Ch.29Catharsis 5

The woman’s first impression is intense.

None of the numerous hunters here noticed her.

She appeared in an instant, as if she weren’t a being of this world.

The woman recites the CEO’s name in a low, matter-of-fact voice.

“Lee Tae-sun.”

He knows.

That hardly anyone knows his real name.

At best, one might see the CEO’s name on documents like contracts.

Which means…

“What is this, a debt collector?”

The CEO looks unpleasantly at the woman he’s witnessing.

His eyes scold her as if saying, don’t you have any sense in this situation?

“The debt period. Has already. Passed half a year.”

But the woman speaks as if none of that matters to her.

“So you came personally to collect the money?”

Tae-sun rises leisurely from me.

And takes a deep breath.

“Counters must be dead too. Hiring a woman who can’t even speak Korean properly for debt collection.”

He snickers then coughs from the smoke.

But the woman shows no reaction to his provocation.

She simply states her business.

“The client wants. Your head cut off. To make an example for other debtors.”

“What…? An example?”

The killer thrusts a dark, dull blade toward Tae-sun.

It’s a sword made of the same material as Jack’s, who collapsed earlier.

“Can you pay. Right now?”

The CEO smirks.

And blows smoke at her.

“No, you crazy bitch.”

“I see.”

Just two syllables.

The moment Anna finishes speaking, my gaze turns to the floor.

Because the blood of the CEO, who was like the sky to me, is pouring out.

“The repayment will be. With your head.”

Everyone stares at the killer, dumbfounded.

Tae-sun’s neck is half-severed, dangling.

He somehow clutches it while stepping backward.

A strange sense of satisfaction emanates from the CEO’s distorted face.

My heart pounds as I watch the blood flowing freely.

I’m not sure why I’m feeling this emotion.

But one thing is certain—I want him to die.

“K-kill her!”

The CEO shouts with a cracking voice.

The staggering customers rush toward the killer all at once.

A human wave crashes over her.

Anna throws herself into that wave without hesitation.

She cuts through the thick flesh of customers and inserts her body through the split gap.

Covered in blood, she easily emerges from the wave and slashes an old woman rushing at her.

She cuts a small child in half.

Crushes the head of a woman clinging to her.

And looks at her target.

With melting pupils.

A customer’s corpse crashes into the counter.

Soon, a cheerful song starts playing from the speakers.

It’s my debut song, “Focus.”

Everyone literally focuses on the silver-haired killer.

I still can’t forget that mesmerizing sight.

That was the first time I felt what it was like to admire someone.

Free and uninhibited.

More professional than anyone else.

The true image of an idol, a real icon that I had wanted.

It was being realized right before my eyes.

The elegant restaurant windows are smeared with blood.

No one outside would know what’s happening in here.

The CEO is trembling.

He, an S-rank hunter who had even fought rankers, is now afraid of the woman standing before him.

He flails his trembling hands around.

But there are hardly any customers left moving properly.

They all just crawl on the ground like insects.

I can hear the sound of the CEO grinding his teeth from here.

He sits on the floor, backing away.

Then he hits the counter wall.

The silver-haired killer approaches him calmly.

“Money… I’ll give you money, that’s what you want, right?!”

“…”

“Just send that girl to the councilman, and the money will come in!”

The CEO points at me with a trembling hand.

The killer follows his gaze and looks at my face.

White eyes pierce through me.

I shudder all over as if penetrated by that beautiful face.

It grows hotter from below my navel.

That warmth seems to creep upward.

“I want it. Now.”

She turns her gaze from me and commands.

“I’ll get it, somehow! Just give me one day…”

The stained sword cuts through the counter.

In the process, the CEO’s arm gets sliced off.

“—!”

He screams like Jiho who died trampled.

The killer then cuts off his other arm too.

Now the CEO can no longer smoke his beloved cigarettes by himself.

“Just now. Because of the smell. I missed.”

The store’s music reaches its climax.

The exciting electric guitar sounds ring out, oblivious to the situation.

Soon the song pauses briefly.

And that silence is filled with the sound of something falling to the floor.

It was the CEO’s head.

The head rolls on the floor and soon stops.

And makes eye contact with me.

That face perfectly captures the expression I had been making while looking at him all this time.

A blood-covered hand grabs the head by the hair.

The killer places the head at her waist and calmly walks past me.

Eventually, my debut song gradually fades.

The dreamy sound of the synthesizer makes the departing killer sister’s appearance even more mysterious.

I stare up at her.

And soon make eye contact with her.

Her drowsy eyes looking down at me are mysterious.

Her smooth lips without a single wrinkle part.

“Good ability.”

My head goes blank.

It’s like hearing a mantra from a deity.

“Enough to. Shake my trajectory.”

“Don’t hesitate to use it. Just kill as much as you want.”

The white-haired killer’s words feel like virtue.

I see.

So I just had to kill everyone…?

Was it that simple to get rid of everything that torments me?

The wind enters through my breasts where my underwear is visible.

I shudder at that breeze.

The corners of my mouth twitch.

Yes, it’s better to kill than to be killed.

This sister is right.

I feel like I’ve received absolution from God.

My body becomes so sensitive that I can feel each drop of sweat flowing down my back.

“Sister… what’s your name?”

I ask her as she moves away.

But she doesn’t even tell me her name.

She just leaves quietly, carrying the CEO’s head.

I stare at her figure.

And I press my thighs together while admiring her body.

The curve of her hips and waistline with each step.

It was incomparably more beautiful than the room sisters I had seen at Catharsis.

But I couldn’t observe that sight forever.

Because as she left, the twin bodyguards who had been hiding appeared.

They try to hide their terrified expressions as they recover the CEO’s body.

I don’t know what they plan to do with a headless corpse.

They each take an arm and the torso, then look at me.

And just like always, they command me with contemptuous expressions.

“What are you doing? Let’s go.”

They say there’s a van parked in the back and we should go to the councilman.

They were hiding all this time while their employer died, and now they’re trying to do their job?

When I don’t respond to the bodyguards’ words, they approach angrily.

A black shadow falls across my face.

“Are you crazy? You think that woman from earlier will protect you too?”

One of them raises his massive arm.

But I wasn’t afraid of his shadow like before.

Rather, I’m grateful.

Because now I have a reason to use my ability freely.

I smile broadly.

The large men frown at that smile.

That frown soon turns to bewilderment.

Bewilderment becomes fear.

Because red gas was erupting madly from my body.

I spewed out all the fear and disgust I had felt into the world.

“—!”

The bodyguards scream like babies.

Despite their size.

Black blood flows from their eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

The two A-rank hunters fell pathetically.

The entire store is covered in red.

Eventually, no one survived in that store.

The more joy I savored, the more people died.

This is my happiest memory.

“Angelic Hand terminated.”

“—.”

I instinctively took a deep breath.

It’s a habit I always have after using Angelic Hand.

But I immediately regret it.

I just realized that pink pheromones still fill the inn.

The moment I inhale the gas through my mouth, my whole body trembles.

I want to go to the bathroom.

But my body won’t listen.

Because Jaehee is clinging to my entire body like a cicada.

She was licking my neck while making sensual moans.

She’s consuming the soap scent left by Anna.

How ironic that she, a pheromone ability user, is clinging to me as if in heat from Anna’s smell.

“You must have been embraced by Anna like this too, right?”

My whole body feels sticky.

Her moist sweat drops wet my body.

“I think I understand a little why Anna chose you.”

“…”

I somehow managed to move my lips.

But still, no sound comes from my throat.

“It’s cute how your body gets softer the more I touch you.”

She’s doing to me exactly what Tae-sun did to her.

Having abandoned all remaining reason, she was becoming just like the men who tormented her.

Even though she’s only nineteen.

My groin gets increasingly wet.

Her thighs meet mine over the moist skin.

As my body becomes more sensual, my heartbeat grows quieter.

As if exhausted from running too long a race.

I can only moan and feel pleasure and death simultaneously.

Blood starts trickling from my nose.

Soon I couldn’t think of anything.

I too buried my face in Jaehee’s collarbone and savored her flesh scent.

And I was dying.

“—.”

The front door of the shop opens.

That sound stimulates my half-closed eyes.

There shouldn’t be any customers at this hour.

Maybe Jiwook has returned.

If it really is him, it’s dangerous.

If Jiwook, who has no abilities, inhales this potent smoke, he’ll collapse immediately.

The sound of heels gets louder.

It doesn’t sound like a man’s footsteps.

Could it be Anna?

If it’s Anna, I desperately hope she’ll pull this crazy girl off me.

“Siho?”

But that voice wasn’t Anna’s.

It’s more feminine and gentle.

“Did I come too late?”

It’s Jeoksa.

She has come to the inn not as a dummy but as her actual self.

I instinctively twisted my body at that voice.

But Jaehee, who is embracing me, pulls me back as I try to get up.

Completely overlapping my body, she covers my mouth.

Just like the company CEO who silenced her voice.

The intoxicated girl opens her eyes slightly.

And puts a finger to her lips.

“What’s this smell?”

Jeoksa pulls out a handkerchief from her blazer, seemingly annoyed.

And she casually blows her nose at this cruel pheromone, as if it were mere pollen.

Two completely different worlds unfold across the thin counter.

“Please… save me.”