Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: An Unexpected Visitor
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As if sensing my presence, the man whipped his head around.
"Hey, you crazy son of a bitch! No matter how much you live life on your own terms, that last meeting was seriously important—"
Judging that he knew the homeowner, I quickly hid the stand I had grabbed as a weapon behind my back.
"Ah, hello."
"......Who are you?"
The man who had been yelling flinched and furrowed his brow.
Earrings dangling from his ears, and tattoos etched from his jawline down to his collarbone.
The flashy-dressed man cautiously scanned the room before muttering, "......Not the wrong place, huh?"
Then, as if realizing something, he snapped his head up and stared at me.
"Holy shit! So that's why he suddenly dragged the newbie along?!"
"Pardon?"
"Holy...... wow, damn. In all my life, I've never seen anything like this. He knew there was a woman at his place."
The man roughly ruffled his own hair. It didn't seem like he was talking to me.
After muttering to himself, he fell deep into thought and stayed silent for a long while.
"......"
Feeling awkward, I set the stand down on the floor and looked around.
In this chaos, she must have woken up by now, but it seemed Ju Yeon-woo wasn't home at the moment.
My wandering gaze landed on the cake box in the man's hand. It was the same Memoria cake that Ju Yeon-woo had brought last time.
'That was delicious......'
Thinking about it made me crave it again.
Someone else's voice snapped me out of my pleasant reverie. The man awkwardly scratched his head and approached me.
"Excuse me. Do you happen to know where the homeowner is right now?"
"Ah, Yeon-woo? Sorry, I just woke up myself, so I wouldn't know."
"......Pardon......? Yeon-woo?"
Thud!
The man suddenly face-planted into the floor mid-step. The impact was so strong it made the ground shake underfoot.
Startled, I reached out to help him up, but another hand immediately blocked me.
The owner of that hand was none other than Ju Yeon-woo.
"What are you doing here?"
His brows furrowed slightly, as if annoyed.
Having only seen his gentle side so far, I was briefly surprised by this unfamiliar expression, but I grabbed his arm and shook it.
"Right! Yeon-woo! Call an ambulance right now. That guy fell headfirst of all places—he might have a concussion!"
"He's fine."
"No, you might be fine, but that guy's not!"
I figured I should call one myself, but I didn't have my phone. Sighing as I recalled the one that had met its end smashing into Ju Yeon-woo's head the other day.
Why did everyone's stuff around me keep breaking lately?
"You insane little......"
The man growled under his breath as he pushed himself up. He staggered to his feet like he was carrying a heavy boulder and glared at Ju Yeon-woo.
Ju Yeon-woo just stared back at him with indifferent eyes, unfazed.
Seemingly pissed off by that, the man opened his mouth.
"Why didn't you pick up your phone—"
Before he could finish, Ju Yeon-woo whispered something in his ear. The man let out a chuckle and shifted his gaze to me.
His eyes lingered only briefly before returning to Ju Yeon-woo, who clamped his mouth shut with a face full of things he wanted to say.
Once the atmosphere calmed down a bit, I got a brief explanation about the man. He introduced himself as Ju Yeon-woo's friend—or something like that.
"I'm Ha Do-kyung. Sorry for the rudeness earlier."
His tone was polite now, unlike before.
"Yeah, I'm Kim Yu-jeong. More importantly, is your head okay? That sounded brutal. You should probably go to the hospital."
"No, it's fine. I'm an Esper, so this is nothing."
"Ah, I see. You're an Esper......"
His unexpected coming out made my words trail off.
I looked at Ju Yeon-woo with desperate eyes, praying he wouldn't out me without my consent.
As if understanding, he didn't mention anything about me.
Ha Do-kyung held out the cake box toward me.
"Ah, I brought some cake. Want some? It's from a famous place, so it should be good."
"Whoa, I love this. Thank you."
"No problem. Looks like I woke you up bright and early. I seriously never imagined there'd be someone else at this guy's place. But...... how did you end up here, Miss Kim Yu-jeong......?"
Ha Do-kyung glanced at Ju Yeon-woo as he asked.
His expression was so gravely serious it felt contrived, so I let out a polite chuckle and opened the cake box.
The chocolate atop the éclairs sparkled. There was panna cotta drizzled with sweet-tart raspberry puree and tarts topped with a colorful array of fruits.
I swallowed hard involuntarily.
"Noona, hold on."
Ju Yeon-woo took the cake box from my hands. At the same time, Ha Do-kyung's face twisted in shock.
What an expressive guy.
My calm expression cracked when I saw the cake box now in Ju Yeon-woo's hands get brutally crushed.
"The cake!!"
The perfectly fine cake had turned into scraps of paper.
Not just smashed—it had shrunk in volume like it had been crushed by some massive force, probably Ju Yeon-woo's ability.
"Why would you destroy a perfectly good cake out of nowhere?"
This was like a bolt from the blue. To my stunned gaze, Ju Yeon-woo replied firmly.
"What if it was poisoned?"
"......?"
"What if that bastard poisoned it to harm you? You shouldn't eat stuff from strangers."
"......Pardon?"
I was so flabbergasted I couldn't speak. As I just gaped, Ha Do-kyung, who had witnessed it all, let out a soft "Ha."
"What a lunatic......"
This time, I wholeheartedly agreed with him.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Get lost."
The moment the woman left, saying we should talk casually, his tone flipped like a pancake.
Ha Do-kyung was utterly exasperated by the infuriating attitude.
If the bastard had just answered his calls on time, he wouldn't have had to come all the way here. Yeon Woo-jin hated unannounced intrusions into his territory.
The fact that he, an old acquaintance from school days, was tolerated to this extent was already a concession.
'......No wonder he's been in a good mood lately. So this was the reason?'
Narrowing his eyes, Ha Do-kyung recalled recent events.
Gates had been popping up one after another, draining their abilities heavily.
Messiah's Guild Master Yeon Woo-jin was the worst combo: abysmal matching rate and S-rank Esper.
On a day when he looked particularly rough, Ha Do-kyung had persuaded him, half-jokingly thinking he might drop dead and leave him as the next master: "Forget guiding for now—keep trying matches."
But Yeon Woo-jin ignored him without mercy.
Since their efforts so far hadn't been wasted, Ha Do-kyung judged pushing further would lead to blood and postponed it for tomorrow.
And the next morning, unusually, Yeon Woo-jin picked up right away.
Before he could even finish "Hello?" Yeon Woo-jin cut in:
「Don't contact me until I reach out first.」
Click.
Ha Do-kyung's stomach churned at the one-sided cutoff, but he let it slide.
The guild master's temper was trash, after all—not a new development.
The day after that, Yeon Woo-jin showed up at the guild.
The rare visit had members peeking around. He spent more time away from the guild than in it, despite being the master.
Still, no one could match him in clearing gates or racking up achievements, so they turned a blind eye.
Then the incident happened. The Messiah Guild Master, infamous for treating people like dirt, actually showed kindness.
He bumped into someone in the hall, let it slide quietly, and even helped carry their stuff.
The guild member, terrified by the bizarre consideration, fled yelling, "Help! It's a stranger!!"
When Ha Do-kyung heard, he first doubted his ears, then wondered if Yeon Woo-jin had finally lost it.
He called in a veteran member who'd been there from the start.
"Think Yeon Woo-jin has gone mad? What's your take?"
"If you're talking about today's rumor, yeah, the master seems to have done a full 360."
"......? Doesn't a 360 bring you right back?"
"Yes, exactly."
So he's always been crazy.
Ha Do-kyung nodded in agreement.
Thinking about it, today wasn't the only oddity.
After telling him not to contact for a while, he demands a healer sent to his house, or tells him to pick up desserts from a famous shop.
They seemed like his usual antics at first, but every order was weird on closer inspection.
A healer made sense, but cake? The guy didn't even eat sweets—what was that for?
Suspecting precursors to another crazy stunt, he asked the newbie healer who'd visited, but the pale-faced rookie just shook their head vigorously: "If I talk, he'll kill me."
Ha Do-kyung didn't press. Having watched Yeon Woo-jin for years, he knew the guy was capable of it.
In the end, Ha Do-kyung decided to go himself and headed to Yeon Woo-jin's place.