Chapter 10
Five days later.
Slurp.
The robe thief was eating haejangguk (bone hangover soup). He had come to a soup restaurant with Park Gildong and Jireum to fulfill his promise of buying them a meal.
Seems like nothing’s happened.
Lee Cheoeum looked at his chat window with Hayang. After dozens of lines of heartfelt gratitude, the messages had stopped. He turned off his screen.
The method of controlling behavior by layering another compulsion over brainwashing had severe side effects.
He had wondered if she might contact him asking for after-service since she was still searching for her brother—but since there had been no word so far, it seemed to have ended well.
When should I schedule the rest of the counseling log and the interview?
He needed to make an appointment… but it felt like a hassle.
With a desire to escape reality for a moment, Lee Cheoeum buried his face into the stone pot.
There were people carefully watching the crown of his head.
“—That’s Lee Cheoeum, right? The one who smashed a senior’s head with a soju bottle during a drinking party in freshman year…”
“But if an apostle came running in that urgently, even breaking a window… maybe he’s a hidden powerhouse or something…”
A group of Gahondae students sitting at a nearby table whispered among themselves.
They seemed to be trying not to be heard, but the distance was too close—Lee Cheoeum could hear everything.
Bang!
Unable to tolerate the growing conversation, Park Gildong slammed the table hard.
“Watch what you’re saying!”
The group of students flinched.
“P-Park Gildong…?”
They looked flustered, as if they hadn’t expected the famously sociable and easygoing Park Gildong to get angry.
Park Gildong glared at them with a fierce expression.
“I heard everything just now. You think I’d just stand here and listen while you slap some weird image onto Lee Cheoeum?”
“W-We weren’t—”
“What? Hidden powerhouse? You’re saying Lee Cheoeum is a loser hiding his strength?”
As attention gathered around them, Park Gildong raised his voice.
“He’s just a loser!”
…What is this guy?
Lee Cheoeum paused mid-bite of his soup greens and looked at Park Gildong.
Jireum nodded while biting into a radish cube.
“That’s an accurate assessment. Take it as reference and don’t spread weird rumors.”
Are these guys his comrades or his enemies?
“Should I be thanking you for insulting me right now?”
“I’m telling the truth—why is that an insult?”
“In Korea, truth can still count as defamation.”
“So you admit it’s true.”
Lee Cheoeum silently conceded. It was true that he was a loser.
However…
I may not have strength, but I do have something hidden.
He glanced sideways at his backpack.
Who would expect that an old backpack he had been using since middle school contained an item worth hundreds of millions?
An A-rank item—the Robe of the Thirteenth King—was crammed inside.
“Anyway, you guys should apologize to Lee Cheoeum! Talking like that—”
“Just sit down.”
Lee Cheoeum casually nodded his head.
Ever since Hayang burst in by smashing a window, rumors had been flying around Gahondae.
Yet despite being the central figure of the incident, Lee Cheoeum was living an outwardly ordinary daily life.
“Whoa. It’s Lee Cheoeum.”
“Wasn’t he known for breaking things in freshman year too?”
“Wow, look at that intimidating face…”
“…Hey. He’s looking this way.”
“L-Let’s go. Look down, look down.”
As the students had just said—because he was a loser.
People only whispered behind his back; no one approached him directly. That had always been the case since the freshman drinking incident, when he struck a senior with a soju bottle and ended up in detention.
“Let’s not cause trouble in front of the table.”
Though Park Gildong looked dissatisfied, and Jireum—who had been eating slowly since earlier—seemed irritated by the whispering, Lee Cheoeum didn’t care at all.
“I know your temper is too bad to even give to a dog, so why don’t you step up in situations like this…?”
“Park Gildong.”
Lee Cheoeum called out to the grumbling Park Gildong.
“Do you know someone named Go Hwarang?”
That was what Lee Cheoeum was interested in.
Going back five days—Lee Cheoeum had stolen the item belonging to a man named Go Hwarang without any malicious intent.
He had intended to leave the clothes behind at the place where they disappeared…
What… a flamethrower or something?
The problem had been the flames that engulfed the area.
After confirming that nearby apostles had evacuated, Go Hwarang had cranked the flames up to maximum. With a body no different from an ordinary human, Lee Cheoeum couldn’t walk through that sea of fire unscathed.
Using the robe Go Hwarang left behind had simply been a choice for survival.
Now that he had escaped safely, he needed to return the robe—but how was he supposed to return it to someone he had never met?
At least he was fortunate to have overheard their conversation and learned the name.
If he participated in an S-rank trial resolution, he’s probably a well-known apostle…
Lee Cheoeum decided to use Park Gildong, his information source.
“You don’t know Apostle Go Hwarang?”
Park Gildong looked at him as if he were unbelievable.
“How is your level of information on par with someone who’s lived 20 years in a remote mountain hut?”
“…Do you have some kind of grudge against me lately?”
Lately, his mouth had been getting out of control in a bad way. Slightly taken aback, Park Gildong quickly got to the point.
“You know <Carmel>, right?”
Lee Cheoeum nodded.
To discuss Carmel, one had to first discuss the “Five Great Branches,” and before that, the concept of “branches” itself. And everything began with the “Great Cataclysm.”
The Great Cataclysm was a nationwide natural disaster.
At its outbreak, national borders were sealed by non-physical barriers, and in each country a “leader” emerged to manage the disaster.
Nations resolved the Cataclysm using apostles. Countries that failed to do so were destroyed.
Through that process, it became clear: facing a Cataclysm required group effort.
Even if an apostle could destroy the world alone, no single apostle could stop a Cataclysm.
Thus, the world underwent a major transformation. Apostles began organizing at the national level.
To prevent excessive nationalism, the World Apostle Organization (WAO) was established.
Then, six months after the first Cataclysm—
“Karem is not divided. Karem is one. Karem is <Edena>.”
Karem, the country that produced the most apostles, unified all its apostles under a single organization called <Edena>.
This was the birth of the concept of “branches.”
Soon after, Korea established its first branch as well—
“…And so we created a branch… the name… uh, wing something… Ganabi? Gabei?”
“Branch Leader Hwang Nanse! It’s ‘Kanaf’…”
“Anyway! There are so many good Korean words—why must the name be in Karem language only? Tsk, just call it Ganabi!”
Thus, the era of branches began.
Branches were organizations like companies or adventurer guilds run by apostles. The state supported the branch system and delegated local trials to them.
Most apostles belonged to branches rather than operating individually, and competition among branches became intense.
While many branches rose and fell, Korea’s representative branches stabilized into five.
Those “Five Great Branches” were <Ganabi>, <Burim>, <Haya>, <Chelachal>, and <Carmel>.
Among them, <Ganabi> and <Carmel> were long-standing branches that had never lost their positions since the concept of the Five Great Branches was established.
So there was no way Lee Cheoeum wouldn’t know <Carmel>—yet…
“You know <Carmel> but don’t know Go Hwarang? He’s their branch leader.”
As Park Gildong looked at him in disbelief, Lee Cheoeum vaguely recalled a face from an old article.
“If I remember correctly… it was a woman.”
And a middle-aged one at that. Go Hwarang, by contrast, looked to be in his mid-twenties at best.
“The branch leader changed more than a year ago.”
Park Gildong clicked his tongue.
A branch leader’s item… this just got more complicated. I’d rather just quietly return it.
The other side would probably be relieved to get it back, and might accept it if he returned it outright—but due to security concerns, they would likely investigate his background. That could become troublesome.
“Not sure what made you ask, but high-rank apostles live in a different world from us. From interviews, they all say that once someone faces a Cataclysm head-on, they can never go back to how they were. Don’t get too interested…”
As Park Gildong’s nagging faded into the background, Lee Cheoeum was scraping the bottom of his soup pot when—
Vrrr—
His phone vibrated.
“Ordinary university students like us would never get involved with something like that—”
“Doesn’t seem like zero probability.”
Interrupting Park Gildong’s lecture, Lee Cheoeum looked at the new message.
[Osalo: So you canceled our appointment without notice and haven’t sent a single message for five days^^]
[Osalo: I’ve never met someone this rude in my life]
[Osalo: Is that why your name is Lee Cheoeum (First)^^?]
Ignoring the passive-aggressive tone, he began typing.
[You said you’re affiliated with <Carmel>, right]
A reply came shortly after.
[Osalo: Yes, why?]
[Today’s consultation is free]
[Is 18:00 possible?]
After the read receipt appeared, his phone vibrated again soon after.
[Osalo: Add one more hour to the consultation time.]
Well… this person was also a high-rank apostle, after all.
