252: The Judge of Yours (3)
Han Seoyeon stopped in her tracks and lifted her head.
The sky above was faintly overcast. Fortunately, the air carried no hint of rain.
She hadn’t been looking at the sky at all. She had simply wanted to scan the building in front of her.
“Is this the place?”
“Address-wise, yes.”
From behind, Hitomi leaned in with a curious tilt of her head. Her gaze was fixed on the messenger screen of Seoyeon’s phone.
The screen displayed the studio address. The sender was the Korean VTuber she had arranged to meet today.
Originally, the reason they had come to Korea was exactly this. The deepest motive had been to escape Japan before the worst unfolded, but on the surface, their visit had been framed as an interview.
A segment introducing various VTubers and streamers. The guests this time were the three members of Anathema Production.
“Shall we go in, then?”
After sending a quick message that they had arrived, Seoyeon slid her phone back into her pocket.
They soon spotted the people waiting inside the studio.
A handful of crew members who looked like they were handling filming. And one face that matched the one from the pre-investigation video…
“Han Seoyeon of Anathema Production.”
Seoyeon bowed her head in greeting. The others followed suit, lowering their heads as well. The staff members looked slightly tense, but the broadcasters offered warm smiles and extended their hands.
“Lee Han-seol. If the people behind you are…”
“Yes. The three scheduled to appear today.”
“Kuroyuki Sui, who voices Tachibana Rin.”
“Ma, Mary Tepes… Ninomae Hitomi.”
“Bansei Marin, who voices Komori Sae.”
“Whoa, you all are stunning beauties.”
Reaching out for a handshake with complete strangers was rare enough to stun Seoyeon for a moment. Yet she soon clasped his hand. Either her survival instincts were weak, or he knew her true nature, or both.
After gripping her hand, Lee Han-seol continued to chat and praise the group. Superficial compliments were common, but given their appearances, the praise felt genuinely heartfelt.
At the very least, he had avoided saying anything like “it’s a shame a VTuber has such looks,” which earned him high marks. Personally, he probably meant the words as compliments, but to the listener they could sound subtly belittling toward VTubers.
Compared to celebrities, and even compared to other internet streamers, it unconsciously felt like their level was lower.
It was fortunate that neither side started with a negative impression.
“I’ve wanted to meet you for a long time.”
Was he a fan of one of the Anapro VTubers? The remark felt strangely reasonable after the incident at the restaurant yesterday.
His tone suggested he was probably one of the people who had come to this studio today… I wonder which of the three is his fan. Seoyeon glanced at the group while thinking this.
“…?”
Then, after a moment, she realized something was wrong and turned her gaze back.
She met eyes with Lee Han-seol. Of course he had been staring at her side.
“…Are you talking about me?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
The answer was completely unexpected. Seoyeon, still pointing at herself, let out a slightly dazed voice.
The boldness from earlier had probably been possible because he was an insider and knew her to some extent. Seoyeon judged this and checked the surroundings, particularly the other male staff members.
“Everyone here knows about the weird things, so it’s fine.”
He smiled as if he understood what she was worried about. Since that was exactly what she had been cautious about, she let out a small sigh after hearing it.
“I owe you a big debt from before. I’m afraid you don’t remember.”
“Remember… Yes, sorry, but I don’t recall. When did we meet?”
“Actually, I’m from Hamgyeong Province. I changed the name later; back then it was Ri Han-seol.”
“Ah. So that’s it.”
Only then did Seoyeon nod, understanding.
“Hamgyeong Province… that was North Korea back then, right?”
“Eh, that’s right?”
“Yes. Hitomi is correct.”
It was natural that Japanese people wouldn’t immediately grasp the difference between Gyeonggi and Hamgyeong. To put it bluntly, Hitomi’s case was the odd one out.
After the Chinese Civil War, the North Korean regime collapsed like dominoes. The only ally in East Asia had been shattered, and this side could not have survived.
“Even though it collapsed, it took quite a while to fully clean up… and the other side also tried its last-ditch effort… Since you mentioned Hamgyeong Province, I probably met you when you were sent to clean up that ‘last-ditch effort’.”
“Yes. Thanks to you, I was saved.”
The man still smiled, but his eyes were a bit dark. The occasional flinch when he said he still dreamed of those monsters was just an addition.
“However, coming to save me again this time, I really don’t know how many times to thank you.”
“Clearly… I heard that the people who were supposed to appear on the channel one after another had problems.”
“Yes. I don’t know if you saw the Korean news, but this time, drug-related and infidelity scandals broke one after another…”
That was how Lee Han-seol, who had been hurriedly looking for guests, was caught by the president Gyokichi who was looking for a pretext for his Korean visit.
“…For now, we also have no controversies. Specifically, it happened yesterday.”
“Ah, that one. That’s not a big deal, so don’t worry!”
It couldn’t just be dismissed as “it’s another company’s issue” because Mary had appeared on the game official broadcast with her voice, so it needed to be addressed at least once.
Seoyeon mentioned what happened yesterday, but he waved his hand and laughed. Whether because the channel was sensitive to issues or because he had simply done research as an interviewer, he seemed to know about the Barbara Knight incident.
“More than that, let’s talk about today’s filming. Isn’t that much better?”
“That’s right.”
Soon Seoyeon nodded. She looked at the group behind her.
From here on, it was their domain. Formally and substantively, Seoyeon was acting as a manager to some extent, but she hadn’t studied broadcasting professionally.
“I don’t speak Korean well, but Mary-chan and Rin-chan are at a high level, so interpretation probably isn’t necessary.”
“That’s good news. And for the filming direction, they have the monitors arranged like this…”
“Is motion tracking done here?”
“No. We prepared a separate room behind there, so over there…”
That was why she stepped back a bit and simply watched the conversation between them. She didn’t have anything particularly to intervene in.
To force it, if there was a term that even Hitomi and Kuroyuki’s skills couldn’t understand, requiring translation… but if that was the case, before Seoyeon intervened, the other side would have added an explanation in different words.
“…Huh?”
Seoyeon had been observing quietly for a moment, but then she checked for an incoming call and her eyes widened. There was vibration coming from her pocket.
For a moment she thought it was a phone call, but upon recalling, the phone was in the opposite pocket. She hadn’t set it to vibrate in the first place.
And what she had put in this pocket was…
Seoyeon took out the church’s terminal from her pocket and furrowed her brows. It was already reported to the church that she was going on overseas travel.
Even so, contacting via this route was not normal.
“I’ll take a call for a moment.”
“Ah, yes. Take your time.”
Seoyeon said that and left the studio. After confirming that no one was around, she opened the message sent via the terminal.
The sender’s name was Ibuki Hayato. The Archbishop of the Tokyo Archdiocese.
The content was encrypted, but the strength wasn’t very high. It was a simple security where just inputting the code she remembered in her head was enough.
Recalling for a moment, she could immediately understand the content.
“…What?”
However, just because she read the content didn’t mean she could immediately accept it.
“‘Prophet’s confession: Identification of members of Hermes Trismegistus.
Sanjou Miyuki.
Kan’in Tomoe.
Sasaki Kisaki.
Sanjou Miyuki committed suicide at her residence, Sasaki Kisaki fled. Current location being investigated.’”
He was talking about the black hand of the Vampire Syndrome.
Even the names mentioned were those that couldn’t be secured despite internal judicial transactions.
No, but what further shocked her was something else. After all, during missions, failures can happen, and goals can be missed. It’s unfortunate, but it’s not impossible.
But the problem was this.
“Why do I know all these names…? Why…?”