The Saint Wants to Rest - Chapter 13.1
“How far exactly does this ‘area’ go?”
Ian asked back with a dazed expression.
“Over there. See that dry cleaner sign? From there all the way to the cafe on the opposite side.”
Hong Seo-yun pointed casually, but Ian couldn’t see it. He was currently crouching down and didn’t possess vision as sharp as Hong Seo-yun’s. After all, the eyes of an Awakened boasted a level of sight incomparable to an ordinary person. Still, he could roughly grasp the scale.
“Why?”
“There was talk about redeveloping this neighborhood. If that happens, you might have to sell this house, right? Now, what kind of madman would lay a finger on an S-rank Awakened’s home? But just in case, he went ahead and bought the whole lot.”
“He… he has the money for that?”
“He does. Look, this is 1++ Grade Hanwoo beef.”
The price tag stuck to the plastic wrap covering the Hanwoo looked truly high-end.
“No, I mean, 1++ Hanwoo is expensive, but a house is on a completely different level!”
“Once you become an S-rank Awakened, a few cows’ worth of 1++ Hanwoo is basically pocket change.”
Hong Seo-yun tore open the packaging and placed the beef onto the grill.
“He’s right. I have that much money.”
Choi Jae-heon had already picked up the tongs and was flipping the rapidly cooking Hanwoo.
“So I can buy plenty of the beef our Ian likes so much.”
“I’m the one who bought it today!”
Hong Seo-yun protested, but Choi Jae-heon didn’t even pretend to listen. It was truly strange how they were best friends despite bickering like that every single time. Even when Yoon Tae-gyeom joined in, this atmosphere didn’t particularly change.
Choi Jae-heon, who had been diligently flipping the meat, placed a perfectly cooked piece onto Ian’s plate as soon as it was ready.
“Eat some vegetables too.”
In the midst of it all, he didn’t forget his worried nagging.
“Hyung, you can only truly taste the meat when you eat it by itself.”
Ian focused obsessively on the meat just like he used to. Traditionally, a Korean should wrap the meat in lettuce, but while Ian usually ate his vegetables well, he wouldn’t even spare them a glance when meat was involved. Just as he finished one pack of Hanwoo and was opening the second, Yoon Tae-gyeom arrived.
“Coming straight from work?”
Hong Seo-yun asked, glancing at Yoon Tae-gyeom who was still in his suit.
“Yeah.”
“This is why I didn’t go to the Management Bureau. You’re a slave to the company. Sit down. I shall specially grant you some meat.”
“Forget it.”
Yoon Tae-gyeom sat down across from Ian, since Choi Jae-heon and Hong Seo-yun were already occupying the seats on either side of the boy.
“I met a real madman today.”
“You mean yourself?”
“No, you crazy bastard.”
Hong Seo-yun let out a loud laugh at Yoon Tae-gyeom’s rebuttal.
“A madman on my level?”
“No, worse than you.”
“How so?”
“He looks perfectly fine on the outside, but there’s a monster sitting inside him.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Eavesdropping on the conversation, Ian suddenly thought of Vermouth. He instinctively placed a hand over his heart. This mark—Vermouth, who had been his Guardian Knight, possessed the exact same one.
What was its function? Simply put, it was a location tracker. However, it didn’t mean they could know each other’s location at any time. They had to use their abilities to pinpoint the other.
Thinking about it made his heart turn cold. Ian had woken up once during the night because of a light vibration felt in his chest. That resonance was informing him that Vermouth had used his power nearby. He had chased him all the way to Earth.
Gates are completely separated from Earth, so power generated inside cannot leak out. If it weren’t for this rule, Ian might have been caught by the pursuing Vermouth the moment he returned to Earth.
‘From now on, I must never use my power.’
Even if he did, he had to do it inside a Gate.
‘After everything I went through to get back.’
He would rather die than be dragged back by Vermouth. So, he had to stay sharp. To hide his situation from the older men for now, he nonchalantly picked up a piece of meat and put it in his mouth. The meat, which had been melting a moment ago, now tasted like nothing at all.
‘Vermouth, you son of a bitch.’
Meanwhile, Yoon Tae-gyeom cut the conversation short, looking at Hong Seo-yun—who was leaning his head way too far toward him—with a look of pure disgust.
“Well, you don’t need to know for now.”
Yoon Tae-gyeom wanted to discuss his suspicions about the Vermouth he had met today. But he didn’t want Ian to hear this story. He needed to coordinate with the others and reach a judgment before Ian found out. He wanted to protect Ian, whom he had finally reunited with after five years, at all costs.
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