Bound in place by Cheon Areum’s silent command, the monsters—still wearing their impeccable human disguises—began to shrill as the music disappeared due to the sudden interruption.
"I’m not even shocked anymore."
"You can turn on your phone flashlights."
"Is this how he usually acts in dungeons?"
The members’ voices sounded between the rising crescendo, ghoulish shrills, as Cheon Areum closed the distance and covered Yoon Seoyul’s ears with his palms. Lifting onto the tips of his toes, he leaned in, pressing a kiss to his lips. The shadows that clung to Yoon Seoyul’s face parted for just a moment before he drew Cheon Areum in by the waist, continued the kiss, prolonging it this time. A flashlight gleamed down on them as Cheon Areum closed his eyes, letting himself immerse.
"...."
"...."
"Are they for real? Right now?"
Catching the trace of vanilla coming from Yoon Seoyul, he parted his lips, leaving a tail of saliva. Compressing their foreheads together, Yoon Seoyul stared down at him with a strange glint in his eyes.
"Don’t release your pheromones... I’ll lose my control over them."
Cheon Areum reminded him. Grinding his teeth with a tensed jaw, as if he were struggling, Yoon Seoyul eventually stopped his pheromones from leaking. Wiping Cheon Areum’s mouth with his thumb, he nodded slowly.
"Can you hurry up? I want to test my new knives on the boss before they get to it."
Aera urgently tapped her foot on the floor as Inho shouted back at her.
"I’m telling you, the boss is in here!"
The monsters, reaching their breaking points, dropped to the marble floor, their limbs buckling. One by one, they crouched low, their stretched fingers scraping against the polished tiles. The screech of nails against stone roused through the ballroom—grating and multiplied by the sheer number of them, until the sound became unbearable.
With a soft sigh, Cheon Areum pressed his palm to his chest, then stepped forward into the chaos like a regretful executioner.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. I’ll take your souls now."
Apologizing to the masses, Cheon Areum stepped lightly through the crowd of monsters on the verge of insanity. With solemn poise, he placed an obsidian-black spade card upon each creature’s head, tearing each one. One by one, he tore them in half with steady hands. The moment each card was slit, the monster beneath it collapsed where it stood. They dropped in the wake of every step he took, leaving a silent trail behind him.
"Forget about the boss now."
Inho suggested, standing in the corner as he watched over Cheon Areum. Aera quietly enjoyed the view as Yoon Seoyul, unperturbed, walked over and spoke.
"Where’s Hwan? Aera, you go and behead them while they are being constricted."
Inho pointed toward the long, lavish feast tables where Hwan stood like a cautious scientist. With furrowed brows and the seriousness of a man defusing a bomb, he carefully picked up a delicate piece of pastry and slipped it into a transparent jar, as if preserving a rare specimen for analysis.
"You’re going after the boss?"
"Hmm."
Aera, not pleased with the answer, unsheathed her twin blades with a metallic hiss, taking on the offer of beheading the little monsters.
With a single swing of her blades, Aera sliced through necks like ribbons of silk. Heads toppled clean from their bodies as blood arced through the air in spiky splatters, coloring the ballroom in crimson. Her eyes gleamed with cold efficiency as she moved from one target to the next, turning the once-dreamy hall into a slaughterhouse.
Getting bored of the repetitive task, Cheon Areum casually relinquished the chore of dispatching monsters to Aera, trusting her to handle the rest. He strolled across the grand ballroom, making his way toward the heart of the spectacle—the boss. Charmingly mounting onto the polished black surface of the grand piano nestled at the side of the room, Cheon Areum crouched low, his palms and knees pressed against the hard exterior with theatrical flair. He looked down at the figure still seated before the keys, with a playful grin curling his lips.
"Peek-a-boo."
The man beneath him, draped in an old-fashioned tuxedo with melancholy stitched into every line of his face, barely acknowledged the intrusion. His sunken eyes lifted only briefly to meet Cheon Areum’s gaze—a fleeting glance, hollow and tired. Then, without a word, he turned back to the keys.
A sorrowful melody poured from his fingertips, the notes trembling with despair. The pianist’s fingers began to move with unnatural speed, striking the keys in a frenzied yet masterful motion. The melody turned complex, his shoulders hunched as he leaned harder into the keys, each note hitting the air like a scream trapped in music. Tears poured freely down his pale cheeks, wetting the ivory keys beneath his hands.
"Why are you crying out of nowhere?!"
Growing increasingly uneasy with each passing second, Cheon Areum decided to retreat. The boss clearly couldn’t be manipulated, not even with his S+ Class skill, and attempting to digest the soul of someone this unyielding would be far too venturesome. Turning his head to where Yoon Seoyul had been standing, he called out.
"Yoon Seoyul, you deal with the boss."
But behind him was just an empty ballroom, with only him and the weeping man behind the keys. His sobs grew louder, slipping between the rapid tempo. Yet he never once stopped playing.
"Ah... shit, I fell right into your trap. Didn’t I?"
"Ha... hahahahahahaha..."
The man’s shoulders shook as the mournful sobs twisted into manic laughter, the sound bubbling out of him like something broken. Even as tears streamed down his face, he laughed frenetically.
"What’s so funny now?"
Cheon Areum muttered under his breath, eyes narrowing. The man’s tottering hands slowly lifted from the piano keys—yet the emotive melody didn’t falter, continuing on as if the instrument had gained a will of its own. Rising from the bench, the man straightened and locked eyes with him, gaze hollow yet piercing, like he could see straight through him.