Chapter 23 :

<23>

Han Se-gun arrived in Arjuna, soaked through by the rain.

He worried that it was so late that Sylvester might be angry, or that he might have gone somewhere else. But seeing Sylvester’s Corvette coupe standing at the entrance, it did not seem like he had gone anywhere else. Se-gun parked the RX-125 in front and stepped into the entrance of Arjuna.

“Welcome. Ah, Se-gun?”

The owner of Arjuna, Kim Seong-hee, greeted him in her usual refined appearance. Se-gun, drenched in rain, stepped on the entrance mat and looked around inside.

“Where is Sylvester?”

“He just went nearby for a moment .......”

As if to prove the saying that speak of the tiger and it appears, before the sentence could even finish, the back door opened and a rain-soaked Sylvester walked in. He had his hair tied in a ponytail and was wearing a shirt with Snoopy riding a skateboard printed on it.

“You finally here?”

He raised one eyebrow slightly at Se-gun and then took off his shirt.

“!”

Should it be called pale white skin? Sylvester’s body was lean and muscular, without a trace of unnecessary fat, but having not seen the light for a long time, it looked so pale that it did not seem healthy.

But even more astonishing than that were the figures coiling over his skin like snakes. If Sylvester’s skin were peeled off and spread out right here…..... it would surely form some kind of array.

Se-gun stared at that array and lost his words. Blood-red crosses and magical incantations written in Latin filled his entire torso.

A body as pale as his face, and on top of it red magic circles crawling like snakes—astonishingly obscene. Se-gun looked at him as if his soul had been stolen.

But Sylvester paid no attention to Se-gun’s gaze, lifted his shirt, and wrung out the water.

“Why did you call me?”

“Did you get any information?”

“You’re not saying we move already, are you?”

“No. To you it may only feel like now, but to a patient who had autism, it is from now on.”

Sylvester made a sharp point. A person with autism sinks into themself. But when a human who suffered something severe enough to develop autism from rape crawls into the shell of the self, what kind of thoughts do they live their daily life with? It is obvious.

They replay the cursed events that happened to them like looped playback, chewing over regret and hatred again and again.

The weaker the society’s sexual repression, the higher the chance of healing, but in South Korea, that is out of the question. True Vampire Phantom is thinking far too lightly about taking responsibility for such a woman.

“Human resentment...... is stronger than that of a vampire. How could someone whose bones have melted away while enjoying wealth and power, no matter how long they live, claim to save humans?”

“......Then what would you do with her? As a priest, what is your view?”

Se-gun suddenly asked that. Sylvester lifted his head. Cutting through the rain, the bluish-gray mercury streetlight made Sylvester’s pale skin look even whiter.

On that pale blue-white skin, the red cross drawn upon it stood out the most inside the dimly lit Arjuna. He shaped one hand like a gun and brought it to his own temple.

“Bang!”

* * *

Yellow ginkgo leaves filled the street. Uijeongbu City, adjacent to Bukhansan, was crowded with vehicles entering Seoul.

Riding the RX-125, Se-gun slipped through the narrow gaps between the cars. According to what Kim Seong-hee of Arjuna had told him, another vampire dealer was operating in Uijeongbu. Since Old Ju still refused to deal with Se-gun...... he had no choice but to go look for the one said to be in Uijeongbu.

But starting with the fact that they even issue business cards, and on that card it says ‘Yoga and Ki Therapy’, the suspicion is beyond words.

“Damn it.”

But for Se-gun, this is the only thing he can believe. Even if he works part-time and earns a small daily wage of thirty thousand won, it does nothing to help him equip himself or improve his living conditions. At the very least, shouldn’t he escape the gosiwon first?

Soon, a single old building came into view. On the sign that read Ki therapy, spiritual therapy, and yoga, a large Star of Solomon was drawn. The moment he saw it, Se-gun felt painfully how refined an occult shop Arjuna really was.

Compared to this place, Arjuna is nothing to be ashamed of.

Inside the building, it looked as though it had never been repaired even once since construction. In the corridor, fluorescent lights connected by chains that were hardly used anymore could be seen. It seemed to be a building at least thirty years old...... and it reminded him of the now-demolished Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong.

Of course, Se-gun had never actually been to the Kowloon Walled City, but inside, old newspapers and trash were scattered everywhere, enough to resemble a street piled with fallen leaves.

“Hmm......”

Se-gun parked his motorcycle and looked around. Inside what must once have been the shopping-center entrance, completely rusted scooters and bicycles turned into scrap metal were piled together with rags, and mold-covered old wooden doors hung there, as if rain poured all the way into the building every time it rained.

You might catch a disease if you came for treatment...... what kind of treatment could possibly be done here? Thinking that, Se-gun knocked on the door.

“Is anyone here?”

But instead of an answer, the noise of a sports broadcast came from inside. Hockey, maybe? Thinking so, Se-gun carefully opened the door. Inside, a large black man was sitting and watching television.

“Um......”

“Sheeeee.”

He gestured for Se-gun to be quiet and turned his head back toward the broadcast. The old television, like something out of a movie, was emitting a bluish light. It did not seem to have been black-and-white when it was originally made, but the colors had faded and turned blue.

Seeing the black man completely absorbed in the television under that light, it felt almost like witnessing a kind of religious fervor.

So instead of speaking to him, Se-gun looked around.

Various trophies and photographs were displayed around the room. And of course, there were all kinds of machines, including a VT measuring device. In the photos and trophies, the black man, wearing a military uniform and making quite a fine expression, was now sitting blankly in front of the television. Then, at last, the match on TV ended.

“Oh ...... God! coo ~!”

An outburst of excitement he could not even understand. After finishing that, the man turned off the TV and pressed the eject button on the old video deck underneath it. Then, as the video stopped, the tape slid out upward.

‘So he was watching it on video!’

Se-gun stared at the black man in disbelief. A customer had come, and he could not even stop the video ..... But vampire dealers are usually rich beyond comparison with poor vampire scavengers.

Even if they look down on customers a bit, they will not starve for it. Still, that is an extremely old video deck. The tape coming out upward, and all……

After retrieving the tape, the black man finally turned to Se-gun.

“Oh. I am Bill Murray. Welcome to Murray Healing School.”

“......I came to sell blood.”

Se-gun said that and took out the vampire blood. Seeing it, Bill Murray gave a shrug.

“Preservatives, not good. Hard to pay full price unless you use a refrigerator or cooler.”

“Old Ju didn’t seem to care.”

“That’s not so. I pay an even better price.”

The black man who introduced himself as Bill Murray said that and took the blood pack Se-gun handed over, putting it into a machine. It was hard to say how much the freshness had dropped from being left for so long, but the VT reading came out to about 34.

“How much is it?”

“I’ll give you four million. Considering the freshness, this is very unreasonable. But I like first customers. Trust. Good.”

“....”

At that moment, what came to Se-gun’s mind was Yong-jin.

Se-gun had shot Yong-jin, who had been bitten by a vampire and was undergoing vampiric transformation, and as he writhed in agony, he poured vampire blood over him, leaving not even a corpse behind..... And that was worth four million won?

Of course, it was ridiculous for someone who had killed a man to be regretting money, but now that he was desperate for cash, it felt painfully wasteful.

“I’ll take it.”

Haggling with a dealer was hardly something commendable. Se-gun accepted Bill Murray’s offer. In response, he immediately prepared a bundle of four million won in cash.

“Count it.”

“Hmm. It’s correct.”

“Ah. Buy some equipment. Plenty of Psychedelic and cocaine too.”

“ ....... ”

Even if he had brought vampire blood, how could he trust a first-time customer so easily? Still, he happened to need drugs. Pure Psychedelic Moon had analgesic and hallucinogenic effects, but it lacked the aggression needed to gain good results in combat.

However, when blended with cocaine, it not only compensated for that lack of aggression but, depending on the unusual mixture, could even produce superior effects.

“I do need it, but I’ll buy it later.”

With that, Se-gun left the place. The black man inserted another videotape and said,

“If no preservatives, I give better price. Don’t forget.”

* * *

“Again?”

The silver-haired priest slung a large case over his shoulder and stared toward the hotel lobby. There, a bright red Viper was moving in line with a black sedan. Bodyguards riding in the black sedan kept formation with the Viper, protecting it.

In this situation, there was no way to catch them. He could not block them with a car in front of the hotel and start trouble...... and sniping would be dangerous as well.

“ ....... ”

The priest and the Viper passed by each other. The priest did not even glance at the Viper, simply looking straight ahead as he walked forward with the case in hand.

“Hm-hm. Like this, even Sylvester can’t do anything about it. Ah, right. Where shall we go?”

Row Gibson asked the girl in the passenger seat while glancing at the priest outside the window. She lifted her head. It certainly seemed she had shaken off her autism now. But the atmosphere around her was still dark.

“You’re rich, aren’t you?”

“Hmm ...... to a degree that I cannot deny.”

Row answered while checking the priest’s condition in the rearview mirror. The girl let out a deep sigh.

“Then there’s nothing you can’t do. But why are you interested in me?”

“Why am I interested...... hmm, that’s a difficult question to answer. Perhaps emotion?”

The word fate might carry greater meaning in the East, but in Western sensibilities, there is a strong sense of responsibility for a life once saved. Still, saying it was a life he had saved might wound her pride...... so Row kept his mouth shut.

“Will you really grant everything I want?”

“Everything...... is a bit much. I’ll try my best, however.”

He could only answer like that. He had a rough idea of what she wanted. In truth, what she wanted suited his own tastes as well.

It went against his own sense of justice that someone who had committed a vile crime like orchestrating rape would escape punishment merely for being a minor. But he could not let her carry it out herself.

Yet revenge only has meaning when done personally. If revenge is achieved through someone else’s hands, all that remains is emptiness. The pleasure of revenge is one of those sacred things one must taste directly. At least, that was how Phantom thought.

“I want to go where they are.”

“ ....... ”

The worst.

Row let out a sigh of regret. Why did she give the worst possible answer? But if she chose revenge, Row would affirm it. Whatever consequences it brought, that was his principle.

* * *

“In the beginning the Lord formed Adam from the dust, and from Adam’s bone made Eve; death is a sacred rite of returning to the origin. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes .......”

Chanting a requiem, Se-gun stood on a wall atop a hill and looked down below. Beneath the slope that stretched about eleven meters were rows of detached houses. High-rise apartments stood here and there, so the view was not entirely clear, but from this foothill location, the scenery was not bad.

“Dangerous.”

Jin Yu-mi, smiling brightly as if amused, tried to stop Se-gun. He sighed at the sight of her. Honestly, he would rather not see her if possible. Being around a broken woman like this felt as though he himself would not be able to endure it.

But as Sylvester had said...... to drag the King of Vampires out of his fortress, it was necessary to watch this woman. She and her so-called friends were objects of hatred to the woman the Vampire King had taken in.

‘But ...... really ...... how long?’

For Se-gun, dealing with her was excruciating. Their positions were different...... but every time he looked at her, it felt as though he saw himself reflected back, and that was unbearable.

Moreover, she was not whole, was she? Her body was not whole either, and those friends of hers did not seem to truly cherish her. They were merely using her because she had a house.

In the end, there was no one she could truly open her heart to. So why did she trust Se-gun? Just because he resembled Kurt Cobain?

‘Doesn’t seem that similar to me.’

Thinking that, Se-gun walked along the railing. A strong wind blew up from below the slope, but not enough to shake his balance. He walked forward with both arms spread to maintain balance.

At that moment, he saw a bright red Viper enter the alley. The road was so narrow that only one car could pass, and with illegal parking here and there, a car would struggle to climb up—maybe a motorcycle could manage. Perhaps that was why the car stopped at the mouth of the alley and remained there.

“ ....... ”

Se-gun knew a little about the King of Vampires, one of the True Vampires, the one called Phantom. Everything he knew came from Sylvester, but just hearing that he drove a bright red Viper was enough.

‘He’s here.’

Se-gun carefully touched his chest. He could feel the Tokarev tucked inside his coat. But there was no way he could kill a True Vampire with such a cheap gun.

He might die if he was not careful. Even as cold sweat ran down his back, Se-gun forced himself to appear calm. He simply continued walking along the railing with his arms spread, like someone unaware.

“Hm?”

But then the Viper suddenly backed away. He had been tense and waiting, and it simply retreated? Yet even with his not-so-good eyesight, Se-gun saw yellow-brown lenses glinting. Binoculars. Had he only come to observe?

“What’s wrong? Se-gun?”

“No ...... nothing. By the way, is your body okay?”

“Mm-hm. The medicine you gave me, Se-gun. It was really good.”

“....”

Psychedelic Moon was not a drug one could honestly call good, even as a joke. Of course, it was far better than thinner or butane gas.

“Right. That’s good to hear.”

But that was all Se-gun could say. Unless he was prepared, like Sylvester, to put a hole through her head…..