What Did You Bring Back With You?

So it seemed a lion head, a tiger head, or even a cow head would suit his senior just fine.

Rembrary slid the phone back into his pocket. It would have been a disaster if he'd carried off some small, fluffy demon beast of his own preference without knowing the first thing about her tastes.

"Hm."

But no sooner had his good mood faded than the problem reasserted itself. Easy enough to say — but where on earth was he supposed to go to find a demon beast like that?

As he mulled it over, the suited man from before drifted up through his memory. He'd crossed paths with him once more through Woo Sung-woo afterward, too. Come to think of it, that man and Woo Sung-woo seemed to exchange messages. What if he got the man's contact information from Sung-woo and asked whether he could procure a large demon beast?

His group evidently handled youkai as a matter of course, so perhaps they could find one on the spot. Or arrange a rental, even…

No. Woo Sung-woo would get suspicious.

Rembrary, mid-way through thinking positively, shook his head. Sung-woo was one strike against it, and the fact that the suited man had once wanted to become this side's sponsor was another. If he called through Sung-woo, the man might misunderstand and faint from sheer joy. He couldn't have cared less whether the man fainted, but he had no wish to be misunderstood.

Besides, Im Yu-han was already a member of that group. What would be the point of borrowing a youkai that belonged to the very organization she served?

But just as he was sinking deep into thought, a rapid clack-clack-clack of hoofbeats sounded right in front of him. He lifted his head to find a cow head galloping toward him in a desperate hurry.

The moment their eyes met, the cow head scrambled around behind Rembrary and began to plead.

"Save me, save me! Moooo, it's dangerous, hide me, please hide me!"

Then it folded its enormous bulk down as small as it could manage and hid behind him. Behind a thin curtain, apparently, it could vanish without a trace — but behind a person, it seemed hiding was a different matter entirely, and it hunched its head and back down as far as they would go.

"What do you think you're doing?"

When Rembrary asked, dumbfounded, the cow head begged all the harder.

"Help me, help me, moooo, danger, can't breathe—"

"…Moo?"

Bewildered as he was, a thought occurred to Rembrary: what about offering this cow head to Im Yu-han?

Of course, he would have to train it — absolutely no shoving Im Yu-han around on the veranda, no goring passersby with those horns, and definitely no dunking ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Maeng Woo-shin in the pond — but still…

No, on reflection, it would probably be too dangerous.

But might I at least get an introduction to a different demon beast out of this?

That seemed workable.

Truly, I have a brilliant mind. To conceive of such a providential idea. Rembrary, marveling at himself yet again, organized his thoughts and opened his mouth.

"Moo. Among your acquaintances, is there a demon beast or youkai built on your scale… one that does not attack humans, and has a face attached? It need not be a cow head."

"Mmmoo?"

"If such a beast exists, then I would ask you to—"

The instant he moved to request an introduction, something came whizzing past with a ping, grazing Rembrary's hair. The cow head flung out a hand and knocked it aside, wailing ow-ow-ow, hot, hot!

Wondering what in the world that had been, Rembrary turned toward the direction it had flown from.

There stood a woman holding an axe and a man wearing glasses.

What manner of pairing is that? As he stared in growing puzzlement, the axe woman leaned in and whispered to the bespectacled man.

"That one looks human? I can see him too."

'That one looks human' — so she knows the cow head is not human.

And 'I can see him too' — does that mean she cannot see the cow head?

Then this glasses-wearing man possesses the 'Eyes,' and the axe woman does not?

'That combination' — the very pairing they said Nakru deploys.

Even as Rembrary's mind ran swiftly through the deductions, the bespectacled man gave a small nod.

"He's human. But they're in cahoots. He's hiding the demon beast behind him."

The woman spoke up again.

"So not Cheonripung, then? Shouldn't we head out, then? We're not fighting with those guys these days anyway."

"That's the Team Leader's own decision. What's it got to do with us?"

Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, the cow head straightened its bent back and wrenched its two horns off its head, gripping them in its fists.

The woman, who had been muttering back and forth, shifted her grip on the axe the way one might hold a baseball bat and flashed a grin.

"So we kill them both?"

"Even if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠someone sides with a demon beast, you do not kill people."

"Fine, fine. I got it."

"I mean it."

He didn't know what exactly was going on, but he could tell it was a precarious situation. Rembrary ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shot the cow head a pointed look that said, You dragged yourself into this mess, so you will resolve it.

But the cow head only snorted and went on flailing its horns wildly at empty air, whap, whap.

It appeared these people intended to pick a fight out of nowhere with an innocent High Priest who had simply been passing by.

Just as the outrage stirred Rembrary to shout them down—

The woman was faster. She closed the distance at a speed that defied belief, axe in hand.

"How's the manager work treating you these days?"

"Not as easy as I expected."

"And I hear you don't actually do anything."

"Who says that?"

"People here and there. Word is the knockoff Saint chews you out every single day?"

"If it's Yeon-woo we're talking about, he's no knockoff Saint."

"Either way, if he's not a Saint of our world, he's a knockoff. Simple as that."

Down a dark, vermillion-tinted street where the streetlamps flickered, Sa Gam-jae and Sa Jik-jae walked along, trading conversation that led precisely nowhere. In the darkness, their uncannily pale skin stood out all the more, making them look even more like twins than usual.

Then, all at once, a chill prickled over them both. They cut off mid-sentence and turned their heads in the same direction.

"There's something over there."

"Go."

Sa Gam-jae and Sa Jik-jae exchanged a glance and hurried toward the point where dark energy was pooling.

There, two humans lay sprawled on the ground, not so much as twitching.

The cow head, hiding behind a utility pole and trembling like a leaf, took one look at the two grim reapers, spun on its heel, and bolted.

And standing before the two fallen humans was—

Yeon-woo?

Sa Gam-jae, recognizing him, was just about to call out when Yeon-woo muttered, in a voice lower than usual:

"A gutless bastard who's nothing but a big mouth."

Sa Gam-jae flinched.

That voice, thick with exhaustion and grievance, was strikingly similar to the one he'd felt during Im-seo's final line on the set of Dear God.

Come to think of it, the expression and the whole atmosphere were nothing like usual, either.

Ordinarily, Rembrary wore a gentle look and spoke in a tender, warm tone. A tone he used to gnaw away at people's composure, granted — but to the ear alone, it was the voice of a kindly saint.

The Rembrary before him now, however…

The instant the thought something's wrong crossed his mind, Yeon-woo's eyes flicked up and stole a glance at Sa Gam-jae.

The moment their eyes met, his lips split into a grin.

And then, in the next heartbeat, Yeon-woo dropped like a puppet with its strings cut.

Sa Gam-jae lunged forward and caught him by the nape, barely keeping his head from cracking against the pavement. Hoisting him upright, he found him unconscious.

"He's not a scarecrow doll, you know. Hold him properly, why don't you."

"He fainted."

"Because he fainted, hold him properly. Carry him like that and you'll choke him."

Sa Jik-jae clicked her tongue and asked, "So what was that with the knockoff Saint just now? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠A minute ago that wasn't the knockoff Saint — it felt like… like that thing. That—"

Two university students, thoroughly pickled on club-night drinks, staggered down the street, hiccupping. They were walking forward — distinctly forward — yet their bodies kept swaying this way and lurching that way, so that each had to prop up the other. Even so, the pair somehow managed to keep their feet under them.

Then, from deep inside a dark alley, a strange sound drifted out.

The blond student burst into giggles. The Great Demon Lord? Beer-goggles or not, those words were laugh-out-loud ridiculous. To think someone in this world actually said things like that with a straight face.

"Hey. You hear that?"

When the blond jabbed him in the ribs, the less-drunk student spat out a curse. "Damn it, just keep walking."

"You didn't hear it?"

"I heard it. Let's just go."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the murmuring rose from inside the alley again.

The murmuring voices were unpleasant to a disturbing degree. They sounded like whispers pitched as low as they could go, and yet they carried, loud and clear. And that voice — the one that gnawed at the human eardrum in some indefinably repugnant way — did not sound like just one or two.

The less-drunk student grimaced and turned to squint down the alley. But at a glance, there was no one inside it at all.

The blond angled himself casually in that direction.

"Hey. Don't. Let's just go."

The less-drunk student tried to stop him, but there was no force behind it. Curiosity had him too, truth be told.

"Come on, it's weird. Gotta check it out."

The drunk blond snickered under his breath — let's see what kind of lunatic talks like that — and, catching the mood without quite knowing why, lowered his own voice to a murmur as well.

That made the less-drunk student's skin crawl even worse. His friend's whispering, quieter even than the murmur drifting out of the alley, only cemented his conviction that the sound coming from that alley was deeply, genuinely wrong.

But curiosity got the better of both of them in the end, and they crept toward the source of the voices.

The moment they got close, their eyes went wide with shock.

Near the mouth of the alley, 'somethings' of every size, all in solid single colors, had gathered and were whispering among themselves.

The 'things' bore no distinguishing marks beyond the color of their bodies — each one was entirely crimson, entirely snow-white, entirely pitch-black, or entirely blue, head to toe. And in that state, they whispered to one another.

The blond student squinted hard, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

The less-drunk student, recoiling in horror, stumbled backward and knocked against something. An empty can someone had discarded rang out with a bright clink.

In that instant, every last 'something' snapped its head toward the two of them in unison.

Bodies of every color — and, without exception, eyes the deep red of blood.

"Uh… UAAAAAH!"

"MONSTERS!"

Before the scream had even died, the 'somethings' came surging at them in a wave.

The two students whirled and bolted, terror lending their drunken legs a desperate speed.

Some fifteen seconds after regaining consciousness, Rembrary realized that he had woken up in Sa Gam-jae's home yet again.

He yawned and pushed himself upright and — sure enough — there was Sa Gam-jae, legs crossed in the single armchair, reading a newspaper.

"You're awake, I see."

"Mm. Yes."

From the television, which someone had left on, the news murmured that two university students had died suddenly on their way home from a night of drinking.

Rembrary yawned again and turned to his host.

"Now then — why am I here? And why, for that matter, are you here?"

"I am here because it is my house. The real question is why you, Mr. Yeon-woo, are here."

"…Don't tell me the real Yeon-woo appeared again and dragged me here."

"If the real Yeon-woo had appeared, I might at least have been cured."

"What manner of talk is this?"

"Just what on earth did you bring back, clinging to your shadow?"