Riser
patreon
29-166
🕑 Added 2025-10-11 21:55:26 +0000 UTCEP.166 – Invisible Deal
Despite Hyunseong’s calm invitation, Naeun didn’t immediately sit. Instead, like a cat watching for unseen threats, her sharp eyes swept across the café.
“…Are you alone?”
The gentle politeness she had shown when they first met was nowhere in her voice now.
“It’s easier to talk that way. Besides, it’s not like you don’t already know exactly where we are.”
His arrogant confidence made Naeun’s brow twitch ever so slightly.
“…And Seohyun? I thought she’d be here too.”
“Your junior is safe. She’s at my place right now, being looked after by a very reliable maid.”
He cut her off before she could press further and added:
“Relax. I haven’t done anything strange to her. Not yet.”
“…Good.”
Naeun’s reply was short and brittle, and at last, she sat down opposite him.
“If you had, I really don’t know what I would have done.”
Strictly speaking, he had punished Seohyun a little, but that wasn’t something she needed to know right now.
“As long as you’re cooperative, nothing else will happen to her.”
“You seem very sure of yourself. You’re like a different person compared to before your possession.”
Around them, surreal chatter hummed along. Orders of “Healing Potion” or “Mana Recovery Latte” echoed from nearby tables. Yet the air above their own was frozen with tension.
“Are you satisfied?”
Naeun was the first to break the silence. Her eyes flicked toward a group of uniformed students cheerily ordering a waffle named ‘Troll’s Heart Special.’
“You must feel like a god, bending the entire world to your will. And while you revel in it, countless other dimensions must be in chaos.”
Her words were edged with barbs, but Hyunseong only raised his cup, sipped, and set it down again.
“Let’s stop there.”
His voice was low.
“You didn’t come here out of duty or loyalty to the Bureau. Not with no backup. Not like this.”
His eyes drilled into hers.
“You came for a purely personal reason: to save your precious junior.”
As if struck cleanly, Naeun’s shoulders flinched, and she bit her lip, staring back at him. For a moment, countless calculations seemed to flash behind her eyes.
“…You’re right.”
At length, she finally let go, the strength draining from her shoulders.
“I can’t do anything to you anymore. I’ve lost completely.”
She raised her hands, open on the table, letting out a deep sigh.
“So tell me, quickly. As long as I get Seohyun back, that’s all I need.”
“Now you’re ready to talk.”
Leaning forward with a faint smile, Hyunseong whispered his proposal, soft enough to blend into the background noise.
Naeun’s face, initially neutral, shifted rapidly as his explanation continued.
“…What?”
“Are you serious?”
Her eyes scanned his face, turmoil, shock, and disbelief all clashing within them, as if searching for any hint of his true intent.
He only shrugged.
“It’s absurd. You really think your plan will work out the way you want?”
“You can’t even be sure the Command HQ would accept such terms.”
“There’s no knowing until we try, right?”
He leaned back, voice light, yet final.
“So. Are you going to accept? Or not?”
Meanwhile, back at the apartment, an eerie tranquility had settled.
In the middle of the couch sprawled Child, tossing snacks into her mouth while watching a video on her tablet.
Beside her, Lizetta silently vacuumed.
In the corner sat Seohyun, still bound tightly in wire, in a humiliating pose on a chair. The scene looked grotesquely like some twisted semblance of a domestic family.
“Child.”
Lizetta, vacuum in hand, addressed her, standing near the couch.
“Excuse me, may I lift your legs for a moment?”
“Ugh, such a bother…”
“My apologies.”
Without glancing away from the screen, Child raised her legs with a sigh.
And in that brief moment, her mind recalled the scene from the café.
…So, the moment that cat walked in, the connection cut out. That equipment they didn’t have it a few years ago. They must’ve forced it into reality, sheerly on their obsession with challenging me.
Bureau freaks.
It was both impressive and irritating their persistence.
It was wise not to interfere. Who knows what kind of ace they might have hidden away?
Still, she couldn’t help but wonder what scheme Hyunseong was weaving to deal with that dogged Bureau.
Much too curious… Should I peek now?
She shook her head at once.
No matter. It’s all already in the palm of my hand.
Overconfidence smothered her suspicion, dragging her focus back to the tablet.
“Ahh !”
Seohyun jerked violently in her chair with a startled gasp.
While wiping a smudge near the chair with the vacuum wand, Lizetta’s hand had brushed lightly against her thigh.
Because of the seal Hyunseong had etched into her, even the slightest touch sent her body into overwhelming, humiliating hypersensitivity.
Lizetta looked calmly at her.
“My apologies. I mistook it for dust.”
“Y‑you…!”
Her face flushed scarlet with shame, teeth grinding silently. She couldn’t even bare to shout a curse.
“Puhuhu.”
Child, watching, couldn’t hide her glee.
A Bureau hound, reduced to this nothing more than an embarrassed hostage being ignored. It was almost sweeter than wine.
Finally tiring of her amusement, Child spoke lazily.
“By the way, Lizetta.”
“Yes, Lady Child.”
“Something I was wondering. When the Bureau was chasing us before, why were you so desperate to save him?”
The vacuum halted. The loud hum cutting off filled the room with sudden silence.
Eyes still fixed on her screen, Child continued casually,
“Was it because I ordered you? Or… some other reason?”
“…”
Lizetta didn’t answer. It wasn’t refusal. She just didn’t know how.
Her logic screamed, Of course, it’s because protecting my master is my duty.
But from deeper, something unspoken stirred an emotion she did not yet have words for.
Her silence dragged on, and her eyes drifted unconsciously toward the front door.
“…Hmph. Never mind. You’re doing well enough, for now.”
Giving her a sidelong glance, Child added coolly, “Just don’t forget whose you are.”
“…Yes.”
The answer had only just left her lips when
Click.
The front door opened.
“My lord, welcome home.”
She hastened forward to greet the returning master, only for another figure to step in behind him.
“Senior!”
Seohyun nearly shouted, hope flashing in her eyes before shattering the next instant.
“Excuse me~”
With the breezy tone of a casual guest, Naeun walked in, smiling with an unnatural serenity. No bitterness, no tension. Not even sorrow at finding her junior imprisoned.
Child’s voice slid slyly into Seohyun’s ear, “So, everything went well?”
“Yes. The Bureau won’t be troubling us anymore, at least for now.”
What? Did she just say… the Bureau stopped?
Seohyun’s eyes quivered in disbelief.
Naeun turned to Hyunseong. “Now you can release her. It’s not like either of us could resist you anymore.”
Then, lifting her blouse hem slightly, she revealed her pale stomach marked, like Seohyun’s, with the Seal of Subjugation.
“This… No…”
Seohyun’s face contorted in shock.
Hyunseong only nodded once.
“Do as you please.”
Granted permission, Naeun smiled faintly as she approached her junior.
“You’ve suffered, haven’t you? It’s fine now. I’m here.”
“H‑how, how could this… What about the mission? What’s that mark ”
“…I’m sorry. It was the only way to save you.”
From Naeun’s lips, those words left Seohyun speechless.
“Deal?” Child’s curious eyes glittered, looking at Hyunseong.
Leaning deep into the couch, he spoke as if it were nothing special.
“See those two? I offered them to the Bureau as bargaining chips. In exchange for them keeping out of our territory, I’d live quietly without stirring more trouble.”
Accepting the glass of water Lizetta brought, he added,
“And yes, that includes you too, Child. As long as you stay quiet for now. You’ve had your revenge already, haven’t you?”
Child’s smirk faded. For a long moment she stared into his face, reading him.
“You mean to tell me the stick‑up‑their‑ass Bureau actually accepted that?”
“The higher‑ups already agreed.”
All eyes turned to Naeun as she released Seohyun from her bonds.
“For the Bureau, containing unpredictable damage matters more than pride. Better to cut their losses.”
Her smile was calm, almost gentle.
“Of course, retreating while agents are held hostage is a humiliation. But ”
Child’s eyes narrowed. “And you? Little cat, how does it feel to be abandoned by the Bureau you worshipped, given to your sworn enemy?”
“…Honestly? I’ve had my share of resentment with their old‑fashioned ways. Losing comrades because of their damned principles once was enough.”
Her voice carried weariness anger tinged with resignation.
“As long as I could save Seohyun, that alone is enough for me.”
“Senior…”
Even Seohyun faltered.
Child, intrigued, fell into thought. Calculations whirred through her mind. The Bureau’s humiliation, the cat’s betrayal and most of all how amusingly unpredictable things had turned out.
“…Fine. Let it be. If they won’t meddle, so be it. Then what now?”
Hyunseong rose from the sofa with a satisfied smile.
“The family’s grown. Time to move into somewhere bigger.”
His eyes swept Lizetta then Naeun, then Seohyun trembling with humiliation.
“And with a household this size, I won’t be short on help.”
Days later, Ju‑young and Mi‑na stood nervously at the towering gates of Isang Felice.
The only word they had received from him since the recent chaos was a dismissive ‘It was nothing.’ Soon after came an invitation to a housewarming at a top‑floor penthouse, no less.
Even still reeling from the events unsaid, they could only follow the address.
“…This is the place, right?”
“Y‑yeah. I think so…”
Awed into silence by the grand lobby, they pressed on into the private elevator. As it ascended soundlessly, they glanced anxiously at each other.
Ding.
The doors opened. Beyond was no hallway, but directly the lavish entrance of a penthouse.
And waiting there was not Hyunseong.
Two women stood in tight, revealing French maid uniforms faces forced into dispassionate masks.
Naeun and Seohyun.
Frozen in shock, Ju‑young and Mi‑na could only stare. The two bowed deeply, their movements perfectly in sync.
“Welcome, honored guests,” Naeun said with polished courtesy, as if well‑rehearsed.
And following her, Seohyun’s voice trembled ever so slightly, suppressed fury threading every word:
“The Master is expecting you.”
