The next day, I headed to the living room. Seeing me drinking coffee with a nonchalant face, Han Seo-hyeon fell backwards.
“B-Boss! Y-Your arm!”
“Oh, it’s back to normal.”
“Why do you look so unsurprised! What on earth happened last night?”
At those words, I gazed into the distance.
A lot really happened. Thinking about it now, recklessly bursting my mana circuits saying it would regenerate anyway was certainly crazy.
—If Super Regeneration hadn’t activated in time, you would have died.
‘I know.’
But it was really a close call. I didn’t want to waste time for that narrow margin.
Han Seo-hyeon stared at my arm, which had become clean without a single wound, as if fascinated.
“Does it really not hurt anymore?”
“Yeah, it’s completely fine.”
“Oh.”
Kim Jae-ho, who had appeared at some point, was also poking at my arm. I shooed away the two annoying guys.
Anyway, now that my recovery is finished, it’s time to do some cleanup. But before that, there was one thing I needed to find out.
“Where is the Butcher’s corpse?”
“That guy’s corpse?”
“Yeah, we left it behind, right? Who cleaned it up?”
“Why on earth…”
“Obviously because of you. Do you know how hard it is to get the corpse of a high-rank awakener? Plus, he’s a villain with no family. It should be easy for us to acquire it.”
Han Seo-hyeon said he could operate 3 more skeletons thanks to the growth from this incident. Then I should get him a proper one.
Han Seo-hyeon made a sad face when he realized why I was looking for Park Sang-pyeon’s corpse.
“Ugh! I don’t like that person.”
“But he was quite successful when alive. It would be perfect for making a skeleton.”
Han Seo-hyeon nodded reluctantly while still making a displeased face.
“I’ll look into it.”
As Han Seo-hyeon said that, rats gathered around him.
“Wow.”
There seemed to be at least thirty, whereas before there were only five or six. It shows how much Han Seo-hyeon’s skills have improved.
“I think I can find out soon.”
I nodded.
“First, steal the corpse from there.”
“Okay!”
—There’s no one else who would make such a bright face at the words ‘let’s steal a corpse.’
‘Isn’t it because the worry he’s had all this time is gone?’
I decided to understand Han Seo-hyeon. He was clearly happy since my arm had returned.
“Stop poking it.”
I said to Kim Jae-ho, who was still tapping my arm.
Kim Jae-ho moved away from me with an embarrassed face.
That night, we headed to the morgue Han Seo-hyeon had found.
“That was faster than I expected.”
“A lot of information leaked. I guess it’s because it’s a case the whole country is interested in.”
He said he found the location right away after overhearing people’s conversations a few times. Indeed, there’s nothing better than Han Seo-hyeon’s ability for finding something stashed in one place.
The Butcher Park Sang-pyeon had no family. It means there was no one to claim the body. Whether they couldn’t dispose of it carelessly or still had more to investigate, Park Sang-pyeon’s corpse was still in the morgue.
Breaking through the morgue’s surveillance and infiltrating was extremely easy.
The security was lax to begin with since it only housed corpses, and our infiltration skills had improved quite a bit.
Arriving at the morgue, I immediately opened the door where Park Sang-pyeon’s corpse was stored. I lowered Park Sang-pyeon’s corpse to the floor with telekinesis and involuntarily let out a groan.
“Euk.”
The Butcher’s corpse didn’t look in very good condition at a glance. Pierced by dozens of ice spears, mauled by Hound, slashed by Kim Jae-ho. And finally, he stabbed his own heart.
And on top of that, the lightning that fell like divine punishment.
There wasn’t a single intact spot on the corpse that had been torn apart and burned all over.
“Can you make this into a skeleton?”
Han Seo-hyeon nodded at my question.
“The bones aren’t damaged, so it’s fine. Oh, and it seems getting struck by lightning actually worked out well. There’s a lot of residual mana left in the corpse, so I think I can make something beyond a skeleton.”
“Really?”
“Yes, a high-rank corpse is definitely better.”
It’s truly an inhuman conversation to have over a corpse, but the guy before us was a criminal who had massacred countless innocent people.
Now that he’s dead anyway, isn’t it better to use him for saving the world? There’s no better way to recycle.
“But didn’t you say you need consent to make a skeleton?”
The problem is that we need this guy’s consent to make a contract.
He probably won’t agree readily since he died by our hands. Thinking of his personality when alive makes me sick.
“Ah, about that… I think I can somehow persuade him.”
“I see, the persuasion is up to you. Let’s pack him up for now.”
I stuffed the corpse into a lightweight bag. Moving the corpse became Kim Jae-ho’s job since he’s strong. Kim Jae-ho took the corpse from me obediently while making a very reluctant face.
Before leaving the morgue, I left our symbol and carved a message.
It was a message breaking our silence so far.
* * *
“Weltschmerz has appeared!”
At that news, Do Chae-hee dropped what she was doing and immediately headed to the morgue. The details could be heard on the way. Kim Yong-won, a still inexperienced team member, asked Do Chae-hee as she arrived at the scene:
“Why on earth did they steal Park Sang-pyeon’s corpse?”
“Weltschmerz has a necromancer.”
Weltschmerz left the same signature they had been leaving at their scenes, as if they wanted to make it known it was them who took the Butcher’s corpse. The difference from other scenes was that there was one more short message in English below it.
[You can’t run away from Tod.]
“You can’t run away from Tod?”
As Do Chae-hee was interpreting the English, a familiar voice was heard behind her.
“Ah, that. It seems to be the German word ‘Tod’. It means death. So the interpretation would be ‘You can’t run away from death’. It’s actually true. Park Sang-pyeon died, but they even took his corpse to make an undead.”
Park Cheol-wan entered, nodding briefly to greet team members at the scene.
“So you’re saying this ‘death’ that you can’t run away from refers to Han Seo-hyeon?”
“That’s likely the case. The first letter is capitalized. It’s a name. Tod. That would be Han Seo-hyeon’s villain name.”
Park Cheol-wan added:
“They could have made Park Sang-pyeon’s corpse into an undead at the scene, but they deliberately raided the morgue probably because they wanted to show off this fact as much as possible.”
They caused this incident when interest in Weltschmerz, who had been silent for a week after the duel with the Butcher, was at its peak.
Do Chae-hee looked at Park Cheol-wan with shining eyes. Park Cheol-wan’s deductive skills were certainly amazing. As if proving he hadn’t wasted his years of experience, Park Cheol-wan quickly organized the scene and drew conclusions.
Park Cheol-wan sighed and said:
“Their intentions are so transparent that I want to prevent this story from spreading as much as possible, but…”
The whole nation’s interest in Weltschmerz wasn’t something that could be stopped even if they tried. This story would spread soon.
Gossipmongers would spread this story and embellish it as they pleased.
“There’s no better material for sensational talk than this.”
“I guess you’re right.”
Even though one of their members became publicly wanted, Weltschmerz wasn’t intimidated at all. Rather, they even left this warning using that publicly wanted Han Seo-hyeon.
It’s a response that seems like they were even waiting for Han Seo-hyeon’s information to spread after becoming publicly wanted.
If information about Han Seo-hyeon hadn’t spread, no one would have been afraid even if the corpse disappeared. But now everyone knows.
What Weltschmerz will do with that corpse.
“Haah.”
Another sigh escaped Do Chae-hee’s mouth.
“Nothing was caught on CCTV. It’s clean.”
“Where did the information leak? How did they find out about this place?”
“I don’t know that either. It’s like at the auction.”
It was truly admirably clean work. She had rushed to the scene, but it was another dead end. Do Chae-hee’s eyes narrowed.
“Has the psychometry ability user not been recruited yet?”
“They’re coming tomorrow, tomorrow. They’re knocked out right now.”
Psychometry was an ability that was very burdensome for the user. They constantly had headaches because unwanted information also poured in every time they used it, and their mental strength was worn down from seeing countless horrific scenes.
As such, they are precious talents who don’t enter just any scene.
They succeeded in getting psychometry assigned as the whole nation’s attention was focused on this case, but it means they can’t recklessly read every scene.
As if reading Do Chae-hee’s thoughts, Park Cheol-wan carefully opened his mouth.
“I’m wondering if we really need to call them here. What they’ll read here is obvious. Those guys wouldn’t have left their faces behind.”
“So we don’t call them to this place where it’s obvious they came?”
“Who said we’re not calling them? We called them, so put that mouth away. You’ll stab me soon at this rate.”
Do Chae-hee finally put her mouth away at those words.
“Yes.”
But you never know. Maybe that psychometry will provide decisive evidence for arresting them.
Do Chae-hee still hadn’t given up hope.
* * *
As Do Chae-hee and Park Cheol-wan expected, this news spread to the world immediately.
You can’t run away even from death!
To think they would use the fact that they have a necromancer like this!
Some said Weltschmerz were definitely vicious villains as expected. And some said what’s the problem since they dealt with a villain anyway.
In any case, the public found this fact quite horrifying.
But unlike the public, there were those who welcomed this fact.
“They’re definitely crazy!”
Those who had risen to the Top welcomed Weltschmerz’s actions. Especially Gemini sincerely thought Weltschmerz’s method was genius.
“Isn’t it similar to auntie? Just like auntie makes dolls, they drag around their own army made from enemies.”
The Puppeteer only nodded at Gemini’s words. Her eyes, which had lost passion long ago, remained deeply sunken even in this situation.
Gemini involuntarily turned her gaze to the now empty chair, avoiding her uninteresting reaction.
“Ah, I wish the old man would come back soon.”
At that moment, the old man Gemini was eagerly waiting for was setting foot at the place where Weltschmerz and the Butcher had clashed.
Although they tried to clean up the scene thoroughly, it hadn’t even been 10 days since the incident. The traces of battle still remained intact.
The black robe slowly moved his hand.
Blood that had seeped into the ground began to rise.
Although it had clearly dried up long ago, the blood droplets gathering at Chu Ma-geol’s fingertips were as vividly red as if they had just flowed.
The blood droplets slowly began to move following Chu Ma-geol’s fingertips. Chu Ma-geol slowly moved his steps following the direction the blood droplets guided.