“......”

Kang Geunmok did not even register the cold sweat running down his back.

How?

How on earth had they gotten in here?

With the mana and magic of “this world,” it should have been impossible.

No, more than that—how can it be this quiet?

Kang Geunmok’s house was not called a fortress simply because of its security magic.

Special agents had been stationed throughout the property, acting as sentries guarding his home.

They normally never revealed themselves.

Right. Just like now.

Just as always, at the moment Kang Geunmok had briefly returned home. The place was quiet.

There’s no smell of blood, either.

There was no scent of the sentries’ blood, either.

At the same time, he could not sense their presence at all.

That means—

The one gripping his throat right now. This enemy had overwhelmingly crushed everything and slipped into this house.

Is that even possible? This is territory managed by Transparent. This is a house the Chairman personally granted me. How could this place—

Just as Kang Geunmok’s thoughts were about to grow tangled—

“Why are you so stiff?”

That voice came again.

A careless voice, yet one full of ease.

It was definitely a voice he had never heard before.

That was when it happened.

“Well, if you’re holding his throat, of course he’d be stiff, wouldn’t he?”

A woman’s voice rang out.

Another—

There was someone else too.

But he could not see anything.

Naturally, as an ordinary human, it was impossible for him to see clearly in this dark living room without a single light.

But as his eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness—

Three...!

He could make out faint silhouettes.

He could not see the one holding his throat, but he could see the two people sitting on the living room sofa.

Cold sweat beaded across Kang Geunmok’s face, dry and withered like an old dead tree.

“Who are you people?”

Unlike his tension, the voice that came from his mouth had somehow already become calm.

Of course, his eyes as well had steadied.

“Well now. Who do you think we are?”

“Were you sent by Anlomann?”

Oh.

Cale let out a small note of admiration.

“So not just anyone can become the founding chairman’s chief secretary, huh?”

“So you are not from Anlomann’s side.”

“You asked that after already deciding we weren’t, didn’t you?”

“That is correct. There is no one of this level on Anlomann’s side.”

“Right. If there were, your little trick wouldn’t have turned his Senior Aide into a murder suspect.”

A brief silence settled.

Rosalyn, seated on the sofa and the only one looking toward the entrance where light was coming in, spoke to Alberu through magic.

—This Kang Geunmok isn’t easy.

Alberu nodded in agreement.

The conversation between Cale and Kang Geunmok.

A considerable amount of meaning had passed back and forth in that short exchange alone.

—Kang Geunmok seems extremely shrewd.

Alberu agreed with Rosalyn’s words.

—Just like Young Master Cale.

But he did not agree with that.

He shook his head.

Cale Henituse.

This bastard was smart, yes, but rather than being highly strategic—

“By the way, Chief Secretary.”

He was just the sort who bulldozed straight ahead.

“Do you know Honorary Chairman Han Taeksoo isn’t human?”

As expected. He really was the type who bulldozed straight ahead.

A person like that was not easy to beat.

“!”

Kang Geunmok’s eyes widened for the first time.

Even though the strength in the hand around his throat had loosened, even though that hand had released his neck and now patted his shoulder, he could not move.

“...Who are you?”

Kang Geunmok asked again who his opponent was.

What was contained in that question was different from before.

Before, it had merely been a probe. This time, it was a genuine question.

That was the moment.

Click.

With that small sound—

Flaaash!

The living room lights came on.

“!”

And Kang Geunmok was able to see the person who had flipped on the living room light switch.

“Why are you so surprised?”

A man in a neat suit.

Red hair, and dark brown eyes.

And though he gave off a languid air, he was strikingly handsome—the same man who had spoken earlier in that indifferent male voice.

...He’s younger than I expected.

Because the voice had been young, he had expected someone somewhat young, but to Kang Geunmok, now in his late sixties, the other man looked even younger than he had thought—barely in his early to mid twenties.

Grin.

Cale showed him a rather gentle smile.

“I prefer talking face to face. Don’t you?”

Gulp.

Kang Geunmok swallowed.

See each other’s faces.

That could only mean one thing.

...If we can’t talk this out, if this doesn’t go well, he’s saying he’ll get rid of me.

An enemy who had secretly broken into his house had shown him his face.

Which meant that, depending on how he acted tonight, Kang Geunmok could die here.

“...Very well. Let’s talk.”

But Kang Geunmok remained composed.

—Impressive. Even if he’s the enemy.

Cale heard Rosalyn’s magical voice.

—Maybe it’s because he served the head of the Transparent Blood family for over fifty years, but he’s definitely steady at the core. He seems deeply loyal too. If someone like him could be brought over to our side, he looks like the sort {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} you could trust with work.

Cale gave no particular response to her words and asked Kang Geunmok,

“Where should we sit?”

“...Follow me.”

Kang Geunmok moved slowly.

Then he took his own seat and gestured to Cale.

“Please, sit.”

Ha.

Alberu let out a sound of admiration.

“...Not bad.”

Cale let out a faint laugh and sat where Kang Geunmok had indicated.

The sofa set in the living room.

Its arrangement consisted of long sofas on both sides, with a single seat placed between them as the head seat.

Kang Geunmok sat in that head seat and calmly pointed Cale to the place beside Alberu.

“Mm. I’ll move.”

Alberu casually stood and went over beside Rosalyn.

Cale sat alone on the long sofa and looked at Kang Geunmok, who sat in the head seat.

“You came looking for me because of the Chairman, not because of me.”

Kang Geunmok’s face was serene.

“There is nothing I can tell you.”

He did not give Cale a chance to speak and spat out his own words first.

“Even if I die here.”

And the corners of his lips rose.

“Of course, if you came because you would like to join hands with Transparent, then you are more than welcome. We always welcome people with abilities like yours.”

Oh.

Alberu could hear the sincerity in Kang Geunmok’s voice.

Cale’s going to have a hard time with this.

That was what he thought at that moment.

“Kang Geunmok.”

Cale finally opened his mouth.

His voice carried not a trace of emotion. It was an entirely businesslike tone.

“You met Honorary Chairman Han Taeksoo in your teens and had your life saved by him. Since then, you have remained at his side as his secretary, and it is said that Honorary Chairman Han Taeksoo values your cold judgment very highly. You serve him more closely than even Han Taeksoo’s own children do.”

Cale’s eyes held Kang Geunmok.

“And Kang Geunmok’s loyalty runs so deep that Honorary Chairman Han Taeksoo follows your advice not only in company matters, but even when making major decisions about his life as a whole. That’s what they say, isn’t it?”

“......”

Kang Geunmok answered with silence.

He had no intention of saying anything.

Even if he died.

And he had a plan.

Stall for time.

If he did not return to Honorary Chairman Han Taeksoo’s estate within an hour. No—if within ten minutes from now he failed to contact the Chairman—

then the Chairman would surely realize something was wrong and send subordinates to this house.

Right. Ten minutes. That will be enough.

That was why Kang Geunmok could afford to stay calm.

But—

“Then why don’t I see any loyalty in your eyes?”

Cale had no intention of dragging this out here.

Ten minutes?

Stall for time when there was no knowing what would happen to Anlomann’s people by sunrise tomorrow?

I have to keep an eye on Eruhaben Miru’s Birth Ceremony too.

There was no telling what sort of thing Clopeh Sekka might pull in the course of a single night.

So Cale went straight to the answer.

“Kang Geunmok.”

When Rosalyn, and the world, had spoken of loyalty—

Cale recalled what he had noticed.

Do you know Honorary Chairman Han Taeksoo isn’t human?

The moment he had said those words—

Cale, or rather, not Cale but another existence, someone more versed in this sort of thing than anyone else—that blustering fraud—had noticed it.

—Huh?

The dominating aura spoke up for the first time in a long while.

In a deep, weighty voice, it said,

—He got scared just now, didn’t he?

It was not that Kang Geunmok had been frightened by Cale’s words.

—The moment you said Han Taeksoo might not be human, he got seriously scared! I saw it! I’m really good at seeing stuff like this! And now I’ve absorbed the power of chaos too, so I can tell even better! He was totally terrified! He was drowning in fear!

At that moment, Cale felt he understood why Honorary Chairman Han Taeksoo—why that hunter bastard—kept Kang Geunmok by his side.

Because none of the hunter family heads Cale had seen so far were the sort to believe in feelings like loyalty.

“You’re scared, aren’t you?”

“......!”

Kang Geunmok’s eyes widened.

This man had not been brainwashed.

He was simply afraid of Han Taeksoo.

“You’re more afraid of Han Taeksoo than you are of death.”

That was why Cale asked.

“Why?”

What could be more frightening than dying?

“What did you see?”

What on earth had he seen that he lived for Han Taeksoo’s sake?

The body like a withered tree was now being drenched in cold sweat again, and for a different reason than before.

Cale, Alberu, and Rosalyn all saw the backs of Kang Geunmok’s hands turn pale.

Cale asked,

“What did you see that made you afraid of Han Taeksoo?”

“......”

But Kang Geunmok only bit down hard on his lip and did not answer.

“You won’t tell me?”

Cale asked again.

“...Kill me.”

Kang Geunmok squeezed his eyes shut, abandoning even his plan to stall for time and resolving instead to throw away his life.

“You’re decisive.”

And Cale had no intention of wasting time.

No intention of talking for long, either.

To begin with, what need was there to drag this out?

If Kang Geunmok had been driven by loyalty, or by some other emotion, Cale might have spent a fair amount of thought trying to persuade him.

But if it was fear—

“Kang Geunmok.”

Cale called to him quietly and asked,

“Aren’t you afraid of us?”

Kang Geunmok kept his eyes shut.

I’m not afraid.

Not compared to Han Taeksoo.

Compared to the things that not-quite-human creature did, death was preferable.

That was when—

“Aren’t you afraid of me?”

The young man’s voice sounded again.

Kang Geunmok remained silent.

At that moment—

......!

Kang Geunmok felt something climbing up from his feet.

No, he realized that something was gradually eating away at the space around him.

This was not a scent.

Not warmth.

Not mana.

Not some special power.

It was just air.

Nothing had changed.

No!

Without realizing it, Kang Geunmok opened his eyes.

And he saw them.

Cale’s eyes, staring at him.

“Hhk!”

And in the next instant, the pressure tightening around him.

I, I can bear this much!

Kang Geunmok recalled a memory from the past.

That moment he had seen fifty years ago.

That was the first time he had faced something emitted by a being that was not human—no, by something greater than human.

And he had realized then that it was something that could make even life itself afraid.

Han Taeksoo.

That bastard was a monster too, but—

A bigger monster...!

He had clearly seen it.

It was a monster—no, an evil spirit—

No... an evil god!

He had seen that horrifying thing.

If I don’t become its prey—

The memory from back then spread out before Kang Geunmok as a hallucination.

Even if I die, I do not want to fall into that hell.

I—

I can endure—

“!”

Inside that hallucination, Kang Geunmok saw something.

That terrible memory that had gripped him.

The day he had seen Han Taeksoo and the monster he was raising.

Within that memory, he saw it.

“H-how...?”

Eyes.

Dark brown eyes were looking at him.

A hallucination.

No.

Not a hallucination.

That was reality.

Within the hallucination made from that terrible memory.

Within that fear, eyes that looked straight at him.

Those eyes also stirred fear and made it hard for him to breathe, but at the same time—

Ah.

They were not horrifying.

They were frightening, but they made him want to lean on them—

Eyes so steady that they gave him the certainty that if he entered beneath their dominion, he could escape this dreadful memory.

The hallucination began to fade.

Kang Geunmok understood.

What power those eyes possessed—eyes different from the hollow eyes of the dreadful disaster Han Taeksoo had been creating, that thing soon to be born, something for which even the term evil god was no exaggeration.

“Aren’t you afraid of me?”

Toward the young man who asked in that crooked tone, Kang Geunmok’s mouth slowly opened.

“...Can you—”

Still trapped in the chaos created by that horrific hallucination, Kang Geunmok felt the grip of reality closing around his body, and toward the only light in that chaos—the one who had made him realize that reality—he asked:

Because he had seen that terrible abyss, Kang Geunmok was able to say it.

“Can you save me?”

For the first time in fifty years, he had found light within chaos.

This light could save him.

It had that power.