Money Tends to Follow (6)

"Whew... Whew..." Inspector Mieru, who had been slumped on the floor, took a deep breath to compose himself.

His pride as an elite had been shattered to pieces, and his character had been thoroughly dragged through the mud... but he hadn't claimed the title of the National Police Agency's ace just for show. Negative emotions did nothing to help solve the problem. Now was the time to accept the situation and figure out how to deal with it.

Dusting off his clothes and adjusting his crooked glasses, Inspector Mieru's gaze naturally drifted toward Kang Jin-ho.

...Hmm.

The superpower that even the Hero Association coveted in Inspector Mieru was his ability to read the emotions of others. People could mask their facial expressions and hide their actions, but they could never deceive their own feelings. The anxiety of a lying suspect. The murderous intent of a heinous criminal. The hostility of a harmless-looking man... He had utilized this ability to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠its fullest to crack countless cases and climb to his current position.

I can't quite read him.

Yet even Inspector Mieru could not fully grasp Kang Jin-ho's current state of mind. Jin-ho's emotions were perfectly tranquil. Despite deducing on the spot that his superior had been brainwashed and even identifying the culprit, he showed no sign of agitation. His inner self was as calm as if he had merely finished a routine task, as if solving this case was nothing more than the natural course of things.

And yet, looking closer, a massive wave of tension was hidden in a corner of his heart.

Mieru swallowed his questions. What on earth is he so tense about? What is making him so cautious? Is it because of the Class 3 villain, Marionette? Is he nervous now that he's facing a villain's power directly? It was impossible to tell yet. Nor did it particularly matter right now.

"...Thank you for informing me of my condition. I apologize for my rudeness earlier," Inspector Mieru said, bowing his head politely.

"Now that we know the villain's intentions, I will report this to headquarters and request assistance from the heroes. I am glad we avoided greater casualties. I will not forget this debt."

But Jin-ho shook his head.

"No, no. If you do that, Marionette will run. We need to capture her in person."

"But is there any other way? If we head to the murder scene now, we'll be walking straight into her trap."

"Exactly. If we want to catch Marionette, we have to go right now."

Jin-ho replied nonchalantly, grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair and slipping it on.

"Let's head to the crime scene. Just as you originally planned."

Why had he bluntly blurted out, "You've been brainwashed," in the first place? It was quite literally because they were running out of time.

Marionette was a cautious villain. She was so prudent that if she sensed even the slightest anomaly, she would immediately scrap her plans and flee. To arrest her and claim the Karma, they had to set off for the crime scene immediately.

To anyone else, however, this sounded like an incredibly reckless plan.

"Jin-ho, I do trust you, but... are you sure about this? Wouldn't it be better to call for backup? Your opponent is a villain."

"He's right. Should we contact the Association to see if there are any available heroes right now?" the other officers asked worriedly.

But Jin-ho declined the backup.

"If too many people show up, Marionette will run. It should just be me and Inspector Mieru."

"But I am currently brainwashed..."

"I have a way to deal with that. Right now, we don't have a moment to lose..."

"Rookie," Precinct Chief Raphael said in a grave voice, blocking the exit with his massive frame.

"We trust you. But you aren't overextending yourself just to take the credit, are you? If that's the case, stand down. That is an order from your superior."

"...Thank you for your concern, Chief, but that's really not it. I truly have a plan."

"And you don't have the time to explain it to us, is that it? Fine, if you say so." With that, even Chief Raphael stepped aside.

Finally, Eun-young raised her hand high. "How about I tail you guys secretly from a distance?"

"Ah... I must politely decline."

"...Hmph. Fine." Fortunately, Eun-young didn't push any further. However, Jin-ho's shadow seemed to flicker with a faint, ominous tremor.

"Well then, let us head out," Jin-ho said, wiping a thin bead of sweat from his forehead.

"..." Inspector Mieru stared at Jin-ho in silence. Just now, when Jin-ho was speaking with Park Eun-young, Mieru had sensed the tension in the young officer's heart spike to an astronomical degree.

Don't tell me... the source of his anxiety wasn't the villain, but his beautiful senior colleague?

"Aren't you coming?"

"Yes, I'm coming." Inspector Mieru thought to himself, Even a genius falls in love, I suppose.

Night fell. An under-construction building on the outskirts of Light City.

The wind whistled through the exposed steel beams, creating a spine-chilling howl. Construction seemed to have ground to a halt; bags of cement lay scattered across the floor, along with a couple of abandoned hard hats.

On the seventh floor of this desolate building, at the scene where two victims had stabbed each other to death, only dried bloodstains and yellow police tape remained, casting a bleak atmosphere.

"It's here," Inspector Mieru said, shining his flashlight on the floor.

Jin-ho crouched down and carefully examined the ground.

"It's difficult to call this a classic locked-room mystery," Mieru explained.

"The hallway outside this seventh-floor room was in the middle of a concrete pour right up until the incident yesterday. In other words, if anyone had walked into or out of the room around the time of the crime, they would have left footprints in the wet cement in the hallway. Yet the cement floor was perfectly smooth, and only the two corpses of the men who stabbed each other were left inside."

"The site foreman, who came up on the lift to pick them up, was the first witness. He repeatedly testified that something was wrong, insisting that two friends who got along so well would never kill each other."

The police department, which initially suspected a double suicide, also realized there was no motive and began to suspect the involvement of a brainwashing-type villain. Thus, they had sent Inspector Mieru a curated list of suspects with brainwashing abilities.

"Look here," Inspector Mieru said, turning on his smartphone screen to show Jin-ho a file containing the suspects' mugshots.

As he swiped through the pages, he stopped at a blurry photo of a woman in an ornate dress, labeled Class 3 Villain: Marionette.

"So this is Marionette."

"Yes. Is this your first time seeing her?"

"It's my first time seeing her in person."

"...?"

As the two of them were examining the scene and talking, a voice chimed in.

"Oh my, is that my face?" a young woman's voice echoed from somewhere. "I look much prettier in real life. I really don't get why the police always use such terrible photos."

The voice reverberated through the empty building, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly where she was speaking from.

"Show yourself," Jin-ho said in a low voice. Soon after, a woman wearing a lavishly frilled dress stepped out from behind a concrete pillar.

"The ace of the police department, Inspector Mieru. And the rising genius cop, Officer Kang Jin-ho."

"Marionette."

"Well? I look better in person, don't I?" the woman—no, the Class 3 villain, Marionette—said with a smirk. Her eyes scanned the two of them.

"Haha... Kyahahaha!" Her doll-like smile gradually twisted into a bizarre, sadistic grin.

"I've been watching you. I couldn't tell if you were stupid or brave. You really came with just the two of you, didn't you? No backup whatsoever. Did you not think I'd be here? A cop ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠should know this basic rule: the culprit always returns to the scene of the crime."

Marionette's eyes gleamed with malice.

"It would have been nice if a decent hero had shown up... but oh well, beggars can't be choosers. I'm not picky when it comes to the sound of screams."

Marionette relished the moments of human despair. She loved the exact second the last glimmer of hope was extinguished. She lived to see people who had begged for their lives beg for death instead.

With high expectations, she watched the reactions of the two police officers before her.

"..."

"..."

There was no reaction. Fear? Despair? Tension? Not a single trace of them could be seen.

"...Do you think it's a coincidence that only the two of you came here? No. That's where you're wrong," Marionette whispered like a serpent.

"You've been dancing in the palm of my hand from the very beginning. Have you ever heard of the subconscious? Do you really think it was a coincidence that Inspector Mieru over there excluded any headquarters backup and insisted on coming to the scene with just the two of you?"

"..."

"..."

Yet, the two officers remained completely unfazed, their expressions practically saying, Go on, keep talking.

"Fine, you don't believe me. Then I have no choice but to show you."

Wiping the laughter from her face, Marionette abandoned her plan to slowly toy with them. Instead, she would show them immediately. The agony of being stabbed in the back by someone you thought was an ally. A living hell where they would tear each other apart, screaming in pain.

Glaring with wide eyes, Marionette uttered the trigger word to Inspector Mieru with dramatic flair.

"Orgel."

"..."

"..."

And nothing happened. Absolutely nothing.

"...Orgel. Orgel? Did you not hear me? Orgel!"

"I already broke the brainwashing on our way here," Jin-ho said flatly, folding his arms.

"That was your fatal mistake. Walking out so confidently just because you assumed one of the two officers was under your control."

"...Wait, did I mishear you?" Marionette asked, her brow furrowing. "You broke the brainwashing beforehand?"

"Yes. Wasn't your trigger word 'Orgel'? I had him say it on our way here. Your ability forces the victim to obey the commands of whoever utters the trigger word, doesn't it?"

Just as Jin-ho said, Marionette's ability had a glaring blind spot. Once the brainwashing was complete, Marionette didn't need to speak the word herself. As long as the trigger word was spoken accurately, even a passing pedestrian who muttered it by chance would gain control over the victim.

Of course, Marionette often exploited this blind spot to her advantage. Instead of exposing herself, she would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠have one puppet utter the trigger word to another, cutting off any trail and evading the police dragnet.

To protect herself from this vulnerability, she was also extremely meticulous when choosing her trigger words. She picked obscure words that were rarely used in daily conversation, yet subtle enough that she wouldn't look like a lunatic if she blurted them out in public. One of those words was "Orgel."

"...What kind of absolute bullshit is this?! Fine, let's say you somehow noticed Inspector Mieru was brainwashed! And let's say you figured out I was the real culprit!" Marionette shrieked, completely losing her composure.

"But there are millions of words in the world! There are tens of thousands of words I could have used as a trigger! And you're telling me you guessed it on the way here? And used it to break the brainwashing? Do you honestly expect me to believe that?!"

From a logical standpoint, it made absolutely no sense. Mathematically speaking, the probability was so infinitesimally small it was practically impossible.

"I just had a feeling," Jin-ho said, slightly averting his eyes. "I took a wild guess because it felt right, and I happened to hit the mark."

In truth, he had only guessed it because he remembered seeing the "Brainwashing Ability Trigger Word Cheat Sheet" on the Hisisi community forums... but Jin-ho decided to brazen it out. He couldn't tell her the truth anyway. From now on, he resolved to simply claim "genius intuition" and stick ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to his story whenever things like this happened.

Wasn't he supposed to pretend to be powerless because of Eun-young? It was already too late for that. He was scheduled to undergo a superpower evaluation soon anyway, so he figured something would show up regardless.

If a person made a wild claim just once, people would look at them with suspicion and think, What is this guy talking about? But if they consistently made absurd claims with absolute confidence, people would eventually accept it as just who they were.

Besides, his opponent was a villain. And not some catastrophic, worst-of-the-worst villain who constantly hovered by his side, but a mere Class 3 small fry. A villain of her caliber simply didn't deserve a detailed explanation—not that he could have explained it anyway!

"You guessed it... You just... guessed it..."

"Yes. Is there a problem?"

"...What... What kind of... argh..." Marionette clutched the back of her neck as her blood pressure spiked. She couldn't believe reality. It felt like a bizarre nightmare.

This bastard who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere—who on earth was he?