“Are you okay?”
Kim Sibaek rushed over, and Tae Woon leaned weakly against him, managing a faint smile. Supporting him carefully, Sibaek checked his body for any wounds or bleeding. But the moment he started feeling around, a soft, sultry moan slipped out.
“Hnnngh♡”
“……”
Without a word, Kim Sibaek smacked Tae Woon’s butt with a sharp slap.
“Hey, spankings are supposed to be a reward…”
“Wanna keep messing around?”
“But I really did get heatstroke.”
When Sibaek touched the back of Tae Woon’s neck, he felt just how hot the flushed skin was. Sure enough, he’d overheated. Sibaek quickly cooled his body and healed a burn he hadn’t noticed earlier. As much as he tried to keep his composure, it was only natural he worried more about Tae Woon than anyone else.
The reddened skin soon returned to its usual pale tone, but Tae Woon still looked drained, clinging weakly to Sibaek’s shoulder.
“I’ll bounce back with a little rest. Honestly, just being wrapped in your scent is the best kind of medicine.”
“……”
Fighting the overwhelming urge to fuss over him, Sibaek gently supported Tae Woon and began walking back.
“How’s your Divine Power? You must’ve burned through a lot today.”
“Yeah, but the Hunters have been offering their thanks directly to Lady Biendeoé, so I’m recovering faster than expected. I guess it all worked out?”
“We really should build a temple. If we do, I’ll make golden statues of you and the crow—pure 24K.”
“Yeah, that wouldn’t look cultish at all.”
“What’s cultish about it? You just keep pounding away and I’ll keep taking—ow!”
Even while exhausted, Tae Woon kept running his mouth until Sibaek pinched his side, finally shutting him up.
When they got back to the old defensive line, people who had evacuated earlier were starting to return. Among them, two kids immediately caught Kim Sibaek’s eye.
“Daddy!”
“Seo-yeon! Seo-jun!”
Pi Minhyung opened his arms wide and swept his children into a hug as they ran to him. The kids, who had been holding back tears, finally broke down, wailing as the tension drained from their little bodies.
“Daddy’s perfectly fine. See? Not a scratch.”
Pi Minhyung had changed out of his bloodstained clothes before meeting his kids and now knelt down, reassuring them. Their birth parents had died fighting monsters—of course they’d been terrified. Kim Sibaek watched with a gentle smile. It was such a relief that Pi Minhyung and the children had all made it out safely.
As he rocked them in his arms, Minhyung placed the dinosaur headbands they’d been clutching onto their heads. The kids’ tear-streaked faces brightened just a little, small smiles blooming.
Nearby, the street vendor’s animal headband stall had been overturned. Kim Sibaek spotted a chick headband lying on the ground, picked it up, and brushed off the dust. Even amidst the chaos, the chick’s bright yellow fluff was soft and clean.
“Woonie, lean down for a second.”
Tae Woon tilted his head, then obediently bent down. Sibaek placed the chick headband gently on his lowered head. A bright-eyed chick now sat neatly on top of Tae Woon’s head. It was ridiculously cute.
“Ahh! So freaking adorable!”
Honestly, Sibaek had been dying to try this ever since Minhyung gave the kids those dinosaur headbands. He’d just held back because of the quest. But now the mission was complete, the Anxious Mist was gone, and there was nothing stopping him.
“How does a grown man look so good in bright yellow?”
He imagined Tae Woon waddling around in yellow clothes—he’d look just like a chick. A giant one, more ostrich than turkey, but still. Sibaek remembered a phrase he’d recently picked up from Biendeoé, who was obsessed with her smartphone: The bigger it is, the cuter it is.
Tae Woon stayed perfectly still, headband perched atop his head. Then, with a lazy curl of his lips, he spoke in that deep, rumbly voice.
“Cheep.”
“Do it again, Woonie!”
“Cheep cheep.”
Kim Sibaek practically exploded from the overwhelming cuteness, but the people around them were stunned into silence. Even Biendeoé had stopped flapping her wings and landed speechless on Pi Minhyung’s head.
“Uncle’s not cute at all…”
Pi Minhyung gently covered his son’s mouth before he could say more.
***
Just because the divine realm had received Earth’s dimensional coordinates didn’t mean they could immediately open a gate from Mak Slechth. Connecting to Earth was possible—but maintaining a passage stable enough for humans or Incarnate Bodies to travel through was far more difficult. Especially when they needed two-way access, not just a one-way trip.
Naslueik stared down at the dimensional teleportation magic circle, taught by the god of foresight and omniscience—a deity who offered knowledge in exchange for Tribute. His brow furrowed as he sank deep into thought.
The Pope, who had been quietly assisting him, finally spoke.
“Still no solution?”
“I could try modifying the circle, but I can’t say how long that’ll take. If only we could detect some kind of catalyst on Earth…”
How much time had passed since then?
The elderly Pope was beginning to show signs of fatigue when suddenly, the pendulum floating between the layers of the three-dimensional magic circle made a slow, deliberate swing. Naslueik’s eyes gleamed with sharp intensity.
“This is it. This is it!”
“Hm?”
“You know how Edokers’ Fragment vanished? I had a hunch—what if it got dragged along when His Grace transferred to Earth? It might’ve been a long shot, maybe even pointless, but I went ahead and linked Earth to the faint traces of the Divine Power from the Goddess of Death and Beauty. And here’s how the principle works…”
What followed was a flood of complex magical theory, dense enough to leave even the Pope—a veteran magic scholar—struggling to keep up. Naslueik rambled on, practically giddy with excitement, until he finally exclaimed:
“Edokers’ demonic energy can serve as the foundation of the dimensional pathway!”
“How exactly?”
“Unlike His Grace, who was born on Earth, or the artificially created Incarnate Body of the Goddess of Death and Beauty, Edokers—even as a mere Fragment—was forged in Mak Slechth. That difference is key.”
In short, Edokers’ very existence could serve as a stabilizing anchor for the dimensional path. The Pope slapped his knee in realization.
“Then we can proceed right away?”
“Now that we’ve located Edokers, I can adjust the magic circle accordingly. But to engrave his demonic energy into the array, I’ll need to analyze it first. And since he’s only a Fragment now, he’s different from his original form. Our existing data won’t cut it…”
“Hold on, hold on.”
The Pope waved a hand, cutting him off before he launched into another lecture.
“So, in simpler terms—Edokers needs to manifest his demonic energy again, correct?”
Simple in words, but it was the biggest obstacle. If Kim Sibaek had already sensed and killed Edokers during that one brief moment, he could be gone. And if Edokers survived, he might now be hiding his demonic energy forever to avoid that exact fate.
But Naslueik, brimming with arrogant confidence, shrugged.
“That bastard’s bound to stir up trouble sooner or later.”
After all, he was the kind of guy who’d do anything to stay alive.
***
While Kim Sibaek glanced up at Biendeoé, who was flying above Pi Seo-yeon and Pi Seo-jun, playing with the kids—Tae Woon suddenly vanished.
“Have you seen Woonie?”
“He dumped all the follow-up work on me and wandered off that way.”
Pi Minhyung grumbled as he handled the first wave of post-op coordination with the Jeongmyeong Guild’s support team. Sibaek would’ve helped, but he didn’t know much about guild procedures—and right now, finding Tae Woon took priority.
With a polite bow of his head, he left Minhyung behind. As expected, Biendeoé—who considered the orphanage kids her personal treasures—remained near them.
He found Tae Woon in an abandoned merchandise shop. The front door was wide open, the staff and customers long gone. Shelves were overturned and merchandise scattered everywhere, a clear snapshot of the earlier chaos.
“What are you doing in here?”
Tae Woon looked up from where he was crouched against the wall, back propped up. Sibaek thought he caught the faint sound of labored breathing, but the face that looked up at him was calm.
“I was just seeing if they had any more cute headbands like mine.”
“You’d look cute in anything.”
The words came out before he could stop them—reflex, plain and simple. But as he approached, Sibaek scanned Tae Woon’s face with growing concern. Tae Woon, noticing the worry, just smiled like it was nothing.
He looked fine—but Tae Woon had always been the type to hide pain in front of him. That made Sibaek all the more uneasy.
Still feverish from the fight earlier?
Without asking, Sibaek reached out and touched his forehead.
His eyes widened in alarm.
He was burning up.
“What’s going on? Were you hurt earlier?!”
He was sure there hadn’t been any injuries.
Dropping to a crouch, Sibaek frantically started checking him over. “I’m fine—” Tae Woon tried to say, but suddenly clamped a hand over his mouth.
“Cough!”
His shoulders convulsed with a violent coughing fit. His gloves were pitch black, but that didn’t hide the dark red-black liquid leaking between his fingers.
Kim Sibaek’s expression sharpened.
“Woonie!”
Before the shout even finished echoing, Tae Woon collapsed, unconscious, his body slumping straight into Sibaek’s arms.
