262. The End of the Shin Family (4)
262. The End of the Shin Family (4)
Wobble—
Stagger─
Shin Do-hwa dragged her feet toward her quarters.
Bright red blood trickled from her head,
and her whole body was filthy with dirt and dust.
She ducked into a deserted alley and pressed her hand against the wall.
Pssshht─
The floor opened, revealing marble stairs descending below.
As she went down the steps, a luxurious, spacious room with a chandelier hanging from the ceiling welcomed her.
This windowless space was a sanctuary meant for her and her alone.
Plop!
"......Hah."
She sank into the plush sofa, staring up at the empty air as a heavy sigh escaped her.
Then she buried her face in both hands.
"Yes, this is right....... This is the right thing to do......."
Yes, to preserve the Shin family name, there was no other way.
The loathsome yet magnificent family, her everything.
The Shin family (申家).
To keep its lineage alive, the only path forward was to hand everything over to her daughter, Shin Se-hee.
"I...... lost, in the end......."
It still didn't feel real.
The Shin family that had once commanded the world after the Gate Incident.
The fact that everything she had built up for so long to reclaim that prestige had crumbled in a single moment.
"Though...... I suppose that child will surely make the Shin family even greater......."
If there was any consolation to be had, it was that.
She let out an empty laugh as she thought of the daughter she had met for the first time in a long while.
Her second child, so excessively brilliant and cunning.
They do say blood will tell.
Even though she surely resented her and wanted her dead,
she had coldly suppressed her emotions and instantly grasped her intentions.
Just from that alone, Shin Se-hee was a daughter who resembled her far too much.
'Yes, that's why I tried to keep her down.......'
If she had let her be back then,
surely she would have overthrown the Shin family and devoured it with her own strength, just as she herself had done.
Wasn't that exactly why she had made her incompetent, foolish firstborn the heir, all to keep Shin Se-hee suppressed?
Choosing the path that was easy to control on her own palm had come back as karma, turning into her reckoning.
"Hoo, yes...... I should be satisfied that the Shin family line won't be severed."
Shin Do-hwa forced herself up, intending to go to her desk.
There were still materials left to send to Shin Se-hee, after all.
That was when.
Buzz───
A fly landed on the back of her hand.
Shin Do-hwa's face stiffened.
'Did it hitch a ride on my body......?'
She had taken thorough measures to ensure not a single insect could enter this place.
An insect.
The starting point of everything that had gone wrong.
Yes, everything today was because of these insects.
Squirm.
Shin Do-hwa tried to use her ability to incinerate the insect.
But.
"......Huh?"
For some reason, her ability wouldn't activate.
So, repulsive as it was, she moved to grab it with her hand—
Ssssskt─
when the sound of insects skittering echoed through her own home.
"Wh-what the hell!!"
Shin Do-hwa frantically looked around.
Goosebumps erupted all over her body.
After all, her entire house was now infested, blanketed black with insects.
She hadn't even realized her own room had been occupied by this many bugs.
Part of it was her distraction, but more than that, it was because she'd never once imagined that insects could invade her room.
"H-how on earth did this......."
That was when.
Bzzzzt─
Beep!
The large TV covering one wall flickered to life.
On the TV screen, Shin Se-hee, seated on a sofa herself, appeared.
"......D-daughter!?"
"Mother."
Only then realizing what had happened, Shin Do-hwa spoke in a hollow voice.
"......You already had the Shin Family Guard strip everything from here, didn't you? While we were talking just a short while ago?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Whose daughter you are, to be so thorough......."
At that, Shin Se-hee smiled brightly and nodded.
"Thank you for the compliment. When I went to your lab, Mother, I found lots of interesting things. For instance, a secret art that turns ordinary people into awakeners, or a drug that, conversely, turns awakeners into ordinary people."
Shin Do-hwa's face went rigid.
'She used that on me? Just when the hell......?'
Ah. Come to think of it, there was a moment when Shin Se-hee had made contact with her.
When she had asked the party's Healer to treat her.
When she was struck by that golden arrow to treat the burns, there had been a faint pricking sensation.
She'd thought it was just pain from the arrow.......
'So that was when she injected me.'
Shin Do-hwa stared rigidly at the pitch-black insects swarming around her.
"Daughter, did you really have to go this far? You of all people must know I wouldn't try any more tricks......! And even what choice I would make......!"
Yes, Shin Do-hwa had planned to send the materials to Shin Se-hee and then end her own life.
And her daughter had likely seen through that, too.
At that, Shin Se-hee let out a deep sigh.
"I don't want to do this either. But, what can I do. I am your daughter, Mother."
"......."
"I am not the kind of person who can let you go easily."
"Does your husband, does your husband know you're this kind of person!?"
Shin Do-hwa spat the words desperately, clutching at straws.
However.
If anything, Shin Se-hee gave a brightly blooming smile at the word.
As if the term "husband" utterly delighted her.
"Yes, he knows. Of course."
"......What? He knows?"
"Yes. That person of great receptivity told me he would accept any side of me."
"......."
"Still, the subtle feeling of not wanting to show him this side myself. You do understand, right, Mother? Since you are my mother. Well then, it's time to say goodbye."
"W-wait!"
Shin Do-hwa reached a hand toward Shin Se-hee, trying to say something more.
Pssssssshhhht─
But, with the sound of air hissing out, thick smoke began to billow throughout the room.
"Mother. Return to the bug room."
The white gas obscured her vision; she could no longer see Shin Se-hee.
Her consciousness slowly fading.
"I knew it, I should have killed you when you were little......! Sparing you just in case was the root of my ruin......!"
Until her very last moment as she collapsed, Shin Do-hwa cursed Shin Se-hee with a voice that bled venom.
Thud.
At last, Shin Do-hwa collapsed.
Buzz.
Plip.
A cockroach folded its wings and alighted atop her head.
*
Shin Se-hee watched until the screen filled completely with gray smoke, then cut the connection.
Beep─
"Please, live a long time. And suffer for it. Mother."
Shin Se-hee bowed her head toward her mother just so, giving her last farewell.
When she raised her head again, her face was reflected in the pitch-black screen.
Staring blankly at the sight, Shin Se-hee murmured to herself.
"I guess...... I really am a little broken, aren't I?"
An inexplicable emptiness filled her chest.
Still, it couldn't be helped.
If she hadn't done this, it felt like something wouldn't have been truly tied off.
And she'd just keep getting stressed.
She had no talent for enduring those kinds of feelings.
"Husband, huh....... Still, she did say one nice thing before she left."
Shin Se-hee smiled faintly.
- Don't worry. Because I'll become your family. A real family.
- Not that family who tormented you, isolated you, who right up to the end...... weren't a family at all. One that, whatever you do, whatever you say, even if the whole world turns its back on you, will stay on your side until the very end.
She closed her eyes and recalled Jin Yu-ha's voice; an aching tightness swelled up inside her.
"If...... if I had a family like that, would I...... not have to live like this anymore? If I build a home with Jin Yu-ha, become an ordinary family with him, then maybe......."
That was when.
Knock knock knock─
"Flowerbed. Someone from the China Public Security Hunter Association is here. Yellow Dog is looking for you."
The one who came was Kang Do-hee.
"Ah, yes! Coming!!"
At the words that Jin Yu-ha was calling, Shin Se-hee sprang up instantly and headed for the door.
* * *
The female hunter dispatched from the China Public Security Hunter Association glared at the Utopia Party.
Arms crossed, not even attempting to touch the tea in front of her, the hunter let her displeasure show openly.
The lips of the woman who had been staring fixedly at Utopia slowly parted.
"......Utopia, you people have quite the meddlesome reach. Enough to stick your noses into China's internal affairs."
Slurp─
Jin Yu-ha calmly sipped his tea at this.
"Yes, we couldn't help it. You see, Utopia's ironclad rule is that we must carry out any request for which a fair price has been paid."
Crack─
A vein bulged on the public security hunter's forehead.
Because she felt like she was being ignored.
Even though she had come in person, the man who was the party leader was calmly drinking tea.
And the one answering was the woman beside him, Shin Se-hee.
Slam!!
Her hand slammed down on the table.
The tabletop dented in the shape of her palm.
"Don't make me laugh! Are you telling me you flew all the way here from Korea just because you listened to a young child!?"
But Utopia wasn't about to bat an eye at a shoddy threat like that.
"Yes, we don't hesitate to extend a hand to places that need help. But, isn't it a bit strange? Aren't you, as China, in a position where you should actually be thanking us?"
"Thanking? Did you just say thanking!?"
"Yes. You've surely already grasped everything that the Landlord of Guangdong, Liu Zhen, has done, haven't you?"
At that, the public security hunter's face crumpled further.
Indeed, just as this woman said, she had finished her investigation before coming here.
That the landowner of this Guangdong Province, Liu Zhen, had been abducting people and conducting illegal experiments.
And that in the process, she had even sacrificed her own husband as a test subject.
It was also revealed that the bizarre phenomenon of insects gathering here was Liu Zhen's doing.
There was no pretext here to lay blame on Utopia.
'She's basically saying she has all the intel already.......'
She shut her mouth tight and glared at Utopia.
Public security in China was already mired in this and that scandal.
Amidst all that, just imagining what they'd hear if news got out that Utopia had resolved this incident too was enough to make her head throb.
That was when it happened.
"You seem to have a lot on your mind."
"A lot on my mind? I certainly do! If only you hadn't blown this so out of proportion─"
"Yes, I know. That's why we have a proposal from our side as well."
Shin Se-hee cut her off.
Sliiide─
Then she slid a single document toward her.
"Would you care to hear it?"
Shin Se-hee said this with a radiant smile.