Chapter 104 : You really are a good father, aren't you?
You really are a good father, aren't you?
The moment all nine tails sprouted, her whole body's blood began to boil, and her mind grew hazy.
Because of that, she became obsessed with her own desires, speaking of nothing else and running wild to achieve them.
However, Ah-rin's rampage was not as severe compared to Sang-ah's.
"Sura. You have to hold on."
"Ah... those bastards..."
"The situation is over. Please, withdraw your tails now."
"..."
Thanks to the sudden arrival of S-rank hunters, the fierce look in Ah-rin's eyes gradually returned to normal.
The mouth that just moments ago muttered about killing gradually closed, and the nine tails fused back into one.
When this form was first manifested, she hadn't completely lost her sanity yet.
As long as it was addressed quickly, she could be calmed without difficulty.
"Haaa... haaa..."
"Well done. If something were to happen to you, our Sura guild would also be in trouble."
Back in her normal appearance, Ah-rin was breathing heavily as if she'd been through intense exercise.
The wounds she'd received from the rampaging girl were also slowly healing.
Ah-rin normally had a fast healing rate, but that came at a heavy cost of stamina.
The deeper the injury, the greater the stamina consumed.
But the other side seemed just as exhausted.
"Hurry and return to normal. You mustn't maintain that form for long."
"Yes..."
At a few words from the masked hunter, the girl's wings, which had turned black, returned to their original form.
Back to the shimmering golden, snowy color—the girl seemed drained and staggered in place.
"The longer you maintain that form, the more those bad memories you tried to forget will resurface."
"..."
"Let's go back."
The girl and the masked hunter turned away, preparing to withdraw.
Just before leaving, the girl softly turned her head toward Sang-ah.
One wore a mask, the other's face hidden by a veil.
They couldn't see each other's faces, but both had the feeling they could guess each other's expressions.
Even if not visible to the eye, it could be sensed through smell or presence.
"..."
"...."
The Angel guild's airplane, which had crashed into the airship, started moving.
The two spread their wings, flew up onto the now-working plane, then disappeared into the distance with a great noise.
Only then did Ah-rin slump into place, taking a deep breath.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
"If you'd been injured or lost, the guildmaster would have been furious. Even for us, that would've been..."
The well-dressed hunter said something more, but Ah-rin couldn't hear.
Her thoughts were entirely occupied by that girl she had just fought.
Somehow, that girl gave off a scent similar to her own.
****
"Are you alright, miss?"
"... Yeah."
As they entered the airplane, the hunter seated beside the girl checked on her with concern.
He seemed frustrated as he removed his mask and spoke.
"I still think it's too soon for you to be in real combat."
"No. Everything that happened was my own decision."
The hunter who removed his mask—Yoo Cheon-hwa—felt great concern for the girl beside him.
The girl sitting next to him was adopted as guildmaster Baek Suhyuk's granddaughter several years ago.
These days, the guildmaster had become old and frail and needed to find a successor as soon as possible.
All of Baek Suhyuk's children had passed away; the only possible heir was this girl before him.
She possessed tremendous talent, so there was no doubt she would be able to one day take over the Angel guild.
'But...'
She was still young and inexperienced.
Considering all the lowlifes always eyeing the Angel guild, it was far too heavy a burden for one so unworldly as this girl.
He had put her on this airplane to show her what guild wars were like, but it seemed it achieved little.
She had confronted Sura from the Sura guild—but had they fought to the end, he didn't know what could have happened.
'They might have destroyed each other.'
With nine tails, Sura seemed to have magic power equal to the girl with the black wings.
If those two had gone head to head, the result would have been obvious.
"I'm really sorry, miss. We rashly judged that fighting together was a good idea..."
"No, I didn't refuse, I agreed. I can't just sit in my room and paint forever, you know."
Yoo Cheon-hwa could only nod.
Whenever he'd entered the girl's room, all he saw were paintings hung on the walls.
As if trying to dredge up forgotten memories, the girl painted furiously.
With each new painting, she pieced together fragments of memory, but the more she remembered, the more she withdrew from relationships.
"But, miss... you don't go outside. You don't even go to school because of that..."
She should be in middle school by now, but at some point, she refused all social interaction.
It was because she'd started recalling her forgotten past.
"Yes... I don't deserve to be with others. Because..."
—I've killed innocent people. Not just one, but several.
With painting, she'd recovered tiny fragments of her past, but perhaps it was better to just forget.
Her memories remained unclear... yet strange magic always lingered inside her body.
A magic that didn't feel like her own, as if stolen from those she'd killed.
Because of the certainty that brought, the girl suffered guilt and avoided all relationships.
"But..."
The girl removed the mask covering her face and said,
"I can't just sit still for Grandfather's sake. It may be pathetic to only now get moving, but..."
Her eyes, revealed at last, shone blue.
With her desperately pure expression, she seemed an innocent young angel dropped to earth, knowing nothing at all.
Yoo Cheon-hwa had heard this before, but seeing her intentions so plainly in her face, he was moved.
"Then, I'll ask the chairman of Hand for a favor, miss Eunseol."
"Thank you so much."
"It's nothing. Still, the transfer exam won't be easy. Since you'll be joining as a second-year."
"That's fine."
The girl wasn't scared by the mention of the exam.
Instead, she shrugged her shoulders as if to say she was confident.
"And if I go to Hand... I'll surely be able to meet 'that person,' right?"
The adopted daughter of Baek Suhyuk, the Angel guild's master.
Baek Eunseol grasped her chest with anticipation, pure hope blooming like that of a young girl.
Like a blank platinum canvas, not yet painted.
****
The war against the Sura guild ended in victory for the Hwasan guild.
The Sura guild had the superior numbers, but surprisingly, they had to raise the white flag before Hwasan guild and the rest of the Korean guild alliance.
More than 90% of the Sura guild's hunters deployed had been wiped out in an instant.
Although not all Sura guild members participated, the loss in manpower was still extraordinary.
'Whereas the Korean guild alliance...'
The allied guilds, including Hwasan, had suffered no noticeable losses.
If the Sura guild's injuries were like bullets to the legs, the alliance's were no more than minor scratches.
If any overly nationalistic Korean had witnessed the battle, they might have shouted, "Never underestimate Korea again! This is Korea! Get lost, China!"
It was that sort of cringeworthy lopsided fight.
'Nobody on either side could have predicted this result.'
From the beginning, this fight was...
"We wiped them all out."
"Hahahaha! Good work."
"Work? I just set off some fireworks from the air and they all dropped dead."
The hunters who finished the battle promptly returned to Hwasan Town.
I was first to arrive and, seeing the hunters return, approached Kwon Yongha to report.
Finding out his guild's losses were minimal, he burst into laughter.
Although this time I'd acted at his request, Yongha had also done something for me in return.
"How's Sang-ah?"
"She finished molting safely. Looked like she went through more pain than expected, but she's fine."
Yongha passed the good news in his usual flat tone.
So I couldn't help asking,
"She's your daughter—shouldn't you be a bit more moved?"
"Oh... Now that you mention it, that's true."
His daughter survived terrible pain and an extremely difficult biological transformation.
As her father, you'd expect him to be overwhelmed with joy.
Maybe he understood what I was getting at, as Yongha looked down at me and replied,
"Then she's stronger than before. That's good news."
"Why is your idea of good news so different from everyone else's?"
"You know exactly what I find pleasing."
Being happy not that his daughter was safe, but that his daughter grew stronger—honestly, it was creepy on several levels.
No point talking feelings with this guy. It was like preaching to deaf ears.
"Still, I was surprised. Never thought I'd end up helping Sang-ah."
Yongha gestured to the corpses strewn behind him.
Just as I thought—the Poison guild's spies, under Kang Minji's orders, attacked Sang-ah during her molting.
But, as I'd requested, Yongha protected her from them.
Even I thought it was a strange turn of events.
It was all the more bizarre considering the assassins were sent by his own wife, Kang Minji.
"Seongjin!"
From afar, Sang-ah called my name and ran over.
As Yongha said, it looked like she had finished molting safely.
"Are you hurt at all?"
"You think something this minor would injure me? What about you?"
"I'm fine. But..."
Beaming at me, Sang-ah then glanced up at Yongha.
As soon as she saw her father, her expression twisted.
Meanwhile, Yongha just smirked, and the atmosphere turned cold.
"Oh, right! I forgot to mention the news!"
"What news?"
Breaking the mood, I spoke, and Yongha looked at me curiously.
Sang-ah also tilted her head, wondering what I meant.
"It's rather sad news."
Right as Sang-ah started to ask what I meant—
"Mommmmm!"
The wailing voice of a man echoed from far away.
Sang-ah immediately knew who it was.
"Oppa?"
It was her half-brother, Kwon Yongjun, son of Kwon Yongha.
He walked while sobbing and hugging a patient's body.
When Sang-ah saw the face on the stretcher, she gasped.
"That's...!"
It was Kang Minji—Yongjun's mother and one of Sang-ah's worst tormentors.
Her hands and feet were completely blackened, as if burned, and she lay collapsed.
Her eyes were open, but empty, like a corpse.
Honestly, suffering wounds like that—body charred to coal—it was a miracle she was alive at all.
'Wait, those burn marks...'
They looked very familiar.
Hands and feet burnt—immediately, she suspected someone.
"Seongjin, that..."
"Don't be too harsh. See those dead assassins over there? They were all sent by that woman."
"..."
"To kill you."
Kang Minji had given orders to Poison spies within the Sura guild—sent them to the church.
To kill Sang-ah during her molting.
At that, Sang-ah only watched in silence.
She didn't even feel any bad emotions.
While molting, she remembered what her mother suffered because of this woman.
"D-Dad...! Mom! Mom!!"
At that moment, Yongjun noticed his father, Yongha.
He immediately ran over, pleading with him to do something about his mother's condition.
She was still his wife, after all—he believed Yongha would help somehow.
"Hmm..."
After checking his wife's condition, Yongha spoke.
"—She's a total wreck."
"... What?"
"I did tell her not to go, didn't I?"
He just spoke calmly.
It didn't matter to him whether his daughter suffered through painful transformation, or his wife hovered near death with her limbs burnt to cinders... no emotion showed.
"Father...?"
Yongjun couldn't believe his ears, watching his father.
I snickered to myself.
Though Kang Minji looked unconscious, she was still aware.
After I drained all her magic power, I left her only barely conscious.
"By the way, mister."
Right in front of her, I spoke to Yongha.
"Thanks for taking care of those assassins."
"Hahaha, what got into you all of a sudden?"
At that, Kang Minji's vacant eyes caught sight of the assassins' corpses.
They were, for certain, the Poison guild's agents she had sent.
Those she'd called to kill Kwon Sang-ah.
"Thanks to you, Sang-ah's safe, right?"
The fact that Sang-ah had lived—ironically, that infuriated Kang Minji.
And the person who killed those assassins was... her own husband, Kwon Yongha?
"You really are a good father, aren't you?"
—Right, Ma'am?
As I said it with a sly smile, blood vessels throbbed in Kang Minji's previously lifeless eyes.