Convict Unit: Black Parade-Chapter 129 : Mission 10: The Hunters of Old (2)

“Shin-woo, my boy!” Director Yang cried out heartily. “Good to see you after all this time. How’ve you been?”
«Director Yang. It’s been a while.»
Shin-woo nodded toward Ryu Yeon and Ghost standing behind the director.
«Archmage and Ghost. I see some old friends are here as well.»
“Shin-woo...” Ryu Yeon broke out in a cold sweat.
Ghost just kept her mouth shut tight.
On the screen, Shin-woo offered a faint smile.
«This could have been a warm, pleasant reunion.»
Then he picked something up from the floor.
«If not for these young lives wasted in vain.»
It was the blood-soaked corpse of a soldier.
The Baekdo insignia—the mark of the Baekdo Unit—was emblazoned on his chest.
“Guh ... !” The officer watching the screen shuddered. “That’s the Baekdo Unit’s... field commander...!”
Director Yang clicked his tongue. “Don’t tell me you killed them all, Shin-woo.”
«Were you hoping I would be so kind-hearted as to spare them?»
Shin-woo’s tone was flat as he laid the body down respectfully.
«This wasn’t something I started with half-baked resolve.»
“Your resolve, huh...” The director smirked and jerked his chin. “What kind of resolve is that? The pathetic kind where you just want to keep scraping by as a Hunter a little longer?”
Shin-woo stared straight ahead in silence.
Director Yang continued his tirade.
“No greater cause, no justification—just pure selfishness, wanting to live fat and happy while betraying humanity! Turning your blade on your own country!”
He thundered on, his voice echoing.
“Forgetting honor and glory, blinded by the perks and money that come with being a Hunter! You committed this atrocity, slaughtering innocent young men! Tell me I’m wrong.”
«...Perks and money.» Shin-woo sneered. «Let me ask you something, Director Yang.»
“What is it?”
«Can those damned perks and money bring back my dead granddaughter?»
Director Yang’s eyes widened. “What?”
«Half a year ago. The incident at the Geoje Island Permanent Gate.»
Shin-woo’s voice remained utterly flat.
«You’ve heard of it, I’m sure?»
“I heard there was an accident, but what does that have to do with this...?”
After that incident was resolved, the previous director was forced to resign, and Director Yang, then a private citizen, was appointed to the position.
Since it happened before his tenure, Director Yang fumbled for the context, then suddenly pieced it together.
“No, wait. You don’t mean...!”
«Geoje Island was the pilot zone for the Awakened Protection Act. And six months in, disaster struck.»
Director Yang whipped around urgently; the bureaucrats avoided his gaze, their faces ashen as they turned away.
«The Geoje Gate went berserk without warning, the defense team couldn’t respond in time, and four low-level monsters slipped out of the facility.»
Shin-woo recited the details of the incident—buried completely outside the Geoje region by a media blackout.
«Those four monsters broke the military cordon and breached a civilian residential area... Do you know who lived there?»
Shin-woo let out a short, sharp laugh. No one mistook it for amusement.
«As luck would have it, my recently married granddaughter was living there with her in-laws. Her husband's family were the Hunters who originally managed the Geoje Gate, so their house was right nearby.»
“...”
«They’d lost their management rights long ago, but you can’t just abandon the home you’ve lived in your whole life, can you? And, of all the rotten luck, that’s exactly where the monsters barged in.»
Director Yang swallowed whatever he’d been about to say.
Shin-woo continued, his tone deadpan.
«Her in-laws were all former Hunters, and my granddaughter and her husband were A-Rank Awakened. With their power, they could’ve wiped the floor with those pathetic low-level monsters.»
Thud!
Shin-woo slammed his fist right in front of the camera lens, growling like a beast.
«If you bastards hadn’t slapped those goddamn shackles on their wrists.»
The Awakened Protection Act.
A law that put all Awakened under government control, forcing them to wear inhibitors during peacetime to suppress their powers.
When the pack of monsters descended on the residential area, everyone there was an Awakened, yet they were slaughtered without being able to put up a fight.
Because the legally mandated inhibitors had sealed their abilities.
«My granddaughter’s husband hacked off his own left arm to rip the inhibitor free. Then he killed every last monster. But by then, his family and my granddaughter were already...»
Shin-woo’s face remained a blank mask, but his voice, as he forced out the next words, was laced with agony.
«Torn to shreds and inside those beasts’ bellies.»
“...”
«And you know what’s even funnier? After the incident, my granddaughter’s husband was arrested.»
Shin-woo shook his head, the absurdity of it all plain on his face.
«Why? ‘In the Awakened Protection Act pilot zone, an A-Rank Awakened removed their inhibitor without permission and hunted monsters.’»
“...”
«The charge normally carries a sentence of up to ten years, but ‘considering mitigating circumstances, the prosecution seeks one year of imprisonment with a one-year suspended sentence’...»
Muttering the court’s ruling, Shin-woo slowly swept his hair back. His slightly mussed forelock fell neatly into place.
«‘Mitigating circumstances.’ How merciful, isn’t it? So just, so reasonable. As if those people wouldn't have died in the first place if it weren't for that idiotic law.»
The conference room was silent.
The assembled bureaucrats held their breath, staring at the man on the screen.
At the chill hatred radiating from the veteran Hunter in his twilight years.
«Listen up, dogs of the Bureau and the military. And you high-and-mighty government filth.»
Shin-woo pulled the camera close to his face and whispered, his voice level. He had dropped all polite formalities.
«I don’t give a damn why that moron San Kim pushed this law. Or why he’s stripping Hunters of their rights one by one. Or how much he’s lining his pockets by monopolizing the Gate industry. I don’t care. I couldn’t care less about perks or scraps of money. I don’t need grand causes or justifications either.»
Shin-woo jabbed his index finger straight at the screen.
«What I want is the right for people to be able to protect themselves when a monster is right in front of them.»
“...”
«There will be no negotiations. Abolish the act and return Gate management authority to the guilds. If you don’t, we will see this through to the bitter end.»
Silence fell.
The bureaucrats in the room exchanged glances, but no one dared to speak.
Then, someone stepped before the screen.
It was Ryu Yeon.
“Iron Knight.” Ryu Yeon bowed his head lightly toward the screen.
Shin-woo nodded in return. «Archmage.»
“I am truly sorry about your granddaughter and her family. I understand your rage. Honestly... I don’t know what I could say to console you.”
Ryu Yeon bowed deeply from the waist.
“It is far too late, but as one of this country’s leaders, I offer my sincerest apologies.”
Shin-woo gazed at his old comrade with a complicated expression.
Of all the powerful people in this room, Ryu Yeon was the only one who had come to his granddaughter’s funeral.
Straightening up slowly, Ryu Yeon met Shin-woo’s eyes.
“However, Iron Knight, that law is essential for the future of Korea. That is why I, as the leader of the opposition party, voted in favor of it.”
«Essential?»
“It’s been thirty years since the Gates opened,” Ryu Yeon said evenly.
“We can’t let civilian Hunters handle monsters in a haphazard way forever. We need laws and a formal structure—a well-maintained system to close Gates and clear out monsters safely and efficiently.”
«Laws and structure... A fine-sounding veneer.»
Shin-woo snorted.
«But laws and systems always have blind spots and flaws. And the innocents who fall into those gaps are sacrificed. Just like my granddaughter.»
“Those sacrifices are necessary to perfect the system.”
Thud!
Shin-woo’s fist hammered the space in front of the camera.
«You bastard. Are you saying my granddaughter’s death was a ‘necessary sacrifice’?»
“Yes,” Ryu Yeon replied without flinching. “It was a necessary sacrifice to build a safer Korea.”
«…»
“Now, when a Gate disaster alert is declared, the inhibitors of all Awakened in that area are automatically deactivated. The law was amended after the Geoje Island incident.”
Shin-woo’s eyes turned icy. Ryu Yeon pressed on, undeterred.
“Using one’s abilities for self-defense in an unavoidable situation is no longer against the law. That was also amended in the law after the incident.”
«…»
“Iron Knight, I again express my deepest regrets for what happened to your granddaughter. The Geoje Gate incident was a horrific tragedy born from a combination of government incompetence, military negligence, and flaws in the law.”
Ryu Yeon’s voice grew steadily louder.
“But through such sacrifices, Gate management is gradually becoming more complete. We can now predict monster incursions, and since then, we have been repelling monsters on Geoje Island without any loss of life.”
Ryu Yeon took a step closer to the screen.
“We are entering an era where civilians no longer need to step onto the battlefield. Hunter guilds across the country are being absorbed by the military and the Gate Defense Bureau one by one.”
«…»
“The age of the Hunter is coming to a close, Shin-woo.”
Ryu Yeon extended a cautious hand toward Shin-woo, who glared back, his lips pressed into a thin line.
“If we join forces, we can guide this toward a much more constructive conclusion. Please, calm yourself, and let’s find an amicable compromise together.”
A brief silence passed.
«A system can be fixed, but it can never be perfect. Your so-called ‘necessary sacrifices’ will happen again and again.»
Shin-woo slowly shook his head.
«There will be a second and third Geoje Gate incident. I don’t trust you people. I cannot accept this.»
“...So you’re saying we should allow civilians to remain armed forever? That everyone, from children to the elderly, should live with a bomb tucked under their arm?”
«Our Awakened abilities are a natural part of human strength! They should be encouraged, not suppressed and forbidden!»
“But they are all instruments of violence!” Ryu Yeon shouted back, his own voice now raised.
“Until now, there hasn’t been a single law to stop elementary school children from blasting their powers at each other in the classroom! We’ve been living in a world where we’ve handed pistols to our children!”
«If it’s to protect themselves, then even children should hold pistols! We lived through an era like that, did we not? What children need is training for their abilities, not prohibition!»
“Without this law, the barrels of those guns can be turned on other humans, just as they have been for the past thirty years! How long do you intend to pass this world of blood and violence down to our children?!”
Shin-woo’s response was a deafening roar.
«The very essence of this world is blood and violence!»
The shout was so loud it echoed faintly through the conference room.
Panting raggedly, Shin-woo gave a small shake of his head and once again swept his hair back.
«...I never wanted to pass that blood and violence down to my granddaughter. But Archmage, my granddaughter was crushed to a pulp by that very same
blood and violence
.»
Only then could everyone in the room see him for what he was.
«My granddaughter, whose body we couldn’t even recover... The child who told me she was pregnant and asked me what we should name my great-grandchild...»
His appearance was that of a middle-aged man, but his soul had grown old and white.
«A necessary sacrifice? A necessary sacrifice... Ha...»
On the screen stood an old man who had lost his precious family and whose long-held convictions had crumbled to dust.
«Old comrades, forced into retirement and starving without work. My granddaughter, killed in the process of ‘refining’ the system. My son-in-law, now a broken man I can no longer reach. All of this... was a necessary sacrifice?»
Shin-woo forced his twitching cheek into a smile.
«Is this...»
Deep wrinkles, etched like scars by time, curled at the corners of his mouth.
«Is
this
all the country has to offer me—to offer us—after thirty years of devotion...?»