He hadn’t exactly forgotten, but Kim Sibaek’s question about Edokers brought it all rushing back.
He knew where the guy was—apparently cooped up at home, lying low. His powers were mostly gone, but his knowledge remained intact, making him at least marginally useful.
Tae Woon had decided to let him live. For now.
The Gae-seong Field was a gift meant for Kim Sibaek. If the game board could be expanded, it was best to do it thoroughly—and as naturally as possible.
Whatever happened in that field, the one who’d stand out the most… would be Kim Sibaek.
***
Sibaek was curious what exactly this “good thing” was, but Tae Woon just grinned and said gifts were only fun when you unwrapped them yourself. He never gave a straight answer.
Sibaek didn’t push the matter, but Biendeoé wasn’t so easily satisfied.
A material gift wouldn’t mean much to Sibaek, so what could it be?
[Death and Beauty gives you a sidelong glance, asking if you aren’t at least curious about the gift your little brother promised.]
Still focused on texting Yang Eunho, Sibaek replied without even looking up.
“I’ll find out eventually.”
[Death and Beauty says your god loves spoilers and insists you at least take a guess.]
“Hmm… If it’s something good for me, there’s really only one thing.”
The restoration of Divine Power. Nothing else mattered. He didn’t need wealth, and he didn’t crave power.
“Whatever’s about to go down in Seoul… I’ll need my Divine Power back to deal with it.”
[Death and Beauty recalls that your brother once offered to build a temple for you.]
“A temple? In North Korea?”
Sure, there had been a dictator once worshipped like a god up there, but this was something else entirely. Sibaek chuckled. “Tae Woon’s not that ridiculous,” he said, brushing it off. Just then, Han-gyeol’s prayer chimed in, drawing Biendeoé’s attention away.
[Dear god of Death and Beauty, I’m praying because I need some divine meta-luck. I rewrote the formula for expanding disassembly magic, and I’m gonna test it after lunch. If it fails, I lose my research grant and my thesis. Also… why does Tae Woon-hyung hate the idea of Sibaek becoming my adoptive dad? Is it because there’s a 65-year age gap and asking that’s kinda rude? Would it be better if I asked Sibaek to be my adoptive grandpa instead…?]
Han-gyeol’s prayers often included some baffling nonsense—okay, more than often—but he was still a sincere believer. He always spoke Sibaek’s name with devotion.
Thanks to her Apostle slaying monsters and gaining public attention, awareness of the god was spreading. And while she only had one believer, the foundation was there. Divine Power was already recovering steadily. And because Sibaek’s Divine Power was so pure, it worked with impressive efficiency.
More than that, every time her Apostle engaged in battle, he left a searing impression—even on worlds that had long forgotten the god’s existence. Pulling that off consistently wasn’t easy. The young crow’s feathers puffed up, proud.
Meanwhile, Sibaek groaned softly as he finally finished downloading the attachment Eunho had sent. It contained tracking data on Edokers. As he read, Biendeoé leaned in, looking genuinely surprised.
[Death and Beauty is baffled by how absurdly honest Edokers has been living.]
“Right? Who would’ve thought…”
Reverse-tracking his movements using a montage, they discovered he’d been frequenting a café in the guild HQ building… and working part-time at a convenience store near the Barrier.
Sibaek, who’d been bumming around jobless since returning to Earth without making a dime, had a brief, humbling moment of self-reflection.
Surprisingly, Edokers hadn’t harmed anyone. In fact, he’d worked hard. He even got scammed by the store owner and ended up working 12-hour shifts for less than minimum wage. After the montage went public, the records of his life as a scammed foreign laborer stopped completely.
“He even went back once more after quitting.”
Sibaek tapped a CCTV still with his finger—it showed Edokers standing face-to-face with Na Jungwoo. The interrogation notes included Jungwoo’s lingering frustration at failing to recognize and stop him due to being momentarily entranced.
[Death and Beauty asks how you’re so sure. His face isn’t even clear in that image.]
“He’s wearing the same clothes.”
Sibaek pulled up additional footage from both the café and the convenience store. Edokers owned exactly two outfits: one for work, one for going out.
[Death and Beauty is rendered speechless.]
Biendeoé was dumbfounded by Edokers’ level of poverty. She hadn’t even imagined it. But Sibaek just kept calmly reviewing the data.
“If the timestamps and footage weren’t tampered with, then it’s unlikely Edokers was behind the Management Center incident. He was working at the store when it happened.”
[Death and Beauty wonders if maybe it was some chaos-spawned creature born on Earth.]
“Could be… but if they waited 21 years just to make one measly monster appear, that’s way too underwhelming. When Edokers made his move, he leveled a city with 500,000 people.”
That was how Edokers opened the curtain on destruction—by reducing an entire city to rubble. Compared to that, the Management Center incident, even back then, had felt… small. Too small for something born of Chaos.
They needed more data on similar cases.
The young crow sighed dramatically as it watched Sibaek painstakingly type out a message to Gwak Yoonsang. It flapped its wings to nudge him out of the way and tapped at the keypad with its foot to speed things up. Beside it, Sibaek kept reading through the rest of the report.
The CCTV trail ended after Edokers entered an alley across from Block 10, where he met an unfamiliar man. Wearing a cap pulled low over his face, the man skillfully led Edokers into a blind spot—then vanished from every camera.
It wasn’t strange that there might be a human collaborator—but something about the man’s silhouette felt familiar. Not enough to recognize him on sight, but it was the kind of vague feeling that made you think, If someone told me who it was, I’d slap my knee and go, “Ah, of course.”
Who could it be? The only people I’ve met on Earth are guild members or Hunters…
Biendeoé finished typing and sending the message for him, then fluttered up and perched lightly on his shoulder.
[Death and Beauty asks why you still haven’t healed your brother. You’ve got enough Divine Power now, and more than enough time has passed.]
“Oh? Han-gyeol prayed again today?”
[Death and Beauty is quite pleased. Says he didn’t seem like the type, but turns out he’s a surprisingly devoted believer.]
Biendeoé kept chatting away before suddenly realizing Sibaek hadn’t actually answered the question—just neatly sidestepped it. She wondered if it had been on purpose but decided not to pry. No point dragging the conversation backward.
Of course, Kim Sibaek had avoided it deliberately. It wasn’t exactly the kind of thing you discussed in front of a minor.
The cradle—wrapped in glittering centipede-shaped Christmas lights—flashed in chaotic, blinking colors. Back in his orphanage days, Christmas had been the most anticipated day of the year. Now, to Kim Sibaek, it was just garishly bright and kind of exhausting.
[Death and Beauty is delighted, saying your god thinks her Incarnate Body’s feathers glow beautifully under the lights.]
Well, if the god liked it, that was what mattered.
Adjusting the cradle’s rocking speed with a remote, Sibaek turned his attention to the file Gwak Yoonsang had sent.
The situation overseas was the same. There were no signs that Monster Seeds had germinated artificially anywhere. The Management Center incident remained the first and only case in the world where a monster had emerged in a purified, magi-free environment.
The intention behind it is just… murky.
The same unanswered question lingered in the air. Maybe it was a test—either to gauge his current strength or to see how humans responded to a new kind of threat.
Deep in thought, Sibaek finally looked up when the room fell silent. He turned toward the cradle. Beneath the blinking lights, the young crow had fallen asleep.
With a faint smile, he rose quietly from his seat.
The moment he opened the door, the silence shattered.
“Whoa—damn, you scared me. What were you doing in there without making a sound?”
Tae Woon, waiting just outside, dropped his arms from where he’d had them crossed and smiled. Sibaek stepped out and quietly shut the door to Biendeoé’s room behind him.
“Asleep?”
“Just now.”
“Then I can kiss you, right?”
Now that they were finally together, Tae Woon wasn’t going to miss a chance. With a minor in the house, he couldn’t do more than snuggle during the day, clinging to Sibaek like Velcro. But now? With that rare window of opportunity?
He wasn’t letting it go to waste.
