Chapter 84

Before the incident happened.

The Cha family home in a rural village had finally regained its peace after suffering through one thing after another that most people would have a hard time experiencing even once, from a terrorist incident to a kidnapping.

"Flower Pig."

Cha Eun-hyuk looked at his younger sister, Cha A-ra, as she entered the kitchen.

"What's with the meat?"

"Oh, this?"

"Why is there so much?"

All sorts of ingredients he normally almost never saw were laid out, as if she planned to cook.

There was thinly sliced meat with a quality that could never have come from anything hunted, pears that were round and perfectly ripe in the middle of winter...

"Holy shit, there are kiwis too."

"I'm going to make marinated beef with this."

"Where did you get the money?"

"I got compensation from Collector."

"..."

At Cha A-ra's words, Cha Eun-hyuk looked at his sister with a subtle expression.

"... Did they have anything to compensate us for...? Wasn't it actually a situation where we should have been paying them?"

"Mm..."

"No matter how I think about it, all they did was save our family when we were wedged among monsters and dying."

"Uh..."

"Is this what they mean by saving someone from drowning only for them to demand their bundle back? Extorting money from a major corporation too—you've gotten pretty worldly."

"I didn't extort them. They just gave it to me."

At her brother's reasonable question, Cha A-ra stumbled over her words and continued.

"No, well, I didn't really understand it either, but... Anyway, they said Black Cloak and the Little Mermaid had deep ties, and Black Cloak is under Collector's responsibility, so... that... felt like it wasn't completely unrelated..."

"...?"

Cha Eun-hyuk's face crumpled.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Anyway, they said I'd been through a lot, so I should eat something tasty and rest. They said they were sorry."

"Is this a scam? Did you get scammed? I knew this would happen to you someday."

"I said it's not. Who does this asshole think he is, giving me shit like he's so great?"

"I think I'm better than you."

"Don't talk shit, you sucker bastard."

"Do you think getting cursed at like that will make me lose my vigilance? No, my safety-blind little sister."

Cha Eun-hyuk gripped Cha A-ra's shoulders with both hands and spoke seriously.

"People in this world think of nothing but how to rip off suckers like us."

"But they gave us money. Money's done nothing wrong, and if someone gives it to you, you should spend it."

"No, you should give it back. What are you trying to let them do to us using this as an excuse? Why the hell did they give it to you?"

"Compensation...? Isn't it...?"

At his sister's innocent words, Cha Eun-hyuk smiled benevolently.

"Flower Pig, oh Flower Pig. You became a Hunter, got stabbed in the back that many times, and you still fall for a word like compensation?"

"Uh, uh...?"

"I don't know who at Collector decided they would give us compensation, but all their employees are probably Grade 1 or Grade 2 citizens, so why would they think that?"

"Uh-buh-buh..."

"No one from any city shows mercy to a Grade 3 citizen without a reason. Let's calmly sort out the situation. Who exactly gave you that?"

"H-Hunter Yu Seongun..."

"Hunter Yu Seongun."

Cha Eun-hyuk nodded.

"In that case, this is closer to condolence money than compensation."

"Are we going to die? Did I spend too much? I knew I shouldn't have bought the kiwis."

"That's not the problem."

He felt like he knew why Yu Seongun had given them money.

"We're some of the few humans who know the true nature of Black Cloak, who's been setting the internet on fire lately. And how many people in this world do you think would want to use and study Black Cloak? Then how valuable would real information related to this Black Cloak be?"

"Uh... uh..."

"I bet the organs of Grade 3 citizens like us wouldn't even come close to matching that value. The reason Mr. Yu Seongun gave us this money is closer to mourning the fact that we ended up learning the true nature of that terrifying Black Cloak."

"So are we going to die?"

"If we keep our mouths shut, we might not die, and we might just die anyway..."

Cha A-ra's face looked ready to cry.

"Then what do we do?"

"What else? We take the money they gave us, enjoy it, and diligently keep our mouths shut."

"Is that something that works just because we keep quiet?"

"If we're unlucky, information could leak from Priest Kang Seo-dam or Collector."

"Then we'll die?"

"Life will become very exhausting."

In the worst-case scenario, they might be dragged somewhere and forced to spill information about Black Cloak.

They could die in that process, but Cha Eun-hyuk accepted the current situation quite calmly.

"Anyway, I don't think Hunter Yu Seongun gave us the money with bad intentions."

"Really...? I'm getting nervous now."

"From what I can tell, he realized that our future, as people who know Black Cloak, won't be smooth and gave us the money to genuinely tell us to hang in there, so I think it's fine for you to keep cooking."

"Ugh... no, but still..."

"Cha Yi-sol being kidnapped is probably included in the compensation too. It's true that both the youngest and you went through a lot, so just spend what you received."

Cha A-ra grimaced.

"Are you trying to reassure me or not?"

"I'll do the worrying, so you just keep cooking without thinking about anything."

As long as Cha Eun-hyuk, who was not entirely lacking in life wisdom, was alive, it was fine for his two younger siblings to be a little stupid.

This money did not seem malicious either, so there was no need to be greatly anxious right away.

Judging by Hunter Yu Seongun's personality, as learned through conversation, and by the actions of the major corporation Collector, there was probably also a guard team separately assigned to them.

Since there was a record of one of them having been kidnapped, it might be for protection, but it might be more accurate to call them surveillance personnel for information control.

In any case, it did not matter.

"You like cooking."

"Th-That's true, but..."

"If money came in for once, it's fine to spend this much."

Of course, they could save this money and repair the house, or pay the youngest's dormitory fees.

It could help Cha Eun-hyuk with his fish-shaped bread business, or they could buy equipment so Cha A-ra would not die.

But if they only spent money on what was absolutely necessary, what kind of life would that be?

"We were already earning the money we needed on our own anyway. On top of that, we were very lucky to get some spare funds, so it feels a bit much to tell you to spend even that on necessities."

"Mmh..."

"If you don't relieve stress like this, when will you ever?"

People needed big and small pleasures like this to live.

Cha Eun-hyuk knew that if people merely ate enough to survive, they would ultimately just spend their physical health and minds away as they died.

"So how much compensation came in?"

"Oh, right."

"Oh, right? Flower Pig, are you living without your head screwed on?"

"I-I was out of it too because I'd just come back from Seoul..."

Cha A-ra held out her fingers.

"Ten million."

"... Ten million? If it's ten million without any negotiation, that's pretty high."

"I went grocery shopping in Seoul for the first time in a while, that's why."

"Dinner's going to be abundant tonight."

"Hehe, right?"

"I'm counting on you to show off your skills."

Cha Eun-hyuk looked toward one side of the room where a bit of cold wind was seeping in.

"I'll go stay with the youngest."

"You're not doing it with me?"

"I don't really like cooking, and what if the youngest gets kidnapped again?"

"... S-Surely that won't happen again?"

"From what I can tell, our youngest's life is not ordinary."

This was an intuition Cha Eun-hyuk could feel because, unlike others, he saw strange monsters.

"I think he'll live a life much less smooth than ours. I'm anxious. My heart's all unsettled."

"No, fuck, what kind of curse is that? He's about to become a Grade 2 citizen soon. If his life ends up less smooth than ours, who are Grade 3 natives, wouldn't that be a problem?"

"No matter how I think about it, at the very least, it won't be an ordinary life. That bastard Cha Yi-sol keeps getting caught up in strange things... and his personality too."

The fact that he himself was far too fearless would likely play a part.

The bastard was unnecessarily bright and had good social skills too.

"If you're a sucker and you're fearless, what's that? That's just twisting your own fate with your own hands."

"Oh, are we fucked? Did we raise the kid wrong?"

"What can we do? He's already grown up like that. Still, if he enters the Sun Cult, he'll learn this and that and get some protection. Since the church has its own dignity to maintain, he'll restrain himself too."

"Oh, dear..."

Cha A-ra waved a hand.

"Hearing that makes me even less reassured. I was going to feed him something tasty before he went into the dormitory, so oppa, go sit beside the youngest and tell him this and that."

"Tell him what?"

"Tell him not to live like a sucker..."

"Would that work? We're screwed ourselves."

Even as he said that, Cha Eun-hyuk went straight to the youngest, Cha Yi-sol.

Because of the last kidnapping, he felt too anxious to leave the youngest alone.

"Youngest."

"Hyuung, what's noona making?"

"She said she's making marinated beef."

"Wow, marinated beef! Isn't that expensive?"

"It is expensive. The ingredients are insane. Pray your noona doesn't ruin dinner."

"Should I pray to the Sun God first?"

"No, you're probably not even that close yet, so what..."

"Is that so?"

Seeing the youngest holding a pencil and looking delighted, as if he was excited, Cha Eun-hyuk sat down beside him.

He had no idea what the kid was drawing.

Cha Eun-hyuk loved his younger brother, but he could not bring himself to love his drawing skills too.

"When you enter the dormitory, you'll eat a lot more things tastier than this."

"Should I bring some out?? Do you want to eat together??"

"I heard you can't really come out until you officially become a priest."

"I'll sneak out."

"... After you finish all your training, buy me a meal. I'll wait."

Since Cha Yi-sol really seemed capable of sneaking out of the dormitory and walking all the way to this remote countryside, Cha Eun-hyuk pushed the promise off into the future.

Cha Eun-hyuk's gaze, which had been stroking his younger brother's hair, shifted a little lower.

"Were you drawing?"

"Yeah."

"What were you drawing?"

Something pitch-black, drawn in blotches on the back of scrap paper, caught his eye.

"Black Cloak!"

"..."

Cha Eun-hyuk fell silent.

"... What?"

"Huh? Black Cloak!"

"You... what... do you know what that is?"

"Isn't he a nice ghost who gives presents to good people?"

"Well, uh, hmm."

"I was embarrassed to pray to the Sun God, so I tried drawing Black Cloak first!"

"What does that have to do with anything? More importantly, Black Cloak is a monster..."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"It's not."

Cha Eun-hyuk broke down.

"Who told you about Black Cloak?"

"In-seo."

"In-seo... the village chief's daughter?"

"All the kids in our village know Black Cloak."

"Why on earth...?"

"Because he's cool."

"..."

Cha Eun-hyuk, who knew the true nature of that Black Cloak, took a moment to breathe deeply.

"... Hyung doesn't really know, so I'm asking, but is Black Cloak really famous these days?"

"Huh? Yeah, I heard so."

"What exactly is Black Cloak? Do you know?"

"I don't really know either, but..."

Scribble, scribble.

As he drew a pitch-black lump with a blunt pencil, Cha Yi-sol continued.

"Maybe he's like Santa?"

"... The old man who gives presents to children who didn't cry?"

"I heard he likes good people, and if you talk with him, he gets really happy. They said if you're polite, Black Cloak gives you presents too."

"Oh..."

Cha Eun-hyuk was wondering how he was supposed to answer that.

"..."

"... Huh?"

The two Cha siblings' gazes landed on the Black Cloak in the paper.

"... Didn't that just move?"

The black lump drawn with a child's clumsy skill had wriggled.

"..."

Cha Eun-hyuk broke into a cold sweat.

A mysterious portrait whose identity even a giant guild like Collector had yet to determine.

And sometimes, unreal and dreamlike beings like that had summoning rituals of their own, including gods called fates with wills.

'... Surely this isn't...'

Hadn't Cha Yi-sol, of all people, Awakened as a priest and said he had drawn Black Cloak instead of the Sun God?

Unaware of his older brother's insides burning up with a chill, Cha Yi-sol smiled brightly.

"Wow, Black Cloak must have come!"

"Wait, wait just a second, Yi-sol. Please, just one second... this isn't right."

"Be my friend!"

"Please!"

Cha Eun-hyuk grabbed his younger brother and pleaded, but it was already too late.

"Wow!"

From inside the drawing.

That clumsy drawing moved, and it took shape.

"Black Cloak...!"

"..."

"... Black... Clo...??"

He was wearing a pitch-black cloak.

The deep shadow, its face not visible in the slightest beneath a hood pulled low, was dark to an unnatural degree.

The black shirt and suit visible inside the cloak held no trace of light, but his long, well-balanced body could still be made out.

"... It's Jio hyung?"

It was the Seo Jio that Cha Yi-sol knew.

"Jio hyung?"

"Yes, I am Seo Jio."

"Oh, it really is Jio hyung."

A blunt tone as if run through a translator, and an oddly heavy atmosphere.

It was no different from the god of the sun and Hunter Seo Jio, with whom Cha Yi-sol had eaten.

"Why did you come here?"

"Did you not ask me to be your friend?"

"I wasn't saying that to you, hyung."

"I am sad. Do you not wish to be friends with me?"

"Hyung is hyung, though...?"

Watching the situation unfold, Cha Eun-hyuk pressed a hand to his forehead.

"..."

"Good to meet you, Mr. Cha Eun-hyuk."

"... Yes, good to meet you too. It is good, but..."

After hesitating, Cha Eun-hyuk asked.

"Are you normally summoned like this?"

"Student Cha Yi-sol called me."

"..."

Cha Eun-hyuk suddenly remembered the compensation Cha A-ra had received.

'... Was it in preparation for times like this?'

Having learned, truly without the slightest intention to, how to summon Black Cloak, Cha Eun-hyuk naturally took out his phone.

This information was too dangerous for them alone to know.

His fingers were, as if it were only natural, searching for Hunter Yu Seongun's direct number.

'Please save me.'

It seemed Yu Seongun had probably given them the money for this very reason.

"Excuse me, but I'll step outside for a moment."

"You may act as you wish."

"... In the meantime... my younger sister, Cha A-ra, will take care of you. It will only be a moment."

"I apologize for visiting so suddenly. Please be at ease."

"Yes, thank you."

And so Cha Eun-hyuk came to request rescue from Yu Seongun.

Not long after, Yu Seongun arrived at the Cha family's house.

"Where is Jio?"

"He is talking with the youngest."

"No one died, right?"

"Why... on earth... would you ask that...?"

"Oh, just in case."

"... Ah, yes..."

It was one hell of an exhausting day.