It was a relief that things were going well. Thanks to Gu Seohyeong putting her reputation on the line, my reputation had quickly recovered. Moreover, I had sued all those who spread false information through the lawyer that Ahn Yoonseung had introduced to me.
‘There’s nothing you can’t do if you have money.’
And through this process, the truth about the smoking photos that had been posted online was also revealed...
[The reason for the smoking photo was a lie.
– Can you see the sign of the Gukbap restaurant taken in the alley behind?
That restaurant opened exactly three years ago and has been in business ever since.
And according to the writer, Kim Kiryeo in the photo is a minor.
But Hunter Kim is 25 this year?
And the Gukbap restaurant has only been around for 3 years?
Huh? Then what on earth is this?
Mhm, it’s another lie~]
As you can see, sharp-eyed netizens had already found the flaws in the report. In the end, most of the accusations that had been circulating online were proven false.
‘Well, now that I think about it, even Kim Kiryeo’s ID photo had black hair. He must have dyed it after becoming an adult.’
But I never expected that the person who captured that controversial smoking scene would turn out to be someone like this.
“Hmm.”
“I, I’m sorry...”
A little while later, during the process of reporting people for defamation, I met the author of a post. Surprisingly, the person who had spread the smoking photo of Kiryeo was someone completely unrelated to this situation.
“Who are you?”
He was just a local resident.
‘He’s a bit old to be related to Kim Kiryeo, though?’
I asked the man why he spread false information. He replied with this.
In fact, he was a resident living in the same studio apartment as me. He had been stuck in a miserable situation for years, while the young man living in the same building had suddenly become a top-tier hunter overnight.
“I did it out of jealousy...” he confessed, explaining that he had fabricated the post using a photo he had taken around nine months ago. According to him, he had seen a young man smoking on the street and snapped a photo, intending to report him for allegedly discarding cigarette butts illegally.
“Wait, didn’t you know I was an awakened person at the time?”
“Heuk!”
“But why did you take someone else’s photo without permission? I remember throwing my cigarette butts into a portable ashtray back then. Seriously, this guy...”
Well, anyway, to sum it up, the scandal was resolved, and all the false accusations against me were cleared.
However, it wasn’t time to relax just yet. There was still a more personal and significant issue left to address.
***
Now, I understand. There’s something strange about Kim Kiryeo’s death.
In a modern society like ours, deaths from starvation are rare. Moreover, Kim Kiryeo wasn’t completely without money; he had emergency savings set aside in a piggy bank.
But in this situation, a man in his twenties starved to death? Moreover, he was found lying neatly in bed, dressed in a clean suit?
It makes no sense. Anyone looking at this situation would find it suspicious.
“What on earth is going on?”
There were more than a few things I was curious about. According to Gu Seohyeong’s testimony, he had been incredibly healthy during his school years. So why did I have a defect in my legs when I took over his body? The more I thought about it, the more questions I had.
Why on earth did Kim Kiryeo die? How did he die?
...In the first place, did he really die of starvation?
‘Since my memories are so unclear, I’m not even sure about the cause of death anymore.’
I tried to think of various hypotheses, but I couldn’t come up with an answer. Still, the fortunate thing was that today, unlike other times, I had gained some new information about Kim Kiryeo.
It was something that came up earlier during my conversation with the enchanter at the workshop.
– Family? Ah, Kiryeo, I think you were from an orphanage, right?
It turns out that this body is an orphan.
– When I suggested reporting the school bullying, you mentioned something like... since you didn’t have parents, there wouldn’t be anyone to act as your legal guardian, so it would be difficult, right?
So that’s why no one had come to see him until now. I understood the series of events, but it was also true that hearing Kim Kiryeo being referred to as an orphan felt a bit strange.
‘Even after being reincarnated, is it still the same?’
Mumbling.
I walked down the path, muttering to myself in a voice barely loud enough for me to hear. Lately, the heavy snowfall had subsided, and the air had grown warmer.
‘Anyway, I left the enhancement to Gu Seohyeong today... I might as well relax at home until the enchantment is complete...’
‘He must be quite strong.’
So where could the escaped Su Yehwi be right now? Of course, no one could answer this question.
[Searcher] failed to activate. In other words, Su Yehwi is currently hiding in a hideout where tracking skills are ineffective.
‘Damn it.’
However, if you look closely, there was some good news. After a persistent investigation, the police found out that the terrorism committed by the Rakshasa Temple was connected to a certain politician.
“A politician?”
“To be precise, it was a former politician. During the chaos of the terror attack, a cult member attempted to assassinate a sitting legislator, and upon investigating the perpetrator, we found a certain second-tier politician involved...”
“Oh my.”
“Haven’t you seen the news? This is already on the news?”
“I’ve been busy recently reading the articles about myself in the society section.”
“Ah.”
Thanks to the efforts of competent investigators, the politician and the leader of the Rakshasa Temple were all arrested. Wait, then this doesn’t make sense.
“Did you say the leader was arrested for inciting murder? Then what about this?”
Rustle.
Kiryeo showed her the flyer he received on the street. Seonwoo Yeon nodded in understanding and said,
“Even after the leader was captured, the remaining powers are still maintaining the organization.”
“Yes?”
“I heard they’ve even changed their name to ‘True Truth Church’ to avoid crackdowns these days.”
No matter how much they change their signboard, it’s just a way of covering their eyes and pretending everything’s fine. But why do the people here still tolerate the existence of those terrorists?
“We tried to declare it an illegal organization and disband it... but it seems like there are quite a few people involved, so it’s not something that can be done easily right away.”
Seonwoo Yeon cites the size of the group as the reason. However, the archmage’s opinion was somewhat different.
“In the end, Su Yehwi is the problem.”
“Yes?”
Mumbled.
Kiryeo swallowed the bun in his mouth roughly and continued.
“I think as long as the Awakener, Su Yehwi, is alive, this will be a problem that can recur multiple times.”
“Well...”
“The cult leader or whoever was probably just a figurehead. Honestly, the fact that they were captured so easily makes the situation pretty obvious.”
Gulp.
He opened a carton of white milk that was on a 2-for-1 deal at the convenience store and swallowed it down. However, for some reason, his previously calm expression began to wrinkle more and more...
“As expected, is that really the only way?”
Kiryeo began to mutter words that were difficult to understand at first.
‘I’m really anxious about the fact that the person who harmed me is hiding somewhere!’
Ugh.
This fake S-class hunter had a truly long-standing enmity with Su Yehwi. From a broader perspective, even the connection with the unregistered hunter, Pyo Nagil, was influenced by Su Yehwi.
The abduction over the rewards from the Grid, the assassin who came to his home, and the various hardships he suffered due to the emergence of the Inevitable Malice were all, without a doubt, 100% Su Yehwi’s fault.
“Hmm.”
This archmage had encountered countless villains throughout his career, but when a skilled sorcerer became consumed by madness beyond the usual bounds—such as falling into a cult like this—he had never seen a case where leaving such a sorcerer unchecked resulted in anything good, at least not in his experience.
‘I have no choice. Since it’s come to this, I have no choice but to step in myself.’
So Kiryeo decided to settle the long-standing grudge and definitively deal with Su Yehwi. While his strength hadn’t changed much since he first started tracking the Rakshasa Temple, he now held the new status of an S-rank Hunter.
“Kiryeo-ssi, what are you thinking?”
Of course, Seonwoo Yeon had said that private sanctions were not right, so she wouldn’t be happy with the current decision.
“Just...”
To be honest, Kiryeo didn’t think that what he was going to do in the future would be private sanctions.
Rehabilitation and punishment of antisocial criminals—this was a public duty that the former Archmage of Alphauri routinely handled.
“Just thinking about work for a moment.”
Kiryeo felt quite uncomfortable with the fact that the criminals he had identified had yet to be excluded. It was a kind of occupational disease.