Gamjae Saja

Ending the brief call, Sa Gam-jae checked how much battery he had left and muttered a curse under his breath. Calls drained the battery far too quickly on this side. Was there no fix for it? Or had no one ever bothered to fix it?

"I'm calling an ambulance!"

A worried voice rang out from not far away. Slipping his phone into his pocket, Sa Gam-jae started walking toward it.

In the direction Sa Gam-jae was heading, Jungseo had already pulled out his own phone and was pressing the button for emergency services.

"Don't."

Im Yu-han stopped him, firm and unwavering. Jungseo, who had assumed she'd fainted, called out to her in surprise.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. And thank you, both of you. But please don't call an ambulance. The last thing I need is some strange misunderstanding..."

Im Yu-han waved a hand, then gave Rembrary's shoulder a couple of light pats.

"Yeon-woo, you can put me down now. I'm perfectly fine."

At the words perfectly fine, Jungseo's eyes darted reflexively to the sixth-floor terrace. She'd fallen from up there, and she was fine?

He certainly looked fine, but there was no way he actually was. Even if the body was whole, no mind could come through a fall like that unscathed — or so Jungseo reasoned. Yet the moment Im Yu-han gave the word, Rembrary set her down without a moment's hesitation.

He's actually putting her down? Jungseo stared at him, momentarily dumbfounded — then remembered Rembrary's uncanny abilities and let it go. The man seemed to have some kind of healing power; he must have treated her on the spot.

Once she was standing on her own feet, Im Yu-han shook her head from side to side and pounded her own shoulders with her fists, as if brushing off something unpleasant that clung to her. Then she called out to Jungseo and Rembrary.

"How about we go somewhere nearby and grab... well, drinking's probably a bad idea, but want to get some meat? My treat."

Jungseo was stunned all over again. The woman who had fallen off a sixth-floor terrace seconds ago wanted to eat meat? Was eating anything even an option right now? While he stood there floundering, Im Yu-han murmured in a voice worn thin with exhaustion.

"I'm okay. I just don't feel like going back up there right now."

"Did ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you fall by accident?"

"Ah... uh, yes. My foot slipped."

The railing comes up to your waist. How does a foot slip and send you over that? Jungseo found the explanation dubious, but she clearly had no desire to elaborate, so he held his tongue.

Im Yu-han knew her excuse was absurd, and kept quiet as well.

There was nothing else to be done. She hadn't been trying to kill herself, and no one had attacked her — technically. But if she called an ambulance, a fall from a railed terrace would be filed away as a suicide attempt. If she called the police, officers who found no trace of a break-in would conclude the whole thing was a stunt she'd staged herself.

And if she told the truth? They'd call her insane.

Either way, the reporters would descend like vultures and copy down every word, and the public would breed rumor after rumor. Calling an ambulance or the police was simply not an option.

Meanwhile, Rembrary, gazing up at the floors above, let the conversation between Jungseo and Im Yu-han wash past one ear and out the other.

Im Yu-han claimed she'd slipped, but Rembrary knew that wasn't true. She must have sensed something dreadful and sent a signal — help me. And who calls for help and then leaps off a balcony? Nonsense.

Besides, right after she fell, those two-legged beasts had been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠peering down from above. What manner of creature were they? Everything pointed to the beasts having shoved her off...

"Senior, would it be all right if I stepped into your home for a moment and came back out?"

After turning it over in his mind, Rembrary asked Im Yu-han's leave first. Seeing it with his own eyes seemed the fastest way to know anything.

"Right now?"

Im Yu-han echoed the question, flustered.

She'd told Jungseo she slipped — and she knew full well she'd been shoved. The feel of that enormous hand slamming against her back still haunted her. But she hadn't seen who pushed her. The beast was invisible to the naked eye; only the TV screen had shown it. She had no idea whether it was still inside her home or roaming elsewhere.

And now Rembrary wanted to go inside? Why else would he suddenly offer to buy everyone meat? She was grateful, truly — but inviting them in to play host meant sitting in the same space as that hideous beast, so she'd suggested a restaurant instead.

"Let's just go eat meat."

"A moment is all I need. Or go on ahead with Jungseo and start without me."

Jungseo noticed Im Yu-han's fingertips trembling. Her lips were drained of color, her face white as paper — outwardly composed, yes, but clearly in the grip of a terrible shock. It didn't look like a suicide attempt, so what on earth had happened up there?

Either way, the priority right now was calming her down.

After a moment's thought, Jungseo offered a third option that suited neither Rembrary nor Im Yu-han.

"Wouldn't it be better to call your manager? The restaurant can wait. We're on a strict diet right now anyway."

Whatever else he thought, Jungseo felt Im Yu-han would be better off with someone she was comfortable around. At his suggestion, she nodded and reached for her phone to call her manager — then froze, her face creasing.

"My phone."

"You left it upstairs?"

"Yes. On the sofa. And I can't remember my manager's full number."

Rembrary, who had been listening quietly, stepped forward at once.

"Then I shall go up and fetch it."

"Right now?"

"Yes."

"Absolutely not! Don't go up there."

"?"

When Rembrary showed every intention of ignoring her, Im Yu-han finally came out with the truth — because she suspected that he, the one who had sent her that strange message, of all people, would believe her.

"There's something wrong up there. Don't go. It's dangerous."

"I know. I saw it."

Just as she'd expected, Rembrary believed her without a flicker of doubt. At that utterly matter-of-fact tone, Im Yu-han's eyes went wide.

But instead of responding to her, Rembrary turned to Jungseo and tilted his chin toward the security guards.

"Jungseo. Take my senior there and go wait with those men. I shall grab the phone and come straight down."

Im Yu-han and Jungseo tried to argue him out of it, and when that failed, insisted on going up together — but Rembrary climbed to the sixth floor alone, absolutely refusing to budge.

The building was laid out with one household per floor, so there was no chance of mistaking which door was hers.

Resting his hand on the door handle for a moment, Rembrary probed the air within before entering the passcode Im Yu-han had taught him earlier and stepping inside.

Even from outside the door he'd sensed it, but the moment he crossed the threshold, a wave of foul, clammy air rolled over him. Rembrary clicked his tongue and closed the door behind him.

What a wretched mess.

An ordinary person would have described it as something feeling off — a creepy, stifling atmosphere. But to Rembrary's eyes, wriggling caterpillar-like things drifted through the air itself, suspended between one breath and the next.

Ordinary people couldn't see the caterpillars, but they could faintly sense them — which was why certain places made their skin crawl and left them feeling sour and uneasy without knowing why.

To Rembrary, the caterpillars seemed to float in every direction at once.

I should have brought Taein or Cathy along to use as shields.

Sighing at his own oversight, Rembrary took a few steps forward — then, in the end, removed his hat and simply walked along swatting the floating caterpillars out of the air as he went.

Each time one touched Rembrary's hat, it swelled for an instant, popped, and vanished.

If these things are drifting about in every corner, then something large must be lurking here somewhere.

Rembrary searched the room for the black beast, and in the living room he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠spotted Im Yu-han's phone lying beneath the sofa. He moved toward it.

First things first — deliver the phone.

But the instant Rembrary's fingers brushed the device—

"!"

A hand covered in pitch-black fur shot out from under the sofa and seized his wrist. It was a grotesque appendage, the black fur blanketing it a good ten centimeters long.

"So this is where you were."

Rembrary murmured the words, laid his own hand over the furry one, and yanked with all his might.

The hand's owner, glued fast by his Divine Power, came hurtling out and was flung straight into the wall.

The thing that hit the wall with a heavy thud was the very two-legged beast he'd seen peering down from above.

It had the head of a cow crowned with a sheep's horns, and humanlike hands buried under dense black fur. It was a form Rembrary had never laid eyes on before.

The beast shuddered violently, then fixed Rembrary with a fearful stare.

"Who? Who you? Who are you?"

Then it began to shuffle sideways in a crablike scuttle.

"Who? You new? You new? You new?"

Whether it was pretending to be dim-witted or genuinely was, Rembrary couldn't tell — but there was no mistaking it for anything but an evil spirit possessed of a cunning intelligence.

Rembrary smiled.

If beings like this existed here, then demon beasts existed here. And if demon beasts existed, then something like a Demon King must exist as well. And if a Demon King existed, then surely a god stood on the opposite side of the board.

Instead of answering, Rembrary advanced on the beast with quick, deliberate strides.

"Come hither, little one. I have a tune I would fain play for thee — a child of cow and sheep, art thou not?"

"Child? Me a child?"

The beast panicked, its enormous eyes rolling wildly. It had plainly never encountered a human who behaved like Rembrary. Even so, it obediently followed its instincts and backed away.

"You not my dad. Imposter. Imposter. I never had dad like you. Our dad goes moo."

At that very moment—

The two-legged beast suddenly opened and closed its mouth in a soundless scream, then darted behind the curtains.

The fabric billowed once, then went utterly flat. A beast that enormous had hidden itself, yet left no trace whatsoever — just as it had vanished under the sofa without a seam, it now melted away behind the curtains as if it had never been.

A heartbeat later, the curtain flared outward in a great sweep of wind. Then it sank.

Rembrary's face hardened as he turned his gaze to the terrace.

When the curtain settled, men and women in black suits stood revealed on the terrace. Every face ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was deathly pale, every presence carried the same uncanny air, and each was beautiful to a degree that strained the word human.

Among them stood Sa Gam-jae, and beside him his colleague, Sa Jik-jae.

"The air in here is filthy."

Sa Jik-jae fished a spray bottle from inside her jacket and gave it a few listless pumps. The caterpillars drifting through the air crackled and dissolved on the spot.

Rembrary looked the group over — and broke into a wide, delighted grin.

He had meant to ask the beast about the god of this world, after all.

But that beast had seemed none too bright, which worried him. These people, though, would surely be smarter than a two-legged beast! And there were so many of them, besides!

More than that — Sa Gam-jae, who always slunk around concealing his true nature, had come calling this suspiciously. He had clearly come to reveal something. Whatever that something was, Rembrary welcomed it with open arms.

...What?

Why isn't he coming back?

Im Yu-han kept anxiously checking her watch. Jungseo, too, had stepped outside and was pacing back and forth. Worried sick, he finally declared he would go up and check himself, and headed out past the security office.

"I'm coming too."

Im Yu-han hurried after him. Both of them were kicking themselves — they should have gone with Rembrary when he'd insisted on going alone, or at least stopped him from going at all.

Unable to bear the look on their faces, one of the guards finally agreed to accompany them up to the sixth floor.

"Your junior came up this way, you say?"

"Yes. It's been thirty minutes and he hasn't come down. He isn't answering his phone either."

"Haha. It's a big place, but no one gets lost in their own home."

The moment Im Yu-han stepped off the elevator, she punched in the front door passcode and hurried inside.

"Yeon-woo?"

"Yeon-woo!"

Jungseo and Im Yu-han called his name as they combed through the apartment.

Rembrary was nowhere to be found.

The phone Im Yu-han had left on the sofa was gone as well.

"Could he have gone down ahead of you?"

The guard asked it idly. Nothing in the apartment looked disturbed, there were no signs of a struggle, and no one was lying collapsed on the floor. Nothing seemed amiss, really.

"He came up with us. There's no way he'd leave on his own."

Jungseo said it flatly and moved to call Rembrary again — but his own phone rang first. It was Jong-woo, and the moment he picked up, his manager's voice came through, tight with panic.

— End of Chapter 79 —