”

Chae Nayun turned on the lights, and someone else also turned on the hallway lights outside. They could hear loud footsteps running. Yoo Yeonha began to understand the gravity of the situation.

“Was that a real scream?”

“Yeah. Hurry up. We should go.”

Chae Nayun put on a jacket.

***

Kim Suho ran out the moment he heard the scream. I was about to follow when I noticed my Desert Eagle on the shelf. I couldn’t store it away since I didn’t have any magic power left, but someone had taken care of it.

“…”

The handgun struck me with a flash of inspiration.

“With this… No.”

I quickly cast the thought away, but what Kim Suho said lingered in my ears.

— If I’m a main character, then you’re one too.

I tried my best not to alter the original story because I feared unpredictability. However, a certain damned person had already altered the story. This world was full of unpredictability, so worrying about it was foolish.

“I’m sure it’ll work out somehow.”

I picked up my gun after shrugging off the hesitation.

Then I ran down the hallway to the mansion owner’s room. The other 14 members stood by in shock.

“T-This…”

In a dark room larger than six ordinary living rooms, the mansion owner lay in bed with a dagger sticking out of his heart. A maid sobbed in front of the traumatic scene. She had presumably discovered the scene.

“Bedel…”

Kim Suho muttered Belbet’s fake name. I could understand why everyone appeared so shocked. During dinner, Belbet must’ve acted like a kind grandfather to gather sympathy. He must’ve said things like, My son who died also wanted to become a hero.

“Wait. Let, let me confirm his state.”

Oh Hanhyun’s girlfriend, Natasha, approached as a doctor. I scrutinized her movements as she checked his pulse. Then she shook her head.

“… He’s gone.”

She closed Belbet’s eyes and returned to Oh Hanhyun’s side. I found it laughable that she pretended to be sad and leaned against his shoulder.

“W-What happened…”

The head butler ran into the room. He broke into tears, then talked about all the fake good deeds Belbet had done, and reiterated all the threats Belbet had received from evildoers.

I originally planned on letting the story unfold like my novel, but I no longer desired to watch this farce.

Belbet would later scheme to help djinns. I didn’t know what else he would do if left alone. If possible, I wanted to get rid of him now.

“S-So they did it! Those bastards…”

“Calm down, head butler.”

While the cadets comforted the sobbing maid and butler, I turned the lights on. Immediately, the room lit up.

“Hey, why did you turn the lights on!”

Chae Nayun shouted because of the bloody corpse. I glanced around before slowly walking up to Belbet.

“Excuse me! Don’t go near!”

Natasha shouted as I ignored her and examined Belbet like a detective. I lifted his clothes to check his wound and pressed down on the bloody bed.

“You can’t tamper with the crime scene before the police arrive.”

Natasha could no longer endure it and came over to drag me away. However, I pulled out my gun and aimed at her.

“Don’t come close.”

“…”

Natasha raised her hands in shock while the butler, who was crying just a moment ago, shouted, “W-What are you doing!?”

It wasn’t just the butler. The cadets also shouted the same thing. My head began to hurt. Was it because I woke up from exhaustion? I felt irritated and gritted my teeth. Then I shouted, “SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

Even I was surprised by my volume as silence immediately descended. I sighed and calmly continued.

“This person is trying to trick us. He’s not dead. He’s in a state called suspended animation.”

“D-Don’t be stupid. I’m a doctor. What do you know about—”

“I’m going to explain, so shut up and wait.”

I continued with my gun still pointed at Natasha.

“First, this scar is unnatural. It’s too shallow for someone to have stabbed him from above.”

I just reported what I observed. Of course, I wasn’t an expert in crime scene investigation, so I could have been wrong. However, the process didn’t matter since I knew the truth.

“Next, there’s too much blood. He only suffered one fatal injury to his heart, but the blood covered the entire bed and even dripped to the floor. Almost as if to emphasize he was dead.”

I stole a glance at Natasha. She didn’t seem agitated yet.

“Finally, and most importantly…”

I projected the International Wanted List from my smartwatch. I might have lied about everything else, but this was real. Belbet looked thinner in the photo, but the man lying dead looked very similar. I had shaken up all the cadets now.

“Of course, you can argue that they’re different individuals since the man in the photo is much thinner, but something is definitely up if you consider the other two clues.”

“Head butler, you called the police and ambulance, right?”

However, Natasha remained calm and asked the butler, who quickly responded.

“Y-Yes, I called them.”

“Then we can just ask them instead of making a fuss.”

I couldn’t let that happen. Once the bribed police and medical personnel arrived, Belbet would safely escape, so I had to resolve the situation before then.

With a grin, I moved my gun away from Natasha and pointed at Belbet. Only then did Natasha lose her composure.

“W-What are you doing!”

“What do you mean? I’m going to shoot him.”

“The police will be here soon!”

“He’s dead anyway, right?”

I put my finger on the trigger.

“T-This scoundrel! Honey, stop him!”

Natasha shook Oh Hanhyun and urged him to step forward. The head butler, Belbet, and Natasha were all in the same boat.

“Um, Hajin…”

Oh Hanhyun carefully spoke up.

“If you move even a single step, I’ll shoot. Especially you, Kim Suho. I’m only looking at you.”

“… Got it.”

Kim Suho, who slowly approached, stopped and raised his hands. I also told the other cadets to back off. Then I spoke to Natasha.

“It’s loaded with real bullets.”

“We already called the police! Put the gun down!”

Natasha’s entire body trembled. Her reaction should be enough proof, but I still needed something more decisive.

“If you don’t confess by the time I count to one, I’m going to shoot. Since he’s dead, it doesn’t matter, right?”

“Confess what? He’s already dead!”

I began to count.

“Three.”

I diverted my focus to the cadets in case anyone tried anything stupid.

“Two.”

Contrary to my expectations, Kim Suho remained calm. The usually timid Oh Hanhyun began to operate his magic power, but Yoo Yeonha stopped him.

“Wait.”

Thanks to her, I could finish my countdown.

“One.”

Natasha still didn’t react.

“Then he’ll have to die.”

Click. I pulled the trigger.

“NO!”

It wasn’t loaded, but Natasha wasn’t aware and quickly pushed me aside. Then she prostrated on top of Belbet as if to protect him.”

“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”

“… Hmm.”

I calmly put my gun down with enough proof. Natasha was Belbet’s daughter. Belbet settled in France and managed to invite Cube cadets because of Natasha.

“Instead of the police, call the Hero Association. Tell them we caught a wanted criminal.”

I loaded my gun and fired. The magic bullet grazed the butler’s leg, who ran away.

“Aaak!”

Only silence remained after that short scream. The other cadets stared at me as I walked outside. My heart thumped like crazy.

***

Belbet and Natasha had devised the assassination to avoid the narrowing investigations of multiple countries. His daughter coincidentally seduced a pushover Cube cadet and bore the plan to fruition.

The so-called operation, Return to Life.

Natasha easily obtained the expensive drug to fake Belbet’s death as a Cube doctor. Everything afterward was simple. Belbet took the drug after a fake injury and sprayed the crime scene with blood packs. The emergency medical personnel wouldn’t notice, and Belbet had already bribed the local police. Next, Belbet would swap with the corpse of a similar man during the ambulance ride. Afterward, the Cube cadets would testify and persuade everyone. The government workers he bribed would ensure he was officially dead, and the real Belbet would be reborn under a new name.

Kim Suho would only find out in the future.

However, I destroyed the story related to Belbet. The association arrested him while he remained in suspended animation. He would wake up in jail.

[Belbet, the man you requested, has been arrested by the French police and is currently being transported to a local Hero Association branch.] [Congratulations! This question was answered free of charge because you are our first customer.]

It was currently 9 A.M as I replied to Belbet’s victim through the Truth Agency.

“… Are you Sherlock?”

Yoo Yeonha suddenly asked me. I smiled without answering. Honestly, my deductions last night were amateurish at best, but no one questioned what I said because of the unexpected situation.

Luckily, the investigation revealed what I said to be mostly correct.

“The incident with Yun Hyun and now this. You might as well open a detective agency.”

“Sharpshooters have good eyes.”

“That’s true, but how did you recognize him? Do you have the faces of every wanted criminal memorized?”

I flinched. As expected, Yoo Yeonha caught one of the flaws in my actions.

“I apologize. That’s a private matter." [1]

That was all I could tell her.

“What’s up with the sudden formality?”

Yoo Yeonha retorted with a thoughtful expression. A family matter? Family matter… She wandered off into her world of imagination. I wasn’t even curious about what she misunderstood.

Speaking of family affairs, I suddenly grew curious about Kim Chundong’s family. All I knew from his official records was that he was from an orphanage. I should probably look into it once I returned.

1. The word, private matter, can also mean family matter.