Returnee's S-Rank Management Guide

Chapter 213 : The Suit Shop That Brings Storm (2)

The Suit Shop That Brings Storm (2)

To Alencia, the existence of Jung-woo had always been that of a companion by her side.

He was the Polaris who reached out so that she would not lose her way.

Therefore, she had never felt the need to monopolize him.

She knew all too well that she was not the only one relying on him, and she deeply understood what the others felt as they stayed by Jung-woo's side.

'But... isn't it okay to do this sometimes?'

She hadn't intended to do anything special.

It was just about buying him a suit. That was all.

'My back is itching.'

Jung-woo let out a sigh at the intense gaze following him from behind.

'What on earth is going on.'

He had only wanted to get suited up, and yet, here he was, trapped in this situation.

He couldn't even figure out how to interpret all this, nor did he know why it was happening, so Jung-woo had no choice but to quietly be pulled along.

What could he possibly do in this situation, after all?

"Alencia looks really excited about this."

"Instead of hiding here, why don't we just chase them down and bring him back?"

"What will you do if they run off?"

In this situation, Alencia's abilities were nearly absolute.

If they approached her recklessly, and if Alencia really decided to run off with Jung-woo, there was no telling where they might end up.

It was entirely possible for them to be on the other side of the globe in the blink of an eye.

"... Heung, making a fuss over just buying some clothes."

Yeon-ji's prickly voice reached them from behind as she watched the two.

Ah-yeon and Soo-ah both clicked their tongues as they looked at her.

"Yet, you're a traitor."

"......"

Of course, Yeon-ji's minor resistance was easily suppressed by a single comment from Ah-yeon.

From Ah-yeon's perspective, it was like someone she had offered love advice to had suddenly stabbed her in the back.

"... It's not like I was trying to do anything."

"You were smiling like an idiot after giving Jung-woo oppa a ride on the back of your motorcycle."

"I-I did not smile like an idiot, okay? Can you not make up stuff?!"

After shouting like that, Yeon-ji fixed her lips self-consciously.

'Did I really look like that?'

Honestly, she couldn't remember her own expression when Jung-woo was riding behind her.

By the time she had come to her senses, they had already arrived at the department store.

'Haa, I can't live like this.'

She had always thought of him as someone she could rely on.

But somewhere along the way, his presence had become too great to ignore.

The decisive moment was probably what had happened at Odyssey.

If it hadn't been for him, Yeon-ji wouldn't have become one with Yuria, nor

could she have defeated Sol Mayer.

No—maybe even reaching S-rank would have been a distant achievement for her.

'The collar.'

Back then, Jung-woo had returned the collar to Yeon-ji.

She suddenly realized, anew, that the collar—used as nothing more than an excuse—was now gone.

She also felt a touch of regret.

That collar had symbolized her and his special relationship.

'Does that look like the face of someone who didn't think anything?'

Ah-yeon stared at Yeon-ji's expression with a wry, cold gaze.

But, well, she conceded that could happen.

She roughly knew what had gone down between Yeon-ji and the Odyssey.

'Anyway, we can't go on like this.'

Ah-yeon thought to herself.

She needed to be a bit more proactive in showing her feelings.

Wasn't she the one whom Jung-woo came to first?

How dare these latecomers...

"Meow."

Lost in thought, Ah-yeon watched as Mimos had crept up to Soo-ah and began scratching at the floor.

'Hm?'

Ah-yeon stared quietly at Mimos' strange behavior.

Somehow, Mimos' movements and cries were different from usual.

While she was staring at Mimos with a puzzled heart—

Mimos' body suddenly sank into the ground.

"Huh?"

It wasn't just a figure of speech: Mimos' body truly sank through the floor of the department store and vanished.

Ah-yeon rubbed her eyes and stared at the spot where Mimos had been moments ago.

"Uh, unni? I think Mimos just disappeared into the ground."

'So I wasn't the only one seeing things.'

Apparently, Soo-ah had seen Mimos vanish too.

Same went for Yeon-ji—her usually aloof face was now staring dumbfoundedly at the spot where Mimos had vanished.

"It wasn't an ordinary cat if that person brought it."

Even so, she hadn't expected Mimos to phase through the floor like a ghost.

The three exchanged glances and nodded.

They needed to chase after and find out why Mimos had suddenly disappeared.

***

"Hm?"

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing."

Alencia looked at Jung-woo, who was dressed in a suit.

She was used to his fierce features by now, but the suit fit him well.

Was it because he moved his body so much?

'But still...'

As Alencia went around the famous brands in the department store, she sensed something strange coming from the basement.

Should she call it demonic energy... or something similar to it?

Maybe it was because she was a saint that she was more sensitive to such things.

Or maybe it was that she felt the electric current of the department store tugging downward.

"Manager, I'm going to step out and take a call."

Jung-woo seemed not to notice, preoccupied as he was with the suit.

Or maybe the signal was simply too faint for him to sense at all.

Alencia wavered about whether to tell Jung-woo about this strange feeling—but decided not to.

'He's been running around nonstop.'

He should be allowed to relax when it was time to rest.

Whatever it was, Alencia wanted to deal with it herself without involving Jung-woo this time.

"Mimos disappeared into the ground?"

「Exactly as it sounds. Mimos suddenly slid right into the ground. We're chasing it now.」

Could it be that it had sensed even more than she had?

In fact, Alencia did know Mimos wasn't an ordinary cat.

Thanks to being a saint, she wasn't hurt, but she knew from experience that Mimos' claws were anything but ordinary.

'Let's see.'

A faint electric current crackled over Alencia's body.

Suddenly, everything around her appeared to slow down, as if stopped.

Of course, it wasn't the world that had slowed—

She herself had become lightning-fast, and her thoughts sped up as well.

Pazzzzt!

She probably hadn't even been caught by a department store's CCTV camera.

At most, to ordinary people, there was just a flash of blue light.

That was how fast she moved.

From the first to the fifth floor of the department store, a blue flash blazed by.

"Did you see that flash just now?"

"Oh, so it wasn't just me?"

A few people muttered in surprise, but that was all.

No one had clearly seen Alencia, so it quickly became a trivial incident.

"There's nothing weird inside the department store. But I think something's in the basement."

「Ah, really? We'll check out the rest, then. Please try not to let Jung-woo oppa notice anything.」

Just as Alencia had thought, Ah-yeon, too, didn't want Jung-woo to worry about this.

If it was really serious, she would have told him. As it stood, Mimos' disappearance didn't feel that dire.

Just... a little unsettling.

All that mattered was that Jung-woo could enjoy his much-needed rest today.

Beep.

After ending her call, Ah-yeon inhaled the stagnant air of the underground parking garage, meeting Soo-ah's gaze.

Cradled in Soo-ah's arms, Mimos let out a soft cry.

"I don't think there's anything strange inside the department store. Honestly, it doesn't seem like a demon did anything."

Once they reached the parking garage, Ah-yeon could sense the anomaly herself.

If it was only this faint that she herself could barely sense it, Jung-woo likely wouldn't have noticed anything.

Probably only Mimos—who was particularly sensitive to the presence of demons—had caught it.

"What exactly are you?"

"Meow."

Soo-ah questioned Mimos, but the cat simply mewed quietly.

"Soo-ah."

"Yes?"

"Can you see if there's anything strange around here?"

"I'll give it a try."

Blue flames flared in Soo-ah's eyes.

Suddenly, countless flows she couldn't normally see were revealed to her.

After experiencing a transformation in her magic power, the world Soo-ah saw was different from ordinary people's.

The movement of air and wind, the foreign particles mingling within them, and the blue-tinged trails of magic power.

The world through her eyes was special.

There, something anomalous existed.

A black thread drew itself across the ground beneath her feet.

Traces of demonic energy woven like spiderwebs.

When she touched it, the demonic energy marked her fingertips, like soot.

"There are... traces of demonic energy."

"Was this the work of a demon?"

"I'm not sure, but I don't think it'd be good to leave it alone."

Following the spiderweb-like traces of demonic energy, they felt a dark stream pulsing through the ground.

But it didn't seem artificially made—

It felt natural, somehow.

"... An erosive phenomenon."

Ah-yeon unconsciously muttered the words.

"Unni, did you already know?"

"No, not really."

It had just come to mind.

Ah-yeon swallowed her next words.

Technically, "it came to mind" was more accurate than 'she remembered'.

'Probably information Estella knew.'

Over there, it was a daily occurrence.

This erosive phenomenon was something that naturally occurred as the world drew closer to the 'demonic zone'.

In other words, it was an indicator that this world was becoming increasingly suited for demon activity.

"At this point, for it to appear even here..."

Until recently, there had been no such signs at all.

It was likely evidence that the recent incidents had accelerated the encroachment of the demonic zone.

"So, can you stop it?"

When Yeon-ji asked with her arms crossed, Ah-yeon shook her head.

There was nothing they could stop immediately.

"If we leave this alone, a gate or dungeon will form here. Think of it as a kind of fuse."

"What kind of fuse spreads like spiderwebs?"

"That's exactly why it's so dangerous. If we leave it like this..."

Once true demonic zone-ification commenced, there was no telling what would happen, where, or when.

This department store, at the very least, might be destroyed as a result.

"Should I try burning it once?"

Soo-ah suggested, blue flames flickering from her fingertips.

But Ah-yeon shook her head at her action.

If they recklessly tried to burn it away, this strange flow could be provoked, leading to a bigger incident.

They needed to eliminate the root source of this demonic zone-ification.

Somewhere in Seoul, at the center of this flow there must be...

"Huh?"

While thinking that, Soo-ah suddenly saw the black traces of demonic energy had been severed in places.

'Why did it suddenly get cut off?'

Until a moment ago, the threads had spread out like spiderwebs, but now the flow was broken here and there.

As they looked around, they saw Mimos going around, slashing through the lines of demonic energy with its claws.

And just like that, the black flows were simply cut off as if it was nothing.

It didn't look like there were any negative effects, either.

They just ended, as if that was how things should be.

"Unni."

"Yeah?"

"Are we sure Mimos is an ordinary cat?"

"I don't know, either."

After making a mess of the black flows in the area, Mimos let out another meow as Soo-ah stared at her in shock.

It was impossible to guess just what exactly Jung-woo had picked up.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

Good job, Mimos!

I didn't think Mimos could be useful like that.

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】