In the Name of God - vanish into fiction

Our team consisted of two people who had been grinding in the 3rd division for a long time, me, and Lee Sunho.

“I heard you’re the Rank 7s who got in through recommendations from 1st division seniors?”

As soon as each team dispersed along their routes, the leader of Team 8 looked back at us. He had maintained a neutral face until just a moment ago, but it seemed he had been managing his expression until we were separated from the others. Now, he looked like a person with a bad personality at first glance.

Since he was a senior and the leader of Team 8, I decided to answer the question first.

“Yes, I’m Seong Do-yoon. This is Lee Sun…”

“Fuck, some of us worked our asses off just to get hired, and you low-rank punks come in as a set of parachutes.”

Wow, even his way of speaking matches his face.

The moment those words half-spilled from the leader’s mouth, Lee Sunho’s aura rippled coldly beside me. Glancing over, I saw a chilling energy surging from his narrowed eyes, and the formal smile on his lips was gradually vanishing.

It made sense for Lee Sunho to be angry.

These guys, who knew nothing about his abilities, were blindly looking down on him as a “parachute” recruit.

I reached my arm back and lightly tapped the back of Lee Sunho’s hand.

I didn’t like that leader either, but there was no need to cause trouble from the very first day on the field. For now, it was better to treat it as no big deal and let it go in one ear and out the other.

As if he sensed my thoughts, the murderous aura flowing from Lee Sunho quickly subsided.

“I don’t know where or how you seduced those 1st division seniors, but don’t walk around with your necks held stiff. Even if we’re 3rd division, we are all people who went through grueling tests to get hired.”

Without changing my expression once, I was quietly listening to the harsh words of our team leader.

‘…?’

The hand I used to tap the back of Lee Sunho’s hand was softly caught. Um, I didn’t exactly leave my hand there for him to hold, but it was caught nonetheless.

Lee Sunho lightly grasped my hand and suddenly began to write letters on my palm with his fingertips.

[I wish he would shut up]

[Right?]

For a moment, I almost looked back without realizing it.

To think that the innocent and kind Lee Sunho would use such vulgar words.

Of course, he didn’t say it with his mouth but wrote it with text, but I was inwardly surprised. Since he was usually a guy who spoke so beautifully, I wondered if he had been corrupted because of my influence on his speech.

Meanwhile, the other 3rd division teammate standing next to the leader also twitched his face and sneered.

“Don’t get in the way and act with some sense. We’re being nice, so we’re letting you off easy. If it were other guys, they’d have thrown you into a corner of a dungeon and been beating you up by now.”

While the teammate sneered and the leader added his insults while looking down on us, we didn’t show much of a reaction.

Since we were quietly saying “yes, yes,” it seemed the two of them eventually grew tired of acting like such “kkondae” seniors. Only then did they start walking along the assigned route.

I slapped the back of Lee Sunho’s hand, as he was still writing something on my palm.

“Ouch.”

“You did well to hold back.”

Earlier, Lee Sunho’s aura was so menacing it wouldn’t have been strange if he drew his sword at any moment. Since he listened to me and endured it quietly in that situation, he deserved a bit of praise.

I patted Lee Sunho on the back to show he did a good job, then I fixed a steady glare on the backs of the two teammates walking ahead of us.

‘Right. This is normal.’

I hadn’t realized it because Park Junggeon and his crew had treated us so warmly.

To other clan members… specifically the 3rd division members we would have to bump into most often, we must be like uninvited pebbles and eyesores. It was perfectly natural for them to feel guarded and resentful.

Furthermore, we were rookies who had just reached Rank 7, while those two were Rank 6s who had been with Black Tail for a long time. To them, who were building their skills and rising through the ranks the traditional way, there was no way we—who entered Black Tail solely through the recommendation letters of “1st division seniors”—would look pleasant.

‘This might become bothersome from time to time.’

Well, I’m the type who doesn’t necessarily avoid a fight that’s brought to me.

Recalling what happened just now, I glanced back. As if he had been looking at me too, our gazes met.

I didn’t feel much of anything even after hearing those words, but Lee Sunho had seemed quite angry.

‘…Should I not take it? Should I just flip everything over?’

I seriously contemplated whether to deal with the insults that would surely come again.