Chapter 127

It was a relief to see that everything was going well.

Thanks to Gu Seohyeong risking her own reputation, mine had recovered far more quickly than expected. On top of that, through the lawyer Ahn Yoonseung had introduced to me, I had filed lawsuits against everyone who had spread false information.

‘There really is nothing money can’t accomplish.’

During that process, the truth behind the smoking photograph that had circulated online was also uncovered.

[The smoking photograph was fabricated too.

—Can you see the sign for the gukbap restaurant in the alley behind him?

That restaurant opened exactly three years ago and has remained in business ever since.

But according to the person who posted the photograph, Kim Kiryeo was still a minor when it was taken.

Hunter Kim is twenty-five this year, isn’t he?

And that gukbap restaurant has only existed for three years?

Then what exactly is going on here?

Yep. Another lie~]

As expected, sharp-eyed netizens had quickly identified the inconsistencies in the exposé.

In the end, most of the accusations that had spread across the internet were proven false.

‘Come to think of it, Kim Kiryeo had black hair in his identification photograph too. He must have dyed it after reaching adulthood.’

Still, I had never imagined that the person who had taken the controversial smoking photograph would turn out to be someone like this.

“Hmm.”

“I-I’m sorry...”

Not long afterward, while pursuing the defamation cases, I met the author of one of the posts.

Surprisingly, the person who had circulated the photograph of Kiryeo smoking had no connection whatsoever to the school violence accusations.

“Who are you?”

He was merely a resident from the neighbourhood.

‘He looks rather too old to have known Kim Kiryeo at school.’

I asked the man why he had spread false information.

His answer was simple.

He lived in the same studio apartment building as I did.

For years, he had remained trapped in a miserable life, while the young man living under the same roof had suddenly become one of the country’s highest-ranking Hunters overnight.

“I did it because I was jealous...”

He confessed that he had fabricated the story around a photograph he had taken roughly nine months earlier.

According to him, he had seen a young man smoking on the street and photographed him because he intended to report him for allegedly throwing cigarette butts on the ground.

“Wait. You didn’t know I was an Awakened at the time?”

“H-heuk!”

“And why were you taking photographs of a stranger without permission in the first place? I clearly remember putting my cigarette butt into a portable ashtray. Honestly, what is wrong with this man...?”

In any case, the matter could be summarised quite simply.

The scandal had been resolved, and every false accusation against me had been disproved.

However, it was not yet time to relax.

A far more personal—and far more significant—problem remained.

***

Now I understood.

There was something deeply suspicious about Kim Kiryeo’s death.

In a modern society like this one, death by starvation was rare.

Furthermore, Kim Kiryeo had not been completely destitute. He had kept emergency savings in a piggy bank.

And yet a man in his twenties had supposedly starved to death?

Worse still, he had been found lying neatly in bed, dressed in a clean suit.

It made no sense.

Anyone who examined the circumstances would find them suspicious.

“What in the world happened?”

There were far too many unanswered questions.

According to Gu Seohyeong, Kim Kiryeo had been remarkably healthy during his school years.

Then why had his legs already been damaged by the time I took possession of his body?

The more I considered it, the more questions emerged.

Why had Kim Kiryeo died?

How had he died?

And, more importantly—

Had he truly died of starvation at all?

‘My memories are so indistinct that I can’t even be certain of the cause of death anymore.’

I considered several possible explanations, but none of them led me to an answer.

Fortunately, unlike on previous occasions, I had learned something new about Kim Kiryeo that day.

It was a detail Gu Seohyeong had mentioned during our conversation at the workshop.

—Family? Ah, Kiryeo, weren’t you raised in an orphanage?

Apparently, the owner of this body had been an orphan.

—When I suggested reporting the bullying, you said something about not having parents. You thought it would be difficult because there was no one who could act as your legal guardian, didn’t you?

So that was why no one had come looking for him until now.

The sequence of events finally made sense.

Even so, hearing Kim Kiryeo described as an orphan left me with a peculiar feeling.

‘Even after reincarnating, nothing has changed in that regard.’

Mutter, mutter.

I walked along the road, speaking so quietly that only I could hear myself.

The heavy snowfall of recent days had finally subsided, and the air had grown noticeably warmer.

‘In any case, I left the equipment enhancement to Gu Seohyeong today.’

‘I suppose I can rest at home until the enchantment is complete...’

But just then, someone interrupted my thoughts.

It was a middle-aged woman wearing a brightly coloured padded jacket.

“Pray, and you shall enter heaven. Everyone must pray if they wish to reach heaven~”

Rustle.

She was distributing printed leaflets to passing pedestrians.

Out of curiosity, I accepted one.

The following words were printed across it.

[[Let Us Discover the Truth!]

Why do monsters attack humanity?

Why does the government describe monsters as evil?

In reality, these are lies and deceptions spread by evil spirits and criminals hiding within our society!

Gates are benevolent instruments created to enlighten sinners. They are sacred passages bestowed upon us by the Ten Rakshasa Goddesses...]

How overwhelming.

I had wondered what sort of leaflet it was, only to discover that it belonged to a cult.

“Oh, honestly.”

I was about to crumple the paper in my hand.

But the instant I read one particular phrase, my body froze.

[...sacred passages bestowed upon us by the Ten Rakshasa Goddesses...]

The Ten Rakshasa Goddesses.

That expression had been used obsessively by a certain organisation.

‘The Rakshasa Temple.’

If followers of the Rakshasa Temple were openly preaching in the streets, that could only mean—

“Wait. That damned organisation is still operating?”

***

Tap, tap, tap.

Someone was walking down the brightly lit corridor in the distance.

He wore a shirt, a vest, and a sleek overcoat.

His clothing was unusually immaculate for someone in this profession—almost obsessively so.

Yet his appearance was not the only reason people noticed him.

He was one of only four top-ranking Hunters in the entire country.

In other words, he was an S-rank Awakened.

“Ah, Hunter Kim Kiryeo. Hello...”

Kiryeo strode forward without slowing.

When he reached the Association employee, he immediately demanded an answer.

“What happened to Su Yehwi?!”

“Yes?”

“Where is that insane Awakened now, and what the hell is he doing?!”

Seonwoo Yeon blinked rapidly.

Things had been quiet for some time, but apparently trouble was about to begin all over again.

.

.

.

“Thank you for buying this for me.”

“No, I should be the one apologising. I feel terrible making an S-rank Hunter eat like this.”

A few minutes later, Seonwoo Yeon and Kim Kiryeo were standing in an alleyway.

Kiryeo needed information about Su Yehwi as quickly as possible, while Seonwoo Yeon could not abandon her post except during her lunch break.

‘Hunter Kim Kiryeo really does have simple tastes.’

They had hurriedly purchased food from a nearby convenience store and were now talking as they ate.

Their meal consisted of winter-limited-edition sweet-potato steamed buns.

“So what happened to Su Yehwi after that?”

“Ah, about that...”

“And I received this leaflet while I was walking here. How is this organisation still operating after they summoned Inevitable Malice?”

Chomp.

Seonwoo Yeon took a bite of the hot steamed bun and mumbled while arranging her thoughts.

“To get straight to the point, we failed to capture Su Yehwi.”

Who could have expected her first sentence to be something like that?

“You failed?”

“Yes. We failed.”

“When the Imoogi appeared, the police immediately examined the surveillance footage and attempted to arrest Su Yehwi...”

“And they lost him?”

“It would be more accurate to say that they were defeated rather than that they lost him.”

“I heard the team of Awakened sent after him was overwhelmed by Su Yehwi’s abilities.”

That was enough to give me a general idea of Su Yehwi’s strength.

No matter how severe the police shortage of personnel might be, a special unit assembled specifically to apprehend Awakened criminals could not possibly be weak.

‘He must be considerably powerful.’

Then where was Su Yehwi hiding now?

Naturally, no one had an answer.

[Searcher] had failed to activate.

In other words, Su Yehwi was currently concealed inside a hideout that nullified tracking abilities.

‘Damn it.’

Still, there was at least one piece of good news.

After a prolonged investigation, the police had discovered a connection between the Rakshasa Temple’s terrorist activities and a politician.

“A politician?”

“To be precise, a former politician.”

“During the chaos caused by the terrorist attack, one of the cultists attempted to assassinate a sitting legislator.”

“When the authorities investigated the attacker, they discovered that a certain second-tier politician was involved...”

“My goodness.”

“Didn’t you see the news? It has already been reported.”

“I’ve been rather busy reading articles about myself in the society section.”

“Ah.”

Thanks to the work of competent investigators, both the politician and the leader of the Rakshasa Temple had been arrested.

But in that case, something did not add up.

“You said the leader was arrested for inciting murder. Then what is this?”

Rustle.

Kiryeo showed her the leaflet he had received in the street.

Seonwoo Yeon nodded in understanding.

“Even after the leader was captured, the remaining members continued maintaining the organisation.”

“What?”

“I heard they recently changed the name to the ‘True Truth Church’ to evade further crackdowns.”

No matter how often they changed the sign above the door, it was merely an attempt to conceal the same rotten structure beneath a different name.

But why were the authorities still tolerating the existence of a terrorist organisation?

“We attempted to have it declared illegal and formally disbanded.”

“However, the organisation appears to involve a considerable number of people, so it cannot be dismantled immediately.”

Seonwoo Yeon cited the organisation’s size as the main obstacle.

The archmage, however, had a different opinion.

“In the end, Su Yehwi is the real problem.”

“What?”

Mumble.

Kiryeo swallowed the bun in his mouth and continued.

“As long as the Awakened named Su Yehwi remains alive, I believe this problem will continue to reappear.”

“Well...”

“The cult leader was probably nothing more than a figurehead.”

“Honestly, the fact that he was captured so easily makes that fairly obvious.”

Gulp.

He opened a carton of white milk purchased as part of a two-for-one convenience-store promotion and drank from it.

For some reason, however, his previously calm expression gradually tightened.

“As I suspected, is that truly the only option?”

Kiryeo began muttering words that were difficult to understand.

‘I cannot tolerate knowing that the person who harmed me is hiding somewhere out there!’

Ugh.

This false S-rank Hunter had an extraordinarily long history of conflict with Su Yehwi.

From a broader perspective, even his involvement with the unregistered Hunter Pyo Nagil had been influenced by Su Yehwi.

The abduction connected to the Grid’s rewards.

The assassin sent to his home.

The many hardships he had endured after the appearance of Inevitable Malice.

Without question, every one of them was entirely Su Yehwi’s fault.

“Hmm.”

Throughout his career, the archmage had encountered countless villains.

However, whenever a capable sorcerer descended into madness beyond all reason—particularly when that madness took the form of religious fanaticism—he had never once seen the situation improve after the individual was left unchecked.

Not in all his experience.

‘I have no other choice.’

‘Now that matters have reached this point, I will have to intervene personally.’

And so Kiryeo decided to settle the long-standing grudge and deal with Su Yehwi once and for all.

His actual power had not increased much since the first time he began pursuing the Rakshasa Temple.

However, he now possessed something he had not had before.

The public status of an S-rank Hunter.

“Kiryeo-ssi, what are you thinking about?”

Of course, Seonwoo Yeon had previously insisted that private punishment was unacceptable.

She would not be pleased if she learned of his current decision.

“Nothing in particular...”

Truthfully, Kiryeo did not consider what he was planning to be private punishment.

Rehabilitating and punishing antisocial criminals had once been among the public duties routinely performed by the former Archmage of Alphauri.

“I was merely thinking about work.”

Kiryeo found it deeply uncomfortable that criminals he had already identified had not yet been removed from society.

It was, in a sense, an occupational disease.