The Unbelievers Chapter 36

“He said he was a reporter from Herb Post. He’s a reporter who was on the blacklist for having written an article about the Cult of Eternal Destruction. It seems he hid in the restroom of the Seongha Group headquarters until nightfall. He accessed classified documents, and seeing as he broke through security, it appears he has a connection with an internal employee. The Chairman asked if we could find them. How should we proceed?”

“…”

Yoo Siun operated the incineration machine without responding, as if he hadn’t heard Manager Nam’s question.

The man, already dead, dropped his head between his legs as if rolling forward inside the machine. When Yoo Siun closed the door and pressed the button, a large flame erupted in the firebox. Through the viewing window of the iron drum incinerator—which was large enough to fit a whole cow comfortably—the figure of the man catching fire was reflected. He checked the inside one last time, as if finishing a task, and closed the viewing window.

“We have to do as we’re told. If we don’t want to end up like this.”

Yoo Siun brushed off the ash that had splattered on his jacket with the back of his hand. Cleaning up the filth left behind by Chairman Yoo was the task he had been assigned within the family.

Manager Nam’s expression was dissatisfied at Yoo Siun’s attitude, which allowed for no lamentation.

“The CEO clearly oversees an affiliate, yet the Chairman continues to order these kinds of tasks… He is truly cold-hearted.”

Manager Nam, who had served Yoo Siun for a long time, lowered his head and spoke in a resentful tone. As a member of the Seongha Group and one of the few qualified as ‘one whose spiritual eyes are open,’ it would be natural for Yoo Siun’s pride to be wounded, but the man himself appeared unbothered.

Standing with both hands shoved into his suit pockets, he idly kicked the dirt floor with the toe of his shoe. He had to wait for the incineration to finish. Human bones looked entirely different from animal bones.

“He assigns it to me because we’re family. Because he can’t trust outsiders. That’s how Chairman Yoo operates, and we will do the same. Family should clean up this kind of trash.”

“That’s why I’m saying, why must the CEO—haa, I’ve spoken out of turn again… I am sorry.”

“Go and buy something to drink.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Manager Nam wanted to leave the area anyway, as the smell of burning human flesh was spreading through the chimney. One would think he’d be desensitized by now, but body disposal was something he simply could not adjust to. Yoo Siun, who had been doing this since he was young, was composed.

Manager Nam felt even more apologetic and grateful toward Yoo Siun for showing such consideration every time. When considering what Yoo Siun enjoyed, possessed, and would possess in the future, there was no need to consider or even be conscious of a trivial subordinate, yet Yoo Siun nonchalantly looked after Manager Nam whenever he struggled with these tasks.

Manager Nam knew well that among the members of the Seongha Group, who did not treat anyone outside the chosen ones as human, Yoo Siun was the most decent.

Because he was decent, he had many thoughts, and because he was decent, he had much affection. Because he was decent, he recognized more than anyone else that the Seongha cultist group, which sought to control the politics and economy of this country, was insane, and he remained wary.

Though he was currently doing these things calmly to hide his true intentions, Yoo Siun was someone who inwardly despised Chairman Yoo, the head of the Seongha family, and wished for his downfall more than anyone else.

“Then, I shall be back.”

Manager Nam left the livestock shed where the faint smell of excrement was spreading. In the nearby kennel, dogs had been barking excitedly for a while. They must have caught the scent of the burning person.

Manager Nam departed for the city, which would take over an hour for a round trip by car, and Yoo Siun put a cigarette in his mouth and fumbled through his jacket to find a lighter.

He found the lighter in his inner pocket and flicked it. In the dark space, a flame erupted, illuminating the surroundings in a circle. Yoo Siun’s face was brightly revealed before vanishing. Darkness prevailed again. Soon, as he inhaled, the cigarette ember glowed red in the pitch black, glinting like an animal’s eye-light.

Inside the iron incineration drum where the heat had been raised to the maximum, the sound of the reporter’s crumpled body collapsing was heard. It was like sparsely stacked bonfire wood crumbling as it burned down.

Since it was an incineration device with nearly twice the heat of a regular crematorium, it didn’t take very long for the body to be reduced to bones.

Stepping back, Yoo Siun sat down loosely on the ledge of the livestock shed building. With the cigarette still in his mouth, he tilted his chin up to look at the stars in the black night, which were exceptionally visible today. Since it was a place without pollution, the Milky Way was clearly visible.

“Phew…”

He took the cigarette from his lips and exhaled the smoke.

Just then, a light vibration occurred against his chest. He pulled out his phone and checked the message that had arrived.

[Who do I tell if a strange noise happens right now? Should I call 112?]

He felt the illusion of Eunseong’s voice in his ear, acting brusquely over a timid anxiety hidden by the fear of being rejected. Yoo Siun let out a chuckle. He stared quietly down at the message Eunseong sent while sucking on the filter with the cigarette in his mouth.

[If you read it, it shows you read it]

Eunseong was treating Yoo Siun like an old man who couldn’t even handle a cell phone properly. He was pressuring him to reply, saying he knew the message had been read. With the cigarette cocked in his lips, he held the phone and moved his thumb to draft a message.

[I’ll tell the security team to check.]

[Do you not think I would have done that first?]

[What did they say.]

[They said there’s nothing but I definitely heard it I’m not lying]

“I’ll tell them… to check… again, carefully.”

Muttering to himself, he sent the message and lowered the phone. As the light that had brightly illuminated his vision vanished, the stinging pain in his eyes also disappeared. He hadn’t slept deeply for several days. It was due to his increasing thoughts.

It didn’t necessarily have to be him. If he just paid the money, people more skilled than him would do a good job of guarding and protecting Eunseong. There was no particular benefit to being by each other’s side.

Yoo Siun knew he was being stubborn. After guaranteeing that he would arrange a separate house, and boasting that it would be ready within three weeks at most or one week at the earliest, he had produced no results for over two weeks now. The issue of Eunseong’s move was sinking beneath the surface again.

Eunseong had declared to both the man himself and Manager Nam that he wanted to move out and live separately, and that he hated Yoo Siun for taking his father away. It was the epitome of a temper tantrum.

Recalling Eunseong’s face as he appealed with teary eyes to please acknowledge the fact that he hated him to death, Yoo Siun smiled faintly again like a man who had lost his gallbladder.

“…”

There hadn’t been much to laugh about in his life. There hadn’t been much to enjoy, and for someone who had lived as a henchman for the family elders, doing only what he was told—cleaning up filth, disposing of bodies, and sometimes even committing murder while diligently watching for an opportunity to topple them—there was nothing to look forward to, nothing to laugh about, and nothing to constantly ponder. However, Yoo Siun had been laughing frequently lately.

He looked down at his phone and tilted his head slightly as if looking at an uninterpretable foreign language.

Eunseong was in the middle of typing something busily. It seemed he was about to throw another fit.

A house for Eunseong to live in was already prepared without him needing to do anything in particular. He could just stay at a vacant penthouse under his ownership. In a place where a security team resided and security was as tight as Yoo Siun’s house—no, as tight as the Seongha Group’s main family home in Korea—guards forming a professional team were protecting the building 24 hours a day. If a private bodyguard was added to that, it might actually be better for safety than being with Yoo Siun.

Since there would be no reason to insist on living together if the other person hated it.

Yoo Siun also didn’t want to keep tolerating someone who said they hated him while constantly worrying about and looking after them. It was a matter that could be easily resolved by living apart.

And yet.

[What do I do if it keeps making noise? I can stay in your room, right? I’m in your study I’ll be studying]

“Haa, right… as you wish. No, you can do that. If that’s comfortable—no, no, if you like it there—no, hmmm.”

Yoo Siun repeated writing and deleting the message. The phone he used was the same model as Eunseong’s. While he was drafting a message, an indicator showing he was typing would appear, and as Yoo Siun had just seen, the other person could see that too. If the message he took so long to write turned out to be a short sentence, even the naive Eunseong would realize he had been refining the sentence by writing and deleting.

[I’ll check when I get there later. Don’t go into the study.]

[I already went in]

The reply came immediately. Yoo Siun let out a hollow laugh. He didn’t dislike behavior that went far beyond his expectations, and Seo Eunseong was bold but even had a cute side.

[Could you please not touch the desk.]

[I wouldn’t touch it even if you told me to I’m just going to listen to music or can I look at the telescope?]

“…I thought you said you were studying.”

Yoo Siun was a lover of classical music. There were no albums in the study that Eunseong would likely listen to. There were only things like piano concertos or orchestral symphonies. However, the sound quality through the high-end speakers was not just good; it was like a thrill that produced high-quality, strong vibrations that even a layman would have no choice but to notice, so it was certain he would be completely absorbed even in an entirely unknown piece. Listening to music and astronomical observation were the only hobbies Yoo Siun spent money on, as he had little interest in the pleasures and pastimes of the consumerist world.

“…”

Just then, another sound of bones collapsing occurred. The sound, which was less dull than before, was a signal that the incineration was proceeding smoothly.

Yoo Siun held the cigarette between his fingers and let out a long stream of smoke. He opened the incineration drum viewing window and threw the cigarette butt, burned down to the filter, inside. It is most efficient to burn any kind of trash before discarding it.

He stood up from where he had been leaning his weight. Out of habit, he shoved both fists into his pants pockets and tapped the floor with the toe of his shoe.

He waited tediously for the final incineration task. Once he put the bones into the grinder to grind them and discarded them in the pit before Manager Nam arrived, the whole task would be finished.