Night of Masks (7)
"P-please, save me, Professor!…"
"Th-this isn't what we agreed to!… W-we were supposed to—!"
"N-no!… Not my family—please, not my family~!!!"
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The clock hands pointed to ten.
"Haaah…"
I was alone in my studio apartment. Ordinarily Gretchen would have been with me, but Seoyun had gone to a friend's place and there was no telling when she might come back — so Gretchen had decided to stay outside somewhere safe, at least through today.
"Pulling all-nighters from midnight to three every single night… yeah, the fatigue's starting to stack up."
My body had felt fine during the day. The moment night fell, though, everything started to ache. Gretchen's power had healed me properly enough — but my body still knew. It remembered how terrifying the night could be.
"…Some kind of trauma, I guess."
Daytime was safe. Nighttime was not. I knew that fact well enough by now to be sick of it — and apparently it was starting to take a real toll on me.
♬~♪~
My phone rang. Who would call at this hour? I checked the screen and saw the name of the friend Seoyun had gone to meet.
"Hey, Jisoo. What's up? Did Seoyun do something weird?"
"Hi, Doyun oppa. Um, so…"
"Jisoo?"
She trailed off. I sat up, waiting for whatever she was about to say — and what came through the speaker hit me like a truck.
"Is Seoyun home right now, by any chance? She said she was coming over today, but she never showed up."
"…What are you talking about? She left this afternoon saying she was going to see you."
"What? But she never came to our place today. It got so late I tried calling her, but I couldn't get through… so I thought I'd try you just in case… What do we do?"
Her voice shook; she couldn't hide how scared she was that her friend had vanished. I didn't know what to do either.
I hadn't seen Seoyun leave myself, but according to Gretchen she'd walked out bold as anything, rolling her suitcase behind her. Gretchen wasn't the type to lie, and Seoyun wasn't the type to get distracted and wander off. Even if she had, she'd have come back soon enough.
"Thanks for letting me know. I'll look for her, so try not to worry, okay?"
"O-okay… I understand."
I hung up and shot to my feet. Throwing on clothes as fast as I could, I bolted out the door.
"Gretchen!"
I thundered down the stairs shouting her name, and within moments she was at my side.
"Doyun-nim? What's wrong?"
"Seoyun… my little sister is missing. I need to find her. Will you help me?"
"! Yes, of course. I'll start searching right away."
With that, Gretchen vanished. At the same time, I dialed 911.
"Nine-one-one, what's your emergency?"
"My sister — my little sister is gone."
"Are you calling to file a missing persons report?"
"Yes — yes!"
I kept talking to the dispatcher while scanning the street in every direction. There was no chance any trace of a girl who'd left around ten would still be sitting out here waiting for me — but I looked anyway, desperate for even the smallest scrap of something.
"Could I get the missing person's full name and age?"
"Han Seoyun. Twenty-one."
"When did you last have contact with her?"
"I'm not sure… her friend said she hasn't been able to reach her since around evening…"
After a few more questions, the officer's voice turned brisk and procedural.
"To formally file the report, we'll need a photo of the missing person and her personal details filled out. Could you come down to the nearest police station or precinct? Do you know which one is closest to you?"
"Ah — yes. There's a precinct nearby, if I remember right."
"Alright. I'll give them a heads-up that you're coming. Keep your phone on in case we need to reach you. And if you get any new information, or if she comes home, please call nine-one-one again right away."
I went to the precinct and finished filing Seoyun's missing persons report. I considered calling our parents, then decided against it for now. This might still turn out to be nothing — a misunderstanding. I didn't want to put them through that kind of worry for no reason.
"Seoyun! Where are you!! Seoyun!!!"
I hit every place she might have gone, every place she could have gone. After searching for what felt like forever, Gretchen reappeared — but—
"Gretchen! Seoyun? Did you find her?"
"…No. No matter how hard I looked… even with magic, I can't find a single trace."
Even the magic I'd been counting on…
Gretchen took one look at my face and spun around in a hurry.
"I-I'll keep looking. It'll be alright. I swear I'll find her."
"Please."
I split off from Gretchen and went back to searching. The police called a few times in between, but nothing useful came of it — no leads, no progress.
The clock had already pushed past eleven. Even a body strengthened by the contract was starting to flag under the weight of pure panic; my breath came short and ragged.
Bzzzt.
Then my phone buzzed with a short vibration. A text. From my little sister.
"!"
The second I read that message, something in my head snapped. I had no idea who'd sent it. But one thing I knew for certain — I had no choice but to go.
Creeeeak!!
I shoved open the rusted iron door. An abandoned factory like this should have been locked — but the door swung wide, as if someone had deliberately left it open to lure me in.
"Oh, look who showed up."
"Who the hell are you people…"
The air reeked of stale dust. Inside, roughly a dozen hard-faced men stood clustered together — and at the center of them, tears streaming down her face, trembling with terror, was Seoyun.
"Oppa!… Oppa!…"
"Hey. Stay put like I told you."
Thud!!
"Kyaa!"
"Seoyun!! You crazy bastards!!"
Organized crime? In this day and age? The thought flickered through my mind, but it didn't matter. This was happening right now. Debating whether it was real or not was a waste of time.
So—
"You gonna let Seoyun go, or what? You insane sons of bitches?!"
I gripped Jack the Ripper's blade as a faint silver flame shimmered along its edge. One of the thugs let out a low whistle, muttering like he was impressed.
"Kid knows how to hold a knife. Not bad."
"More importantly — where'd he even get a sword? Some kind of magic trick?"
"…"
They clearly had no idea what a Contractor was. Was this really just some ordinary crime — a grab for money or whatever?
"Well, since you pulled a weapon, we oughta give you a proper welcome. Boys. Grab your tools."
The thugs armed themselves with steel pipes and anything else that could crack a skull, then closed in with murder in their eyes.
"We're gonna beat you half to death, you little punk!!"
CLANG!!
They charged. The physical boost from being a Contractor, combined with Jack the Ripper's killing intent, was more than enough to match street thugs who made their living with their fists. I deflected a pipe off Jack the Ripper's blade and drove a kick into the man behind it. Catching the arm of another coming at my back, I yanked him off-balance, leapt high, and drove my knee down into his spine, slamming him into the floor.
"What the hell is with this guy—!"
"His movements—?!"
One by one. I worked through them, methodically taking them down. But—
"Bastard! You been in knife fights before?"
"Wasn't this kid supposed to be a college student?"
There were too many. Trying to subdue them without killing was exhausting. Simple beatdowns weren't putting them away cleanly — if anything, it only made them come at me harder.
The easy answer was to kill them. Just kill them. But—
"Oppa!…"
Seoyun was watching. And these men weren't Contractors tied to any witch. During Witch's Time, you could kill someone and leave no evidence behind. Right now, every trace would stay.
"Hah—! Hah—! Hah!!"
"This crazy bastard — he's a monster…!"
A wave of bodies — dozens of them. Against that relentless human wall, even enhanced physical ability finally hit its limit.
CRACK!!
"Guh…!"
One clean hit. The moment I took that first blow, the second and third came instantly. A merciless flood of violence poured down on me — and through it all, Seoyun's shredded screams tore into my ears as my consciousness slipped away.
"…Doyun-nim's presence just vanished?"
Gretchen looked up at the sky. The faint sense of him she'd been tracking had disappeared without warning. She checked the time in a panic.
Still 11:40. Twenty minutes until Witch's Time. And yet Doyun-nim's presence was gone.
She was still turning over possible causes when she felt mana approaching. Three masses of it. Two of them she recognized immediately—
"Wow, she really is alone. Didn't think this would work so well."
"Heheh… Gretchen, fancy meeting you again. All by yourself this time too, just like before?"
Nox and Malefica. And the last one to appear—
"…"
"Marion…"
Three witches had come for Gretchen.
…How long was I out?
"Twenty seconds."
Twenty seconds…?
"Get up. Unless you want to die."
That icy voice snapped me upright. I staggered backward on unsteady feet.
"Already conscious after a beating like that?"
"What the hell is this guy made of?"
"Kill them or die. If you can't do it, hand over your body. I'll keep you alive."
Who was that? Who the hell kept whispering to me like this?
I lifted my gaze. The thugs were still packed in front of me. My sister was still their prisoner. And so—
"Alright, time's up. Let's finish this for real, boys."
"Everybody pile on — cave his skull in!"
My body moved as if pulled by puppet strings. Naturally. Casually — the way a pedestrian might cut through a crowd. I slipped past the charging thugs and quietly swept my blade.
SHUNK!!
"Gaaargh!!"
"Gyaaah!!"
Crimson blood sprayed. The thugs crumpled like broken dolls, coughing up the red essence of their lives as they fell.
"…Come out."
Three people, hidden, watching. Jack the Ripper had always operated in absolute secrecy — so of course I could tell. Someone was out there, suppressing their presence, observing me.
"I honestly didn't expect you to kill them all, Doyun."
"Park Seongtae."
"My, my. Not even going to call me Professor anymore?"
Professor Park Seongtae. And behind him, the two Contractors who'd ambushed me the night before.
"Was this you?"
"That's right. I did it."
"Fine. Then I'll kill you."