Chapter 59 - The Manipulator II

5

To put it bluntly, I didn't respect the Second Provisional Government even as much as a speck of eye crust. I respected my eye crust, and I preferred not to insult it.

The problem was Fukuoka's municipal government. In all likelihood, they were the ones who had leaked news of my arrival to the provisional government.

At this point, unlike on the Korean Peninsula, government institutions in the Japanese archipelago hadn't completely collapsed yet. They could therefore afford to keep holding on to the speculative coin called the Second Provisional Government.

Who knew? This shitcoin might shoot all the way into the Martian atmosphere.

It was a thoroughly irrational decision, but rational persuasion rarely worked on gamblers anyway. Besides, the Japanese still had the sweet success story of the Yi Wan-yong coin lodged in their minds.

The Japanese government would only begin coming to its senses later, when eight million anomalies descended. It was a good deal, except for the fact that they had to offer up their heads, arms, torsos, legs, and entrails in exchange for wisdom.

I would exterminate one of those anomalies, a creature called Inunaki... Anyway, all that is a story for later. That future hadn't happened yet.

Thus, for the moment, I couldn't afford to disregard the Fukuoka authorities' dignity. My mission was to swipe an A-rank awakened living in Fukuoka without paying a thing. Riling up the locals would be foolish.

Of course, the me of run 180 could have ignored all the politics and secretly kidnapped Puppeteer. But at this point, I was merely the scrub of run eighteen.

What choice did I have? However shitty it was, I had a job to do.

"Ha ha. To have a patriot like you supporting our provisional government, Mr. Undertaker—it feels as though we've gained an army of thousands!"

"Oh, support is too strong a word. I'm no one so important. I simply want to stand with our compatriots living overseas through the hardships of these difficult times."

"Ahaha, I see. You're truly humble! Here! Let me pour you a drink, Mr. Undertaker!"

In the end, I spent the whole night guzzling alcohol with provisional-government officials. Well, for Jeong Sang-guk, the 'friendly conversation with the war hero Undertaker' probably tasted sweeter than the liquor.

Anyway, once I sang his praises enough, he looked satisfied.

"By the way... what brings you to Fukuoka?"

"Ah. It's more of a business matter than official business."

"Oh, what counts as official business in times like these? Any enterprise of yours is practically a national project, Mr. Undertaker. If you don't mind, please tell me about it."

"Hearing you say that puts my mind somewhat at ease. As it happens, do you know of an awakened among the Koreans living in Fukuoka who goes by Puppeteer?"

"... Puppeteer?"

For the first time, Jeong Sang-guk faltered.

"Yes. Puppeteer."

"... I do. Very well, in fact. But why are you interested in that child...?"

"As you know, I run a small academy. In practice, it's a training center exclusively for awakened. If possible, I'd like to meet this talented Puppeteer in person and, if they're a good fit, invite them to enroll at our academy."

"I see..."

The mayor of Busan stared at me. Then he muttered,

"... Perhaps this is for the best."

I had no idea what that muttered remark meant. Just as the silence between us was about to pass the two-second mark, he smoothed over the awkwardness.

"Oh, do you smoke, by any chance?"

I was firmly in the anti-smoking camp. But that question was merely a signal to step outside and talk alone.

In that case, hell, I could sacrifice my lungs' health for a moment. Some people had sacrificed their country, after all.

"Yes. The only thing stopping me is a lack of cigarettes."

"Let's go. I get hot very easily, so I need a little fresh air. Heh heh."

We left the bar and blew higher pollution readings into the city's night sky.

Once we'd raised Fukuoka's particulate concentration a suitable amount, a rather unusual sight unfolded.

"Oh. A shooting star."

"Huh? So it is."

A few shooting stars fell through the night sky. Calling it a meteor shower would have been generous; it was more like a few drops of a sunshower.

Soon, the rain from space stopped. Jeong Sang-guk barely glanced at the meteors, instead looking around with a somewhat anxious expression.

"What's wrong?"

"I envy you, Mr. Undertaker."

"Pardon?"

"Sometimes I imagine how wonderful it would have been if I'd become an awakened myself."

With a trembling hand, he took out a portable ashtray and firmly stubbed out his cigarette.

That gesture struck me not as a sign of his tidiness, but as the survival instinct of someone living in a foreign land.

After all, if he flicked ash onto a Fukuoka street, a passing Japanese person might wonder, 'Does that Korean happen to think our land is his ashtray?'

"Puppeteer is my daughter."

Distracted by the portable ashtray, I reacted a little late.

"... What?"

"Puppeteer. Yul. Lee Hayul. She's my daughter. If you take her with you, please look after her."

Well, I'll be damned.

Just as I was about to sink into contemplation of life's oddities and the mysteries of human connections, a flash of quick thinking helped me squeeze out a question.

"Huh? Just a moment. Isn't your surname Jeong, Mayor? This may be a rude question, but if your daughter's surname is Lee..."

"Ah. She took her mother's surname."

Could he be someone who believed children should inherit their mother's surname as well as their father's?

But my imagination was woefully limited.

The former mayor of Busan smiled. Somehow, it looked forced.

"My mistress. In other words, she's a daughter I've kept secret."

Holy fucking shit.

6

The first day's schedule came to an end.

Afterward, I had three days and two nights to myself. The provisional government provided my accommodations.

'The man's certainly something, I'll give him that.'

Even as his country collapsed, he'd carefully packed up his second family and fled overseas. A hero who could even use the art of shrinking distances really was in a class of his own.

Long ago, Liu Bang, the founding emperor of Han, had no choice but to board a carriage as he fled a crushing defeat at the hands of Xiang Yu, the Heavenly Demon.

Complaining that the carriage was overloaded, Liu Bang threw his children out. Anyone who has played an RPG can sympathize: from a player's perspective, a full inventory is an unforgivable sin.

Unfortunately, in the Chu–Han Contention game, his children were designated as essential items. A warning window popped up saying [You cannot discard that!], and his attempt to abandon them ultimately failed.

This was why people needed to learn martial arts. If Liu Bang had learned even footwork like Jeong Sang-guk, he could have boldly committed that atrocity without having to rely on some flimsy carriage.

"Mr. Undertaker, are you in?"

KNOCK, KNOCK.

As I tested the boundary between meditation and delusion, a martial arts master arrived at just the right moment. We hadn't seen each other in two days.

Jeong Sang-guk handed me a scrap of paper with Puppeteer's home address on it.

His appearance was a little peculiar, though. Despite the warm spring weather, he wore gloves, and his perfume was rather strong.

He even refused to accompany me to Puppeteer's house.

"Why not? Aren't you coming with me?"

"I'm sorry."

He smiled awkwardly. It was an unpoliticianlike smile. His expression was stiffer than it had been over drinks.

"My daughter's going through a particularly rough bout of puberty these days..."

"Still, aren't you a little worried about me meeting your daughter alone?"

"Oh, no. Not at all. Besides, there's a housekeeper at Hayul's place, so it'll be fine."

"Hmm."

"Most importantly, I stopped by Hayul's yesterday and told her about you in advance. There should be no need to worry."

"Understood. I'll see you this evening."

In truth, I should already have noticed something suspicious at this point.

If Jeong Sang-guk's second family had been functioning normally, his daughter's biological mother would have been staying at 'Hayul's place,' not a housekeeper.

Above all, it was strange that someone who had been desperately trying to win my favor would suddenly refuse to come along.

But, well, what could I do?

Consulting the address and asking locals for directions, I finally reached Miss Lee Hayul's mansion.

I announced my arrival by tapping the knocker attached to the front door. Few people used electric doorbells, since they considered them a waste of electricity.

"Anyone home?"

KNOCK, KNOCK.

"Hello. My name is Undertaker. Mayor Jeong Sang-guk referred me here. Is anyone home?"

KNOCK, KNOCK.

"..."

That I sensed something ominous even then was probably entirely thanks to my experience as a regressor who had lived through countless events.

I turned the doorknob. It was unlocked.

"..."

I took a step inside.

From the moment I entered the foyer, spiderwebs filled my vision. Enormous webs stretched across the hall, the living room, and the ground-floor staircase. Like an abandoned house.

However difficult life in a foreign land might be, and even if she was an illegitimate child, this was far too strange a home for the blood kin of a provisional government's leader.

'Wait, are these even spiderwebs? They're too big.'

RUSTLE.

Something crunched beneath my shoe. A doll.

I'd been too distracted by the webs to notice, but dolls were positioned all over the house.

"Miss Lee Hayul?"

I moved through the house, taking care not to step on any dolls.

Figurines, Russian matryoshkas, Japanese ichimatsu dolls, Barbies, ball-jointed dolls, plush toys, paper flower dolls.

Literally a dollhouse.

Or a spider's nest.

A woman in her forties, presumably the housekeeper, hung dead by her neck from a web in a second-floor bedroom.

"..."

I was used to corpses. I wasn't flustered. But I had never seen thirteen dolls surrounding one as though offering worship.

That wasn't the only unfamiliar sight.

CLICK, CLICK, CLICK.

Suspended from strings in front of and behind the corpse, dolls rose and fell repeatedly.

Like children playing on a seesaw at a playground.

I had no idea what mechanism had been set up, but the threads wound around the dolls' wrists extended to the corpse's jaw and hands.

So every time the dolls rode their seesaw, the corpse's jaw clicked and its fingers swayed in strange shapes. Yes. Like a nutcracker doll.

"What the hell..."

The stench was overwhelming.

Judging by the degree of rigor mortis, it seemed more than thirty hours had passed since her death. Thirty hours at the very least; somehow, it also felt as though she'd been dead much longer.

But that was strange.

Thirty hours ago wasn't yesterday. It was the day before yesterday.

Besides, Jeong Sang-guk had said he'd met his daughter yesterday and told her about me beforehand. Did that mean the housekeeper had already been dead then?

'Something's off.'

Instinctively, I sensed that Jeong Sang-guk had lied to me.

Especially those gloves. His out-of-season gloves bothered me to an unusual degree.

I left the 'dollhouse' and returned to my lodgings. I intended to collect my belongings and then go looking for Jeong Sang-guk.

It soon became clear that I wouldn't need to go that far.

In the middle of my room, his corpse hung from a web in exactly the same way.

"..."

How?

Something was wrong. No, before it was wrong, it was dangerous. However powerless a traitor Jeong Sang-guk might have been, it was bad news that his corpse had turned up in my room of all places.

One part of my mind rapidly cooled.

A familiar sensation.

I made my decision quickly.

'I have to dispose of it.'

WHOOSH!

Forget uncovering the truth or anything else—I immediately incinerated the corpse. All of it. Squeezing out the aura throughout my body, I erased every trace.

That was no easy feat for anyone who hadn't built up internal energy over repeated runs as I had.

'Fifty-nine seconds.'

Carrying only a book, I left my room and deliberately exchanged cheerful greetings with the staff.

To them, I'd look like 'a guest who went into his room for just a moment, then came back out.' Common sense would hardly suggest that a corpse had been incinerated in that brief interval.

Now, all I needed to watch out for were witnesses. People who might have seen Jeong Sang-guk visiting my lodgings.

I didn't need to worry about CCTV. Surveillance cameras were exceedingly rare these days. Not because of electricity, but because cameras themselves were susceptible to infection by anomalies, so people avoided them.

I asked the staff, "Have you seen Mr. Jeong Sang-guk, by any chance?" They shook their heads, thereby saving their own lives.

Four minutes up to this point.

I couldn't call my alibi perfect, but this much would be enough to keep the blame off me.

I hadn't committed murder in the first place.

That was the truth.

And I was strong.

Sometimes, even in the hands of the weak, the power of truth carried a keen edge. What more needed to be said when it was wielded by the strong?

'Old Man Scho. I'm going to make you pay dearly for this business trip.'

I headed to the dollhouse again.

Secretly this time. Without being seen by anyone else.

The circumstances made it almost certain that the 'culprit' was Jeong Sang-guk's illegitimate daughter, Lee Hayul.

Evidence was unnecessary. I wasn't a detective or a police investigator. I was a regressor. I could check things like evidence in other runs.

What mattered now was examining as many traces of the culprit, Lee Hayul, as possible, so I could secure an advantage in other runs.

It soon became clear that doing so had indeed been necessary.

Because an awakened with light chestnut hair, presumably Lee Hayul, lay dead in front of the entrance.

"..."

Lee Hayul sat dead in a wheelchair, her chest stabbed by a knife held in a doll's hand.

Only then did I learn that 'Puppeteer' was a girl without either of her legs.

Standing before the corpse of someone whose voice I had never heard, and would never hear for the rest of run eighteen, I pressed my left hand to my forehead.

"You crazy old bastard..."

Seriously.

I was going to have to charge a hefty price for this business trip.