Chapter 31
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Finally, the Black Curtain is Revealed?
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Saintess Sohee's treatment was a 'great success'—even beyond her own expectations.
The proof came the moment the session ended and her restraints were removed.
She was no longer shedding cloudy tears of pleasure. Instead, genuine tears of gratitude streamed down her cheeks.
"Thank you... Tamer Kim Seungbin! Thanks to you, the deep-seated knot in my heart has finally unraveled!"
"How are you feeling? Is your body okay?"
"Yes! It hurts, of course... but my mind feels so refreshed it surpasses the pain! Truly... if there's such a thing as 'salvation' described in doctrine, this must be it!"
Well, it would be a lie if her body didn't hurt.
She had endured lashes from a mana-infused hunter whip, along with my punches and kicks.
Yet she brimmed with conviction.
She knew better than anyone that even broken bones and ruptured organs would heal soon enough.
And that was probably why.
Saintess Sohee whispered her thanks to me instead.
Like a loyal slave prostrating before her master, she spread her arms wide and threw herself at me.
Her body brushed and clung to mine in a fleeting embrace.
In that instant, she truly seemed bound by a slave contract, calling me 'Tamer' with an ecstatic smile.
...Of course, I wanted to say I was a counselor, not a tamer. But in that atmosphere, permeated by her gaze and body heat, all I could do was silently pat her shoulder.
And the next day.
In the branch chief's office on the top floor of the association—a place filled with cold air utterly unlike the strange heat of the counseling room.
Saintess Sohee, who had been fluttering heart-shaped eyes and letting out vulgar moans just yesterday, now hung her head like a criminal.
"Really... I knew you had boundless energy from a young age, but still."
Branch Chief Yoo Geumhui sighed listlessly before raising her voice.
"How could you make your own counselor—and a man—into a 'human splint'?! You're supposed to be a saintess!"
I hurriedly tried to make excuses.
"Branch Chief, this was partly due to my own shortcomings. So just let me handle it—"
"Hey! Handle what? How do you even counsel someone until they're smashed to pieces like that?! Did you hit her or something?!"
...To be precise, she wasn't the one hit—she was the one doing the hitting.
Though the result was that I, the hitter, ended up the idiot.
Either way, I was currently in casts and on crutches.
The price of repeatedly punching her 'special areas' was that my bones and muscles couldn't withstand the toughness of a hunter's body.
There was no further explanation I could give.
Not even to the branch chief. As a psychiatrist, I couldn't disclose my patient's counseling content.
I had to protect Saintess Sohee's privacy, even if my body was the one broken.
But Branch Chief Yoo Geumhui glared at the saintess as if her own child had been hurt, her eyes bulging with fury.
That was when it happened.
She sprang to her feet—!
"...?!"
Saintess Sohee, who had sat there pale-faced and deathly since morning, suddenly stood up.
Then, with slow but resolute hands, she removed the veil from her head.
Slipping it off.
She began unbuttoning her white nun's habit—one, two, three... in sequence.
"Wh-what the hell are you doing, you wench?!"
The branch chief's sharp shout echoed through the room.
But Saintess Sohee didn't stop.
She shed her habit as neatly as if folding it aside, revealing the smooth skin beneath that gradually caught the sunlight.
In one swift motion, she was naked.
Her face flushed red as a ripe persimmon, she barely covered her vital areas with her hands in mortified shame.
And then, firmly—
Thud.
She prostrated herself flat on the floor, bowing her head to both of us.
"?!"
My eyes went wide, and the branch chief froze in an expression of fury or shock—or both.
In that moment, I realized.
This wasn't just any apology.
Saintess Sohee was confessing her sin in the most primal—and most feminine—way: the 'naked dogeza'.
"About this incident... honestly, I have no words."
"Saintess..."
"I'm sorry, Tamer Kim Seungbin. Thinking about it, you're a fragile man—an ordinary person without any power at all. For such a body to face me must have been immense suffering. And as a saintess, my failure to even notice that makes my sin all the greater."
It was an apology that cast aside every shred of human pride.
Saintess Sohee got excited from masochistic pain, but she wasn't the type like Narae who derived pleasure from exposure itself.
In other words, her brazen naked prostration was an act of squeezing out courage amid suffocating shame.
And perhaps that resolve reached the branch chief too, as the tension in the room oddly subsided.
"Indeed... befitting a saintess. A perfect naked dogeza."
Even from the adversary's position, Branch Chief Yoo Geumhui nodded like a tiny commander, delivering her verdict.
As if naked dogezas had a 'rating system', evaluating proficiency and finesse.
"A woman's naked dogeza... it's an ancient tradition passed down through the ages. Regardless of country, it's a universal culture when a woman sincerely apologizes."
"...Really?"
Something I didn't need explained, yet the branch chief put on airs pretentiously and slyly hooked her arm in mine.
She pointed to the neatly folded stack of nun's habit and began appraising Saintess Sohee's 'artistry'.
"Look. On top of the neatly folded habit, she placed her just-removed panties with care."
...Is that polite?
I thought she just folded her clothes neatly, but this was their league—the etiquette of naked dogeza.
Branch Chief Yoo Geumhui detailed even the parts I didn't want to hear.
"Moreover, the panties aren't folded—they're laid out in the exact shape she wore them. Look closely; even the thin yellow stain in the center is exposed as is."
"Yes... Showing such shameful traces is the mark of a true naked dogeza, a true atonement."
Saintess Sohee, unable to lift her burning face, affirmed it herself in a trembling voice.
"For most women, accepting a naked dogeza like this is proper etiquette. But Kim Seungbin the counselor is a man. If he wanted, he could drag her out like that in front of everyone, and no one could complain."
"No. Please, I want to accept her apology. But first... let me help her get dressed!"
What filled my mind wasn't lust or desire to see more—it was one thing.
The world of women in this realm is fucking terrifying.
And if possible, I resolved never to set foot in their cultural sphere.
Anyway, with the apology accepted, I couldn't leave her kneeling any longer.
I quickly helped the saintess—whose back line and ample hips were lewdly exposed—to her feet, averted my gaze, and handed her the habit.
"Kim Seungbin Counselor... aren't you too kind? She wrecked a man's body like that. By international law, it'd be like branding him with a hot iron below the navel."
And there she goes with international law—how unethical.
They preach human rights and equality for every other law, yet male-related clauses still reek of medieval dungeon ideas.
The branch chief's lecture sounded disappointed, but I brushed it off.
Branding—a permanent mark impossible to erase... If I really did that, I'd have to take responsibility for her life.
Besides, even as she trembled in shame, Saintess Sohee shot me an imploring gaze, as if awaiting those words.
It felt more like a reward than punishment, so I shifted the conversation back.
"Then, Saintess. You'll help us track the forces spying on the Korean Hunter Association from now on, right?"
"Of course! After causing you such trouble, Tamer... I've already spoken to the Goddess Church. I can stay in Korea for the next few years!"
"Oh, really?"
"Yes. I have to report periodically, but I've secured a solid reason to stay here at least 10 months. Don't worry."
"...Of all things, 10 months?"
It was a relief.
Saintess Sohee was originally a global evangelist for the Goddess Church, traveling the world to promote it.
If she vanished midway, tracking the forces targeting the Hunter Association would become impossible.
"And the ones investigating you alongside the Korean Hunter Association... I've already been tracking them with my skill, 'Soul Tracking'."
"Soul Tracking...?"
"Yes. Aside from my saintess super-regeneration, it's my second unique skill."
Branch Chief Yoo Geumhui explained in her place.
"Soul Tracking... it's the pinnacle of tracking skills. With just a clue, you can trace the imprinted soul and go back in time."
"B-back in time?"
Amazed, I asked, and the branch chief nodded.
"For example, Kim Seungbin Counselor sensed suspicious energy through Hunter Jeon Suji, right? If the saintess holds your hand and uses Soul Tracking, you can dive straight into that moment."
That way, you'd see Jeon Suji from my memory directly, then ride her contacted memories backward to uncover everything—ultimately reaching the culprit behind all events.
The true identity of the 'black curtain'.
In other words, as long as souls are connected, it's endless pursuit—a cheat skill with no chance of failure.
"Wow... So that's why you wanted to borrow the saintess's power, Branch Chief?"
"That's right. Though if I'd known it'd wreck your body like this, even I'd have stopped it..."
In that instant, Saintess Sohee's blue eyes flickered with rainbow hues.
As if the internet went 'ding' on a successful connection, her consciousness latched onto something.
"Tracking complete."
She said lowly.
"Even Hunter Jeon Suji didn't know their goal. She was just used and destined to be discarded."
"So... who exactly are they? The force trying to manipulate our association in secret?"
Everyone held their breath.
Finally, the black curtain's identity would be revealed.
But.
"...I've pinpointed their location."
"Location...?"
"What kind of vague answer is that?"
It felt like ashes sprinkled on a finished meal.
"I can clearly sense where they are, but their actual identities... I can't grasp them."
"What nonsense is that?!"
The branch chief shouted incredulously.
"Soul Tracking reveals the target's name, age—even their bowel movements last night!"
I gasped inwardly.
...That powerful?
Women's world is terrifying indeed.
But the saintess soon shook her head and whispered.
"I'm sorry. My Soul Tracking only works on fellow 'humans'. It can pursue human souls endlessly, but..."
She steadied her breath and stated coldly.
"The force that reached out to Hunter Jeon Suji... was not 'human'."
"They're 'monsters' from inside the dungeons."