Fox Hunt at the Masquerade
The ball was set to begin late in the evening.
Nine o'clock, sharp.
A full hour before that, the approach to the venue was already a solid wall of luxury cars.
And this was supposed to be a small ball with hardly anyone attending?
Then again, it occurred to me that by Erciel's standards, this might genuinely count as an intimate little gathering.
I popped a candy into my mouth and let my thoughts drift for a moment. My reason for attending tonight wasn't just Seol Hwaryeon. There was another: the very real chance that demons might choose this ball as their hunting ground.
I had dressed for the occasion in the Faceless Mask of Glamour and a perfectly serviceable suit I'd picked up along the way. Erciel had offered to prepare both a mask and formalwear for me, but if any unexpected trouble broke out, those gifts could be traced straight back to my identity.
That would be inconvenient, to say the least.
One notch of difficulty, and everything had changed — the demons who were supposed to scheme quietly inside the school had decided to invade it outright. The Jecheon Society's fanatics might come crawling out of the woodwork, and who knew, some infamous Villain crew might come bursting onto the scene as well.
So I watched the guests, my Talent Perusal (-) sifting through the crowd.
I hadn't been at it long before a pack of familiar faces came swaggering in.
A towering frame of one hundred eighty-five centimeters. A black suit, a Hahoe mask, and the spear he'd won during weapon selection strapped across his back — Park Unhyeok had arrived.
And there was Hong Yuhwa, crimson hair on full display, draped in a scarlet evening gown with the brooch the Red Tower Lord had gifted her pinned over her heart.
"...Good lord. Isn't that the hidden ace?"
"Look at who's following her. Hong Yuhwa, isn't it? The Merhen family, indeed."
The masked guests tittered behind their hands.
Those two have zero intention of blending in.
Fair enough — Hong Yuhwa, who had never once managed to beat me at school, and Park Unhyeok both carried entirely different weight the moment they stepped beyond its gates. Pride like theirs had been bred in the bone.
I shifted my gaze elsewhere.
"Why hello there, you dashing gentleman?"
Click, click.
A voluptuous figure poured into a blood-red dress — a woman in a fox mask came gliding toward me, her voice oozing honey.
"A demon, is it."
"Lord Seoha, that's a demon!"
Heukcheon and Yeongcheon spoke in unison.
"Wouldn't you like to come spend a little... intimate time with me?"
"Intimate time, you say."
"Yes. Just the two of us."
She laid deliberate weight on the word two and jabbed a finger into my chest.
"...My, my. Firm as a rock, aren't we."
"Then let's head inside and have our little chat, shall we?"
I led the fox demon toward the inner reaches of the estate.
"Wh-what, what?! Don't tell me you're actually—?!"
"M-Master?!"
Ignoring their flustered squawking, I steered the fox demon toward the most secluded spot I could find.
We made for the garden, where a few couples had already claimed their territory. I walked right past them, deeper into the shadows.
"My, sir, aren't we going a little too far?"
"I'd rather not give the others a show."
After a long enough walk, not even the faintest trace of human presence remained.
The fox demon wound herself against me, rubbing and coiling like a cat in heat.
Shk.
"Ghhk—!"
I drove the black sword I'd drawn from my bracelet through her belly, then took her head in a single stroke.
Black ash scattered on the night air.
No blood flowed from the corpse. These were beings who had sold what belonged to this world to the Outer realms — creatures who could not leave behind so much as the trace of their own humanity in it.
"...It really is you, Elder. To see through a demon at a single glance."
A voice brimming with adoration. It came out of nowhere, without so much as a breath of presence to announce it — it caught me off guard, but I kept my composure flawless.
Tranquil Mind (A), which held my mind at its absolute peak at all times, made that easy.
So it was Seol Hwaryeon.
Her Talent specialized in freezing things. It was an overwhelming step above the Talent of Frost — because Seol Hwaryeon could freeze even the telltale stir of her own presence.
"...Demons exist in every place, at every hour. That is why we must forge the eye that finds them."
"This girl's Talent is wanting, Elder. She failed to realize the woman in the fox mask was a demon."
"Most demons cannot leash their own power... but the ones who hide within human society invariably learn to keep it sheathed. You are the finest assassin our demon-hunting clan has ever produced. Keep striving exactly as you have."
"Yes, Elder! Understood!"
Seol Hwaryeon snapped a crisp salute.
By their very nature, the assassin clans kept their hierarchy ironclad. Unless their superior turned out to be a demon, they would march into a pit of fire on orders without a flicker of hesitation.
Not that slaughtering demons and Villains and everyone remotely connected to them so indiscriminately was precisely what dragged the clan into ruin.
I turned to face her.
"Now then — what brings you here?"
"Traces of Villains, Elder."
"Villains?"
"Yes. Our intelligence says one of the Jecheon Society — a man who styles himself the Little Heavenly Demon — intends to strike this place."
"Why would they?"
"That much... I do not know."
Seol Hwaryeon's voice trailed off, uncertain.
I glanced sideways. Yeongcheon hovered there in her black fox form, tails drifting.
The Heavenly Demon's Legacy, maybe.
Was the Jecheon Society's intelligence network really that formidable? Formidable enough to know the Legacy lay hidden here?
Instinct told me that wasn't it.
"Then first—"
KA-BOOOM!
A colossal explosion ripped through the night.
Before I could even finish the sentence, fire bloomed across the mansion's fifth floor.
"...How dare they. I was speaking with the Elder."
"Go on ahead, then."
"Understood, Elder!"
Killing intent billowing off her like a blizzard, Seol Hwaryeon drew her twin swords and shot ahead.
I wreathed Yeokcheon around my feet and leapt lightly — in a single heartbeat, my body was airborne.
If Black Shadow Step poured everything into raw speed, then Black Flash Step was the footwork that took that speed and layered leaps and mid-air redirection on top of it.
Guided by my Nyeom, I kicked off a second time from the midpoint of the third floor.
When I plunged into the heart of the flames, two figures were already locked in combat.
Park Unhyeok, Hahoe mask still in place, was trading blows with an opponent shrouded in a deep black aura.
"Black Mist, is it."
"It's Black Mist, Lord Seoha. To think that power still isn't ready for actual combat."
Black Mist?
"A crude force thrown together to imitate Yeokcheon's energy. Naturally, set against true Yeokcheon, it doesn't even deserve the comparison."
"Lord Seoha! Two more are hiding!"
Two more?
Click.
Something switched on inside me, and the Divine Eye activated. The warped silhouettes of magic power swam into view.
They're skilled, though.
"They are no foes beyond you, Master."
"At Lord Seoha's current level, you could dispatch them with ease."
They'd be a pain if they ran, though.
"Exactly. So let's watch a little longer, shall we?"
I nodded and melted out of sight.
"Hahah! Is this truly all the one they call the hidden ace amounts to?!"
An excited boy's voice rang out.
"Ha. I got worked up over nothing."
Park Unhyeok changed his stance. Every trace of wariness drained out of him; he settled the spear shaft against his shoulder.
"I thought you might carry power like his, but you're hollow all the way through, aren't you? None of that prickling pressure, either. Nothing like the power that erases magic itself."
So muttering, Park Unhyeok drew his magic power up.
FWOOOOSH!
The wind swelled into a gale. The spear is, as a rule, the weapon of masters who live and die by distance control — but Park Unhyeok wielded his a little differently.
KRRUMBLE!
Thunder cracked as the spear tore out. Fast — fast enough that it only barely brushed the edge of my vision!
"Wha—?!"
The Little Heavenly Demon scrambled to respond, black energy snapping into a disc to bar the spear — but Park Unhyeok's assault had only just begun.
Sweep, thrust. Wind and lightning rode his magic power in tandem as he hammered the Little Heavenly Demon without pause.
"Enough."
The word clipped the air short. Someone had intervened — Word Command, the art of loading speech with force, had brought Park Unhyeok to a dead stop.
Two old men now stood behind the Little Heavenly Demon.
"O Leader. We must make our escape soon."
"The Merhen family's defenses exceed anything we imagined. Many of our rank-and-file faithful have already departed for the Demon God's side."
The instant the old men moved to spirit the Little Heavenly Demon away—
I kicked clean through the window and burst out, drawing not Heukcheon but the spare sword I'd stored in subspace.
"Who—"
Yeokcheon raged inside my body.
If word ever got out that I was the Heavenly Demon, it would be the same as painting the largest target in the world on my own back. So I kept both Heukcheon and Yeokcheon buried as deep as I could push them.
Shring.
The blade slid free.
It felt different from every draw that had come before. How should I put it — as if I'd finally learned exactly where to cut in order to kill a man with the least possible waste.
Faster.
The sword left its sheath like a bolt of lightning. I took it in both hands as Yeokcheon howled through my veins.
Black Heaven First Step.
My vision began to stain black. The whole world turned a shade of black — and within that blackness, white lines drew themselves.
I saw Park Unhyeok's unimpressed face. I saw the Little Heavenly Demon, still too slow to catch on, wearing an expression of pure aggrieved injustice. A beat later, I saw one of the old men, his face frozen in open horror.
Instinct told me he had recognized what I was.
Too late.
My sword was already resting at one old man's throat before any of them had moved a muscle.
Heavenly Demon?
The old man's lips quivered around the word.
CLAAAANG!
A spear materialized out of nowhere and caught my blade. On instinct alone, I dragged the sword downward.
SHRAAAK!
A line of blood split open across the old man's chest.
"Head Elder!"
"How does he wield that sword?!"
The one they called Head Elder stared back at me, eyes wide with disbelief.
"Park Unhyeok."
"That voice... don't tell me—"
"Those bastards are Villains. Jecheon Society, aren't they."
"Villains, is it? Then it's time for this body to take the stage!"
"Then allow me to dispose of them, Elder. You need only stand still."
Seol Hwaryeon had drifted silently to my side. She wore a gauzy hanbok and a white butterfly mask.
"I've finished with the ones outside. Only these remain."
"...Did you kill them?"
"No, Elder. I froze them. There is a great deal I need to hear from these ones."
Seol Hwaryeon smiled, cold and serene as frost.
"Well done."
"...!"
At those two words, Seol Hwaryeon's uncombed hair shot straight up into the shape of an exclamation mark.
So that's actually a thing that can happen, huh.
"...Aren't you two the same age?"
Park Unhyeok asked me quietly.
I answered through Nyeom.
"She's not quite right upstairs."
"...I see."