Chapter 12

Chapter 12. The Watcher, No. 8 (1)

The sun was beginning to set.

Seryun arrived at Restaurant Shelley in a truck loaded with kimchi and ingredients.

“I’m here.”

Yukgap, who had been waiting for him, greeted him warmly.

“You’re here?”

“I’ll leave the ingredients and kimchi in front of the restaurant as usual.”

Seryun spoke in his usual flat, businesslike tone.

Victoria, who had also been waiting with Yukgap, smiled brightly.

“Thanks as always, Seryun.”

“I’m getting paid for it.”

At this point, it was no exaggeration to say Restaurant Shelley relied entirely on Seryun for its vegetables and kimchi.

Although they were genetically modified foods created through alchemy, his vegetables were always fresh and high quality.

Above all, customers consistently praised his kimchi.

It was a little unsettling that he was a Lich alchemist, but his contribution to Restaurant Shelley was much greater than Yukgap had expected.

“I’ll put these in the refrigerator.”

Yukgap began carrying the kimchi from the truck.

Seryun watched him and muttered,

“You’re starting to look like a proper chef.”

“I’m just pretending.”

Several months had already passed since Yukgap had somehow ended up working as Restaurant Shelley’s chef.

At first, he had wondered how he was supposed to cook anything.

But after practicing little by little, kitchen work was slowly becoming natural to him.

Maybe this was why people said adaptation was frightening.

“Oh, right. Mr. Yukgap.”

Seryun suddenly called out to him while they were carrying the kimchi.

“What?”

Seryun calmly looked at him.

“I did a little background investigation on you, just in case. More specifically, assuming you really are Korean, I organized what information I could find.”

Hope immediately appeared on Yukgap’s face.

He asked in a trembling voice,

“Did you find anything about my family?”

Seryun firmly shook his head.

“No.”

“I... see.”

Yukgap tried to sound calm, but his disappointment was obvious.

He had risked his life escaping Abraxas specifically to find his family and past.

When that small hope disappeared, a terrible loneliness washed over him.

“But there is one possibility worth considering.”

As if trying to comfort him, Seryun offered another possibility.

Yukgap immediately looked at him.

“What?”

“There’s a chance you were declared dead after going missing. If so, it would explain why we can’t find any personal information under your original identity. The records of the deceased are removed.”

Seryun calmly continued his reasoning.

“Under Korean law, if a person is reported missing and their survival cannot be confirmed within five years, they can legally be declared dead. It’s possible that happened to you as well.”

Yukgap immediately understood what Seryun meant.

“So if we narrow things down to people who went missing within the last five years, we might find something connected to my past.”

“Exactly.”

Seryun nodded.

It was at least a plausible theory.

Victoria immediately looked excited, as though they had already found Yukgap’s family.

“Wow! Then we might find Yukgap’s family sooner than expected!”

“I said it’s only a possibility. Nothing is certain.”

Seryun answered coldly.

Even so, they had found a thin thread of hope.

“I don’t care. I’ll try anything if it might lead me to my family.”

Yukgap spoke firmly.

Even the smallest hope was enough.

If it could lead him to his past and family, he intended to hold onto it.

“Hm?”

Victoria suddenly tilted her head in surprise.

Yukgap looked at her.

“What’s wrong?”

Victoria tapped her ear.

“Didn’t you hear a strange sound?”

“A sound?”

Yukgap looked around.

“...”

But other than ordinary background noise, there was nothing unusual.

“I don’t hear anything.”

Seryun lightly teased Victoria.

“Have you reached the age where tinnitus begins?”

“No! I definitely heard something like ‘beeeeeep!’”

Victoria flailed her arms angrily.

But the strange sound she described did not come again.

Yukgap laughed and looked at Seryun.

“Anyway, since you’re already here, eat before you go.”

Seryun asked with a blank expression,

“It’ll be something I can actually put in my mouth, right?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t feed you one of Victoria’s experiments.”

Victoria looked offended.

“What’s wrong with my experiments?”

“You really have to ask?”

“Nothing bad happened last time!”

“The fact that we even need to worry about whether food is safe to eat is already the problem.”

The three continued arguing as they walked into Restaurant Shelley.

And in a dark corner beyond their sight...

A man in a worn suit stood at a distance, quietly watching the restaurant.

“...So this is where you were, No. 6.”

Then he rounded his lips and produced a whistle-like sound.

Beeeeeep.

The strange sound briefly echoed through the area.

“Hmm. The broth is quite good.”

Seryun tasted the kimchi stew in front of him and muttered.

The stew contained thick chunks of pork cooked together with kimchi.

It had a clean yet rich savory flavor.

Yukgap, who had prepared it, grinned.

“I just copied a recipe from the internet. These days, you can search almost any recipe.”

“Being able to copy and reproduce it properly is impressive in itself.”

At Seryun’s compliment, Yukgap smiled and pulled one of the daggers from his waist.

“Well, this is still my real specialty.”

Yukgap flipped the dagger into the air.

The blade gleamed sharply as it spun.

Then Yukgap caught it with lightning-fast movement.

Snap!

He immediately began cutting apart a frozen block of pork.

The dagger slid through the meat like flowing water.

In the blink of an eye, the bone, meat, and fat had been separated and diced.

It looked almost as though the meat split itself apart the moment Yukgap touched it.

Seryun could only stare in admiration.

“Your knife skills become more impressive every time I see them.”

“I’ve been handling these ever since I became conscious.”

Yukgap stabbed the dagger into the neatly divided meat.

Victoria smiled happily.

“Honestly, I’m glad Yukgap is so good with knives. A chef needs to handle knives better than anything else.”

“Heh. I never imagined I’d end up cooking with these.”

Yukgap laughed lightly.

The daggers had originally been designed to kill people.

Who could have imagined he would one day use them peacefully in a kitchen?

“Is anyone here?”

At that moment, the restaurant door opened.

A deep male voice came from the entrance.

“A customer?”

Victoria looked over.

Robert immediately approached the newcomer while beeping.

[Welcome, lump of flesh that requires regular organic consumption.]

The new customer was a pale man wearing a worn suit.

He was tall and thin.

Dark sunglasses covered his eyes, giving him a gloomy appearance.

The man chuckled at Robert.

“What an amusing waiter.”

Robert ignored the comment.

[What will you order? I am busy. Speak quickly.]

“Well, I’m not sure what’s good here.”

The man turned toward Yukgap, who had been relaxing nearby.

Then he jokingly asked,

“Could I get the chef’s special recommendation?”

Yukgap casually looked at him.

The moment he did, shock flashed across his face.

“...Huh?”

“What are you doing, Yukgap? The customer asked for a recommendation.”

Victoria urged him, unaware of what was happening.

A curse escaped Yukgap’s mouth.

“Damn it!”

He suddenly leapt into the air and threw a dagger.

The blade shot toward the man with a sharp whistle.

“The service here is terrible.”

The customer smiled coldly and twisted his body aside.

Crack!

Yukgap’s dagger flew past him and buried itself deep into the wall behind.

Victoria and Seryun immediately recoiled.

“Yukgap! What are you doing?!”

“...Are you trying to kill a customer just because he asked for a special recommendation?”

Yukgap answered tensely.

“This bastard isn’t a customer.”

“That’s cruel. Regardless, I came here as a customer today.”

The man responded with what sounded like a mocking laugh.

Then he glanced toward Yukgap.

“So this is the place where you hid after escaping Abraxas? A restaurant in a deserted back alley, No. 6?”

No. 6.

The moment that name left the stranger’s mouth, Victoria realized he was no ordinary person.

“He called Yukgap by that name...”

Yukgap was already gripping daggers in both hands.

He glared at the man with open hostility.

“How did you find this place, No. 8?”

“No. 8?”

Victoria repeated the codename.

There was only one meaning behind it.

“That’s right. This bastard is No. 8. He’s usually called Theta, θ. He was one of the Twelve Archons of Abraxas and used to work as my partner.”

Yukgap stared at his former partner cautiously.

Another chimera biological weapon created by the military-industrial corporation Abraxas.

“That night, after I lost you, I was severely reprimanded by our superiors. But even they understood to a certain extent.”

No. 8 looked toward Yukgap as if criticizing him.

“You were the fastest among the Twelve Archons. If you seriously decided to run, there was nobody capable of catching you.”

Behind his sunglasses, his hollow eyes focused on Yukgap.

Yukgap forced himself to remain calm.

“So you came here to capture me?”

“You really need to ask?”

No. 8 answered as if it were obvious.

“The Twelve Archons are the property of Abraxas and among its most capable biological weapons. You abandoned your position without permission. Naturally, they sent someone to recover you.”