By Zephyria 
“You’re quite tall. If Si-baek’s brother comes along too, does that mean this friend of yours will also, sort of, well, join our guild?”
Justina gestured wildly, her words trailing off ambiguously. Recalling that he had heard she possessed a strong desire for talented recruits, Kim Si-baek asked back.
“Do you wish to recruit me into your guild?”
“Goodness. Tae-un is glaring at me, so it’s a bit embarrassing to say it outright.”
Justina shrugged, her face showing no sign of embarrassment whatsoever.
“I’m planning to leave Korea soon, so I’m worried about my kids and the guild left behind. I want to fill the talent pool to the brim so they can thrive even without me.”
“Leave Korea?”
“I’m thinking of heading back to Poland. There’s a saying about returning to one’s roots, isn’t there?”
Returning to one’s roots? He tilted his head, having forgotten most of the four-character idioms. Misinterpreting his reaction, Justina pointed to her left eye, which was covered by a patch.
“I left this eyeball in the Han River twenty years ago after being hit by Kun. I swore I would never return until I had my revenge, but now the end is finally in sight. Well, even if I fail this time, I intend to go back. At my age, I’ve started to miss the smell of the hometown I once loathed.”
“…….”
“I’ve grown fond of Korea and consider it a second home, but the place where my parents and family are buried, the hometown where I was born and raised—that feeling is different. Si-baek, you’ve wandered abroad for a long time too, so you understand this feeling, right?”
Her words about home brought back memories from a few months ago that he had forcibly buried.
Immediately after returning to Earth, he too had vowed to spend the rest of his life feeling a deep affection for his returned home. It was a longing that allowed him to leap across the gap of several decades during which he had lived while abandoning and forgetting his homeland.
Tae-un was always at the center of that longing. From the moment he realized his own existence had been erased, Tae-un became his only true home. It was a symbol of longing that remained unchanged even after meeting his younger siblings.
And Kim Si-baek had intended to leave this home. Toward a new home. The home he had decided to return to was now stepping boldly toward him.
Gloiuken, the evidence of that new home, waved at Kim Si-baek while talking to Seo Gae-un, who was showing particular interest in him for being a fellow tanker.
“Your Excellency, didn’t you mention before that you were a descendant of royalty?”
“A descendant of royalty? You aren’t a Jeonju Lee, are you, Teacher?”
It had been a silly joke from a long time ago; he wondered how she still remembered it.
“Since the Kims were also kings in the old days.”
“Were you from the Gyeongju Kim clan?”
“I’m from the Gimhae Kim clan.”
“…….”
He had truly just thrown it out as a passing joke, but seeing Seo Gae-un’s dead-serious reaction made him feel unexpectedly awkward.
Tae-un, having finished the meeting at some point, naturally joined the conversation by wrapping an arm around Kim Si-baek’s shoulder from behind.
“Come to think of it, I’m a descendant of royalty too.”
“A Tae?”
“Originally, it’s Dae—from Balhae. I’m a descendant of Dae Jo-young. In my hometown, they probably still perform ancestral rites for Dae Jo-young.”
“……Have you never thought about wanting to go back to your hometown?”
“Not really. I might be the greatest output of the Tae clan village, but I don’t remember a single thing.”
Tae-un gazed indifferently into the air.
“In a sense, Tae Cheol-hun is also an output. He reduced the population of a village of fewer than a hundred people by five in a single night. Ah, six if you count himself?”
Seo Gae-un, knowing the past, wore a horrified expression at the unfunny joke, and Kim Si-baek gave a bitter smile, patting the back of Tae-un’s hand.
The mental landscape associated with the word ‘hometown’ likely differed for everyone, but he shared a similar sentiment with Justina. A place one clings to even from afar. A place containing poignant memories when looking back. A place one wishes to live in until the very end.
Kim Si-baek calmly examined his heart, reflecting on the suspicion swirling within him toward Tae-un. ……It was unchanged. Even if a portal to return to mak slechtro opened, and even if the suspicions were all true, the home he wanted to return to was Tae-un.
Tension gradually mounted at the base camp where magical tools were being assembled and inspected.
Over the past 21 years, not only the Korean government but also the hunters had poured countless lives and time into reclaiming Seoul. In the beginning, Kun’s offensive was overwhelming, like throwing eggs against a rock. Countless people were buried in the Han River until the calculation was made that they could withstand this offensive to some extent using magical tools.
The successful raid of the individuality field brought a glimmer of hope, but simultaneously brought the concern regarding the evolution of S-class magical beasts.
“Doesn’t it feel like lately, only our country is producing world firsts? Magical beast seeds sprouting in places where magical energy has been cleanly purified, S-class magical beasts evolving…… I wonder if something else will happen during the Kun raid.”
“The national pride is insane.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Koreans have to be the first to grab the number one spot in everything, quickly.”
Passing through the restless hunters, Kim Si-baek sought out Nasluik. He had received word that the work he requested—which Nasluik had been frantically working on even while traveling from Gaeseong to Seoul—was finally complete.
“This world truly has materials as pathetic as the level of its magic. Isn’t it basic that snow fallen in the south should be stored with preservation magic? There weren’t even any crystals, so you don’t know how much I struggled to find replacement materials……”
Only after listening to ten minutes of rambling complaints mixed with boasting did Nasluik hand over the necklace. It was a sacred relic containing a portion of the magical energy that had leaked out when Gu Yeong-min died. On the surface, it looked unchanged from the one he had made, but measuring the magical power would reveal a dense, transparently engraved magic circle. It was a reinforcement that would have been impossible for Kim Si-baek or Biyendwe.
“You worked hard, thank you.”
“Since I used substitutes for most of the materials due to lack of supplies, the range for tracking magical energy isn’t very wide. In the distance units of this place…… let’s see, it should be about 1 kilometer.”
“When I made it, it wasn’t even 100 meters. That should be enough.”
“Do you have an idea of where you’ll use it?”
“Hmm, well……”
Kim Si-baek trailed off ambiguously, glancing outside. He saw the hunters moving busily. Tae-un would be somewhere too.
“I don’t know if they’re truly a Servant of Chaos, but there is someone who catches my eye.”
“Is it someone close to you? And yet you cannot detect their magical energy?”
“If it’s as faint as Edokus, there’s nothing I can do. ……Perhaps they aren’t a complete servant yet.”
“Since you said they haven’t caused any particular trouble on Earth, I expect it would be faint. Ah, right. Come to think of it, this came up while talking to your sister earlier……”
Because Nasluik’s following words lent weight to his suspicions, he bitterly swallowed a deepening gloom.
One hour later.
As the hunters formed in formation and approached the Han River, a long wave resembling a dragon’s roar echoed, and the undulating waters of the Han River soared high into the sky. Between the torrents of water pouring down like a rainstorm, the eye of a giant fish appeared.
It was Kun.
✽ ✽ ✽
The only recorded legend of Kun is extremely short.
In the distant sea of the far north, there is a fish, and its name is Kun.
Kun is so large that its size in thousands of li is unknown.
The description, consisting of nothing more than the word ‘gigantic,’ stimulated people’s imaginations more than a detailed depiction would have. Some imagined it had hard scales that would not be easily damaged, like a dragon too large for the human eye to fathom; others imagined a shape similar to a whale, the largest creature in the sea.
And some imagined a legendary sea monster that seizes and wrecks sailing ships. As a result……
“Ah, fuck!”
Pi Min-hyeong cursed as he used Blink to avoid Kun’s attack. A massive leg, resembling a cephalopod and large enough to turn a few humans into mush, slammed down where he had vanished.
Boom! The ground was instantly gouged out, and dust billowed up like a cumulus cloud.
“What kind of fish has squid tentacles! The people who imagined Kun as a Kraken are probably all dead, but I want to bring them back to life just to kill them again!”
Kim Si-baek empathized slightly. No matter how wide the drainage area was, the fish was so massive that it was suspicious it could inhabit the Han River, which was strictly just a river. It possessed steel-like scales and large, long cephalopod legs protruding from it.
[I evaluate that it looks like a fish contaminated by radiation, combining death and beauty.]
“I’d believe it even if someone said Kun’s origin was a tentacle……”
He had wondered what it was when he saw it on video, but seeing it in person was even more grotesque. That didn’t mean his hands became slow, however.
Even hunters who had experienced several Kun raids frowned at the bizarre appearance they could never get used to, but they defended steadily. The attack pattern of the legs, which bent flexibly without joints and struck from all directions, was familiar to the hunters. As long as they could defend, it wasn’t that difficult up to this point.
The problem was the next pattern.