Chapter 20: The Unyielding Heart of a Returnee

The palm I had offered up in surrender covered the back of my hand. My hand, trained to react to killing intent and bloodlust, remained unresponsive once again.

“If it feels like too much, I’ll keep my distance. Just seeing your face occasionally and going out for good food, like we do now, is enough.”

I was dull when it came to discerning truth. My father had never lied to me during my childhood; there had been no need for it.

The denizens of the Demon Realm were also far removed from pretense or deception. They resolved issues with force, even if they weren’t strictly problems. In a way, they were much like my father.

I had always lived amidst violence and killing intent directed at me. I was confident in my ability to detect and react to those more swiftly than anyone. However, I was clumsy in many ways when it came to other emotions.

“You don’t dislike me, do you?”

No. That was precisely why it felt so difficult.

The more our words intertwined, the more I felt myself sinking into a quagmire. Intellectually, I understood: in the Middle World, one should never trust anyone recklessly or give their heart away.

But why would this man lie to me? I was an F-rank with nothing to my name. Frankly, even if he tried to strip me bare, there was nothing to take. Could he truly have intended to strip off my clothes?

Ultimately, my thoughts converged on a single point.

Could this man genuinely be sincere? Perhaps, with his peculiar tastes, he truly… liked me?

“…!”

Emotions I had never possessed, and thus never known the pain of losing, began to awaken. An instinctive yearning surged forth, like water naturally seeping into a hollowed-out space.

Stop.

‘No.’

I bit my lip hard. I pressed down on the tumultuous feelings, shoving them into a corner of my chest.

‘This is it.’

My relationship with this man ended precisely here. I acutely felt that I could not drag it out any further.

“The cake was delicious.”

The man’s eyebrows shot up, as if he had intuited something.

“Please, don’t come looking for me again.”

I pushed my chair back and stood. The man I glimpsed was expressionless. He didn’t react even as I brushed past him. Among the countless reactions I had anticipated, this was not one.

‘But why does my chest feel… like this…’

It felt as though coarse fabric had been crumpled and stuffed into my chest, leaving me feeling rough, stifled, and breathless.

‘This is simply a sense of obligation. Besides, didn’t he say himself not to worry about that incident?’

I didn’t know why, but it was for the best. It had to be for the best. I repeated this to myself, for if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to move forward.

Leaving the man behind, I exited the cafe. I sensed no presence following me.

Even after Yeowon departed, Sagyeol lingered in the cafe for a while. Outwardly, he appeared serene, yet his eyes, fixed on the window, gleamed with a serpentine intensity.

Only after the sun had set did Sagyeol return to his hotel, stretching out languidly on the sofa.

‘They say you play as you look. He truly has good instincts.’

Lying on his back, he interlaced his fingers.

‘So good, it was almost irritating.’

Frost formed on the perfectly ordinary glass left on the table. This was a presidential suite, a place where temperature control was entirely automatic.

Yet, if an S-rank snake emitting a chilling aura had made its nest on the sofa, no heating equipment would be of any use.

Sagyeol fell into thought. Ever since arriving in Baekdam—no, ever since meeting that man—his mind had been consumed by the stoic figure. There wasn’t a single part of him, from head to toe, that wasn’t to Sagyeol’s liking. His quietness and touch of innocence, his impassive and ascetic face, his broad chest, his pale skin, even his lips, which were unusually red for a man.

“…”

Moreover, it wasn’t just his lips that were red.

He ran a hand over his mouth. His concealed lips twitched, as if suppressing a smile. Though he showed no agitation as usual, his ears had gradually flushed red. It was an unexpected reaction.

‘To be precise, it wasn’t typical for a Returnee.’

Someone who possessed vast knowledge of the Demon Realm and had overcome demonic energy. A being capable of profoundly influencing the subjugation of the Cataclysm.

That was merely a definition of a Returnee’s value. Delving into the process of becoming a Returnee, however, revealed the desolate weight those words carried.

Sagyeol recalled the Cataclysm. In reality, it was nothing short of a part of the Demon Realm, rooted and parasitic within the Middle World.

It was a place teeming with demonic beasts that, upon seeing anything weaker, would immediately sink their teeth into it. A quintessential world of the strong preying on the weak, where higher demonic beasts devoured lesser ones.

Among the S-ranks, there were occasionally quasi-demons, intelligent beings who would dismember human bodies to adorn their territories.

Plants nourished by demonic energy sometimes exuded poisons more virulent than those of demonic beasts. They would extend their roots for kilometers, forming colonies, and carnivorous plants that preyed on weaker demonic beasts were rampant.

The Cataclysm, with all of this intertwined within it, was already a colossal demonic beast itself. A monster that writhed its enormous body, devouring hunters one by one as they dared to enter its maw for subjugation.

Even a Cataclysm, a mere speck on an entire planet, was this formidable. And a Returnee was someone who had survived and returned from a world where an entire planet was filled solely with such horrors.

A person who had overcome demonic energy and survived the most extreme environments to return.

What must a person, an F-rank who couldn’t even be called a hunter, have endured to survive after falling into the Demon Realm? Sagyeol couldn’t even begin to imagine. It was astonishing enough that he had returned from that world physically unscathed, yet outwardly, he seemed unremarkable.

He was a little quiet and his expressions were extremely subtle, but that was all. No, the astonishing part was that it was only that much. Frankly, Sagyeol wouldn’t have been surprised if he had been a deranged killer or a sociopath.

‘He risked his identity being exposed to stand before the laborers.’

What was truly astonishing was that his nature felt closer to ‘good.’ As he considered this, Sagyeol’s curiosity about Yeowon deepened profoundly.

He wanted to know,

‘He wanted to unearth it.’

He yearned to ascertain the shape of that inner self, which was not merely solid but unyielding.

Squeeze. His other hand, which had been resting idly, clenched the armrest of the chair. A desire, almost an impulse, that he had suppressed for the greater good, reared its head once more.

‘Tear it open. Expose it. Gaze upon its core.’

‘You want to unearth it, don’t you?’

‘Do as you wish.’

The voice of his heart was, ultimately, his own voice. That statement rang true. For the sake of his objective, it was best not to be picky about means or methods. A reason? Did such a thing even require a reason?

Sagyeol smiled languidly.

He had always preferred to act without restraint. It was easier and more convenient. This time, however, was an exception.

‘It’s probably better if he acts of his own accord.’

Simply acquiring him wasn’t enough; it was inefficient. What Sagyeol desired wasn’t just *a* Returnee, but ‘a strong Returnee who would be devoted to him.’

The easiest and quickest method was to make the man develop special feelings for him. The type of emotion didn’t matter, whether it was loyalty or love. From Sagyeol’s perspective, the latter was simply easier to manipulate.

He was quite confident. He understood the power of his own appearance. Adding his natural eloquence to that, swaying anyone, regardless of who they were, was never difficult.

Yet, it had certainly seemed that way.

Sagyeol unlaced his fingers and tapped the sofa with his fingertips. Yeowon wasn’t the type to harbor aversion towards the same s*x. Though he had been flustered by the mention of spending the night together, he hadn’t shown any repulsion towards the same gender. The issue lay in the man’s disposition and wariness.

His eyes, glimpsed occasionally through the fringe of his hair like a curtain, were like weighty stones. Yet, every time Sagyeol spoke, they trembled incessantly, as if they were a rocking boulder.

Sagyeol mused. How could even this be so endearing?

And the fact that he believed himself to be perfectly expressionless.

No, he was indeed expressionless. One could only discern the faint, intricate emotions stirring beneath that blank facade from a proximity close enough to support a drunken man, or to sit across from him over food and cake.

‘No one must have noticed until now.’

An ordinary person would have avoided him due to his intimidating aura. The documents Sagyeol had pre-investigated showed no one with a particularly deep relationship with Yeowon. He was the first. Feeling somewhat invigorated by this fact, Sagyeol began to gather the information in his mind, piece by piece.

Tap. Tap.

The scattered puzzle pieces clicked into place.

‘His mind was cool, but his body, vulnerable to kindness, couldn’t quite keep up.’

The price for seeing his true expressions was a single, sweet cafe mocha.

Tap, tap-tap.

The form of the beast hidden within the armor was slowly becoming tangible.

‘This is less a beast than…’

“A muscle hamster?”

Sagyeol cackled to himself like a madman. After a long moment, he ceased his laughter and adopted his characteristic languid smile.

“Yes. He’s cute.”

He had merely been unaware of the method until now; the conquest might prove surprisingly simple.