It had taken three weeks.
Three long, grueling weeks of relentless pursuit.
No one expected the hunt to just end like this.
Not for a target officially stated as a level-one threat, or even above.
It felt wrong. Everyone sensed it.
It wasn't just the fact that their squad was the only one that manged to get a record of a trace of his power.
But through their chase, they felt as if they were the prey, not the predator.
Three weeks of chasing rumors, following any traces of magic he left behind.
Some days they felt as if they were too close, like he was just a few moments away from them.
Just to turn out they were being played with.
And then, finally, they found him.
Or did he let them?
They don't know.
He lay beneath a twisted tree at the edge of a dying forest, as if he was resting there for a nap. Arms folded beneath his head, eyes closed, chest rising and falling in the calm rhythm of sleep. The wind toyed with the ends of his long, dark hair.
They surrounded him in silence. Weapons ready, by their sides. Bodies locked in tension.
No one dared move closer. Not now. Not yet. They are waiting. Waiting for an order.
They watched. No one blinked. Even the younger soldiers, often so cocky, were pale, casting uncertain glances at each other. Whispers started to rise, fluttering through the ranks like dry leaves in the wind.
While their seniors stiffened. Their stance tense.
Then came the trio.
"Is he asleep?" Vexra asked, squinting.
"Looks like a trap," Delvin muttered, hand twitching near the hilt of his blade. "Or the world's most smug power nap."
"He's not even armed," Katriel noted, brow raised, confused. "Is he...suicidal?"
"Don't be fooled," Lord Alaric snapped, her voice slicing through the quiet like a blade. Her eyes never left the man beneath the tree.
"That's not rest. That's a weapon pretending to be harmless."
The members flinched. Even those who didn't know the name Yoon could feel it, the coiled pressure of something far worse than the records warned.
The aura that radiated from him is too much..
Too much power.
"He's playing with your instincts," Alaric continued, stepping forward. Her voice rang out with authority. "Don't let your eyes lie to you."
She stopped a few paces away and called out, voice sharp and clear. "Yoon. State your purpose. You're trespassing on protected land and are classified a level-one threat. Do you understand me?"
Silence.
Then Yoon blinked. Slowly. He turned his head, deliberately, and looked away, like she was a fly buzzing too close to his ear.
Alaric's jaw tightened. Her teeth ground together.
"This bastard," she muttered, smoke curling faintly from her nostrils. "Still ignoring me... as always." Thank the stars that loud-mouthed Vervak wasn't here. He'd never let her live this down. As if he isn't the same. Stinky dog.
"Is he really that dangerous?" Katriel asked to no one in particular, beginning to question whether the tension was all for show. Or the elders are really this dramatic.
Maybe he had to rethink about their conversation that day again...
"Do you mean dangerously pretty?" Vexra replied dreamily.
"...Oh? Thanks," a voice cut in, low and smooth, with an unmistakable edge of amusement. What a tease.
The three snapped to attention.
Yoon stood before them, mere inches away.
Wasn't he just across the field moments ago?
Katriel yelped and stumbled backward. Yoon extended a hand, but the boy looked like he might faint.
"Yoon, step back!" Alaric's voice rang out like a thunderclap.
The whole clearing stiffened. Weapons lifted. Muscles tensed.
"Ugh. So annoying." He groaned. Then he sighed and pulled his hand back. "Alright, alright. I was just helping."
"You were not!" Alaric barked again.
"Step back."
"Now!"
"I'm not going to hurt anyone," he muttered, with a slight pout. "I'm being good." eyes wide, innocent.
"Enough with the good boy act!" she snarled."Leave the kids alone!"
Yoon shrugged and turned his attention back to the trio. He leaned down, face unreadable, eyes sharp with curiosity, and mischief.
First, the dazed blonde.
"You. What's your name?" Yoon asked, eyes still locked on Vexra.
"M-me?" Vexra stammered.
Yoon nodded. "Who else?"
"Vexra Veyrion."
"Hmm," Yoon hummed, then tilted his head slightly. "And I thought you looked familiar."
A pause. Then a subtle grimace.
"I hate your father. Dull man. No fun at all."
Vexra blinked, utterly lost.
Did the, supposedly, level-one threat just called his father boring?
What the-
Yoon moved on, crouching in front of Katriel, who still looked on the verge of unconsciousness.
"And you?"
"K-Katriel Ravnus..."
Another frown. Deeper this time.
"Hate your daddy, too. Such a jerk."
He stood and turned to Delvin, but paused.
Something shifted in Yoon's expression. It wasn't disgust. Nor amusement. Just… silence. He stared.
Oh..This kid.
So they were right...kids grew up really fast when you are not paying attention.
Delvin didn't feel scared. Werid. But why does he feel familiar? That is even weirder.
"Don't hurt him!" Alaric shouted again, closer now. "He is not Francis. He is not him! He is just a kid!"
Yoon didn't react. Didn't blink.
Then, finally, he turned away.
"Whatever, he is no fun anyway."
But Delvin heard him murmur, barely audible.
"Another nephew, I'm really cursed."
Yoon wandered back toward the twisted tree, as if nothing had happened, and leaned against it with casual grace.
"So," he said, to no one in particular, playing with a lock of his hair, "What was it you wanted again?"
"State your purpose," Alaric repeated, stepping into the clearing. "You're trespassing and officially registered as a level-one threat." She narrowed her eyes. "And don't you dare ignore me again."
Yoon grinned, all lazy amusement and mock innocence.
"And if I do?" he asked sweetly. "What are you going to do about it?" He gave her the good boy face again, pure sarcasm behind those wide, innocent eyes.
Alaric groaned, smoke now curling visibly from her nostrils. But before she could answer-
"You know you can't do anything," Yoon said, his tone shifting to something cold and hollow. "Not before I finish all of you."
A shiver passed through the squads.
Instantly, weapons lifted. Ready to strike. Seniors held formation. While the younger ones flinched.
But Alaric?
She didn't move. Didn't blink. Just narrowed her eyes.
She looked more annoyed more than anything else.
"You little bastard," she hissed. "You always do this."
"You never listen. You make everyone around you afraid. But you know what you're best at?"
"Making us all look like fools."
That, finally, drew something from him. A slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. Almost a smile.
"You enjoy this," she growled. "Their fear. Their confusion. It feeds you. Seven hundred years, and you're still the same smug, arrogant bastard."
And then came a sound. Low, rich, and deep.
Yoon chuckled.
He tilted his head back slightly, brushing his hair from his face with lazy fingers.
"So what if I do?" he murmured.
The onlookers tensed, goosebumps rising. There was something in that tone. Something dangerous.
Something about that voice made the air feel colder.
Alaric scoffed. "Shameless!"
Yoon dusted off his coat as if this were nothing more than an awkward family reunion.
Then...something moved.
A blur through the trees.
Gasps erupted. Blades lifted-
But it wasn't a threat.
It was… a cub. A wolf cub. Small. Fuzzy. Blazing with unnatural speed. It stopped to a halt in the clearing and growled at them, tiny teeth bared.
"Oh, shut up, you little shit," Yoon muttered, groaned, striding over to scoop it up.
The cub whimpered, then simmered, and shifted.
A child now. Wide-eyed, hair a wild mess of curls, and pouting with wounded resentment.
"But Yoonie, they were attacking you…" the little boy said, voice heartbreakingly innocent.
A collective pause.
The soldiers blinked.
The boy looked like the world's most adorable, wronged puppy.
Yoon groaned. "You always show up at the worst times to embarrass me."