Chapter 03

“……”

Hye-ju clapped a hand over her mouth.
A scream threatened to burst from her throat, but the strange pressure emanating from Jun-gyeong before her smothered her voice.
Beside her, the soul of Han Jun-gyeong stared at the dead man, his eyes welling with tears.

[Thank you.]

He looked at Hye-ju and gently stroked her hair.

[I’m sorry, Hye-ju. I couldn’t protect you.]

His soul slowly burned away and vanished.
At the same time, a book opened before Jun-gyeong.

Jun-gyeong tossed the knife onto the table and sat down on the sofa.
Then he picked up the bottle of whiskey pushed to one end of the table and drank straight from it.

Gulp- Gulp- Gulp-

“Hah. Strong stuff.”

Compared to the liquor he had drunk in the past, it burned viciously going down.
Jun-gyeong leaned back against the sofa and closed his eyes, tasting the bitter aftertaste of the harsh liquor.
Jun-gyeong had never been much of a drinker, but after an intense battle, few things soothed an exhausted body and soul as well as alcohol.
Hye-ju continued staring at him with a frozen expression before quietly holding out an empty glass.

“…Give me some too.”

Without a word, Jun-gyeong filled the glass she held out.
Hye-ju downed more than half a beer glass of whiskey in one go, then roughly wiped her mouth with her forearm.
As the strong alcohol hit her system, some of the tension finally seemed to leave her rigid body.
Hye-ju leaned back against the sofa and stared blankly at Jun-gyeong’s profile.

“You really… have gotten ruthless.”

The Han Jun-gyeong she knew was weak, all bluster and no backbone.
But the man sitting before her now had killed someone without so much as blinking.
He had changed far too much.
She wanted to ask what had happened to him, but the cold aura surrounding Jun-gyeong kept the question trapped in her throat.

“We need to get out of here before that bastard’s people come storming in. You know what guys in this line of work are like.”

Just as Hye-ju straightened her clothes and started to speak, an unfamiliar voice came through the open doorway.

“Wow~ Good thing I came to see this for myself. You really made a mess the moment you arrived. What a mess.”

A short figure in a black hoodie stepped into the room, accompanied by a bright, ringing voice.

“Hi~ Should I say nice to meet you? Well, whatever. You’re Jun-gyeong?”
“…”

Jun-gyeong stared at the newcomer without a word.

“Ah! I’m Ok-hee. Doesn’t really seem like the time for introductions, though. Ms. Hye-ju, I’ll take care of things here, so take him with you and head out.”

Hye-ju swallowed hard, startled that this stranger knew her name.
Without a word, Jun-gyeong rose and grabbed the sashimi knife he had tossed onto the table.

“Ah, wait! Wait! Didn’t you get the message? Or did they not tell you? We’re on the same side.”

Ok-hee waved both hands as she backed away.
At that moment, the book appeared before Jun-gyeong’s eyes again.
Its pages flipped rapidly on their own before stopping on a page bearing an illustration of her face.

“…Ok-hee?”
“That’s right. I’m Ok-hee. Ok-hee. Ok-hee the Jade Rabbit.”

King Yama was a god of the same stature as Heavenly King Chiwoo, the one who had sent him here.
If Heavenly King Chiwoo was a god of Hell and an executioner who carried out punishment, then King Yama was the judge who decided whether a human soul should be sent to Hell or ascend to paradise.
In other words, just as Ok-hee had said, they were indeed on the same side.

Jun-gyeong sat back down on the sofa.
But as though to make it clear that he had not lowered his guard, he drove the sashimi knife deep into the sofa beside him.

“Ah… That sofa was expensive.”

Ok-hee looked mournfully at the sofa as she pulled out her smartphone.

“Yeah. Send two more cleaners here. And add a three-seater sofa to the order.”

After ending the call, she looked back and forth between the two of them and continued.

“Don’t worry about this place. Just go. Oh, right! Here.”

She pulled out another smartphone and held it out to Jun-gyeong.

“We’ll be in touch a lot from now on. For things like this, and for jobs.”

He immediately understood what she meant.
The work he would have to do from now on.
In other words, she would tell him which humans and monsters he needed to hunt.

“…Understood.”

Jun-gyeong took the smartphone, put it away, and rose to his feet.
Hye-ju looked between them in complete confusion, but before she could make sense of anything, instinct warned her of danger and she followed Jun-gyeong.
Back in the waiting room, Hye-ju pulled on her jacket with trembling hands. Then, remembering Jun-gyeong’s bloodstained bare torso, she snatched a waiter’s white shirt from where it hung in the corner and brought it out to him.

“…At least put this on. There’s a lot of people outside.”
“……”

As Jun-gyeong took the shirt, Hye-ju’s gaze lingered on his back.
Over the torn flesh and dried blood, an enormous dokkaebi tattoo seemed to writhe grotesquely, branded deep into his skin.
Hye-ju swallowed dryly and asked with caution.

“That thing on your back… When did you get it? You didn’t have it before.”

As Jun-gyeong put on the shirt, he remembered the moment he had risen from Hell.
The pain had felt as though a red-hot iron were searing his back.
That must have been when it happened.
The mark of the contract.

“…We’ll talk about it later.”

The finality in Jun-gyeong’s refusal kept Hye-ju from asking anything further.
The two passed through the blood-soaked corridor and stopped before the elevator.
Amid the heavy silence, Jun-gyeong quietly glanced at Hye-ju’s profile.
Fragments of Han Jun-gyeong’s memories collided chaotically within him, dredging up memories of her from deep within his heart.

Lee Hye-ju.
She wasn’t simply someone he loved.
They had grown up in the same orphanage, kindred spirits who, amid the mire of this life, had been the only ones able to embrace each other’s wounds.
Jun-gyeong spoke her name first, his voice low.

“…Lee Hye-ju.”

Hye-ju’s shoulders visibly flinched at the way he called her.
She looked almost more shocked than when Park Tae-sik had been stabbed to death earlier.
The man who had always called her Hye-ju, or grovelingly called her noona, was now coldly calling her by her full name as though looking down from somewhere far above. It felt utterly alien.

“…Why are you calling me like we’re strangers? It’s creepy.”
“……”
“You really seem like a completely different person.”

Just as Hye-ju muttered bitterly, the elevator arrived and its doors opened.
A group of people in blue cleaning uniforms poured out.
Without even looking at the pair, they kept their heads down and hurried past.
There was no need to ask. They were obviously the cleaners Ok-hee had called.

Once all the cleaners had stepped out, the two entered the elevator.
Amid the silence, Hye-ju fidgeted with the hem of her clothes and quietly lowered her head.

“…Hey. Han Jun-gyeong.”
“Yeah.”
“…Want to come to my place? You look like hell, and there’s a lot we need to sort out…”

The old Han Jun-gyeong would have jumped at the offer and clung to her.
But the Jun-gyeong standing there now didn’t waver.

“No. I’m fine. Go home.”

His immediate rejection left Hye-ju with an inexplicable sense of loss and confusion.
This unfamiliar distance in the way he treated her.
Hye-ju frowned and muttered under her breath.

“…You really feel like a stranger.”

When the elevator reached the first floor, Hye-ju hurried toward the parking lot as though trying to hide her tangled emotions.
Jun-gyeong watched her retreating back for a moment, then left the lobby and started walking toward the main road.

Honk! Honk!

At the sound of the horn, he turned to see a white Mercedes glide to a stop beside him.
The window rolled down, revealing Hye-ju behind the wheel, looking up at him with worry-filled eyes.

“Do you even have money for a taxi?”
“……”

Jun-gyeong reached into his pocket, only to find the smartphone Ok-hee had just given him.

“Get in. I’ll drive you.”
“I can walk.”
“Shut up and get in. Stop being stubborn.”

Jun-gyeong looked at her for a moment, then nodded and climbed into the passenger seat.
Once the door closed, Hye-ju stole a glance at his profile, a tiny smile of relief crossing her face as she pressed the accelerator.

After Hye-ju dropped him off at the foot of the hill, Jun-gyeong sent her on her way and climbed the slope until he was panting for breath before his home finally came into view.
A shabby three-story red-brick apartment building.
The small rooftop room atop it was Han Jun-gyeong’s home.
As he climbed the exterior stairs to the roof, a cool breeze swept over him and dried his sweat.
When Jun-gyeong opened the aluminum-framed entrance door, it creaked to reveal the interior.
Apparently no one had been inside for quite some time, because a stale, musty smell wafted out when he opened the rooftop room.
Immediately to the left was a bathroom, while a washing machine stood to the right.
Straight ahead was another sliding door, beyond which lay the main room.
For a rooftop studio, it at least had a bathroom separated from the living space.
The only furniture in the room was a bed and a fabric wardrobe.

Jun-gyeong immediately opened the windows to air the place out.
With both the front door and windows open, the musty smell quickly cleared away.
Jun-gyeong sat on the edge of the bed and looked around.
The sink appeared to have gone unused for so long that there were no water stains at all, only a thick layer of dust.

During the war, he had often slept on the battlefield with nothing but a cloak over him.
Having a roof and walls to keep out the rain and wind was more than enough to satisfy Jun-gyeong.
As though it were the most natural thing in the world, he lay back on the bed and closed his eyes.
Sleep began to wash over him.

Ding-
His smartphone chimed, but he had no desire to pay attention to it.
He hadn’t even bothered washing the crusted blood from his body. He certainly had no patience left for a smartphone he barely knew how to use.

Jun-gyeong shut it out, closed his eyes, and fell straight asleep.

“Haah… What’s with this guy? Why isn’t he reading my messages?”

Ok-hee stared at her smartphone with a deep frown.
Even so, she was a little too afraid to call him outright.
She might serve King Yama, but the man in question was an emissary from Hell sent by Heavenly King Chiwoo, a god terrifying enough that merely thinking of him made her shudder.
Worse still, he had come up from Hell bearing the seal of the Dokkaebi King on his back, and she could still remember the terrifying red glow in his eyes as he glared at her.
He was absolutely not someone she could afford to treat casually.
If she put him in a bad mood, he probably had enough divine power to tear apart a rabbit like her without a second thought.

“Haah… This is driving me crazy. Hmm… It looks like we have a day or two to spare, I think. Whatever. I’ll contact him tomorrow. And I really need to watch how I talk to him.”

Ok-hee slid her smartphone aside and focused on the monitors.
Six monitors were arranged in rows above, below, and beside one another in front of her.
Unknown letters and numbers streamed up and down across the screens, while one displayed several feeds resembling CCTV footage.

“All right, I’ve confirmed the location. There’s no immediate danger, so it should be fine for now. A human might get hurt a little, but… well… what can you do? That’s fate.”

She was a being forbidden from interfering with human fate.
The beings she was meant to intervene against and keep in check weren’t humans, but spiritual entities.
More specifically, her duty was to deal with monsters and ghosts that had lingered too long in the Middle Realm, become evil spirits, and begun harming humans.
Until now, she had punished beings that crossed the line and became malevolent spirits, but the scope of her work had recently expanded.

For some unknown reason, monsters had begun appearing that she simply couldn’t touch.
Ok-hee’s role had expanded to locating and tracking them.
And the perfect specialist to punish them had been dispatched from Hell with the seal of the Dokkaebi King emblazoned on his back.

“A man who became the Dokkaebi King, half human and half god… Nice. That means he can punish ghosts and humans alike.”

A thin smile appeared on her face.
It resembled the crescent moon hanging in the sky.