The Mad Priest of the Slums

This is strange. Too strange.

“The secretary was worried when i said i was going to District 12. But now that we’re actually here, there doesn’t seem to be a huge difference.”

“That’s probably because rumors about the Priest have already spread far and wide.”

“That’s exactly my point. The truly crazy ones wouldn’t care about that kind of thing.”

“That’s true.”

Vita, who had been walking cautiously behind them, naturally shifted her gaze toward the Priest and the Mad Dog-affiliated bodyguard walking ahead.

‘What the hell kind of situation is this…?’

A week.

For the first time in a whole week, she had finally gotten a job. She had prepared from dawn and was making her way through a hole in the wall. But then, out of nowhere, that bastard with the smug-looking face chatting away beside the Priest suddenly appeared and kicked her straight in the lower stomach.

Even in these back alleys, there was still an unspoken code of conduct.

For men, no matter the situation, you don’t go for the balls.

For women, it was an unspoken rule that you don’t hit them in the chest or the womb.

But that crazy bastard, just because he was from Mad Dog, walked right up to her and kicked her in the stomach, where her uterus was.

Because of that, she hadn’t even been able to properly fight back and ended up getting caught right away.

To make things worse, all the weapons and supplies she had brought with her were gone. She had no idea where they had been taken, and now, she was left tied up with nothing but her body. That alone made her incredibly anxious.

‘That son of a bitch. If my stuff is missing, he’s dead.’

If she lost her supplies, then even if she somehow managed to get through these damn withdrawal symptoms, she would have no way to make a living. That meant there was no point in getting treatment in the first place.

Of course, she still had the option of selling her body…

But working the streets was basically a gamble with her life.

Hygiene was the least of her concerns—she had no way of predicting what kind of sick bastards she’d run into or what kind of tricks they’d pull.

And as for working in a brothel?

All the brothels in the northern slums were, of course, under Mad Dog’s control. On top of that, getting in required passing a strict selection process, and once inside, you were stuck there for at least two years before they let you go.

Lying under a man, acting cute, shaking her hips—for two whole years?

‘I’d rather bite off my tongue and die.’

Some people thought that no matter how bad it got, it was better to be alive and rolling in the filth than dead. Unfortunately, she was not one of those people.

Even so, there was still a glimmer of hope.

‘That bastard is definitely insane. But he seems like the kind of crazy you can talk to.’

From the very first conversation, his voice had been eerily steady, making her skin crawl. And then, his actions had proved her gut instinct right—this guy was good at reading people.

The man who had been captured along with her had screamed at them to untie him after seeing Vita being freed. In response, the Priest had simply tossed him out the window, still tied up.

Right before he was thrown, the man had said something about a rope, and the Priest had calmly corrected him, saying it was a cord, not a rope.

That’s when she was sure.

This Priest absolutely hated it when things strayed from the framework of his own rules.

And despite having a face that looked completely out of place in a place like this, he was cunning to his core.

But on the flip side, as long as you stayed within his set of rules, he was surprisingly reasonable—even shockingly so.

‘Yeah. Let’s look at the bright side. No need to stress over this.’

She could worry about finding her supplies after the so-called treatment was over.

If the Priest was truly the kind of person she had figured him out to be in this short time, then there was a high chance he’d either return her stuff intact or find her replacements.

“Vita?”

“Yes?”

By sheer luck, she had snapped out of her thoughts at the perfect timing to respond.

“Is that the place?”

Following Baek Jin-hyuk’s pointing finger, Vita extended her neck slightly to get a better look. What she saw was a tiny shop tucked into a corner.

It was a sandwich shop she occasionally visited when she was on the verge of starvation and needed some nutrition.

“Yes. That’s the one.”

“Great. A local recommendation—I’m looking forward to it.”

If Jaime, who had been guarding Baek Jin-hyuk in the morning, had heard this, he would have sighed in disappointment. But none of the people with him now knew about the commotion from earlier, so they simply assumed he was excited about the food.

“Welco— Huh?!”

The shopkeeper, who had been brushing sauce onto skewered meat, greeted them mechanically. But the moment he saw Baek Jin-hyuk’s face, he sucked in a sharp breath, his shoulders shrinking.

His face rapidly paled—an obvious reaction of someone who knew something.

“Do you have any recommendations?”

Vita glanced at the shopkeeper, who seemed excessively frightened, then answered.

“They only have one menu item here.”

“Perfect. Then we’ll take that… John, are you eating?”

“I’m fine.”

“Then two, please.”

Baek Jin-hyuk placed the order, but for some reason, the shopkeeper didn’t respond right away. Instead, he sent Vita a pleading look.

‘…?’

Vita, who had no idea about the morning’s incident, couldn’t understand why he was acting this way at all.

“Something wrong?”

“Huh?! N-No! Nothing! I-I’ll have it ready right away!”

The shopkeeper’s face darkened even more, but he quickly turned to grab a baguette from a jar. His hands trembled slightly, but his years of experience were evident as he skillfully sliced the baguette and stuffed it with fresh vegetables and meat.

“How would you like the sauce?”

“I’ll go with today’s recommendation.”

The shopkeeper squeezed his eyes shut as he turned away.

The hardest order to deal with was always “anything” or “the chef’s choice.”

He had tried his best to put together a good combination before, only to have customers throw fits and refuse to pay.

The problem this time wasn’t just about money—it was about his life.

Completely unaware of the shopkeeper’s internal struggle, Vita scratched her cheek awkwardly.

“Sorry about this. He’s not normally like this.”

“It’s fine.”

Baek Jin-hyuk, who did know why the shopkeeper was acting this way, simply smiled and waited patiently.

“Here’s your sandwich.”

“This isn’t quite what I know as a sandwich… but I like it.”

That was his honest opinion.

The baguette was excellent—crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and perfectly holding the fillings together. Even in Korea, this level of quality was hard to find.

The only flaw was that the vegetables weren’t the freshest, slightly browned at the edges.

But everything else was just right.

The meat might not have been the freshest, but it had no strange odors, the texture was good, and it wasn’t too tough. Using olive oil and a bit of pepper for seasoning was a great touch.

Gulp.

As Baek Jin-hyuk took a bite, the crisp and crunchy sound made John swallow hard.

Finishing the baguette in no time, Baek Jin-hyuk wiped his hands with a napkin and asked,

“Do you sell drinks?”

“I have homemade wine…”

“Then I’ll take a glass.”

The moment the shopkeeper turned around—

“Priest, I wouldn’t recommend the wine.”

“Why not?”

“Because, objectively speaking, this guy is terrible at making it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

The shopkeeper, who had briefly brightened up, hesitated for a moment. But when Baek Jin-hyuk jerked his chin as if telling him to hurry up, he eventually retrieved a bottle of wine—not from a refrigerator, but from a storage cabinet. He wiped the bottle with a moderately dry cloth and poured the wine into a glass before handing it over.

“Yeah, as expected.”

The taste was more sour than sweet, and the rough aftertaste made it something he wouldn’t want to drink twice.

“Vita, how much do people usually pay for a meal like this?”

“It depends on the owner’s mood, but usually between 500 and 1,000 Mora.”

That meant roughly around 100,000 won.

“Is it difficult to get ingredients?”

“It is. Districts 14 and 15, which are directly managed by Mad Dog, have a stable flow of outside goods, so prices are relatively steady. But anywhere else, people have to figure things out on their own, so prices tend to be high.”

Hearing her response, Baek Jin-hyuk pulled out a 1,000 Mora bill from his pocket and handed it to the shopkeeper.

“Thanks for the meal.”

“Huh? Oh, uh, yes?”

Flap, flap~

“W-Whoa?! Th-Thank you!! Thank you so much!!”

As Baek Jin-hyuk smiled and waved the bill in the air, the shopkeeper finally snapped out of his daze, hurriedly took the money, and bowed deeply.

“Let’s stop by a few more places on the way back. There’s nothing on the schedule except for Vita’s treatment anyway.”

As Baek Jin-hyuk turned to leave, John immediately moved in close beside him. Vita, still puzzled by the shopkeeper’s overly submissive attitude, lingered for a moment before following behind them.

‘It’s not like he tampered with the food… So why is he so scared?’

It was true that one had to be cautious around the Priest, but that didn’t mean you had to grovel from the very start. At least, that’s how Vita saw things.

Of course—

Smack!

“Here’s a handkerchief.”

“Oh, thanks.”

People’s perspectives could change at any time. And Vita was someone who adapted rather quickly.