30. The Killer Sword

Haru was holding a gun when he returned.

He passed the gun to Do-geon.

"It is from Pyori."

"Pyori....? Do you mean that ugly creature? He gave you this after all that he did just a while ago?" Do-geon asked in annoyance.

"He misunderstood."

"Misunderstood what?"

"Whew."

Haru sighed as he sat down. It was unlike him to be acting like this.

"Pyori is a duduri."

"A duduri? What is that?" Do-geon inquired.

"The beom and the gom were not the only beings that lived here. There were others. It was just that those two were the strongest," Haru explained.

His words reminded everyone of the other tribes that Cein claimed to have seen in his past life.

"The dururi was one of them."

"Haru... do you remember everything now?"

Zeha asked as he knew that Haru had lost his memory a long time ago.

Haru shook his head and continued,

"Although I instantly knew that Pyori was a duduri the moment I saw him... this story that I am about to narrate to you is something that he told me. He said that this story had been passed down from his ancestors."

"Did he tell you everything?"

"Not everything... Whew."

Haru sighed again.

''According to their folktale, Tabae was a traitor."

The duduri tribe trusted Tabae.

It was not just them. All of the other tribes trusted him as well.

This was inevitable because there was no one else that they could turn to for help when the beom were on a rampage killing the other tribes.

The beom was the strongest in the Shin-si, and Tabae had beom blood in him.

"According to Pyori, the duduri and the others supported Tabae to emerge victorious in the battle. However, he broke his promise by driving them out and giving the land to the gom."

Most of the tribes died outside.

However, the duduri tribe managed to last until now because they had dug deep down in this place and have been living there over all these years.

"That can't be. The Tabae that I saw... didn't seem like a traitor," Cein argued.

Haru nodded in agreement.

"I, too, do not have the full picture, but I do not think that Tabae would do such a thing... Do- geon. Are you going to use this gun or not?"

"I'm not using it. Not until Pyori apologizes to Zeha for calling him a mutt," Do-geon huffed.

"Do-geon, I'm all right," Zeha reassured.

"I'm not! A mutt? You don't even call dogs that."

Seeing how adamant Do-geon was, Haru had no choice but to store the gun in a drawer. Haru looked lethargic as ever as he placed the gun inside.

This worried Zeha. He couldn't care less about what Pyori had called him. He was more bothered by the unusual state of his friend Haru.

"Haru, are you... all right?"

Haru grinned bitterly.

"I need some sleep. I am absolutely beat for some reason."

Haru, who had the least amount of sleep among them - probably because he was a rock - retreated to his room to get some sleep and spent the rest of the day in bed.

And so, the whole month went by just like that, with everyone busy hunting down the beom everyday.

Soon enough, it was summer. All throughout the month, Chakho remained completely unaware of their growing reputation in Sin-si for their beom hunting.

+++

Ever since they had met Chakho a month ago, Soyeong, Jeongmi, and Seongjun could not stop talking about them in their school.

Seongjun dubbed Chakho as "The Greatest Beom Hunters of All Time." Sometimes, he shortly called them "Chakho the G.O.A.T."

One day, when Seongjun was gushing over the team to his friends, one of them showed him his phone.

"Is this the Chakho that you're talking about?"

A video was being played on the screen. It was entitled, "Meet the Rising Beom Hunters - Chakho."

The title made it look like an interview with Chakho. However, it was nothing but a recording of the fight captured in the distance.

Zeha and Jooan were in the shot. However, their lightning speed made them barely visible, and they appeared only when they paused at times during the fight.

"Excuse me..."

The students watching heard a voice in the video calling the guys before they left with the beom head.

One of them turned around at the calling as he placed the sword back into its sheath. It was a clear shot.

Seongjun exclaimed, "Man! Isn't he so cool? He's the G.O.A.T!"

"Are you Chakho?"

The guy nodded at the question slightly before he disappeared with the other one. Seeing this, one of the students whose nickname was "Celebrity Detector" predicted,

"They're going to get really popular. Just wait and see."

+++

A few days after the A Department Store incident, Dongcheol held a press conference.

"There are no words to express the feelings of guilt and remorse over the incident that had taken place in the department store. It is my fault for not taking care of my team.

Thus, I have made the decision to permanently remove the people who are responsible for the unfortunate event from the team, so that the rest of my team can continue to hunt the beom. As a commander of the group, I will make sure that this doesn't happen again. Once again, we, Tiger Butterfly, are committed to the safety and protection of Sin-si, just like we always have."

After much apologizing, Dongcheol ordered his members to personally pay a visit to the victims and their families to offer any form of services that would help them get back on their feet.

"Come to think of it, it's not the fault of the commander."

"Right, you know what they say, one bad apple spoils the whole barrel. The bad apples are now gone."

"Let's not blame the majority over a mistake that had been committed by a minority."

After paying people to write positive comments about the force, Dongcheol was finally able to turn public opinion for the better. Now, more people defended the force.

But that was it, and nothing more.

It was hard for them to restore their reputation once their glory had slipped out of their hands.

One month after the incident, they still failed to get their throne back no matter how hard they tried. In fact, another team was just seconds away from taking their throne.

"Chakho..."

Dongcheol watched as an online streamer gushed over the video, "Meet the Rising Beom Hunters - Chakho" that he had uploaded. He was going on about how cool the team was. Most of the comments commended Chakho, so much that it was almost veneration.

The public went wilder than the time that Tiger Butterfly was rising to fame. Based on the comments, Dongcheol thought that this must be because of their handsome looks.

"But still, I don't get the fuss over these kids..." Dongcheol had a bad feeling when he first chanced upon Zeha, and he was right.

None of this would have happened if he had killed him with his own hands back then.

Dongcheol regretted asking his subordinates to do the job.

Now, Zeha and his team Chakho became untouchable because their faces were now known to the public. They had too strong of a fanbase to get rid of them just like that.

However, Dongcheol did not want to accept his fate and hand the glory of being the best beom hunter to others.

He wanted Tiger Butterfly to be the best.

And so, he ordered,

"Go and buy every weapon that's out in the exchange. I don't care how much they may cost.

Just go out there and buy them."

+++

Hupo was idling in an empty house.

He had headed into the base of child traffickers and feasted on five criminals the day before. That satisfied his hunger and made him happy.

"It's nice to rest like this, master," Heoseo, who was sitting beside Hupo, remarked.

"I don't see Maro and Bulti these days," Hupo noted.

Maro, Bulti, and Heoseo were his closest subordinates.

"It beats me. Then again, it's not surprising considering that they must be rejoicing. They loathe the humans even more than any of us."

"Tell them not to go overboard."

"I will. Oh, may I please turn on the TV?"

Heoseo was into TV these days.

As soon as Hupo nodded, he held up the remote and pressed the power button.

It turned on to a news story about the video the online streamer had uploaded.

Just as Heoseo was about to change the channel to something more interesting, Hupo raised his hand to stop him.

"Wait."

The news was playing the video.

It was about two beom hunters fighting against a beom.

"Master, what is it about this that makes you want to watch..."

Heoseo could not finish his sentence.

He saw his master's eyes glimmering in intense darkness. He had never seen this from him.

Hupo recognized the sword that the man was wielding.

It was the same sword that had been used to slay countless beom.

"The Sword of Death...." Hupo growled under his breath.

That's when Heoseo recognized the sword in the man's hands, and his face froze.

Hupo scrunched up his nose.

"Tabae..."

Hupo then jumped to his feet and yelled,

"Tabaeeeee!"

+++

Meanwhile, Bulti was also in an abandoned house, resting from his injury.

The wounds that he had gotten from Zeha and his team were brutal. So he did not recover quickly, just like the wounds that he had gotten from the ancient battle.

"Bulti."

Maro called as he hurled a crying woman he had captured for his injured friend towards him.

"Is this the one who did this to you?"

Maro had a phone in his hand.

He handed it over to Bulti.

What played before his eyes infuriated him so much that Bulti's fangs extended outward by reflex. The woman went hysterical and began to squeal in panic when she saw this.

Thwack!

Maro kicked her unconscious and stopped the video. He then pointed at the sword.

"Don't you remember this sword?"

"Why? What about it? What I remember is his face!" Bulti shouted in anger.

"Hey."

Maro lightly tapped Bulti's head.

"You got to remember this sword as well. It's the sword that was used to kill our father."

When Bulti focused on the black sword Zeha was holding, his eyes shone brightly.

He looked up at Maro to find him smiling icily.

"Yes, we have one more reason to kill him now, don't we?"

+++

He grinned as he watched TV.

Covering his mouth with a fan, he murmured,

"My, my."

He paused it and walked towards it.

The TV had a Yisal logo at the edge. From the TV to the air conditioner, mobile phone, electronic appliances, cosmetics, and basic necessities, it was hard to find things in Sin-si that were manufactured by a group that was not Yisal.

Hwanwoong was the owner of it.

Hwanwoong peered at the sword and placed his index finger on the screen, squinting his eyes as he did so.

He then traced the outlines of the sword.

"My, my."

He ambled around the spacious office and sat back onto his sofa.

"My... I think that I've seen the sword somewhere..."

When he raised his arm, a creature lurking somewhere in a dark corner of the office flew to perch on it.

It looked like an eagle, but it had a snake's tail and the ears of a monkey. It was a strange creature.

"Doesn't he look like he's good with the sword?"

Hwanwoong asked gently.

The creature let out a screeching sound.

"I thought I believed they would destroy themselves on their own, but now that the sword is out, I cannot merely sit and watch."

He scratched the creepy eagle's head. And as if amused, he joyfully added,

"I guess it's time, don't you think?"