Chapter 146
Chapter 146
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 146
Chapter Title: A Man (2)
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Unleashing the Stigma's magic coiled in his left chest, he painted an image in his mind.
The image he conjured was a bomb.
A powerful lightning bomb, brimming with fearsome thunderbolts, capable of sweeping a radius of several dozen meters.
He sealed that image inside a glass bottle,
and threw it.
-*Fzzzzzt!*
The glass bottle, imbued with blue lightning, shot forward, creating a small gust of wind.
Kurosaki Sosuke, tied to the chair, frowned slightly.
A clear droplet of water materialized in the air, enveloping the lightning-wreathed bottle.
The blue lightning that erupted from the bottle failed to pierce the thin droplet, dissolving as if melting away.
“Since when… did you know?”
His gaze deepened.
The change in his eyes alone instantly transformed his frail impression, as if a single touch would make him collapse.
From a trembling prey shivering in fear, to a cunning hunter waiting for his quarry to fall into a trap.
A thick, suffocating killing intent, like a dense fog, filled the basement.
“From the very beginning.”
Oh-jin smiled leisurely amidst the dense killing intent that would have made an ordinary person unable to breathe.
“…How?”
Sosuke looked at Oh-jin with an expression of utter disbelief.
Even his own subordinates didn't know his true identity. How could this man have seen through his lies from their very first meeting?
“I told you, didn’t I? If it were me, I would have asked you to save my sister.”
“You’re telling me you figured out I was lying just from that? You expect me to believe you?”
“Of course, that wasn’t the only reason.”
Oh-jin let out a smirk and crossed his legs.
“For the past few months, you’ve been meticulously hiding the location of the ‘Incineration Room.’ But then, just as I arrive in Japan, its location is conveniently discovered?”
Fine.
He could understand that much.
One could assume that the months of effort poured in by the Kurōshi had finally paid off.
However.
“But having no security devices, not even a single guard, around the abandoned hospital ward? That doesn’t make sense, does it?”
It was as if they had left the doors wide open, welcoming the Kurōshi.
“…Still, you couldn’t have known my identity just from that.”
Sosuke asked, his eyes narrowing.
Just as he said, it was difficult to connect Yuji and Sosuke simply because their security was lax.
After all, there was too great a gap between the publicly known information about Kurosaki Sosuke and Sakai Yuji.
Who would have thought that Kurosaki Sosuke, the feared King of the Hippocampus, and the one-armed developer with a frail appearance, so skinny he looked like he could collapse at any moment, were the same person?
“Your arm.”
“My arm?”
Oh-jin pointed to where Sosuke’s left arm had been severed.
“That arm. You said it was cut off for defying Kurosaki Sosuke, right?”
“…Yes.”
Humans instinctively trust those weaker than themselves.
It's because they judge that even if betrayed, it wouldn't pose a significant threat.
This isn't a matter of reason or logic, but of emotion and instinct.
It's the same reason a famous thriller cast a cripple as the culprit.
Kurosaki Sosuke cleverly exploited this human psychology by making Sakai Yuji a one-armed man.
Because there are few ways to more clearly signal that you are the weaker party than a 'physical disability'.
However.
“Why the arm?”
“What?”
“Don’t you find it strange?”
“…What’s strange about it?”
Oh-jin chuckled, shrugging his shoulders as he continued.
“According to you, Sakai Yuji was the only developer who could rebuild the ‘Land Forsaken by the Stars,’ wasn’t he? Right?”
If that's the case.
“He should have cut off your leg, not your arm.”
Kurosaki Sosuke’s eyes widened.
Not the arm, but the leg.
Those words from Oh-jin's mouth echoed in his mind.
“…Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped him.
When he thought about it, it was an obvious question.
After all, cutting off a leg to prevent escape is far more 'efficient' than cutting off an arm and reducing the developer's productivity.
“You’re not sane either.”
But that's purely in the realm of theory.
How many people, when faced with someone trembling in fear with a severed arm, would actually consider efficiency?
That is, truly.
“What do you even think people are?”
It's a question one could only conceive if they didn't see people as fellow humans, but as tools or livestock.
“Haha! Wow, I never thought I’d hear that from a bastard who captures living people to make elixirs.”
Oh-jin burst into clear laughter and clapped his hands.
“Well, anyway. I guess you understand now how I knew your identity, right?”
“Why did you do it?”
“Hm? What?”
“Why did you pretend not to know all this time?”
Sosuke asked, frowning.
If he knew from the start, he could have exposed him right then and there.
So why wait three whole days to reveal his identity now?
“Because I knew you’d end up eating your own flesh.”
“…Eating my own flesh?”
Oh-jin smiled faintly and nodded.
“Because achieving your goal required a suitable ‘sacrifice.’”
For example.
The Hippocampus faction you’ve built up until now.
“Ha, you talk as if you know all about my objective.”
“I do.”
It was impossible not to know.
“The fact that Sakai Yuji was Kurosaki Sosuke isn’t that important.”
What’s important is why Kurosaki Sosuke went so far as to act as Sakai Yuji and get himself captured.
“You were trying to erase the existence of Kurosaki Sosuke.”
What's the best way for a criminal to erase their crimes?
Disappearing without a trace?
Getting plastic surgery to disguise yourself as someone else?
No.
The best way is to make everyone believe the 'criminal' himself is dead.
Because there’s no way to chase a dead man.
“What, did you get scared shitless after hearing that Cheon Do-yoon died?”
“……”
Sosuke shook his head with a look of utter defeat.
“I lost. I’ve lost. I can’t win against you.”
He never thought it was a flawless plan to begin with.
But he never expected it to be dismantled so thoroughly.
As Sosuke leaned back against the chair, looking dejected,
-*Thud, thud.*
The sound of heavy footsteps descending the stairs was heard.
Sakaki, his face hardened, and Ha-eun, shooting a contemptuous glare, came down into the basement.
Behind Sakaki, Koshiro and other members of the Kurōshi filed down into the basement.
“Sakai Yuji… no, Kurosaki Sosuke.”
Sakaki glared at Sosuke, his eyes flashing fiercely as if he had heard the entire conversation.
“What’s this? Were you all gathered outside, eavesdropping?”
Sosuke smirked, looking around at the people who had entered the basement.
“You baaaastaaaard!!!”
*Thump, thump!*
Sakaki let out a deafening roar that made one's ears ring, grabbing the collar of the bound Sosuke.
“All of it… all of it was just an act?!!”
For the past three days, how much had he agonized and struggled over Yuji.
He felt pathetic for being unable to bring down his sword on Yuji, who had knelt and begged for death.
“Honestly, I was a bit scared, but as expected of our man among men! I knew you wouldn’t kill me!”
Sosuke, still held by the collar, burst into laughter as if he’d lost his mind.
“But… my dear Mad Bull. Did you know?”
His lips twisted into a sneer.
“That I wasn’t the only one—who was acting?”
“What?”
Sakaki frowned.
-*Thwack!*
Behind him, the sound of someone kicking off the ground was heard.
In that instant, a chilling killing intent brushed against the back of Sakaki's neck.
Where Sakaki urgently turned his head, he saw,
“…I’m sorry, Oyabun.”
Koshiro, holding a sword with both hands.
Koshiro, looking as if he were about to cry, raised the sword and brought it down toward Sakaki’s back.
Just as the blade, from which clear droplets of water dripped as if it had been plunged into a puddle, was about to pierce Sakaki’s heart,
-*Thud.*
As if he had expected this to happen.
Oh-jin, who had appeared beside Koshiro, grabbed his arm.
“…Ah.”
A gasp mixed with relief escaped Koshiro’s lips as his hand was caught.
As if he was glad his attack had been stopped.
A faint smile spread across his lips.
“Haaah.”
Oh-jin, holding Koshiro’s arm, let out a deep sigh.
“…I was hoping this bullshit wouldn’t happen.”
Muttering a harsh curse, he kicked Koshiro hard in the stomach.
*Slam!*
Koshiro was thrown back, slamming into the wall.
The sword in his hand clattered to the floor.
“What is this…”
Sakaki stared blankly, his expression several times more shocked than when he had learned that Yuji was Kurosaki Sosuke.
“……”
Oh-jin looked down at the fallen Koshiro with a bitter expression.
If he had just kept his mouth shut, Oh-jin wouldn't have brought it up.
But now that he had drawn his sword on Sakaki, it was impossible to hide.
“Mr. Sakaki, do you remember when we used the Yumehanashi?”
“…I… remember.”
“Back then, Sosuke was definitely affected by the Yumehanashi.”
And yet, he did not speak the 'truth'.
How was that possible?
The method was simple.
So simple it was boring, so bland it made one yawn.
“The Yumehanashi was a fake.”
“……”
“And at that time, there was only one person who could have swapped the real Yumehanashi with a fake one.”
Oh-jin looked down at Koshiro, who stood with his head bowed low in silence.
He wasn't unconscious.
As an Awakened of the Shield Constellation, there was no way he'd pass out just from being slammed into a wall.
“Koshiro…”
Sakaki stared at Koshiro with trembling eyes.
“Why? Just… why…?”
He remembered Koshiro calling him Oyabun.
He remembered his voice, shouting energetically with sparkling eyes that he wanted to become a man just like him.
Koshiro wasn't just a subordinate to him.
He was a disciple, a son.
“Why, why, why, whyyyy!! Why would you do this, Koshirooo!!!!”
Sakaki screamed in anguish.
“…Oyabun.”
Koshiro bit his lip, his shoulders trembling.
Oh-jin watched Koshiro for a moment before turning his head toward Sosuke.
“Why do you think Sakai Yuji followed Kurosaki Sosuke?”
“What are you talking about? Sakai Yuji is a fictional character that bastard made up…”
“Why do you think he followed Kurosaki?”
“……”
Sakaki’s expression hardened.
The fist gripping Sosuke’s collar trembled as if he had remembered something.
Oh-jin let out a short sigh, then continued with a bitter expression.
“The one poisoned wasn’t Sakai Yuji’s sister… it was Koshiro’s sister.”