The Burning Puppeteer (5)

Five Baek Yerins, and every face the same.

Twins? No. Impossible. When he had used Detection from outside, not a single white-haired person had been anywhere near her.

Then, all at once, a difference showed itself. Their ages don't match. The youngest of the five looked no older than six, while the oldest Baek Yerin appeared to be in her mid-twenties.

He had only just registered the fact when their conversation reached him.

"…What is this supposed to be?"

"Did we enter a tower?"

"I don't think so."

"But we've never all come out as consciousnesses except inside a tower."

"Ugh. What on earth is going on…"

They seemed to be piecing the situation together. The other survivors — everyone but them — looked just as lost. Listening, Hanseong narrowed his eyes.

Don't tell me…

Five consciousnesses in a single body. Different ages, different ways of speaking, and independent identities that each seemed to possess a self. Put the clues together, and only one conclusion remained.

Multiple personalities. Nothing else explained it.

With his thoughts in order, Hanseong looked again at the five Baek Yerins marked on the map.

Isolate them first.

He had left System Eden deactivated, but Baek Yerin was someone who had come and gone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from the towers. There was every chance she would use a technique rather than a skill and turn the consciousnesses of the survivors beside her into puppets.

Before that… Better to change how he looked. The way he had when he spoke with her puppets in Daejeon — as Phantom. Hanseong opened his Inventory, drew out the White-Faced Ghost Mask, and put it on.

Pure white light wrapped his whole body. A moment later he had become Phantom without a flaw. Ready, he looked to the five Baek Yerins on the World Map and cast.

A teleportation circle unfurled beneath Baek Yerin's feet. Cast as a skill, it needed some thirty seconds to activate. Magic was the exception.

"Wh-what? Something just appeared on the ground!"

"…I have a bad feeling about this."

"We should get out of here first…"

Uneasy, the consciousnesses tried to step off the circle. The magic manifested far faster than they could move.

Fwaaat—wuum! Light swallowed them. When they appeared again, it was inside Hanseong's base: a room in the officetel of barely three hundred and fifty square feet.

It had happened so fast that they only looked around, dazed. Then their eyes met Phantom's.

"Hhk! Y-you…!"

"The Fire-Lightning Mage!?"

They startled and backed away. One of them threw up an open palm, wariness sharp — the very picture of someone about to try a trick. Hanseong answered at once.

Mana Drain converted the ether of every target in range into mana and drank it down. And every consciousness was made of ether.

The moment it took hold, all five Baek Yerins dropped to their knees as one. Half the ether they held had been taken in an instant.

"M-my body won't move."

"Damn it! What did you do?!"

"…Our ether was absorbed."

Unlike the others, flustered and gasping, one consciousness stayed conspicuously calm. The six-year-old Baek Yerin. She stared straight at Hanseong and spoke.

"Mage. What is this place…?"

"A space under my control."

Hanseong laid the situation out in a few words. The System had gone dead. And if he felt like it, erasing Baek Yerin would be no trouble at all.

"I see. I understand."

The six-year-old nodded. Then she looked up at him again, curious.

"But how did you figure out we're the puppeteer? We never left a clue."

The answer was simple. He had used the detection skill, Detection, and learned that the puppets' maker was Baek Yerin. After that, with Kotori's help, a full-scale search had pinned down her location.

He had no intention of telling her.

"If you want the reason, answer what I ask first. Then I'll answer you."

He had several things he wanted to know. There was time to spare — they had to last twenty-four hours in here. That was why he had called her in: to talk until then.

Baek Yerin considered a moment, then nodded readily.

"Fine. What do you want to know?"

"First, why there are five consciousnesses."

"You've already guessed, haven't you?"

"A guess and the truth aren't the same."

That they were multiple personalities was only a hypothesis. He would not jump to a conclusion until she said it herself, so he waited in silence.

Soon her mouth opened.

"We're personalities with free will. We were born at different times, but in essence we're all the same."

Guesswork became certainty. Next question. Hanseong looked at the six-year-old, and at the consciousnesses glaring at him from behind her.

"Then which of you is the real Baek Yerin?"

"There is no real one. Everyone here is a personality of Baek Yerin, and Baek Yerin herself."

So they drew no line between a true personality and false ones. Hanseong nodded as if he understood.

"Then this time, from our side—"

"I'm not finished."

"What? But just now you clearly—"

"I never said there was only one question."

Baek Yerin's face went sullen. Ignoring her, Hanseong asked the second question that had come to him.

"The goal you spoke of in Daejeon. I want the story behind that nonsense about building a new nation after the Cataclysm — and whoever's pulling the strings."

They would not have decided to found a country for no reason. Wasn't someone at her side egging her on? That was his guess.

It missed at once.

"There's no one behind our goal."

"Meaning?"

"We want a world without filthy politicians, villains, or criminals. A world where everyone is equal. So children like us never get hurt again."

A truly idealistic way of thinking. Hanseong answered with a sneer.

"You think that's possible?"

"Yes. It will be."

Baek Yerin smiled brightly. It was a cold smile, nothing like a child's.

"Because all I have to do is turn everyone into puppets."

"…What?"

"Oh, I don't mean complete puppets. I mean incomplete ones. Like that minister in the Sejong Provisional Government."

Acting President Yoon Cheolmin. Still smiling, Baek Yerin went on.

"An incomplete puppet can live an ordinary life, the same as anyone else, so long as they don't cross the lines we've set."

Without even knowing they were a puppet. At the added explanation, Hanseong's face tightened, and he muttered.

"…That's an insane idea."

"It is. But at least no one gets stabbed in the back, or hurt for no reason. No one will be able to cross the line."

Baek Yerin answered with a smile. Unlike her, the faces of the consciousnesses behind her showed a strange unease, as if they did not agree with what the six-year-old had just claimed. Feeling the dissonance, Hanseong used Detection on their current coordinates.

The result was startling. A difference showed between the six-year-old Baek Yerin and the other consciousnesses.

Their alignments differ by consciousness?

Why? Because they were independent personalities? He could not be sure, but the six-year-old held a chaotic alignment, while the Baek Yerin in her mid-twenties was the opposite: lawful.

And one thing more. Something had changed.

Her level dropped.

The number in parentheses had fallen from 10 to 8. The change did not particularly shake him. He had an idea why.

It must be updating in real time with the number of puppets she holds.

Once before, he had faced someone with a similar ability: the commander of the Daejeon militia, Lord Go Yeongjin. The more domain residents the man kept under him, the higher the level in parentheses climbed. The more of them were freed, the further it fell.

So a dropping level means… the Special Mission Battalion, the Vigilante Corps, and Kotori were doing their work. He was just coming out of the thought when Baek Yerin spoke.

"You don't seem to have anything else to ask. So now we can ask, right?"

He still had questions. The activation limits on Puppetry that the puppeteers in Japan had mentioned, and the fact that she had kept the art running for twenty-four hours straight, both nagged at him. He did not bother to ask. He judged they were not important.

"Fine. What do you want to know?"

"What are you going to do with us?"

"Haven't you already guessed?"

"Hearing it from you isn't the same."

If she insisted, he would tell her. Hanseong let a cold light fill his eyes.

"…!"

The instant the flat declaration ended, every consciousness but the six-year-old flinched. None of them begged for their lives. Instead they turned it around and threatened him.

"I-if we die, something terrible is going to happen!"

"That's right! We have Self-Destruction!"

"Erase us, and every puppet outside will explode. And then—!"

"I already know that."

And he had already prepared for it. When Hanseong answered calmly, the consciousnesses flashed into panic.

"Liar! How would you even know where the puppets are—"

"Whether I'm lying will be obvious if you look at your level."

"Ugh! Th-that's—!"

The number in parentheses had only just fallen to 7. Realizing it, their faces darkened sharply. The six-year-old he had been speaking with was the exception.

"Ah. I see. I understand."

She nodded, unruffled. A strange smile touched her lips.

"I wondered why you weren't shaken even though you knew our skill. You were trusting the companions outside who are destroying the puppets, weren't you?"

"Something like that."

"But there's something you missed."

"…?"

Something he missed? Hanseong's face turned puzzled, and he was about to press her on what she meant. Her answer came a little faster.

"Self-Destruction still activates properly, even if every last puppet is destroyed."

"What? But—"

"I'm not lying. Your companions are only destroying the complete puppets right now, aren't they?"

Complete puppets meant the ones in gas masks. In that sense, she was right. The targets Hanseong had ordered destroyed were limited to those.

And if she's saying this now… Did that mean the incomplete puppets were included in Self-Destruction as well?

"Yes. Exactly."

Had she read his thoughts? Baek Yerin leaned her face in close, bright with a smile. She spread both arms and went on in an excited voice.

"That's right. And for the record, there are far more incomplete puppets than complete ones. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Hanseong shut his mouth. The Magic Eye had confirmed she was not lying.

Which meant that if he killed Baek Yerin, a vast number of people whose count he did not even know — Minister Yoon Cheolmin of the Sejong Provisional Government among them — would explode all at once.

"If you're prepared for that, go ahead and kill us."

"…"

"But you won't come out of it unharmed either. Karma will pile up, and your alignment will fall all the way to the bottom of chaos. Just like me."

The chaotic Baek Yerin smiled as she said it.

"We share one body among several personalities, so if only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I disappear, the rest can escape a chaotic alignment. You won't. Before long, something will definitely go wrong."

Karma, a chaotic alignment, and the claim that something would go wrong. Hanseong, who had listened in silence, asked with a face that said he was testing the possibility.

"You talk as if you know what penalty comes from staying chaotic."

"I do."

Astonishingly, it was the truth.

"Of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠course, I'm not going to tell you."

Did she think the situation had reversed? Baek Yerin looked triumphant. Hanseong gave no reply at all. He sank into thought.

Baek Yerin knows something about alignment.

A hint from a tower's guide, or from a tower's administrator. Or she had spent one of her allotted questions to ask. Karma and alignment were among the things that grated on him. Hearing it would surely help settle the question.

And incomplete puppets are hard to find.

He would have to use Detection on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠every suspect, one by one. Or make contact himself and speak a word the prohibition forbade. And the targets would be every survivor in Korea. That was unrealistic. Pour in enough time and it might be possible, but Baek Yerin was more likely to die of malnutrition first.

So, to sum it up… he could not kill her yet. For now the best course was not to erase her, but to identify the incomplete puppets separately while also hearing what she knew about karma and alignment.

It would not be easy. Even under torture he doubted she would open her mouth readily, and if she died before that, it would all be for nothing. Caught in the dilemma, Hanseong furrowed his brow.

Then—

"…Ah!"

Something flashed through his mind. A means that satisfied every condition he had just named, and would still get him what he wanted. The jar stored deep in his Inventory. The Gu.

What if I fed her the Gu?

Make it so she could not die by her own hand, then inflict terrible pain again and again. Break her mentally after that, and wouldn't it resolve itself? At least it seemed far more likely to work than torture with no restraint at all.

If it fails, I can just erase her.

An alignment falling to the bottom of chaos, or living in fear that he might lose his family. If he had to choose one of the two, he would take the former without hesitation.

He had just reached the decision when—

"Fire-Lightning Mage."

Baek Yerin called to him, smiling with perfect certainty.

"Accept our offer, even now. Do that, and I'll pretend everything up to this moment never happened."

"No. I have no intention of accepting."

"What? But then your alignment—"

"I thought of a better way."

"…A better way?"

Hanseong did not answer. At that, Baek Yerin seemed to feel an instinctive dread and backed away.

Her instinct was accurate.

Mana Drain, manifested as magic. It drank ether more finely, and more effectively, than when cast as a skill. The five consciousnesses soon began to sway.

"Ahk! M-my legs…!"

"Ugh! My head is spinning."

"It's like before…"

The five personalities collapsed one after another. Among them, the Baek Yerin who had been speaking with Hanseong until now hardened her expression.

"…You've made a foolish choice."

"In what way?"

"If your alignment falls, something far worse than you think will come. You might fail to overcome the Apocalypse and meet destruction instead."

"That's a problem for when it happens."

Hanseong answered flatly. Whether this choice was foolish or not, it would not be too late to judge after he had fed her the Gu.

So he absorbed the five consciousnesses' ether until it was nearly gone — just before they lost consciousness, leaving only a single percent.

"Aah… ah…"

"…Uuh."

They could only groan, as if they no longer had the strength to speak. Preparations finished, Hanseong released the Dream World at once.

Back in the real world — to feed Baek Yerin the Gu.