The Returnee Wants to Live Comfortably

The Church of Outsiders (5)

Everyone at the church was, for all intents and purposes, targeted by an organization called the Sura Guild.

And not just the Sura Guild.

There must be other groups, also from Mewzealand, aside from that guild.

If those groups found the church people, they might just as well make them their targets.

'These are people I've grown fond of in my own way.'

The pastor and nuns of the church I'd attended since elementary school.

Letting them die pricked my conscience.

Besides, among all the rotten people from Mewzealand, they were among the precious few normal ones.

If they managed to survive, they could prove helpful in various ways.

'In the end, I have no choice but to ask that man for help.'

Though there were some shady aspects, I contacted Kwon Yongha.

With the power of Kwon Yongha, the leader of one of Korea's Four Great Guilds, he would certainly be able to protect them.

Besides, the church people were exactly the Mewzealanders that Kwon Yongha wanted.

They had once been nobles before becoming pastors, so they possessed valuable information.

It wasn't a bad proposal for Kwon Yongha either.

He happily agreed to the request, but...

― Should I treat you to a meal soon? Huhuhu...."
― I can still feel the sensation of holding your hand. The more I think about it, the better it feels. Hehehe...!"

As expected, he was clearly a madman.

From his voice, I could sense his determination not to let me go, no matter what.

'This is driving me crazy.'

The more I thought about it, the more repulsive it felt, making my knees weak.

Even though I was sure I'd turned him to my side, it was impossible not to feel disgusted.

"Sang-ah. About your father..."

Regardless of what anyone said, Kwon Yongha was Sang-ah's father.

It felt wrong to badmouth her father in front of her, but...

"I know. He's a nutcase."

She admitted it herself.

Looking at me, Sang-ah wore a very gentle expression.

She exuded a mood that said I could make all the dad jokes I wanted.

Honestly, it wasn't even wrong. After all, Sang-ah had suffered a lot at the hands of Kwon Yongha.

"But... Even if I defeat my brother, do you think I'll ever stop being treated like the unwanted one?"

The reason Kwon Yongha favored her brother, Kwon Yongjun, was simply because he was strong.

Supposedly, Kwon Yongjun had grown up under grueling training of his own.

As a result, he became strong enough to live up to their father's expectations.

But Kwon Yongjun had received his father's affection for too long.

Having grown attached over those years, it was hard to think that Kwon Yongha would ever easily throw away his son.

"Besides, I'm even plotting to get rid of that damn father. He must know that quite well."

"..."

"Even if I defeat my brother, I feel like I'd just be back at square one."

There was a tiger eyeing her neck, waiting right outside the yard.

No matter how many treats you throw it, a tiger never lets go of its rage.

Since it was always eyeing her life, it was only natural to eliminate it.

Sang-ah worried that she and her mother would eventually be disposed of together.

"That will never happen."

But I didn't see it that way.

"Why not?"

Of course, I didn't think much of Kwon Yongha as a person.

The very moment he stood by while his daughter was bullied made him the worst kind of father.

"As you think, Sang-ah, that man isn't the kind of father who loves his children."

What he loved was something else.

"He's a father who loves power, that's all."

For Kwon Yongha, what he viewed as his 'children' were not his offspring... but power itself.

He was merely acting as a father in title.

The father of strength, not of children.

"That's... kind of a weird way to put it."

"Weird or not, your father was always a madman anyway."

Unable to deny it, Sang-ah fell silent, recalling her own experiences.

It wasn't an altogether wrong description.

In fact, Sang-ah herself knew that best.

"Even if you're eyeing his neck, he'll just stay calm as ever. I can't really understand it myself... Maybe he's the sort of person who enjoys that kind of situation?"

Even when I talked with him on the phone earlier, or when we spoke in the hospital ward, there was an unfathomable madness lurking beneath Kwon Yongha's behavior.

How easily he fell for my temptations was the same.

All in all, he was a person whose mind had long since left the rails.

"So don't let yourself hesitate over pointless worries. Your goal is to defeat your brother and cure your mother, right?"

"Yeah."

"Anyway, from the second semester onward, I'll be ramping up the intensity of your training, so be ready. No whining."

"Okay!"

Summer vacation was about to end.

Sang-ah's motivation was blazing as the fast-approaching second semester began.

There was no need to complicate it with endless worries.

Charging straight ahead is the shortcut to growth during adolescence.

****

THUD-!

A loud noise rang out from the basement of a certain mansion.

An upscale mansion where the people of the Hwasan Guild stayed.

In its basement was a spacious training room.

To maintain their reputation as one of Korea's Four Great Guilds, training facilities were indispensable for them.

Naturally, this noise had come from training as well.

But usually, not even the hunters' normal training made such a racket.

"Fuck!!"

This wasn't the sound of training in the first place.

Someone was just blindly smashing equipment and pounding on the walls.

Because it was a training room for hunters, there was a rule that all equipment had to be strength-enhanced with special coatings.

Breaking that rule meant the equipment would be destroyed even if a C-rank hunter was training.

"Haa... haa..."

Kwon Yongjun, son of Kwon Yongha, was catching his breath.

The sandbags and strength-testing machines he had smashed lay in pieces on the floor.

As an S-rank hunter and the son of the guildmaster, he knew full well about reinforced coatings.

But rampaging like this without the proper safety measures, he'd ended up completely wrecking the training room.

"Damn it all!"

THUD-!

He threw a piece of equipment debris at the wall.

Yet his anger didn't subside and he kept panting furiously.

He was only soothed by breaking things, which is why he'd deliberately left the stuff uncoated.

Recently, something had been infuriating him.

"If only Kwon Sang-ah were here...!"

I would be beating the crap out of her in place of this sandbag.

But of all times, that brat hadn't come to the mansion during vacation, so he couldn't vent his anger.

Usually, when something pissed him off, he'd take it out on Sang-ah, blaming her with a "Why do you live like that?" sort of rant.

Just yelling at her used to make him feel refreshed.

It gave him a sense of superiority.

He could indulge in pleasure.

But now, there was a level of rage he couldn't even put into words.

"Yongjun! What in the world is going on here?"

"Mom..."

That was when Kang Minji entered the training room and was shocked.

She couldn't just let the chaos her son had caused slide.

"Don't tell me... you broke all this? Out of nowhere? You know how long it takes to remake all this equipment!"

At her scolding, Kwon Yongjun let out a heavy sigh.

Seeing his mother's face, it seemed to cool his anger a bit.

But not enough to completely extinguish the fire in his chest.

"Mom... I'm really pissed off. What do I do? If I don't smash something... it feels like my body's going to fall apart."

"What's gotten into you? You used to hold it in fine..."

"That's because Kwon Sang-ah was here, so I could hold it in!"

He'd been able to live a normal life because he had someone to take his anger out on.

Now that she was gone, his mind was in turmoil.

Without abusing something, he had no way of quelling his rage.

"That brat should have come home for vacation! Why is she holed up at her friend's place?"

Apparently, she'd been spending the entire thirty-day vacation at that friend's house.

It made no sense for her to abandon her family and stay at someone else's like that.

Was his name Ma Seongjin?

Was their home supposed to be a better family than this?

Just a first-year in middle school, yet staying out for thirty whole days.

"Shit... it's not even like she's sleeping over at her boyfriend's place or something."

"Stop blowing your top. This isn't the time to be getting mad over this sort of thing."

"How are you not mad? Remember how that brat was at the hospital last time?"

"..."

At those words, Kang Minji bit her lip.

The last time she'd seen that girl, back in the hospital, something about her had seemed different.

No matter how verbally threatened, she didn't seem to shrink back.

Kang Minji was equally frustrated by that incident.

"Yongjun, did you hear the news?"

"What news?"

"Your dad's building some kind of church near the guild property."

"What?"

What kind of nonsense was that?

Of course, Kwon Yongjun was dumbfounded.

Why would his terror-inspiring father want to build a religious facility?

His dad wasn't even remotely interested in religion.

"Then... don't tell me..."

"Yeah, it's apparently that Ma Seongjin kid's request."

Ever since she met the boy named Ma Seongjin at the hospital... unpleasant things had kept happening.

Because of him, Kwon Sang-ah had suddenly begun to rebel, and the frustration made Kwon Yongjun destroy the training room.

Kang Minji, too, was plagued by an intense sense of anxiety.

"If things keep going this way... I'm worried your dad might actually end up as that brat's slave."

"A slave? No matter what—"

She knew Kwon Yongha was a person with no blood or tears.
However...

"Just now... I asked your dad. What would he do if you lost to that brat?"

He answered plainly.

—I'm always on the side of the strong.

Stung by that answer, Kang Minji said even more.

She told him Sang-ah was always after his neck.

Didn't he know what horrors he and she'd inflicted on that brat?

If he wanted to survive, he should abandon Sang-ah at once.

"And do you know what your father said to that?"

At that, Kwon Yongha spoke with a slow, chilling smile.

—Keeping a beast that's out for my neck by my side... might be unexpectedly fun?

With that, he gave a sinister smile.

He knew it was dangerous, but he still meant to go through with it.

For a simple reason.

Because it sounded interesting.

Because it seemed like fun.

"Did he... really say that?"

"You know what your dad's like."

He didn't even think like a normal human being.

Despite that, Kang Minji had married him to boost her own public support.

She was reassured by believing that Sang-ah would never become stronger than her son Yongjun anyway.

But...

"That Ma Seongjin kid. He's not normal. What with the way he left a mark on your dad's hand."

"So what do we do? Somehow, it feels like he won't be easy to catch."

If he were just an ordinary kid, that'd be one thing.

But he'd injured their father's body, which had never suffered a scratch before.

There was no guarantee that even with the guild members' help or support from other guilds' hunters they could catch him.

There was hardly any information known about him... He was practically an ecological disruptor.

"Whatever he is, if we just let it slide, Kwon Sang-ah will end up overtaking us."

"Then what should we do?"

"What do you mean, what? We need to come up with a plan."

These days, her husband Kwon Yongha seemed completely taken with that boy.

From Kang Minji's perspective, it was infuriating for reasons she couldn't quite articulate.

If things went badly, Kwon Yongha could end up a mere figurehead.

In such a short time, they found themselves cornered emotionally.

"For now, Yongjun, you should participate in the 'Hunter League'. It's the only place at your level to get some real training."

"What? I've never even entered that before..."

At the mention of the Hunter League, Kwon Yongjun hesitated.

Like a sports tournament at a stadium, it was an event where hunters competed among themselves.

Some called it a superpower version of the UFC.

It was a good place to gain experience fighting against other hunters.

But for the arrogant Kwon Yongjun, there was a problem.

"If I lose, it'll end up in the papers. They'll say the Hwasan Guild's reputation is going down..."

"Is this the time to worry about that? If you hate it so much, then go fight your way through an A-rank or S-rank gate instead!"

"Fine! I'll do it."

"And I'll try to find out more about that brat. And..."

Saying that, Kang Minji picked up the phone to make a call.

While her son figured out how to deal with Kwon Sang-ah... she would deal with that boy named Ma Seongjin.

****

"Unni, does this mean I won't see you after tomorrow?"

"School's starting."

Tonight was the last night Sang-ah would spend at Seongjin's house.

She lay on the same bed as his younger sister, Yunhee.

Even though there'd been a few incidents, the past thirty-plus days had been filled with happiness.

It wasn't even comparable to the mansion... it felt truly like home.

"You're the first of my brother's friends to stay with us this long, unni."

"Now that you say it, huh?"

"The other friends only lasted a couple weeks at most."

"Other friends?"

"Uh-huh. When my brother was in 1st grade, there was a girl who used to come over to our house all the time."

A girl friend?

At that, Sang-ah's face twitched.

It's normal for kids to have friends who stick together in elementary school.

If it were a boy, he'd probably just come over to play games or something.

But...

"It wasn't a boy... but a girl?"

"Uh-huh. She was a pretty unni with ears like a fox or a wolf."

Hearing that she wasn't the first to become close with him came as a bit of a shock.

So without meaning to, she asked another question.

"Then, if you compared me to that old friend...?"

"Hmm... I think unni, you're closer to my brother than she was."

It couldn't be helped.

The other girl had lost contact after 1st grade.

In terms of time spent, Sang-ah was overwhelmingly ahead.

"But what was her name again...? I'm sure it was Kang... something."

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
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