The King of the Chessboard
Jang Tae-ri narrowed her eyes.
"Help?"
"The other Grim Reapers will have gone to other Saints as well. Or rather, to some of the Saints."
Some of the Saints still meant more than one or two, surely. Grim Reapers collectively seeking out Saints to ask for help—that didn't sound like an ordinary occurrence at all.
"Let me be blunt, Jang Tae-ri. Would you be willing to help us protect the world?"
Tae-ri had been mulling over what kind of help a Grim Reaper could possibly request from a Saint, and the unexpected word made her frown. Protect the world?
The Grim Reaper's sudden appearance was bewildering enough, but now that it had appeared and was asking her to help save the world, she didn't even know how she was supposed to react.
"Protect the world, you say?"
A few superhero movies flickered through Tae-ri's mind, and at the same time she cringed with a shiver of secondhand embarrassment. Protect the world. That was the kind of line you heard all the time on a screen, not in person.
Of course, there were plenty of people in the real world who protected it, plenty who did it as a profession. Since the Upheaval, there were even more who did it with powers that defied reality, and Tae-ri respected every one of them.
But even those people didn't go around saying, Let's protect the world again today, folks. Having someone say it to her face like that was just awkward. So cringey. Still, if a Grim Reaper was saying it, it couldn't be an ordinary request.
"Protect it from what, exactly?"
When Tae-ri forced herself to ask calmly, the Grim Reaper laid out the situation in simple terms. A god who had crossed over from another world. The dimensional rifts born in the process. The otherworldly residents that god had brought along. That god's priests. And the Upheaval that had ravaged Earth as a result.
Tae-ri's eyes went wide at the hidden history of a world she'd never known.
"A god from another world... so that's why the world turned out like this?"
"That's right."
"Good grief. Good grief."
"Shocking, isn't it?"
"Wow. I really never saw that coming."
"Neither did we, honestly."
"Let me ask one thing. Oh—and this isn't a question with a rejection attached, so don't take it the wrong way. Is it... that you Grim Reapers don't have enough strength, so you're asking me for help? Or is it that you'd rather not get your hands dirty yourselves? Something like, 'humans should solve human problems'?"
At Tae-ri's pointed question, the Grim Reaper smiled bitterly.
"It isn't only a human matter. We are, of course, acting directly ourselves. But we Grim Reapers are bound by this world's rules, and that places heavy restrictions on us. The other side, by contrast, enjoys far more freedom. That's why we're asking you—a Saint—for help."
Restrictions? What restrictions? Tae-ri found herself curious about what those restrictions might be, but the way the Reaper lumped everything together under that one word suggested she wasn't going to get specifics. Tae-ri let it go and moved on.
"So how exactly would I be helping?"
Truthfully, the situation still felt hazy—she understood it in her head, but it hadn't quite sunk in. Even so, she couldn't just sit there listening to explanations she couldn't grasp.
"Picking up where I left off. Just as this world has gods, Grim Reapers, and Saints, that world has a god and priests. Do you see the difference?"
"...One of them has fewer, doesn't it? That world doesn't have Grim Reapers?"
"I don't know the exact details of their system. But we haven't encountered any so far. In any case, one thing is certain: over there, the priests—in other words, their Saints—are as strong as our Grim Reapers and do far more of the work. Meanwhile, our Saints here are weak. So under normal circumstances, it would fall to us Reapers to deal with the priests and otherworlders crossing over from there. But there are two problems."
"Awakening...?"
"Exactly. That world already has plenty of humans as strong as our Awakeners, and even ordinary otherworlders who aren't Saints or Awakeners grow temporarily stronger when they cross over. Some of them become nearly as powerful as monsters. And what's worse, until now they've shown no reason or pattern to it. That's all conjecture, mind you."
"That's dangerous."
"On top of that, it isn't only otherworldly humans coming through. Which means the enemy numbers are simply too many for the Grim Reapers to handle alone. That's the first problem."
"And the second?"
"There are 'humans' on this side who side with them. Earthlings."
"Oh, come on."
"There are. The trouble is, because of those restrictions I mentioned, it's extremely, extremely difficult for us Grim Reapers to kill a human whose natural lifespan hasn't run out. That's why we're seeking the Saints' help. People like you, Jang Tae-ri."
"..."
"Saints in our world were never gifted fighters, originally. But with the Upheaval, the vast majority of them awakened other abilities, and for some of those, the abilities turned out to be useful in combat. You're one of them."
"..."
"Furthermore, Saints inherently carry power that stands against evil. Since those who borrow the otherworldly god's power are fundamentally evil in nature, a Saint can exert especially tremendous strength against them. If you help us, you'd be an enormous asset."
"!"
Tae-ri was deeply shaken. She was stunned that otherworlders existed at all, and equally stunned to be asked to eliminate beings who, whatever their origin, still carried the word human in their name.
Besides, the traitors weren't even otherworlders—they were just people from here, people who, put another way, followed an unusual religion. Granted, it seemed less like a merely unusual religion and more like something far too dangerous for that description to hold.
When Tae-ri's eyes wavered, the Grim Reaper quickly added:
"If you can't do it, you're free to refuse. It's a request, not an order."
Easy for the Reaper to say. Refusing a request from a Grim Reaper was never going to be simple. Sooner or later, every living person had to face one again.
While Tae-ri sat frozen, unable to decide either way, the Grim Reaper spoke once more in an even gentler voice.
"You don't have to decide right now. Take your time and think it over."
"Can you even tell who the otherworldly god and the otherworlders are?"
"If they don't reveal themselves, it's difficult."
"Then how on earth..."
"Hiding makes them hard to find, but it also makes it hard for them to rally their forces. So sooner or later, they have no choice but to show their faces—especially the ones at the top. A few of them are already operating quite openly. There's no need to hunt down the ones in hiding. We only need to catch those."
"And who would that be?"
"You already know them, don't you? The Hunter company called Redrin."
"I'm sorry, who?"
Tae-ri stared at the Grim Reaper in shock. Redrin. It was famous, all right—famous as a cult. Most people in Korea probably knew the company by name.
But even as everyone gossiped about that cult, no one would have imagined its cult object was a real god—and a god from another world, at that. So the place really had been worshipping a genuine deity, one from another dimension no less? And that company also had...
Rembrary.
Tae-ri swallowed dryly. Our Pig. Our Pig is over there. Come to think of it, our Pig is a rather suspicious existence too, isn't he.
"Is Daeju over there an otherworldly Saint?"
Unable to bring herself to ask about Rembrary, Tae-ri asked about Daeju instead, for no particular reason.
"No. Daeju is a person of this world—a traitor who defected to the otherworldly god. He's someone who should be eliminated, but..."
The Grim Reaper stopped mid-sentence and ground her teeth.
"He must not be eliminated. Not yet."
"Why not?"
"There are circumstances."
"Circumstances?"
How many circumstances can one person have?
But the Grim Reaper offered no explanation of those circumstances and simply took out her phone.
"Ah. And one more thing."
Tae-ri blinked. A Grim Reaper has a phone? And not just any phone—the latest model, released just a week ago.
"This."
Whether Tae-ri was surprised or not, the Grim Reaper pulled up a photo of someone on her phone. Tae-ri leaned toward the gleaming screen—and jolted back in shock. The face on the display was Rembrary, holding a bouquet of flowers. As Tae-ri stared with rounded eyes, the Grim Reaper issued a firm warning.
"This one, you must not touch either."
"This one is... who, exactly?"
"You know chess, I assume? This person is the opposing side's King."
"The King? Not Daeju?"
"No. This one is the King."
"!"
"I don't understand any of this."
"Which part?"
"All of it. Start to finish."
Sunwoo Sil was a singer. A rock singer. A proud one, at that. And this same Sunwoo Sil had suddenly come looking for him to say that a friend of his had received a divine revelation, and that Rembrary might be in danger.
When Rembrary asked, "How does your friend know about me?" the answer was: from TV. When he asked, "What danger, exactly?" the answer was: not entirely sure.
Rembrary was certain that even if the sharp-witted Jang Tae-ri or Shin Jo-woon had been sitting here instead, they wouldn't have made heads or tails of what Sunwoo Sil was saying right now. Not that this meant Rembrary himself was slow, of course.
"It's always like this. Divine revelations, apparently, aren't the crisp, clear-cut things you'd expect."
"Then it's not a divine revelation. A proper revelation tells you exactly what's what, clean and decisive. If it were Lady Redrin, she'd have spelled it out without any fumbling."
"Excuse me?"
"Why are you getting offended, Sunwoo Sil?"
"...Hmph. I'm not. Anyway, that's what he said. Just fragmentary images, that sort of thing. Supposedly, in one of the images, you're walking over blood toward something like a throne."
"A throne? Isn't that a good thing?"
"You're walking over blood?"
"Is it my blood?"
"Probably not?"
"Then what's the problem?"
"There's another image too."
"What is it?"
"You're sitting in a chair, and people carrying weapons have you surrounded. Weapons pointed your way—so don't go saying something dumb like 'aren't those my bodyguards?'"
In all the prophetic dreams Sunwoo Sil had ever had, he'd never once dreamed anything this ominous. That was why he'd come here worried sick—yet Rembrary just laughed as if it were nothing.
"You worry like it's a hobby, Sunwoo Sil."
"Hey, you don't get it, but he's seriously— seriously gifted!"
"You just said he can't see anything clearly."
"This time it was clear, apparently."
"Your story keeps changing, Sunwoo Sil."
"It's being relayed by word of mouth, that's why. Human memory's all like that."
When Rembrary continued to brush off everything he said, Sunwoo Sil finally lost his temper and shot to his feet.
"Ugh, look—just be careful, all right? That's what's coming. If anything springs to mind, be careful. If nothing does, be careful anyway."
However good his intentions had been, there was nothing more to be done for someone who had no intention of listening. Having apparently run out of things to say, Sunwoo Sil up and left first.
Rembrary moved to see him out, but Sunwoo Sil snapped that he'd better finish everything he'd ordered before going anywhere, which left Rembrary stuck at the table.
After he was gone, Rembrary sipped at his syrupy-sweet coffee through a straw and turned over what Sunwoo Sil's parting warning might mean.
Sunwoo Sil had blamed a friend, but Rembrary had caught on while listening—that ability was Sunwoo Sil's own. He'd probably had some kind of prophetic dream. He'd be an Awakener of that type, and since he had no power to protect himself, he'd naturally never let on to anyone that he was Awakened at all.
But a blood-soaked road and a throne? That, Rembrary genuinely couldn't begin to guess at. The figures surrounding him with drawn weapons, on the other hand—he could imagine far too many possibilities, which made them impossible to predict at all.
The Demon King's underlings? The Grim Reapers? The Eastern Continent High Priest's men? Or perhaps hostile Hunters from this side...
Just then, the phone sitting on the table buzzed with a long trill. As it rattled itself a good distance across the tabletop, Rembrary picked it up. The screen lit up with Jang Tae-ri's name and number.
Tae-ri?
Shin Jo-woon had been fretting that he couldn't reach her. It was a text message.
Seems Tae-ri was only angry at the Anchovy. She's contacting me first. Rembrary smiled fondly and opened his inbox.