Chapter 181

Ilhwan’s house was quite unassuming compared to the other houses in Yangpyeong. It was surrounded by small fields and some temporary greenhouses.

“It’s a bit small, isn’t it? I suggested that they make it bigger, but your grandfather said that it would only be harder to clean,” Jinah said from beside Suho.

Suho focused only on what he could sense around him. The look on his face was quite serious.

I can’t sense anybody...

His senses searched the greenhouses and the fields, but he wasn’t able to locate a single person.

Beru.

Suho eyed the shadow ant, and his shadow quickly spread out in order to look over the surroundings.

“My goodness. Did they go out again?” Jinah said, cocking her head. Nobody had answered the door, even after they rang the doorbell multiple times. She wasn’t particularly worried, however, since the grandparents went out so often for farming work and various other pursuits. They were very healthy for their age, as well.

“Well, I’ve never seen them stay at home for long,” Jinah added. “I mean, I started a hospital and everything, but they’ve never once come in because they were sick. Now, that’s a good thing, of course, but still...”

She grinned and input the door’s key code, which she had asked for to use in situations like this one. The door lock beeped and opened. “Suho, you go inside and wait—”

As the door swung open, however, they could see into the house. Both of them stiffened at once.

“What in the...”

Their hearts sank. The air felt cold, and objects were scattered everywhere. Jinah’s parents had always kept the house clean and neatly organized.

“M-Mother?” A chill came over her, and her imagination began to run wild with all the bad things that might have happened. “Mother! Are you at home?!” Completely pale, Jinah had to search the entire house.

Suho, on the other hand, was looking for something else. He had known from the start that nobody was inside the house.

So what I need to look for... is a phone.

He pulled out his phone again and called his grandfather once more. He heard the phone ringing in a corner of the living room, where it had been left to charge.

Jinah blanched. “What, he didn’t even take his phone with him? Where’s my mother’s phone, then?”

She called Suho’s grandmother, Park Kyunghye. The phone was not found in the house, though it was not clear if this was a good sign or not.

“I guess she took her phone with her. They must’ve been in a huge hurry if the house looks this disorganized,” Jinah said. This did not make her feel any less anxious, however.

“Young Monarch! I took a look at the garage. They didn’t take their car with them!” Beru whispered, having just returned from a search. Suho immediately walked out to check.

“S-Suho! Where are you going?” Jinah came with him and noticed the truck still parked in the garage. Her eyes went wide. “What is the truck doing here? They didn’t take it with them?” Her expression grew even more serious. This house was surrounded by a large expanse of fields, and it was difficult to go anywhere without a car.

Suho stared angrily down at his feet. “Arsha.”

“Yes, Suho,”

came a voice from inside the Shadow Dungeon.

“Do you have worker bees in Yangpyeong, too?”

“This is my first time coming here, so I don’t have that many.

But if you wish, I can increase their number quickly. There are plenty of farms nearby.”

“Get on that right away.”

“Yes, understood.”

The buzzing of bees suddenly filled the air.

The first thing that Arsha did was to use her bees to check the framed photos in the house. After taking a good look at the faces of Suho’s grandparents, she spread her bees out in every direction. The bees in the region began to transform into Arsha’s worker bees.

This was not enough to allow Suho to rest easy, however. It would have been a serious enough matter if his elderly grandfather and grandmother had simply gone missing, but now there was the possibility that the Church of the Outer Gods was involved. “Summon Gray,” he said.

A small wolf appeared above Suho’s shadow. Jinah was momentarily taken aback, but she had already learned from her husband, Yoo Jinho, that her nephew had awakened. She quickly adjusted to the sight. In fact, it gave her a good idea.

“Th-that’s right! The Hunters Association!” A branch of the association was not far from here, and as it happened, it had recently begun a partnership with Ahjin Hospital, the best hospital in Yangpyeong. “Suho! I know someone at the association. Let me ask them for help!” she said, urgently making a call.

“Gray, find something, anything. And Rakan, are you listening?” Suho was going to use every means available to him.

[Rakan is watching you.]

Suho sensed Rakan’s gaze. Looking in the direction of that gaze, he said, “You can tell what’s going on, right? Can you figure out what happened here by sniffing out the mana?” It would be more efficient to use the dead Monarch than to depend on Gray.

Rakan smiled intensely as he realized what Suho intended.

[Rakan suggests a deal.]

“Again? What deal?” The dead Monarchs were never willing to offer their help for free, it seemed.

[Rakan explains that in order to use his power, he needs a sacrifice.]

This was true. A dead Monarch could not influence the real world in any way—unless a sacrifice was offered, along with a prayer.

Understanding this, Suho nodded. The only demand that this Monarch had made last time was to hand over useless items to Gray. “All right. What do you want? I don’t have time. Hurry up and tell me.”

[Rakan smiles and says that the deal won’t be such a bad one for you, either.]

Rakan’s presence suddenly grew more and more noticeable.

“Suho! She’s at the association!” Jinah shouted right at that instant, after a serious call.

Suho spun around. “What? My grandmother?”

“Yes! The person I’m talking to actually drove her there!”

[Rakan sighs quietly.]

The Monarch’s presence slowly faded away.

Suho was no longer interested, anyway. “Wait, what is she doing there? Is grandfather there as well?”

“No... That’s the reason she went.”

“What?”

Jinah explained tearfully, “My father... Your grandfather...”

What she said next caused Suho to frown and shout coldly, “Gray!”

The wolf, who had been sniffing around, suddenly enlarged its body.

“Get on!” Suho shouted, letting Jinah jump on the creature’s back. Then he began to run toward the branch of the association where his grandmother was reported to be.

***

Min Daeseok, who was in charge of the Yangpyeong branch of the Hunters Association, always had something to complain about.

They called it a transfer, but they relegated me!

he grumbled to himself.

There were various branches of the association throughout the country, as was commonly the case with such bodies. The type of work that the employees did varied wildly depending on the characteristics of the region they were put in charge of. The most basic type of work, of course, was similar across the board—to maintain public security while the hunter guilds cleared out the dungeons. Since there was no telling when or where a gate might spawn, it also fell to the association to constantly search the region and detect any anomalies.

There was a problem with this, however. In some regions, dungeons seemed few and far between. While that would generally be considered a good thing for the safety of the citizens, some people simply hated such a peaceful, serene environment.

“Why must a person like me waste my youth in the countryside?” Daeseok grumbled. “Here I am, stuck in this little hole...”

“There he goes again,” someone whispered.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

“Don’t look at him. If you catch his eye, he’ll give you a hard time, just like last time.”

Daeseok believed there was no work to be done—none at all. He was quick to show his anger as he suffered through the seemingly never-ending idleness of his new life. The best that his employees could do to deal with his temper attacks was to ignore him—but the thing that made them despair the most was the fact that his behavior wasn’t caused by an actual lack of work.

“No work? Hardly...”

“We keep getting complaints.”

“He keeps on passing most cases to the police, saying that they don’t fall within our jurisdiction.”

Those who knew the way Daeseok did things simply sighed quietly and whispered among themselves.

It was difficult to hold the man completely accountable for this, however. It had only been two years since the association was founded. The distinction between the police’s jurisdiction and the association’s jurisdiction was not clearly defined, leading to some confusion when an incident occurred. There was a lot of room for liberal interpretation.

But even with a superior like Daeseok, there were times when his employees needed to work up the courage to speak to him.

“Uh, sir... Mrs. Park Kyunghye is outside.”

“What? What is that old woman doing here again? I told her to go to the police!” Daeseok shouted, glaring at the employee and yawning, as he usually did.

The employee seemed hesitant, but unsurprised by the reaction. “N-no, we brought her here this time. It seems pretty clear that Sung Ilhwan has gone missing—”

“All the more reason to go to the police!” Daeseok barked.

The employee fell silent.

“Ugh. Okay, fine. When did the old man disappear, and where did he go?” Daeseok asked.

The employee was forced to sigh.

If I knew that, he wouldn’t be missing.

“If we knew that, he wouldn’t be considered missing,” came a cold voice.

Huh?

The employee momentarily thought he had spoken out loud without realizing it. Thankfully, however, he wasn’t the one who had spoken.

An incredibly powerful, stifling presence suddenly loomed behind him.

Both Daeseok and the employee gaped. It was Suho, giving off so much malice that it made the building rumble.

[Skill: “Bloodlust” has activated.]

[Skill: “Bloodlust” has activated.]

[Skill: “Bloodlust” has activated.]

[...]

Daeseok, exposed directly to that terrible hostility, turned deathly pale. “Wh-wh-who— Gah!” His muscles stiffened as his body suddenly floated into the air.

Suho walked up to him with a chilling look on his face and glanced at the identification around Daeseok’s neck. He also noticed a different kind of necklace around his neck as well. “Head of the branch... Huh?” he muttered.

Strangely enough, a few words from Suho were enough to make Daeseok’s hair stand on end.

The employees all summoned their mana at once at the sudden and terrifying sight.

I-it’s a villain!

“A villain has broken into the office!”