The Judge's Successor
My abdomen and thighs where the fountain pen had stabbed me throbbed with every step. During the fight with the class president, adrenaline had flooded every inch of my body and let me forget the pain entirely. But now that the battle was over and everything had returned to normal, the pain clung to me like a stubborn debt collector.
“Namjin, are you sure you should be moving already?”
When I left the infirmary and stepped into the hallway, Geum Taeseong was waiting for me. He studied my complexion from every angle before resting a hand on my shoulder.
“I can heal your wounds.”
Geum Taeseong was the healer of our group. I’d often wondered why he held that position, and it looked like the time had finally come for me to see it with my own eyes.
“How do you heal them?”
“My concept is Reversal. I can swap the physical states of anyone I touch with my own.”
A faint light bloomed from Geum Taeseong’s palm. The next moment, the agony that had been tormenting my stomach and thighs washed away as if it had never existed.
“Whoa, that’s insane?”
The ability to transfer your own wounds to someone else, or take theirs onto yourself. It was a usage that perfectly matched the concept of literal reversal.
As I stood there marveling at this miracle, Geum Taeseong broke out in a cold sweat that ran down his forehead.
“Ugh, it hurts way more than I expected─.”
Thud. Geum Taeseong dropped straight to his knees.
“Dude, how were you even planning to walk around like this?”
“I’m used to pain. Thanks, Taeseong. I got to witness something awesome because of you. But put my wounds back on me. I can’t shove my own injuries onto someone else.”
“What? But…”
“A person has to know how to affirm and love himself. To me, even those wounds and that pain are part of the ‘me’ I have to love.”
Geum Taeseong frowned, apparently unable to grasp my lofty philosophy through the haze of pain. I grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet. With a reluctant sigh, he reversed the wounds back onto me.
“…Man, I really don’t look cool at all.”
“Don’t lose heart. It’s just that I’m too cool.”
My stomach and thighs felt stiff again, but it was bearable. The moderate pain actually felt like it was waking up my brain that had been dozing until now.
“Taeseong, I’ve got something for you. Someone told me to pass this along.”
I held out the cross necklace I’d received from the short-bob villainess. The moment Geum Taeseong took it, his face grew even paler than when he had absorbed my pain.
It was the first time I’d ever seen him this shaken.
“Who gave it to you?”
“A girl who looks like a total yandere. You really are popular with weird girls, Taeseong. I can sympathize with your troubles on multiple levels. After all, I’m popular with the ladies too.”
“…….”
Geum Taeseong stood there for a long time, staring at the cross necklace in his hand. Just as I decided I should leave him alone, he spoke to my retreating back.
“Namjin, you made my concept sound amazing, but it actually has a lot of restrictions. I can only swap states between Awakeners.”
That was the end of our conversation.
I headed down to the Special Detention Center in the basement of Yeongsa High.
Underground facility beneath Yeongsa High
“Ha Namjiiin!”
“My friend! Are you all right!”
“…….”
My friends from the no-leftovers lunch crew had gathered in front of the Special Detention Center building. They swarmed around me, circling and inspecting my condition like they had a mountain of things they wanted to say. Bbangdaeng especially.
“I’m the one who arrested the class president! Pretty cool, right?”
Apparently Bbangdaeng had contributed the most to the capture. He was the one who had wrapped the president in binding rope. Life really was full of surprises.
After greeting my friends, I descended underground. A detention cell blocked off by thick, transparent acrylic walls came into view. Captain and Section Chief Kim Jang-dong were already there, talking. When they noticed me, Captain spoke first.
“Ha Namjin. You don’t have to push yourself.”
“He said he’d only open his mouth for me, right?”
I was curious what the class president wanted to tell me. So I walked up to the cell where he was being held and came face to face with the guy who was bound head to toe like a mental patient beyond the transparent wall.
Just half a day ago he had been the most popular person in school, and now he was being treated like Hannibal the cannibal serial killer. What a fall.
“You’re here.”
The class president greeted me lightly. His voice sounded like he was meeting an old friend.
“Press the sleep button on your smartwatch. It’ll disable functions for ten minutes. If our conversation gets overheard, it’ll be trouble for both of us. Until then, no talking.”
Demands from a caged rat. Bold. I pressed the button on my smartwatch. The class president smiled behind his mask.
“What?”
I wondered if he was suffering from paranoia, but the more I thought about it, the more sense his words made. The story that the notorious Judge was actually an elite student, the class president of Yeongsa High’s D-class, handsome like Ha Namjin, and well-liked by everyone would be sensational. Especially the part where the son of a high-ranking prosecutor had become the incarnation of private punishment.
“Who?”
Jeong Uiseon, the serial killer known as the Judge, seemed to have sensed something similar to himself in me. We stared at each other through the thick acrylic wall. Handsome looks, skilled speech, widespread popularity; there wasn’t a single point on which we differed. It really was like looking in a mirror.
If even one choice in my life had gone differently, it wouldn’t have been strange for me to be the one locked up in there instead of him.
“Who?”
“Intended? You’re saying a corporation deliberately set fire to a mart?”
“You’re locked up. What else is there to do besides eat and shit?”
After giving me the coordinates, the class president shut his mouth. Soon the smartwatch powered back on.
“What did you two talk about? Did he tell you why he did it?”
When I came back up from the basement, Section Chief Kim Jang-dong asked about the conversation between me and the class president. Next to him, Detective Jin Ramen stood like the King of the Underworld, watching my lips.
“He was just a crazy bastard.”
I decided to brush it off. If Seonam Group and the ruling party were connected to this incident, I had no idea who was linked how. Jin Ramen narrowed her eyes at me.
“If you’re thinking of lying, I won’t let it slide.”
“Rihyeon, that’s enough. What are you trying to do to an injured, sick kid? Go home and rest for now.”
Section Chief Kim Jang-dong stopped her and showed me kindness. Thanks to him, I was able to head home.
Should I go to the coordinates the class president mentioned first?
…….
Fortunately the Judge’s hideout coordinates weren’t far from the abandoned factory in Yeomra, so I could save time. An old container warehouse. Inside were countless photographs and documents. They looked like important information.
But my legs kept giving out and my vision kept blurring. When I touched my forehead, it was burning up.
# # #
“You’re late.”
Seo Gaeul had decided not to hold back today. The male student’s return was far too late. Her stomach was empty and she was bored. When he came back she would dig her nails in and scratch him raw─. She made that promise to herself just as the iron door opened.
“Hey, do you even know what time it is?”
“No.”
“What? You little shit, are you rebelling against me right now?”
Seo Gaeul grabbed the male student’s wrist, then quickly let go in shock.
“What the─his body’s like a ball of fire─.”
“Seo Gaeul, you…”
The male student looked like he wanted to say something, then collapsed with a thud. The fever seemed to have made him lose consciousness.
“What the hell.”
Seo Gaeul first laid the male student on the mattress, then placed the cool Ing-ing on his forehead to bring the fever down.
“Can a kidnapper really be this sloppy? Why do I have to take care of you? I’ve been starving since yesterday evening.”
Her stomach was truly empty. Seo Gaeul decided to eat the lunchbox and opened the male student’s bag.
Riiip─.
As she rummaged through the male student’s bag, Seo Gaeul’s face turned the color of fallen leaves.
Corporate Operating Profit Forecast Report According to the Awakener Information Registration Act
Variable Control for Second Awakening ─ Sprout Orphanage
For some reason, Seonam Group’s top-secret documents were inside Ha Namjin’s bag.
‘Why does this guy have Level 0 classified documents? Did the company approach him? No, there’s no way they would hand over papers like these. Then how on earth…’
Feeling suspicious, Seo Gaeul manipulated the male student’s smartwatch and checked the GPS logs of the places he had visited. She realized he had stopped by a suspicious location on his way home from school.
“It’s close from here.”
Crack! Clang!
Seo Gaeul poured strength into both hands and snapped the chains binding her body. Without hesitation she strode out of the basement.
If Seonam Group had contacted the male student, time was clearly running out. There was no room to hesitate.
Whoooosh─.
The smell and wind of the outside world that she hadn’t felt in so long were refreshingly vivid, but Seo Gaeul didn’t indulge in sentiment. She ran toward the GPS coordinates and soon discovered an abandoned junkyard and an old container warehouse.
‘So the company didn’t contact Ha Namjin after all. Then what is this place?’
Creak. Groan─.
When she opened the warehouse door, it was filled with all kinds of documents and photographs. As she rummaged through them, one photo in particular caught Seo Gaeul’s eye.
Mysterious Woman in N-Mart Parking Lot, One Hour Before Arson.
The photo showed a woman leaving the underground parking lot of a large mart. It looked like a printout from CCTV footage; the quality was poor. She was wearing a hat and a mask that hid her face, but Seo Gaeul recognized the woman in the photo instantly.
‘I have to get rid of this picture right now!’
About an hour later, Seo Gaeul returned to her basement and used the concept of Restore to put the chains back on her hands and feet. As if nothing had happened. As if she had never left this place.
However, the mysterious cloud Ing-ing, who had watched the entire process, let out a strange cry as if interrogating her.
━Ing-ing-ya-ing.
“Ing-ing, you didn’t see anything. Do you know what will happen if you tell Ha Namjin about what just happened? If you understood me, give me an ‘Ing-’.”
044 - Ing END