Chapter 1703 – 1703. Hunter Vs Vampire
“Are you perhaps a god?”
I glanced at Cassandra.
Considering the atmosphere she commanded and Kang Sumi’s reaction, it was clear she wasn’t an ordinary woman.
Maybe she wasn’t a con artist. Or maybe she was a really great one.
Cassandra was staring intently at me. She was waiting for my answer. Meanwhile, Kang Sumi held the witch’s mirror in one hand, timing when to reflect it on Cassandra. Even in this situation, she didn’t forget her duty.
“I’m not a god. If I were, I wouldn’t be here like this. Why do you think that? Is my fortune that strange?”
“It’s not strange. It’s special.”
Cassandra said, stroking the crystal ball. She continued, “Your fortune is truly special. Out of everyone I’ve seen so far. Honestly, I never imagined such a fortune could exist.”
“Out of everyone you’ve seen so far…? You must have seen many people’s fortunes.”
“Yes. I’ve seen many people’s fortunes. Even though I look like this, I’ve traveled all over the world. I’ve met people with fortunes to become kings, and leaders with fortunes to burn the world. But no one had a fortune as special as yours. I still can’t believe it’s a fortune a person can have.”
“I’m a person.”
“Yes. If you say so, then so be it. What are you curious about?”
“……”
I hesitated to answer. It was inevitable since I wasn’t curious about anything. Aside from superstition, I didn’t really trust fortunes. Of course, I believed in fate.
‘The original story I know is fate.’
But from the moment I came to this world, the original story began to change. So far, since I entered the game life, there hasn’t been a time when things went exactly like the original. There hasn’t been a time when I reached the same ending as the original.
“I’m not particularly curious about anything.”
“I thought so. People with slightly special fortunes usually don’t believe in them. I’ll give you a fortune at random. Your fortune is so special that I can’t see all of it… but a part of it…”
Cassandra rubbed the crystal ball. Unlike her seemingly profound words, her hand movements were ordinary. I didn’t feel any unusual energy either.
“I see it. Yes. There’s a danger coming to you soon.”
“…Danger?”
“Yes. The danger of losing something precious. It might be a danger that’s meaningful to you.”
“Hmm.”
The danger of losing something precious.
I didn’t know what she was talking about, but hearing a bad fortune made me feel uneasy.
‘Couldn’t she have said something nice?’
If it were tarot cards, I could understand, but she was just saying things while touching a crystal ball. There was no way to know how she was seeing the fortune.
“That’s all the advice I can give you. Be careful.”
Cassandra said in a serious voice. It was a fortune she gave because of work anyway. I nodded casually.
“Yes. I’ll be careful.”
While Cassandra was focused on me, Kang Sumi reflected the witch’s mirror on Cassandra. It was cleverly out of Cassandra’s angle of view, but I could see it clearly. Cassandra in the mirror didn’t change at all. She wasn’t a vampire.
“Thank you for the fortune! I had a great time thanks to you!”
Kang Sumi stood up.
Now that the business was done, we could leave.
“Miss.”
Cassandra stopped Kang Sumi, who was about to get up.
“Don’t forget what I said. Now is the moment of choice.”
Kang Sumi glanced at me for a moment before answering.
“Ah, yes.”
“Goodbye. Especially you, miss, you should be very careful.”
Before leaving, Cassandra emphasized it again. Kang Sumi paused. But soon, she smiled and greeted before leaving the fortune-telling house.
Outside the gate, Kang Sumi sighed.
“She’s a really good fortune teller. She seems to be the best fortune teller I’ve ever seen.”
“Do you like fortune-telling houses?”
“I have a friend who likes fortune-telling, so I used to go to fortune-telling houses a few times a month. Most fortune tellers guess based on conversations and information… but that fortune teller felt like she was really seeing inside me.”
“A burning lake? Your expression seemed to change from the moment the fortune teller said that.”
“…Hmm. It was a very accurate statement. It’s an old story, and it’s personal, so I don’t want to tell you.”
“The fortune teller’s words mean that I’m your benefactor.”
“That’s right. That’s the most suspicious part. I wonder if she just said it.”
I looked at Kang Sumi with serious eyes and asked.
“Don’t you have anything to say to me?”
“…Are you asking me to treat you like a benefactor?”
“I’m giving you a chance to hold my hand. That fortune teller. You said she seemed like a very good fortune teller.”
“……”
Kang Sumi was silent.
I was a little taken aback by her reaction. I was just joking around. But she was thinking seriously.
“Let’s focus on work first. We’ve confirmed more than half of it. We’ll be done soon.”
Whoosh.
The wind blew.
It was such a strong wind that it was hard to open our eyes. We instinctively crouched down.
‘How can such a strong wind blow in an alleyway… That’s strange.’
Kang Sumi seemed to think the same thing as me, as she looked around like me when the wind stopped. And we turned around and were surprised.
Because the gate that said Cassandra’s Fortune-Telling House had disappeared without a trace. Kang Sumi ran to where the gate had been and knocked on the wall. We could hear the sound of her hitting the wall.
“Yujin! Can you lift me up? I need to know what’s behind this wall!”
“Excuse me for a moment.”
I grabbed Kang Sumi’s waist and lifted her up. She wasn’t very heavy, probably because she was small.
“No way…”
“What’s wrong?”
“The house that should be behind the wall is gone. It’s a different house.”
“Let me see too.”
I put her down and hung on the wall to check. As she said, there was a different house behind the wall, not the fortune-telling house. The structure of the house itself was completely different.
“……”
I was silent. My mind was working busily. Did I make a mistake? No, that couldn’t be. Did a noble-class vampire cast an illusion on me? My mental state was always active. Even Elena, the best illusionist I knew, couldn’t cast a mental illusion on me.
I came down from the wall and made eye contact with Kang Sumi.
“I’ve experienced something strange. Do information agents often experience things like this?”
“Don’t talk nonsense. This is the first time for me too. That woman is probably…”
“Probably?”
“She seems to be a witch.”
“Didn’t you say that witches are in the company’s secret places?”
“There aren’t only witches who belong to the company in this world. She’s probably a witch the company doesn’t know about. No one but a witch could do something like this. We confirmed she wasn’t a vampire with the witch’s mirror.”
I tapped the dead-end wall with the back of my hand. It was an ordinary wall.
It felt like I was bewitched by a witch.
‘If she’s a real witch, then the fortune she gave might be real too.’
I glanced at Kang Sumi, and she seemed to be thinking the same thing as me. Her eyes were shaking, and she was agitated.
• • •
Kang Sumi repeatedly tried to say something to me but stopped.
It was already past 10 PM. The work was almost done. No, it was more accurate to say it was already done. We had been circling this neighborhood aimlessly for the past 30 minutes.
In other words, Kang Sumi was conflicted right now. I had a feeling about what she was conflicted about. The cause of her conflict was definitely Cassandra’s fortune.
“Kang Sumi.”
I called out to her, who was walking ahead. There was no one around. Only the dim streetlights were illuminating us. I stopped pretending to be a nice person. The voice that came out of my mouth was colder than I expected.
“Why don’t you make a decision now?”
“What, what are you talking about? Late-night snack? For a late-night snack… chicken is good, right? Do you perhaps not like chicken?”
“You’re trying to decide whether to choose between Section Chief Kwak Suhyuk and me. Normally, you would have followed Section Chief Kwak Suhyuk’s orders without question, but Cassandra’s words bothered you, so you couldn’t choose. Because it wasn’t an ordinary fortune teller’s fortune, but a witch’s fortune. Am I wrong?”
Kang Sumi smiled wryly. It was an adult smile that contrasted with her middle schooler-like appearance.
“You knew after all. Well, Kwak Suhyuk’s scheme was a bit too sloppy. Usually, Section Chief Kwak would have tried to handle it quietly over time. I don’t know why, but he seemed to be in a hurry. But you just accepted the task. You must be confident that you won’t be caught?”
“What kind of deal did you make with that guy?”
“I need money and medical facilities. My mother and father are very sick, and my siblings are doing music.”
Music.
It probably wasn’t just at the level of enjoying it. I knew that the arts required a lot of money. And her mother and father were very sick? If they needed medical facilities, they must have been unable to move.
‘Kang Sumi’s current situation is perfect for Kwak Suhyuk, a third-generation chaebol, to take advantage of.’
And both could be solved.
Money wasn’t a big problem for Kang Sumi. Since she was in the company’s information department, she would basically receive a high salary. The problem was medical facilities. If Kwak Suhyuk, a third-generation chaebol, was determined to interfere, she might not be able to receive treatment in Korea.
“Can you solve it?”
“Do you think I can solve it?”
“The witch said you were my benefactor. I’m going to try to believe in the witch. Or rather, the witch’s power. Of course, I won’t just believe it. I know you won’t just help me.”
“There must be something.”
“I have a recording file. A recording of what Section Chief Kwak ordered me to do. It’s a file I prepared when Section Chief Kwak tried to dispose of me. A person like Section Chief Kwak would definitely try to dispose of me when I became useless or troublesome.”
“You’re thorough. Okay. I’ll help you on the condition that you report that data to the higher-ups and stab Section Chief Kwak in the back.”
“If I report this, I’ll be branded as a traitor in the company. There are quite a few people in the company who follow Section Chief Kwak.”
“I’ll give you the medicine to treat your parents and a huge amount of money so your siblings can study music. So you don’t have to work at the company.”
