Chapter 38: Bound in Shadows

As Kang Do-hee said, someone had put a collar around his neck and tied him to a sturdy tree nearby.

A gag was also stuffed in his mouth, and because his cracked lips were curled upward, his gums were fully exposed. 

‘His teeth have been pulled out too…’

“Grrrgh…” 

Guh… to the point of dragging it out like this…

It might’ve been my imagination, but he seemed to be afraid of us. 

While the group stood still, observing, Ha-yul spoke calmly, without a trace of fear, even as he looked at the man in front of us. 

“That person… it looks like he doesn’t have any fingers either.” 

“Guh, grrrgh… grrr…” 

It was horrific. Someone had deliberately done this to him, leaving him tied up in a forest like this. 

“No wonder all those black dots were staying in the same spot,” Kang Do-jin muttered. 

When I checked the map again, I realized that the black dots scattered here and there hadn’t moved, lingering in similar positions. 

Until now, I thought they were just staying put because there was no noise or anything to provoke a monster, but it seems I was mistaken. 

“Are the other dots tied up like this person too?” 

“Seems like it. If all the ones scattered around are tied up, there’s a pretty big gap in the middle. There’s probably something there.” 

“Kyee, kying, kyee!” 

“Hey, Bamtol, what’s wrong?” 

Bamtol, who had climbed onto my shoulder and was lying on top of my head, kept making anxious whimpering sounds. Then, suddenly, it placed the goblin’s cap it was clutching tightly onto my head. 

*“…!!”* 

In an instant, before my mind could process what was happening, my eyes understood first. 

All the colors in the world vanished in a flash, and in my now black-and-white vision, I saw a faint yellow light enveloping Ha-yul and a dark, murky light surrounding the Kang siblings. 

Then, something appeared before my eyes—a figure dripping with something black, as if covered in mud or sewage. 

It was invisible to the naked eye, but the moment I put on the cap, it became vividly clear. 

What was that thing? It looked almost like melting candle wax, but whatever it was, the black substance kept dripping endlessly. 

It felt completely different from the light surrounding us. It was as if the figure was drenched in filth. 

But what shocked me even more than this filth-like aura was the people hiding behind it. 

‘Five people…’

Behind the tied-up man, five figures were concealed in the bushes. 

Thanks to the cap’s effect, I could see through the foliage, and their silhouettes appeared like an X-ray image. 

They, too, were surrounded by a faint light, mostly dark shades like deep gray or bronze. 

I slowly approached Kang Do-hee and whispered in her ear. 

“Noona, there are five people hiding behind the tied-up man. All adults. They seem to be men.” 

Kang Do-hee nodded slightly, showing no surprise. 

“Do-jin, Ha-yul, there are people hiding behind that man. Five of them.” 

Kang Do-jin nodded as well, and Ha-yul, standing close by, nodded to indicate he’d heard. 

Kang Do-hee, still holding her bow, spoke in a voice loud enough for them to hear but not too loud. 

“Let’s turn back. This path doesn’t seem right.” 

“Alright.” 

“Let’s go.” 

As the group slowly began to retreat, the figures hidden in the bushes remained crouched in place. 

We backed away, exiting the forest’s edge and crossing the path to hide in the bushes on the other side. 

“Hyung, are those people following us?” 

“No, I don’t see them now.” 

I was still wearing the cap, and Ha-yul had taken Bamtol onto his shoulder instead. 

“Phew, thanks to Bamtol. Thank you.” 

“Kyaaang~!” 

I patted Bamtol’s head and shared what I’d seen. 

“They were holding things like axes and wooden clubs. Based on their size, they looked like adult men. I couldn’t see their expressions clearly, but they didn’t seem friendly.” 

You could say it’s foolish to judge people by their appearance, but some traits can’t be hidden. 

Even though I couldn’t see their faces clearly in the black-and-white X-ray-like vision, they didn’t seem like good-hearted people. 

They had a menacing air about them, obvious even without studying physiognomy. 

“What do we do? Should we turn back for now?” 

“That’s probably best. Just in case, Ha-je, keep the cap on and watch our rear.” 

“Got it.” 

Instead of taking the same path back, Kang Do-hee took a longer route, walking along a stream that seemed connected to the house. 

She told us to walk only along the shallow edges where the current flowed, likely to avoid leaving tracks. 

While heading back to the house, I walked almost entirely facing backward. Fortunately, I didn’t see anyone following us. 

Aside from the occasional aurora-like breeze sweeping through the air and small wild animals hiding in the bushes, there was hardly any movement. 

Still, I stayed vigilant, scanning our surroundings until we reached the house. 

By the time we arrived, my neck was stiff from the tension. 

Perhaps because the tension had finally eased, my legs gave out, and I collapsed near the entrance. 

As Ha-yul locked all the bolts on the front door, Joo Bi-young, who had started doing a one-legged plank exercise with an injured leg like last time, paused and asked, 

“Huh? Ha-je? What’s that?” 

“Oh, right. I need to take this off. Wait, noona, can you see me?” 

*“Can I say I can see it?”* 

Joo Bi-young, sitting up slowly after relaxing her pose, looked directly at me and smiled awkwardly. 

“It’s weird. You’re completely transparent.” 

“Transparent, but you can see me?” 

“Uh… well, it’s like I can see a Ha-je-shaped patch of air. It’s transparent, but I can kind of make out your silhouette.” 

“Oh…” 

It made sense, yet it didn’t. I pretended to understand and started to take off the cap when something came zooming down from the second floor like a cartoon bird. 

At first, I thought a bird had gotten into the house, but upon closer inspection, it was a tiny winged human, smaller than my palm, like something out of a fairy tale. 

“Are you Baram?”

“….!!”

The fairy, meeting my gaze, nodded eagerly and started spinning excitedly in the air. 

Then, with a clenched fist, it flew right up to my face, flailing its limbs as it spoke. 

“Wooow~! It’s a magic cap! I haven’t seen one in ages!” 

“Haven’t seen one in ages? You’ve seen this item before?” 

“Gasp! What! You can hear my voice too?” 

“Y-yeah… I can hear it.” 

“Amazing! You can hear my voice too! This magic cap is even better than the one I knew!! The goblins must’ve worked hard!! And yeah, I’ve seen it before!” 

Realizing I could understand its words, Baram got even more excited, zipping around the living room. 

It was getting a bit overwhelming, and I wanted to take the cap off, but it was so happy that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Instead, I sat in a corner of the sofa. 

“Wow~ But, Ha-je human, doesn’t wearing it make you dizzy or tired?” 

“Not really dizzy? I wore it the whole way here, and aside from a sore neck, I’m fine.” 

“Really? Wooow~ The magic must’ve improved a lot since the old days! Back then, humans here would faint from dizziness after wearing it for just a few minutes!” 

“Oh, really? Hm, there wasn’t anything about that in the item’s precautions…” 

“Huh?” 

“Huh? What?”

“Huh? What’s wrong? Are you dizzy?”

“…I’m dizzy…?”

“If you’re dizzy, take it off now!” 

Alarmingly, the moment Baram said that, I suddenly felt a wave of dizziness. 

I thought it was just the relief of reaching home, but could there be some kind of penalty? 

Feeling nauseous and like I might vomit, I hurriedly took off the cap and tried to run to the bathroom but collapsed on the floor as my legs gave out. 

“Hyung! What’s wrong? Are you okay!?” 

Ha-yul and Kang Do-jin rushed over, helping me back to the sofa. 

Thankfully, once I removed the cap, the nausea subsided, and the disorienting sensation of the ground sinking beneath me faded quickly. 

I didn’t feel like throwing up anymore, but I was completely drained. 

“Wow, this thing… I guess you can’t wear it for too long… It’s really dizzying.” 

“What? There wasn’t anything about that in the penalties when you showed it earlier. Check again.” 

When I handed over the cap, Ha-yul squinted as if reading the item description. 

I checked it again too, but there was no mention of dizziness from prolonged use. 

“What’s this? There’s nothing about that.” 

“Did the status window forget to mention it?” 

When Ha-yul said this somewhat aggressively, Kang Do-jin chimed in. 

“That’s entirely possible. Based on what it’s done so far, it doesn’t exactly seem competent or smart.” 

“Do-jin, you don’t have to be that harsh…” 

“What if the status window gets annoyed and stops helping us?” 

Before I could add anything else, Kang Do-jin shrugged and said, 

“But it is weird. Usually, in games, you don’t see rare items with abilities like that being usable without any time limit.” 

Though he added it belatedly, Ha-yul didn’t pay much attention to Kang Do-jin’s words and started getting worked up. 

“No, but still! If it’s something that makes a person collapse from dizziness, they should’ve indicated it! This is just too much! The status window is absolutely at fault here!” 

“Y-yeah, okay, okay. Ha-yul, you’re right. I’m fine now, so calm down…” 

“What if you’d collapsed outside? If you’d passed out in front of those people earlier, it could’ve been a disaster! Even if it wasn’t those people, what if it was in front of a monster?!” 

“Uh, y-yeah… okay, okay.” 

Seeing Ha-yul get so angry actually calmed me down. 

He was worried I might collapse again because of the status window… 

‘It’s not like that, but if there’s a penalty, just let me know… Don’t sneakily update the description and pretend nothing happened.’ 

As I awkwardly tried to soothe Ha-yul, Joo Bi-young came over, sat down, and asked, 

“People? Who? You met someone?” 

“Oh, uh, yeah. Earlier…” 

I told Joo Bi-young about the route we took after getting the cap and what we saw there. 

Listening quietly, Joo Bi-young stared into the air somewhere near me, then nodded. 

“Baram says, just as you thought, they’re really, really bad people.” 

“Baram knows those people?” 

Once again, Joo Bi-young glanced around me before relaying Baram’s words. 

“Yeah. They live pretty far from here, but how did you end up going that far?” 

“Uh, well… we were scouting for a boss monster and…” 

What did Baram say this time? After a brief silence, Joo Bi-young nodded repeatedly before giving a slightly delayed response. 

“Hmm. Baram says they live in a slightly different direction from that place. Still, it’s good you avoided them. They’re really bad people, it says.” 

“I figured…” 

Thinking about the being tied to the tree made my mood sink, almost to the point of depression. 

It wasn’t like they attacked us, forcing us to deal with them. To tie someone up in such a tortured, miserable state like that… 

‘They didn’t seem rational, but still…’

While I was feeling down, Ha-yul and Bamtol were a comfort. 

Ha-yul, who had brought me barley tea, kept checking if I was okay, and Bamtol was sitting on my thigh, fiddling with the cap and radiating cuteness. 

Joo Bi-young had resumed her one-legged plank exercise with her injured leg raised. As I’d noted before, holding that pose on one leg showed incredible core strength. 

“Come to think of it, where are the elder and Gamja? Is the elder sleeping?” 

“Yeah. They’ve been really tired lately. They’re pretty old, so… They probably fell asleep while Gamja was giving them a massage.” 

“I see.” 

I answered casually, but there was a hint of worry in Joo Bi-young’s voice. 

‘Is the elder really unwell?’

Come to think of it, the elder had been staying in their room most of the time these past few days. But I didn’t pry further with Joo Bi-young. 

There’s no doctor here, and even if they’re unwell, there’s probably nothing we can do… 

“…….”

My mood grew even heavier. 

In times like this, I should snap out of it and think of something else. 

I was about to look for some household chores to help with when Kang Do-hee plopped down on the sofa, grabbing my shoulder tightly. 

“Ow! That hurts!” 

“You said your neck was sore. I’ll massage it for you.” 

“No, it’s fine—argh!” 

Grip—squeeze—

“Argh!” 

Suddenly, Kang Do-hee wrapped her arm around my neck and head. 

“Gasp!” 

Wait! I know this move! That night when Kang Do-hee broke that fleeing man’s neck— 

Crack—

“Urgh!” 

Snap—crack—crack—

“Guh, ugh, eep, ughhh.” 

The impact was so intense it felt like my spine was electrified, sending shocks all the way down. 

But… strangely, by the time the borderline violent massage was over, the pain in my neck was almost completely gone. 

“How’s that? Feel better?” 

“Huh? Yeah, it’s actually a lot better. Thanks, noona.” 

“No big deal. If we’re going out tonight, we need to loosen you up now.” 

“Right, tonight—wait, what? Going out tonight?” 

The idea of going out at night was surprising enough, but Kang Do-hee’s serious expression made me even more uneasy. 

I wondered if she was teasing me again, but I could tell that wasn’t the case. 

I didn’t know what was wrong, but she was clearly concerned about something.