I told them to start the housewarming party first.
Actually, the situation had already progressed to the point where drinks were being passed around, making it awkward to even say anything.
Karin was drawing everyone’s attention while busy doing a mukbang.
“Then, go on ahead,” Seohyeonji said.
“You’re not coming with me?”
She let out a short sigh at my question. “And get caught up in some weird misunderstanding?”
‘Weird misunderstandings? What kind of misunderstandings?’
“Forget it, just go by yourself. They’re at the cafe right over there. Wait! You’re stretching my collar! Let go!”
The world had certainly become a better place.
Even navigation systems came equipped with celebrity features now.
The only flaw was that this one had a bit too much personality.
“Who are you calling a navigation system? Also, I’m still active in the industry, you know!”
“If you’ve decided to live as a Hunter, you’re not really on the celebrity side anymore.”
“Phew… I’m only focusing on being a Hunter for the time being. I’ll eventually return to the entertainment industry… But are you really not going to let go? P-People are watching!”
‘Is that so?’
I let go of her collar since the navigation system’s words seemed to have some merit.
Besides, it didn’t seem like she was going to run away anymore.
This should have been enough to teach her the difference between guiding me herself and being dragged along.
‘I mean, does it make sense for the matchmaker to skip out?’
Even during a blind date, the matchmaker is supposed to be present.
They introduce the names, say how well everyone matches, and things like that. Or isn’t that how it goes?
Of course, I wouldn’t know for sure since I’ve never been on a blind date.
“By the way, aren’t you worried?” she asked.
“About what?”
Seohyeonji sighed again before continuing. “The thought that it might be a trap or something.”
“A trap?”
“You know. Those kinds of things. You trust someone, but it turns out to be a trap, and you end up in a crisis.”
Aha, she liked that sort of thing. Since Lady Seohyeonji was an actress, she seemed to have an obsession with those kinds of plotlines.
“W-Why are you looking at me like that?”
“No reason. I just thought maybe you should cut back on the dramas.”
“Don’t you know that input is required for output? Telling an actress not to watch acting…”
“Ah, so it’s like saying what goes in must come out?”
“You always have to put it that way…”
Seeing Seohyeonji’s face as she spoke with disbelief made a small laugh escape me.
“If I were worried about traps, I wouldn’t have made the proposal in the first place.”
Traps exist everywhere. In relationships between people.
In war. In politics. Usually, they are born from someone’s malice. Most of that category can be deduced.
However, traps created not by malice, but by sheer coincidence, are truly troublesome. In other words, there is no such thing as 100% in this world.
“Rather than agonizing over a trap that may or may not exist, I choose to move first.”
If it wasn’t a trap, then it didn’t matter. But what if it was? That wasn’t so bad either. It would clearly identify who my enemies were.
“Of course, I’m confident enough to crush whatever trap comes my way.”
“Wow, look at that bluff.”
A bluff. To Seohyeonji, it certainly might look that way.
But anyone who actually knew me wouldn’t say that. I didn’t challenge the impossible.
At the very least, not anymore.
The possibility of there being someone stronger than me in the Moderate Faction? Nonexistent.
During our previous conversation, Seohyeonji mentioned that she was the only one who had achieved an S-rank Awakening.
Was she happy about it? No, she actually resented the fact that she was an S-rank.
The reason was simple.
Seohyeonji was a pure moderate.
Rather than a path of struggle and combat, she wanted to melt into this world.
She wanted to live as the celebrity Seohyeonji rather than the Hunter Seohyeonji.
However, she couldn’t ignore the danger facing her people.
In other words, if there had been someone with more talent than her, she could have laid down some of her burdens.
Eventually, we reached the cafe. It was a tiny place with few customers, though there was a Starbucks a bit further down the road.
How many allies could they even station in such a small cafe? A trap is only effective when it possesses power.
Even if 100 people lie in ambush against a 100,000-strong army, how much damage could they actually inflict? It meant that a scale like this wasn’t even close to enough to drive me into a corner.
“I heard you were pretty amazing over there,” Seohyeonji said. “I don’t really remember that world. But it seems everyone on our side knows what the Team Leader did.”
True, there probably wasn’t a single person living on the Continent who didn’t know me.
I had done some crazy things, after all. A bitter smile involuntarily crossed my face.
“Um, by any chance…”
“Yes?”
“Back then, in the capital… never mind.”
“…?”
“It’s nothing.”
“There are two things you should never do in this world. One is stopping in the middle of a sentence, and the other is…”
Seohyeonji knit her brows. ‘Does she know how annoying it is when someone stops mid-sentence? I’ll be thinking about this when I try to sleep.’
“Ah, it’s really nothing.”
“If it’s nothing, then you can just say it.”
“Phew. It really isn’t much.” Seohyeonji hesitated for a long time before finally opening her mouth. “Um, have we met before?”
‘Nope.’
There was no way we had met. Besides, she was just a kid when she was in the other world.
“What was your name back then?”
“That’s…” She hesitated again.
“I need to know the name to remember if I saw you or not.”
“El… no. Anyway, I heard the Team Leader crossed over in high school and just got back. The timelines wouldn’t match up.”
Saying that, Seohyeonji hurriedly pushed me forward.
“Now, go on in.”
Before I knew it, we had entered the cafe. It was still empty of other customers. There was only one set of guests sitting in a corner: a white-haired man wearing glasses and a young child.
‘Did he come with his grandson?’ They looked like a pair of affectionate grandfather and grandson.
The grandfather made eye contact with me. He gave a gentle smile and stood up from his seat. He certainly carried the atmosphere one would expect from the head of a clan — an impression of seasoned experience that encompassed years of time.
“Then, Overseer, I shall wait outside with Lady Seohyeonji.”
“Please do so.”
“…?”
The grandfather spoke to the child, gave me a slight nod, and then walked out of the cafe. Only the child and I were left inside.
What was this?
“Sit.”
The child spoke to me informally. I felt a sudden urge to give him a fist drill.
“Overseer?”
“Indeed.”
Well, in a world where all sorts of things happen, why wouldn’t this kid be the Overseer?
“Thank you for the other day.”
I first offered my thanks for his acceptance of my proposal during the Agency terror incident.
‘Elder… right?’
The child in front of me was wiping the area around his mouth, which was smeared with chocolate parfait, but the tissue wasn’t doing a very clean job.
It was an eyesore.
“Hmm, looking at your expression, it seems there’s still some left on my face. Would you mind helping me?”
“If this was going to happen, you probably shouldn’t have sent your babysitter away.”
“Haha. Is that so? I suppose. But it’s better that only the two of us know what we’re about to discuss. It consumes less probability that way.”
The Overseer laughed as if amused and held out his hands.
Ah, his hands were dirty too. Since this man had the appearance of a child, he acted like one too.
I helped him wipe his hands with a wet wipe. If he kept this up, I might just toss him into my Inventory and run a Cleaning Skill on him.
“You have many questions, don’t you?”
“First, I’m curious why a snot-nosed brat is speaking informally to an adult.”
“What? I thought you of all people would understand. Haven’t we lived those kinds of lives? Where what you see on the outside isn’t everything. Things like that.”
He was right.
“First, I apologize for visiting during your housewarming party. We need to make a quick choice as well. No, the choice has already been made. However, persuading others about a choice already made is a different matter.”
I understood what he meant.
No matter how much of a clan leader one was, they couldn’t control everything with just a single word.
It might be different for a Villain with strong boss-like tendencies.
“What kind of help can you give us?”
He was direct. In that case, I didn’t need to drag it out either.
“I have a plan to develop the lands abandoned after the Gate Incident.”
A prime example was Seoul Station. Humankind, unable to defend properly during the first Gate Incident, couldn’t live on land covered in demonic energy.
That was the current perception people held.
“I plan to build a village using that land as a starting point. Think of it as support for that.”
“A village?”
“Yes. Things like Resident Registration Cards for living here.”
Compared to the past, the convenience of modern civilization had developed to a dazzling degree.
However, the dangers had grown just as much.
There were many cases of people dying without a sound. People were eaten by Monsters that couldn’t be stopped in time.
Im Jaejoon would take care of forging IDs using the identities of those who had gone missing. The Villains lacked the status to live here, let alone a place to stay.
It would be a tempting offer for them.
“That would be more than enough for us.”
The child smiled brightly.
The interesting part was that even on such a young face, a sense of seasoned age seeped through.
He was a kid who acted like an old man.
“And what do you want from us?”
“I heard you can perform Dimension Travel.”
“That’s right.”
“Is that young appearance related to Dimension Travel?”
The Overseer smiled serenely at my words. Nothing comes from nothing. To gain something, something must be sacrificed.
The Magic Stone Bombs used by the Villains were the same.
They activated a Gate using the despair absorbed by the Magic Stone and the lives of children as a medium.
Since Dimension Travel and Gates were closely related…
“I want to travel between dimensions.”
“Why?”
“Is a reason necessary?”
“Yes. To give you an answer first, it is possible. I can open it for you.”
It was simpler than I thought.
“But is there a need for that?”
“I think it’s better than floating in the sky and becoming a social media hotspot for people.”
“No, what I mean is… does that child want it?”
She was a kind girl. Would she want her people to go back to floating around in an unknown world? The answer was no.
“Let me say it again. Even without my help, that child can already perform Dimension Travel.”
“…”
“Don’t pretend you didn’t know. You must have noticed by now.”
Yes, of course I knew. Knights from the Floating Island suddenly descending here? There was no way that just happened. Karin must have opened a dimension.
“That child is simply hiding it. Of course, her power probably hasn’t recovered enough to move the entire Floating Island. No, let me be precise.” The Overseer continued.
“The reason that Floating Island came here was because of a desperate wish. Would returning to her original world truly be happiness for that child? I think not. You likely already know the answer.”
I did know. From the moment she met me — after losing her family and living among beasts who wanted to use and devour her — she had given me her blind trust.
Actually, maybe I was the same.
“I’ll give you the correct answer. This is the answer to what you’re really curious about. Since we’ve talked about happiness, let’s talk about safety now.”
“Safety?”
“Do you think that child will be safe if she returns to her original world? Now, don’t get angry. I may look like this, but I’m an old man who has lived hundreds of years longer than you.”
I must have been scowling without realizing it. The Overseer waited until my expression softened.
“Hmm. Sorry to interrupt, but can I order one more chocolate parfait?”
I thought he was reckless, but was he surprisingly the type to care about others’ moods?
“You don’t need to ask me, just do it on your own…”
“I don’t have any money.”
…This little Elder.
“Thanks. Make it two while you’re at it. No, I’ll eat them both myself. Anyway, to wrap up what we were talking about.”
There was something I had been wondering about deep down.
Ordinary residents turning into otherworldly monsters and crossing over.
And the Villains who lived here after crossing from another dimension.
Why did they come here as if fleeing from where they lived?
“The Continent we were on has already been conquered by the Demon King.”
At the child’s words, my brows furrowed automatically.
The Demon King was right here. His words made it sound as if there was another Demon King over there.
“Yes. A monster on a completely different level from the previous Demon King. A greedy one.”
“Didn’t they perform a new Hero Summoning Ritual?”
At my question, the child placed the two chocolate parfaits in front of him with a satisfied look and picked up his spoon.
“They did.”
“And?”
“He died.”
Taking a large scoop of chocolate parfait, he drove the point home.
“We essentially fled to this place. From a Continent ruled by the Immortal Demon King.”