Puppeteer III
As I mentioned earlier, I was neither a detective nor a cop. My deductions spanned both the past and the future.
That was why I could pull off such tricks.
“Puppeteer is my daughter.”
“What?”
“Puppeteer. Ha-yul. Lee Ha-yul. She’s my daughter.”
19th cycle.
I deliberately followed the same steps as the previous cycle and came to Fukuoka.
Unless the butterfly effect intervened, the law of causality was strict. Jung Sang-guk, just as he did in the last cycle, said, “I’ll contact my daughter. Please wait at the lodging for a few days.”
The difference in the 19th cycle was that instead of eagerly heading to the lodging to enjoy the hot springs, this time, I secretly followed Jung Sang-guk.
A detective who catches only the crime without deducing the criminal’s past is third-rate. A detective who reveals the past events that led to the criminal’s wayward path is merely second-rate.
A true first-rate detective tracks the crime to unfold and witnesses all the causes in real-time.
Is that even a detective? If you’re upset about it, awaken the regression ability. The contract condition is that you must slay the Ten Legs and other monstrosities. It’s that simple, right?
Knock, knock.
Jung Sang-guk headed to the 'House of Dolls' as soon as the drinking party ended. After a few knocks, the housekeeper appeared.
So far, everything was normal.
The abnormality began immediately after.
“I’m back.”
Bowing, Jung Sang-guk lowered his head.
It was Jung Sang-guk, not the housekeeper, who bowed. Jung Sang-guk bowed to the housekeeper.
I couldn’t help but widen my eyes. Then, just as my mouth was about to drop open, the housekeeper spoke.
“Come in.”
“Yes.”
The Prime Minister of the Second Provisional Government of Korea followed the housekeeper inside as if it were natural.
“…….”
What on earth was going on?
Feeling as if I had seen a ghost, I clung close to the 'House of Dolls.'
Though my sight was blocked by the wall, my aura-enhanced hearing assisted my eavesdropping.
“How was the meeting?”
“Uneventful.”
“What’s Undertaker’s goal?”
“He wants to take Ms. Ha-yul to the academy.”
Murmur.
Their voices carried through the wall. Jung Sang-guk spoke with utmost respect but also with a hint of fear, while the housekeeper was cold and mechanical.
“Academy?”
That voice, precisely speaking, pronounced ‘a/ca/de/my’ in a segmented manner.
“Yes. He aims to gather and train talented awakeners like Ms. Ha-yul.”
“…….”
Ms. Ha-yul?
He called his own daughter 'Ms. Ha-yul'?
“I received the curriculum. Here. I read through it once, and it seems quite plausible. Sword Star is the principal, the Undertaker is the vice-principal, and Dang Seo-rin is an honorary professor…”
“So?”
“Excuse me?”
“Did you accept it?”
“No, no! How could I? I couldn’t make such a decision alone, so I arranged for him to stay at an inn in the city. He’ll stay put for about two days.”
Silence.
“He left during the meeting.”
“…Excuse me?”
“He went out during the drinking party. Alone with the Undertaker. What did you talk about?”
“Ah… Just stepped out for a smoke. Nothing much.”
“Liar.”
A chill ran down my spine.
‘How does she know that?’
There was definitely no one around when Jung Sang-guk and I talked alone. Could it be that someone from the provisional government at the party leaked information to the housekeeper?
Was this seemingly ordinary middle-aged housekeeper really the one pulling the strings behind the provisional government?
The questions didn’t last long. Soon, crucial testimony spilled from Jung Sang-guk’s mouth.
“Come down. Downstairs.”
At the command to come downstairs, Jung Sang-guk, who had maintained his composure, began to panic.
“Please, believe me! Ms. Ha-yul! Please, I beg you! Just spare the Doll Room!”
My jaw dropped.
“Lee Ha-yul!”
There was no mistake. Jung Sang-guk had addressed the housekeeper as 'Ms. Ha-yul.'
It made no sense unless Jung Sang-guk was senile and couldn’t tell his daughter’s face from the housekeeper’s.
There was no way the housekeeper and Lee Ha-yul were the same person. The housekeeper was in her 40s. In contrast, the corpse of Lee Ha-yul I saw in the previous cycle couldn’t have been older than her early 20s.
Thus.
‘Lee Ha-yul was controlling the housekeeper!’
Puppeteer.
Whoever gave her that name was spot on. I surmised that Lee Ha-yul had the ability to control people.
The housekeeper was a marionette. A puppet of Lee Ha-yul.
And not just the housekeeper.
I recalled the 'countless requests for handshakes' from the provisional government officials when I arrived in Fukuoka. The ministers of foreign affairs, finance, justice, and the interior. Their hugs felt strangely stiff.
‘Are the high-ranking officials of the provisional government marionettes too? All of them? Or only some? If only some, how far?’
In the 18th cycle, I had never imagined this truth, and it struck me like a shockwave.
In some sense, Old Man Scho was right.
“Come down. I’ve said it twice.”
“Please, please…”
The plea was cut off.
Jung Sang-guk could no longer articulate words. Only faint sounds like 'ugh- heok, guk-' could be heard.
The human ear was not so precise. Understanding everything by sound alone was difficult, but I could guess that Jung Sang-guk’s mouth was blocked by something.
“Hmmph…”
Jung Sang-guk struggled.
Given that an adult man couldn’t put up a proper fight, it was likely he was subdued by some abnormal means.
Cobwebs.
I recalled the cobwebs that had bound the housekeeper and Jung Sang-guk’s corpses. And the cobwebs that covered the House of Dolls.
Perhaps they weren’t cobwebs but 'puppet strings.'
“Hmmph…”
The sound of a body being dragged. The vibrations from the first floor gradually subsided.
I quickly understood the situation. Jung Sang-guk was being dragged to the basement by the housekeeper.
There was no more sound to be heard. The walls were too thick. My aura, accumulated over the 18 cycles, could only reach so far.
The basement. That must be the true lair of the Puppeteer.
Once again, my decision was swift.
I decided to break in.
An outstanding awakener has an exceptional memory. To survive the void, you must know how to remember various rules.
There is a proverb that is almost like common knowledge.
-A well-built awakener’s lair is comparable to the void.
Personally, I think it’s somewhat exaggerated, but it means to be cautious.
For example, every train Dang Seo-rin used as her lair had a robust security system.
Unwelcome guests who entered without a 'train ticket' would learn how wonderful a killing machine a train could be.
This place was no different.
The 'House of Dolls' I visited in the last cycle was already an empty shell left after its owner died.
When I visited the first time, the Puppeteer must have deliberately lifted the security. They needed me to witness the housekeeper's death and return to the lodging.
-Click, click, click.
In other words, this was the first time I had set foot in the lair of the House of Dolls in its true sense.
The clicking noise echoed from all directions as soon as I burst through the door. The dolls were making the noise.
Entrance. Hallway. Ceiling.
Marionettes hung by puppet strings fiercely moved their jaws.
Along with the clicking of the jaws, the dolls’ joints creaked. Their blue, black, yellow, and red eyes rotated.
-Click, click, click, click.
A territorial marking. A signal to alert of an intruder.
And preprogrammed movements to eliminate impurities.
The marionettes’ movements were clearly meticulously calculated.
Their joints creaked like piano keys, the strings swayed, and a faint golden aura was present in the puppet strings.
‘Aura!’
At the time, the only ones who had mastered the use of aura were Old Man Scho and me. It was a specialty of the Freiheit Academy.
The puppet show unfolding before me was solely self-taught.
‘Not only can she control people, but she can also imbue the puppet strings with aura!’
I was impressed but didn’t hesitate.
Like the famous opening scene of the movie Cube, semi-transparent threads tightened from all directions. Any ordinary human would be dismembered just by touching them.
Fortunately or unfortunately, my life was far from ordinary.
I jumped in headfirst without using a sword, wrapping my entire body in aura.
Swish—slash, slash, slash! The puppet strings, charging with killing intent, snapped as soon as they touched my body.
-Click, click, click, click.
The dolls moved even more frantically. The mass of cobwebs multiplied exponentially.
But it was useless.
Old Man Scho had evaluated me as ‘5th rate in martial talent, but top-class in aura talent.’ It was as if my external skills were compensated by internal energy.
And I had the [Resume] skill. A skill that carried over my physical abilities, including muscle strength and other body capabilities, into the next cycle.
That included the amount of aura.
In martial arts terms, by the 19th cycle, my internal energy had already surpassed a full 60 years.
Crack!
I reached out and crushed the head of a doll. The dolls swung up and down on the strings but couldn’t escape my grasp.
No matter how power-crazed the monstrosities of this world were, 60 years of cultivation was a lifetime achievement for a human.
I had spent that lifetime on the battlefield.
The awakeners entrenched in the relatively safe rear of Fukuoka couldn’t withstand my life.
-......!
The entrance was breached. The hallway and living room were successively neutralized. About 300 dolls crumbled in my hands.
Soon the murderous cobwebs also calmed down. The precise arrangement of the dolls must have been the core of this lair’s security system.
High-level awakening abilities. Excellent understanding of her powers. Prudence in not revealing her true form. Bold and decisive actions. Mastery of aura at a young age, learned independently. Precise calculation abilities.
...The test was over. Although I didn’t want to admit it, Old Man Scho’s intuition was correct.
A prodigy. The Puppeteer was certainly worth recruiting.
Even if she had no legs, that wasn’t a significant hindrance. She might not be able to fight on the front lines, but she had enormous potential as a support member.
“Lee Ha-yul. Are you listening?”
Silence.
“I am the Undertaker. Colleague of the Sword Star and the Great Witch. I apologize for barging in like this. It was my fault.”
Silence.
“Lee Ha-yul. I want to talk to you. I used force to demonstrate my skills. I could break into the basement, but I don’t want our relationship to start off on the wrong foot.”
Silence.
“My goal is to persuade you to join the academy in Korea. Give me a chance to convince you.”
Creak.
The basement door opened.
“Come in.”
The housekeeper was holding the doorknob. Hearing her voice up close, the mechanical tone was even more apparent.
On reflection, the ideal form of machinery for humans had always been dolls, from paper and clockwork to AI chips.
Thus, the term mechanical sound could be corrected to doll sound without much error.
I passed the housekeeper and stepped into the basement. Thud. The heavy iron door closed behind me.
“…….”
Finally, I made eye contact with Lee Ha-yul herself.
This was the first time. In the previous cycle, her corpse had its eyes closed.
Golden eyes.
Light chestnut hair.
A legless girl.
Sometimes an awakener’s manifestation altered their hair and eye colors. The girl sitting in the wheelchair had a completely different hue from her father, Jung Sang-guk.
“Ugh! Hmmph, ugh…”
Jung Sang-guk, who had been dragged here earlier, was also in a wheelchair.
In terms of mobility issues, he was worse off than his daughter. Though he had legs, his entire body was bound tightly with puppet strings, like prey caught in a spider web.
Moreover, his fingernails were freshly dripping blood.
‘...Ah.’
Hmm.
That’s why Jung Sang-guk wore gloves in the 18th cycle.
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