Chapter 161
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 161: How to Deal with a Cult (4)
“What?”
My eyes widened at the shocking words from the Fox.
I expected him to say it was a joke, or something.
The Fox was still looking at me with a calm smile.
“Won't you sit first? Aren't you curious why I invited Noona here?”
“……”
“Don't look at me like that. It's a request from your cute brother. Hm?”
I glared at the Fox and the tea table he had prepared.
I was hesitant to sit, but my only remaining option now was to listen to the Fox.
As I flopped onto the chair opposite him, he poured a crimson tea into my teacup and asked.
“Do you have a favorite tea?”
“Not particularly.”
“I see.”
I just glared at the tea he poured for me, not drinking it.
He smiled faintly and lightly touched his cup to his lips.
After taking a sip and lowering the cup, his smile deepened.
“I like peach iced tea. The kind Noona used to make.”
“That?”
I recalled the iced tea that had become too sweet because I accidentally put in too much powder.
So is that what he poured for me now?
“...You have unique tastes.”
Seeing my strange expression, he chuckled and put down his teacup.
“I had to force myself to get used to the taste of other teas. So I grew to hate them.”
“Force yourself?”
“Yeah. Because I had to force it down my throat to learn it, under the pretext that it was necessary culture for a retainer.”
I paused at those words.
The Fox, who was adopted into the Balder Family.
I had guessed his life wouldn't have been easy.
“Did you know? The Balder Family raises their retainers quite harshly.”
And now, he was finally talking about his past life.
I listened silently to his story, feeling guilt press down on my chest.
“They prefer orphans as retainer candidates. No matter what they do, there are no repercussions.”
I couldn't take my eyes off him.
“But they don't choose just any orphan. Especially in the case of the Beastkin branch, they take fox beastkin or fox beastkin-hybrids as retainer candidates. The rest of the orphans are raised as servants.”
“So…”
“Right. I was adopted there as a retainer candidate. Noona heard about that too, right? That I serve someone.”
Haha, the Fox laughed and continued leisurely.
“I could accept that. It was fine. If I had a family, I could serve someone as much as they wanted. But that wasn't it.”
Gradually, the smile disappeared from his face.
“Noona. Do you know about Gu poison? You put countless poisonous insects in one jar and starve them until only one is left. Then the one remaining will harbor the strongest poison.”
“...Don't tell me,”
“What they did was like Gu.”
He raised the corners of his mouth again.
But his eyes weren't smiling at all.
“They gave me a family. And made it so I had to be loyal to the family and kill my family members to live. I met countless younger brothers. I met countless older sisters. I met countless older brothers.”
“……”
“I loved them. And it was just as painful. So I vowed, over and over again.”
He smiled brightly.
“If I gained power, I would never lose a precious person again. And I would get revenge.”
Truly brightly.
“Noona. I can never… forget those sacrificed children.”
I couldn't add a word to the despair glimpsed in that smile.
Because it was his sorrow alone, and his righteous anger.
“So you attacked the Balder Family?”
“Yeah. The higher-ups believe they mass-produced loyal subjects that way, but—”
He tilted his teacup.
“In fact, they very easily overlooked the fact that they engraved an indelible anger in their hearts.”
Then, the crimson water inside the teacup overflowed, down and down.
“It was easy. I just had to fan the dormant anger. I just had to remind them of how unfairly they were treated, how they were loyal to the Balder Family while suffering unjust torture and pain.”
The pure white floor was stained with dark tea.
“The Balder Family brought their ruin upon themselves. So, a word of advice, Noona.”
He laughed.
“Even if you want to help Nika Balder, there's no way now. The crack has already started. All that's left is to wait for those who haven't awakened to wake up.”
Declaring the end of the Balder Family, refreshingly.
“This is the end of those who killed the small things in the name of the greater good, Noona.”
“……”
“And the Oracle is trying to do the same thing as the Balder Family.”
I stopped breathing in surprise the moment the Fox mentioned the Oracle.
He smiled with his eyes, as if he knew I would be surprised.
“What, did you think I wouldn't know of the Oracle's existence? You must have forgotten what was in our proselytizing poster. Why would I make people face a erased past?”
“So you interfered with Na Yuhan using the Tower God Cult?”
“Hm? Well, I guess you could see it that way.”
The Fox shrugged and spoke slyly.
“I just gave them permission to do what they wanted to do so badly.”
“…….”
“Don't look at me like that. It's true. How can I stop them when they're that passionate?”
The Fox, chuckling, looked at me with shining emerald eyes.
I glared at him.
“...Did you really create the Tower God Cult?”
“Yes.”
“To bring down the Balder Family?”
“You could say yes, and you could say no.”
I frowned at his riddle-like words.
But he just continued to speak at his own pace, wearing a vague smile.
“At first, I created it with the thought of making a force capable of bringing down the Balder Family.”
“A force to bring down the Balder Family?”
“Right. Corporations or businesses easily attract the Balder Family's attention, so I put on the mask of a new religion, a trivial cult at that, which would receive relatively less attention.”
So that's why it was a cult.
I watched him quietly as I listened to the words flowing from him.
“But in the process, I learned the truth of this world.”
“Truth?”
“Didn't you hear it from Tornito?”
I flinched at the name I didn't expect to come out here.
“I know what Noona knows.”
I had a vague idea of what truth he was talking about.
The two ways to stop the Calamity.
“And I thought. Let's interfere with the act of sacrificing the other races. I felt sick to my stomach, about the existence called the Oracle.”
He reached his leather-gloved hand toward me.
“Noona. My principle of action is simple. I hate that they try to sacrifice the relatively small things called other races as if it's natural, for the greater cause of the world.”
“That's….”
“I could understand if it was a choice made because they were pushed to the very edge, with no other option. But if the choice to sacrifice the small things is solely for efficiency, I can absolutely never forgive that.”
He whispers to me softly, like the serpent whispering to Eve.
“Isn't it the same for you, Noona? Can you accept the choice to sacrifice the other races?”
“...I can't accept it.”
“Right. We can't choose the method of killing our younger siblings solely because it's the most efficient.”
I nodded with difficulty at his words.
In this moment, I reflected on one proposition anew.
That I would definitely never accept a method that sacrifices the other races instead, no matter what happens.
Seeing me nod silently, the Fox smiled even deeper.
“Noona. Join me. Save the younger siblings with me.”
Confusion encroached on my mind.
“I,”
The moment I tried to answer,
“Junior, duck!”
A sharp blade of wind cut through the spot where the Fox had been.
Kaang—!
The stone floor was sliced by the wind, and fragments flew in all directions.
Tsk, the Fox lightly clicked his tongue and glared at the one who shot the wind.
“Are you interfering in the end?”
“Yeah. I warned you, didn't I?”
Choi Sujeong was standing in front of me before I knew it.
“If what you commit harms my friends, I will become your enemy at any time.”
Why did Choi Sujeong suddenly appear here?
I haven't even moved the group here with the Meta System as planned yet?
Did something happen?
But before I could think in earnest, Choi Sujeong spoke first.
“Sorry, Junior. Actually, I knew that guy wasn't really a spy infiltrating the Tower God Cult.”
“You knew?!”
“He contacted me, that bastard. So I figured he was plotting something... I explained the situation to the kids without you knowing and barged in.”
“Such a hassle…”
At the words mixed with the Fox's sigh, I laughed awkwardly and backed further away from him.
“Thank you, Sunbae.”
“No problem. Sorry I couldn't tell you.”
“You must have had a plan! How's the situation above?”
“We suppressed most of them. ...Though there are some resisting to the end.”
She glanced up.
Screams and sounds of battle could be heard from above, as if a lot was happening.
“Die!”
“I will kill the devil even if I have to burn this body!”
Voices filled with madness echoed through the underground.
“Everyone was rushing to die without thinking about their bodies. First, I left the suppression to the Balder Family personnel Nika called. They'll be down soon.”
As if speak of the devil, the sound of other people's footsteps was heard soon after.
Not long after, I felt the presence of several people behind me.
When I turned around, the group and Nika were standing there.
The Fox looked at Nika and smirked as if mocking her.
“I didn't expect you to preserve the family enough to operate the Balder Family's forces even in that situation.”
There was not a shred of warmth left in his crooked smile.
“It is you. I intended to destroy the family completely.”
Nika looked at the Fox, who stood hostile to Choi Sujeong, and spoke with a hard expression.
“To think you would betray me….”
“Why did you think I wouldn't betray you?”
“I gave you everything I could!”
“That wasn't what I wanted, Master.”
The Fox, chuckling, looked at her with sharp eyes and said.
“And what you gave was just a carrot to tame me.”
“Was there no trust between us?”
“Haha. What trust can there be in a relationship where you could blow my life away if push comes to shove? It must have been your one-sided relief.”
At those words, Nika shut her mouth as if she had nothing to say.
The Fox smiled slyly at Nika and tapped his head.
“You'd better not think of killing me with the magic circle engraved on my head. I undid it ages ago.”
“You…! Since when…!”
A magic circle?
To use such a method to control a retainer. I was shocked by the Balder Family's cruelty.
At the same time, I imagined the pain the Fox must have suffered and felt terrible.
Even though he was smiling confidently right now.
“Since quite a long time ago. Did you think your shackles would be perfect and eternal forever?”
The Fox smiled, his eyes curving.
It was a smile that seemed to mock Nika.
“Now then, let's end my personal story here.”
Soon, the Fox's emerald eyes turned to me.
“Noona. Think carefully.”
He waved his hand lightly, as if saying goodbye to someone he could see tomorrow.
“Contact me anytime. I'll be going now.”
“Where do you think you're going!”
At that moment, Choi Sujeong fired a blade of wind at him, but the Fox's form turned transparent first.
At the same time, the magic circle engraved on the back of my hand stung.
Looking at the back of my hand, I saw the magic circle glowing faintly and scattering, then seeping into the communication bracelet connected to the Tiger bastard.
What on earth was he thinking, engraving this magic circle?
Is the Fox… on our side?
I just don't know you.
But there's a part of me that wants to trust you, Fox.
That fact is painful.
“Junior, are you okay?”
I feel Choi Sujeong examining me with worry-filled eyes.
I smiled nonchalantly at her.
“I'm okay.”
No, more than that…
…Can I stay like this without regretting it?