Chapter 27: The Weight of a Predator’s Smile

“Ha ha, f*ck.”

[…….]

The ‘capture points’ were specific locations designated by the Association and Guild leadership after careful consideration, once every labyrinth’s path had met a dead end.

These points were determined by comprehensively considering factors such as the straight-line distance to the core, the concentration of demonic energy, and their efficiency as base pathways.

Essentially, they marked areas where, if no other method proved viable, a path would have to be forcibly created, even if it meant sacrificing lives.

Shin Se-yeong was an S-rank mana manipulation hunter from the Hestia Guild.

Their ability was wind manipulation.

It seemed they had attempted to use it to resolve the situation, but if it were that easy, Sagyeol wouldn’t be here, desperately searching for the returnee.

Crack.

Sagyeol’s surroundings instantly froze.

Nearby appliances cracked and shattered.

“To waste such valuable power, blinded by ambition for achievements.”

Lee Hyun-su remained heavily silent.

He knew Sagyeol better than anyone and thus never dared to utter nonsense or jokes about the deep sea.

His hand, weary with fatigue, pressed firmly against his temples.

“Understood. I’ll return as soon as possible.”

[Yes. The airship has already been dispatched. It should arrive within two days.]

“Right.”

The man, having ended the call, leaned back deeply into the sofa.

“So, one good piece of news, and one bad, after all.”

He tsk-ed, yet his mood wasn’t entirely sour.

The good news was simply significant enough to overshadow the bad.

Sagyeol gazed at the undulating city lights.

His returnee was out there somewhere.

The thought made even this shabby, impoverished city feel endearing.

He wore a genuine smile, not one he had to force, for the first time in a long while.

It was the smile of a predator, full of hidden intentions.

He would have to be in Grisha for a while, but it didn’t worry him much.

Perhaps it was because he had deciphered the text.

Sagyeol chuckled, then stretched languidly before heading into the bedroom.

Even as he drifted to sleep, his mind was consumed with thoughts of devouring his tempting prey.

My stomach churned incessantly.

Though I had eaten nothing, constant nausea welled up.

Ultimately, I greeted the dawn without having slept, my mind a dizzying mess of confusion.

The Demon Realm was a world of violence and struggle.

I survived by embracing its brutal laws.

The Middle Realm, to which I had returned, was peaceful.

Even if someone died or was injured in a dark alley, it was nothing compared to the Demon Realm.

The Middle Realm’s violence barely registered as violence at all, and there were no wars due to the common enemies of Gates and demonic beasts.

The sky, not purple, and the man-made buildings standing shoulder-to-shoulder with harmless street trees, were moving in themselves.

However, it wasn’t long before a problem arose.

An undesirable occurrence that happens as a secondary consequence of something.

The dictionary called it a side effect.

As I adapted to the Middle Realm, a side effect manifested.

The things I had suppressed under Kratus began to unravel, one by one.

The most intensely suppressed emotion was the first to resurface: a foul resentment.

This fire-like emotion created invisible cracks in my scars.

Even on nights without nightmares, I awoke with a fever.

Gasping for breath, I intuited that I would soon collapse because of these cracks.

I had to find a way to fill the gaps.

‘But how?’

I dared not dream of revenge against the Ice Dragon.

Deceiving them and fleeing was the best I could do.

So, where should this aimless fury and vengeance be directed?

Fortunately (though I’m not sure if ‘fortunately’ is the right word), I had a worthy target.

The Three Crescent Moon Guild.

For a guild that operated in secret, committing such deeds, they were quite famous.

A simple search on the terminal yielded significant results.

Lee Myeong-hwan.

The moment I saw his inauguration photo, I knew instantly.

This was the man, the mastermind behind everything, who had worn the mask.

He was the head of the Lee family.

It was surprising that someone of his status would instigate such dirty deeds and be present at the scene, but now, it no longer mattered nor interested me.

He was the leader of a colossal guild, once known as one of Grisha’s three great guilds, and owned a research institute under its umbrella.

The guild was operated by family members, centered around the Lee clan.

However, twenty years ago, the guild was annihilated due to the emergence of a large-scale Irregular Gate.

Lee Myeong-hwan was…

‘…dead.’

I checked the date.

It was roughly a few months after I had been sent to the Demon Realm.

There were only five survivors of the Lee family: the head of the family’s seven-year-old son, who happened to be outside at the time, and a seven-year-old child from a branch family, who was his playmate.

The remaining three were bodyguards, aged 25, 32, and 33, assigned to protect them.

And the three bodyguards were dead.

Regarding the son, I was waiting for the informant to contact me again.

“…….”

I wasn’t intending to seek collective punishment.

…Or was I? I wasn’t sure.

The void that had clung to my life like a shadow laughed sinisterly as it embraced me.

The target amount was not far off.

Once the money was gathered, I would obtain a forged Grisha citizen ID and attempt to stow away via airship.

If I couldn’t kill him with my own hands, I had to at least smash his corpse.

Only then would the curse, clinging to my soul from its very roots, begin to fade, even if just a little.

In the ruins outside the city, where Outers and demonic beasts prowled, a woman clutched me tightly, running madly forward.

‘It’s okay.’

Noticing my gaze, she looked down and smiled, though her forehead was torn and bleeding, and her hair was disheveled.

I, on the other hand, was unharmed, without a single scratch or tear.

Only Mother was broken, a fact I found unbearable.

‘Mother.’

‘I told you, it’s okay.’

No, it wasn’t okay at all.

The chasers were right on our heels, and fire and ice rained down from behind us.

Countless ice blades materialized above Mother’s back.

Though she possessed immense magic, enough that I dared not confront it, the sheer number of attacks and the prolonged struggle had begun to wear down her steel-like resolve.

Then, a water whip, seemingly from nowhere, snaked between her arms and snared me.

‘Ah, no!’

Mother screamed my name, reaching out to me.

The water whip instantly froze solid, and my body, losing its hold in the air, began to fall.

She leaped towards me, but those who had been waiting for an opening behind her seized the opportunity to unleash a barrage of elemental attacks.

As flames grazed her arm and her thigh was pierced, causing her body to falter, a strong man’s arms wrapped around me.

‘Lee Myeong-hwan…!’

Mother glared at the man with fiery eyes.

I, however, called her calmly, for the moment had finally arrived when I had to utter these words myself.

‘Give me up.’

The man had first proposed to Mother that if she handed me over, he would leave her alone.

She could live a normal life, as she always had, for as long as she wished.

Mother refused, and the situation spiraled into the worst possible outcome.

It was the worst-case scenario where, if she didn’t give me up, both of us would fall into Lee Myeong-hwan’s hands and ultimately die.

‘I told you I’d be okay. Then I’ll be okay.’

I wasn’t fooled.

It didn’t mean we would be okay.

It was a vow and a promise that no matter what happened, she would ensure I was okay.

Smiling softly, without me being able to stop her, she threw herself into the quagmire.

‘Catch them!’

Countless backs surged forward, hiding her from me.

To my young eyes, it looked just like a giant, black wall.

Only when Mother, bound, was about to be transported, did the man bring me near her.

‘Child. Don’t cry.’

My vision blurred and cleared repeatedly.

Tears, forming quickly, streamed down my cheeks, soaking them completely.

‘Nothing will happen.’

Saying so, Mother smiled.

She knew, and I knew, that it was a preposterous lie.

From that day on, we became each other’s hostages.

“Gasp…!”

Sagyeol jolted awake from his sleep, his anxious eyes scanning the room.

It was a hotel.

Memories, which had been submerged in the past, quickly returned to their rightful place.

He repeatedly wiped his face with a large palm, and as he realized his body was no longer small, his turbulent emotions also settled.

“f*ck!”

Muttering a curse, he opened a bottle of whiskey he hadn’t looked at in a while, tilting it directly to his lips without a glass.

“Hoo.”

As the strong scent of alcohol wafted from his breath, his stirring stomach calmed slightly.

After tilting the bottle a few more times, he threw his sweat-soaked body onto the sofa.

Lying there, watching the undulating waves of the night view outside the window, his complicated thoughts miraculously began to clear.

It was because of his returnee, who, as he had thought before sleeping, was somewhere amidst those lights.

Sagyeol let out a short, mirthless laugh.

‘Am I crazy?’

Of course, the damn dream had reignited his longing for the deep sea.

But even so, the image of his mother and the man from his memories kept overlapping and scattering in his mind.

Similarities? None at all.

Their atmospheres? Completely opposite.

Yet, he strangely felt something akin to his mother emanating from him.

Gulp.

Sagyeol simply decided to drink.

He emptied an entire bottle of strong whiskey, then opened a new one.

His piercing eyes, filled with deep resentment, stared out at the city shrouded in darkness.