“Um…”
Na Jungwoo opened his mouth, ready to defend himself and insist he hadn’t meant to stab anyone. But the moment he saw Kim Sibaek’s face, the words caught in his throat. Whatever he was about to say was swallowed down with a hard gulp.
To be honest, even after witnessing Kim Sibaek’s powers firsthand, Jungwoo had never really found him intimidating. There was something soft about the man, especially when he was with Tae Woon. He always kept a polite distance from the other guild members, but he was courteous, respectful. He never asked for anything in return when offering guidance, and even when Jungwoo had openly picked a fight with him, Sibaek had gone so far as to heal him without a hint of resentment.
To Na Jungwoo, Kim Sibaek had always seemed like a guy floating somewhere between a soft touch and a genuinely good person.
But not today.
“……”
Kim Sibaek approached in silence and took the seat across the desk. His posture was calm, his appearance as immaculate as ever—but the air around him had changed. The deep, hazel-brown eyes that locked onto Jungwoo’s carried a cold sharpness now, and the firm line of his mouth and jaw radiated unshakable resolve.
There was no mistaking it—this was a man who had been tempered by time, refined through countless storms. The generosity that once made him seem naive was, in truth, the quiet confidence of someone who fully understood his own strength.
For the first time, Na Jungwoo truly felt that Kim Sibaek was forty-nine.
Under the table, Jungwoo clenched his fists tightly. His spine stiffened more than it had when Yang Eunho had interrogated him, and his mouth went bone dry.
Kim Sibaek, who hadn’t even moved a muscle but had already frozen him in place, finally opened his mouth.
“Let me see your hand.”
For a second, an irrational fear struck Jungwoo—Did he somehow see me clenching my hand under the table? He swallowed nervously and slowly raised his hand onto the desk.
Yang Eunho gave him a curious glance as Kim Sibaek placed his own hand gently over the back of Jungwoo’s. A faint light shimmered between them, seeping into Jungwoo’s skin. He flinched instinctively, but there was no pain. In fact—though it could’ve been his imagination—his mind suddenly felt clearer, as if a cool breeze had passed through it.
“Why did you go to the amusement park?”
“…Do I need a special reason to go out and have fun?” Jungwoo mumbled, clearly shrinking into himself.
“You said attacking me wasn’t of your own free will. Is that correct?”
“…Yes.”
“Then let’s walk through it, slowly. Hunter Pi Minhyung told me yesterday was your team’s day off. What time did you wake up?”
“Six o’clock, same as usual…”
“And after that?”
“I washed up and went jogging.”
He began retracing his steps from that morning. After jogging, he came home, showered, and made himself a simple breakfast. Living alone, he always turned on a streaming service while eating, and while flipping through the menus, he had reconfirmed the date.
The date Kim Sibaek was scheduled to visit the amusement park.
“…Huh?”
The moment he recalled that detail, his memory went blank. Caught off guard, Na Jungwoo’s eyes flicked around in panic. Kim Sibaek remained calm as he asked,
“You remember recognizing the date, but nothing after that?”
“Y-Yeah.”
Up until now, he’d assumed he’d just decided on a whim to go to the amusement park. But now, retracing the events carefully, the shaky foundation of that memory collapsed instantly.
“Let’s go back further. What time did you wake up the morning before yesterday?”
Still fumbling, Jungwoo followed Kim Sibaek’s lead and went over the day before. He’d woken up in a tent out in the field and spent the day hunting monsters. Everything about that day had been normal.
Finding no irregularities, Kim Sibaek then asked about the day before that. They kept going back, one day at a time.
“After that, I remember hearing at the café again that you were training guild members. After I finished my coffee, I stepped out for a smoke, and then…”
Another blank.
Panic surged up. Na Jungwoo’s face went pale as he stammered,
“Sunglasses! I saw a foreigner wearing sunglasses. His eyes—they were pitch black, even the whites! A young guy, and—and the moment I looked at him, my memory just… disappeared! But why didn’t I realize that until now?”
Even to his own ears, the story sounded absurd. He stammered on, flustered. Yang Eunho, who had been listening quietly, narrowed his eyes, clearly finding it hard to believe.
But Kim Sibaek didn’t question it. He simply asked,
“Do you remember his face?”
“Yes! I mean, who could forget a face like that? A guy with completely black eyes—no whites at all!”
“Chief.”
When Kim Sibaek turned his head, Yang Eunho hesitated, clearly unsure, but nodded anyway.
“I’ll get a sketch artist.”
A specialist was brought in immediately, and with Na Jungwoo’s testimony, they produced a composite sketch. A young foreign man with eyes as black as ink, even where the whites should have been.
Just as he’d feared—it was Edokers.
Even though it was exactly what he had expected, Kim Sibaek felt no sense of relief.
He came all the way to the guild café, and I didn’t even notice?
Edokers hadn’t been born of Chaos for long—certainly not long enough to still be in that early phase when he could imitate human behavior. Now that he had revealed his true form, the demonic energy he emitted couldn’t be hidden completely, no matter what he tried. If he wanted to sneak into a human city and pull strings behind the scenes, he’d have no choice but to use his underlings.
Even if his Divine Power had weakened, Kim Sibaek’s spiritual senses weren’t dull. If Edokers had slipped past unnoticed, that meant one of two things—either time had reversed and he’d somehow reverted to his mimicry phase, or…
He’s gotten so weak that even I couldn’t detect him.
Which meant there was only one reason Edokers had shown up on Earth: when Sibaek got swept up in the Rift, a fragment of Edokers must have come through with him.
If he’d just stayed quiet, I might never have realized. But no, of course he had to stir up trouble. Then again… this is Edokers we’re talking about.
Edokers was the kind of lunatic who, fearing a collapsing house might fall on him, would tear the whole thing down himself—then curl up and fall asleep on the broken rubble.
While Kim Sibaek sat lost in thought, Pi Minhyung and Yang Eunho were still staring at the sketch.
“I’ll let the guild members know to keep an eye out for this guy.”
“And your other contacts too, hyung… Hyung? What are you thinking about?”
“Ah, sorry. Did you say something?”
“Shouldn’t we show this sketch to your outside contacts as well?”
In truth, Kim Sibaek didn’t have many acquaintances beyond the guild. As he mentally went through the short list of names, he shook his head.
“No need. Director Noh and Ji-han are Buddhist, and I’ve heard Chief Gwak is Catholic. Just notify the HG Guild.”
“…Huh?”
Yang Eunho blinked at the abrupt, seemingly random response. But there were more urgent matters at hand than explaining it all now.
“Will you help me make the medicine for Woonie?”
[Death and Beauty says your brother hasn’t changed.]
Lord Biendeoé greeted him with a Divine Word as Kim Sibaek returned. She’d been watching over Tae Woon in his absence. Sibaek quietly took the chair beside the bed.
Tae Woon lay there like nothing had happened—like he hadn’t just coughed up blood. Dressed in loungewear Eunho had bought in a rush—since his closet had only black suits—he looked more out of place than ever.
Even the only item with any color in the house, the gray tracksuit, hadn’t been his. It turned out Pi Minhyung had asked for extra when ordering his own.
Now, surrounded by the stark contrast of blacks and whites, Tae Woon’s pale figure on the bed looked so fragile, it was as if his next breath could be his last. The sight of it tore at Sibaek’s heart.
The dagger Jungwoo had used hadn’t been coated in some run-of-the-mill toxin. It had been laced with poison crafted by Edokers himself, steeped in raw Chaos.
And on top of that, Tae Woon’s body still held traces of the poison from Xiangliu—an S-rank monster. It wasn’t as potent as Edokers’ venom, but it too carried the taint of Chaos. Edokers’ poison had acted like a catalyst, whipping the dormant Xiangliu toxin into a frenzy.
Kim Sibaek should’ve realized it earlier. That unsettling feeling he’d sensed during the detox process had been the lingering residue of an old, embedded poison.
In the end, if not for him, Tae Woon wouldn’t be suffering like this. Even with the toxins inside him, it wouldn’t have escalated to this degree.
He rubbed his forehead and let out a low sigh. Despite the poison slicing through his body, Tae Woon had tried to endure it all in silence. Just imagining it made Sibaek’s chest ache, like a blade was digging into his heart.
Haunted by the ghost of a dead brother, he’d pushed the one still alive to the edge.
What kind of brother does that?
“…Woonie collapsed because of me once before.”
[Death and Beauty asks if you’re talking about the blind date incident.]
Kim Sibaek let out a bitter smile.
“No. Even before that.”
It had been on his birthday.
