Vicious Darling

[31]

Chris was watching Yuri’s work site.

Honestly, he hadn’t been given permission.

“Don’t follow me.”

Before leaving for his new workplace, Yuri had said that to the restless Chris.

“We have no idea what kind of work I’ll be doing or who will be waiting.”

Chris didn’t back down easily.

“I think it’s right to observe the initial stages.”

“Well said. You want to follow when we don’t know where I’ll be going or who I’ll meet?”

Yuri asked with a blunt expression.

“What if it’s an open plain without any cover? What if there’s an Esper who can detect others’ presence? That would ruin everything.”

“…”

“I’ll contact you when the time is right. So wait.”

Yuri’s hand lightly tapped Chris’s cheek.

The sensation once felt through gloves now seemed distant.

“Be good, okay?”

But Chris lightly betrayed Yuri’s order.

He had arrived together from the start, that is, when Yuri first set foot in this ‘site’ after crossing Babel City.

He couldn’t let Yuri out of his sight.

There were no other Baekyah members here, and this wasn’t even the Winter Continent.

And Yuri was heading into the heart of enemy territory.

Chris had a duty to protect Yuri.

Yuri, after getting out of the car, entered a container without hesitation.

“What if there’s a trap in there…”

As Chris sighed, Peter beside him said,

“They wouldn’t do something so wasteful, would they?”

He had been about to go to work but was dragged along by Chris.

Chris was skilled at tracking. However, he wasn’t yet very familiar with the geography of the Spring Continent.

The car that picked up Yuri moved cunningly, as if anticipating being followed.

Chris, who had experienced such situations a few times before, made full use of Peter’s teleportation ability to follow the car.

“It’s a good thing I don’t need preparation for short distances! I can’t believe you’re using a high-grade labor force like me like this.”

Chris looked at Peter, who was whining about how exhausting it was, and put his index finger to his lips.

It meant he wanted to observe the situation over there, so be quiet.

Peter shut his mouth tightly. He knew it would be pointless to argue about who had helped them get this far.

“…It’s taking too long.”

How much time had passed since Yuri entered the container and disappeared from view? Chris fidgeted as if he might jump in there at any moment.

Peter chewed on his lips. To be honest, it’s natural for an unleashed dog to go looking for its owner.

‘My conscience is pricking me, but I think I should stop him.’

If Yuri’s work is ruined, he won’t let it slide. In just a few days of knowing him, Peter had realized Yuri had one of the nastiest personalities he’d ever encountered, coupled with incredible drive.

The problem was that this dog was a fierce one, and Peter didn’t dare to grab its leash in place of its owner.

Fortunately for Peter, this dog was very well-trained.

Swallowing his impulses and anxieties, Chris waited endlessly.

After what felt like a thousand years, Yuri emerged from the container accompanied by a woman in formal attire.

They had heard from Yuri about an inspector sent by the city.

“Is that woman Abigail Chung?”

Peter nodded slightly.

“Yes.”

“You recognize her right away from this distance.”

“Well, I am a high-grade Esper after all.”

It meant his senses were superior to ordinary people’s.

“Besides… she’s not a stranger to me.”

Peter grinned.

It was a smile filled with lingering hatred rather than goodwill.

“Let me just say, evil doesn’t always come in the form of a devil.”

As far as he knew, it could sometimes be as gentle as a spring breeze and as soft as a newly bloomed flower.

Like that inspector.

“…Seems like you’ve been burned.”

“Let’s just say my precious neighbors disappeared after a visit from someone similar.”

As it wasn’t a topic he wanted to discuss at length, Peter fell silent.

Chris didn’t pry further.

‘Not because he’s indifferent.’

If anything, Yuri was the indifferent one. Chris was pretending not to know while actually knowing everything.

While acting as if he only had eyes for his master, this kind of subtle consideration created an interesting gap that subtly excited people.

“Anyway, are you really going to keep waiting here?”

Peter pouted.

“You know if we mess up the operation, both you and I will die, right? He told us not to follow.”

“I’ve never ruined Yuri’s work.”

Chris replied calmly.

Just then, a cart moving in that pit stumbled on a protruding rock fragment. Blue liquid splashed from the containers it was carrying.

“Agh!”

Along with a scream audible even from here, their skin was visibly reddening as if burned.

“It’s a more dangerous environment than I thought,” Chris muttered.

“I need to watch from closer.”

Peter gasped at those words.

“What if you get caught! Are you out of your mind?”

Chris paid no heed to the protests.

He moved his hands and began unbuttoning his shirt.

The platinum-haired young man standing in the middle of the greenery was already surreal enough, but when his unaltered upper body was revealed, Peter’s eyes widened.

Firm muscles seemed to wrap his body, full of strength. The shoulders and neckline, slender enough not to look dull, captivated the viewer’s gaze.

Peter felt his lips go dry.

‘He resembles it.’

Once before, he had seen a work sculpting a god from ancient civilization.

It wasn’t intentional. He had gone there because a missing immigrant was reportedly being forced into labor.

Although he had never received proper education or cultivated refinement, that statue had momentarily captivated Peter’s gaze.

Is it possible for an actual human to overlap with a work that a sculptor, whose name is forgotten in this era, had poured their heart and soul into?

The Chris before his eyes was the answer to that question.

“This should do.”

Chris’s half-naked body slowly transformed. His back curved as his hands touched the ground, and fur grew from his bare skin.

His ears became pointed upwards, and his snout elongated. Though his viewpoint lowered, he quickly adapted.

Chris turned his head towards Peter as if to ask, “How is it?”

A silver-furred wolf wandering the Spring Continent would be quite noticeable.

But it’s better than human Chris being discovered.

Peter, looking this way, had his mouth wide open.

‘The wolf form seems quite presentable.’

Chris shook his body lightly once.

Although the therianthropic ability wasn’t originally his, it was easy to adapt to.

As if his human form had been the fake one all along.

“A-A wolf? Weren’t you an Esper who uses telekinesis? Don’t tell me you’re the first multi-ability user?”

Chris finally understood Peter’s shock. Just as the Barrel Society doesn’t share all their information with them, Baekyah hadn’t necessarily revealed Anastasia’s existence.

There was no reason to explain it to Peter now, and it was impossible to speak human language with a wolf’s vocal organs.

Therefore, Chris just shook his head roughly before leaping into the forest separating him from Yuri.

“Hey! At least answer before you go!”

Peter’s voice mixed with the wind brushing past his ears. It was amusing that he couldn’t bring himself to shout, but instead of laughter, a beast’s growl escaped his mouth.

‘This is interesting.’

Although he hadn’t fully adapted yet, he felt a liberating freedom that opened up his chest.

Chris arrived near the work site in an instant.

Running on four legs was not only fast, but it was also easy to hide his body among small bushes by lowering himself completely.

‘Seeing it like this, humans really are inconvenient.’

In terms of size alone, the wolf might be slightly larger than human Chris.

But as a human, walking on two legs was disadvantageous in many ways for stealthy approaches or escape situations.

It wasn’t that Chris wanted to destroy everything during every mission. It was just that he often couldn’t sneak in or sneak out. As a result, he was naturally excluded from infiltration missions.

‘…If I had been more skilled, would Yuri have taken me along?’

While thinking, he absently pawed at the ground, and the earth right below was hollowed out.

Not wanting to leave unnecessary traces, Chris covered up the soil he had dug up to its original state.

Of course, the answer was ‘no.’

Yuri wanted to handle this job personally.

Minimizing Chris’s involvement was perhaps the natural course of action.

Yuri could be seen lifting a tool. Although he was hiding his original appearance, Chris could read through that illusion as easily as breathing.

It was because he had memorized all of Yuri’s minor habits and expressions.

Observing his master, Chris clicked his tongue.

‘After this is all over… this place won’t remain standing.’

His master seemed to be in a very bad mood.

***

“Mayor, you’ve arrived.”

Abigail Chung, rising from her seat, bowed her head to the old woman who had just appeared.

Martha Chafnil, the elected mayor of Babel City for this term.

“Good morning, Inspector Chung.”

Chafnil, with her white hair tied tightly, smiled brightly.

“When can I expect to receive the report I sent back yesterday?”

“I’ll send it to you by two o’clock.”

“I was hoping to see it before noon.”

“You seem very busy today as well.”

Mayor Chafnil shook her head as if to say don’t even mention it.

“In the afternoon, I’m scheduled to attend a briefing in Babel’s 5th district. And in the evening, I have a dinner meeting with investors. I wish I had five bodies.”

Abigail smiled, almost imperceptibly.

She was always a person overflowing with passion. That’s why Chafnil was also her role model.

As Babel was the center of the April Continent, it was no exaggeration to say that the April Continent moved according to Chafnil’s intentions.

Chafnil’s voice carried more weight than even the mayors of the March and May Continents, which were united under the framework of the Spring Continent.

It was because she was producing ‘results.’

“How’s the progress on ‘Blue Tier’?”

“It’s going smoothly.”

Abigail manipulated her device to bring up an information window on the screen.

The current progress of the reconstruction site, deployed manpower, and estimated excavation period passed by in order.

“Two months is too long. Cut it down to one month.”

“We’ve already maximized everything, but…”

As Abigail said this, she recalled the new illegal immigrant she had met just yesterday.

The poor human who had come crumpled in a barrel, struggling to reach the continent of dreams.

He had manners and speech that put him in the top 30% of all the people she had met so far.

Although there wasn’t time to properly verify, there were traces of education.

‘It would be good to use him elsewhere… but right now we’re focusing all our efforts here.’

“I know that… I know how hard you’re working, Abigail.”

Martha was still smiling.

“But as you know, even if I understand, the investors don’t. If there’s even a slight delay, they’ll nag about whether the chronic laziness of the Spring Continent has struck again.”

Sighing as she cupped her hollow cheeks, Martha’s eyes suddenly lit up as she said to Abigail,

“I’ll try to persuade them for now. But I’d like you to move with the understanding that we need to procure Blue Tier as quickly as possible.”

“Of course, without question.”

“Thank you. Having Inspector Chung puts my mind at ease somewhat.”

The mayor, after patting her shoulder, strode into her office. Abigail watched her retreating figure with admiring eyes before turning on her device again.

It was time to make the impossible possible.