The Returner Chapter 274

"Theoretically, it’ll be difficult." (Affeldrichae)
"Oh?" (Jeong Hae-Min)
"At the end of the day, she’s a demonic being. Without dark Mana, she won’t be able to maintain herself. There is a limit to the supply of it in this world, so once her reserve of dark Mana runs out, she will have to return to the demon world in order to survive." (Affeldrichae)
"Okay, the reserve of her Mana, is it…. When will that run out, though?" (Jeong Hae-Min)
Affeldrichae seemed to be calculating something for a little while before making her reply.
"Perhaps, in around five hundred years?" (Affeldrichae)
"…….."
Jeong Hae-Min didn’t really believe that this blondie was an actual Dragon until now, but it seemed that was true. By the way, were all Dragons as stupid as this one?
"That means she’s going to be around here basically forever." (Jeong Hae-Min)
"No, like I said, she can only stay for another five hundred years or so." (Affeldrichae)
"Yes, yes. She’s not going anywhere." (Jeong Hae-Min)
Jeong Hae-Min cleanly ignored Affeldrichae and moved on.
Did this Dragon lady fail to realise what the time period of 500 years meant to a human being?
She heard that Dragons were much smarter than humans, yet at the moment, it was hard to tell how true that was.
"Okay, so…." (Jeong Hae-Min)
Jeong Hae-Min scratched her head.
"It’s already a pain in the neck that a woman claiming to be his wife showed up, but then, she also happens to be a demon king too, and she’s going to stay at Ji-Hyuk’s place from now on. That’s the gist of it, right?" (Jeong Hae-Min)
Kim Dah-Som’s expression hardened like stone.
"What a freaking wonderful situation this is." (Jeong Hae-Min)
"We must eradicate her, then." (Kim Dah-Som)
"Ng?" (Jeong Hae-Min)
"Didn’t you say that she’s a demon king? We must get rid of her, then." (Kim Dah-Som)
"Groan…."
Although what she said was correct, talking was cheap in this case.
"What can we do about a demon king that’s not hostile towards humanity? The amount of fighting and sacrifice needed to kill a demon king like that is no joke you know? We can’t just go on a wild adventure, now can we? And also…." (Jeong Hae-Min)
Jeong Hae-Min didn’t want to finish her sentence, so she closed her mouth shut, instead. Without Yi Ji-Hyuk stepping up to help, she wasn't sure if all the ability users in the world would be able to subjugate this demon king on their own.
From what she observed so far, well, she was deeply sceptical about it.
Even if she was nominally a non-combatant NDF agent, she was definitely not blind and could see just how incredibly powerful a demon king was.
Anyone would think that, as long as a demon king wasn’t hostile, the best choice available was to simply leave it alone.
"What a relief it is that you seem to understand that." (Seo Ah-Young)
Jeong Hae-Min frowned slightly as Seo Ah-Young entered the cafe.
"Don’t try anything unnecessary, unni. If you end up causing a scene, I don’t care who you are, I’ll throw you inside a jail cell." (Seo Ah-Young)
"Who said anything about causing a scene?" (Jeong Hae-Min)
"Hmm, maybe my ears aren’t working properly? I think I heard something weird just now." (Seo Ah-Young)
"……….."
Jeong Hae-Min angrily chugged the blameless Americano down her throat.
"Aht?! Too hot!!" (Jeong Hae-Min)
"Tsk, tsk." (Seo Ah-Young)
Seo Ah-Young shook her head.
Why were these ladies holding an emergency response meeting as if this was a huge crisis?
Not only that, this emergency meeting nominally held in order to figure out what to do against a demon king was actually a secret rendezvous of a bunch of infatuated girls.
"Just what is so likeable about that guy, anyway…." (Seo Ah-Young)
"I never said I like him, you know??" (Jeong Hae-Min)
"Why don’t you wet your lips with saliva first?" (Seo Ah-Young)
"Hng." (Jeong Hae-Min)
Jeong Hae-Min swished her head away.
"Why don’t you worry about your own love life, instead?" (Jeong Hae-Min)
"Ng?" (Seo Ah-Young)
"Sure, the bunch of us worrying about a married man are all idiots, but here’s the deal - you interested in a guy drooling all over another man’s wife don’t seem all that impressive to us either." (Jeong Hae-Min)
Griiiit.
Seo Ah-Young gnashed her teeth.
Not because she was angry at Jeong Hae-Min, though. No, she simply ended up recalling Choi Jeong-Hoon’s dazed, dumb-looking face from earlier, that was all.
"This isn’t the time to diss each other." (Seo Ah-Young)
"N-ng." (Jeong Hae-Min)
The two women figured that biting at each other like this would only give them scars and no tangible solutions, so they dramatically called for a ceasefire.
It was then, Choi Jeong-Hoon also stepped inside the cafe.
"Here…. Everyone gather ar…." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
"Shut up and start explaining already, will you!!" (Seo Ah-Young)
"Hul….." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
He only just got there but was already subjected to a torrent of abuse. He wanted to protest the unfairness of it all, but after seeing Seo Ah-Young’s expression exuding chilling, murderous air, he promptly gave up on even trying.
He felt that he’d be under even more intense abuse for the entirety of next month if he opened his mouth and said something unnecessary.
‘I haven’t done anything wrong, though….’ (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
Obviously he was unhappy, but sadly for him, the world didn’t operate logically all the time. So, he simply got right down to the briefing, instead.
Of course, he did his best to avoid Seo Ah-Young’s glare in the meantime.
The NDF agents also rushed inside the cafe around this time as well.
"N-ng?" (Jeong Hae-Min)
Jeong Hae-Min couldn’t really understand this situation, her eyes opening up wider. Why were they suddenly showing up here, anyway?
"I called them here." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
"Why?" (Jeong Hae-Min)
"We still need to hold an agency-wide meeting, but it’s a bit awkward to leave the post unattended, so this can’t be helped. So, it’s obvious I called them here." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
"Oh…." (Jeong Hae-Min)
Kim Dah-Hyun spotted his younger sister and his eyes went rounder in confusion.
"D-Dah-Som-ah? What are you doing here?" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
"It’s nothing." (Kim Dah-Som)
"Doesn’t seem that way, though?" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
He had no clue what’s going on here, but too bad, Kim Dah-Som’s mind wasn’t settled down enough to kindly provide an explanation in front of all these people.
"Let’s talk about it later. Later." (Kim Dah-Som)
"N-ng." (Kim Dah-Hyun)
Choi Jeong-Hoon summarised the situation.
"Indeed, it’s for the best to discuss this a bit later. For now, we have something we need to prioritise on first." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
Before he went ahead and said something, the black-suited agents quickly ushered every other customer in the cafe outside. In any other establishment, a storm of complaints would’ve resulted from such an action, but maybe because this was the ability user residential area, things went rather smoothly.
Soon, the only folks remaining inside the empty cafe were the NDF agents as well as Kim Dah-Som. Choi Jeong-Hoon quietly stared at her, prompting Jeong Hae-Min to pout slightly.
"Leave Dah-Som be for now. You can say she’s also a related party here." (Jeong Hae-Min)
"M-mm. I see." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
It wasn’t as if he felt wholly satisfied by this arrangement, but well, he too had to agree that she being in the loop would be the best for everyone.
"Alright. The first thing everyone here should know is…. Right now, there’s a certain individual currently residing in Mister Yi Ji-Hyuk’s house, and it’s a demon king." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
"Euh…." (Park Seong-Chan)
Park Seong-Chan shuddered involuntarily.
What with his role being a ‘Tanker’, he was injured the most during their battles against the demon kings, not to mention suffering from unimaginable agony, too. Understandably, just the mere mention of ‘demon king’ made his teeth clatter all by themselves.
"Why is a demon king living in Mister Yi Ji-Hyuk’s house?" (Park Seong-Chan)
They couldn’t help but question the logic of this development as they didn’t know the details of the current situation. Everything they had witnessed so far told them that these lifeforms called demon kings were clearly hostile towards Yi Ji-Hyuk.
They couldn’t understand what those creatures said, but it was still not that hard to decipher the animosity from the tone of voice, the facial expressions, as well as the actions of these demon kings.
"Is Mister Yi Ji-Hyuk in danger?" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
Kim Dah-Hyun shot up from his chair.
The cafe’s owner, utterly oblivious to the context of this meeting, stopped making coffee and flinched slightly at the Path Drifter’s aggressive aura.
"No, it’s not that." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
Choi Jeong-Hoon calmed Kim Dah-Hyun down and inwardly clicked his tongue.
‘Doesn’t he have any pride?’ (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
Out of everyone here who got tortured by Yi Ji-Hyuk, Kim Dah-Hyun arguably had to endure the worst of it. But a mention of the former being in danger, and the latter got all riled up like this, prompting Choi Jeong-Hoon to feel somewhat flabbergasted.
He thought that all those sucking-up to Yi Ji-Hyuk with ‘Hyung-nim this and hyung-nim that’ was simply a strategy to survive, but maybe it wasn’t, after all?
If this guy was indeed thinking like that, then this matter couldn’t be overlooked.
"It’s not that. It seems that Mister Yi Ji-Hyuk actually is an acquaintance with this particular demon king." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
"With a demon king??" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
"Wait, that doesn’t sound all that strange when you think about it?" (Park Seong-Chan)
Although some muttered in uncertainty for a bit, they all accepted the situation pretty quickly.
For sure, Yi Ji-Hyuk and demon kings wouldn’t have chatted away if they didn’t know each other. Half of their conversation was filled with nothing but provocation and biting sarcasm, but still, such a thing was possible only because they were acquaintances to begin with.
Besides, the agents here thought that they wouldn’t feel weirded out to learn Yi Ji-Hyuk being a pen pal with a god at this point, never mind a demon king.
Seriously now, was there anything that guy wouldn’t do, anyway?
"The demon king is currently claiming to be Mister Yi Ji-Hyuk’s significant other." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
"Mm, I see. Eh? Significant other?" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
Kim Dah-Hyun’s brows trembled.
"Are you saying that it’s his wife?" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
"That question seems to be repeating itself quite often lately, but yes." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
"W-what did Mister Yi Ji-Hyuk say?" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
"He’s rejecting her, but hasn’t specifically denied the relationship." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
"That means she is really his wife!! If it wasn’t true, that guy would’ve been throwing a massive tantrum by now!" (Park Seong-Chan)
Park Seong-Chan’s words prompted everyone to nod their heads.
"Right, right. He’s not the type to hold back."
"He’s the type to argue that something right is wrong, so there’s no way he’d accept something wrong as right here."
"Yeah, he’s ballsy enough to cause a scene in the Blue House, so he wouldn’t turn a blind eye in such a situation."
Choi Jeong-Hoon nodded his head.
"Looking at how everything’s been unfolding so far, it seems to be true." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
"Really….?"
The gaze of everyone present here suddenly focused on the group of females occupying a single table.
"What are you all looking at??" (Jeong Hae-Min)
Jeong Hae-Min bared her teeth, prompting the gazes to avert away immediately.
"Keu-hmm." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
Choi Jeong-Hoon relied on a fake cough to draw the attention back to himself.
"In any case, there’s a demon king residing in Mister Yi Ji-Hyuk’s house. You all understand what this means, yes?" (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
"You telling us to emigrate?"
"…………."
Choi Jeong-Hoon almost ended up nodding his head unconsciously just now. But well, that did sound like the most logical response one could think of at the moment.
"It’s already impossible to deal with just Yi Ji-Hyuk alone, but now there’s a demon king on top of that? Aigooo, my life…."
"Should I just really emigrate?"
Grumblings bubbled up from here and there.
"Everyone, please calm down…." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
Choi Jeong-Hoon could only smile wryly.
He hadn’t thought about that yet, but after seeing the reactions of these people, he finally realised that the situation was rather serious, indeed.
"That’s actually the reason why I asked all of you to come here today. Regardless of what, there’s a demon king in Mister Yi Ji-Hyuk’s house, and that creature is not very far away from the headquarters of the NDF." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
A demon king in the middle of Seoul, is it….
England had pretty much lost its ability to function as a nation due to the after-effects of a demon king showing up in London.
Yi Ji-Hyuk had desperately fought it and won in the end, but the city was already half-destroyed even before the NDF arrived there. And the battle between the two had completely levelled the place flat afterwards.
A country with its capital all blown to hell wouldn’t be able to function properly, now would it?
England had fallen to the level of a third-world country where it couldn’t even deal with the Gates opening up within its own territory without other nations’ support.
‘It’ll be the same story here, too.’ (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
If trouble suddenly developed between Erukana and Yi Ji-Hyuk, and that led to a fight, then it was very much possible for Seoul to be blown to smithereens.
"That’s horrifying." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
Just imagining it alone was a scary prospect.
‘A quarrel between a married couple might cause the downfall of a whole nation….’ (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
The implied scale here was just enormous to imagine.
How was anyone supposed to mediate the domestic dispute between those two??
"I-in any case, the NDF will enter the emergency stand-by mode for the time being. We will provide the maximum level of support until that demon king becomes fully acclimatised to our country and prevent any mishaps from happening." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
"Talking is cheap, you know…."
Excuse me, who here doesn’t know it’s a difficult task?
But, it still needs to be done regardless of its difficulty, that’s why we’re here. (Choi Jeong-Hoon’s inner monologue)
Choi Jeong-Hoon shook his head. It sure was a tough thing for a superior officer to answer every single complaint from his subordinates.
"By the way…" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
Kim Dah-Hyun asked again.
"Let’s say that we keep our eyes on them, but what do you expect us to do when they start quarrelling?" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
"……….."
"Call the cops?" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
"………."
Choi Jeong-Hoon felt despair at that potential situation with no answer whatsoever. It was true that there was no way to stop those two.
"What are you all worried about?" (Jeong Hae-Min)
Thankfully, though, Jeong Hae-Min came up with a simple solution for that.
"Just call Ji-Hyuk’s mom." (Jeong Hae-Min)
"Oh….." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
Ah, so there was that, huh.
Choi Jeong-Hoon dazedly nodded his head.
Fin.
Psst! Psst! Click here and join our YouTube Channel