“What are the chances that a friend you randomly run into on the street happens to be a survivor from a traitor’s family?”
“This feels rarer than winning the lottery.”
Amon marveled at the miraculous encounter.
Just then, Levi, in a drowsy voice, countered, “No, winning the lottery is harder.”
“???”
“The population of Joseon is roughly 150 million, and as far as we know, the only survivors are that sibling pair, so the probability is…”
As Levi started calculating again, her brothers quickly stopped her.
“Levi, you don’t need to calculate that.”
“Okay.”
Held up by the scruff of her neck like a dangling cat, Levi swayed in the air.
Her brothers turned to Amon and Cassie to apologize on her behalf.
“Sorry about that. Levi hasn’t been out of bed for very long…”
Having spent half her life in bed due to sleeping sickness, Levi hadn’t had many opportunities to interact with people.
Even when she was awake, she mostly spent time in cyberspace, so it was understandable why she acted that way.
Amon and Cassie, well aware of this, didn’t mind.
“It’s fine. It’s just part of her personality.”
Amon genuinely believed that.
Levi’s behavior wasn’t even a sign of poor social skills.
When you had a hermaphroditic wizard among your companions, a little extreme-T-like statement didn’t count as a social deficiency.
Cassie didn’t mind either.
“That’s right. It’s part of Levi’s charm.”
Her fiancé was eccentric enough that Levi’s quirks felt mild in comparison.
***
With Levi’s little introduction out of the way, the group took a moment to assess their current situation.
“First.”
“The Hunt Legion is scheduled for three days from now. Sonia, Cassie, and I will be taking part in stopping it.”
During that time, the hacker siblings planned to stay in a relatively safe location.
“Second.”
“As for our dear traitor-born siblings, I’ll need to figure out their situation.”
Once a connection was made, it was only right to see it through to the end.
Of course, it wasn’t purely out of goodwill—Amon was also curious as to why their souls weren’t bound by threads like the others.
Since there were still three days until the Hunt Legion, he decided to satisfy his curiosity.
“Alright, I’ll head out.”
Sonia left to assist the priest, while Cassie went to rest and recover from the journey.
That left Amon to decide which of the siblings to approach first.
***
First, there was Sunwoo.
‘There’s a high chance he won’t give me a straight answer.’
Considering he had lied during their first meeting and outright refused help during their last encounter, Sunwoo fit the classic mold of a rebellious teenage boy.
‘This is the phase where he thinks he can handle everything on his own.’
Amon couldn’t blame him.
He had been the same once.
Like that time when he was dead set on taking down the Hexen Group alone, only for things to spiral out of control.
His mental age had definitely been that of an adult back then, yet in hindsight, his choices were embarrassingly reckless.
‘The power of hormones, huh.’
Amon let out a wry smile, seeing his past self reflected in Sunwoo.
He didn’t find the boy annoying—just not the best source of information.
Naturally, that left Sunhwa as the better option.
***
Amon made his way to the hospital room where he remembered Sunhwa was staying.
On the way, he couldn’t help but compare things to the U.S.
‘If this were America, they’d already be drowning in medical debt.’
For orphans to afford a hospital room with just government aid and Sunwoo’s meager earnings as an apprentice enforcer—it was unthinkable in the States.
Realizing where his thoughts had gone, Amon chuckled bitterly.
‘I’ve really become American, haven’t I?’
His memories were Korean, but his identity was now fully American.
With that thought lingering, he arrived at Sunhwa’s hospital room and opened the door.
Only to be greeted by an empty bed.
‘Huh?’
‘Kidnapping?’
That was his immediate assumption, but he quickly realized he was thinking too much like an American.
“The patient is currently in the daytime rehabilitation ward. Visiting hours are in the evening.”
“Ah, I see.”
In this dystopian world where human rights were often disregarded, the irony was that the military dictatorship actually ensured them.
As long as one wasn’t entangled with the royal family or the new nobles, life here was arguably better than in other countries.
‘I never thought I’d live to admit that a military dictatorship is more livable…’
But at least in terms of healthcare in this punk-inspired world, he had to acknowledge it.
With that in mind, Amon scheduled a visit for 7 p.m. and left the ward.
***
As the clock struck seven, Amon returned to the hospital.
“Yes. The patient is waiting for you.”
With the nurse’s permission, Amon headed to Sunhwa’s hospital room.
Knock, knock.
“Come in.”
It was the first time he had ever heard Sunhwa’s voice.
She had spoken when she was possessed by Yodo, but that had been Yodo’s voice, not her own.
So, in a way, this was truly the first time he was hearing it.
Amon carefully opened the door.
And upon seeing the sight before him, he was at a complete loss for words.
The girl was sitting on the windowsill, gazing at the moon.
A massive sword rested on her right shoulder, and she was smoking a long-stemmed pipe, enjoying the serene atmosphere created by the moonlight.
It was a breathtakingly beautiful sight, like a painting come to life.
For a moment, Amon found himself entranced, simply staring at her.
Then, belatedly remembering his purpose, he barely managed to call out to her.
“Ji… Sunhwa?”
Only then did she notice Amon’s presence and turn around.
The moonlit beauty, her back to the light, met his gaze.
Soon, she opened her mouth to speak.
“What… did you just call me?”
“I called you Ji Sunhwa.”
Immediately, she moved to draw her sword.
But before she could unsheathe it, Amon—just as he had done before—moved in front of her in an instant and pressed down on the hilt.
“It’s too soon to draw your sword.”
“What do you want?”
“I want to hear about you and your brother. I thought you had been falsely accused—”
“It wasn’t false.”
“What?”
“Our family was, in fact, traitors. We plotted a rebellion, but we were caught by the royal family before we could act, and they wiped us out.”
“And I was the one who reported them. It was obviously a losing battle, so I turned them in in exchange for my brother’s and my survival.”
“Oh.”
Amon let out a sigh.
With her directly confirming it, there was nothing more to say.
She continued, glaring at Amon, who still had his hand on her sword.
“So, I’ll ask again. What is your purpose?”
“I thought you had been wrongly accused… but I suppose that wasn’t the case.”
“Was that really your reason?”
“Of course.”
He had truly believed it was a false accusation.
And he had his own reasons for thinking so.
‘The thread kept bothering me.’
Unlike others, there was no thread connecting her and her younger brother.
He had assumed that thread had something to do with the rebellion.
The most plausible theory he had come up with was that the Ji family had refused to offer up their lifespan, cutting the thread, and the royal family had declared that an act of treason, wiping out their entire clan.
But the reality was much darker and more tragic than Amon had imagined.
Her family really had been traitors, and it had nothing to do with the thread.
“Our family simply wanted more money and power. They thought, ‘If the Yi royal family could do it, why can’t we?’ and rose up.”
They had even prepared a justification.
The Yi dynasty had once sold Joseon to Japan, so they believed they had sufficient grounds to overthrow it.
But the Ji family’s rebellion had been doomed from the start.
That was because the Royal Investigation Bureau had already been watching them.
“I was already a member of the Sword Guild back then. And the guild had received a request to investigate my family.”
That alone had made it clear to her.
The Ji family had business acumen and political sense, but they had no intelligence-gathering capabilities whatsoever.
Their rebellion had never stood a chance.
“My parents only saw me as a tool for their ambition.”
The only part of her family she had ever loved was her younger brother.
Because of that, she had acted without hesitation.
She had even cut down her own family.
Not by choice—she had simply defended herself and her brother from enraged family members who had turned on them.
But regardless, she had spilled their blood.
No organization would look kindly on that.
“Because of that incident, the Sword Guild gave me Yodo and cast me out.”
Yodo had just been an excuse.
Their real goal was to exile her.
No matter how much her family had been traitors, the guild couldn’t accept someone who had reported and even slain her own kin.
And that wasn’t the only reason.
Skill with a sword was important, but so was the environment in which one trained.
Those who wielded the sword well often came from privileged backgrounds, and wealth was inherent in that.
“The Sword Guild is full of young nobles from new aristocratic families. To them, I’m someone they could never associate with.”
So they had expelled her.
Not out of disgust, but out of fear that her sword might one day turn on them.
“Now do you understand how insane the woman you were trying to help really is?”
With a bitter smile, she absentmindedly stroked her sword.
Amon tilted his head.
“What exactly is the problem?”
“Huh?”
Sunhwa blinked, stunned by his dumbfounding response.
Seeing her bewilderment, Amon began to share his own past.
“I don’t know how it is in Joseon, but in the West, this kind of thing happens all the time.”
Back in the West, betrayal was an everyday occurrence.
There was the time he was stabbed in the back by Cassie’s company.
And the time he had stabbed Western Europe in the back himself.
Even the Vatican had gone as far as branding the Holy Knights as heretics and lashing them with whips.
Compared to all that, Ji Sunhwa’s betrayal of her family was practically child’s play.
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