DPGR 36

“…….”

“…You want me to come too?”

Jiho nodded!

Sena’s ears turned a little red as she hesitated. After getting an earful from all sides for fighting with other guides recently, she’d been pretending to behave herself for a while.

But her hesitation didn’t last long—thanks to Geonwoo siding with Jiho and nudging her along.

“Yeah. You’re an Alpha Team Guide too, Sena. Come with us.”

“…Hmph! Well, I guess I could.”

Jiho’s face lit up. Sena glanced at him out of the corner of her eye with an exaggerated pout.

“You’re both begging me so desperately—I guess I’ll do you a favor and come!”

“You’re so kind, Sena.”

Geonwoo complimented her like it was second nature, and Jiho eagerly nodded and scurried up to stand by her side.

Dojin watched silently as Jiho rummaged in his pocket, pulled out a MyChew, and handed it to Sena.

He’s already given Guide Sena a second one…

‘I haven’t even gotten one yet.’

Completely unaware of Dojin’s thoughts, Jiho just beamed brightly. Dojin shook his head and walked toward the door.

“Well then, I’ll head out. Please take good care of Guide Jiho.”

“Don’t worry, Captain.”

Maybe not Sena, but Geonwoo was someone Dojin could trust.

Feeling reassured by Geonwoo’s response, Dojin left the team office.

***

“How long has it been since I called you this morning, and you’re only just showing up now?”

“Seems I kept you waiting.”

“Tsk. More than that, you’ve been up to something rather bold.”

Even before Dojin could greet him, the Esper Director jumped in with a sharp remark the moment Dojin stepped into the Center Director’s office.

Dojin already knew he’d done something wrong, so without flinching, he bowed his head.

“I apologize.”

“Hmph.”

The Esper Director scoffed at the sincere response, clearly annoyed. But with nothing to actually criticize in Dojin’s current behavior, he had no choice but to click his tongue in frustration.

“Well then, satisfied now?”

Sensing that the director’s edge had dulled a little, Dojin hesitated before giving a small nod.

The Esper Director stared at him for a moment, then pointed to the couch.

“Go sit over there.”

“…Yes, sir.”

As Dojin sat down, the Esper Director brought something over and took a seat across from him.

With a flop, he sat down and tossed a file onto the table in front of Dojin.

“What’s this…?”

“You’ve received a personal assignment.”

“Sorry?”

“Read it.”

He jerked his chin at the file and then clamped his mouth shut, clearly not planning to explain any further.

Maybe he was just being petty, wanting to give Dojin a bit of a hard time.

But Dojin had expected this much. Without saying another word, he picked up the file.

Flip—

The papers turned in his hands.

“…This is…”

His eyes scanned the pages quickly. As he grasped the contents, a groan escaped his lips.

[Data on Illegal Breeding Facilities]

Illegal breeding facilities?

Dojin’s expression twisted. The documents were a jumbled mess—unorganized data on facilities that were far from ordinary.

These weren’t your average breeding grounds—they were places used to secretly smuggle baby monsters out of dungeons and illegally trade them.

Dojin’s assignment was to take down these facilities and eliminate the brokers behind them.

He was also expected to transfer any rescued baby monsters to espers with taming abilities.

Taming espers, huh…

Dojin mentally counted how many taming espers there were. That kind of ability was rare—there were only two in all of Korea.

From what’s written here, it looks like there are at least forty baby monsters involved.

Could two people really handle taming all of them—or maybe even more?

“What’s on your mind?”

The Esper Director, watching Dojin silently lost in thought, finally spoke.

After a pause, Dojin cautiously replied.

“I’m concerned that there may be too many baby monsters for the available taming espers to manage.”

“Hmph. So you think we’ll be able to rescue all these monsters and safely hand them over to taming espers?”

“I believe so, yes.”

“Well, I don’t.”

“…Sir?”

The Esper Director leaned back into the sofa and crossed his legs.

“You’ve dealt with plenty of monsters, haven’t you? You should know—they don’t listen to humans. To them, we’re either prey or toys.”

“But these are still juveniles. From what I understand, younger monsters are more receptive to taming espers’ influence.”

“That depends on their grade. From what I know, the taming espers are C-rank and B-rank, correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“A C-rank can handle monsters up to D-rank. A B-rank can manage up to C-rank. So any monster above B-rank found in these facilities—kill them on the spot.”

“……”

“No matter how young they are, they’re still monsters. If you go into this thinking of them like poor little animals, it’ll be a problem.”

The Esper Director warned him firmly. Dojin understood what he was trying to say.

Whether or not he agreed emotionally was another matter.

“…Yes, sir.”

“The baby monsters that are successfully pacified will be managed separately by the Center.”

In other countries, pacified monsters were sometimes deployed with Esper teams to help with dungeon suppression.

It hadn’t been attempted in Korea yet, but it seemed the Esper Director had ambitions in that direction.

“But from what I’ve seen in the file, this doesn’t look like a large-scale case. Is it really something for Alpha Team to handle?”

“What, are you saying Alpha Team’s too good for work like this now?”

“That’s not what I meant…”

Dojin hastily waved his hands, clearly flustered. The Esper Director chuckled as if amused by his reaction.

“Sure it’s not.”

In truth, this wasn’t the kind of mission Alpha Team would usually be assigned.

The illegal guiding facility from before had been much more extensive, and it had involved precious resources—guides.

This one was smaller in scale, and the organization behind it wasn’t very sophisticated. It looked like something any other team could take care of.

But if the Esper Director had gone out of his way to summon Dojin and assign him this job, there had to be a reason.

…No way.

Just then, something his mentor—Kwak Jiheon—had said floated through Dojin’s mind.

That if he granted Dojin’s request, he’d want a favor in return.

Seeing the realization dawn on Dojin’s face, the Esper Director asked with a smirk in his voice, “Figured it out?”

“…Is this my mentor’s order?”

“Yup. That old man was very insistent it had to be you.”

The puzzle pieces fell into place, and Dojin gave a helpless laugh. The Esper Director raised his eyebrows playfully.

“Since I’m still salty about what you pulled, don’t expect any extra support. You can handle this on your own, can’t you?”

“Yes, sir. Understood.”

The Esper Director might’ve said it out of spite, but in truth, it wasn’t the kind of mission that required additional backup anyway.

Dojin nodded without complaint, unfazed by the director’s petulant tone.

He didn’t seem to realize that only made him more aggravating.

As mentioned before, this assignment didn’t present any major dangers.

It was also a consequence of his own actions, so Dojin intended to handle the illegal breeding facility alone.

But the moment he brought it up, his team rose up in protest.

“Captain, no way.”

“You’re not seriously leaving us behind, right?”

“Can’t we come too?”

“This isn’t the kind of mission we need to rush out in full force for…”

Dojin looked around at Kijoon, Jihye, and Yulchan, his expression caught between amusement and exasperation.

All three pairs of eyes were practically sparkling.

They seemed convinced that Dojin was just going off on some fun solo outing.

He tried to gently talk them down, but they weren’t having it.

“We haven’t had a dungeon assignment in forever! A bit of action would be nice!”

“Kijoon wants to swing his shield around too! Hasn’t touched it since the last repair!”

“I’m still short on field experience… If there’s a chance to join in, I’d really like to take it.”

‘Please. Just listen to me, guys.’

Dojin let out a deep sigh, clearly exhausted. Sehun walked up beside him.

“Why not just let them go?”

“…Not you too, Vice-Captain.”

He wasn’t on Dojin’s side either. Dojin looked at him with a betrayed expression, but Sehun was unfazed.

Shrugging, he nodded toward the eager teammates.

“Let’s be honest. It has been slow lately. And they’re the type who get restless fast. If you leave them behind, they might cause even more trouble.”

“…That’s true.”

In the end, Dojin gave in and decided to take Alpha Team’s Espers with him.

However, since this was a mission that didn’t involve using abilities, they agreed to leave the guides behind.

“Guide Jiho can just continue training with us, so don’t worry, Captain.”

Geonwoo, who’d been overseeing Jiho’s training, offered the reassurance—and Dojin was relieved.

“Alright. I’m counting on you, Choi Geonwoo. Take good care of him.”

“Yes, sir.”

Sena grumbled from the side, “Why do you only trust Geonwoo?” But Dojin pretended not to hear her.

Not that she seemed to expect a response—she just scoffed and flopped down on the sofa with a huff.

“Guide Jiho.”

“……”

Leaving Sena behind, Dojin approached Jiho.

He looked a little drained—probably from a full morning of training with Geonwoo and Sena.

Was it too intense?

Geonwoo and Sena didn’t seem like the type to push him to exhaustion…

Worried, Dojin gently brushed Jiho’s hair with his fingers. Jiho’s lips jutted out a little, then he mouthed something to him.

–I want to go too.