The face reflected in the mirror was a mess.
The corners of his eyes were swollen red, and his lips were puffed up and burst as if someone had bitten them hard.
Ian repeated washing his face with cold water several times.
“This is crazy, really.”
Memories of last night came rushing in like waves.
Those explicit and sticky acts that had occurred under the pretext of treatment. Vermouth’s hot body temperature, the persistently penetrating tongue, the hand wrapping around his waist.
At some point, it didn’t seem to be pure medical treatment anymore. Thinking back, it was clearly ‘predation.’ Yet he was pathetic for clinging without being able to refuse. He definitely hated it too much before, so why was it okay now? Because Vermouth abandoned everything and followed him? Because in that state, he even threw away his only body?
“Phew.”
Ian roughly wiped his face with a towel. No matter how much he wiped, the sensation remaining on his lips didn’t disappear. To face hyung in this state. His heart was beating so hard it seemed like it would pop out of his mouth.
Ian took a deep breath and opened the bathroom door. When he came out to the living room, a delicious smell pricked his nose.
In the kitchen, Choi Jaeheon was stirring a ladle while wearing an apron. Side dishes were already neatly set on the dining table. It was the appearance of the affectionate older brother, no different from usual.
But there was one alien presence mixed into that peaceful scene.
“Have you woken up, Ian-nim?”
Vermouth, standing by the living room window with the morning sunlight behind him, greeted him with a bright smile.
Ian flinched and almost stepped back.
The patient who had been dying until yesterday was now standing upright like a model, drinking water. His complexion was so glossy it was glowing, and his eyes shone brightly. He looked perfectly fine except for missing one arm.
“…Your body?”
“I’ve gotten much better. Thanks to you.”
When Vermouth blinked meaningfully, Ian’s face turned bright red.
“Ian, eat.”
Choi Jaeheon put down the pot on the dining table and called Ian affectionately. He treated Vermouth like an invisible person and only gestured to Ian. Inevitably, Ian grabbed Vermouth and sat at the dining table together. He was still a patient, so he needed to eat well. Thus, the three men sat around the dining table.
A strange silence flowed for a moment. It seemed this often happened with this combination. Probably because it was awkward.
Amid only the clattering sounds of utensils, Choi Jaeheon was the first to speak.
“Ian, try this. Rolled omelet. I put in tuna that you like too.”
Choi Jaeheon put a side dish on Ian’s rice bowl.
“Please have this too, Saint-nim.”
Not to be outdone, Vermouth picked up a well-grilled Vienna sausage. How shameless when he didn’t even make it. Choi Jaeheon seemed to have similar thoughts.
With excessive attention pouring from both sides, Ian couldn’t tell if the rice was going into his nose or mouth. Even while eating, Choi Jaeheon glared at Vermouth whenever he had a chance, and Vermouth leisurely received that gaze as if enjoying it.
Just then, the sound of the front door lock opening was heard.
Beep beep.
“I’m here! Is everyone alive?”
It was Hong Seoyoon’s voice. He came in carrying shopping bags full in both hands. And behind him, an unfamiliar woman followed in.
A woman with a sharp, intelligent impression, with hair cut like a knife into a bob and wearing metal-framed glasses. It was Lee Seah, an A-rank buffer belonging to Phoenix Guild.
“Who?”
“Ah, say hello. Our guild’s buffer, Ms. Lee Seah. She specializes in purification. Ian might not know her.”
Hong Seoyoon introduced her. Ian tilted his head. It was a face he was seeing for the first time. As it should be, Lee Seah was talent who had joined the guild during the time Ian had dimensionally transferred to Lancia and was treated as missing. Naturally, they had to be meeting for the first time.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Lee Seah. I’ve heard a lot of rumors. That you’re Mr. Choi Jaeheon’s younger brother. So where’s the patient?”
Ian pointed to Vermouth, who was just getting up from the dining table.
“Then excuse me for a moment.”
“I’d like to let him finish eating, but our team leader is so busy.”
Lee Seah was also the team leader of the department that gathered healers at Phoenix. She gave Vermouth a brief, businesslike nod, then examined him. She looked carefully at his wound and even lifted his shirt, then poured out purification power as is.
“Hmm, what’s this?”
“Why? Can’t you purify it?”
Hong Seoyoon asked worriedly and approached.
“No. It’s strange. I heard he was poisoned, but at this level, it’s not that serious? He’ll gradually recover even if left alone. I tried using purification, but it doesn’t seem to help much either.”
“Oh, really?”
Hong Seoyoon’s eyes naturally turned to Ian. Lee Seah saw that too. Ian felt guilty for no reason and kept poking the rolled omelet with his chopsticks.
“Aha.”
Lee Seah, who made an ‘I understand’ expression, nodded.
“Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be anything more for me to do. Then I can go back, right?”
“Thanks. For coming all the way here.”
“If you’re grateful, give me more compensation.”
Lee Seah said that and immediately turned around and left the house.
“But really, it’s amazing, isn’t it?”
Hong Seoyoon looked at the severed cross-section of Vermouth’s arm. What had been black and sticky like spilled tar yesterday was now covered with red flesh.
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
At those words, Vermouth shrugged his shoulders.
“You’re really sturdy.”
Hong Seoyoon said that and joined the dining table. Regardless, Choi Jaeheon narrowed his eyes and glared at Ian. He crossed his arms and asked.
“Choi Ian, what did you really do last night?”
Ian avoided his gaze and played dumb. But there seemed to be a limit to avoiding. Eventually, he had to give an answer.
“What do you mean? I just treated him diligently. That’s all.”
That the treatment was done with lips and saliva was something he could never say even if he died.
“Hmm.”
Hong Seoyoon looked at Ian and Choi Jaeheon with an interested gaze and put the paper box he brought on the dining table.
“Just in case, I bought sandwiches too. Let’s eat together.”
Sandwiches didn’t particularly go with rice, but no one cared. At least with Hong Seoyoon joining in, the atmosphere that had been heavy throughout seemed to improve a bit. Right now, he was more interested in the newly appeared monster than Choi Jaeheon’s love life.
“But about that monster yesterday. It wasn’t ordinary.”
Hong Seoyoon opened his mouth with a serious expression while chewing a sandwich.
“My fire barely worked on it, and to make it work, I had to scrape together all my strength. Plus, the poison was amazing. If you get grazed, it’d be a serious injury. It doesn’t even look that strong but it was tricky. What the hell was that?”
“It’s a demon.”
Vermouth said while not giving up on handing Ian a sausage.
“I can eat by myself!”
Ian whispered to Vermouth with a furrowed brow. Hong Seoyoon, who was watching, suddenly threw out a comment.
“If it’s a demon, the monster that appeared in your world? Ian, do you know about it too?”
“Of course. In Lancia, we called it a Shadow Stalker. It can hide in shadows and is fast too. That’s why it also had the alias ‘Assassin of the Battlefield.'”
“Are light attacks the only thing that works on it?”
“Precisely, light and divine power.”
Ian stopped eating and continued explaining in detail. Just as the conversation continued, the doorbell rang this time.
“Ah, Yoon Taegyeom must be here.”
Hong Seoyoon shouted the house password loudly. Then Yoon Taegyeom entered the house on his own.
“Couldn’t you just open it?”
Yoon Taegyeom, looking more disheveled than usual, frowned.
“We were in the middle of eating.”
“Huh.”
Yoon Taegyeom scratched his head roughly and sat in a chair.
“Is there one for me?”
“Yeah.”
Hong Seoyoon handed Yoon Taegyeom the remaining sandwich. He devoured one sandwich in an instant, then examined Vermouth just as Hong Seoyoon had.
“You look fine.”
“I’m missing an arm though?”
“Still, you don’t look like a patient. That’s fortunate. Actually, the reason I came so early in the morning isn’t only to confirm Mr. Vermouth’s life or death. First, let me explain the current situation.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to finish eating first?”
Choi Jaeheon stopped Yoon Taegyeom, who was about to take out documents from the bag he brought.
“Ah. Right. I’m tired so my head wasn’t working well.”
Yoon Taegyeom obediently waited until the other people finished their meal. And only after cleaning the dining table did he take out the tablet PC and documents again.
“First, about that monster yesterday. A similar type has been found in other dungeons before. But it wasn’t that dangerous, you know?”
He showed photos while saying that, and they did look similar. But the monster found domestically had its eyeballs in the right place, so it wasn’t that scary.
“But the ones that appeared yesterday were different.”
At that point, Ian explained about Shadow Stalkers once more.
“Otherworldly demons. It sounds just like a story from a novel.”
Yoon Taegyeom shook his head.
“When did reality become fantasy?”
Hong Seoyoon said that while examining what appeared to be a map among the documents.
“What, why has the number of sudden gates increased so much?”
“It has increased. Plus, the monsters coming out of there are all mixed with strange things. I wondered what it was, but listening to Ian, I understand. Those demons are trying to invade our world, right?”
“Probably.”
“You said they were originally active in another world?”
“We cut off the Demon King’s head there. Maybe they changed their stage of activity?”
It was a serious story.
