Welcome to the World of the Mad Moon
The reaction was so unexpected that Seo Rin nearly jumped. The same guy who used to answer every word with fists and kicks was apologizing without a fight—what had gotten into him? While Seo Rin was still processing it, Se-geon scooped Young-eun into his arms and carried her toward Kim Seong-hui’s car. He settled her into the passenger seat, brushed the hair back from her face with his hand, then looked back at Seo Rin.
“So what now? Dump a blood-soaked girl on her family’s doorstep and the whole household’s going to explode.”
Only then did Seo Rin grasp how bad the situation really was. If Young-eun went home looking like this, that house would turn upside down. And she deserved an explanation, didn’t she? She had been dragged into this without knowing a thing—how terrified must she have been?
“Um… there aren’t any other serious injuries, right?”
Seo Rin asked Se-geon, the vicious atmosphere of his maternal relatives already rising in his mind. Se-geon answered with complete calm.
“As she is now, a doctor would write three weeks of treatment without blinking. Nothing hit her head, but a human girl’s body is fragile—there could be nerve damage. She’ll need a full workup.”
“Would it kill you to say something that might actually put someone at ease? Why is your heart so rotten?”
Seo Rin snapped at him, though he knew the words weren’t empty. Even at a glance she looked like three weeks of injuries, and if word got out that a girl in that condition had been kidnapped, a sensitive teenager in the full storm of adolescence might well throw herself off a Han River bridge—and no one would be shocked.
And if this kind of thing kept happening? The thought made Seo Rin’s vision go black. The idea of his little sister suffering without even understanding why filled him with a fierce, rising resolve: he would stop that, no matter what it took.
“If a lie is all it takes to make you feel better, then your so-called family love isn’t worth much either. Or do you want me to say something pretty for you?”
“Ah—forget it. So what am I supposed to do?”
The ground he stood on no longer answered to ordinary common sense. By any normal measure it was a grotesque world crawling with lunatics. In a place like that, Seo Rin was utterly powerless.
“Quit school. Move house. Cut contact with your family and kill your enemies. Do that and your sister will be safer than she is now.”
“……So one way or another, I can’t live as a human anymore.”
Seo Rin glared at Se-geon with a look of open blame, as if this had been the plan all along.
“Sorry about that.”
It did not sound particularly sincere, but Se-geon kept saying he was sorry as he pulled off his helmet. Strictly speaking, this whole mess might as well have been his and Kim Seong-hui’s doing.
They had known exactly what would happen if Seo Rin’s true nature came to light—had even put Yoon Young-eun under surveillance because of it—and still let the enemy snatch her and put her through this. Seo Rin had every right to resent them.
“Fine. There’s no other way. I’ll drop out of school and cut ties with my family. And if there’s something you need from me, I’ll cooperate.”
Se-geon nodded without a word. When he had lost his own family, Se-geon had practically forced Father Silvester to take him on and made himself a vampire hunter. With nothing left to lose, he had chosen the road that led beyond humanity.
Seo Rin was the opposite: he was abandoning his humanity to protect the one thing he valued most. Feeling that difference, Se-geon looked at him with a complicated tangle of emotion. For reasons he could not name, anger welled up. He knew he was the one in the wrong here, and still the irritation crawled under his skin. The kid got on his nerves. When had he last felt this way?
Ah…… right. It had been the same when he crossed paths with that pastor who drove a taxi and took care of orphans despite living hand to mouth. The same rising irritation he felt looking at good, decent people living ordinary little lives.
A sudden surge of self-loathing and rage made Se-geon cover his mouth with his hand.
“Cooperate. Do you even know what you’re saying?”
“……Of course I do. But I have a condition.”
“What is it?”
“From now on, I don’t want anyone laying a hand on my sister, my family, or my friends.”
Seo Rin glared at him as if Se-geon himself had been the one to touch them. Se-geon let out a short, incredulous laugh.
“Fine. Master, clean the girl up, get her back on her feet, and send her home. I’ll take this one with me.”
“Huh?”
Seo Rin stared at him in surprise. Se-geon pointed at the Corvette.
“Sports car’s a two-seater. If you climb in there and ride back, I’ll have no choice but to take your sister myself. Sure—I can strap her up with detonating cord and leather belts, haul her like cargo, strip her clothes off myself, wash the blood away, bathe her…… Want me to do that?”
Se-geon said it without so much as a flicker of expression. Seo Rin was the one whose face went red imagining every word.
“Th-that’s…… Young-eun is pretty, sure, but I never thought you were that kind of man…… If you’re going to be my brother-in-law, you at least need to be a promising celebrity or a chaebol heir.”
“You’ve got it bad, you little freak.”
“What? What did you say?”
“Nothing. Get on if you understand.”
Se-geon kicked the motorcycle to life with an easy motion. The suspension rocked, and the engine’s heart hammered hard.
“Mm, all right. Things being what they are, I’ll cooperate. Consider it a favor from me.”
Se-geon looked at him, speechless. How much nerve did this kid have, cracking jokes at the man who had already driven him to the edge of death two or three times?
Then again, after the way he had once complained that it “hurt down to the bone,” this was probably just who he was. Objectively, he was an optimist who refused to lose his spirit even in hard times. Subjectively, he was a few screws short of a full set—maybe a whole bag of them. Se-geon had already given up trying to make sense of him when a thought struck him and he glanced back.
“Then…… welcome to the world of the mad moon.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Seo Rin asked with perfect calm, pure curiosity more than anything else. From his point of view Se-geon had just started rambling out of nowhere—like someone pounding on a window in the middle of the night and calling it 16-bit.
For Se-geon it was deeply unpleasant and instantly regrettable. While he was still frozen, Seo Rin delivered the finishing blow.
“It’s not even night yet and you’re already talking in your sleep?”
“No—I just wanted to try saying it once. On a whim.”
Se-geon turned his head away as he said it, but Seo Rin could have sworn the face behind the helmet visor had gone red.
“Are you embarrassed right now?”
“Shut up! Before I jam a bomb in that mouth of yours and set it off.”
“……Threats when you’re out of comebacks. Nice.”
“Anyway—you quit school, and you move house.”
“Where to?”
“Come to my place. It’s too big for one person anyway. Perfect timing.”
“…….”
Rooming with a bounty target carrying a fifty-billion-won price on his head? Seo Rin was less than thrilled, but he had no real choice. Now that he had set foot in a world of lunatics, he would have to use Se-geon for everything he was worth.
“What are you doing?”
“Fine.”
Grumbling, Seo Rin climbed on behind him. Se-geon wrenched the throttle open. The motorcycle’s engine roared with vicious readiness and the front wheel kicked skyward. Startled, Seo Rin locked both arms around Se-geon’s waist.
“Waaah! What are you doing?!”
Se-geon only poured on more speed without answering.
Even calling it a move was generous—Seo Rin had almost nothing to take. He had always lived with next to nothing, and the basic appliances Se-geon already owned were far better: refrigerator, air conditioner, plasma TV, several terminal computers and servers……
It was the classic early-adopter, computer-obsessed setup no matter how you looked at it. In the end Seo Rin packed a few changes of clothes and gave away the washing machine, the old stove, the ancient TV and radio to the neighbors.
Once upon a time Goldstar—today’s LG—had run the slogan A moment’s choice shapes the next ten years. Some of the household goods in Seo Rin’s place were well past twenty. In a neighborhood this poor, people took them gladly all the same.
“……So you’re really dropping out. Don’t stop studying, though. You’ve got a good head, Seo Rin, and the more a person learns, the more of the world they can see. Don’t forget that.”
His homeroom teacher accepted the withdrawal form with open regret. The man knew the family’s circumstances all too well and could not bring himself to hold Seo Rin back—and that only made it sting more. Day to day at school the teacher had always seemed one breath away from devouring the students alive, but an educator was an educator for a reason after all.
“Aaaah! This is great. Being out at this hour is just……”
Seo Rin stretched as he walked out of the school gates. The sky was clear, white clouds drifting lazily past. The baseball team was practicing on the field, and just then someone’s hit cracked with a clean, bright sound and soared into the air. Seo Rin looked up at the transparent sky and rolled his neck.
The problem of his sister had been cleaned up with almost frightening neatness thanks to Kim Seong-hui’s skill. Officially, Yoon Young-eun had slipped and fallen because of menstrual cramps and been admitted to a nearby hospital; Kim Seong-hui had carefully rewritten her memories.
Young-eun still looked bewildered, but she seemed to accept the story. Pointless, ugly memories were better gone, after all.
He told her he was heading down to a small factory in the provinces to earn money, and asked her not to contact him for a while. She begged him to stay in school; he refused.
From here on he would walk the path beyond humanity. As a child of Lilith he had to learn why Lilith had made him, and why the vampire sovereign Tetra Anax kept him in mind at all. It would mean a long, reckless war that turned mages, monsters, and hunters into enemies.
“Well then—time to go. Taxi!”
Seo Rin raised a hand and called to Se-geon, who was waiting by the school gate. Se-geon flew at him and drove a fist straight into his gut.
Thud!
It was a body blow that would have killed an ordinary human on the spot. Seo Rin felt something rupture inside. Se-geon caught the collapsing body against his shoulder and murmured into his ear.
“Hey. You trying to die? Don’t get full of yourself.”
Se-geon pulled his fist free and dusted off his hand. Even as he crumpled with pain, Seo Rin managed a weak grin.
“Cough, cough…… Heh heh. Nope. Don’t wanna.”
“What?”
“Oh—right, you’re older than me. I’ll call you hyung. That’s what you were sulking about, isn’t it?”
“……You lunatic. Did someone put a shotgun through your skull?”
Disgusted, Se-geon punched him in the gut again. The second blow was far weaker than the first.
What the hell was going through this kid’s head? He had just quit school and was about to become a full resident of the moonlit night—and he was buzzing like a child on a field trip. While Se-geon was still reeling from that, Seo Rin sauntered over to the motorcycle and climbed on behind the seat.
“What are you waiting for, driver? Let’s go already!”
Se-geon had no choice but to swing a leg over and start the engine. As he pulled a spare helmet from the side bag and jammed it onto Seo Rin’s head, he found himself thinking that agreeing to live with this creature might have been a spectacular mistake.
A young man in an apron set a frying pan and a pot on the range and began peeling potatoes with a knife. With every dancing stroke of the blade, skins as thin as paper flew off—he had clearly put in serious time in a kitchen somewhere. In moments the potatoes were peeled and sliced into fine matchsticks while oil went into the pan.
“All right. Next……”
His eyes shone with pure mischief. Until now, money and time had kept him from cooking properly; both restraints were finally gone. Whistling with pleasure, he shredded vegetables on the cutting board and dumped them into a pot of dissolved doenjang.
“Yeah, this is going to be good. Time to call him.”
His mismatched eyes glittered. He stripped off the apron and pulled on the heavy body armor waiting beside him—a Level IV ceramic-and-Kevlar composite that could stop grenade fragments.
Fully armored, he went downstairs. Not a scrap of light reached the basement, but he could still make out the man training hard in the dark.
Bare to the waist, wearing only the pants of a martial arts uniform, the man lifted a leg with deliberate care and traced the arc of a kick. The motion was slow enough to invite a yawn, yet the path of the kick was flawless, and with every pass the muscles of his entire body shifted and coiled.
Perfect form, perfect breathing, the perfect feel of impact—he poured every nerve into it, placing each fiber of muscle under his will as he corrected the kick.
Crrrk-crrrk-crrk.
A sound like roasting beans rolled through his body. With body fat under three percent, every muscle grain and vein stood out in sharp relief as the muscle swelled. After correcting the posture in that slow crawl, he struck again along the exact same path, same form—only the speed changed. Wind tore, and dust rose from the basement floor.
“Se-geon hyung, food’s ready.”
“……Hey!”
The young man who had been deep in combat drills spun around. The one in body armor bolted up the stairs—but the escape was useless. The other came after him like a beast and drove a kick into his back.
A side kick as sharp as a razor found the spine; even the thick armor could not save him. There was a grotesque crack as the vertebrae gave. In the dark, the young man with the green-dyed hair swept it back from his face and looked down at his victim.
“I told you not to call me that.”
“Urgh…… Then, little brother?”
“…….”