Just Want to Buy Some Meat
Park Seoyeon's hands stopped moving.
Kang Sihyuk's returnee file was up on her monitor.
Kang Sihyuk, age twenty-seven. Long-term returnee. Non-Awakened. Employed in local clerical work during his stay abroad.
The integration training that had run since morning had gone without any particular trouble. The only real issue had been the final interview.
"So you have no intention of working at all?"
"No."
"Not even a regular job, outside of hunting?"
"That's right."
"You might be able to put your clerical experience to use, at least."
Sihyuk's expression tightened slightly.
"I'd especially rather not do that."
Park Seoyeon looked at him.
"May I ask why?"
"I did it for too long. I'm sick of it."
"How long, exactly?"
Sihyuk thought for a moment.
"Just… a lot."
Park Seoyeon's eyes drifted to one corner of the screen.
Long-term stay. Duration: unmeasurable.
She didn't press further.
"I understand."
It had gone more easily than he'd expected. Sihyuk asked,
"Is it a problem if I don't work?"
"No. Employment is entirely optional."
"Ah."
"Just because you've returned doesn't mean the Association will force you into hunter work or demand that you find a job. For the time being, housing and basic living expenses are covered as well."
Only then did Sihyuk's face ease a little.
"Nice."
"That said, living comfortably on the support stipend alone will be difficult."
His expression settled back to its usual blankness.
"How much is the amount?"
Park Seoyeon told him the monthly figure. Today's training had covered the current cost of living in rough terms. If he was careful, he could get by without trouble. Get by — and nothing more.
Sihyuk thought for a moment, then asked,
"Can I order delivery food often?"
"Delivery?"
"Yes."
Park Seoyeon ran the numbers in her head before answering.
"Occasionally."
"Not every day?"
"If you want to eat like that, some other source of income would help."
"Hmm."
For Sihyuk, this was a more important question than it sounded. Even the foods he'd never seen before went on forever if you scrolled down the screen. After working that long, the last thing he wanted was to come home and keep denying himself things that tasted this good.
"If you ever decide you'd like to find work, please contact us anytime," Park Seoyeon said. "Returnees often have trouble converting their overseas experience into something local, so the Association handles the introductions separately."
"Understood."
Sihyuk nodded. He had no intention of doing any such thing for the foreseeable future.
"That concludes today's schedule, then."
"Thank you for your time."
Sihyuk stood and left. By the time he stepped out of the Association building, it was already afternoon.
He pulled out the phone they'd issued him, looked up the route to his lodging, and headed for the nearest subway station. When he tapped the phone against the fare gate, a short chime sounded and the barriers opened.
The Demon Realm had magic that could cross space itself. Even so, watching ordinary people travel an entire city on something as simple as a subway was still fairly novel.
He boarded a train, found an empty seat, and turned the phone back on — this time to the delivery app. He'd learned how to use it that morning and installed it himself afterward.
He scrolled. His finger stopped on a steak. He checked the price. Then he checked the balance of his settlement support funds. Price again. Balance again.
Sihyuk turned the screen off.
"Emergency."
Back when he'd been the Demon King, money had never been something he fretted over.
This is a problem.
Back at his lodging, Sihyuk sat on the edge of the bed. He had no complaints about the room itself. It was more than spacious enough for one person, and it came with everything he needed. The problem was what came next.
If he worked, he could earn money. That was the simplest solution. Sihyuk ruled it out first.
There had to be another way.
He reached into the empty air. His fingertips vanished straight into space. A moment later he drew his hand back, and a single gold bar rested on his palm.
It was the subspace he'd used for ages. Inside it were plenty of things worth money besides gold — gold coins and silver coins, gemstones, gold bars, unused weapons and ornaments, even a crown from some country whose name he no longer remembered. Some of it had been taken in war. Some had come as tribute.
But Demon Realm gemstones were hard to price, and the weapons and ornaments often still carried recognizable crests or residual magic. Gold, on the other hand, was gold no matter how the shape differed. A quick search was enough to confirm it held value on Earth as well.
Sihyuk looked down at the bar.
If I sell this, that should do it.
He opened his phone and typed into the search bar how to sell gold. Gold shops. Gold buyers. Precious metal exchanges. The problem was that all of them required identification, and they apparently checked the source as well.
Sihyuk stared at the bar. If they asked where it came from, what was he supposed to say? He couldn't exactly tell them he'd taken it from the Demon King's Castle treasury. Selling one or two gold coins might be manageable somehow, but if he planned to live without working, that alone wouldn't be enough.
He put the bar away again. Then, suddenly, the room next door came to mind.
A returnee who'd been living on Earth longer than he had. A hunter who'd done quite well for herself here, at that. She seemed like a reasonable person to ask.
Ding-dong.
Sihyuk pressed the doorbell. No response. He waited a little.
Ding-dong.
The door still didn't open. Sihyuk looked at it. There was a presence inside.
"I know you're in there."
Something small bumped against something else on the other side. A moment later the door cracked open just wide enough for a hand to fit through. Blonde hair and a pointed ear showed in the gap.
The instant Riel confirmed Sihyuk's face, she froze solid.
"D-Demon K—"
Sihyuk glanced once down the hallway.
"I told you not to call me that."
Riel snapped her mouth shut.
"Sorry."
The words were informal, but her grip on the door was white-knuckled.
"I've got a question."
"…What."
"Where do you sell gold?"
Riel blinked.
"What?"
"Gold."
"I heard that part."
"Why are you suddenly selling gold?"
"I need money."
"…"
"What."
Riel narrowed the gap a little further.
"This isn't for, like… war funds or something, is it…?"
Sihyuk was silent for a beat.
"I want to buy meat."
"…What?"
"Meat."
Riel stared hard at his face.
"I'm serious."
Without further explanation, Sihyuk put his hand into the empty air. His fingertips vanished beyond the space, then returned holding a gold bar.
Riel's eyes went to his hand before they went to the gold.
"You have a subspace too? No — of course you do."
"Why are you so surprised?"
"There are space-type ability users and storage artifacts on Earth, but… they're not common."
Riel studied the bar for a long moment. By size alone, it was an unremarkable lump of gold. But there was no brand mark on the surface, no serial number.
"Where… did you get this?"
"The Demon King's Castle treasury."
"Don't just say that like it's nothing."
"You asked."
"How much of this do you have?"
Sihyuk thought briefly.
"I don't know."
"Roughly how many?"
"I've never counted."
"Don't tell me there's a ton?"
"Probably."
"…How much?"
Sihyuk found it hard to explain.
"I stacked it."
She had no answer for a while. Sihyuk put the bar back into his subspace.
"I was going to just sell it at a gold shop, but they apparently ask about the source."
"Of course they do."
"Annoying."
"It'd be weirder if they didn't."
Sihyuk looked at her without saying anything. Riel's gaze slid away.
"One or two pieces might be fine, but if the volume is large, you won't be able to move it through ordinary channels."
"Somewhere else, then?"
"Well… there is a place."
"Where."
"The Black Market."
Sihyuk tilted his head.
"Black Market?"
"A place where goods that are hard to trade officially change hands. A lot of stuff returnees bring back ends up there too."
"They don't ask about the source?"
"If it makes money, they don't care much."
Sihyuk nodded immediately.
"Then I'll go there."
Riel's face went rigid.
"Wait."
"Why."
"It's not just a regular market."
"Then what is it?"
"Hunters go in and out, and criminal organizations are mixed in. If you bring the wrong thing, you can get into a fight over it."
She finished speaking and looked at Sihyuk's face. Then she fell silent for a moment.
Sihyuk asked,
"So?"
"…Never mind."
She let out a short breath. She seemed to have realized, belatedly, that she had the direction of her concern completely backward.
"I'll send you the address."
"Thanks."
Sihyuk turned away, and a voice came from behind him.
"Wait."
He looked back. Riel hesitated briefly before speaking.
"Don't tell anyone I told you about it."
"Why?"
"Just don't."
"Got it."
Sihyuk went back to his own room. Only after the sound of his door closing reached her did Riel slowly shut hers.
Sihyuk's phone buzzed. A message from Riel.
Old shopping mall basement. Don't mention my name.
The next day, Sihyuk followed the pin on his map down into the basement of a rundown commercial building. Past a heavy iron door, a subterranean space opened up — wider than anyone looking at the building from outside would easily guess.
Near the entrance, several people stood with their faces covered. No one pretended to take any interest in anyone else, but every hand and every belt of every passerby was thoroughly scanned.
Price tags were rare. Customers and merchants haggled in lowered voices, and once a deal closed, the customer left at once.
Sihyuk drew a few looks himself. It wasn't so different from the back alleys of the Demon Realm — a place where the people eyeing the goods outnumbered the people selling them, and the moment you looked weak, the bargaining started with your life rather than the price.
Sihyuk found himself oddly at ease. At least here, it didn't look like he'd need to politely explain where a gold bar had come from.
Shops lined both sides of the corridor, their display cases holding weapons, mana stones, and other unfamiliar objects. Sihyuk spotted a stall that looked like a gold dealer's and approached.
"What're you selling?"
Sihyuk pulled a gold bar from his subspace. The man's expression changed.
"…Hold on a second."
The moment the gold appeared out of thin air, the surrounding gazes began to fix on Sihyuk one by one.