Chapter 50
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Pursuit
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- KABOOM!
Jin Sea didn't enter through the guild's front door.
She didn't even have time to wait for the elevator.
She leaped straight into the air, landing at the window.
"……."
Forcing open a window that shouldn't open from the outside, she slipped inside.
But the room was empty. All that remained were two cups of cold, stale coffee.
Seon-woo was gone.
She dashed into the hallway and grabbed the secretary.
"Who was the last client?"
"Y-Yes? It was Hunter Baek Si-eun…."
"She was kidnapped."
"What?! Kidnapped? By who…."
Jin Sea didn't waste time explaining. She hurried toward the end of the hallway, leaving the woman behind.
- CRASH!
It was Team Leader Wi Jae-wan's office.
Wi Jae-wan lay slumped over his desk, unconscious.
Jin Sea grasped the situation immediately.
It was clear now.
Baek Si-eun.
She had used her ability to manipulate the team leader.
Then kidnapped Seon-woo and vanished.
Baek Si-eun didn't have the power for spatial transfer like that.
Which meant…
She had an accomplice.
Jin Sea returned to the counseling room.
It wasn't widely known, but otherworlder magic always left a trace.
The mana properties in this world differed from those in their home world.
Using it here was fine… but it left faint residues.
And Jin Sea could detect those subtle differences.
She scanned the walls, floor, and ceiling—every inch of the space.
- Tap.
She found it.
On the counseling room door.
A faint spatial distortion in the corner of the frame, like dust.
And then…
- Riiip….
Jin Sea wedged her finger into the trace's gap.
Forcing the sealed dimensional door open again.
- RRRRIP!
Space screamed as it tore apart.
"……."
But beyond it… nothing.
The cleanup had been thorough.
Not bad for a rat.
But…
It didn't matter.
Every spell was like a fingerprint.
No matter how well they erased traces, the caster's unique wavelength remained.
She knew who it was.
- FLASH!
The counseling room lit up once more.
And Jin Sea vanished.
Meanwhile, at the same time.
In the heart of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult—the Heavenly Demon Hall.
Jahwa-yeon sat alone on the empty jade throne, chin in hand, staring blankly into space with a bored expression.
At that moment, a massive figure rose silently from the shadows beneath the throne.
It was Geumgang, the Right Protector and her loyal retainer.
He dropped to one knee and bowed his head deeply.
"Geumgang."
Languor laced Jahwa-yeon's voice.
Without lifting his head, Geumgang spoke gravely.
"Supreme One. The aura of the Protective Incense you bestowed upon the physician… vanished completely just moments ago."
In an instant, the boredom vanished from Jahwa-yeon's face.
She shot to her feet.
Protective Incense.
The incense hidden in the nameplate and table from her last visit.
A safeguard for the physician's safety.
Its disappearance meant one thing.
Trouble for the physician.
Jahwa-yeon rose slowly from the throne.
"Find him."
Geumgang bowed deeply.
"Yes."
"Whoever so much as touched a single hair on the physician's head…"
Her black eyes blazed crimson.
"…I will skin them alive and hang their torso from the gates of the Heavenly Demon Hall."
- Whoosh!
With those words, Geumgang melted back into the shadows.
Jahwa-yeon followed.
- Click, click.
She stepped slowly out of the Heavenly Demon Hall.
Meanwhile, in a downtown coffee shop.
The parking lot.
Lia crossed the ordinary shopping mall lot with light steps.
She had fulfilled Baek Si-eun's request perfectly.
Opening a portal to deliver her and the beta safely to the birdcage.
A simple task.
She took a sip of bitter coffee and smacked her lips.
"…Tch."
Maybe she should've tagged along.
His face was prettier than expected. Far better than the photo.
There was something about him unconscious and defenseless, limp like that.
It strongly stirred an alpha's protective instincts.
Meaning he wasn't your average beta.
Her comrades had reacted the same.
Everyone froze at the sight of the passed-out counselor.
But Baek Si-eun's growl sent all three through the portal to part ways.
Lia gave a wry smile.
- Ring ring.
Her pocket buzzed as she pondered.
A call from the vice-guild master.
She was the representative of the new guild she'd founded recently.
Lia answered.
"Hello?"
She headed toward her parked car, continuing.
"Oh, that… wait just a bit? I'll be right there. Yeah, got it."
She hung up.
Walked to the car.
"……."
The lot was eerily quiet. Deserted.
She casually approached the driver's side.
Grabbed the handle.
- Hummm….
- Swing!
She yanked the door open urgently.
The open door led not to the car's interior, but someone's home.
Lia had opened a portal to her own house.
And as she quickly slipped inside—
- Grip.
"Kyaaack!"
Something seized her hair hard.
Lia's body jerked to a halt.
"Where do you think you're going?"
It was Jin Sea.
- KABOOOM!!
Before Lia could register being caught, a deafening roar hit, and her vision flashed white.
All sensation vanished from her body.
Then returned.
She opened her eyes.
Looked around…
And screamed.
It wasn't the parking lot before her eyes.
Pure white clouds and, far below, a dizzying cityscape.
She was…
Floating thousands of meters in the sky.
The buildings below looked like ants.
"Kyaaaaaaa!!"
Lia shrieked wildly, desperately clinging to the hand gripping her hair—her only lifeline.
Cold wind stung her eyes shut.
A voice whispered in her ear.
"I'll give you three seconds."
Jin Sea asked nothing else.
"Before I hurl you into your pathetic guild building like a spike."
She looked down at Lia flailing from her arm.
"Where?"
Lia answered without hesitation.
"Baek… Baek Si-eun's villa…."
"Where's that?"
"Muweol-dong… Street 3… Penthouse… Room 201…."
"Won't take long to check. If you're lying…."
"I-It's true…! Please…!"
Jin Sea released her grip without a word.
She smirked.
"Then survive on your own."
Whoosh.
- "Kyaaaaaaa!!"
Lia's body plummeted into freefall.
- Thud!
A dull impact as a fist sank into her abdomen.
- Crack!
A woman's arm twisted at an unnatural angle.
An abandoned factory on the city outskirts.
"We… we didn't know…."
"P-Please…."
Two women knelt on the dust-caked concrete floor.
They clasped their hands in desperate begging.
They were a mess.
Covered in blood and grime, clothes shredded, exposing flesh.
Noses bleeding, cheeks swollen.
"Why'd you have to make this difficult?"
The hulking man before them was Geumgang.
When he tracked them via the last traces of the Protective Incense on Jahwa-yeon's orders, he had asked politely first.
'Do you know anything about the physician?'
But they responded with scornful sneers.
'Beat it?'
'Ugh… you reek.'
They had belittled Geumgang and tried to leave.
Leading to this.
"If you'd just told me, none of this would've happened."
Geumgang crouched, meeting their eyes.
"If this were the Central Plains, you'd have your dantians crippled, stripped bare, and tossed into the heart of the Demonic Cult."
"In our world, they say women need a beating every three days."
He lowered his head humbly.
"But this isn't the Central Plains. And especially not your world."
"Times change… so we must uphold what must be upheld."
"O-Okay… I'll talk…!"
- Thud!
"Urk…!"
Geumgang's foot drove deep into Kara's gut.
Vomit and groans spilled from her mouth.
Geumgang gazed down at her with emotionless eyes, murmuring lowly.
"A wench like you… using informal speech."
Then.
"How much farther?"
Someone entered the factory.
From the darkness, footsteps and the click of heels emerged with a woman.
It was Jahwa-yeon.
"Supreme One."
Geumgang immediately knelt on one knee and bowed.
"Tch. Step aside. I'll handle it."
At her words, faint hope flickered on the faces of the two women on the floor.
Anything but that savage beast—surely this slender woman would be better.
A vain delusion.
Geumgang looked at them pityingly as he withdrew.
'You should've just told me nicely.'
Once the Supreme One stepped in, the aftermath would dwarf mere physical pain.
- Swish.
Jahwa-yeon raised her hand sharply upward.
The two women were yanked upright, as if pulled by invisible strings.
"I'll… I'll tell you…!"
Kim Ga-eun pleaded frantically, but Jahwa-yeon raised a finger to silence her.
And then.
Her black pupils slowly filled with blood-red.
"Behold."
They met Jahwa-yeon's gaze.
And.
Their minds were forcibly ransacked. Jahwa-yeon brutally excavated the memories and information within.
"Ugh… urk…."
"Grrrrr…."
Kara and Kim Ga-eun groaned from the soul-rending agony they'd never felt before.
Jahwa-yeon watched briefly, then turned away.
"Let's go."
She had all the information she needed.
Geumgang bowed and followed.
- Thump.
The two women collapsed like puppets with cut strings.