After wrapping up things with Professor Geum, I went straight to meet Nam Ju-hyeon.
Nam Ju-hyeon came alone at my call. I put on my mask and stepped in front of her.
“Where did Ms. Lee Hee-won go?”
“Eeek, can you stop popping out like that? I really almost had a heart attack.”
“I’m sorry about that. It’s become a habit to reduce my footsteps.”
At my excuse, Nam Ju-hyeon made an even more disgusted expression and said while pushing back her hair that had fallen forward:
“I left Lee Hee-won behind for a bit. There’s no danger or anything.”
—It seems she’s completely shed her fear of you now.
‘Well, I’m the one who introduced Lee Hye-won in the first place, so it doesn’t make sense for her to bring Lee Hye-won to deal with me either.’
Moreover, considering what we’re going to talk about today, it’s more convenient if that person is absent.
Though only a few days had passed, Nam Ju-hyeon looked a bit different in that time.
She had a face that seemed to have learned a lot from this Kim Seong-deuk incident.
Nam Ju-hyeon, who sighed, said to me:
“In the end, it turned out as you said.”
“Hmm. But it’s still too early to say it’s a complete defeat, isn’t it? The trial and everything haven’t even properly started yet. I just intervened in the middle.”
“Even if the trial had ended, nothing would have changed. In the end, Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk wouldn’t have stood in court.”
Nam Ju-hyeon smiled bitterly at the sense of powerlessness that they failed to even indict Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk despite numerous pieces of evidence.
To begin with, since the prosecution was on their side, I thought it was natural, but the side that confirmed this country called Korea is rotten from the roots seems quite discouraged.
“I feel a bit powerless. I feel like no matter how hard I try, there’s nothing I can change.”
“Still, if it weren’t for you, this incident would have been completely buried.”
“Hmm.”
“I moved because of the evidence you brought too.”
“But you already knew.”
“If I had killed Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk without the story you spread? Then Kim Seong-deuk’s death would have been meaningless. I would have just ended up being a crazy person.”
“But still, not all of Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk’s crimes have been revealed. People still think you’re a crazy person.”
“Well, I don’t care about my image anyway.”
Still, this incident wasn’t completely meaningless.
It could have ended up just spreading as a murder case of a sitting member of the National Assembly, but thanks to Nam Ju-hyeon’s efforts, the Hyeonmu Pharmaceuticals incident keeps surfacing.
Sitting members of the National Assembly will also be scared of me because of this incident. This is just the beginning.
“This is a warning. That you could die if you do bad things.”
If this kind of thing is repeated several times in the future, it will gradually become clear.
That ‘Weltschmerz kills those who commit evil deeds’.
No matter how bad my image is, or whatever. The public will gradually come to believe that ‘bad guys’ die.
“If they don’t want to die, they’ll all be careful for now. They’ll reduce their external actions, and maybe they’ll hesitate a bit every time they commit bad deeds they used to do without thinking.”
That’s enough for now.
At my expression, Nam Ju-hyeon tilted her head. She still had a face that didn’t understand well. Well, I didn’t expect her to understand right away in the first place.
I asked Nam Ju-hyeon:
“What do you plan to do from now on?”
At my question, Nam Ju-hyeon blinked her eyes. Her pupils hidden behind her glasses trembled slightly.
But only for a moment, Nam Ju-hyeon took a deep breath and asked me:
“What do you plan to do?”
Is she suddenly asking how I’ll behave?
“I realized from this incident. You’re not a simple villain, are you?”
Even though she trembled every time she saw me just a few days ago. She asks boldly again.
“What do you mean by not a simple villain?”
Nam Ju-hyeon continued speaking without minding my lukewarm attitude.
“I realized something from this incident. That when enemies fight dirty, I have to fight dirty too!”
“Are you referring to me when you say fighting dirty?”
I quietly pointed at myself with my finger. At my words, Nam Ju-hyeon, whose face turned pale, suddenly waved her hands and said:
“No! I don’t mean you’re dirty! What is it, that finishing move! It’s like a finishing move feeling! Like this side has a trump card too?”
She seemed to be treating me comfortably earlier, but I guess not. Seeing her trembling all over, she still seems afraid of me.
—Even if she had thoughts of treating you comfortably, wouldn’t those thoughts have flown away the moment she saw Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk you finely chopped up?
‘Tsk. I couldn’t let him go peacefully considering what that guy did.’
Nam Ju-hyeon, who gathered herself, glanced at me and continued speaking:
“Anyway, I want to continue doing this work in the future too. I received your help this time, but someday I want to try catching those bad guys with just my own strength. So I’ll keep trying.”
Oh, she’s still bold. Well, she’s not someone who would be discouraged by one failure. Nam Ju-hyeon watched my reaction and asked:
“S-so what do you plan to do from now on?”
“Why are you asking that?”
“As I said earlier, y-you feel like a finishing move to me. I was wondering if I could dare to receive your help in the future too.”
To Nam Ju-hyeon, I, that is, Weltschmerz, must still be an unknown entity. We’re clearly bad guys, but we were strangely cooperative in this incident and ended up helping catch an even worse guy.
Apart from the media calling us bastards who should be killed, we must have become an entity that’s ambiguous to define as evil from Nam Ju-hyeon’s perspective.
Finishing move.
I tilted my head at those words.
“Can you trust me?”
At my words, Nam Ju-hyeon’s face turned pale.
“Huuuh?”
I am a criminal. It’s troublesome if Nam Ju-hyeon perceives me as too much of a ‘good side’.
“But you helped catch Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk this time…”
“Does that make me a good person?”
“Uh, well.”
At times like this, she could give insincere praise, but Nam Ju-hyeon firmly closed her mouth.
—That’s right, the words ‘good guy’ definitely won’t come out.
Well, it’s not like I’m newly hurt.
Rather, it’s more chilling if she sees me in a good light. If she sees me as a good person despite having done so many bad things, she’s the psychopath. Hmm, that’s right.
“You might not know, but I don’t pay taxes in this country.”
At my sudden words, Nam Ju-hyeon looked at me tilting her head. She had a face that didn’t expect a criminal to mention taxes.
“So sometimes I try to clean up bad guys as if paying taxes.”
“Is, is that the concept?”
“Yes, I’m a patriot in my own way.”
At my words, Nam Ju-hyeon’s mouth gaped open. I chuckled and continued speaking:
“Do you have a place to go?”
“Huh?”
“Do you have money?”
At those words, Nam Ju-hyeon’s face turned pale. As she rummaged through her pockets, I wonder what misunderstanding she had. At this point, I’m not even angry.
“I’m not trying to take your money, I’m asking if you have money to use for your activities in the future.”
“Ah! If that’s the case, ah, I don’t have any at all.”
She still has no plans at all.
“Surely you’re not thinking of going back to the house you were living in and going to work with a nonchalant face?”
“Well, that side has already, I’ve taken too many unauthorized absences so I can’t go back…”
After this incident, Nam Ju-hyeon, that is, N, became a public enemy. Since she excitedly spilled information after Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk died, anyone who should know would know the name N.
If it’s discovered that Nam Ju-hyeon is N, she probably won’t be able to die peacefully.
It’s not that I’m ignoring Nam Ju-hyeon’s abilities, but her problem is that she lacks power compared to the abilities she has.
Talent without the strength to protect oneself is no different from misfortune.
“I’ve talked to Professor Geum you met last time, so receive his help from now on.”
I don’t intend to recruit Nam Ju-hyeon into Weltschmerz, but I plan to keep taking care of her in the future. If I put her outside, she’d probably be found dead within days.
“For now, Professor Geum is your caretaker, but I’m your employer.”
“You’re thinking of employing me?”
Nam Ju-hyeon looked at me with a surprised face.
“What on earth do you want me to do…”
“What you need to do is simple.”
I continued speaking to Nam Ju-hyeon:
“Find the bad guys eating away at this country. And dig into their backgrounds and let the people of this world know they’re bad guys. If you mark targets like that…”
I tilted my head.
Though it’s meaningless since all Nam Ju-hyeon sees is a smiling mask, I was smiling.
“I’ll take care of them.”
“Eeeek.”
Nam Ju-hyeon was terrified at my words.
“If you can handle it yourself, I won’t intervene, but as you’ve seen, the villains of this country all tend to get away well.”
“But y-you’re, a villain, aren’t you?”
“I promise. I won’t harm civilians.”
“Those young children…”
“I can’t tell you exactly what happened to those children, but I’ll tell you one thing. I didn’t harm those children.”
At my words, Nam Ju-hyeon narrowed her eyes. It was a face gauging whether she could trust me. But soon Nam Ju-hyeon nodded.
“Alright. At least you don’t seem like someone who would harm innocent children.”
—What is this trust?
At Ray’s words, I internally cleared my throat and asked Nam Ju-hyeon:
“Can you do it well?”
The only thing I can provide is money. It’s all up to Nam Ju-hyeon to chase after bad guys and dig up meaningful evidence.
Nam Ju-hyeon nodded at my question.
“I have a rough idea of how to do it.”
“Ah, if you ever need to write an article related to Weltschmerz…”
I said to Nam Ju-hyeon:
“Don’t try to shield us unnecessarily, just publish the facts as they are.”
Ray, who heard my words, asked:
—Why, isn’t this an opportunity to reform your image?
‘What’s the use of a villain having a good image?’
If she puts up nonsensical shields, it’ll be revealed that I’m behind Nam Ju-hyeon. If that happens, Nam Ju-hyeon’s credibility will fall too. I can’t lose a precious speaker I’ve just gained so ridiculously.
“If possible, it would be good to curse more. To make it look like you and us are completely at odds.”
At my words, Nam Ju-hyeon clenched her fists and said:
“Alright! I’ll curse you thoroughly! So that anyone who sees it will think you’re bastards! Think you’re sons of bitches!”
Ah, you don’t need to try that hard?
* * *
Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk was murdered in his office. The unprecedented incident of a sitting member of the Korean National Assembly being murdered in his office while working. Naturally, Korea was turned upside down, and Yoo Chae-rin, the only psychometry ability user in Korea, had no choice but to come to the scene crying.
Though the gravity of the matter was serious so it was understandable, at the same time she wondered if this was really something only she was needed for.
‘It’s already obvious who the culprit is.’
From the moment she saw the horrible state of the corpse, her mind became so unstable she could develop an anxiety disorder.
Psychometry is not omnipotent. Sometimes she cannot read anything at all.
But in a space imbued with such intense thoughts, she inevitably reads things related to those thoughts.
Since Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk died after horrible torture, the scene Yoo Chae-rin would see was bound to be terrible.
‘I don’t want to see, I really hate this.’
Yoo Chae-rin entered the scene with a crying face.
The scene was covered in blood. The smell of blood that had started to rot after a few days was so unpleasant that just a slight whiff made her feel nauseous.
Yoo Chae-rin bit her lip. Her body trembled. She was afraid and nauseated.
Ugh, Yoo Chae-rin grimaced and placed her palm on the floor where blood stains still remained.
Soon after, what had happened there poured into Yoo Chae-rin’s mind.
“Ah, aah…”
Yoo Chae-rin squeezed her eyes shut. The scene of that day flashed in her mind.
The masked man tore into Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk’s flesh with a sharp dagger. The man whispered to Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk, who was writhing in tremendous pain:
-Even death is not the end. You will feel this current pain eternally.
Those words had a strange persuasiveness.
The moment she heard the words of the masked man, all hope vanished.
Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk sobbed, begging for belated forgiveness, but the man didn’t waver at all. While calmly torturing Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk, the man said:
-You cannot escape even through death.
After all those recollections ended, Yoo Chae-rin staggered to her feet.
Her eyes were wet with tears.
“A devil, he was a devil.”
That’s all she could say.
The image of the man torturing Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk while wearing a smiling mask was no different from a devil.