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It was obvious that Yoon Doyoon's spirit had taken possession of Enoch's body. I didn't know how such a thing could happen, but if it was Yoon Doyoon, it wouldn't surprise me, he was the kind of bastard who, even after becoming a ghost and wandering the spirit world, would drift here and steal someone else's body without hesitation.
In my life I had never seen anyone as ruthless as him. No matter how impossible something seemed, I believed Yoon Doyoon could make it happen.
"Yoon Doyoon, you damned bastard!!"
A blinding light poured from my sword and a red murderous aura surged up. I meant it, I was going to pull that bastard out of Enoch's body today, or kill him outright.
Maybe he could read the murderous intent packed into my crazed blade.
"Ahaha! Still the same, aren't you, Inspector?"
Yoon Doyoon threw his head back in a crazed laugh and, while inside Enoch's body, swung his sword as if it were nothing. My blade and his met.
With a thunderous crack, a tremendous gust tore out from both me and Yoon Doyoon.
"Commander!!"
"Aah! Commander!"
The Gray Knights drew their swords to protect Enoch, and the Emblem Knights drew theirs to protect me.
"So this engagement was a trap, Emblem!"
"You showed up first covered in blood and headbutted our leader, Gray, you're the ones, you bastards!"
What should have been a hall of unity between Emblem and Gray instantly turned into a battlefield between the two houses.
"Eek!"
"Blood, run! Get out!"
I heard the screams of the guests who had come to watch the engagement as they fled. Only then did I manage, bit by bit, to steady the pieces of my scattered reason.
I glared at Yoon Doyoon in Enoch's face and raised my voice.
"Emblem!!!"
"Yes, Commander!!"
My knights answered my call.
"Don't follow me, protect the people!"
"...Yes!"
Although they looked reluctant, most of the Emblem Knights slowly lowered their swords again.
Seeing that, the Gray Knights hesitated for a moment as well.
"Put your swords away, all of you. Evacuating the civilians comes first. No matter what happens…"
As if he really were Enoch, the commander of the Gray Knights, Yoon Doyoon issued the command to them effortlessly.
His calm, composed voice—coming out of Enoch's body—sounded so much like Enoch that my teeth clenched. The fraying thread of my sanity felt like it would snap at any moment.
"At this rate, it looks like this whole place will have to collapse before it ends."
"Die!"
Since both the Emblem Knights and Gray Knights had taken responsibility for protecting the citizens, everything should be safe.
Only after watching them guide the guests away did I finally release the last constraints on my power—the restraints I kept on myself.
"Yoon Doyoon again! Again! That filthy bastard—Ahn Hyeongsik's damn attack dog. We almost caught him red-handed taking a bribe this time…! Doesn't it piss you off, Senior Daejin?!"
"So what if we'd rushed the scene this time? Do you think we would've made it out alive? They've pulled all our people. You know there are only the two of us left investigating Ahn Hyeongsik now. If we ask for backup, do you really think anyone will come?"
"If we secure the scene first, headquarters has to send support—what choice would they have?! The fact that Yoon Doyoon smuggled away Reporter Park Jiwon, who agreed to cooperate with the investigation, proves this is a major case for sure!"
"No one's sending us reinforcements. That's why we need to take a different approach."
"Aaaaargh! Next time, I'll storm the scene even if I have to do it alone. You hear me?! Senior or not, I don't care anymore!"
That troublesome bastard who always got in my way at the most critical moments.
The people who had investigated Ahn Hyeongsik alongside me were forced out of their detective posts one by one, through unreasonable transfers from higher up or unexplained accidents.
Investigating Ahn Hyeongsik had become nearly impossible, but even so, there were only two of us who refused to give up, Senior Daejin and me.
"Senior—Senior! Wake up, please, please! Stay with me! Wake up!"
"Hey… you… if I die here… let go of Ahn Hyeongsik. That place… that place is Yoon Doyoon's—cough!"
"Stop talking, Senior! The bleeding won't stop! An ambulance will be here soon, so please-!"
"Huff… huff… listen carefully… Yoon Doyoon, that kid… that poor bastard. Because of me, because of me, I pushed him into that hell. I'm the only one left who knows that, and if I die like this…"
"S-Senior! Senior! Open your eyes! Senior!!!"
But even Senior Daejin—who had always exposed Ahn Hyeongsik's corruption—was ambushed and left collapsing in blood at the very meeting where he was supposed to receive incriminating evidence.
After my respected senior was put into a coma by Ahn Hyeongsik's schemes, I came to define Yoon Doyoon as my enemy as well.
I couldn't erase the thought that Yoon Doyoon had been involved in what happened to my senior.
And yet, despite everything, there was one time, just once, when I chose to believe Yoon Doyoon, when he said he would become a whistleblower.
"Why are you so angry? I thought you'd be happy to see me."
"Ha. Happy? Yeah, I'm happy, you bastard."
I sensed my mother and Aunt Diana rushing toward us from the distance. Once those two joined, the safety of the guests would be completely guaranteed.
And once that was secured…
"For letting me take revenge with my own hands….. on the bastard who killed me."
"What?"
Yoon Doyoon's smile vanished for a moment—just a brief flicker—at my words.
I instinctively seized that tiny opening.
With each thunderous beat of my racing heart, fury flooded my whole body. I gathered that raging force and poured it into the tip of my sword. The blade vibrated with a deep hum, as if resonating with my wrath.
"Enoch!!"
"Cherry!!"
A scream-like cry of "Enoch!" tore from Aunt Diana's throat, and I saw my mother hurl her body toward me.
"Don't!"
But it was already too late.
"This time, I will kill you, Yoon Doyoon!"
The strike, packed with every bit of the power I had been slowly learning to control since awakening as a Swordmaster, shot straight toward Yoon Doyoon.
With a deafening boom, both my mother and Aunt Diana were blasted far back from the force of the clash.
"Blocked it, huh?"
But Yoon Doyoon, wearing Enoch Gray's body, was still standing. Not entirely unscathed, but he had blocked my fully condensed strike. Even more disturbing, the same type of energy that I used was flickering along his blade as well.
"…What did you just say?"
The laughter that had been lingering in Yoon Doyoon's voice vanished completely. His face went blank, and the shock in his eyes finally made him look somewhat satisfying to behold.
"You said… that I killed you?"
"Yes."
"You're saying I killed you?"
He repeated it as if I had told the most absurd lie he had ever heard. Like a broken record, mumbling nonsense, he didn't look stable at all.
But that was none of my concern.
"I died after being hit by the truck you sent. And I'll return to you just ten times the emptiness I felt in that moment."
"Ha… Cherry… What are you even talking about?"
Then Yoon Doyoon called me by the pet name Enoch used for me, pretending to mimic Enoch.
Hearing that name fall from his lips froze my blade mid-swing, my hands trembling.
"After you, Inspector… after you died like that… do you have any idea how I lost my mind?"
"…!"
"If you knew, you'd never dare say something like that."
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