TRPM 204

chapter 204

“…Shinsegyo?”

My mother’s eyes widened, as if she hadn’t expected the words “Shinsegyo” to come out of my mouth.

Even so, she didn’t find it strange that I knew about Shinsegyo, and she answered my question.

“First of all, the reason I didn’t take you to Shinsegyo, Geonwoo… it’s actually not a big deal, okay? There’s nothing in Shinsegyo that a five-year-old would be interested in.”

There weren’t any playgrounds for children that age, and there were very few toys.

Before that, when I was younger and it made her uneasy to leave me alone, she took me with her to Shinsegyo. But after that, she visited Shinsegyo without me—either alone or with her friends.

“…Isn’t that strange?”

“Hm? Strange?”

“Yes.”

When I was young, my mother rarely wanted to leave me alone. Even after I turned five, that was the case.

[It can’t be helped… Our son’s school suddenly decided to close for a while… We can’t just leave our son, who just became an elementary school student, alone.]

When I had secretly dealt with the Orc dungeon at school, causing a temporary week-long closure, my mother took leave, arguing that she couldn’t leave me alone.

Even then, she didn’t like leaving me alone when going somewhere. Thinking about it now, what she just said felt strange.

“You didn’t try to leave me alone even until I went to elementary school… but you went to Shinsegyo without me before that?”

“At that time, I left you at a friend’s house, remember?”

“That’s true, but…”

Most of my mother’s friends were followers of Shinsegyo, but not all of them were. So leaving me with a friend when visiting Shinsegyo wouldn’t have been impossible…

“Thinking about it now, it’s weird. Why did it suddenly become necessary to do that? It was fine before.”

“Wait a minute.”

My mother seemed to be struggling to remember. After a short while, she snapped her fingers and spoke.

“From then on, I started going to Shinsegyo less often.”

“Why? Did work suddenly increase?”

“No, it wasn’t that…”

She looked as if she was unsure whether she should say what came next.

“…The truth is, the leader of Shinsegyo was your uncle.”

“Mm.”

“…You’re not surprised? Did you know?”

“I did.”

My mother looked slightly displeased at my reaction, but continued speaking.

“Back then, your uncle showed signs that he might try to commit suicide.”

“…Suicide?”

This was completely new to me. According to my research, there had been a time when my uncle had considered suicide, but that was right after my father died and my uncle severely injured his heart, losing his life as a magician. That was before I was born.

‘But are you saying he thought of suicide again when I was around five?’

I looked at my mother, pondering this.

“He left his estate in order and disappeared for a while. I really thought he had passed away.”

But about a month later, he returned to Shinsegyo.

The Shinsegyo, leaderless for a time, was in chaos, but with my uncle’s return, it not only stabilized, it grew in scale.

“Maybe he took a month-long journey to clear his mind. After that, he never thought of suicide again and ran Shinsegyo diligently.”

“……”

“But after that journey, his attitude toward me seemed a little different. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I felt something was off. That’s why I decided to visit Shinsegyo as little as possible afterward.”

“……”

My mother described the change in the leader’s attitude before and after his disappearance, the growth of Shinsegyo after his return, and the one-month gap when the leader was gone.

“…Did something happen to my uncle?”

“…Probably.”

It wasn’t something recent, but rather, something that likely happened over ten years ago… something concerning my uncle.

I got up, opened the window to the balcony, and said:

“I’ll be back.”

“…Be careful.”

My mother lowered her head, unable to hide her sorrow, and I left for Shinsegyo.

Upon arriving at Shinsegyo, my first priority was to locate the leader.

But the leader was nowhere to be found, so I had no choice but to investigate inside.

‘…When did Yeon Mirae come and go?’

Among other traces, I found signs that seemed like Yeon Mirae’s, but I ignored them for now.

I focused on an office that I suspected had been used by my uncle… or someone impersonating him. Excluding my uncle’s home, this was the place he spent the most time, so any clues would likely be here.

I found the names of businesses that regularly sent money to Shinsegyo inside a safe.

‘…Most of these names were unfamiliar, but there was one I knew.’

Core Earth.

A global company dealing with awakened-person byproducts.

Considering my uncle had once been a famous awakened individual, it wasn’t strange for him to have connections, but it was still odd that money came from there.

‘…Core Earth…’

This wasn’t my first entanglement with Core Earth.

[Guild Master Shin Chaegun, is it okay to handle this? Core Earth is an international company.]
[It’s fine. No matter how international, taking a doppelganger’s corpse without permission is a crime.]

Oracle had used Core Earth’s trucks to retrieve doppelgangers that had wrecked the association’s lab.

[The vehicles? Ah… They were indeed Core Earth’s vehicles, but it’s believed Oracle hijacked them.]

At the time, everyone assumed Oracle merely used the vehicles, but was that really the case?

[Core Earth… a company previously notorious for smuggling before returning.]
[The details of what was smuggled are unknown, but the executives and the chairman were all arrested.]
[If it were trivial, they could have covered it up, but for some reason Core Earth refused to give up the smuggled goods and went completely bankrupt.]

Why did Core Earth refuse to surrender the goods even at the cost of its executives and chairman going to prison? Was protecting the goods more important than themselves?

‘…Wait.’

A possibility came to mind.

[From what I know, over 30% of awakened-person associations worldwide are essentially under Oracle’s control.]
[The association headquarters too. Still, they are slightly better off than others, but there are still Oracle members among them.]

President Richard of the association had said so. Some associations were under Oracle’s control.

…Would only associations be vulnerable?

‘Corporations would be more susceptible to Oracle’s schemes than associations.’

Unlike associations of capable awakened individuals, corporate leadership often includes non-awakened people. Oracle would have had ample ways to manipulate them.

And for a company like Core Earth, even some loss would be worth controlling it.

‘Through Core Earth’s network, selling resources from Mars and the Moon is possible… of course…’

Global smuggling could also be feasible. Gathering kidnapped people worldwide for doppelganger production in one place would also be possible.

“Ha…”

In other words, Core Earth could be a subordinate organization of Oracle.

‘…I’ll need to report this to President Richard later.’

He might already know, though.

While I was thinking this, multiple vehicles began entering the Shinsegyo building.

‘…The police? And the Cheolhyeol Guild?’

Then it hit me—Yeon Mirae’s traces. Did she discover something here and alert the police and Cheolhyeol Guild?

‘Then the culprit behind the missing person case is likely someone disguised as my uncle.’

I quietly hid and observed them. Revealing myself wasn’t an issue yet, but since people unfamiliar with me tend to be wary, I stayed hidden.

…Time passed, and doppelgangers arrived in Core Earth vehicles.

‘…Hm…’

During their conversation, my eyes were fixed on the figure impersonating my uncle, and my mind grew complicated.

‘I can’t tell the difference from the uncle I remember.’

The doppelgangers in Core Earth uniforms were the same. According to the imposter, they were doppelgangers, yet I had believed them to be human until just now.

‘Except for the fact that they don’t breathe and their hearts don’t beat… there’s no sense of incongruity.’

You might ask, “If they don’t breathe and their hearts don’t beat, how are they human?” But there are all sorts of humans in this world. Some people I know don’t breathe or have a heartbeat. So I don’t distinguish humans by that.

The way I distinguish humans from non-humans is…

‘By observing their essence.’

Essence here means…

[Samādhi is the ability to perceive essence.]
[Not just energy like mana or aura, nor invisible waves like electromagnetic waves.]
[Soul, thought, concept…]
[In short, something akin to observing these.]

It refers to things generally imperceptible, like soul, thought, and concept. Humans have unique souls, thoughts, and concepts. In other words…

‘…These doppelgangers possess a human-like soul.’

I could only conclude that. Also…

‘The one imitating my uncle… has the same soul as my uncle.’

Realizing that the one pretending to be my uncle, like the other doppelgangers, didn’t breathe and had no heartbeat, I finally understood it was a doppelganger, not a human.

“…Why announce this in front of everyone?”

“Because… you are all going to be sacrifices to save my younger brother.”

‘Oops.’

While I was lost in thought, the doppelganger imitating the leader prepared to attack.

Seeing this, I realized I had to intervene immediately and stepped between them.

“That’s enough. I’ve heard enough, uncle.”

“…Geonwoo? How are you already—”

‘…Already?’

I paused at his words, but when I expanded my sensing throughout Seoul, I realized why he was surprised.

‘Ah… it wasn’t just here; the police and Cheolhyeol Guild were attacked too.’

If I hadn’t been here first, I would have helped them before arriving here. But since I was already here, his plan failed.

I then sent a hidden puppet from the pocket dimension toward the police and Cheolhyeol Guild. I couldn’t ignore them.

At the same time, I revealed my murderous intent to him.

“No, you’re not my uncle. You’re a doppelganger who still thinks you are my uncle.”

I directed this at the imposter who killed my uncle and took his place.