By Zephyria 
Yoo Jiha ended up paying the price for his recklessness with his entire body. He had fallen asleep in the bathroom, nearly fainting, and when he woke up the next day, he couldn’t move an inch, as if he had come down with a severe fever. He didn’t understand why simply moving his arm caused a sharp, throbbing ache to radiate down to his legs. He hadn’t noticed while it was happening, but now that he was conscious, his skin stung from bite marks that covered nearly every inch of his body.
As a result, he couldn’t take a single step out of bed and had to be tended to by Jeil Heon. To be honest, he liked having Jeil Heon by his side taking care of him, so he might have exaggerated his condition a bit.
While opening his mouth like a baby bird to eat the beef porridge Jeil Heon had brewed for brunch, a question suddenly occurred to him.
“I looked through the fridge yesterday and it was empty. How did you make food?”
“Why were you looking through the fridge?”
“I thought maybe you’d been chopped up and put in there…”
“Hmm… While you were sleeping, I called the caretaker and asked them to do the grocery shopping.”
“A call? Oh, right! I have to call the Chairman!”
“You mean Seong-jae? Why Seong-jae?”
“I told him to report it to the Management Bureau on my behalf if I didn’t show up by morning!”
Jeil Heon ruffled Yoo Jiha’s hair as the latter fretted over whether he had ruined a plan that was meant to be kept secret from the Management Bureau.
“It’s alright. It seems the Mae-gu told Seong-jae the general story after leaving us and returning to reality. I also contacted him again this morning.”
“The Chairman knows Mae-gu too?”
“I met him once about 40 years ago. To be precise, 41 years ago.”
“…If you met 40 years ago, isn’t that basically the same as meeting for the first time?”
“Anyone who encounters Mae-gu when he isn’t hiding his rank can never forget him, whether it’s been 40 years or 400.”
Jiha didn’t fully understand, but he was just glad it hadn’t been reported to the Management Bureau. More than that, there was something puzzling about those words. He hadn’t felt it clearly because things were chaotic in the Aberrant Realm, but as time passed and he thought back on it, he felt a sense of déjà vu regarding Mae-gu.
When he explained this, Jeil Heon replied as usual, without a change in expression.
“As I just said, anyone who encounters Mae-gu can never forget him. He is an entity capable of contaminating people through ‘beauty’ alone. The moment the brain recognizes that beauty, they are caught in his grasp. Therefore, feeling only déjà vu must mean you’re confusing him with someone else, right?”
Even after the explanation, he didn’t feel entirely satisfied.
After finishing the porridge, Jiha examined the Substitute Blade that Jeil Heon had acquired. Although the blade, free of any rust, shone with a sharpness that looked as if it could cut through anything, it evoked a sense of refreshing clarity rather than bloodlust.
He didn’t know when it would be, but surely in the not-too-distant future, Jeil Heon would face the Smiling Man with this blade. Without notifying the Management Bureau, in secret. Alone.
“I won’t ask you to take me along when you fight the Smiling Man, because I’d only be a hindrance. Instead, please don’t disappear without a word like this time; just tell me when you’re going to meet the Smiling Man.”
“…Wouldn’t you be anxious waiting alone?”
“It’s more anxious waiting without knowing where you’ve gone.”
Black pupils turned toward Yoo Jiha. It felt as if that deeply sunken gaze was simply reflecting his own vague anxiety back at him, so he bit his lip slightly, but soon a faint smile appeared on the man’s face.
“…Alright.”
He gently pulled Yoo Jiha into an embrace and buried his face in the crown of his head. The slow beat of his heart seemed to envelop even the anxiety, so Yoo Jiha leaned his face deeply into his chest.
Soon, Jeil Heon changed the subject to lighten the mood.
“The snow scenery here in the forest is truly beautiful. I’ve wanted to come here with you in winter, and since it’s the weekend, do you want to hang out until tomorrow before heading back?”
“I wonder if I dare to play at your family’s villa…”
“Of course. Our Jiha’s share of my assets is 100 percent.”
“…!”
It was the sweetest proposal in the world.
Forgetting the secular world, they played happily in the deep mountains for two days and one night before returning to Pilgyeongdang. They played innocent, acting as if they had only held hands and slept wholesomely, but the atmosphere must have changed.
「Aieee! How can a man and woman who are not even wed be so promiscuous!」
“Um, the thing is, the mister and I are both men, so we can’t marry…”
「Whether man and woman or man and man! If that’s the case, then a man and a man should simply hold a wedding ceremony!」
The Confucian old fogey, who had become a progressivist by taking a long detour, began a lengthy scolding, and Yoo Jiha learned about the chaos of the Spring and Autumn period that had forced Confucius to establish Confucianism. He felt that although he and Jeil Heon had done scandalous things before marriage, they were still more wholesome than someone who had an affair with their sister-in-law and killed their brother-in-law…
At the end of the sermon, he mentioned what happened in the Aberrant Realm and asked.
“I was told by the mister that I probably hadn’t met Mae-gu before, but I keep feeling uneasy because it feels like I’ve seen him in the past.”
Gong Ran-sa seemed to think for a moment, then pointed to the phone.
「Search for ‘Insadong Hanbok Man’.」
“…?!”
Countless photos of Mae-gu appeared on the phone screen. He was even an influencer with a follower count that rivaled most celebrities. As Jiha stood there with his mouth agape, Gong Ran-sa cleared his throat and spoke.
「It is the fox’s play. Does it not look as if a filter has been placed over the beauty? It is because he hid his rank. You likely caught a glimpse of these photos on the internet.」
“I guess so…”
The world is wide, and there were all sorts of Aberrations. Thanks to Gong Ran-sa, his unease was resolved, and the weight of reality—which he had been trying to avoid—closed in.
Now was truly the time to devote himself to studying for exams.
Jeong Ing-bar woke up as if he had been thrown into a sea where a typhoon was raging. As he sat up, panting heavily, his wife asked in a sleepy voice.
“Darling, did you have another strange dream?”
“…N-no. I’m just going to get some water.”
Giving a rambling excuse to his wife, Jeong Ing-bar hurried out to the living room. Even after gulping down cold water, the trembling in his right hand would not subside. Just like in the recurring dreams from a while ago, it felt as if the Aberration possessing his right arm had gained a will of its own and was about to chew him up and swallow him whole. The chilling laughter it left behind was still vivid in his ears, and he clutched his head in agony.
On the other hand, it was strange.
The Aberration possessing his right arm had originally been human. It was an entity that had devolved into an Aberration while committing serial murders, and it was an entity that had never laughed once in its life after its frontal lobe was damaged in an accident during childhood. So why was it bursting into such joyful laughter in his dreams?
‘Is it because the fear in my subconscious is being reflected?’
He pondered it repeatedly, but no satisfactory conclusion was reached. Jeong Ing-bar stared at his right arm with a look of horror.
To resolve this, he needed the whereabouts of Lee Yeo-jin, who had been a Bearer similar to himself. He felt certain of that.
To find her whereabouts, there was something he had to prepare. Jeil Heon, the Bearer who had been in a close relationship with Lee Yeo-jin and had returned after disappearing on the same day. The secret he held. And his only weakness.
Yoo Jiha.
Among humans who had devolved into anomalies, how many would not be insane, but the Smiling Man had been crazy since he was human. He was an entity who murdered people in grotesque ways for the sole purpose of becoming an anomaly.
If only he had realized sooner that he was insane… Jeil Heon drove his car, swallowing a bitter sense of regret.
The Smiling Man’s waveform changed after devouring the Aberrant Mother. Since he was sealed shortly thereafter, the changed waveform was not recorded by the Management Bureau. To track it, he first had to discover the new waveform.
Normally, no matter how skilled a Bearer is, it is impossible to determine an Aberration’s waveform without a Measuring Device. However, the current Jeil Heon was an existence not much different from an anomaly. It was ironic that this was due to the Blind Eater contaminated by the Smiling Man.
The humans the Smiling Man had contaminated in the sealed cave had died long ago, making it impossible to determine their waveforms. Since the Smiling Man’s Core Spirit was the act of contaminating itself, it would not stop. Jeil Heon searched places where the man had connections when he was human. The house he lived in until just before becoming an anomaly, the place he spent his childhood, the school he graduated from, his workplace, his regular shops, the murder scenes. Everywhere.
There was nothing. Considering that many places had changed and many things had shifted over the decades, he expanded the search area, but the result was the same. No trace of the Smiling Man remained anywhere.
Having failed even at the murder scenes, where he had placed his last hope, Jeil Heon fell into thought, tapping the steering wheel with his finger. The movements of the Smiling Man after becoming an anomaly, as listed in the Hidden World Record, played in his mind in sequence.
[Because the family’s concern was deep, an attempt was made to isolate and analyze the Vengeful Spirit, but it is presumed to have been devoured by the Smiling Man.]
…Just as the Blind Eater that tried to fuse with him wandered around Jongmyo and the site of Gyeongdeokgung Palace due to the mental intent mixed into that process, perhaps the Smiling Man, who devoured the Aberrant Mother, also…
Jeil Heon started the engine immediately. The site of Gyeongdeokgung Palace, the private residence of Yi Seong-gye, is located in Kaesong, so it is difficult to visit now. First, it would be Jongmyo.
He called Yoo Jiha as he started the car, but for a long time, there was no answer.