Chapter 113: Whose Blood Was It

“…You were with the team leader?”

The investigators alternated their gazes between Jaeyul and me, disbelief clear in their eyes.

In most cases, it would be rare for a team member and a team leader to spend an entire evening together.

“We’re family.

Isn’t it natural for us to be together?

If you check the personal records, our addresses should be the same.

If I remember correctly, I got home a little before midnight.”

I found the situation just as unbelievable.

When I briefly returned home last night, and again after coming back from Irihyeon’s place, Jaeyul’s room had been completely empty.

At least until the moment I fell asleep, he had not come home.

“Is that correct?”

This time the same question was directed at me.

I nodded without even glancing at Jaeyul.

Whether intentional or not, he had even provided me with a time.

I was supposed to say we had been together since around midnight.

“Yes.

We had some family matters to discuss, so we talked until dawn and then went to sleep.”

“Tsk.

If you’d said that from the beginning, this wouldn’t have taken so long.”

“I’m sorry.

I didn’t realize family could count as an alibi.

This is my first time being investigated like this.”

I decided that pretending to be slow-witted was better than appearing suspicious.

The investigators sighed heavily, looking disappointed.

Almost as if they had been hoping I would turn out to be the culprit.

Still, it seemed they believed me.

It was a relief that the questioning ended safely, but why had Jaeyul given me an alibi?

Could it be… that he thought I killed Irihyeon and was trying to protect me in advance?

“Then lastly, Team Leader, what were your movements after work yesterday?”

The voice I heard just as I was about to leave the meeting room made my steps slow instinctively.

I was just as curious about the answer.

About where Jaeyul had been and what he had done last night.

I deliberately walked slowly, straining my ears toward the conversation behind me.

Fortunately, I heard Jaeyul’s answer before leaving the room.

“I met a friend I’ve known for a long time.

His name is Arsenin.

You should know who that is, so feel free to verify it yourselves.”

I couldn’t help but be surprised as I stepped out of the room.

I had been convinced Jaeyul’s appointment was with Irihyeon, yet it turned out to be someone else entirely.

Even if he hadn’t killed him, I had thought he would at least have met him.

But he claimed he hadn’t met him at all.

Then, was it really as Park Bomyeong said, that Im Chan’s group were the culprits?

With the most obvious suspect gone, my thoughts grew even more tangled.

That answer couldn’t possibly be a lie… could it?

“Let’s go, hyung.”

“It’s already over?”

Judging by how he followed me out immediately, Jaeyul must have finished as soon as he said what he needed to say.

Who exactly was this Arsenin that Jaeyul had met?

He was a man called the king of private mercenaries.

Would those investigators even be able to investigate someone like that?

They might not even be able to contact him, and given his nationality belonged to a country with diplomatic friction with Korea, verification through official channels would hardly be easy.

Well… that was their problem to solve.

In any case, confirming Jaeyul’s whereabouts lightened my heart by half.

Even if there existed someone besides Jaeyul and me who had intended to kill Irihyeon, someone powerful enough to easily murder an A-rank esper, I found myself strangely uninterested.

Right now, Jaeyul’s movements last night stirred my emotions far more than the mystery of Irihyeon’s death.

Thank goodness.

It really had been a misunderstanding.

The teacup in front of me had gone lukewarm.

Not a single sip had been taken, yet the fragrance of the tea lingered in the living room.

The teacup across from me was the same.

We sat facing each other across the table, not exchanging a single word.

I didn’t know what to say yet.

There were no good questions to ask.

Perhaps because I felt vaguely guilty, the silence, no different from usual, felt uncomfortable, so I opened my mouth.

“Do you think I killed Irihyeon?”

Even I thought the question was blunt.

Jaeyul looked at me as if asking why I would say such a thing.

“Me?

Why would I think that.

No, not at all.”

“Then why did you lie during the investigation and cover for me?”

From Jaeyul’s perspective, I was the one with the strongest motive to kill Irihyeon.

Unlike others, Jaeyul knew exactly why I had been trapped inside that gate.

It would have been reasonable to suspect me.

And in truth, I really had gone there intending to kill him.

“That’s… um….”

Did my question really require that much thought?

After a longer silence than expected, Jaeyul finally spoke.

“Because I believed you absolutely weren’t the culprit.

I didn’t want you to get dragged into something troublesome.”

How could he trust me to this extent?

He believed me without evidence, even though I was the most likely suspect.

If his false statement were exposed, he himself could be in danger.

“…You could’ve gotten into trouble if your story didn’t match your friend’s.”

“Don’t worry.

There’s no way to contact Arsenin.

He’s not someone you can reach through ordinary means.”

Ah….

Given how confident he sounded, Jaeyul was probably right.

He must have been certain, which was why he had offered me an alibi.

“Thanks.

I almost got into trouble, but you helped me get through it.”

“What are you saying.

Of course I’d do that for you.”

Since gratitude was due, I accepted it.

And there was one more thing I needed to confirm.

“But… just in case.

It wasn’t you, was it…?”

I had heard Jaeyul’s alibi, but until it was confirmed directly with Arsenin, there was still a slim chance it could be false.

And looking at Irihyeon’s corpse, I couldn’t help asking.

“No way.

I was somewhere else because of an appointment.

Why would you think that?”

“Well… actually, I overheard you asking Irihyeon whether he still lived in that house.

And Irihyeon skipped the drinking party that day, saying he had a very important appointment.

And then….”

“And then?”

I hurriedly cut myself off and shut my mouth.

I almost blurted out that I had seen the crime scene with my own eyes.

“Irihyeon was an A-rank esper.

Wouldn’t it be hard for an ordinary person to even scratch him?

And since he was wind-type, he was faster at escaping than anyone.

If he still ended up like that, the only conclusion is that the culprit had overwhelming power over him.

Or… was someone he knew.”

That was why I had suspected Jaeyul.

Unless it was someone of Jaeyul’s caliber, subduing Irihyeon would have been impossible.

To slaughter him so one-sidedly, the attacker would have needed absolute superiority.

Of course, the likelihood that it was Jaeyul was much lower.

There were no traces of light-bomb usage anywhere in the house, and if he had used his skills, he could have erased everything without leaving a single drop of blood.

There would have been no reason to put on such a display.

And above all, Jaeyul wasn’t that cruel.

“Hmm… I can see why you’d think that.

But maybe he wasn’t subdued through brute force.”

“Maybe….

Anyway, it wasn’t you, right?”

“Of course not.

But hyung, do you want to find the culprit?

Or are you perhaps… regretful that Irihyeon died?”

That sudden question finally made me reflect on my own feelings.

Ever since I came back from Irihyeon’s house last night, I’d been in a daze.

Was I curious about the culprit because of the shocking murder?

Or did I regret Irihyeon’s death and want to catch the killer…?

Regret that I couldn’t kill Irihyeon with my own hands?

No.

To be honest, I thought it was better that my hands weren’t stained with blood.

No matter whose hands were used, the intent had been to kill Irihyeon, and that goal had been achieved.

I didn’t particularly want to catch the culprit either.

I was just curious.

About who could harbor such deep resentment toward Irihyeon, and what kind of things were happening beyond my knowledge.

“I don’t regret Irihyeon’s death.

If I look only at the result of him being gone, I think it’s fine.

But it wasn’t the ending I wanted, so I’m confused.

There were so many questions tied to our long-standing bad blood, and now I can’t ask them anymore.

Someone may have killed Irihyeon and resolved their grudge, but I didn’t.

I can’t really put it into words… maybe it’s something like lingering regret.”

Jaeyul might be disappointed, but I had no intention of pitying Irihyeon.

I thought of it as divine punishment for trying to kill others.

If possible, I would have liked to be the one to deliver that punishment myself.

While also clearing up all my questions.

“That’s a relief.”

“…Huh?

What’s a relief?”

I had spoken expecting Jaeyul to think of me as cold-hearted, yet he was smiling lightly.

“Just that.

Anyway, I’m relieved that you’re okay with it.

Let go of that regret now.

Even if you find the culprit, what’s already happened won’t change.”

The conversation felt slightly misaligned, but Jaeyul didn’t seem to be taking Irihyeon’s death very seriously either.

At a glance, he didn’t look like someone mourning the loss of a longtime friend.

Perhaps he and Irihyeon hadn’t been that close to begin with.

Now that things had turned out this way, maybe I should tidy my memories and feelings about Irihyeon as well.

I wanted to cut off my lingering attachments as Jaeyul said, but untangling years of resentment overnight didn’t seem easy.

“What are you staring at so hard?”

Someone poked my back as they appeared at the entrance of the break room.

There was only one person in this center who would pull such a childish prank.

Park Bomyeong.

“Just thinking.

Don’t those two seem kind of strange lately?”

Park Bomyeong’s gaze followed mine.

For a while now, I had been watching Im Chan and Hwang Jiyu sitting in the corner of the break room.

Despite Irihyeon’s death, they had returned to their daily routines faster than I had.

Sometimes they whispered seriously to each other, then smiled as if something pleasant had happened.

They looked suspicious to anyone.

“Those murderers?”

“Hush.

Don’t say things like that.

Bluntly speaking, they don’t really have a reason to kill Irihyeon, do they?”

Park Bomyeong seemed convinced that what he had seen was the truth.

Honestly, I leaned toward thinking they weren’t the culprits.

If it had been an ambush, it might be different, but otherwise even the two of them together would have had trouble taking Irihyeon down.

There were no traces of special ability usage at the scene, and killing him that thoroughly without abilities bordered on impossible.

“What do you mean they don’t have a reason?

Do you know how much Irihyeon used them?

If I were them, I’d have killed him ages ago.”

Well… Bomyeong wasn’t wrong.

From the outside, the three might have looked like close friends, but in reality Irihyeon was the king, and the other two were little more than servants.

And after being dragged into a scheme to kill me, they might have resented him even more.

Wait.

If I used this properly, it could paint a rather interesting picture…?

A spark flashed through my mind as I listened to Bomyeong.

“Hmm… then should we tell the investigators?”

I nudged him toward tattling.

“Didn’t you tell me not to earlier?”

Back then, the situation was chaotic, so I’d wanted to proceed cautiously.

Now it was different.

I didn’t like Hwang Jiyu and Im Chan either.

After all, weren’t they the ones who pretended to get lost in the gate and dragged Jaeyul inside?

I wouldn’t demand they repay their sins with death like Irihyeon did.

They just needed to receive punishment befitting their crimes.

“Thinking about it, what you said sounds pretty convincing.

It really could have been Hwang Jiyu and Im Chan.”

Becoming the culprits behind Irihyeon’s death seemed fitting enough.

Whether it was true or not didn’t really matter.