By Zephyria 
✽ ✽ ✽
He thought he might be dragged to an interrogation room, but the car brought him to a place that looked like a reception room. Perhaps thinking that communication was impossible since he didn’t react to any questions, the man wearing a ‘Supernatural Phenomenon Response Agency’ ID badge around his neck gestured for him to eat, left some snacks and coffee, and stepped outside.
[Death and Beauty sobs, seeking death and repose.]
Kim Si-baek carefully read the text on the small wrapper, which was about the size of two fingers.
‘This is English, right? How did I read this… Lotus?’
After rolling the pronunciation around in his mouth a few times, he soon gave up. He had never been good at studying. He hadn’t become a police officer by passing an exam, but through a special appointment. Regardless, it had been decades; the fact that he even remembered the letters before him were English was something.
When he put one in his mouth, the sweet and savory crumbling taste was pleasant. Had he eaten this long ago? He wasn’t sure.
[Death and Beauty despairs, saying this is a world where almost no divinity can be felt.]
Since there were similar fruits in mak slecht, coffee was not unfamiliar. Eating the sweet snacks with the bitter coffee tasted delicious.
‘Judging by the letters I saw and the words I heard on the way here, this is definitely Korea…’
However, there were suspicious points. The time he spent in mak slecht was close to 70 years. A similar amount of time should have passed on Earth, but it was hard to believe that this was the future, 70 years after the era remaining in his memory.
Although the street scenery had changed somewhat, it hadn’t changed drastically enough to account for 68 years. Above all, hearing a few words, it was suspicious that the language hadn’t changed at all over 68 years. On the other hand, there was the issue of magical beasts appearing, which hadn’t happened before.
‘Could it be a parallel world?’
Since there was another dimension called mak slecht, couldn’t there be another Earth in a parallel world where magical beasts appear?
[Death and Beauty tearfully says they would rather die.]
[Death and Beauty feels sorrowful.]
Kim Si-baek took out a snack, crumbled it finely, and poured a bit of coffee onto the saucer. Then, he lifted the avatar of Biyendwe—a baby crow who was wailing so hard it was practically soaking his scalp—from the crown of his head and gently placed it on the table.
“Would you like some snacks? The coffee is bitter, so it tastes better when eaten together.”
Biyendwe, barely opening eyes swollen from crying, sniffed the air and pecked at the snack crumbs with its beak.
[Death and Beauty eats snacks soaked in tears.]
Biyendwe had lived for a vast stretch of time that no human could dare compare to, but in the divine realm, it was a 4th-generation god, belonging to the very young. This meant it knew almost nothing. There was a reason its avatar was an immature fledgling.
Seeing it do nothing but cry out of fear in an unfamiliar world, it seemed difficult to get help in resolving the current situation. After calming Biyendwe down, Kim Si-baek sank back into his thoughts.
‘It’s the same sensation as when I first came to mak slecht long ago, but how did I end up moving to another world again?’
He was worried about mak slecht, where he had vanished as soon as the subjugation of Edokus ended, and he was also worried about having brought Biyendwe to this strange world.
He recalled that the ID badge the man named Gwak Yun-sang had earlier seemed similar to his own old police ID. However, the Supernatural Phenomenon Response Agency was a department he had never heard of in his life. Perhaps it really was a parallel world.
If this wasn’t a parallel world, but the actual Earth where he had lived.
His heart, which had been still, fluttered slightly. Could he see that child again? No, but since 68 years had passed, the probability of death was high. Then, perhaps he could at least find a final trace…
[Death and Beauty sniffs, saying that at least this is a world that makes delicious snacks.]
“I’m glad there’s at least one thing for you to enjoy.”
As he crumbled more snacks, Kim Si-baek opened his status window to check his current situation.
[Name: Kim Si-baek]
[Title: Apostle of Death and Beauty]
[Nationality: Atrebatum]
[Affiliation: Religious Sect of Death and Beauty]
[Achievements: One who encountered a god. The first to encounter Death and Beauty. Magical beast slaughterer. Guardian of Holm. One who acts on behalf of a god. The first to act on behalf of Death and Beauty. The first apostle of Death and Beauty. The first grand warrior of Death and Beauty…]
He skimmed through the achievement window, which was listed long according to the timeline, and looked at the most recently acquired achievements.
[Achievements: …Terror of Edokus. Nightmare of Edokus. One who saved mak slecht.]
‘One who saved mak slecht’ was the final achievement he had obtained at the same time he destroyed Edokus’s core. Up to this point, there were no problems.
However, the ability notations below that were definitely a problem. While other quantified stats remained unchanged, the divine power value had dropped significantly. Since he had possessed the purest divine power among all the religious sects in mak slecht, not just those of Death and Beauty, the decrease in divine power was critical.
During the magical beast attack earlier, if his divine power had been intact, he wouldn’t have had to go through the trouble of cutting them down one by one.
‘Still, I have enough divine power left to maintain Lord Biyendwe’s avatar, so I can hold out for a while…’
Kim Si-baek sighed and pressed his forehead.
While his worries continued to pile up, he heard a knock. The man who entered was Gwak Yun-sang, who had guided him here.
Kim Si-baek’s lips parted slightly, then closed again. He couldn’t even gauge the outline of what kind of world this was. He felt he shouldn’t show his hand too hastily.
Gwak Yun-sang bowed and spoke cautiously.
“Hello? Hola? Ni hao? Konnichiwa? Sain baynuu?”
“…”
As Kim Si-baek’s lips closed tighter, Gwak Yun-sang became flustered. This young man, who had appeared as if he had literally fallen from the sky, looked like a native Korean no matter how he looked at him, but he seemed to have no knowledge of the Korean language.
Reflecting on his own racial prejudice, he tried greeting him in English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Mongolian, but the reaction was the same. Judging by how he had moved his lips to the crow while hunting magical beasts, he didn’t seem to be someone who struggled with language.
Even using a translation app to greet him in Thai and Filipino yielded the same result.
“My name is Gwak Yun-sang. Gwak, Yun, Sang.”
He tapped his chest, emphasizing his name again. He thought this was body language that worked anywhere in the world, but the young man only smiled softly.
‘Looking at his skill in hunting magical beasts, he’s definitely an S-class hunter…’
Since the Great Cataclysm 21 years ago when magical beasts began to appear, it was an era where the number of S-class Awakened and hunters equated to national power. The general profiles of S-class hunters were practically public goods that couldn’t be hidden even if they tried, yet there was no hunter in any country whose appearance or skill matched this young man.
Was he in his mid-to-late twenties? He was a young man with a gentle impression who looked as if he had absolutely not crossed the age of 30. He had a refined, slender appearance and was quite tall, but with a physique honed by lean muscles, he didn’t feel frail.
A mage? His physical abilities were too superior for him to have only awakened magical abilities.
A fencer? As someone who had been a fencer in the past, there was no way he wouldn’t recognize a swordsman of this caliber.
Various questions were mixed together, but the young man only smiled without a word. Since he couldn’t just keep staring at his face, Gwak Yun-sang spoke again, knowing the words might not be understood.
“Is the bird eating the snacks a pet crow?”
As the word ‘pet’—a term he had only seen in novels or historical dramas—was mentioned naturally, Kim Si-baek’s curiosity deepened. Was this really not Korea? Or had the meaning of the word ‘pet’ changed over 70 years?
Gwak Yun-sang gestured as if asking if he could pet it, and he flinched when the crow lifted its head.
‘What kind of baby bird looks this vicious?!’
Wasn’t it a universal truth that the young of furry animals were cute and adorable? However, that palm-sized baby crow, with eyes bloodshot to a deep red, had an impression as if it had climbed up from hell. It felt as if the beak would pierce through his finger if he tried to pet it. Those crazed red eyes provided that certainty.
[Death and Beauty rubs its bloodshot eyes from crying and wonders what the meaning of that human’s stupid gesture is.]
To avoid showing that an A-class hunter was intimidated by a mere crow, Gwak Yun-sang withdrew his hand with an awkward smile. As the person who had discovered this young man, he had a duty to lure this mysterious S-class powerhouse to Korea.
“To introduce myself again, I am a hunter belonging to the Republic of Korea’s Supernatural Phenomenon Response Agency. Do you know the Republic of Korea?”
He tried words like Republic of Korea, South Korea, Hanguk, Korea, and so on, but the young man’s expression didn’t change at all. He even offered a piece of paper and a pen, telling him to write if he had anything to say, but the man only looked down at them.
Gwak Yun-sang felt as if he had eaten a whole box of sweet potatoes and his throat was clogged. I just wish I could find out his nationality, please…
[Death and Beauty asks you if my apostle’s original hometown wasn’t Korea.]
Naturally, Kim Si-baek heard those words too. Whether it was a parallel world or a world 70 years in the future, it was certain that it was Korea. To obtain more information, perhaps he should stop pretending not to understand the language.
While Kim Si-baek was pondering a topic of conversation to extract as much information as possible without exposing his own hand, he noticed Gwak Yun-sang’s injury. If he treated the wound, the mental barrier would likely soften to some extent.
When Kim Si-baek gestured, tapping the bandage wrapped around the man’s hand, Gwak Yun-sang looked puzzled.
“Uh… are you telling me to take off the bandage?”
Though he didn’t know the reason, Gwak Yun-sang was currently in the subordinate position, so he obediently unwrapped the bandage. The bleeding had stopped, but as Kim Si-baek brought his hand toward the fairly long cut, Gwak Yun-sang’s confusion quickly turned into wide-eyed shock.
A faint halo of light seemed to envelop the wound, and it was healed instantly.
“…!”
Unable to believe the impossible, unrealistic sight, he repeatedly touched the healed hand, and Kim Si-baek gave a smile. When he was still, he had a refined impression, but when he smiled, a very gentle atmosphere enveloped him.
His heart pounded violently. It wasn’t a pounding of a romantic nature. It was the kind of pounding where, if Kim Si-baek asked ‘Do you believe in the Way?’ at this moment, he would have shouted ‘I believe in you!’
While all sorts of awakened abilities—that is, traits—were manifesting across the globe, there wasn’t a single healer. He had to catch him. He absolutely had to catch this young man…
Just as Gwak Yun-sang began to burn with patriotic determination, a commotion was heard from beyond the door.
“Guild Master Tae! No matter if you are the Guild Master, this is— Ack!”
“I will lodge a formal protest with the guil— Ghu-ack!”
“Waaaaagh!”
Screams mixed chaotically. And the flow of those screams was heading exactly toward this room.
At the same time the startled Gwak Yun-sang stood up, the firmly closed door flew open with a bang, as if it were about to be ripped off its hinges. Standing before the wide-open door was a tall man whose head looked as if it might touch the top of the doorframe.
“Guild Master! What are you doing!”
Ignoring the protesting Gwak Yun-sang, the man’s eyes slid slowly, scanning the not-so-wide room. Even though that was all, an imposing presence that seemed to make the air ripple pressed heavily upon the room.
Eventually, the man’s impassive gaze landed on Kim Si-baek.