Chapter 027. Now Then, Shall We Go Save Our Client?
Maybe she had come straight from work, because Huisong was still wearing her doctor’s coat.
“H-Huh? Unnie? How did you get here?”
Sia stared at Huisong in confusion.
Why was Huisong here?
Why had she kicked Mikael?
There were countless things she wanted to ask, but none of that mattered right now.
“There’s a demon we need to catch right away, so I’ll go first!”
Besides, Huisong had said she came to collect money from Mikael.
That meant it was probably something related to the debt between them.
“Mikael! Please take care of Unnie!”
Pressed for time, Sia tried to leave Huisong with Mikael and rush past the two of them.
Grab!
Huisong suddenly caught Sia by the arm and pulled her back.
“…Unnie?”
Squeeze!
Huisong pulled Sia straight into her arms and gently stroked her head.
“Aigoo! We meet again! My adorable little cutie!”
With a huge smile, Huisong hugged Sia as naturally as if she were cuddling a teddy bear.
Judging from how practiced she was, this clearly wasn’t the first time.
Sia struggled desperately.
“U-Unnie! Let go! At this rate, we’ll lose—!”
She tried to escape so she could continue chasing the demon, but Huisong only hugged her tighter.
Worse, Sia’s face was buried in Huisong’s large chest, making it difficult for her to even speak properly.
“What do you mean, leaving your unnie with your debtor? I came here to see you. You’re going to make me sad…”
Huisong pinched and poked Sia here and there while calling her cute, looking more like an aunt fussing over her niece.
While Sia was completely trapped—
“God, that crazy bitch…”
Tap. Tap.
Mikael stood up while brushing the dust off his clothes and glared at Huisong.
“Why the hell did you stop us?! You wanna die?!”
The demon had already escaped beyond his sensing range.
The fact that Huisong had deliberately stopped them was obvious from her perfect timing and the ridiculous excuse she had used to hold Sia back.
“Hmm? Stopped you? I only came to collect my money…?”
Huisong herself had given him three days.
Yet only one day had passed, and she was already here to collect it?
It was such a terrible excuse that Mikael lowered his voice into a growl.
“Did money rot your brain or something? You’re a member of the Exorcism Association, and you’re protecting a demon?”
Huisong’s eyes widened.
She looked down at Sia, who was still trapped in her arms.
“Aigoo! Cutie, you told him everything?”
She whined at Sia for leaking the information, then finally released her since there was no longer any point in holding her.
“Pwah! I thought I was going to suffocate.”
The moment Sia escaped from Huisong’s arms, Huisong’s entire atmosphere changed.
The overly affectionate and emotional woman suddenly became calm.
“That’s right. I let him go.”
Crack.
A vein bulged on Mikael’s forehead at her shameless admission.
He wanted to charge over and grab her by the collar immediately.
But there had to be some reason behind her actions.
And it was already too late to chase after the demon.
So instead, Mikael decided to question her.
“Why?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
She had spoken confidently, yet she was clearly hiding plenty of things.
Perhaps she knew that herself, because Huisong bit her lip.
“There’s only one thing I can tell you. I’ll deal with it.”
Mikael snorted at Huisong deciding everything on her own.
“Ha! What bullshit. What kind of priest sees a demon kill someone and just lets it walk away?”
Huisong’s eyes trembled in shock.
“…So they’ve already done it.”
Huisong had expected that they might eventually hurt someone.
She simply hadn’t expected it to happen this quickly.
“You didn’t know before coming here?”
Perhaps realizing her mistake, Huisong shook her head, avoided their gazes, and fidgeted with her phone.
“I only knew where they were…”
“Unnie, can’t you tell us? Someone died right in front of us. If this continues for even a little longer…”
Huisong might have her secrets, but once an urban legend began turning into a genuine supernatural disaster, it would go far beyond anything she could handle alone.
Sia didn’t want to stand by and let things reach that point.
After thinking deeply, Huisong finally answered.
“I’m sorry, but… can’t you pretend you didn’t see anything?”
Even now, she stubbornly tried to stand by her decision.
But—
“Like hell we can. A human soul was eaten.”
She had no answer to that.
Asking them to cover up a murder was practically asking them to become accomplices.
“There’s a limit to how unreasonable you can be. Hey, get lost. If you don’t, I’m treating you as a demon worshipper.”
Huisong kept acting frustratingly stubborn, so Mikael finally took a more forceful approach.
Realizing that arguing any further would accomplish nothing, Huisong reluctantly opened her mouth.
“…They’re my dead friend’s younger sibling and father.”
A tear rolled down her cheek.
As the secret finally came out, so did the tears Huisong had desperately been trying to hold back.
She had tried so hard to hide everything, but once she started talking, the emotions she had buried began leaking out little by little.
“This is something only I can solve. No… it’s something I absolutely have to solve myself.”
If the Exorcism Association or other priests found out, the possessed victims would, at best, be imprisoned.
Normally, they would simply be purified.
“It’s a demon that’s already tasted a human soul. We don’t know who else it might be eating right now. So stop crying. I don’t even have time to listen to your circumstances.”
But Mikael wasn’t moved by her tears.
Instead, he snorted as if her situation were ridiculous.
Strangely enough, Huisong seemed reassured by his blunt attitude.
She wiped her tears and called out to him.
“…Hey, debtor.”
“Debtor? At a time like this… Haah, whatever. Hey, see this?”
Tap! Tap!
It was the bundle of money Mikael had earned after running around working all day.
Even at a glance, the thick stack of yellowish bills looked like it easily exceeded four million won.
“Once I seriously started working, I earned it pretty fast. Here. 1.3 million won. Take it and get lost.”
Mikael held onto the remaining 2.7 million won and loosened his fist.
“I’ll give you all of this too, so let me hit you once.”
Mikael still hadn’t forgotten what had happened at the animal hospital.
He had merely endured it until now.
Sia stared at him as if he were some disgusting insect.
“What? Got a problem?”
“…Are you human garbage?”
Someone was crying, yet his first thought was to throw a punch.
That was beyond anything Sia could understand.
Even if Mikael was a lunatic and a psychopath, this was difficult to accept.
“Forget it. I was half joking anyway. Why the hell would I give that bastard the money I earned? What a waste.”
He could feel Sia’s contemptuous gaze right beside him.
If he actually went through with it now, there would be no escaping the label of complete trash.
Just as Mikael was about to lower his fist and put away the money, Huisong grabbed the hand holding the cash.
“Sia! I’ll just take the hit. One punch? No, if you give me more money, I can take ten.”
“…Did she eat something weird?”
Mikael was the one who became flustered this time.
Huisong sounded completely serious when she said she would take even more punches.
“I need a lot of money…”
Everyone had different reasons for needing money.
But considering Huisong’s current situation, the reason was obvious.
“You’re trying to make something, aren’t you?”
He had heard Huisong could purify cursed objects or create weapons and tools.
In other words, she was one of the Exorcism Association’s technicians.
And where else would a technician spend large amounts of money if not on crafting?
“…That’s right. Demons are parasitizing Yeonhwa’s father’s body.”
“Demons?”
Normally, possession involved one demon per possessed person.
In rare cases, someone particularly compatible with demons could contain several, but usually the strongest demon would dominate the body.
“Yeah. And they take turns controlling his body.”
Now that Sia thought about it, the strange man she had encountered earlier had definitely seemed like his personality changed.
And of all times, something bizarre had appeared exactly when Mikael couldn’t use his Aura.
Because of Huisong’s circumstances, they couldn’t even request support from the Exorcism Association.
I have to do it!
Sia believed she was the only one left who could help, so she turned toward Mikael.
His face was deeply furrowed.
He looked uneasy somehow, as though he were worrying about something serious.
“Hey, I’ve been thinking about something…”
So he really was worried about the new type of demon—
“What about the kids?”
Nope.
“Weren’t you worrying about the demon?”
“Why would I worry about something like that? After hearing this much, I already know what we’re dealing with.”
Even if the new demon wasn’t his concern, Mikael’s worry was serious in its own way.
He had promised to earn money while leaving the divine beasts as collateral with Huisong.
But since Huisong had rushed out because of an emergency, there was a high chance she had left the young Samsik and Jeomrye unattended.
“I don’t abandon my responsibilities, so don’t worry. I asked someone I know to look after them.”
Apparently, she had prepared for that possibility.
Huisong answered confidently.
“Someone you know?”
“Yeah. A guy whose brain is filled entirely with muscles.”
A woman whose brain was filled entirely with money talking about a man whose brain was filled with muscles?
Mikael felt like he knew exactly who she meant.
Grin.
The divine beasts seemed to be fine.
In that case, it was time to return to the main issue.
Whether for Helena or for taking care of the divine beasts, Mikael would always need money.
A sinister smile appeared on his face as he stared at Huisong.
“W-Why are you looking at me like that?”
Huisong suddenly felt a chill.
“You said you had money saved up, didn’t you?”
“Y-Yeah… why?”
Huisong nodded and slowly stepped backward as a terrible feeling washed over her.
Mikael moved forward at exactly the same pace.
“Even back when I was in Europe, I always enjoyed finding ways to make money…”
Thud.
While avoiding Mikael, Huisong eventually backed into a wall.
She had nowhere left to escape.
Mikael’s shadow slowly fell over her.
“Why don’t we have a little business discussion?”
There was no danger to her life.
Yet somehow, Huisong had the terrifying feeling that something even more precious was about to be taken from her.
“N-Nooooooo!!”
Meanwhile, at Huisong’s animal hospital—
“Achoo! Sniff. Is someone talking about me?”
Jungon rubbed his nose after sneezing while exercising with dumbbells and kettlebells inside the hospital ward.
“Seriously, that Huisong girl. She said she had something urgent and dumped all her work on me… Well, she said she’d make me something useful, so I guess I’ll put up with it.”
After the monastery incident, Jungon had been searching for a holy relic or weapon that suited him so he could become stronger.
Coincidentally, Huisong had suddenly become busy and asked Jungon for a personal favor in exchange for payment.
“Tsk. So this is why everyone says professionals make good money.”
Bang!
He carefully placed the kettlebell down.
However, judging from the tremendous noise it made, the “48 kg” written on its side clearly wasn’t just decoration.
“Nyaa… nyaa…”
“Grrr… grrr…”
Despite all the noise, Samsik and Jeomrye were busy sleeping and snoring away.
Seeing the two divine beasts lying on their backs, fast asleep without a care in the world, Jungon felt as if all the soreness in his muscles was melting away.
“You little guys really are cute. Look at you sleeping so peacefully.”
He had finished one set of kettlebell snatches.
Now it was time to train his lower body again.
Then he paused.
“But… how long am I supposed to stay here?”
Come to think of it, Huisong had never told him when she would return.
“Unnie, stop crying.”
“Waaaaah! It’s such a waste! No, it’s not a waste, but… it is!”
Her words made absolutely no sense.
She looked so frustrated that she seemed ready to lose her mind.
Huisong was even crying bitterly.
Sia, who was trying to comfort her from beside her, could only sigh.
And honestly, she understood why.
You’re the real money demon, Mikael…
Sia remembered the dizzying events of the previous night.
—
“Why spend so much money? I’ll solve everything for you. But!”
The Mikael in her memory beckoned Huisong with his finger.
“You’ve probably saved money to buy crafting materials, right? Give me that, plus everything you took from me, and I’ll take care of the whole thing.”
In other words, he was telling her to hand over everything she owned.
At first, Huisong refused.
“You don’t want to? Fine, forget it. You don’t even know what kind of demon you’re dealing with. You seriously think you can solve this yourself?”
There was no guarantee the tool she was preparing would be able to extract the demon.
According to what Sia had told her, Mikael was such an expert in exorcism that people called him an Apostle.
However, as far as Huisong was concerned, Mikael was also an unreliable debtor with terrible credit.
“How am I supposed to handle it? Do you still not understand why the Exorcism Association wants me? If I gathered only the ashes of all the demons I’ve destroyed, there’d be enough to bury someone like you alive! Got it?!”
“You don’t like it? Fine. Then I’ll just go straight to Yohan and tell him to wipe every single one of them out.”
“Am I asking for that much? Just give me the money you saved and the money you took from me. Then I’ll ignore everything else and solve your problem. No questions asked!”
His constant attempts to persuade her eventually turned into threats when she continued resisting.
In the end, Huisong finally broke under the endless pressure.
Even if she couldn’t trust Mikael as a person, it was still true that he was talented enough for the Exorcism Association to desperately want him.
“Good choice. Oh, and this is the most important part. Listen carefully. From now on, I’m the superior and you’re the subordinate. Got it? Make sure you remember that. Now then, shall we write a contract?”
The psychopath simply wouldn’t stop.
As if establishing the power relationship on the spot wasn’t enough, he even wrote up an actual contract and practically forced her to sign it.
Huisong looked completely drained, like someone who knew they were being scammed by an insurance company but fell for it anyway.
The thought of her bank account soon being emptied made her pain visible on her face.
—
“Sia, what am I supposed to do? It hurts so much knowing I have to hand all my money over to that bastard!”
She didn’t mind spending money to save the family of her precious friend.
But the idea of that money ending up in Mikael’s pocket made her stomach hurt.
“What else can you do? He’s an expert in this field. Um… now that I think about it, how did I end up like this too?”
Sia had become a subordinate simply by treating him as a guest.
Huisong had become one by force.
The two of them had been waiting outside the hotel since early morning for Mikael, who was now firmly established as the superior.
Even though the agreed time was almost here, nobody had come out of the hotel yet.
Don’t tell me he can’t even check out by himself? Maybe I really should have helped him.
Yohan had previously explained to Sia that Mikael was someone from the distant past.
Because of that, Sia had tried to handle the hotel check-in for him.
However—
“Ah, it’s just like an inn, isn’t it? As long as I have money, that’s all I need!”
Those were Mikael’s last words before pulling money out of his pocket and barging through the hotel doors.
“Haah… when is that man finally coming out?”
Sia checked the time and began tapping her feet impatiently.
Mikael still hadn’t told them anything about his plan.
So the two women had no choice but to wait endlessly.
Tremble!
“Just you wait! Someday I’m definitely getting revenge! You damn money demon!”
As the strange sight of one money-obsessed person calling another a money demon continued, the hotel entrance finally opened.
Whoosh!
“Thank you for staying with us. Please travel safely, and I hope your day is filled with good things.”
“Yeah, yeah. Good work. Here, take this as a tip.”
Speak of the tiger and it appears.
Mikael walked out of the hotel without any trouble, answering the manager’s polite farewell by handing him a stack of cash.
Apparently, there truly was nothing money couldn’t solve.
Mikael looked unusually cheerful today as he stretched his arms.
“Sleep well? Su— I mean, priests? Perfect weather for an exorcism.”
“You were about to call us suckers, weren’t you…?”
Ignoring Sia’s muttering, Mikael walked past her with a refreshing smile.
“Now then, shall we go save our client?”
