After confirming I couldn't hear his footsteps anymore, I went straight to the operating table.
The moment I'd entered the operating room, I'd realized this was the place from the photo. Even so I'd been half in doubt, but…
“……”
Checking once more, the test subject was indeed the boss.
I had to move quickly before the researcher came back. But my feet stopped of their own accord.
I stared at the face I was facing for the first time without a mask.
I'd finally confirmed the face I'd been wondering about these past few days. I wasn't as glad as I'd thought I'd be. The man lying there felt like someone other than the boss.
Was it because his eyes were closed?
“Boss.”
I carefully shook the boss, laid out on the operating table. There was no response, but his breathing was even.
Is he asleep?
He might've been drugged. Either way, there was no time to wait for him to wake.
First I had to undo the restraints. After that, before the team leader came back, all I could do was haul the boss onto my back, take the elevator, and slip outside. It was rush hour with lots of people, so I had to move fast. Causing chaos with a blackout altogether might be good too…
Just as I was hurriedly working my hands, planning it out in my head—
Twitch.
The fingers, which had been hanging limp, moved.
“Cough…”
“!”
The boss's eyelids opened, revealing glittering purple irises. I hurried to undo the last restraint and moved to the boss's bedside.
“Can you move?”
“……”
The boss shot me a sidelong glare, then scanned the inside of the lab for a moment as if assessing the situation. Then he raised a hand and felt his own face.
“…?”
The fingers, tracing a specific spot, came to an abrupt halt as if realizing something.
Jolt!
The boss covered his face with both hands. Through the gaps between his fingers, I could see his wide-blown eyes.
“……”
“Boss?”
“The mask…”
“!”
He didn't want his face seen.
I looked around.
Something I could use in place of a mask…
I grabbed a paper bag from the shelf. When I turned it upside down and shook it, things presumed to be experiment tools tumbled out in a clatter. Without time to check the contents in detail, I poked two holes in the empty paper bag with my fingers.
Then I put the slightly crumpled bag over the boss's head.
“……”
It seemed to be the right answer, because the boss's breathing gradually steadied. The boss slowly lowered his hands.
“…Pft.”
The instant a laugh slipped out, the boss whipped his head toward me. The eyes faintly visible through the small holes had gone extremely fierce. I quickly schooled my face. Inwardly, I was straining with all my might to pull the corners of my mouth down.
The boss in a paper bag.
I mustn't laugh. This was an urgent situation.
“Boss, we have to get out of here right now.”
I prodded gently, but the boss didn't budge. Purple light flashed through the punched holes.
“…You saw, didn't you?”
“Boss.”
“You saw my face.”
“……”
Sweat trickled down my back.
“No, I didn't see it.”
The boss slowly climbed down off the operating table.
He can move.
That was a relief.
Separate from my relief, my body was backing away. The more I retreated, the more the boss staggered toward me.
Gulp.
My body tensed up. I had to tell him we needed to get out of here, but my mouth wouldn't open easily. Wasn't the boss valuing his own face a little too dearly?
How long did we hold that strange standoff?
“?!”
Suddenly the boss lunged.
My body was shoved hard and my back hit the shelf. Thick hands seized my throat. The things on the shelf spilled over, making a racket.
I flailed, but the boss didn't loosen his grip. I stepped on something on my own and slipped, falling.
In the process, I slammed the back of my head against the floor. The boss, showing no mercy at all, climbed on top of me.
“Gkh…”
I could hear ragged breathing from above.
I wished he'd take out his anger after we got out. The team leader would be back soon. On top of that, we'd had a noisy scuffle, so the sound might've reached outside. It wouldn't be strange for someone to walk in at any moment.
This is no time for this, right now!
When the opponent was a person, I couldn't use my powers freely like before. I wanted to slip out quietly before anyone caught us.
I was struggling to pry the boss off when—
The sound of a door opening somewhere reached my ears.
“!”
Into my blurry field of view came an especially pale figure. It was the team leader. He paused for a moment at the scene in the room, then turned his head our way.
Muffling his footsteps, the team leader slowly approached the boss from behind. This really was no time for it, but the boss was so absorbed in me that he didn't notice.
Sh-t!
I thrashed as hard as I could, but the body on top of me wouldn't budge.
“B-boss…!”
“Die…”
The strength choking my throat only intensified. In the end I gave up persuading him and groped along the floor. Meanwhile, the team leader, who'd crept up behind the boss, raised a syringe high.
Something, anything…!
When I groped the floor desperately, a long object came into my grip. I quickly focused my power.
Zzzt!
The object in my hand shot out fast.
If it weren't for the penalty, I'd have put a hole through his head.
The weapon, which I'd deliberately aimed slightly off, grazed the team leader's face and embedded itself in the wall.
“…Huh?”
A speed an ordinary person's senses would struggle to even register. It was, quite literally, over in an instant. Whether or not he realized his skull had nearly burst from a hair's deviation, the team leader stopped moving.
Only then, seeming to notice the intruder's presence, did the strength leave the boss's hands.
I didn't miss the chance. I wrapped my arms around the boss and rolled. Sparking to add acceleration, I quickly opened up distance from the team leader.
“My, my.”
Having lost his prey, the team leader openly expressed his disappointment.
I locked eyes with the lip-smacking team leader. For a moment we held each other's gaze, as if probing the other.
It seemed the team leader had, from seeing me shield the boss, naturally figured it out.
“So you two were on the same side.”
“……”
“And awakened ones, at that. No wonder, I thought you weren't an ordinary newbie.”
“…You can see my aura?”
I tossed out a joke, but the other man didn't laugh. A wary gaze swept over the two of us.
Having come to his senses in the meantime, the boss shoved me away. I let myself fall obediently with the push.
“So it seems there's been some internal strife?”
“What? We're on great terms.”
When I answered immediately, the team leader frowned.
“That test subject doesn't seem to think so.”
I wanted to throw an arm around him to prove our closeness, but the boss had at some point come to stand behind me with his arms crossed.
“Ugh…”
The team leader clenched his fist in vexation.
“And here I, not knowing any of that, thought a pitiful newbie was being assaulted and tried to save you.”
“Ha. You've got some nerve, considering you were about to lock that pitiful newbie in a monster cage.”
“……”
With no comeback, the team leader scratched his cheek. The rough motion caught the wound on his nail and split it open.
“?”
Seeing that, I frowned. Blood was flowing from the wound on his face. Since I was the one who'd made it just now, the wound itself wasn't strange.
The problem was the color of the blood.
Blue?
Noticing my expression, the team leader wiped his cheek with the back of his hand. Then, as if he understood the reason, he opened his mouth.
“Unsettling color, isn't it? It's different from humanity's beautiful red blood.”
“…You're like a monster.”
“Half so, and half not.”
Saying something cryptic, the team leader grinned.
Enough chitchat.
I quickly slipped a hand into my shirt.
Here, the move is for me to subdue the team leader so the boss can force a contract—
I went to draw a weapon, but the boss grabbed my arm.
“Stay still.”
“…?”
When I lowered my hand, the boss stepped forward.
“I came to talk with you.”
“To talk?”
Letting out a dry laugh, the team leader pulled something from his shirt. Its shape looked just like the tranquilizer gun used to subdue beasts.
But the boss didn't retreat in the slightest. As if to say shoot if you're going to shoot, he held his ground boldly.
“Yes. I need your cooperation.”
“Hmm…”
The team leader waggled the tranquilizer gun as if deliberating. Seeing the muzzle swing toward the boss now and then made me anxious. In the end I couldn't hold back and lunged out.
Before he could counterattack, I knocked the gun aside and drove my fist into his stomach.
“Gkh!”
[Penalty triggered: 〈Restriction〉 in effect. (00:20)]
The man convulsed and collapsed to the floor. He lay face-down without the slightest movement. I'd used my power fairly hard, so he wouldn't be waking up for a while. Or so I thought.
But then.
Slide—.
The hand resting on the floor was inching toward the tranquilizer gun.
I stomped down hard on that hand.
“Gkh…”
“Shall I break your right hand first?”
While I toyed with him, grinding the back of his hand with my heel, the boss came over.
“Seo Sinwoo.”
“Yes.”
I figured he'd have me stand the team leader up, or grab his arm — give me some task needed for the contract.
But when I actually turned around, the boss was rolling his wrist. The instant I instinctively clenched my teeth—
Thwack!
A fist struck me square in the face. There was quite a bit of force behind it, and I staggered for a moment before regaining my balance.
“I told you to stay still.”
“…I'm sorry.”
Something dripped down my chin. Blood. I covered my nose with my sleeve. The boss gave me no instruction.
He simply walked past me toward the fallen man.
“Feel like talking now?”
Twitch.
The man furtively lifted his head. He glanced at me standing behind him, then nodded.
“Y-yes, yes…”
“I want to hear some information.”
“……”
“In exchange, I'll grant whatever you want.”
At the boss's proposal, the team leader's eyes shone.
“Really?”
The boss didn't answer. Taking that as affirmation, the team leader swallowed conspicuously. And then…
He pointed at me.
“Th-then… could you give that person to me?”
“Ha.”
I scoffed.
As if.
I was watching quietly, dumbfounded, when the boss opened his mouth.
“…Is that all you want?”
“?”
My head whipped around on its own. He must've noticed my stare, but the boss didn't meet my eyes.
“I'll provide my subordinate. In exchange, you provide me with information.”
“What?”
I doubted my ears.
