Chapter 68
Chapter 68
“…Anyway, so right now I have just one mom and two dads.”
“Khuk! Kheok, keuk, cough…!”
“Hey, what’s wrong?! Water? Do you want some water?!”
At Nari’s words, Kang Ihyun choked on his gukbap and coughed hard for a while. When Nari brought him water, he drank a few gulps before finally calming down and waving his hand.
“Nari… I don’t even know where my head is right now, you know?”
“Ah, is it that much?”
After they entered the gukbap place and Nari explained everything, she rubbed the back of her neck. Kang Ihyun coughed a few more times, then gave her a wry smile.
“No, it’s just… I was thinking, wow, your mom is really something. I mean, how… Jeong Suho is an S-rank too, right? And then she made Guildmaster Mago your godfather. She seems to have a knack for finding talent….”
“Is that so? I don’t know. But firstly, my dad ending up like that is...”
Nari fiddled with the edge of her spoon again, her face turning gloomy. No matter how many times she thought about it, it was still horrible.
“I don’t even know how he says he’s going to solve that, I can’t trust it, and also….”
Unconsciously, suspicion bubbled up again. Nari tapped the table with her fingers irritably. Even if she resolved to trust them, it wasn’t possible to change her personality neatly overnight.
Hadn’t Nahan once told her that her nature was a survival skill that had kept her alive until now?
“Nari. You’re getting in too deep.”
Ihyun reached out and gently covered the back of her hand. Pulled out of her heavy emotions, Nari let out a sigh.
“Yeah, for now let’s just not think about it. I’ve given them a 24-hour grace period anyway.”
“Right. For now, just eat.”
Completely worn out today, both of them busied their spoons. The hot meat broth warmed their stomachs and sharpened their minds.
After that, they devoured their food in silence, almost like a battle. Since neither of them had eaten properly all day, finishing off the bowls took no time.
With a light thud, Nari emptied her bowl to the bottom and pulled a napkin to carefully wipe her lips. Ihyun, with a little strength regained, sipped water.
When they paid and stepped outside, darkness had already fallen. It was early December, the peak of the cold season. White breath puffed out in clouds.
Only then did Nari notice what Ihyun was wearing. A dress shirt and tie, dress pants and leather shoes.
Of course, since she had dragged him straight out from indoors, this was the result. The clothes suited him well, but in winter they must have been cold. And they weren’t fit for wandering around either.
“Aren’t you cold? Want to go buy some clothes?”
“Shall we? Then after that, can we stop by the night market here? I wanted to check it out.”
“Sure, there’s a lot of fun stuff there. And I also want to visit Chinatown here.”
“Then let’s go there tomorrow!”
Nari nodded. Somehow, it felt like they were stepping into a real date course as they slowly headed toward a clothing shop.
Around them, families were happily walking home. On days like this, most people chose to be with family rather than friends.
But what could they do, Ihyun and Nari had never quite belonged to that “normal” family. That didn’t mean they couldn’t spend today happily.
* * *
“Hey, buy this too, and this one.”
“Nari… can you really eat all that? You’re going to get a stomachache! Even I feel like I’m about to burst.”
Holding tanghulu in one hand and multiple skewers of oden in the other, Nari’s eyes sparkled as she gazed at the stall. Kang Ihyun, wallet in hand, looked at her with concern.
Of course, he himself was holding fishcake soup and skewers in his other hand.
“So what, you’re saying you’re going to give up yukjeon? It must be delicious.”
“Boss! Give me five thousand won worth of this, please.”
Even without alcohol, under the dazzling neon signs and the smell of food, they were drunk on the atmosphere. Their hands were full of snacks as they walked through the night market.
“Nari, you should’ve bought that cat costume too.”
“Are you crazy? That’s a crime against fashion.”
“You put one on me though!”
At some point, Ihyun had ended up in a yellow hoodie with puppy ears attached to the hood, jeans, and a glowing rainbow-colored alien-horn headband on his head. He even carried a pink cross bag.
“You’re fine. When a good-looking guy wears something cute, it’s not a crime.”
“Come on, really, I think it’d look good on you too!”
“You’re starting to speak informally, huh? Don’t forget I’m older. I’ve eaten two thousand more meals than you.”
Ihyun clamped his mouth shut and looked to the side, grumbling. Nari chuckled, realizing that though he always seemed mature, in parts like this he was still definitely younger.
“Still, won’t you try it on? Please? I’ll buy it for you, really! It’s not fair if I’m the only one wearing silly stuff!!”
“Hey! Who’d like me walking around dressed like that?!”
“I would, me!!”
“…Really?”
At Ihyun’s desperate tone, Nari lifted her head slightly to read his face.
‘It won’t suit me… but if he says he likes it, maybe I should try it on?’
But then she noticed Ihyun’s suspicious grin. Huffing, she quickly turned her head away and walked a few steps ahead.
“Forget it!! If you liked it, you wouldn’t be laughing like that. You’re just waiting to make fun of me, aren’t you?!”
“N-No! Really, I’m not!!”
“Don’t follow me.”
Ihyun quickly jogged after her anyway. As they were wrapped in that happy mood, Nari, trying to get ahead of him, suddenly bumped into someone running in a hurry.
“Ah!!”
Falling back on the spot, Nari looked up at the person she had run into. A haggard-looking woman lowered her head briefly, then ran off. Blinking, Nari made a strange expression.
“Nari?! Are you alright?!”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Damn it, what a waste. That was good food.”
“I’ll share mine with you!”
Rushing over, Ihyun pulled Nari up. She pouted at the food spilled on the ground, then glanced toward where the woman had run. Ihyun asked with a puzzled look.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know, but she seemed familiar… gasp.”
Nari’s face stiffened in an instant. She grabbed tightly onto the sleeve of Ihyun’s hoodie. Concerned, he looked at her as she spoke in an uncertain voice.
“…She looked like one of those cult followers. I think I saw her earlier today.”
“What? But they said they’d handle it for twenty-four hours.”
Nari’s expression hardened. Ihyun inhaled quietly as he looked down at her. The fragile peace she had just begun to regain was starting to break.
It was clear that telling her to just forget everything and enjoy the rest of the night with him would mean nothing now. Holding her hand again, Ihyun said,
“If you’re anxious, isn’t it alright to at least go and just look? Nothing more.”
“Just look…?”
“Yes. You can watch secretly, can’t you? Right?”
“…Yeah.”
“We won’t do anything. Just peek and leave. For these twenty-four hours, I’ll trust you. Okay?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Barely regaining a little composure, Nari softly held Ihyun’s hand and led him toward a secluded spot.
In a quiet alley, Nari opened a dimensional rift. Ihyun slipped off the headband, wrapped the food in paper, and stored it in his inventory.
He stepped through, feeling that same never-familiar sensation of dimensional travel, and blinked as a wall came into view.
[Trickster-Exclusive Basic Skill :: Perception Interference is now active!]
He suddenly felt something cold against his back and looked around. They were hiding behind a large golden Buddha statue. Black spirit energy clung to Nari, meaning she was using Perception Interference.
Looking to the side, Ihyun saw Nari already peeking around the statue. As he leaned out to check the scene himself, a loud bang echoed.
Startled, he followed her gaze and his jaw dropped.
The room was a wreck. Cracks lined the walls, and the floor bore deep dents, as if something heavy had been slammed down repeatedly. Blinking, Nari realized this looked nothing like the room she’d seen in the afternoon.
“Guildmaster, we’ve captured them all.”
“Good. Take that woman to the police. Protect the others. I’ll deal with this man myself. Go on.”
“….”
“I won’t kill him. I’ll just talk. This man is coming with me to Mago.”
“Understood, but… please don’t kill him!”
The people rushed out, leaving only two men behind, one with slicked-back hair in a black suit, the other a haggard man leaning against the wall.
Ihyun immediately recognized the bespectacled man in the black suit as Mago’s Guildmaster. As he tried to see who the other man was, Nari gripped his arm tight and whispered.
“…That’s my dad.”
Her grip tightened. They held their breaths and watched. Nari’s father spoke first.
“Why are you interfering? My wife will be back soon.”
“Kang Hana is dead. You know that, don’t you?”
“No!”
Nari’s father shouted, shaking his head violently with both hands covering his face. He couldn’t bear the grief of losing his wife.
“No, my wife doesn’t die that easily. She told me at the end, ‘I’ll come back.’ My wife is someone who keeps her promises.”
“While you were clinging to that empty promise, Nari was rotting inside.”
“When her mother comes back, she’ll be fine. When my wife returns, everything will be fine. Our family can’t be whole without her. Not a single one of us can be missing!”
“Haa….”
Nan sighed, taking off his glasses. His black pupils shifted into jade. Seeing those eyes, Nari’s father widened his own.
Ignoring his shock, Nan frowned and spoke.
“…Now I understand why Hana entrusted Nari to me.”
Nari’s father was kind and gentle, but weak. His wife, once the strongest Awakener in Korea, and his daughter, also awakened. Even Jeong Suho had become S-rank. Nan exhaled and continued.
“I heard Nari is an Awakener too. Hana was one, and so is Suho. Among them, you alone stayed unawakened, so I can understand your sense of isolation. You must feel like you can’t do anything. Yes, I understand… but still.”
Clenching his fist, Nan crouched down before him. Spirit energy seeped from him.
“That’s not what Kang Hana meant.”
[Incarnation Exclusive Trait :: ‘Buddhist who has memorized every teaching’ is active!]
[Constellation, the First Disciple of Dharmarakṣa, grants his authority.]
“Thus have I heard.”
As Nan uttered those four words, his soul energy began to glow jade. Ihyun knew whose color that was. The Jade Daoist. Kang Hana.
Nari’s father’s eyes widened. Nari too clenched harder onto Ihyun’s arm. Then, from above, Kang Hana’s voice echoed.
[Honey. I’ll go save the world and come back, alright?]
“Honey…? Honey, it’s me! I’m right here, huh? When are you coming back? Nari and I are waiting for you right now, so when…?!”
Her husband’s eyes darted wildly upward.
[So in the meantime, please take care of our Nari and Suho. Promise me!!]