A Busy Day for Guests (2)
The Poacher’s shack was a chaotic mess, a sensory assault of junk, unidentified beast feed, and dozens of iron cages where small creatures and fairies shrieked in terror. Strange, pungent plants filled the corners, alongside an array of hunting tools whose intended prey defied all logic. It was a place of madness, yet for the first time in a long while, it had visitors who weren't Jojun.
Helen, a Survivor, and Roy, a Porter. They were Nick’s associates, one of the three teams that had entered the Black Market to retrieve the Cracked Ankh. Because they had arrived at the entrance, they were unaware that stepping out of a shop would teleport them to an entirely different location. Trapped by their own ignorance, they hadn't dared to step back outside. The sights they had witnessed in the food alley on their way to the shack were burned into their retinas: the death throes of countless creatures, the humanoids devouring them with casual indifference, and the grotesque, ritualistic ways they tore apart and destroyed life. It had left them deeply traumatized.
Helen and Roy, who had been waiting at the entrance for their guide, had turned to the Poacher—who was busy cleaning an egg—to complain about the unresponsive pager. The Poacher replied in a bored, listless tone.
"Well, maybe it's late. How should I know? That guy is slippery as an eel. It'll show up when it shows up."
Helen frowned at the Poacher’s blunt dismissal, but she couldn't afford to argue with someone who radiated such a dangerous aura. Instead, she took her frustration out on Roy.
"Roy, we don't have time for this. We need to get the Ankh and get out of this Black Market. You remember that we're out in four hours, right?"
"Wait... you want us to go back through that path? You saw what they were doing to those... things. Let's wait a little longer... it'll be here soon. It has to. It will."
"No. We have to leave now. I don't care how scary it is. We don't know how much longer it will take, and we can't waste our lives waiting. And above all... it feels ominous. My alarm bells are ringing."
Helen tugged at Roy’s sleeve again, her urgency mounting. The guide wasn't appearing, and time was slipping away. Fearing that the Poacher might be stalling them for some sinister purpose, Helen activated her Crisis Detection skill. Something pinged.
"What? Alarm bells? Ominous? Is that... are you talking about a skill effect?"
"Yes. My Crisis Detection keeps ringing. It’s strange. Something might be coming. Whatever is heading our way... it might not be the guide."
"Then you should have said that first!! Let's get out of here right now!"
The reason Roy, who had been determined not to move until the guide arrived, was suddenly horrified was simple. Helen’s class was Survivor. As the name suggested, she could rapidly detect incoming threats, traps, and disasters. Her accuracy was so high it bordered on precognition. If she felt danger, it was real. Something was coming—an enemy they couldn't possibly face. They had to run.
Roy quickly scooped Helen up into his arms. For context, Helen was a "fragile" sister; born with a disability in both legs, she couldn't walk. Roy had to carry her everywhere. His class was Porter Man, a literal pack mule—the perfect class for carrying Helen around.
"W-we'll be going then!"
"Sure. Try to stay alive."
The moment Roy stepped out of the shop while bidding the Poacher farewell... space-time distorted, and they were sucked into the den of the drug-addled. The siblings, awakened with classes perfectly suited for one another, fled in a panic before the insurmountable danger could reach them. Moments later, the shop door opened, and Cheshire and Jojun stepped into the Poacher’s shack. It was a difference of mere seconds. Had they been a moment later, the two would have been caught in Jojun’s grasp.
We had rushed to the Poacher’s shack, half-running, to catch the culprit who had pressed the pager. But the shack was empty of any such person. There was only the Poacher, offering his usual blunt greeting.
"Oh, you're here? I was just waiting for you, Cheshire... hmm?"
The Poacher stopped mid-greeting, staring intently at Cheshire as if something were off. "You... no way."
He had instantly deduced that she had recovered her soul fragment. There was no point in hiding it. The moment he saw her, he seemed to realize her soul had returned to its normal state.
"So, you found it."
The Poacher asked in a sharp tone. The air instantly turned freezing cold. I almost dropped to my knees at the aura seeping out of him.
"Was it your doing?" the Poacher asked, glaring at me. Cheshire immediately stepped in front of me, snuffing out the Poacher’s killing intent.
"Old man. Cut it out, will you? Why are you doing this to him? He hasn't done anything wrong."
Cheshire growled, her own aura flaring up. Standing behind her, I felt goosebumps erupt across my skin.
"Hmph... you get a little power and now you don't see anyone? You think you can take me on now? Seems like you've gotten cocky after beating up a few stupid demons."
"That's not it. Besides, you were the one who showed killing intent first. What, are you obsessed with me?"
"What? Obsessed? I'm obsessed? You little brat..."
The Poacher glared at me and Cheshire for a moment before suppressing his aura. He let out a sigh. The way he sighed made him look like a father who had just heard his daughter was marrying some local street thug.
"*Hoo*. Cheshire."
"What."
"Right. You finally achieved it. Your dream of leaving the Black Market."
"Yeah. So congratulate me. Old man... no, Dad."
"Dad, huh... *Haa*. Right. A father should support his child’s independence, I suppose. *Haa*..."
Cheshire had called him "Dad" as a surprise attack. Of course, they weren't blood-related. But a bond far stronger than blood existed between them. After all, the Poacher had rescued Cheshire when she was being raised as an experimental subject in the Black Market and had raised her himself. I didn't know the exact history, but that was the kind of relationship they had. Regardless, the man she had always called "Old man" suddenly calling him "Dad" seemed to make the Poacher realize he couldn't stop her anymore, leading to an even deeper sigh. He then looked at me.
"Listen here, Cultist."
"Y-yes?"
"You'd better make sure I don't regret not killing you when we first met. If you treat that girl poorly..."
The Poacher’s silent warning. He didn't explicitly say what he would do to me, but I knew. I wouldn't die a clean death. I nodded vigorously, promising the Poacher that I would never let Cheshire come to harm. Only then did the Poacher return to his usual, blunt self. I thought I was going to lose my mind. So this is what it feels like to meet your father-in-law. Most of the women I’d been with had already lost their families to the apocalypse or had been alone from the start. Having someone who could be called a "father-in-law" felt... new. And not in a good way.
'To think a monster like that is my father-in-law...'
Once the conversation between me and the Poacher seemed to have reached its end, Cheshire quickly asked the question that was burning in her mind.
"By the way, old man, weren't there people here just a moment ago?"
"Calling me Dad one second and old man the next. *Hoo*. They were here until just a moment ago. They whispered among themselves, realized they couldn't wait, and just left."
"Ah..."
"That was a close call," I muttered.
Cheshire and I felt a deep sense of regret at the Poacher’s words. If we had been just a little faster, we could have caught them.
"We missed them."
"Yeah... but old man, could you tell us what those two looked like?"
"I don't give out customer information so easily. You know better than to ask that, don't you?"
"Ugh, forget it. You're going to start nagging again."
Cheshire waved her hand as if to say, "Don't bother if you don't want to." The Poacher snorted and opened the sliding door behind him.
"Just look at today’s specials and buy your goods so you can get out of here."
We followed the strangely prickly Poacher into the breeding grounds. It was a shame we’d missed them, but we had business to attend to.
Meanwhile, at the entrance of the shack, two women were pacing back and forth, agonizing over their next move.
"They went in here, right?"
"Yeah. That's right. They definitely went in here."
They were Bella and Ella, the twin sisters who had been tracking Jojun and Cheshire after spotting them. The two watched the pair enter the shop at the end of the alley, debating how to act. It wasn't public knowledge that a Cultist roamed the Black Market like it was his own backyard, nor was Cheshire’s existence. Seeing the two walk casually among the bizarre humanoids, they felt a strange sense of relief. It was like meeting a fellow countryman in a foreign land—a relief to know there were other players in this insane Black Market besides themselves. Moreover, Mark and Rio, who they had planned to join, had died right in front of them, and Helen and Roy were nowhere to be found. The mentally fragile twins wanted to rely on Jojun and Cheshire.
"S-should we go in, too?"
"You don't think... they'll attack us, do you?"
"They won't. They aren't psychopaths; there's no way they're just crazy people who attack out of nowhere. And maybe, just maybe, we can get some help. If they say they'll help, let's ask them how to get out of here. If they say they'll let us out, we'll bolt."
"Wait, Bella. What about the Ankh? We came here to get that... Mark and Rio failed. If Helen and Roy failed, or if they're already dead... we're the only hope left."
"You idiot. We can just send other people in next week. And look at us—we're going to die trying to get that thing, so why are you so obsessed? Let's just... believe that Helen and Roy will get it. You saw Mark and Rio die earlier... I can't stay here anymore. It's too, too scary. You're scared too, aren't you, Ella?"
"I-I am... I'm scared too... Yeah, Bella, I think you're right. Nick or whoever, they're not our family. They're not our benefactors."
"Besides, that bastard Nick got himself cursed on his own... why should we die trying to save him?"
"That's right, Bella. You're right. I don't want to die in a place like this like I'm being slaughtered. Let's go ask those people for help, quickly."
Having made their decision, the two walked into the Poacher’s shack, completely unaware of how vicious the existence waiting for them inside truly was.