Chapter 40 - The One Who Was a Watcher II

4

At the time, I had ample reason to worry about the Saintess’s safety.

First, as mentioned above, public safety left much to be desired.

“Another one’s dead...”

Noh Doha muttered during our regular meeting. Quite some time had passed since Doha became commander of the National Road Management Corps, but that distinctive, gloomy gaze—as though it hated everything in the world—had not changed.

“Again? Was it that killer?”

“Yees, the Wheel Killer. Apparently, someone died in Cheongju this time. It just went up on SG Net. Take a look for yourself...”

I was never one to fiddle with my phone during a meeting, but we were taking a short break, and Noh Doha had personally suggested it. I had little choice.

Sure enough, when I logged onto SG Net, all hell had broken loose.

-Anonymous: December 24, Cheongju.

There was nothing distinctive about the post’s title. It had been posted anonymously, not by a full member, and contained only a date and a place.

The body was as simple as the title. No flowery prose, just a single video attached.

I clicked the video. A man was tied up in an underground parking garage.

-“Ugh, aaah...”

The garage was already flooded ankle-deep.

Pitch-black, filthy water.

A chair stood amid the utterly murky filth, and the man was bound tightly to it, hand and foot.

-“I-I’m Lee Soyeol, twenty-nine, and I live in Cheongju. S-so far, I’ve murdered six people. My first murder was a year ago... There was a father and daughter in my neighborhood, and they looked like they had plenty of supplies. I wasn’t planning to kill them at first. But while I was fighting the father, his daughter stabbed me in the back, so I had no choice if I wanted to survive.”

For some reason, the man was reciting his crimes one after another.

The video did not run uninterrupted. It had clearly been edited.

For instance, even the lines he had just spoken contained a cut. There was a gap between “So far, I’ve murdered four people” and “My first murder was two years ago.”

I could tell because a large nail that had not been there before was now embedded in the back of his hand.

In other words, whoever had filmed this was torturing the man. They had simply been thorough about removing the footage of the torture and the screams.

And so his confession seemed to proceed smoothly, as though nothing at all had happened.

-“I-I was angry. I did it because I was angry. But I just killed them. I didn’t torture them or d-defile them or anything...”

A large nail appeared in his right hand.

-“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

His voice trembled a little more thinly.

-“Actually, I tormented them to death in front of each other. M-my second murder was in Goeun. Goeun Intersection. People heading up to Cheongju pass through there often. Not the people traveling with the National Road Management Corps. The ones traveling alone. Or in twos or threes... I targeted those people... These days, travelers carry everything they own in their backpacks... Fuck! It’s those fearless bastards’ fault for traveling alone!”

Large nails appeared in both his forearms.

Blood flowed from the punctures. But no matter how much dripped down, the filthy water flooding the garage did not change color in the slightest. It remained pitch-black.

-“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry... I didn’t want to live like this either. Isn’t it the world—the world’s fault? I was twelve when the gates broke out in Seoul. I was in elementary school.”

-“...”

-“My life, half my life—no, my whole fucking life—got shoved down the sewer. Fuck. At least you people got to be happy for half your lives. You had good lives. You even got to go to school. I didn’t! I couldn’t! It’s your fault, fuck!”

-“I didn’t do anything wrong... If I’d been awakened, I wouldn’t have done any of this shit. Filthy bastards. They awaken abilities without lifting a finger, huh? Join some guild and live like kings. Ordinary people like me are all worthless to them. So what...”

A large nail appeared in his shoulder.

-“M-my third murder.”

-“...”

-“My third murder... Some little brat broke into my house to steal. S-someone else—an adult—works his ass off to earn money, and the kid tries to steal it without a second thought. Isn’t that a rotten little brain? I-I wasn’t really planning to kill him. I just wanted him to go hungry. I was going to keep him tied up for three days and let him go, but he went and died after just two. It’s true. I was going to let him go. Ah. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry! Let me live! Please! Stop, no. Please let me li—”

The very next moment, something strange was embedded in the man’s head.

It was a car wheel.

Ever since gasoline had become a relic of ancient civilization, the cars scattered across the world had served little more purpose than dolmens. But whoever had filmed this video had discovered new possibilities in the remains of those obsolete cars.

“He’s dead.”

“Yees. A nice, clean death for the bastard. No. A filthy death...?”

The serial killer’s trademark.

After killing a victim, the culprit always drove a large nail into the skull, then hung a car wheel from it.

Hence the “Wheel Killer.” Or simply “Wheel.”

“Isn’t this the sixteenth already?”

“Somewhere around there. Actually, there are sixteen videos. There must be far more murders that were never uploaded. We found a corpse with a wheel on its head last time, and that person had never appeared in a video...”

Naturally, the killer’s distinctive signature had robbed “Anonymous” of anonymity.

In short, they were bound to become a recognizable figure in the community.

-[Hundred Flowers]HighSchoolYear6: This is so, so scary... T_T)

-Anonymous: Ahh, that’s our big bro Wheel. Another nice shot today.

-[Yuldoguk]SwordEmpress: Is this an act of chivalry, or the self-justification of a wicked, lawless practitioner of the unorthodox path? I find it truly difficult to judge.

└Goryeojang: Boomer

-Anonymous: A father and daughter murdered in Chungju a year ago? I think I know that case. The bodies were hacked up pretty brutally, so word got around Chungju.

-Anonymous: I’m rooting for you. Kill more.

-dolLHoUse: Neutral.

-[Three Thousand]Historian: Which guild runs Chungju? Without Wheel, they’d never have caught that bastard. Can’t even maintain public safety properly? The awakened in that guild ought to be ashamed.

Comments were appearing on the board in real time.

“I’m back... Huh? What’s going on? Why the gloomy mood?”

Just then, Seo Gyu opened the meeting-room door and came in.

Our regular meetings had three members: Noh Doha, me, and the Saintess. Seo Gyu sometimes joined us, however. While Noh Doha oversaw the road network in the light, Seo Gyu managed the one in the shadows.

“Gyu. The Wheel Killer’s posted again.”

“Ah...”

A subtle expression crossed his face. Something apologetic, almost ashamed, flickered in his eyes.

“Should I delete it?”

“No. Judging by the reaction, deleting it without warning might cause a backlash. More importantly, is this anonymous user really that hard to trace?”

“Yes. For starters, they aren’t a full member... And when I checked the access logs, they only logged on to upload their posts. They never visit SG Net at any other time.”

“So they aren’t the type who commits crimes because they crave reactions in the comments.”

“Yup. Maybe they don’t read the comments at all. Or they might have some really unusual stealth ability that my ability can’t detect.”

“... That’s possible too.”

I nodded. There really were all sorts of abilities in the world.

“Are you talking about the killer?”

The Saintess came in after Seo Gyu. Both of them had left the meeting room during the short break and were now returning.

“Ah, yes.”

“I just saw the post on SG Net myself.”

She sat down, speaking with her usual expressionless face.

“They logged onto SG Net and made a post, so they must be awakened... But no matter how often I search with Clairvoyance, for some reason, I can’t find the culprit in my field of vision.”

Then was it a stealth-type ability after all?

“They certainly are elusive.”

After that day’s meeting ended and we sent Seo Gyu away, the three of us held another strategy meeting.

Its subject was, of course, the Wheel Killer.

“With public authority already gone, we have no way to stop vigilante punishment. Nor do we have the grounds or a reason to. The problem is...”

“What guarantee do we have that this killer is actually a good person...?”

Noh Doha picked up where I left off.

“So far, they’ve only executed people who were clearly evil. But they could use that same ability to kill others without anyone noticing. Perhaps they already have, and simply didn’t put wheels on the bodies...”

“...”

“At the very least, we need to establish what sort of person this is. Awakened, is this the first time a killer of this kind has appeared...?”

“Yes. The first in all my regressions. This is also the first run to have progressed so steadily into year sixteen, so it isn’t all that surprising.”

This run had been fortunate in many ways.

Usually, by this point, the beings known as Gods of Alienation would interfere with our world and turn it into utter chaos. But for some unknown reason, run 107 had been quiet.

A run that was almost a miracle.

That made it all the more precious.

“Then, Undertaker, please at least uncover some detailed information about the culprit’s identity in this run... That way, we can make a plan for dealing with them next time, can’t we? Whether we recruit them or eliminate them...”

“I was already planning to.”

“Some guild leaders suspect the Wheel Killer might be an assassin we’ve been cultivating. If we did have an assassin like that, our work would be so much easier. Haa...”

We were doing our best.

By year sixteen, the National Road Management Corps had managed to connect nearly every major city with single-lane roads.

Guild leaders held sway in each city like feudal lords, but Noh Doha reigned as the king of those lords. It was the natural consequence of monopolizing the distribution network connecting one city to another.

Above all, Busan, now the largest city on the Korean Peninsula, had fallen into the hands of Dang Seorin of Three Thousand Worlds. As you know, she was one of the people who had contributed to founding the National Road Management Corps, and she was extremely well disposed toward us.

Her forces were powerful enough that she could reign as Alliance Leader over the guild leaders herself if necessary. With someone like that backing us, no one could disregard the Corps. Hmm. In medieval terms, perhaps we were much like the French crown after securing Burgundy’s allegiance.

Even so, the National Road Management Corps’s limitations were clear.

We could not take responsibility for public safety across the entire Korean Peninsula. We could not handle its administration. We could not manage its justice system.

We could not even govern the peninsula as an area in the first place. At best, we controlled the lines connecting city to city.

Monsters and anomalies always lurked in the voids, in the spaces our spiderweb could not cover.

Whenever they tried to tear the web apart and encroach upon humanity’s lines, I had to respond. The Corps’s fighting strength was considerable, but it could hardly move as quickly as I could.

That was also the fundamental reason I never had enough time.

“We have nothing to spare. Nothing.”

“...”

The meeting broke up, and we returned to our respective lodgings.

My decision to change course then was entirely a whim.

Since the Saintess had ended her life of secluded training and begun venturing outside, I had rarely visited her original hideout in Dongbinggo-dong, Yongsan.

Even if she herself did not mind in the slightest, a man constantly coming and going from the home of a woman living alone did not look good. Previously, she had shut herself indoors, so it could not be helped. But things were different now.

And we could contact each other through [Telepathy] whenever we liked.

'But the Wheel Killer must be troubling the Saintess too.'

She was more particular about ethics than anyone.

The reason to remain wary of vigilante punishment, even after public authority had crumbled, was simple. Without a system, a single person going astray could cause a grave mistake.

That was also part of the reason different people passed judgment at the trial, first appeal, and final appeal. You could not expect one human being to be absolutely fair and forever infallible.

All those worries were bound to leave her mind in turmoil.

'And I happen to have acquired a rare fish. She’ll be pleased if I give it to her.'

December 24. Christmas Eve.

I put the tropical fish in a plastic bag and headed for Dongbinggo-dong.

A soft, soundless touch settled on my fringe. White snowflakes. Heavy snow had already turned every road into a snowy path last night, and it seemed more was on its way.

“Hmm.”

I cupped my hands around the plastic bag in case it was too cold for the fish. I also made sure to channel aura precisely enough to maintain its temperature.

Two sets of footprints marked the path to Dongbinggo-dong. They were probably all the Saintess’s.

“Saintess, are you home?”

KNOCK, KNOCK.

I knocked, but there was no response.

'She should have gone straight home after the meeting.'

Tilting my head, I turned the doorknob. The shoes she had worn to today’s meeting were in the entryway. That meant she had at least stopped by the house once.

“Saintess?”

Still no answer.

“Hmm.”

... I entered the house, even at the risk of being rude. The memory of what Go Yori had once done to the Saintess had left me a little traumatized.

If she was perfectly fine, I could simply apologize at once. She knew how to accept an apology.

I stepped into the living room.

“...?”

And immediately witnessed an unbelievable sight.

The aquariums that surrounded her living room like castle walls.

Those tanks, always gleaming blue, were empty.

“Huh?”

My mouth fell open.

Keeping fish was the Saintess’s one and only hobby. She never abandoned them, even on the day the world ended. That had already been proven in run ninety, when I was working as a convenience-store manager.

Yet there was nothing in the aquariums.

No, on closer inspection, two tanks still contained water. But their water was cloudy, as though it had been ages since the filters had last run.

A couple of tropical fish lay dead, belly-up, in water that had turned to filth.

As chance would have it, every fish whose body remained was one I had given her in the past.

“Mr. Undertaker?”

A voice came from behind me.

I turned to see the Saintess just entering through the front door.

I looked at her, still holding the bag of tropical fish I had meant to give her.

“What brings you here?”

“... Ah. I’m sorry for letting myself in. Someone I know gave me some tropical fish, and I thought you would be a better person to give them to than me, so I came without contacting you first. But... are you no longer keeping fish?”

She blinked.

“... No, I’m not.”

“Why? You loved them so much...”

“Almost all the ones I used to keep have died, and maintaining the tanks has become increasingly difficult for me. I’ve been thinking I should clear out the remaining tanks sometime, but I’ve only thought about it. I still haven’t managed to clean them.”

I examined her clothes.

A double-breasted coat. It did not look particularly easy to move in. It was different from what she had worn to the meeting, too.

Nor was it a style she usually favored.

“... I see. Have you just come back from a walk?”

“Yes. If I’d known you were coming, I would have prepared some tea. You happened to visit during a brief moment when I wasn’t watching.”

In other words.

An outfit that strongly insisted, “I came home once before going out again, and dressed like this, there’s little I could do except take a short walk.”

It was snowing outside. There was snow on her double-breasted coat as well. But something about it looked unnatural. As though—yes.

As though she had taken off the coat and lightly shaken it against the snow-covered ground to leave marks like those.

“...”

“Mr. Undertaker?”

I walked past her and looked at the snow in front of the house.

The two sets of footprints that had been there before I entered had become four. One was mine from my arrival. The other would have been hers from her return.

I picked up the shoes she had just taken off in the entryway and examined their soles.

Their pattern did not match the footprints in the snow.

“Mr. Undertaker? What are you doing?”

“Saintess.”

It was a kind of intuition.

The evidence was too thin to call it deduction. There was no physical proof, either. But something flickered through my mind like a flash of light.

The dead fish, belly-up. The empty tanks. The Saintess staring blankly into space from time to time. The apology in Seo Gyu’s eyes. The double-breasted coat. The footprints.

A possibility I had never considered until then suddenly fitted together like a puzzle and tumbled from my mouth.

“Saintess, are you, by any chance, the Wheel Killer?”

Silence.

A moment that felt like an eternity passed.

Just as I began to feel as though someone had pressed pause on the world...

“Mr. Undertaker.”

The Saintess’s lips parted.

“You really do know me well.”