Chapter 84
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 84
Sometime before the incident.
After surviving a series of events most people would never experience in a lifetime—from terrorist attacks to kidnappings—peace had finally returned to the Cha family’s countryside home.
“Hey, Flower Pig.”
Cha Eun-hyeok looked at his younger sister, Cha Ah-ra, who had just walked into the kitchen.
“What’s with all the meat?”
“Oh, this?”
“Why is there so much of it?”
She seemed to be planning to cook, as various ingredients he rarely saw were laid out on the counter. There was thinly sliced meat of a quality they could never get from hunting, and perfectly ripe, round pears in the dead of winter…
“Holy crap, you even got kiwis.”
“I’m going to make bulgogi.”
“Where did you get the money?”
“I got compensation from the Collector.”
“…”
At Ah-ra’s words, Eun-hyeok stared at his sister with a complicated expression.
“…Did they have any reason to compensate us? If anything, shouldn’t we be the ones paying them?”
“Well…”
“No matter how I think about it, all they did was save our family when we were trapped by monsters and about to die.”
“Uh…”
“Is this what they mean by biting the hand that feeds you? Shaking down a major corporation for money… you’ve really learned how the world works.”
“Hey, I didn’t shake anyone down! They just gave it to me!” Ah-ra stammered, flustered by her brother’s perfectly reasonable doubts. “I mean, well, I don’t really get it either… but anyway, they said we have a deep connection with the Black Cloak and the Mermaid Princess, and since the Black Cloak is the Collector’s responsibility… they felt like… it wasn’t completely unrelated…”
“…?”
Eun-hyeok’s face twisted.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Anyway, they told us to eat something delicious and rest because we went through a lot. They said they were sorry.”
“Is it a scam? Did you get scammed? I knew you’d pull something like this eventually.”
“No, I didn’t! Why are you giving me shit like you’re so perfect?”
“I’m definitely better than you.”
“Cut the crap, you sucker.”
“Do you think insulting me is going to make me lower my guard? Think again, my little sister with zero sense of self-preservation.” Eun-hyeok grabbed Ah-ra’s shoulders with both hands and spoke solemnly. “People in this world think of nothing but ripping off suckers like us.”
“But they gave us money. Money is innocent. If they gave it to us, we should spend it.”
“No, we should return it! Who knows what they’ll try to pull using this as leverage? Why on earth would they even give this to us?”
“As… compensation? Maybe…?”
At his sister’s naive response, Eun-hyeok smiled benevolently.
“My dear Flower Pig. Oh, Flower Pig. You became a Hunter, got stabbed in the back so many times, and you still fall for a word like ‘compensation’?”
“Uh…?”
“I don’t know who at the Collector decided to give us compensation, but their employees are probably all 1st-Grade or 2nd-Grade Citizens. Why do you think people like that would do something for us?”
“Uh, Bro…”
“No city dweller shows mercy to a 3rd-Grade Citizen without a reason. Let’s sort this out step-by-step. Who exactly gave it to you?”
“H-Hunter Yoo Seong-un…”
“Hunter Yoo Seong-un.” Eun-hyeok nodded. “In that case, this isn’t compensation. It’s closer to condolence money.”
“Are we going to die? D-did I spend too much? I knew I shouldn’t have bought the kiwis!”
“That’s not the issue.” He thought he understood why Yoo Seong-un had given them the money. “We are among the very few people who know the true identity of the ‘Black Cloak’ that’s blowing up the internet. And how many people in this world do you think want to exploit and study the ‘Black Cloak’? So, how valuable do you think genuine information about this ‘Black Cloak’ would be?”
“Uh… uh…”
“That value is something we couldn’t match even if we harvested the organs of every 3rd-Grade Citizen like us. The reason Mr. Yoo Seong-un gave us this money is less like compensation and more like an expression of condolence for the fact that we now know the true identity of that terrifying ‘Black Cloak’.”
“So we’re going to die?”
“If we keep our mouths shut, we might not die. Or we might just die anyway…”
Ah-ra looked like she was about to cry. “Then what do we do?”
“What do you mean, what do we do? We enjoy the money they gave us and keep our mouths shut tight.”
“Is it enough if we’re the only ones keeping quiet?”
“If we’re unlucky, information might leak from Priest Kang Seo-dam or someone at the Collector.”
“Then we die?”
“Well, life would certainly become extremely exhausting.”
In the absolute worst-case scenario, they might be dragged off somewhere and forced to spill everything they knew about the Black Cloak. They might even die in the process, but Eun-hyeok accepted the situation with a calm pragmatism.
“Anyway, it doesn’t seem like Hunter Yoo Seong-un gave us this money with bad intentions.”
“Really…? Now I’m getting anxious.”
“From what I can see, he realized our future wouldn’t be smooth sailing now that we know about the Black Cloak, so he gave us this money to tell us to hang in there. So, you can go ahead and keep cooking.”
“Ugh… but still…”
“It’s probably also compensation for Cha Yi-sol getting kidnapped. It’s a fact that both you and the youngest went through a lot, so just spend what we received.”
Ah-ra grimaced. “Are you trying to reassure me or not?”
“I’ll do the worrying. You just focus on cooking.”
As long as Eun-hyeok, who possessed a decent amount of street smarts, was alive, it was fine for his two younger siblings to be a bit foolish. Since there was no malice behind the money, there was no need to be overly anxious right now.
Given what their conversations had revealed about Hunter Yoo Seong-un’s personality, and considering how a major corporation like the Collector operated, they likely had a security team assigned to them already. It could be for protection, since they had a history of being kidnapped, but it was probably more accurate to call them surveillance personnel assigned to control information.
Either way, it didn’t matter.
“You like cooking, don’t you?”
“Well… yeah, but…”
“We finally got some money after a long time. We might as well spend this much.”
Of course, they could have saved the money to repair the house or pay for their youngest brother’s dormitory fees. It could have helped Eun-hyeok with his bungeoppang business or bought equipment to keep Ah-ra from dying in a dungeon.
But if you only ever spent money on absolute necessities, could you really call that living?
“We were already earning the money we needed on our own anyway. It’d be a bit much to demand we spend this incredibly lucky windfall on necessities too.”
“Yeah…”
“If we don’t relieve stress like this, when will we?”
A person needed these small pleasures to live. Eun-hyeok knew that if you did nothing but survive, you would eventually just waste away, consuming your own body and mind until you died.
“So, how much compensation did we get?”
“Oh, right.”
“‘Oh, right?’ Flower Pig, are you living with your head in the clouds?”
“I-I was just so out of it from coming back from Seoul…” Ah-ra held up her fingers. “Ten million.”
“…Ten million? Ten million without any negotiation is pretty steep.”
“That’s why I went grocery shopping in Seoul for the first time in ages.”
“Dinner’s going to be a feast tonight.”
“Hehe, right?”
“Then show us what you’ve got.” Eun-hyeok glanced toward the corner of the room where a cold draft was seeping in. “I’m going to go hang out with the youngest.”
“You’re not helping?”
“Not only do I hate cooking, but what if the youngest gets kidnapped again?”
“…S-surely that won’t happen again?”
“From what I can see, our youngest brother’s life is going to be anything but ordinary.” This was an intuition unique to Eun-hyeok, who could see strange monsters that others couldn’t. “I feel like he’s going to live a much rougher life than us. I’m anxious. My gut is telling me something.”
“What the fuck, why are you cursing him? He’s about to become a 2nd-Grade Citizen. If his life is rougher than ours as lifelong 3rd-Grade Citizens, wouldn’t that be a problem?”
“No matter how I look at it, it won’t be a normal life, to say the least. That brat Cha Yi-sol keeps getting caught up in weird things… and his personality doesn’t help.” The fact that he was completely fearless played a big part. He was needlessly bright and overly sociable. “If you’re a sucker but have no fear, what does that make you? You’re just asking for a twisted fate.”
“Ah, are we screwed? Did we raise him wrong?”
“What can we do? He’s already grown up like that. Still, once he enters the Sun Cult, he’ll learn a few things and get some protection. The cult has its own reputation to maintain, so they’ll keep him in line.”
“Sigh…” Ah-ra waved her hand dismissively. “Hearing that makes me even more anxious. I wanted to feed him something delicious before he leaves for the dormitory, so go over there and give him some advice.”
“What advice?”
“Tell him not to live like a sucker…”
“As if that’ll work. We’re suckers ourselves.”
Despite his words, Eun-hyeok immediately went to find his youngest brother, Cha Yi-sol. A large part of it was his anxiety about leaving the boy alone after the recent kidnapping.
“Hey, kiddo.”
“Hyung! What is Noona making?”
“She said she’s making bulgogi.”
“Wow, bulgogi! Isn’t that expensive?”
“It is. The ingredients are insane. Just pray your sister doesn’t ruin dinner.”
“Should I pray to the Sun God first?”
“No, you two probably aren’t even that close yet…”
“Is that so?”
Eun-hyeok sat down next to his youngest brother, who was happily holding a pencil, clearly excited. He had no idea what the kid was drawing. Eun-hyeok loved his brother, but he couldn’t bring himself to love his art.
“Once you enter the dormitory, you’ll eat much better food than this.”
“Should I sneak some out for you? We can eat together!”
“I heard you can’t really leave until you officially become a priest.”
“I’ll sneak out.”
“…Just buy me a meal after you graduate. I’ll wait.” Knowing Cha Yi-sol, he really might sneak out of the dormitory and walk all the way to their distant countryside home, so Eun-hyeok pushed the promise far into the future. As he stroked his brother’s hair, his gaze drifted downward.
“Were you drawing?”
“Yeah.”
“What were you drawing?”
A pitch-black, blotchy shape drawn on the back of a piece of scrap paper caught his eye.
“The Black Cloak!”
“…”
Eun-hyeok fell silent.
“…What?”
“Huh? The Black Cloak!”
“Do you… even know… what that is?”
“Isn’t it a good ghost that gives presents to good people?”
“That’s, well, uh…”
“I felt too embarrassed to pray to the Sun God, so I drew the Black Cloak first!”
“What does that have to do with anything? More importantly, the Black Cloak is a monster…”
“Isn’t it basically the same thing?”
“No, it’s not.”
Eun-hyeok’s brain short-circuited.
“Who told you about the Black Cloak?”
“In-seo did.”
“In-seo… the village head’s daughter?”
“All the kids in our neighborhood know about the Black Cloak.”
“Why on earth…?”
“Because he’s cool.”
“…”
Eun-hyeok, who knew the true nature of the Black Cloak, took a deep breath.
“…Hyung doesn’t really know, but is the Black Cloak really that famous lately?”
“Huh? Yeah, they say so.”
“What exactly is the Black Cloak? Do you know?”
“Actually, I don’t really know either…” Scribbling, Cha Yi-sol continued speaking as he filled in a pitch-black lump with a blunt pencil. “Maybe he’s like Santa?”
“…The old man who gives presents to good kids?”
“They said he likes good people, and he really loves it when you talk to him. If you’re polite, they said the Black Cloak will give you a present.”
“Oh…”
Just as Eun-hyeok was agonizing over how to respond—
“…”
“…Huh?”
The gazes of both Cha brothers fell upon the ‘Black Cloak’ on the paper.
“…Didn’t it just move?”
The black lump, drawn with a child’s clumsy hand, had just wriggled.
“…”
Cold sweat broke out on Eun-hyeok’s back.
A mysterious portrait whose identity even a massive guild like the Collector had yet to uncover. Sometimes, such unreal, dreamlike entities—including the gods sometimes called destiny—had their own unique summoning rituals.
No way…
Of all things, had Cha Yi-sol, who had awakened as a priest, just drawn the Black Cloak instead of the Sun God? Unaware of his brother’s stomach churning with dread, Yi-sol smiled brightly.
“Wow, I think the Black Cloak is here!”
“Wait, hold on, Yi-sol. Please, just a second… this isn’t right.”
“Be my friend!”
“Please, no!” Eun-hyeok grabbed his brother and pleaded, but it was already too late.
“Wow!”
From within the drawing, the clumsy sketch moved, taking on a physical form.
“The Black Cloak…!”
“…”
“…Black… Cloak…?”
He wore a pitch-black cloak. The deep shadow, completely concealing his face beneath a low-pulled hood, was unnaturally dark. The black shirt and suit visible beneath the cloak absorbed all light, yet his tall, well-proportioned physique was clearly discernible.
“…It’s Gio-hyung?”
It was the ‘Seo Gio’ that Cha Yi-sol knew.
“Gio-hyung?”
“Yes, I am Seo Gio.”
“Oh, it really is Gio-hyung.”
A blunt tone that sounded as if it had been run through a machine translator, and a strangely heavy atmosphere. It was no different from Hunter Seo Gio, or even the Sun God who had once shared a meal with Yi-sol.
“Why did you come here?”
“Did you not ask to be friends?”
“I wasn’t talking to you, Hyung.”
“I am sad. Do you not wish to be friends with me?”
“But you’re already my hyung…?”
Watching the situation unfold, Eun-hyeok pressed a hand to his forehead.
“…”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Cha Eun-hyeok.”
“…Yes, nice to meet you too. It’s great, but…” Hesitating, Eun-hyeok asked, “Do you usually get summoned like this?”
“Student Cha Yi-sol called for me.”
“…”
Eun-hyeok suddenly remembered the compensation Ah-ra had received.
…Was it in preparation for a moment like this?
Having completely unintentionally discovered the method to summon the Black Cloak, Eun-hyeok reflexively pulled out his phone. This information was far too dangerous for just the two of them to keep. His fingers instinctively searched for Hunter Yoo Seong-un’s direct number.
Save me.
It seemed Yoo Seong-un had given them the money precisely for this kind of situation.
“Excuse me, but I need to step outside for a moment.”
“You may act as you wish.”
“…In the meantime… my sister, Cha Ah-ra, will host you. It will only take a moment.”
“I apologize for the sudden visit. Please make yourself comfortable.”
“Yes, thank you.”
And that was how Eun-hyeok ended up calling Yoo Seong-un for rescue.
Not long after, Yoo Seong-un arrived at the Cha family’s house.
“Where is Gio?”
“He’s talking with the youngest.”
“Nobody’s dead, right?”
“Why… on earth… would you ask that…?”
“Oh, just in case.”
“…Right. Yes…”
It was a damn exhausting day.