Exposure (1)
Lee Hyun’s voice cut through the heavy air like a blade.
“The new servants and laborers who arrived recently. You knew they had planted a plague magic circle inside the buildings they rearranged, didn’t you?”
“I thought some minor disturbance had occurred and came to check… but now I see the cause was you all along. Just how far have you been sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong?”
The head of the Red Fire family made no attempt whatsoever to deny his crimes. Instead, he simply glared at Lee Hyun, radiating pure hostility.
“Even after noticing him, how did you manage to escape? Did you kill Bigwing?”
“If you’re referring to the one disguised as the steward, then yes. I slit the throats of everyone else at the scene as well.”
“Tsk. It seems your reputation is no exaggeration. A shame, though. For a beast, he was rather useful.”
Yeon Jeong-mun clicked his tongue as if he had lost an expensive tool.
Yeon Minha couldn’t follow their exchange at all.
“Plague… magic circle…? W-what are you talking about…? Why are you saying these things to my father…?”
“They were demons. Every last one of them—the new steward and all the servants and laborers who came with him.”
“What…?”
“They hid their demonic energy and took human form to infiltrate. Those beasts had installed large-scale black magic beneath this estate. The rearrangement of the buildings was to conceal the focal points of the massive magic circle. I just came from engaging them in combat.”
The male student’s continued revelations left Yeon Minha even more devastated.
“And your father… was fully aware of their actions and allowed them to continue.”
Yeon Minha felt as if she wanted to cover her ears if she could. She turned toward her father.
“N-no, Father…? There must be some huge misunderstanding, right…? ”
“…”
Her desperate question met only silence. That silence was answer enough.
“Ah… ah…”
Yeon Minha clutched her chest as though she couldn’t breathe. Today was more horrific than any nightmare she had ever endured.
Lee Hyun watched her groan in agony and hesitated for a brief moment, but he quickly steeled himself and turned his gaze back to Yeon Jeong-mun.
“Why would you do something like this? A man of your stature—what could you possibly lack that you’d join hands with those beasts…?”
Lee Hyun kept his guard up as he asked the question. He needed time. Time to recover his body even a little. Time to think of a way to escape this place. And even the smallest clue about why Yeon Jeong-mun would commit such a horrific act.
By Lee Hyun’s common sense, he simply could not fathom the reason behind it.
“It’s none of your concern. It isn’t some grand affair worth making such a fuss over.”
“Not a grand affair? If that magic circle is completed, countless people in the capital will suffer and die from the plague—”
“That may be true. But what does any of that have to do with me?”
He cut off Lee Hyun’s question sharply. The man’s tone suggested he found the idea as trivial as stepping on an ant, which only carved deeper fury into Lee Hyun’s chest. And yet Lee Hyun himself was hardly someone who had lived with enough leisure to worry about the lives of others.
“All I desire is to fulfill the long-cherished wish of our Red Fire family and to see that child I love so dearly once more. Whether thousands of lowborn die, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands—it is all utterly insignificant compared to that.”
The eyes that had seemed empty were now completely consumed by a spine-chilling madness.
Lee Hyun realized the man before him was already hollow—a wind-up doll that moved blindly toward a single goal. Someone who cared nothing for his own family had no reason to care about the lives of the lowborn whom others dismissed so easily.
The one small mercy was that what controlled him was not cold reason, but pure insanity. If he had truly intended to hide his plans completely, he could have steered the conversation in any direction he wished. Yet from their brief exchange, Lee Hyun had managed to glean a few fragments of truth.
The long-cherished wish of the Red Fire family was to overcome mental pollution. And from the conversation he had just overheard, the child he loved so dearly was his twin sister—Yeon Minha’s mother.
Lee Hyun didn’t understand what it meant to see a dead person again, but even after more than a decade, the man still harbored a bizarre obsession with his sister.
What he had done was allow demons into his mansion located in the capital’s high district, enabling them to install a plague magic circle that would generate a poisonous cloud. The demons who, with his tacit approval, had kidnapped people every night to draw black magic circles using fresh blood had called it a sacred great undertaking.
“…”
His already poisoned and clouded mind grew even dizzier. He had obtained clues, yet the events refused to connect into a coherent whole. All of these incidents had clearly branched from a single root. But the one link that tied them together remained impossible to grasp for now.
Therefore, the only thing he could say was one sentence.
“…You’re insane.”
The head of the Red Fire family remained utterly indifferent.
“Enough. Let us waste no more time.”
He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers. A small spark of lightning burst in the air, spreading in all directions with a deafening crack. Soon, the sound of heavy footsteps mixed with metallic clanks echoed as the Red Fire family’s soldiers poured in, surrounding them on all sides.
“You have shown far too much disrespect to be spared, and you have seen, heard, and said far too much. Accept your fate, and I will at least grant you a painless end.”
“I never said I would die quietly.”
“That spirit of yours is rather admirable. However, in your current state, what exactly do you think you can do? You look as though simply standing there is difficult.”
“…”
“Actually, this is perfect. I heard complaints that the blood of lowborn slums dwellers was making the magic circle’s completion too slow. After all, they are beings with almost no particle sensitivity.”
The man continued speaking.
“Mixing in the blood of talented individuals should allow the circle to be completed a little faster. That means the day I reunite with that child will come sooner as well.”
To anyone listening, his words clearly meant he would kill Lee Hyun and use his blood as material for the magic circle.
Lee Hyun let out a hollow laugh inside. Even lowborn with almost no talent for magic possessed some degree of particle sensitivity, but as a complete non-responder, he had none at all. Even if they tore his entire body apart and fed it into the circle, the completion speed would not increase significantly.
Yet one oddly irritating word among those he had spoken caught Lee Hyun’s ear.
“…These people?”
“I must give Minha a chance to atone for her sin as well. After all, she is the child who devoured her own mother to be born.”
The man with hollow eyes uttered the horrific statement without a trace of emotion. His madness was on another level entirely.
“Father… why… why are you doing this…?”
Yeon Minha stepped forward, almost shielding Lee Hyun.
“Please come to your senses… I beg you…”
“Do not worry. Your father is more clear-headed now than at any other time.”
“Father!!”
“…”
Yeon Minha cried out in disbelief, but the man offered no reply. When he raised his hand, the soldiers surrounding them placed their hands on their particle arrangers and aimed at both Lee Hyun and Yeon Minha. There was something unnatural about their swiftness. No matter how absolute the family head’s orders were, to aim magic at the successor without hesitation was strange.
Lee Hyun turned his head, scanning the surroundings warily. Through his visor, his eyes met those of the soldiers. Their unfocused, cloudy pupils did not look like those of sane people. Yeon Jeong-mun must have done something to them.
Particles began forming above their palms, creating lethal projectiles.
The situation was rapidly reaching its climax. No matter how he thought about it, escaping this place without any damage seemed impossible.
And just as his urgent, fruitless deliberation was about to force a decision—
-Thud!
Like a stone dropping from above, a pitch-black something suddenly crashed onto the floor with a loud noise. Feathers protruded jaggedly from various parts of its body, and it panted violently as if it were alive.
Lee Hyun immediately recognized the creature’s identity.
It was truly a living being. A crow with white feathers on its head. Sa Jaehyuk’s friend, and one of the few people who knew Lee Hyun’s real name. The Masada branch manager of the Information Bureau, which oversaw domestic intelligence operations. It was Mok Jinu’s messenger crow.
After catching its breath for a moment, it hopped up from its spot. It twisted its small head around before fixing its gaze on Lee Hyun.
“How did an external communication line get through here…”
Yeon Jeong-mun blinked in disbelief upon seeing it. The vast grounds of the Red Fire estate were protected by a powerful magic known as an air defense net, designed to prevent any external communication methods from entering. The fact that an unauthorized crow had gotten through meant there was a flaw somewhere in that net.
But before he could take action, the crow spread its bright yellow beak wide. Then it clearly played back the pre-recorded message from Mok Jinu. Every person present heard the death sentence.
Paecheon has moved directly. They are pointing their blades at the Red Fire. Escape. Right now.
Leaving only that urgent voice behind, the crow spread its wings once more like a divine messenger and flew into the sky.
“Paecheon… why are those rat bastards suddenly—!”
The head of the Red Fire family, who had maintained a dry tone until now, ground his teeth so hard it was audible. His eyes burned with volcanic rage.
And before his words even finished, violent explosions accompanied by shockwaves began echoing from the distance.
-Kwaaaang! Kwaaang! Klang!
They were the typical particle rebound explosions produced when high-caliber physical shells struck a mage’s field. The blasts that began near the main gate quickly spread along the massive barrier surrounding the Red Fire estate. Their speed was ferocious, like a wildfire riding the wind.
Alarm devices triggered by the intruders blared sirens. Red lights flashed everywhere across the mansion, signaling the appearance of danger.
-Kwaaaang!
Another massive explosion erupted near the main gate. This time the impact had a physical form. Even from afar, they could clearly see a colossal glacier soaring high into the sky. It had crushed and wrapped around the solid main gate—which was coated with particle-resistant material—like a sheet of paper.
Dozens of heavy footsteps. The flashing of fields deflecting physical shells. The loud clang of blades colliding. Shouts and screams coming from all directions. Smoke. The smell of blood.
Before long, white vapor began escaping the mouths of everyone present. Their bodies shivered. The beautifully blooming luminescent flowers and garden trees around them withered in an instant, as if struck by frost, turning a dull color.
Beyond the quiet, hazy darkness of the night, the sound of footsteps drawing closer gradually narrowed the distance.
And when the figure finally revealed itself, Lee Hyun—who had been maintaining a defensive stance—could not close his mouth.
Hair as black as the night sky swayed gently. Two eyes sparkled dazzlingly, as if they contained all the gold in the world. Her gaze, filled with inexplicable fury and hatred, remained fixed solely on the head of the Red Fire family.
“Yeon Jeong-mun. You’re finished. And so is the Red Fire.”