CH 14

“Are you sure you don’t need my support?”

“It’s okay.”

Baek-dam suddenly offered to accompany me home, and Han Cha-soo managed to get home safely.

“Huh.”

Even though it was only my second time seeing the house, I still felt at home.

After lying on the floor for a while, Han Cha-soo collected himself.

His steps led him to the study, not the bedroom.

“Diary, diary….”

I decided to exclude the diary after I joined the Heavenly Spirit Guild, as I had already skimmed it last time.

He hadn’t read them thoroughly, but 98% of the diary entries were Jung Yiheon’s curses, so there was no need to look at them again.

Han Cha-soo carefully flicked through it from the bottom to the top.

“Strange.”

It had taken him two hours to search through the bookshelves.

But there was no sign of a diary anywhere on the shelves that filled three sides of the room.

Finding the diary on the day of the possession was a hollow achievement.

But I couldn’t give up now.

Han Cha-soo frowned as he sat at his desk with his jaw set.

‘The diaries of the past three years were obsessive.’

Diaries written after joining the Heavenly Spirit Guild.

Ninety-eight per cent of the entries were abusive towards Jung Yiheon, but Han Cha-soo found one thing in them.

Despite the stress of Jung Yiheon’s presence, Han Cha-soo didn’t stop writing in his diary.

The diary entries were written regularly, day after day.

It was more of a compulsion than a habit.

And compulsion is something that sticks with you for a very long time.

He was sure there was a diary somewhere that recorded the past.

‘Come to think of it, there was one room I didn’t go into.’

He stood up and walked out of the study and down the corridor.

The long hallway was barren, without a single picture on the wall.

He stopped in front of the room furthest from the bedroom.

‘I remember it being a storage room.’

The small room was cluttered with all sorts of things.

It looked like it would be hard to set foot in, so he hadn’t bothered on his first day.

It was traumatic enough to be possessing a villain who would otherwise be tortured and killed.

‘If he put it away, it’s likely to be here.’

He slowly opened the door to the small room.

“Cough!”

Dust-filled air poured out into the hallway.

He switched on the light and saw the fine dust floating around.

“Tsk.”

With a sweep of his hand, he cleared the dust and stormed into the room.

I’d rather die in my room than turn the hallway into a dust bowl.

“Let’s see….”

One by one, he began to unpack the stacks of boxes.

If it was winter now, I could have done an impression of Christmas.

But the reality was not so merry.

Thud.

I opened a box tied with red string with a strange inscription.

Kihik, Kihik!

Creepy laughter pierced my eardrums, followed by a series of pops and the light bulb exploded.

In an instant, darkness filled the room.

Surrounded by boxes taller than he was, Han Cha-soo slowly lifted his eyelids.

Tadadot!

“…….”

A child’s footsteps sounded overhead.

Kyaaaaaaaaaa-!

A demon with its lips torn down to its ears flailed its arms and fell with a thud.

Jung Yiheon had just gotten out of the car when he noticed Baek-sun.

“Why is he here….”

Unlike Han Cha-soo’s earlier call, Baek-sun’s name was familiar.

He was an old friend of his younger brother, Jung Seo-heon, and they had met often since childhood.

Standing in front of Han Cha-soo’s apartment, Baek-sun looked very nervous.

From time to time, he would lean towards the apartment door, then turn away, chew on his lip, and look up.

“…….”

Jung Yiheon stared at him, then frowned.

“…….”

Apparently, he knew that Han Cha-soo had been discharged from the hospital.

I didn’t need to ask how he knew.

‘Baek-dam must have lost his temper again.’

Baek-dam’s feelings for Baek-sun were genuine, and he couldn’t think of another brother who cared more about his brother. The problem was how to convey them.

What did he say to his brother who was frustrated that he couldn’t become an S-class?

‘I told him that if he became an S-class, he would be tired and bothered, so a B-class would be perfect.’

That’s not a comforting thing to say to a child who’s already upset, and it’s more of a temper tantrum than anything else.

And then you whine about your brother not coming home.

Yiheon clicked his tongue and paced.

“Sun-ah.”

“Eh, hyung?”

Preoccupied, Baek-sun noticed him belatedly.

“What are you doing here?”

“That’s for me to say. You were in Ulleung-do until a few hours ago.”

It was only yesterday that he had flown to Ulleung Island after hearing rumours that a green-ranked dungeon in Ulleung Island contained a healing item.

I tried to tell them it was probably just a rumour, that they should think about it, but they wouldn’t listen.

“I’m going.”

“I’m going too!”

Even elementary school kids wouldn’t do this. Despite the bruises, they left immediately.

If they were still in elementary school, they wouldn’t have left so easily.

Jung Yiheon clicked his tongue in disappointment, but he also felt a little sorry for them.

He could feel how much they owed Han Cha-soo.

Perhaps that was why his gaze was so tender as he looked at Baek-sun.

“Where did you leave Seo-heon?”

“He’s still in Ulleung. He said he was coming with me…. I just told him to stay there, otherwise he’d have to wait a long time.”

Everywhere he went, the green dungeon was quite popular.

It’s proven safe, and with so many people wanting to go in, it’s easy to organise a team.

After nodding, Jung Yiheon blurted out.

“So, do you know what floor he lives on?”

“…Huh?”

“Baekdam told you that Han Chasoo-ssi was discharged from the hospital, right?”

Baek-sun’s ears perked up.

“Hmph, hmph!”

Jung Yiheon laughed bloodily. He was about to say something to Baek-sun.

He was about to say something when he smelled a familiar, bloody scent.

‘Huh?’

Baek-sun’s head turned slowly.

The stench was coming from the entrance of the apartment.

He had just been seriously considering whether or not to go in.

By the time he realised what the bloody scene was, Jung Yiheon had already rushed forward.

In the distance, buried in the shadows, he could see a man.

A little taller than a normal person, but slightly skinny, as if he didn’t like to eat.

Pale complexion and cloudy grey eyes that always looked nonchalant….

“Han Cha-soo!”

“Ah….”

“Are you alright, Han Chasoo-ssi, wake up!”

Han Cha-soo, who was staggering along, collapsed in a pool of blood.

His throbbing body cried out in pain.

A pain so messy that he might as well have had his limbs cut off neatly.

“Ugh….”

Han Cha-soo, sweating and groaning, opened his eyes as if he had been waiting for something.

His eyes opened wide to an unfamiliar scene.

It would have been less disturbing if it was familiar.

Han Cha-soo lamented at the appearance of a neat and gentle bedroom, not a hospital room.

‘I want to believe it’s not.’

I hoped the suspicion that had risen in me was not true.

But he knew it was useless to deny it.

Before he blacked out, he saw the face of the man who had rushed to him.

“You’re up.”

The tiger said he’d come when I told him, and Jung Yiheon appeared with something.

“Ah, don’t move, Mr Baek-sun has just finished treating you.”

Baek-sun? Was he with him?

When Han Cha-soo turned to him, Jung Yiheon shook his head.

“He just treated you and left.”

“I see, but this is….”

“It’s my house.”

Again.

Unmoved, Han Cha-soo accepted the porridge he offered.

It was then.

He heard what sounded like sobs coming from somewhere.

He looked up reflexively.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Nothing.”

‘A hallucination.’

It seemed to be a lingering effect of the spirit system monster he had fought to the death just a moment ago.

Han Cha-soo frowned, remembering the horrific scene.

The Spiritual System Monster, which was more like a ghost, was literally a mess.

It clung to the ceiling, flailing its hands, its limbs mangled, its hair tangled, its lips torn from its ears.

That wasn’t all.

“Come with me, please. Come with me, boss. Don’t abandon me!”

It mocked him, mimicking the unpleasantly dead.

He managed to use his skills to chase it away, but at the last second, he was caught in its hallucinations and ran out of the house.

“–!”

The residual sound stuck in my ears. Maybe it was….

“Han Chasoo-ssi.”

Jung Yiheon caught his hand rubbing his ear and gave him a spoon.

“You’ve vomited up a lot of blood, you must be hungry, so eat all of it.”

“I have no appetite.”

“Does the patient eat with a taste?”

Han Cha-soo pushed the bowl away quietly, but stopped when he saw something.

In his hand was a life contract.

“Eat it.”

“…….”

“If you want to go back in the hospital the day you get out, I won’t stop you.”

I wish this was Jung Yi Hoon’s face, not porridge.

Puk.

Han Che-soo made a face and plunged his spoon into the bowl of porridge unceremoniously.