< 101. A fight between a couple is like cutting someone's throat with a knife (8) >
***
“Here, take it. I couldn’t get inside. It was protected by a barrier. But it should be easy for you.”
Minjun was troubled as he held the coordinates that Ashamin had given him. His worries deepened further because of what his colleague had said.
“Are you really going to go? Even between a married couple, you have to maintain privacy…”
Poor Ashamin was fidgeting.
Even though he was following Dell’s trail because of a favor, he didn’t seem to expect anything suspicious to come up. He knew how much the two of them cared for each other.
But when I traced it, Minjun’s prediction was right. There was a secret door where the path was cut off. It was a barrier that ordinary people could not find or enter, and it could not be created without a clear intention.
Ashamin tries to comfort her.
“It’s our 81st anniversary soon, right? Isn’t there a surprise gift hidden inside?”
Minjun recalled the expressions on his wife’s face that he had seen over the years. And he recalled the sudden change in her mood.
And then he smiled bitterly.
“I wish that were the case.”
On the day when Del returned to the ship for a short while, Minjun piloted the airship across the desert, following the route Ashamin had told him.
Looking down at the barren field, he thought, How many times has Del walked this road? What on earth was he thinking? What was he hiding at the end?
And the place they arrived at was protected by a barrier, just as Ashamin had said. At best, it was a barrier that could be broken with just one touch from Minjun.
He hesitated before extending his hand. An ominous feeling came over him. He felt as if he was standing before a door that should not be opened. The moment he crossed this line, there would be no turning back.
Should I go back now?
“······.”
He hardens his mind.
If Dell is in any danger of not being able to speak.
And if the secret lies beyond this…
You have to correct yourself.
A determined light flashed in Minjun’s eyes.
Dismissed!
Minjun tore the barrier apart.
And the moment I opened the closed door, my sensitive sense of smell detected something.
‘···The smell of blood?’
It was a terrible scent of blood that tickled the tip of my nose. And it was a very familiar kind of scent.
There’s no way that’s true.
He shook his head with difficulty and stepped forward. Then the abyss greeted him. And the smell of blood that made his nose feel like it was going to fall off.
And the moment I recited the magic to contemplate the darkness.
“······.”
Minjun froze.
He couldn’t remember how long he had been standing there. He was able to regain consciousness because he felt a pain that felt like his lungs were being ripped out, along with dizziness. Minjun realized that he had been holding his breath for a long time.
The sound of the wind sweeping across the wilderness could be heard in the distance. It was an unrealistic sound. Everything felt like a dream.
Minjun took heavy steps. The interior, which seemed like a mix of a warehouse and a laboratory, was larger than he had expected. It was even larger than the dorm where the two of them lived.
The air unique to confined spaces mixed with a pungent smell and stabbed the inside of the skull. There was no sign of life. Ashamin traced the residual thoughts and said that there was no trace of anyone other than Del who had been here. This was Del’s space alone.
In other words, all this shit is Dell’s doing.
Minjun clenched his fists without realizing it. Blood flowed from under his fingernails that had dug into his skin. His regenerative powers were honest and quick to activate. As a result, his flesh healed while his fingernails were still embedded.
I looked out into the spacious interior in that state.
Endless tanks and culture media. Beyond the glass walls, hundreds of human-shaped creatures were contained. Minjun had seen this sight before in another dimension. He also knew what was inside.
“Homunculus···.”
Tsk! He slightly opened his trembling hand. The flesh that had healed was torn again, and the fingernails fell off with flesh stuck to the tips. Minjun didn’t feel any pain.
If what he had discovered had been an ordinary homunculus, there would have been no such panic. Minjun looked at their faces in his empty mind.
They are all the same.
The face I saw in the mirror every morning was immersed in a green culture solution.
There were hundreds of Minjuns, hundreds of hims there.
He had witnessed all sorts of horrible scenes and suffered terrible things, but this was the first time he had been shocked like this. He was out of breath. He stood there for a moment, leaning against the wall. While he was there, Minjun looked at the cable extending from the tank. He examined where it was connected and what kind of machine it was connected to.
The more I looked at it, the more I couldn’t deny it. This is Dell’s workmanship.
Also, they didn’t just simply clone Minjun’s genes. They couldn’t have done it without magically extracted blood.
I could guess how he got the blood. When Minjun uses black magic, he injures himself. Most of the blood that flows out in the process is offered as a sacrifice, but some is scattered around the scene. It wouldn’t have been difficult for Minjun to secretly collect it. If it was Del.
But a more important question remains.
‘Why on earth?’
The homunculus seemed to have not yet been fully cultivated. It had never left the glass case. Minjun headed to the next room. The smell of blood that had encroached upon the space wafted from there.
Squeak!
Another door opens.
“······.”
How are homunculi consumed after they have been cultured? Part of the answer was right before my eyes.
“···ah.”
The cold air bit into my skin. It was like a refrigerator.
Full of meat and blood.
The prisoner looked dumbfounded. Numerous Minjuns were lying around, dismembered. The storage conditions were varied. They were placed in transparent boxes and hung on hooks. Some were spread out wide, while others were packed tightly. The heads and limbs were stacked neatly, and the stuffing inside the leather was placed separately in transparent coffins.
Minjun, who saw the vitality, knew. They were either alive, dying, or dead.
Through the flow of magical power that was busily moving between the machine devices and countless ‘Minjuns’, Minjun found out a few more things. Information he didn’t want to know flowed into his head.
Some prisoners receive a new body every time they are reassigned, but Minjun is still in the same body he was when he first opened his eyes 800 years ago. It seems to be an attempt to prevent the waste of talents that are consumed when changing bodies. Minjun’s body was made based on the human race and does not have the regenerative ability that originally surpassed that of a troll. So it is an ability that is in the soul.
However, as a result of the soul staying in one body for a long time, the body and spirit became in sync and the body changed. Therefore, his body will retain some regenerative ability even if Minjun’s soul leaves. A homunculus that genetically and magically copied such a body also has an imperfect regenerative ability.
And Dell was here looking for a way to take away that regenerative ability.
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Minjun felt his body tremble even more. The same question echoed in his head.
Why? Why on earth?
Beep-!
He accesses the lab computer. He transfers the encrypted data to the computer implanted in the dermis. It shows signs of having been deleted. And it was months ago. Dell had erased most of the experimental results long ago. Since her head was a storage device better than any other medium, there was no chance of a backup.
And there was still one more room. Minjun opened another door.
There were homunculi there that were consumed in other ways instead of being dismantled.
They were in a glass case like the ‘Minjuns’ in the first room. A similar culture solution was also visible.
The difference is that each of them has a transparent tube inserted into their neck.
The tube seemed to be connected to the blood vessels of the homunculi. The red blood of hundreds of them filled the tube. It flowed into the processing unit in the center. There, complex magic was in operation. The extracted blood was constantly being reprocessed, inducing chemical and magical reactions. The data of the process was being inputted into the computer one by one.
And Minjun couldn’t watch that scene any longer.
The moment he came to, he was burning down this huge laboratory. The machinery was melting, the tanks were breaking, the culture fluid was evaporating with steam, and the homunculi inside were completely burned.
Minjun couldn’t understand Del’s intentions in plotting such a thing.
And he couldn’t figure out why the sight of homunculi with tubes stuck in their necks and blood being drained made him so angry, more than any other scene he had ever seen.
***
When Del returned home a few days later, Minjun was sitting at the dining table. It was the same place where they exchanged gifts exactly one year ago today.
“I’m here.”
Minjun didn’t want to look at her. But the urge to turn away from Del and the desire to face her and explode with anger fought between them. He eventually turned his head away.
It is unclear what expression or look he had on his face as he looked at Dell. What is clear is that his wife noticed something.
She said.
“···You saw it?”
And then the fight began.
If a third party were to see it, it would have been seen as a scene where Minjun was unilaterally questioning and pushing Del rather than a fight. However, Minjun thought it was a fight. Del was fighting him by avoiding answering his questions.
How much time had passed? It was when Minjun, feeling extremely mentally exhausted, asked the question he had repeated hundreds of times.
“Why on earth did you do that? What were you doing there?”
Dell, who was as frozen as a stone statue, finally opened his mouth. His face was so cold that it was hard to recall his past appearance.
“I was looking for a way.”
Minjun shouted in a rough voice.
“What method!”
He clenched his fist and glared. In contrast to the static Del, Minjun was more emotional than ever. The scene he had seen a few days ago shook like an illusion. Hundreds of Minjuns with tubes inserted into their necks and blood being drawn.
He shouted again.
“A way to kill me perfectly, even if I cut, tear, or grind, I will still regenerate?!”
At that moment, a faint expression passed across Del’s face, which had been as cold as ice. However, as if a door that had been briefly open was locked again, the expression of emotion disappeared.
Later, when Minjun recalled it, he interpreted the expression like this. It was a face that seemed to have decided on something.
Perhaps it was the look on his face that made him decide to tell him the truth.
But even after that, Del did not reveal the whole plan in clear language. Minjun filled in the gaps and margins left by his wife. Del “confessed” and Minjun guessed. The story that was completed that way was shocking.
“I wanted to set you free. What you saw… was all about finding a way to do that.”
And what they studied there was a way to stop his regeneration, or in other words, a way to kill him.
Minjun found out.
He tried to kill his loved one in order to give him true freedom.
“I had no intention of carrying out my plan while I was a prisoner. If I committed a crime while in reeducation through labor, my soul would be wiped out. In order for me to succeed as I wish, both your soul and mine must be intact.”
So, Del was preparing to kill Minjun from now on once she was released.
Minjun asked, gritting his teeth.
“You think I can be with you even after I die and become a spirit? You… believed in such superstitions?”
Dell didn’t answer. The prisoner glared at his wife with bloodshot eyes. He took something out of his sleeve. Dell’s eyes widened at the sight.
It was the dagger she had given him. Minjun grabbed Del’s hands with his rough hands. Then he squeezed the handle into her small palms. He raised the blade while wrapping his hands around Del’s fists.
At an angle that would pierce his neck if stabbed straight in.
Minjun glared with bloodshot eyes.
“You wanted to kill me? Then give me a chance. Kill me! Kill me right here, right now!”
“···Don’t do this.”
“Why? It’s what you wanted. You want to kill me, but you’re afraid of losing my soul?”
Minjun grabbed her arm with a terrifying force, but Deldo resisted with his telekinesis. Then, a black shadow erupted from Minjun’s body. At the same time, the tip of the sword gradually tilted toward Minjun’s neck. The blade touched the prisoner’s skin and a drop of blood flowed out.
He shouted words that sounded like curses.
“I’ll tell you since you were curious. You didn’t have to experiment so hard! I survived with my heart pierced, but no one has ever beheaded me. No one has ever cut off my head! So that’s the only way, right? If you want to kill me. Here, right here. Aim for precision. Stab my neck! And cut it long!”
At that moment, Dell’s expression collapsed.
< 101. A fight between a couple is like cutting a neck with a knife (8) > End
