’So that is why they invited us.’

I thought inwardly as I looked around the place. Beside me, Viora’s nose also twitched slightly as she processed the scents in the room.

"Woo Jin," she whispered into my ear, dropping her voice so low that the child couldn’t hear. "It’s a birthday party."

"Yeah," I murmured back. I was feeling a sudden wave of guilt. We had walked into a child’s birthday celebration completely empty-handed because we were too busy investigating her father.

Yuna happily climbed onto one of the chairs at the table and began swinging her small legs back and forth.

"Sit down, Mister! Sit down, big sister!"

I sat down on one of the wooden chairs, and Viora took the seat right beside me. As soon as she sat down, her hand immediately slid under the table and her fingers locked tightly with mine once again.

A few minutes later, the mother walked into the room carrying a large platter of roasted meat and vegetables. She set it down in the middle of the table, then sat down across from us.

"I am sorry for the sudden invitation," she said as she glanced at her daughter with a softening expression. "Today is Yuna’s birthday. Her father... he promised he would be home by two o’clock to celebrate with her."

Saying that, she glanced at the wall clock. The hands were currently pointing to 2:45 PM.

"But his work always keeps him delayed," she continued, and a melancholic smile materialized on her lips. "Yuna was feeling really lonely today. But then she saw you across the street. She insisted that since you were her dad’s friend, you had to join us."

"Does she know what her father does?" I asked quietly while keeping my eyes fixed on the woman’s face.

The mother shook her head slowly.

"She thinks he works for a construction logistics company," she whispered. "She knows he goes into dangerous areas sometimes, but... we try to keep her away from the Hunter world as much as possible."

I nodded because I understood that answer. Black was keeping his family completely sheltered from the blood and violence of what he did.

"Mister, eat this!" Yuna suddenly interrupted our conversation and pushed a small plate of meat toward me. "Mommy makes the best food!"

"Thank you, Yuna," I responded with a faint smile and picked up the spoon.

As we began to eat, the conversation remained light and surprisingly normal. The mother asked about how I met her husband, and I had to quickly fabricate a boring story about meeting him during a standard logistics evaluation inside a cleared lower-ranked Gate sector. She seemed to accept the explanation without a single doubt.

She knew her husband was a Hunter, but I was taking into account that Yuna didn’t know that and was just a child too young to know this kind of truth.

But as the minutes ticked by, the atmosphere in the room gradually began to change.

The warmth of the birthday celebration couldn’t completely hide the heavy, lingering presence that was slowly approaching the house.

Viora’s fingers suddenly squeezed my hand with immense force. Her body went rigid beside me, and her head turned slightly toward the front door.

"Woo Jin," she whispered, her voice tightening. "Something is here."

I stopped chewing.

A second later, the heavy sound of a key turning in the front lock echoed through the hallway.

Click.

The front door opened, and the heavy, suffocating pressure of a gravity field, one that was being forcefully suppressed to the absolute minimum, rippled through the floorboards.

"Daddy!" Yuna squealed in delight.

She instantly jumped down from her chair and ran out of the living room as her small footsteps faded down the hallway.

My eyes locked onto the doorway of the living room, and I slowly placed my spoon down on the table.

"Oh, my sweetie." I could hear Black calling his daughter, and then, after a few footsteps, Black stepped through the doorway.

He was wearing a simple, dark gray coat over a black shirt, and Yuna was currently clinging tightly to his left leg, laughing happily.

He stopped in the doorway, and I could see his eyes sweeping across the room. He didn’t look at his wife, and he didn’t look at the birthday cake.

His gaze locked directly onto me.

For a long moment, neither of us said a word. The silence in the room became so dense it felt difficult to breathe. The cold eyes of the monster met my blue eyes, and I could practically see the gears turning inside his head.

He hadn’t expected me to be sitting at his daughter’s birthday table.

But as his eyes drifted downward to track Viora’s hand tightly locked with mine under the table, a faint smirk touched the corner of his lips.

"Aren’t you a little too early for our meeting?" Black spoke first as his deep voice cut through the silence of the room.

"Your daughter invited me," I replied calmly, not flinching even a bit under his heavy gaze. "It would be rude to refuse a birthday invitation."

Black stared at me for three more seconds before letting out a short grunt. He reached down and gently patted his daughter’s head. For a second, his expression softened remarkably as he looked at her.

"Go to your room for a minute, Yuna," he murmured softly to her. "Daddy needs to talk to his friend about work first."

"Okay!" Yuna chimed, completely oblivious to the war of attrition happening over her birthday cake. She skipped out of the room and headed upstairs.

The moment her footsteps disappeared on the second floor, Black walked into the room and stood at the head of the table.

"You have a lot of nerve coming to my house, Woo Jin," he whispered.

"I was just exploring the neighborhood," I replied as I leaned back against my chair with a grin forming on my face. "It’s a nice place. Very quiet."

We stared each other down, completely ignoring the mother, who was looking between us in sudden confusion.

Gradually, as I looked into his eyes, a strange realization fell over me. I was inside his house, looking at his family, and facing the man himself.

The dynamic had completely shifted. I wasn’t just a piece on his chessboard anymore. By stepping into his home, I had forced my way onto the board as an equal player.

And looking at the tightening muscles in Black’s jaw, I knew for a fact that he realized it too.