Memorial Rite (3)
Baek Seoyeon’s ears rang with disbelief. The words that had just left his mouth were so far beyond common sense that she found herself repeating them before she could stop.
“What… did you just say?”
The Red Fire Yeon family. One of the five great houses that stood shoulder to shoulder with the Heavenly Baek clan among the 27 Magic Families. Originally, the Black Lotus had been the undisputed powerhouse among those five, but fourteen years ago they had withdrawn from the political world entirely, leaving only their parent corporation S&C behind for reasons no one could explain. In the vacuum they left, the Red Fire and the Heavenly Baek had clashed violently over every scrap of power and influence. Yet now the victor in that long struggle was all but decided: the Heavenly Baek.
And here was the man who had once been the designated successor of that very clan, calmly admitting that he had been in league with their bitter enemy all along.
“You’ve lost your mind.”
“Cough… heh heh, little sister. You really don’t know how I managed to reach this position, do you…”
The man continued speaking in that eerily composed tone.
“Even before you were born, there were countless rivals above me… cough! Every single day I lived under the constant threat of death. And there was only one way to survive… just one… cough, cough!”
“So you colluded with the Red Fire? With the Heavenly Baek’s greatest foe? This is treason…!”
“Cough, cough! Heh heh, it was a mutually beneficial transaction. The Red Fire, cornered by our father’s relentless offensive, gained a breathing hole. And I survived, rising higher than any of them ever expected… cough! Though I’ve ended up like this, of course…”
“Then the reason you fled the capital was…”
“What more is there to say? Our father noticed. That old man’s senses are still frighteningly sharp… cough!”
…
In other words, he had used the cooperation of a hostile faction to eliminate his rivals without ever drawing suspicion. The attack on the village had been part of that same scheme. To this day, no one had ever overcome Particle Hypersensitivity Syndrome, but theory held that if a patient somehow managed to awaken safely, they would gain immeasurable magical talent. Faced with the imminent birth of an unstoppable competitor, he had moved to crush the threat before it could fully bloom.
The countless other assassination attempts she had suffered after returning to the capital had been the collective work of every enemy faction that had caught wind of the information he leaked.
Baek Seoyeon clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles turned white, forcing down the rage threatening to boil over. If she had failed to understand the demonic language, if she had undergone an incomplete awakening, or if she had been unable to regain control of her own body afterward—any one of those outcomes would have left her as nothing more than another helpless victim of his schemes.
Moreover, in exchange for their help, the man had fed the Red Fire classified secrets from within the Heavenly Baek clan. That was why the Yeon family had been able to endure the full-scale assault against them and still cling stubbornly to life.
The revelations kept coming, each one more shocking than the last, yet one final piece of the puzzle still refused to connect.
“…Then what is the connection between the Red Fire and the demon race? Are you saying the demons were disguised members of their house?”
“Heh heh, cough! Even they wouldn’t go that far. They are still one of the five great houses, after all… cough, cough!”
As if to answer her question, the man shifted into a more explanatory tone and continued.
“Have you ever heard the term Spirit Mage’s Curse?”
“…I have.”
It was a story every member of the upper class had heard at least once. The Red Fire bloodline suffered severe side effects from spirit magic or their unique constitution; the unusually high number of early deaths and tragic endings among them was said to stem from exactly that. But it had always been nothing more than rumor. There had never been any concrete evidence to prove it. Most people simply assumed it was a case of hostile factions exaggerating a string of unfortunate coincidences.
“Cough…! The Spirit Mage’s Curse is no mere rumor. It is their fatal weakness—one dangerous enough to threaten their very survival.”
The man before her spoke with absolute conviction.
“The greater their innate talent for spirit magic, the more severe the mental backlash they suffer. It’s called mental pollution, I believe. That is precisely why they have been unable to mount a proper defense against our offensive. Cough, cough! The current head of the Red Fire is also suffering from serious side effects caused by it. The last I heard, he has shut himself away on his private estate and almost never emerges.”
…
“The next successor of the Red Fire is showing the same symptoms. You might know her better than I do. After all, the two of you fought like cats and dogs from the cradle.”
It was true. The version of Yeon Minha that Baek Seoyeon had seen and heard about at the cradle had always carried a subtle wrongness that made it difficult to call her normal.
“And to overcome that mental pollution, they chose to delve into forbidden interference-type mental magic research.”
“What…?”
Before she could even process the shock, another bombshell dropped from the man’s lips.
“To that end, they began secretly exchanging information with the demon race. All modern research data on interference-type magic has been lost, so they turned to black magic for assistance instead. Cough, khh…”
…
“The great demon invasion a year ago. You remember it, don’t you?”
Of course she remembered. The man’s calm explanation continued without pause. At the time, the national army and the private forces of every major family had formed a joint encirclement to repel the invaders. Yet the net had been breached for an absurd reason, allowing the remnants to escape and inflict scattered damage across the northern provinces. And the exact point where the encirclement had collapsed was the sector under the Red Fire’s responsibility.
“Which means…”
“They didn’t fail to hold the line. They deliberately opened it. To smuggle the demon race’s collaborators southward at the beasts’ request.”
To summarize his words: he had done what he always did and asked the Red Fire to eliminate him. The request had coincided with the great demon invasion. To avoid suspicion falling on them, the Yeon family had used lower-class demonic beasts from among the infiltrators to carry out his request. Mindless monsters that faithfully obeyed orders and targeted only their designated prey were the perfect disposable tools.
“…How can you know every detail like this? No matter how close a collaborator you were, there’s no way you could have learned about such tightly guarded matters.”
“Cough…! I planted an insider inside the Red Fire. I needed a leash on them as well, after all. And it turned out to be the perfect person. Cough, cough!”
“Do you have any documents or evidence that can prove this?”
“They are being kept in a secure location.”
“…Does my older brother know? Does our father know about this?”
“Other than the fact that I made contact with them… cough…!”
He shook his head. In the end, Baek Seoyeon managed to extract even the precise location where the evidence was stored. There was nothing left to ask him.
The man spoke again, his voice carrying a faint note of hope.
“Cough, cough! Now please release me. I really will die at this rate. Don’t worry. I won’t come anywhere near the capital. I’ll stay out of the Heavenly Baek’s affairs… kuhk! Kkgh!”
But his fragile expectation was shattered the instant a fist was brutally shoved down his throat.
The woman who had been listening with polite, non-hostile composure was no longer there. The pair of golden eyes staring down at him now contained nothing but thick, heavy rage.
“Kuhk… kkgh! Why—! Kuhk…!!”
“Stupid older brother. Would you really let someone who threatened your life walk free?”
“Kkgh! Cough…!”
“If it had only been my life on the line, I might have spared you. But you… you crossed the line.”
“N-no…!”
The man’s desperate scream was crushed helplessly beneath her fury. Inside his dark throat, a bright light slowly began to bloom. Then the fire ignited.
“Aaaaagh… kaaaah!!”
The magical flame that first seared his vocal cords quickly spread throughout his entire body. Soon, fierce flames erupted from every orifice in his face. Leaving the thrashing, agonized man behind, Baek Seoyeon silently turned away. Not long after, the wooden building collapsed with a loud crash, accompanied by the faint, horrific death cry of a single soul.
“Cough… cough…!!”
The entire area was filled with bone-chilling cold and countless icicles. Dozens of corpses lay scattered along the corridors and passageways. Only one survivor remained.
A man leaned weakly against a pillar, coughing up blood again and again. His body was covered in vicious tattoos. A faint red glow flickered in his eyes. His fingers were purple from severe frostbite; two of them were broken, exposing bone and raw flesh.
The criminal organization of dark mages known as the Night Theater—a group that had enjoyed the protection of the powerful and remained beyond the reach of the Security Bureau—had been annihilated in a single night. It had all begun when a low-ranking member who failed to recognize her had shown disrespect. In truth, that had merely been an excuse. The real purpose had been to wipe them out without leaving any traceable evidence that could be used against her.
—Crunch… crunch…
The girl responsible for their destruction approached with ghostly steps. With every footfall, frost bloomed beneath her feet only to scatter again. When she finally stopped in front of him, the leader of the Night Theater cried out in a voice thick with resentment.
“How… how could the Heavenly Baek do this to us…!! This is betrayal…!!”
His protest was not without logic. After all, the Heavenly Baek had been the family that most actively shielded them and employed them for their dirty work.
Yet the girl who heard his plea simply gave a haughty snort, as though his words were not even worth listening to.
“Betrayal? Don’t make me laugh. Since when does garbage like you dare speak so freely to me?”