novelraw Chapter 182 : Intermission: New Year’s Day (1)
Chapter 182 : Intermission: New Year’s Day (1)
January 1, 2051. Early morning.
The Blue House. The President’s Office.
“This is unprecedented, Your Excellency.”
One of the ministers gathered for the morning State Council meeting spoke, his voice thick with displeasure.
“Giving a cabinet position to the opposition party leader? And not just any position… Minister of the newly established Ministry of the Future, a department that will determine the very fate of our nation.”
It was unheard of. Politically, it was suicide.
President San Kim just smiled serenely. “We’re living in unprecedented times, aren’t we? This is no time to bicker about ruling parties and opposition parties.”
“Even so…”
“Assemblyman Ryu and I are in complete agreement on this matter.”
The opposition leader, Ryu Yeon. One of the old Five Heroes, one of the most powerful Hunters to ever live, who went by the title Archmage.
Though he had long been San Kim’s political rival, they saw eye-to-eye on one critical issue: that in the face of annihilation, they had to keep as many people alive for as long as possible.
“We have to delay the end, even by a little. We have to protect the lives of ordinary people… for as long as we can. On this, I trust we are all of one mind.”
“…”
“Besides, if we entrust the Ministry of the Future to Assemblyman Ryu, the opposition won’t be able to obstruct its path.”
San Kim let out a sudden, wry chuckle.
It was absurd, all of them clinging to formalities like ruling parties, opposition parties, and State Council meetings when the apocalypse was less than ten years away.
At the same time, he knew it was precisely because they clung to these formalities that the nation still held its shape.
“Assemblyman Ryu will lend us his strength. Let’s all pull together and see this through.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
“Now then, as for our minister-of-the-moment, he was only just informed of today’s meeting. I’m told he’s currently hauling ass to get here, so…”
The President grinned mischievously.
“Let’s give our arrogant rookie the cold shoulder for a bit. We’ll get this new year started right by getting to work ourselves.”
A ripple of laughter went through the conference room. It was a petty little jab at Ryu Yeon, the sole opposition member on the council, but it barely qualified as a hazing ritual. The meeting would last until the afternoon, anyway.
The meeting began, and the National Security Advisor was the first to speak.
“Your Excellency. There is a matter of utmost urgency.”
“Go on.”
“Are you familiar with the Villain organization known as the Crimson Poverty Front?”
San Kim nodded. “I’ve heard of them. The ballsy bastards who recently declared war on us, yes?”
“The very same. We must formulate a countermeasure against them.”
“They’re just one organization, aren’t they?”
“It’s not that simple.”
The National Security Advisor brought up a file and gave a brief rundown of the threat posed by the Crimson Poverty Front.
They were dangerous enough as a single entity, but when you factored in their connections to other underground Villain groups, their scale was large enough to warrant military mobilization for a full-scale subjugation.
“They’ve declared that they will commence operations on January 1st—today. We must… urgently… prepare a…”
The advisor trailed off, his words suddenly slurring.
“…?”
“Hm?”
Noticing something was wrong, San Kim asked with concern, “Are you all right? What’s the—”
“Gack. Kah.”
The next instant, blood poured from the National Security Advisor’s eyes, nose, and mouth all at once.
As everyone reeled in shock, the advisor pitched forward.
Thump!
He didn’t move, his face planted in the pool of his own blood.
He was dead.
“What in the…”
San Kim’s bewilderment was cut short as he snapped his head up.
“G-Gack, gurgh, uggh…!”
“C-can’t… breathe—”
The Deputy National Security Advisor and a secretary, who had entered the meeting with their superior, also clutched at their throats before spewing blood and collapsing onto the table.
That was just the beginning. Regardless of department or rank, people began coughing up blood and slumping over in their seats, one by one.
“Aaaaaaaargh!”
“W-what is this?!”
As the ministers and vice-ministers panicked, members of the security team rushed into the conference room, scanning the area.
“We’re under attack!”
“But how? The Blue House is protected by layers of defensive ability users…!”
“Everyone, get down!”
“We need to evacuate you immediately and—”
“Gagh.”
More security personnel rushed in from outside, forming a protective ring around the cabinet members, but it was meaningless.
This formless attack wasn’t something that could be physically blocked. Shielded by their bodyguards, ministers collapsed, choking on their own blood.
“Is this… some kind of curse?”
“Get every related defensive ability user in here! Now!”
The security team had several psychic Awakened on standby for just such a contingency. Their job was to erect mental barriers.
However…
“Ah…”
“My apologies… Your Excellency…”
They went down one by one, picked off by the formless attack as if their heads had been pierced by a sniper’s bullet.
“Aaaaaah! Aaaaaaah!”
“No! Nooo! I don’t want to die!”
“Please, spare me! Please, stop! I’ll give you anything!”
One by one, the desperate screams were silenced, replaced by the dull thud of bodies hitting the floor, a sound that echoed through the office.
Seated in the center of the carnage, San Kim calmly gathered his thoughts.
He had been a Hunter himself, so he was well-versed in how the abilities of the Awakened worked. An attack this powerful couldn’t possibly be unconditional. Even an Awakened ability was built upon a foundation of cause and effect.
They’ve been planning this for a long time.
But more importantly, decisively.
There’s a traitor.
Someone had colluded with the enemy. Someone had set the stage beforehand to ensure every cabinet member and their entire security detail were exposed to the curse. This was a planned ambush.
The attack was devastating, and he was trapped.
He’d been checkmated.
San Kim knew it in his gut. There was no way out of this death ground alive.
Thud. Slump. Crash.
People toppled over in sequence like dominoes. Blood pooled on the office desks, thick and stagnant as a long-neglected fountain.
Amid the cacophony of screams and shouts, a guard yelled frantically at San Kim.
“Your Excellency! You must evacuate to the bunker immediately!”
“…This is not the kind of attack one can escape simply by running.”
“Even so!”
“Just get me a phone.” San Kim straightened his spine. “They didn’t kill me first, which means they’re saving me for last. That’s bought me a little time.”
“…”
“Quickly, the phone.”
A guard handed him a phone with a trembling hand. San Kim took it and spoke in a steady voice.
“I must give my last order as President.”
***
The woman dances.
Upon a ritual guillotine, its blade honed to a razor’s edge, she dances, the hems of her jeogori fluttering. In her hand, she wields a great sword. The woman with the long, braided hair moves in a fluid, lilting rhythm.
Each time she jumps upon the guillotine, one of the figures performing a Round Dance around her collapses with a thud.
The woman, Silken Bodhisattva, unleashes Curseblight from the ritual guillotine.
And those who circle her, performing their Round Dance, are the sacrifices offered as the price for that Curseblight.
Their lives are the ammunition.
She danced without rest, unleashing a volley of Curseblight, when she suddenly stopped and caught her breath.
“…My Curseblight can strike any nearby target without condition, but to hit a distant foe… I need their precise Four Pillars of Destiny, and their true name.”
The Four Pillars of Destiny.
A person’s year, month, day, and hour of birth are the four pillars that encapsulate their fate. Each pillar is interpreted through a combination of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.
The Heavenly Stems, also called the Ten Stems, are the ten characters: Gap, Eul, Byeong, Jeong, Mu, Gi, Gyeong, Sin, Im, Gye.
The Earthly Branches, also called the Twelve Branches, are the twelve characters: Ja, Chuk, In, Myo, Jin, Sa, O, Mi, Sin, Yu, Sul, Hae.
The sixty possible combinations created by pairing these two sets of characters in order are called the Sexagenary Cycle.
When a person’s birth year, month, day, and hour are converted into this cycle, the resulting eight characters form their Four Pillars of Destiny. These serve as the fundamental coordinates for reading a person’s fate.
In truth, determining another person’s exact Four Pillars of Destiny was no simple task. In a world like this, pinpointing not just the year, month, and day, but the precise hour of birth was a difficult feat.
Furthermore, finding out their true name wasn’t any easier. This was an era rife with callsigns, aliases, and dual identities. If even a single stroke of a name was wrong, it would point to the wrong target, and the combination with the Four Pillars of Destiny would be corrupted.
The Four Pillars of Destiny and the true name. If everything didn’t match perfectly, the long-range Curseblight wouldn’t work. Worse, it would rebound and inflict even greater damage on the caster.
It was as dangerous as repeatedly pulling the trigger of a faulty mortar.
“If even one thing is off, the curse fails, and the backlash hits me.”
“…”
“And yet… this list you’ve brought me.”
Silken Bodhisattva gestured with her chin toward the kill list spread out beside the guillotine. It was a book filled with the true names and Four Pillars of Destiny of every target.
“Not a single one has been wrong so far.”
“…”
“High-ranking politicians who make up the government, and even their bodyguards… you’ve found all their true names and pillars? Who in the world gave you this information?”
“Didn’t I tell you?”
The woman in the Bride’s Mask, who had been observing Silken Bodhisattva’s dance from the side, removed the long pipe from her lips, blowing a trail of smoke.
Chun-hyang, Leader of the Crimson Poverty Front, smiled sweetly.
“I’ve been preparing for a very, very long time.”
“…”
“Now, I know this is taxing work, Silken Bodhisattva. But when you start a job, you have to see it through, don’t you?”
Chun-hyang gave a slight nod. “For the one you love, building a few more bridges to hell is a small price to pay, isn’t it?”
Silken Bodhisattva shot Chun-hyang a glare before climbing back onto the ritual guillotine.
Around her, masked figures—men and women, young and old—giggled brightly as they spun in a Round Dance. A red light shimmered in their bliss-filled eyes.
They continued their endless dance.
Each time Silken Bodhisattva leaped upon the ritual guillotine, another dancer would collapse, like a puppet with its strings cut.
With every Curseblight that struck a government official in faraway Seoul, another corpse fell here in the ballroom.
“What a magnificent view…”
Looking at the Dancing Children who had fallen in a circle around the woman’s ritual guillotine, Chun-hyang smiled with satisfaction.
“A perfect landscape for the morning of the apocalypse.”
***
A loud, animated ringtone blared.
It was from some magical girl anime that had aired decades ago.
“Ummm…”
Lying in bed, drool trickling from the corner of her mouth, the girl with the rolled-bread hair—Dia Kim—groaned and fumbled for her phone.
Rubbing her swollen eyes, she answered the call with a long yawn.
“Hello…?”
«…Dia.»
“Huh? Father?”
San Kim’s tone was more urgent than usual.
«Are you safe?»
“What? Oh, yes. Of course, I’m safe.” Dia scratched her head awkwardly. “I’m so sorry. I overslept…”
«No, it’s fine.» San Kim paused. «Dia, you have to live strong.»
“Huh?” Dia blinked, confused by her father’s sudden words.
San Kim continued. «Like your name. Diamond. Be strong.»
“Ah… Okay. I will.”
«I love you.»
“What?”
«I will always love you, my daughter.»
Stunned by words of affection she hadn’t heard in ages, Dia stuttered for a moment before replying in a barely audible voice.
“I… I love you too, Father…”
Click.
The line was already dead.
“…Father?”
Dia tilted her head, a puzzled look on her face, before a blush crept up her cheeks and she broke into a smile.
How long had it been since her always-stoic father said something so warm?
“All right! This year’s off to a great start!”
She stretched energetically in the bright morning sunlight.
Dia murmured happily to herself.
“I have a feeling something good’s going to happen.”