Night fell early in the forest.
Behind the building, in a yard of decent size, Kwon Taehyuk, Ryu Sunghyun, and Song Jiwoon waited for someone, their expressions mixed and complicated.
After a short while, footsteps approached, and with them an aura that was familiar yet awkward brushed against their skin.
An S-rank aura. Kwon Taehyuk’s black eyes turned toward the source.
Under the bright moonlight, hair of vivid gold shimmered and swayed.
A bare face without a mask. The white robe Cha Seohu often wore. And the longsword Cover used.
A figure in which Cover and Cha Seohu overlapped—and that was the truth.
Cha Seohu sauntered in with a face that showed not a hint of tension, hooked the sheathed sword up onto his shoulder, and smiled.
“Are you all ready?”
Anyone seeing him might have mistaken him for some back-alley thug.
Feeling anew that Cha Seohu and Cover were the same person, Kwon Taehyuk let out a short sigh.
“Are you truly sure about this? Hunter Cha Seohu, you can’t use your healing skill on yourself.”
“How hard are you planning to hit me that that’s your first concern?”
Seohu joked.
“It’s fine. Considering what’s ahead, it’s better to get some training in. The cult bastards won’t pull their punches like you will, Guildmaster.”
That was... true, but still.
Reluctantly accepting, Kwon Taehyuk drew his weapon. Blades from his inventory rose into the air, circling around him.
He exhaled briefly and continued.
“Then let’s set some rules. It’s hard to talk mid-fight, and if I lose track of my strength, it’s easy to get hurt.”
“Not a bad idea. How about we set a safe word? A simple word—if someone shouts it, we stop immediately.”
As Seohu suggested it, a stray thought crossed his mind.
'This kind of feels like we’re about to do a BDSM scene...'
Watching the earnest nod from this stiff, straight-laced man, Seohu snorted inwardly.
'If I cracked that joke, he’d probably have a fit.'
Pushing away the useless thought, Seohu said:
“Short and easy to pronounce is best. Oh, how about this? Chee~se.”
...Was “cheese” easy to pronounce? Well, at least it was short.
Kwon Taehyuk had his doubts, but seeing how pleased Seohu looked, he couldn’t bring himself to object.
“We’ll use that word, and the one who gets a weapon to the neck loses.”
With the terms set, Kwon Taehyuk and Cha Seohu faced each other at a reasonable distance.
Cha Sahyeon, Ryu Sunghyun, and Song Jiwoon watched the pair with worried faces. At Seohu’s request, King Seohwa also remained to observe.
“I’m starting.”
At those words, Seohu shot forward like lightning.
A sharp ring split the air as Seohu’s keenly swung blade clashed with Kwon Taehyuk’s flying knives.
Seohu moved with more agility than Kwon had anticipated.
White robes fluttered as he closed in without hesitation, swinging his sword with the ease of someone who had handled it more than a few times.
Amid the whirling steel, Kwon glimpsed the scatter of golden hair and the clear shine of black eyes and swallowed dryly.
Movements that had once been stiff began to change, little by little—as if drawn along by Seohu’s gaze.
Clang—! Parrying a heavy blow, Kwon Taehyuk was driven back by its weight. As Seohu sprang away and dashed in again, four of Kwon’s blades skimmed past his flanks.
Before long, Kwon Taehyuk was fully immersed in the fight with Seohu. The awkwardness and burden lingering on his face thinned away; he moved to subdue the man before him.
Boom!
With a tremendous noise, the ground shook. Leaves shivered—shshsh—and fell through the dust.
After nearly twenty minutes of blade against blade, Kwon Taehyuk seized Seohu, who had been slipping away with supple footwork.
Seohu went down, throat caught, and Kwon looked down from above.
A white neck that fit perfectly in his grasp. A pulse hammering strong. A pale face beaded with sweat.
Realizing that all of it was beneath him sent a sudden chill through Kwon Taehyuk—an electric thrill.
Sense belatedly pushed through, telling him to move away, but for some reason his body didn’t budge.
Instead of letting go, his fingers tightened around that throat. In the instant Kwon’s eyes trembled wide—
“Kh-cough, that hurts, Guildmaster.”
“...!”
A frail voice reached him.
Snapping back to himself, Kwon jerked his hand away in alarm.
“I—I’m sorry...”
As he scrambled back, a sharp sting pricked the side of his neck.
Seohu, with the tip of his own blade, had poked Kwon Taehyuk’s neck and grinned.
“You can’t let your guard down. I didn’t even say the safe word.”
“Ah.”
“I win!”
Seohu sprang up and threw his arms wide, shouting with delight.
Ryu Sunghyun and Song Jiwoon looked at Kwon with sympathy, while King Seohwa clicked her tongue at Seohu, exasperated.
“If this is your ‘practice,’ then you’ve accomplished nothing. Why are you pleased?”
“Hey, identifying the opponent’s weak point is important.”
Seohu knew very well that Kwon wasn’t the type to ruthlessly press an attack on someone who said he was in pain.
'Didn’t expect him to pin my neck like that, though.'
Shaking off the strange mood from a moment ago, Seohu turned to Ryu Sunghyun and Song Jiwoon.
“Next?”
“...Pardon?”
“Which of you wants to go?”
Asked as if it were the most natural thing in the world, Seohu’s question made both men break into a cold sweat.
They had just come to watch—had they unknowingly signed up to participate?
“......”
“......”
Ryu Sunghyun and Song Jiwoon glanced at each other at the same time.
'You go first. No, you go first.'
They exchanged what they couldn’t say aloud with their eyes, but fortunately King Seohwa cut in.
“I’ve been curious since yesterday. Who taught you the sword?”
“Hmm.”
Resting the sword across his shoulder, Seohu rolled his eyes, then asked playfully:
“Why? Is it that bad?”
Finding Seohu’s refusal to answer straightforwardly displeasing, King Seohwa sighed.
“It’s quite different from mine, but not bad. If anything, it suits you, judging by your usual bearing. Flexible, and the sword’s trajectory changes readily.”
“Our king’s sword is a bit stiff and old-fashioned, sure.”
King Seohwa’s eyebrow twitched.
“If you’re at this level, then your teacher must be even better. Who taught you?”
There was a quiet competitiveness in her voice as she asked again.
Having spent long years with the sword, King Seohwa had grown curious about Seohu’s master while watching him fight—curious enough to want to cross blades.
“My teacher, huh.”
Seohu thought of Director Seo.
Indeed, for someone who had trained him directly, Director Seo’s skill far surpassed his own.
King Seohwa versus Director Seo—Seohu would actually like to see who would win, but the odds of them meeting were slim.
They were both like territorial beasts, rarely leaving their own domains.
“I learned from the person who raised me. Our personalities are completely different, though.”
“I see.”
Answering evenly, King Seohwa continued:
“Then—did your master also know that you could turn into an S-rank Dealer?”
“Excuse me? No, that...”
Caught off guard by the unfamiliar question, Seohu hesitated, then said:
“I don’t think so. I learned before I awakened. The transformation skill... they probably only found out this time.”
“How unexpected.”
King Seohwa tilted her head.
“Then why did your master teach you the sword? There are plenty of safer ways to protect someone. If he didn’t know you would become a Dealer, then to him you were little different from an ordinary human Supporter. I don’t see the reason for teaching something as dangerous as the sword.”
“......”
Seohu parted his lips without thinking, then closed them again without an explanation or rebuttal.
He had never once questioned it.
Director Seo, who took him in at a young age and raised him, usually left him alone in most things. # Nоvеlight # He stopped Seohu from doing dangerous things, but otherwise rarely interfered.
And yet, the moment Seohu turned seventeen, Director Seo taught him the sword.
Even when Seohu threw tantrums, skipped out, or made a fuss about hating it, he was dragged to the training ground and taught anyway.
At the time, Seohu hadn’t thought it strange.
He’d resisted out of fatigue and annoyance, and once he got used to it, he figured there was no harm in learning and just did as he was told.
'...Right. Why teach me at all?'
Could it be he knew I would become a Dealer? Or foresaw I’d be fighting the cult?
'No. That’s jumping to conclusions. Don’t get ahead of yourself.'
Seohu frowned slightly.
Come to think of it, he didn’t know much about Director Seo.
They had lived together for a long time, and their tie remained even now... but that was all.
Why had Director Seo taught the sword to him, a Supporter?
And how was Director Seo—whose skill had little to do with weapon handling—so adept with a blade?
Who had taught Director Seo?
Questions surged up, and amid them Seohu arrived at one unsettling suspicion.
A suspicion that Director Seo might be connected to the cult.

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