Chapter 225
The two of them aligned their formation once more and exited the temple. As soon as Seong Geon-woo stepped outside the main gate, he turned back and carefully closed the black doors behind them.
Jang Mok-hwa commented in a peculiar tone,
“Really polite. Since we have a bit of time left, let’s check the other buildings as well. Who knows what clues we might find.”
They immediately opened the doors of the buildings along the alley outside the temple and began a simple search inside.
Unfortunately, it seemed as though the place had already been completely looted by the Merfolk. There were no written records or notes left behind.
The only things visible were signs of battle scattered throughout the buildings and bloodstains that had already dried and turned black.
“Looks like there was an attack by the Mindless. No one must have survived…”
Jang Mok-hwa made this judgment based on the testimony of a captured Merfolk. She recalled that after a large-scale Mindless outbreak on the island, the remaining humans became nothing but prey to the Mindless.
They couldn’t linger there for long due to time. Exiting the building, Seong Geon-woo and Jang Mok-hwa headed toward where they had parked their bicycles.
Just as they were about to leave the alley, Jang Mok-hwa paused, looking back at the doors she had intentionally left open, and asked thoughtfully,
“Then… who closed those doors?”
The Mindless, who would have attacked anyone on sight, wouldn’t have had any instinct to close doors.
“Maybe they’re automatic doors.”
Seong Geon-woo answered seriously and then, pointing beyond the alley, said with delight,
“The bicycles are still here.”
“You really thought they’d be stolen?”
Lowering her voice, Jang Mok-hwa turned her head to gaze at the mountain in the center of the island. Perhaps some Mindless remained there—and there was no guarantee they couldn’t ride the bicycles either.
Jang Mok-hwa and Seong Geon-woo rode their bicycles and followed the original path out of the town.
Winter evening had already arrived, and the sky was growing dim.
After riding for a while, Jang Mok-hwa couldn’t help but glance back at the town where the temple stood.
Darkness was slowly spreading in all directions. In this quiet town, exuding the classical atmosphere of the old world, there was barely a trace of life.
For some reason, Jang Mok-hwa recalled the evening scene in Haeja Village: the residents returning from the fields and forests, cooking over fires in the open square among illegally built structures; children running about after school, or watching the boiling pots with expectant eyes.
Some time later.
Back in the deserted town, in the alley where the temple stood.
A sudden gust of wind caused several wide-open doors to slam shut one after another.
Bang!
The sun had already tilted toward the west. Their two bicycles cast long shadows as they rode through barren fields and withered trees.
Pedaling hard, Jang Mok-hwa suddenly signaled Seong Geon-woo to slow down.
She went to the side of the path, parked her bicycle carefully, and broke off some flexible tree branches.
“What are you doing?”
Seong Geon-woo asked, curiosity in his voice.
Jang Mok-hwa, without her mask, flashed a mischievous smile.
“Preparing to reinforce the household rules.”
Seong Geon-woo nodded in deep agreement.
“Right. Yeonghong’s been acting up lately. Time to teach her a little about the ways of the world.”
Jang Mok-hwa chuckled, loading the branches onto the back seat, and got back on her bicycle.
“Let’s go.”
By the time the sky’s edge burned red, they arrived at the dock.
Yong Yeonghong, wearing an exoskeleton suit, let out a sigh of relief upon seeing them return safely.
“How was it? Did you find anything?”
Jang Mok-hwa looked up and studied the color of the sky.
“We did get something. I’ll explain once we get back. We need to move as fast as possible—before it gets completely dark.”
If darkness fell completely, it would be much harder to spot threats on the lake, and the Merfolk would move even more unpredictably.
Of course, they had two human “radars” who could detect enemies, but in this age of firearms, if Merfolk approached by boat and fired bazookas from a distance of 100–200 meters under the dark night sky, it would be a serious problem.
Jang Mok-hwa didn’t want to share her unsettling reconnaissance experiences, fearing that Yong Yeonghong and Baek Saebyeok might be psychologically affected.
Both of them agreed silently to her plan. The sun continued to slowly sink lower.
After loading the bicycles onto the motorboat, Baek Saebyeok started the engine.
Jang Mok-hwa sat down and began weaving the branches together.
“Team Leader, what are you doing?”
“Preparing to reinforce the household rules.”
Seong Geon-woo even removed his mask and smiled brightly at Yeonghong.
Jang Mok-hwa chuckled and spoke,
“This will be quite useful. If we can avoid fighting the Merfolk, it’s better to do so. We’re the final villains, after all. We need to learn how to win without fighting.”
Yeonghong couldn’t understand. How could weaving branches possibly relate to winning without fighting?
At that moment, Baek Saebyeok, driving the motorboat, spoke in a low voice,
“She’s trying to deceive the Merfolk.”
The wind wasn’t strong, and Jang Mok-hwa quickly grasped what he meant. Her eyes widened.
“Deception? It’s a tactical trick.”
“What’s the difference?”
Yeonghong asked subconsciously.
Seong Geon-woo helped explain.
“Tactical trick just sounds better.”
Jang Mok-hwa glared at them.
“Good, you two work really well together. Time to really reinforce the household rules.”
Smiling and chatting, the motorboat boldly proceeded toward Redstone Market.
Before long, Jang Mok-hwa completed a bracelet using half of the branches she had broken off.
“You remembered after all.”
Seong Geon-woo murmured, realizing.
Suppressing a cough, Jang Mok-hwa replied,
“Terrible line, that one.”
“What do you mean?”
Yeonghong again looked confused.
“I found a bracelet woven from branches inside that temple. I didn’t dare touch it.”
“Right. You shouldn’t casually take things from such a place.”
Yeonghong replied as if it were obvious.
Then Jang Mok-hwa, wearing the bracelet on her left arm, held it out toward Baek Saebyeok.
“How is it? My handiwork?”
“Don’t obstruct the driver’s view. You’re worse than me at age seven,” Baek Saebyeok said matter-of-factly.
Jang Mok-hwa laughed as if she didn’t care.
“That comparison isn’t fair. I didn’t even know what real trees looked like at age seven. I thought all trees in the world looked like cotton.”
As the motorboat continued, darkness gradually fell.
When the lakeshore came into view, Jang Mok-hwa frowned slightly.
Seong Geon-woo then spoke.
“There are humans in the water.”
Jang Mok-hwa smiled faintly.
“Ah, very cautious. Maybe they aren’t even Merfolk following us? Roughly thirty of them.”
Yeonghong wasn’t confident about how effective his antique exoskeleton suit would be underwater.
At that moment, Jang Mok-hwa waved her left hand toward the area with the most Merfolk and shouted loudly,
“We visited that forbidden temple. We even got this item. You know what your priest gained then, and you’ve seen how powerful he became. Want to test it?”
Turning her head, she gave Seong Geon-woo a subtle signal.
The underwater Merfolk, whose hearing wasn’t particularly sharp, only caught a few words: “temple,” “priest,” “powerful.” At the same time, they noticed the branch bracelet on Jang Mok-hwa’s wrist above the rippling water.
They naturally recalled the priest’s terrifying power from that incident. The next moment, they suddenly lost sensation in both hands. Unable to move their hands, they couldn’t stir the water. Losing some buoyancy, they had to move their legs quickly to maintain balance.
Having experienced this firsthand, the Merfolk could no longer deny Jang Mok-hwa’s words. Against the powerful enemies who had once opposed the priest, they had few options.
Moreover, they had already lost a considerable number of troops in the last war. They didn’t want to lose another 30–40 young people for no reason.
Unable to move their hands, they urgently informed each other of their condition.
Seven or eight seconds later, they simultaneously dived deep and left the area.
Jang Mok-hwa smiled and looked at Yeonghong, Seong Geon-woo, and Baek Saebyeok.
“I told you—we can win without fighting.”
While Yeonghong was deeply impressed, Seong Geon-woo immediately suggested a new idea.
“If we told them we killed the priest, would they have fled on their own?”
“They might have attacked recklessly, ready to risk their lives.”
Jang Mok-hwa sighed.
From this conversation, she confirmed one fact: Seong Geon-woo felt no guilt or psychological burden over killing the Merfolk priest.
‘Of course, in battle, a life isn’t considered precious. Unless one accidentally kills a comrade, it’s not something you dwell on. At that time, Geon-woo had no intention of killing a Merfolk Awakened. If it hadn’t mutated suddenly, he would have captured it alive.’
Jang Mok-hwa silently canceled the psychological therapy she had originally planned for Seong Geon-woo.
The sky was getting darker. By the time the sun had sunk halfway below the horizon, the motorboat arrived at Redstone Market dock.
Inn Area, Room 05
Jang Mok-hwa shared the findings from her reconnaissance with Yeonghong and Baek Saebyeok.
The more Yeonghong heard, the colder the atmosphere seemed to become, and he shivered without realizing it. Then, looking around, he suddenly glared at Seong Geon-woo.
“Hey! Did you leave the door open again?”
The chill in the air had been caused by the winter wind blowing outside.
“I just recreated the environment a minute ago. It really feels like we were there,” Seong Geon-woo replied with his own reasoning.
“No need! Who wants to immerse themselves in something like that!”
Seong Geon-woo closed the door with a sigh.
“It’s a bit of a fantastical story,” he muttered.
Jang Mok-hwa sighed along.
“Exactly. Powerful Awakened inside the spiritual corridor, and the so-called ‘moon-keeper,’ are no joke. Strange things happen around them constantly. I honestly thought ghosts might appear.
It’s fine to believe science explains everything, but don’t assume there’s nothing science cannot explain. Today’s science isn’t perfect. The spirit of science is to boldly hypothesize and carefully verify. One must pursue truth based on facts. Being overly conservative and blindly dismissive gets you nowhere.”
She looked around seriously as she spoke.
