NOVEL FROG Chapter 147
“What?”
“The clothes. Take them off.”
Jin Yeseo, doubting her ears, asked again, but the masked male student calmly repeated his words.
Jin Yeseo felt her breath quickening.
Finally, he was revealing the wicked teeth he had been hiding.
Of course, she hadn’t entirely dismissed the possibility of such a situation.
Though they shared a secretive daily life, she and he were standing in completely different positions. Jin Yeseo was bound to be dragged along as he led the way.
In this relationship, the disadvantage lay solely on her side.
Furthermore, she was well aware of his brutal personality. She had experienced it firsthand, and the evaluations from those around her were no different.
So much so that rumors had circulated at the beginning of the semester about him bullying naive brown-haired female students who came up from the outskirts.
Naturally, she had already prepared various logical arguments to counter should he reach out his claws toward her.
An exceptional female magician was a being of significant value after all.
But to have someone so suddenly demand nonsensical actions in a quiet alley, even if it was less than twilight…
‘This… this can’t be his real intention, can it? Is he trying to tame me to his liking? To firmly establish the upper hand in our relationship…? I read about something like this in a psychology book… starting with an unreasonable demand, then slowly…’
“Wait… just a moment…”
“Hey. I told you I’m short on time. What are you doing?”
“Ugh…”
Jin Yeseo’s eyes wobbled, unable to focus. The arrogance she had earlier displayed toward the delinquents was nowhere to be found.
She was precisely positioned below in the established food chain between the two.
“Ah, no matter what, in a place like this…”
“Ugh, seriously… what idiot walks around in such nice clothes in the slums?”
“Huh…?”
Just as Jin Yeseo, almost resigned, was about to bring her trembling hand to the top button of her shirt, the irritated voice that suddenly came through made her involuntarily emit a foolish groan.
Jin Yeseo slowly lifted her head.
The man wearing the gas mask was lightly placing a hand on his forehead as if suffering from a headache.
“You said we’re heading to the slum district, right? It’s not like we’re advertising for trouble…”
Jin Yeseo, caught in a daze, finally understood his words.
“Ha, but… I brought the shabbiest of my casual clothes with me…”
“Seems you don’t know much about the living standards of the poor; that won’t do.”
“B-but I can’t just take off my clothes. They wouldn’t be walking around in their underwear either…”
“Who said to take it all off? I just asked for your outerwear, didn’t I? I even pointed at it.”
Realizing she had seriously misunderstood something, Jin Yeseo’s face turned bright red as she shouted.
“Hey! Then say it properly! Who would just take it off like that?!”
“Shouldn’t you be able to understand that much? Now hurry up and take it off. It’s already pretty late. If we delay any longer, we really won’t arrive until night.”
“Ugh…”
Jin Yeseo’s protests scattered like a weak echo. She had no choice but to drop her backpack and fidget as she took off her outerwear.
Even that felt too shameful and humiliating.
The man who received her outerwear tore it violently and tossed it to the ground, stepping on it multiple times with his feet.
And that outerwear returned to Jin Yeseo’s hands, now resembling a rag he wouldn’t even want.
Seeing Jin Yeseo clad in filthy clothes stained with rotten dirt and dust, the man nodded.
“Now it’s somewhat bearable.”
“Ugh…”
Jin Yeseo groaned softly with a voice full of contempt.
She looked like someone who had picked up discarded clothes from a collection bin.
“If possible, I’d like you to mess up your face a bit more. You look too much like a rich kid…”
“…?”
Jin Yeseo turned her gaze toward the man standing tall, puzzled.
“…That’s enough. This should do.”
“…?”
After pausing for a moment, the man turned away and brushed off his hands as if nothing had happened.
Jin Yeseo tilted her head slightly, sensing that strange gloom again.
*
In the northern part of the capital. Right in the middle of the slums where even streetcars don’t run.
“Ugh…”
Jin Yeseo grimaced at the stench wafting up from the sewers cutting through the streets.
If she felt disgusted, it would surely be unbearable for her.
As darkness began to settle, the streetlights flickered on, though most were broken and couldn’t function at all.
We continued through the narrow alleyway stretched between the broken windows and rusty drums.
We occasionally encountered residents, but they showed little interest in us.
Was it that we were disguised well, or simply that they were too busy struggling to care about others’ circumstances?
After a while, we finally reached the orphanage’s address that Yeon Minha had provided.
“Ah?”
But what we faced was a lot overgrown with weeds and the remnants of a half-burnt building.
“Hey, didn’t I say we were coming to meet a witness? But this is…”
“B14-132. This is the right place.”
I looked around, confirming the address. Yeon Minha wouldn’t have given the wrong address; she was nearly perfect in that aspect.
“And…”
I examined the exterior of the building, visibly scarred by fire.
The sign hanging precariously above the spot that seemed to be the entrance rattled as the wind blew, drawing my attention with its inscribed letters.
– Sisters’ House
This was definitely the place Yeon Minha had informed me about, one of the organizations supported by Jeokhwa.
“…”
But why did it look like this?
With this state, it seemed impossible to find any nuns or anyone.
“…I think it’s better to go back? What could we possibly find here… Hey, hey! Don’t just go barging in like that!”
“You wait here. Signal me immediately if anything happens.”
Despite deliberating for a moment, I opened the creaking door and stepped inside.
Jin Yeseo protested with an anxious voice, but I couldn’t simply turn back without any yield.
Thanks to the moonlight streaming in through the broken ceiling, searching wasn’t too difficult.
A teddy bear with button eyes hanging from its torn neck, a small sketchbook adorned with colorful drawings. Old clothing that appeared to belong to children.
All evidence of lives that must have once existed in this ruin.
“…”
I continued deeper inside, gathering even more information through my eyes.
The moldy, drooping wallpaper, spider webs, and dark streaks on the walls… which felt eerily like bloodstains.
It felt like some great catastrophe had swept through this place.
Before I knew it, I reached a small room in the corner.
Something barely standing atop a breakage-riddled shelf caught my eye.
“This is…”
I approached it and picked it up.
A photograph that had barely escaped the flames, the edges slightly scorched.
A dozen or so children beaming bright smiles.
And among them stood the only adult, a woman.
She appeared to be in her twenties, with an elegant appearance. And she looked like a religious person.
Could this be the nun I’m looking for?
The one possibly involved with the cult Jin Yeseo mentioned—‘Heaven’s Door’…
“…”
Looking at that radiant smile, which was not much different from the children, I couldn’t help but feel strange.
You can’t judge everything by appearances, but… looking at the expression in the photo, there’s no way she could be a villain.
Of course, everything is mere speculation until I actually meet her, but now, I don’t even know if she’s alive or dead.
What should I do?
-Who… how dare you wander in here?!
-…!
As I was momentarily lost in thought,
A sudden commotion outside caught my attention.
I quickly moved towards the crumbling outer wall of the building.
The sight of Jin Yeseo arguing with an old woman wielding a staff greeted me.
“Get lost! You filthy creatures! What are you lurking around here trying to steal! Your master told you to kidnap children, didn’t she?!”
The old woman was waving her frail arms, trying to hit Jin Yeseo with her staff.
“Do you know who I am to treat me like that…? Hiyah!”
I rushed out and held Jin Yeseo by the neck from behind, pulling her back to stop her from shouting at the old hag. The sudden sensation made Jin Yeseo emit a sharp gasp.
Why does the image of Choi Woojin, who had been painstakingly reading newspapers to understand the lives of the common folk, suddenly come to mind?
Now I understand a bit why they actively encourage young, naive magicians to take on commissions from the outside…
“Look at that creepy thing on your face! You must be the boss of these filthy brats, right? You worthless piece of trash!”
Ignoring Jin Yeseo’s seething eyes, I stepped forward, causing the old woman to grow even more agitated at the sight of my gas mask. Her demeanor became that of foaming madness.
“Calm down, ma’am.”
“We won’t let the children go again! You’d better take me instead… huh?”
As I bowed politely, the old woman’s expression turned befuddled.
Not missing that moment, I took out my identification prepared in advance and showed it to her.
“I’m an officer from the Security Bureau. I’m here to conduct an investigation.”
Presenting a fabricated identity with feigned nonchalance, Jin Yeseo looked at me with an expression of disbelief.
The old woman’s anger subsided, but she still eyed me suspiciously, glancing between me and the ID.
“Aren’t you an officer? But your attire… doesn’t look like one…”
“Take a look.”
I raised my arm and cast a spell, conjuring a small white orb of light.
And I showed it to the old woman.
“…So you’re definitely not a warlock.”
At last, the old woman dropped her suspicions entirely.
Nothing guarantees your identity more than demonstrating magic. Thanks to the nature of dark magic, warlocks can’t help but expose their reddish pupils in their spells.
“I thought those scum were lurking around again, trying to steal something. Why are you rummaging through ruins at this hour…?”
“Ha, how could I look like a warlock…?”
Jin Yeseo muttered, still bristling with displeasure.
“I understand. The area’s been quite dangerous. These days, pretty ladies are even more suspicious. Last year, a warlock named ‘Vatori’ was executed for bathing in the fresh blood of a virgin to maintain her beauty…”
“Why am I being treated like a warlock?!”
“Is your suspicion lifted then? If so, may I ask a few questions? Is this the orphanage known as ‘Sisters’ House’?”
Dragging the still fuming Jin Yeseo behind me, I stepped forward.
“Yes, that’s right. Well, it used to be…”
The old woman spoke in a lonely tone, glancing at the ruins.
“Can I ask what happened here?”
“Well…”
The old woman seemed somewhat reluctant to respond.
“Don’t you know about what happened, officer?”
“We are not the local branch but sent from the Central Bureau to conduct a re-investigation.”
“Central…? I suppose something must still be around…? It’s been two years…”
“That’s correct. I would appreciate your cooperation.”
After many attempts at persuasion, the old woman finally sighed as if resigning.
“That’s a mean thing to do. Making an old lady recall such memories.”
She seemed to slightly tremble, as if she were recalling bad memories.
“…It was two years ago. I was just on my usual evening walk, planning to drop by the orphanage to hand out some candy to the kids because they were such good children who greeted me nicely. But when I was just about here…”
The old woman pointed toward the hill in front of the orphanage with her chin.
“An unusual sight caught my eye?”
“Exactly. I thought a pack of stray dogs was hunting something. At first, I didn’t think much of it. It was a common sight in this neighborhood. But when I looked closely… those were pieces of meat, and each had two hands and two feet.”
“…”
“Then I realized, those weren’t animals they were tearing apart… but human corpses.”
“And the more frightening thing was…”
“…What was it?”
“It wasn’t stray dogs that were eating the corpses… It was the children from the orphanage.”
The old woman closed her eyes tightly.
“My legs gave out, and when I heard that sound, I turned my head. They were all familiar faces. Just yesterday, they’d called out, ‘Grandma!’ while following me around. But those children stared at me, with torn pupils, as if I were a piece of meat. What they had just been devouring was the flesh of their friends.”
“…”
“I’ve never seen such a sight in my life. From the split spines, long tentacles writhed out, crawling on four limbs, mouths split open sideways with tongues sticking out like three.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I can handle it. Anyway…”
The old woman wobbled.
As I tried to support her, she shook her head and steadied herself with her staff.
“I don’t even remember how I managed to run home. I locked all my doors and spent the entire night shivering in fear. And when I finally went out the next morning, that’s how it ended up.”
The old woman turned her head slightly to gaze at the orphanage’s ruins.
“The area chief came later and informed me. Something went wrong inside the orphanage. The kids mutated from that, and the purification unit came and shot them all. To prevent the contamination from spreading, they burned the entire orphanage.”
“…”
“Isn’t it just the worst? The bad folks are left unscathed while those good kids… That nun should have gone to a good place…”
While I listened to her story, a word suddenly caught my ear from what the old woman had said.
I took the photograph I just obtained from the ruins and showed it to the old woman.
“Are you referring to this nun?”
“Yes.”
The old woman nodded.
“She was an extraordinary person. Even younger than I am, yet she made me bow my head as she was called ‘Sister.’ In a world where it’s hard enough to live, who else would take care of orphans with nowhere to go?”
“What happened to her?”
“I don’t know. She probably passed away.”
The old woman shook her head.
“How could she survive that chaos? There’s no way she would leave the children behind to escape by herself. Probably, probably…”
The old woman hesitated, trailing off. Perhaps she was swallowing the words about being devoured by the mutated children.
“…Is that so? I think that’s all I need to hear. Thank you for your cooperation.”
“I’m glad to have been of help. Talking about old times makes me tired. I’m going to take a break. Officer, it’s dangerous to wander around here at midnight, so please take care.”
Nodding, the old woman leaned on her staff and slowly walked away, hunched over.
By now, Jin Yeseo, who had been listening silently to the old lady’s tale, came over to my side.
“…What was with the officer?”
“I prepared in advance. It’s better than exposing my status as a student from the Cradle at any time.”
“Then you could’ve said so…”
Jin Yeseo replied with a hint of dissatisfaction in her voice. I hadn’t expected there would be a need to use it so suddenly.
“So, what will we do now? Is that nun the ‘witness’ you mentioned? But she seems dead.”
My head was already aching from the frustration.
The old woman’s story was hardly different from the appearances of the mutations occurring around here.
And if what she said was true, the nun would not have been able to escape that hellish ordeal. I should rather say that she wouldn’t have.
Even the drunken guard captain from my hometown fulfilled his duty and died.
However, it still bothered me that the timing of the orphanage burning down overlapped with when the nun had been coming and going from Jeokhwa.
There’s still quite a while left in the commission period. It doesn’t feel right to quit the job already.
There were certainly also concerns about the things happening with Yeon Minha, and the widow complained about her unjust circumstances.
After much contemplation, I finally spoke.
“I think we should head to City No. 1.”
“Why all of a sudden there…?”
Jin Yeseo questioned with disbelief, her expression showing her confusion.
I took out the reverse cross symbol given to me by the widow and showed it again to her.
“Why this all of a sudden?”
“The deceased man brought this from City No. 1. I need to check it out personally.”
“What…?”
“There should still be transportation available for departure. If we hurry, we might just manage to catch it in time.”
I checked the time and then looked at Jin Yeseo.
“What will you do? If you want to go back, then go ahead. I won’t force you to accompany me all the way to that place.”
“Ha…”
Jin Yeseo breathed out a deep sigh laced with weariness.
She stayed silent for a moment.
“…I don’t know.”
And after a long moment of contemplation, she finally spoke again.
“I’m the one who said I’d help. So I’ll stick to helping till the end. I don’t want to stop midway with a lingering feeling.”
“There’s no need to force yourself…”
“Fine. Just keep your promises.”
Jin Yeseo glared at me with a gaze that carried a mix of resentment and bitterness.
“You… once we get back, we have to seriously spar together.”