Chapter 67

Chapter 67

Chapter 67 Transformation Art (1)

"Thank you for the meal."

"Goodbye."

As the sun set and the surroundings grew dark, National Champion Han Seun, who had been playing Go with the immortals, paid his bill and left.

Now a regular customer, National Champion Han Seun couldn't visit very often because of his busy schedule befitting a Go champion.

Perhaps once a week?

Like today, he would come around lunchtime on weekends and spend a fulfilling day over ramen and coffee. Most of the time, he either played Go with the immortals or watched dramas and movies on his laptop.

Apart from occasionally having to get up to order coffee, his day wasn't much different from mine.

And there was someone who suffered an unexpected inconvenience because of National Champion Han Seun.

-Patter, patter, patter.

"Has he left?"

"I told you to come down once I said he'd gone."

As soon as National Champion Han Seun drove away, Sani came scrambling down from the second floor.

Then he checked the trash can, sank to the floor, and burst into tears.

"You ate something without me again! Waaaaah!"

We had.

The castella National Champion Han Seun had brought back as a gift from a tournament in Japan.

He always brought treats like that because he felt bad about sitting here for so long, to the point where I felt guilty even charging him for coffee.

And once again, Sani had missed out because he'd been hiding upstairs.

"It was delicious. Melted right on the tongue."

The Elder Nine-Tailed Fox poured oil on the fire as Sani wept bitterly.

"Waaaaaaah!"

"Elder."

"Heh heh. Am I wrong?"

Sani was the only one among the coffeehouse's visitors who couldn't conceal the fact that he wasn't human.

Whenever a human customer arrived, he had to rush upstairs. Then he'd poke his head out of the window and wait for the customer to leave.

Each time, Lia would take the hint and go upstairs to play with him, but that didn't make it any less upsetting.

Especially when he was the only one who had missed out on a treat, like today.

But it was simply cause and effect.

It was Sani's own fault for being unable to use transformation arts, not the fault of customers who came to the coffeehouse for a drink.

"Can't we just tell him? I know about it too. He comes here so often that I think it'd be fine for him to know by now."

"Dohyeok, you found out by accident. If you hadn't, I'd still be hiding it from you."

"Come on, that's hurtful! Are we strangers or something?"

"Dohyeok is right! We should just tell that Go player what I really am too!"

"No."

That would be like advertising to every customer who visited the coffeehouse that supernatural creatures lived here.

It was the worst possible scenario, one that would make Director Baek recoil in horror and wave his hands frantically if he heard about it.

Naturally, I opposed it too. My days were already filled with one difficult incident after another, leaving me scarcely a moment of peace.

"Then I have to keep hiding like this forever! Waaaaah!"

"Well, whose fault is it that you're so terrible at transformation arts?"

"Elder, is there anyone who could teach Sani transformation arts? I think things would improve if he learned."

"Supernatural creatures with intelligence possess an instinctive desire to become human. That instinct naturally leads them to acquire transformation arts. But this rascal cares only about food. He's never had the slightest desire to become human."

"I understand."

In short, learning required motivation.

And Sani's motivation was devoted entirely to playing and eating.

So completely, in fact, that he couldn't even summon the desire to learn transformation arts.

"Still, we can't keep hiding him like this forever. There's no guarantee another fellow like Dohyeok won't show up."

"Hey, why am I getting dragged into this again?"

"Then let's help Sani learn transformation arts!"

"Help him? How?"

"If we cheer him on and praise him, he'll do better!"

"As if that rascal would."

"No. Lia is right."

"Hm? You're joking, aren't you?"

The Elder Nine-Tailed Fox frowned as he asked, but the more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that Lia's suggestion was correct.

"We need to encourage Sani. By eating out."

And so, an impromptu dinner outing was decided upon.

The people allowed to go were Lia, the Elder, Dohyeok, and me.

Naturally, Sani was excluded.

_____________

(Waaaaaaah!)

"I feel sorry for him."

"It can't be helped. If we don't do something like this, he won't even practice."

Our entire dining experience would be conveyed to Sani in vivid detail through video calls and KaTalk photographs.

If it was too painful, he could simply end the video call. But since we hadn't even told him where we were going to eat, there was nothing Sani could do except clutch his phone and cry bitterly.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel uncomfortable.

With him crying so miserably, anyone who wasn't completely coldhearted would naturally feel sympathy.

But we couldn't continue living these precarious days, constantly risking having our true identities exposed.

"By the way, what are we going to eat?"

"We're going to the sort of place you visit when you don't know what you want to eat."

An earthly paradise that would make Sani faint with excitement if he saw it.

A buffet.

And so we arrived at an upscale buffet restaurant in downtown Namyangju.

"Dohyeok, put your phone in your front pocket. Make sure Sani can see everything."

"Huh? Hyung, aren't you going to hold it?"

"You're going to eat the most, and with the greatest enthusiasm."

"Hey, I don't eat that much!"

"Sure. Do your best."

The plan was as follows.

If Sani desperately practiced and successfully mastered transformation arts while we ate, we'd immediately send a taxi to bring him to the restaurant.

After all, if he wanted to avoid exposing his clumsy transformation while riding in a taxi, merely imitating a human's outward appearance wouldn't be enough.

I could guarantee that the sight of mountains of food would drive Sani to learn transformation arts with everything he had.

Well, even if he failed, it wouldn't be a major loss.

We'd also come to give Lia a chance to experience foods she'd never tasted before.

"Wow! There's so much food! Are we really allowed to eat all of it?"

"You put as much as you want on your plate. Try taking small portions of lots of different things."

"Okay!"

Armed with plates, we entered the buffet, which was quite impressive in size for its price.

Compared with the buffets at wedding halls that merely offered a token selection of dishes, the food here was so much better that making such a comparison almost felt insulting to the owner.

"Mister, look! They have the fried food and bread I saw on the internet!"

"Wait, those are..."

I started to stop Lia, who was smiling brightly as she piled fried food and bread onto her plate, but quickly gave up.

It was a talent in itself to choose only the foods that were consistently considered the worst value for money at a buffet.

But Lia hadn't even been alive for a year, and these were foods she'd never tried before.

If she filled herself up and couldn't eat anything else, I could simply bring her back another time.

____________

At the same time, in an empty lot near Dangsan-ri Coffeehouse.

A black sedan slowly pulled in and stopped.

"Deputy Manager, it's over there."

"Yes, I can see it."

Deputy Manager Oh Changsik and Employee Shin Jihye gazed tensely at the coffeehouse in the distance.

From the outside, it looked like an ordinary coffeehouse, but there were unmistakable traces of the gate to the underworld having opened and closed.

That meant a soul had entered the underworld from that location.

"You checked with Team Three again this morning, right?"

"Yes. They said there are so few people around here because of the redevelopment that they haven't conducted any operations in this area."

"Then that must be the place."

"Could it be an exorcist? They often go to abandoned houses like that to perform exorcisms."

"Hard to say. Most exorcists capable of guiding souls to release have become shamans these days because there's more money in it, so hardly any are left. Or perhaps some priests performed an exorcism. We'll have to go and see."

It was something they'd encountered many times while working as grim reapers.

People capable of seeing spirits would boldly attempt to exorcise vengeful ghosts steeped in sinister energy and lingering in abandoned buildings.

If they were lucky, they'd succeed in their exorcisms. But nine times out of ten, they would fall victim themselves and be delivered to the underworld as part of a package deal with the evil spirits.

For these two grim reapers, whose performance evaluations depended on their number of cases, such days could be rather welcome.

Perhaps that was why their eyes held not only tension but also a strange sense of anticipation as they approached the old coffeehouse.

"Back at Gonjiam, we collected so many souls that we practically finished our entire season's quota. This place looks pretty formidable too."

"There are also loads of talismans around here that conceal its energy."

"These things are usually just rubbish... Huh?"

Deputy Manager Oh Changsik tried to peel off the talismans attached to the sidewalk paving stones and roadside trees, but only their edges tore slightly. The rest remained firmly attached.

It was a level of adhesion that couldn't possibly have come from simply applying strong glue.

"Good heavens. These are real talismans!"

"Not just pieces of paper?"

"They're worth at least a million won each."

"My goodness! And talismans that expensive have just been scattered along the road?"

Ninety-nine percent of talismans were fake imitations.

Talismans created by shamans using their own divine power were exceptionally rare and expensive.

Yet such precious talismans had been used merely to conceal energy.

'There's something hidden in there. Something incredibly sinister that even genuine shamans couldn't handle. I thought it would be an ordinary evil spirit. Damn it.'

"Jihye."

"Yes? Y-Yes!"

It was the first time Deputy Manager Oh Changsik had addressed her by her given name.

"While I contact headquarters, go to the trunk and bring me my armor and sword. And if I haven't returned after ten minutes, request backup from headquarters and run without looking back."

"Wouldn't it be better to wait until backup arrives?"

"Even if we request backup, someone has to investigate first. That's the rule."

"Deputy Manager..."

"What are you waiting for? Hurry!"

And so, armed with armor and a sword that looked as though they belonged in a Joseon-era historical drama, Deputy Manager Oh Changsik cautiously approached the coffeehouse.

'My miserable life is finally going to end here.'

Deputy Manager Oh Changsik instinctively sensed the tremendous existence lurking within the old building bearing the name Dangsan-ri Coffeehouse.

With every step he took, energy pressed in on him from all directions, rendering even his armor, fashioned from spiritual power, useless.

And every so often, he heard a spine-chilling wail.

"Waaaaaaah!"

'Urgh.'

He was so tense that he almost lost his balance and fell.

'Stay calm. The new employee is watching. Don't embarrass yourself. Everything will be fine. I'll just take a look, and if it seems too dangerous, I'll run away immediately.'

Having steeled himself, Deputy Manager Oh Changsik made his body invisible and shot toward the coffeehouse's large glass window.

Or rather, he tried to enter.

But through the window, his eyes met those of a furry monster with limbs growing in all the wrong places.

Its horrifying appearance was on an entirely different level from the evil spirits he'd encountered before.

And from the monster's mouth came a voice resembling that of a young boy.

"Waaaaah, I want to eat it... I want to eat it too..."

"A-Aaaaaaargh!"

His dignity as a senior meant nothing in the face of his one and only life.

"Start the car! Start it!"

Having scrambled back to the vehicle, Deputy Manager Oh Changsik frantically urged Employee Shin Jihye, who was sitting in the driver's seat.

"Deputy Manager, what about your gat?"

"I don't know! If I go back to pick that up, that thing will eat me! Step on it!"

____________

After all that commotion had subsided,

-Jingle.

The coffeehouse door opened cautiously.

And the one who emerged was Sani, having returned to his raccoon dog form.

"Hm? I'm sure I heard someone's voice."

But when he looked around, there was no one in sight. Only a single black gat that someone had left behind lay abandoned on the ground.

"Ooooooh! This is!"

And Sani seemed to know exactly what the hat was used for.