Chapter 101: "A Couple's Quarrel is Like a Knife to the Neck" (8)
"Here, take this. I couldn't get inside. It's protected by a barrier. But it should be easy for you."
Holding the coordinates Asha Min had handed him, Minjun hesitated. The words from his colleague deepened his turmoil.
"Are you really going to go? Even if you're a couple, privacy should be respected…"
Poor Asha Min was fidgeting nervously.
While tracking Del's trail, he hadn't imagined encountering something suspicious. He knew how much the two cared for each other.
But as Minjun tracked the path, his expectations were confirmed. At the point where the trail ended, there was an ominous hidden door. A barrier that ordinary people couldn't discover or enter, created with a clear intent.
Asha Min tried to reassure him.
"Isn't it almost the 81st anniversary? Maybe he's hidden a surprise gift inside?"
Minjun recalled the expression of Del he had seen before and reflected on her sudden change in demeanor.
Then he gave a bitter smile.
"I'd rather it be that way."
On the day Del returned briefly due to an accusation, Minjun piloted the airship across the desert, following the route Asha Min had provided.
Looking down at the barren field, he wondered how many times Del had traveled this path. What had she been thinking? What was she hiding at the end?
When he arrived, as Asha Min had said, it was protected by a barrier. It was a barrier that could be broken with just one touch from Minjun.
He hesitated, his hand extended. A sense of foreboding overwhelmed him. It felt like he was standing before a door that should not be opened. Once he crossed this line, there would be no turning back.
Should he turn back now?
"······."
He steeled himself.
If Del was in danger that she couldn't speak of.
And if the secret was beyond this door…
He had to set things right.
A determined light flashed in Minjun's eyes.
Rip!
Minjun tore apart the barrier.
And the moment he opened the door, his sensitive sense of smell detected something.
'···The smell of blood?'
It was a stench of blood that was so strong it irritated his nostrils. It was also of a very familiar kind.
Could it be…?
He shook his head in denial and stepped inside. The abyss welcomed him. The smell of blood that seemed like it would tear his nose off.
And as he recited a spell to perceive the darkness.
"······."
Minjun froze.
He couldn't remember how long he stood there. He was only able to regain his senses because he felt a piercing pain and dizziness. Minjun realized he had been holding his breath for a long time.
The sound of the wind sweeping across the wilderness could be heard faintly. It was an unreal sound. Everything felt like a dream.
Minjun took heavy steps. The interior, resembling a warehouse and laboratory, was larger than he had expected. Larger than the residence where the two of them lived.
The distinctive air of the sealed space mixed with the pungent smell, piercing his skull. There were no signs of life. Asha Min had traced residual thoughts and said there were no traces of anyone else visiting this place besides Del. This was entirely Del's space.
In other words, all of this was Del's doing.
Minjun clenched his fist unconsciously. Blood flowed from beneath the nails that had dug into his skin. The regeneration power activated promptly and honestly. As a result, the flesh healed with the nails still embedded.
He looked at the vast interior.
Endless tanks and culture solutions. Behind the glass walls were hundreds of humanoid creatures. Minjun had seen this scene in another dimension. He knew what was inside.
"Homunculi…"
Crack! He opened his trembling hand. The healed flesh was torn again, and pieces of flesh clung to the tips of his nails. Minjun felt no pain.
If what he had discovered had been ordinary homunculi, this kind of sudden horror wouldn't have occurred. In the emptiness of his mind, Minjun examined their faces.
They were all the same.
The faces he saw every morning in the mirror were submerged in the green culture solution.
Hundreds of Minjuns, hundreds of versions of him were there.
Despite witnessing countless horrific scenes and enduring vile acts, this kind of shock was new. He was breathless. He stood leaning against the wall for a moment. In that state, Minjun observed the cables extending from the tanks. He examined where they connected and what machinery they interfaced with.
The more he looked, the more undeniable it became. This was Del's work.
Moreover, they didn't just replicate Minjun's genes. It was impossible to create them without blood obtained through magical methods.
Minjun could guess how the blood was obtained. When he used dark magic, he inflicted wounds on his body. The blood spilled during that process was mostly used as a sacrifice, but some of it was scattered at the scene. It wouldn't have been difficult for Del to recover it secretly.
But a more pressing question remained.
'Why?'
The homunculi seemed not to be fully matured. It meant they had never been outside the glass tanks. Minjun proceeded to the next room. The bloody stench that permeated the space came from there.
Creeeak!
Another door opened.
"······."
How are the matured homunculi disposed of? Part of the answer was in front of him.
"···Ah."
The cold air pierced his skin. It was a kind of refrigerator.
Filled with meat and blood.
The prisoners had blank expressions. Numerous Minjuns were dismantled and scattered. The storage conditions varied. Some were in transparent boxes, some hung on hooks. Some were laid out wide, and some were tightly packed. Heads and limbs were neatly stacked, and what filled the skin was in separate transparent tubes.
Seeing the vitality, Minjun understood. They were either alive, dying, or dead.
Through the flow of magical power bustling among the machinery and countless 'Minjuns,' Minjun learned a few more things. Unwanted information flowed into his mind.
Some prisoners receive new bodies every time they are relocated, but Minjun's body remained as it was since he first awoke 800 years ago. It seemed intended to avoid the waste of Dallants when changing bodies. Minjun's artificial body was based on the human species and did not originally possess regenerative abilities superior to a troll's. Thus, it was the ability inherent to his soul.
However, as the soul remained in a single body for a long time, the body and soul synchronized, causing changes. Therefore, his artificial body would retain some regenerative abilities even after his soul left. The homunculi, copied genetically and magically, also had incomplete regenerative abilities.
And Del was looking for a way to eliminate that regenerative ability.
Minjun felt his body trembling more violently. The same question echoed in his mind.
Why? Why on earth?
Screech—!
He accessed the laboratory computer. He transferred the encrypted data to a computer embedded in the dermal layer. There were traces of deletions already visible. They were from several months ago. Del had erased most of the experimental results long ago. Given that her mind was a superior storage device compared to any medium, it was highly likely that there were no backups.
And there was still one more room. Minjun opened another door.
Inside were homunculi being consumed in a different manner rather than being dismantled.
They were inside glass tanks just like the 'Minjuns' in the first room. Similar culture solutions were visible.
The difference was that each of their necks had a transparent tube inserted.
The tubes seemed to be connected to the homunculi's blood vessels. The hundreds of homunculi bled red blood that filled the tubes. The blood then flowed into a processing unit in the center. Complex magic was in operation there. The extracted blood was continuously reprocessed, inducing chemical and magical reactions. The data from this process was being meticulously input into the computer.
And Minjun could no longer bear to watch.
The moment he regained his senses, he was burning down the vast laboratory. The machinery melted, and the tanks shattered. The culture solution evaporated with the steam, and the homunculi inside were incinerated.
Amid the frenzied flames, Minjun thought. He couldn't understand Del's intentions behind such a scheme.
And he couldn't comprehend why the sight of homunculi with tubes in their necks, having their blood drained, infuriated him more than any other scene he had witnessed so far.
A few days later, when Del returned home, Minjun was sitting at the dining table. It was the exact spot where they had exchanged gifts a year ago today.
"I'm back."
Minjun didn't want to look at her. But the impulse to avoid Del and the desire to confront her with his anger waged a battle within him. He eventually turned his head.
What expression and gaze Minjun showed Del were unknown. What was clear was that his wife had noticed something.
She said,
"···You saw it, didn't you?"
And the fight began.
To a third party, it might have seemed like Minjun was unilaterally interrogating and pressing Del, rather than a fight. But Minjun considered it a fight. Del was fighting him by avoiding answers to his questions.
How much time had passed? It was when Minjun, feeling intense mental fatigue, threw the same question he had repeated hundreds of times.
"Why did you do it? What were you doing there?!"
Del, as rigid as a stone statue, finally spoke. Her face was so cold it was almost unrecognizable from the past.
"I was looking for a way."
Minjun shouted in a rough voice.
"What way?!"
He glared at her, clenching his fists. In stark contrast to the static Del, Minjun's emotions were more heightened than ever. The scene he had seen a few days ago, like a hallucination, flickered in his mind. Hundreds of Minjuns with tubes in their necks, having their blood drained.
He shouted again.
"A way to completely kill me, to stop my regeneration, whether you cut, tear, or slash me?!"
At that moment, a fleeting expression crossed Del's ice-cold face. But just as quickly as the brief glimpse of emotion appeared, it disappeared, closing like a door.
Later, Minjun would interpret that expression as one of resolve. It was as if she had made a decision to tell him the truth.
Perhaps it was the face of someone who had decided to confess.
But even after that, Del didn't reveal the entirety of her plan in clear language. The gaps and spaces left by his wife were filled in by Minjun. Del had "confessed," and Minjun had inferred the rest. The completed story was shocking.
"I wanted to set you free. What you saw was... all for finding that method."
And what had been researched there was a method to stop his regeneration, in other words, a way to kill him.
Minjun realized it.
She had tried to kill him to gift him true freedom.
"I never intended to execute my plan while you were still a convict. If you committed another crime during re-education, your soul would be erased. To succeed as I wished, both our souls, yours and mine, needed to be intact."
So Del had been preparing to kill Minjun after she was released first.
Minjun grit his teeth and asked.
"Do you think we could still be together even if I die and become a soul? Did you... believe in such superstitions?"
Del didn't answer. The convict glared at his wife with bloodshot eyes. He pulled something from his sleeve. Del's eyes widened upon seeing it.
It was the dagger she had gifted him. Minjun seized Del's hands with his rough grip. He forcefully inserted the handle into her small palm. Holding her fists from above with both hands, he raised the blade.
The angle was such that it would pierce his neck if thrust.
Minjun glared at her with bloodshot eyes.
"Did you want to kill me? Then take your chance. Kill me! Do it right here, right now!"
"...Don't do this."
"Why? Isn't this what you wanted? You want to kill me but are afraid of soul erasure?"
Minjun pulled at her arms with terrifying strength, but Del resisted with telekinesis. At that moment, a black shadow erupted from Minjun's body. Simultaneously, the tip of the blade began to tilt towards Minjun's neck. The blade touched the convict's skin, and a drop of blood trickled down.
He uttered a curse-like proclamation.
"If you're curious, let me tell you. You didn't need to go through all this effort for the experiment! Even though my heart was pierced, I survived, but no one has ever decapitated me. No one has ever removed my head! So isn't that the only way? If you want to kill me. Come on, right here. Aim precisely. Stab my neck! And cut deeply!"
At that moment, Del's expression collapsed.
< 101. Domestic Dispute Ends with Decapitation (8) > End