I put a leash on Catastrophe

* * *

“Don’t forget about the auction in 4 days. It starts at 6 PM, and I’ll send the venue by QR code in a message on the morning of the auction day. Oh, and here, take this.”

Hwan-su, reminding Zhi-wu about the auction, took out a thin card from his pocket. The card, about the size of an idol photo card, was made of flexible plastic material.

On it was written something like a code consisting of two letters and five numbers in an elegant font.

“This is the entrance ticket. Don’t lose it. When you check the QR code, you’ll need to enter this to confirm your intention to participate, and present it at the entrance. If you confirm participation and don’t come, it’s not a problem, but if you come without confirmation, there might be issues.”

Hwan-su, once again insistently reminding about this, stood up. He said he would escort them to another exit, not the one through which they entered.

“What kind of relationship did we have in the future?”

Hwan-su asked on the way. There was noticeable concern on his face.

“I… wasn’t a villain, right? Just, considering what I do…”

Although good and evil are usually divided by generally accepted standards, when it comes to a personal level, there are often exceptions, so he seemed worried.

What Hwan-su did, by generally accepted standards, was closer to evil as it contradicted the law, but by the standards of this world, he was a reliable person.

He didn’t deceive or defraud, but worked, receiving a reasonable commission. If all other conditions were set aside, in the case of business relationships or partnerships, he was reliable, and therefore closer to good.

“In this world, yesterday’s enemy can become today’s ally… I don’t know how it was in the future. Ah, I’m not saying that if I was a villain, I’ll conduct business dishonestly. Just curious…”

Hwan-su mumbled as if justifying himself. Zhi-wu, who had been silently listening to his words, shook his head.

“No. Mr. Kim, that is, Kim Hwan-su, you weren’t a villain.”

The real villain was behind him. Except for that pharaoh who was looking around, there were only victims here.

“On the contrary, you were a just person.”

At first, he was just an annoying person. An annoying old man who only looked back at the past and couldn’t adapt to reality. Everyone in the shelter thought so.

And Zhi-wu was a possessor of abilities but couldn’t use them, that is, useless. A half-wit who couldn’t even stand up for one person.

It was natural that two useless people united. Therefore, when he fell into senile dementia, Zhi-wu was responsible for his care.

“You saved many people.”

“…Me?”

Hwan-su looked stunned by Zhi-wu’s words. Looking at his expression that said “That can’t be”, Zhi-wu smiled.

Falling into senile dementia, he became the character he had invented in childhood.

At that time, only a small number of people with abilities remained in the shelter, as many were absent. When monsters unexpectedly attacked, and everyone was on the brink of death.

The dark hero, cold and cruel, but loving people, rushed at the enemies threatening humanity.

He won just a few minutes, but thanks to this, people with abilities managed to return and defeat the monsters.

And this awakened one coward. That coward was Zhi-wu. He fought with all his might, even not knowing how to use his abilities.

Since even an ordinary person without powers could protect people, he, a possessor of abilities, all the more had to do it.

“Yes. You’re a good person.”

“Hmm.”

Hearing the words of the smiling Zhi-wu, Hwan-su pretended not to care, saying “Is that so”. However, judging by how the corners of his compressed lips twitched, he seemed to be holding back a smile.

With this expression that seemed ticklish, he silently walked beside Zhi-wu until he stopped in front of one passage.

“From now on, come here. After all, that passage is secret, people can’t constantly go back and forth there.”

“Okay.”

“Then see you in 4 days.”

Saying this, he slowly walked away. Zhi-wu, watching him leave, went along the passage.

When he climbed the stairs at the end of the passage and came out, he found himself in the same Insadong area, but on an unfamiliar street he hadn’t seen before.

Zhi-wu withdrew cash from the nearest ATM using the debit card received from Hwan-su and looked back at the two silently following him. Martin stood with a simple expression, looking at Zhi-wu, but the pharaoh was different. He stood, grimacing, with a haughty expression as if asking “What are you looking at?”.

Zhi-wu involuntarily sighed and immediately turned away.

‘Instead of going home… better to rent a hotel nearby.’

He thought it would be better to stay in a hotel until the auction to avoid hearing talks about the warehouse again.

‘When the money from the auction comes in, we’ll buy a house with it.’

Zhi-wu was already starting to get a headache thinking about what size house should be to satisfy the pharaoh. Even if there’s a big success at the auction, it won’t be possible to buy a spacious house in Seoul, so he wondered if they should move to the provinces.

‘…Still, Seoul is better.’

This wasn’t a statement of regional discrimination or defense of real estate prices. Seoul was convenient in terms of location, infrastructure, and transport, which made it an ideal place for actions in case of any incidents.

Anyway, the south wasn’t invaded until the moment of return to the past, so the relatively dangerous place in case of any events was Seoul.

A three-room suite, a room for each, should be enough. With such thoughts, Zhi-wu headed to the nearest hotel he had previously found on his phone.

* * *

The Seventree Hotel, located in the center between Insadong and Myeongdong, was not five-star, but four-star, yet it had everything necessary, and the conditions were not bad.

A big plus was the availability of a family suite where three men could stay in one room.

Of course, they could have stayed in other hotels, renting separate rooms, but…

‘It’s unknown what the pharaoh might do if left alone.’

Zhi-wu still didn’t lose vigilance towards him. The current world was the result of his whim, and it’s unknown when it might disappear.

Fortunately, since it wasn’t the season, they managed to get a room without prior reservation. Just in case, Zhi-wu booked the room for a week.

300,000 won per day… Compared to the price of the room they stayed in in New York, this was a trifle. Although it would have been possible to save even more using booking sites, Zhi-wu knew absolutely nothing about this.

“Oh.”

As soon as Zhi-wu opened the door with the key and entered the room, his mouth opened. One entire wall was a panoramic window, through which a view of the bustling center of Seoul opened.

Everything around was brightly lit, as if illustrating the expression “the city that never sleeps”, and yellow and red dots moved back and forth along the streets.

Zhi-wu was admiring, thinking that this is exactly the kind of view people live in high-rise buildings for, when the pharaoh, standing next to him and also looking outside, reached out his hand towards the window.

Although it was transparent, it was still a glass window, not an empty space, but the pharaoh’s hand passed through the glass as if cutting through air.

“What are you doing?! Stop!”

Zhi-wu jumped in shock and grabbed the pharaoh. He turned to Zhi-wu with an expression as if asking what the problem was.

“I want to look around the surroundings.”

“What? No!”

What is he going to do? Zhi-wu panicked and grabbed the edge of the pharaoh’s jacket, but he just snorted mockingly, looking at the agitated Zhi-wu.

“Let go.”

“No.”

The pharaoh, looking at the resisting Zhi-wu, raised an eyebrow and frowned, then simply took off the jacket. The pharaoh once again mockingly looked at Zhi-wu, who stood with a stupid expression, holding the jacket in his hands like a shed skin, and went out through the glass window before he could grab him.

“No!”

Although Zhi-wu tried to grab him, his fingers only felt the hardness of the glass. Ignoring Zhi-wu’s calls to come back, the pharaoh flew up and disappeared.

What to do! When Zhi-wu hurriedly tried to leave the room to follow him, Martin blocked his way. Zhi-wu was already irritated, and now Martin was interfering, but he calmly reassured him.

“Everything will be fine.”

“But…!”

“Even when my lord fainted in a foreign country, he went out, and nothing happened, right?”

“That’s…”

“It’s better to let him do what he wants than to pursue him and cause irritation, which could lead to worse consequences.”

This… was true. Although worry still remained, when Zhi-wu calmed down, Martin’s words seemed right.

But it was very strange.

‘He seems sure about this?’

There was confidence in his words that seemed too strong for someone who had just met the pharaoh. Zhi-wu even began to doubt whether Martin and the pharaoh knew each other before.

‘Although for acquaintances… their relationship didn’t look good.’

If we recall how the pharaoh and Martin argued in the museum, leaving Zhi-wu aside. The pharaoh despised Martin, and Martin calmly reacted to his violence.

But in Zhi-wu’s memory, there was no one like Martin…

“Martin, who are you? Did you know the pharaoh before?”

Finally, Zhi-wu asked directly. Martin smiled slightly at this question.

“I am my lord’s knight.”

“…”

“I will serve only my lord and will not do anything that could harm him.”

This was his only answer. Although he didn’t get an answer about the pharaoh, the last phrase seemed to mean “don’t worry, I won’t betray you”, so Zhi-wu had to reluctantly nod.

In a situation where his control wasn’t perfect, if he angered Martin and he also turned away from him, the number of things to worry about would double.

Life after returning to the past was so difficult that Zhi-wu could only sigh.

* * *

‘Like a leech.’

The pharaoh, having freed himself from Zhi-wu, smirked, remembering Zhi-wu’s bewildered face when he let him slip away.

Although he didn’t like being restricted, Zhi-wu’s desperate behavior was very amusing and interesting. At first, he was very angry, but over time a new feeling appeared.

Although his attitude hadn’t changed much, his mood softened from “I’ll definitely kill” to just “I’ll kill”.

Indeed, this place was different from the city where he woke up, perhaps because it was a different country. Unlike that place where everything was huge, here there was a sense of compactness, and the smell of the air, and the energy of people were also different.

Usually, when he woke up, he didn’t have time to look around, and civilization was almost destroyed, so for the first time he could so calmly survey the surroundings, and this caused a strange feeling.