We Meet Again, Mother
"Great work today, everyone. See you tomorrow~"
Monday's classes came to an end, and the lingering warmth from Antarctica still hadn't faded.
So now I just get to go home and rest... right? Not a chance.
Hana's mother had said she'd come pick us up—me and Hana both.
What could she possibly have planned that required bringing the car all the way out here?
"Hana, do you know where we're being driven today? You didn't hear anything yesterday?"
"I asked, but she said we should leave it as a surprise to enjoy later. Honestly, I don't think I'll know until I see it myself. Let's just head down for now, Seha."
Hana held out her hand to me, swallowing one of the mini fried tofu pouches Su-a had given her that morning.
"As long as we're not abducted to the Demon Realm, I'll be happy. We're not about to get a formal meet-the-relatives ceremony sprung on us out of nowhere, right?"
Still, if I just didn't let go of the hand I was holding now, I figured we could overcome whatever came our way.
"Who's that woman leaning against the car over there? Her flames are way bigger than the Balrog who sits behind me in class."
"Partner, don't go pokin' your nose into things that don't concern yooou. Let's go get some of those new injeolmi peanut-butter pancakes instead."
As her partner got dragged away by So-hee the retriever, a familiar flame came into view beyond them.
Leaning against a sports car boasting a sleek, jet-black body stood Hana's mother.
"Mom~ Me and Seha are here~!"
"Hello, ma'am! I think we came out a little late—sorry about that..."
"Oh, I only just arrived myself. Though I do think calling me 'Mother-in-law' would lift my spirits~"
"We're not there yet, ma'am... So, where are we going today?"
"Fufu, 'going out'... I suppose you could call it that. You want to know where? Somewhere you and Hana have been once before, Seha. But this time, we'll be going much deeper in."
"What? Deeper in? You're only confusing me more, ma'am."
"Feel free to solve the mystery on the way~ Now, get in the car. We have an appointment to keep."
When Mother gave her fingers a light snap, the rear doors of the car rose up on their own.
With the doors lifted, the design unfolded like the wings of a demon spreading wide.
Flashy. That had to cost at least a few hundred million won, minimum.
It hit me all over again—Hana really was a gold-spoon kid.
When I followed Hana into the car, the plush caress of the seats nearly put me to sleep on the spot.
As I stroked the seat over and over, savoring the feel of it, Hana shoved her face in front of me, demanding her head be petted too.
"Hey, Balrog, move that heavy head of yours. I'm in the middle of an important communion with this automobile."
"Grrr, so this scrap of steel matters more than I do right now, is that it?"
"Fufu, you two are getting along as nicely as ever~ We'll be departing now."
With a small, clean purr of the engine, the wheels caught the light and began to turn.
I surrendered my body to the smooth ride and drifted off—and before I knew it, Mother was announcing that we'd arrived.
"This is... the Johwa Trade Center?"
"Correct~ You've returned to the very place where you two enjoyed your weekend date~ Only this time, we won't be going to the mall. We're headed to the headquarters building."
Don't tell me she's here to hold us accountable for the dimensional portal accident.
Honestly, the Trade Center side would be flustered too—it was an unintended incident for them as well.
From where I stood, it was hard to argue the point either way, so I was prepared to let it slide... but it seemed Hana's parents had different ideas.
"Hana, all we have to do is stand there quietly, right?"
"We're just the victims of the accident~ The annoying parts, Mom will handle. Though I didn't expect to be going straight to a confrontation with reality this soon after the accident."
Fair enough. If it were me, I'd have expected an apology by phone call or text message from someone official, days later.
Even Hana looked somewhat taken aback by her mother's sheer force of action.
"My dear daughter, I believe I told you before, didn't I? If you hesitate and have it snatched away, you're better off just taking it. Move fast, and the results come that much more certain~"
In the rearview mirror, Mother's face was smiling—and not smiling at the same time.
Yeah. Definitely better to keep my head down and ride in the back like a quiet passenger.
I could already feel it coming—dreadful adult conversations I wasn't meant to hear.
"Welcome, madam. We've been expecting you. This way, please..."
The moment we entered the Trade Center headquarters, someone was waiting to receive us.
A minotaur man in a crisp black suit, his hair done in a tidy dandy cut.
As we walked forward with him, the guards posted at the upward-bound entrance opened the doors without a moment's delay.
Hana and I followed silently behind Mother, chatting quietly through texts as we stepped into the elevator.
I'm already suffocating from the atmosphere in here. I might actually die.
Ding! The elevator chimed to a stop.
I wanted to check which floor we were on, but the bodyguard shot me a look, so I had to step right out.
"Managing Director, I've brought Seha and Hana of Johwa High, along with Hana's mother."
"That was quick. Show them straight in. Good work."
"Please, come this way. The Managing Director will explain the matter at hand."
The Director's office was enormous—like something out of a drama.
There was a work desk, a guest table with sofas, and a sideboard laid out with refreshments.
For all its size, it wasn't overly furnished.
And on the sofa... sat a Baphomet.
She was dumping sugar into her coffee by the fistful.
"Ah, Balrog Lucienne and her daughter—it has been some time! And her fiancé as well!
Why, with the fiancé's parents all present, I might as well have officiated the wedding myself!"
"This is Lady Yuhava, the one who opened the portal to the aquarium this time.
When she heard her friend would be coming, she requested to join as well.
She is involved in the incident, though she wasn't on the original schedule... would that be all right with you?"
The Managing Director—balding, visibly mid-recession—asked us this with extraordinary courtesy.
He was so nervous he bit his tongue halfway through.
Anyone watching would think we'd come here to raze the place to the ground.
Well... if Hana and Hana's mother both snapped at once, it wouldn't be razed—it'd be demolished outright.
"Managing Director, please put your mind at ease. We only came to hear what you have to say.
If I'd intended to devour you, I would have brought my husband along~?"
"Eep... I see... hkk."
That only made him more nervous.
The Baphomet Yuhava, meanwhile, radiated utter tranquility as she sipped her sugar-loaded coffee.
She was, in fact, the oldest person in the room by a wide margin—and yet there she was, drinking coffee in the body of an elementary schooler, a sight so surreal it bordered on uncanny.
With a placid face, she swung her brown twin-tails and her cloven-hoofed legs back and forth.
Still, those goat horns, far larger than Hana's, and those beast-like furred hands—I wanted to touch them at least once.
What? That fluffiness, like she was wearing fur gloves, is honestly unbearable to resist.
But my urges had to stay buried in my heart.
Baphomets are masters of magic.
A race so intelligent they're called the Demon King's strategists—and though she had the appearance of a young girl on the outside, these were mages you could never afford to underestimate.
And Yuhava among them held the rank of Elder, granted only to the most exceptional of Baphomets...
"Now, now, stop scaring the poor human and take your seats. Let's hear what he has to say first, slowly and calmly."
We sipped the tea and coffee the secretary had prepared and listened to the Managing Director's explanation.
His account was nearly identical to what Mother had told us in Antarctica: the dimensional portal had malfunctioned only at the moment we passed through it, and no other anomalies had occurred since.
Yuhava likewise confirmed that while she had indeed opened the gate, the fact that it glitched at that exact moment was suspicious.
"There is... a hypothesis we must entertain. A mere hypothesis—by no means our official position. I'm only informing you that certain voices on our side have raised it."
The Managing Director built up to it with a long, wary preamble, glancing around even more nervously than before.
What on earth was he about to say?
"Go ahead, Director. The more perspectives, the better."
"Yes... the suggestion is that the demon-folk staged the whole thing themselves, a sort of... hiiiick!"
A bullet punched through the Director's teacup, and it exploded into shards.
Where the cup had been, nothing remained but searing flame, gnawing away at the wreckage.
"My, my... what a fascinating perspective you've shared with us? Would you care to tell me exactly which mouth that garbage spewed out of?"
"What's going on in there! Gunshots—!"
The minotaur bodyguards smashed the doors open with their horns and charged in.
"The Managing Director dropped his teacup, that's all. And gunshots, you say? Lady Yuhava, did you hear any such thing? I certainly didn't."
"Nor did this lady. No one's injured—nothing but a broken teacup, no? Isn't that so, Managing Director human? Hmm? Nothing wrong here at all."
"Y-yes, that's right...! Gentlemen, it's fine—please withdraw. I'll call for you again if we need you."
"Understood. Suspicious, though..."
The bodyguard scratched his iron-gray horn and quietly closed the door behind him as he retreated.
"You do have the barest minimum of sense, Director. I can see why they sent you to deal with us.
Now then? I believe I deserve a rather more detailed explanation of that little remark just now, don't you?"
"This lady shares her sentiment. The Celestials, is it? Or some other faction?
This lady had her very soul plucked out before those pigeons and interrogated. Do not think this ends with a wave of the hand."
"Hana, is there anything we can do?"
By chiming in at that moment, I'd managed to make things incredibly awkward.
This really wasn't a table for a student like me to be sitting at.
"Seha, the old saying goes—if you can't avoid it, join it. Just lean back into the sofa and munch on some popcorn."
Irresponsible advice... but honestly? Not wrong.
So I ate the refreshments Hana fed me directly into my mouth and watched the Managing Director spit out everything he'd been hiding.