Chapter 66.1

Chapter 66 – Rule 24. The Leader Pursues to the End (3)

Oh Baek-seo moved to the house next door for a reason.

To protect me.

No matter what, I couldn’t shake off the feeling of being overly protected.

It felt like she knew what threat was targeting me.

Despite being so determined to protect me, Baek-seo had left for several days without telling me.

It was suspicious.

At the time, I was severely injured after fighting Moon Chae-won, following Kim Dalbi and Han Seo-jin, among the Six Sinners.

It was easy to guess what worries Baek-seo might have harbored at this timing.

In other words.

What if Baek-seo decided to defeat Moon Chae-won or remove an even greater threat?

What if she decided to act on her own?

‘If she had told me in advance, she must have thought I would absolutely stop her.’

I could infer why Baek-seo left without a word.

Of course, there was no definitive proof.

It was just a hunch.

Because the question of why Baek-seo didn’t rely on the power of the Disciplinary Committee and moved alone remained unanswered.

So… I could only hope my guess was wrong.

I tried contacting Baek-seo twice more, but couldn’t get through.

[Ahn Woo-jin: Where are you?]

No reply either.

“Phew…”

After several spatial jumps.

When I emerged from a rift in mid-air, the dark interior of a house came into view.

It was Oh Baek-seo’s house.

With no way to find out where she went, I came here grasping at straws.

‘She was extremely against me coming here, wasn’t she?’

Invading her privacy didn’t sit well with me, but I could apologize later.

There were more important priorities now.

Click.

I turned on the light and looked around.

‘…It’s clean.’

It was a clean and ordinary room, so much so that I couldn’t understand why she was against me entering.

It might be an overthought, but it even hinted at an obsessive cleaning habit.

“?”

A single flower on the desk caught my eye.

A peony in a water bottle.

It was withered.

The flower had dried up and become a dried flower.

─ ‘Do you know the meaning of the purple peony?’

Last semester, when I was preparing for the midterms.

I remembered Baek-seo’s question when she saw my peony talisman.

‘I thought the question felt a bit unnatural then.’

Now, I felt like I knew why Baek-seo had asked about the meaning of the purple peony.

This withered peony might have been purple initially.

‘The meaning of the purple peony is… anger.’

I couldn’t understand why she kept the peony in this state.

I looked around again.

“Hmm?”

I felt an odd emptiness near the bookshelf.

Upon closer inspection, there was an unnatural seam on the floor under the bookshelf.

Using my innate ability, I set a coordinate on the opposite side of the bookshelf.

Crack.

A rift was created.

‘Coordinate set…? Normally, it doesn’t work in places I can’t move to?’

This meant there was space on the other side of the bookshelf.

I immediately made a spatial jump.

“……?”

I lightly generated an electric shock with my finger and looked around. I found the light switch and turned it on.

The light flickered weakly before shining brightly.

My eyes widened.

“What the…?”

Neatly stored lethal weapons.

An array of combat magic tools.

As my head followed the line of weapons, something even more astonishing filled my view.

“…….”

A mind map and all sorts of information covering one wall.

It was all about Head Principal Lee Doo-hee.

I stood in front of the information-laden wall and quietly examined the contents.

As time passed, my emotions cooled down.

‘I expected it, but… it was true.’

My brows furrowed.

Finally, my guess became certainty.

Recalling the magic mark engraved on Baek-seo’s arm.

She had been an elite agent, a Spartoi, once the Head Principal’s hound.

Though she seemed to have gained freedom from the Head Principal, the reason was unknown.

Also, seeing the mind map, I was sure.

Baek-seo’s current goal was to assassinate the Head Principal.

The motive seemed to be… revenge.

‘I see.’

I seemed to understand why Baek-seo was so excessively protective of me, and why she went missing in the original story.

I seemed to understand why she didn’t rely on the Disciplinary Committee if she went alone.

Because the opponent was the Head Principal.

Leading the committee with insufficient power against him and drawing attention would be worse than moving covertly alone.

In the original story, Baek-seo must have carried out her plan.

And considering she couldn’t be found after the Head Principal’s suicide, it seemed she encountered unfortunate events during the execution of her plan.

She probably didn’t leave Neo Seoul. Leaving would only lead to another hellish struggle to survive.

It was also unlikely to relocate to another place blessed by the Golden Sheep.

Surviving that long would be nearly impossible unless you were someone like Goliath.

‘There’s one gun missing.’