****
The Corvette came to a stop at the entrance of the alley leading to Se-gun's house. The priest opened the door and spoke.
“It's troublesome to go any further than this. Because of the neighbors' eyes.”
“……”
“And, just consider what happened now as having been bitten by a mad dog and forget about it. It's not like anyone will believe you even if you tell others, and you'll only be treated like a crazy person.”
He said that, and when Se-gun got out, he closed the door. Just then, Se-gun, who had been slumped over until a moment ago, suddenly, for some reason, knocked on the Corvette's door.
“Wait! Just a moment!”
“What is it?”
Instead of opening the door, the priest pressed the button to open the window. As the power window rolled down, the priest's cold eyes stared at Se-gun. Se-gun shouted desperately.
“Those vampires, are there still many of them? Surely the one who died at my house wasn't the last one, right?”
<><><>
Se-gun, realizing the priest was about to leave, asked urgently. That impatience, that paranoid obsession, somehow even showed signs of mental illness. The priest answered coldly.
“Whether there are any left or if that was the last one is not your concern. What you should do now is go back right away, clean up the house that's a sea of blood, and return to a normal life as much as possible.”
“Are you saying that because you don't know that it's impossible! How can I return to a normal life when I've lost all my family? I can't forgive those bastards! So……”
“So what?”
In that moment, the priest's arm shot out of the window and grabbed Se-gun by the scruff of the neck.
And with a terrifying strength, he pulled Se-gun and slammed his face into the Corvette's window. Se-gun's blood splattered onto the hard synthetic glass.
“Kwak!”
“Don't be ridiculous, you brat. Who do you think you are? If you wish to die so badly, I'll send you to the afterlife to follow your family right now.”
“Ughhh!”
Se-gun screamed because of the pain. Even though he had grabbed his collar with just one hand, his neck was being squeezed as if by a steel chain.
This monstrous strength was enough to bring to mind an industrial press, so Se-gun, let alone speaking, couldn't even breathe and just gasped. Moreover, normally, he should have let go by now, but the priest showed no intention of letting go.
He was holding him as if to say, if you die from being choked, then die. The only fortunate thing was that his clothes couldn't withstand the priest's grip and tore.
Rip!
With the sound of clothes tearing, Se-gun was thrown to the ground. The priest looked out the window and spoke.
“Return to reality right now. Misfortune is not unique to you, so don't whine, you son of a bitch. Do you think you're the only one whose family has been annihilated?”
“Damn it! I can't do it! That! How can you tell me to forget when I've already seen it! You're telling me to forget after seeing the monster that devoured my whole family? Are you even making sense!?”
Se-gun clutched the nape of his neck and screamed. At that, the priest, instead of answering, took out his Desert Eagle and aimed it at Se-gun's head.
“What a troublesome guy. Making you forget is easy. All I have to do is blow your brains out right here, right now. Get lost.”
“……”
Se-gun did not back down. At that, the priest smiled once and then struck Se-gun's face with the Desert Eagle—a 6-inch barrel.
In other words, it was like striking his face with a small dumbbell. Se-gun was immediately sent flying, bleeding.
“Uwak!”
“Fine. In that case, come find me at Arjouna. We'll talk properly then.”
Along with the priest's voice, the Corvette's V8 engine started to idle, making a terrifying sound.
“My name is Sylvester. For now, call me Sylvester. Got it!”
He said that, drove the Corvette, and exited the alley. Se-gun closed his eyes, listening to the engine sound of the receding Corvette.
“Heok! Heok! Heok!”
A person was running along a dark country road where streetlights stood sparsely. As if being chased by a wild beast, he ran, clutching his stomach, and blood poured out from under his feet, falling onto the grass.
Drip, drip, drip.
The surprised grasshoppers flew up all at once, their figures reflected in the mercury-vapor lamp. Their chitinous carapaces reflected the pale mercury light, creating dizzying shadows.
The man who was running away stopped for a moment, looked at the light, and caught his breath. Just then, from behind him, like a phantom, the priest in black clothes, Sylvester, appeared.
He held a heavy Desert Eagle and walked toward the blood-soaked man.
“Uwaaaaak! I! Didn't do anything! I really don't know anything!”
The blood-soaked man shouted that and backed away, then fell on his butt. But Sylvester slowly approached and aimed the Desert Eagle.
Click.
The sound of the hammer being pulled back was heard with a gruesome loudness. The man, terrified, backed away, and in front of him, he saw Lake Chuncheon reflecting the moonlight. The man continued to back away, then prostrated himself and begged.
“S-save me. I-I'm definitely a vampire, but I was human before, and I have a family I have to earn money to support! I'm begging you!”
The vampire begged truly pitifully. It was servile, but it was understandable. But the priest, without changing his cold expression, took one step closer to him.
A large van passed by them along the country road, but for some reason, the person in the car passed by as if they hadn't seen them. Sylvester spoke to the vampire who was begging for his life.
“In that case, cry.”
“?!”
“Prove your innocence by crying, you whore's son.”
Sylvester said that and approached. But the vampire couldn't do anything and trembled his hands.
“Wh-what……”
But just then, a tear rolled down Sylvester's cheek. Sylvester, surprisingly, shed a clear tear and raised the Desert Eagle. The vivid silver hair reflecting the moonlight, and the clear tear flowing down his slightly Asian features, was a 'beauty' that did not suit this priest, who could be called the incarnation of verbal abuse and violence.
“That's your limit. Slut!”
Bang!
A cold gunshot rang out.
<><><>
Se-gun put on a racer's leather suit and, holding his gloves in his mouth, pulled up the zipper with both hands. On his face, the traces of being assaulted by Sylvester were still evident, so he covered them with layers of adhesive bandages.
Surely, if he was a monster whose severed arm could heal, a bruise on his face would heal quickly, but it seemed Se-gun had not become a vampire. Se-gun let out a sigh of relief and put on his gloves.
Sylvester had only told him to come find him at Arjouna, but he hadn't said anything at all about where that Arjouna was or what kind of place it was.
Arjouna was a character from the Bhagavad Gita of Indian mythology, the subject who listens to the sermon of Krishna, the incarnation of Vishnu. But surely he wouldn't have told him to find something so abstract.
So Se-gun searched for Arjouna by looking around places like the internet. But what mostly came up was the title of a Japanese animation or the Arjouna from the Bhagavad Gita. However, Se-gun was not disappointed by this and this time looked for a phone book.
And what he found in the phone book was ‘Occult Shop Arjouna’.
Se-gun rode the RX-125, which had become his hyung's keepsake, down the road. It was still Wednesday, and Se-gun, who was originally a high school student, should have been at school, but to tell him to fulfill his duty as a student and be faithful to his classes when his entire family had been annihilated was abuse.
But what on earth was Se-gun himself thinking, heading to Arjouna? Revenge on the vampires who killed his family? If it was that kind of revenge, it had already been carried out by Sylvester's hand.
The vampire had been brutally killed by Sylvester, and even its corpse had long since disappeared. If so, for what reason?
“Krrrrgh!”
A groan burst out from inside his helmet. As if responding to that intense emotion, the heart of the RX-125 let out a high-pitched exhaust sound and sped down the road.
Arjouna was a place with a large first-floor store facing a small park. As its name suggested, it was an occult shop, so they had something like a large pyramid made of brass displayed out front.
But what caught Se-gun's eye was the jet-black Corvette coupe parked in front of Arjouna.
That black sports car reflected the sunlight with a smooth luster along its gentle curves, making the exotic occult shop shine even more.
Se-gun parked behind the Corvette, hung his helmet on the motorcycle, and headed for the store's entrance. The inside of the glass entrance had a rather dark and gloomy structure.
Was it because of the image of an occult shop? The air wafting out from inside was also not very ordinary.
Jingle jangle.
When he opened the door, a small copper bell attached to the door rang. Was it because it was mid-morning, a time still too early for customers to arrive? There was no one at the store's counter.
Se-gun thought about calling for someone, but instead, he looked around the inside of the store.
This exotic occult shop had a sofa placed on one side for receiving customers, and on the wall opposite it, they displayed strange masks from various countries, and from Chinese talismans and feng shui items to crystal balls made of crystal.
<><><>
Se-gun didn't have much interest in the occult, but those strange items had enough appeal to draw the attention of even those who were not interested, and Se-gun was no exception.
Just as Se-gun was engrossed in such display items, the door behind him opened and a middle-aged man wearing a beret entered. His skin was very rough from not having feared the sunlight in his youth, and his body structure itself was still solid.
Above all, the beret he was wearing was that of the Special Warfare Command, commonly known as the Special Forces.
“Ah!”
Se-gun was surprised and looked at this retired soldier. The retired soldier looked at Se-gun and recognized him at a glance.
“Are you Han Se-gun-gun?”
At that moment, Se-gun stopped in his tracks as if nailed to the spot. No matter how much he was a survivor of a bizarre murder drama that was on the lips of gossips, for him to be recognized at a glance, when he was not a celebrity, proved that this was the very ‘Arjouna’ he had been looking for.
Of course, how many occult shops in the Republic of Korea would have a 2002 model Corvette coupe? The black Corvette parked in front was already irrefutable proof, but Se-gun was newly surprised.
“Yes. That's right.”
“You came earlier than expected. Sit and wait.”
He said that and pointed to the sofa. And he himself sat down across from the sofa first, and Se-gun noticed that his hands were trembling. Just then, the door at the back of the store opened and a woman appeared from there.
“Oh my. Look at me. We have a customer.”
That soprano-toned, slightly fussy voice was surprisingly beautiful.
She was a slender, black-haired beauty like a model, and as if she had paid great attention to her hairstyle, she wore a neat men's suit with long hair, the ends of which were sharply made with a razor cut.
Her attire was more like a dealer at a casino than a clerk at an occult shop. Was her age now in her early 20s? But she was a woman who had a somewhat mysterious atmosphere. It was hard to tell her age from her appearance. Se-gun stood up from his seat upon seeing the stunning beauty.
“I came to see Father Sylvester. Is he here?”
“Ah, he is here, but he's sleeping right now, you see? Should I wake him up?”
She said that and laughed softly.
But just then, the door behind her opened and Sylvester appeared. The look of displeasure was clearly visible on his face, which was still wet as if he had just finished washing it. He might have secretly hoped that Se-gun wouldn't be able to find this place.
But Se-gun had found Arjouna much earlier than he had expected. To find it in just two days with only a business name, it could be said to be a level of action that was not inferior even when compared to a private investigation agency.
“He's already awake. There's no need to try to wake him up.”
He said that, swept his silver hair up, and then tied his hair back. Perhaps because he had just woken up, he was wearing a pure white shirt instead of a priest's habit, a shirt with the famous picture of Snoopy lying on top of his doghouse.
His silver blonde hair didn't seem to have been styled much, but it was shining to an extent that could not be imitated by any artificial dye, and his handsome build and features, which could even be called beautiful, were closer to a model's than a priest's who hunted demons.
<><><>
His appearance, standing side by side with the female clerk of Arjouna, was surprisingly well-matched.
Se-gun looked at this strange priest and asked him straight to the point.
“Is this your house?”
“It's my residence in Korea. Not a house.”
Sylvester said that and looked at the middle-aged man. The middle-aged man in the beret took an envelope out from his clothes and placed it on the case.
“Here. It seems that bastard has left Korea.”
“In the end, we just kept tailing him and missed him again this time. Damn it.”
Sylvester received the envelope, looked inside, and then came out to the sofa. He asked without even looking back at Se-gun.
“What will you have for a drink?”
“Coffee.”