A Phantom Thief Ought to Have a Hideout
My head ached. My body ached. My stomach sat swollen and heavy.
I drifted through the dark. I felt I ought to move this very instant, and yet I could not so much as twitch, as if something had bound me.
What had my last memory been? The Devil's Tree had nearly killed me, a hole punched clean through my gut. For revenge I had staged a mukbang, and then, I was fairly sure, I had collapsed right in front of Dan Miryu.
So was this a dream? A lucid one? For a dream, I could not do a single thing.
I rolled my eyes and took in what lay around me. The moon. The stars. Masks. They drifted through the dark, shedding light as they went.
I turned my gaze toward one of them. The mask I usually wore was looking back at me.
"———."
It said something I could not understand. Was it even speech? Was it even language? I listened for a while, gave up on making sense of it, and looked away. For some reason, the mask seemed to wilt.
I looked at the moon. It was round: the same moon I had seen from Earth. It seemed to be looking at me.
I looked at the stars. There were too many to count. They simply glittered.
Then I felt the light slowly brightening. It was time to wake.
"Ngh."
I blinked and hauled my stiff, creaking body upright. My hand went to my face on reflex. The mask was still there, thank goodness. No one had grown curious and peeled it off.
"Where am I?"
A plush bed, and furnishings far too lavish for an ordinary room. An IV stand waited beside me. Was this a hospital? I drew the line from my arm, and a sting answered.
"How long has it been?"
By the feel of it, I had slept a very long time.
Tap. Tap.
Footsteps approached from outside. They were nothing like a nurse's or a doctor's; the weight borne in them was different entirely. Heavy. Mountainous. Only one person gave off a presence like that.
The door rattled open, and a green-lit handsome man appeared.
"Mr. Phantom, you're awake?"
It was Dan Miryu.
"Yes. I'm up."
I returned the greeting. His color had improved; the injuries looked fully healed.
"Is your body all right?"
"Yes. Right as rain."
Dan Miryu took a chair.
"If I'd known, I should have brought fruit."
"And how were you supposed to know when I'd wake?"
He gave a small shrug.
"The old man said he had a feeling you'd be up, and told me to come..."
"Ah..."
His instincts really are uncanny.
"Um... Mr. Phantom?"
"What is it?"
Dan Miryu hemmed and hawed. Why is he like that? He looked as if he dreaded even the act of speaking.
"...How much do you remember?"
"All of it. Every last thing."
"I think it may come as a shock. There were... shocking scenes."
The mukbang really was too much.
"...Was all of that by your own will?"
He looked at me with trembling eyes. Was it that bad?
"A phantom thief is not swayed by anyone else. All of it was my will."
Silence.
"Do I look as if someone brainwashed me?"
"...Honestly, yes."
Brainwash a phantom thief? Such a thing could never happen.
"The phantom thief I saw was a different person."
Dan Miryu's body shook.
"...Something dreadful. Something uncanny."
He dragged in a breath.
"A sight I never want to see again."
"...I'm sorry. I didn't realize it would shock you that deeply."
I ought to reflect on this. At that level, Hwang Seokgu had probably been shocked as well. What was I supposed to do if I planted wariness in a collaborator?
"No. I overreacted."
Dan Miryu forced a smile.
"Come to think of it, how long was I laid up?"
"...Ten days."
Ten days. Long, if you called it long. Short, if you called it short.
"I was out for quite a while."
"The doctor said it would take longer."
"Is that so?"
"They said the body was overworked. The cause is unclear."
I had been in pain after Sword, too. Nothing worth making a fuss over.
"I'm just glad I woke at all, even like this."
"Thank you for looking after me."
I looked out the window. The Han River lay beyond the glass.
"You brought me all the way from Jeju to Seoul?"
"Hahaha. You saved my life. This much is only natural."
The hospital was high-end, too. From the smallest things up to this moment, I had been living on his kindness.
"Thank you. I'm always in your debt."
"Not at all. The debt is mine."
Courtesies passed between us for a little while. That was enough greeting.
"What became of Unjinhoe?"
Dan Miryu switched on the television, as if telling me to see for myself.
On the screen was Hwang Seokgu, hair swept back, dressed in a suit. Ringed by reporters and speaking with force, he cut an imposing figure.
He looked straight into the camera, utterly unflinching. Those tiger eyes seemed to pass through the television and reach all the way to this side of the glass.
He bowed his head. Camera flashes burst from every side.
After that, experts and people from the legal side traded remarks I could not follow.
"It happened faster than I expected."
"I put a little weight behind it."
Watching the news, I felt a quiet relief that things were proceeding according to plan. The plan I had proposed to Hwang Seokgu: introduce a hero system to Korea.
The gist was simple. Tell the press that the Temporary Hero Association had brought down Unjinhoe. Argue that Korea needed heroes, and gather the strength of public opinion. In the end, make a country where heroes walked the streets. That was the plan now.
It was flimsy. A child could have drawn up something better. The truth was that I had only thought it through; carrying it out had been impossible. Politics, law, foreign relations — there was far too much to mind. Had I tried it alone, it would have ended exactly the way the original did.
"You've been through a great deal."
All of it had been possible only because of the absurd advantage known as the Dan clan.
"Haa... Not at all."
The sigh ran deep. A hero system would not be introduced overnight. Without a catalyst like the invasion of Seoul, it would take years.
"Were there many people who didn't know their place?"
"Yes. The tactless ones... there were so many..."
Dan Miryu said it with eyes gone dead and black.
"Police who wanted to swallow the Unjinhoe case whole. Prosecutors trying to steal the police's credit. Politicians jockeying to plant a spoon in the pot. Corporations sneaking in for a bite."
A cast you would only see in a film.
"That isn't the end. Parties trying to meddle with the heroes. Factions trying to keep them in check."
Deep. The darkness of this country ran deeper than I had thought.
"Opponents of heroes. The United States, and the president. North Korea. Japan. China..."
Ha ha ha. The more he talked, the further Dan Miryu sank into the dark.
No. Stop. Why are you going that far?
What had he seen? Where had the man gone who had steeled his resolve even in the face of death?
"When I think about it, Mr. Phantom wasn't frightening at all."
A red light kindled in Dan Miryu's eyes.
"What was frightening was people. People were more frightening than death."
A man had broken. What had I done? My sin ran deep.
"Pull yourself together, Dan Miryu! You are the Guardian of this country!"
"I am perfectly normal. I am merely entertaining the thought of the Dan clan ruling the Republic of Korea from the shadows."
What part of that is normal?! And if they were going to do it, his ancestors would have done it ages ago! Even a phantom thief could not manage this. You cannot mend a person whose mind has collapsed.
Tch! No choice, then!
Fweee—! The moment I braced myself, Dan Miryu's necklace flared. A clear light of Life washed the ailing mind and healed it. Vitality returned to his eyes, and he came back to himself.
"Ah. I lost my head for a moment."
Dan Miryu closed the necklace with the ease of long habit.
"...Is that a function of the necklace?"
"Strictly speaking, a joint work of the Stone of Resurrection and the necklace. A fruit of the family's research."
As expected of a Guardian house. Several thousand years were no mere decoration. To look several moves ahead and save the country — remarkable.
Dan Miryu spoke with a face gone refreshingly clear.
"Automatic activation is meant to trigger only in the face of a great threat. I didn't think it would go off over something like this."
That doesn't seem right. So the necklace had judged Dan Miryu himself more dangerous than the Devil's Tree?
Dan Miryu... what in the world are you?
"What will you do now?" he asked.
"Hm? I'll help with the founding as well."
It was a plan I had pushed. I could hardly wash my hands of it. From the look of things, they were desperate for even one more pair of hands.
"We can manage on our own. Please rest for the time being, Mr. Phantom."
"I can't do that."
A person had to have some sense of shame.
"...How were you thinking of helping?"
"What work is there for a phantom thief to do?"
A phantom thief does what a phantom thief does.
"No."
"...I haven't even said it yet."
"...Absolutely not. Just rest."
Why is the necklace starting to open? And what is that flickering red light?
"All right. Only, please indulge me in my personal affairs."
"So long as you don't cause an incident...!"
When have I ever caused an incident? I haven't.
"I'll wander around a little."
"That much is fine."
Dan Miryu hesitated.
"Ordinary wandering, yes?"
"You told me to rest, so I'll rest."
Meet the protagonist's master. Make the acquaintance of people who might be of help. That was all I meant to do.
"I'm sorry. I was far too rude."
"Then grant me one request."
"...What is it?"
Don't look at a person with that much anxiety. It hurts.
"Please find me a house."
"A house?"
The incalculable sum Dan Miryu had given me. Now that I had it, I ought to use it.
"I'm setting up a place of my own."
A phantom thief ought to have at least one hideout.