“Okay~”
Kwon Seoyul answered lightly, then sprang up in front of the wall I pointed at. And like he was kicking a soccer ball, he casually swung one leg.
Kwaang!
With a boom, the thick wall collapsed like a cardboard box and blew open into a huge hole.
Chunks and fragments poured down in a clatter, and a cloudy haze burst up all at once. Wind rushed in from outside, making my hair whip around.
I was marveling all over again at the power of an S-rank dealer-type Hunter when a shocked shout rang out from behind us.
“W-what is this...!”
“The wall, the wall...!”
The baldy monks grabbed the backs of their necks, faces twisted with a mix of shock and fury as they stared at the wall that had been perfectly demolished in a single kick, like a bomb had gone off.
Now.
I grabbed Hyun Dowoon’s arm and ran out through the hole in the wall. Kwon Seoyul followed right behind us.
“Catch those bastards at once!”
The baldy monk who’d been standing there with his mouth hanging open bellowed in a rough voice.
Shaolin disciples who’d come running, startled by the noise of the wall collapsing, spotted us bursting out and froze with flustered expressions.
“What are you doing! Why aren’t you catching them?!”
When the baldy monk who’d guided us barked again, the disciples snapped out of it and finally moved.
Some came rushing with weapons, others charged in barehanded. It was a crisis, but the moment I saw the Shaolin disciples swarming in, curiosity flared up for a second.
‘Holy shit, are we about to see Shaolin martial arts? Baekbo Divine Fist or Buddha’s Palm... no way, the Shaolin Seventy-Two Arts?!’
My heart pounded at the chance to see Shaolin techniques right in front of my eyes.
Seeing my excited face, Hyun Dowoon frowned like he was looking at a lunatic.
“You hopeless otaku bastard, is this really the time?”
“Ah, shit. You’re sharp.”
I was just imagining it for a second. Seriously, he only gets sharp at times like this.
Grumbling, I yelled at Kwon Seoyul.
“We have to hold out until the Vice-Guildmaster gets here! Do something, anything!”
Kwon Seoyul, running after us with his lips stuck out in a pout, pulled out a harmonica from his inventory. Looks like that was the only instrument he could use while running.
Like he wasn’t even out of breath, he started playing steadily as he ran. The Shaolin disciples flinched at the unfamiliar harmonica sound.
As the harmonica notes spread wide, a debuff effect activated toward the enemies.
Disciples who’d been perfectly fine a second ago staggered as their strength drained out, clutching their heads and letting out groans. Using the gap as the tightening encirclement broke apart, the three of us accelerated even more toward the Shaolin entrance.
“Could this be... sound arts?!”
“Kgh... how can sound arts be this powerful...!”
“It’s a wicked power! There’s no way it’s mere sound arts!”
It was good we got out, but the eyes of the baldy monks chasing after us flashed even colder.
“They are surely connected to the Demonic Cult. We must capture them no matter what!”
That harsh command was loud enough for us to hear, too. I met Hyun Dowoon’s eyes with a bewildered look. He looked just as confused.
“Demonic Cult?”
“Us?”
Why is the Demonic Cult suddenly coming up?
More than that—there’s a Demonic Cult here too?
I hadn’t even considered it. Sure, it was such a popular faction in wuxia that it’d be a shame if it didn’t show up, but still.
‘No, what did we even do for them to call us the Demonic Cult?’
Dumbfounded, I looked back at Kwon Seoyul.
With zero hesitation, he threw a punch at a disciple who got close, knocked him out, cackled, and went right back to blowing the harmonica.
‘...Is it the kind of thing you could mistake for the Demonic Cult?’
For a moment, that thought crossed my mind.
‘No, but still, it’s not the Demonic Cult. There’s clearly the Unorthodox Faction! Shouldn’t it go Orthodox, then Unorthodox? Why are they skipping Unorthodox and jumping straight to “Demonic Cult”?!’
Thinking pointless thoughts, I swung my scabbard and cracked the disciple blocking my way across the head.
“Gaaah!”
Since his head was shaved slick, I keep ending up hitting heads without meaning to.
Anyway, thankfully, maybe he was a disciple who still hadn’t learned martial arts, because he went down in one hit. I was about to run straight out of Shaolin when—
Gold flashed in the sky above.
It was such an intense light that my eyes squeezed shut reflexively. The Shaolin disciples who’d been chasing us all shut their eyes and froze, too.
Whoooom—wind burst out all at once.
Ryu Sunghyun—who I hadn’t even noticed arriving—dropped from the sky and landed in a perfect stance. He swept the area with icy eyes. Light caught in his irises, making them glitter gold.
The moment Ryu Sunghyun straightened, a golden meteor shower rained down from the sky. Small yellow lights fell, and the instant they touched the ground, violent explosions erupted in every direction.
“W-what!”
“Run! Run!”
Facing a strange kind of attack they’d never experienced, the Shaolin disciples panicked and fled. Screams rang out everywhere.
“Vice-Guildmaster!”
Startled by an even more over-the-top attack than I’d expected, I shouted to him.
“I-is this okay?!”
“I already caused trouble on the way here.”
Ryu Sunghyun coughed awkwardly, then hooked my waist and yanked me into his arms like he was scooping me up, and kicked off the ground in a leap. It was so natural I didn’t even have time to react.
“That son of a bitch?!”
Spitting out a curse with a stunned expression, Kwon Seoyul slung Hyun Dowoon over his shoulder like luggage and hurried after us.
“What do you mean you caused trouble on the way here?”
Since I couldn’t exactly fall, I clung to Ryu Sunghyun’s body and asked as we cut through the mountain.
“The one they called the Abbot, I guess. He started saying weird shit and pressuring me where they dragged me, so I had no choice...”
“Weird shit?”
Ryu Sunghyun blinked with an uncomfortable expression. After hesitating for a moment, he opened his mouth.
“He kept calling me wicked, and he seemed convinced I was connected to a place called the Demonic Cult. From the monk who brought me there, all the way to the older monk they called the Abbot. He said if I wasn’t Demonic Cult, I should prove it by shaving my hair, and I ended up...”
Ryu Sunghyun trailed off, avoiding my gaze.
It meant Ryu Sunghyun had reached the brink of getting his hair shaved, couldn’t take it anymore, used his skill, and escaped.
But that wasn’t the important part.
“The monks called you the Demonic Cult too?”
“Baldy monks—ah, yes.”
Ryu Sunghyun unconsciously repeated my wording, then fought down a smile and nodded.
I realized a beat too late, but what could I do? I’d already said it. Still held in Ryu Sunghyun’s arms, I watched trees streak past and organized the situation in my head.
‘They called us Demonic Cult earlier too.’
Back then, I thought they were just misunderstanding us because of Kwon Seoyul’s thug-like behavior and his debuff skill, but if they said the same thing to Ryu Sunghyun, it didn’t feel like a simple reason.
‘This is weird. Weren’t the Shaolin guys chasing him into the city because they thought he was their disciple?’
If the Shaolin bastards had suspected from the start that Ryu Sunghyun was Demonic Cult, and that was why they brought even us—who claimed to be his younger brother—back to Shaolin...
‘So from the beginning, they meant to grab Ryu Sunghyun and interrogate him. Same for us.’
Only now did I understand why they dragged us all the way to Shaolin and kicked up this kind of mess.
Thinking about it, the three baldy monks who’d come down into the city to catch Ryu Sunghyun had clearly learned some martial arts too. Their position had looked a little too high for a simple “go catch a disciple who ran away because he didn’t want his head shaved” job.
‘The problem is why they’re mistaking us for the Demonic Cult.’
Since I didn’t know what kind of image the Demonic Cult had in this space, it was hard to even figure out why they were suspicious.
‘Even if I stretch it and say fine, maybe they misunderstand us as Demonic Cult. But what about Sunghyun? He looks this clean and gentle, and he handles golden light like that—how does anyone look at him and think “Demonic Cult”?!’
I was furious on his behalf.
I was absolutely against shaving his hair, but I’d honestly thought that neat, upright, “Shaolin” vibe fit Ryu Sunghyun perfectly.
“Stop right there!”
“Treacherous Demonic Cult vermin! Today I will make you pay for the karma you have piled up! Halt!”
Even while I was blankly worrying over this “Demonic Cult” connection, Shaolin didn’t give up and kept chasing us.
This was exactly why I hadn’t wanted to make enemies for no reason. If they were firmly convinced we were Demonic Cult, they weren’t going to let us go easily. A sigh slipped out on its own.
Kiiiiiik!
Just then, a familiar cry rang out, and a black shadow fell over our heads as we ran.
It was Cha Sahyeon’s shadow bird—the one I’d sent off earlier.
Flapping its wings, it matched our speed, then smoothly landed on Ryu Sunghyun’s shoulder. Even though Ryu Sunghyun’s body was constantly bouncing from running so fast, the bird didn’t even twitch.
Kiiik, kiiik.
Whether Ryu Sunghyun ran or not, the bird only looked at me and cried insistently.
“You found them?”
When I asked with hope, the bird nodded, thankfully. A breath of relief burst out of me.
“Guide us right now.”
No matter how far it was, we had to go.
“First, we need to shake those bastards off.”
Kiiik!
At my words, the bird cried sharply. At the same time, black shadows surged like a wave along the path we’d just passed through.
Beyond the black wave, we could hear the voices of panicking Shaolin disciples.
Kwon Seoyul and Ryu Sunghyun saw the shadows too, and they moved immediately without needing any conversation.
The instant Kwon Seoyul jammed a stronger debuff in with the harmonica at full volume, Ryu Sunghyun abruptly cut the route to the side and launched his body into the densely grown thicket.
In less than three seconds.
The shadows vanished, and we completely shook off the Shaolin disciples.

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