The Divine Seat
We arrived in Hokkaido.
The lodging was a high-end inn with a natural hot spring—famous not only throughout Japan but overseas as well.
Definitely clean enough to live up to the luxury-inn label.
It was a wooden structure so grand and ornate you could have mistaken it for a nobleman's mansion.
Staying here would cost more than a luxury hotel.
Still, I stayed indifferent. I wasn't the one paying—Kang Jiwoo was. Not with her personal money, of course, but with Gwangwon Sect funds.
Once we checked into the luxury inn, we decided to enjoy the natural hot spring first.
Men's bath. Women's bath. And the mixed bath.
Kang Jiwoo recommended the mixed one.
"The best spring at this inn is the mixed bath. Mixed bathing used to be the tradition, but they built separate men's and women's baths to keep up with the times. Since we're already here, we should go into the mixed bath."
No one objected.
The followers never refused Kang Jiwoo's words to begin with. And I was already leaning toward the mixed bath myself. That said, I didn't expect any new beauties. It was a Monday, and the inn looked nearly empty of guests.
Even though it was mixed, the changing rooms were separate. I stripped without hesitation. One of my hobbies is visiting public bathhouses—specifically to enjoy the way other men wilt when they see my cock. Anyway, I was completely unselfconscious.
Three early arrivals were already in the spring: middle-aged men. One was a bald octopus of a guy; another wore glasses and a beard. The third, surprisingly, was a woman—also middle-aged.
What the three of them had in common was the tattoos covering their bodies. Irezumi, I think they're called. Flashy, intimidating ink. Park Su-ho's face had gone stiff the moment he saw the yakuza tattoos.
A hunter getting spooked by yakuza…
I couldn't entirely blame him. Park Su-ho was still a rookie hunter.
Park Su-ho, the other Gwangwon Sect men, and I rinsed off in a strange, tense atmosphere with the yakuza, then stepped into the spring. Sinking into the hot water felt like it was melting the fatigue away—though I hadn't really accumulated much to begin with.
Ordinary. The bathhouse in my mansion back in the Baekhwan World is fancier and better than this.
While waiting for the women, I stared openly at the yakuza woman in front of me. Her face had the age of middle years, but her body was still impressive. Cover the face and you could believe she was in her early thirties. B-cup breasts, perky enough. Dark brown nipples, a slight sag to the breasts. Irezumi across her shoulders and chest.
Everything below was hidden by the cloudy spring water.
"Hey."
The middle-aged woman called out to me. Her voice was deliberately rough, meant to sound threatening. I lifted my gaze from her erect nipples.
She was glaring at me like she wanted me dead, thoroughly pissed off.
"Staring at someone else's body like that is bad manners. Look away. Or I might just gouge your eyes out."
The yakuza woman threatened me.
My mood soured right along with hers. If she hadn't threatened to pull my eyeballs out, I would have looked away without a fuss. She wasn't even a standout beauty—I'd only been looking because she was right in front of me.
"What I look at is none of your business. And do you have proof I was looking at your body? Huh? For a dried-up old hag, your self-importance is way too high."
"Hey!"
"You bastard!!"
The two male yakuza shot up out of the water.
My face twisted like crumpled trash. When they stood, filthy things entered my field of vision.
Unable to bear the disgust, I stood as well.
"You tiny-dicked Jap bastards! You want a go? Huh?!"
"Is this guy Korean?"
"He doesn't know how scary the world can be!"
The yakuza woman rose too.
"When you come to Japan, you follow Japanese law! We'll teach you some manners!"
My eyes drifted naturally between the yakuza woman's legs. Thick pubic hair made it hard to see her pussy clearly.
"This bastard still hasn't learned."
"A fist is the only medicine for trash like him."
The yakuza closed in.
I clenched my fists. I had no intention of killing them. Even if they were yakuza, killing them would make things complicated. I was a hunter and a foreigner.
But since they're yakuza, beating the shit out of them should be fine. If the Japanese police make a stink, I'll just use a spatial transfer scroll and bolt back to Korea. Then prep for the public opinion war.
Public opinion favored me. They were yakuza; I was a hunter on vacation. I finished laying out the entire plan in my head and was about to throw a punch when Park Su-ho grabbed my arm.
"Hyung! Yujin hyung! Calm down! They're civilians!"
"……."
I looked at Park Su-ho with a strange expression.
The other male followers hadn't tried to stop me—they'd jumped up ready to fight alongside me. That was why the yakuza had stopped short of reaching me. We outnumbered them. Seven solidly built men on our side.
"Park Su-ho, you…"
Before I could finish, several sets of footsteps approached. The women. True to their habit of praying naked, they walked in boldly without so much as a towel covering them.
The male yakuza's eyes went round. Leading the group were Kang Jiwoo and a number of other beauties. Irritation flared; I smacked the bald yakuza across the head with my open palm. A crisp slap rang out!
"You bastards! Eyes down!"
"You son of a bitch!!"
The yakuza charged. I clenched my fists and punched them one by one. Holding back my strength was the hard part. And being a woman didn't earn the yakuza woman any special treatment. She wasn't a beauty, so there was no reason to go easy.
Black eyes and bloody noses, the yakuza ended up in dogeza on the floor outside the spring. The whole thing had ended so fast that Kang Jiwoo stared at me with wide eyes.
"…Yujin-ssi. What on earth…"
"These yakuza insulted me! Me, a Noble One of the Gwangwon Sect!"
Kang Jiwoo flinched hard. Then she clenched her teeth and trembled all over.
"I-insulting a Noble One! Insulting a Noble One is the same as insulting the Light God Himself! Unforgivable!"
"That's right!"
"They must be punished!"
"We have to deliver judgment on these people!"
The followers shouted as one.
That peculiar, grotesque fanaticism unique to religious zealots filled the air. Even the yakuza seemed to feel it; their faces went pale.
"Punishment! They need punishment!"
Park Su-ho was shouting along before he realized it.
Unanimous decision among the followers. They rushed the dogeza-ing yakuza and rained down punches and kicks. One of them even swung a wooden stick from who-knows-where.
"Gyaaaaah!"
"Stop!"
"Spare us, please spare us!"
The yakuza screamed. Aside from Kang Jiwoo and me, no one here understood Japanese. Kang Jiwoo glared at them with eyes glittering with madness and spoke in Japanese.
"Repent! Repent! Only repentance will let you live! And pray to the Light God to receive His mercy!!"
The blood the yakuza were shedding increased. If I didn't stop this soon, it would get dangerous.
"Jiwoo-ssi. If the yakuza die like this, it'll be a real problem. Let's stop here. Even those idiots have realized their sins by now."
"Yujin-ssi is far too merciful. From what I can see, they still haven't reflected. Even if they die, they need to be punished."
"No. If they actually die…"
"It's fine. The world will never know they died. This ryokan belongs to our Gwangwon Sect. More precisely, it's a Japanese branch building… but the Japanese branch will help us."
"I-is that so."
Unexpected information.
I had no idea how large the Gwangwon Sect's Japanese branch was, but looking at the current madness, the sect seemed perfectly capable of quietly burying a few people.
I can't let this blow up beyond what I can handle.
I somehow managed to rein in Kang Jiwoo and the followers. My status as a Noble One helped. The yakuza, beaten to pulp, trembled in fear.
"Yujin-ssi. I won't kill them right away… but they need to repent. We'll send them to the Japanese branch later for repentance education."
Repentance, my ass—brainwashing.
"Just… don't kill them."
The situation settled. Only then did we leisurely enjoy the spring. I sat with Kang Jiwoo and the other women pressed against me. My hands freely toyed with their secret places without mercy.
"Haaahng."
"Aaaang…"
The beauties' moans were pleasant to listen to.
"Yujin-ssi. If you want, you can take that woman too. She'd be happy to serve you."
Kang Jiwoo pointed at the yakuza woman.
I shook my head. Her face, already ruined by the beating, looked even more worthless than before, and when she'd done dogeza earlier I'd gotten a look at her pussy—pitch black. Not a pussy I wanted to put my cock in.
"I'm fine. I'd rather taste Jiwoo-ssi's pussy."
"Use my pussy whenever you like."
"Then shall I taste it right now?"
"Aaaahng!"
I held Kang Jiwoo from behind and sat in the spring. My cock was buried deep inside the pussy of Kang Jiwoo, who sat atop me.
After eating high-end Japanese cuisine at the inn, we gathered in one place.
My original plan had been to slip away once night fell and head for the erosion dungeon. From what I'd learned through Koyori, it wasn't far from the inn we were staying at.
I was going to sneak in and check it out. Unlike anyone else, I can move while invisible using the Illusiter.
But after dinner, Kang Jiwoo called all of us together. Moving alone would have to wait a little longer.
Kang Jiwoo led us toward the rear of the inn. It looked like a warehouse, but once inside we found a secret passage leading underground.
"Everyone. The truth is, I didn't bring you here to deepen our friendship or train."
I felt a sense of wrongness from Kang Jiwoo. The others, however, did not seem to share it.
"Jiwoo-ssi. What do you mean? Did you hide something even from me, a Noble One?"
I asked her with a stiff face. Kang Jiwoo looked at me with apologetic eyes.
"I'm sorry, Yujin-ssi. It was the Cult Leader's order… I had no choice."
"……."
"Yujin-ssi. Do you know what my title is within the Gwangwon Sect?"
"…The Seventh Guide, I heard."
"Yes. Exactly. Just as the name says, my role is to guide the followers. And right now I am faithfully carrying out that duty, receiving the will of the Light God and the Cult Leader, and guiding all of you."
"…To where, exactly?"
Kang Jiwoo's smile deepened. She gazed into the depths of the secret passage with eyes full of fanatical faith.
"To where the Cult Leader is. And to where the Light God's Divine Seat is."
"You could have told us from the beginning."
"I'm sorry. The Light God delivered an oracle saying we must not."
"An oracle… in a dream?"
"Yes. Originally the oracle was to bring Su-ho, but… the day I learned of you through Su-ho, a new oracle came down. An oracle to guide the Noble One, Yujin-ssi, to this place."
"……."
I quietly sank into thought.
My gut feeling was bad.
A sensation that everything had gone to shit dominated my entire body.
The Gwangwon Sect had been targeting Park Su-ho and me from the very beginning.
The warning from the woman Park Su-ho had seen in his dream. And the Light God's oracle. Once I accepted the existence of the Light God, the pieces clicked into place. And the more they did, the more I could only think that we were fucked.
I was also curious. What exactly waited at the end of this passage.
"Everyone, let's go now. I'll guide you to the Gwangwon Sect's temple."
Ready to use a spatial transfer scroll and flee at the first sign of trouble, I followed behind her.