Heavenly Demon Cult Headquarters (3)
Like Soso, his Korean was fluent. In the hunter world, Korea was a hegemonic power — every hunter on the planet would inevitably end up working alongside Korean-born hunters. Even Yeon Se-hwi, one of Muguk's strongest, spoke the language with effortless ease.
"I see. I've heard a great deal about you from my daughter, Minsu."
It was a light handshake. To anyone who didn't know better, it would have looked like a harmless greeting between two people meeting for the first time. But the executives of the Heavenly Demon Cult stared in shock at the sight of me calmly shaking Yeon Se-hwi's hand.
Not an unreasonable reaction.
An ordinary Awakened would have been terrified. I wasn't. Fear, at its core, is nothing more than a biological terror of death. Other people's deaths, perhaps — but as I was now, I felt not the slightest fear of my own. I was already living on borrowed time. I had already resolved to shorten even what little life I had left. So even if the Heavenly Demon himself had unleashed killing intent to take my life, I was certain I wouldn't have been afraid of him.
In that instant, Yeon Se-hwi's expression shifted, ever so slightly. It lasted only a fraction of a second, but the emotion in it was unmistakably surprise. He recovered his original composure almost immediately and released my hand. Then he addressed his subordinates in the language of Muguk — Cantonese.
Thanks to spending so much time with Soso, I understood Cantonese. Every word reached me clearly.
"It would be rude to keep a guest standing here. This gentleman is Soso's guest. I would like to speak with him privately. All of you, withdraw."
"But Cult Leader! Leaving you alone with an outsider—"
One of the executives blurted it out in alarm. At those words, Yeon Se-hwi's brow twitched faintly.
"Elder Lee. Who do you take me for?"
At that calm remark, the man called Elder Lee trembled from head to toe.
"I... I apologize. Forgive my impertinence—"
"Enough. Withdraw. All of you."
"As you command!"
The group bowed to Yeon Se-hwi and withdrew in perfect order. It was astonishing to watch him — a man who looked for all the world like a frail scholar — handle that vicious-looking crowd with such effortless ease.
The Heavenly Demon was the Heavenly Demon, after all.
Soso, however, seemed entirely used to the sight. She showed no reaction at all.
"Dad... I mean, Father. Just the two of you with Minsu...? Can't I sit in as well? I... I'm a team leader at Flame, so I should handle the business on behalf of our intern—"
If anything, she seemed far more bothered by Yeon Se-hwi's intention to speak with me alone. But he turned to her with a warm smile — a far cry from the way he had just handled the cult's executives.
"There's no need to worry, Soso. I won't keep him long."
At that, Soso couldn't bring herself to argue further.
"Would you follow me, then?"
I nodded, and Yeon Se-hwi led me to a drawing room.
I sat at one end of an enormously spacious drawing room. Rather than calling for a servant, Yeon Se-hwi boiled the water and prepared the tea himself.
"Explaining the name of a tea to a young man would only bore him, I imagine. But this particular tea is quite particular about water temperature. When a distinguished guest arrives, I always prepare it myself."
As he said, I was no tea connoisseur — but even I could tell the aroma was exquisite.
Soso prefers lattes over green tea, though.
Soso might style herself the Heavenly Demon, but the atmosphere around her actual father — the man who truly bore that title — was something else entirely. More striking still: Yeon Se-hwi boiled the water directly in the teacup itself, without a kettle or pot of any kind. He did it through the Heavenly Demon Divine Art — known in Muguk as an internal energy cultivation method, and in Korea as a mana acceleration technique.
What a formidable man.
Generating heat through mana wasn't difficult for any Awakened. But modulating that heat with such precision — enough to draw the tea's fragrance to perfect bloom in a small cup — was a feat of an entirely different order. I wasn't nervous. And yet it struck me anew that the man sitting across from me was one of the Five Heavenly Stars — those who stood at the very pinnacle of the hunter world.
After we had each taken a sip of that fragrant tea, Yeon Se-hwi did something unexpected.
He bowed to me. A man who stood at the summit of Muguk — no, at the summit of the entire hunter world — bowing to a mere intern of a hunter guild. I knew the reason, of course. He had said it was on Soso's behalf. Even so, watching the Heavenly Demon, one of the Five Heavenly Stars, bow to me was deeply uncomfortable.
"There's no need for this, Cult Leader."
"No. There is every need. Because of my daughter, Eins Academy... I am well aware of what happened to you."
I fell silent. The truth was, only a handful of people knew the full details of the Eins Academy Tragedy. As far as the public was concerned, it had been a terrorist attack by an extremely dangerous group. The Association had clamped down on any further reporting. But the man before me was the Heavenly Demon. Yeon Se-hwi, one of the Five Heavenly Stars. With his own daughter involved, the Association couldn't have kept the facts from him. Soso would have told him about it herself, besides.
Come to think of it, Yeon Se-hwi had come to visit me in the hospital as well.
But I had refused him, of course. I hadn't been in any condition to see Yuri or Soso, let alone Yeon Se-hwi. That was why he was apologizing to me in person now, so belatedly.
"No. It wasn't Soso's fault. The one who stood in my way wasn't Soso — it was the Blood Demon."
And I was the one who had caused the Blood Demon to awaken. I couldn't fully accept his apology.
"And it was you, Mr. Lee Minsu, who destroyed that Blood Demon. So I owe you not only an apology, but my gratitude as well."
He bowed his head once more. For a while after that, we talked about the Blood Demon, and about Soso.
"When I heard that Soso had awakened the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, I was truly overjoyed. The truth is, I had no intention of passing on the position of Cult Leader if she didn't want it. But as a father — and as the one who leads the Heavenly Demon Cult — I couldn't hide how I really felt."
But Soso had possessed not only the qualities of the Heavenly Demon, but those of the Blood Demon as well. That fact must have been a tremendous shock to Yeon Se-hwi.
And I was the one who eliminated that Blood Demon.
Soso apparently hadn't told him what had caused the Blood Demon to appear in the first place. From a father's perspective, then, I was nothing short of his daughter's savior.
I'd helped her awaken the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, and I'd gotten rid of the Blood Demon on top of that.
That was how it looked, in the end. And as for me — who had suffered a grave injury in the process and could no longer use mana properly — Yeon Se-hwi seemed to carry a heavy burden of guilt.
"We've also conducted our own investigation into the villain syndicate that attacked Eins Academy — Red Lake. If you wish, Minsu, I will provide you with everything we've gathered."
That was an unexpected windfall. The Heavenly Demon Cult's intelligence network spanned both the hunter world and the underworld. The information they held was likely exactly what I wanted to know. The conversation continued for a while.
Seomun Yeom, the Soul-Snatching Demon?
A name I hadn't expected. He was a notorious villain in his own right — and now I knew he was affiliated with Red Lake. I kept my thoughts to myself and simply nodded along to Yeon Se-hwi's words. His apologies and expressions of gratitude continued for some time. Then, at last, the conversation turned to the matter at hand.
"In any case, if there is anything the Heavenly Demon Cult can do to help you, we will. Now — you said the reason for this visit to our headquarters concerns an ancient relic... an Ancient Gear, did you not?"
"That's right. I was told the Heavenly Demon Cult has a craftsman well-versed in Ancient Gears."
I showed him the medical report that Professor Seong Chaerin had so meticulously prepared. To receive the Heavenly Demon Cult's help — Yeon Se-hwi's help — I needed to explain the situation to some degree.
"So rather than a medical approach, you intend to approach this from the standpoint of the Ancient Gear — as a matter of equipment. And through that, you believe a certain amount of your mana can be restored. Is that correct?"
"That's correct, Cult Leader."
"I've heard so much about you from my daughter. She said you were an extraordinary cadet even at Eins. If your rehabilitation is possible, I will help in any way I can. I'll write a letter of introduction to the craftsman myself."
I felt a wave of relief. The craftsman of the Heavenly Demon Cult that Professor Seong Chaerin had told me about. My Ancient Gear, Ruby, was an item connected to the Eastern Empire among the ancient empires. Commissioning a Muguk craftsman for this was undoubtedly the right call.
"He is of my uncle's generation. A member of the Yeon family, same as myself. Famous craftsmen tend to be a bit... eccentric, shall we say. But if I, as Cult Leader, write the letter personally, there shouldn't be any problem."
Professor Seong Chaerin had said the same — that the craftsman was quite the eccentric. He had retired long ago, which was why I had come all the way to Hong Kong in person.
"In any case, both Soso and you have come all this way on business. That matter should take priority. I'll have you escorted to him at once."
Even as he said it, though, Yeon Se-hwi seemed inwardly disappointed.
"I had truly hoped to talk with you at length, Minsu. Most of what Soso tells me is about you, after all. Haha. And as it happens, Soso is of marriageable age. Once this business is concluded, I'd like to discuss that matter with you in detail. I find myself wanting a son-in-law, you see."
For a moment, I nearly spat out the tea in my mouth. I pretended I hadn't heard a word of it, and a short while later, I set off with Soso toward the craftsman's residence.
Yeon Moon-woo, the Ancient Gear craftsman. Among high-ranking hunters connected to Muguk, there wasn't a soul who didn't know his name. Ancient Gears were notoriously difficult even for elite hunters to handle. But it was well known that once Yeon Moon-woo's hands and counsel were involved, even the most temperamental of those items became far easier to control.
"Granduncle is rather famous for his unique temperament, though. Still, don't worry too much. I'll try to talk him around."
The two of us got out of the car and started up a fairly rugged mountain. True to the reputation of an eccentric craftsman, the place he lived was a peak well removed from the city.
That's a first. I've never seen her in an outfit like that.
Soso had changed clothes at some point. She was now wearing what looked like traditional Chinese attire — the kind of outfit a heroine from a wuxia novel might wear. She must have caught my glance, because her cheeks suddenly flushed.
"W-well. Granduncle is a man of the old ways. Father said things would go more smoothly if his granddaughter showed up in traditional dress. That's all it is."
If anything, the outfit suited her current manner of speech rather well, so I had no complaints. Soso, however, seemed thoroughly embarrassed. After walking in silence for a while, she spoke up hesitantly.
"By the way... Father didn't say anything strange to you, did he?"
He had. He'd said he wanted a son-in-law. But I didn't let that particular fact leave my mouth.
"The Cult Leader had nothing but kind words and well-wishes for me."
"I... I see. I was just asking, just in case."
We walked the mountain path in silence after that. But the terrain grew steadily more treacherous, and though the sun had yet to set, a hazy fog began to thicken in every direction.
"Just as Father described. Granduncle takes a craftsman's interest in Strange Gate Formations as well, I hear."
A Strange Gate Formation. To put it in familiar terms, it was not unlike a dungeon's trap array.
"Walking in blindly like this would be a problem."
But identifying those traps in advance and securing the raid party's safety — that was an operator's job. And it was work I was confident in.
"I'll disable the Strange Gate Formation first."
"No. There's no need to worry. We'll break through the Heavenly Demon's way."
Soso drew her sword. A moment later, the blade began to glow — the special ability of Awakened swordsmen, commonly known as an Aura Sword.
"If it's a nuisance, you just smash it all."
But I stopped her on instinct.
"There's no need for Team Leader Yeon to waste her strength. I should earn my paycheck too, after all."
"I... I suppose so. But for this lady, it would be a trivial matter..."
"It's fine. It won't take long."
I'd packed my operating equipment just in case. I quickly mapped the structure of the Strange Gate Formation, and together with Soso, we broke through. We cleared it without much difficulty, and at last, near the summit, an old building resembling a mountain hermitage came into view.
"Who are you?!"
A white-haired old man blocked our path. Soso spoke up.
"Hello, Grandfather. It's me, Soso."
"Soso? Soso... ah. Se-hwi's girl, is it."
Then he spotted the sword at Soso's waist, and clutched his head.
"Damn it! If a child of the Yeon family showed up like this, that means you've smashed the Strange Gate Formation I worked so hard on. Again."
In that instant, I understood exactly why he was reacting that way. The Heavenly Demon's way that Soso had mentioned. Apparently, every time people from the Heavenly Demon Cult visited his hermitage, they smashed through his Strange Gate Formation with brute force. I spoke to the despairing Yeon Moon-woo.
"Uh. Sir. We didn't smash the formation."