Chapter 173
Chapter 173
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 173
Chapter Title: Jang Hyun-deok's Exciting Vacation
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One week ago.
A bar with a quiet atmosphere.
Five men and women who had arrived first were waiting and greeted Jang Hyun-deok and Yeon warmly.
“Hello!”
“Wow, great to see you!”
“I was really curious about what kind of person you are.”
“Ah, yes. Hello. I’m Jang Hyun-deok.”
Stable and wholesome speech, neat attire and makeup-free face, and above all, those excessively clear eyes.
‘No wonder they all have a vibe similar to Yeon’s.’
If Jang Hyun-deok had a bit more experience, he might have read the peculiar madness in their eyes that comes from being immersed in certain beliefs and ideologies.
But since he didn’t yet have that level of insight, Jang Hyun-deok only sensed a slight awkwardness as he took his seat.
A handsome man in a black jacket over a white tee introduced himself first.
“Please call me Cheol.”
“Cheol?”
“Yes, Cheol.”
Then, one by one, the single-syllable names: Hee, Un, Rae, Myeong.
For one person, it might just seem like an unusual name.
But gathered like this, they couldn’t help but appear as a bizarre group adhering to some strange rule.
Thinking that, Jang Hyun-deok cautiously asked.
“Why do you all have single-syllable names?”
“Haha, they’re like nicknames. You get the vibe, right?”
*What vibe?* He almost asked, but everyone acted like it was the most natural thing. He glanced over and saw Yeon looking up at him with sparkling eyes.
Noticing Yeon’s gaze, Jang Hyun-deok forced himself to rationalize the situation.
“Ah, a trend? Something like that? I get the vibe. Should I be Hyun, then?”
“Wow, that’s great. We’ll call you Hyun-nim, then!”
Jang Hyun-deok found ‘normal people’ unfamiliar.
He dealt daily with madness-driven fixers and surreal criminals.
At some point, his interactions had even narrowed down to just one person: Kim Shin-hwa.
‘Is this what normal people are like? They really live such leisurely lives. Compared to this, the wizard and I are total aliens.’
Because of his faint longing for normal people, he missed another chance to escape.
On top of that, Yeon’s whisper drove the nail in.
“It’s a relief they all like you, Hyun-deok.”
The content didn’t matter. Wasn’t her breath, carrying positive words, tickling his ear? Ah, yeah. Whatever it was, it was a relief? Great. Perfect.
Seven glasses of liquor were placed on the table.
“Cheers!”
“Cheers!”
“Let’s have fun!”
Everyone toasted excitedly, but the only glass tilting enthusiastically was Jang Hyun-deok’s.
The others discreetly dumped their drinks on the floor or just wet their lips before returning the glasses to the table in a way that was hard to notice.
Another toast.
And another.
After the glasses had been replaced about three times, a random topic came up.
“Lately, we’ve been into musicals.”
“Musicals?”
“Yeah. Musicals. Not watching them, though. We’re the actors, preparing the stage ourselves.”
Tennis, then religious activities, and now musicals.
Do normal people really do this many different things?
‘Kinda jealous.’
Jang Hyun-deok felt a faint twinge of envy.
*I was chasing a truck with an octopus monster just the other day with the wizard. Our worlds really are different.*
“Want to see the script? You’ll get hooked too, Hyun-nim.”
“Our team’s got some religious themes since that’s who we are, but it’ll still be fun.”
A musical script was placed on the table amid the liquor glasses.
“Huh, this is the script?”
What appeared was far too elaborate for an amateur musical script.
It was an overly professional-looking bound book. Even the cover had a bizarre gold-foil emblem stamped on it.
‘They went all out on the style but didn’t even put a title.’
There was no title. The gold-foil design on the cover was serving that purpose.
Jang Hyun-deok took the book as if entranced.
‘Am I drunk?’
The gold-foil emblem on the cover seemed to writhe.
No, was this really gold foil? Gold? He had the illusion of some strange energy emanating from it.
It felt oddly familiar.
‘Oh yeah, it’s like something I saw in a dream before.’
Jang Hyun-deok started reading the script without even realizing he’d turned the page.
Meanwhile, the others chattered on.
“It’s divided into Act 1 and Act 2.”
“Act 1 is just the intro, and Act 2 is the real deal.”
“What’s in Act 2 isn’t just a simple play.”
“It lays out the future we’ll arrive at.”
“Yeah. Keep reading. You’ll get interested.”
“You’ll gain true faith.”
“Once you finish it, all your anxiety and confusion will vanish, and you’ll have true happiness and love for all things.”
“When you’re done, we’ll introduce you to our teacher.”
“He’s an amazing person.”
“You’ll join us too.”
The cultists surrounding Jang Hyun-deok began revealing their true colors.
Their words, laced with evil suggestions, flowed like a spell. Before long, eerie music filled the air.
The bar owner, the people at other tables—everyone.
They were all special missionaries deployed by the fake church calling itself the Huangrim Church.
But Jang Hyun-deok, oblivious to the changes around him, was absorbed in the book they’d given him.
‘What the hell is this about?’
Even calling it a script, the content was hard to understand.
Arcane words and unfamiliar proper nouns.
A beautiful world beyond the distant horizon.
The great and absolute being residing there. Hymns dedicated to the Absolute. Prayers. Pleas. Wishes.
Frail humans. Humans doomed to ruin by their own folly.
And then, the ‘Fragrant One’ appears.
A vessel existing to accept the Absolute, a living altar born for the golden mass, one who burns and melts their own body to emit fragrance for the king—the Fragrant One.
‘Did I drink too much...’
The more Jang Hyun-deok read, the more fatigued he felt.
‘The wizard would explain what’s going on if she were here.’
If it were Kim Shin-hwa, who could check the message window’s info in real time, she’d detect the true nature of the book Jang Hyun-deok was reading and the phenomenon affecting his mind.
But right now, no such help was available.
His rationality was being shaved away in real time, madness constricting his mind. Dizzy.
His eyelids grew heavy. He felt feverish. His heart raced.
Unconsciously, Jang Hyun-deok touched his face with the back of his hand. It was hot. Why was he burning up? Was he getting sleepy from reading literature? He didn’t want to look weak to these people, but he was tired. It felt like his brain was melting.
And even among the cultists reciting brainwashing words, a change occurred.
“Something’s weird, weird, weird smell?”
“A fragrant smell. Somehow loving, nostalgic.”
“Ah, right. That smell from the censer during worship?”
“Ah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But why’s that smell in a bar like this?”
‘What are these people suddenly talking about?’
Jang Hyun-deok suddenly looked at the six faces around him.
Six faces gazing at him with strange, fervent longing.
‘Why are they making those faces? Are they drunk?’
Expressions blending religious fervor and sexual ecstasy. Or like they were in love.
Feeling uneasy, Jang Hyun-deok closed the script and said.
“Um, is everyone okay?”
“Ah!”
“Uh...”
“Yes?”
The six jolted awake as if snapping out of a long daydream. They all wore expressions like they’d unexpectedly witnessed a mystical experience or religious vision.
Cheol looked at Jang Hyun-deok in bewilderment.
“You, you, you. What the hell are you?”
“Huh?”
“Something special about you. This smell. This fragrance. It’s our lord, the one from the dream. The scent of our lord who will descend in golden robes. Right?”
“Huuuh?”
“Could it be, you, you, you—are you our lord?”
“Uh...”
Only then did Jang Hyun-deok fully sense the abnormality.
It wasn’t just the six. Everyone in the bar was staring at him, swept up in bizarre longing.
The words they’d used, the items that appeared, this situation.
Vaguely, he recalled what they’d said while he was reading the book.
And this book in his hand.
It had clearly triggered a surreal anomaly.
‘Uh...’
Jang Hyun-deok remembered a story a fixer had once told him.
About a certain cult group.
‘There’s this cult with a strange grimoire.’
They trick victims into reading a special grimoire.
That grimoire has the power to brainwash minds, so once you read it, you’re done for—
“...”
Jang Hyun-deok looked at the script again.
The golden emblem on the cover throbbed grotesquely.
‘Ahhh... Wizard, where are you?’
Looks like I’m in trouble.
“Um, sorry, but I just remembered an urgent appointment... Could you let me pass?”
Jang Hyun-deok stood up in a fluster, speaking awkwardly. He knew he couldn’t escape like this, but drunk as he was, no better ideas came.
“Ah... Sure.”
But surprisingly, the cultists stepped aside meekly.
They showed inexplicable fear and awe at his every movement.
“Uh... This was fun today. I’ll pay the tab later—message me.”
Jang Hyun-deok shuffled awkwardly out of the bar.
Now he realized the table he’d been at was in the deepest corner of the place.
The customers near the entrance were even bulkier than Basilissa regulars—deployed to subdue escaping victims.
“Ex-excuse me.”
“Y-yes, yes...”
But even those brutes just gawked at Jang Hyun-deok blankly.
He sensed how bizarre the situation was but couldn’t understand why it was happening.
And the cultists gathered in this fake bar thought the same.
“What? What? Who the hell is that guy?”
In the end, Jang Hyun-deok escaped the bar.
Without any interference, safely. The first time it had ever happened since this bar was set up.
Of course, unaware of that, Jang Hyun-deok couldn’t celebrate his unwitting achievement and just stumbled home in a daze.
“Yeon’s in a cult too, huh? No, at that level, not just a cult—actual cultists.”
As soon as he got home, Jang Hyun-deok flopped onto his bed and thought.
“That’s why they were so nice to me.”
Thinking back now, he realized he knew almost nothing about Yeon.
“Come to think of it, I was always the one talking.”
Jang Hyun-deok had shared everything, including his home address, but knew little about who Yeon really was. He’d been duped after all.
Overcome with sadness, betrayal, and unrelenting fever, Jang Hyun-deok shed a few tears before passing out into sleep.
* * *
Six days ago.
Another location unknown to Jang Hyun-deok.
“Brother, could you explain it again in a way I can understand?”
An eerily beautiful voice.
“Hee-in-nim, the moment that person started reading the book, I sensed the scent and presence of our lord, [The King in Yellow]. I’m certain. That person is our lord, [The King in Yellow].”
“So you all thought that Jang Hyun-deok’s command was a divine order and just let him go?”
“That’s right. We had no choice.”
“Hmm.”
Still an incomprehensible jumble of words.
Hee-in gazed at the mask in her left hand. A grotesque mask with three eyes.
‘Just when we were starting to secure our position, something weird shows up.’
Everyone who had witnessed that ‘Jang Hyun-deok’ was insisting he was an incarnation of [The King in Yellow].
If what they saw was real, then that Jang Hyun-deok...
‘Either he once accepted a fragment of the god, or he possesses one of our cult’s sacred objects.’
Nothing less could cause this.
But it was absurd. Why would someone like that be wandering around here unaffiliated?
Maybe a cult from another lineage serving [The King in Yellow]?
“Could I see Sister Yeon’s report again?”
Hee-in read and reread the contents of the report for a long time.
A passage about resolving a special incident in Sejong City caught her eye. And several other vaguely connected pieces of info.
After much deliberation, Hee-in reached a conclusion.
“I see. We’ve finally found him.”
She knew who it was.
The bastard she’d been searching for all this time.
The devil who destroyed the Masquerade and stole the sacred object that should have been ours.
“Hu Sang-hyeon. It’s that guy.”