In truth, Cha Seohu hadn’t intended to explain anything to Song Jiwoon or King Wang. The two of them didn’t know what Cha Sahyeon used to look like, so there was no real reason to drag them into this.
His plan had been simple: deal with the aura by putting the choker on Sahyeon and offer Ryu Sunghyun a plausible explanation, just enough to satisfy him.
‘I didn’t expect him to turn into a child right at that moment.’
If he’d known, he would’ve waited to put the choker on until they’d left the mountain. But no—thanks to that damn aura storm, they got caught in the worst possible timing.
‘If the effect was this major, he should’ve told me earlier...!’
Grinding his teeth, Cha Seohu shot a glare at the Sahyeon nestled in his arms.
Sahyeon tilted his head with an innocent, wide-eyed expression. And even when Seohu tried to put him down, he clung on tightly.
The grown bastard was truly shameless. But what could Seohu do? He couldn’t just toss a child-looking Sahyeon aside in front of everyone, so he had no choice but to hold him and speak.
“...The reason my younger brother looks younger is due to an item effect. His true appearance is what you saw earlier.”
“There are items like that?”
Song Jiwoon, who had spent most of his life in the mountains, asked in bewilderment. King Wang, who wasn’t very interested in items either, looked curious.
Only Ryu Sunghyun said nothing. He quietly stared at Seohu and Sahyeon, face unreadable.
Seohu knew that expression—it meant Ryu was either deep in thought or still undecided.
The pressure was mounting. Seohu swallowed dryly and continued.
“It’s not a common item. I barely managed to get it myself.”
That alone wouldn’t be enough. He turned his gaze to Ryu and added,
“Cover got it for me.”
He threw the blame on Cover, that enigma wrapped in mystery. Let his future self sort it out.
“Hunter Cover did...?”
Ryu Sunghyun’s eyes flickered briefly, and he rubbed his chin with a grave expression. Seohu had thrown it out there with a “screw it” attitude—but apparently, it worked.
“It used to be a necklace hidden under his clothes, but it was damaged during the last attack. So I got a new one. The choker on his neck is the replacement.”
There was a faint aura leaking from the item, which helped sell the story. Better to get ahead of any suspicion.
He turned to Jiwoon and Wang.
“I mentioned it before, right? That we escaped from a lab where human experimentation was taking place. To be more specific, my brother and I were kidnapped together. I was just a weak support-type, so they only took my blood. But my brother...”
“Ah...”
Trailing off with a deliberately bitter tone, he saw Jiwoon and Wang furrow their brows sympathetically. After a pause, he spoke again with a pained voice.
“Since then, his aura has changed drastically from that of a normal person. It’s gotten stronger than ever—but he can’t control it.”
“...A side effect of the experiments.”
“Yes. Even the slightest use of his skill sends it into a frenzy. We’re not sure whether the problem lies in the core that channels his energy or in the skill itself.”
“Couldn’t it be healed with a healing skill? Like how I healed my disciple?”
“We’ve tried. It doesn’t work.”
“...I see.”
“People tied to that lab are still chasing us. More precisely—they’re targeting my brother. And I’m... doing everything I can to track them down too. They know more about my brother’s body than anyone else.”
That part was true.
They needed to keep running, keep hiding, while also hunting those cult bastards. After all, they were connected to the Catastrophe.
“The item suppresses his unstable aura and also makes him appear like a child.”
“A disguise, then. To keep from being recognized.”
“That’s right.”
He let out a small, tired sigh.
“Not long ago, the place where we were hiding was discovered. We were attacked, and we got separated. Then, my brother repaired the broken item and came looking for me.”
He kept his eyes from blinking the entire time he talked. His vision reddened, eyes stinging with unshed tears.
“I’m sorry I didn’t mention it earlier. Given our circumstances, it wasn’t an easy story to tell...”
As he covered his mouth with a hand, pretending to choke up, something unexpected happened.
“Hyung... don’t cry...”
Cha Sahyeon, still nestled calmly in his arms, pressed his small head against Seohu’s shoulder with a trembling voice.
In that moment, their eyes met. Despite the quivering voice, Sahyeon’s face was completely composed.
‘This little shit...’
Was he helping him? Did he just insert himself into this scam?
Staring at Sahyeon in disbelief, Seohu was pulled back by Wang’s comforting voice.
“Think nothing of it. Who doesn’t have their own burdens? And this involves your brother’s life. Of course you’d be cautious.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
Song Jiwoon, his eyes filled with sympathy, nodded in agreement with Wang.
Like teacher, like disciple.
With people this naïve, it was a miracle they hadn’t been conned before.
Now that he’d convinced Song Jiwoon and Wang, all that was left was Ryu Sunghyun.
Seohu glanced over at him. Ryu stood with arms crossed, looking conflicted. Then he let out a long sigh.
“...Alright. First, we’ll need to find a place to stay once we’re down the mountain.”
“Yeah. We can’t keep imposing on the Circle Guild.”
That brought back a memory—his old office, which he hadn’t visited since the incident. It was probably still wrecked.
He didn’t like the idea of using it again.
Even if Sahyeon was stronger now and could defend himself in an attack, they couldn’t relax in a place where enemies could storm in at any moment.
Maybe they should give up on the guild altogether and just rent a small house. But without a guild, they couldn’t enter dungeons, and that brought a whole different set of restrictions.
All the problems he’d pushed aside to help Song Jiwoon were now staring him in the face. Until he found a better solution, they’d be stuck hopping from hotel to hotel.
‘Should I ask Kwon Taehyuk again?’
He wasn’t sure if the guy would help twice, but with his heroic nature, he probably wouldn’t ignore someone in need.
As he sifted through possible ideas, Ryu Sunghyun glanced over and hesitated.
“Hunter Cha Seohu... if you don’t mind...”
“Yes?”
“...No. Never mind.”
Ryu abruptly stopped himself. What had he been about to say?
Curious, Seohu looked at him, but Ryu avoided his eyes completely. Clearly not something he planned to explain, no matter how much Seohu asked.
Suppressing the frustration, he turned to Jiwoon and Wang.
“Nothing’s changed. We’ll still leave in two days, as planned. So make sure you’re ready.”
When he opened his eyes, the room was still blanketed in deep darkness.
It was just past 5 a.m.
Next to him, Cha Sahyeon was asleep.
Because the kid insisted on sleeping in the same room, Seohu had been forced to rent another room on the second floor. Ryu Sunghyun, who originally shared the room with Seohu, ended up in a room alone.
‘Honestly, it’s a little awkward.’
Knowing that Sahyeon wasn’t really a child anymore made things uncomfortable. But so much had happened yesterday that he’d fallen asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
Same for Sahyeon, apparently. Despite being the Catastrophe, he was now snoring softly like any other kid.
Seriously. Someone could kidnap him and he wouldn’t know.
Clicking his tongue, Seohu slipped out of bed and stepped outside.
The second-floor hallway and living room were wrapped in peaceful silence.
Everyone must’ve been sleeping soundly like Sahyeon. After all, it had been a long and exhausting two days.
After checking on Eunbok, who was sleeping on the sofa, he stepped out into the cold.
Thanks to his purification, the sky near the temple was clear, with stars twinkling above. But a few steps beyond revealed a harsh landscape of snow and biting cold—the freezing, snowstorm-wracked mountains.
Seohu walked far from the temple and slowly came to a stop.
A cold wind brushed past his head. Snowflakes drifted from the sky. Snow piled on the ground and clung to tree branches like blossoms.
He took it all in one by one. Then, after confirming for the third time that no one was nearby, he spoke.
“I know you’re watching.”
As expected, nothing changed.
The words he had just spoken vanished into thin air.
Or rather, it felt like they vanished.
His opponent didn’t react to such a minor provocation. Not that he’d expected them to. Without surprise, he moved to the next step.
“System.”
Staring into the empty air, he declared firmly—
“I want to speak with you.”
Whoooosh...
And then it happened.
The flow of air changed instantly.
The sound of the wind vanished. «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» The snowflakes stopped midair.
It felt like time and space had been sliced away. Holding his breath, he slowly raised his head.
“......”
A gaze.
He could feel it, from far, far above.
So high and vast that no human could ever hope to reach it. From that unreachable height, someone was watching him.
The moment he realized it, he couldn’t even blink. Frozen in place, he received that unknowable gaze in full.
It lasted less than a second.
But in that moment—
He and that being had undeniably shared a gaze.
Whrrrrr...
“Haah—!”
Time and space began to move again.
The suspended snowflakes fell, and Seohu, now gasping for air, doubled over.
The gaze that had weighed down the world—and his body—was gone.
Panting, trying to pull himself back together, a cheerful alert sound rang in front of him.
Ding!
《Would you like to use the Divine Power (S-rank) skill?》
“...Ha.”
He let out a hollow laugh at the message floating before him.
Are you kidding me right now?
“So that’s how it’s going to be?”
He was already near his limit. The bitter cold pressing in from every direction would kill him if he didn’t use the Divine Power to purify the area.
But instead of using it, he simply dropped onto the snow-covered ground.
“Sorry, but I didn’t come all this way just to play games.”
Everyone else was asleep. This was the only chance he had to talk with the system.
Looking up at the space where the message had appeared, he grinned.
“If you want to talk, then send me a proper sentence. No more of these dumb status messages.”
With that, he folded his arms and leaned back against the tree.

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