By Zephyria 
Tae-un bit his tongue hard. Following the rich taste of blood, a throbbing pain surged through his mouth. Suppressing his murderous intent through self-harm, he swallowed the blood pooling in his mouth.
Like Biyendwe, Kim Si-baek was a human he absolutely needed. He must not kill him.
Muttering as if binding himself in heavy chains, he leaned even more deeply into the other man. As Kim Si-baek tilted to the side under the weight, he shifted his body back, and Tae-un simply lay down, using the man’s lap as a pillow.
“You have long legs, so why are you making yourself uncomfortable in such a cramped space?”
“I wanted to hear your heartbeat, hyung.”
“Aww, did you get anxious because we’re going on a raid?”
Tae-un closed his eyes with a small smile at the playful gesture of scratching under his chin, as if soothing a puppy. Not the rotting sound of an imitation, but Kim Si-baek’s actual heartbeat enveloped him in tranquility.
The SUV was heading toward the dragonfish’s habitat. Since they had spent a few days clearing out magical beasts in the field as part of their training, and all the hunters from other countries had been introduced today, the field was quiet. Once they left the ruined city center, a far more peaceful landscape unfolded—except for the fact that what grew in the rice paddies were plant-type magical beasts, not rice.
Inside the occasionally jolting car, Kim Si-baek was diligently texting his younger brother. There had been several people he had exchanged texts with in the meantime. However, Cloud had pointed out quite poignantly that while Tae-un would have been happy even if Kim Si-baek wrote texts with slower feet, others had remained silent because they weren’t close enough to bring it up, and even the rude Bae Jihan had refrained out of consideration for his age.
≪Your typing is slower than mine, and I’m a foreigner.≫
“Ugh.”
[Death and Beauty nods, noting that a human has finally appeared who can give his apostle a correct critique.]
After a low groan, Kim Si-baek soon laughed. Tae-un opened his eyes squintingly.
“Did Si-woon hyung say something funny?”
“No, it’s nothing much. I just thought… that family is something where you can say everything you want to, even if you’ve met after a very long time.”
“…….”
“My head is complicated in many ways… but still, I’m really glad to know Si-woon is alive and to meet him again.”
Tae-un looked up at the bright smile for a moment before burying his face deep into Kim Si-baek’s stomach.
“Ugh, that tickles!”
Thinking he was just playing around, Kim Si-baek laughed and patted Tae-un’s shoulder, allowing Tae-un to hide his hideously distorted expression. Just a little longer. Just a little more. Though there wasn’t much time left, for that duration, this person belonged entirely to him.
Bang! Bang!
Though they had cleared the field, one or two magical beasts still appeared occasionally. When Yang Eun-ho leaned out the window and shot dead a magical beast chasing the SUV, cheers erupted inside the car.
“Ohhh, as expected of the Magic Bullet Marksman who never misses!”
“The ‘Magic Bullet Marksman’ nickname is practically the law for gun users!”
“P-please stop.”
As Yang Eun-ho’s face turned bright red with embarrassment, whistles could be heard. Amidst the noise of the SUV, buzzing with excitement before the raid, Kim Si-baek looked upward. The empty air remained silent.
“That’s strange…”
“What is?”
Having overheard the mutter, Tae-un quickly looked up.
“Until now, whenever we hunted major magical beasts, there was a quest. Since this is an S-class magical beast raid, I thought a quest would have appeared by now.”
[Death and Beauty wonders if the system has been too quiet lately.]
“But quests were given when magical beasts appeared unexpectedly. Right now, we’re heading to hunt before any quest is given.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
“Rather, looking at the flow of quests so far, wouldn’t it be more likely that instead of telling us to hunt the beast, it’ll ask us to sing five songs while moving to the hunting ground, or dance like we’re on a company retreat bus?”
“…….”
Kim Si-baek wasn’t exactly introverted, but he had absolutely zero of what one would call ‘flair.’ If such a quest had appeared, the Earth might have perished long ago…
‘It’s a reminder that the system knows my personality too well.’
The quests had been tailored to his personality while staying focused on the goal of blending him into the daily life of Earth. Then again, since it knew his personality, it probably guessed he would stay on Earth to prevent its destruction.
Tae-un naturally changed the subject.
“So, hyung. Did you finish the sacred relic? You started making it a while ago, but you’ve been quiet about it.”
“Ah, it’s not that I was trying to keep it a secret, I just finished it now.”
Kim Si-baek showed the necklace he had been hiding under his clothes. It was a sacred relic he had been working on intermittently since around last Christmas and had finally completed last night.
The pendant, carved in the shape of divine script, was quite crude. Tae-un’s eyebrows curved slightly.
“If I had to name it, it would be something like ‘Low-grade Sacred Relic hastily made by an Apostle using Holy Law,’ wouldn’t it?”
[Death and Beauty encourages him, saying that creating a sacred relic from scratch in a world with poor magical knowledge and no foundation is a wonderful achievement.]
Whether Biyendwe puffed out his chest with pride or not, Tae-un’s gaze did not leave the necklace.
“Exactly how do you use it?”
“It uses divine power, so it’s a bit awkward to show here.”
Kim Si-baek pushed the necklace back inside his clothes. He replied casually while slowly responding to a text from Cloud, who said he was going to the lounge to rest.
“Gu Yeong-min should be a seed bearer, and seed bearers are always connected to a Servant of Chaos. I’ll use it to track him when he releases magical energy.”
Gu Yeong-min was also following in one of the trailing cars. Whether he was cooperating with Edokus or moving alone, Kim Si-baek was confident he wouldn’t miss him if he caused trouble in the field.
After a brief silence, Tae-un smiled thinly.
“It might sound bad to say this, but I hope a huge mess breaks out so we can catch him for sure.”
“I’d prefer it to be within a manageable limit.”
The SUV soon arrived at the dragonfish’s habitat.
“Hm?”
Gu Yeong-min, who had been blankly wondering if Edokus was doing well according to plan, widened his eyes. The content of the quest suddenly changed.
[Quest 06]
[Cause chaos using the chaos grand warrior of mak slecht.]
‘I thought it told me to germinate the magical beast seed?’
He was puzzled since this was the first time such a thing happened, but it didn’t matter. The magical beast seed was a secondary objective anyway; the core of the plan rested in Edokus’s hands.
He had received teachings from that person, and he was simply carrying them out.
✽ ✽ ✽
The legendary dragonfish was a monster that lived in caves submerged by the tide, but the habitat of the S-class magical beast dragonfish in the individuality field was a plain. Though the habitat differed, its appearance was similar to the legend. It had a body resembling a carp, with legs and a face like a horse, and fish scales instead of skin.
It wasn’t the typical appearance of a horse as generally perceived by Koreans. Perhaps because it was a legend passed down in Jeju Island, its small stature and blue fur were closer to the form of a Mongolian horse, which is unfamiliar to Koreans. Of course, “small” was relative to other S-class magical beasts. By human standards, it was still a giant monster.
As the dragonfish let out a loud cry, enraged by the human intrusion, other magical beasts nesting nearby also became excited and rampaged. Amidst the swarming beasts, the dragonfish snorted and charged to trample the humans. A cloud of dust rose behind its hooves.
Boom!
“Hup!”
Seo Gae-un blocked the charge of the dragonfish, which had sprinted across the plain in the blink of an eye, with her shield. While the dragonfish hesitated after slamming its head directly into the shield, the vanguard hunters drew their weapons and blocked the creature.
“Attack!”
Justina was the one leading the raid team in place of the useless and weak Tae-un. Upon her command, the hunters waiting in the rear unleashed their attacks in succession. Flames soared, and materialized wind flew. Explosions tore through the air, and magical tools triggered debuffs.
As trained, the first line attacked the dragonfish directly, while the second line protected the first-line hunters from the other swarms of magical beasts. Kim Si-baek, possessing a wide field of vision over the battlefield, backed up the combat and occasionally treated the wounded.
The hunters’ offense and defense meshed perfectly like gears. Since the raid team was composed of the most renowned attack squads in Korea, it could be called overkill in some sense.
‘Is this why the system isn’t giving a quest?’
An anomaly occurred in the battle just as Kim Si-baek tilted his head at the sudden thought.