episode_0147

“What?”

“Take those clothes off.”

Jin Ye-seo, doubting her ears, asked back, but the masked boy repeated what he had just said in a calm voice.

Jinye felt her breathing quicken.

He is finally revealing his sinister teeth that he had been hiding.

Of course, it’s not like I didn’t make any assumptions about this situation.

Even though they share a secret daily life, Jin Ye-seo and he have completely different positions. Jin Ye-seo has no choice but to be dragged along wherever he leads her.

The only regret in this relationship is entirely hers.

Moreover, Jin Ye-seo also knew his cruel personality very well. She had experienced it firsthand, and the evaluations of those around her were not much different.

It was to the point that at the beginning of the semester, there was even a rumor going around that he had bullied an innocent brown-haired female student from the countryside and made her his henchman.

Of course, he had prepared various logical persuasions in advance in case the devil would reach out to him.

Because a great female wizard was worth that much.

But I never thought I would be asked to do such an absurd thing so suddenly, in such a quiet alley, in such a situation where I couldn’t even do anything.

‘I… I don’t think that’s your intention… Are you trying to tame me to suit your tastes? To clearly show your superiority in the relationship…? I’ve read it in psychology books… First, you make an unreasonable demand, and then slowly… ‘

“Sleep… Wait a minute… ”

“Hey. I told you I don’t have time. What are you doing?”

“Ugh… ”

Jin Ye-seo’s eyes were unfocused and shaking. The arrogant attitude she had shown toward the gangsters earlier was nowhere to be found.

She was already positioned exactly at the bottom of the food chain between the two.

“Ah, no matter what, in a place like this… ”

“Oh, seriously… What kind of idiot is walking around the slums wearing such nice clothes.”

“Huh… ?”

Jin Ye-seo, who had almost given up, was about to place her trembling hands on the top button of her shirt.

At the sudden irritated voice, she let out a stupid groan without realizing it.

Jin Ye-seo slowly raised her head.

The man wearing a gas mask was lightly placing his hand on his forehead as if he had a headache.

“I said the place I’m going to now is a slum area. I’m not advertising to pick a fight… ”

Jin Ye-seo, who had been blankly staring, was only then able to understand what he meant.

“Ha, but… I brought the shabbiest clothes I own… ”

“I don’t know much about the living standards of the poor, but it can’t be that bad.”

“Well… I can’t take my clothes off though. Those people probably don’t go around in their underwear either… ”

“Who asked you to take off all your clothes? Of course you asked for only your outer clothes. You even pointed with your finger.”

Jin Ye-seo, who realized that she had seriously misunderstood something, shouted with a bright red face.

“Hey! Then speak properly! Who would tell you to take off your clothes all of a sudden…!”

“Shouldn’t you understand that much? Okay, just take it off quickly. It’s already too late. If you delay any longer, we’ll really arrive at night.”

“Ugh… ”

Jin Ye-seo’s protests were like a feeble echo. She had no choice but to put down her suitcase and take off her outerwear, shrugging her shoulders.

Even that was extremely shameful and humiliating.

The man who took the coat tore it into pieces, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it repeatedly.

And the outer garment became a rag that could not be taken even if given, and returned to Jin Ye-seo’s hands once again.

The man who saw Jin Ye-seo, wearing an outer garment covered in rotten dirt and dust, nodded.

“Now I guess you can look at it a little.”

“Ugh… ”

Jin Ye-seo let out a small groan in a voice full of humiliation.

In an instant, she looked like someone who had picked up and worn someone else’s clothes that had been rolling around in a used clothing collection box.

“If possible, I wish you could make your face a little dirty. You look like a precious child… ”

“… ?”

Jin Ye-seo stopped talking and looked at the man standing tall with a puzzled look.

“… Okay. This should be fine.”

“… ?”

After a while, the man turned around and shook his hands as if nothing had happened.

Jin Ye-seo, who felt that strange gloom again, tilted her head slightly.

***

North of the capital. In the middle of a slum where even trams don’t run.

“Ugh… ”

Jin Ye-seo’s expression distorted at the stench rising from the sewer running through the street.

Even I find it disgusting, so it must be hard for her to bear.

In the gradually falling darkness, streetlights flicker on and on. Most of them are broken and not working.

We continued on through the narrow alleys between broken windows and rusted drums.

I occasionally encountered residents, but they didn’t pay much attention to me.

Should I say that they disguised themselves well, or are they just too busy trying to survive to care about other people’s circumstances?

After going that way for a long time, we finally arrived at the address of the poorhouse that Yeonmin-ha had told us about.

“Huh?”

But what we encountered was an overgrown vacant lot and the half-burned ruins of a building.

“Hey. Didn’t you say you came to meet a witness? But here… ”

Jin Ye-seo asked with a questioning expression.

“B14-132. This is the right place.”

I looked around and checked the address. There was no way Yeonmin-ha would have given me the wrong address. She was almost perfect in that regard.

“And… ”

I examined the exterior of the building, which bore clear marks of fire.

The letters engraved on the signboard attached to the upper part of what appears to be the entrance catch the eye, rattling precariously whenever the wind blows.

-Sister’s house

It was definitely the place that Yeonmin-ha had told me about. It was a workhouse that was said to be one of the places receiving support from the communists.

“… ”

But why is it like this?

It seems like I can’t find any nuns or anything like that.

“… I think it would be better to go back first? What are you doing in a place like this… Hey, hey! Doing something so reckless… !”

“You wait here. If anything happens, give me a signal right away.”

After much thought, I opened the creaking door and went inside.

Jin Ye-seo tried to stop him in an impatient voice, but she couldn’t just go back without achieving anything.

There was no great difficulty in exploring thanks to the moonlight shining through the open ceiling.

A teddy bear with a torn neck and dangling button eyes, a small sketchbook with colorful drawings on it, and old clothes that looked like they belonged to children.

Evidence of life that must have once existed in these ruins.

“… ”

I continued to walk inside. More and more information came in through my eyes.

Moldy, sagging wallpaper, cobwebs, and dark stains on the walls that looked exactly like bloodstains.

It feels like some great disaster has swept through this place.

Before I knew it, I had reached a small room in the corner.

Something catches my eye on top of the display case, which is barely standing with one broken leg.

“This is… ”

I walked closer and picked it up.

This photo barely escaped the fire, with the ends slightly scorched.

About fifteen children with bright smiles.

And the only adult standing in the middle is a certain woman.

He appears to be in his 20s, has a graceful appearance, and is dressed in what appears to be religious attire.

Is this person… the nun I’m looking for?

He is someone who helps to alleviate the mental pollution of Yeonjeongmun by hanging around the red light district, and he may even be an associate of the pseudo-religion called Heaven’s Gate that Jinyeseo mentioned…

“… ”

Looking at those bright smiles that are not much different from those of children, I feel strangely uncomfortable.

You can’t judge someone by their appearance alone, but… if you just look at their expression in the photo, they don’t seem like a bad person at all.

Of course, it’s all just speculation before I meet her in person… but now, I don’t even know where she is, let alone whether she’s alive or dead.

What on earth should I do?

-Who… Where is this place? How dare you…!

-…!

I was lost in thought for a moment.

Suddenly a loud noise is heard from outside.

I immediately moved my body and jumped to the outskirts of the collapsed building.

The sight of Jin Ye-seo, who was guarding the entrance, and an old woman holding a cane arguing soon comes into view.

“Get out of here! You dirty bastards! What are you trying to take away now? Your master told me to kidnap the kids and bring them to you!”

The old woman held the cane in her weak arms and waved it diligently at Jin Ye-seo.

“How dare you act like that, even though you know who I am… Heyah… !”

I immediately ran out and grabbed Jin Ye-seo’s neck, who was about to yell at me in anger. Jin Ye-seo let out a sharp groan at the sudden sensation.

Why does the image of Choi Woo-jin diligently reading newspapers to learn about the lives of ordinary people come to mind?

I think I understand why they actively encourage outside requests to young wizards who are ignorant of the ways of the world from the cradle…

“You must be the ringleader with that weird thing on your face! You look like you’d get struck by lightning and die!”

Ignoring the glaring Jin Ye-seo, I move forward. The old woman becomes even more agitated when she sees me wearing a gas mask. Her momentum is so strong that it looks like she’s foaming at the mouth.

“Calm down, sir.”

“I can’t take any more kids! You’d rather take me… Huh?”

When I bow my head deeply, the old woman looks puzzled.

I didn’t miss the opportunity and took out the ID card I had prepared in advance from my bosom and showed it to the old woman.

“This is a security officer. I am here to investigate.”

When he calmly presented his false identity, Jin Ye-seo looked dumbfounded.

The old woman softened her stance, but still looked suspicious as she looked back and forth between me and the ID card.

“You’re saying that you’re a police officer…? But you’re not dressed up for that… ”

“Look.”

I raised my arm and unleashed a magical formula, creating a small white ball of light.

And he showed it to the old woman.

“… That’s definitely not the warlock bastard.”

The old woman finally seemed to have completely dispelled her doubts.

There is no surer way to prove your identity than by demonstrating magic. Because of the nature of black magic, it is inevitable that the magic formula will be exposed in the same color as the pupils, which are red.

“I thought those freezing bastards were out to rob me again. They were rummaging through the ruins at this hour… ”

“Ha, who the hell do you think I look like a warlock… ”

Jin Ye-seo grumbled in a voice that still showed no signs of letting up.

“I understand. It’s because the neighborhood is so dangerous. These days, pretty girls are more suspicious. ‘Bathori’, who was executed last year, was a crazy black magician who tried to preserve his beauty by bathing in the blood of a virgin… ”

“So why am I being treated as a warlock…!”

“I’m glad your doubts have been resolved. Let me ask you something. Is this the poorhouse called ‘Sister’s House’?”

I pulled Jin Ye-seo, who was getting angry, back again and stepped forward.

“That’s right. That’s exactly what it was. Now, as you can see… ”

The old woman spoke in a forlorn tone, glancing sideways at the ruins.

“Can I ask what happened?”

“Well… ”

The old woman looked a bit uneasy.

“Doesn’t Officer Nari know what happened better than I do?”

“We are investigators dispatched from the central office to conduct a reinvestigation, not from this branch.”

“Central… I guess there’s still something left…? It’s been two years since that happened… ”

“Yes, please cooperate.”

After repeated persuasion, the old woman finally opened her mouth as if she had no choice.

“How mean. To remind an old man of something like that.”

Her hands were shaking slightly, as if recalling a bad memory.

“… It was two years ago. It was my usual evening walk. I was planning to stop by the workhouse to give the kids some candy. They were really kind and polite kids. But when I got to exactly this point… I saw a strange sight. ”

The old woman gestured toward the hill road leading to the workhouse.

“What a strange sight?”

“That’s right. I thought it was a pack of wild dogs hunting and eating something. At first, I didn’t pay any attention. It was a common sight in this neighborhood. But when I looked closely… I saw that each piece of meat being eaten had two hands and feet attached to it.”

“… ”

“It was only then that I realized. It wasn’t animals that the dogs were eating, but human corpses. And there was something even more horrible.”

“… What is it?”

“It wasn’t wild dogs that were eating the corpse… It was the poorhouse kids.”

The old woman closed her eyes tightly.

“My legs were shaking so much that I fell over, and I turned my head when I heard the sound. They were all kids I knew. Until yesterday, they were the kids who followed me around, calling me “Grandma~”. But now, they were glaring at me with their slit pupils as if I was a piece of meat. What they had just been eating was the flesh of their friends.”

“… ”

“That, that’s a sight I’ve never seen in my entire life. Long tentacles extending out from between the torn backs and waving, the backs twisted in the opposite direction and crawling on all fours, the snouts torn to the side and three tongues sticking out… Ugh.”

“Are you okay?”

“Okay. I can do it myself. Anyway… ”

The old woman staggered.

When I tried to support him, he stood up on his own with his cane and shook his head.

“I don’t even know how I ran home. I locked the door and couldn’t sleep, shivering all night. And when I finally came out the next morning… this is what I looked like.”

The old woman turned her head slightly and stared at the ruins of the poorhouse.

“Later, the district chief came and told me the story. There was internal contamination in the poorhouse. The kids had mutated because of it, and the purification unit had come and killed all the mutants. And to prevent the contamination from spreading and to purify the scene, the poorhouse was burned down… ”

“… ”

“The heavens are heartless. Why do they leave the bad guys alone and treat the good kids like this… The nun should have gone to a good place too… ”

While I was listening to the story.

Among the words the old woman spoke, there was a word that suddenly caught my ear.

I just took out the photo I had brought from the ruins and showed it to the old woman.

“If you are a nun, are you referring to this person?”

“That’s right.”

The old woman nodded.

“She was truly a wonderful person. Even though she was much younger than me, she would bow her head and say, “Nun~”. In a world where it’s hard to live yourself, where would you find someone who takes in and raises orphans who have nowhere to go?”

“What happened to this person?”

“I don’t know. He’s probably dead.”

The old woman shook her head.

“How could you have survived that chaos? I would never run away alone, leaving my children behind. Probably, probably… ”

The old woman hesitated and trailed off. Perhaps she was swallowing the thought that she had been eaten by the children who had turned into mutants.

“… Is that so? I think I can stop here. Thank you for your cooperation. ”

“I’m glad it helped. I’m tired from talking about old times. I need to get some rest. Officer Nari, please go back soon. This neighborhood is too dangerous to walk around in the middle of the night.”

The old woman nodded, leaned on her cane, and slowly disappeared with a hunched gait.

Jin Ye-seo, who had been silently listening to the old woman’s story, came over to her side.

“… What kind of scenery is that?”

“I prepared it in advance. It’s better than exposing my status as a student at Cradle at any time.”

“Then tell me… ”

Jin Ye-seo said with a slightly discontented voice. I didn’t know that I would suddenly have something to write about like this.

“So what are we going to do now? That nun is the witness you mentioned, right? But she seems to be dead already.”

I already had a headache.

The old woman’s story itself is not much different from the common occurrence of mutants.

And if that were true, the nun would not have been able to escape that hell. No, I should say she would not have escaped.

Even the drunken captain of the guards in my old hometown died doing his duty.

But I still feel bad that the period when the ‘Sisters’ House’ poorhouse burned down overlaps with the period when the nuns were hanging around the communist camps.

There’s still quite a bit of time left before the commission is completed. I don’t feel like quitting my job any time soon.

Not only was Yeonmin-ha’s case concerning, but the widow was also complaining of injustice.

After much thought, I opened my mouth.

“… I have to go to the first city.”

“Why is it there all of a sudden… ”

Jin Ye-seo asked back with a dumbfounded expression.

I took out the inverted cross symbol I had received from the widow from my bosom and showed it to her again.

“Why this all of a sudden?”

“The dead man said that the place he brought this item from was the First City. I should check there myself.”

“What…?”

“There probably aren’t any trains leaving yet. If we hurry, we might be able to make it just in time.”

I checked my watch and turned my head to Jin Ye-seo.

“What are you going to do? If you want to go back, then go back. I won’t force you to go there with me.”

“Sigh… ”

Jin Ye-seo let out a deep sigh, her worries melting away.

She was silent for a while.

“… I don’t know either.”

And after much thought, he opened his mouth again.

“I was the one who said I would help. Then I have to help you until the end. I don’t want to quit in the middle and feel awkward.”

“There’s no need to do that… ”

“Okay. Just keep your promise.”

Jin Ye-seo glared at me with a look that seemed to be filled with slight resentment and hatred.

“You… When you go back, you really have to spar with me hard.”