Chapter 108
“Team Leader, you know too. There are Yongse Pacheon Church believers mixed in with the prosecution, and likely some in the police as well. Even those who aren’t believers don’t care what Seongha does—whether it’s having carnivals or human sacrifices—as long as they’re paid. Haven’t you seen how the confidentially reported victim list ends up being processed as just missing persons? The Police Commissioner has now become their fervent believer. He was at the last ceremony. The CEO is looking for decisive evidence… evidence they can’t deny or cover up.”
“Sigh… so when will that be exactly? My life is on the line, so is the Director’s—we’re all risking our lives here. We can’t just wait indefinitely.”
Team Leader Lee Joon-seung was growing impatient, not only because he wanted to avenge his colleague but also because Yoo Siwoon had promised him a high-ranking position with personnel authority in the police department if he gained power in Seongha. He was naturally an impatient person to begin with.
“Or perhaps… he’s found a quicker, more precise method.”
Director Nam murmured to himself, thinking about Eunseong.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Ah, it’s nothing. Anyway, I’ll look into the Executive Director Kwon Junho matter, so be careful and wait for now. I’ll contact you.”
Director Nam shook his head as if dismissing the thought and warned Lee Joon-seung not to act rashly.
Director Nam lowered his car window to pass through the barrier and showed his face to the approaching security guard.
“Has the CEO been staying at home all this time without going out?”
“You visited two weeks ago, Director, right? He hasn’t gone out since leaving the day before that. I heard he’s not feeling well. Is something wrong?”
“Ah, I see. Nothing’s wrong. He told me not to come either because he’s still unwell. Seems he’s caught a bad cold.”
“I heard the flu is going around these days. Please be careful yourself, Director. Well then.”
The security guard gave a bland response to Director Nam’s awkward smile and answer, then stepped back. Director Nam raised his window and drove through the barrier into the compound.
Though he had visited this place almost daily since Yoo Siwoon built the house, today it felt strangely unfamiliar. Director Nam got out of his car and walked to the front entrance. He hesitated for a moment, having never rung the bell or knocked before. Even though knocking would likely not be heard by anyone inside, Director Nam still entered the security code and gave a timid knock before opening the door.
As he walked further inside, Director Nam frowned.
“…What on earth is this smell?”
A strange odor was flowing throughout the house. It smelled like moxa burning, or as if incense had been lit in multiple places at once. The vibrating plant smell was not fresh but bitter, enough to irritate his nose.
“CEO.”
Having rushed here at his call, Director Nam cautiously called out for Yoo Siwoon.
“I’m here.”
The voice coming from the kitchen was Siwoon’s. Director Nam walked toward the kitchen, inhaling the dizzying plant smell.
He remembered smelling this somewhere before. A belated realization that he had smelled it among the medicinal herbs in Siwoon’s glass greenhouse sent a shiver of fear down Director Nam’s spine. He hadn’t thought of it because he’d never smelled it this pungently before.
This was the smell of Jeokdan that Siwoon grew in his greenhouse. The herb said to cost tens of millions of won per root, which supposedly opened one’s spiritual eyes when consumed. Even Director Nam had never experienced this smell so strongly, filling an entire house.
Yoo Siwoon was standing in front of the kitchen island counter. He was wearing only drawers with a loose nightgown draped over them. Director Nam suppressed a startled reaction. It looked similar to the hooded gown worn by executioners during human sacrifice ceremonies.
Standing there with the gown over his near-naked body, Siwoon was eating something. He was cutting chunks of beef—not clearly distinguishable as cooked or raw—and eating them with his hands.
“I was hungry.”
He also picked up roughly cut fruits and vegetables with his hands and put them in his mouth.
“…The smell in the house is strong. Should I ventilate?”
While putting a carelessly cut piece of tomato in his mouth, Siwoon looked at Director Nam. The Director was pretending not to know that Siwoon had deliberately caused the smell. He wanted to trust him until the end. It also meant he wouldn’t give up on the human decency Siwoon had shown him.
“What smell?”
“The plant smell… like moxa burning.”
“Then someone must have burned moxa. Moxa is effective even through its smell.”
Siwoon looked at Director Nam with incomprehension, as if questioning why he would want to ventilate something that was medicinal in its very scent.
“Are you unwell?”
“Yes, I’m not well. Very unwell.”
“Which part is not well… Should I call a doctor?”
Director Nam continued to pretend ignorance. Part of him didn’t want to fully understand what Siwoon was doing. One corner of Siwoon’s mouth twisted bitterly at Director Nam’s circuitous approach that avoided the main point.
“I’m strange, aren’t I?”
“…”
“I know I’m being strange.”
“CEO.”
“The day I handled Yoo Oseon… you asked me what happened inside, didn’t you?”
Director Nam had to listen, frozen stiff. It was the day he had sowed discord and disrupted things between two other breeders, Yoo Seongil and Yoo Oseon. Yoo Seongil had ordered the disposal of Yoo Oseon, and Siwoon, as always, had carried out his orders.
That day was clear in his memory. The man who rarely showed surprise had returned with a face pale as if he’d seen a ghost, his back heaving as if he might vomit.
Director Nam remembered what he had said that day. His suspicions were correct.
Siwoon had made a strange comment about what it felt like to meet one’s wife.
On that day, Siwoon had superficially followed Yoo Seongil’s orders, and personally avenged Seo Jeong-gi. And on an even more personal level, he had eliminated a competitor. He had removed one bloodline qualified to plant his seed in Eunseong.
Seo Jeong-gi was gone, and Yoo Oseon was gone too. Now the only people on earth who knew about Seo Eunseong’s existence were Director Nam and Yoo Siwoon.
“Yoo Oseon discovered that Eunseong is the ‘Great Crevice.'”
“…”
“He was so happy. Such a joyful face… such an ecstatic face… I had never seen before. You wouldn’t understand that pure joy, Director.”
“…”
“It was actually my face, you see.”
Director Nam’s startled heart sank. His heartbeat immediately began to race.
It meant that Yoo Siwoon had become aware of himself as Eunseong’s breeder. Siwoon had tried to suppress it with willpower. He had believed it could be broken if he tried hard enough. He thought it could be simply resolved by cutting off his dick—cutting off his own, cutting off Yoo Seongil’s, cutting off other breeders’ dick—and that would end everything, allowing him to settle all this karmic cycle.
He had been the one who despised everything his family had done under the name of Yongse Pacheon Church to fulfill the prophecy, and he was now the only non-believer left in that family. But now that man had eyes completely transformed. At least, he was no longer the man Director Nam had known.
“Do you know what thought came to my mind at that moment?”
“…”
“Kill him.”
“…”
“I must kill him.”
“…”
“Seo Eunseong is my wife.”
While calmly observing Director Nam’s face being marred with shock, Yoo Siwoon continued.
“I’ve never felt such a threat to my life before, such a crisis that I might die if I didn’t kill someone.”
He meant he had killed Yoo Oseon entirely of his own will, not because of Yoo Seongil’s orders. The reason was simple: because Yoo Oseon had discovered that Eunseong was the Great Crevice. That was the entirety of the reason.
“So I killed him.”
“…”
“I think I did the right thing. But you don’t seem to think so.”
With an expression asking if his assumption was correct, Siwoon looked calmly at Director Nam, seeking agreement. Director Nam steadied his trembling voice and said:
“I’ve heard that because breeders are so rare, if one harms another breeder… they receive a severe punishment.”
“They don’t take your life. Instead, you lose your inheritance and all your Jeokdan is confiscated. It means they will never open your spiritual eyes. Forever… the intention is to make you unable to find your partner even when they’re right in front of you until you die. I used to think it wasn’t a severe punishment, but now I realize there couldn’t be a more cruel penalty.”
Siwoon was justifying his actions by saying he had no choice but to eat Jeokdan and spread its scent. Only with his spiritual eyes open could he fully appreciate every single hair of Eunseong.
“Yoo Seongil was afraid of losing his Jeokdan, so he made me do that job too. If he had done it himself, Yoo Oseon might have offered up Eunseong in a pathetic attempt to save his own life.”
“…”
“Thanks to that, now only you and I know about Eunseong.”
His intimidating eyes stared coldly at Director Nam, conveying that only the two of them knew Seo Eunseong was the actual embodiment of the prophecy’s Great Crevice, and that death would be the only consequence for careless disclosure or betrayal.
Seo Jeong-gi was dead, and Yoo Oseon was dead. Eunseong’s existence could be concealed.
“You promised to protect him. That’s why his father entrusted Eunseong to you.”
“Do I look like I’m using him? Like I’m trying to make a child with him or something?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
