The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 88

“Young Master Kim Changwoon.”

The moment I left the accommodations and made for the city outskirts, the female attendant who had greeted me at the pier bowed her head first.

I had not said I was going out. I had not given a time, and my route was not worth mentioning.

……Just as expected.

The accommodations where I was staying appeared to be blanketed in all manner of surveillance equipment.

Given that this was a foreign city, and the headquarters of a cutting-edge corporation at that, there was nothing strange about it.

But I had no intention of letting that watchful gaze pass unremarked.

“Where are you going?”

The manner of speaking was polite, but behind it, the smell of control was thick.

She was not here to ‘assist.’ She was here to ‘monitor.’

The way of people who do not even try to hide it. No mask worn. This was Japan.

“I thought I might take a stroll before the expedition. I know someone in the area, and staying cooped up inside was making me restiff.”

“In that case, I will prepare a security escort. It will be an inconvenience for you, but if you could wait just a moment….”

“Security? You mean those idiots who were flopping around in the banquet hall earlier?”

That, for the record, was not something I said.

At that moment, a vast shadow seeped up from behind the attendant as though melting out of the air.

What entered her vision as she flinched and turned was Mizutani, the sushi artisan and enormous metallic specter.

Eyes that held something closer to contempt than killing intent, and the cold resonance of a machine expressing only the minimum of feeling.

“Hello there, miss.”

“……!”

“Sorry, but our Young Master doesn’t particularly care for needless tails.”

“There are, ah, security concerns as well….”

“Security concerns, you say. That is precisely what makes no sense.”

This time I was the one who spoke.

I layered a polished smile over my words, burying my true meaning beneath a ceremonial tone.

But I did not bother to hide the sharpness.

“We are going to kill monsters. The operational plan and troop strength have already been packaged into promotional materials and handed over to broadcasting networks. Under these circumstances, what meaning does security have?”

“That is….”

“Surely you are not suspecting that I have some ulterior motive?”

“N, no. Nothing of the sort….”

The way her lips twitched was truly excellent.

It was only natural for her to suspect me, yet she could not stop me regardless.

That was because, in this arena of monster subjugation, Joseon held the stronger hand.

Phase power users provided by Andong Kim.

Among them, Kim Hyunwoo, a figure of real weight.

With him present, even if a small fry like me did whatever I liked in the back alleys, the Japanese side had no choice but to turn a blind eye.

She knew that too. Which was why she had to bow her head again and take a step back.

“They’ll still put a tail on us, won’t they?”

After she retreated, Mizutani spoke in a low voice beside me.

“Of course. You know what kind of people they are. Still, at this distance they won’t be able to do anything like wiretapping.”

“Good to hear. Did you look into what I asked?”

“Obviously.”

Having finished speaking, Mizutani threw a set of coordinates into my field of vision.

Coordinates pointing to an alley with its lights out. A district people instinctively avoided.

“Didn’t even need to go digging for information. Those Society of Truth people, or whatever they call themselves, were going around broadcasting their group assembly to all four corners of the world.”

“……Are they idiots?”

“Less idiots, more lunatics.”

A laugh slipped out.

People who went around openly proclaiming their worship of monsters were holding a brazen public assembly.

“Any other information?”

When I asked, Mizutani dipped his head for a moment, then blinked his facial sensor once and looked at me.

His tone had dropped lower and grown more careful than before.

“Got something from a contact. But this, it might be a bit sensitive for a Young Master who does government work for an aristocrat.”

“Sensitive? What is?”

As I stared at him plainly, Mizutani spat it out without hesitation.

“Word is the Society of Truth’s cult leader is from Joseon.”

“……What?”

What kind of lunatic nonsense is this now?

---

For now, it was just the two of us, Mizutani and I, who headed toward the outer shantytown.

I had Taewoong and Mooyoung shake off the surveillance tails.

In any case, as far as they were concerned, I was little more than an appendage to Kim Hyunwoo.

If Taewoong moved conspicuously and Mooyoung latched on behind him like a shadow, shaking the tails loose should not be difficult.

“This is something….”

“The scenery’s something else, isn’t it? This is why Joseon people cling to that land even when they’re half-dead doing it.”

As Mizutani said, the shantytown scenery was more wretched than expected.

Hanseong’s underground tier was a run-down place, but at the very least, goods that flowed into the great city meant there was some middling distribution network, and there existed something that could at least be called a market.

Even if you were destined to live in poverty your whole life, at the very least you could work and survive. That much was true there.

But not here. This was, quite simply, the end.

A slum assembled from plywood and plastic sheeting that looked liable to collapse at any moment, sewage tanks and oil drums lashed together.

The sight of people fighting over waste and food scraps that drained in from the city’s sewers looked like a painting of hell.

Those who had been refused recognition as human beings and shoved beyond the city’s protective barrier.

Unlike Joseon, where at least a handful of hope existed, the people here had no possibility, no hope of any kind.

They were simply a mass of people crying out toward a towering wall, begging in any way they could to be let inside the city.

And in the middle of that space, the Society of Truth’s assembly was just about to begin.

“Monsters are not a calamity but a blessing.”

“The Rift is the breath of God. Walk into it.”

A banner of patchwork white cloth, stained here and there.

Each phrase written within it was a fabrication of belief that shattered reason.

Then again, the people here did not seem to actually believe those words either.

They had simply gathered for a lump of rice, a ration pack, handed out by whoever wrote those words.

A textbook technique of a cult.

Looking at the makeshift stage set up at the center of the assembly, an old woman happened to be walking out, trembling all over.

She knelt on shaking hands and cried out in a quavering voice.

“Holy Leader… please, my eyes…. My son’s grave…. Let these eyes see it….”

A voice stumbling, unable even to form words properly.

At those words, a man slowly approached, eyes glistening.

His smile was astonishingly compassionate.

Looking down at the old woman with an expression full of tenderness, he slowly brought his hand toward her face, crusted with filth and soot, and.

Flash!

A faint light welled up smoothly, like foam rising.

The pus and dried blood filling the old woman’s eyes fell away, and the eyes hidden within began slowly regaining focus.

“Oh… oh oh oh oh!”

“She’s healed! She’s healed, Holy Leader!”

When he showed the miracle of giving sight back to a blind woman, the destitute crowd burst into cheers all at once.

A miracle. Yes. A miracle, in the literal sense of the word.

But in this world, a ‘miracle’ like that has exactly one explanation.

“Phase power…. And of these, an extremely rare bodily restoration ability.”

As Mizutani had said, this so-called cult leader was a phase power user.

“Restoring a necrotic leg to its original state, that level of regenerative ability is extremely rare even in Joseon, isn’t it?”

That was correct.

Bodily restoration ability was a trait of the Yeohung Min clan, a family with deep aristocratic roots.

“Even among those, someone at that level would be a senior clan figure…. On top of that, restoring something as complex as an eye would require equally precise manipulation of phase power.”

Among those rare biological regeneration abilities, the rarer still: regenerating lost parts.

And not even a peripheral limb like an arm or leg, but restoring the eyeball and optic nerve connected directly to the brain.

In terms of rarity and utility, it was an ability that could rival even a clan head.

“Of course, it doesn’t reach the level of the clan’s people restoring a whole field of casualties at once, but….”

“It’s still a precious ability regardless. Capture that one alive, and it’s a goldmine.”

Only a wako could be this commercially minded at a moment like this.

As I muttered away with Mizutani like that, the cult leader fellow was making a show of waving to the cheering crowd.

“……Seriously, he’s the spitting image of someone.”

Watching him do that, my graduation ceremony suddenly came to mind.

The Pyeongwoon Academy graduation ceremony, in a place where countless junior students and officials were applauding, I too wore a smile just like that.

Pretending to be a good person, pretending to be generous, pretending to be a righteous leader.

……Ah, this kind of self-loathing is no help to a wise life of treachery.

But the moment I saw him, I understood.

An innocent face, a gentle smile.

Behind that good-natured camouflage, a rotten monster was crouching.

They say a hero recognizes a hero.

I was able to see through the true nature of this so-called cult leader immediately.

‘The number of followers, their response, the organization’s cohesion… this wasn’t built in a day or two. Three to five years minimum. Which means a complete organizational network is already in place.’

And if that cult leader is from Joseon?

In other words, there is a possibility that this monster-worshipping fanatical organization has extended its roots across the sea into Joseon as well.

But… I had no memory of any such organization.

In my previous life and even now, the name Society of Truth did not exist in my memory.

At most, the shamans and Catholics caught in the Royal Investigative Bureau’s surveillance net, or the con artists masquerading as them.

‘Got myself something to do when I return.’

While I was thinking that, the cult leader, who had been clasping the crowd’s hands and smiling, looked over in my direction.

Well, of course.

A person dressed as well as I am appearing in this shantytown couldn’t help but stand out.

He might be on guard, or he might suspect a spy sent by the corporate city side.

So I thought he was about to have me removed, but.

A grin.

The cult leader broke into the brightest smile imaginable and, almost as if making a point of it, turned his attention back to what he had been doing.

Neither fleeing nor hiding, quietly going about the business of helping the destitute.

The very image of a saint out of scripture.

“……Hm.”

……First Shimazu Masahito today, and now this cult leader too.

Not a single easy opponent to be found.

But.

‘At least he’s better than those lot.’

I looked up at the brilliant nightscape of the city looming in the background behind the religious assembly.

Dealing with the corporate city’s surveillance at every turn would be far less productive than reeling in a single cult leader.

-Young Master.

Just then, Taewoong’s voice rang into my ear through the communications network.

-I’ve identified the surveillance tails. Whenever you give the order, I can handle them at any time.

-Don’t handle them. Think about shaking them off.

-Ah.

What do you mean ‘ah.’

Has he been rubbing off on Mooyoung so much that Mooyoung’s habits are rubbing back off on him?

With a brief grumble, I slowly rose from my seat.

“We’ve gotten a look at the other side’s face. Time to go to work.”

“Heh, this is getting interesting.”

Mizutani nodded and followed after me.

Now then, how to approach that cult.

Infiltrate and strike? Or lure them with a donation?

I was running through all manner of routes in my head at that very moment.

“Ah, ah haha…. Everyone looks well, I’m glad. Yes, yes….”

A familiar voice coming from among the cult members.

I turned my head without thinking, and nearly missed a step.

A man greeting the destitute, letting out awkward laughs, making conversation with Society of Truth followers.

Looking at the shantytown children with a worried gaze.

Father Jeong Suhan.

“……?”

“Huh? Hey, Young Master. Over there….”

“Father? Why is he there?”

As everyone stood there puzzled, I broke into the clearest smile and said.

“Mooyoung.”

“Yes.”

“Go grab him right now.”

Father, why are you coming out of there.

You said you were going to meet a friend.