By Zephyria 
「Oho, that little thing has resonated with us, claiming to be a god in its own right. We slaughtered its mother and devoured every last drop of the divine blood. It is a pitiful sight, like a beast watching a hunter wearing its mother’s flayed skin.」
Shut up.
Tae-un growled at the voice that was directly invading his mind, pressing his throbbing forehead. Countless overlapping laughs poured out in a torrent.
「Our child. Will you not take it? Though it is merely a flimsy avatar, it is evident that divinity dwells within. It would be best to remove it so that it does not realize what lies inside you.」
Disappear this instant.
「When have we ever forced you? Do as you wish. Chaos is our godhead, but we wish for you, our child, to reach the utmost end.」
Chaos—the ancient god pooled at the foundation of the world, the one and all, the beginning and the end—disappeared, trailing a joyful laugh until the very end. Tae-un chewed on a groan inside his mouth and composed his expression.
Even without being pointed out, it was an irritating existence, but now was not the time. Not now.
Tae-un’s cool gaze captured the baby crow reflected in the window. Kim Si-baek still needed this young god.
And he needed it too. The young god was the means by which Kim Si-baek could smoothly recover divine power.
Once he recovered enough divine power… then…
Having regained his composure, Biyendwe felt embarrassed by his earlier reaction. Above all, the sense of dissonance he had felt immediately after recovering was no longer as apparent in the current Tae-un. Had he overreacted because he was weakened?
Setting the dissonance aside, then what was that sense of déjà vu? While pondering this and dipping into an apple, Biyendwe hit upon a realization as if struck by lightning.
A personality that shifted completely only around Kim Si-baek. A younger brat who followed him with particular devotion. …This was it. This was it.
‘He’s Gloiuken’s younger brother…’
The younger brother of his grand warrior Gloiuken, that mischievous mixed blood of mermaid and human—the Earth version of him was the Tae-un right before his eyes. The commonality that Kim Si-baek found both of them quite cute as well.
Biyendwe’s feathers stood on end as he imagined the scene of Tae-un and that brat meeting in one place. However, he soon calmed his heart and quietly pecked at the apple.
There was no need to worry. There was no way that brat could come all the way from mak slecht to Earth.
“Anyway, it will be important for Si-baek hyung to make his name known.”
Just as he was thinking that, Tae-un suddenly spoke, nearly causing a piece of apple to get stuck in his throat. He was on the verge of showing a pathetic, coughing mess, but a phone call came in just in time.
Tae-un ended the short call and put the phone in his inner pocket.
“I received Si-baek hyung’s ID card. It’s almost lunchtime, so let’s meet hyung and go eat.”
At the mention of meeting Kim Si-baek, Biyendwe hurriedly swallowed the remaining apple and fluttered his wings. Then, out of habit, he tried to perch on the crown of Tae-un’s head… but flinching at the long, sharp line of his eyes, he pivoted his direction toward the shoulder.
“Can’t I fly along?”
“….”
It was possible, but it was tiring in the body of a young bird. As he sat there playing innocent, Tae-un frowned as if annoyed and stood up from the chair. Only then could Biyendwe breathe a sigh of relief.
He heard two pieces of good news from Tae-un. The new ID card had arrived, and today’s menu at the cafeteria was seolleongtang. After all, weren’t jajangmyeon and seolleongtang the soul foods of a detective? The seolleongtang at the soup house near the police station had been one of Kim Si-baek’s favorite menus in the past.
For some reason, no other guild members wanted to sit around Tae-un in the cafeteria, so the conversation was comfortable.
“The ID is out already?”
“They sent it via quick service as soon as it was issued.”
It had barely been a few days since he came down from the Director’s office to take the ID photo and provide fingerprints, yet it was already issued. Since when did Korea become a country with such fast administrative procedures… Kim Si-baek, who had once been a civil servant, felt somewhat suspicious.
‘Did someone put pressure on them to issue the ID quickly? I wonder who?’
As Kim Si-baek pondered, he saw Tae-un sitting there with an expression that seemed to know nothing. Nah, no way. There was no way our good boy would have sought issuance through illegal means. Director Noh probably made a pressing request.
“Hyung, let’s talk slowly while we eat.”
That was true. Whatever it was, it was better than the ID coming out late. Kim Si-baek scooped up the hot seolleongtang broth. Memories of his past, when he insisted that seolleongtang tasted best with glass noodles, came flooding back.
Kim Si-baek, who originally didn’t prefer spicy tastes, became even less able to eat spicy food as his stay in mak slecht grew longer. Thanks to that, he hadn’t touched a single chili pepper since returning, but Tae-un, sitting opposite him, ate a small green pepper without hesitation. According to his memory, Tae-un had a “cat’s tongue” and couldn’t eat spicy dishes.
‘Is it a non-spicy pepper?’
Thinking he might be able to eat it too, Kim Si-baek took a bite of a pepper dipped in soybean paste, only to be horrified as a sharp spiciness surged through his mouth. He barely calmed down after hiccuping from the unexpected heat.
“Wow, since when did you get good at eating spicy food?”
“…Was it spicy? Ah, um. It wasn’t that spicy to me.”
“I guess… you’re at that age, so you must have developed an adult palate.”
[Death and Beauty scolds him, asking if he didn’t call it a baby’s palate before.]
“….”
[Death and Beauty irritably tells him not to pretend he didn’t see.]
Kim Si-baek simply lowered his head and scooped more seolleongtang broth. It was hot and delicious.
“Now that the ID is out, is the hunter license next?”
“Most likely. If you want to make your name known and operate properly.”
A joyful anticipation played across Tae-un’s face.
“In foreign countries, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a hunter license, but that doesn’t work in Korea. There are only a few countries where all hunter information is registered with the state.”
“Eh, why? Isn’t it natural, like an ID card?”
“Since it’s personal information, there’s room for human rights violations. Korean hunters are used to ID cards, so they followed the hunter registration without much thought. Korea is a country that started with ID re-registration and recovery as soon as the administration and computer networks were restored during the Great Cataclysm.”
Tae-un continued to explain, mentioning that some foreign countries had tried to emulate the hunter registration system but failed due to strong backlash. Hearing it, it made sense.
[Death and Beauty asks if the Atrebatum Empire didn’t also implement a national registration system.]
“Come to think of it, the country I was in within mak slecht also implemented a national registration system.”
“People are the same everywhere. Was it mandatory registration there too?”
“It wasn’t mandatory; you could choose whether to have a biometric chip implanted upon becoming an adult, but in exchange, there was a difference in benefits…”
Suddenly, a memory from the past flashed through his mind, and Kim Si-baek stopped mid-sentence, startled. He remembered mentioning to the Emperor in passing that his hometown had such a system, talking about ID cards. About ten years after that, the national registration system was implemented… Wait.
“….”
What on earth did a Korean, who is numb to state-led personal information registration of all citizens, do to that other world?
Kim Si-baek felt a cold sweat breaking out and hurriedly changed the subject.
“Are there no restrictions on hunter activities abroad?”
“Well, usually if you operate within a guild, people generally recognize you as a hunter.”
“How is the exchange with foreign countries? Are there marine magical beasts here too?”
“Yes. For roads crossing borders, you just bypass the habitats of magical beasts, and since ports can be defended, they were opened quickly within a few years.”
While talking, he had completely emptied his bowl of seolleongtang. He could go register as a hunter this afternoon without delay.
As if reading his thoughts, a system window popped up before his eyes.
[If you hunt magical beasts or openly use your abilities in Korea without registering as a hunter, you will become a criminal. It would be very sad if our beloved returner became a criminal, wouldn’t it? T.T]
[Quest 02]
[Complete hunter registration (0/1)]
[Time remaining: 12 hours 00 minutes]
…No, I mean, the timing is great, but. Kim Si-baek pressed his forehead for a moment and then wrote in the memo app on his phone that a new quest had appeared. Tae-un’s expression also became peculiar.
“Hmm. If the purpose is to prevent hyung from becoming a criminal and having restrictions on his movements, I can understand that, but…”
“There’s something else weird.”
Kim Si-baek tapped the phone screen. It was the second sentence of the quest.