Political Statement (10)
At the woman's words, Park Tae-hyeon nodded blankly. The woman seemed to smile faintly. Just as a pitch-black shadow looked ready to engulf her face, the visage before his eyes shifted into someone else entirely.
A man wearing a black gat hat, his dopot robes billowing as he swung a hand axe. His face was shrouded in unusually deep shadow, hard to make out, but Park Tae-hyeon instinctively knew who it was.
Death.
The death he'd postponed had finally come for him.
A chilling premonition drained the blood from his body, and the man's voice exploded forth.
"Park Tae-hyeon!"
BAM.
The axe blade sank straight into his chest. Right where the heart lay—the heart that had slain generations of his family. This time, too, it didn't miss its mark.
Agony crushed every cell in his body, and instead of a scream, Park Tae-hyeon spat blood.
His eyes bulged as he desperately tried to steady himself. But his legs buckled and collapsed, his heart spewing blood in violent bursts, refusing to beat any longer.
His twitching hands clawed at empty air. Only the encroaching chill stood out in sharp relief.
Park Tae-hyeon's gaze fixed ahead. His wide green eyes burned like will-o'-the-wisps, glaring unmistakably.
Just die.
It's all pointless anyway.
He was right. Park Tae-hyeon's body crumbled to dust like sand.
Ju Kang-rim staggered, nearly losing his balance as the flashback flashed before his eyes.
For that brief instant, his vision had overlapped with Park Tae-hyeon's, causing disorientation.
Ju Kang-rim wondered what he'd just seen.
A lantern show? Did I see Park Tae-hyeon's lantern show?
But he didn't have time to dwell on it. As Park Tae-hyeon's reaper's final summons concluded, the Death Knight began writhing and screaming.
"Gaaahhhh!"
"Finally saying something I can understand."
Screams were a universal language, after all.
As Park Tae-hyeon's body started crumbling, the Death Knight twisted and flailed wildly, as if trying to gather and reform it. But there was no way to revive an immortal who'd completed their reaper's final summons—not anywhere in the world.
Once Park Tae-hyeon was reduced to dust, the Death Knight roared something at Ju Kang-rim. But at that moment, the mist forming the Death Knight's shape warped and shattered, sucked into somewhere within the pile of dust.
The Death Knight flailed its arms, but it was futile. It crumpled and distorted like trash jammed down a drain.
In a short cry of agony, all that remained was a single black core amid Park Tae-hyeon's dust pile.
"Whew..."
Ju Kang-rim picked up the black core emerging from the dust. Immortals seemed to meet their ends in forms as varied as their personalities.
Moreover, though briefly, Park Tae-hyeon had endured a few seconds after the summons, rather than instant death. He hadn't lasted long, but unlike other immortals, those few seconds were noteworthy.
Because of the Death Knight?
The Death Knight wasn't Park Tae-hyeon—it was someone else's soul. Park Tae-hyeon had wielded immortal powers through the Death Knight's strength, while the Knight had lingered in the living world using his body as a host.
So when Park Tae-hyeon died, the Death Knight vanished too.
Does that mean this black core holds both Park Tae-hyeon and the Death Knight's souls?
[Kuhk kuhk, you were a pain in the ass as an enemy, but together like this? Not bad. What do you say? We stick like this...]
Click.
Instead of listening to Kangryeong Daegun's nonsense, Ju Kang-rim flicked the black core into his sleeve lining. Kangryeong Daegun vanished without protest or farewell.
As Ju Kang-rim stowed the black core, Biman chimed. It was Yeomra.
As expected, it was a change from becoming an official grim reaper. He hadn't realized conversing with the dead could bring such varied abilities.
But peering into Park Tae-hyeon's memories revealed who had turned him into an immortal.
That Arab woman in the memory... I know her.
Gerald's chief advisor, known as Serazad. Her real name was hidden behind a veil of secrecy; in some ways, she was even harder to pin down than Gerald himself.
Even as his adjutant, Ju Kang-rim had only glimpsed her face from afar, clueless about her role or whereabouts.
But whenever Serazad advised Gerald, he treated it as his own idea. Not that she controlled him—he simply valued her opinions as his own.
Both Serazad and Clint... At this point, two of Gerald's key underlings visited Korea?
Bukhansan Gate was big news, but to them, it was just distant drama. Larger gates popped up elsewhere, even if less sustainably.
The Vito family, Gerald—immortals focusing on Korea meant something was up.
What the hell honey pot did they smear on Korea? Share some with me.
Then, from the far side of the highway, red and blue lights rapidly approached. The aide who'd fled earlier must've called the cops.
Letting the aide escape and the police come was all part of the plan. Now it was time to execute the next step: run as planned.
The first domino had fallen. All that remained was watching what picture the bastards painted.
Crash.
The teacup shattered with a deafening clang.
A man hurried over from the kitchen.
"Are you alright, Serazad?"
The veiled Arab woman, Serazad, sat motionless without a word. Red tea from the broken cup soaked the floor.
The man cleaned up the shards and fetched a dry towel to wipe the spill. Even after it was done, Serazad sat dazed, then startled back to awareness.
She looked down at the man on the floor and pieced it together.
He glanced up at her.
"Another precognition?"
"Yes."
Serazad nodded, embarrassed. The visions struck at random, disrupting her daily life.
But they'd saved her from countless crises.
Once the floor was clean, he returned and asked, "What did you see this time? It was long—and you were deeply immersed."
Her visions weren't entirely uncontrollable. Most were fleeting annoyances. But prolonged immersion meant a major event in her life.
Serazad pressed her forehead, murmuring, "One of our Knight Order members just died."
"...Died?"
"Yes. He was supposed to stand with us on the front lines of the final war, but now he's gone. I nearly lost my way back tracing the ripples of his death."
"Nearly lost my way back" was Serazad's phrase for dire straits—being trapped forever in a vision, forgetting the present.
But the man knew it wasn't just a joke. She'd come close several times, once comatose for nearly a year.
"Who was it?"
"Patrick Damartin."
"The apprentice dispatched to Korea."
Serazad flinched as something occurred to her.
"Come to think of it, you visited Korea recently too."
"Yes. Someone I met there."
"I see. So something's indeed happening there, as you foresaw."
The man rolled up his sleeve. His arm was covered in dense black script—names etched like a ledger.
Unlike ordinary tattoos, the letters flickered like flames.
He found Patrick Damartin's name. Unlike the others, it no longer flickered; it was rigidly fixed.
He murmured sadly, "First Knight Order member—not host—to die in 107 years."
Serazad replied worriedly, "Hosts aren't full immortals like us. Exiling a knight is one thing, but killing... Does it mean the harvesters are back?"
She shuddered at her own words. In her eternal life, she'd seen it all—yet the unknown after death terrified her.
"Likely. Only harvesters can grant us true rest."
He rolled up both sleeves higher. Flickering black names covered his body; over half were fixed like Patrick's.
"The Order's dwindling. Wonder how long we can keep atoning."
"We can—and we must. Even if just us two left. Remember Gehenna."
Serazad rose and hugged the man—Gerald—tightly.
"The final war's near. Our fight's a holy war against utter annihilation. We can't stop, even if alone. Remember Gehenna."
Gehenna.
The word reignited a quiet fire in Gerald's eyes.
He gripped her shoulders, whispering, "Remember Gehenna."
"Remember Gehenna."
They repeated it, steeling themselves. After the brief embrace, Gerald chided his momentary weakness and calmly pulled out his phone.
"Need to contact Clint. As acting Knight Commander, have him investigate."
"Hello?"
[Son.]
Ju Kang-rim regretted answering at the voice from Biman. But it needed addressing, and he was confident no big issues would arise, so he continued.
"Yes, Mother."
[I won't ask how deep you were in this, or how.]
"Ah, you heard already?"
[Turn on the TV. It's all over it.]
Ju Kang-rim did as Yoo Seo-kyeong said and flipped on the TV. Nearly every channel blared emergency news about Assemblyman Park Tae-hyeon.
It was the corruption evidence Ju Kang-rim had leaked to the press.
"Yeah, looks like it."
[Clean finish?]
"Talking like I did it myself."
[In times like these, no big hurdles. If unfinished or tricky, speak up. I'll handle before issues arise.]