Choi Gang-hu, who embraced Ryu Seo-ha’s swaying body as if pouncing on it, exhaled a satisfied breath. He tightly bound the one in his arms to his chest with all his heart, as if welcoming long-awaited rain after a prolonged drought.

To his eyes, the cross frame turning to powder and scattering red looked like a shower of flower petals celebrating their reunion. The action of lowering his lips to nibble on the soft earlobe was an instinct driven by thirst.

Ryu Seo-ha quietly closed his eyes while docilely accepting those lips. He couldn’t bring himself to push him away. He didn’t want to push him away. In the end, he entrusted his body obediently, repeating self-assurance that this much would be okay.

“Really, I can’t take my eyes off you for even a moment.”

A voice resembling a lament softly flowed, wetting his ear. The faintly transmitted emotion seemed closer to self-blame than anger. It was a completely different reaction from when he had run away on his own and been caught.

“Who did this to your lips?”

The voice that followed gave off a feeling of suppressing something. Ryu Seo-ha, fully leaning into the broad embrace, shook his head slightly.

“I bit them a little myself.”

“…Were you tortured?”

Choi Gang-hu gently stroked the blood-stained lips with his finger and spoke in an even lower voice. It was a chilling voice that felt like he would horrifically murder any apostle he found immediately.

“No, I was just trying to pull myself together.”

When he shook his head again, a gaze carefully examining his body condition followed.

“Are you hurt anywhere else?”

He felt a little more strength in the arm around his waist. Though asking kindly as usual, self-loathing close to self-reproach seeped through every small gesture, as if he couldn’t forgive himself for allowing another kidnapping.

Skill ‘Healing Light’ is activated.

The level of skill ‘Healing Light’ has increased.

A sacred light gently enveloped the two. It was a light that soothed the anxiety of the man who had seemed to fear nothing in the world.

“I’m fine. Enough to use skills so frivolously.”

Only after he smiled faintly and wrapped his arms around the thick torso did Choi Gang-hu’s constantly hardened expression loosen slightly. A large hand gently brushed up the young lover’s disheveled bangs.

He naturally lowered his head and pressed his lips against his. Ryu Seo-ha reflexively covered his own mouth. Choi Gang-hu’s expression hardened again as he hesitated in front of the snow-white hand covering his lips like a fortress wall.

“I haven’t… brushed my teeth…”

He spilled out an excuse without even time to think deeply. Only then did a light of understanding frost over the face like a mythical figure, followed by a low, hollow laugh.

“I don’t mind.”

“…It’s dirty.”

“Not at all.”

Ryu Seo-ha’s gaze wavered slightly as he looked up at Choi Gang-hu, who was caressing his cheek as if to say what a useless worry that was. It wasn’t that he disliked the kiss. He was only afraid of stealing the precious man’s lifespan because of it.

“I smell.”

Perhaps sensing his intention to avoid it somehow, Choi Gang-hu, who had been looking down at him with narrowed eyes, pretended to sniff like a beast searching for prey. At first it was just an excuse, but with him doing that right in front of his face, he really felt embarrassed.

“I only smell flowers.”

Choi Gang-hu, who had bluntly dropped words that would make others scream in cringe with a tone so matter-of-fact it was blunt, lowered his head again.

“…I want to eat bead ice cream.”

Unable to avoid those lips again, Ryu Seo-ha just blurted out an abrupt story. Perhaps mentioning food that acts as a kind of restraint worked, as Choi Gang-hu hesitated again this time.

“Let’s go back to our house.”

Right after he whispered while slightly raising his heels to press his lips to his cheek with a peck,

“Ah…”

The scenery in his vision immediately changed. It was the Hannam-dong house where familiar warmth lingered.

“Peeyuu─!”

The red bird Ruby, who had fluttered in, hesitated while looking at Choi Gang-hu as it tried to nestle into his arms. Ryu Seo-ha’s eyes widened.

“How?”

As he looked at Choi Gang-hu as if demanding an explanation while removing the annoying red cloth wrapped around his body, a large hand that had grabbed Ruby thrust the bird’s face in front of his eyes. It was like the action of a boy proudly showing off the results of his first fishing trip.

“I found it while looking for you, and I couldn’t just leave it behind.”

As he slowly reached out his hand, Choi Gang-hu placed Ruby on the sofa instead of handing it over, continuing his explanation in an indifferent tone. He said he had found and moved not only the bird but people as well.

Hwang Munseok and Park Minji were detained on an uninhabited island in the East Sea, and the hunters who had gone missing during the operation were on an island in the Mediterranean, now under the protection of authorities and being investigated, he said.

Honestly, it was unexpected. Given Choi Gang-hu’s personality, he wouldn’t have worried about their well-being, so had he calculated the benefits of rescuing them? Unlike his conjecture, maybe he hadn’t completely lost his mind.

If so, he must have controlled the damage to the surroundings during the battle, he thought, feeling inwardly relieved. He had been worried about how to clean up the mess again… It seems the Second Apostle’s words were an exaggerated account.

“Thank you.”

When he expressed his gratitude with a bright smile, a smile appeared on the well-shaped lips of the world’s strongest man who didn’t need to weigh things. It was a smile that fully showed his satisfaction.

“As expected, I knew you’d like it.”

Choi Gang-hu pressed his lips to his round forehead with pecks. It sounded like he was saying he had been thoughtful just to see Ryu Seo-ha’s smiling face one more time. Thinking it might be an overinflated self-consciousness, he quickly shook off the unnecessary thought.

“But how did you find where I was?”

He then asked about something he had been curious about before. He had written down the cult’s branches he knew in the ‘Future Event Log’, but Armenia wasn’t included among them. The closest place to it among the recorded place names was Azerbaijan, which shares a border.

Moreover, even when he had fled to Chinatown before, Choi Gang-hu had found him before long. Then as now, he hadn’t even eaten the bead ice cream containing items for location tracking. Choi Gang-hu just grinned at the question asked with a tilted head.

“Let’s eat first.”

He changed the subject slightly after pressing his lips to his eyelids once more. Only then did Ryu Seo-ha become aware of the hunger clinging to his stomach to the point of making it ache, and he quietly nodded. Once he recognized it, he felt starving.

❖ ❖ ❖

Mysterious sinking of uninhabited island in eastern waters, presumed to be action of From Hell Guild Master

Tsunami hits port cities of various countries, what’s the scale of property damage?

Choi Gang-hu’s consecutive acts of terrorism, an extreme measure against hostile M&A?

Continued sell-off by From Hell’s minority shareholders…

Gangseong Trade shareholders in uproar, “This is essentially stock price manipulation”

Prompt NATO forces dispatch in response to ‘Choi Gang-hu terrorism’, US ambition to expand influence in Eastern Europe?

Japan requests UN Security Council intervention regarding Choi Gang-hu’s habitual terrorism, “More serious issue than North Korean missiles”

Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs preparing to announce official position

Ryu Seo-ha, who had been skimming through news articles, raised his head with a pale face. He saw Choi Gang-hu sitting right next to him in a relaxed posture, drinking coffee.

“Choi Gang-hu…”

“Hm? Is the cheese waffle not good? Should I have them bring out a different flavor?”

Ryu Seo-ha, who had been staring blankly at him talking about waffles so nonchalantly in this situation, let out a deep sigh.

“What on earth have you done…”

Is hasty relief like a magnet that attracts betrayal? In stark contrast to his relief just hours ago, the world was in an uproar. He had no idea where to even begin cleaning up this mess.

From the North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces he had only read about in textbooks getting involved, to various countries around the world submitting agenda items to the United Nations to sanction him, it was enough to make his head spin. The situation had already grown uncontrollably large.

“I controlled my strength moderately.”

“You sank an island, I hear.”

“No one died.”

Come to think of it, the news hadn’t mentioned any deaths either. Given the scale of the accident, he had clearly lost his mind and gone on a rampage, but it seemed he had been mindful to control the tsunami to prevent human casualties even in that state.

“That’s fortunate, but… shouldn’t you not be sitting here like this right now?”

It was surprising, unexpected, and truly fortunate that he had considered human lives even while going on a world tour of rage. The problem was that he didn’t seem to have any intention of cleaning up the issues that had been raised in various countries.

“Then what should I do? Want to go outside?”

Choi Gang-hu put down his coffee cup elegantly like a scene from a commercial and gave a charming smile. Something felt strange. He wasn’t the type of person to let him go outside so easily after causing such a commotion.

“…Where to?”

“Anywhere.”

Choi Gang-hu wrapped one arm around Ryu Seo-ha’s waist and led him towards the walking path. Even as he stepped forward obediently, he thought, ‘I knew it.’ There was no way he would allow an outing so easily right after the kidnapping…

“Huh?”

Ryu Seo-ha, lost in thought, unknowingly let out a puzzled sound. He had naturally expected to see Namsan Tower after coming out to this terrace from the living room, but an unexpected landscape unfolded below the railing.

“What…”

Beyond a forest densely planted with large trees, a long beach had been created. An island surrounded by a sea of brilliant topaz color. His current location was at the very center of that island, on the top floor of a tall spire.