Chapter 180: Kang Ma-ri Reappears
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 180: Kang Ma-ri Reappears
3
The next day, I woke up and slowly rubbed my eyes.
The faint fatigue in my body felt incredibly pleasant.
When I looked to my side, Si-ho was there, nestled snugly in my arms, breathing softly.
With her hair down, Si-ho looked unbelievably lovely.
I raised my hand and gently stroked her hair, and Si-ho’s eyes slowly fluttered open.
“Ha-chan-oppa.”
Si-ho smiled faintly at me and rested her forehead gently against my chest.
“Oppa, what am I going to do? I’m just so happy.”
She said, cooing playfully, and nuzzled her head against my chest.
As I stroked the back of her head, Si-ho looked up at me.
Then, with a slightly shy expression, her eyes sparkled.
“Want to kiss?”
I immediately lowered my head and kissed her.
Her eyes widened, then she broke into a bashful grin before lifting her head to kiss me again.
After some more playful fooling around in bed with her, I realized it was almost checkout time and got up.
As I was getting dressed, Si-ho, still in her underwear, looked up at me and smiled faintly.
“Ha-chan-oppa, I feel like I’m watching my husband leave for work.”
“I’ll be back.”
“Have a good day.”
Si-ho laughed playfully and followed my lead, getting dressed.
Leaving a motel in the same clothes as yesterday.
It was my first time doing something like this, so it felt novel.
I held Si-ho’s hand as we walked outside.
She looked like she was in an incredibly good mood.
“I’ll get pregnant, right?”
Hearing her say that as she cradled her stomach, I froze for a moment.
Because what I’d left inside her was still there.
“It’s possible.”
When I said that, she nuzzled her head against my arm with a blissful expression.
Why does everyone want to get pregnant so badly? I mean, I appreciate the sentiment, but still.
Just then, my phone started ringing.
I had a strange sense of déjà vu.
When I checked my phone, the call was from none other than Ahyu.
“Ahyu?”
When I answered, I could hear what sounded like running from her end.
[Domi-oppa, I found your sister!]
Hearing those words, my eyes slowly widened.
My sister had reappeared.
*
Chapter 19 – Lurking Danger
1
After getting the call from Ahyu, I quickly teleported with Si-ho.
It was a relief that Si-ho happened to be right next to me.
Thanks to her, I didn’t have to take the long way around. After teleporting, I spotted Ahyu running.
“Ahyu!”
“Ah, oppa!”
Ahyu’s face lit up when she saw me, but then she saw Si-ho and clicked her tongue.
Her reaction was basically, I knew you’d tag along.
“Why the hell are you tagging along?”
“It’s because I came that Ha-chan-oppa could get here.”
Watching Si-ho and Ahyu casually bicker, I poked each of them in the side.
The two of them flinched and immediately stopped fighting.
They both knew this wasn’t the time for it.
“Ahyu, where’s my sister?”
As I asked, Ahyu turned her head forward.
“I’ve been tailing her. I can still sense her presence, so we can keep following.”
She could still sense her. That was enough.
I looked at both Ahyu and Si-ho. They glanced at each other before speaking.
“I’ll give you the coordinates. Catch up to her.”
“Got it.”
Thankfully, the two of them cooperated well.
In that instant, our vision shifted.
As our surroundings blurred and changed, I looked up and saw a familiar face.
Short black hair and golden eyes. And the same outfit she wore the day she first appeared.
It was my sister, Kang Ma-ri.
She must not have expected us to appear right in front of her, because she stopped abruptly.
Seeing that, I immediately flared my aura and shot forward.
A full-powered burst of aura.
Even my sister couldn’t react in time, and I grabbed her wrist with a snap.
My sister’s eyes, meeting mine, trembled violently.
Seeing this, I called out to her desperately.
“...Nuna.”
Looking at me, my sister’s lips parted as if to speak.
Her trembling eyes told me she had so much to say.
“Please, just talk to me.”
Hearing my plea, her eyes wavered once more.
Then, she squeezed her eyes shut and grabbed the wrist I was holding.
“I’m sorry. Not yet.”
A trembling voice escaped her lips.
Not yet?
The moment I tried to speak again, my vision suddenly changed.
“Ugh?!”
I realized I was suddenly flying through the air, my body spinning.
Baeksan was looking down at me as if I were pathetic.
“What are you doing?”
I couldn’t believe I was sent flying like that when I had a firm grip on her.
“It’s because you can’t control your aura properly. That’s why this happens. Tsk, tsk, letting your guard down just because it’s your sister.”
I couldn’t really argue with that, so I focused my aura and righted myself in mid-air.
In that time, Ahyu and Si-ho were already coming toward me.
It was a clear indicator of just how far I’d been thrown in that single moment.
“Domi-oppa!”
“Ha-chan-oppa!”
As Ahyu and Si-ho reached me, I quickly looked up.
“Ahyu, Si-ho, where’s my sister?”
Ahyu sighed and shook her head.
It seemed she’d used the moment I was distracted to slip away.
I grimaced at the realization and bit my lip.
What on earth was my sister doing? I had no way of knowing.
But there was no way to find her now that I’d lost her.
This was the sister Seol-hyang hadn’t been able to find despite searching for her every day.
I didn’t think we’d be able to track her down again now.
“Ahyu, how did you find her in the first place?”
When I turned and asked Ahyu, she scratched her head.
“I just had some business at the Returnee Association, and I ran into her on the way.”
“The Returnee Association?”
Ahyu nodded when she saw my confusion.
“Yeah, it looked like she was coming out of there. So I followed her, and that’s how I ended up here.”
Hearing Ahyu’s words, I tilted my head. Why on earth would my sister go to the Returnee Association?
“Kang Ha-chan.”
While I was lost in thought, Baeksan, who was beside me, suddenly spoke.
When I looked at him, his face was suddenly contorted as he stared off at something.
“Kang Ma-ri… that girl might have gone to meet me.”
Gone to meet me. I knew immediately what that meant.
My sister had gone to meet Heuksan.
* * *
After hearing from Baeksan that my sister had come to see Heuksan, we immediately teleported to the Korean Returnee Association.
After arriving easily thanks to Si-ho’s spatial teleportation, Si-ho was, for some reason, cradling her stomach protectively.
“What are you doing?”
Ahyu shot Si-ho a baffled look, and Si-ho glanced back at her.
“Well, I have to be careful. I’m going to be a mother soon, after all.”
“Wha-what? You, you finally…!”
As Ahyu pointed and shouted, Si-ho sidled up next to me and hugged my arm.
“Right, Ha-chan-oppa?”
Knowing full well what I did inside Si-ho last night, I couldn’t say anything and just turned my head away.
Seeing my reaction, Ahyu’s eyes went wide. She rushed over and grabbed my other arm.
“D-do it with me, too! Right now!”
I looked at Ahyu, shouting fiercely with a flustered expression, and Si-ho, who was still cradling her stomach, with a complicated look on my face.
What was I going to do with these two?
‘It’s not like they have a bad relationship, exactly.’
But it did feel like Si-ho teased Ahyu quite a bit.
Then again, come to think of it, it wasn’t just Si-ho; Seol-hyang often teased Ahyu, too.
“How long are the three of you going to stand there like that?”
Just then, the Chairperson, standing at the entrance of the Returnee Association, spoke to us.
She looked at the three of us as if we were pathetic and pressed her fingers to the corner of her eye, looking a little tired.
“Husband.”
“Uh, yeah.”
I flinched at the title, and Seol-hyang glanced at me before opening her arms.
“Hug me.”
Was she being cute?
Si-ho and Ahyu were right beside me, but I knew how hard Seol-hyang worked, so I excused myself from them and went to her.
I raised my arms and pulled Seol-hyang into a hug, and she melted into my embrace.
I felt it every time, but the immense weightiness of Seol-hyang’s chest always offered a new sensation.
“Haaah, that’s a little better.”
Seol-hyang said, pulling back slightly. Then she looked up at me and spoke.
“All three of you, follow me. We have something to discuss.”
Seeing Seol-hyang’s serious expression, the three of us followed her without a word.
When Seol-hyang acted like this, it meant that, nine times out of ten, something major had happened.
We followed her as she led us to a conference room.
In the room, where a video screen was active, was a returnee named Joo Sung-min, the man in charge of the Association’s communication network whom I’d seen before.
He gave us a slight nod of greeting before turning back to his computer.
Seeing that, I asked Seol-hyang, “What happened?”
I had come to see Heuksan but guessed something else had come up. Seol-hyang nodded in response to my question.
Just then, an image appeared on the screen in front of us.
It showed the Statue of Liberty.
The problem was that behind the statue, a major American city was spectacularly ablaze.
My eyes shot open at the cinematic scene.
“This is happening right now. It’s live.”
Live. That was happening in real-time?
While I stood there with a bewildered expression, Seol-hyang clutched her forehead as if dealing with a headache.
“It’ll probably be all over the news soon. Every country is trying its best to suppress the information to avoid panic, but there’s a limit to what they can do.”
“What in the world is going on?”
I asked, staring at the scene with disbelief. Seol-hyang glanced at Joo Sung-min.
He then enlarged the image, bringing it into clearer view.
A pitch-black something was moving there.
The monster, which gave off an ominous feeling just by looking at it, was smashing the city to pieces, leaving chaos in its wake.
People were dying, and a scene of utter pandemonium unfolded.
The sight was so horrific that I instinctively scowled, and Seol-hyang had him change the screen.
“It’s a dimensional entity. To be precise, it’s likely from the Divine Realm.”
“The Divine Realm…”
“Erebos has started to move. And he’s using the dimensional entity mind-control power that Lü Xiao possessed.”
The situation was far worse than I could have imagined.