Chapter 136 : Vessel of God
Vessel of God
When I felt the vibration, I got uneasy and decided to go check.
Guided by the maids to where they were, I saw exactly what I had expected happening.
Sure enough, maybe it was too much for Sang-ah alone to handle, as she was sprawled out across the garden floor.
The scribbles drawn with paint all over her face were just a bonus.
The fight between Ah-rin and Sang-ah only came to an end when I stepped in.
Now, all of them had been summoned to the guildmaster's office.
"I'm truly sorry, grandpa."
"... I'm sorry."
Sitting in front of Baek Suhyuk, Eunseol apologized for the commotion from earlier.
Ah-rin, who was her partner in crime, made a sheepish face and spoke as well.
"Seongjin, I'm sorry I couldn't stop them."
Sang-ah, who had been at the scene, felt responsible for what had happened.
She was always the one stuck between those two whenever I was absent. She must have thought she should have stopped them in my stead.
"You don't have to get so down about it. It's not like this happened because of you."
"Yeah..."
"But, you know."
Continuing to look at Sang-ah's face, I had to cover my mouth.
The more I looked, the harder it was to hold back my laughter.
"Sang-ah... Your face... Pffft—!"
"Don't laugh! I told you this won't even come off!"
Her entire face was covered in white, and between her brows, five awkward pink stars had been drawn.
It reminded me of a certain stone bed commercial, making it even funnier.
At the same time, Ah-rin and Eunseol weren't much better.
Ah-rin looked like a shriveled, pale ghost that crawled out of a grave, as if drawn with tender care by someone skilled in painting.
As for Eunseol, her entire face was blackened, like a culprit from Detective Conan—a total mess only someone with no drawing skills could manage.
But both of them were still equally hilarious.
"Ahem—!"
Even Baek Suhyuk, who was witnessing all three faces up close, was struggling to keep a straight face.
You could see the extreme patience he was exercising to avoid laughing.
From his perspective, though, this wasn't really the time or place to laugh.
"So... you—you're... from the Sura guild...?"
"Yes, I'm Sura."
"But... I heard you always went around hiding your face."
"Don't worry. Aside from my acquaintances, no one knows my identity."
Having the Sura right in front of Baek Suhyuk—a person once hostile—was a big deal.
But that Sura was no longer an enemy.
Baek Suhyuk was momentarily confused by this sudden revelation. More importantly...
"So... I see. You're... Sura, but before that... pfft! You're student Seongjin's... pffft! Friend... Pffft—!"
"Don't laugh!"
Their faces were just too funny to focus.
I wondered who had drawn such a masterpiece on Ah-rin's face.
The extraordinary skill made it twice as amusing.
"Baek Eunseol...! Just you wait!"
"Ha! Like you can talk! Look at your own face!"
Ah-rin and Eunseol both glared at whoever had turned their faces into a caricature.
Thankfully, it hadn't turned into a big fight, so I didn't need to step in.
"This can't go on. You three, come here."
In the end, Baek Suhyuk called Ah-rin, Eunseol, and Sang-ah to him.
As the three approached, Baek Suhyuk's halo began to shine.
When he placed his hand on their faces, the messy drawings vanished.
"Is that better?"
"Yes...!"
"How did you do that when water wouldn't even get it off?"
"Thank you so much!"
Finally, the mood settled down.
Proper conversation could at last begin.
Ah-rin then explained about the Sura guild and why she was attending Hand.
"So, they're also an organization that wanted to use you as a vessel to descend a god?"
"The god worshipped by the Holy Church is the opposite of the one they serve. If that's S-pole, then this is N-pole."
"So that's why there's so much conflict between them."
The Holy Church sought to bring down the eight guardian deities.
So what about the god the Sura guild wanted to descend?
They called it a demon god, but the details remained unclear.
Whereas the Holy Church felt like angel worship, the Sura guild leaned strongly toward devil worship.
And surely, I wasn't the one they worshipped.
Who would be a suitable target?
"Anyway, I understand now that you're Sura, but not an enemy. Especially with student Seongjin by your side, I can rest easy."
"I've said it before, but I've never once considered such a guild my ally. I was only there as a means to get stronger."
"I see."
"There's only one person I trust in this world."
So saying, Ah-rin wrapped herself around my arm and smiled as radiantly as an angel, her face transformed with a bright smile.
She could never be mistaken for a high-ranking member of the infamous Sura guild.
She only looked like a middle-school girl who liked the color pink.
"In that case, I have a favor to ask."
"Yes?"
Seeing Ah-rin like that, Baek Suhyuk made up his mind and spoke.
"I want you to stay good friends with my granddaughter, if you please."
"..."
As soon as she heard this, Ah-rin looked like she'd just bitten into something foul.
Ah-rin and Sang-ah glanced at each other, as if sparks flew whenever their eyes met, like a dimension-rending war was nascent between them.
"Kang Ah-rin, Baek Eunseol."
"Hmm?"
"What is it?"
When I called their names, both of them wore reluctant expressions.
I took both their hands and said,
"Shake hands."
"..."
"But..."
"Shake~"
The two were hesitant to take each other's hands, but seeing my smiling face, they couldn't refuse.
"Now, you two better get along, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Fine..."
"Louder! Add 'I love you' to each other too!"
"Are you crazy?!"
"You want us to say that to another girl...!"
"Hey now!"
With my stern voice, they trembled as they held each other's hands.
Both of them surely knew why I was making them do this.
Not to mention, it being my request made it impossible to refuse.
But their enmity clearly hadn't died out, as their shaking smiles revealed.
"E-Eunseol... I l-love..."
"Ah-rin... I lo-lo—"
Sure enough, the two couldn't bring themselves to confess easily.
It was clearly too hard to just wipe away all their past squabbles.
"I—just! How am I supposed to say this?"
"This is too much!"
Embarrassed, they got angry instead, stomping their feet and clutching their heads.
It was definitely not something one would say to a same-gender friend easily.
"But you'll get along from now on, right?"
"Yeah."
"Fine."
Their relationship settled for now.
Even in the past, they'd avoided fighting at least by my side.
I hoped this attitude would continue into the future.
"So, just like Eunseol, you're a vessel of God?"
"Strictly speaking, yes."
When Baek Suhyuk brought that up, the atmosphere shifted.
The two shared a significant common point as vessels of God.
"That means you must have lived your life constantly being targeted, like my Eunseol."
"These days, it's only gotten worse. Though it's my own doing."
"You must have suffered a lot."
"Yes..."
Thanks to Baek Suhyuk's warm words, Ah-rin felt a nostalgic ache for her own grandfather, now gone.
"At least after the Poison guild was crippled, the Holy Church's activities in Korea have become difficult. Thanks to that, Eunseol can go out freely now."
"Because of the Golden Gate incident."
"Exactly."
The Poison guild served as a crucial stepping stone for the Holy Church's activities in Korea.
But after a government raid and seizure, their operations stalled.
They're now busy trying to conceal their misdeeds just to keep the guild afloat.
"More importantly, our Angel guild is keeping them fully in check. Without help from a big guild like Poison, they can't really go up against us."
So until they find a new foothold, the Holy Church can't operate in Korea.
No matter how much they want to target Eunseol, it's pointless with the Angel guild at her side.
"Besides, Eunseol is just a tiny fraction of the real targets."
"Targets?"
"Our Angel guild found this out with an investigation. Since their influence in Korea weakened, it was easier to figure out."
Saying he'd looked into who their targets were, Baek Suhyuk handed me a file.
It was easier to recognize people by sight than just by name. Opening the file revealed a list of targets.
"Of course, not all of them have been confirmed as vessels of God. They're just high-compatibility candidates."
"There's quite a lot."
"Shows how widespread their activity is."
Besides Eunseol, there were more people abducted during the Yong-in Gate incident.
Presumably, those people had high compatibility rates, which led to their kidnapping.
But since they weren't complete vessels, they didn't survive the experiments.
Only Eunseol endured—proof she was a true vessel of God.
'That might be why Eunseol was dropped in priority.'
Unlike the other targets, who needed to be tested one by one, Eunseol was already a proven vessel.
No need to rush to capture her.
"Thanks to that, you won't have to worry about the Holy Church for a while. Of course, if anything weird happens, I'll get in touch right away."
"Thank you for your help."
"Not at all."
At that moment, Eunseol murmured while looking at the names in the file.
"There are lots of foreigners too."
The Holy Church is a secret organization operating worldwide.
Much worse than any Murderer guild. Naturally, their targets were chosen globally.
"Huh?!"
"What's wrong?"
"This person...!"
Ah-rin was startled when she saw a particular name on the list.
I blinked in surprise as well—that name was familiar. Sang-ah recited the name and asked,
"Ai Hoon? Who's that?"
"Remember we heard the news on the radio coming here?"
"Yeah."
The B-rank gate incident in China.
The person who defeated the boss and stabilized the gate—her efforts had gained global renown.
She was the famous hunter Ai Hoon.
"That was her?"
"And here's a fact nobody knows—she's the daughter of the Sura guildmaster."
"Is that true?"
Even Baek Suhyuk was shocked. Apart from those in the Sura guild, no one else knew.
"What's more, this girl has the highest compatibility rate out of all the targets."
"The Holy Church must want her more than anyone."
"And she'll be visiting Korea soon."
This was information I'd heard on the radio news earlier. Ai Hoon's visit to Korea.
Ah-rin looked suspicious.
"But this seems weird."
"Why?"
"Ai Hoon really hates Korea. She says she can't stand how K-POP overshadows her own fame..."
Apparently, she disliked going overseas in general, though the public wasn't aware of this side of her.
Ah-rin, as a Sura, knew the truth.
"Is it just a shallow complex?"
"But she's got a lot of fans in Korea. It doesn't make sense that she'd refuse to visit despite that."
"What could make her decide to come here now?"
I looked up Ai Hoon on my phone. She was popular in Korea, so her schedule was easy to find.
Ai Hoon's visit would be this autumn. Looking at her itinerary, I couldn't help but laugh wryly.
"This just gets more suspicious."
According to her schedule, Ai Hoon would soon visit Hand.
Around that time, the Masked Singer event was to be held at Hand.
The most popular music program in Korea, often inviting many international artists.
Still, it didn't seem likely she would come all this way just for that.
"So she's coming to Hand on purpose..."
"She usually avoids Korea, and now all of a sudden she's coming for Hand?"
Maybe it was just a coincidence, but as the daughter of the Sura guildmaster, it made sense for her to work for the guild.
And given the Sura guild's recent activities in Korea, it did not bode well.
"On top of that, she's a vessel of God..."
Everything seemed to be overlapping.
Not only was she the daughter of the Sura guildmaster, but she was also a vessel of God.
I was getting more and more interested in that guildmaster.
'Anyway, there's no need to worry about the Holy Church for now.'
It seemed wiser to focus on Sura guild for the time being.