Chapter 697: Mask

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Main house of the Hwangmyeong mansion.

The kids were waiting at the front door.

“We were waiting for you, Euishin hyung!”

“It’s Euishin oppa!”

“Sorry I’m late. Oh…”

“Let’s go!”

As soon as they found me, Eun Seoho and Eun Iho grabbed each of my arms and led me to the living room.

They were overly excited, but the tigers didn’t want to stop them.

I could understand the cold old man who arrived with me, but even Baekho-gun, who quietly sat on the sofa, was just watching.

Jeokho and Kim Shinrok, who briefly appeared from the kitchen, also went back right away.

I was dragged in front of a huge tree.

It seemed like a normally decorated tree at first glance, but the arrangement was strangely sloppy, the electric wires of the lights tangled.

‘The descendants must’ve decorated it themselves. But I think something’s missing.’

There was something strange about the tree.

There were all sorts of decorations, but there was no topper.

After looking at the tree in full, the youngest Eun Jaeho offered to open a box.

“We were waiting to decorate it with you, Euishin hyung.”

The box contained a black star-shaped Christmas tree topper.

Gold, red, blue, white, and silver were shining inside the star from what seemed to be processed otherworld ore.

It was as if stars of five colors were shining in the night sky.

‘There’s only a few hours before Christmas ends, but they’ve been waiting to decorate it with me.’

Star-shaped toppers are common, but having them in black is rare.

Perhaps they wanted to let me place it since my alias is related to stars and the color of my energy wave is black.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

I thought they should’ve gotten a different topper than wait for me.

“This topper is custom-made, Jo Euishin. The descendants helped make it, designing various shapes and colors.”

“That’s right! We designed it with you and the tigers in mind!”

Eun Iho said so.

I stopped thinking and couldn’t come up with anything to say.

After faltering, I decided to put the topper silently.

Hwang Jiho laughed while Eun Jaeho took a picture of me.

I felt my energy drain even though I only placed one decoration, but an angel’s voice saved me.

Woof woof!

The sound brought back the strength in my whole body as I turned around and saw the small genius warrior.

The angel was dressed in Santa clothes, and I was amazed at how he could appear so nice whenever his small white feet moved through his red clothes.

He had the Santa doll that I gifted him on his back.

Touched by Olmu’s deep heart, I uttered words of praise for a while.

“Calm down, Jo Euishin. Olmu is a genius, but your own intelligence has dropped.”

The old guy said some useless things.

I already know that though, so it’s okay.

As I was enjoying Olmu’s genius and ignoring Hwang Jiho, someone else spoke.

“…Can I have this star later on?”

Sanryeong, dressed as a reindeer, said so.

He was looking at the Christmas topper with an anxious face as if he really liked it.

Sanryeong spoke to Hwang Jiho, and the old man’s face looked sullen.

Sanryeong showed strange behavior around the time I appeared, but he wouldn’t say the reason until the end, which greatly depleted Hwang Jiho’s mood.

I thought he’d say no, but Hwang Jiho responded unexpectedly mercifully.

“I gave this topper to the descendants, so they should be the ones to decide.”

“Then we’ll do what Euishin hyung thinks.”

“What should we do, Euishin oppa?”

Why am I suddenly in charge of disposing of the Tiger Clan’s Christmas decor?

I decided to think about it because it was hard to ignore the kids.

‘I don’t know what he’s hiding, but I don’t think Sanryeong has any ill intent. I guess it would be fine to give him this as a gift.’

I already gave him a gift, but I thought it would be fine to give him another.

The topper wasn’t even mine from the start anyway.

Christmas decorations usually become a nuisance after the 25th, so it might be better to give it to him.

“Why don’t he take it after we clean up the tree?”

“T-thanks!”

Sanryeong, who looked at me with impatience, was delighted.

He was excited and ran around, his reindeer outfit strengthening the Christmas spirit even though it was chaotic.

“The preparations are complete. Come to the dining room please, everyone.”

In the meantime, Jeokho came to the room and told us that dinner was ready.

I wasn’t hungry because I ate at the Class Zero party, but I decided to eat again in consideration of their effort and sincerity in preparing the food.

The moment I saw the menu, I was stunned.

‘Woah, I don’t think there’s any dish without dried persimmons.’

I felt that there was a reason why the descendants weren’t helping in cooking, and it seemed like it was because the two took over making every dish with dried persimmons.

Every menu had it one way or another.

Starting with dried persimmon salad, drink, and cake, everything was so sweet that I wondered where they got so many dried persimmon.

“Yours truly chose the menu. There are dishes I made in advance. Help yourself, Baekho.”

It must’ve been Hwang Jiho’s scheme.

Hwang Jiho put a lot of food in front of Baekho-gun.

Is Hwang Jiho doing this because Baekho-gun didn’t listen to him just before I descended to the otherworld?

It was ridiculous seeing this old man bully his friend so childishly.

Even Jeokho was feeding dried persimmons to his son and to Baekho-gun, but regardless, the tiger family looked peaceful.

‘It’s Jeokho and Kim Shinrok’s first Christmas together.’

I don’t know about Hwang Jiho, but it’s nice seeing Jeokho so excited.

Kim Shinrok seemed somewhat lackluster, but he ate very well the food that his father served him.

Seeing them spend Christmas together, I suddenly realized that it’s been a while since I’ve had such a lively Christmas party.

I couldn’t afford to enjoy Christmas parties in my teenage years, and I was busy with my tutoring job during college.

I didn’t have the means to enjoy a good Christmas.

I felt sick when my thoughts reached that far so I turned my thoughts elsewhere.

“I’ve been asked to give this to you.”

“What is this?”

“Open it.”

We were almost done eating so the conversation started to roll again.

The kids, who saw the clunky but well-wrapped package, looked at each other.

Eun Seoho, the oldest, reached out.

When he pulled the ribbon lightly, the wrapper opened automatically.

The watchman who protects the bridle of reincarnation may have used his power to make the gift open once the kids’ energy touches it.

“A photo…? It wasn’t taken with a camera, but it was painted with energy waves.”

When Hwang Jiho said so, the descendants suddenly brightened up and rejoiced.

Eun Seoho, who was holding the photo, held back tears.

“O-oh… This is our father’s picture! Did you meet our father, Euishin hyung?”

The energy paper showed the scenery in the bridle of reincarnation.

According to the children, back when the Silver Hero was alive, she would give them pictures of the watchman.

The watchman seemed to exchange greetings by sending pictures and letters through the Silver Hero since the descendants couldn’t come to the bridle themselves.

Other than the scenery of the bridle, the watchman was also in the photo.

He looked older than when I saw him, perhaps wanting to appear like a father.

‘This must’ve taken a lot of concentration and control to capture this so elaborately. The watchman isn’t ordinary.’

While looking at the photos, the youngest Eun Jaeho spoke.

“I want to give him a picture too… Can’t we go where our father is?”

The Silver Hero died around the time Eun Jaeho was born, so I guess he didn’t have many of his pictures.

We can’t go freely to the bridle like Ok Toyeon or the Silver Hero though.

“I’ll tell you if I’ll go there.”

I said so in consideration of the young descendant, but Hwang Jiho immediately stepped in.

“Are you going to go there again? Get a grip of yourself, Jo Euishin. It’s better to order the moon rabbit. That damned moon rabbit has a lot of debt to our family, so we can order her around as much as we like.”

Although Hwang Jiho grumbled, he still looked at the photos with interest.

The descendants became more talkative too.

The center of the conversation was the watchman.

“I’ve thought about it since a long time ago, but it’s great to see the three descendants. There are quite a few royal lineages who aren’t blessed with one.”

“Right? Isn’t it amazing? We almost became four siblings too!”

“Four…?”

Hwang Jiho looked surprised, and his expression immediately turned dark.

There are three children here with us, making the mention of a fourth child spawn ominous assumptions.

With the tigers’ unusual energy, Eun Iho spoke up.

“Our mother told us. The person who was almost our unnie went somewhere else.”

“What do you mean went somewhere else?”

“She was born to be someone else.”

The tigers’ expressions softened when they realized that it wasn’t a sudden death.

But questions still remained.

“It’s been a while since a descendant of the Tiger Clan was born since you three. Where on earth has that child gone?”

“We didn’t hear that from our mother… Oh, but she said something before. The one who almost became my noona had a good chance of being born as a child of the Tiger Clan.”

The first-bron Eun Seoho began to tell the story from the Silver Hero.

The Silver Hero said she knew she would have three children.

However, she tried to have another child, but she eventually failed.

The Silver Hero said “I felt sorry for the Tiger Clan’s child to wait outside without a certainty, so I decided to welcome her as my child. However, in the end, our fates were out of reach.”

“…I see.”

“I don’t know what kind of people she might have been involved with, but I hope she’s doing well.”

The Tigers looked complicated.

The descendant Kim Shinrok kept his mouth shut, and Baekho-gun was silent as usual.

Even if they didn’t talk, they were clearly worried about how the child, who was almost a descendant of the Tiger Clan, was doing.

‘A child who almost became a descendant…’

Based on what I know from PMH and in this world, a hypothesis came to mind.

I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t in a position to intervene in the family history of the tigers, but there was something on my mind.

‘There’s a way to check my hypothesis.’

After the Christmas party, when the descendants fell asleep.

I headed to the bamboo forest with Baekho-gun and Hwang Jiho to meet the masked couple.

On the move, I asked the tigers something.

“I have a question.”

“What is it?”

It was a question that I wanted to ask Jekoho, but he wasn’t here now and I couldn’t do it because it would be too harsh.

But I wanted to ask these two.

“Do you remember the faces of the tigers behind their masks?”

The tigers couldn’t answer “yes.”

My hypothesis became increasingly solidified.

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