“How did you summon that familiar, anyway?” Yu Hanul asked.
And since I’d expected the question, I already had an answer prepared. “The system gave it to me as an achievement reward during the last Dungeon Break. I just used it.”
Han Jaeyeong, who had been watching with interest, interjected, “An achievement reward… those aren’t very common.”
As they said, aside from stat increases tied to level-ups, achievement rewards granted by the system are rare. Above all, the system never clearly states the criteria for those achievements. My guess is that when someone does something that contributes to humanity’s survival, or when the system judges that rewarding and strengthening someone will benefit humanity’s survival going forward, it independently grants items…
The system does not provide achievement criteria in order to prevent malicious use.
Who asked? As a former Demon Lord, I know human malice better than anyone. In any case, that wasn’t what mattered.
“I think it’s because I dealt with the shadow ghosts despite having relatively low stats.” No matter what these two actually thought, once I said I’d received an achievement reward, there was no way for them to disprove it. “I think it was an achievement worthy of a reward. Don’t you?”
As I said that, I slightly lifted the sleeve around my wrist. The bandages were still there. I’d received potions through Han Jaeyeong and treated the urgent wounds, but injuries inflicted by shadow ghosts didn’t heal easily, and since my current stats were heavily focused on mana, my physical robustness was extremely low.
Yu Hanul frowned slightly as he examined my injury, then pulled a potion from his inventory and handed it to me. “Use this, at least. Why are you still wearing bandages?”
“Overusing potions lowers the body’s natural healing ability.” I had no intention of weakening an already frail body even further.
Han Jaeyeong scoffed incredulously. “Natural healing ability? What, are you trying to become an S-rank swordsman or something? For mages like us, it’s better to eliminate physical pain so it doesn’t interfere with mental focus.”
“So that’s why you just sat there during the Dungeon Break when you couldn’t use any mana?”
“…”
That clearly hit a sore spot.
While Han Jaeyeong fell silent, Yu Hanul let out a sigh. “…I was just curious, so don’t be too on guard, Daon.”
“I wasn’t really on guard.”
Even as I answered that way, I felt a slight pang. From my perspective, it was hard not to be cautious around Yu Hanul.
Ignoring the gazes of Yu Hanul and Han Jaeyeong, I refocused my attention on Leo.
Climbing the drainage pipe with agile movements, Leo reached the rooftop in one smooth motion and sat there, stretching his neck to peer down below.
“Watching? Watching? I climbed up!”
Of course. Through the shared vision between Leo and me, I looked down at the building. Seen from the rooftop, the Truelight Guild’s building was laid out in the shape of the character 井, like a grid. And in the empty center of the complex…
How disgusting.
A statue of a man, clearly meant to be the cult leader, stood tall and imposing. I asked Han Jaeyeong, who was watching me with interest, “What’s the name of the cult leader here?”
“His name is Lee Manbok. A creepy bald old man who doesn’t have long left to live. Why, do you think he’s inside the building?”
“I heard that Lee Manbok is currently undergoing treatment.”
“He’s not here himself, but there is a statue… hmm. You’re right.”
Judging by the statue of the bald old man, it was definitely the cult leader’s likeness.
Yu Hanul grimaced in disgust. “Way to prove they’re a cult, putting up statues in every branch…”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Leo finished surveying the rooftop, confirmed there was nothing unusual, then slid down the outer wall and landed on the ground in one swift motion. Inside the courtyard, he crept closer to inspect the cult leader’s statue and sniffed at it.
“This place feels bad!”
Looking through Leo’s senses, I could see that the flow of mana around the statue was unnatural, stagnant. On closer inspection, it seemed there was a magic circle installed beneath the statue. And it was of the mental-magic variety.
Did they set up some kind of charm spell?
If they really had laid an enchantment spell on a statue of that bald old man, that would be disgusting in its own way. Still, the idea of such magic being placed on the statue of a cult leader actually made a certain twisted sense.
Leo lightly tapped at the base of the statue. “Should I get rid of it? Should I get rid of it?”
Fortunately, since Leo was in the form of an animal and thought rather simply, mental-type magic didn’t affect him.
Then, someone who had just come out of the building and was crossing the garden spotted Leo.
“Oh my, how did a kitten get in here?”
He was a man who looked to be in his forties. Carrying a thick envelope of documents, apparently on his way somewhere, he noticed Leo, then squatted down on the spot and beckoned toward him. “No idea how you got in here. You’re not supposed to come in. Come here.”
“Grrr…”
“What do I do?”
“Pretend you’re a real cat.”
“Mya!”
“Not a cat!”
Leo protested, but didn’t disobey my order. To the naked eye, Leo, still looking much like a small black kitten, sat in place and quietly stared at the man. The man seemed to have completely forgotten what he’d just said about not letting cats in, and looked pleased when Leo didn’t run away.
“Oh my, aren’t you adorable. Heh, my daughter’s been saying she wants to raise a cat…”
Just from making eye contact and not running from his hand—without even jumping into his arms—the man was already revising his family plans. Either he really loved cats, or he really loved his daughter.
“But for a cat, your paws seem kind of big…”
That was when Leo suddenly bristled, fur standing on end.
Footsteps approached the garden, along with harsh, panting breaths. The person who came out of the building into the garden was the executive who had greeted us earlier. The moment the executive saw the man, they shouted and kicked him in the shin without warning. “What do you think you’re doing here right now?!”
"Aagh!"
Thud! The man who’d been kicked collapsed to his knees on the spot.
…They’re beating up a civilian like that?
The executive didn’t seem to have particularly high stats, but they were clearly an awakened Hunter. Even at C-rank, the physical difference between a Hunter and a normal person is unmistakable. It was violence far too excessive to be directed at a civilian.
Face flushed with anger, the executive pointed accusingly at the man writhing on the ground. It was completely different from the friendly, smiling demeanor they’d shown when greeting us earlier. “You idiot, what do you think you’re doing here? Is this really the time to be playing around with a damn kitten? You should’ve come running the moment I called! Didn’t I say the documents were urgent?!”
“Huh? No, I was just told to organize and bring the personnel records of former employees—ah, no! I’m sorry!”
“Hey, you’re supposed to read between the lines and use some common sense! What, do I have to teach you how to hold chopsticks too? Hand it over, now!”
“Y-yes, here it is. These are the HR documents for Im Jaehwan. The evaluation from his interview and the salary payment records are included as well…”
The executive took the envelope, pulled out the documents, and flipped through them rapidly. “There wasn’t anything that could cause trouble, right?”
“No. Nothing at all. His attendance was good, he attended every seminar without fail, and he always paid his tithe.”
Listening to their conversation through Leo, I asked Han Jaeyeong to confirm something, “By any chance, the name Im Jaehwan…”
“It’s the name of the person who caused the first Dungeon Break.”
I clicked my tongue. That meant it was certain that someone named Im Jaehwan had been affiliated with this Truelight Guild.
In Leo’s field of vision, the conversation between the executive and the man continued.
“This—there really isn’t any record of it on our intranet, right?”
“Huh? Ah, yes. You told us to store everything strictly as handwritten documents, so there are no digital records at all. That’s why it took so long to find…”
“Yeah, got it. Damn it, why are those bastards coming here and making a fuss over some Im Jaehwan who’s already dead? We’re already swamped with preparations for the New Year’s event our branch is hosting in just three days.”
So they really did know that Im Jaehwan was dead.
As the executive clicked their tongue and flipped through the papers roughly, the man asked cautiously, “Um, excuse me...”
“What is it?”
“Just now… you said that Im Jaehwan passed away?”
At the man’s careful question, the executive snapped their head around. “What are you trying to say?”
“Well, I just… he seemed like someone who was very devoted to our church. Hearing that he passed away feels unfortunate. He was still one of our congregation, at least we could offer funeral prayers or something…”
“Why are you asking me that? He left a long time ago. Why would that be our responsibility?”
“Uh, he didn’t leave that long ago—ugh!”
Thud! The executive struck the man hard across the cheek. The sound was so loud it was almost like a drum being beaten; even Leo stiffened for a moment. The man who was hit wasn’t small by any means, yet he was sent nearly flying by the executive’s punch.
The executive sneered down at the fallen man. “I didn’t like you much to begin with, but you really have no sense at all, you bastard. Do you seriously think that’s something you should be saying to me right now?”
I frowned. That’s going too far.
The man might have said something ill-timed, but it still wasn’t something that deserved being hit like that.
“I should really just—tch… throw you out right now.”
“I-I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Yet instead of protesting or fighting back, the man practically crawled and grabbed onto the executive’s ankle. “I was careless! I-I’ll do better from now on. Please?”
It was hard to believe how desperate he looked. Was this really a job worth clinging to like that?
The executive clicked their tongue. “Seriously, what a mess… You should be grateful your daughter’s an eligible candidate. Damn it, you’ve ruined my mood. Don’t let me see you again today.”
With an irritated stride, the executive disappeared, documents in hand.
Only after the executive was out of sight did the man push himself up from the ground and look around. “…Nabi, are you still here?”
Leo, who had already hidden behind the statue when the executive arrived, didn’t bother responding. After calling out to Leo a few times with his swollen face, the man finally let out a long sigh.
“Damn it, meddling again… I can’t keep doing this. For my daughter’s sake, at least…”
Soon, the man trudged back the way he had come, and Leo crept along behind him. Just as he was about to follow the man into another building—
Thump!
“Look! Look!” Leo tapped at the space beyond his field of view with a paw. There was a transparent wall where there should have been nothing at all, a barrier meant to block intruders.
The moment Leo touched it, he lowered his body and went into a guarded stance. I could vividly feel, beyond mere physical distance, just how alert he was right now. An invisible, thick, transparent wall, and within that barrier, built up with strong mana in a subtle yet intricate structure, there was a single thread of mana, barely visible, concealed within.
“Smells familiar.” Leo bared his teeth, unable to hide the surge of hostility.
I closed my eyes, then opened them again.
When I cut off the shared vision with Leo, Yu Hanul warned me in a low voice, “I hear someone coming. Daon, put that down.”
"Huh?"
I was holding the pamphlet the executive had left behind earlier. I must have picked it up without realizing it.
We've entered a new age of myth.
The phrase was printed in huge letters across the crumpled front of the pamphlet. They’d said it was a line the cult leader used in his speeches.
This cult packaged an individual’s death as though it were a noble mission. Judging the value of sacrificing oneself for someone else as a lofty moral ideal can, at times, also mean insisting that sacrifice is necessary in order to be virtuous. It was something I already knew all too well. So well, in fact, that I was sick of it.
And the mana Leo had just sensed, someone unmistakably familiar, was the same.
Click. The door opened as the executive hurried back in.
They looked so ordinary that it was hard to believe this was the same person who had just beaten a civilian without restraint.
“Ah, sorry for the delay. Since we store all our documents in analog form, it was a bit hard to find.”
“Ahaha, really? Even so, you came back pretty quickly.” Han Jaeyeong smiled lazily as they took the document envelope from the executive’s hand.
Whether they caught the sarcasm or not, the executive laughed along. “To summarize, yes, he was once affiliated with our church. He was also a guild member. However, it’s been quite some time since he left.”
“I see…”
As Han Jaeyeong flipped through the papers, the executive continued, “Strictly speaking, this is personal information and a legitimate asset of the guild, so we aren’t actually obligated to cooperate. But isn’t it only natural to assist our S-rank Hunters, who always work so hard for national prestige and security?”
Give me a break. They’d deserve to be sued for violating personal data protection laws.
“Yes, yes. Thank you.”
“…That said, visiting hours for outsiders have already passed today, and things are quite hectic right now. So if you have further questions, perhaps you could come back another day—”
“Since you mentioned outsiders.” I waved the pamphlet I was holding in front of the executive, who was just about to politely usher us out. “I found parts of it quite moving when I read it.”
“E-excuse me?”
As the executive stared at me in disbelief, I lifted the corners of my mouth as far as I could. “Could I attend one of these doctrine classes you have listed here?”