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Last night, I headed to Cheonik Mountain to meet with the tiger couple.
I was a bit concerned that I called the tiger couple to the mountain in the middle of the night, but I couldn’t think of any other place where we could talk.
‘Yeah, it’s a little… strange to meet in the mountains when it’s so dark, but more so because Woo Kihwan and his crew go around Cheonik Mountain.’
I thought it would be alright since the CSAT is a week away.
According to Kim Yuri, there were quite a lot of Year Three Class Zero students who would take it.
They should be studying for it around this hour.
However, while walking up Cheonik Mountain, I saw a group led by Woo Kihwan.
I quickly hid.
What were they doing here, only a week before the CSAT?
“This concludes today’s nightly secret training. Disperse!”
“Good work everyone!”
A secret training with men shouting that loud?
Perhaps because of the upcoming CSAT, the pressure of the major test has added to the madness of Year Three Class Zero.
After Woo Kihwan and his group disappeared to the convenience store in front of the school, I was able to walk up the mountain again.
When I arrived at the rendezvous point, I saw the couple standing in the dark.
‘…Should I have asked them to meet somewhere else?’
I belatedly regretted making the couple climb up the mountain this late at night.
Perhaps it would’ve been better if I asked Jukho for permission to meet in the bamboo grooves.
“Hello again, Jo Euishin.”
“Come to think of it, it’s a bit late in the evening for a child to go around the mountain alone. We thought about picking you up.”
I am a freshman student.
Though it wasn’t strange to be called a child by a 5,000-year-old tiger couple.
“Hello, I’m sorry to call you at this late hour.”
When I said hello, the couple stopped and seemingly flinched.
They spoke in a proud tone as if I was really a child.
“I see Jo Euishin is very polite.”
“There are many children who cannot greet us well. Well, perhaps it’s because of our masks.”
“And we don’t have many opportunities to talk with children. Even though we’ve lived for a long time, we only encountered a child less than ten times.”
The pressure I felt from their masks was considerable, but perhaps it wasn’t because of the mask.
The way they talk, their gestures…
And the eyes that I could see beyond the gap of their masks always showed deep sadness.
A child who knows nothing might feel fear when he encounters such an intense emotion.
Perhaps that’s why the few kids they met couldn’t even greet them properly.
Thinking about the children who froze in their tracks and the couple who couldn’t possibly know what to say made me feel something I can’t seem to explain.
“Jo Euishin…”
The couple looked straight at me.
I may have been thinking about it for too long in front of the couple.
I reflected on myself and immediately got to the point.
“As I told you through the device, I called you because I wanted to ask for a favor.”
“A favor from the benefactor. We’ll help in any way we can.”
“Since it’s a favor difficult to relay through the device, it’s something that requires our strength, no? Our bodies and minds are prepared.”
The couple must’ve thought I wanted to borrow their fighting power.
They thought I wanted them to break down items or whole people, but that’s not what I’m asking for.
“It was something I could have told through the device. But I thought it was polite to meet and talk in person.”
“…Is that so?”
“What kind of favor is it?”
I swallowed words of apologies for causing them inconvenience.
I might have to apologize again after this anyway.
“I hope you would look at Professor Kim Shinrok’s, Jeokho’s son, torture records of the bear that we have caught so far.”
“What…?”
The couple didn’t respond very positively even when Hwang Jiho, who they had a long-standing relationship with, mentioned Jeokho.
I saw it myself, and yet I come here to mention his name.
“…Come to think of it, we were too flustered to think about it properly at that time.”
“Do you know that the child is also a descendant of the Bear Clan, benefactor? That child is torturing bears?”
“Torture is a painful act.”
The couple’s reaction was natural.
The couple might have not known that Kim Shinrok achieved results in torturing bears.
They were in the garden managed by Jukho almost so they might have not heard of the rumors.
They are out now, but even Hwang Jiho was careful with speaking to them.
Who in their right mind would talk to this couple about Jeokho’s son?
‘No one in the Tiger Clan I’m sure.’
There were once many people around me who would thoughtlessly mention cases of loss of families.
Something they do for fun, to elicit some reaction of pain from me.
They watch my reaction, poking at the incident I went through but not wishing to know more about the people I lost.
On the other hand, the Tiger Clan was not like that.
But I need someone to play the villain.
‘To think that I’m shielding myself behind the title of benefactor…’
A sense of guilt rose, but I went on.
“Descendants cannot physically hurt people of royal lineage whose roots they are connected with. But there was a gap in that rule. Kim Shinrok found that loophole and has been torturing the bear.”
“Gap…?”
I explained how Kim Shinrok conducts his torture.
How he destroys things that the subject felt attached to instead.
He made his subjects suffer mentally and physically through indirect torture.
Upon hearing how Kim Shinrok tortured the bear, the couple’s eyes began to subside.
“Professor Kim Shinrok has a record of everything that I said. The means and process he uses for torture, the information he obtained, and the status of the bear – everything is summarized.”
Kim Shinrok has been meticulously organizing all the torture processes so far.
I only read the report that Kim Shinrok wrote, but the documentation was so superb that I could draw clear mental images in my mind.
Kim Shinrok worked hard to overcome the penalty of his origins.
In other words, the Bear Clan descendant obtained information that even the Tiger Clan could not.
It was a testament to how good Kim Shinrok was.
‘The bear that this couple torture is close to the Black Screen. It must be more difficult to torture them.’
Perhaps, just as Kim Shinrok belatedly tortured the other bear, Hwang Jiho can slowly appease the couple over time.
However, it was uncertain how long that would take.
I can only prepare countermeasures only if I understand the Black Screen a little faster.
“…Benefactor, are you saying this because you want us to leave that bear up to that child?”
They were right, but that wasn’t all that I meant.
‘I need to make the Tiger Clan acknowledge Kim Shinrok. Even if they wouldn’t acknowledge him, just at least think he’s someone worth saving.’
The Nameless Supporting Role’s Tutorial was the beginning of everything.
The Bear Clan may have intended to simply kill middle school students to tarnish Eungwang High, but the biggest factor that led the story to where it went was the death of Kim Shinrok.
In the wake of Kim Shinrok’s death, Jeokho and Hwang Jiho were separated, and Hwang Jiho couldn’t intervene.
‘When I think of the PMH storyline, almost all the tigers except Jeokho and Baekho-gun were active. That’s why I didn’t understand what kind of existence Kim Shinrok was.’
When Yeom Junyeol died, the Dragon Clan gathered together.
With Cheongryong’s leadership, they confronted the state power and Yeouido burned until the Dragon King intervened.
On the other hand, Kim Shinrok ended up being treated as a teacher who died after failing to protect young students.
‘I need to increase the probability of Kim Shinrok’s survival, and leave room for the Tiger Clan to protect him.’
The Black Screen will one day surely set up a number to kill Kim Shinrok.
Hwang Jiho, Jeokho, and Baekho-gun would surely protect him, but that’s not enough.
The Black Screen knows that those three hold Kim Shinrok precious, but the rest of the Tiger Clan doesn’t.
When the day comes when the Black Screen moves to kill him, they would surely take advantage of that gap.
At least I would, if I were the Black Screen.
After all, Kim Shinrok’s fate in PMH was like that.
‘If Kim Shinrok’s position among the Tiger Clan changes without the Black Screen knowing, it would catch them off-guard.’
I was essentially ignoring this couple’s emotions to move to catch the Black Screen, but I decided to do it.
If that couple allows Kim Shinrok to torture that bear and produce good results, the other tigers will have no choice but to acknowledge him.
“…”
The couple listened to me in silence.
I knew they might get angry and I was prepared to take a hit, but the couple was only looking into my eyes.
When the moon was buried behind the clouds and the surroundings became darker, the couple began to talk.
They looked away from me for a moment and looked at each other.
“You always seem to think the same things as me.”
“We suffered the same pain, so our thoughts are bound to flow similarly.”
“…If it was Hwangho-nim who told us that, we would’ve asked him for some more time to think.”
The couple looked at me again.
Their eyes were full of pity.
In the darkness, a couple with eyes mixed with guilt, sympathy, and sadness stared right into me.
“…The benefactor who speaks has eyes the same as ours, so how can we resist?”
“We can’t even ask to give us more time to think.”
My eyes are the same as the couple's?
It was hard to believe, but I don’t think they would lie.
I have eyes similar to those couple, so it seems.
I was reminded of my family who left the world before I did, and I felt like my eyes went dark.
It was fortunate that the surroundings were dim and the couple might not see it.
The three of us stood still and looked at each other for a long time.
If I had a white mask right now, I would wear it right away.
It was hard to show them my bare face.
“We will take the favor of the benefactor.”
“We will look at the records and tell you what we will do.”
I don’t know what decision they would make, but the couple replied that they will look at the records for now.
Their answer eased my nerved.
I swallowed a deep sigh as the couple turned their backs on me.
“See you next time, Jo Euishin.”
The couple’s silhouette slowly disappeared in the dark, and I kept standing in my spot.
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