Chapter 161

The first to speak up was No Yeon-hwa, the one who had called Yoo Se-byeol and Cheon So-baek to this place.

She told them about the time when I had pushed the Archduke of Darkness to the brink of death—something the other mages back then couldn’t even match.

Though she was pointing out a minor flaw—one that would wipe right off or blow away like sublimating dye—in my otherwise pure, unblemished, noble, and elegant character, the two who heard it took the news surprisingly well.

In fact, their reactions made it seem like they were wondering why she was only finding out now.

“I’ve known for a while, though?”

“Right? Me too.”

“Is that so? I thought as much…”

“Why is everyone like this!?”

At my despairing cry, Yoo Se-byeol gave the leg of the chair I was tied to a light kick.

Resting her chin on her hand and avoiding my gaze, she explained exactly how she had noticed I was hiding my true power.

“Hayan, you beat me twice.”

“Oh, really?”

“I thought the first time was a fluke, but the second time wasn’t. You instantly subdued the Division Commander of the Special Unit and left her completely helpless, so what kind of nonsense are you spouting now?”

Sure, it made sense for Yoo Se-byeol.

When she ascended to the position of Commander of Division 3, her fighting spirit wasn’t the type to back down easily, so I had no choice but to face her with everything I had.

But what about Cheon So-baek?

She was an Upper Level mage, so I should have never even used Singularity properly in front of her for fear of exposing my identity.

“Me? Lee Do-hwan told me.”

Lee Do-hwan?

Did she mean that devoted romantic who loved old ladies?

“Didn’t you catch him together when you went on that business trip to Busan? After his identity was exposed, he fled to that side and checked into a convalescent hospital, which is when he talked about it.”

He had told her that the guy wasn’t just a simple mage, but someone who used strange tentacles.

Cheon So-baek naturally confessed that she later realized the truth after seeing the Apostle of the Outer God using tentacles in the Thirteen Palaces of the Void.

To think my identity would be exposed in such a hollow manner.

Under the flickering flashlights, the sharp, glaring gazes of the women locked onto me.

What happens when you get caught telling a lie?

In Ground Zero, relatively lenient measures were taken for thieves—they were released on probation after having their wrists severed and the word ‘Thief’ branded on their foreheads—but liars had to have their tongues cut out.

My childhood friend used to tell me that if a man’s sophistry was dismantled by a woman of marriageable age, he had to offer up his tongue whenever she demanded it as payment if he wanted to keep it from being severed.

Of course, during my clever childhood years, I knew full well that in Seoul—one of the few remaining civilized nations to survive the apocalypse—there was no legal distinction in punishment based on gender, and above all, neither of us was of marriageable age back then.

It weighed 6.3 kilograms, had an outer diameter of 30 millimeters, and measured roughly 73 centimeters in length.

Persuaded by the “flawless logic” of that iron pipe—its reddish, oxidized surface unevenly embedded with screws to enhance its destructive power, its handle wrapped in tape to maximize friction—I had to give up not just my tongue but many other things multiple times after that.

If I were to follow the same tracks this time, I might never be able to live under the name ‘Sae Hayan’ given to me by the orphanage director again.

As I shivered and trembled, the three women tilted their heads in confusion.

“Hmm, it’s true he’s shown an unusually strange fondness for tentacles since way back. Lately, he’s even openly raised them in the dormitory.”

“My research lab is packed with them too. It’s reached a point where I can’t tell if it’s a Magic Tower or a botanical garden.”

“But why is he sitting here so quietly after getting caught?”

None of them had ever faced the Apostle of the Outer God face-to-face.

Even when I revealed myself in the Thirteen Palaces of the Void, I had used Disguise Mastery to alter my facial structure, so checking the montage registered in the Bureau’s database wouldn’t serve as proof that it was me.

More than anything, their reactions showed they couldn’t understand why someone strong enough to effortlessly defeat the Archduke of Darkness would allow himself to be captured by them so easily.

No Yeon-hwa raised the smartwatch she had stripped from my wrist, a puzzled look on her face.

“Could it be because of this?”

—Meeeeeooooww…!!

“Gargantua!!!”

“Looks like I hit the mark.”

“Over a measly thing like that?”

A measly thing!?

That child was the very first SSR-grade monster I ever pulled after coming to Earth!

Gar (my pet name for him) was a core character who could easily trample even the newly implemented ‘Archduke of Darkness Who Lost Their Wings and Fell to Earth (SR)’ in the <Busan Pact> chapter update that dropped just today.

And yet, when that child cried out for food, she just muted it because it was too loud.

It was glaringly obvious that none of these three women would ever prepare breakfast for their husbands if they got married.

Yoo Se-byeol, the owner of this basement, looked out past the iron bars and spoke to Cheon So-baek and No Yeon-hwa.

“Both of you, come here for a second. We need to step out and talk quietly.”

“What about Hayan?”

“Just put this on him. Hayan, bear with it for a moment.”

“Mmph, mmph!”

Accompanied by the fragrant scent of her hair, my vision was blocked, and earmuffs were pressed over my ears.

A moment later, the heavy iron door slammed shut.

From the hallway outside, the faint whispering of the three women drifted in.

It seemed they were deliberating over what to do with me.

—It’s hard to comprehend by my standards, but it’s honestly easier to just think of it that way.
—…True. When you consider what kind of existence the Apostle of the Outer God is, this isn’t an issue we can just let slide.
—So it was the right call not to inform Commander Ha Yeri?
—Of course. From the start, this completely transcends the boundaries of what Commander Ha Yeri can handle.

The Apostle of the Outer God, who hunted both Archdukes and Outer Gods indiscriminately, was a threat greater than a Seed of Calamity by his mere existence.

The moment his location was confirmed, every nation in the world, backed by the churches worshiping the four Outer Gods, would mobilize to subjugate him.

The Bureau was no exception; unlike before, they couldn’t just treat the Apostle of the Outer God favorably just because he was open to conversation, not after he had erected the Purple Magic Tower in Ground Zero and pushed Seoul to the brink of collapse.

Perhaps that was why the three of them seemed to have decided to keep everything that happened here strictly between themselves.

—Even so, what do we do now? We can’t keep Hayan tied down forever with just that single smartwatch.
—What about the method we talked about last time?
—Last time? What was that?
—Ah… you mean splitting him in half?

Though that didn’t mean they were planning to let me live.

—Are you—are you all out of your minds? Why would you split him in half! He’ll die!
—He might not die, you know.
—Are you insane!?

No Yeon-hwa, who hadn’t participated in the auction during the festival and didn’t know what the proposal was, practically jumped out of her skin.

Yes, it’s natural for conflicts to arise whenever three people gather.

Even when choosing a delivery menu every Sunday evening in the dormitory with Alexei and Mala-nim, a blood-soaked battle takes place, so how could there not be friction in a crucial situation like this?

Gambling with my life on the roll of a die was bound to carry the same element of risk for the three of them as well.

—No, surprisingly, he really might not die. After the festival ended last time, I received a rather interesting grimoire from the chairwoman of the Witch Trade Association.
—We didn’t even need to fight among ourselves over which part to take. Did it say something about dividing the soul?
—That’s right. Since there are three of us, we can just split it into three equal parts and share him.
—Still, absolutely not! Is he some kind of object?

As long as she—the one realistic enough to be called cynical within the Special Unit—held onto the final remnants of her conscience, I wouldn’t end up carved into three pieces.

Just as I let out a sigh of relief, Cheon So-baek threw out a peculiar compromise.

—Then we’ll let you have him for one of the weekend days.
—…What?
—I already know you’ve been using strange excuses to go on dates with him every single weekend. Who do you think manages Hayan’s mission logs?
—There will be three Hayans, you know? The three of us can do everything we ever wanted, and you still don’t want to?
—….

A brief silence followed, and then a cautious voice drifted in, completely different from before.

—Really?

“Mmph! Mmmph!!”

It was the exact moment the final conscience of the Special Unit crumbled to pieces.

I thrashed wildly while still bound to the chair.

Though the chair’s legs were supposed to be bolted to the floor, it seemed that even the Yoo Clan—with all their astronomical wealth and renown—couldn’t avoid shoddy work from interior contractors, as the chair tipped sideways with a sharp crack.

Throwing off the blindfold and earmuffs from the impact, I quickly moved my hands bound behind my back.

Though handcuffs were clamped shut around them, I only had eight fingers, allowing me to easily pop my joints out and slip right through the restraints.

“Spatial Shift, Spatial Shift…”

The perimeter of the mansion belonging to the Heavenly Immortal was thickly layered with barriers erected by martial artists to disrupt the use of magic.

However, just like when I had bypassed the Formation of Chaotic Heavens to break in here the first time, slipping back out wasn’t all that difficult for me.

This was the single, fleeting opportunity to vanish without leaving a trace.

Yet, even after completing the magic formula for Spatial Shift, I couldn’t bring myself to form the hand seals.

Contrary to their suspicions, it obviously wasn’t because of a mere chunk of digital data that I couldn’t escape this predicament.

The true reason I had remained quietly tied up was because I knew that if I vanished from this spot, the entire daily life I had built as a Special Unit agent up until now would completely shatter.

Unlike my childhood days when I could find happiness in stealing a single piece of bread even while covered in bruises, I had already grown deeply accustomed to a normal life.

If I had to completely destroy my relationships with my comrades now—and perhaps even turn them into enemies—could I truly carry myself strictly as the Apostle of the Outer God then?

Leaving this room meant facing a future no different from the ten years I had spent wandering through the Demon Realm.

If that was the case, wouldn’t it be better to just quietly accept my fate?

It was a moment where I couldn’t help but resent Mala-nim, who had fled all by herself just to save her own skin.

‘No, looking back, if I hadn’t played the part of the Apostle of the Outer God in the first place, none of this would have happened.’

It was only natural that someone as soft-hearted as me—who couldn’t even bring himself to step on a single tentacle growing between the sidewalk cracks—could never succeed in deceiving his own comrades.

In the end, it was merely a matter of time; it was bound to be exposed sooner or later.

I could practically hear her saying, ‘Didn’t I clearly try to stop you, yet you were the one who ran wild hiding your identity because playing dress-up was so amusing?’ but honestly, so what?

Demanding a right to speak after slipping away entirely on her own was a luxury she didn’t deserve.

Now that Mala-nim—the one I should have been able to trust and rely on—had been overwhelmed by the spirit of those three women and had tucked her tentacles and run, I had to find a way to survive on my own.

Thinking desperately, I first righted the chair and bound my own hands and feet again.

After extending a tentacle from my sleeve to put the blindfold and earmuffs back on, the door swung open right on cue.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Hayan.”

“Doesn’t the chair feel a bit creaky? There are even screws rolling around on the floor.”

As the blindfold was pulled off, I saw the three of them, each holding an axe they had sourced from somewhere.

“W-Wait a minute!”

“Hmm?”

“The truth is, there’s something I need to tell you all.”

The moment I laid eyes on those weapons, the thought that my head might get split open instead of my soul flashed through my mind, and I began to frantically wet my bone-dry lips.