Chapter 715


    On a day when Seo-jun had no filming.


    Seo-jun was studying online lectures from Korea National University of Arts at his accommodation, while the filming of [Shadow and Knight] continued.


    “Ready, action!”


    The filming of Evan Block began under the shout of Jonathan, the director who had become quite familiar by now.


    ***


    A night with the moon.


    Shadowman was standing on the roof of a building where no one was.


    His surprised and frustrated feelings seemed to ease a bit as he looked at the wide-open cityscape.


    -Mac, are you outside?


    “Yes.”


    -Any bugs?


    “No.”


    -Good.


    Through the wireless earphones (made in Natra), he heard the voice of Bell Natra. It was a serious voice, unlike usual. Mac also spoke in a serious tone.


    He wondered if it would be better to talk about William’s shadow or this contact at the First Headquarters. Mac, there were many agents smarter than him.


    But he couldn’t do that.


    -If they know William’s ability, they will try to recruit him from the First side.


    “I guess so.”


    Shadowman took a deep breath and exhaled.


    The First was not a bad place.


    Protecting the Earth, defeating the villains, it was all for the people living on Earth.


    It was an uncorrupted, justice-oriented organization.


    That’s why Shadowman became a member of the First, and Bell Natra was helping the First.


    “But William can’t.”


    -Right. William has suffered enough…


    The two knew how heavy and hard the First’s mission, the responsibility and duty of a superhero, was.


    That’s why they tried to solve this situation without getting involved with the First and avoiding contact.


    -For now, I’m going back to Natra planet. There must be a lot of related materials in the royal palace library.


    Shadowman looked at the dark sky and said. The black space. Somewhere there, Bell Natra’s spaceship was flying.


    “What about your work? Wasn’t it important enough to leave Natra planet?”


    -What work is more important than my brother?


    Shadowman smiled involuntarily at Bell Natra’s firm words.


    -Don’t worry. It’s done enough. I chased them this far, but they don’t seem to be in the Natra sector.


    “That’s good.”


    The two Natrans got to the point.


    “Will there be anything about William, the Earthling, in the royal palace library?”


    -I can’t say for sure. It’s very rare for a shadow to have a self… Information related to Earthlings… It was hard to find information about your partner.


    At that, Shadowman and Bell Natra sighed at the same time.


    “Anyway, we’re meeting William on Wednesday, so let’s decide what questions to ask him.”


    To avoid the eyes of the First, they had to get as much information as possible with as few meetings as possible.


    -Yeah. First, ask when he met that shadow friend named Jay.


    “We also need to ask how far he can use his abilities related to the shadow. And who knows more.”


    -It would be good to find out about Jay’s personality too. If he’s a troublemaker like your partner…


    “…That would be a big deal.”


    What am I!


    The partner poked Shadowman’s cheek with a sigh. Shadowman pushed his partner away and said.


    “When I saw him briefly last time, he seemed mature. He felt like playing with his partner, maybe.”


    -Um. Maybe he was influenced by his father’s shadow. Oh, and also ask about the cause of the shadow’s appearance. He might have touched a pendant like Mac.


    “The pendant is no longer on Earth… It might be a dangerous item.”


    -Exactly!


    That’s how the arm-wrestling conversation between Shadowman and Bell Natra went on until late at night.


    ***


    While Shadowman and Bell Natra were looking for information.


    William was living his usual life. No, it was a little special day by day.


    “You look so happy, William?”


    The leader of the soccer club, Logan, put his arm on William’s shoulder and asked. William smiled and said.


    “I have something good.”


    Finally, tomorrow afternoon.


    He’s going to meet Shadowman.


    He didn’t know how slowly time went by with the anticipation in his chest. But even waiting was happy for William.


    “Is it because you met Shadowman on the weekend?”


    “!..Ah, well. Yeah?”


    He was startled.


    Logan had no way of knowing that he met Shadowman last weekend. He must have meant the plane accident.


    The school was full of that story all week.


    ‘I didn’t know I’d meet Shadowman again…’


    He laughed involuntarily.


    Logan looked at him helplessly. His friend, William, liked Shadowman like that whenever he talked about him.


    “Why do you like Shadowman so much? Do you have a reason?”


    “A reason…”


    William looked down at the question he was smiling brightly at. Logan followed suit and bowed his head.


    All they saw were their shoes and a black shadow.


    William raised his head and smiled at his friend.


    “There’s no special reason.”


    Somehow, William’s smile looked a bit heavy.


    ****


    After the morning filming at school, the afternoon filming was at the studio set.


    William’s room on the second floor.


    It was a typical boy’s room, but it was neatly arranged, resembling William’s personality.


    Of course, the collections of materials about Shadowman on the bookshelf, and the two teddy bears on the drawer next to the bed, along with the pictures taken with his mom and dad, were impressive.


    Seo-jun looked at the pictures on the drawer.


    They were pictures of him with his parents when he was young, with Melissa Walton and Jo Sung-hwan edited in.


    “They look so real.”


    “The art team worked hard on it.”


    The teddy bears were the same.


    As if not to miss the details, they were both clean teddy bears, but one was old and one was a little newer.


    That reminded Seo-jun of the Monster Company dolls at home. They felt just like that, because he had them since he was a baby.


    ‘I don’t play with them anymore.’


    Just looking at them made him smile with memories of his childhood.


    …Was it because of his father’s dark history?


    Seo-jun smiled lightly and started preparing for the filming.


    Soon after.


    The filming began with the voice of Jonathan, the director.


    “Ready,”


    [(Line)Dark Elf’s Shadow Transformation-Middle Level] is activated.


    [[(Line)Dark Elf’s Shadow Transformation-Middle Level]’s grade is temporarily lowered.]


    [(Line)Dark Elf’s Shadow Transformation-Low Level] is activated.


    Seo-jun activated his ability, and the shadow began to swirl with life.


    “Action!”


    Excited by the promise that was approaching tomorrow, William took out the notebooks from the bookshelf and placed them on the desk.


    The notebooks titled [Shadowman] were a kind of collection of materials that printed and pasted articles and news from the internet, or analyses of Shadowman and other heroes by someone.


    “It’s already the seventh volume.”


    The collection of materials that he had made since he was young was already the seventh volume.


    Unlike the early part that he had made when he was young, cutting and pasting with scissors without any rules, the later part that he made as he grew older had his own analysis and was made like a report with fixed rules.


    William, who had been reading the collection of materials intermittently from the seventh volume, read the first volume.


    Shadowman and the shadow were drawn in elementary school drawings, and next to them, William himself and the shadow Jay were drawn.


    William smiled for a moment at the cute picture and lowered his gaze. And then he stared blankly at the sentence written in crooked letters below.


    He stayed still for ten minutes.


    Tap tap-


    Someone tapped William’s arm.


    It was Jay.


    William turned his head and looked at Jay.


    Jay stretched out his shadow and pretended to close the book and pointed to the backpack.


    And then he pointed to the laptop and tapped the keyboard. It was like a shadow play.


    William smiled and closed the collection of materials.


    “Are you telling me to do my homework?”


    Nod.


    Jay nodded his head.


    “Okay.”


    William closed [Shadowman Volume 1] and reached for the backpack next to the desk.


    “Jay is really like a dad.”


    Along with William’s small laughter, soon the sound of tapping the laptop was heard.


    ***


    The next day.


    A peaceful Wednesday morning as always.


    Before going to work and school, the William family, who were having a meal, turned their eyes to the news coming out of the TV.


    […An explosion at the department store…]


    Black smoke was coming out of the entrance of the department store, which would have been neat and sophisticated. Firefighters rushed in, and the guests who were burned came out desperately covering their mouths and noses.


    The vivid scene was shown on the screen.


    The faces of the William family watching TV were full of worry.


    It was an accident that happened yesterday, but it didn’t feel like someone else’s business because they had been there with their family.


    “There are a lot of accidents these days.”


    As soon as he took his eyes off the TV that was delivering other news, his father said, and his mother and William nodded.


    “That’s right. There was an accident at the airport the day before yesterday.”


    “And the amusement park the day before that.”


    Of course, there were no huge accidents that the William family had experienced, such as a small plane falling on the baseball field, but there were accidents such as fire or machine stoppage happening several times a day in New York.


    “It’s New York, where there are a lot of people, so it might happen…”


    “Even so, it’s definitely more frequent than it can be explained.”


    It was as if it was a sign of a big event.


    Anxiety and worry piled up on the faces of his mother and father. It was inevitable that they would think of the nightmare of ten years ago.


    “William, be careful.”


    “Yes. I will.”


    William nodded his head and answered at once with a sincere expression on his face full of worry.


    “Don’t jump in dangerously like last time.”


    “Ha. Ha. Ha. Yes.”


    William smiled awkwardly and quickly answered his father, who spoke with a stern expression and voice.


    “Mom and dad, be careful too.”


    “Okay.”


    His mother and father smiled at the words of their kind and diligent son.


    ***


    That afternoon.


    The kind and diligent son, William, was meeting with the person who was perhaps the closest to danger and sparkling his eyes.


    Shadowman, Mac Brown.


    The place was Mac Brown’s regular cafe.


    It was a quiet place where they could talk comfortably.


    “I thought you would go to the First Headquarters.”


    William, who was sorry that his guess was wrong, looked around the cafe.


    A calm classic was flowing, and the cafe was full of soft coffee aroma.


    It was a completely different place from what he had imagined when he received a call from Shadowman to meet.


    “Um. There…”


    Mac frowned involuntarily at William’s words. It was because he remembered the conversation with Bell Natra.


    “It’s a difficult place for outsiders to enter.”


    “Ah.”


    That’s right.


    William nodded in agreement and Mac smiled lightly and tried to make the atmosphere comfortable by talking about this and that.


    “Maybe it’s the work of a villain?”


    They also talked about the accidents that happened recently.


    “It doesn’t seem like the work of a villain… They’re exploding here and there without any purpose. The accidents are also small enough to be solved by firefighters and police.”


    “Hmm. That’s true.”


    William nodded at Mac, who smiled and got to the point.


    “Shall we talk then? About your shadow friend.”


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    “Yes! Ask me anything!”


    As if he realized that he was talking about himself, the shadow under William’s two arms on the table wriggled and merged. And then it popped out and bowed to Mac.


    William smiled brightly and said.


    “Jay also asks for your favor.”


    “…Wow, what a polite friend.”