Chapter 181: Chapter 181
Sung Il-Hwan's house was quite modest compared to other cottages in Yangpyeong. He only had a small paddy field and a greenhouse built around it.
"It seems a bit small, doesn't it? I told him to make it bigger, but your grandfather said that if it's big, it will be harder to clean it..." Suho listened to Sung Jin-Ah's words from one of his ears as he focused on his senses. Suddenly, the expression on his face became serious.
'....It's deserted.'
Suho's senses scanned all the greenhouses and rice paddies that spread around his grandfather's house, but there was still no sign of his grandfather.
"Beru."
Shuaaaa
At Suho's glance, Beru's shadow stretched out quickly to scan his surroundings.
"Oh my, are they out again?" No matter how much she rang the doorbell, Jin-Ah didn't get an answer, so she tilted her head. She wasn't too worried about them since they usually went out a lot to farm. They were also very minimalist for their age. "Well that is to be expected since they never like to stay in the house for too long. I also set up a hospital for them and yet they've never gotten sick either. Of course, it's a good thing but..."
Sung Jin-Ah smiled and pressed the password for the front door, which she had known in case a situation like this had appeared. The door opened.
Titititi.
T-ring!
"Suho, I'll go in first and you wait..." But as the front door opened, and their eyes caught the inside of the house, a mess appeared in front of them.
Sung Jin-Ah and Suho's expressions hardened at the same time.
"What is this..."
For a moment their hearts sank. Out in the open there were scattered objects everywhere. This was quite the contrast to the always neatly clean and tidy house that Jin-Ah was familiar with.
"Mom?" With a chill penetrating the corners of Sung Jin-Ah's chest, many thoughts started to pass through her head. "Mom! Are you at home?!" Sung Jin-Ah's complexion quickly turned pale and she began to search all over the house in search of her parents.
Suho's gaze, on the other hand, was centered on something else. From the beginning, he knew no one was here right now. So instead he looked for something else.
'Their cellphone.'
Suho pulled out his phone again and tried to call his grandfather. Suddenly he heard the sound of a cell phone coming from the corner of the living room.
His grandfather's cell phone, which was plugged into the charger, was ringing alone.
When Jin-ah found out about this, she contemplated the situation. "No, why would dad leave his cellphone here? Where's my mom's cell phone then?" This time, Sung Jin-Ah called Suho's grandmother, Park Kyung-Hye.
Whether this was lucky or not, Park's cellphone was never found inside the house. "Perhaps she took her cell phone with her? No, how could it be that they left their house like this?"
Someone else was just as anxious.
[My young liege! I looked in the garage and there was a parked car!]
Just in time, Beru, who had been looking around, whispered to Suho, who then went straight outside and checked the garage.
"Su- Suho! Where are you going!" Sung Jin-Ah followed Suho out and opened her eyes to find a truck parked quietly in the garage. "Why is the car here? They didn't even drag the car out?" Sung Jin-Ah's expression became even more serious. There was a long stretch of paddy fields around Sung's house, and it was difficult to go anywhere without a car.
"Arsha."
Suho said, looking down at his feet with a scared face.
[Yes.]
Immediately, Arsha's answer came from the Shadow Dungeon.
"Do you have your worker bees in Yangpyeong?"
[This is my first time in Yangpyeong, so there aren't many, but there are many farmhouses nearby, so I can increase them as much as you want.]
"Get started on that."
[Yes, I will.]
Buzzzzzz
At that moment, the sound of bees' wings suddenly came from all directions. The first thing Arsha did was to look at the picture frames hanging in the house. Then, after carefully examining the faces of Suho's grandfather and grandmother, he scattered the worker bees in all directions. The worker bees in Yangpyeong began to change into Arsha's worker bees by the minute. However, Suho was not so relieved.
Just the thought of his elderly grandfather and grandmother having only lost contact with them was serious enough. But what if we add to this the possibility that their disappearance could also be connected to the Foreign Religion?
"Gray."
Shuaaaaaaa
Above Suho's shadow, Gray the little wolf appeared.
"Ah!" Sung Jin-Ah was momentarily surprised by the appearance, but she immediately calmed down because she had learned beforehand from her husband that Suho had already awakened. Instead of being too shocked, a sudden idea had popped inside her head. "Right! There was the Hunters Association!"
Fortunately, not far from here was a branch of the Hunter Association. It has been building a cooperative relationship with Ahjin Hospital, the best hospital in Yangpyeong, for some time now. "Suho! This auntie of yours has an acquaintance at the association! I'll ask them for help!" Sung Jin-Ah said while she urgently called the Association.
"Gray, find anything that's useful. Raikan, are you listening now?" Suho decided to use everything he had at his disposal.
[The Beast Monarch, King of Beasts watches you.]
Raikan's gaze centered on him. Looking in the direction where the presence was felt, Suho opened his mouth. "You know what's going on, right? Can you tell by the smell of magic what happened here?" It would be much more efficient to pamper a dead monarch himself than to let Gray do all the work. Realizing Suho's intentions, a dark smile appeared on Raikan's lips.
[The Beast Monarch, King of Beasts offers a deal in exchange for help.]
"What else do you suggest?" As expected, the dead monarch did not readily help.
[The Beast Monarch explains that he needs sacrifices in order to exert his influence.]
It was true. Originally, a deceased monarch could not have any influence on this life. However, there were cases where this was possible, and that was the method of "sacrifice" in which offerings were made and prayers were offered.
Suho, who understood the situation, nodded obediently. After all, the condition that Raikan demanded the other day was that he finally handed over the items– that had become useless to him– to Gray.
"Alright. What do you want? I don't have much time, so tell me quickly."
[The Beast Monarch raises the corners of his mouth to say that this is not a bad proposition for you, either.]
At that moment, Raikan's presence began to grow more and more. It was then...
"Suho! She is in the Association!" The words burst out of Sung Jin-Ah's mouth, who was on the phone with a serious face. Immediately, Suho's head turned to her.
"Who? Grandma?"
"?Yes! One of the staff members drove her there!"
And at the same time...
[The Beast Monarch sighs.]
Raikan's growing presence faded away. Whether he helped or not, Suho's attention had already drifted away from him.
"No, why did grandma go to the Hunter's Association? Is grandpa there too?"
"No... That's why she went there."
"What?"
To Suho's question, Sung Jin Ah replied with a chuckle. "Well, my dad... Your grandfather..."
Upon hearing Sung Jin-Ah's story, Suho shouted, his expression hardened.
"Gray!"
"Woof!!"
Gray, who had been sniffing his surroundings at the abstract command, swelled his size significantly.
"Get on!" Suho put Sung Jin-Ah on Gray's back before running straight to the Yangpyeong branch of the Hunter Association, where his grandmother was.
***
Min Dae-Seok, the head of the Yangpyeong branch of the Hunter Association, was a man full of complaints.
'Personal change? What is this? A demotion?'
As in any country, the Hunter Association had branches throughout Korea. And depending on the peculiarities of the jurisdiction, the work of the Association's staff varied greatly. Of course, the most basic tasks were quite similar. Stabilizing security while the guilds attacked the dungeons. And since they didn't know when or where the gates would occur, they searched the area all year round to detect anomalies.
But there was a problem here. No matter how much you search, what if dungeons rarely appear in your jurisdiction? Will citizens like it now that they can live in peace? There are so many different personalities in the world, and sometimes some people get fed up with that comfort.
"No, why should someone like me rot all his youth in the countryside like this! Why am I stuck in a place like this!"
'....Here he goes again.'
'Look away.'
'If you make eye contact for no reason, you'll get shouted at like last time.'
There is no work to be done around. In this peaceful daily life that seems to last forever, the branch manager Min Dae-Seok keeps having a bad temper. The only way for his subordinates to deal with his tantrums was to do their best to pretend they didn't see.
But the biggest problem they had to sigh about was that he wasn't really complaining because he didn't have a job.
'Despite having no work ...'
'Complaints keep coming in.'
'But all the cases are taken over to the police station because we don't have the jurisdiction.'
The employees, who were familiar with the usual working style of the branch manager, just sighed quietly. However, there was also some ambiguity whenever they should or not agree with Min Dae-Seok.
It's only been two years since the Hunter Association was founded. There was still no complete separation between the duties of the police and the work of the Hunter Association in the event of a gate related incident.
Either way, if you put it on your nose, it's a nose ring, and if you put it on your ear, it's an earring. (1) But no matter how much you face a boss like this, someone has to be brave in the end.
"Well, sir... Park Kyung-Hye is still outside."
"What? Why did that old lady come here again?! Make her go to the police station!" Min Dae-Seok, who was yawning profusely at the right time, immediately opened his eyes when he heard that.
'I knew this was going to happen,' the employee continued. "Oh, no. This time, we drove her here. After investigating, it seems certain that Mr. Sung Il-Hwan is missing..."
"So? Have her go to the police station!"
"..."
"Hah. Got it, got it. So when and where did you say that old man had disappeared?"
At Min Dae-Seok's words, the staff member couldn't help but sigh inwardly. 'If she knew where he was then it wouldn't be a disappearance at all.'
"If she knew where he was then it wouldn't be a disappearance at all."
"Huh?"
At the sudden sound of a cold voice, the employee realized that his thoughts had jumped out of his mouth. But fortunately, such a voice had not been directed at him.
Kugooo!
"...!"
"...?!"
Suddenly, a tremendous presence weighed on the air behind the employee's back.
There he stood...
Suho, who exuded so much energy that the entire floor of the Association was shaking from it.
[Use Skill: Bloodlust.]
[Use Skill: Bloodlust.]
[Use Skill: Bloodlust.]
Exposed to the terrible bloodlust head-on, the branch chief Min Dae-Seok shouted, his complexion becoming white.
"You, who– who?!" Suddenly, his body stiffened and began to float into the air. In front of him, Suho walked over and checked the name tag around his neck with a puzzled expression, as well as the other 'necklace' wrapped around his.
"The head of the branch..."
Chills crept upon his body. Why is it that even those simple words sounded out gave him goosebumps? Indeed, the sudden and terrifying sight caused the Association's employees to raise their mana at the same time.
'?Villain!'
"A villain has appeared!"
—-----------------------
1: "If you put it on your nose it's a nose ring, if you put it on your ear it's an earring." A Korean idiom that means that all kinds of things can be used according to the point of view of each person. In this case, people had different opinions about Min Dae-Seok's complaints but one of them still had to step up and say something.
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