I could feel the tension in the air.
The name of the company was boldly advertised as something fishy. I had a feeling there must be information there.
But would it be okay if I suddenly said I would attend? If I showed too much enthusiasm, they might think I was suspicious. I hesitated for a moment, and then Sapphire spoke again.
“Don’t worry. You’re probably tired if you come after work, right? We’ll provide late-night snacks and pay you an hourly wage. You’re welcome to bring a friend, too.”
“…….”
I pretended to consider for a moment, then replied, “Yes, I’ll be there then.”
“Hoho, that’s great.”
Just like that, the night after my fifth day of part-time work. I finally met up with Ki Yoohyun, we agreed to attend the religious meeting in question.
Naturally, I invited Choi Yichan to join us, but he said he had to check something at the warehouse and would join us later.
Hmm. Still, it would be nice to have him along. I send another KakaoTalk to Choi Yichan, but he doesn’t reply. I have no choice but to move first with Ki Yoohyun.
“Nieun, Yooheon-ssi, this way.”
The manager showed us the way.
We finally have a clue to access the secret behind this place. There are only two days left of the quest. I don’t know exactly how often these Seonghye gatherings are held, but I have a feeling this is our only chance. I must take this opportunity to find a clue.
“Nieun-ssi, your left arm and left leg are going out together.”
“…….”
Beside me, Ki Yoohyun whispered. Ooops. I must have been too nervous.
There was an office of Seonghye Enterprise in the building right next to the cafe. The meeting was held in the conference room of the building. There was a podium and a beam projector in front, and it was a room with a large table for everyone to sit around. The overall atmosphere was casual. There were maybe thirty people in total, and I recognised some of the employees I’d met a few days earlier at a drinks party.
We were the last to enter. We sat down at an empty head table and it didn’t take long before the lights went out and the beam projector lit up.
A promotional video of Seonghye Enterprise was played. It was about how they started as a production guild and expanded their business, blah, blah, blah. It was boring and uninspiring as I knew it was a lie.
The lights came back on in the room, and to applause, Sapphire, whom I had met earlier, appeared at the podium.
“Thank you for your hard work this week, believers. The journey to spread the truth of stars around the world is paying off.”
“Through the voice of the stars, humans can be freed from samsara.”
“The stars have watched over us since the beginning of time. They still give us revelations to free us from the shackles of the infinite cycle.”
A gentle, unemotional tone of voice. In other words, in a sleepy tone, Sapphire continued his speech. I tried to listen intently, but it was a repetition of nonsensical words. It sounded like he had taken words he’d heard somewhere before and pieced them together.
“Dia has praised you, and Dia will be visiting soon.”
Clap clap clap. The crowd cheered with slow applause.
Dia? Who is that?
But no one explains. I can only assume it’s someone higher up, because it felt like a diamond was stronger than a sapphire.
Sapphire spoke one last time before stepping down from the podium.
“Hoho, everyone, you must be hungry.”
Click. The door to the conference room opened and the person who walked in….
“Eh……?”
“Delivery is here!”
It was …. the delivery man from a Chinese restaurant.
The delivery man skillfully set the food on the table, as if he had been here several times. Soon, wrapped fried dumplings and sweet-and-sour pork were placed in front of each of us.
This was an unexpected development. I glanced over and saw that Ki Yoohyun had also been caught off guard.
I poked the silver teaspoon I had taken out of my inventory beforehand into the food, just in case. There was no reaction. The name on the chopsticks’ wrapper told me it was an ordinary delivery restaurant in the neighbourhood. It seems to be a good place, judging by its high ranking on the delivery app.
Let’s try it next time we have a chance … I thought to myself as I casually clinked my chopsticks in sync with the atmosphere around me.
‘These guys … isn’t it pretty boring?’
The company introduction video looked like a low-budget production, and Sapphire’s speech was contentless and boring. In the conference room, in addition to the regular employees, there were also executives called Platinum. They, too, chattered amongst themselves in homemade, poorly stitched robes.
This gathering is far too tacky to be some dreaded cult meeting in the shadows to resurrect a demon. It’s more like a real social gathering, a dinner party?
Even the names they call themselves, Platinum and Sapphire, just sound ridiculous.
Are they only pretending to be harmless because there are Ki Yoohyun and I who are outsiders? It’s not uncommon for cults to be friendly at first, then imprison and intimidate their members.
They’ll show their true colours later.
‘Hmmm…..‘
We’ll find out in a little while.
By the time most people had finished eating, Sapphire stepped up to the podium again.
“Everyone, please give us a round of applause. This is Dia, the new leader of the Church of Starry Wisdom.”
…. the Church’s leader?
If the information before the regression is correct, the leader is the so-called final villain.
In a place like this, where the faint smell of Chinese food lingers in the air and makes your stomach churn, a final villain suddenly appears? Is this a fast-paced story that skips the small boss and goes straight to the final boss?
Even in a world that favors fast pacing, isn’t this too fast?
I swallowed my nerves and looked at the podium. The lights in the room went out, leaving only the podium dimly lit. Soon, a man dressed in white, just like Sapphire, appeared on the podium.
That must be the leader.
“……..!”
Ki Yoohyun, who had been looking at the podium with a surprised expression for a moment, stood up. I asked him with only the shape of my mouth.
“What’s wrong?”
“Let’s go out.”
Ki Yoohyun pointed to the outside with his finger and slipped out. Soon, Dia began his speech. It was just a few different words from Sapphire’s speech. I jumped to my feet as people cheered for Dia.
“Nieun-ssi, where are you going?”
“Eu-aah!”
In surprise, I almost screamed, but fortunately I covered my mouth in time.
It was the manager sitting across from me. In this dark and noisy place, the manager was surprisingly perceptive and noticed my movements. She’s scary.
“I need to go to the bathroom for a minute.”
“The bathroom is outside, to the left.”
I walked out and headed to the right.
Ki Yoohyun, who came out first, was waiting for me in the corridor. There was no other sign of presence, since it seemed that all the staffs were in the conference room, but I kept my voice as low as possible and asked.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s someone else.”
“What?”
“The leader who just came in is different from the leader of the cult I remember.”
“Maybe they’ve elected a new leader?”
“I doubt it…….”
K Yoohyun paused for a moment, then uttered the same sentiment as me.
“It’s all a bit lame.”
“That’s true.”
Let’s recall what we know about the Church of Starry Wisdom. It was once the force behind the Awakening Center. They gathered children, summoned something terrifying, and were involved in Ki Yoohyun’s awakening. A crazy religious group that has since disappeared from the public eye, but in the past, before the regression, they tried to resurrect a demon.
What a terrifying cult…….
The group we saw today was like a hobby group pretending to be the Church of Starry Wisdom. Everything about it was lame, and there was an air of self-indulgence about it. They were desperate to impress us by boosting that they were the Church of Starry Wisdom.
I reread the Ether-Wiki description of the Cult.
[It was discontinued about 10 years ago, but it has been revived.]
I wondered if the revived here meant an impersonation, not a real Cult resurrection.
Ki Yoohyun came to the same conclusion as me.
“It’s clear. They are fake, impersonating the name. It’s too different from the cult I know.”
However, even if they were not the real Church of Starry Wisdom, the questions still remained. Super Buff Coffee, with locations all over town, plus this headquarters building. It must have cost a fortune. Will these cult wannabes have the brains to control a business of this magnitude? It doesn’t seem that way at all.
“Is there really someone else behind this?”
“It seems highly likely.”
“……..”
He must have noticed, too, that the people he’d thought of as the evil side before the regression were an illusion. So where was the real mastermind behind all of this?
Our doubts deepened, but it was not the time to be immersed in leisurely thoughts. Now that we knew they’re fake, there’s no point in coming here anymore. We must find out the secret of the coffee.
“Anyway, now’s our chance to investigate the cafe.”
“……Let’s go.”
We muffled our footsteps and headed towards Super Buff Coffee.
***
Here’s one poor woman.
“Heu, heuk … why is my life like this…..”
Ju Noeul recalled the tragedies that had occurred. First, it was decided that Jun Noeul would be reappointed as the president of the Korea’s Hunter Association. This was because she was caught again in a lottery held on New Year’s Day.
Is this Samjae1? How can she be so unlucky? Should she ask a priest hunter to cast an exorcism? She held the lottery in her hand and lamented, but the result did not change.
The second tragedy was being blocked from the Hunter Channel. Of course, she has no regrets about picking a fight, because she was right and they were wrong. However, she was bored out of her mind when she couldn’t access her usual community for a month.
She even lost out on S-Class Hunter Choi Yichan, who she was actively trying to recruit.
“Thanks for the good offer, but I’ve already made up my mind.”
A straightforward refusal with no room for argument. She didn’t even have time to negotiate the terms.
“If that’s the case, it can’t be helped … I understand…….”
She turned and walked away coolly, as if she had no regrets, but Ju Noeul was lying to herself.
This was not the end of the story. The greatest tragedy she faced was this.
“We are closed for the time being.”
– Cafe Rieul
It was the news of the shortened operation of Cafe Rieul. She hadn’t been able to go to the cafe for several days because it closed at the same time as Ju Noeul was finishing up her daily’s work.
Because of that, Ju Noeul was bored to death.
With no coffee to drink, no slime to watch, and no comms to play, what was she supposed to do with her free time? How on earth do other people live without being a fanatic?
“Haaa, I’m bored….”
How did she get to this point?
If we go back to the beginning, the tragedy started with that fake cafe, Super Buff Coffee.
It had nothing to do with the failure of Choi Yichan’s recruitment or her reappointment as president of the Korea Hunter Association, but that’s beside the point. She was bored and needed something to resent.
“There must be some sort of foul play. I have no proof, but my keen senses tell me so……!”
Ju Noeul pushed herself up from the couch in the Royal Guild leader’s office.
“Alright, let’s go to that fake cafe. I will find something wrong with it, whether it’s illegal parking or a fire code violation, and I will report it all.”
She was about to leave with an insidious plan in her heart.
Suddenly, the door opened and a subordinate entered.
“Guild leader, where are you going? The guild leader of the White Silver Guild contacted us and asked to see you for a moment.”
...
Translator’s Corner:
Samjae (삼재): three years of misfortune based on zodiac birth signs, refers to three disasters that return to humans in a 9-year cycle. This word is originally a Buddhist term, meaning the three major natural disasters (fire, water, wind). To Koreans, the word Samjae brings misfortune and foreboding to mind. So, Koreans regard the period of three disasters as a dangerous period in life. In the old days, people attributed samjae to the disasters of war, infectious disease and famine. It also implied calamities such as fire, flood and wind. I’m not familiar with this term so if you want to know more you can read it on https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/culture/2023/08/135_129806.html#:~:text=The%20term%20%22samjae%22%20means%20three,as%20fire%2C%20flood%20and%20wind. ↩︎
I GOT SICK AS SOON AS I TRIED TO ADAPT TO MY USUAL LIFE WAAARGH after spending two months in a rural village with fresh air and cool weather, going back to city with hot temperature is a torture … when will the rainy season come….
Also, if you guys think after running this blog for years, I only found out about how to use footnotes just now … you guys are right askjdhfjladjdsjlfd I will edit past chapters footnotes when I have time T_T
