A Promise

"Sis, you're here?"

When Chaerin stepped into the hospital room, Jeong-hyeon was holding their little brother's hand. The two sisters said nothing. They simply pulled each other into a brief, tight hug.

"Is this it? Is this the one?"

Jeong-hyeon's eyes trembled as she stared at the Mandrake Chaerin had taken out. The cure they had waited years for was sitting right there in front of her, and none of it felt real.

"That's right. Let's give it to Jaehyeong."

As Chaerin crossed the room toward her brother, her footsteps were the only sound in the stillness.

Have my footsteps always been this loud? No. I'm just nervous.

Even in the hardest fights of her life, Chaerin's heart had never hammered like this. Too much excitement was poison in a battle, and she had always known it.

She looked at her brother properly for the first time in a long while, taking in all the things she had trained herself not to see.

A feeding tube was lodged in his abdomen, the only thing keeping him alive. And the sight that hurt the most was how wasted he had become. The tube had kept him breathing, but years of lying still had stolen every last bit of muscle from a brother who had once loved working out—who had once been so solid and strong.

"What if… what if it doesn't work?"

Jeong-hyeon's voice shook behind her. This was not the Jeong-hyeon who was always full of mischief in front of Chaerin, or ice-cold in front of everyone else.

"It will."

Chaerin said it like a fact. She understood how Jeong-hyeon felt. Unlike her, Jeong-hyeon had only ever seen Karen once. Of course she was afraid.

"I trust Karen. And if you can't trust him, then trust me."

Con man or not, saint or not—there was not a person alive who would put their own life on the line inside a Gate the way he had.

Pop. Chaerin uncorked the potion and let it trickle, little by little, into her brother's mouth. The vial emptied in moments. Both sisters swallowed hard and stared at him.

"Jaehyeong?"

No answer came. They gripped each other's hands and watched him for a long time. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Not even a fingertip moved.

"Sis…"

"No. It's a matter of time. Karen never said when he'd wake up."

"Yeah. That has to be it."

They were still trying to comfort each other when a small sound reached their ears.

"Nn… nnh."

"Jaehyeong?"

Both sisters leaned in and pressed their ears to his lips. Was this just another moan, like last time? Please…

"N-noona…?"

"Jaehyeong!"

The word broke out of Chaerin on a sob. She and Jeong-hyeon had wanted to hear that name more times than they could count. That precious title from their little brother—Noona—one they had never known to treasure in the old days. It came from vocal cords that had gone dry for so long, but the two sisters heard it perfectly.

They gathered him into their arms and kept, without holding a single tear back, a promise they had been guarding for years.

The promise that when their brother woke, they would cry for joy.

"Master! Master's people are going extinct!"

"You only pick sides between humans and Spiritual Beasts at times like this? You want me dead?"

Installing a TV in the cafe had seemed like a fine idea, right up until Karen realized nothing worth listening to ever came out of it. He tuned it out and went back to concentrating on the taste of his drink.

"It's been too long. This is good."

"How was the Gate, if I may ask?"

Yeongjun set down another strawberry latte—the one Karen had just ordered.

That's the third one already. I never thought much ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of it when I could have it every day, but the second I went into a Gate, I started craving the thing. People really don't know what they've got till it's gone.

"It was fun, for a change. But I'm not going back in for a while."

There's no reason to go crawling into a place where I can't even use my power. It was the first real crisis I've had since coming to Earth, but not the kind of experience I'd ever want to repeat.

"About that… what do you plan to do with Mr. Han Minjae?"

Karen glanced out the cafe window. Han Minjae was squatting in the empty lot, unmoving.

"He's been out there all day. I told him to come inside—it's still so hot—but he won't budge."

At first they had figured he would fuss over it for a bit and then give up. Instead, Minjae had been out there watching one thing and one thing only: the Mandrakes. A new pair had been growing beside the ones they had planted, and the whole time he had stood there like a man possessed, recording every moment of their growth with his own eyes, as if his gaze were a camera.

"Kku-ing. That human's weird too."

Samsaek, who had been sucking down a maple latte through a straw beside them, shook his head at Minjae.

"You're the weirdest one here."

Both employees nodded so hard their necks looked like they might snap.

"Kku-ing?"

Samsaek put on a wounded face. It did not work on Karen, who could see through him like glass.

"Drop the act and go fetch that guy."

"Fine."

While Samsaek went to collect Minjae, Karen looked at the two humans and lowered his voice.

"That monster cat's started putting on real performances now, so watch yourselves."

"But he's so cute, though."

"That's the real problem. He'd have been better off a little grotesque."

Ding-a-ling. The bell over the door chimed, and Han Minjae came in with his whole body flushed from the sun.

"Sunbae-nim! Did you see those Mandrakes? The leaves are so beautiful, I can't even—"

"Do you ever go home?"

This guy's been standing in the blazing sun all day. Doesn't he ever get tired? Karen cut him off before the speech could pick up speed.

"Um… Sunbae-nim. Would it be all right if I grew the Mandrakes? I don't have a home anyway."

"Huh? I mean, I do need them, but…"

Growing them himself was a hassle. Having someone else do it would be ideal. They were wonderful when his body felt off—finely chopped into food, or tossed into samgyetang like ginseng. A universal ingredient, really.

"Master. Get a grip."

"Hey! It's not just that kind of effect—it's actually good for you!"

The word stamina had picked up a somewhat different meaning these days, but all it really meant was that the body got healthier.

"Um… which 'kind of effect' are we talking about?"

Oh Yeongjun asked, lost as to what Samsaek and Karen were going on about.

"It's good for stamina. Come on, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. It's the same as a really effective nutritional supplement."

Karen was still talking at Samsaek, who was looking at him like he was an idiot, when he felt eyes on him. He turned his head. Two family men were staring at him.

"Karen-nim!"

Yeongjun and his friend. Both of them were looking at Karen with a heat that had not been there before.

"We'll grow them with you!"

"Huh?"

"We'll raise those Mandrakes with everything we have and make sure they do wonders for your health, Karen-nim!"

"Kku-ing… that's suspicious."

Samsaek eyed Yeongjun, whose sudden excitement sat very poorly on a man who was usually so deadpan.

"So… do those things grow in large quantities?"

Yeongjun whispered to Han Minjae.

"Yes. With Karen-nim's special fertilizer, you get one more root every three days."

"Ohh, yes!"

"Tsk, tsk."

Samsaek clicked his tongue again as the two of them clenched their fists.

"Fine! Minjae, you grow them. Live here with these two for now, and I'll build you a lab and a house on that empty lot."

"Thank you!"

"It's all because of the Mandrakes, isn't it? Humans are all the same."

"Samsaek-nim wouldn't understand, but when a man gets older, he starts… noticing things at night."

Yeongjun leaned in and whispered it toward Samsaek's ear.

"Noticing what?"

"Well…"

"Ah, forget it! Chaerin's coming on. Let's watch that. Turn it up."

The moment Yeongjun started to explain something carefully to Samsaek, Karen yanked the conversation elsewhere.

If that little monster finds out about this kind of thing, we're really done for.

Fortunately, the timing was perfect. A familiar face had just appeared on the TV they had recently installed in the cafe.

"Kku-ing, right. Chaerin said she was holding a press conference today."

"Did she? Perfect timing."

On the screen, Lee Chaerin stood at a podium, taking a barrage of camera flashes. It was the kind of attention that would have cowed most people. She looked used to it. Her back was ramrod straight, and her gaze cut across the room like a blade.

With Jeong-hyeon handling the proceedings beside her, Chaerin's press conference got underway.

"What?"

She was in her mid-to-late twenties—an S-Rank Hunter who might well have been in her prime. Even they were stunned. The reporters did not stand a chance.

Click. Click. Click. Camera lights that made the earlier barrage look like nothing at all flooded over Lee Chaerin, and questions poured in from every direction.

Out of the flood of questions, Chaerin picked the one that actually mattered and answered it.

For a moment, the entire press hall went dead silent. She had climbed all the way to S-Rank in a job that didn't suit her? Then if she had actually applied herself, would she have become an SSS-Rank Hunter?

Prepared documents were handed out to every reporter in the room. For convenience, the same files were transmitted digitally to their personal watches at the same time, formatted for easy use in their coverage.

"This is…"

The reporters skimmed the contents for only a moment before a low murmur ran through them. Even a partial reading was enough to steal the words from every mouth in the hall.

Chaerin held up a copy of the same papers she had given the reporters and shook it at the cameras.

The reporters' keyboards clattered without pause. In every journalist's head, there was only one thought.

This is the scoop of a lifetime.

Clackclackclackclack. At a single sentence from Chaerin, the reporters' fingers danced across their keys. Then the next thing she said stopped every finger in the room cold.

The reporters stared, dumbfounded, as Chaerin hurled obscenities from the press conference stage. The moment she finished, she stormed out of the hall.

"Whoa…"

Everyone watching the TV could only marvel.

"Kku-ing. So cool."

An alert chimed from Karen's watch. A text from Chaerin.

Karen snorted a laugh at the cheerful little message—the complete opposite of the press conference they had just watched.

"Yeah. Time to go. I've got a promise to keep."

A promise to kill them with my own hands is one I have to keep.