Chapter 216
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 216
The clues I’d discovered in Border City began to overlap and connect, until finally, a single story took shape.
Anguis Regina must have wanted to tell me all along. But if I was truly the ‘Kinuan’ she sought, I had to figure it out on my own.
That was why she had dragged me into the depths, spewing bizarre words and acting erratically. Anyone who couldn’t hold their breath as she did would have been completely undone.
I want to tell you, but I must not.
I want to hold you, but I must not.
I love you, but I hate you.
Anguis Regina’s emotions were a tangled mess of contradictions. Her feelings for her stepmother, Japa, were just one example.
‘…I hate Japa, yet I love her.’
I didn’t know the exact details of their conflict, but it was obvious their relationship had been anything but smooth.
“How did you see right through me? Do you also know what I’m thinking right now? How I feel?” Anguis Regina asked, clinging to me. Her gestures were lively, her voice as light as a fairytale pixie’s.
I remained still as a stone, refusing to react to her antics.
“It doesn't seem like some grand secret. It just looks like the typical drama you'd find in a mixed-species household.”
“It would have been, if Kinuan hadn’t come for us. It would have ended in drama, not ruin.”
Anguis Regina hopped onto the bar. Kneeling, she stretched her arms out in a delicate, yearning pose.
“Ah, Kinuan… ah, Kinuan… I was only fourteen back then. To my young eyes, he was a perfect man. He had a mind as unshakable as bedrock, and intelligence shone from his every word and gesture.”
She spoke with theatrical exaggeration. Lowering her posture, she crept forward like a cat and thrust her face close to mine.
“I didn't want my widowed father to be alone, either. But bringing home a Tajirun as a wife? It made no sense. Tajiruns are heartless, cunning, and despicable. I was sure a poison that could melt our very nerves was boiling behind that raspy voice of hers.”
It was like watching a one-woman play. Anguis Regina donned different emotional masks, striking dramatic poses for her sole audience member as she unraveled her past.
“So you hated your father?”
“You have to understand, I was incredibly unstable back then. Then one day, Kinuan approached us. He was like a savior in a time of crisis. If it weren't for him, I probably would have run away from home. To me, Kinuan was a teacher, a friend, a lover, and a father. Every part of me was drawn to him.”
Her eyes shone with ecstasy.
“You would have done anything for him,” I observed. “And you wanted to.”
I calmly rested my chin on my hand, watching her performance.
Whoosh.
Anguis Regina stood and spun around.
Thud.
She stopped. Her bright expression was now twisted into a fierce snarl.
“I still don’t know why I did it. All the memories and emotions from that time feel as unreal as a dream. It must be because I surrendered my entire mind to him. One day, Kinuan said, ‘Shoot the father who betrayed you.’ As if possessed, I picked up the gun.”
She swallowed hard, her eyes widening until the pupils threatened to consume the whites.
Thump, thump, thump.
Her heartbeat echoed clearly in my ears.
I said nothing, waiting for her to continue.
“Do you know what’s really strange? I felt that even if I pulled the trigger, Dad wouldn’t die. People die when they get shot, right? But I was convinced he wouldn’t. Why on earth did I think that?”
Kinuan had meticulously brainwashed her. She had been a deeply scarred teenage girl who had lost her mother young, had a strained relationship with her father, and was saddled with a Tajirun stepmother.
“Bang!”
Anguis Regina mimicked shooting a gun at me.
She stared, a cold sweat breaking out on her skin. Her face was flushed, but her brow was furrowed in sorrow.
“Only when I saw my father collapse in a pool of blood did I realize what I had done. The girl who lived in a dream was violently thrown back to reality. When I came to my senses, Kinuan was gone. It was as if a demon had come and gone.”
“He’s no demon. Kinuan is a man, and he exists in reality.”
“He was once a god to me. Now, he’s a demon.”
“And I’m the demon hunter?”
Anguis Regina laughed at my quip. Then, her voice practically dripping honey, she began to take off her clothes, one by one, as if demanding I fulfill my promise.
Scrape.
I pushed my chair back and walked toward the door. Anguis Regina narrowed her eyes, watching my every move.
“Aren’t you going to keep your promise? You said you’d hold me if I told you everything.”
“If I deceived you now, I’d be no different from Kinuan.”
For a moment, she wore the expression of an abandoned child, but it quickly dissolved into a laugh. Her emotional shifts were dizzyingly rapid; her mind would surely break at this rate.
“You always choose the answer that will enthrall me, Luka.”
Anguis Regina began picking up the clothes she’d discarded.
“I’m a model student.”
She laughed at my reply.
“Japa, the woman I hated so much, protected me to the very end. She bribed the witnesses and spent a fortune on full-body plastic surgery for me, erasing my past. That’s why she wouldn’t tell you about us. If you exposed the truth, I’d go from being Border City’s idol to a patricidal monster.”
“Some of your fans might like that even more. The people of Border City don’t strike me as an ethical bunch.”
“Japa Trading is a strictly legitimate enterprise. We even have a few businesses outside the city.”
Now fully dressed, Anguis Regina pulled out a handkerchief. She took out a pen, scribbled something on it, and handed it to me.
“What’s this?”
“Go see it. It’s the house we used to live in. A man like you might find something we missed.”
She stepped closer and kissed my cheek. I didn’t pull away from her soft lips.
…Well, this much shouldn’t count as cheating.
* * *
I hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours. Somehow, my night had led me here.
Deus Ex Machina and Jin Gau. Gaya's Hospital and Gabriel. And now, the house where Anguis Regina and Japa used to live.
The events flowed into one another seamlessly.
Going a day without sleep was no great hardship, but fatigue was slowly setting in. I could feel my cognitive abilities beginning to dull.
Step, step.
I walked the streets under a dim, breaking dawn. It was the gray hour between night and day.
This transitional period left Border City unusually quiet. The nocturnal species had retired to their beds, while the diurnal ones were just beginning to stir.
Anguis Regina.
I thought of her as I walked.
If I ask Japa, I can get a more detailed story.
But Japa would conceal any information that could be used as a weakness. He certainly wouldn't be pleased that Anguis Regina had confessed everything.
So, I have to investigate the house before I talk to Japa.
The timeline of events was starting to come into focus.
Japa was driven out by the Menoa Family. He was protected by a former lover and, after that lover’s death, drifted to Border City. There, Japa met Anguis Regina’s father and, not long after, established Japa Trading.
Japa managed to negotiate a non-aggression pact with the Menoa Family with Kinuan’s help. That means Japa was with him for some time after founding Japa Trading. No, the creation of Japa Trading itself was probably done with his assistance.
It had to be Kinuan who protected Japa from the Menoa Family.
It’s just like what he did in Akbaran.
I thought of the Arena gang.
He helps people in crisis, builds a power base, earns their trust, and then uses and discards them at the critical moment.
I had to find out why Kinuan had approached Japa and Anguis Regina’s father in the first place.
Even Japa probably doesn’t know his true motive. Kinuan never lets his goals slip to others. That’s what makes him so hard to pin down.
I recalled Kinuan’s words from the fake Valek’s memories.
Ascension.
Is he trying to become a god? It’s nonsense. I can’t believe it. Kinuan spreads misinformation to hide his true self.
What does he hope to gain from all this chaos?
I brought up Ragnata’s advice and factored it into my thoughts.
Has Kinuan truly become a monster whose only purpose is chaos itself?
If deceiving others, creating confusion, and being at the center of the storm is his pleasure and his purpose…
The thought alone was nauseating. If chaos is his goal, he has no weaknesses.
If I finally track him down, subdue him, and get the chance to kill him, he’ll probably just babble that dying by my hand was his objective all along, as if he’d been waiting for it.
There is no way to defeat an enemy whose purpose shifts with every breath.
I’m almost there.
I surveyed my surroundings. The address Anguis Regina gave me had led to a food alley.
Sizzle, sizzle.
Unidentified chunks of meat cooked in vats of oil, filling the air with a greasy heat. Various species milled about the street, holding their chosen snacks.
“Hmm.”
I stopped. An apartment complex loomed ahead, its buildings packed so tightly together that not a sliver of sunlight could penetrate the gaps.
The complex seemed to be home to the merchants who worked in the food alley. A mix of countless ingredients and spices wafted from the entrance, punctuated by a sharp scent that was either fermentation or rot.
Creak.
I entered the building and found the address: a unit on the fifth floor of the ten-story apartment building. I stared at the dusty electronic lock on the door.
If I open this, it might send a signal to Japa.
I took off my coat and wrapped it around the iron bars of the window.
Crrk.
With a faint groan, the bars bent.
After a quick glance around, I pressed my coat against the glass and tapped the edges several times with my fingertips.
Crack… shatter.
The glass fractured from fatigue failure. Stepping over the shards, I slipped inside.
A familiar scent.
It was the smell of Japa Burger sauce. I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the darkness of the home.
It’s covered in dust, but it’s been preserved exactly as it was when they lived here.
Household goods were still in their places. If not for the stale air and thick dust, I would have thought someone had just stepped out while cooking.
Did they want to leave the past perfectly intact?
The interior looked as if its residents had simply vanished one day.
While searching the house, I found Anguis Regina’s real name, as well as her father’s.
Elise Quan, Paolo Quan.
I examined the bed in the master bedroom. Tajiruns are thin but far taller than humans, with an average height in the low two-meter range. If Paolo and Japa had been living together, the bed would have been built to Tajirun standards.
“…It really is.”
The bed was nearly three meters long. I found myself wondering how Japa and the human male, Paolo, had managed to have sex.
Not that I really want to imagine it. So, does that mean Japa’s human-style name is Japa Quan?
The thoughts were frivolous.
Once, Japa, Anguis Regina, and Paolo had lived here together.
In the kitchen, several sealed glass jars filled with sauce were lined up on a shelf—the source of the faint smell.
Was Paolo a chef?
The cooking utensils were all sized for human hands. There were no signs that a Tajirun had ever cooked here.
Finally, I entered the study. The moment I opened the door, the smell of decaying paper hit me. On the desk, a pile of documents was held down by a paperweight.
…They’re faster than I thought.
I sensed a presence in the living room. A low sigh escaped my lips.
As I suspected. Japa anticipated that I would find my way here someday.
I lightly placed my hand on the hilt of my sword. A chill ran down my spine. I hadn’t heard the front door open; I had only sensed the shift in the air.
—That’s far enough for trespassing, Great Detective.
The mechanical voice of a translator device pricked the back of my neck.
Turning, I saw the scar-like stripes unique to Equesians glowing orange in the darkness.
Equesian Mercenary, En.
People called him Japa’s hound.