CHAPTER 9 

Seulgi had one of the most peaceful sleeps that night.

But it wasn’t the same state when she woke up.

How can a lyre be so excruciatingly—awful to hear?

And how can the sweet melody of a lyre became your normal alarm clock?

Well, here in Apollo’s Cabin, you will end up drifting to dreamland with a calm heart as an automatic lyre strums its way for them as a lullaby.

But hell—

Once it’s set to wake you up, some sort of an agonizing—painful—terrible tune would be strummed mercilessly and all of them had no choice but to wake up and silently cry with invisible tears pouring down their faces.

And this continue every single day, and it has now been slightly more than 2 weeks since she had arrived at the camp, and saying that Seulgi is accustomed to the lyre’s tune in the morning would be a downright lie.

Seulgi heard a loud frustrating yell from the boys room—probably yelling at the lyre to shut up, while she brush her teeth groggily. Yesterday was quite a day to her, since she had extra lessons for unarmed combat with Yuri till late night. She was tired to the bone. There was always some extra lessons for her starting last two weeks ago—since Mr K had put her up for her first—ever—mission, which she highly doubt will go well.

Irene cleared as she and Seulgi entered Mr K’s room. He was sitting comfortably in his armchair reading some sort of a newspaper which was definitely not the local news since bolded black letters at the headline states, “UNDERWORLD CREATURES IN SIGHT”.

“Oh, you guys are here,” Mr K folded the paper and place it on his table before taking out a document file and starts to flip it through.

“Busan…Daegu…Gwangju…Incheon—ha!” Mr K exclaims and he unclips a bunch of paper before scanning it and chose one, “Seoul—Gwanghwamun Square—here Irene, take a look.”

Irene takes the report and began to read it while Seulgi take a small peek once in a while, still sort of confuse on why she is being called to his office with Irene. After a few minutes, Irene sighed and gave the report back to Mr K.

“Getting brave aren’t day? It’s not even nightfall and they’re already appearing?” Mr K scoffed as he read the report once more, “She is spotted once during sunset near King Sejong’s statue and another time near Gwanghwamun Station.”

“Of all the places…“ Irene mutters, completely disliking the idea of the ‘girl/woman’ appearing at Gwanghwamun, “So you want me to check this out?”

“Yup,” Mr K nodded enthusiastically, and points to Seulgi, “with her. I want you to pair up this time. I believe she is sufficient enough without another demigod to tag along. I sense something different from you, Seulgi.”

“Sorry—what?” Seulgi wasn’t really paying attention earlier as she was staring at the crow outside the window, perking above the tree branch.

“Kang Seulgi,” Mr K looks directly at her as he placed his hands under his chin, “I will be giving you—your first mission. And you should feel proud, because you’re the fastest demigod to have their first mission.”

“M-Mission?” Seulgi stammers, wide eyed, “Me? Why? I’m not—“

“I believe in you,” Mr K said firmly, “and so does your father. Since the unfortunate event the previous day, I have seen some rare traits from you—a little different from your half-siblings, I must say. Therefore, I have discussed with the higher-ups, and they agreed to put you in this mission.”

“But, I barely have any skills and…and I…and I—“

“Within this two weeks, you will have extra training than your fellow siblings,” Mr K handed the report once more, but to Seulgi. He shifts to Irene who has a slight worrisome look but tries to maintain a stoic expression, “I trust you in this mission, Irene. It’s just an empousa, after all.”

Just an empousa.

Just an empousa he says.

Based on the report and what she learns in Ancient Greek class, this empousa is some sort of a modern vampire. They are known to seduce and feed upon the blood of men and it’s a she. She is also, a daughter of Hecate, the goddess of magic and sorcery, along with Mormo, the one Seulgi encountered before.

The weirdest part is the empousa, is a one-legged hybrid, with two weird legs where one is a donkey's while the other leg is a celestial bronze prosthetic leg. And Seulgi cannot decipher how on earth would some man fall in her seducing charms when she looks like that? Not to be mean or anything but you know—logically thinking.

“Seulgi-ya, you didn’t sleep well last night?” Suho asked as she stared at the lifeless form of Kang Seulgi shoving cereal to .

Seulgi just managed a grunt as an answer and Suho shooks his head and chuckles. There was an outburst from the Hermes table as one of the Ares kids confront about a missing speaker and somehow the number one suspect is always going to be the Hermes kids.

“…Why would we steal that stupid speaker? It’s not even thrice better than ours,” Baekhyun derides as he gobble his food.

“Oh why? You’re asking me why?” The Ares guy tauntingly asked, “maybe because your heritage has a nag on stealing stuff?”

“Don’t bring family into this!” Henry stood up, glaring at the bulky Ares dude who was twice his size.

The guy gave Henry and the Hermes clan this one look before saying, “If I found it’s you guys who stole our speakers, I won’t stay put.” The guy then walks away towards his tables, ignoring eyes staring at him.

“What’s the big deal? Just go buy a new speaker…” Choa rolls her eyes after the small commotion ends.

“You know how those bulls like to make a fuss over stupid little things,” Sehun drank his orange juice before nudging Seulgi, “By the way, when are you going for the mission again?”

“In two days,” Seulgi sighed as she remind herself that she was going to a suicide mission soon and her insides shrivelled at the thought of the empousa once more.

“Chill Seulgi, I’ll know you’ll back here in one-piece,” Woozi reassured her with his shy smile.

“Has anyone came back here—not in one-piece??” Seulgi getting alarmed, as she imagined herself with decapitated hands.

“Well—there are minor injuries, but mostly if its not in one piece means you’re actually dead…”Suho answered with a ponder look on his face. “—But I bet you won’t.  If I was on your place, maybe I would, but since its you—“

“Shut up Suho,” Choa rapped his head earnin