Chapter 249
A scrawny white man raced through a dark street with pale, staggering individuals around him, walking around as they groaned. Their eyes were red, had sharp fangs, and they were drooling.
The white man arrived at a mansion, and the gate made of iron bars automatically opened. Unlike the outside, the mansion’s interior was lit with orange ambient lighting. He sprinted through the mansion toward the underground kitchen, where he could hear the clattering of kitchenware.
“Boss! Boss Peter!” the white man shouted, barging into the kitchen.
“Why are you shouting so loudly? It’s unelegant,” said an obese white man, eating his meal with a silver knife and fork at the end of a thirty-meter-long table filled with various dishes.
The man had red eyes, unnaturally brown hair, as if it were a wig, and was wearing a white dress shirt whose buttons were about to burst, black overalls, and cowboy boots. He was Peter Geraghty.
“You will be accepted as one of the Seven Purebloods’ kin, so you should be taking after their elegance,” Peter remarked.
“That’s not the problem, Boss! The Jorge Newberry Airfield was raided!”
“What?” Peter’s button-like eyes widened as he asked, “Is it those bastards again?”
“Yes! The ones who wreaked havoc in our Bremen hideout!”
Peter slammed his fists down on the table, shattering the plate in front of him and causing the wine glass holding a red liquid to fall.
“How do they know where Blood Cross’s secret hideouts are?! Could there be a traitor among our executives?” he said.
“T-there couldn’t be,” the subordinate said hesitantly.
“They didn’t get their hands on the special cask, did they?”
“Fortunately, not. We moved it elsewhere five hours before the attack.”
“Move it again! We need that tribute for this festival!”
“Yes, Boss!” the subordinate answered as he ran out.
Peter, panting heavily for a while, clicked his tongue as he grabbed a rare steak oozing blood with his bare hands and bit into it.
He chewed with his mouth open as he shouted, “Dammit! So many nuisances when the chance to turn my life around is right around the corner. My fellow humans are of no help whatsoever to my life.”
After eating the steak like a pig, he grabbed the fallen wine glass to drink what remained of the wine in the glass.
“Kaaaah! As long as this party goes well... Hehehe! I’ll be one of the Seven Purebloods’ Daywalkers, too!” Peter shouted, his red eyes becoming redder. “I should make my way to Lunatic soon.”
***
People were gathered in the area between the Capital’s South Earth and Middle Earth—an empty field near where Jurie once ran Vivienne Information Center.
“What the... What is all that?”
“Bleeeeeghhh!”
“Urgh... Who could have done all that?”
The group was a mix of regular citizens and Dark Humans, each murmuring as they stared at the middle of the field. Human heads were lined up horizontally like the house balls of a bowling alley. The only difference was that there were over a thousand heads.
“What kind of crazy murderer would do something like this?!”
“Huh? That’s... our boss!”
“Gasp! T-t-that head! It’s Howard, the leader of Clan Rabies!”
“T-they’re all Dark Humans! Infamous ones!”
“Some of them are Rankers! Sicario, Esmeralda... El Chapo! It looks like Hard Drug was wiped out.”
The people soon realized that they belonged to some of the most notorious Dark Humans ever known. The citizens, whom the Dark Humans always oppressed, cheered, while the clansmen of the Black Clans, who confirmed the deaths of their bosses and executives, paled.
“Ahaha! Good riddance!”
“With this, South Earth will become more peaceful.”
“Goddammit!”
“Tell the men!”
Those who had been too shocked by the scene belatedly noticed the silver-grey signboard behind the line of heads. On it was a message—a warning, a declaration, or a memorial writing—written in blood.
“Huh? What’s that?”
“A sign?”
“There’s... something on it.”
This is a message for those who hinder humanity’s development.
The cancerous cells will be excised without hesitation from now on.
Sins of blood shall be washed away with blood.
I will be the sole judge.
It doesn’t matter if you have complaints.
Conduct yourselves wisely if you do not wish for me to misunderstand your intentions.
I, Cheon Seong-Hwi, the Second Son who has inherited the will of Lee Kang-San, the First Son, declare that I have acted on and completed the spring cleaning that he had planned and prepared.
A silver ring with the engraving 1ML was attached to the end of the message.
“Cheon... Seong-Hwi.”
“That serial killer! First, Operation Pest Control, and now, this?”
“Lee Kang-San planned this?”
“That ring is undoubtedly the first-class murder license ring that Lee Kang-San issued him.”
“Since he left it behind... It must mean he will take full responsibility for his murders from now on.”
“He’s telling us to sentence him for his crimes if we can.”
“Second Son?”
The people gulped as various questions floated in their minds. Was he good or evil? Was he right or wrong? Was he an ally or an enemy? Was he trustworthy or not? Was he sane or insane? Such questions endlessly formed in their heads, but they were at least certain that Seong-Hwi was different from Kang-San.
Seong-Hwi was not heroic. He was radical, did not request anyone’s approval, and was like a bloodthirsty maniac. However, he acted before anyone else and brought results, the most important quality in the Mirror World.
One person began to stomp his feet, which then induced others to do the same, one after another. The echoing stomps filled the field like a non-verbal form of support to their mad hero.
***
“Seong-Hwi?”
“Hm?”
“You’re... Seong-Hwi, right?” Jurie asked, staring at him with her clear blue eyes.
Seong-Hwi was sitting on a couch in the manager’s office of the Fence Hotel, petting Bulgasal lying on his lap.
People have been asking me the same question lately, he thought.
“Who knows? What do you think?” Seong-Hwi asked with a smile as he stared back at Jurie.
Yeah, I’m not surprised that I feel like a different person to you. Not even I remember what I was like when I first met you, he said inwardly.
He was like a crow who had forgotten what he sounded like after imitating the calls of various birds. Voices that he did not wish to hear echoed inside his head as if mocking him. He had borrowed several destinies, and the side effect was his destiny itself.
What kind of person am I? Seong-Hwi wondered.
He had William’s nihilism, Iljimae’s sensitivity, the Unabomber’s anarchism, Richard’s insanity, Chok Chun-Gyong’s instrumentality, Don Quixote’s recklessness, Alexander the Great’s monarchism, Orpheus’s self-pity, Longinus’s blazing vengeance, and Siegfried’s heroicism.
That is me, Cheon Seong-Hwi.
He was a deformed hybrid who desired to fulfill his deficiencies, absorbing every quality that seemed nice.
Jurie stared silently at Seong-Hwi, then smiled as she nodded. “Mm! That overflowing aura of pessimism! That’s the Seong-Hwi I know!”
Seong-Hwi’s fake smile broke down from seeing Jurie’s bright smile. He lowered his head, unable to stare into Jurie’s clear eyes. His hand stiffened, and Bulgasal turned its head toward him, its innocent eyes blinking.
Pwoo?
Being around those with pure hearts was painful to Seong-Hwi—their favor, trust, and cheers for him ached his heart. He wondered if this was what it meant to lose one’s humanity, or if he should be relieved that he at least had enough humanity to feel hurt by such things. He would have felt more comfortable with the Dark Humans’ malice, filled with the desire to kill him.
I had already resolved myself that I would become a Fiend, Seong-Hwi thought.
Just then, someone placed a warm cup of coffee on the table. Seong-Hwi looked up and saw a white-haired man in a tailcoat.
“You’ve achieved the Ten Thousand-Man Killer,” Gerard said.
“I did. So?”
“Do you think you’re broken? I am asking if you think you need tuning.”
Seong-Hwi smirked and replied, “I don’t particularly think I’m out of tune in a broken world like this.”
“Don’t act strong. I have experienced it, too—the filthy feeling that comes with believing you have lost your humanity.”
Gerard glanced at Seong-Hwi and thought, He’s a marvel.
When he met Seong-Hwi for the first time, he simply saw him as a witty brat—nothing more, nothing less. However, Seong-Hwi slowly began to exceed his expectations, and Gerard could no longer imagine what Seong-Hwi’s future would entail.
It appears you’ve reached that realm as well. You smell the same as that monster, Gerard thought, recalling a sweet, enticing, and terrifying scent. Oh, no.
He shook his head as he pointed at the cup of coffee and said, “Drink. It should help.”
“You’re awfully kind today. Is it a form of sympathy, White Devil?” Seong-Hwi asked.
“You and your words,” Gerard mumbled, clicking his tongue as he returned to behind Jurie and put the cups away.
Seong-Hwi stared silently at Jurie tapping on her smartphone. He could feel his unnecessary thoughts sinking.
“Lina is probably in the underground lab. Where are Thumper and Leo?” he asked.
“They went to Carrot,” Jurie replied.
“Carrot?”
“Thumper’s hometown. He’s been away for a while, so you can’t blame him for getting homesick.”
Thumper misses Carrot? There’s no way, Seong-Hwi mumbled inwardly and momentarily fell into thought.
He then asked, “What about the pioneering faction?”
Jurie’s fingers, tapping on the smartphone, momentarily paused. “They went to the front lines. Dad is... grieving.”
“I’m not surprised.”
The pioneering faction, including Remy Martin, was Kang-San’s followers. His death would have instilled great sorrow and agitation in them.
“But it’ll be alright. Albeit difficult, Dad will live on for Vivienne,” Jurie said cheerfully on purpose, then changed the subject. “Come to think of it, the information you requested came today. It was hard getting it since it was information about the fifth zone, but... nothing Coins can’t solve,” she said with a wink.
Seong-Hwi chuckled and replied, “Thanks.”
“No problem. Since you asked for this information, it must mean... you’re going to Lunatic, aren’t you?”
A cup shattered behind Jurie as soon as she finished her sentence.
“Gramps?” she asked.
“Oh, apologies, my lady. My hand slipped,” Gerard said as he kneeled to clean up the broken cup pieces.
Seong-Hwi stared intently at Gerard and said, “Come with me, White Devil.”
“To where?” Gerard asked.
“To Lunatic.”
“Why would I go there?”
“You’re sick of being a Canis, aren't you? Don’t you want to become a Daywalker?”
Gerard slowly turned his head from the broken cup pieces to Seong-Hwi. His brown eyes had turned blood-red.
***
“Huuu. I heard you already caused more trouble,” Bong-Seong said, sighing as he stared at the man sitting across from him.
“It was a small commotion. I trust you to smooth things over,” Seong-Hwi replied.
“Was that really necessary, when public opinion of you couldn’t be more positive thanks to Together?” Bong-Seong reproached. “It will be announced by the ranking bureau tomorrow, but... You are now number one in the human ranking. You have become the face of humanity.”
“That was unnecessary,” Seong-Hwi replied, certain that Bong-Seong had pulled strings to make it happen.
“I know that you don’t care about the ranking, but now that Lee Kang-San is dead, humanity needs a new representative.”
“And that’s me?”
“Haven’t you already accepted it? You clearly wrote on the signboard that you were the Second Son.”
“I did.”
“From now on, if you’re going to do things like that, I would appreciate it if you could discuss it with me first—no, at least give me a heads up.”
Seong-Hwi stared at Bong-Seong intently and replied, “I am not Lee Kang-San. Just because he maintained a cooperative relationship with the conservative faction doesn’t mean I have to do the same.”
Bong-Seong’s expression stiffened, then he remarked, “Has the conservative faction done anything that rubbed you the wrong way? If this is because of Cocoa Farm’s Henri Konan—”
Seong-Hwi sprouted the Wings of Evolution, interrupting Bong-Seong’s words. The iridescent light illuminated Bong-Seong’s face, each of his wrinkles making shadows.
“Do you know why I moved up the spring cleaning?” Seong-Hwi asked with an aggressive tone. “It was because I would only feel comfortable going to the center after excising the cancerous cells, eating away at humanity from the inside.” Seong-Hwi then smiled with his eyes and asked, “Do you want me to show you something interesting?”
“What do you—”
[Converting Destiny Force to Chaos Mana.]
The hexagonal pattern on the Wings of Evolution vanished, leaving the wings to be enveloped by darkness that carried diamond-like stardust inside. High-density Chaos Mana engulfed Bong-Seong.
Bong-Seong’s eyes widened as he mumbled an enervated voice, “T-t-this Chaos Mana—”
“Feels familiar, doesn’t it?” Seong-Hwi’s black eyes were sunken deeply as if he knew everything. “You used this power to kill Seringer, after all. Others may not have realized, but did you think you could fool me, who has Bachtasha-rank Chaos Mana?”
The Absolute Crown appeared over Seong-Hwi’s head with a flash of golden light. He instantly vanished and grabbed Bong-Seong, who had still not recovered from the shock, by the neck.
“Kurgh!”
“Lee Bong-Seong, leader of the conservative faction! I would have never expected you to be a Chaos Human!”