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Chapter 20
Staring at the transparent window, Juhong grumbled.
“Feels like you already know the answer. Wouldn’t it be faster if you just told me?”
[ I can tell you the answer. ]
Really?
Juhong’s eyes widened.
Then go ahead and tell me.
[ But you absolutely will not be able to know it. ]
Why not?
[ The mafia is □□□. ]
Huh?
[ The mafia is □□□. ]
[ The mafia is □□□. ]
[ The mafia is □□□. ]
…Could it be that any information I’m not supposed to know gets marked as □□□?
[ Correct. ]
[ The system here and the system there operate differently, so I cannot directly reveal it to you. That would be considered “revealing heaven’s secrets.” ]
“Heaven’s secrets,” huh. In other words—you want me to figure out most things on my own?
[ Exactly. There are limits to how much we can interfere. All we can do is give you hints. ]
Juhong didn’t fully understand, but nodded for now and turned back to the list.
There were thirty-four mafia candidates.
And among them, the mafia was hiding.
[ Yes, that’s correct. ]
…Huh?
Scanning the names quickly, Juhong’s lips fell open at one realization.
Oh my god.
Seo Taejo’s name wasn’t on the list.
He wasn’t there. He really wasn’t there.
Maybe it wasn’t such a huge discovery, but for some reason it felt special. Just the fact that his name wasn’t listed made it feel like some sort of safe zone.
Her cheeks grew warm with a flush of heat, her mood suddenly soaring.
Juhong bit down on her lower lip when she realized her mouth was pulling upward into an uncontrollable grin.
[ That’s a relief. ]
What is?
[ Because you’re happy. ]
Happy? No, it’s not like that. I’m just… amazed, that’s all…
[ Understood. I’ll pretend I didn’t notice anything, so please go ahead and check your reward first. ]
I said it’s not like that!
[ Quest Completion Reward Notification ]
Congratulations on clearing your first quest. A gift has arrived.
Would you like to check your gift?
Yes or No
It was her first quest success, but her second time receiving a gift.
The first gift had been “Status Regeneration,” a truly unique and useful ability. So Juhong couldn’t help but expect the second one to be something just as amazing.
With curiosity glowing in her eyes, she pressed Yes.
A new window opened.
[ Wake Your Ally! ]
Your precious ally has now been unlocked. It’s time to awaken them.
You, who possess good courage and right intentions—bestow your kindness upon your ally’s cherished one, and awaken the slumbering ally.
…Awaken an ally?
Mid-April.
The sea off the southern coast, blue like the Mediterranean, shimmered under the sun. On the grassy hills, new buds had sprouted, painting a pastoral scene.
The fresh air and clear sky were more than enough to soothe a tired body and mind. It was also the perfect environment to clear one’s head.
Seo Taejo lay stretched out on a sunbed by a private pool villa, enjoying his vacation just as he’d planned.
“If I just keep resting like this for a month… maybe everything will be fine.”
That was what he had thought.
But even that wasn’t going his way.
He had come down on Monday, and now it was Friday. Five days of leisurely idling away, and yet his head was still a tangled mess.
Juhong. Yoo Haein.
Yoo Haein. Juhong.
The fact that both names lingered side by side in his mind—he found it almost bewildering.
Before coming south, Taejo had forcibly switched off the mental “switch” that kept turning toward Juhong. Since he knew he couldn’t erase her, he just turned it off altogether.
But inside the car during the five-hour drive down, he caught himself thinking about her over and over again.
It wasn’t intentional. The switch had turned itself back on.
The trigger had been Yoo Haein.
Or more precisely—the suspicion that Yoo Haein right now might not actually be Yoo Haein.
At first it had been just a suspicion, but now it was nearly a conviction.
“Yoo Haein is not Yoo Haein.”
With that premise, so many things looked different.
After all, people only ever see as much as they know. And Taejo knew this suspicion was reasonable—because just three years ago, he himself had been a master of forged identities and disguises.
It was the same for Director Yeom.
A former field agent of the NIS, Yeom had doubted Haein the moment Taejo mentioned it, and immediately began an investigation. He quickly returned with an answer.
—“No. Once you mentioned it, I thought maybe, but after thoroughly checking, it wasn’t the case.”
“What did you check?”
—“To switch her, the timing and movements would have to match. I reviewed the ambulance’s internal CCTV and the hospital’s CCTV—nothing. There wasn’t any opportunity.”
“What about earlier? Could the swap have happened before then?”
—“We ran forensics all the way back to six months before the accident, beyond the retention period. Nothing.”
Well, true enough.
Not even that far back—just three months ago, Taejo himself had met Yoo Haein.
They had only spoken for about five minutes, but still—that woman had definitely been Yoo Haein.
—“So stop doubting her and just show some pity. Honestly, Yoo Haein right now is basically living with a time bomb strapped to her. Who would willingly take that place? It’s obviously a death seat. Even the NIS wouldn’t pull such a crazy stunt.”
Taejo agreed with that much.
The setup was sloppy, too.
Claiming amnesia—that much was believable.
If she lost her memory from a head injury in the explosion, then even if she acted or spoke oddly, people would just nod, thinking it made sense.
But the eyes?
Losing her vision from a head injury was medically plausible. But regaining lost eyesight from another head injury—that was not.
That was why SH Hospital itself had called it a “miracle.”
And “miracle” meant it was the kind of situation that stood out dramatically.
For someone hiding their identity to deliberately draw attention like that?
That was practically a forbidden move. If anything, they would choose to keep pretending to be blind.
So, it couldn’t have been orchestrated by intelligence agencies.
Naturally, the enemy side wouldn’t do it either.
Why would they bother killing the witness, only to replace her with someone identical? That would be absurd—they’d be undermining their own warning.
“Then you’re saying… someone’s acting on their own?”
—“An individual? What kind of lunatic would do something like that? Like I said, Yoo Haein’s situation is basically walking around with a time bomb. Nobody sane would step in there.”
“So you’re saying she isn’t a fake?”
—“And you—how can you be so certain she is fake?”
“Because it’s logical. Isn’t it?”
—“Yes, your suspicion is logical. But when you look at the actual facts, it doesn’t hold. We checked.”
“And all you mean by ‘checked’ is that there was no time or chance to swap her. That’s it, right?”
—“What more is there to check?”
“Surgical scars. Signs of disguise. You said modern disguise techniques have advanced beyond the past, haven’t they?”
—“……”
“You really should confirm it.”
—“That’s why I asked you. You have the easiest access. I hoped you’d handle it.”
“I told you already—I won’t.”
—“I know. Which is why we’re preparing another suitable agent now.”
“Suitable agent?”
—“Didn’t I say? We’ll use a honey trap. Get into her bed, strip her down—that’s the only way to confirm surgical scars or disguise marks you’re talking about.”
A honey trap.
Putting a man into that woman’s bed, huh.
“…Do you really need to go that far?”
Taejo’s brows furrowed slightly.
