The doctrine class was utterly useless. Though, if a cult’s classes were actually useful, that would have been even more surprising. If I had to describe it, it was a lesson that interpreted the Bible in an extremely peculiar way, coupled with lavish praise of the cult leader’s deeds.
“Since today is the first day, shall we stop here?”
They’d said no one else would be attending because of the New Year event, and indeed, aside from me, only a few existing believers were present for the doctrine class. Thanks to that, I couldn’t even doze off, and I was exhausted. It was even harder to sit through than the forced group life of high school.
After the lesson ended, Choi Miyeon approached me. “How was the class?”
“…It was memorable.”
“Hahaha, well, it’s only the first day. From dinner onward, you’ll have free time. I’ll show you to the dormitory.”
She guided me to the lodging inside the building. It was a simple room with nothing but two sets of bunk beds. For a group that boasted about having plenty of money, the accommodations provided to believers were remarkably shabby. Then again, just because a cult had money didn’t mean that wealth would be shared with ordinary followers.
“Normally it’s four people to a room, but because of the event, it’s full right now. The others are helping prepare and will come back late. Probably after 10 p.m.”
“Would it be okay if I used the lower bunk? I’m sensitive when it comes to sleeping.”
“Oh, really? Of course! Then I’ll take the top.”
Since I planned to sneak out to the garden in the middle of the night to analyze the magic circle, a spot that was easy to move from would be best.
“All right, now that you’ve seen the room, shall we go have dinner?”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t think my lunch has fully digested yet. Would it be okay if I just rested alone for a bit?”
“Oh, is that so? Then rest up. I’ll give you some space.”
That, at least, was something to be grateful for.
I’d expected her to linger more, but Choi Miyeon surprisingly withdrew without fuss. Maybe it was because it was only the first day.
And just as she was about to leave the room, Leo, who had been forced to stay in Choi Miyeon’s arms while watching my mood the entire time, started struggling.
“Myaaak!”
“Put me down! Put me down!”
“Oh dear, are you feeling cramped? Just hold on a little longer.”
Why not just stay there?
But Choi Miyeon didn’t let Leo go so easily. Even in her water-balloon-like state, a Hunter was still a Hunter, and Leo—unable to disobey my order to pretend to be an ordinary cat and unable to use brute force—stood no chance of winning that struggle.
Adjusting her hold on Leo, Choi Miyeon said, “Then I’ll go find a place where I can let this cat go. It’s not great to keep one inside the building for too long.”
“I thought you liked it so much you were going to keep it.”
“Hahaha, maybe briefly, but keeping a cat in the dorms would be awful. And actually…” She added quietly, “Most believers like animals, but there are a few who hate cats. If they notice this little one… it wouldn’t be good. I was planning to take it somewhere far away and secretly let it go after carrying it around today.”
“Oh… I see.”
I’d thought it odd that, no matter how animal-friendly she was, she’d been holding it all day. Given that black cats are symbols of persecution, it made sense for an animal lover to worry.
“Meow! Myaaak!”
“I don’t want to! I don’t want to!”
Of course, regardless of such deeper intentions, Leo was completely freaking out in her arms.
“Just leave it here. I’ll take care of it. It’s already late—let it go tomorrow.”
“Uh, are you sure? You said you didn’t like cats….”
“I was joking. I like cats.”
“Well then,” she said, handing Leo over to me. “Wow, it calmed down right away. Sister Daon, do you maybe have an animal affinity skill?”
I didn’t have any animal affinity, but I was this one’s owner.
After Choi Miyeon put Leo down and left the room, I was finally alone.
“Whine...”
“Not my fault…”
Well, almost alone.
I stroked the dejected Leo and checked the presence around us.
Choi Miyeon is…lingering nearby.
It was only natural to expect that, even though they’d said they were assigning me a mentor–mentee relationship and giving me some time alone, they wouldn’t actually leave my vicinity. Still, this made me wonder whether the informant who had sent the tip-off would even be able to approach me. No matter where I went, attention kept gathering around me. From the cafeteria to the doctrine class, the gazes of at least three people were constantly following me. It left my nerves stretched razor-thin. At this rate, I had to consider the possibility that the informant might not be able to reach me at all.
Vrrrr!
Just as I was pondering what to do, my phone vibrated. When I checked it, it was an incoming call from Jeong Dajeong.
“Hello—”
“Hey, Jeong Daon!”
My eardrums nearly burst the moment I answered. I covered one ear with my hand and spoke again. “Why are you shouting?”
“If you’re going to stay out overnight, you should’ve said so in advance! Even if it’s a guild seminar, this isn’t something you just announce by phone and then disappear over! You have to tell your family about things like this!”
“Ah, sorry about that. It came up so suddenly. But you said you were busy at year’s end with company dinners too. You’re going to be coming home late anyway, right?”
“That’s not the point… I’m worried. I mean, how long has it even been since you got caught up in a Dungeon Break, and you’re already staying out overnight again? And for two nights and three days, at that!” Jeong Dajeong launched into a tirade. “At this rate, you won’t even come home until January 1st!”
I couldn’t make sense of what he was saying. I understood being worried, but not being able to give advance notice was something that could happen, wasn’t it? I even had the perfectly good excuse of a guild seminar. And I’d apologized, too. More than that, what did getting caught in a Dungeon Break recently have to do with staying out overnight? And what was so wrong with being out until January 1st? His anger was thoroughly illogical.
“No, I mean, I’m attending a guild seminar. I need to develop my abilities quickly, don’t I? And is staying at home with you really any safer? If anything, being with guild members is safer.”
Of course, I had learned enough social skills over the past nineteen years not to voice those doubts outright. Wasn’t that a perfect answer? I’d clearly given a solid reason for staying out overnight.
As I was patting myself on the back, an ominous sound came through the phone.
“…So this is how you’re going to play it, Jeong Daon.”
Uh-oh. This was bad.
“No, wait a second. Bro—”
“Fine. Then have a good seminar. Happy New Year.”
Click. The call ended.
Jeong Dajeong had hung up on me unilaterally—something that had never happened before. While I sat there in shock, unable to speak for a while, Leo tapped the screen with a paw. “Your fault, right?”
“Why? What did I do wrong?”
No matter how much I asked, Leo, whose capacity for reasoning was underdeveloped, couldn’t give me a logical answer. In the end, I was the only one with my head about to explode.
…Did he want to do the New Year’s countdown together? Now that I thought about it, I vaguely remembered him saying something like that last year. Watching the New Year’s bell ring as a family…
Working part-time on holidays paid extra, so Jeong Dajeong was always out working at this time of year. But now he had landed a full-time job with holidays off, so he’d said we absolutely had to do the countdown together this year… I only remembered that now.
Cold sweat began to run down my back.
This was bad. Jeong Dajeong wasn’t someone who got sulky easily, but once he did, it lasted a long time.
What should I do? Forget the cult and everything else, should I just go home and apologize first? No, if he was that angry, even apologizing would probably just get me a, “So what exactly did you do wrong?” And then I’d be stuck in an endless loop of getting scolded for apologizing without knowing what I’d done wrong. That was more terrifying than a cult.
First, I should try calling him back—
“Hunter Jeong Daon, are you inside?”
“…Yes.”
I stopped myself from calling, slipped my phone into my pocket, and got up from the bed. What was done was done. I’d deal with getting scolded later. Right now, I needed to handle what was in front of me.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Lee Arin.”
The person who entered my dorm room was a woman of small stature, her short hair covered with a scarf, much like Choi Miyeon.
“Oh, this hairstyle?” Noticing where my gaze had gone, Lee Arin lightly smiled and gestured to her head. “Hunters who stay in the water-balloon state for a long time start losing their hair first. Ah, you know what the water-balloon state is, right?”
“Yes, I’ve heard.”
“Well, you’ve been hanging around with Miyeon, but she probably didn’t explain things properly.” As she spoke, Lee Arin removed the scarf covering her head. “Miyeon’s been a member of Truelight Sect since birth, so she can’t really think properly.”
It wasn’t just short hair; her hair was patchy, clearly not a normal condition.
“They say it’s because the power of the body and the soul is out of balance, causing the immune system to malfunction. Such an annoying illness, right? If I’d never awakened in the first place, I wouldn’t have gotten a disease like this.”
She wasn’t wrong. It was a disease you wouldn’t get if you’d never awakened to begin with.
Lee Arin quietly sat down on the bed opposite mine and continued speaking, “No. At the very least, if Truelight Guild hadn’t pressured me, I would’ve stopped at a reasonable level along the way. I didn’t really have any ambition to become an A-rank Hunter.”
“Pressured you?”
“Yes. They take believers who show promise and develop them into guild-affiliated Hunters. High-grade manpower you can use cheaply, of course they’d find that tempting.”
“Cheaply, meaning…?”
“Haven’t you heard about Truelight Guild’s slave contracts? Since you’ve come all the way here, I thought you would’ve known.”
As Lee Arin spoke, she seemed almost like a shadow, quiet and gloomy. Her complexion was pale, unmistakably sickly.
“In the mythological age, humans are nothing more than God’s toys. We die like pebbles on the roadside over some ridiculous excuse like having incurred God’s wrath. The individual called ‘me’ is simply erased as part of some grand story.”
“…”
I’d suspected it from the moment she entered the room, but it now seemed certain that this Lee Arin was the one who had sent the tip-off to Yu Hanul.
I stood up. “Wait a moment, I’ll put up a soundproofing spell—”
“It’s useless. The moment you start drawing a magic circle here, the people waiting in the next room will come rushing in.”
“Then…”
“Are you asking why I barged in like this without any countermeasures?”
I couldn’t even finish a single sentence. This was clearly something Lee Arin had been preparing for a long time. I had no choice but to hear her out.
Bang! The dormitory door rattled violently.
“Why won’t this open? Hey, Lee Arin! Open this right now!” a rough shout rang out.
Someone outside was trying, and failing, to force the door open.
Only then did I notice the bloodstains left on the doorknob where Lee Arin had entered, and the blood dripping steadily from her fingers.
“What’s that wound?”
“I can exert control over objects that have my blood on them for a while. Only until the blood dries, though.” Even as the door was pounded on again and again, Lee Arin spoke calmly. “At most, I’ve only got a few months left. So I figured I’d do everything I want before I go.”
“And what is it you want to do?”
Lee Arin smiled, as if talking about something pleasant. “Kill that cult leader bastard.”