The Black Sky Society
I finished clearing the midnight gate and managed to snatch a few hours of sleep.
When I opened my eyes, it was morning.
“Hwaaaaaah.”
Even after pushing myself that hard, my shoulders weren’t stiff at all.
“That’s because this maiden gave you a massage,” Ingrid said, peeking her head out from the bed.
“Hmph. As if hands that soft could ever ease fatigue.”
Sir Isra shot back from the chair, her tone as blunt as ever.
【Did you sleep well, Big Master?】
Yeah, yeah.
I’m up.
A room I’d lived in alone for five years.
I never imagined it would turn into a place that actually smelled like people.
Strange. Surprising.
And somehow… not bad at all.
Bzzzzzt—!
“Yes, President.”
—Are you all right?
“Oh, please. I’m perfectly fine. Slept like a baby, even.”
—I heard from the Rift Bureau.
Ah.
Caught.
I’d deliberately not texted him so he wouldn’t worry.
Those Rift Bureau people sure work fast.
Authority over clearing the gate interior and selling the byproducts belonged to Ascension Agency.
Of course they’d contact President Baek.
But weren’t government offices supposed to move at a glacial pace? That was common knowledge, right?
Ugh.
My worldview is crumbling.
—You’re thinking about something else, aren’t you?
“Come on, what are you talking about?”
—It’s written all over you.
No way.
President Baek had clearly planted a wiretap in my ear.
—Director Jeong wants to see you.
“Someone that high up? Why?”
—He didn’t say. Only that it was urgent.
I had a pretty good idea.
The gate that had appeared in that alley.
It hadn’t been normal.
It had been on the verge of critical the moment it formed.
The interior environment had been hostile to hunters.
And the Rift Bureau hadn’t even detected it in time, so their initial response had been clumsy.
Apparently the situation was serious enough that someone that high up needed to hear it firsthand.
President Baek immediately grasped the meaning in my silence.
—So it wasn’t an ordinary matter.
“I’ll explain once I’m back.”
—Understood. They said they’ve already sent a car.
Not “they’re going to send one.”
They already sent it?
I looked out the window. A Rift Bureau vehicle was waiting outside.
How long had it been sitting there?
—As I said, I was told it’s a race against time.
“I’ll get ready right away.”
At that point, I still wasn’t taking Director Jeong’s request all that seriously.
I’d just tell him what happened before and after. That would be enough.
It was my second visit to the Rift Bureau headquarters.
The first time, I’d been trembling in front of a pack of reporters and had a miserable time of it.
“Your lordship’s gallant figure is still vivid before my eyes, so why the theatrics?”
“This maiden remembers it perfectly as well.”
Teasing me over a little bravado, huh.
You two just wait.
“This way, please.”
Following the escorting staff member, I headed for the Counter-Abnormal Bureau.
Counter-Abnormal Bureau Director’s Office
Knock knock—
“Ranger Park Minho has arrived.”
“Show him in.”
A high, clear voice that didn’t strain the eardrums.
I’d heard Director Jeong Seungil’s voice a few times before.
Inside, there was one other familiar face besides the director.
“We meet again.”
“Chief Jeon Hyeyeon, right? We saw each other not long ago.”
“I’m honored you remember.”
The A-class hunter who had responded when I faced Turang.
I also knew she was a rising talent expected to reach S-class soon.
“I was actually at the scene yesterday. If I’d gotten there just a little sooner, I could have seen Hunter Park’s face.”
Chief Jeon made no effort to hide her disappointment.
You can see it right here in the director’s office. What’s the rush?
“Have a care, if you would.”
“Hmph. I don’t like her.”
Why are you two getting all wary now?
“Such renowned thralls. It seems one more has joined their number.”
Director Jeong Seungil smiled faintly as he settled onto the sofa.
“If it bothers you, I can send them out.”
“Not at all. These are thralls Hunter Park trusts. Better they hear this together.”
So both thralls needed to hear this too.
This wasn’t just a debrief on the gate clear, then.
Things were getting murkier by the second.
“Iced americano all right?”
“Yes, please.”
“I’ll have black tea, Director.”
“Hold the whiskey.”
“Oh, come on. What kind of violence is that? Whiskey in black tea is common sense. Don’t you know that?”
My sense of common knowledge was taking a beating today.
Must be my imagination.
After the drinks were ordered, I slowly walked them through the events of the previous night.
“You said the mana density was at ninety-nine percent.”
“Yes. And there was a phrase I’d never seen before—Mega Break.”
“First, on behalf of the government of the Republic of Korea, allow me to thank you.”
Uh. Um.
What am I supposed to do when you suddenly stand up and bow at a full ninety degrees?
I found myself rising as well, receiving the director’s gratitude in an awkward half-crouch.
“If Hunter Park had not stepped in, the loss of life would have been catastrophic.”
“Because of the Mega Break?”
“Yes. A phenomenon that occurs on a scale several times larger than usual.”
A Break was when the monsters inside a gate poured out into the outside world.
Several times larger… did that mean the monsters multiplied?
“Exactly.”
Whoa.
If I hadn’t gone in, things really would have gone to hell.
It was a quiet area, sure, but it was still a residential district full of houses.
I’d taken down revenants by the thousand.
If those numbers had been inflated several times over and spilled into the streets in the dead of night…
The damage would have been unimaginable.
Good job, me. Seriously.
“My lord is truly the incarnation of chivalry.”
“So cool. The one who stole this maiden’s heart really is on another level.”
【Big Master! You mustn’t forget my brilliant performance!】
Yes, yes.
After that I complained, half-jokingly, about how the gate’s structure had been designed like a trap meant to kill hunters.
“I know it sounds crazy, but it really felt like someone was specifically trying to kill me.”
I laughed it off with a hearty “hahaha.”
…Huh?
Why does everyone look like that?
“Not ‘felt like.’ That premise is correct.”
Director Jeong. When you make jokes with that dead-serious face, it’s actually terrifying.
Come on.
No way.
You’re being serious?
“We finished the on-site verification before dawn.”
Chief Jeon Hyeyeon’s face had lost every trace of humor as well.
“That gate was an environment where even an A-class hunter couldn’t guarantee survival.”
2,497 revenants.
24 abyss revenants.
Far too many for anyone to hold out against alone, they said.
Yeah.
It had been pretty rough.
“My thralls are competent, so it was fine.”
“It’s a relief the Society underestimated Hunter Park. Don’t you agree, Director?”
“Indeed. We still don’t know why the Society targeted Hunter Park.”
I was genuinely grateful for their concern, but—
“Sorry to interrupt, but… what exactly is this ‘Society’?”
“What I’m about to tell you must remain strictly confidential.”
Oh my.
Those ominous words were stamped right there on the document in bold letters.
Once you heard this, there was no going back. That was the feeling.
Was I wrong to think this was the real reason they’d called me to the Rift Bureau first thing in the morning?
Between the Cross Gate and everything else, I’d been hearing an awful lot of industry secrets ordinary people never learned.
“Hold on a second. Could President Baek sit in on this?”
“If he signs the oath, that’s fine.”
I wasn’t sure whether I should even call him when I didn’t know if he could make it.
I’d try phoning him, and if he couldn’t come, I’d just listen alone.
—Yes, Hunter Park?
“Would you be able to come to the Rift Bureau headquarters?”
—I’ve been waiting in the first-floor café. I’ll head to the Counter-Abnormal Bureau now.
What.
Why is this man so fast?
It was like he’d been preparing for exactly this situation.
No—he’d been waiting at the Rift Bureau building itself. He’d clearly decided to camp out on purpose.
“Please come to the director’s office.”
—I’ll be there in under a minute.
And so, only after President Baek had taken his seat did the director begin his story.
Director Jeong flicked his fingers.
Hwaaah!
A wave of mana gently shook the room.
The presence was sharp enough that my senses, honed by the Heavenly Martial Body, flinched for an instant.
“That technique from before.”
The mana application skill I’d seen at the gopchang restaurant.
We’re sitting in the Counter-Abnormal Bureau Director’s office right now, you know.
Was this conversation so serious it needed soundproofing?
“I told you—once you hear this, there is no turning back.”
Director Jeong Seungil’s faint smile looked unnervingly like a reaper’s today.
I had the distinct feeling I’d walked into something I shouldn’t have.
Thank god President Baek was nearby.
Better to worry about it together than alone.
Only after we scrawled our names across the Oath of Strict Secrecy on the table did Director Jeong begin.
“Do you know of the Siberian Great War?”
“It was the final war that ended the Great Cataclysm, right?”
A staple question in middle-school social studies.
If you didn’t know that, you were basically a spy who’d never gone through the Korean education system.
The smile at the corner of Director Jeong’s mouth deepened.
No.
That one looked a little twisted.
“Gates are still appearing, and we haven’t even finished reclaiming all the eroded land. So what, exactly, ended?”
“The Twelve Heroes defeated the Demon King.”
With the Great Cataclysm, gates had begun opening everywhere.
Demons had appeared across the world, wreaking havoc.
The strongest among them was the Demon King.
The moment he descended upon Siberia, he fought the Twelve Heroes and lost.
“That being was no grand entity like a ‘Demon King.’”
Excuse me?
Come again?
“A legion commander, at best. Think of him as the vanguard of a dimensional invasion.”
Director.
You’re skipping way too many steps here.
I’ve lost track of how many times my common sense has collapsed today.
A vanguard force is usually sent to probe the enemy’s strength before the main army arrives, right?
So “the Great Cataclysm ended and peace returned” wasn’t a happy ending after all?
“Then doesn’t that mean the world is still in danger?”
Nice one, President Baek.
“By defeating the demon legion commander, we made it impossible for the main force to come.”
Whew.
That’s a relief, at least.
“This is a story that was never made public.”
“Correct. Representative Baek would know—those were difficult times, weren’t they?”
“Yes. They were.”
Hmm.
I’d only ever encountered it in textbooks, so it didn’t hit me in the gut.
It was like hearing about the spring poverty of old and thinking, “Ah, so people went hungry.” That level of detachment.
The two of them clearly felt differently about it.
But still.
“The reason you brought up the Siberian Great War… it has something to do with that gate, doesn’t it?”
Director Jeong nodded.
“It does. In the shadows of this world, there are those who seek to summon the Demon King.”
Good lord.
There are bastards like that wasting oxygen?
End times. We’re living in the end times.
“The organization of Demon King worshippers—the Black Sky Society.”
Director Jeong’s finger pointed straight at me.
“The attack on Hunter Park this time was also their doing.”
Excuse me?
Come again?