From a pool of blood still thick and pooled, the shadow of an adult woman who had yet to fully shed her girlhood shot upward. *Shlck*—blood dripped from the ends of her long hair. The woman's shadow looked around, as if confused by the situation, and let out a pained groan.
[Ahhh... Ahhh...!]
She would be in agony—memories of dying still fully intact. Using his authority as the Shadow Monarch, Jin-Woo calmed the shadow for now.
"Don't be afraid."
You are now free from the cycle of life and pain. The woman gradually found calm at the king's warm voice. For the shadow who still appeared as she had at the moment of death, Jin-Woo conjured clothes of darkness and draped them around her.
[Ah...]
She clutched the garment draped over her shoulders gingerly. Her name was Seo Jin-Yi. Having restored her original name to her after bringing her back as a shadow, Jin-Woo began his questions.
"Did you... take your own life?"
The shadow—no, Seo Jin-Yi—nodded. Jin-Woo, who had been kneeling on one knee to meet her eye level, looked into her face and asked quietly.
"Why?"
At that, her lips—sealed shut like ice—parted.
[I was...]
* * *
Ding-dong. At the sound of the doorbell ringing late at night, the middle-aged man set the desk frame holding his daughter's photo back in its place.
'Who could it be at this hour......?'
He tilted his head, rose from his seat, and stood before the intercom. On the screen showing the outside of the door stood a man in a sharp suit. If there was anything odd about him, it was perhaps the black gloves he wore on only his left hand. Without much suspicion, the middle-aged man pressed the call button. *Beep.* The man held up his ID badge for him to see.
-This is Sung Jin-Woo, Violent Crimes Unit, Central Precinct. I have some questions about your daughter. Could you spare some time now?
The photo on the ID matched the face on the screen. At the word "detective," the middle-aged man forgot all about how late an hour it was for a visitor and hurriedly opened the door.
"Are the investigation results in? How did my daughter die?"
Jin-Woo looked down at Seo Gyu-Nam—Seo Jin-Yi's father—and shook his head.
"Nothing has been determined yet. But there are a few questions I'd like to ask about your daughter."
To the bereaved father, whose face fell slightly at the news that nothing had been uncovered, Jin-Woo made a quiet request.
"Would you come with me?"
Seo Gyu-Nam, who seemed to hesitate for a moment, put on a resolute expression.
"Of course. If I can help shed light on my daughter's death, then naturally I should."
He stepped outside, locked the door behind him, and turned to face Jin-Woo.
"Let's go."
Jin-Woo gave a short nod and changed direction.
"This way."
* * *
Contrary to Seo Gyu-Nam's expectation that they were heading to the police station, the two entered a nearby café. When asked why a café, the detective's only answer was a vague "I need somewhere quiet to talk." And so, Jin-Woo and Seo Gyu-Nam sat across from each other with a table between them. Jin-Woo addressed the somber-faced Seo Gyu-Nam.
"What kind of student was Seo Jin-Yi typically?" "Huh?" "Was there anyone who might have held a grudge against your daughter...?"
Realizing belatedly what the question was getting at, Seo Gyu-Nam waved his hands dismissively.
"No, no, no. She would never do anything to earn someone's hatred. She was such a kind, innocent child..."
Having said that much, Seo Gyu-Nam hung his head and began to sob. How much time passed? The trembling in his shoulders subsided, and Seo Gyu-Nam slowly lifted his head.
"I'm sorry, detective. I still can't believe my daughter is gone like this..." "You cared for Jin-Yi deeply." "Of course. As you may know, Jin-Yi wasn't my biological daughter. That's exactly why I loved her even more than my own—no, I loved her more than any biological daughter could have been loved."
Eyes cast downward, holding his sorrow in check, he continued.
"If she was hurting, I wish she'd told me. If she was struggling, even one word to me would have been enough..."
While Seo Gyu-Nam displayed intense emotion, Jin-Woo—who had been watching him with cold eyes from beginning to end—pulled his phone from his pocket.
"While examining your daughter's belongings, I came across an audio file." "......What?" "Please, have a listen first."
Jin-Woo pressed play and let him hear the recorded shadow's voice.
[I was...]
It was evidence of the horrific abuse she had suffered at the hands of her stepfather since she was a child. Throughout the testimony, the eyes of Seo Gyu-Nam—who moments ago had been playing the part of a grieving father who lost his daughter—trembled ceaselessly. She had believed that by deliberately enrolling in a university far away, she could escape her stepfather's torment. But at some point the messages started coming again—"I miss you, I want to see you"—and ultimately, she chose death. She took her own life, but the one who had driven her to such desperation was someone else. *Click.* When the audio file finished playing, Seo Gyu-Nam raised his now-stiff face.
"Why are you... playing this for me?"
Seo Gyu-Nam was a man quicker on the uptake than most. If the detective's aim had been to arrest him, all he needed was to bring a few more officers and slap on the handcuffs. Instead, the detective had said he needed somewhere quiet to talk and brought him to a café. Seo Gyu-Nam instinctively sensed that the detective in front of him had some other purpose entirely. And as if responding to his intuition, the expressionless detective finally showed a smile.
"You have two choices."
Choices! At the words—like a lifeline dropped from heaven in his hour of utmost peril—Seo Gyu-Nam clenched his fist tight.
'Yes!'
The detective continued.
"One: you confess to all your crimes, and we both go to the station so you can turn yourself in." "Then... the other option?" "You don't have to confess—but you'll pay an appropriate price instead."
Seo Gyu-Nam had to grit his teeth to keep the laughter surging up from deep inside him. Of all things. They say even when the sky falls, there's always a way out. And here, the very detective who had uncovered his heinous crimes was—thank God—this kind of person! He had lived a prosperous life as a physician. He had more than enough financial means to pay whatever amount a lowly cop could want. Seo Gyu-Nam tried to hide the corners of his mouth that kept twitching upward and asked:
"How much would it be?" "That's enough."
Jin-Woo smiled bitterly and slipped his phone back into his inner pocket. Having seen countless people come to bitterly regret this very choice, the man snickering before him was nothing but contemptible to Jin-Woo. In an instant, his expression changed.
"Listen carefully."
With the smile gone from his face, a sinister—almost ghastly—aura radiated from Jin-Woo.
"The truth is, where you're sitting right now isn't the world you've been living in. It's another world—one I dressed up to look like the outside."
A land of the dead where the living cannot set foot without the master's permission. The domain of Rest. From now on, the name of the prison where you'll be held—Jin-Woo calmly added his explanation. At the sudden, drastic shift in Jin-Woo's demeanor and the cryptic words, Seo Gyu-Nam wore a bewildered expression.
"Wait, detective, what on earth are you talking about...?" "Think carefully."
At Jin-Woo's murderous gaze, Seo Gyu-Nam began to feel his breath constrict.
"Can you remember how you got here?"
Now that he thought about it. A chill ran down his spine as Seo Gyu-Nam noticed something felt off.
'How did I...?'
Why was there no one in this brightly lit café besides himself and this mysterious detective? Never mind the other customers—what about the owner? No, even if the owner was absent, shouldn't there be at least one passerby on the street? But there wasn't a trace of a human being anywhere inside the building or beyond the glass walls.
"Ah..."
By the time he finally noticed the anomaly that had taken place, everything was already gone—only darkness remained. In the pitch-black void, all that was left were a table, two chairs, and himself and the detective sitting in those chairs.
"Nngh! Aaargh!"
Seo Gyu-Nam shot up from his chair and staggered backward, his face pale as a ghost.
"Wh-who are you?! This is a dream, right? This has to be a dream!"
Seo Gyu-Nam pointed at Jin-Woo and screamed. But his retreat didn't last long. *Thud.* Something hard as a wall stopped him. Feeling an inexplicable chill, he turned around. The wall was moving. No—it wasn't a wall. A massive ant that had been standing rigid as a wall was moving. The ant leaned in close to Seo Gyu-Nam and quietly pressed its index finger, held straight up, to its own lips.
[Shh-]
At that moment.
"Nngh! Nnngh...!"
Dozens of ant arms shot out from the darkness, seized him, and dragged him away. He would probably suffer agony so terrible that death would seem preferable, but he wouldn't be able to close his eyes easily. The shadow tasked with his punishment was both the greatest soldier and the greatest healer.
[Kieek!]
Having given a crisp bow to his sovereign, Beru returned into the darkness.
'...'
Jin-Woo silently watched the direction Seo Gyu-Nam had been taken, then slowly rose. This time, it wasn't from the front—someone emerged from behind. Another figure who had been hidden in the darkness, watching everything unfold. It was Jin-Yi. Jin-Woo knew well enough that no amount of suffering inflicted on the perpetrator could erase the victim's pain. But if this could offer even a small measure of solace... He approached her, placed his fingertips gently on the top of her head, and erased her memories of her stepfather.
[Thank you. Thank you, Monarch.]
The shadow bowed her head to Jin-Woo over and over again. Reborn as a shadow, she instinctively knew what kind of being Jin-Woo was—but he had no intention of using her as a new shadow soldier. So now it was time to send her back to the realm of nothingness. Before the moment of farewell, Jin-Woo asked gently:
"Is there anything else you'd like to say?"
The shadow, who had been shaking her head, let out a small "Ah."
[If... if it wouldn't be a bother, could I make one request?]
* * *
The next day. Jin-Woo called Jin-Yi's friend—who had come to the station since morning—out into the hallway outside his office.
"Based on the circumstances, the likelihood of homicide is very low. The investigation will be concluded soon."
The friend, who had been looking at Jin-Woo with an expression of disbelief, asked again out of desperation.
"Is there really... not even a one percent chance of anything else?"
Instead of answering, Jin-Woo simply nodded silently. The friend's head dropped. She seemed to have much to say, but the words wouldn't come—her face was gloomy as she swallowed them back.
"Then Jin-Yi..."
After quietly observing her for a moment, Jin-Woo held out a gift wrapped in cute wrapping paper.
"What's this?" "The name on that letter—is that your friend's name?" "...Yes."
A gift the victim had carefully prepared for her friend's birthday. A gift that had nearly failed to reach its owner finally found its way home.
"Jin-Yi... made this?" "Yes. I imagine Jin-Yi would have wanted the gift to reach its owner." "Oh... thank you."
The friend, eyes brimming with tears, thanked Jin-Woo from the bottom of her heart. One hour before Jin-Yi slit her wrists—if her stepfather's sinister text message hadn't arrived on her phone, would the two of them have enjoyed their birthday party as planned? Jin-Woo's mind grew heavy with many thoughts. He turned his gaze to the distance, then felt his pocket vibrate.
"Excuse me a moment."
Jin-Woo apologized to the sobbing friend, turned around, and answered the call.
-Hyung-nim!
A cheerful voice came through the receiver.
-It's me, Yoo Jin-Ho!