By Zephyria 
“Already?”
“A new species of magical beast was hunted in Salem, and they said they need my help with the dissection and research. Since they indulged my stubbornness when I insisted on attending the raid even while on vacation, I can’t really turn them down this time.”
“Ah…”
Kim Si-baek nodded, hiding his disappointment. Since a magical beast meant for dissection couldn’t be kept frozen forever, it was indeed a task that required Cloud’s urgent return. He also felt a sense of pride, knowing that his younger brother was recognized as being competent enough to be called back during his time off.
However, it was unfortunate that the timing was so coincidental.
‘It would have been great if that new magical beast had appeared just three days later.’
But since a human, who wasn’t even a Servant of Chaos, couldn’t coordinate the appearance of magical beasts, there was nothing to be done.
“We can meet again.”
“…Yeah, I guess so.”
“Oh, before you head back to the States, do you want to say hello to my parents? Via video chat.”
“How? I don’t know English very well.”
“My parents know Korean.”
Like Cloud, who was Korean, Cloud’s parents had adopted children from various countries. To ensure the children didn’t forget their native tongues, they hired babysitters from the children’s home countries and used those languages at home.
Thanks to that, not only did Cloud not forget Korean, but he was also fluent in Bulgarian and Haitian Creole, the native languages of his other siblings.
That evening, Cloud immediately connected a video call to the US. Two elderly people with silver hair and a middle-aged man and woman appeared on the laptop screen. In the corners of the screen, young boys and girls peeked in.
Cloud was unmarried, but his other siblings had each started families of their own. Not only Cloud’s older sister and younger siblings, but even his nieces and nephews were pushing their faces forward, curious about their uncle’s older brother. It was a boisterous and joyful extended family.
Kim Si-baek was swept up in their energy, greeting them, chatting, and smiling. As he spent this dizzyingly pleasant time, an indescribable emotion pooled within him.
These were people who knew of him from decades ago through Cloud. Spending time with people who knew him evoked a strange sentiment he had never experienced once on Earth.
Was this also the system’s intention?
Kim Si-baek had an intuition that if he were to forcibly peel away the adhesive that was Kim Si-woon, his own flesh and blood would be torn away with it.
In his heart, he wanted to see him off all the way to the US rather than just at Incheon Airport, but the dragonfish raid was tomorrow. Cloud insisted he not come too far and practically pushed Kim Si-baek back into the entrance of the lodging, while an employee from the Supernatural Phenomenon Response Agency followed to escort him to Incheon Airport.
Kim Si-baek stood still, unable to move his feet even after the car carrying Cloud had completely disappeared beyond the road. Tae-un, who had come along to see him off, rubbed his cheek against the back of Kim Si-baek’s head. Kim Si-baek’s head tilted slightly under the weight.
“You’re heavy.”
“But the concentration of Kim Si-baek in my blood has dropped significantly. It’s dangerous at this rate, so I need an immediate injection of Kim Si-baek components.”
“What is that even supposed to mean?”
Kim Si-baek finally relaxed his expression and laughed. To be considerate of him spending time with his brother, Tae-un had been unusually quiet and hadn’t clung to him as much as usual.
Thinking he had grown up, Kim Si-baek patted his shoulder, and Tae-un gave a thin smile.
“It takes a while to get to the US because we have to go around magical beast habitats, but it’s a distance we can cover if we set our minds to it. Don’t worry too much.”
Even understanding that the flight paths had stabilized, he was still somewhat worried about his brother leaving on such a long journey, but Kim Si-baek suppressed it. Now was the time to focus on the imminent raid. There were things he hadn’t been able to pay attention to because he had been focused on Cloud for the past few days.
[Death and Beauty lament that they can finally escape the agony of snoring.]
Of course, he also had to give plenty of attention to Biyendwe, who had been sticking to Tae-un or Pi Min-hyeong in the meantime.
“Does Min-hyung snore?”
“It’s really bad. Even the kids hate it.”
Tae-un answered instead, shaking his head exaggeratedly.
“We all went camping together this summer, and Seo-yeon and Seo-jun actually crossed over to my tent at night, saying they couldn’t sleep because it was too noisy.”
If even those children, who found Tae-un difficult, fled on their own, just how bad was the snoring?
‘Min-hyung snored when he was young too, but not to the point where the person next to him couldn’t sleep.’
He began to worry if Min-hyung needed to visit a sleep center.
“You said you received the materials from Eun-ho earlier, right?”
As if waiting for the cue, Tae-un pulled out a tablet. Despite walking inside, the tablet remained steady due to his large hands. He tapped the screen to bring up the investigation report on Gu Yeong-min that he had received from Yang Eun-ho.
Biyendwe also showed interest, fluttering over to perch on the crown of his head.
“There’s nothing special about Gu Yeong-min. Just that he’s a Seoul refugee who lost his family during the Great Cataclysm?”
“Was he someone you already knew?”
“No. Since there are so many Seoul refugees, there are far more people I don’t know.”
Tae-un shrugged and recited Gu Yeong-min’s brief profile. It stated that after escaping Seoul, he grew up in an orphanage, passed the civil service exam, and got a job in the Field Analysis Division. There were no noteworthy details.
As Kim Si-baek sank into thought, wondering if his judgment that their body types were similar had been a premature miscalculation, Tae-un grinned and moved to the next part.
“Nothing came up even after scrubbing Gu Yeong-min clean, but the girlfriend who frequently visits his house is different.”
Kim Si-baek immediately recognized the photo on the screen. It was the woman who had been rescued along with Gu Yeong-min during the amusement park incident.
“Her name is Ahn So-hee. She’s originally from Busan and lost her younger sibling during the Great Cataclysm. She’s an ordinary office worker who’s quite good with computers… but as it turns out, the NIS is secretly investigating her as a suspected demonic terrorist. Perhaps as a hacker.”
“Wow, how did you get your hands on NIS data?”
Kim Si-baek was amazed. How was he able to access the investigation materials of the National Intelligence Service?
Instead of revealing the truth—that he held a weakness over the Director of the NIS—Tae-un simply smiled broadly.
“They just said our side and the NIS side bumped into each other during the investigation. While talking about this and that, we realized we were chasing the same person and shared information.”
Biyendwe was puzzled that a mere private company could strike a deal to share information with high-ranking government officials in just a few days. If it had been anyone else, Kim Si-baek would have had similar doubts, but his brain, which treated Tae-un like a flower garden, didn’t doubt it for a second.
Then, Tae-un brought up the final video.
“Seeing as all the CCTV near the house was erased, it seems Ahn So-hee, the hacker, used some trick. Still, after questioning the landlord and neighbors, there were two testimonies of someone seeing a woman wearing sunglasses. I guess she left an impression because she wore them in the middle of the night.”
“If it’s sunglasses…”
“You’re thinking what I’m thinking, right? This is the only video we managed to salvage. Do you know who this is?”
The woman in the dashcam footage was leaving Gu Yeong-min’s house while wearing sunglasses. Kim Si-baek confirmed it immediately.
“It’s Edokus.”
“Is it? I wondered, but she’s a woman?”
“Edokus would do more than just cross-dress if it meant surviving.”
Once it was certain that the two were connected, Kim Si-baek retraced the past for a moment and snapped his fingers.
“Come to think of it. When I rescued Gu Yeong-min at the amusement park, he said he was fine and asked me to treat only his girlfriend. At the time, I just thought that’s how it was… but looking back now, maybe he didn’t get treated because he was afraid I’d discover the magical energy latent within him?”
“Does that mean Gu Yeong-min is a seed bearer?”
“Not like Edokus, who lacks magical energy, but he probably received magical energy from a Servant of Chaos born on Earth.”
“Then there’s a high possibility that the magical beasts at the amusement park were a joint effort between Edokus and Gu Yeong-min.”
“Probably. Since both were on site, I assume they at least shared the plan. Even if not, the fact that they’ve joined forces means there’s not much difference.”
“What should we do? Should I bring them in right now?”
If he explained his theory to Gwak Yun-sang, he would agree without objection. That was Director Noh’s intention.
After contemplating for a while, Kim Si-baek shook his head.
“Let’s leave them for now. You said Gu Yeong-min’s house is currently empty? Edokus is likely hiding in an individuality field, so if we only target Gu Yeong-min, we might miss her.”
“So you want to catch them together?”
“Yeah. If it’s a field with no civilians and plenty of hunters, it’ll be easier to deal with whatever Edokus tries to pull. And you’re there too.”
At his words full of trust, Tae-un instead expressed concern.