Chapter 23 Part 4: Commission – Innocent

Even while riding in a patrol car disguised as an ordinary passenger car, the police officers constantly fiddled with their guns.

‘There’s a smell of corpses.’

If that report was a misunderstanding, or even if there really were a corpse, if it was just a normal murder case or a lonely death, they wouldn’t have to let go of the tension this much.

They could laugh it off, saying that they were nervous about something useless.

But, if the criminal was an Awakened, the story changes.

“This is driving me crazy…. Surely it’s not an Awakened, right?”

“We have to pray that it’s not.”

“Hah, every time I get this kind of complaint, I feel like my heart is shrinking.”

“Tell me about it.”

After the Gate incident, the police organization went from being a necessary organization to a burden.

It’s still a fact that the police organization is an indispensable existence, but in a world where the power of individuals has become unimaginably strong.

The police soon witnessed the insanely soaring crime rate, and admitted that ordinary police officers couldn’t respond to the crimes committed by Awakened.

And, they started operating a special team to investigate cases with supernatural powers in order to respond to their crimes, but….

Naturally, the number of people with superpowers within the police was extremely small.

There are almost no cases where people who can enjoy all kinds of wealth and honor with their abilities would bother to throw themselves into the police force.

So, they don’t move unless they’re sure that it’s a supernatural power case.

No, they can’t move. They can’t make those high-level personnel take a useless step.

“Why, are you trembling?”

“Ye, yes…. If it’s a crime committed by someone with a high Awakened grade….”

“What else can we do? If it seems like that, we have to run away. You should loosen your legs in advance too. Because we might have to escape.”

“Is it really okay for the police to run away?”

“Why are you asking if you know? Police are also people, people. If you act recklessly to arrest monsters that guns don’t even work on and die, it’s only a loss for you.”

“But….”

“Let’s throw away that paltry sense of justice, rookie. Isn’t it because of that kind of useless emotion that we’re in this state now. Damn it.”

“Even while saying that, Chief, you still haven’t retired.”

“Hey, you imma. Do you think I’m doing this because I want to? I’m doing this because I can’t pay off the loan I took out to buy a house, if I win the lottery I’m quitting right away.”

“Ugh, I’m tired of hearing it. How many times have you said that? You’re not going to win the lottery anyway.”

“Shut up.”

In the end, most of the police are incompetent, so there were a lot of cases where they died in the line of duty to Awakened even if they were armed. 

So most police always moved in teams when dispatching, and this was even more true in cases presumed to be serious crimes.

In order to maximize the survival rate, they had to act with several people.

“Is it here?”

“Yes. The phone’s location was around here.”

“It’s a detached house. Everyone checked your guns, right? All the bullets are in?”

“Eii, isn’t that obvious? We have to shoot if something happens.”

“Yeah. Rookie, you also check it well. If a situation comes where you have to use it, don’t hesitate and shoot.”

“A si, situation where I have to use it…”

The rookie swallowed his saliva and recalled the story he had heard until his ears were worn out.

The abilities of the Awakened are all different, so they said that some abilities give terrible pain.

Why does he remember the passage in the textbook that said not to hesitate to use it when there is a need to use it to obtain a comfortable death in preparation for an emergency?

The rookie gripped the gun in his hand tightly because the terrible photo he saw at the police academy, even though it was mosaicked, lingered in his head.

Please, I hope it’s not that terrible ability.

“Um, are you a police officer?”

“Yes, I am. Are you the reporter?”

“Yes, yes. That’s right. Please come this way.”

“…Chief.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Cold sweat dripped down the foreheads of the police officers.

A mana detector that all police officers carry in preparation for the Awakened’s surprise attacks.

It’s not an expensive item, so it’s something that only tells you whether mana exists.

That detector was starting to work after the reporter approached.

“Um, excuse me. You said it smelled like a rotting corpse…. I don’t think I smell that.”

The chief talked to the reporter, and fiddled with the gun in his arms so that he could shoot at any time.

I didn’t want to think that the reporter had committed something, but his body was automatically scanning her.

If there’s an Awakened in front of him, he had to be able to respond at any time.

“It doesn’t smell well here. But, if you step on from here….”

“See. It smells disgusting.”

But even the veteran had no choice but to clutch his nose with his posture disturbed for a moment.

The subordinates who followed behind must have felt the same smell, they were all greatly distorting their faces and clutching their noses.

“The stench is severe… I understand why you put in a complaint.”

“That’s right?”

“Damn it, what kind of smell is this? The person who lives in this house is living normally while smelling this?”

“No.. It’s not that. It wasn’t this bad originally. It’s only recently that it started to smell like this.”

“…Recently?”

“Yes. Um, I don’t know if it’s okay to talk about this in front of the police officers….”

The chief realized that the reporter was hesitant to speak while looking around.

Ah, there’s something. At least she has something on her conscience.

As soon as he realized that fact, the chief waved his hand as if to say it was okay.

“It’s okay. Well, I can turn a blind eye unless you killed someone or something.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes, that’s right. People can’t live following all the laws, right? Haha.”

“If that’s the case…”

Was it because he said that it was okay to talk?

She hesitated and confessed what she had done.

“Actually, the stench in my house was so bad that I was wondering what kind of smell it was.”

“Is that so?”

“But since there was no one at home, I was a little curious, so….”

“You went in?”

“…Yes.”

Is she worried about trespassing?

Well. It doesn’t seem like they’re going to hold her accountable for that in this situation.

“It’s okay. Please continue to tell me.”

“Ah, yes. But, the stench isn’t coming from the house, but from the yard.”

“So?”

“There’s nothing smelly visible in the yard, but the smell is so bad, so I dug up the yard a bit? Then….”

So this is when the stench started to blow.

“Then?”

“…It’ll be easier to see. It seems that the landlord hasn’t returned yet either.”

“It’s okay. Well, I’ll just get disciplined if something goes wrong.”

What the heck is there that she’s hesitant to say it directly?

With that question, the police officers couldn’t stand their curiosity and moved towards the yard.

And, they sighed after seeing the scene that unfolded before their eyes.

“…It’s a corpse.”

“Yeah, it’s a corpse.”

I don’t know if they gave up after digging a little, but the shovel was lying on the ground with some of the soil dug up.

And, a person’s arm, half rotten, was dangling from the broken soil as if it had been dug up on purpose.

“Rookie, call the forensics team.”

“Yes, yes…!”

“Also look for excavation companies around here. It seems like we need to overturn the yard.”

Because the preservation state of the corpse was too bad, it seemed difficult to figure out how long it had been since death.

However, such a severe stench doesn’t come from just one corpse.

The chief, who knew that fact well from experience, intuitively realized.

That there would be more corpses under here.

“Chief. I checked this house’s address, and….”

“What is it?”

“It’s the house where a 23-year-old woman lives. Her name is Yoo Eun-bi. She’s currently majoring in design at a nearby university, and it seems that she’s working part-time.”

“Her current location?”

“She’s been skipping university without permission for the past few days…. She told her friends that she was going on a trip.”

“A trip? …How carefree.”

The chief clicked his tongue and read the data that his subordinate handed him.

A girl who looks fine is out of her mind.

“Eueup! Eup! Eueueup!”

“Hey, you have a lot of friends? I envy you. It must be a little tiring to be so popular?”

I exclaimed and replied one by one to the contacts that came to the woman’s phone from time to time.

The people who looked like her friends were constantly saying this and that to her.

Where did you go. You’re going to ruin the assignment like this. Are you going to drop out? Stories like that.

As I was looking through the messages that Yoo Eun-bi had sent and writing replies that suited her tendencies, she started to struggle even more.

“Stay still for a bit. It’s distracting.”

“Eueup! Eueueup!”

“Don’t worry too much, you’re not going to die. The client told me not to kill you.”

“Eueueueup!”

“Instead, I decided to completely ruin your life.”

Thump, thump.

Because it was the rooftop where her house could be seen at a glance, her eyes could capture the situation that was happening now at a glance.

The police coming, taking out the corpses buried in her house……

She didn’t know what they were trying to do, but Yoo Eun-bi was feeling extreme fear at the fact that she was becoming what the monster who kidnapped her wanted.

I have to get out of here quickly. I have to let them know that it wasn’t what I did.

As if that thought was dominating her brain, Yoo Eun-bi shook her body and struggled.

Then, by chance, the cloth tied in her mouth came loose.

“Haa, haa…!”

“Ah, it’s really annoying. It’s a problem if you struggle like that.”

“Why, why…”

“Huh?”

“Why the heck? What’s the benefit of doing this?”

That was Yoo Eun-bi’s question.

She was feeling extreme fear at the actions of the monster that she couldn’t even understand why they were doing this.

“Why, why are you doing this to me…. Huh? Sa, save me. Please.”

“I told you that I’m not going to kill you, so why are you like this. Okay, if you’re curious, I have to tell you. Because I thought it would be good to do so.”

With a gaze that was more kind than anyone else, the beautiful monster in front of her stroked Yoo Eun-bi’s hair.

It was a soft touch, but she couldn’t feel safe in that touch.

“I’m going to make you a liar.”