Chapter 25
“Haah……”
Eunseong was sitting alone on the floor beneath the bed.
In the middle of a room as wide as a playground, a single bed placed all by itself. Iron bars surrounding it in a circle.
After the meal, the room had been somewhat ‘upgraded.’ Mujin had additionally brought in audio equipment for listening to music, a thick eye mask to cover his aching eyes, a small refrigerator with beverages, and a basket of snacks for Eunseong’s convenience.
The music flowing from the audio somehow sounded familiar. When one song ended, he would unconsciously recall the first few bars of the next song. It was surely a playlist he had enjoyed listening to before losing his memory. He was definitely ‘Yoo Eunseong’ after all.
He had also brought some books, but seeing Eunseong’s eyes, Mujin had been flustered as if he had made some huge mistake. Apparently his ‘friend Eunseong’ had normal eyesight. Mujin still didn’t seem to have completely adapted to the changed Eunseong.
Mujin acted as if he would grant Eunseong anything he wanted. Only Hanyeong was not permitted. Leaving this place was also impossible.
In other words, this was a luxury prison.
“……”
With Baek Mujin as the guard.
‘No, putting aside being confined, what’s the reason for not letting me see Hanyeong?’
That everyone in Huiseon Guild was his enemy. Then what about Hunter Lee Haesu?
Eunseong couldn’t accept the reason Mujin had given. He said enemies were everywhere, but from Eunseong’s perspective, they were just powerless people who couldn’t even break into this room. Moreover, if he was so worried about him, Mujin the gatekeeper could just accompany him.
Was Hanyeong perhaps critically ill?
If so, Mujin shouldn’t have tied him down here like this even more.
The spider monster they encountered that night was an unavoidable disaster. Judging from the poison that had spread through the air at the time, there was a high possibility that all ordinary people who weren’t hunters had died. So Hanyeong being poisoned was perhaps an unfortunate fate.
It was also true that he had neither the ability nor the means to save him.
‘……But.’
He wanted to see him. Just as Hanyeong had picked him up and made him family, Hanyeong was family to him too. Even if it wasn’t blood relation, he had clear responsibility toward Hanyeong.
This terrible powerlessness was disgusting. The reality that he couldn’t even be by his side, let alone having no strength, was horrible.
‘Isn’t there some way to get out?’
It was the moment he thought desperately.
As if there was a sharp solution right here, a sharp beak pecked firmly at Eunseong’s forehead.
Instead of screaming in surprise, Eunseong quickly reached out and grabbed the bird’s body. He placed the small creature that had quickly become docile on his palm and met its eyes.
Right, that’s right, you were here.
Both eyes were covered with a thick eye mask, but there was no problem. This little one was like being inside his head, an existence only he could see.
“……”
The reason he hadn’t given it a name despite knowing it for a long time was because he couldn’t shake his suspicions about it.
Now that the situation had changed, just as Hanyeong had given him the name Geumseum, he should give you a name too.
‘Then we’ll become family.’
Eunseong brought his fingertip to the small bird’s chest.
Even if you’re a monster.
‘Family doesn’t do bad things to each other. Right?’
“……”
Eunseong waited for the bird’s answer. It looked straight at Eunseong’s face with its black eyes, then clicked its beak. The way it tilted its small head seemed to whisper ‘Do you want to get out of here?’
Its feather-covered body was small and soft. It was about the size of a chick but looked like a canary. Its long tail feathers tickled Eunseong’s palm.
‘I still don’t know why you’re attached to me, but.’
When the bird opened its beak slightly, sparks flew out.
‘The fact that I’m alive thanks to you is an unshakeable truth.’
Following the powerlessness of lying dying in the waste disposal site, the times when the Boss hit Hanyeong and when Hanyeong coughed up blood passed through Eunseong’s mind in order. Though the boiling rage from those times had been completely burned away with the Boss’s death, it left a clear resolution to never experience such things again.
Eunseong recalled the process of reconstructing rift byproducts and extracting the power within them. People called that work purification, but to Eunseong who performed it, it was closer to understanding and reading the flow of power.
Understanding the core of monsters.
Crack, crack—aside from the repeatedly flying sparks, there was no interference between the two. Eunseong looked deeply into the bird’s black eyes, hoping that something would connect between him and it.
Whether it was trust or mutual interest.
“Curry.”
The moment he gave it a name, the bird’s body trembled.
Piiiii— The long drawn-out cry resembled a scream he had heard somewhere. Curry spread its yellow wings and flew up, circling around Eunseong’s head several times. Fierce flames shooting from its tail feathers made a whooshing sound as they created round trajectories in the air.
“……Shh!”
Eunseong lifted his covered eyes and looked around. Even though it was supposedly only visible and audible to him, Curry’s actions were so loud that anxiety suddenly surged.
‘Could you be a little quieter?’
His startled heart was pounding, but the area around the door remained quiet.
Pii—
Curry gripped Eunseong’s outstretched fingertip with its claws and folded its wings with a flutter. With the aura of flames rippling around its body, there seemed to be a different light dwelling in its black pupils than before.
‘You’ll help me, right?’
Piyo—?
……It would have been better if they could communicate, but thinking that was asking for too much seemed like luxury. Eunseong moved Curry to his shoulder and stood up, approaching the iron bars.
When he gripped the locking mechanism attached to the barred door with both hands, Curry flapped its wings once.
‘I’m not asking for much. Let’s just break this device. I think you could melt it with your power.’
Eunseong frowned deeply and concentrated energy into his fingertips. Though it wasn’t something that could be done by applying force, he tensed his entire body to the point of being short of breath. His finger joints turned white and his head felt dizzy.
‘Please!’
It was the moment he was desperately pleading without any technique.
Sizzle— Along with the sound of something boiling, the smell of metal stung his nose. He could feel his fingers melting the locking mechanism and penetrating inside. When he held it and shook it slightly, the unlocked door opened like magic.
“……Huh, this actually works.”
He had done it wanting to escape, but now that it was accomplished, he was dumbfounded. Recalling Mujin who had said he couldn’t break it with his power made his heart pound too.
Piyo— Piyo— Curry flew up proudly, circled once around Eunseong’s head, then settled back on his crown. Then it raised one wing and commanded him to advance.
‘Wait, we can’t let Mujin notice.’
Eunseong left the opened barred door and returned to the bed, gradually turning up the audio volume. He increased the sound enough to hide his footsteps, then quietly heightened all his body’s senses. The more urgent things were, the more careful one had to be.
There was only one chance, and the destination was the treatment room where Hanyeong would be. Eunseong lifted his heels and stepped outside the iron bars. His heart pounded like crazy.
Whether Eunseong’s heartbeat encouraged excitement, Curry also made a fuss on his head. Though it probably wasn’t meant as encouragement, it actually helped by calming his mind.
Once he got out of the room, what followed was surprisingly easy. The ridiculously vast house actually helped. The music continued, and thanks to that, Eunseong stealthily walked through the entire long corridor and escaped to the entrance.
He moved purely by intuition, but it was successful. He didn’t even know how he knew the way forward. He had thought that if he reached a dead end, he would melt through the floor to escape, but that didn’t happen.
Thinking the elevator had a high probability of encountering someone, he used the stairs. After leaving the top floor where Mujin’s house was, he ran downward without worrying about noise.
How many floors had he run down? When he became a little out of breath, Eunseong stopped. He had found a floor as quiet as the top floor. Opening the emergency exit door and entering, he found a corridor lined with empty offices. Lifting his eye mask slightly and examining the nameplates on the doors, they were generally places related to administrative work. Thanks to that, he could guess that today was a weekend.
The next floor seemed to be storage, the next floor was equipment rooms, and the next floor looked like dormitories. While repeatedly checking and going down the stairs, his heart beat more and more fiercely.
After repeating this several more times, he finally found a building floor guide posted on the wall. His legs were trembling and his eyeballs felt like they would pop out, but a sigh of relief poured out.
“Treatment room…… here it is.”
The treatment center marked on the guide was a little further down, on the 8th floor. After confirming his own location, Eunseong headed for the emergency exit again. Now that his destination was clear, his legs felt even more shaky from tension.
As soon as he arrived on the 8th floor and entered the corridor, he first hid his body in a corner. The smell of disinfectant here definitely suggested it was a treatment facility. Wheelchairs and emergency treatment carts could be seen throughout the corridor.
“Eunseong-ssi?”
Then, he heard someone calling him. The owner of the voice slowly approached the frozen Eunseong.
“It is you. What are you doing here?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
