When he returned home and entered his room, a messy sight greeted his eyes. It was exactly as he’d left it before going out. The wardrobe was open, and the few clothes he had were rolling around on the floor. Only then did he realize anew that he’d been excited about having a date today.
“Good grief.”
Ian let out small laughs as he tidied up the room. He smoothly folded the fallen clothes and put them back in the wardrobe, then left the room and cleaned up the bathroom that hadn’t been properly organized either. Although he’d eaten a lot for dinner, even though quite some time had passed, the feeling of fullness hadn’t disappeared.
“What is this.”
So this kind of relationship was possible after all. Had they both gone crazy due to Lancia’s miserable situation, or had time softened their hearts? Ian sat down on a dining chair and slowly closed his eyes, reflecting on what had happened today.
‘Speaking of which.’
Ian opened his eyes again and looked at his phone. A message from Vermouth had arrived.
Vermouth
Did you get home safely?
He’d escorted him right to the front gate and even sent a text.
Yeah. I got home fine.
Ian replied to Vermouth’s text and looked at the front door. Come to think of it, hyung hadn’t come in.
“Is he very busy?”
Well, it hadn’t been long since the sudden gate closed, and Empire Guild had announced something amazing, so everyone would be busy. Choi Jaeheon was also running one of Korea’s top guilds.
So he decided not to worry.
***
Choi Jaeheon was blankly looking down outside from the office at Stigma Guild headquarters. Seoul’s unextinguished lights brilliantly colored the glass. Looking at it made his heart uneasy.
He’d thought to wait for Ian calmly. To do that, he needed to properly play the role of hyung. But he couldn’t even go home right now. In case he blurted out resentful words to Ian and hurt him. He felt like he couldn’t control his reason because it was difficult to even collect his own heart right now.
That’s why he’d been staying at the guild for a while. Fortunately, the room attached next to the office had a bed and a small bathroom. In the past, when Ian wasn’t at home, he’d often stay here when work was busy.
Knock knock.
Just then, someone’s knocking sound was heard. When he turned around, Hong Seoyoon was standing in front of the door that had opened without notice.
“Hey there, buddy!”
Hong Seoyoon waved his hand lightly.
“What’s with the office? This is no joke?”
The glass was cracked, and the light decorations were already broken. Papers were scattered on the floor, and judging from the content, they seemed to be internal guild reports.
“Did something happen?”
Hong Seoyoon naturally picked up the papers, organized them, and placed them on the desk. Then he went to the nearby sofa and sat down heavily.
“You look awful. In that case, there’s only one thing I can assume. Did you get rejected?”
Choi Jaeheon’s head slowly lifted. His eyes were bloodshot, and the vicious killing intent made it feel like the office temperature had dropped. It was a momentum that would have made an ordinary person’s legs go weak and run away, but Hong Seoyoon was an exception.
“Hey, put it away. You shouldn’t use your abilities carelessly.”
“…I know.”
“Is that what someone who knows does? Sheesh. Really, what did I do to deserve this.”
Hong Seoyoon said this while placing the white bag he’d been preciously holding onto the table. Then he began to take out dried snacks, soju, beer, and whiskey from inside and line them up.
“Come sit down.”
Choi Jaeheon obediently moved as Hong Seoyoon said and sat across from him.
“Drink. Drink and talk about it. If someone listens, you’ll feel at least a little better.”
While saying this, he uncapped the whiskey and handed the whole thing to Choi Jaeheon. When he took it and immediately gulped it down, a fiery feeling burned past his throat. It was so strong that for a moment, his vision spun.
“I deliberately picked a strong one.”
Hong Seoyoon grinned wickedly while tearing open the dried snacks. Choi Jaeheon emptied the entire whiskey bottle and this time drank soju. After putting several bottles into his stomach, he felt his sharp nerves calm down even a little. By then, he could speak.
“Ian said he wants to be family with me.”
“Uh, mm.”
At Choi Jaeheon’s words, Hong Seoyoon rolled his eyes and then suddenly grabbed a soju bottle himself. And he drank half of it in one go. It seemed hard to listen to in his right mind.
“So? You agreed to that?”
“Yeah.”
“Why! You couldn’t have felt easy about it either!”
Choi Jaeheon had been Choi Ian’s family for a long time. How much must he have agonized before deciding to give that up and confess his feelings? It wouldn’t have been an ordinary resolve, but it was a bit frustrating that he’d backed down so easily.
“But what Ian wants isn’t me.”
“Don’t tell me if you can’t be lovers, you’ll stay together for life as family. Something like that?”
“How nice it would have been if that were the feeling.”
In reality, he harbored even more sinister feelings. But he couldn’t tell Hong Seoyoon all of that straightforwardly. He didn’t want to reveal that he was a hopeless crazy bastard. That’s why he didn’t explain in more detail and picked up another bottle of alcohol.
“Hey, hey! I brought it for you to drink, but drink in moderation! You know the current situation isn’t good.”
Halfway through, Hong Seoyoon stopped Choi Jaeheon. So this time, he silently just chewed on dried snacks.
Hong Seoyoon watched his friend like this and deliberately swallowed a sigh. Originally, the world doesn’t work the way you want it to. He was thinking that when he suddenly felt a strange sensation.
Something was watching them.
Normally, Choi Jaeheon would have noticed first, but his condition was so bad that he seemed unaware. Hong Seoyoon got up from his seat and looked around.
“Who’s there?”
Though he asked lightly, his body was already lightly tensed. He’d entered combat readiness. Perhaps feeling this, Choi Jaeheon also raised his head and looked at the same place as Hong Seoyoon.
“Ah, I got caught.”
Kim Minchul, who had snuck underground and was spying on Stigma’s Choi Jaeheon, pulled up the corners of his mouth and smiled. As expected, it was impossible to deceive an S-rank Awakener for a long time with his power. Even if not at Vermouth’s level, he seemed to have power about equal to his subordinate Holy Knights.
“But there’s a crucial difference.”
Among Earth people, those with divine power were extremely rare, and even they weren’t strong. Because this wasn’t a world where gods descended to help humans. Thanks to this, Kim Minchul could hide his presence before his location was discovered. They’d noticed the fact that someone had been watching from nearby, but it wouldn’t be easy to know the specific location. Above all, would they even imagine that someone had snuck inside!
Kim Minchul hummed while jumping down from the pile of boxes he’d been sitting on. Right now, there’s no Saint at Stigma headquarters. But since there’s family the Saint cherishes, it’s suitable for carrying out the next operation. For this, he’d recently secretly contacted other demons.
In the hand he pulled from his pocket was a red crystal. This crystallization, made by gathering the pain of countless lives, was a key ingredient for opening sudden gates.
“Shall we move to the next stage?”
Kim Minchul pushed boxes aside to clear a space and drew a circle with his own blood. Inside the darkly drawn red circle went an incantation written in evil language. When he threw in the crystal he held and shattered it with force, the curse and incantation contained inside flowed out.
“Oooh!”
The gate he’d painstakingly created and chosen opens. Commonly called an S-rank gate on Earth. But in reality, it should be considered higher difficulty than that. What fills it wouldn’t be ordinary monsters but demons.
The trap of capturing loved ones is cliché, but it works well on humans. Moreover, since the opponent is the Saint, it will surely work. Kim Minchul exited the underground while watching the gate expand in size with a bizarre sound. At the same time, the gate explosively grew and swallowed Stigma Guild.
“It’s a gate! A gate has opened!”
Terrified screams were heard, and people wandering the night streets began to run away.
“Aaaah!”
“Please save us!”
Soon this news would spread throughout the world. How quickly would the Saint rush here? The demon wearing Kim Minchul’s skin grinned while looking up at the gate.
***
He’d dozed off. It seemed like he’d had some kind of ominous dream, but he couldn’t remember it. It was an unpleasant feeling, as if someone had forcibly woken him from sleep. Ian got up from the bed and came out to the living room. He casually looked at the front door, but the familiar shoes weren’t there.
“He’s not back yet.”
Muttering quietly, he turned on the TV in the living room. Since he couldn’t sleep, he thought he’d watch something.
[Breaking news! A sudden gate has opened again in Seoul.]
Again? He was thinking this while focusing on the news when the location shown on the screen looked familiar. He’d only properly visited when he went to sign the guild membership contract, but he remembered it clearly.
The place where the gate had opened was where Stigma Guild was located.
