Chapter 175

Was the last time I saw them back during the subjugation of the Purple Magic Tower?

Since I had been operating with my bare face exposed as Sae Hayan back then, it had been a rather long time since we met with me as Patel.

It had only been a few months, but he had grown quite tall and lost weight.

Above all, what was unusual was the blue light swirling in his eyes.

Did he awaken an ability?

Impressive for such a young age.

He seemed to have matured quite a bit while going through various events in a short period, but he was still a little brat.

The boy, who had been glaring at me for a while, clicked his tongue and grumbled.

“Throwing us in a place like this and never even showing your face.”

“If you’re trying to weigh down my conscience by emphasizing a guardian’s role, it’s useless. I am a black mage, after all.”

“Tsk. I didn’t expect anything from you anyway.”

“Where are Velada and Flauros?”

“If you want to see them so badly, why don’t you look for them yourself?”

I looked around at the children spreading out large cloths in the backyard and stuffing the cabbage leaves.

Whether the orphans had dragged in all the neighborhood kids as well, their numbers were quite substantial.

Yet no matter how much I searched, Velada and Flauros were nowhere to be seen.

Both of them possessed striking appearances, so they would easily stand out anywhere. The reason they weren’t visible was clear.

I asked Yeon Parang.

“I don’t see them.”

“Then I guess they aren’t here. If you’re done with your business, get lost.”

This kid’s personality is seriously twisted.

If only his childhood friend holding a steel pipe were next to him, things would be different.

Apparently, Yeon Parang didn’t have that kind of friend around him.

It couldn’t be helped. Should I back down just for today?

I resolved to play the role of the guardian he so desperately wanted, just for today.

Setting down the gifts I brought, I stood next to the kimchi container and suddenly pulled out a paint bucket, causing Yeon Parang to ask in surprise.

“What are you doing? What if that drops into the kimchi!”

“I’m planning to repaint the mural.”

“The mural?”

“If you tell me who you like, I’ll draw them right here next to your picture. Let’s see, how about that girl?”

I pointed at a girl who was secretly adding oysters to the kimchi in a corner.

She was the daughter of the family I had rescued from Sector 7 last time.

I was glad to see she was doing well and healthy.

Yeon Parang’s face crumpled instantly like a piece of ruined drawing paper.

“I don’t need it, so please…”

“Right, I should draw Velada and Flauros too. Should I make them hold your hands, one on the left and one on the right?”

“D-Don’t do it!”

“Why? I’ll draw it beautifully for you.”

The moment I mentioned those two, his face instantly flushed bright red.

He tried to block me with movements that were unthinkable for an ordinary human, but he couldn’t alter the path of my brush, which had already successfully channeled divine inspiration.

“Don’t do it! Don’t!”

“Oh, judging by your reaction, is it an unrequited love?”

I understand.

When you’re young, a difference of just a year or two is enough to harbor special feelings.

Of course, the age gap between him and those two was at least three hundred years, but you couldn’t tell just by looking at them.

I had a similar experience myself.

My heart used to flutter every time I looked at the older girls at the orphanage.

Granted, I couldn’t tell if it was because they secretly gave me snacks every night or if I liked them as the opposite sex, but unfortunately, I would never find the answer to that question.

One day, the childhood friend who found out about it pushed every single one of them into a Gate.

That bastard should have died there back then.

While I was caught up in gloomy thoughts again, the painting was nearly finished.

Perhaps the practice I did while learning internal power techniques at Yoo Se-byeol’s mansion helped, as the quality was quite high.

The moment I was about to draw Yeon Parang in the center as the finishing touch, the boy clung to my pant leg, hanging on.

“I’ll tell you where they are! I’ll tell you, so please!!”

“You should have done that from the start. Where are they?”

“If you go back to the chapel, they’re by the flower bed. I separated them because they didn’t seem to be helping with the kimchi making.”

“Right, understood. Clean this up yourself.”

Setting down the paint bucket for him to pour over the wall, I turned around to head to the place Yeon Parang mentioned.

But suddenly, the boy threw a strange question at me.

“That mask… how long are you going to keep wearing it?”

“What about the mask?”

“It’s weird to keep acting like someone who is already dead.”

Huh?

How does he know Patel is dead?

“I’ve been at this orphanage the longest. This place used to be…”

The Prayer House of Revelation.

I see. When I visited the prayer house with No Yeon-hwa during my very first mission, Yeon Parang was already staying here.

It was a fact I had overlooked back then because things were too chaotic.

The fact that there was an ordinary human who knew Patel, besides the demons.

“I saw everything—how the black mage who introduced himself as Patel turned the believers into zombies.”

“Actually, all of that was me too.”

“Even if you pretend to be the same person now, you’re way too different. Above all, I saw the director call you Hayan after he returned to normal later.”

He found out far too much.

Even if I were to erase his memory with hypnosis after so much time had passed, it was questionable whether it would work properly.

As I subtly built up my mana, beads of sweat formed on Yeon Parang’s forehead.

I asked him in a low voice as he stood there, too tense to even stand straight properly.

“If you’re also from Ground Zero, you should know that nothing good comes from speaking those words aloud. Why are you coming clean only now?”

“That’s… because I want the older sisters to be happy.”

“Do you mean those two?”

“They still believe you’re Patel.”

In truth, Velada saw my face at the recent Council.

And Flauros also knows that the Apostle of the Outer God operates under the name Sae Hayan within the Special Unit.

If the two of them combined their information, the ultimate puzzle of Sae Hayan = Patel = Apostle of the Outer God would be completed.

Until now, the chances were high that they hadn’t shared information because their relationship wasn’t that great, but it was only a matter of time before the secret I had kept all this time was exposed.

“Don’t get caught later and hurt them by hiding your identity for no reason. Just come clean quickly.”

“Thanks for the useless advice. And go register as an Awakened too. You’ll get a Seoul citizen ID card.”

“If you’re done talking nonsense, get lost.”

“Yeah, right back at you.”

Parting ways after exchanging well-wishes that perfectly matched the conversational level of a thirteen-year-old child, I agonized over it the entire time I walked.

I didn’t know about Velada, but would it be alright to reveal this fact to Flauros?

The moment she found out I was the Apostle of the Outer God, she would immediately try to throw a punch.

Perhaps she would even abandon her attempt to make me hers through a blood pact and try to kill me on the spot.

After all, I had dealt her a heartbreaking defeat.

『This and that, all of it is because of you, Mala-nim.』

『Fear!?』

『No, wait. Come to think of it, that’s actually true.』

In the first place, hadn’t all of this started because Mala-nim ran away from home?

If I hadn’t climbed the Purple Magic Tower to find Mala-nim again and met Flauros, I wouldn’t have had to worry about my identity being exposed from the start.

“This won’t do. Prepare yourself to gulp down a bowl of oyster kimchi later.”

『F-Fear not…!!』

Mala-nim protested that ‘doing that without bossam¹ is too harsh,’ but there was no way.

Resolving to show Mala-nim the sheer terror of norovirus, I gathered my thoughts and headed toward the backyard.

This time, I didn’t need to exert any effort to find them, as a familiar voice could be heard from afar.

Velada and Flauros.

They were two demons possessing horns and fire.

“I don’t know why I have to be here pulling weeds.”

“Is it not because you turned all the fresh geotjeori (fresh unfermented kimchi) into fried kimchi!!”

“I was simply clumsy with my strength control. Didn’t you also stomp on the cabbage and pop it?”

“Th-That’s what Patel taught me! He said that’s how you make kimchi!”

When did I ever.

There was a time I told her a story about stomping on grapes to make wine.

Apparently, it had been distorted in her mind because she heard it while half-asleep.

Since she was the type to whine on the bed and ask for an interesting story every time I occasionally visited the temple, that was highly likely.

Velada, who was removing stones embedded in the flower bed, muttered in a downcast voice.

“Sigh, that aside, when will we be able to meet that guy again?”

“We might never see him again.”

“What? Why!?”

“Because the Council has collapsed.”

The Council was a space that Chairwoman Trishy had created by prying open the rift in the sky where the Outer Gods floated using magic.

When Mala-nim collided into that place, the Outer Gods were shattered.

It was said that countless meteor showers poured down in the night sky at that time.

Not only would it be difficult to construct that kind of space again, but the fact that an intruder had entered the interior of the Council had spread publicly, so it was questionable whether the demons would even feel safe gathering.

“The Council will probably not open again. We might be able to exchange messages through the Witch Trade Association, but it will be difficult to hold regular meetings like we used to.”

“Th-Then he can just come here directly! Since he knows our location…”

“Do you think he will come? When we tried to kill him?”

At Flauros’s words, Velada’s hands stopped.

Flauros spoke calmly as she burned the weeds in the flower bed to death with her fire.

“Dragging in the Special Unit and summoning the Outer God was his final struggle. Why would he visit those who tried to kill him? It wouldn’t even be strange if he cut off his support right this instant.”

“I-I didn’t try to kill Patel! Rather, I…”

“In the end, you voted in favor. To think you’d forget even that, you truly are dim-witted.”

“What?”

Crunch!

The rock gripped in Velada’s hand shattered into pieces.

At the same time, sparks flew from Flauros’s eyes.

“Is it not all your fault! Because you spouted useless nonsense about splitting Patel’s soul with an axe or whatever!”

“To blame someone else for your own gullibility, what an easy and convenient demon life you lead. In the first place, if you had fulfilled the contract properly, there would have been no reason for him to wander outside!”

“Eek! To think you tried to forge a blood pact yourself after breaking my contract!”

“Ha! It is only natural for the strong to take the loot. Shall we decide definitely right here who has the qualification to possess him?”

The relationship that had finally improved threatened to fall apart again.

At this rate, contrary to Yeon Parang’s concerns, I wouldn’t have to worry about my identity being exposed by this side first.

But was that truly a good thing?

I fiddied with the worn-out mask.

Since the Council had lost its function, there was no longer any reason to wear this and stand before the demons.

I had united the forces of the discriminated succubi and witches, and I had also provided a bridge for them to approach the human side favorably.

And above all, it felt like it was truly time to let go of the kind senior.

I quietly dropped the mask.

Startled by the sound, the two hastily concealed the horns on their heads and the fire held in their hands.

“W-Who is it! This place is strictly the private property of the Cult of the Void… Huh? Patel?”

“Wait, Patel?”