Suspiciously Competent (7)
The red-haired woman looked up at me suspiciously well.
I looked down at her in return.
Where have I seen her before?
Her face was definitely familiar.
The Imperial Capital library?
I remembered.
"Stalker lady?"
The words slipped out before I knew it.
Her eyes widened.
As if she'd remembered too, she pointed at me with her finger.
"You're that kid from the library back then?"
I pointed back at her.
We stood there in this bizarre standoff, pointing fingers at each other.
Wish's eyes trembled as she sat slumped on the floor.
She'd been too crushed by the red-haired woman's overwhelming terror earlier to even open her mouth.
But her eyes were asking now.
Do you know that woman?!
I caught her desperate gaze right away and shook my head.
"We're not acquainted."
My firm denial made the red-haired woman's brow twitch.
She rose slowly from her spot, positioning herself between Wish and me.
Our locked gazes were blocked by her legs.
"Didn't expect you to be with the Council."
She said it while scanning me up and down.
Her eyes lingered on the gold badge on my chest.
"I didn't expect you to be with ManShinJeon either."
I shot back without missing a beat, but cold sweat trickled down my back inside.
Sariya-noona's wind shield. Pretty sure I used up today's limit.
All I had left was the bear doll, but it wasn't ideal in this enclosed space.
I've gotta bluff my way through.
I recalled the time I'd faced ManShinJeon before and chased them off with sheer momentum alone.
If I lost my nerve now, it was over.
But I was scared stiff, my mind blanking out, few words coming to me.
"Kid, do you know who I am?"
The red-haired woman asked.
Maybe it was the height difference, but her downward gaze stung.
The eyes of those who look down on others.
Something only possible if you're utterly convinced of your superiority. Whether that conviction was truly solid was another matter.
It was something I, out in the world alone beyond my parents' protection, had to watch out for.
Do I really have to? From someone who's not even in my circle?
When had it started?
Ever since I'd become aware of the growing gap in our eye levels with each waxing and waning moon.
Controlling the impulse rising from a corner of my heart wasn't easy.
Normally, I'd hold back.
But soaked in exhaustion as I was now, it was tough.
By the time I realized it, my mouth was open, words spilling out freely.
"Do you know who I am, auntie?"
A small ripple spread over the taut tension.
The waves from that one word were far from small.
"......Auntie?"
The red-haired woman pointed at herself with a finger.
"You're not talking about me, are you?"
"Who else would I mean? Getting older isn't anything to be ashamed of."
"......Cheeky little brat. You should choose your words more carefully."
"Little brat" grated on me.
I was trying so hard to be self-sufficient on my own, and getting treated like that every time soured my mood.
It's fine when Ronan-ajusshi or the noonas say it. But this woman doesn't even know me.
That was why I'd chosen the word.
The top one women hated being called.
Just sharpening my tongue like Lannancy-noona would.
"Auntie, you've been calling me 'little brat' this whole time, but do you know how old I am? They say rice bows lower as it ripens, but you don't seem to be doing that."
"...So it's fine for you to call me auntie?"
"Is it weird to call someone older than me that? Or maybe you're just not used to hearing 'auntie' yet. You'll get accustomed to it soon enough."
The woman forced one corner of her mouth up.
"Don't call me that. It rubs me the wrong way."
She snapped coldly.
"Then don't call me little brat either, auntie."
"......"
The red-haired woman's lips quivered.
She glared at my gold badge again, grinding her teeth.
"Didn't realize you were such a big shot back when we met."
She sighed.
"What a shame. I was quite interested in you, but now I have to kill you."
The red-haired woman jerked her chin toward the blood-soaked nurses behind me.
"Kill him. Tear his mouth first."
The order rang out.
But...
......
......
The three blood-drenched nurses behind me didn't budge. They just tilted their heads in eerie fashion.
"What are you doing? Tear him apart now!"
The woman yelled in panic, but the nurses remained silent.
I flapped the hem of the gown I was wearing.
"Can't you see I'm in a gown? I'm hospital staff—yokai wouldn't touch me."
"Don't make me laugh. You think a mere gown scrap would make a rule yokai spare you?"
The red-haired woman scoffed.
"Then try blocking this!"
She elegantly extended her hand into the air.
Magic...!
I reflexively raised both arms to shield myself.
1 second. 2 seconds. 3 seconds.
Nothing happened.
Not even a breeze.
......
Embarrassed, I slowly lowered my arms and looked at her.
The red-haired woman was sweating bullets on her forehead, her hand trembling.
She vented her frustration at the empty air.
"Why aren't you helping me! What's wrong with you guys!"
I had no idea who she was talking to, but she seemed desperate.
"What are you doing?"
When I asked, she flinched and cleared her throat awkwardly.
She straightened up, trying to look dignified again, and glared at me.
"...What are you? Some new-generation something?"
"Just an ordinary boy."
Her mouth opened, then closed.
She raised both hands to the ceiling.
"Insolent little brat..."
Rumble...
A heavy sound like the ceiling collapsing echoed.
I recoiled in shock.
Plop. Thud.
A bit of cement dust and a couple pebbles fell limply at my feet from above.
"......"
"......"
Suffocating silence flowed.
"......What were you trying to do?"
I asked sincerely.
The red-haired woman's face flushed tomato-red.
"......"
Her lips trembled violently.
"Fine! Then I'll kill you with my own hands!"
The red-haired woman cast aside any pretense of elegance and lunged at me—
That's when.
Slurp.
Sariya-noona appeared from my chest, rubbing her eyes.
"Yaaawn... So noisy. Can't sleep."
The red-haired woman's movement froze like a statue.
Noona looked around groggily, still half-asleep.
The blood-red corridor. The shattered nurses.
Wish slumped on the floor. And the red-haired woman, frozen with fists clenched.
"......What's going on here?"
Noona looked up at me.
"No idea."
An honest answer.
Then noona's gaze locked onto the red-haired woman.
More precisely, her surroundings.
She was staring.
Noona's expression changed.
Her mouth split wide, baring her teeth.
A yokai-era smile.
"Whoa, looks delicious."
I heard saliva pooling in noona's mouth.
"......You trying to eat a person?"
I asked, wondering if her old instincts had revived.
"Huh? What're you talking about?"
She wrinkled her brow like the mere thought made her want to puke.
"Not the person—the things floating around that red-haired woman."
Noona pointed beside the red-haired woman.
I widened my eyes, but saw nothing.
"What things?"
"Spirits. Top-quality ones swarming everywhere."
Noona smacked her lips.
"They're trembling just looking at you. But they smell so good?"
Clearly terrified of noona, yet she was blaming me? Bizarre.
But that wasn't important.
She can eat spirits?
I recalled what I'd read in the archive.
They grow by consuming nutrients infused with nature's essence.
If spirits were lumps of that essence...
Free meals as good as pricey elixirs had walked right to us.
Never thought I'd actually do what I'd idly considered then.
"Noona, can you fight?"
"Not fully recharged yet—can't last long. But if I push it a bit."
Noona shot a greedy glance.
"I can just gobble those up to recharge anyway."
Flash—!
Dazzling light burst from noona's body.
Her translucent tiny form expanded.
Back to the Sariya-noona I knew—her original size.
Eight-cheok.
A massive frame nearly brushing the ceiling. Flowing hair.
The only difference: her once-red eyes now blue.
"...Impossible. That's a spirit? Not a yokai?"
The red-haired woman backed away.
Noona reached into the air.
She snatched something invisible to me.
And popped it straight into her mouth.
Crunch.
"...You ate it? My spirits?"
The red-haired woman muttered in disbelief.
"Tasty."
Noona reached out again.
The red-haired woman yelled, dazed.
"No way! A spirit that eats spirits?! Even in ancient times, nothing like that existed!"
She pointed at me.
"I've never seen a spirit shaman even spirits fear—how the hell did you contract something so off-spec?!"
Her eyes shifted.
From incomprehension to ecstasy in an instant.
"Teach me!"
She bit her lip, grinning maniacally.
"Please teach me too! How'd you contract it? Huh?"
I backed away, creeped out.
Her thought process wasn't normal. Her eyes on me brimmed with excitement and rapture.
The gaze of someone whose life revolved around curiosities. The type whose next move you couldn't predict.
"Why would I teach my enemy that?"
I don't even know myself.
As I answered incredulously—
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Footsteps from upstairs.
ManShinJeon members descending the stairs.
They should've all been dead. Where do they keep coming from?
"Branch Leader...!"
A black-robed man tried to call to the red-haired woman.
"The suppression team upstairs is wiped out! We're here for backup...!"
Rumble—!
The ceiling above their stairs collapsed.
Tons of debris crushed the ManShinJeon members on the spot.
...Huh?
Looking again, the red-haired woman had her hand extended toward the stairs.
I realized immediately.
The technique she'd failed on me earlier.
She turned to me, grinning with mad eyes.
"I'm not your enemy."
An incomprehensible woman.
You were just trying to kill me?
I stared at her blankly.
I'd met a lunatic.
(Illustration of Sariya's true spirit form manifesting)
