Chapter 196

"Y — you guys…!!"

I was so shocked my eyes went round.

"How on earth did you all get here?!"

Undeterred by my shocked outburst, the little ones burst into giggles and came fluttering into my arms.

The older ones, meanwhile, seemed to find the whole situation embarrassing, coughing "ahem, ahem" with reddened cheeks and shifting from foot to foot.

The shock of the kids appearing out of nowhere only lasted a moment.

My eyes fixed on how they were dressed.

…This is—!

Yes, on any normal day I made sure they were kitted out in the best clothes I could find so they wouldn't feel out of place — but what I was seeing right now was on a completely different level.

Head to toe in top-tier finery, they looked, at a glance, like the treasured heirs of some prominent conglomerate family.

Cha Yul — jet-black hair swept neatly back, in a mini tuxedo — gave off the composed, refined air of a young lord well beyond his years. Sea-ah's usually-simply-tied deep navy hair spilled down calmly with an elegant jeweled pin, showing off a downright graceful silhouette.

Sihyeok's normally shaggy ash-gray hair had, for once, been coaxed neatly up. It still half-covered his eyes — but I hadn't realized a little styling could make him look this sharp and polished.

Suho's fluffy curls, made even more feathery by an expert's hand, and his cute little bow tie were downright hazardous to the heart. The silver-haired twins, hair combed and side by side in matching formal wear, were so cute you'd want to scoop them up and refuse to put them back down.

The original did describe every one of Nest Guild's members as strikingly good-looking, but…

Reading it on the page and seeing it in the flesh weren't even in the same league.

It hit me all over again, bone-deep — these were, in fact, the protagonists of a fantasy web novel.

…Wait — is anyone recording this somewhere?

I couldn't just let this historic sight vanish into thin air.

Should I grab a photo — no, a video-recording artifact right this second?

Snatching a reporter's camera wasn't an option… maybe have Number Three quietly track down a high-res one?

Deep in serious, urgent deliberation, it hit me — the kids' faces could end up plastered across the press. I yanked my reason back into place.

"But — how did you get here?!"

"How? I brought them."

At the figure stepping out of the darkness, my shock hit a new level.

"Leo?!"

Flowing, fairy-like blond hair. Mysterious green eyes.

Looks striking enough to light up a whole room — and yet the tone that came out of that mouth was anything but refined.

"Why the shock? For kids at their level, this is actually late."

"Late?"

"Yes! In America, the second you awaken at a high rank, they run you through every party going, get you networking. Even C and D-rank kids, if they awaken young, do the same. Maximum media exposure, get them used to the social scene like breathing."

Under the rapid-fire lecture, I bit down on my lip.

He wasn't wrong.

A hunter had to be able to network — it wasn't optional.

Unless you had overwhelming name recognition and firepower like Han Jewoon, the reality was that even to get assigned a decent gate you had to build ties with the Bureau.

A quiet sigh slipped out before I knew it.

Just how much I'd been coddling the kids hit me all over again, right down to the bone.

Instead of high-rank Awakeneds with real firepower, I'd been treating them as kids to be kept in my arms and shielded.

But hadn't I already promised myself I'd start recognizing them as hunters in their own right?

Then I had to learn to step back a little too.

The higher you climbed, the more brutal the politics and alliances became — that much was inescapable.

"Still, you could've given me a heads-up…"

Putting the kids in front of that many eyes and cameras with zero preparation didn't sit right with me.

When I frowned, worried—

"Hmph. You think I brought them without a plan?"

Leo snorted, and jerked his chin toward the necklaces on the twins clinging to my waist.

"Artifacts I made myself. Perception-blur and mana-flow support, dual-enchanted. By tomorrow, most of the people here won't remember the kids' faces properly. Cameras will pick them up blurry and off, too."

My eyes flew wide.

Wait — he'd put two functions into a single artifact?

Leo made it sound casual, but a dual-option artifact like that would easily go for hundreds of millions of won at auction.

"Don't tell me… you're just giving these to me? You're not billing me for them later?"

At my incredulous question, the previously puffed-up Leo's cheeks flushed a deep red.

"Do I look that petty to you? I'm not asking for money!"

Leo pointedly whipped his gaze away and grumbled.

"The kids just showed some promise, so I made them to kill time — no need to thank me specifically!"

Ah — he's embarrassed.

Genius or not, a teen was a teen.

The prickly act, with the fondness bleeding through it — I couldn't help a small snort of a laugh.

"Thanks. Because of you I get to bring the kids somewhere like this."

At the honest thank-you, Leo flinched — then his ears went blazing red and he cleared his throat over and over.

That was when—

The little ones clinging to my trouser legs flapped my hem back and forth.

"Direektuh! Direektuh! Wook at ush!!"

"Wook at thish dwess! Pwetty, wight?!"

"And my bow tie!"

The little ones held onto my clothes and spun in circles, bursting into peals of laughter.

At those bright faces, the worry that had locked my chest up melted away.

Right… they're this happy about it, so what does it matter. The artifacts are on them, so it should be fine…!

Charmed, I patted their heads, and the delighted little ones went bouncing on their toes.

"Heehee, we're shoo happy we got to come to a plache wike thish wif you, Direektuh!"

"Wight! Shooooo many shparkly thingsh, and shooo much yummy food!"

Even Sea-ah and Cha Yul were peering around the banquet hall like they'd never seen anything like it, when—

"So the children came as well."

Julia, having approached without a sound, appeared on the terrace.

"Ah — how did the photos go?"

"Just for appearances' sake."

Not a flicker of expression.

If she shot the photos wearing that face, no article about Veritas and Cheonun getting along was ever going to see the light of day.

He'll be positively over the moon when he checks those photos tomorrow.

I was swallowing an inward smirk aimed at Cheon Sangcheol when Julia spoke.

"So… have you given it any thought?"

"Sorry? Thought about what?"

"About coming to Veritas."

For a beat, my jaw nearly dropped.

Wait — she hadn't given up on that yet?

A month of quiet had had me thinking she'd let it go. Naive of me.

"I believe I've proven enough over this past month — that I'm the person who can raise these children best. And with Leo's support on top of that, they'll grow far faster and more completely than they can now."

The words stuck in my throat.

Because every syllable she said was correct.

Under Julia's guidance, the kids' skills had improved by leaps and bounds, and Leo's artifact talent was beyond compare.

For the kids' futures, joining Veritas over staying at Nest Guild was, on any rational read, the better choice by a mile.

And yet.

Strangely, I wasn't pulled to it at all.

Was it instinctive fear of departing from the original entirely?

Or unexplainable intuition?

Somewhere in my head, a warning light was flashing hard — do not go to Veritas.

"Whew… Well. I'm still…"

Just as I let out a long breath and cautiously began to open with a refusal—

Huh?

Beyond the terrace, in the doorway to the banquet hall corridor, a silhouette that didn't belong snagged my eye.

That's… Oh Taejin?!

There, unmistakably, was Oh Taejin — the same Oh Taejin who'd been snatched away by Fox at Icarus Club and vanished without a trace.

A jet-black wolf-cut with only the tips bleached white.

Sharp and unmistakable even in the dark — that was, no matter how I looked at it, Oh Taejin's signature hair.

And in the next instant, the figure melted into the darkness and vanished as if it had never been there.

Did I see wrong?

But the cold afterimage burned into my head wouldn't shake loose.

I lowered my gaze to the little ones hanging on my waist and smiled gently.

"Kids, I'm going to run to the bathroom. Stay right here and be good."

"Ah! I wanna come tooo!"

"Me too!"

The little ones clung, chattering that they wanted to come along, but I peeled them off with a hand firmer than usual.

"I'll be right back — just wait a little."

Then I turned my head, casual, and looked at Julia.

"…Would you look after the kids for a minute?"

At the subtly different note in my voice, Julia's eyes narrowed a fraction.

"Do you need backup?"

"No. Just a quick thing to check."

Sensing the unusual air, the little ones seemed to pick up on something and clamped their mouths shut.

I sent a small glance to Number Three, standing behind me.

Follow me.

Silent as a whisper.

Number Three at my side, I moved fast in the direction that familiar figure had gone.

The end of the long corridor.

There — unmistakably — Oh Taejin's figure flickered.

Staggering as he walked, he soon slipped into a firmly shut room at the very end of the corridor.

Why in the world is Oh Taejin here…

Praying I was wrong, I held my breath and pressed my ear tight to the heavy door.

Soon, a low, eerily muttering conversation leaked through.

— …rift…

— …soon…

— …eliminate…

An ominous combination of words.

Just as I furrowed my brow deep and leaned in tighter to catch the conversation more clearly—

— Shh.

A chilling sound from inside.

Immediately after, every sound in the room cut off — like a lie.

Not a footstep, not a breath left. Just a perfectly cold silence.

They knew.

They had to be caught — I gripped the door handle roughly.

Then—

Slam—!!

I threw the door open like I meant to break it and burst inside.

"…Huh?"

But there wasn't so much as an ant inside.

An empty room, meticulously kept, without a speck of dust.

No open window. Not so much as a trace of anyone escaping.

What the hell? I clearly saw them go in here… did I really imagine it?

Baffled, I pressed at my brow and had just started to search the room more thoroughly when—

The emcee's voice came booming through the speakers.

— Ah, ah. Distinguished guests. Exactly five minutes remain until the New Year! All attendees, please gather at the central hall for our historic countdown together!

"Hmm…"

Nothing to do for now but head back.

As I stepped back into the banquet hall, the crowd that had been scattered in small groups was buzzing and pressing toward the center.

Where everyone's eyes were pointed, the massive golden clock tower rising at the center of the hall was pouring out radiant light.

The second hand began racing toward midnight in a steep dive.

"Twenty! Nineteen! Eighteen!"

Hundreds of people packed into the venue chanted the countdown in unison, voices ringing with excitement.

Through the fervent shouting, I hurriedly turned my head, hunting for the kids.

Julia was with them, so they had to be safe — but the cold unease Oh Taejin's afterimage had left behind kept scratching at the back of my neck.

I felt I wouldn't rest until the kids were inside my line of sight.

But the vast crowd blocked even the tops of their heads.

"Kids! Cha Yul! Sea-ah!!"

I raised my voice, urgent, but my shout was swallowed helplessly beneath the roaring countdown from hundreds of throats.

"Ten! Nine! Eight!"

As the number dropped, the frantic pressure in my chest ballooned savagely.

My heartbeat pounded wildly.

I shoved through the crowd with my shoulders, threading in every direction, but couldn't catch sight of the kids anywhere.

"Kids!!!"

As I shouted till a vein stood out at my temple, casting around the hall like a madman, the merciless clock tower's final numbers drove into my ears like blades.

"Three! Two! One!"

The clock hands landing dead on midnight.

Just as everyone was about to erupt in a shout of joy—

—Kra-ka-ka-ka-krak—!!!

A horrific, ominous rupturing sound — as if the vast space itself were being torn to pieces — swallowed the glittering banquet hall whole.