SYNO Chapter 35

Ssangryeong squeezed his eyes shut. 

What was that kiss about?

The first step of fulfilling the contract? 

A demonstration?

If he was going to make a move, he should have done it properly, instead of leaving him hanging. This ambiguous physical contact, followed by his departure, left Ssangryeong feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

“Ha…”

Ssangryeong ruffled his hair in frustration. The most irritating thing was his heart, pounding loudly at a moment like this.

He was thumping his chest in annoyance when the door opened, and he turned his head. He thought the Commander had returned, but it wasn’t him.

It was that guy, Frederick, who always trailed after Pienne, staring at him with wary eyes.

“You again?”

“Just in case you’re wondering, you’d better watch your words and actions. Don’t forget you came back to the building on your own two feet.”

Ssangryeong pursed his lips at the unexpected warning. Frederick, looking displeased with his crooked expression, gestured for him to follow.

“I’ll show you to your quarters.”

Ssangryeong wondered why an officer needed to personally escort him to what he assumed would be the usual solitary confinement cell. Ssangryeong followed him listlessly, only to raise his eyebrows when they stopped in front of a massive wooden door.

“Here?”

“Yes.”

“I’m supposed to sleep here?”

“That’s what I was told.”

The door, with its geometric patterns carved into it, clearly wasn’t meant for a criminal. Ssangryeong pushed it open.

“…Are you serious?”

Ssangryeong frowned as a large bedroom, fit for a VIP guest, came into view.

The Commander’s low voice, reciting the terms of the contract, echoed in his mind.

‘If Party B complies with the terms of this agreement and cooperates with tasks willingly, Party A shall provide Party B with a high standard of food, clothing, and shelter, respect their right to live a decent life, and protect Party B from any threats from third parties.’

Did he really mean it? Even though Ssangryeong hadn’t cooperated with anything yet?

As Ssangryeong stared at him suspiciously, Frederick shrugged.

“I don’t know either. Why are you being put up in a place like this? What did you do to our Commander?”

“I’m really supposed to sleep here?”

Frederick sighed deeply and replied, avoiding the question.

“You’ll be under constant surveillance. I need to discuss this further, so for now, you’ll be sleeping here tonight.”

As he spoke, he even unlocked Ssangryeong’s handcuffs. Ssangryeong wondered if the government officials had finally lost their minds.

“Can you handle this?”

“It’s the Commander’s responsibility to handle it, as he’s the one giving the orders.”

“And can the Commander handle it?”

“He’s not someone you need to worry about. He’s particularly skilled at handling things.”

“Huh…”

Even so, was it really okay to let a scoundrel like him stay in such a nice room and remove his restraints?

Ssangryeong felt strangely uneasy. It seemed he had grown accustomed to the constantly present handcuffs, as if they were expensive bracelets.

“This is unbelievable. What if I run away again?”

“As I said, you’ll be under constant surveillance.”

Ssangryeong, not really listening to what Frederick was saying, looked around the spacious bedroom.

It was certainly too clean and well-furnished for someone like him.

‘This is the taste of wealth.’

Ssangryeong casually touched the furniture, then opened a door within the bedroom.

He half-expected another impressive space to appear.

“…What the fuck.”

He couldn’t help but grab the back of his neck at the sight of the three figures he saw beyond the door.

The two idiots, Robert and Malcolm, who had been abandoned by Lucas at the brink of death and had surrendered themselves to the government building, were standing there as if nothing had happened. They seemed to have recovered from their injuries, looking perfectly healthy in uniforms that could easily be mistaken for those of government officials.

Malcolm, who had been used as a hostage to torture him before; were they now assigned as his guards?

Ssangryeong glared at Malcolm and Robert with an openly annoyed expression. The two awkwardly greeted him.

“You guys, seriously, you fucking…”

He had plenty of curses to hurl, but he couldn’t decide where to begin, leaving him speechless. Just these two alone were enough to give him a headache, but the biggest problem was the other person.

Someone who shouldn’t be here.

“Benjamin. Why are you here?”

Benjamin, who should have been quietly hiding in some corner of the Dependent Nation, was inside the government building.

Ssangryeong had hoped Benjamin would at least remain uninvolved and live peacefully, but he had somehow gotten entangled in this mess.

Ssangryeong felt blood rush to his eyes.

Benjamin, noticing his angry expression, flinched. He gave a nervous, awkward smile.

“Ah, well… When you disappeared, the soldiers came looking for me. I tried to deny it, but they said they knew we were friends and told me to come quietly…”

“What?”

That was impossible. He had never revealed his relationship with Benjamin to anyone.

Benjamin, though slow-witted, wasn’t stupid, and he wouldn’t have talked about their friendship either.

‘How did they find out about our connection?’

Ssangryeong, his expression hardening, glared at Frederick this time. Frederick spoke in a tired voice.

“Why are you glaring at me? I just found out they were assigned as your guards.”

“Why is Benjamin here?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything about it.”

Frederick scratched his head, looking perplexed.

“This is crazy. Ssangryeong’s guards are his close associates… What is the Commander thinking?”

Hearing Frederick’s mumblings, Ssangryeong chuckled.

It seemed the Vice Commander couldn’t even grasp his own superior’s intentions.

It was only a guess, but Robert, Malcolm, and Benjamin weren’t placed there to guard him.

They were probably still “hostages.”

‘It’s a warning that he won’t leave them alone if I try to escape again or don’t fulfill the contract.’

There was no other reason to station the weak and utterly useless Benjamin here, dressed in a uniform, as a guard.

Everything was a matter of an act.

Using them as guards for a convenient excuse.

And the sinister implication of these hostages.

‘He must have realized that Robert and Malcolm alone weren’t effective as hostages.’

His previous attempt to use Malcolm as a hostage during the torture had failed. The Commander must have searched for new, more useful hostage, just in case.

‘Knowing that I’m susceptible to emotional appeals.’

Only now could he finally understand why Pienne had remained so calm and collected despite having him, a returned fugitive, right in front of him.

The man had no reason to be anxious. He had several cards up his sleeve, ready to be used if necessary.

‘Such a devious bastard is my destined partner.’

Ssangryeong squeezed his eyes shut.

Ah, had returning to the Commander’s side been a blunder after all?

It was a frustrating situation, in many ways.

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

Vice Commander Frederick, busily organizing documents due to his heavy workload, received a sudden order.

He was handed a list of names and ordered to gather all the officials on it at the physical training grounds.

Obediently following the Commander’s orders, Frederick was stunned by the situation that unfolded next.

“Next.”

“It’s Revolver Sen.”

The officials, lined up in a row, were having individual consultations with Dr. Sirius Whistler. More precisely, they were being turned into fools with a strange device she had created strapped to their heads.

“Commander… what are you doing now?”

Frederick looked at Pienne with bewildered eyes. Pienne, sitting leisurely with his legs crossed in a corner of the training grounds, was simply observing the situation.

He spoke calmly,

“I’m erasing their memories.”

“Well, I can see that, but…”

It was obvious that the officials’ memories were being erased. Before each use of the machine, Dr. Whistler routinely announced, “We will be erasing memories related to Ssangryeong’s appearance. This is a necessary procedure for work, but please raise any objections if you have any.”

Of course, no official dared to openly refuse an order from their superiors.

After wearing the strange-looking device on their heads, the officials would leave in a daze, looking disoriented.

Just as there were machines that could extract memories, there were also devices that could erase them. If a genius could create the former, creating the latter was certainly within the realm of possibility.

Dr. Whistler tended to obey the Commander’s orders, so she was dutifully carrying out this task as well.

Frederick, after rubbing his face in exasperation, asked,

“Why erase memories of Ssangryeong’s appearance all of a sudden? These officials are all your direct subordinates. They need to know what Ssangryeong looks like to carry out their duties.”

Frederick looked at the list again and groaned. Now that he looked closely, they were all people who had seen Ssangryeong at least once.

Instead of instructing the officials to keep their mouths shut, the Commander had resorted to using a memory-erasing device.

It was a typical action for the Commander, who rarely trusted anyone.

“Please answer me. I really don’t understand. Haven’t you been treating Ssangryeong strangely lately? Not only are you providing him, a Class A criminal, with the same food as the officials and giving him the VIP room, but you’ve also assigned his closest aides as his guards? What are you thinking?”

Normally, he would have discussed this thoroughly with the Commander beforehand, but recently, Frederick had been overloaded due to matters related to Brigadier General Lucas, making it difficult to find the time.

Therefore, he had no choice but to ask all his questions at once.

While he had been busy working, the Commander had been planning and executing various things behind his back.

Pienne spoke casually.