Harley’s Modern Diary (2)
“Everything’s sorted here!”
“Since we’ve already wasted a lot of time, let’s get started right away. The guests are all ready, right?”
“Yes, PD. They’re all set and waiting.”
The filming, which had been abruptly interrupted due to unforeseen circumstances, resumed.
To be honest, judging by the atmosphere just moments ago, it seemed like a complete fiasco, but perhaps there had been some negotiations at a higher level because orders to continue were directly communicated to the set.
Of course, that was an unwelcome development for the uninvited guests who had come all the way here, but unfortunately, there was nothing they could do about it.
And no wonder…
“Hmmm, it seems like we can finally have a proper conversation now!”
At that moment, they had no interest in anything else.
“Ugh…”
“………”
The returning celebrities, who had confidently barged in, were forcibly escorted outside the filming location.
Spotting Harley’s gaze, they exchanged glances while sheepishly bowing their heads.
The signs of having their spirits crushed were all too apparent.
“Conversation… do we still have anything left to talk about?”
Only one person, a woman who continued to meet his gaze despite everything.
Excluding the group leader, Cheon Seol-hyang.
‘…Why is that monster siding with the Blood Alliance?’
Of course, her calm appearance didn’t reflect her inner turmoil.
Having reached such a high level, she had distinctly felt the gap between herself and her opponents after the brief skirmish earlier.
‘If that man truly set his mind to it…’
They all would have likely become cold corpses by now.
It was only natural that these returnees, familiar with the logic of power, would cautiously observe the man called Director Ha.
Even though they refrained from using energy to avoid causing damage, wasn’t that the same for their opponents?
‘No matter how much we’ve grown weak in actual combat after being in the entertainment industry.’
The action actor who had only scratched the surface of the martial arts realm was easily brought down by a mere blow.
After being caught off-guard, he was incapacitated in an instant.
The self-defense technique he had used was shattered by just that one attack.
The following encounters were no different.
The broadcast personality who had slaughtered countless dragon species was also subdued before he could do anything.
The battle mage model, active at the frontline of war, met the same fate without being able to showcase his skills.
Even the singer, who served as a priest of the deity of banquets, was unable to resist despite being enhanced.
Ultimately, only the strongest among them, Cheon Seol-hyang, remained.
But even she, wielding her ribbon sword like a belt, had no choice but to abandon all resistance before long.
After several clashes, she could no longer deny the truth she had been trying to ignore.
No matter what she did, she couldn’t defeat that man.
‘…I never imagined a Transcendent Being would just be doing manager work.’
The pressure she felt when she faced the chairperson of the returnee association during her time as a Guardian flashed in her mind.
She never expected to experience that pressure again here.
While she knew Phantom was a Transcendent Being, she never thought he would personally look after a rookie idol.
“Why isn’t there anything to talk about? There’s nothing better than conversation for clearing up misunderstandings between us! We’ve already had an easy talk with our bodies, so isn’t it time for some serious discussions?”
Suddenly, Harley’s calm voice cut through her thoughts.
‘Light talk?’
‘Friendship…?’
His attitude was as if the recent disturbance was nothing of concern.
Those who had been glancing at him avoided his gaze, looking dumbfounded.
But Harley was serious.
If it weren’t true, they wouldn’t be sitting there so calmly.
‘Well, I suppose he’s orchestrated this whole mess calculating all of this.’
They likely already knew that the Blood Alliance was in danger and that if Phantom set his mind to it, he could kill them at any moment.
Yet, they boldly confronted him, guessing that he wouldn’t dare to use such severe measures.
‘And that’s what makes it troublesome.’
The moment he killed them to thwart their plans, the idol project would be over.
Not to mention, all the efforts they had put into rehabilitating their image would go down the drain.
The Bureau of Supernatural Governance and the Guardians would once again classify them as demons and completely ostracize them.
‘Assassination is also out of the question. Even if there’s no evidence, being suspected is deadly. Brainwashing or turning them into vampires isn’t an option either.’
It was an unavoidable limit they had to bear the moment they declared to step into the light.
If things happen in the shadows, they can eliminate them without anyone knowing, but with so many witnesses around, they had no choice but to handle it in the open.
‘Well, I can understand their feelings.’
The Blood Alliance had existed for over 15 years.
Moreover, it hadn’t even been a year since the hardliners, who had exerted mafia-like control over it, disappeared.
From their perspective, it wouldn’t be surprising if they thought that heinous criminals were trying to wash their identities clean by doing charity work a few times.
‘No matter how much they believed the Blood Alliance wouldn’t act recklessly, stepping out could mean losing their lives.’
That in itself was impressive.
Whether it was a sense of justice from being a former Guardian, a sense of responsibility for being treated as a powerful figure, or simply love for the entertainment industry they had been part of for so long.
They couldn’t treat these people haphazardly since they came here with their own sense of justice.
“Then let’s get to the main point. Did you guys arrange the bomb in our car?”
Although that would only apply if the bomb incident wasn’t related to them.
The kind of trouble they were facing now could be understood and overlooked, but a bombing was clearly crossing the line.
If they intended to kill them, innocent civilians could be casualties in the process.
“…What?”
“Bomb? What are you talking about?!”
Harley’s sharpened senses dissected their shocked responses.
It wasn’t just about analyzing their reactions.
He scrutinized their energy flow, pupil contraction, temperature change, hormone secretion, blood flow, and muscle tension.
There was no one in the world who could evade the gaze of someone who had reached the divine level of perception, not even machines, Undead, or Spirits.
‘They genuinely didn’t know.’
The result was that all five of them were innocent.
But was it just a coincidence that their arrival coincided with the bombing?
‘Hmm…’
As they rambled about nonsense, Harley rubbed his chin, considering various possibilities in his mind.
From the chance that someone had instigated them for their own purposes to the possibility that if the terror succeeded, they would try to pin it on them.
“So, you’re saying that terror has nothing to do with you?”
“Of course not! Wait, are you saying a bombing actually occurred?”
Whichever way it went, it was a troublesome issue.
Things were already complicated, and how could they possibly investigate that and identify the suspects?
“Alright, let’s do this!”
So instead of wasting time worrying, they decided to handle it in the way things should be dealt with in the open.
*
A man exiting the front door of the building stretched his arms wide.
“Ha! Now let’s see, I’ve bought some time with this.”
With a sturdy build, wearing sunglasses and a suit, he looked anything but ordinary.
It was Director Ha—Harley—who had entrusted Lycoris to the other managers and had personally driven here.
‘This is just killing two birds with one stone. That woman might calm those gentlemen down if anyone can.’
Satisfactorily nodding, the building sign sparkled in the sunlight behind him.
– South Branch of the Returnee Association, Korea
One of the ‘Guardians’, representing public power and maintaining security in Korea.
The Bureau of Supernatural Governance, a national agency, sought their cooperation first for issues steeped in mystery, making them one of the top organizations to handle supernatural crimes in Korea.
‘This bombing is clearly a supernatural crime. The Guardians should naturally take action.’
No matter what anyone said, ‘Lunatic Entertainment’ was a legitimate company established under proper procedures in the Republic of Korea, and Lycoris was an artist under them.
Setting aside the fact they were vampires, with the use of magical bombs in the terror, the Guardians had an obligation to actively resolve this incident.
‘I’ve also asked Yoon Ji-yoon, the section chief who agreed to cooperate with us, for additional assistance.’
In doing so, he had effectively shifted the returnee celebrities onto the investigation for their connection to the suspects.
Given that Yoon Ji-yoon had a superior-subordinate relationship with Cheon Seol-hyang, she could persuade them, who couldn’t act freely during the investigation.
She was well aware of this side’s power and would likely take a more active role to prevent any unnecessary trouble.
‘Just in case, I officially reported it to the Bureau of Supernatural Governance’s Crime Investigation Division. If you pay your taxes regularly, you should claim your rights.’
Before Hahoe Mask and Phantom arrived, those agencies had been struggling to maintain peace despite their inefficiency.
No matter how crafty the culprits were, hiding from both of those law enforcement organizations moving together wouldn’t be easy.
Even if they couldn’t capture them, they could corner them…
‘And when their tail sticks out.’
A fierce glint emanated from behind his sunglasses.
With a grin, his tongue flicked between his white teeth.
“Cough, cough. Alright! Then I need to prepare on my end as well!”
Nodding emphatically, Harley moved with swift strides.
With more pressing matters at hand, manager duties would have to take a backseat for now.
As for Lycoris, that would fall to the Blood Alliance to manage.
To be honest, him being a manager was more than a bit out of place.
“Let’s see.”
Taking out his smartphone, he checked an email.
It was a report from Andrew Weaver that had arrived while he was dealing with the Returnee Association.
Perhaps he had been preparing for this even before receiving direct orders, the information was far more detailed than he had anticipated.
“Ha ha ha! In that case, should I go look for some friends to become our staff?”
As the saying goes, get while the getting’s good.
Now that he had the roster necessary for expanding his information network in hand, he wouldn’t hesitate any longer.
‘But why is the file named ‘Death List’?’
Tilting his head slightly, Harley shrugged it off.
Well, Andrew was a foreigner; he might simply have mixed it up with a roster of names.
A name filled with the passion of a person who couldn’t just die cast an ethereal glow in the hand of the Grim Reaper.
*
While acting as a manager in Korea, Harley was not his usual towering self.
His height, which easily exceeded 2.3 meters, was now barely under 2 meters, and his muscular frame had shrunk accordingly.
Having once stirred up quite a scene in Southeast Asia, his previous appearance had drawn considerable attention, so he had made an effort to tone things down.
‘I mean, I didn’t have a suit to match that bulk.’
He hid the tattoos etched onto his body beneath his skin.
Thus, having lost all his individuality and becoming just an unusually large businessman, Harley…
Creek—
“Wow, the guests are calling, and you don’t even come out to greet me.”
He effortlessly tore apart the reinforced metal entrance with his bare hands and peered through the gap.
“Ah! A monster!”
A sharp feminine scream echoed from inside, but he paid it no mind as he shoved his face through the opening.
“Eew, it stinks. This can’t be good for your health; you should ventilate the place a bit. Isn’t the air getting stale with this door shut?”
Having rationalized that this was all for their benefit, he began to widen the torn gap.
The sound of twisting metal echoed loudly, but thanks to a soundproof barrier seemingly installed for security purposes, the ruckus remained limited to the vicinity.
“Hmmm, are you Hu-gin over there?”
With that, Harley stepped over the barrier, which had completely lost its original purpose of blocking external intrusions, and started surveying the area.
In the basement, illuminated only by the artificial lights with no windows, there were over ten large monitors and computers spinning tirelessly.
‘Sure enough, they certainly have some capabilities.’
Having skimmed through the contents displayed on the monitors, he nodded in satisfaction.
Then he turned his gaze to a woman trembling on the floor…
Gasp!
He quickly grabbed the neck of a man who had attempted sneakily to ambush him from behind.
“So, you must be Munin.”
The man repeatedly stabbed him with a knife, but his skills were far too inadequate to pierce Harley’s clothing.
“Let go of that hand!”
The woman, whose eyes had sharpened as if she was never in fear, wielded invisible threads, but…
Gag!
She was yanked down along with her assailant, falling alongside him in apprehension.
‘Hu-gin and Munin, the duo making waves in the underworld recently.’
Harley smiled with satisfaction as he surveyed the trophies in his hands.
The ones called ‘Odin’s Eyes’, contracted to provide information, ranked among the elites in Andrew’s roster.
Yet, they were so elusive that only by mobilizing Hesperon’s network based on verbatim lists could they finally be located.
Now that he had captured elite individuals with such ease, how could he not feel accomplished?
‘Oh right, just capturing them isn’t enough, is it?’
Realizing his mistake, he carefully set the two on the floor.
“Hahaha! Sorry for the intrusion! I came here to make a good proposal…”
“……?”
“A… proposal?”
“Yes, yes! You’re going to be satisfied when you hear it. There’s no better deal out there!”
Ignoring the terror that glimmered in their eyes, Harley enthusiastically promoted his pitch.
After all, he came looking to peacefully recruit them.
…Just for the record, up until now, his scout success rate was 100 percent.
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Broken ass chapter