Chapter 204

But Chae Junhyeok didn't so much as react to the two of them calling out to him in alarm.

Rather — he swept right past Han Jewoon as if the man weren't there, and strode directly to the pale, trembling Suho on the bed, pulling him into a crushing embrace.

"Alex!"

"Uh, uhhh?! A-Alex?"

Called out of nowhere by an unfamiliar name, Suho's eyes went round in surprise.

The man — indistinguishable from Chae Junhyeok down to the last hair — held the boy's small frame like he might shatter it, and his voice tore out full of anguish and despair.

"How did you get here—?! Don't tell me that old bastard of a count brought you as a hostage?!"

"H — huh? A c-count…?"

"To use my own little brother as a flower kid at the wedding to Elizabeth—! That vicious, cowardly bastard!"

Chae Junhyeok was shaking, fury too much to hold in.

Han Jewoon and Suho could only stare, dumbfounded, as if watching an actor who'd just barged onto the stage mid-scene.

After venting alone for a good stretch, he seemed to belatedly register that Han Jewoon was standing in the room, flinched, and pushed himself upright.

"Ah! Father—! I hadn't realized you were here. I was so beside myself at seeing my little brother that I forgot my manners. My apologies."

The bearing was almost absurdly courteous.

Nothing like Chae Junhyeok — and it finally broke what little patience Han Jewoon had left.

He crossed the room in a stride, seizing Chae Junhyeok's shoulder in an iron grip.

"Junhyeok! What the hell are you doing here?! Did you come through a door too?!"

That was when—

Bweeeek—!

Chae Junhyeok's body went stiff as a cold slab of stone.

His pupils lost their focus and drifted cloudily into the air, as if someone had hit pause on a video.

And from between his lips came a mechanical, metallic-edged voice.

[I am not Chae Junhyeok. I am Kyle. Commoner knight. I must marry Elizabeth.]

[I am not Chae Junhyeok. I am Kyle. Commoner knight. I must marry Elizabeth.]

[I am not Chae Junhyeok. I am Kyle. Commoner knight. I must marry Elizabeth.]

[I am not Chae Junhyeok. I am Kyle. Commoner knight. I must marry Elizabeth.]

[I am not Chae Junhyeok. I am Kyle. Commoner knight. I must marry Elizabeth.]

The same skin-crawling sentence, on repeat like a broken cassette tape.

"D-Director…!"

Han Jewoon muttered through clenched teeth.

"Exactly like that monk back at the cathedral. Looks like it's not the real Junhyeok — just an NPC of the dungeon borrowing Chae Junhyeok's shell."

"But… no matter how I look at him, this really is the Director!"

Suho shook his head hard.

His senses were telling him without a doubt that this was the real Chae Junhyeok.

Suho called out urgently to the man still frozen stiff.

"H-hey! Sorry, but — tell any lie, please! Anything!"

At Suho's words, time seemed to unfreeze, and Junhyeok's focus returned.

"A lie? Where's that coming from, Alex?"

"Hurry! Anything!"

"Uh, uhm… I — I had meat this morning instead of bread."

Twitch.

The instant the words left him, the tip of his nose scrunched and twitched.

Chae Junhyeok's signature tell — never once absent when he lied.

"It's him! It really is! WAAAAAH!"

Tension breaking, Suho burrowed into Chae Junhyeok's chest and burst into tears.

"I missed you sho much…! I was so worried! Wahhh!"

"A-Alex? Did you miss your hyung that much?"

Moved by the little brother's heartfelt affection, Chae Junhyeok wrapped Suho up tight.

The look on his face said it all — He loves me this much! — utterly overcome.

Patting the child's back tenderly, he turned to Han Jewoon and spoke, grave.

"Father. My apologies, but might we have a moment of brotherly time alone?"

Han Jewoon swallowed a sigh of pure exasperation, exchanged a look with Suho, and quietly nodded.

Soon Han Jewoon had left the room, and only Chae Junhyeok and Suho remained.

Only then did Chae Junhyeok glance around as if checking for eavesdroppers and drop his voice to a whisper.

"Alex, listen carefully. Tomorrow, at the wedding, I'm going to take Elizabeth and run."

"…!!"

Suho's round eyes went wide enough to pop.

"She's my fiancée. I can't just let her be forced into marriage with that old count. We've already sworn eternity before God — we exchanged rings."

Chae Junhyeok raised his left hand solemnly.

On his ring finger sat a worn but gleaming gold band.

Only then did Suho fully grasp the situation.

So the Director's role is the bride monster's former fiancé!

Suho, fidgeting, asked quickly.

"D— I mean, hyung! But how are you going to run? The castle gates are super strong, and the guards will stop you…"

"Don't worry. I've got the whole plan set. I can't say much more, but…"

He glanced at the door, wary of any sound carrying outside, and gripped Suho's shoulders lightly, dropping his voice further.

"Actually, even this — I snuck in. I'm not supposed to set foot in this castle at all."

"Then what do we do…!"

"That's why I've got everything planned out already. The people I need on the inside are all locked in."

Chae Junhyeok's eyes burned with unshakable certainty.

"Once the wedding begins tomorrow, she's going to come to me. It's set."

"…"

"So, Alex. Once the ceremony starts, hide somewhere out of sight. And when everything explodes into chaos — use that chaos, run for your life, and don't look back. We meet on the hill outside the castle gates. Understood?"

At the resolve in Chae Junhyeok's voice, Suho's heart sank.

This is going to fail…!

Given that the bride monster in the dungeon was still hunting for her groom… this escape plan, back in the past, must have failed.

"B-but, hyung! What if something terrible happens? Can't you not go…?"

Suho's voice thickened with tears as he clutched at Chae Junhyeok's sleeve, but the man laughed heartily, as if to reassure him.

"Haha, don't worry. Is your hyung just any knight? Trust me and stay calm."

"Hyung!"

"Whoops — I've got to go. If I stay any longer I'll be caught. Tomorrow, on the hill. See you there, safe."

Chae Junhyeok gave Suho no room to hold him back and slipped out of the room like the wind.

"H-hyung — I mean, Director!!!!"

Suho's frantic shout struck the closed door and scattered, hollow.

That night, in Suho's bedroom in the annex.

Behind a firmly shut door, all five of the raid members who had come through the Old door were gathered.

Cheon Sangmin in his sharply cut butler's tailcoat, Cheon Sangyeon in a maid's dress ruffled to the hilt, Cheon Sangcheol in heavy knight's armor that clanked with every step, Han Jewoon in his sacred priest's robes, and Suho, sitting up on the bed.

Each of them shared what they'd run into and what they'd learned, moving fast.

"Let's get the situation in order first."

Han Jewoon opened, voice weighty.

"At tomorrow's wedding, Junhyeok… no, the knight named Kyle, is going to take the bride and run. And for that, he needs help from the butler, the maid, the knight, the priest, and — us as the flower kid."

"This Kyle seems to be a fairly reckless one, at that."

The plan Cheon Sangmin laid out was astonishingly simple.

On the day of the wedding, at the most chaotic point just before the ceremony starts, the maid (Cheon Sangyeon) slips into the bride's chamber and passes on the escape plan.

Then the bride is disguised in maid's clothing and smuggled out.

Meanwhile, the butler (Cheon Sangmin) opens up the mansion's secret passage, and the knight (Cheon Sangcheol) escorts the bride to the hill where Kyle is waiting.

Laid out like that it sounded halfway plausible, but…

Slam—!

"No, seriously — what kind of trash scenario is this?!"

Cheon Sangcheol slammed the table with his fist, jittery.

"You think kidnapping a bride about to become a countess is child's play?! Do you have any idea how many guards are going to be crawling through the castle tomorrow?! No matter how you dress her up, getting caught's a matter of time!"

"He's right."

Cheon Sangmin nodded, cold agreement in his voice.

"There are too many variables. It's a stupid plan that hangs entirely on luck and timing."

"You're being generous."

Cheon Sangyeon, arms folded, snorted.

"If someone at my lab handed this in as a proposal, I would've torn it to shreds on the spot. This is what happens when you skip the brain entirely."

While everyone was venting their fury at the sloppy plan, Han Jewoon — who'd been listening in silence — spoke.

"Which is exactly why it might be the clear condition."

"…What are you talking about, Guild Master? Are you seriously saying we have to make this hopelessly leaky garbage plan succeed?"

At Cheon Sangyeon's incredulous question, Han Jewoon nodded.

"This is an S-rank anomaly-type Gate. There's no way clearing it at any reasonable level is going to be easy. Punching through a scenario this absurd and forced is very likely the trial the dungeon is asking of us."

He swept his weighty gaze over the party and continued.

"Think back. The quest condition given to us when we came in through this door. [Dig through the dust of time to retrieve the tarnished golden vow.]"

His eyes glinted, sharp.

"Going by that — the worn gold ring on Junhyeok's — no, on Kyle's ring finger. The odds are very high that it is the 'golden vow.'"

"Aha! Then we don't have to go through all this bullshit trouble!"

Cheon Sangcheol grinned nastily.

"Just knock the guy out and slip the ring off his finger! Simple!"

"…"

"…"

In an instant, chilly stares thick with contempt and disgust landed on him from every direction.

"Wh — what?! Am I wrong?! We can just take it, right?!"

Cheon Sangyeon glared at her little brother like he was some bug on the pavement.

"You idiot. What do you think an S-rank anomaly-type Gate is, a playground down the street? You think just snatching it counts as clearing the quest?"

"Wh-what—!"

"What you're granted as a clear reward and what you steal by force get flagged completely differently. Use your head, if you have one."

Cheon Sangmin agreed with her.

"Even if we force the ring off him, the moment we step outside the door, it could vanish like a mirage. Going through the story the dungeon accepts, and obtaining it as a 'reward,' is by far the safest and surest method."

"So… in the end, we're the ones who have to roll up our sleeves and help this ridiculous third-rate elopement stunt succeed."

Cheon Sangyeon let out a deep sigh and pressed at her throbbing temple.

The air in the room got a shade heavier.

That was when—

"Um…"

Suho, who'd been gripping the edge of the blanket on the bed, spoke up carefully — but firmly.

"We still have to do it."

"…"

"We have to save the Director. Whatever it takes, we have to get that ring."

At the earnestness in Suho's eyes, Cheon Sangyeon let out a long, tired breath.

"Haah… never in my life did I imagine the day would come when I'd be the one saving that piece of trash with my own hands."

"He's not a piece of trash!"

At Suho's flare, Cheon Sangyeon snorted, amused.

"I've got a rough idea why you follow that man so blindly. The Chae Junhyeok these days is putting on a passable director act, after all."

Her eyes settled into a cool sheen, as if drifting somewhere in the past.

"But he wasn't always like this. Back then, Chae Junhyeok was, quite literally, an out-of-his-mind piece of trash."

At that, Han Jewoon's eyes narrowed, sharp.

"Don't tell me you knew Junhyeok back then?"

At Han Jewoon's weighty question, Cheon Sangyeon twisted the corner of her mouth up and grinned.

"Oh, I knew him all right."

From between her red lips fell a bombshell nobody had seen coming.

"After all — I know exactly what that piece of trash did to me."