"Park In-Hyeok, you bastard! How dare you sneak off in the dead of night!"
After the incident at Cheon-Rang Center, Park In-Hyeok had completely cut off contact with Kim Je-Hyeon.
With nothing going his way, Kim Je-Hyeon was starting to grow anxious.
His efforts to get rid of Yu-Han had stalled.
Kim Je-Hyeon immediately placed a call.
"Hey, it's me. I've got someone I need you to take care of!"
The voice on the other end hesitated.
[Assemblyman, if you're calling us, don't tell me you mean...]
"That's right! Use black magic!"
Meanwhile, at Cheong-Am Center.
"Yu-Han, I guess you're officially our Deputy now."
Alice said it with a grin.
Yu-Han, sitting on the sofa with a cup of green tea, gave her a baffled look.
"What are you talking about? I only filled in as Deputy for a bit to deal with some annoying crap."
"Your face is already all over the news as Cheong-Am Center's Deputy."
"Don't worry. I'll hold a press conference and clear things up."
Alice frowned.
"Why don't you just take the job? You practically founded this center. Take some responsibility."
Yu-Han casually took another sip of green tea.
"You'll be fine. You're the savior from that legendary prophecy, remember?"
Alice's smile twitched.
"...Can you quit screwing around and just take the damn job?"
"No."
"Do it!"
"No!"
Yet another argument broke out between them.
Yi-Rang and Kim Ga-Eun watched from the sidelines, their eyes darting back and forth between the two.
They were both so stubborn that even after nearly ten minutes, the argument ended without either side getting anywhere.
Once they settled into a temporary ceasefire, Alice huddled with the other women.
"Seriously, that guy... He's like a damn cat that never listens."
Yi-Rang and Ga-Eun both gasped.
Yi-Rang looked at Alice with genuine concern.
"Alice, ya think that lunatic's cute like a cat?
Should we call a computer tech or somethin'...?"
"No! I mean he has all the bad parts of a cat and none of the good ones!
He's selfish, spoiled, and only ever thinks about himself!"
Yu-Han, who was watching a bird documentary on a holographic screen, shot back without looking away.
"Hey... Cats are my least favorite animals in the world!
How the hell am I anything like those damn fur-roaches...?"
Right in the middle of Yu-Han's sentence came a feeble little pop.
In the spot where he had been sitting was a talkative black cat, meowing up a storm.
The cat realized what had happened to him and sprang straight into the air.
Alice stared at him.
"Y-Yu-Han? Is this transformation magic?
You're not cute at all, you know?"
The black cat violently shook his head.
Yi-Rang stepped forward.
"Move over, Director. We're both cat-types. Lemme translate."
Yi-Rang crouched beside Yu-Han, listened carefully to his furious meowing, then nodded gravely.
"What!? 'I'll pay off all of Employee Yi-Rang's debts, and I swear I'll never mouth off to her again'!?"
The black cat let out an enraged hiss and launched himself at Yi-Rang.
One minute later, Yi-Rang was sprawled pathetically on the floor in defeat, while Yu-Han sat atop the back of Yi-Rang's head like a victorious conqueror.
Yu-Han pointed a paw at something on the table in front of the sofa.
Alice followed his gesture.
"The hologram device? You want it?"
Kim Ga-Eun extended a tentacle from her body and handed it to Yu-Han.
After struggling with the controls using his front paws, Yu-Han finally activated translation mode.
[Ah, can you hear me? Damn it. I can't believe I turned into a cat. 'This sentence cannot be translated due to policy restrictions.']
A dry mechanical TTS voice translated Yu-Han's cat language.
Kim Ga-Eun clasped her hands together.
"Yu-Han C! You're so cute as a cat! Ehehehe..."
[Ga-Eun, is this really the time for that? This has to be some enemy curse! We need to find whoever did this right now and 'Sorry, but this sentence cannot be translated due to policy restrictions.']
At the word *curse*, Alice paused to think.
"Sure, we need to break the curse, but... you know how give-and-take works, right?
What do I get if I help you?"
[Money? Want me to say something nice about you?]
"I don't need either. How about you just stay on as Deputy?"
[What the hell does that have to do with this!?]
"Then you can stay a cat forever."
[Ugh... Fine. I'll do it.]
Hearing Yu-Han surrender, Alice smiled in satisfaction.
[Great. So how the hell are we supposed to find whoever did this?]
Alice blinked.
"Oh. No idea."
That was when Kim Ga-Eun confidently stepped forward.
"Yu-Han C! They must've gotten some of your biological tissue and used it for the black magic, right!?"
[Probably. So?]
"Then I can sniff out your scent!"
[What kind of nonsense is—]
Kim Ga-Eun scooped up Yu-Han in cat form, squeezed him tightly against herself, and began rubbing her face all over him.
"If I'm going to track it properly, I need to memorize your scent first! Sniiiiff... Slurp."
Alice watched as Ga-Eun buried her face in the cat and took one greedy sniff after another.
Even as another woman, Alice thought it looked a little shameless...
Even a chimera monster couldn't track a scent across an entire city by smell alone.
So Alice decided to call in some help.
Their next stop was the Yong-Ho Office, formerly Cheon-Rang Center.
Ma Sa-Yoon nodded after hearing Alice out.
"...I see, Director Alice. You want our help finding them."
"Yes. As for payment—"
"No need! We caused you enough trouble last time. We'll help with the search for free, just this once."
Alice found herself impressed by how dignified and big-hearted Ma Sa-Yoon was.
Unlike a certain someone.
Ma Sa-Yoon then glanced at Yi-Rang.
"But Yi-Rang C... why do you have a cat on your head?
Is that some new fashion trend?"
A sinister-looking black cat was perched atop the head of a visibly irritated Yi-Rang.
Yu-Han couldn't be bothered to walk, so he had decided that Yi-Rang was his ride.
They kept the fact that Yu-Han had been turned into a cat quiet. If word got out, someone might try to take advantage of it.
Alice pointed at the cat.
"Ah! This is the scent we're looking for. Have everyone memorize it!"
Ma Sa-Yoon immediately raised his voice.
"Search team! Front and center!"
At Ma Sa-Yoon's call, every beastkin with a sharp sense of smell came pouring out.
They crowded around Yu-Han and sniffed him several times, trying to commit his scent to memory.
One beastkin frowned.
"Why does this smell creep me out...?"
Another nodded uneasily.
"Yeah. The smell itself is normal, so why am I getting chills...?"
Alice thought she knew why.
That cat had trashed their center just two days ago.
Ma Sa-Yoon turned to the search team.
"Search every corner of Old Seoul!
If you find them, don't engage. Just report back. Got it?"
Alice tilted her head.
"Huh? I thought you said you'd help us for free."
Ma Sa-Yoon stared at her.
"I said the search was free. You seriously expect us to risk our lives fighting for free too?"
"Hmm... Fine."
While Alice and Ma Sa-Yoon were talking, a rabbit beastkin happened to pass through the hallway and overheard them.
It was Baek Myo-Hee.
The moment she saw the black cat, she flinched.
Then she slipped into a secluded, shadowed corner and made a call.
The Korean Black Magic Research Society.
A secret society that practiced all manner of rituals, including human sacrifice.
To an outsider, they looked like little more than hopeless pieces of human garbage who did grotesque things and convinced themselves that it meant they understood the secrets of the world.
The society's president was sitting in his room, wearing a black robe as he spoke over the phone.
[...I just saw the person you cursed.
I was thinking... maybe you should stop now.]
"Since when do you lecture me? You're the one who got sick of us and quit!"
[B-But we were friends...
Everyone's looking for you now, so maybe you should stop hurting people for no reason...]
"You think I can just stop because you tell me to!?
Assemblyman Kim Je-Hyeon himself hired us for this!
If I pull this off, I'll finally have connections of my own!
And... I already sacrificed someone for this curse!
I can't just pretend none of that happened and scrap the whole thing now!"
[Human sacrifice?
Why'd you go that far? You didn't even need one, did you?]
Baek Myo-Hee wasn't scolding him.
She was asking out of pure curiosity.
Her tone was like watching someone build an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine to open a door and asking,
*Couldn't you just turn the doorknob?*
"Shut up! I'm not taking orders from some outsider!"
The president abruptly ended the call.
A subordinate beside him cautiously asked,
"President, who was that woman?"
"Some autistic freak. I called her my friend a few times to humor her, and she actually bought it.
Whatever. She was nothing but a stepping stone toward perfecting my magnificent black magic."
Not long afterward, alarms began blaring throughout the building.
The president shot to his feet.
"What now!? Did those idiot trainees screw up another summon!?"
A subordinate rushed into the room.
"No! Some psycho cat broke in and he's slaughtering everybody!"
"What the hell does that even mean!?"
The president hurriedly checked the security feed.
A black cat, his claws wreathed in mana, was cleaving people in half with a single strike.
And that wasn't all.
There was a grotesque chimera monster, a fierce-looking tiger beastkin...
And Alice, commanding all of them.
The president stared at the screen in disbelief.
"Those Cheong-Am Center bastards! How the hell did they find us this fast?!"
The subordinate hesitated.
"Think that woman from earlier sold us out...?"
"I'll never forgive you, Baek Myo-Hee!!"
In truth, Baek Myo-Hee had done absolutely nothing besides make that phone call.
Yet somehow, Baek Myo-Hee had become the one they blamed.
Then the door to the president's office exploded inward.
A black cat wearing a hologram device around his neck stood there glaring at them.
[Hey. How do I break this curse?]
The president recoiled.
"Don't tell me you're Yu-Han!? That curse was supposed to make you cough up blood and drop dead in one second!"
[Undo it in three seconds or you die. Three... Two... One...]
"I-I'll undo it!!"
With another pop, Yu-Han returned to human form.
"Let me guess. Kim Je-Hyeon hired you, right?
Good. Die."
The president's face went pale.
"You said you wouldn't kill me! You liar!"
Yu-Han stared at him as if he were an idiot.
"No. I said I'd kill you if you didn't undo the curse.
Never said I'd let you live if you did."
"What kind of bullshit logic is that!?"
"Basic logic.
'If you don't undo it, you die' doesn't mean 'if you do, you live.'
That's the inverse, idiot."
Yu-Han drew his carbon-coated sword and cheerfully hacked them to pieces.
Later, internet news sites would be plastered with headlines reading:
**'CHEONG-AM CENTER DEFEATS NOTORIOUS BLACK MAGIC ORGANIZATION!'**
The Black Magic Research Society's hideout had become a sea of blood, with nothing left but corpses.
The one who cautiously stepped inside was Baek Myo-Hee.
"Oh... I warned him, but I guess I was too late.
Well, not like my trivial advice would've done much anyway... Haha..."
But when she entered the president's office, she found someone standing there.
A strange young gentleman in a suit.
"W-Who are you...!?"
The man gave her a gentle smile.
"Ah, don't be afraid. My name is Shin Gi-Deok.
I'm here to recruit someone."
Baek Myo-Hee glanced around at the corpses.
"There's nobody here but corpses..."
"I'm here for you.
Baek Myo-Hee C, founder of the Korean Black Magic Research Society."
Baek Myo-Hee's expression darkened.
"...I just wanted to mess around with some fun magic!
People just started showing up on their own, and before I knew it, they were calling it the Black Magic Research Society!
All they ever talked about was blood, sacrifices, and all that gloomy stuff...
It was really scary..."
Shin Gi-Deok tilted his head.
"The blood and sacrifices scared you?"
"...Why would something that trivial scare me?
The scary part was being stuck around a bunch of scary-looking people!"
Seeing Baek Myo-Hee on the verge of tears, Shin Gi-Deok smiled with satisfaction.
"Don't worry, Baek Myo-Hee C. I'll give you all the support you need.
How would you feel about working for me?"
Baek Myo-Hee hesitated.
"Are you going to use me too?"
"That depends on what you mean by 'use.'
Sounds like something we should negotiate, doesn't it?
For now, why don't we continue this somewhere a little cozier?
This place is rather grisly."
"...Well, if we're only talking..."
As Shin Gi-Deok left the room with Baek Myo-Hee, he spoke as though something had just occurred to him.
"Oh, by the way.
That president was calling you an autistic freak behind your back.
Doesn't sound like he thought of you as much of a friend."
"I know.
But that kind of thing is trivial between friends...
Whether he badmouths me or doesn't think I'm his friend at all..."
Shin Gi-Deok looked genuinely curious.
"Really? Then do you even know his name?"
"No.
Never cared.
That kind of thing is trivial."
Soon afterward, a single letter of resignation was submitted to the Yong-Ho Office.
Still, no one there seemed to pay much attention to the departure of one trivial rabbit beastkin employee.