29-163

EP.163 – Seeing is Believing 

The girl, floating in midair, finished speaking, then spun once playfully before slowly descending to the ground. 

The hem of her pitch-black dress fluttered, flouting gravity. 

I stood silently, looking her over now that her grand entrance was done. 

Here was the owner of that voice that had been noisily echoing in my head all this time. 

“Heh. Speechless before my beauty, are you? Understandable this is your first time beholding such a magnificent being.” 

Her confident tone made me snort. 

“That annoying way of talking you really are her.” 

“Pu‑huhu, I’ll take that as praise.” 

Her shrugging form was nothing more than that of a teenage girl, but her eyes gleamed with the craftiness of a serpent centuries old. 

“So, how is it? Do I look like how you pictured me in your head?” 

“Nope.” 

I cut her off without hesitation. 

I’d often wondered why talking to her always made irritation boil up from my gut. 

Seeing her face in person, I understood. 

“Honestly, you’re way more of a brat than I imagined.” 

“…B‑brat?” 

The casual jab made a vein faintly pop on her forehead. 

Seeing that crack finally form in her expression gave me a bit of satisfaction for all I’d put up with but not nearly enough, considering what she’d put me through. 

“You’ve been hiding in a place like this, watching me all along?” 

The vast darkness was lit only by geometric circuits of light and the flicker of the screens. 

“You’ve been spying on me from here this whole time?” 

“Cozy, isn’t it? I punched a hole in the dimensional wall to make my own garden somewhere no one else can find.” 

She spread her arms proudly, but it was just a hideout in the end. 

“So, what’s going on outside? How much time’s passed? You were rushing me earlier, saying time was short.” 

At my flat reaction, Child pouted with “boring guy” on her lips  

then gave a sudden clap, cranking up the energy. 

“Right! We can’t sit here basking in our heartfelt reunion. First we deal with the obstacles.” 

A snap of her fingers, and one of the suspended monitors slid toward us. 

“What’s that…?” 

Onscreen: a pitch-dark back alley near my home. 

There, moving with precision, were armed operatives in gear blacker than the shadows, outfitted with special equipment. 

They were setting up formations, placing devices, laying traps for an unseen foe. 

Among them were familiar faces Seohyun and Naeun  

their chilling aura far sharper than it had been in the daytime, palpable even through the monitor. 

“Looks like they’ve… upskilled?” 

“When I pulled you in here, your existence and this place’s position were briefly exposed. They trotted over with reinforcements.” 

At Child’s breezy explanation, Lizetta, standing beside us, lowered her head slightly. 

“…It’s my fault. I should have stalled them longer…” 

“It’s not your fault,” I cut her off firmly. 

This was all the brat’s mischief to begin with. 

Even at my accusing glare, Child only lifted a shameless smirk. 

“I’m scrambling our location as we speak, but they’ll figure it out sooner or later.” 

“Thanks for the update, but you do have a way to break us out of this, don’t you?” 

“A way? Oh, I’ve got a very sure one.” 

As her eyes settled intently on me, I immediately shook my head. 

“You’ve seen it yourself I can’t hack it with what I have.” 

The hypnosis app had already been exposed. 

Even the ‘Tyrant’ physique hadn’t let me handle Naeun one-on-one. 

Everything had been riding on the Saviors dimension, but all I’d brought back was the ability to etch lust seals. 

On Naeun or Seohyun alone, maybe but a crowd like that would crush my skull before I engraved anything. 

At my pragmatic rundown, Child gave a derisive little laugh, like at an idiot. 

“That was then. Now, it’s a whole different story. The tables have turned.” 

“The tables? How ” 

“Well, you see…” 

I kept my eyes on the monitor, listening  

Thump  

“…Huh?” 

A light impact hit my back, stealing my breath. 

Glancing behind me unbelievable. She’d kicked me in the back with her own foot, grinning her little devil grin. 

“You, you littl ” 

“They say seeing is believing. Better to dive in than explain it all.” 

Oh. This routine felt familiar. 

“Hey, you little shit! For once, start with an explana aaaaahh!” 

My curse-laden howl was swallowed into a brilliant light that opened up and sucked me in. 

Late night, the back alley was thick with heavy stillness. 

The Bureau’s support teams hid in ink‑black shadows, tightening their noose around the villa from all sides. 

The only light was the artificial gleam from their specialized gear jarringly out of place in the sleeping cityscape. 

Leaning against a wall as if bored, Naeun’s senses were razor‑sharp, sweeping her surroundings like a cat’s. 

The faint scent of comrades’ nervous sweat, the ozone tang from their devices, 

and the unnatural stillness in the very air around this backstreet… 

“Damn it. Does the analysis team really need all day just to pin down coordinates?” 

The on‑site commander, codename Gideon, grumbled into his earpiece. 

Seohyun, standing silent until now, spoke up dryly. “Command is as slow as ever.” 

“Easy, Seohyun,” Naeun said calmly without opening her eyes. 

“Child’s probably still jamming their reads. Cheap tricks are its specialty.” 

She added, as if this were obvious. “…Or maybe the brass just needed time to sip their tea.” 

Seohyun was about to snort when Gideon’s comms crackled with urgency: 

[Commander! Breach graph anomaly detected! Readings are… going out of control!] 

“What?” 

Almost with the same timing as his shock, Naeun’s eyes opened a beat ahead of the alarms. 

Her animal instincts had caught it: the grain of the world twisting in an unnatural way. 

A crawling sense, as if something far beyond her experience was about to descend right in front of them. 

“...Something’s coming.” 

Even as she spoke, the air in the middle of the alley split open with red‑black static. 

“Gaaaahhh !” 

A man was spat out of the tear, tumbling across asphalt before coming to a stop. 

His hair was a mess, clothes dusty  

A pitiful entrance compared to the taut tension that had gripped the alley moments before. 

Groaning, he clambered up… then froze at the wall of hostile stares surrounding him. 

Then he awkwardly raised one hand. 

“Uh, h‑hahaa… Good evening?” 

Even that ridiculous greeting couldn’t crack Gideon’s icy stare. 

“Didn’t think you’d walk in before we found you.” 

He identified the ‘Target’ coldly, barking orders without hesitation: 

“Target confirmed. Codename ‘Origin’. Sole conduit for anomaly ‘Child’. Based on prior contact, subdue immediately!” 

The charge in his voice re‑hardened the team’s focus. 

“Capture is ideal, but if he resists… lethal force is authorized!” 

Lethal? 

As he stepped forward with that add‑on, my blood ran cold. 

At that, Naeun stepped between us. “Hold on, Commander. Careful.” 

She warned, eyes never leaving me: 

“Before disappearing, he went through one more possession. Who knows what unpredictable power he brought back?” 

That gave the men pause just long enough for me to instinctively step back and blurt out, 

“W‑wait! Don’t come any closer, I might do something crazy! And for the record, I’m not into engraving lust seals on big scary guys, okay?!” 

Even desperate, my words didn’t move Gideon there was open contempt in his eyes. 

“You think that kind of joke works in this situation?” 

Like cornering a rat, he closed the distance. 

“Dammit… Child, what the hell am I supposed to ” 

“Warning’s over.” 

He whipped out a silver shock baton, lunging without a shred of hesitation  

a veteran’s movement, efficient and deadly. 

“Ugh?!” 

I could only turtle my arms over my head  

ScreeEEE  

A high, metallic shriek scraped Naeun’s ears not simple noise, but the sound of something huge tearing through the air, forced down by gravity. 

“…?!” 

Gideon halted mid‑rush as all eyes flicked skyward, searching for the source  

“…!? Get back, Commander!” 

“What?!” 

Naeun’s instinctive shout made him duck low and spring back  

KRA‑BOOOM! 

With the roar of steel crumpling and concrete shattering, 

something massive slammed down between Gideon and me.