Chapter 4
Chapter 4
***
The Corvette came to a stop at the entrance of the alley leading to Seo-geon's house. The priest opened the door for him and spoke.
"It would be troublesome to go any further. Because of the neighbors' eyes."
"…"
"And, forget about what happened just now, chalk it up to being bitten by a mad dog. In any case, even if you tell others, there won't be a single person who believes you, and you'll just be treated like a crazy person."
He spoke thus, and as Seo-geon got out, he closed the door. Just then, Seo-geon, who had been listless until a moment ago, suddenly knocked on the Corvette's door for some reason.
"Wait! Just a moment!"
"What is it?"
Instead of opening the door, the priest pressed the button to open the window. As the power window rolled down, the priest's cold eyes stared at Seo-geon. Seo-geon shouted desperately.
"Those vampires, are there still a lot of them? Don't tell me the one that died at my house was the last one, right?"
<><><>
Seo-geon, realizing the priest was about to leave, asked urgently. That impatience, that paranoid obsession, somehow even showed signs of mental illness. The priest answered coldly.
"Whether there are any left or if that was the last one, it's not your business. What you should be doing right now is going back immediately, cleaning up the blood-soaked house, and returning to as normal a life as possible."
"Are you saying that because you don't know that's impossible! How can I return to a normal life when I've lost my whole family? I can't forgive those bastards! So…"
"So, what?"
In that instant, the priest's arm shot out of the window and grabbed Seo-geon by the collar.
And with a terrifying strength, he pulled Seo-geon and slammed his face into the Corvette's window. Seo-geon's blood splattered onto the hard synthetic glass.
"K-ack!"
"Don't make me laugh, you little brat. Who do you think you are? If you're so desperate to die, I'll send you to the afterlife to follow your family right now."
"Uuuuugh!"
Seo-geon screamed because of the pain. Even though he was being held by the collar with one hand, his throat was being squeezed as if by an iron chain.
This monstrous strength was enough to bring an industrial press to mind, so Seo-geon couldn't even breathe, let alone speak, and just gasped. Moreover, though normally one would let go by this point, the priest had no intention of letting go.
He was holding him as if to say, if you choke to death, then die. The only fortunate thing was that his clothes couldn't withstand the priest's grip and tore.
Rip!
With the sound of fabric tearing, Seo-geon was thrown to the ground. The priest looked out the window and spoke.
"Get back to reality right now. Misfortune isn't unique to you, so stop whining, you son of a bitch. Do you think you're the only one whose family has been massacred?"
"Damn it! I can't! That's! How can you tell me to forget after I've already seen it! You're telling me to forget after seeing a monster that devoured my entire family? Are you even serious!?"
Seo-geon clutched his neck and shrieked. At that, instead of an answer, the priest pulled out his Desert Eagle and aimed it at Seo-geon's head.
"What a troublesome bastard. Making you forget is easy. All I have to do is blow your brains out right here, right now. Get lost."
"…"
Seo-geon did not back down. At that, the priest gave a slight smile and then bashed Seo-geon's face with the Desert Eagle—with its 6-inch barrel.
In other words, it was like striking his face with a small dumbbell. Seo-geon was instantly sent flying, bleeding.
"Uack!"
"Fine. In that case, come find me at Arjuna. We'll talk properly starting from then."
Along with the priest's voice, the Corvette's V8 engine began to idle, making a terrifying sound.
"My name is Silvester. For now, call me Silvester. Got it!"
He spoke thus and drove the Corvette out of the alley. Seo-geon listened to the fading sound of the Corvette's engine and closed his eyes.
"Heok! Heok! Heok!"
A person was running along a dark national highway where streetlights stood sparsely. He ran, clutching his stomach as if being chased by a wild beast, and blood poured out from beneath his feet, falling onto the grass.
Patter-patter-patter.
Startled grasshoppers were reflected in the mercury-vapor lamp as they flew up all at once. Their chitinous carapaces reflected the pale mercury light, creating a dizzying shadow.
The fleeing man stopped for a moment, looked at the light, and caught his breath. Just then, from behind him, like a phantom, the priest in black clothes, Silvester, appeared.
He walked toward the blood-soaked man, holding a hefty Desert Eagle.
"Uwaaaaaaack! I! I didn't do anything! I really don't know anything!"
The blood-soaked man shouted thus and backed away, then fell on his butt. However, Silvester slowly approached and aimed the Desert Eagle.
Click.
The sound of the hammer being pulled back sounded eerily loud. The man backed away, terrified, and in front of him, he could see Lake Chuncheon reflecting the moonlight. The man continued to back away, then got on his knees and begged.
"S-save me. I-I'm certainly a vampire, but I was human before, and I have a family I have to earn money to support! Please!"
The vampire begged, truly pathetically. It was cowardly, but it could be understood. However, the priest, without changing his cold expression, took a step toward him.
A large van passed by them on the national highway, but for some reason, the person in the car passed by as if they hadn't seen them. Silvester spoke to the vampire who was begging for his life.
"In that case, try to cry."
"?!"
"Prove your innocence by crying, you whore's child."
Silvester said that as he approached. But the vampire couldn't do anything and his hands trembled.
"Wh-what…"
But at that moment, a tear flowed down Silvester's cheek. Silvester, surprisingly, shed a clear tear and raised the Desert Eagle. The clear tear, flowing down along his distinct silver hair that reflected the moonlight and his somewhat East Asian features, was a 'beauty' that did not suit this priest, who could be called the incarnation of verbal abuse and violence.
"That is your limit. Slut!"
TANG!
A cold gunshot rang out.
<><><>
Seo-geon, dressed in a racer's leather suit, held his gloves in his mouth and pulled up the zipper with both hands. The marks from being assaulted by Silvester were still evident on his face, so he covered them by plastering them with bandages.
Surely, if he was a monster whose severed arm could heal, a bruise on his face should heal quickly, but it seemed Seo-geon had not become a vampire. Seo-geon let out a sigh of relief and put on his gloves.
Silvester had only told him to come find him at Arjuna, but he hadn't said at all where that Arjuna was or what kind of place it was.
Arjuna is a character from the Indian mythological text, the Bhagavad Gita, and is the subject who listens to the sermon of Krishna, the avatar of Vishnu. But surely he wouldn't be told to find something so abstract.
So, Seo-geon searched for Arjuna by scouring the internet and other sources. However, what mainly came up was the title of a Japanese animation or the Arjuna from the Bhagavad Gita. But Seo-geon was not disappointed by this and this time, he looked for a phone book.
And what he found in the phone book was 'Occult Shop Arjuna'.
Seo-geon rode the RX-125, which had become his hyung's memento, and sped down the road. It was still Wednesday. Seo-geon, who was originally a high school student, was supposed to go to school, but when his entire family had been massacred, telling him to fulfill his duty as a student and be faithful in his classes was abuse.
But what was Seo-geon himself thinking as he headed to Arjuna? Revenge on the vampires who killed his family? If it was that kind of revenge, it had already been carried out by Silvester's hands.
The vampire had been brutally killed by Silvester, and even its corpse had long since disappeared. If that was the case, then for what reason?
"Krrrrgh!"
A groan burst out from within his helmet. As if responding to that intense emotion, the heart of the RX-125 let out a high-pitched exhaust note and raced across the road.
Arjuna was a place with a large, first-floor shop facing a small park. As its name suggested, it was an occult shop, so it had something like a large pyramid made of brass displayed out front.
But what caught Seo-geon's eye was the jet-black Corvette coupe parked in front of Arjuna.
The black sports car, with its smooth gloss along its gentle curves, reflected the sunlight and made the exotic occult shop shine even more.
Seo-geon parked behind the Corvette, hung his helmet on the motorcycle, and headed for the shop's entrance. The inside of the glass entrance had a rather dark and gloomy structure.
Was it because of the image of an occult shop? The air wafting out from inside was also not very ordinary.
Jingle-jingle.
When he opened the door, a small copper bell attached to it rang. Was it because it was morning, still too early for customers to arrive? There was no one at the shop's counter.
Seo-geon thought about calling for someone, but instead, he looked around the inside of the shop.
This exotic occult shop had a sofa placed on one side for receiving customers, and on the wall opposite it, it displayed strange masks from various countries, and items starting from Chinese talismans and Feng Shui goods to crystal balls made of crystal.
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Seo-geon didn't have much interest in the occult, but those strange objects had an allure powerful enough to draw the gaze of even those who were not interested, and Seo-geon was no exception.
Just as Seo-geon was engrossed in such display items, the door in the back opened and a middle-aged man wearing a beret entered. His skin was quite rough, a result of not fearing the sunlight in his youth, and his body structure itself was still solid.
Above all, the beret he was wearing was that of the Special Warfare Command, commonly known as the Special Forces.
"Ah!"
Seo-geon was startled and looked at this retired soldier. The retired soldier looked at Seo-geon and recognized him at a glance.
"Are you Han Seo-geon-gun?"
In that moment, Seo-geon stood frozen to the spot as if nailed down. No matter how much he was the survivor of a bizarre murder drama that was on the lips of gossips, for him to be recognized at a glance, when he wasn't even a celebrity, proved that this place was the very 'Arjuna' he had been looking for.
Of course, how many occult shops in the Republic of Korea would have a 2002 model Corvette coupe? The black Corvette standing in front of this place was already undeniable proof, but Seo-geon was newly surprised.
"Yes. That's right."
"You've come earlier than expected. Have a seat and wait."
He said that and pointed to the sofa. And he himself sat on the sofa opposite first, and the fact that his hands were trembling caught Seo-geon's eye. Just then, the door at the back of the shop opened, and a woman appeared from there.
"Oh my. Look at me. A customer has arrived."
Her soprano-toned, slightly fussy voice was surprisingly beautiful.
She was a slender, black-haired beauty like a model, and as if she had paid great attention to her hairstyle, she wore a neat men's suit with long hair whose ends were sharply styled with a razor cut.
Her attire was more like that of a casino dealer than an occult shop clerk. Was she in her early 20s? However, she was a woman who possessed a somewhat mysterious atmosphere. It was hard to tell her age by her appearance. Seo-geon saw the stunningly beautiful woman and rose from his seat.
"I've come to find Father Silvester. Is he here?"
"Ah, he is here, but he's sleeping right now, you see? Should I wake him?"
She said that and laughed softly.
But at that moment, the door behind her opened and Silvester appeared. The expression on his face, which was still damp as if he had just finished washing it, was clearly one of annoyance. He might have secretly hoped that Seo-geon wouldn't be able to find this place.
But Seo-geon had found Arjuna much earlier than he had expected. To find it in just two days with only the business name was an ability to act that was comparable to a private investigation agency.
"He's already awake. There's no need to wake him."
He said that and swept his silver hair up, then tied his hair back. As expected, since he had just woken up, he was wearing a pure white shirt instead of priest's vestments, a shirt with the famous picture of Snoopy lying on his doghouse drawn on it.
His silver-blonde hair didn't seem to be styled much, but it shone to a degree that couldn't be imitated by any artificial dye, and his handsome build and features, which could even be called beautiful, were closer to that of a model rather than a priest who hunts demons.
<><><>
His appearance, standing side by side with Arjuna's female clerk, was a surprisingly good match.
Seo-geon looked at this strange priest and asked him straight to the point.
"Is this your house?"
"It's my residence in Korea. Not a house."
Silvester said that and looked at the middle-aged man. The middle-aged man in the beret took out an envelope from his coat and placed it on top of a case.
"Here. It seems that bastard has left Korea."
"In the end, we kept tailing him only to lose him again this time. Damn it."
Silvester received the envelope, looked inside, then came out to the sofa. He asked without even looking back at Seo-geon.
"What will you have for a drink?"
"Coffee."