Chapter 6

“Wow, what the heck is that?”

Lieutenant Woo In-Tae chuckled as he watched the restaurant’s surveillance camera footage.

The woman, left alone in the empty restaurant, was gulping down water endlessly like a hippo, after having eaten her fill. She showed no signs of getting up, but everything about her was peculiar.

In-Tae swiveled his chair to face Shin Hae-Gon, who was standing behind him, and pointed his thumb at the screen.

“Are you sure it’s safe to leave her like that? Not just anyone, but Salli with those red eyes. It makes me uneasy. The others are getting restless too.”

Hae-Gon, with an unchanging expression, replied.

“If you’re that worried, should I just kill her?”

Whether he was joking or not, In-Tae snorted, giving his rock-hard abdomen a light punch with the back of his hand.

“Why didn’t you half-kill her in the first place? She looks too fine. Should’ve at least made her drag one leg.”

Even the higher-ups were concerned that no matter how cold-hearted Shin Hae-Gon was, he might lose his composure when it came to Wina.

On Mist Fire Island, many of Salli’s associates had been silently killed. Given that Shin Hae-Gon, the core of theScarlet Break Unit, might dismember or even kill Wina on a whim, dealing with him rashly wasn’t an option. His power was that overwhelming. The number of his subordinates who followed him fanatically formed several squads, half of which were irreplaceable elite forces.

“She didn’t even flinch when I pulled out her nails.”

“Ah, so that was real? They say she can’t feel pain.”

Hae-Gon’s eyes locked onto Wina, who was chugging her sixteenth glass of water.

“That’s something we’ll figure out eventually.”

Here is the translated text, using the specified names and terms:

Just as if by chance, the sinister face turned toward the camera, and suddenly, his fingertips itched.

“I need to feel how much and where it hurts to make the torture worthwhile.
”
Shin Hae-Gon recalled yesterday’s interrogation.

Even though he raked her throat and yanked at her hair as if to tear it out, Wina’s reactions were strange.

The pain Wina exhibited lacked appeal. It felt like she was consciously letting out pained sounds.

After slamming her forehead onto the floor, he turned her face to observe it carefully. Even while blood streamed from her nose, her dubious reactions remained.

However, separate from the pain, he did not miss her faintly surprised expression.

Although slight, it was undoubtedly fear. The pleasure he felt when he discovered emotions in eyes that resembled crystals more than living beings was akin to any other euphoria. If those eyes showed abject terror, he would not be opposed to smiling back at them. He gently clenched one hand.

“Wi Shi-Kyung will die soon.”

It was the moment he brought his fist to her nose.

“Salli will crumble soon.”

If it weren’t a ridiculous statement that piqued his interest, he would have broken her nose right then. Shin Hae-Gon instead tapped the lips that had just delivered a bombshell with his prominent middle finger.

“How can I believe you?”

“I betrayed Salli.”

“Do you usually let traitors off this easily?”

“My eyes have that kind of power.”

Fiery red eyes clashed intensely with jet-black ones.

When he took off the blindfold, he thought her eyes were violet. When he leaned closer, they were a more mature hue. Now, they were pure red.

They were colors that transformed constantly depending on distance and angle. The only certainty was that they would be the most beautiful color if crushed and burst.

“Do not disrupt the body’s desires, and do not fear the soul’s corruption.”

Back when Salli was almost a religious figure, the devotees proudly chanted this doctrine, which Shin Hae-Gon recited.

“Is it a power that encourages you to willingly rape and murder?”

When Shin Hae-Gon sneered, the woman, molded as if from the doctrine, suddenly closed her eyes. As the red light disappeared, an inexplicable thirst ignited in an instant. It was a mysterious internal change, unrelated to his emotions.

He wanted to tear out her head to make her open her eyes. He extinguished the fierce impulse that was not entirely his by repeating the woman’s name in his mind.

“My eyes turn the world into hell and people into demons.”

If it was a confession, it was too late. His sibling had already been cremated as a corpse with holes in their chest and eyes.

“Before it gets too late, I want to return the world to the way it was before I opened my eyes.”

Wina.

Shin Hae-Gon repeated that name several times.

“I used my cursed power… to kill our leader, no, Wi Shi-Kyung. There’s not much time left. Soon, a corpse will surface.”

Wina. Wina. Wina.

Even while repeating the name, her trembling eyelashes scratched at his vision.

“I won’t open my eyes.”

For an insect, for a witch, her pleading voice was quite human.

“Until you believe me.”

“Me? Believe you?”

Air escaped Shin Hae-Gon’s lips. It was laughable, but not even worth a laugh.

“You said… you would believe me.”

Her next words were the same. However, his mouth became rigid, unlike before.

“Oh, So-Yeon. So-Yeon… Ah, my baby, my poor baby… So-Yeon. So-Yeon!”

Wina.

It was a name he had never forgotten.

Because it was meticulously engraved on So-Yeon’s right chest with a knife when she was returned.

“Does this seem like a lie too?”

The devil’s deceitful breath trying to seduce him spread around Shin Hae-Gon’s neck.

As he released the soft hair tangled in his grip and stroked her nape, he could feel her pulsating veins.

A living thing.

At that moment, Shin Hae-Gon truly wanted to snuff out her life, his fingertips itching.

“Hey, Lieutenant Shin.”

Woo In-Tae called Shin Hae-Gon, who remained frozen with his eyes glued to the screen. After calling him about four times, his eyes finally turned toward him.

“What are you thinking about so much?”

“What to do.”

“What?”

“Should I at least pretend to be fooled?”

In-Tae turned his chair back to watch the screen alongside him. The new surveillance cameras installed by higher-ups four months ago had excellent image quality.

Wina’s t-shirt and shorts, covered in various sauces and debris due to Captain Yoon’s chaotic antics and rolling around in the mountains, were now so old they were almost unwatchable.

Still, it was awkward to provide a hostage with clean clothes, so In-Tae clicked his tongue.

“I don’t know….”

Wina was a key figure associated with Salli, who was on the wanted list, but only unverified rumors circulated, and it was hard to find a single properly taken photo of her.

Of course, she had the unique feature of red eyes. However, she had been in hiding for so long that her whereabouts were unclear.

Wina was first discovered in a village located at the northernmost point near the West Sea.

During an all-out battle with Salli, who had attacked the village while armed, red eyes appeared. A woman sitting on a towering rock, her black hair fluttering, looked like the incarnation of a siren.

Wina was almost captured in the water but slipped away like an eel.

How she escaped remains a mystery. All the other members of the organization were either killed or captured alive, but only she got away.

The squad member who chased Wina to the end said it felt like being possessed by a ghost. He was sure he had grabbed her collar, but then everything went white in an instant, and she vanished like magic.

As a soldier who had been through countless battles, Woo In-Tae had taken it as a unique shock to face something beyond human.
And yet, here he was, watching her being tormented on the screen, feeling just as bewildered.

“How much do you believe what she says?”

Shin Hae-Gon also watched the interrogation video filmed in the investigation room yesterday. He was uncertain whether the reason for Wina’s claim that she betrayed Salli, closing her eyes as if to prove her point, and keeping them closed until now, was truly to gain trust.

“There’s no way to believe her.”

Shin Hae-Gon seemed to dismiss even a one percent possibility. Hmm, In-Tae interlocked his fingers and rested his head on them.

“I wondered what it meant to be able to live with your eyes closed, but it was literal.”

There was no difficulty in placing a water cup in the slot and walking quietly to the exit. Perhaps due to encountering even more bizarre situations, he accepted this level without much thought.

Feeling bemused at himself for reacting a beat too late, he gave a wry smile. This must be why humans are adaptable creatures.

In-Tae switched the screen to the camera installed in the hallway. It seemed like she had just gone out, but she wasn’t visible on the screen, which made him narrow his eyes.

“The dining hall.”

As Shin Hae-Gon spoke, In-Tae immediately switched the screen to the dining hall. In-Tae’s eyes widened. Shin Hae-Gon, who witnessed it as well, had no expression.

“What?”

Wina was lying on the floor. Like a dead person, completely still.