The Terrorist
37.
"It's already too late! We're all dying together!"
The moment the man said those words and snapped his fingers, the subordinate lying collapsed beside him already knew he was going to die.
All the scrolls are going to blow.
They were the scrolls he had spent days burying in the ground. Dig the scrolls in, pour cement over them, lay down the flooring. Working under that man had taught him how to do just about anything. With skills like these, he could have made a name for himself as a craftsman even without being a Keeper.
That bastard. He's going to save himself.
The spot where the man had fallen was a protected space designed to survive the scroll detonation. Hit the switch and the man drops below while the blast erupts upward — he lives. The subordinate, on the other hand, had gone down a little too far from that safe zone.
Am I going to die?
Dying didn't scare him. His life had effectively ended the day he watched his mother hang herself right in front of him. After that, he had lived on nothing but hatred for Keepers — the ones who drove his mother to her death, and every Keeper after them.
The irony was that he had become a Keeper himself. The friends who helped him said it was perfect — now he could spy from the inside. Quite a few people from his circle had become Keepers, in fact. Even after awakening, they never lived like Keepers. They lived hating Keepers, hating Gates.
If only I'd known what that magic circle meant…
That was his one regret. He had a magic circle of his own, etched across his chest — something he had found inside his Gate, deep in a cave where an ogre once lived. It was large, intricate, and exquisitely crafted. He had no idea what it meant, but the moment he saw it, he was captivated. It was the only feeling he had left besides hatred.
As if possessed, he spent days tracing every line of that circle right there on the spot. But there was no way to learn what it actually was. No one who knew. He was on the verge of giving up when he heard about a man who sold scrolls — someone who, like him, had lost family to Keepers.
He approached the man. The man didn't know what the magic circle was either, but he had potential. If his skill proficiency in Scroll Crafting and Usage (S) kept climbing, he might eventually decipher it. So the subordinate became the man's underling — for the scrolls, and to pull the man into the organization he belonged to. Right now the man was mostly a money-obsessed friend, but he had suffered the same kind of pain. Hatred of Keepers was the foundation they shared. There was every reason to work together.
Both of them failed.
Snap.
KRA-KA-BOOM.
The subordinate's body was torn into pieces by the blast, and he died on the spot. No one saw the paper he had been carrying against his chest glow red in the explosion and melt itself out of existence.
One week later.
In the ruins of Sageum-ri, Cheorwon County — nothing left but blast scars and rubble — a red Gate opened. Right where the subordinate's paper had dissolved.
From the red Gate stepped a figure with crimson skin. Black wings, two horns rising from the temples, a tail coiling and uncoiling through the air. Anyone looking would have called it a demon. The outfit matched every stereotype: a scrap of leather barely containing a chest that looked ready to burst, and leather pants so skimpy it was hard to tell if anything was actually being worn.
"(Isn't this a little far? Seriously… what a pain.)"
The demon spoke. The language was incomprehensible, but the voice was as seductive as the body.
"(Alright, let's see. Who called me?)"
The demon surveyed the surroundings. Everything was dark. Nothing was there. GGC had already finished cleaning and clearing the site, and this was a remote area with no residential buildings nearby.
"(…What? Someone definitely called me.)"
The demon had answered a summons to come here. And yet there was no one…
Dead, then?
The only way to activate the magic circles the demon had scattered across dimensions was death. Death alone could provide the life force needed for the demon to enter a new dimension. Ordinarily, people used someone else as a sacrifice to summon a demon and make a request. The price for that request was often a life as well — but that was a calculation for later. Sometimes, though, people didn't know the proper method and ended up summoning a demon by dying themselves.
This seemed to be one of those cases.
The demon drifted slowly to the ground and read the memory of the earth. The explosion. The paper vanishing. The man and his subordinate. Jungmin and the man.
So that's how it went.
What a pitiful way to die. Feeling a flicker of pity, the demon decided on revenge. Helping for free wasn't really in a demon's nature — but then again, there wasn't much else to do. A demon's work, in the end, was deceiving people, draining their power, taking their lives, and claiming their souls. How was that any different from revenge? And targeting someone with an existing story made the emotions so much richer.
"(Well then…)"
The demon scanned the area, searching for places where human energy lingered. Power needed to be restored before any revenge could begin.
"(Just wait a little longer for me, pretty one.)"
In the demon's mind rose the image of Jungmin, radiating divinity. For a demon, nothing in the world was more entertaining than corrupting a cleric.
The criminal with the ability to craft scrolls — the man — was named Kang Hyungsik.
He naturally refused to cooperate with the interrogation, but the world has plenty of ways to force answers out of people. Truth serums, Keepers who only work on special cases — the list goes on. In the end, GGC successfully extracted the identities of everyone who had purchased his Monster Mutation Scrolls. Along with the reason he had done all of this in the first place.
"So why'd he do it?"
Garam answered my question.
"Said the money was good."
The money was good. A perfectly ordinary answer. But he was a Keeper too, wasn't he? An all-purpose magic type, no less.
"A Keeper short on cash?"
"Guess nothing was coming out of his Gate. Hard to make real money that way. Just a salaryman, basically."
Even if that salary was close to a hundred million won?
Maybe I was still thinking like a commoner. I couldn't wrap my head around how Keepers thought about money. Ever since becoming a Keeper, I hadn't worried about cash once.
"I don't really get it either. But they say human greed has no end. Whether you've got a lot or a little, the greed is always there. Though I don't think it was all about money. There's a lot of hatred for Keepers mixed in too."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. When he was a kid, his parents died because of Keepers abusing their power. He became an orphan… no way he'd have warm feelings about Keepers after that."
"That's…"
"The old Keepers were basically all thugs, so. Real Keeper society only started after the Association was founded. It's a sad story. You could almost call him a kind of victim, right?"
I could acknowledge the tragedy. But that was that, and this was this. In the end, you take responsibility for your own actions.
"No. Victim, my ass. He's a pure perpetrator. End of discussion."
"Yeah, I think so too. The bastard tried to kill you."
"Exactly. Kayra almost actually died. Oh, right — so why was he trying to kill me specifically?"
"Ah, that. He just said he had a strong gut feeling you'd get in the way of his work. No real reason, basically."
"…"
What? Kayra and I almost died over something that petty?
Son of a bitch. I really should have punched him at least once.
"What's going to happen to him? Does he face the law?"
"He'll go into the Association prison along with everyone who bought scrolls from him."
"The Association?"
Not the judicial system?
"You wouldn't know this, but cases like this are customarily handled inside the Association. If word leaks out, public hostility toward Keepers just gets worse."
"Hold on. Isn't that why Keepers get enhanced sentencing in the first place?"
"Right. Keepers do get heavier penalties for the same crimes. But even that's not enough. Stuff like this happens way more often than you'd think."
"What? Didn't the Dark Age end twenty years ago?"
The Dark Age. The period after Keepers first appeared, before the Association existed. An era with no law and no order, when the strong ran wild, and ordinary people kept Keepers at a distance — psychologically and physically. Keepers only started reintegrating into society after Magic Stones and the various resources from Gates made it possible to manufacture convenient goods. That was when the image of Keepers shifted from pure fighters to entrepreneurs. The resources Keepers brought back made people's lives at least twice as comfortable.
"It settled down, sure. But… humans being humans… well, you know how it is."
"…"
I knew what Garam wasn't saying. I hadn't wasted all these years of life. What a human with Keeper-level power might do — you didn't even need to watch the videos.
"…So what happens in Association prison?"
"They follow the law. Tortured to the brink of death, then they die. The torture sessions also get used as audiovisual teaching materials for lesser offenders."
Torture and execution. Not a bad punishment. Given what he'd done, he deserved at least that much. Still, it left a bitter taste — that there were enough of these criminals that they had to be handled in secret, away from society.
"Don't worry. The punishment will be thorough."
"Ah, that's not what I—"
"Everything else will be fine too. We just keep working at it together. Like we did this time."
Garam grinned. Looking at that smile, I thought I understood why GGC had thrown itself so fully into my situation — even though Kang Hyungsik had only been targeting me.
"Yeah. Looking forward to working with you going forward, hyung."
"Same here. Alright, time's up — shall we go?"
Garam and I stood up. He had come to fetch me because the leader wanted to see me, and figured he'd update me on the investigation while he was at it.
"I hear you were the central figure in this incident. As leader, I thank you."
A blade offering me a greeting. Looking at Kim Nari always made me think of a finely honed sword. She was only C-class — not much different from me now — and yet she carried that kind of charisma. No wonder she was the leader.
I bowed my head to her in return.
"Not at all. The whole crew was involved. The thanks should go to everyone."
"I've already expressed my gratitude to each of them in my own small way, so don't worry. I'm the one who should apologize — sitting behind a leader's title and doing nothing."
Kim Nari genuinely seemed irritated with herself. I needed to learn that kind of pride. Right now I was weaker than her, after all.
"It couldn't be helped. Everyone has a role that suits them."
Without the plants that came out of Kim Nari's Gate, this crew wouldn't function. That alone meant she had fulfilled her role. Calling it a "role" almost undersold it. Kim Nari simply was the crew.
"I understand. Did your parents return safely? I hope they weren't too inconvenienced during their stay."
"They said they rested very well. All thanks to the care you took of them, Leader."
My parents had gone back to their ordinary lives. My younger sibling too. But I had a feeling I'd need to bring them to Seoul soon. Something told me I was going to keep getting tangled up in situations like this.
"I'm glad to hear it. If anything like this happens again, feel free to use the crew house as much as you need. That's what it's there for."
"Yes, thank you. I won't be shy about it. And thank you for allowing me to stay this time as well. I'll arrange to move out as soon as I can."
I had decided to stay at the crew house for a while — until I found a place of my own.
"No, please stay as long as you like. From my perspective, the longer the better. The only reason Nayeon is even half as active as she is right now is thanks to you and your companions. I'm truly grateful."
Why was Nayeon suddenly coming up? I was a little thrown.
"Sorry? What does Nayeon noona have to do with us…"
"If you're calling her 'Nayeon noona,' then she has everything to do with you. That girl doesn't open her heart as easily as you might think."
That didn't sound right. She seemed like a total social butterfly to me. I wanted Garam, standing next to me, to say something — but he just nodded along.
"That bastard of hers is gone, but the empty space will still be there. If you can, please fill Nayeon's empty space. This is a request from her older sister."
Ah…
That bastard. Come to think of it, that bastard was going to be tortured to death too. No wonder Nayeon noona was depressed. She needed to hang in there… tsk.
"Don't worry. Nayeon noona will bounce back soon. You hang in there too, Leader."
"Pardon?"
Kim Nari tilted her head slightly. Then, as if realizing what I meant, a faint flush rose in her face. It was gone just as quickly, of course — back to normal in an instant.
"…Thank you. That will be a great help."
Kim Nari smiled. It was the same poker-face smile I always saw, but I could have sworn I read a whole range of emotions in it. Was that just my imagination?
Right now… yeah. It looked like embarrassment.