Soon, she reached the mouth of the alley and instinctively held her breath.
Beneath the faded blue sign of a coffee shop, the orangutan-like demon beasts were huddled together.
Assuming they were feasting on another corpse, she was about to turn back when—
‘Zap!’
“Kreeeeee!”
One of the low-level demon beasts shrieked, yanking its hand back as if in pain.
Next to it, another demon beast, panting with its tongue hanging out, touched the corpse.
‘Zap!’
“Kreeeeeeee!”
That one also clutched its hand and rolled on the ground, a thin wisp of smoke rising from its hairy fist.
She had been about to leave, but the bizarre scene piqued her curiosity.
‘What are they doing?’
As the two demon beasts writhed, the remaining one tilted its head in confusion.
The fallen creatures chittered, as if daring it to try.
The demon beast hesitated, then, annoyed by their screeching, reached out and touched the corpse.
The strange sound crackled again.
The demon beast screamed, snatching its hand back.
The others let out a bizarre sound, as if laughing.
As they staggered away, the object they had been surrounding finally came into view.
It was a long body lying face down, and the sight of its back was somehow familiar.
Dana craned her neck forward, her eyes narrowing.
“…Mujin Park?”
‘Crackle, crackle.’ Sparks sputtered from his prone body, like those from a striking flint.
Whenever the demon beasts touched him, the sparks would flare and leap onto them.
Judging by the smoke, it seemed quite painful.
She was dumbfounded.
It was strange enough to find Mujin Park here, far from the battle site, but to find him collapsed and helpless like this… One of the teased demon beasts huffed and grabbed a stone the size of a child’s fist.
It hurled it at the man.
The stone struck the back of his head.
Dana winced.
Ugh, ‘that must have hurt.’
“Kieeeeee…?”
The demon beasts began looking around, searching for more stones.
Dana did the same, scanning the area for a potential weapon, but nothing stood out.
After a moment’s thought, she turned and sprinted back to the convenience store.
‘Is it okay to leave an injured person?’
But just standing there watching wouldn’t accomplish anything.
Her pace quickened.
Back at the store, she scanned the shelves.
Paring knives and box cutters caught her eye, but she dismissed them immediately.
They weren’t combat weapons, and using them would mean getting dangerously close.
She even checked the employee break room, where she found a mop.
She hesitated, then decided she was wasting precious time and grabbed it.
She tore off the mop head, gripped the long handle, and gave it a test swing.
It was blunt, but it would have to do.
‘Shing!’
Dana took a stance, holding the sword—no, the mop handle.
It was just a stick, but it felt reassuring.
She still had the gun, but firing it recklessly could attract more demon beasts, maybe even the one that could drive.
A blunt weapon was the better choice.
‘And this length is good for maintaining distance.’
Satisfied, she left the store.
‘Please don’t let it be over already.’
‘A-Rank Esper Mujin Park Eaten by Demon Beasts While College Student Dawdles…’
An absurdly grim headline flashed through her mind.
She hurried back.
Fortunately, he and the demon beasts were just as she had left them.
Although, to say they were “just as she left them” might be an understatement.
‘Plink.
Zap!
Plink.
Zap!
Plink.
Crackle!’
“Kreeeeeee.”
Sparks flew every time a pebble hit him.
As it rolled off, a demon beast would simply drop another one onto his body.
They made strange shrilling sounds, as if they had discovered a fascinating new game.
‘…Well, it’s better than being eaten alive.’
Dana forced herself to think positively.
‘Swoosh.’
Gripping the mop handle with both hands, she silently assumed her stance.
Her targets were clear.
Of all the self-defense arts she had learned at the Lee estate, she had shown a particular talent for practical swordsmanship.
With a silent battle cry, she charged.
The demon beasts, completely focused on their new toy, noticed her approach a second too late.
Before they could counterattack, her mop handle slammed into the backs of two of their heads at once.
‘Thwack!’
A crisp, clean sound rang out.
Without pausing, she kicked their hands, sending the pebbles scattering.
Though there was no one to witness it, her movements were fluid and efficient, even elegant, like a master swordsman’s.
The demon beasts were no match for her skill.
She swung the handle at a screeching creature, the pole tracing a graceful arc before slamming into its chest, then cracking against the other’s mouth.
Teeth shattered against the end of the handle.
The gruesome sound almost made her drop it, but she forced herself to think of them not as living creatures, but as training dummies.
With a faint groan, the demon beast’s heavy body toppled backward.
But Dana wasn’t finished.
She brought the handle down hard on their exposed foreheads.
With a sound like a watermelon splitting open, the creatures stopped twitching.
Dana flicked the blood from the handle and let out a shaky breath.
Her fingers trembled.
She had rushed in on impulse, but this was her first time fighting demon beasts alone.
She had helped Doha when the Gate opened on the ancestral mountain, but her contribution had been so minimal that calling it “help” was an embarrassment.
“Haaah…”
She clenched her trembling hands.
‘It’s over.’ Just as relief washed over her—
‘Kriee…’ Startled, she swung the handle reflexively.
‘Thump!’
The last demon beast let out a final groan, its limbs splaying out as it went still.
Gripping the handle with both hands, Dana remained on high alert.
The thick stench of death rose from the three corpses.
She began to back away slowly.
‘Zap.’
“Ah, hot!”
Dana jumped back.
Right behind her was the human flint, Mujin Park.
‘Is it really him?’
She bent down to get a better look.
Curly hair that brushed the nape of his neck, a strong jaw, and features that were both assertive and harmonious.
He was caked in dust, but it couldn’t hide his striking looks.
The man who had been a plaything for demon beasts was indeed Mujin Park.
The sight of his famously handsome face smudged with soot was utterly surreal.
‘Still, he’s not as handsome as Doha oppa.’
Doha was a delicate beauty, with a pale face and mysterious light brown eyes.
Mujin Park was ruggedly handsome, with sharp features, long eyes, and a bold mouth.
They were different types of good-looking, but both were undeniably attractive.
Still, Dana found herself snorting dismissively.
‘Rustle.’
Her eyes sharpened.
She whipped her head around just in time to see a rat dart through a hole in a nearby wall.
She sighed.
‘I should move him somewhere safer.’
Her gaze fell on the man.
‘But…’
He had the solid build of a storybook hero and legs as long as her mop handle.
‘How am I supposed to move him?’
A look of helplessness crossed her face.
He had seemed slender from a distance, but up close, he was easily twice her size.
All the while, the sparks continued to fly.
“……”
A short while later, Dana was dragging Mujin toward the convenience store, her hands protected by the black gloves she’d taken from him.
Her mop handle was awkwardly shoved into the leg of his stylish Balmain jeans.
Back at the convenience store, Dana wiped the sweat from her forehead and caught her breath.
Moving so cautiously, terrified of being discovered by more demon beasts, had left her entire body aching.
She rolled her stiff shoulders.
She had already called the center and told them Mujin was here.
The sheer panic on the other end had been palpable, and they had promised to send a team immediately.
After hanging up, she felt a desperate thirst.
She tried to open a water bottle, but her gloved hands kept slipping.
Pulling one glove off with her teeth, she finally twisted the cap open.
‘Thump.’ The glove landed on Mujin Park’s chest.
As she quenched her thirst, she glanced down at him.
He was still limp and motionless.
Outside, she had been too preoccupied to dwell on it, but seeing him here like this felt deeply strange.
This was Mujin Park—the man whose very existence made the Lee family tense, the man who had pushed Doha into a pit of inferiority.
Naturally, she held no warm feelings for him.
His existence was an inseparable part of Doha’s suffering.
‘Though he’d probably say that’s unfair.’
‘A lazy sloth, a bloodthirsty battle junkie, a stinking chain-smoker, a drug addict… That’s what Doha oppa called him.’
According to Doha, Mujin was born with everything but was an utterly contemptible person.
She leaned down and sniffed.
Ugh, ‘that smell.’
She wrinkled her nose.
It was tobacco, but not the common kind.
It was a pungent mix of various herbs that clung to him, deeply ingrained like it did on all chain-smokers.
So, one of Doha’s descriptions was accurate.
He was a hopeless chain-smoker.
She moved away from him, her eyes falling on the handle protruding from his pants.
The area around his knee and thigh bulged in the shape of the pole.
Chapter 6: The Price of Guiding
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