Chapter 60
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The Controller III
Shin No-a
7
As I mentioned earlier, I was neither a detective nor an investigator. The domain of my deductions spanned not just the past but extended all the way into the future.
That's why even this kind of feat was possible.
"The Puppet Master is my daughter."
"Excuse me?"
"The Puppet Master. Yul. Lee Ha-yul. She is my daughter."
19th iteration.
I deliberately followed the exact same sequence as the previous iteration and came to Fukuoka on a business trip.
Unless the butterfly effect intervened, the law of causality was strict. Just like in the last iteration, Jeon Sang-guk said, "I'll contact my daughter, so please wait at your lodgings for a few days."
The difference in the 19th iteration was that whereas before I had excitedly rushed to the lodgings to enjoy the hot springs, this time I secretly tailed Jeon Sang-guk.
A third-rate detective catches the crime without deducing the perpetrator's past. A second-rate detective merely uncovers the past events that twisted the culprit.
A true first-rate detective tracks the crime as it unfolds, witnessing all causes in real-time at the scene.
What kind of detective is that? If you don't like it, just awaken a regression ability. Of course, it comes with the contractual condition of having to subdue the Ten Clans and various other abominations. Easy, right?
Knock knock-
As soon as the drinking party ended, Jeon Sang-guk headed for the 'Doll House.' After knocking on the doorknob a few times, the housekeeper appeared.
Up to this point, it was a normal scene.
The abnormality began right after.
"I'm home."
Bow. Jeon Sang-guk lowered his head.
It wasn't the housekeeper—it was Jeon Sang-guk, bowing toward the housekeeper.
I couldn't suppress my ocular dilation syndrome. Just as I was about to develop oral cavity expansion syndrome, the housekeeper spoke.
"Come in."
"Yes."
The Prime Minister of the Second Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea followed the housekeeper inside as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"……."
What on earth was going on?
Feeling like I was possessed by a ghost, I pressed close to the 'Doll House.'
Though my view was blocked by the wall, my aura-enhanced hearing assisted my eavesdropping operation.
"How was the gathering?"
"It was ordinary."
"What was the funeral director's purpose?"
"He said he wanted to take Ha-yul to the Academy."
Murmur murmur.
The two voices came over the wall. Jeon Sang-guk was meticulously polite yet somehow fearful, while the housekeeper was cold like a machine.
"Academy?"
Just now, this voice too—to be precise—had a strong sensation of being stiffly segmented like 'A/ca/de/my.'
"Yes. He said the purpose is to gather and train awakeners with outstanding aptitude like Ha-yul."
"……."
Ha-yul?
Adding the honorific 'nim' to his own daughter?
"I received the curriculum too. Here. I read through it once, and it looks quite plausible. The Sword Saint as principal, the funeral director as vice principal, and Dang Seo-rin as honorary professor……."
"And?"
"Excuse me?"
"Did you accept?"
"No. No! How could I dare. I couldn't make the judgment on my own, so I arranged lodgings at an inn in the city and came back. He'll probably stay put for about two days."
Silence.
"You went out in the middle."
"…Yes?"
"During the drinking party. You went out alone with the funeral director. What did you talk about then?"
"Ah……. I just went out for a smoke. We didn't have any particular conversation."
"Lie."
Goosebumps rose on my back.
'How does she know that?'
When Jeon Sang-guk and I were talking alone, there was certainly no one around. Could someone from the Provisional Government who was at the drinking party have leaked information to the housekeeper?
Could that seemingly ordinary housekeeper in her 40s really be the mastermind controlling the Provisional Government from the shadows?
The questions didn't linger long. Soon, decisive testimony spilled from Jeon Sang-guk's mouth.
"Come down. Down below."
At the command to come down, Jeon Sang-guk, who had maintained his composure until then, went into convulsions.
"I-I'm telling the truth! Ha-yul! Please believe me! Please, I beg you! Please forgive me for the doll room!"
My jaw dropped.
'Lee Ha-yul!'
It was certain. Just now, Jeon Sang-guk had addressed the housekeeper as 'Ha-yul.'
Unless Jeon Sang-guk had dementia and couldn't recognize the faces of the housekeeper and his daughter, this made no sense.
The housekeeper and Lee Ha-yul couldn't be the same person. The housekeeper was in her 40s. Meanwhile, Lee Ha-yul's corpse I saw in the previous iteration was at most in her early 20s.
In other words.
'Lee Ha-yul was controlling the housekeeper!'
Puppet Master.
Whoever coined it, it was truly an accurate epithet. Presumably, Lee Ha-yul possessed the [ability to control people].
The housekeeper was a marionette. No different from Lee Ha-yul's alter ego.
No, it wasn't just the housekeeper.
I recalled the 'countless handshake requests' I received from Provisional Government officials when we docked in Fukuoka. The Foreign Minister, Finance Minister, Justice Minister, Interior Minister. Their embraces were somehow stiff.
'Are the high-ranking officials of the Provisional Government also marionettes? All of them? Or just some? If some, how far?'
Shock reverberated through my head at the truth I had never imagined in the 18th iteration.
In a way, Old Man Sho was right.
"Come down. I said it twice."
"Please, please……."
Please—the next words didn't continue.
Couldn't continue.
Jeon Sang-guk could no longer pronounce words. Only mute sounds like 'Urk- huk, kkak-' came faintly.
Human ears weren't that precise. It was difficult to understand the entire situation through hearing alone. However, I could guess that Jeon Sang-guk's mouth had been sealed by something.
"Huuup……!"
Jeon Sang-guk flailed.
Judging by the fact that a grown man wasn't resisting much, I could surmise that his body had been subdued through abnormal means.
Spiderwebs.
I recalled the spiderwebs that had been tightly binding the housekeeper and Jeon Sang-guk's corpses. Also the spiderwebs plastered throughout the Doll House.
Perhaps those weren't spiderwebs but 'puppet strings'?
"Uuub……!"
Srrrk.
The sound of a human body being dragged. The height of the vibration coming from the first floor gradually lowered.
I quickly grasped the situation. Jeon Sang-guk was being dragged to the basement by the housekeeper's hand.
No proper sound was detected anymore. The wall was too thick. With the level of aura I had built up in the 18th iteration, this was the limit.
The basement. That would be the Puppet Master's true hideout.
My judgment was swift again.
I decided to breach.
8
Outstanding awakeners have exceptional memory. To survive in the Void, one must be able to memorize various rules.
Among them, there's a maxim that circulates like common sense.
-A well-constructed awakener's hideout is comparable to the Void.
Personally, I think it's somewhat exaggerated, but I suppose it means to be that careful.
For example, the trains Dang Seo-rin uses as hideouts invariably have powerful security systems constructed.
Uninvited guests who enter without obtaining a 'train ticket' will learn just how excellent a killing machine a train can be.
This place was the same.
The 'Doll House' I visited last in the previous iteration was merely an empty shell left after the owner had already died.
When I first visited, the Puppet Master probably lifted security on purpose. She needed to induce me to witness the housekeeper's death and return to my lodgings.
-Click. Click. Click.
In other words, this was the first time I had truly set foot in the Doll House as a proper hideout.
The moment I blew open the door and breached, clicking noises resonated from all directions. The dolls had made the sounds.
Entrance. Hallway. Ceiling.
Marionettes hanging from 'puppet strings' moved their jaws fiercely.
Along with the jaw sounds, the dolls' joints creaked. Blue, black, yellow, and red eyeballs rotated.
-Click click click click.
Territory marking. A signal announcing an intruder.
And an action to eliminate impurities according to pre-input processes.
The marionettes' movements were clearly meticulously calculated.
Their joints creaked like piano keys while strings fluctuated, and the puppet strings contained a faint golden ominous energy.
'Aura!'
At that time, the aura manipulation method was monopolized by Old Man Sho and me. You could call it a specialty of Freyheit Academy.
That meant the aura puppetry unfolding before my eyes was purely self-taught.
'Not only controlling people, but she could also imbue puppet strings with aura!'
I was inwardly impressed, but I didn't hesitate.
Like that famous opening scene from the movie
Fortunately or unfortunately, my life was far from ordinary.
I didn't use a sword but charged in recklessly with my whole body. Instead, I wrapped my entire body in aura.
Fwish- Tat! Tat! Tat! The puppet strings flying at me with killing intent snapped the moment they touched my body.
-Click click click click.
The dolls thrashed even more noisily. The mass of the spiderwebs doubled, quadrupled, octupled, increasing exponentially.
But it was useless.
As Old Man Sho evaluated, I was 'fifth-rate in martial arts talent, transcendental in aura talent.' It was like making up for external arts with internal arts.
And I had the [Continue] skill. A skill where physical abilities like muscles were continuously inherited to the next iteration.
That included the quantity of aura as well.
In wuxia terms, my internal energy had already exceeded one jiaja in the 19th iteration.
Crush!
I reached out and burst a doll's head. The dolls moved ceaselessly up, down, left, and right along the strings, but they couldn't avoid my grasp.
No matter how this world was a heaven of abominations gone mad with power inflation, one jiaja was originally a realm requiring a human's entire lifetime of cultivation.
I had spent that entire lifetime on the battlefield.
It wasn't a life that some awakener coiled up in Fukuoka, which belonged to the relatively safe rear, could block.
-……!
The entrance was breached. The hallway and living room were neutralized one after another. All 300-some dolls were utterly destroyed in my hands.
Soon, the killer spiderwebs quieted down. The dolls' elaborate placement must have been the core of this hideout's security system.
High level of awakening ability. Excellent understanding of one's own ability. Caution not to reveal one's true form. Bold and daring methods. Aura manipulation self-taught at a young age. Precise calculation ability.
…The test was over. I didn't want to admit it, but in the end, Old Man Sho's hunch was correct.
Outstanding talent. Without a doubt, the Puppet Master was a talent worth recruiting.
Even if she didn't have both legs, that wasn't a major hindrance. While she might not be able to run directly on the battlefield, she had immense potential as a late-game asset.
"Lee Ha-yul. Are you listening?"
Silence.
"I am the funeral director. An ally of the Sword Saint and an ally of the Great Witch. I'm sorry for barging in so recklessly. It's my fault."
Silence.
"Lee Ha-yul. I want to talk with you. I used rough methods to show you my ability. I could storm into the basement like this, but I don't want our relationship to start off wrong."
Silence.
"My goal is to persuade you and take you to the Academy in Korea. Give me a chance to persuade you."
Creeeak.
The basement door opened.
"Come in."
The housekeeper was holding the doorknob. Hearing the voice up close, the mechanical quality was even more stark.
Thinking about it, for humanity, the ideal form of machines, the cutting edge of machines, had always been dolls. Whether the material was paper, clockwork, or AI chips.
Then the expression 'mechanical voice' wouldn't be far off if corrected to 'doll voice.'
I passed the housekeeper and stepped into the basement. Thud. A heavy iron door closed behind me.
"……."
Finally, I could meet Lee Ha-yul herself eye to eye.
This too was a first. In the previous iteration, the corpse had its eyes closed.
Golden pupils.
Light chestnut hair.
A girl without both legs.
Sometimes, an awakener's manifestation altered hair color and pupil color. A girl with coloration that shared not a single resemblance to her father Jeon Sang-guk sat in a wheelchair.
"Mmph! Huup, buhuup……!"
Jeon Sang-guk, who had been dragged in earlier, was also in a wheelchair.
In terms of mobility difficulties, the father was actually more severe than the daughter. Even though both legs were fine, his entire body was tightly bound with puppet strings. He was nothing short of prey caught in a spiderweb.
Even blood was streaming from his fingernails as if they had just held a grand opening ceremony for new injuries.
'…Ah.'
Hmm.
So that's why Jeon Sang-guk was wearing gloves in the 18th iteration.