Chapter 26

Ok-hee walked over to the rooftop railing, looked down the steep hill far below, and spoke.

“By the way, shouldn’t you hurry up and move?”
“…I suppose I should.”
“You still haven’t been able to get the clothes you bought at the department store delivered, right?”
“They said they don’t deliver here.”
“Food delivery can’t even get up here. You really think a courier will? Even I never imagined there’d be a place in the middle of Seoul, in the delivery nation of Korea, where packages couldn’t reach.”

Jun-gyeong asked in a low voice.

“Did you come here to nag me about moving?”

Ok-hee widened her eyes and quickly waved both hands.

“No, of course not. I came to update you on April, the elf you rescued in Incheon, and Smith’s disciple too. I’ve also got some information on Sajik-dong.”

Jun-gyeong answered with a nod.

“First, Smith says he’ll remake Seolhwa for you as thanks.”
“No need.”
“What?”

Smiling, Jun-gyeong drew Mukhwa from empty air.

“I’ve found an old companion. I’ll lay Seolhwa to rest in my heart now.”
“Ah… Then what about something else? When it comes to weapons and armor, he’s the best.”
“I suppose I do need some protection against bullets.”
“All right, I’ll ask him about that. And Miss April made it safely back to the Capri Dimension. She also said she intends to formally invite you.”
“Invite me?”
“Yes. I don’t know why, but she was grinding her teeth when she said it. Anyway, I’ll let you know when the formal invitation arrives. Their bureaucracy moves incredibly slowly. You just have to understand that because they live so long, they think humans have all the time in the world too.”
“Fine. More importantly, what about Sajik-dong?”

Jun-gyeong turned his gaze toward Ok-hee.

“For starters, the Seoul mayor is staking everything on pushing the redevelopment through. And Han-o Construction is still hard at work ruining the neighborhood.”

It was bad news, yet Jun-gyeong remained relaxed.
Ok-hee continued.

“The dirtier the neighborhood gets and the fewer people visit, the more residents will give up, sell their homes, and leave. Why not just wait until the redevelopment is finished and move in afterward?”

Jun-gyeong shook his head.

“There’s no need for that either.”
“What?”
“Looks like I beat you to the information this time.”

Ok-hee’s expression twisted oddly.
Enjoying the look on her face, Jun-gyeong raised one corner of his mouth.

“What’s happening there is no longer merely a human matter. I heard the Jiangshi virus is being produced in an underground laboratory there.”
“What? Jiangshi? Wow! That’s huge! How did you find that out?”
“I have my ways.”

Ok-hee fell into thought for a moment, then made a pointed observation.

“But Mr. Jun-gyeong, us getting involved and the redevelopment are two separate issues. The redevelopment is entirely a matter of human law and political power.”

Jun-gyeong froze.
The corner of his mouth, which had risen so confidently, quietly dropped back into place.
Jun-gyeong could go to Sajik-dong, clean out the laboratory, and deal with the thugs roaming around destroying the neighborhood.
But there was little he could do about the redevelopment being forced through by the mayor.
That was entirely a human problem, one intertwined with political power.

“…That is true. Anyway, did you look into that house?”
“Ah, I did. They don’t want to sell.”
“…That’s unfortunate.”

Ok-hee nodded, looking disappointed as well.

“It really is a lovely place. Should I look into some of the other houses nearby? It seems a few people are starting to decide to move out.”

Jun-gyeong fell deep into thought.
It didn’t necessarily have to be that particular house.
Yet some corner of his heart kept drawing him back to it.
The peach tree, the neatly kept lawn, the orderly roof tiles, and even that familiar fragrance drifting through the alley. All of it.

“…I’ll go see it again.”
“Today?”

Jun-gyeong shook his head, his expression slightly stiff.

“Not today. I have something to do.”
“All right. Then let’s go sometime soon.”
“Fine.”
“But… can I ask what’s happening today?”

Ok-hee asked cautiously, watching his expression.
Jun-gyeong gave a slightly sorrowful smile and shook his head.
His gaze had already drifted beyond the railing toward the glittering city.

Even after Ok-hee left, Jun-gyeong remained seated on the wooden platform for a long time.
Longing and sorrow washed over him like waves, filling his eyes.
At last, his quiet voice scattered into the air.

“It is her birthday… and the anniversary of her death.”

Jun-gyeong slowly lowered his head.
His quiet voice continued.

“For the past thousand years, I have lived remembering this day only as the day you died. But from today onward, I will remember it as your birthday. I do not know when you were born in this life, but I hope every moment of it is filled with happiness.”

Seol-hui’s face rose vividly in his mind.
Not the cold, lifeless face with open eyes and lingering resentment that Jun-gyeong had seen throughout the past thousand years in Hell.
It was her face beneath the peach blossoms, smiling brightly as she looked at him.
A smile filled with longing appeared on Jun-gyeong’s face.

The officer responsible for Asia at ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, an advisory body to UNESCO, put down the phone and let out a deep sigh.

“What happened? Who was it that has you looking like someone died?”
“DG.”
“What? The Director-General?”

Mark, who had been drinking coffee beside him, opened his eyes so wide they nearly popped out.

“The Director-General called a grunt like you personally?”

The officer shot to his feet, walked up to Mark, and fired back.

“The redevelopment of Sajik-dong in South Korea would obstruct the historical landscape of Gyeongbokgung Palace and make it impossible for the Hanyang City Wall to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. She says she’s going to send a warning directly to the Korean government and ordered me to gather the materials. She sounded like she had me by the leash.”
“No, that’s what I’m asking. Why is the Director-General personally handling this?”
“How the hell should I know?! I’m about to be busy, so don’t talk to me.”

The officer dropped irritably back into his chair and began rifling through stacks of documents.

At the same time, Director-General Audrey at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris was still holding the phone.

“Yes. I’ve just instructed the working-level staff. We’ll move quickly.”
-Please do. It’s a very~ important matter.
“Of course. But is the site really important enough for the Duke of Uzès to intervene personally?”
-Of course it is. Especially when you consider the person taking such a profound interest in the matter.
“And by that person, you mean…?”
-Someone. Don’t dig too deeply into it.
“…Understood.”

French-born Director-General Audrey Allais ended the call and fell deep into thought.
The Duke of Uzès was one of only thirty dukes in France.
He was no ordinary aristocrat.
A collateral descendant of the French royal family, he was an “invisible hand” who wielded immense real-estate holdings, connections, and cultural influence.

“It doesn’t matter who’s behind this. What matters is that I’ve established a solid connection with the duke.”

An ambitious smile appeared on her face.

South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs descended into chaos beneath a flood of letters and messages from around the world.
Official inquiries from foreign embassies poured in, along with mountains of warning letters from UNESCO and the United Nations.
Every document concerned the same thing. ‘Stop the Sajik-dong Redevelopment.’

The matter was immediately reported up the chain, and it took less than a day for the report to reach the president.
The administrative order handed down by the nation’s highest authority was simple and absolute.

The news reached reporters covering the Blue House, the Foreign Ministry, and other government offices and was immediately turned into articles.
Even the conservative outlets that had previously praised Mayor Han’s redevelopment began changing their headlines.

[[Breaking] Official Letter Bearing UNESCO Director-General’s Seal Received, “If Even One Excavator Moves in Sajik-dong, Gyeongbokgung’s World Heritage Status Will Be Revoked Entirely”]
[“Seoul Reset or Destruction of History?” ICOMOS Formally Issues Recommendation to Halt Development to Seoul Metropolitan Government]
[White House Spokesperson Issues Unusual Statement: “Sajik-dong Is a Shared Heritage of Humanity… We Regret This Reckless Act of Destruction”]
[“Nothing Money Can’t Solve” Global Tycoon Alon Pledges Tenfold Redevelopment Compensation… Han-o Construction ‘On Emergency Alert’]
[Samo Group, “Sajik-dong Is the Soul of Seoul”… Begins Counter-Acquisition of Han-o Construction Shares, Hostile M&A Looms]

In truth, all of it was the product of Seung-ho’s planning and Jun-gyeong’s overwhelming presence.
Since the Pavilion incident, wealthy elites and unseen powers across the world had been desperately trying to find Jun-gyeong.
Through that covert network, Seung-ho let a single piece of information slip.

‘Jun-gyeong wants to live in Sajik-dong.’

Those few words were little different from an absolute command to powerful figures around the world.
The world’s ‘true masters,’ whether indebted to Jun-gyeong or eager to earn his favor, began moving at once. The result was the unprecedented upheaval now shaking South Korea.
It also served to divert South Korea’s attention away from Jun-gyeong himself.
They had begun to recognize him as someone possessing overwhelming power, someone who must never be provoked.

Mayor Han stared blankly at the monitor.
His mind had effectively collapsed beneath the barrage of media coverage filling the screen and the relentless ringing of smartphones and telephones like funeral wails.

“How… How did it come to this? Why is everyone suddenly going insane over this?!”

He couldn’t understand why global economic heavyweights and international organizations were reacting so violently to the redevelopment of a single neighborhood.
But whether he understood or not, the massive current had already brought Sajik-dong’s excavators to a halt.
He might have dismissed UNESCO’s warning by blaming a translation error, but there was no ignoring the razor-edged administrative order handed down from the Blue House.

The protesters’ chants pierced through the thick double-glazed windows like daggers.

“Mayor Han, halt the Sajik-dong redevelopment immediately!”
“Stop the unilateral redevelopment! Mayor Han, resign and apologize!”
“Down with this unilateral abuse of power! Mayor Han, resign immediately!”

Mayor Han slumped deep into his chair, looking as though his soul had already left his body.
The election was right around the corner, and his party had already cut contact, treating him as a discarded card.

“I’m… finished.”

He covered his eyes with trembling hands.
Nothing but darkness filled his vision.
It was the very image of his own miserable downfall.

Jun-gyeong headed to Sajik-dong to clean out the laboratory the goblin alchemist had told him about.
The strange stone structures jutted upward and forward as though enclosing the neighborhood.

Sajik-dong was even emptier and quieter than before.
There were no people walking through the alleys. Not even a stray cat was in sight.
The few shops that had once remained lit were dark, and even the convenience store that should have been open twenty-four hours had its lights off.

“It’s turning into a ghost town.”

Jun-gyeong murmured quietly.
Outside, capital and international politics were waging a war over Sajik-dong, while the neighborhood itself gave off the cold scent of a ruin slowly dying.

Jun-gyeong walked forward slowly and stepped across the entrance to the neighborhood.

Shhhk-

A powerful sense of incongruity washed over him.

“What’s this?”

Jun-gyeong turned and looked back at the stone structures.
They stretched outward as though surrounding the neighborhood.
With his sharpened five senses, he immediately understood what he was experiencing.

“A barrier.”

Those stones were creating a barrier around the neighborhood.
That was why, from outside, the interior appeared to be nothing more than an abandoned ghost district.
Yet things inside weren’t particularly different.
Just as it had appeared from outside, not a single person could be seen moving through the neighborhood.
No. It was worse than it had seemed from outside.
The entire area had become a space devoid of even a single human presence.

Jun-gyeong slowly made his way to the hanok with the peach tree he had seen that day and stopped in front of it.
As he stood at the entrance to the alley, the faint fragrance of peach blossoms drifted toward him.
Jun-gyeong closed his eyes and drew a deep breath.
His Qi rapidly completed a circuit through his body along his strengthened Qi meridians.

Energy permeated the entire neighborhood, but the energy emanating from this alley, and especially that house, was the purest and most intense.
Of course, Jun-gyeong, who possessed internal energy, was likely the only one capable of sensing it properly.

He had come at dusk on the faint hope of finding someone here, but this place too was submerged in a silence devoid of human presence.
At that moment, Ok-hee’s voice brushed his ear.

-Han-o Construction currently owns eight buildings in total. The laboratory Barkan identified is near the central park. It’s the building with a large skull painted on it in red spray paint…
“Understood.”

Jun-gyeong’s steps grew heavy as he headed toward the building.
Seeing the neighborhood gradually becoming dirtier and more damaged weighed on his mood.
Before long, the source of that displeasure appeared before him.

A group of men poured out of one of the buildings Han-o Construction had purchased, defaced, and abandoned…
They were beastfolk with thick hair covering their arms and legs, mixed with thugs plastered in filthy tattoos.
Jun-gyeong’s brow immediately furrowed.
One man with tattoos crawling all the way up his neck met Jun-gyeong’s eyes, spat on the ground, and picked a fight.

“Ptooey. Huh? There’s still someone wandering around here?”

The tattoo-covered brute radiated killing intent.
At that moment, a rat-faced man tugged the brute by the shoulder and stepped forward.

“Hey, hey. Hold on.”

The man gave Jun-gyeong a servile smile and nodded toward him.

“Ah~ Sorry about that. This bastard’s always carrying iron, yet somehow he never grew up. Just keep going on your way. Looks like you came to look around, though there’s fuck-all to see in this neighborhood. Enjoy yourself.”

When the man took such a submissive attitude, Jun-gyeong let out a faint chuckle.
The tattooed brute caught that fleeting trace of mockery and immediately came storming forward again.

“You laughing? You fucking looking to die?”

The massive man twisted his face into a vicious scowl and blocked Jun-gyeong’s path.
His enormous body blocked Jun-gyeong from the view of the beastfolk and thugs standing behind him.

THUD-!

A dull impact shattered the silence of the deserted alley.

“Haah, this bastard. I told him not to kill anyone yet. Fucker never listens.”

Certain that Jun-gyeong would be rolling on the ground and begging for mercy, the rat-faced man turned around.
But what he saw was something he had never imagined.
The massive tattooed man was slowly sliding to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
And behind him stood Jun-gyeong, wearing the Ghost Mask and staring at them with killing intent, like a predator eyeing its prey.

“You… killed people.”

Jun-gyeong’s barely audible voice froze the air in the alley.
The rat-faced man was seized by instinctive terror, and his entire body began to tremble.