“A dangerous entity…”
“Did you know?”
Taeseong shook his head. He had been aware that Sooah might be classified as a dangerous entity, but this was the first time he was hearing the term “Red.”
He asked,
“What does Red mean?”
“You should already know this, but from the Tree’s perspective, there isn’t much distinction between administrators and entities. In other words, all administrators can be classified as entities at any time.”
“Yeah.”
“Among them, those the Tree deems dangerous are designated as dangerous entities. There are four classification colors in total.”
“……”
“Black means unconditional elimination, so it’s practically never applied to administrators. Red requires elimination without exception if the entity goes berserk. Orange means suppression in the event of berserk behaviour. Green means no action is taken until the entity calms down.”
“So since Sooah is classified as Red, that means she’ll be eliminated if she goes berserk.”
“That’s right.”
Taeseong’s eyes blazed. A thick killing intent rose from his entire body, filling the surrounding space.
“…Those bastards. Just what gives them the right to decide they can eliminate my sister? Tell me, Xiao Yun.”
“Calm yourself, Lee Taeseong.”
“Calm? You think I can stay calm? Even if you knew your sibling was wearing a bomb collar that could go off at any moment?”
The suffocating killing intent spread further. Even Xiao Yun, who was well-acquainted with such an aura, found himself taken aback by its intensity.
‘Just what is this man…?’
After a moment of controlled breathing, Taeseong withdrew his aura. The shaking table finally settled. He knew.
No matter how much anger he expressed here, nothing would change.
And Xiao Yun, of all people, wasn’t the one to direct it at.
“So where is Sooah now? Is she definitely in the Japan Branch?”
“From what I found, she seems to be away on a mission at the moment.”
“Her unit?”
“She’s in a special team directly under the department chief. It’s nominally called a special team, but in reality, it exists to facilitate the chief’s external activities. So it doesn’t have an official designation.”
Taeseong frowned in confusion.
“A special team under the chief?”
“Yes. That crazy woman… No, your sister’s mentor, Yukina, is the Japan Branch’s administrative chief. She holds the same Beta rank as me.”
“You know her?”
“I’ve seen her a few times since we’re both Betas. As you can imagine, she’s not normal. Then again, whether there’s anyone among the administrators who can even be called normal is questionable.”
Not only was Sooah classified as a Red-level dangerous entity, but her supposed mentor was a major figure in the Japan Branch’s administrative division.
At that moment, Taeseong truly grasped just how high Xiao Yun’s level of authority was.
‘If I want access to this kind of information on my own, the only way is to get promoted as quickly as possible.’
“Drink?”
Taeseong nodded and clinked his bottle against Xiao Yun’s once more.
Gulp. Gulp.
Maybe it was the lingering anger, but the harsh liquor that had previously burned his throat now barely registered.
“As I mentioned before, I’ve lost most of my memories. That includes most of my memories of my sister. I don’t know what she went through while I was swept away in the dimensional transfer.”
“……”
“If you know anything about her, I want you to tell me everything. I’ll repay the favour in any way you ask.”
Taeseong locked eyes with Xiao Yun, his expression deadly serious, then slowly bowed his head.
Xiao Yun watched him, then smiled softly.
He had intended to share this information anyway.
His whole reason for coming here was to provide Taeseong with information about his sister.
Besides, after everything that had happened, Xiao Yun had grown to like Taeseong. Their conversation just now had raised his opinion even further.
Seeing Taeseong struggling to find his sister resonated with him—it felt too similar to his own past.
Still, it was surprising to see someone as reckless as Taeseong acting so politely.
The man Xiao Yun knew wasn’t the type to be bound by things like rank or position.
‘If our situations were reversed, I probably would’ve done the same.’
“A favor, huh… Well, just share a drink with me sometime when I’m feeling lonely.”
“That’s enough for you?”
Xiao Yun shook his bottle and chuckled.
“As you know, I don’t have the best reputation. Finding a proper drinking companion isn’t easy.”
“Well, yeah. Not many people would want to sit across from someone who rips their own arm off without hesitation and share a drink.”
“…You’re really one to talk.”
The two exchanged looks before simultaneously letting out small laughs.
They both knew they were joking to ease the tension, but the absurdity of the situation itself made it amusing.
“Anticipating this, I also looked into how Lee Sooah joined the Tree.”
“There’s a separate file on that?”
Xiao Yun nodded.
“Lee Taeseong. This is the Tree. Whatever you imagine, you can expect to see something beyond it.”
Taeseong thought Xiao Yun’s manner of speech kept fluctuating, but considering the man was over three hundred years old, he decided to let it slide.
“Alright.”
“Then I should start from the point after you disappeared.”
A month had passed since Lee Taeseong, a Republic of Korea Army captain and the youngest officer slated for promotion to major, had disappeared.
The once lively household, filled with laughter, had lost all traces of its former warmth.
They had reported him missing to the police, but the only response they received was that the investigation was still ongoing. Meanwhile, the military unit he had belonged to remained completely silent.
Looking back, they realized they didn’t even know which unit their son had served in. A meeting with his commanding officer was out of the question, and they couldn’t even obtain a shred of information.
Despite filing numerous petitions to the Ministry of National Defense, all they ever got in return was the same bureaucratic response from military personnel: “We are searching for him as well.”
“Taeseong… Where on earth are you…?”
Their son had vanished overnight, leaving behind not a single trace, as if he had evaporated from existence.
Realizing that relying on government agencies had its limits, they decided to take matters into their own hands.
They poured their savings into hiring private investigators and posted online notices with a hefty reward for any information regarding their missing son. Every morning, they went out to distribute flyers.
They exhausted every means available to them—leveraging their connections, searching, searching, searching, and searching again.
“Mom, where did Oppa go…? He promised to play with me…”
“Sooah, just wait a little longer. Oppa will be back soon. You’re a good girl, so let’s wait patiently, okay?”
“Okay… I want to see Oppa soon too.”
Yet, as if mocking their desperate prayers, an entire year passed with no progress.
It was as if Lee Taeseong had truly disappeared from the face of the earth.
Naturally, his parents’ mental state deteriorated. The more they focused on finding Taeseong, the more time his younger sister, Sooah, spent alone.
The home that once overflowed with laughter now echoed with silence.
And then, a few days later, Taeseong’s parents died.
The cause was a traffic accident.
A truck driver, unable to fight off sleepiness, had run a red light. Their condition was already so critical that they were pronounced dead at the scene, even before an ambulance could arrive.
“Tsk, tsk… That poor child, left all alone. Weren’t her parents well-known prosecutors?”
“Both parents dead, and the eldest son missing? You really never know what life has in store… Who would’ve thought a family that seemed so happy could end up like this overnight?”
“I heard he was too righteous for his own good and made some enemies higher up… Doesn’t this all seem suspicious? Something smells off, don’t you think?”
“Hey, watch your mouth! The only thing that stinks is that damn gossip of yours! You don’t say things like that in front of kids!”
“Oh, come on, it’s just a figure of speech.”
Many questions surrounded their deaths, but the case was wrapped up with startling speed.
The truck driver fully admitted to his crime, as if someone wanted the incident buried as quickly as possible.
And just like that, Sooah became an orphan overnight.
The ones who stepped in to help with her parents’ funeral were none other than the soldiers from Taeseong’s unit—
The HID Special Operations Counter-Terrorism Unit.
Each of them had been searching for Taeseong in their own way, and upon hearing the news, they pooled their own money to support Sooah.
“Mom… Dad…”
At the time, Sooah felt as if everything happening around her was a dream—hazy and unreal.
It was her mind’s defense mechanism, an instinctive response to survive the unbearable shock.
But that suppressed emotion soon found a target.
She directed all her hatred toward the unjust world that had taken everything from her—
And toward the very person she blamed for it all: Lee Taeseong.
Of course, Taeseong wasn’t at fault.
He hadn’t chosen to be swept away by dimensional transfer.
He wasn’t responsible for their parents’ deaths.
But to an eight-year-old girl, none of that mattered.
In her eyes, her brother was the source of all her misfortune.
That was when it began.
The once bright and cheerful girl started to harbor flames of resentment toward the world.
And then, one day, the flames came.
Just as her brother had disappeared without a trace, so too did the fire arrive without warning.
[Child, if you make a contract with me, I will grant you the power to burn everything in this world.]
She accepted.
And on that day—A wildfire engulfed an entire mountain in Gangwon Province.
Sensing the anomaly, administrators from The Tree arrived at the scene.
Their immediate decision was to eliminate the entity known as Pure Flame.
The field administrator had deemed suppression impossible.
And that judgment had been correct.
Had they hesitated any longer, it wouldn’t have been just a mountain—an entire city could have gone up in flames.
But then, someone appeared.
It was Yukina, the Beta-ranked administrator from Japan.
She had been in Korea for a mission when she happened to witness the disaster.
With a mere gesture, she extinguished the raging inferno.
Then, she spoke.
“Child, you carry a flame within you that you cannot control. Tell me, what is it that you resent so deeply?”
“……”
“Will you come with me?”
