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Chapter 60 – The Puppeteer III
Chapter 60 – The Puppeteer III
[Translator – Jjsecus]
[Proofreader – Gun]
Chapter 60 – The Puppeteer III
7
As I mentioned earlier, I am neither a detective nor a police officer. My domain of deduction spans not just the past but also the future.
That’s why I can pull off feats like this.
“The Puppeteer is my daughter.”
“Excuse me?”
“The Puppeteer. Yul. Lee Hayul. She is my daughter.”
19th turn.
I deliberately followed the same steps as in the previous turn to travel to Fukuoka.
As long as the butterfly effect didn’t interfere, causality was strict. Jung Sangguk said the same thing as in the last turn: “I’ll contact my daughter, so please wait at the hotel for a few days.”
What changed in the 19th turn was that, instead of excitedly rushing to the hotel to enjoy the hot springs, I secretly tailed Jung Sangguk.
A third-rate detective arrests the criminal without inferring their past. A second-rate detective uncovers the criminal’s twisted history. A true first-rate detective tracks the upcoming crime and witnesses all the causes in real-time.
You think that doesn’t make sense? Well, if you don’t like it, you can awaken the ability to regress. Just remember, there’s a catch—you have to exterminate all kinds of anomalies, including the Ten Clans. Sounds easy, right?
Knock knock.
Jung Sangguk headed straight to the ‘House of Dolls’ after our drinking session. When he knocked on the door a few times, the housekeeper appeared.
Up to this point, everything seemed normal.
The abnormality started right after.
“I’m back.”
With a bow, Jung Sangguk lowered his head.
Not the housekeeper, but Jung Sangguk bowed to the housekeeper.
I couldn’t help but widen my eyes. Just as my jaw was about to drop, the housekeeper spoke.
“Come in.”
“Yes.”
The Prime Minister of the Second Provisional Government of Korea followed the housekeeper inside without hesitation.
“……”
What on earth is going on?
Feeling like I was possessed, I pressed myself against the ‘House of Dolls.’
My vision was blocked by the wall, but my aura-enhanced hearing helped me eavesdrop.
“How was the meeting?”
“Ordinary.”
“What does Doctor Jang want?”
“He wants to take Hayul to the academy.”
Murmur.
The voices of the two people traveled over the wall. Jung Sangguk spoke politely but with a hint of fear, while the housekeeper’s tone was cold and mechanical.
“Academy?”
Just now, the voice also sounded like it was distinctly breaking down the word “a/ca/de/my.”
“Yes. He said he wants to gather talented awakened ones like Hayul-nim and train them.”
“……”
Hayul nim?
He was referring to his own daughter with an honorific?
“I also received the curriculum. Here. I read through it once, and it seemed quite plausible. The principal is the Sword Saint, the vice principal is Doctor Jang, and even Tang Seorin is listed as an honorary professor…”
“So?”
“Excuse me?”
“Did you accept?”
“No, no! How could I dare? I couldn’t decide alone, so I booked him a room at a city inn. He should be staying put for the next two days.”
Silence.
“You went out.”
“…Excuse me?”
“During the drinking session. You went out alone with Doctor Jang. What did you talk about?”
“Oh… We just stepped out for a smoke. We didn’t talk about anything significant.”
“Lies.”
A chill ran down my spine.
‘How does she know that?’
When Jung Sangguk and I talked, there was absolutely no one around. Could it be that someone from the Provisional Government at the table leaked information to the housekeeper?
Could this seemingly ordinary housekeeper really be the mastermind controlling the Provisional Government from behind the scenes?
The questions didn’t linger for long. Soon, Jung Sangguk made a decisive confession.
“Come down. Below.”
At the command to come down, Jung Sangguk, who had been maintaining his composure, panicked.
“I swear, Hayul-nim! Please believe me! Please, I beg you! Spare the puppet room!”
My jaw dropped.
‘Lee Hayul!’
There was no doubt. Jung Sangguk had just referred to the housekeeper as ‘Hayul-nim.’
It was absurd unless Jung Sangguk had dementia and couldn’t tell the difference between the housekeeper and his own daughter.
There was no way the housekeeper and Lee Hayul were the same person. The housekeeper was in her forties. The body of Lee Hayul I saw in the previous turn couldn’t have been older than her early twenties.
In other words…
‘Lee Hayul is controlling the housekeeper!’
The Puppeteer.
Whoever came up with that name was spot on. I suspected Lee Hayul had the [ability to control people].
The housekeeper was a marionette. She was practically Lee Hayul’s puppet.
But it wasn’t just the housekeeper.
I remembered when I arrived in Fukuoka and received countless handshakes from Provisional Government officials. The Foreign Minister, the Finance Minister, the Justice Minister, and the Interior Minister. Their embraces had felt oddly stiff.
‘Are the high-ranking officials of the Provisional Government also marionettes? All of them? Or just some? If some, then how many?’
The realization of a truth I hadn’t considered in the 18th turn left me stunned.
In a way, Old Scho was right.
“Come down. I said it twice.”
“Please, please…”
The next words never came.
They couldn’t.
Jung Sangguk could no longer speak. Only faint sounds of choking and gurgling could be heard.
The human ear isn’t that precise. Understanding everything through sound alone was difficult. But I could infer that something had silenced Jung Sangguk.
“Hmph…!”
Jung Sangguk struggled.
Considering that an adult man couldn’t put up much of a fight, it was likely that his body was subdued by some unnatural means.
Spider webs.
I recalled the webs that had bound the housekeeper and Jung Sangguk’s corpses. The webs that covered the dollhouse.
Maybe those weren’t spider webs but ‘puppet strings.’
“Mmff…!”
Srrrrk.
The sound of a body being dragged. The vibrations from the first floor gradually subsided.
I quickly grasped the situation. Jung Sangguk was being dragged to the basement by the housekeeper.
No more discernible sounds reached me. The walls were too thick. This was the limit of the aura I had cultivated in the 18th turn.
The basement. That must be the true lair of the Puppeteer.
Once again, my decision was swift.
I resolved to break in.
[Translator – Jjsecus]
[Proofreader – Gun]
A skilled awakener has exceptional memory. To survive the void, you must memorize numerous rules.
One commonly known saying goes:
– A well-constructed lair of an awakener is comparable to the void.
Personally, I find this a bit exaggerated, but it underscores the need for caution.
For example, the trains used as bases by Tang Seorin are equipped with formidable security systems.
Uninvited guests who board without a ‘ticket’ quickly learn just how deadly those trains can be.
This place was no different.
The ‘dollhouse’ I visited in the last turn was just an empty shell left after its master had died.
When I first visited, the Puppeteer must have deliberately lowered the security. She needed me to witness the housekeeper’s death and return to my lodging.
– Click. Click. Click.
In short, this was my first true entry into the lair known as the dollhouse.
As soon as I blew the door open and rushed in, clicking noises echoed from all directions. The sound came from the dolls.
The foyer. The hallway. The ceiling.
Marionettes hung on ‘puppet strings’ frantically moved their jaws.
With each click of their jaws, the dolls’ joints creaked. Blue, black, yellow, and red eyes swiveled.
– Click-click-click-click.
Territorial marking. A signal to alert of an intruder.
They were also following a pre-programmed process to eliminate impurities.
It was evident that the marionettes’ movements were meticulously calculated.
Their joints creaked like piano keys, the strings vibrated, and a faint golden aura was embedded in the puppet strings.
‘Aura!’
At the time, the technique to wield aura was exclusively held by Old Scho and myself. It was a specialty of Freiheit Academy.
So the aura-laden puppet show unfolding before me was entirely self-taught.
‘Not only can she control people, but she can also infuse aura into the puppet strings!’
I was impressed but didn’t hesitate.
Like the famous opening scene of the movie *Cube*, half-transparent strings closed in from all directions. Ordinary humans would be dismembered on contact.
Fortunately or unfortunately, my life was far from ordinary.
Without drawing my sword, I threw myself forward, enveloping my entire body in aura.
Swish— thwack! thwack! Thwack!
The deadly puppet strings snapped the moment they touched my body.
– Click-click-click.
The dolls thrashed even more noisily. The density of the webs doubled, quadrupled, octupled, exponentially increasing.
But it was useless.
When Old Scho evaluated me, he said, “Your talent in martial arts is fifth-rate, but your talent in aura is top-notch.” I compensated for external strength with internal energy.
And I had the [Continue] skill. It allowed my physical abilities, including muscle memory, to carry over to the next turn.
That included the amount of aura I possessed.
In martial arts terms, my internal energy in the 19th turn had already surpassed one full cycle.
Crack!
I reached out and crushed the head of a doll. The dolls swung incessantly on their strings, moving up, down, left, and right, but they couldn’t evade my grasp.
No matter how power-inflated and overrun with anomalies this world was, reaching one full cycle of internal energy normally required a lifetime of dedication.
I had spent that lifetime on the battlefield.
An awakener hiding in the relatively safe rear guard of Fukuoka could not withstand such a life.
-…!
The foyer was breached. The hallway and living room were neutralized one by one. Nearly 300 dolls were crushed by my hands.
Soon, even the deadly webs calmed down. The intricate arrangement of the dolls had been the key component of the lair’s security system.
High-level awakening ability. Exceptional understanding of one’s own power. Caution without revealing one’s true form. Bold and decisive actions. Mastery of aura self-taught at a young age. Precise calculation skills.
…The test was over. Though I didn’t want to admit it, Old Scho’s intuition was right.
A genius. Without a doubt, the Puppeteer was a talent worth recruiting.
Even without legs, it wasn’t a significant hindrance. While she couldn’t physically be on the battlefield, she had immense potential as a support operative.
“Lee Hayul. Are you listening?”
Silence.
“I am Doctor Jang. A colleague of the Sword Saint and the Great Witch. I apologize for barging in like this. It was my mistake.”
Silence.
“Lee Hayul. I want to talk to you. I used force to show my skill. I could storm into the basement, but I don’t want our relationship to be strained from the start.”
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 the voice up close, the mechanical tone was even more pronounced.
On reflection, humanity has always envisioned the ultimate machine, the pinnacle of technology, as a doll, whether made of paper, springs, or AI chips.
Therefore, it wouldn’t be wrong to replace the term ‘mechanical voice’ with ‘doll voice.’
I passed by the housekeeper and stepped into the basement. Thud. The heavy iron door closed behind me.
“……”
Finally, I could meet Lee Hayul herself.
This was also a first. In the last turn, her corpse had its eyes closed.
Golden eyes.
Light brown hair.
A girl with no legs.
Sometimes the awakening process changes the color of hair and pupils. The girl in the wheelchair had colors that bore no resemblance to her father, Jung Sangguk.
“Mm! Mmff, bmmff…!”
Jung Sangguk, who had been dragged away earlier, was also in a wheelchair.
In terms of mobility issues, the father’s condition was actually more severe than the daughter’s. Though he had both legs intact, his entire body was tightly bound with puppet strings. He was like prey caught in a spider’s web.
Even his fingernails were dripping blood, as if they had just been freshly mutilated.
‘…Ah.’
Right.
That’s why the Jung Sangguk of the 18th turn had been wearing gloves.
[Translator – Jjsecus]
[Proofreader – Gun]