The Emotion Drug and Its Ripple Effects
Mirael’s question sliced through the rhythmic clatter of the carriage as they rolled toward the village.
“Have you heard anything about the Simjeonghoe?”
Luke’s thoughts moved like a well-practiced chess piece, landing on several plausible answers before he settled on the simplest.
“Well, at a high level they’re emotion addicts. At a deeper level, they’re something else entirely.”
“Emotion addicts… that’s accurate.”
Mirael nodded once, her purple hair catching the faint light filtering through the window.
“The Simjeonghoe. Those who follow the Primordial One of Emotion. Their specialty is curses and emotion magic. They poke at the raw nerves of human feeling and take their fanaticism a step further. In a way, they might be the most difficult to deal with among the four Evil Gods.”
“Deeper still, and you’d be right.”
“This case could have been swept under the rug without mentioning the Simjeonghoe. But once their name is on the table, everything makes sense.”
Luke’s curiosity sharpened. Fifteen years old and she had murdered her entire family. What kind of monster does that?
He allowed himself a small internal smile.
Oh, right. I’m thirteen.
*But that’s not the important part.*
The important part was the case summary.
“A fifteen-year-old girl killed her whole family. Her father, her mother, and her ten-year-old little brother. The Holy Kingdom is currently investigating whether the Simjeonghoe had any involvement in her emotional state.”
“What exactly about her emotions?”
Mirael’s voice dropped, almost reluctant.
“They’re… extremely happy. Not just mildly so.”
“…Hm. Perhaps she inherited some talent for murder from her family.”
The joke hung in the air between them.
Luke’s casual remark earned him a sharp look from Mirael.
“Now is not the time for jokes. Her emotional state is so far beyond the norm that, without the Simjeonghoe, it would have been written off as a simple madman’s rampage.”
“Then the Simjeonghoe would have made the case much harder to close.”
“Precisely. Once they’re involved, this becomes a heretic problem.”
She turned toward the carriage window and stared out at the distant spires of Saint Deur.
“We’ll go over the full details in the village. Let’s focus on the village now.”
***
Charlos village.
One hour by carriage from Saint Deur, the quiet rural settlement had become a crime scene of nightmarish proportions.
The five-year-old girl who slaughtered her own family.
The moment the residents gathered in small clusters, the story spread like wildfire. When Mirael and her party arrived, every eye was already fixed on them.
[Hmm. People who poke at human emotions. Not the most common type.]
“Tell me about it, Grandfather.”
“I agree.”
This mission had come with extra muscle: Nia and Ellis, the former a disciplined swordsman and the latter a quiet, formidable grandmotherly presence who could still put a man through his paces.
Mirael dismounted and immediately began issuing quiet orders.
“Two of my subordinates are already here. We’ll join them and then I’ll brief you on what we know so far.”
The group reached the crime scene to find—
“…Welcome, Your Holiness.”
“Long time no see, Your Holiness.”
“Howard. Erin. Still the same old faces.”
Howard was the towering frame of a man with rimless glasses and short brown hair. Beside him stood Erin, petite and blonde, her long hair tied neatly back.
Howard extended a hand to Luke.
“Section Chief Howard of the Third Heresy Inquisition. May the Grace of Goddess Ramiria be with you.”
“And with you. Luke Serverki. This is Nia and Ellis.”
A light handshake, then Howard led the way through the shattered doorway.
As they moved, his briefing was crisp and professional.
“The initial report said it was just a knife attack. But the crime-scene photos tell a different story.”
His eyes narrowed.
“The bodies are… beyond horrific. A fifteen-year-old girl causing this?”
“Then we must assume Evil God interference,” Mirael supplied.
Howard inclined his head. “Your Holiness’s instincts were spot on. Once I heard the Simjeonghoe angle, many questions cleared up.”
“Word was already sent to the other sections. The Simjeonghoe has begun to leak into the Holy Kingdom.”
“Of course. Every section head is aware. We are combing the entire country for them.”
Luke listened in silence. The Heresy Inquisition was made up of monsters; if even a fragment of the Simjeonghoe had slipped past them, finding the rest would be far easier.
But caution was never a luxury.
They stepped inside.
The stench hit first—thick, cloying, metallic.
[Whoa. That’s heavy. Kid, this isn’t three people. They were bleeding out when they died. Look at the state of these corpses.]
Cheon Baek-gyeong’s voice was grim.
Luke nodded.
If the Heavenly Demon spoke in that tone, something genuinely monstrous had occurred.
Howard’s face twisted in disgust.
“When we arrived at the scene…”
The door creaked open.
The blood smell intensified, as if the house itself had been painted red.
“The entire interior was a slaughterhouse.”
The horror was immediate and total.
Blood soaked every surface. A deep, congealing darkness coated the floor and walls, leaving no inch untouched. In the center of the room lay three bodies.
“Step closer, please. I’ll summarize the findings.”
The group entered and stood before the corpses.
The children’s bodies were clean—until the parents.
Their wounds were savage, as though someone had taken a meat cleaver to them.
“Some form of ritual was involved. We checked against every known heretic ceremony we have records of, and none match. This wasn’t done by accident.”
“…So they were simply overcome with emotion?”
“That part needs to be examined with the suspect. However, the current evidence suggests the Simjeonghoe had a hand in her state.”
“…She was extremely happy?”
“Yes.”
While Mirael and Howard continued their quiet exchange, Luke examined the bodies.
[Hmm. Kid, these wounds are viciously precise.]
“…Really?”
[Indeed. The vital points weren’t stabbed repeatedly. Whoever did this deliberately avoided them. They wanted maximum agony while keeping the body intact.]
“...”
[There’s malice here. Genuine, soul-deep malice. Kid, I don’t know the exact name, but the key to this case… dig into the girl who’s been accused. That’s where the truth lies.]
“The girl?”
[Remember this: it’s almost impossible to feel pure, cold hatred without emotion. Only trained assassins or warriors manage it. A fifteen-year-old girl feeling that? There has to be a reason.]
“I agree.”
Luke nodded. The logic was sound.
He also felt an odd prickle of familiarity.
*This feels weird. Too weird? Could one of the Simjeonghoe executives have a familiar past…*
It was familiar.
Too familiar.
*Sacred Souls* had been a meticulously crafted game. Every NPC carried their own lore; the more loyalty you earned, the more their secrets and daily lives unfolded. Luke had wandered through countless routes, building relationships with dozens of characters. One name kept resurfacing with an eerie sense of déjà vu.
*The Emotion Addict. The Bloody Princess—Ardia…*
The memory surfaced.
A girl who once wielded a sashimi knife while channeling emotion magic and blood magic for the Simjeonghoe. The catchphrase she used to mutter with every kill.
*I killed my parents. They deserved it.*
*I wonder why I killed my brother?*
*…Ugh. This is suspicious.*
An unsettling itch crawled along Luke’s spine.
As a veteran of *Sacred Souls*, he had a gut feeling that one of the Simjeonghoe’s executives might be waiting somewhere in this village.
***
The team completed their sweep of the crime scene and were led to the suspect.
The fifteen-year-old girl who had murdered her family.
Long, pale crimson hair. Crimson eyes.
The moment Luke saw her, he nodded.
*Ah. Ardia.*
Why was she here? She should have been the one tearing the country apart as the Simjeonghoe’s poster girl.
*Maybe the case would have been buried if not for me…*
The thought made him hesitate.
*…Possible. Without me, this would have been swept under the rug.*
A new question formed.
“Hey, Howard.”
“Go ahead, Luke.”
“Did the culprit originally live in this village?”
“Yes. She and her family were from Charlos.”
“Hm.”
*Then the Simjeonghoe spotted her potential and took her.*
*And one day she became one of their executives—the Bloody Princess.*
Wait a second.
*…Wait, am I supposed to feel guilty about this?*
Before he could spiral, Howard stepped forward.
“Name. Ardia?”
“…Yes…”
“From now on, answer every question honestly.”
The interrogation began.
***
“Why did you kill them?”
Ardia, hands bound, stared at Howard with dull, glittering eyes.
“Ask again. Why did you kill them?”
“I… I wanted to kill them.”
“More detail.”
“Precisely… the feeling just kept rising.”
“Hm.”
Howard nodded. Erin stepped in and offered her hand.
“Ardia, can I borrow your hand for a moment?”
The girl extended her bound wrists without hesitation.
Erin didn’t hesitate either. She clasped them firmly and poured in divine power.
“Aaaaaaah!”
Ardia screamed.
Feeling holy power from the Goddess of Ramiria meant—
“The Evil God’s power has infiltrated her.”
“We need to trace the source. Emotion drug? Curse? Worship of the Evil Gods? What do you think, Erin?”
“Her emotions are overwhelmingly intense… so maybe we should start with the drug class?”
“Pull out the inspection tools. We’ll draw blood and run it through the artifact analyzer.”
While Howard and Erin debated, Mirael approached Luke.
“Luke, do you know anything about emotion drugs?”
“I know a little. The underground market has been pushing them lately…”
“Rainbow is the latest trend. A drug that satisfies seven different desires.”
Emotion drugs.
The reason the Simjeonghoe was considered the worst.
These were drugs that specialized in manipulating emotion—the Simjeonghoe’s monopoly. Once consumed, the user felt a single emotion at absolute peak intensity.
Among them, Rainbow was the worst: seven emotions pushed to the absolute limit in one dose. Once taken, the user could never return to normal.
The Simjeonghoe had dozens more in circulation.
That was why Mirael’s stomach had twisted the moment she heard the name.
“…One of the emotion drugs. Happiness. This was a murder committed under the influence of an emotion drug?”
“Almost certainly. She must have received it from one of their people.”
“We’ll need to interview every outsider in the village…”
While Howard and Erin spoke, Luke quietly stepped closer.
“Luke?”
“Just a moment. Howard, I’d like to ask this girl a few questions.”
There was a gap in their line of thinking.
Why had the girl chosen to kill her parents and brother while drowning in the very happiness the drug provided?
Luke had taken an interest in Ardia the moment he realized she was destined to become one of the Simjeonghoe’s executives. He didn’t want to toss her straight into prison.
And if he let her slip away here, it might become a serious problem.
“Ardia?”
“…Yes?”
Luke recalled the words Ardia had always repeated in the game.
*I killed them. My parents were worthless! They weren’t even my real parents!*
“Ardia.”
Luke’s brow furrowed.
“Have you ever been continuously abused or bullied by your parents?”
Ardia’s pupils dilated.