Chapter 33
Living as a villain is truly hard. Baekdam returned while Han Chasu was still trying to calm his pounding heart.
Han Chasu watched his expression and cautiously asked.
“What is it? Did something bad happen…?”
Baekdam stared at him for a moment, then suddenly grabbed his cheeks. Before Han Chasu could ask what he was doing, a warm energy enveloped his body. It was healing.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m just a peddler.”
“But—”
“Tsk, don’t get on my nerves. If you’re done eating, go upstairs and hole yourself up in your room to rest.”
Han Chasu quietly watched Baekdam’s back as he left the dining room. ‘It’s a lie.’ This was a high-class residential complex with walls higher than a person. No peddler would dare show his face in a place like this. ‘Just who is he… Wait.’
The light attached to the dining room ceiling flickered slowly. The light came on and went off several times.
Feeling his surroundings grow darker and darker, Han Chasu belatedly realized. ‘Damn it.’ It wasn’t that the bulb was broken. His body couldn’t withstand the demonic energy.
Thud.
A sound of something collapsing rang out, and Baekdam entered the dining room. Seeing Han Chasu precariously slumped over the chair, he scoffed.
“So careless, as always.”
Baekdam’s face was calm as he looked at the collapsed Han Chasu. It was a skill designed to do exactly that, so this was the natural result. Just as Baekdam reached his hand under Han Chasu’s knees.
Ding—dong.
“…….”
Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong—as if no longer reading the room, the bell rang fiercely. At this rate, Han Chasu, whom he had barely gotten to sleep, would wake up.
Muttering a small curse, Baekdam eventually answered the call.
When the ringing ended, what appeared on the screen was a detestable face. It was Woo Jeogeun, a civil servant of the Awakened Management Bureau.
“Baekdam Hun—”
“Mr. Han Chasu is healthy.”
Before Woo Jeogeun could get a word out, Baekdam cut him off sharply.
“He’s so healthy that he doesn’t need to take a single step outside. Especially, he has zero need to go to the Awakened Management Bureau for an examination. So please go back.”
This was the same person who had interrupted their meal earlier. And with a nonsensical reason at that.
“We are merely trying to check on Mr. Han Chasu’s health.”
Right, this nonsense. Baekdam scoffed. ‘You guys were the ones saying to take him quickly, and now you want to take him again under the guise of a health check?’ Baekdam was certain that Jeong Yi-heun or Geum Myeong-gyeol was behind Woo Jeogeun. It was a natural deduction for him, who didn’t know Gi Tae-yeon’s secret. ‘How could I let him go so easily after bringing him here?’
Furthermore, the two of them had limits in pressuring the Awakened Management Bureau. Jeong Yi-heun was currently raiding a gate, and Geum Myeong-gyeol was on a plane.
In other words, if Baekdam held out and refused to hand him over, that was the end of it. Baekdam raised his voice again.
“You called me to take him in the first place, and now you say you need to see if he’s okay? Are you joking? Your words make no sense whatsoever.”
“That’s—”
“And when the only S-rank Healer in the country says he’s fine, yet you keep doing this, I can’t help but take it as you not trusting my skills.”
Across the screen, Woo Jeogeun couldn’t bring himself to speak. There was nothing wrong with Baekdam’s words. ‘This is troublesome.’ He had just gone to Han Chasu’s house and come up empty before coming here. ‘Of all people, I didn’t expect Baekdam to be the guardian.’ Only after confirming Han Chasu wasn’t home did Woo Jeogeun request the guardian’s information. Thinking he would naturally have returned home had been a miscalculation.
While Woo Jeogeun was at a loss, Baekdam suddenly called out to him.
“Team Leader Woo Jeogeun.”
“Yes.”
Smiling prettily, Baekdam raised his middle finger.
“Don’t piss me off and fuck off. What makes you think you’re so great after threatening an innocent Production-type Hunter and making them spill blood? What do you mean ‘give him back’? Give back what, damn it.”
“Baekdam Hunter, wait…!”
The screen went black with a click.
The doorbell rang several times afterward, but he never answered the call again.
“Hah….”
And at the same time.
“I told you to behave, you bastards.”
Gi Tae-yeon was beating the hell out of the isolation security room.
“Th-this is deeply problematic!”
“If the Bureau Chief hears about this—ack!”
Crack—!
The lower halves of the security room staff froze all at once. Ice spears rising from the floor aimed at their throats.
“Have you gone mad, Director Gi Tae-yeon?!”
Team Leader Kim Mindo was among them. He shouted while aiming his gun at Gi Tae-yeon.
“Using force against fellow Awakened Management Bureau colleagues? This won’t end with mere disciplinary action!”
“It’s not like it’s the first or second time, so what. So where is Director Gwak? While I was away, is he having a good time with the higher-ups who pressured him to release Han Chasu?”
Kim Mindo clamped his mouth shut.
“I guess that’s a yes.”
Gi Tae-yeon smiled languidly and tapped off his cigarette ash.
“Then you’ll have to play with me until Director Gwak returns.”
Plop. The falling ash froze the instant it touched the floor.
And from within it, something reached out and leaped forth. Something with angular fingers and a thick body—it was a golem.
“Our kid has been feeling the urge for warmth for quite a while now, you see.”
The security room staff’s faces were dyed with fear. Gi Tae-yeon’s ice golem was famous for liking hugs.
That is, hugs strong enough to crush the opponent’s ribs.
“Uwaaah!”
“T-Team Leader, please do something!”
“I’ll open fire if you come closer. This is your final warning, Gi Tae-yeon. Damn it, I told you not to come!”
Kim Mindo, who had already been hugged by the golem five times, screamed.
Boom!
The wall shook with a thunderous roar.
***
“Hurk…!”
Han Chasu woke up covered in cold sweat. He fumbled at his chest with trembling eyes and let out a sigh.
“Was it a dream?”
It seemed he had fallen asleep like that in the dining room, and morning had already come. Han Chasu pushed back his sweat-soaked hair. His heart was still pounding fiercely.
“What a load of crap of a dream.”
Was it because he had changed sleeping places? It was such a strange dream. A dream where suddenly a hole was pierced in his chest, his heart was pulled out, and through that gap blue blood flowed down coldly.
“It’s not like I’m a monster or something….”
Han Chasu muttered blankly. Was it because of the dream? The area around his heart still felt tingly.
As he rubbed his chest, a breath suddenly reached his ear.
“Mr. Han Chasu.”
“……!”
It was Baekdam.
“You startled me.”
When Han Chasu spoke as if reproaching him, Baekdam scoffed.
“Lower your arm first and then talk. Goodness, I didn’t know Mr. Han Chasu was such a violent person.”
“I did it because I was surprised. But… what brings you here? Surely you didn’t come to wake me up.”
“Why do you think I didn’t? That’s right, I came to wake you up.”
Han Chasu looked at him with suspicious eyes. Baekdam shamelessly smiled regardless.
In truth, Han Chasu’s guess was correct. Baekdam had come to see him for a different purpose. ‘It was definitely around here.’ Early this morning, Baekdam had felt an alien wave. It had been brief, and disappeared faster than expected, so he couldn’t pinpoint the exact location. But he had grasped the general area.
It was the third floor where the guest room given to Han Chasu was located.
But it seemed Han Chasu knew nothing. Seeing his blank expression. ‘Still, I need to check.’ His younger brother would arrive soon, so he couldn’t leave any unsettling matters unaddressed. Finishing his thought, Baekdam held out his hand to Han Chasu as if bestowing a favor.
“What is this?”
“What do you think it is? That thing we did to death, just the two of us, at the hospital. Give me your hand.”
“Can’t you just say it’s healing?”
Grumbling, Han Chasu obediently placed his hand over his. Baekdam narrowed his eyes and activated his skill. [Fair Treatment]
Saaaa—a golden light settled over Baekdam’s eyes. Han Chasu’s body went a little limp. Baekdam supported him as he was and focused on the treatment.
“Urk.”
How long had he rummaged through his body? Han Chasu opened his mouth in a tired tone.
“How much longer do you have to do this?”
Baekdam raised an eyebrow. Here he was hurrying him to finish when he should be thanking him. What an ungrateful patient.
“I was going to finish anyway.”
Baekdam dusted off his hands with a neat attitude. ‘There’s nowhere I feel a strange energy.’ Those afflicted with troublesome curses sometimes emitted alien waves. But as a result of examining him, Han Chasu had nothing particularly different about him.
A body barely alive and breathing, just as when he was discharged. Exactly the same state. ‘I suppose the wave I felt during the night was a coincidence after all.’ He had wasted time on nothing. Baekdam clicked his tongue. Still, thanks to this, he could be certain of one thing. ‘Those Awakened Management Bureau bastards definitely took orders from someone.’ There was nothing worse about him, yet why would they take him for a check-up? It was undoubtedly a scheme to snatch Han Chasu away from him.
‘Geum Myeong-gyeol and Jeong Yi-heun, I really don’t know why they’re so obsessed with such an ordinary man.’
His train of thought was cut off at that moment. Han Chasu, who had let go of his hand at some point, asked him.
“Is it all done?”
“Ah, yes. Nothing much has changed about you staggering around. You won’t live long, Mr. Han Chasu.”
Baekdam smirked as he helped up the frowning Han Chasu.
Yeah, what did it matter whether those guys were obsessed or not? Han Chasu was in his hands right now. That was enough.
“Seon will arrive in two hours, so wash up and come out. Just throw on anything from the wardrobe.”
“Understood.”
As he was leaving the room, a call came. Checking the caller, Baekdam smiled brightly.
“Speak of the tiger, and it appears.”
It was a call from Geum Myeong-gyeol. Without hesitation, Baekdam immediately pressed decline.
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