A Desperate Escape

“Intruder! There’s an intruder!”

At that moment, a man let out a roar, pointing toward one side of the grounds. The gathered cultists immediately sprinted in that direction.

I didn’t need to look to know Baek Hee-do was the cause of that commotion. Instead of following the crowd, I moved in the opposite direction, heading deeper into the heart of the inner sanctum.

‘Wait…’

There, I spotted Lee Hye, his robes disheveled, just stepping out of a room. Panicked, I instinctively ducked my head.

“What is it, intruder?”

Keeping my head low, my eyes fell on the deformed part of Lee Hye’s hand before I quickly forced out an answer to his question.

“Yes, an intruder has appeared. I was just on my way to report the situation, Lord… Lee Hye.”

Fortunately, my submissive posture seemed natural enough that Lee Hye didn’t give it a second thought.

“Hmph, is that so? How many of them are there?”

“I-it’s just one, sir.”

“One? They’re making this much of a fuss over a single person?”

“I am sorry, sir….”

I answered with the rigid discipline of a low-ranking grunt. Lee Hye waved his normal hand dismissively.

“Fine. Unless the rat is an R-rank, there’s no need to stress. Capture him alive.”

“Yes, sir. I shall relay the orders.”

I let out a breath of relief as Lee Hye turned away.

Perhaps still suffering from yesterday’s hangover, Lee Hye staggered a bit before collapsing onto his bed. But then… another hand suddenly appeared from the shadows of the bed, pulling Lee Hye into a tight embrace.

‘That was definitely a man’s hand….’

Feeling like I’d witnessed something I shouldn’t have, I quickly closed the door for them and scurried away.

‘Yesterday he was kissing a bearded guy, and just now… no, stop thinking about it.’

I chanted a mental mantra—“None of my business, none of my business”—as I crept away from Lee Hye’s room, searching for a place to hide.

I had been able to use my skill earlier because the enemy was off-guard, but now that the entire place was on high alert, I doubted my curses would take hold easily. I decided to find an empty room and wait until I heard news of Baek Hee-do’s capture before making my next move.

I eventually found the perfect spot—a large room with a seam in the ceiling that led to a crawlspace.

Stepping lightly onto a desk, I hoisted myself into the ceiling. And there, I came face-to-face with Baek Hee-do, who was lying flat on his stomach, dressed in the same cultist uniform I was wearing.

“…!”

Baek Hee-do scowled the moment he saw me. He reached out, grabbed me by the collar with one hand, and effortlessly hauled me up. No sooner had I closed the ceiling hatch than the two brothers, Lee Hong and Lee Hye, entered the room together.

As I flinched in shock, Baek Hee-do signaled for me to stay silent.

“One intruder? But there are traces of a second one who broke in later.”

“The guy who reported to me said it was just one….”

“Regardless, it seems the rumors of the Thunder Spirit Sword have spread. But if the source of those rumors traces back here….”

As the two brothers talked in low tones, Baek Hee-do looked at me with an expression of pure disbelief. His face was a map of questions, clearly wondering how on earth I had escaped the hotel room.

The moment the brothers finished their conversation and left the room, Baek Hee-do whispered harshly.

“Exorcist, are you insane? Do you have any idea where you are? And how did you get out?”

“…That’s my line. What were you thinking, infiltrating a cult like this alone? You couldn’t even tie up a single C-rank properly, yet you thought you could pull this off?”

“…….”

Baek Hee-do fell silent, seemingly speechless at my retort, though his arrogance remained untouched. He looked me up and down, huffing in exasperation.

“Then why did you follow me here? Are you that afraid of me dying?”

“I told you. You’re the only answer I have.”

“…….”

“You were the only one who promised to take me to where my brother is. That’s why I can’t let you die here.”

He grimaced as if my words were a nuisance, but everything I said was the truth. No one else had ever made that promise to me. I couldn’t let the one person who gave me hope perish in some cult’s conspiracy.

I looked at him. “There was no Thunder Spirit Sword, was there? I was right.”

“…….”

He didn’t answer, but he couldn’t deny it either.

“Once morning comes, it’ll be impossible to move. we have to escape now.”

“I would have been long gone if you hadn’t shown up.”

“No, you know as well as I do—getting out of this building is twice as hard as getting in. They’re patrolling every sector like a fortress. We can’t stay in the ceiling forever; eventually, they’ll start tearing the panels down.”

“…….”

“Most importantly, you can’t be identified as the intruder. Not if you don’t want to be hunted by these fanatics for the rest of your life.”

“…….”

The thought of being hunted by cultists forever seemed to finally register with him. After a moment, Baek Hee-do spoke in a low voice.

“Sigh… fine. So, what’s your plan?”

“We start a fire, first of all.”

I pulled out the matches and oil-soaked paper I had brought. This lavish palace was built mostly of wood. Before entering, I had strategically placed oil-soaked paper in various spots; if they caught fire properly, the whole building would be an inferno within hours.

‘They’ll try to put it out, of course, but oil fires don’t yield easily to water.’

Unlike ‘this’ world with its advanced plumbing, suppressing a fire in ‘that’ world was a nightmare. I had seen some fire extinguishers brought from the other side, but I didn’t plan on stopping at just a fire. I moved to explain the next step.

“Once the fire creates a distraction, you need to run, Baek Hee-do. And then—”

Before I could finish, several men burst into the room below. They began searching rapidly for the intruder, forcing us to crawl through the ceiling to escape.

As we moved, Baek Hee-do hissed mockingly.

“If I was going to use fire to escape, I would have just used explosives from the start, you idiot.”

“What?”

“Did you think I came in here without a plan?”

He pulled back his robe slightly to reveal several bombs wrapped in fuses. I flushed with embarrassment, but I couldn’t argue back for fear of being heard by the men below.

“Ha, thanks to you, I can’t even use the bombs properly…. What now? For the record, I can still get out of here on my own with zero trouble.”

The moment I heard that, I reached out and death-gripped Baek Hee-do’s ankle as he crawled ahead. He looked back at me with a look of utter exhaustion.

“I… if I get caught, I’m telling them your name.”

“I’m sure you would, you stupid C-rank.”

Despite his contemptuous tone, I ended up pleading with him.

“So… don’t leave me behind.”

He stared at me for a long moment, then scowled and muttered under his breath.

“Good grief. Do you really think I’d come all this way just to leave you?”

“…….”

I blinked, momentarily stunned. For a second, the images of Yoo Se-rim and Baek Hee-do overlapped.

Yoo Se-rim, who had killed me without hesitation. And Baek Hee-do, who complained and grumbled and acted annoyed at every turn, yet still stayed with me.

Baek Hee-do didn’t even shake off my hand gripping his ankle. Instead, with that same absurd strength, he simply hauled me along behind him as he moved. He knew I couldn’t keep up with his speed, so he was literally dragging me to safety.

“…….”

Unsure of how to react, I finally allowed myself to rely on him, moving my limbs as best I could to minimize the burden.

Then, spotting an empty bedroom below through a gap in the ceiling, I tugged on his arm.

“Now what?”

“Wait… just a second….”

I scanned the area and dropped down onto the bed. Baek Hee-do watched me with a look of pure confusion. I quickly gathered several strands of bright red hair that were visible on the white bedding and reached back up to him.

He looked annoyed, but he ultimately reached down and pulled me back up into the crawlspace.

“What are you going to do with hair?”

“…I can cast curses. I took it just in case.”

“…….”

He looked skeptical, but he didn’t argue.

We moved until we reached the end of the building, where Baek Hee-do had already strapped a bomb to a pillar. He struck one of my matches, lit the fuse, and immediately leapt down toward the garden below.

“Cover your face.”

“…….”

As I covered my face, he pulled me into his arms to cushion the impact, rolling as we hit the ground. I was amazed by how soft the landing felt. But as soon as we touched down, the bomb we had lit began to detonate.