The man, who had rolled roughly three meters, sprang to his feet and brushed off the dust on his body as if nothing had happened.
“Hmm… What just happened? I could’ve sworn I was faster…”
Seeing this, Taeseong thought to himself.
‘Did he lower one hand in that brief moment to minimize the damage?’
If he hadn’t twisted the man’s wrist to alter the sword’s trajectory, he was certain that the slash would have obliterated the Hachishaku (Eight-footed) spirit in a single strike.
“Are you a Japanese administrator?”
The man nodded and asked,
“Are you a Joseon administrator?”
“It’s not Joseon. It’s the Republic of Korea.”
This was already the second correction, but the man stubbornly continued saying whatever he pleased.
“What’s your rank?”
“Delta.”
The man tilted his head, seemingly puzzled.
“That’s strange… I know I swung properly. There’s no way a mere Delta rank could block my sword…”
Another figure had approached unnoticed—a woman. She wore the same expression as the man.
‘Twins?’
Quickly grasping the situation, the woman stepped forward and addressed Taeseong.
“Are you the Korean administrator dispatched for support?”
“Yes.”
“Nice to meet you. I am Yato, the team leader of the Third Division of the Japan Branch Administration. This is my younger brother, Ito. We are both Gamma-ranked.”
“I’m Lee Taeseong.”
The man, who had been muttering to himself for a while, turned to the woman and spoke.
“Sis. No matter how I think about it, this doesn’t make sense! A mere Delta rank blocked my sword! Does that even sound reasonable to you?”
“Ito. Quiet.”
“……”
At the woman’s firm tone, the man immediately shut his mouth. It seemed she was indeed the older sibling.
“I came personally after hearing that the personnel responsible for your transport had an accident… but could you explain this situation?”
She glanced behind Taeseong, motioning toward the Hachishaku spirit. It seemed the spirit had tried to hide, but given her towering height, it was utterly pointless.
“There’s nothing much to explain. Your brother suddenly swung his sword, so I stopped him.”
“…What I mean is, why is an administrator protecting a specimen? That thing behind you is obviously a entity, no matter how you look at it.”
“This is my achievement. A entity I personally captured. Are you saying I should just stand here and let your brother take it from me?”
Even as they conversed, Yato continued to scrutinize Taeseong. On the surface, she seemed indifferent, but in reality, she found him rather unsettling.
She already knew the approximate rankings of the administrators dispatched from the Korean branch through reports.
‘He doesn’t seem particularly remarkable… But for a Delta rank to block Ito’s sword… Either he was extremely lucky, or he has considerable potential.’
The twin siblings, Yato and Ito, were both Gamma-ranked administrators and recognized as highly capable within the Japan Branch. Normally, they wouldn’t even be assigned to minor missions like this, but since their transport team had been wiped out, they had to step in personally.
“Well, I understand the situation to some extent… But this is Japan, Lee Taeseong. You are merely a Delta-ranked administrator sent here for support. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Yato’s gaze locked onto Taeseong. Her deep blue eyes gleamed coldly, carrying a subtle yet clear killing intent—a deliberate warning.
‘That should be enough for him to get the message.’
She was already annoyed from losing personnel. There was no way she had the patience to accommodate a foreign administrator on top of that.
“So what? What do you want me to do?”
“……What?”
“I’m asking what exactly you want me to do.”
Caught off guard by his response, Yato was momentarily speechless.
‘…Is he insane?’
Within the organization known as Tree, an administrator’s rank was an absolute metric.
Of course, there were rare cases where lower-ranked individuals took on important roles, but that was usually in departments outside of field operations.
Ranks weren’t determined solely by individual combat ability; they factored in versatility, danger level, and potential of one’s abilities.
The higher the rank, the greater the disparity in power.
This meant that among administrators responsible for frontline entity management, rank hierarchy was as rigid as in the military.
Their work was directly tied to life and death, after all.
“I’m just a lowly Delta-ranked administrator from Korea. You two are noble Gamma-ranked administrators of your own country, so I should shut up and hand over my achievement. Is that what you’re saying?”
“……”
“There’s no thief quite like this one. I did all the dirty work to set the table, and now you’re not just trying to take a bite—you’re claiming you cooked the whole damn meal? It wasn’t us who asked for support. While the great Gamma-ranked administrators were struggling, we risked our lives cleaning up this godforsaken mess.”
“……”
“Still not getting it? I regret that your first team was killed. But that just means we could’ve died the same way. Seems like working with entities has fried your brains. Maybe you should rip out that useless decoration from your head. If you need help, I’d be happy to oblige.”
Taeseong’s unusually sharp response stemmed from two reasons.
One, the accumulated stress and exhaustion from the ongoing incidents.
Two, possession.
Even during his time as a soldier, Taeseong despised having his achievements stolen. The officers who treated their subordinates’ lives like disposable chess pieces while effortlessly claiming credit with a single word—those were the kind of people he loathed.
Even if he had lost his past memories, his deep-seated hatred for such individuals remained.
“Hah… This is ridiculous… Are you thoughtless or just reckless…?”
Despite the smirk on her lips, Yato’s eyes remained eerily calm. The only reason she had listened to Taeseong until now was that she had been too dumbfounded to respond.
‘How laughable.’
He had no idea where he stood.
Did he really think that blocking a single sword strike by sheer luck made him their equal?
Was he ignorant of the world? Or just a delusional fool lost in self-centeredness?
At least, there were no such people within the Japan Branch.
“Did you know? In the Japan Branch, people like you don’t exist. Those who ran their mouths without knowing their place all died long ago.”
Yato took a deep breath to calm herself before continuing.
“This isn’t a warning—it’s advice. As long as you’re an administrator under Tree, don’t run your mouth at those ranked above you. You may think it’s just a single rank difference, but they can turn someone like you into a slab of meat in one second. My brother and I included.”
“……Pfft.”
Laughter slipped from Taeseong’s lips.
The moment Yato saw it, she silently etched the word patience into her mind once more.
Although the organization Tree was divided into branches by country, it was fundamentally a single organization.
Her words had been a bit harsh in an attempt to intimidate him, but ultimately, he was still a colleague belonging to the same organization.
She wasn’t reckless enough to kill a fellow agent dispatched from another country.
At least, not yet.
“……What’s so funny?”
“Do you really believe that?”
Why was it?
Normally, he might have let this pass without being so combative. He knew full well that escalating the situation like this wouldn’t bring any benefit.
And yet, his insides were boiling like molten lava.
His mind remained cold, but an uncontrollable fury surged within his body.
Perhaps this, too, was a side effect of Gluttony.
“I think differently. Even if you two siblings attacked me at once, I wouldn’t die. On the contrary, I’d tear your bodies apart and grow even stronger. However, I do not do so because I still possess the reason to control myself. So do not provoke me any further. This is neither a warning, nor advice, nor a bluff.”
“……”
“It’s a request.”
Even Ito, who had been quietly watching his sister’s reaction, finally burst into laughter.
“Puhaha! Sis! Did you hear that? He says he could tear us apart even if we attacked together! Hahaha! Oh, my stomach! Let’s just kill him now! I need to see for myself if he can still spout that nonsense after losing a few limbs!”
Yato’s expression froze over.
“……Do you really think we can’t kill you? If you keep spewing such nonsense because you believe that, you should stop. Killing a mere Delta-rank like you changes nothing. Even if we were to cut off your arms and legs and feed them to beasts right here, even if that fact was reported to Tree, the worst we’d face would be a pay cut.”
At those words, Taeseong suddenly recalled the face of Team Leader Taesan.
If he found out that one of his team’s agents had been killed by these bastards, how would he react?
He’d probably ignore orders and hunt them down himself, ripping them to pieces.
“Oh, really?”
“That’s right.
Do you know why?
Because you are a Delta-rank, and we are Gamma-rank.
Tree values its personnel differently.
There are countless replacements for a Delta-rank like you.
But we?
We are not so easily replaced.
So I’ll give you one last warning—”
“Blabbering on and on. Did you earn your Gamma rank with that tongue of yours?”
At those words, Ito laughed without a hint of awareness.
“Wahahaha! He says it’s your tongue, sis! That Joseon bastard sure knows how to crack a joke!”
Crack.
The last thread of patience Yato had been clinging to snapped.
Her usual principle was to endure up to three times.
But today, she decided to break that rule.
Just then—
“Chief Lee Taeseong!”
A furious voice rang out from the distance.
The owner of the voice was none other than Assistant Manager Lee Eunha.
She strode toward them with an angry expression, her voice sharp.
“Are you joking right now? I let you off the leash to do some work, and now you’re just wandering off without even reporting to the team leader? Is that what this is?”
The sudden and unexpected scolding.
“Why aren’t you answering? Ha, so now you’re just ignoring me? I must’ve been too lenient with you, huh? You really think you’re somebody now, don’t you?”
“……I apologize.”
Was it because of Eunha’s awkward act?
The anger that had risen to his throat rapidly cooled.
“We’ll talk about this properly once we return home. Got it!?”
“Yes.”
Eunha quickly turned away and slipped on her social mask before approaching Yato.
“Hello, Agent. Are you from the Japan Branch?”
Yato answered with an unpleasant expression.
“……Yes.”
“Ah, I see. I’m Lee Eunha, from the Korea Branch’s Dispatched Management Team 4. I hold a Delta rank and am currently acting as the temporary team leader.”
“……I am Yato, Team Leader of the Japan Branch’s Management Team 3.
Rank: Gamma.”
“I’m Ito. Hey, woman!”
At those words, Eunha immediately bowed at a ninety-degree angle.
“Ah! So the team leader herself has come! You must’ve had a long and exhausting trip! If any of my subordinates have been disrespectful, I sincerely apologize on their behalf. Chief Lee Taeseong is still a newcomer and doesn’t know much about the world yet.”
Yato had been itching to kill Taeseong, but now, with his superior acting so submissive, the situation had grown ambiguous.
In the end, she let out a sigh, glanced at Taeseong, and muttered in a low voice.
“Haa… You should educate your subordinates better.”
“Yes, yes.
It’s entirely my fault.
I apologize!
I’ll make sure to educate him thoroughly.”
Thanks to Eunha’s quick-witted intervention, the conflict ended without escalating into violence.
But as Taeseong watched the scene unfold, a strong premonition struck him.
‘Yato and Ito, was it?’
For some reason, he had a vivid feeling that before long, the woman named Yato would be groveling at his feet, begging for her life.
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