“The servants and workers who had just arrived. You knew they had planted the plague magical formation inside the rearranged building, didn’t you?”
“It seems there’s quite a fuss, so I was going to check the situation… but now it seems you are the cause of it, huh? Just where did you meddle and disrupt everything…?”
The head of Jeokhwa made no attempt to deny his sins, instead glaring at Lee Hyun and radiating hostility.
“How did you manage to escape even after noticing him? Did you kill the Great Feather?”
“If you mean the one disguised as the steward, then yes. I took care of all of them present on the scene.”
“Tsk. It seems that skill of yours isn’t just a fluke after all. But what a pity. He was quite a useful beast.”
He clicked his tongue as if lamenting the loss of an expensive item.
Yeon Minha couldn’t follow the conversation with the overwhelming sense of despair.
“Plague… magical formation…? W-what does that even mean…? Why are we talking about this with Father…?”
“It was a demon race. All the servants and workers who had just arrived, including the steward.”
“W-what…?”
“They disguised themselves as humans while consuming magic. Those beasts were setting up a large-scale dark magic in the underground of this place. The rearrangement of the building was to hide the points of this gigantic magical formation. I just came from fighting them.”
The continuous statements from the male student left Yeon Minha in even more turmoil.
“And your father… was overlooking their actions.”
Yeon Minha wished she could cover her ears if she could.
She turned to her father.
“Ah, no… Father…? Th-there must be some huge misunderstanding…?”
“…”
Despite her desperate question, he remained silent. This was practically an affirmative answer.
“Ah… ah…”
Yeon Minha clutched her heart as if she couldn’t breathe. Today was more horrifying than any nightmare she had ever dreamed.
Lee Hyun hesitated seeing her in pain, but soon gathered his thoughts and turned his gaze back to Yeon Jeong-mun.
“Why on earth did you do this? Someone like you, what was lacking for you to ally with beasts…?”
Still maintaining a wary demeanor, Lee Hyun posed the question.
He needed time. Even a moment to recover his body. Time to think of a way out of this situation.
Also, he needed even a slight hint to understand why Yeon Jeong-mun committed such a terrible act.
With his common sense, he couldn’t fathom the rationale behind such actions.
“You needn’t concern yourself with such matters. It’s not that big of a deal.”
“Not a big deal? Once that magical formation is complete, countless people in the capital will suffer and die from the plague…”
“That may be so. But what does that have to do with me?”
He curtly dismissed Lee Hyun’s concerns. His tone was as easy as squashing an ant, igniting Lee Hyun’s anger deep inside.
He, who was not someone living leisurely enough to care about the lives of others, nonetheless felt fury.
“What I desire is to fulfill our Jeokhwa’s wishes, and simply to see that child I love again. Whether thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands die. Those are trivial matters compared to that.”
His once-empty eyes were now filled with chilling madness. Lee Hyun realized he had become a shell of a person, like a wind-up doll blindly pursuing a goal.
Someone who didn’t care for his family was certainly not going to care about the lives of lower-class people.
The only silver lining was that he was being governed not by cold reasoning but by madness. If he genuinely intended to hide what he was plotting, he could have easily diverted the conversation.
Though a few words had been exchanged, he managed to gather a trace of clues.
The wishes of Jeokhwa he desired were soon the overcoming of mental contamination.
And judging by the conversation he just had with Yeon Minha, that beloved child was none other than his twin sister. Also… Yeon Minha’s mother.
The notion of seeing someone who was already dead again was incomprehensible, but even after more than ten years, he still possessed an eerie obsession with his sister.
What he did was allow demons to enter his mansion situated in the highlands of the capital and set up a magical formation to generate a poisonous mist.
And under his negligence, every night they had abducted people to paint dark magic with fresh blood.
A sacred enterprise.
“…”
His already foggy mind, clouded by poison, became even more dizzy. Clearly, he had succeeded in gleaning some clues, but the series of events failed to connect.
All of these incidents certainly branched from one source. Yet there was no way to ascertain the singular connection tying them together.
So, the only thing he could say now was a single word.
“…You’re insane.”
The head of Jeokhwa maintained his apathetic demeanor.
“It’s settled. Let’s stop wasting more time.”
He raised his right hand, flicking his thumb and index finger together. Suddenly, a small lightning bolt crackled in the air, spreading out and creating a loud bang.
Soon, heavy metallic footsteps were mixed with the sound, and the soldiers of Jeokhwa entered, surrounding all sides completely.
“You’ve committed too many offenses to be spared, and you’ve seen and heard far too much. If you accept your fate, I’ll at least send you off without pain.”
“I never said I would die quietly.”
“That spirit of yours is quite commendable. But what can you really do in that state? You look like standing still is even a struggle.”
“…”
“It actually works out well. I’ve heard complaints that the blood of the lower-class is stagnating the magical formation’s completion. They are nearly non-sensitive beings.”
The man continued speaking.
“If we mix the blood of talented people, we can speed up the completion of the formation a little. Then the day I meet that child again will come sooner.”
It was clear he meant to kill Lee Hyun and use his blood as a material for the magical formation. Lee Hyun internally scoffed.
Even the lower-class, who had nearly no talent for magic, had some particle sensitivity, but to a complete non-responder like him, that didn’t exist.
Even if they were to rip apart his body, the pace of magic formation wouldn’t hasten.
However, within his words, a certain phrase disturbed him.
“…those?”
“I should give Minha a chance to redeem my mistakes. She is the child born after my mother was consumed.”
The hollow-eyed man casually spat those horrifying words. He was beyond mad.
“Father… why are you doing this…?”
Yeon Minha stepped protectively in front of Lee Hyun.
“Get a hold of yourself… please…”
“Don’t worry. Your father is saner than ever.”
“Father!!”
“…”
Yeon Minha shouted in disbelief, but the man did not respond. As he raised his hand, soldiers from all directions began to point their devices towards Lee Hyun and Yeon Minha.
There was something strange about the swiftness of their actions. No matter the orders of the head, to point magic at the heir without hesitation was odd.
As Lee Hyun turned his head, keeping an eye on his surroundings, he locked eyes with the soldiers through his visor. Their expressions were unfocused and their pupils were hazy, not resembling those of sane individuals.
It was apparent that Yeon Jeong-mun had taken some measure against them.
Particles began forming over their palms, creating lethal projectiles.
The situation was heading towards a climax.
No matter how he thought, it seemed impossible to escape this place unscathed.
And just as he was becoming increasingly anxious in his unanswered dilemma, a decision was about to be made.
–Puck!
Like a stone falling, something black suddenly descended from the sky, crashing down with a loud thud.
It had feathers sticking out all over its body and was panting as if it were alive.
Lee Hyun immediately recognized the creature. It was indeed a living being.
A crow with white feathers on its head. It was the friend of Sa Jaehyeok, one of the few who knew his real name.
The branch chief of the Information Bureau managing domestic espionage operations. It was Mok Jinwoo’s contact crow.
After taking a brief pause, it bounced up from its position.
Then it swiveled its small head around before locking its gaze on Lee Hyun.
“How on earth did an external communication line come here…?”
Yeon Jeong-mun blinked in disbelief at the sight of it.
Jeokhwa’s vast estate was designed with magic, known as the air defense network, preventing external communications from entering.
The fact that an unauthorized crow entered meant there was some issue with that defense network.
However, before it could act, the crow opened its bright yellow beak wide.
And it began to play a pre-recorded message from Mok Jinwoo vividly.
Everyone present could hear that death sentence.
-Jeokhwa is directly moving. They are pointing blades at Jeokhwa. Evade your body. Right now.
Leaving only that urgent voice behind, the crow spread its wings like a messenger of the divine and flew back up into the sky.
“Jeokhwa… why are these damn rats suddenly…!”
The head of Jeokhwa, who had previously maintained a dry tone, bit down so hard it echoed. His eyes were filled with volcanic rage.
And before his words finished, a loud explosive sound began to reverberate from a distance accompanied by shockwaves.
–Boom! Boom! Bang!
It was a typical particle recoil explosion that happened when heavy projectiles struck a wizard’s field.
The explosions near the main gate quickly spread along the giant wall surrounding Jeokhwa’s estate. The speed was incredibly fast, like a wildfire riding the wind.
The alarm device, detecting the intruders, blared loudly, with red lights flashing around the mansion, signaling the emergence of danger.
–Boom!
Another loud explosion rang out from near the main gate. This time, the shockwave was tangible. A massive glacier could be clearly seen rising high into the sky from afar.
It crumpled the sturdily particle-coated main gate like tissue paper.
Dozens of heavy footfalls. The shimmering field bouncing off physical projectiles, the loud metallic clashing of blades, the shouts and screams echoing from all directions, smoke, and the scent of blood.
Soon, those present began to breathe out frosty breaths.
Their bodies shook, and the surrounding luminous flowers and garden trees appeared to wither under frost, quickly dimming.
Through the calm and blurry darkness of the night, footsteps approached ever closer.
And finally, as the figure emerged, Lee Hyun, who had maintained his guard, could not keep his mouth shut.
With hair as black as the night sky swirling gently, and two eyes sparkling as if containing all the gold in the world, her gaze brimmed with unexplainable wrath and hatred, directed solely at the head of Jeokhwa.
“Yeon Jeong-mun. You are finished. And so is Jeokhwa.”
