novelraw Chapter 91 : Chapter 91
Chapter 91 : Chapter 91
Chapter 91 Heritage of Evil
At that time, inside Francis's studio.
Woo Yeong-tae was trembling with his head buried between his knees.
This place was filled with dismembered corpses on all sides.
So he wanted to escape from here even a second faster, but he couldn't.
Because Riman told him to wait here.
After what felt like an eternity.
The voice he had been longing to hear reached his ears.
"Woo Yeong-tae?"
"......!"
When Woo Yeong-tae raised his head, Riman was there.
He asked Riman.
"Francis is......"
"Killed her, definitely. I even claimed the bounty on that bastard."
Woo Yeong-tae's eyes wavered.
Then he soon let out a deep breath.
A sigh of relief.
He spoke in a trembling voice.
"Thank... thank you......"
The relief that everything was finally over seeped heavily from his voice.
There was no need for long words with such a person.
"Let's go."
"Yes."
At Riman's words, Woo Yeong-tae grabbed his shaking legs and stood up.
Riman took him and crossed the studio.
As they were passing through all kinds of terrible things.
Woo Yeong-tae's steps suddenly stopped.
He couldn't take his eyes off a woman's corpse.
Lisa.
She was the woman kidnapped and brought here with him, and sacrificed before him.
To Woo Yeong-tae standing blankly like that, Riman asked.
"This person is......"
"Because I lost in rock-paper-scissors, this person died."
"It's not your fault."
"I know. But that doesn't seem to make the guilt disappear."
The feeling that someone died because of me.
Some people go to the brink of insanity because of it.
Even if they don't go crazy, there are countless cases where they can't escape that responsibility for the rest of their lives.
The current Woo Yeong-tae was exactly such a case.
"Why......"
"......?"
"Why... just why do they do such things."
"Because it's enjoyable."
"Killing people is enjoyable?"
"Do you have a favorite food?"
"Sushi. But why that......"
"Just as you like sushi, Francis just liked torture and murder. It's just a difference in taste."
"How can you put that on the same level?"
"All tastes are equal. It's impossible to rank tastes."
"Such......!"
"However, some tastes become a social evil just by being revealed. That's why restrictions are placed by ethics or law."
"Ah......"
"But if you have power enough to ignore law and ethics, even such tastes can be naturally indulged. Like in this studio right now."
"...So the conclusion is that it boils down to whether you have power or not."
"It's obvious, why ask now."
"......"
With such conversation, the two soon reached the exit.
Woo Yeong-tae asked.
"By the way, what about the corpses here?"
"Have to burn them."
"...Wouldn't the bereaved families be looking for them?"
"Francis had a connection with the Mayor. That means people from the city side will storm in here soon. Then what will happen?"
"Well......?"
"They'll sell them off. Since there are plenty of perverts willing to buy stuffed corpses at a high price."
"......!"
"Rather than letting them fall into the hands of such humans, it's better to burn them here.
We can't possibly deliver these corpses to the bereaved families one by one anyway."
FLARE!
Black flame rose from Riman's palm.
Riman set fire to the inside of the studio.
Soon, everything in the studio began to burn in the pitch-black flames.
ROAR......
As the two were blankly watching the arson, their gazes turned to one place simultaneously.
A large canvas.
It had been covered with a white cloth, but the cloth burned away due to the fire, revealing the canvas beneath.
There was a painting on that canvas.
A painting drawn by Francis.
The moment they saw that painting, both Riman and Woo Yeong-tae were lost for words.
"......!"
"......!"
What was contained on that canvas was neither an abstract painting nor a still life, but something beyond that.
It was touching something fundamental to humanity.
Even Woo Yeong-tae, who had no knowledge of art, was sweating cold sweat without being able to take his eyes off it.
And it was the same for Riman.
'...Seeing it in person is much more overwhelming.'
It was hard to look away.
Although he couldn't explain what that painting was, the feeling rushing in was vivid.
Fear, joy, sublimity, aestheticism, passion, disgust, déjà vu.
Countless emotions, unrelated or contradictory, mixed together and caused a chemical reaction.
All sorts of imagery he had never felt or thought of in his life filled Riman's head.
If one took that painting to a world without mana, people there would have surely called it magic.
The experience that painting provided was that overwhelming.
Just how is such a thing possible?
For the past thousands of years, humanity mobilized all kinds of means to fully convey emotions to others.
Literature, painting, dance, music, speech, etc.
However, none of them could fully convey a person's emotions.
Because emotion was an extremely personal thing.
No matter how elaborate the means of expression used, the concept inside the head itself could not be brought out.
But Francis was different.
Her superpower was 'Thoughtography'.
The ability to bring out concepts contained in the head into reality.
Therefore, such a painting was possible because of her ability.
Of course, the problem was that she forced extreme fear and pain upon the victims to extract such a painting.
"Ah... Argh......"
At that moment, a long groan flowed from Woo Yeong-tae's mouth.
"ARGHHH...!"
"Hey, calm down!"
"That... that's a painting made with Lisa......!"
Woo Yeong-tae tried to walk straight into the fire.
Riman urgently grabbed him and stopped him.
"Calm down! The situation is all over!"
"I'll kill her!"
"I already killed Francis! Calm down!"
"I'm going to kill them all! All of them!"
Woo Yeong-tae began to struggle with all his might.
Eventually, Riman couldn't hold him indefinitely either.
ZZZT!
Riman applied an electric shock to the back of Woo Yeong-tae's neck and knocked him out.
And—
FLARE!
He shot fire toward the painting and burned it completely.
After that, Riman supported Woo Yeong-tae and came out of the building.
"Shah-ha!"
"You waited. Thanks."
And he joined Saya, who was waiting nearby, and left this area.
VROOOM......-
The taxi ran carrying a Mage, an unconscious man, and a dragon.
Beyond the taxi window, the burning building could be seen.
Although it was a fire set by Riman, unexpectedly, the black color wasn't that prominent.
It was because it mixed with the red flames rising from chain explosions caused by the heat.
'...Just the paintings burning in there must be worth billions of credits.'
Still, he didn't feel it was a waste.
Anyway, leaving behind a completely burnt building, the hunt ended.
Woo Yeong-tae returned safely to his friends.
However, a few days later, Woo Yeong-tae disappeared.
* * *
"...He left a letter."
The gang leader, Lee Gyeong-ho, handed a piece of paper to Riman.
It was a letter left by Woo Yeong-tae.
Riman asked.
"Did he mention where he was going?"
"No. When I woke up in the morning, he was just gone."
"Can you contact him?"
"No. Ah, and he took all the weapons too."
"Weapons?"
"Yes. The three pistols and one machete we had."
"......"
"That's, um, for self-defense, self-defense. We never fired them at a person even once."
Riman unfolded the letter.
-I absolutely cannot forget the painting I saw that day. I cannot forget the things I experienced that day either. So I am leaving to forget.
'Absolutely cannot forget.'
Riman understood that feeling.
Since that painting was shocking even to the cold reason of a Mage.
To an ordinary person, it must have come as a much greater shock.
Woo Yeong-tae was even a victim of that production process.
Naturally, a trauma hard to dare imagine must have remained.
Riman nodded and read down the letter.
-...Mr. Leman said. That ultimately power decides right and wrong. I want to make what I think is right into something right.
Lee Gyeong-ho, who was watching from the side, muttered.
"It's not like he's going through puberty again at twenty......"
However, Riman's thought was different.
This wasn't something to be dismissed as eighth-grader syndrome.
Woo Yeong-tae, this guy really went to the brink of death.
From Riman's perspective, knowing what Woo Yeong-tae went through, it was a sentence difficult to overlook lightly.
-...It won't be easy. Because I am weak. Still, I will try. Because even a big tree is easy to break when it is a seed.
Only after reading up to the last line could Riman understand Woo Yeong-tae's thoughts.
"...Is he planning to become a vigilante or something?"
Seeing that he even took weapons, it was certain.
Lee Gyeong-ho asked.
"...Isn't he in danger?"
"The kids who run into him would be in danger."
"That means Yeong-tae could be in danger too, eventually......!"
"Even so, there's nothing we can do."
"Searching for him......"
"Can't find him. When he was kidnapped, tracking was possible because there were at least clues. How are we going to chase a kid who didn't announce his destination and turned off his phone?"
"That is true, but......"
"Besides, this time he wasn't tricked and kidnapped, he found his own path and went on his own feet. So, just let him go."
"...Yes."
"And you guys must be busy now too. Work hard at your jobs. Is the work bearable?"
"Ah, yes. We are learning a lot."
For reference, all members of the gang recently got jobs at Noksan.
It was thanks to Riman bridging the connection.
Noksan also happened to need a lot of new personnel due to business expansion, so they hired them right away.
The reason Riman went out of his way to arrange this was simple.
Guilt.
He told these guys to live properly, but because of that, Woo Yeong-tae was kidnapped and suffered such hardships.
If it weren't for Riman, they would have just lived peacefully as street thugs, but they saw hell because of Riman's instructions.
Because of the responsibility from this, Riman introduced them to jobs.
"Anyway, let's live diligently doing our own work in our respective places."
"Yes!"
After delivering Woo Yeong-tae's letter like that, Lee Gyeong-ho returned to the dormitory.
Riman also folded the letter and put it in his chest pocket.
'...For now, let's do what I have to do.'
And he moved his steps toward the Info Shop.
Because there was a mountain of information on Necromancy he had to look into in the Virtual Library.
* * *
Seoul City Hall, Mayor's Office.
There, a man was sitting with an angry expression.
Would he be in his early 60s?
He was tapping the desk with his fingertips with a deeply furrowed brow.
His anxiety was seeping out from the unstable tempo created by his fingertips.
His name was Cha Hak-jun.
The incumbent Mayor of Seoul.
KNOCK KNOCK-
At that time, just in time, the person to relieve his anxiety entered.
It was the Chief of Staff.
"Mayor, the black box analysis of the Aerobile is finished."
The Chief of Staff displayed a screen on a tablet PC.
It was footage recorded on the black box of the City Hall's Aerobile a few days ago.
"Since not only the vehicle body but also the black box was damaged, it took some time but... we definitely succeeded in restoring the video."
"...Is this the guy? The one who killed Francis?"
"Yes. Almost certain."
"And the identity is confirmed?"
"Leman White, a Headhunter. He probably attacked aiming for the bounty on Francis Appel's head."
"Headhunter... Right, then that becomes sufficient reason to attack Francis. But you see."
"......?"
"Francis surely must have mentioned my name before dying. Yet this damn hunter dared to kill Francis, is what you're saying."
"That means......"
"Therefore, this isn't simply an incident where one painter died. This is a challenge to my authority."
Cha Hak-jun ground his teeth with a crunch.
"...Right, how strong is this guy?"
"According to expert opinion, it is judged to be at a level difficult to suppress with ordinary means......"
"Is that so?"
"Should we allocate additional troops for deployment?"
"No, something like this should be entrusted to an outside expert."
Cha Hak-jun said while taking out his phone.
"I'll have to call Joseph Han."