Possessing Nothing Novel (쥐뿔도 없는 회귀)

Chapter 168 - Remnants (2)

Lee Sungmin glanced at Aladdur, who was shaking visibly as if he had a seizure. Only after hearing that they weren't heading directly to the City of Endless Night, did Aladdur look a little more relieved. Rubia, who was watching the meat cooking on the fire, looked at Aladdur and asked him.

"What's wrong with the City of Endless Night? I know it's a walking freakshow of a city, but it's not necessarily a dangerous place, is it?", Rubia asked.

Rubia was right. It wasn't necessarily a dangerous city, as it was weird. In fact many famous and influential humans hired guards and liked to tour the city for leisure.

Just because monsters naturally didn't get along with humans, didn't mean they hunted them indiscriminately. With more time and power, monsters gained more sense of reasoning and were quite amicable with humans. This was the case in the City of Endless Night, or so Lee Sungmin thought.

"Miss Rubia. The City of Endless Night you know, is the city of the past, and not up the date with the current times.", Aladdur replied waving his hands.

"Oh, of course. It's a pretty good city for tourists who come and go without any idea of how it really is. The markets and red light district is also nice to see, and it's fun to watch the plays and circus of monsters they hold there every so often. But, miss... Think about it. It's a city where so many monsters live, what the hell do they eat?", Aladdur trembled in disgust as he thought of the answer to his own question.

"...a monster doesn't just eat human flesh, does it?", Rubia asked innocently.

"That's right. Most monsters don't just eat human flesh. But there are some monsters that need to eat human flesh. Hmm... an example would be a nine-tailed fox.", Aladdur replied.

Lee Sungmin immediately thought of Kumiho, the ambiguously hidden nine-tailed fox that had a lot of history with the Organization of Predator. He looked to Aladdur who was trembling in disgust near the bonfire.

"The nine-tailed fox changed hosts a while ago, now it's pulling the strings of Predator's elders behind the scenes. That sneaky fox-like bastard.", Aladdur spoke in a low tone.

"Are you saying that Kumiho can only eat human flesh?", Lee Sungmin interjected.

"It's highly dependent on it, yes. It depends on the type, but... Kumiho is a monster that needs human flesh to survive. I would think it had liver problems by now but... Oh well.", Aladdur sighed.

"Hmmm..", Lee Sungmin murmured to himself.

The legends about a Nine-Tailed fox were famous even in Korea, before Lee Sungmin even stepped foot in Eria. Many regions including Korea, Japan, and China have been told about the Nine-Tailed Fox. Especially in Korea, where Lee Sungmin lived, they had multiple tales of old folklore about the devilish fox.

"It's not just Kumiho. There are a lot of monsters that depend heavily on human flesh. The human flesh they gather is constantly being supplied to the elders in the upper echelons in Predator. Henemy, the old King of Monsters who ruled Predator before Kumiho, didn't antagonize the humans to such extent. But since Kumiho has been playing Predator behind the scenes, the amount of missing persons reports in Eria have skyrocketed.", Aladdur spoke while quivering

"If possible, I'd like to break up with the group before heading towards the direction of the City of Endless Night.", Aladdur continued and spoke his request.

"What are you so afraid of? They say the number of missing persons has increased, but not everyone is missing. It's not like Kumiho went out in the open and said 'let's go hunt all the humans'.", Rubia spoke this time, not understanding why Aladdur was scared so easily.