# Chapter 61
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The Puppet Master IV
Shin No-a
"Hughhh...!"
Veins shot through Jeong Sang-guk's eyes. His mouth and tongue were stuffed with puppet strings, making speech impossible, but that didn't matter.
Body language was, after all, a universal language. Jeong Sang-guk was thrashing his entire body, radiating an SOS signal.
I felt bad for him, but my priority lay with the child, not the parent. Jeong Sang-guk's struggles only stimulated Lee Ha-yul.
"...."
Lee Ha-yul silently drove an awl beneath her fingernail.
Rrip! The nail tore open. Suddenly, another competitor had joined the kidney-opening ceremony.
"Wupphuheuuup!"
The excessive competition-induced hemorrhage pushed Jeong Sang-guk toward fainting.
I mourned in my heart. It was all because they were born in the wrong era. If he'd been born during the Japanese Colonial Period, a traitor of Jeong Sang-guk's caliber wouldn't have had to undergo fingernail torture.
I spread both hands.
"Lee Ha-yul. I have no intention of interfering between you and Jeong Sang-guk. As I said earlier, my only purpose is to persuade you and bring you to the Academy."
"...."
"Let me introduce myself once more. I am called the Undertaker. I subjugated the Ten Clans in the Korean Peninsula. Currently, I serve as the Vice Principal at Freiheit Academy."
By this point, words of introduction should have come from Lee Ha-yul's own lips. But no such thing happened.
The maid marionette who had opened the basement door for me stood up behind Lee Ha-yul's wheelchair. Then she opened her mouth and produced a puppet-like voice.
"Lee Ha-yul. Puppet Master."
"...Hmm. I understand you're being cautious, but can't we converse with your own voice?"
"Impossible."
"Why is that?"
Lee Ha-yul, seated in the wheelchair, opened her mouth wide. Neat teeth were revealed. Beyond them lay darkness like a void.
I tilted my head.
What was this? Unless she mistook me for a dentist, it was a pose of unclear significance.
Then the maid spoke like a puppet controlled by ventriloquism.
"Vocal cords. Disabled."
It was a statement beyond my expectations.
"Voice doesn't come out."
"...."
"So conversation impossible."
Only then did I learn that the disability imposed on the Awakened named Lee Ha-yul was not limited to the loss of both legs.
Physical speech impairment.
...In that case, the girl before me must have endured extreme inconvenience until she Awakened her ability. The restriction of movement. The restriction of communication.
Considering further that she was the illegitimate daughter of a prominent politician, adding the restriction of social status would be appropriate as well.
Truly, the ability [Puppet Master] was nothing short of a miracle for Lee Ha-yul.
"...I'm sorry. I didn't know."
"It's fine."
Lee Ha-yul closed her mouth. No hint of emotion could be felt in the Puppet Master's expressionless face.
"It doesn't matter."
"Hmm."
"How did you find this place?"
It was a bizarre sight.
The maid was producing all the voices, but the conversation itself was being held with Lee Ha-yul. The direction of gaze and voice were misaligned.
Feeling a strange sensation, I continued meeting Lee Ha-yul's eyes.
"I tailed Jeong Sang-guk. His request to wait at the lodging for two days was suspicious no matter how I thought about it. After seeing him enter this House of Dolls, I decided to eavesdrop for a bit."
"...."
The girl's eyes softened slightly.
It seemed the expression 'House of Dolls' pleased her.
"Thanks to that, I was able to hear your conversation with Jeong Sang-guk in its entirety. If you saw me running wild upstairs, you'd know I'm skilled at manipulating Aura."
Tilt. Lee Ha-yul inclined her head.
"Aura?"
"...Hmm."
I raised Aura above my palm. Ink-colored flames. My Aura was achromatic.
"This here. You also infused golden Aura into the puppet strings earlier, didn't you?"
"So you call it Aura. That thing."
"Some people call it Internal Energy depending on the person. It's a matter of preference. Some call it Demonic Qi, others pronounce it Aura. Did you awaken Aura through self-study?"
"Yes."
"Impressive."
"The Magical Girls said that too."
For reference, Magical Girls referred to the most powerful group of Awakened in Japan, and later those Awakened belonging to the 'Magical Girl Council' that would effectively succeed the Japanese government's role.
How such a chaotic spectacle came to pass, well...
Let me just summarize it by saying that Awakened tend to be stronger the more unhinged they are. There will be another opportunity to mention them specifically.
"Magical Girls? Did you receive a recruitment offer?"
"Yes. Refused."
"May I ask the reason? I want to reference rejection cases to reduce the probability of failure."
"But, those people strange."
"...."
"Dress. Lots of frills. Serious fashion sense. Attach 'nyan' at end of words. Abnormal."
"...."
It was a rather burdensome claim coming from a girl who was currently giving her father's fingernails a strip show debut in real-time.
Anyway, a bit of small talk served as an effective icebreaker between us.
Contrary to expectations, Lee Ha-yul was quite easy to talk to. If one ignored the unfamiliar puppet voice.
"May I ask why you're trying to kill Jeong Sang-guk?"
"Hup...?"
Jeong Sang-guk reacted to the word death. Even when dragged to the basement and having his fingernails gouged, he apparently hadn't expected his daughter to kill him.
But originally, Jeong Sang-guk dies.
In the 18th iteration, Lee Ha-yul killed Jeong Sang-guk, then hanged the maid and finally killed herself.
In this place, everyone except Jeong Sang-guk himself recognized his scheduled death as a natural itinerary. Lee Ha-yul also naturally accepted my question.
"This person betrayed Mom."
Mother? Was she referring to Lee Ha-yul's biological mother and Jeong Sang-guk's second wife?
"Said would bring doctor. Said medicine existed. Said treatment progressing. But, Mom died."
"Ughhh...!"
"Mom wanted to stay in Korea. This person forced her to come. Then neglected her."
There was no change in Lee Ha-yul's 'voice.' It was an unchanged mechanical tone.
However, Lee Ha-yul's 'eyes' burned as if melting gold. That was the temperature Lee Ha-yul originally possessed.
"Remember. From age 5, this person rarely visited our home. Found Mom annoying. Me too. Remaining in Korea, he was afraid. Afraid we would be discovered."
"Hubeup!"
"Day Mom died, I Awakened. This is Mom's revenge."
Jeong Sang-guk desperately denied it. The old wheelchair he was seated in shook and creaked.
...I could feel sincerity in Lee Ha-yul's words.
But I also knew well that sincerity doesn't guarantee the truth of the past or the future. Isn't that the most painful weakness of the beast called humanity?
"Could I hear Jeong Sang-guk's side as well?"
"...."
Lee Ha-yul looked up at me obliquely. Her golden gaze carefully peeled at my facial skin as if searching for true intent.
Nod.
"Doesn't matter."
"Pwaaaah!"
Jeong Sang-guk's tongue finally regained freedom. Though spiderwebs were still tangled here and there on his tongue and teeth, they had loosened slightly.
"Th-that's a lie! Undertaker sir! Don't believe the words of such a young child, moreover a child who tortures her own parent's body so recklessly! I am Jeong Sang-guk! Jeong Sang-guk! A person who dedicates this one body for the nation and the people, sir!"
"Ah, my apologies. Though I pretended otherwise at the drinking gathering, I'm actually someone who considers the Second Provisional Government a kind of farcical disease."
Jeong Sang-guk wore a dazed expression.
"Excuse me?"
"I mean I treated you well out of consideration for the Fukuoka officials' face, not because I have any interest in you. Mr. Jeong Sang-guk. Why would Awakened who remained in the Korean Peninsula and got along well with the Ten Clans feel any fondness for your lot?"
"...."
"Furthermore, I told you. My purpose is to bring the Puppet Master to our Academy. Right now, I simply want to verify whether Lee Ha-yul's claim is correct. As you know, teachers need to understand their students' family circumstances to some extent."
"I told you it's a lie!"
Jeong Sang-guk shouted.
"What did I neglect! Huh? What did I neglect! Then should I have secretly brought my second wife, or announced it to the whole neighborhood! Think about it, think! If I really intended to neglect them, I would have left them to die in Korea!"
"...."
"It's true this place is a tough neighborhood too, but Korea is, huh! You know too! The Ten Clans! Those fucking bastards! The Republic of Korea's military! Our military couldn't do anything and was annihilated! The North Korean army was wiped out too! With something like that roaming around intact, should I, huh, should I have left So-yoon and Ha-yul there and run away knowing I'd die? Would that have been right? Fine! I'm a traitor! I, Jeong Sang-guk, am a traitor bastard! But I wanted to save my family. Because I wanted to save at least my family, I survived by sucking up to Japan!"
Sincerity could be felt in Jeong Sang-guk's words too.
But I knew well that mimicking human pain was the instinct of the beast called politician.
"If I was someone who only thought of my own life, I wouldn't have even looked after Ha-yul! But a daughter, huh? No matter how many grudges there might be, how, huh? How can she oppress her own parent like this—hueup!"
Once again, spiderwebs wrapped tightly around Jeong Sang-guk's tongue.
At first, I thought Lee Ha-yul had forcibly sealed Jeong Sang-guk's mouth.
But that wasn't it.
"Brought, neglected."
Jeong Sang-guk's mouth moved. It was sound produced by Jeong Sang-guk, but not Jeong Sang-guk's words.
They were Lee Ha-yul's words.
Whether intentionally or swept up in emotion, Lee Ha-yul was controlling Jeong Sang-guk's tongue, teeth, and throat to spill words.
"This house too, originally, shabby. Controlled people with my ability, like this, rebuilt."
"Pup- that too! In these times even that was a blessing and luxury! Now that you've grown enough, why don't you understand that!"
"Lie. Your house was completely different."
From then on, something extremely bizarre occurred.
Both people were conversing using the same tongue and mouth. No, fighting.
The words Lee Ha-yul spilled were broken off with choking sounds, mechanical and disconnected. Probably because Jeong Sang-guk himself was resisting.
But the resistance didn't succeed. So the two ended up taking turns conversing.
As if forgetting I existed, the father and daughter's emotions erupted violently, from one path, yet in two divergent directions.
"That's because! I'm the head of the Provisional Government! If I live in a shabby place, it would be an embarrassment to all the Koreans who fled here! Do you even know how much Japanese people value face!"
"Why, when Mom sick, bedridden, cut off rice? Why, didn't visit?"
"I told you! I was out of my mind then! I was busy! And does rice grow if you dig the ground? Everyone's starving and struggling!"
"Mom's, funeral?"
"Can't go! That's obvious! Stop repeating the same thing! I'm not alone. Korea's future, the ember of hope depends on me!"
"You said wanted to save, family. Earlier. Then why, suddenly mention country?"
"At first I did! Only at first! After coming here and caring for Koreans, I developed a sense of mission! So what, do you think this father remains the same person forever? Is a traitor a traitor for life? Does someone who deserves to die have to die? Cruel thing. How can you be so harsh? Even if everyone in the world tries to kill me, family should protect each other!"
"Lie."
"It's not a lie!"
"Didn't protect."
"I couldn't protect! Fine! I'm sorry, Ha-yul. Hmm? Dad was wrong!"
"That's also lie. Didn't apologize like that. After knowing I Awakened, then apologized. Why, won't admit lie? Want to live that badly? Why?"
"Why won't you acknowledge your father's sincerity!"
...It was a grotesque one-man play.
I couldn't help but be speechless at a sight I was seeing for the first time in my life.
One side was a child who couldn't speak a single word until she Awakened. The other was a person who had spent his lifetime saying whatever words he pleased.
Normally, puppets were thought of as 'beings who can speak no words.'
But aren't 'beings who can speak any words' also puppets? In that sincerity is never conveyed through words, the two beings were similar.
"You're, someone like you is not my daughter! A crazy bitch who only tortures people!"
"You're not my dad either."
The two people's rage reached its peak.
But I thought their words were wrong.
Jeong Sang-guk was also a puppet.
When he was Mayor of Busan, he was a puppet spewing any words to gain citizens' favor, and when he was Representative of Fukuoka, he was likewise a puppet saying any words to draw Japanese support.
Language was completely unimportant to him. It didn't matter if he named the exile group the Second Provisional Government. It didn't matter if he named Fukuoka as Busan.
The only difference was whether it was his country or another's. Jeong Sang-guk was ultimately a slave to state power for his entire life, a slave of the nation.
If language is defined as the essence of humanity, Jeong Sang-guk mimicked that essence.
Something that passably mimics a human. Don't we call that a puppet?
Strangely, the puppet's genes were transmitted to the puppet.
To Lee Ha-yul who grew up watching her mother and father her whole life, to the young child, the archetype of humanity was imprinted as a puppet.
Because parents, whether they wish it or not, must transmit some kind of legacy to their children.
Even parts they themselves turned away from, the child didn't turn away. Couldn't turn away.
That alone was humanity's fate.
"Lie."
"It's not a lie...!"
And if one is a being who dedicated their entire life to power, they must also accept this kind of ending.
The truth that in a battle of spirals that never intersect, the victor is the one holding greater power.
Before coming to Japan, immediately after coming, the powerful one in this family was undoubtedly Jeong Sang-guk. He had the power to control other puppets.
"Lie, it is. Everything is. All of it."
Not anymore.
Now the master of the 'House of Dolls' was not him, but Lee Ha-yul.
"Heuu—hueup?"
Jeong Sang-guk's neck was constricted.
Lee Ha-yul said nothing. As she had since birth. She looked at her own flesh and blood as she had when she was born.
Puppet threads dug into skin.
A choking sound, like "urk."
"...! ...!"
Thrashing.
Slight.
And then.
"...."
The puppet went limp.
The basement fell silent.
Ultimately, this was the last words of a certain politician who had caused turmoil in this apocalyptic era.
It's a lie.
Everything is.
All of it.
Last words cut into three phrases. Three phrases of neck.
Among the words Jeong Sang-guk spilled throughout his life as a politician, would these last words be closer to truth or closer to lies?
"...."
Looking at Lee Ha-yul, drenched in blood from her burst throat, I fell into such thoughts for a moment.
Perhaps some would think that since those weren't spoken by Jeong Sang-guk's own will, they couldn't be last words.
That might be true.
But it was certainly his legacy.
Infinite Regressor Telling Stories