By Zephyria 
Despite having summoned the courage, Cloud didn’t even answer, as if he hadn’t heard her properly. Hyo-ju Agnes felt a sudden urge to run away.
Could this be some kind of tactic scammers use to tame their victims before the con? What should I do? Should I have told my father and Sister Benedicta before coming out? Should I show him my bank account to prove I have no money? Dear God…
Just as the man in front of her was becoming a confirmed scammer in her mind, a voice spoke unexpectedly.
“I received an email.”
“Pardon?”
“An email regarding your—um, no, regarding the sister’s mother.”
Only then did Hyo-ju Agnes realize it was the answer to the question she had asked a while ago.
After saying those words, the man stared at her in silence for quite some time, making her heart thumping, before his lips moved slowly once more.
“Her current name is Kang Mi-sook. Her name before the change was Kang Mi-hae. Her birth year is…”
The personal details he recited slowly were definitely her mother’s. She felt a chill run down her spine, but she listened in silence for now. After twenty years, she might finally find a clue about her half-siblings and her mother’s remaining regrets.
“Kang Mi-hae had a female cousin who had fled their hometown with her. Kang Mi-hae, who was paralyzed on one side of her body due to an accident, knew her cousin’s circumstances and…”
“W-wait!”
As his words continued, Hyo-ju Agnes’s eyes widened, and she eventually bolted upright from her seat.
“H-how do you know that?!”
Decades ago, the ‘real Kang Mi-hae’ had thought in secret. Unlike herself, who had been kicked out of a factory after an accident and was dying in despair without any compensation, her cousin still had hope. Her cousin, who had fled in search of a life even abandoning her own child, had the strength to start over.
Kang Mi-hae left a will stating that she would end her own life and give her identity—her very life—to her cousin. Along with the instruction to reclaim her own name later.
The relative who lived under the identity of Kang Mi-hae changed her name back to her original name, Kang Mi-sook, only after several years and after giving birth to two children. She was Hyo-ju Agnes’s mother.
It was a truth about her mother that no one knew except for the family. How could this man…
The surrounding guests glanced over at the sudden commotion. An employee, who was also a parishioner of the cathedral, approached cautiously.
“Um, Sister. Is something the matter?”
Seeing the look in the employee’s eyes—which suggested they would call the police if there was a threat to her safety—Hyo-ju Agnes barely managed to compose herself.
“I-it’s nothing. I’m sorry for startling you.”
After sending the employee away, she slumped back into her seat and took several deep breaths before she could ask again.
“…What is it that you want to say?”
Despite the commotion, the man remained expressionless.
“I do not know my mother’s face, nor do I remember her.”
“What? Why so suddenly…”
“Because my mother fled when I was very young. Judging by the faint image of my father that remains in my memory, I suspect she fled to escape domestic violence.”
“….”
“Everything I know about my mother is what I heard later. That she lived near the sea, that she left her hometown, and that she was good at frying tonkatsu.”
A different kind of surprise began to spread across Hyo-ju Agnes’s face. She asked slowly, wondering if it could be.
“…Who did you hear that from?”
“I had an older brother. Since he attended elementary school, there was a certain age gap between us.”
For the first time, the man’s expression wavered. He let out a low sound, almost like a sigh.
“And my Korean name is Kim Si-woon.”
✽ ✽ ✽
Upon arriving at Sunan Airport, the party of hunters took a limousine bus toward a hotel in downtown Pyongyang. The schedule for today was a welcome ceremony and dinner at the hotel, with a departure for Kaesong tomorrow morning.
The scenery of Pyongyang that Kim Si-baek had occasionally seen in photos in the past felt artificially decorated yet somehow empty and desolate, but the sight he faced in person was different. The city seen through the bus window was more crowded than expected and full of vitality in many places.
“Is it because it’s only been a few years since it opened? I see a lot of tourists.”
“That’s part of it, and also because areas outside the major cities aren’t managed well. As people disappear in droves, the magical beasts’ territories expand, and more people leave; it’s a vicious cycle.”
Only about twenty years had passed on Earth, yet so much had changed. Eventually, they arrived at the Ryugyong Hotel, which was said to have been completed the year before last, and unpacked their luggage. Many people spent their time lightly sightseeing nearby or exploring the hotel, but Kim Si-baek simply rested in his room.
Soon, it was time for the welcome ceremony. Kim Si-baek came down to the convention hall with Tae-un, holding Biyendwe. Following the welcome speeches from the Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party and others who had come personally to the Ryugyong Hotel, the banquet began.
“I feel like I’ll die if I can’t breathe right next to my brother, but…”
Kim Si-baek patted the backside of Tae-un, who was fidgeting with his own hands and looking completely wilted.
“For a Representative, meeting people in a place like this is part of the job, right? Go and work hard.”
It was a gathering of prestigious guilds, including the large-scale ones. Whether it was for exchanging information or building networks, it was a necessary occasion for Tae-un as a Guild Master. After indulging Tae-un’s whims and sending him into the crowd, Kim Si-baek returned with Biyendwe, their plates piled high with buffet menu items.
[Death and Beauty wonder what the name of this fruit is.]
Biyendwe, chewing on a small, round, white piece of fruit, looked satisfied. Since it was a fruit Kim Si-baek was seeing for the first time as well, he poked it with a fork.
“I wonder. I think it might be a tropical fruit…”
“You’re talking to the crow, right? That’s a lychee. The one Yang Gwi-bi supposedly liked.”
Na Jeong-woo approached and plopped down at the table with his own plate.
“Hm? Wasn’t Hunter Na Jeong-woo’s seat over there?”
“I was given a special mission by the Guild Master to exterminate any gnats attempting to approach my mentor.”
“…?”
Saying things that made no sense, Na Jeong-woo began to glare in all directions. Known for his temperament of charging head-on regardless of whether the opponent was S-class or anything else, Na Jeong-woo stood his ground like a fighting dog. Consequently, the hunters who had been glancing at Kim Si-baek the whole time didn’t dare approach.
Kim Si-baek, completely unaware of the situation unfolding behind him, tilted his head with a useless curiosity.
‘Who was Yang Gwi-bi? I think I’ve heard that name.’
However, there were times when Na Jeong-woo’s temperament didn’t work—specifically when he encountered someone who had crushed him when he tried to charge, just as Kim Si-baek or Pi Min-hyeong had done.
“Wow, we finally meet! That guy Tae-un blocked me so thoroughly!”
With a hearty voice, someone appeared and draped a thick arm over Na Jeong-woo’s shoulder, acting friendly. Kim Si-baek remembered who it was upon seeing the eyepatch over the left eye. He was the Guild Master of a guild with a very long name, something like To… and someone who, like Tae-un, had formed a shelter in Seoul.
He remembered the person but couldn’t recall the name, so he wore an ambiguous expression. Justina was the first to smile and hold out a hand.
“Justina Novachkaya. Since I’m from the Hanyang Yu clan, just call me Guild Master Yu or Stina, whatever.”
In the Atrebatum Empire, where he had primarily operated during the mak slecht, there was no custom of shaking hands. Unable to keep up with a greeting method he hadn’t experienced in a very long time, Kim Si-baek looked down at the hand before slowly grasping it.
He gripped it lightly, but what returned was a powerful grip that felt like it was crushing his bones. Is this the legendary power struggle I’ve heard about? While he was contemplating whether he should squeeze back with all his might to respond to the power struggle, Justina quickly released the pressure.
“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t have any other intention; it’s just a habit.”
“Ah, what is this. Stop trying your weird tricks on my mentor and go over there.”
“Jeong-woo, where do you want to be bruised this time?”
“…Tsk.”
Regardless of Na Jeong-woo’s grumbling, Justina joined Kim Si-baek’s table as if it had been his spot all along.
“I really wanted to greet younger brother Si-baek, but Guild Master Tae and Manager Yang built such a wall! They wouldn’t even connect a single phone call.”
“Is there something you specifically wanted to say to me?”