Black (2)
In the blowing wind, our eyes met.
I couldn't understand it. Even as I looked at the funeral portrait of Kim Yoon-jun, and at his mother, father, and younger brother whose faces were swollen from crying, I still couldn't wrap my head around it.
Why did he die so suddenly?
It wasn't that I was deeply devastated. It was merely the sudden shock of it all.
He had mentioned that we might become close friends, but there had been no time for that.
A man who was to me just an acquaintance—someone with whom I had only the potential of becoming close—had been abruptly murdered.
"..."
I stared at Kim Yoon-jun, smiling from within the confines of his picture frame.
What did he find out?
What did he discover that got him killed?
This trajectory was entirely different from my previous life.
The only variable was Seol Ha-woon.
Could he have died because of me...?
"Hyung. There are a lot of people waiting."
Lim Hae-jun tugged at my sleeve. Only then did I snap back to reality.
"...Ah. Right."
The funeral hall was packed to the brim. It was chaotic in more ways than one.
"I seriously can't believe this is happening..." Lim Hae-jun muttered.
As Lim Hae-jun muttered, I scanned the room. Dressed in black were Kim A-rang, Yoon Sa-hyeok, Seo Ji-woo, Lee Jun-ho, Kate, Lee Jong-su, Yun Hwa-rim... and even Kang Hyun.
Everyone associated with Labyrinth Exploration NaN was here.
I looked at them for a moment before turning away, leaning on my cane as I pretended to head toward the restroom.
"Mr. Seol Ha-woon."
Someone called out to me.
It was a plainclothes police officer.
"If you have some time right now, could you come with us to the station for a moment? It's nothing major, just a routine witness inquiry..."
Seoul Gangnam Police Station.
"...Like I said, it's nothing major."
The inspector and Ranker, who introduced himself as Lee Young-ho, handed me a cup of coffee.
Inspector Lee was a familiar face. He was the same Ranker who had investigated me during the Kim Du-gyeom incident.
"So, to summarize, you met the victim at the Labyrinth Exploration NaN site around 9:00 AM on July 9th, and you received a direct message from him the night before he was murdered. Is that correct?"
I kept our dinner a secret. Kim Yoon-jun had likely chosen that secluded restaurant precisely because he didn't want our meeting to be known.
"Yes."
"Sigh... What a mess. Right, thank you."
"Is that all?"
I asked in return. Lee Young-ho gave a bitter smile.
"Yes. It's not like we'd suspect 'Je-Mal'—ah, I mean, Mr. Seol Ha-woon. Your alibi is rock-solid, and besides, the victim was killed by a swordsman."
I had been at the dormitory when Kim Yoon-jun was killed.
More precisely, I was the only one at the dormitory. Everyone else on Labyrinth Exploration NaN had been given a four-day, three-night vacation.
CCTV cameras covered the entire dormitory grounds, excluding the private rooms. And teleportation was a miracle beyond magic, something no spellcaster could ever achieve.
That was likely why Lee Young-ho had specifically singled me out and brought me in from the funeral hall.
"You're free to go now."
Lee Young-ho let out a sighing smile. I could already foresee the grueling road ahead for them.
Kim Yoon-jun was a High Ranker. A swordsman of the Volcanic Sect. On top of that, he was immensely popular with the public.
The media would unleash an absolute barrage of coverage.
"Excuse me..."
I spoke up, addressing Lee Young-ho.
"Would it be possible for me to take a look at the investigation files?"
It was an audacious request, of course, but I had to ask anyway.
"The... investigation files?"
"Yes."
I was curious. How did Kim Yoon-jun die? How was a four-digit High Ranker like him slain in a single night?
"Mmm..."
Inspector Lee Young-ho looked conflicted.
As expected, it was out of the question. Leaking information on a case of this magnitude to an outsider would result in severe disciplinary action.
"Never mind. I apologize."
"...Tsk. No, actually, it's not entirely impossible."
Lee Young-ho sat back down.
"After all, you used to live off the state's dime just like me, didn't you, Mr. Seol Ha-woon?"
With that, he tossed a folder onto the table.
"To be honest, we're completely in the dark here too."
He let out a hollow laugh and continued.
"The great Kim Yoon-jun, dead. And on a mountain right behind the city, of all places. Does that make any sense to you?"
Even with an explorer license, carrying weapons in urban residential areas is illegal. The same goes for using mana.
Mana detectors, similar to CCTV cameras, are installed all over the place. If anyone uses mana openly, the Association immediately deploys its agents.
The Explorer Association arrests and subdues violators with far more brutality than standard law enforcement.
As such, our society strictly segregates residential areas from zones where mana usage is permitted.
Some people compare it to smoking areas.
Every area that isn't designated for smoking is a non-smoking zone, and legal smoking is only allowed where there's a sign. Yet, customary smoking spots still exist, and plenty of people ignore the law anyway. That's the reasoning behind the analogy.
Of course, it's just an analogy. The enforcement and penalties for illegal mana use are infinitely harsher than getting caught smoking on the street.
"But you have to read it here. And absolutely do not tell anyone that you saw this."
"Of course."
I picked up the file.
"Well then, let's see if I can get some help from the famous 'Je-Mal-Olh'!"
Lee Young-ho glanced warily before drawing the blinds.
At the very top of the file, a photo of Kim Yoon-jun's body caught my eye. A vivid sword wound ran from his right shoulder down to his lower left pelvis.
CASE NO:#2024-0709-KYJ
VICTIM:Kim Yoon-jun (High Ranker)
LOCATION:City Mountain, Seoul
CAUSE OF DEATH:Single-strike bisection (Sword wound)
A clean, diagonal slash extending from the right shoulder to the lower left pelvis. The strike was executed with immense force, cutting through bone and muscle instantaneously. No defensive wounds detected on the hands or arms.
"He was cut in two with a single strike."
"Yes. Slashed clean in half with a single blow. And this is the great Kim Yoon-jun we're talking about. That's why we're focusing our investigation on Rankers, but the problem is, no one was spotted anywhere near the scene."
An expert capable of cutting down Kim Yoon-jun in a single blow would have to be at least a 3-Digit Ranker. A level globally referred to as the 'Three Figures.'
An individual of that caliber would naturally stand out wherever they went...
"And yet, there's no sign that Kim Yoon-jun ever drew his own sword."
"Exactly."
Kim Yoon-jun had concealed his weapon beneath his clothes. It meant he had been prepared for any unforeseen circumstances.
"It must have been a trap."
The culprit had engineered the situation, setting a trap.
They hadn't fought to win; they had secured victory before the fight even began.
I memorized the details of the file, engraving them into my mind using Sequence.
"...I don't suppose I could examine the body?"
"You mean the autopsy report?"
"No. Me. Personally."
Lee Young-ho let out a dismayed sigh.
"As expected, even I can't go that far... Especially since the funeral is currently underway. But why do you ask? I saw you use Blood Magic in the World. Is it because of that?"
"No. His eyes."
Kim Yoon-jun. The eyes of the friend who had supposedly been bathed in anomalous mana.
There was definitely something hidden within those eyes.
"...Ah! Right here, according to the medical examiner, there were traces of an eye transplant!"
Lee Young-ho clutched his hair as if getting goosebumps, but he quickly calmed himself down.
"But what does that have to do with anything?"
"Inspector."
I looked at Inspector Lee Young-ho with absolute seriousness.
"...Yes?"
"You strike me as a very good person. Someone who fulfills his duties and does his absolute best to catch the culprit."
"...Where is this coming from all of a sudden?"
It wasn't empty flattery. From what I could see, Inspector Lee Young-ho was a man who leaned heavily toward uncovering the truth.
"If possible, could you prevent the body from being cremated?"
With my current lack of connections, pulling off a crazy stunt like stealing the body was out of the question.
Therefore, the body had to be preserved until I was eventually able to analyze his eyes.
"Well... yes. I can try talking to the bereaved family. Preserving the body should be possible. Perhaps a natural burial, or—"
"No. A natural burial won't do either. It needs to be in a cold storage facility. For a long time."
The crucial factor was decay. As long as the physical body didn't rot, mana could linger within it for an surprisingly long time. There was a reason why cartoonish techniques like post-mortem formulas actually existed.
"...Cold storage might be a bit difficult to arrange. But I'll do my best."
"Thank you."
"But... were the two of you quite close?"
Inspector Lee Young-ho asked as he packed up the files. I pondered for a moment.
What should I say? What kind of answer should I give him?
"We had the potential to be."
When Kim Yoon-jun had said we might become close, I had silently agreed with him.
For me, that was a feeling I hadn't experienced in a very long time.
I opened my eyes in my bed at the dormitory. Dawn had already broken.
I didn't dream. Ever since I acquired Dream Bubble, I always fell into a deep, restful sleep.
Instead, from the moment before I slept until now, my mind had been occupied solely by thoughts of Kim Yoon-jun.
"..."
4:30 AM.
I took a shower as usual, shoved some breakfast down my throat, and headed outside.
There was nothing resembling concrete evidence in the file Inspector Lee Young-ho had shown me.
He had simply been slain by a sword. A blade of pure mana.
However.
"The sword wound is too wide."
The thickness of the wound was so inefficient that it seemed almost intentional.
The larger the Sword Gang—the condensation of mana onto a blade—the more inefficient it becomes.
Spreading the same amount of force over a wider area versus concentrating it with high density—it was obvious which one would be sharper and more solid, even without testing it.
Yet, the culprit had deliberately bloated the thickness of their mana.
Whether they were absolutely confident in their victory, or had engineered a situation where they couldn't possibly lose...
...None of that mattered.
What mattered was the reason.
In tracing cause and effect, the most crucial clues are often hidden within actions that seem entirely unnecessary.
When someone goes out of their way to do something completely superfluous, it always carries a very clear, deliberate intention.
"To hide the weapon they used?"
Swords have fingerprints of their own. It isn't just about the wielder's style, but the unique characteristics of the blade itself.
In other words, the type of sword can be identified solely by the nature of the wound.
But there was a flaw in this logic.
If they were a swordsman who didn't want their blade identified, they could have simply used a different weapon from the start.
If the culprit was powerful enough to kill Kim Yoon-jun in a single blow, or if they had set up the perfect scenario beforehand, the type of sword wouldn't have posed any issue at all.
Yet, the culprit hadn't done that.
I had seen cases like this before.
Situations that defied logic at first glance. Mysteries that couldn't be solved through conventional, rational thinking.
More often than not, they were driven by an individual's unique obsession.
The absolute need to adhere to one's own routine, jinx, or personal code under any circumstance.
Therefore, the reason they insisted on using that specific sword—even while going through the trouble of trying to obscure the wound—was because that weapon was intimately tied to their talent.
Or perhaps, because the weapon itself was so incredibly important to them that it had become an obsession...
Suddenly, a voice echoed in my ears, tickling the back of my neck like a cold breeze.
"It's a treasured sword gifted to me by my father."
Lines I had heard somewhere before.
A voice that had now become all too familiar.
A guy who would show off his sword with a foolish grin.
"Look, the blade is sharp, right? Both sides are sharp."
A sword so unique that its wound pattern would be easily identifiable,
yet a sword so precious to him that he proudly boasted about it.
"The advantage of a double-edged blade is the flexibility in combat. It's highly effective for both slashing and thrusting..."
To reiterate, there was no concrete proof.
My train of thought had skipped too many steps, and my logic had taken a massive leap.
There was no way I could be absolutely certain.
—And yet.
On the path leading up the Back Mountain, I lowered my gaze, looking down at the ground not far off.
He was standing there.
A swordsman who, just like me, always came out at this exact hour. Sensing my gaze, the man tilted his head slightly and looked up at me.
Kang Hyun.
Meeting his glass-like eyes, a single question quietly formed in my mind.
Was it you?