The Foreigner on the Periphery

After receiving messages from Asif-26,188,280, no response had then been received. "Brother, I'm here."  

Until the appointed time comes, the office door opens and Jeong-pal came in. “Well?”  

At that, the Orc sniffed his nose. There was a reverberation that could be detected even with the dull sense of smell peculiar to the tribe. "Did the elves come here?"  

The scent of an elf seemed to be mixed with the scents of flowers, grass, and wood. Even when half-blood was mixed, this characteristic did not fully disappear. "Uh, half elf."  

“Client?”

"I'm debating whether to take it or not." Jeongpal opened the beer box he was carrying without asking any further questions. "Cash said he was very late."  

Today was the day the three of them decided to have a drinking party. Lakefield, who hated the smell of alcohol, and Dong-cheol, who pretended to be a troll even if he were to drink a glass of soju, did not fit in this place.  

Jeongpal asked as if he had suddenly thought of it as he opened the beer can. "By the way, you're a quarter elf, but you don't smell like this at all?"  

It was something Cathy once asked. Minjun mumbled the same excuses as back then. "When it comes down to the quarter, it almost doesn't seem to work."  

“AHA.” Minjun changed the topic. He then put a checkerboard on the table with a grim expression and declares a duel.  

"You have nothing to do until the cash arrives, right? In the meantime, I will show you the skills I honed in Baduk TV."  

"Are you betting Go?"  

"Let's go 50,000 won bread."  

"Call."

The great country had begun. Unlike Minjun, who stared at the board with a serious expression without saying a word, Orc drank beer while leisurely throwing out the story of living in the world.  

"Now the gangs are almost gone, and the alleys of the orc community are like pristine land. I never imagined I would see something like this in my lifetime."  

Businesses disappeared, money lines were cut, and all the heinous criminals who acted as the organization’s raiders were caught. In this situation, it was natural for the remaining members of the organization to not be as active as before.  

Thanks to this, Jeongpal said that he was enjoying peaceful days. Unlike the past, when day by day, bullets were thrown, and blood was poured into the scene. Even today, the most difficult case was to subdue a drunken troll old man.  

The troll’s eyes were dim because of his age and drunkenness, but he seemed to have a lively spirit. The old man who ripped and pulled the door of the convenience store that reads “mil” and finally ripped the door off.  

"Because I'm a troll, I don't often pass out… because I lost a minute with a taser."  

"Okay?” Doongma listens, and Minjun responded with a dry voice.  

"But honestly, I am worried about the future. The peace now is because those who haven’t been caught are scared and hiding. But among the bullet eaters, it is rare that they get a job normally, and when the money runs out, they will crawl back into the streets."

"I will."  

"The problem is that there is no one who has control over them. It will probably start to pop up sporadically here and there. Brother, do you think it would be better to just throw stones?"  

" · · · · ·Oh, Mr. One more round!"  

Cash arrived after Minjun paid 100,000 won to Orc. “Sorry! Am I very late?"  

Minjun’s secretary, who cooked whenever he had spare time these days, saying that he had found a job that surpassed that of a secretary, laid out the food he had prepared today on the office table. He then asked as he watched Minjun clean up the board with a look of loss of his country. "Did you donate hard today? How?”  

The Orc answered with a satisfied expression. "15 million won."  

"Why don't you go through such complicated procedures and just give your uncle money like a salary?"  

“Noisy!”  

"Hey, Serene. stop there. Is that salad? Isn’t a salad a menu item that requires a frying pan?”  

“Do not worry. It was made under the command and supervision of holding the handle in one hand." Minjun wanted to say goodbye.

That was right, that frying pan. He forgot to seal it because of Changcheon’s work and left it unattended, but it seemed that he was still wandering around his acquaintances’ houses and making donations of his talents.  

‘I’ll have to get a date soon.’ While thinking that, the Orc snorted the salad and sniffed it in doubt.  

"The smell is plausible… but the frying pan also remotely controls you?"  

"We are perfect soulmates these days."  

"Is that enough?"  

“Yes. The conversation went well. Sometimes, it seems like a real soul, not artificial intelligence, a mass of data copied by magic. Minjun-san, isn't he really like that?"  

At this, her superior shook her head resolutely. "No, there is no such thing as a soul."  

A soul that could avoid his eyes must be a very shattered shard, or, conversely, a very high-class soul. In the former case, one would not be able to communicate as freely as the frying pan, and in the latter case, there was no reason to dwell in the frying pan.  

Cathy shrugged her shoulders. "If it's Minjun, then that's it. Come on, eat!"  

It was at the moment when Minjun had just picked up her fifth beer that Cathy brought up the story of a client who was visiting today. "Did Ed come and go today?"  

Minjun quietly nodded. Realizing that it was a client’s story, Jeongpal listened without participating in the conversation.  

"Are you going to take it?"  

"I'm thinking about it."  

"What is the content of the request?"  

The agent then pondered for a moment and then said, "He asked me to keep a secret."  

"Hmm."  

It was not difficult to share work with the secretary, but it was annoying that he was Cathy's friend. For that reason, Minjun added a word. "Are you close with that half-elf?"  

"Well… if you're close, you're close."  

With that rapist kid? Minjun then spoke in a serious tone. "I think it would be better not to get too close."

Then, Cathy made a very complicated expression. The expectation that could not be hidden sparkles in the two eyes that stared at Minjun. “Why? Because it’s a vampire trait? Is he going to get me?"  

Minjun usually picked up his legs without answering. “Why? Why? Why?”  

“Noisy.”  

At this, Cathy smirked and she said: "He's not like that."  

Then, Minjun decided. Later, when Jeongpal wasn’t there, he would have to tell Cassie what the half-elf did, except for sensitive information. However, what followed was surprising. "Ed absolutely hates his abilities. Maybe it’s because I’m a half-elf… and I’m not interested in women compared to guys my age.”  

"Still, a man is a man. Unless he’s a pure-blooded elf, he can’t guarantee that?”  

"No, he was a bit harsh. Why, among the vampire traits, there are kids with middle school disease? ‘After all, love is just an illusion. It’s like a mirage that you can’t catch even if you chase it. Whoops.' Kids who say things like this."  

Jeongpal, who had been listening quietly, said, “Uh? I've heard that story from Sooyoung."  

"Yeah, it's like that." It was not difficult to find a nihilist who doubted a serious romantic relationship among vampire traits. A glance could win the favor of the opposite sex, so it raised a fundamental question about the necessity and meaning of love.  

However, Cathy seemed to have misunderstood her. She was not interested in women. He fell in love with her at first sight and fell for her aliens. To the extent of being seduced and raped by the power of charm without the consent of the other party. "Still, don't get too close."  

When he said that decisively, Cathy's lips twitched slightly. "No, I'm really grateful…"  

In response, he sighed, almost as if he was thinking about something. "Ugh."  

Cathy finally said, “I’m worried about even talking about this… No, I have to tell you because you’re so worried.”  

Minjun bluntly accepted this. “What?”  

"He almost had an accident in high school because of that ability."  

"What?” The story that followed was surprising.  

"Did you almost go blind by stabbing yourself in the eye?"  

“Yes. I’m not going to go into detail, but there was a reason for that. He said he didn’t need these abilities that he couldn’t control, and that he’d rather be blind. I thought it was such a terrible thing to be possessed by someone, regardless of one’s will. Because he is a complete sage."  

Nevertheless, there was only one thing Minjun could say after hearing his confession of his own crime. "People change."  

***  

The drinking party that day, which focused only on her beer, ended safely without any intoxication, and Cathy and her Jeongpal walked home on their own feet. After tidying up the office, he heard the sound of grabbing Minjun’s footsteps as he was about to go to the house across the hallway.

Ding! ‘Did you reply again?'

He sat in front of the computer. A white alien character that covered the black screen. His gaze fell on the newly arrived message.  

‘Uh? This gentleman?’

-Sender: Asif -1,892  

He was a prisoner who sent only one sentence in reply to the last news of Bradley’s passing. Its contents were as follows. ‘Be careful.'  

Immediately after that, a surprise tax investigation was conducted. He opened the message a little nervously. The reply was in brackets.  

– Isn’t that the ‘Auber Spider’? what? Auber Spider? I fumble through his head, but nothing comes to mind.  

‘I thought it was an insect-type race…’  

Minjun read the next line down. –

  Females of Ober spiders were able to determine the sex of their offspring before giving birth. The mating method differs depending on which one is born. When giving birth to males who act as workers and soldiers, they lure males of other races to approach them with their own feet. Then… they say that they rip out the whole sperm and ate it.

After reading that sentence, Minjun felt a phantom pain piercing between his crotch. He meant that he would eat that important part of a human being.  

– I was able to conceive with the semen so obtained and produce a young male for a long time. Its appearance is completely identical to the race that provided the testes.

Working, they said the form of the spider was not mixed. As a result of identifying the genes of the children in the video, Minjun recalled the story that he was all male. What if that wasn’t a coincidence?  

– But it is still difficult to determine 100%. There are some notable differences compared to the features mentioned in the message.  

It was a bigger difference than he had initially expected. First of all, there was a reason why an old colleague wrote the sentence in the past tense.  

– It is said that the spider went extinct when the ancient race once disappeared from the plane. So, it is a race that has already disappeared at the very beginning of the historical era.  

Another difference was…  

– There’s no evidence that the spider was intelligent. And, as you said, I don’t think the semen was obtained by intercourse in the normal way.  

Clearly, Edward’s gait did not appear to be that of a man whose testicles had been removed only ten days earlier.

– Even so, it is difficult to completely exclude the Ober Spider from the nominations. As far as I know, there are no other species that reproduce that way other than the spider. A method of seducing the males of a species with few genetic crossings, securing the seeds, and giving birth several times.  

Minjun found himself lost in thought. ‘Right · · ·. Maybe Cathy is right. Edward may not have seduced him first. He didn’t realize it, but what if the aliens did something?’  

Minjun then responded briefly with a thank-you note, and then he contacted Edward right away. The other party answered the call very quickly.  

– Yes, agent. Minjun, like his former colleague, spoke from the main point.  

"Killing a woman is unpredictable. However, it is possible to isolate the alien so that it no longer bothers Mitchum. It will also stop childbirth."  

– What about children?  

"The children will not be killed. Don’t even Mitchum touch them."  

– Yes? But even later, if someone finds out… So, if you claim the inheritance right, it’s a big deal!  

Minjun then muttered as he read the end of the e-mail sent by the prisoner, "No, Mitchum doesn't have to worry about ‘boys' if that alien is the race I think it is."  

– Yes?  

"These kids… only time will tell."