Urban Vagabond: Reload

While my parents’ cafe Naru and Kim Bokja’s Spellcraft Beauty Shop were busy with last-minute opening preparations,

I didn’t go out of my way to actively promote or publicize the Blue Wolves Office. I hadn’t started this to make money in the first place.

If someone’s desperate, they’ll come looking on their own.

I wanted to be a source of strength for people who truly needed help—not just anyone.

But the first person to knock on the Blue Wolves Office door after opening was someone even I hadn’t expected.

KNOCK KNOCK—

With the knock, Kim Chanho walked in, leading a little girl who looked like an elementary schooler.

“Dad? Who is she?”

“She was crying out front, so I brought her in. She said she lost her dog.”

The elementary schooler, tears pooled in her eyes, spoke.

“Can you please find Nana for me?”

On the smartphone screen she held out was a white Maltese sitting on grass, looking up at its owner.

“I was walking her, and I only went out for a second to watch a claw machine... and Nana disappeared.......”

I couldn’t bring myself to tell an elementary schooler like that—begging me to please find her dog—that this wasn’t a place that looked for pets.

That was when Kim Chanho jabbed me in the side.

“The office is just collecting dust anyway. Help her out.”

“......Okay.”

So in the end, I went out to search for the missing dog.

Luckily, it hadn’t been long since the dog went missing, and for a pinnacle expert, finding one dog wasn’t exactly difficult.

I sprang up onto the roof. I sharpened my eyesight with internal energy and swept my surroundings—and I spotted the Maltese not far away, lying still in an alley, waiting for its owner.

“Waaah! Nana! Nanaaa—! Thank you! Thank you so much!”

The elementary schooler hugged the dog tight in her arms, thanked me over and over, then left after pressing chocolate from her pocket into my hands.

“This is... rewarding in its own way, but......”

It felt a little lacking as the Blue Wolves Office’s first request.

When Kim Bokja heard the story, her eyes glittered like she’d just come up with a brilliant business idea.

“Why don’t you switch the business type and specialize in finding missing pets?”

“What kind of creative nonsense is that?”

“Think about it. In the city, a martial-world expert who’s way faster than cars and can zip up to high places—finding your lost pet? This is a guaranteed business!”

She peeled open the chocolate the elementary schooler had paid with and ate it on my behalf as she launched into her pitch.

“In the era of ten million pet households, isn’t that basically the same as reuniting families? Where else do you find something this just, this rewarding?”

No matter how she tried to convince me, all I did was shake my head.

And then—something familiar snagged on my senses.

Killing intent?

Not the kind of killing intent someone gave off when they wanted to murder a specific person.

The kind that seeped into your bones when resentment piled up and piled up until it became part of you.

I knew people who carried that kind of killing intent better than anyone.

Rrrk.

I opened the window and looked outside. A man was walking this way.

A shabby gray hoodie and jeans. Medium-tall. A man with a ponytail—and he was limping, like one leg didn’t work right.

I feel like I’ve seen him before.......

I watched him closely, only half-listening to Kim Bokja.

“And if we expand the business gradually and franchise it—hey. Are you listening to me?”

“Looks like our first customer’s about to arrive. Bokja, move aside for a second.”

“Tch. Of all times......”

Kim Bokja grumbled and left. A moment later, there was a knock at the door.

KNOCK KNOCK—

“Come in.”

The man who entered was the same one I’d seen through the window.

He was dressed ordinarily, and he hadn’t brought a weapon, but I could guess who he was at a glance.

A drifter.

That wary stare you only saw in people who lived at the very bottom of the martial underworld.

Of course, you couldn’t declare someone a drifter based on that alone.

But there was a certain smell—something only someone of the same kind could sense—that gave me certainty.

“This is the Blue Wolves Office...... right?”

He must’ve thought I was way younger than him; he spoke short. Like he’d decided I was just an employee.

“That’s right. Have a seat.” 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

I pointed to the table for guests.

After hesitating, he let out a shallow sigh and sat down.

He really does look familiar. It’s definitely.......

I narrowed my eyes, studying his face.

Before my regression, I’d lived half my life as a drifter.

Even if they weren’t friends or comrades, I’d passed by countless faces in that world. It wouldn’t be strange if he was one of them.

“What brings you here?”

“......Hwang Suksu sent me. Where’s the boss?”

“I’m the representative of the Blue Wolves Office—Kim Muhyuk.”

When I handed him my business card, disappointment radiated off him openly. He kicked back his chair and stood, irritation on his face.

“Fuck. Wasted my time.”

“I don’t think you needed to curse at me. Han Jaechun.”

“......!”

He flinched and stared, eyes wide, then glared at me.

And I finally overlaid him perfectly with someone from my old memories.

Limping Han.

Back when I hadn’t been a drifter for long, he was someone I’d worked with a few times.

Han Jaechun muttered, his face sour.

“Did Hwang Suksu tell you? No—he doesn’t even know my name, I don’t think.......”

We hadn’t been close. All we’d shared were a handful of jobs back when I was still a green drifter.

The reason I remembered his name so clearly was simple.

When we were together, people called us the one-eyed-and-the-cripple duo.

Just like Han Jaechun—who’d ended up limping for the same kind of reason—I’d lost one eye after an illegal artificial lower abdomen procedure.

Simply because we moved as a pair, we’d become targets for ridicule and mockery.

In the drifter world, that level of cruelty was everyday life.

But back then, as a brat, I’d still snapped and gotten into fistfights over it.

—Kid. If you flare up at every little comment, you won’t last long as a drifter. You’ve gotta learn how to laugh it off.

—Shut up. Says the coward who can’t even say one word back because he’s scared.

—.......

I had a time like that, too.

Reflecting on how sharp I’d been back then, I spoke to Han Jaechun as gently as I could.

“We’re fairly good at gathering information. We also know you’ve been doing excellent work as a drifter, Han Jaechun.”

“.......”

It was a lie. The Han Jaechun I remembered had been a permanently low-tier drifter.

My swordsmanship had been ghostlike—I’d stood out fast, and not long after, I started getting higher-paying jobs.

Han Jaechun hadn’t.

With weaker skill, he took work that paid little and was dirty—requests other drifters avoided.

And it wasn’t like those jobs were safe, either.

Hard, rough, nasty work.

That was why he was so wary, and why he didn’t trust people easily.

“......You’re really the boss here?”

“Haven’t you seen me on TV or YouTube?”

“Don’t know. Don’t care about that crap.”

Han Jaechun was the type who had no interest in anything beyond scraping by day to day.

So he didn’t know who I was—and he didn’t have the eye to recognize my skill at a glance, either.

But I’d already decided I was taking his case.

“Well, if you don’t know, you can learn little by little.”

Feeling a one-sided familiarity, I continued with an overly friendly smile.

“You’re our first customer since opening, so I’ll set the fee very cheaply as a special case. What problem brought you to our office?”

For some reason, Han Jaechun’s face hardened and he backed away.

“Don’t need it.”

“What?”

I tilted my head, genuinely not understanding, and stepped closer as he retreated.

“You can trust me with it. Especially if it’s counseling for damage tied to drifters—I can say I have the best experience in the business.”

Best experience, my ass, coming from some kid who still looks like the blood on his head hasn’t dried.

And with how he tried to snatch the request without even hearing what it was, his credibility dropped through the floor.

Total scammer.

Han Jaechun swallowed the words rising to his throat and said more firmly,

“I said no. I’m leaving.”

He turned to go—and I blocked the door.

“Han Jaechun. I really want to help you. I want to find your justice for you. But if I don’t know the reason, I can’t help.”

I looked him in the eyes, expression serious, and continued.

“If you find just a little more courage, a way might appear—but you’re going to turn around and leave like this without even saying a word?”

Something in my words must have scraped the wrong nerve.

“You little punk—getting cocky because I let you—!”

He exploded, swinging a fist at my face. If I’d been an ordinary person, my nose would’ve caved in.

“......Ha. You’re a pain in the ass.”

With a sigh, I lightly caught his fist.

Then I bent his arm, grabbed the back of his head as he yelped, and slammed his face down into the table.

KWAANG—!

His cheek buried into the ceramic table I’d bought with durability as my top priority.

“GHHK—!”

“Han Jaechun.”

I leaned down and whispered low into his ear as he thrashed.

My voice stayed polite and gentle—yet the tone was like a wolf’s growl.

“I’m warning you. Don’t pull a knife out of your pocket. Unless you want to go home missing your hand.”

“......!”

Realizing I was far above him, Han Jaechun let his hand—headed toward his pocket—drop limp.

Cold sweat ran down his spine.

I ran into a crazy bastard!

He resented Hwang Suksu for introducing someone like this.

And he hated himself even more for believing it and coming here like an idiot.

“I-I’m sorry. With my pathetic skill, I failed to recognize an expert.......”

It was humiliating, but if it meant living, he could grovel and beg all he wanted.

After watching him for a moment, I quietly pulled him up and sat him back down.

“Let’s talk calmly again. Just listen to me for ten more minutes. If you still don’t like it, you can leave.”

“......Yes.”

I heard the dry swallow in his throat.

“Seems like I didn’t explain well enough. I’ll go through it again, one thing at a time.”

I explained slowly, to clear up his misunderstanding.

“You’re our first client. And I want to build results and experience quickly. If your request gets resolved well, I’m planning to take a cheap fee—so you’ll spread the word around afterward.”

The truth was, I wanted to help him because he was someone I’d brushed past in my past life.

But judging by his temperament, this explanation would convince him far better.

“Ah.......”

Only then did Han Jaechun’s expression loosen.

He was recalling the skill I’d just shown him.

Movement so fast he couldn’t even properly react.

A low-tier drifter might have weak martial arts, but he wasn’t blind.

He’s not some nobody. He’s the real deal. If someone like this really helps me.......

After wavering for a while, Han Jaechun finally spoke carefully.

“I want to get paid what I’m owed... Can you—c-can you help me?”

I clasped his hands and grinned.

“You came to the right place. That’s my specialty.”

Feeling like I’d finally received a proper request, the corners of my mouth lifted.

“So. Who stiffed you?”

“......Will you keep it secret?”

Instead of answering, I brought out a confidentiality pledge form.

I’d prepared it in advance, just in case.

“If you need it, you can sign. But if you killed civilians or committed a crime on that level, that won’t work. Though if it were something like that, you wouldn’t have come to me in the first place.”

“......I don’t think we need to go as far as signing a pledge.”

Han Jaechun nodded, lowered his voice, and began.

“Well... I was working a job smuggling an herbal sprout that only grows overseas, and then......”

“Smuggling?”

The moment I heard the word, one incident that had shaken up the martial underworld around this time surfaced in my mind.