By Zephyria 
Since Pilgyeongdang was originally the house where Jeil Heon lived alone, his siblings had reportedly designed the remodeling based on a single-person household. Even when Jeil Heon lured Jiha into boarding there, it was after purchasing supplies based on a one-person standard.
Despite that, the land was vast and the family was filthy rich, so the guest house alone felt like it spanned dozens of pyeong, but as a result, both beds were single-sized. Jeil Heon’s bed was a double, but it felt cramped when he, who was already large in build, lay beside him.
“I should reorganize the room when I have time. It would be better to have a separate bedroom and a study for you, right?”
“That’s true, but this bed isn’t so bad. This cramped feeling makes me feel like we’re starting a newlywed life in a tiny one-room apartment the size of a fingernail.”
When Jiha spoke so brazenly in a room where one could roll around for a long time before even reaching the door, Jeil Heon wore a secretive smile and whispered in his ear.
“We’re newlyweds, but we’ve only done it with our mouths, honey.”
“……!”
Yoo Jiha lamented his current state—unable to spend a hot night devouring that insolent mouth that dared call him ‘honey.’ He wanted to quit studying and just coast through his grades! His boyfriend was part of the owner’s family; couldn’t he just ask the chairman for a favor?!
Barely suppressing the dormant instinct for corruption stirring within him, he made a vow. Once the exams were over, he would not let this seductive older man sleep all night…
“Nothing happened at school, right?”
“Nope. I didn’t see any anomalies. Since it’s exam period, people have become too busy to talk about the Park Jun-yeol Sunbae ghost story, so those stories have decreased too… But, Mister.”
“Yeah?”
“I saw the updated photos of the Smiling Man from before he died in the Record. Every single one showed him with a very kind face and a small smile, so it felt really strange.”
Once it was confirmed that the Smiling Man was the past serial killer Grinning Killer, namely Nam Hyeon-woo, new related materials were updated in the Hidden World Record. It also noted rumors that he was a Hybrid of an Aberration, which was speculated to be the reason he deteriorated into an anomaly so rapidly. Furthermore, in the materials provided by Kang Suk-young, Nam Hyeon-woo was always smiling beside Lee Yeo-jin. As if his wife were the most lovely person in the world.
And yet, wasn’t it Nam Hyeon-woo who killed that wife? It was hard to believe and gave him chills that a person with such a kind impression could kill even his own family.
“……Do you want to hear about Hyeon-woo?”
“If you’re okay with it, Mister.”
Jeil Heon rolled his eyes as if organizing his thoughts, then slowly spoke. In his second year of middle school, Jeil Heon happened to save a school Hubae a year younger than him who was being bullied for being the child of a shaman. That child was Nam Hyeon-woo, the only son born to Nam Soon-ho at the late age of over forty, without his father’s identity being revealed.
Since Nam Soon-ho was cooperating with the Water Abnormality Worship Management Bureau, his son Nam Hyeon-woo had also been exposed to anomalies to some extent. Because of this, the two became close quickly, and their bond continued even after Jeil Heon dropped out of high school to join the Bureau.
“Yeo-jin and I were acquainted, but we were distant. I was truly surprised when he gave me a wedding invitation one day.”
After learning the story, it seemed their relationship began to change due to an encounter in an Aberrant Realm called the ‘Bukmangsan Crematorium.’ The catalyst was when Lee Yeo-jin was injured and the two of them hid together in a coffin, a safe place, while waiting for rescue… Hearing this, Yoo Jiha felt a sense of déjà vu.
“Uh, isn’t that the story about the Hubaes you mentioned when we first met?”
“That’s right. It was the story of Hyeon-woo and Yeo-jin. Though I couldn’t bring myself to ask what happened inside the coffin. Since Hyeon-woo was so devoted to Yeo-jin that he couldn’t live without her, I thought they would have fallen for each other eventually even if that incident hadn’t happened…”
The eyes of Jeil Heon, immersed in reminiscence, sank darkly. Yoo Jiha also fell into deep thought. What could have driven Nam Hyeon-woo so mad that he would eventually kill the person he loved so much? To the point of forgetting the truth that he had killed his own wife.
“It’s late, let’s sleep.”
Jeil Heon turned off the lights with the remote and pressed his lips against Yoo Jiha’s forehead. Even as he drifted off to sleep leaning on him, the distant vision of a madman laughing with a face distorted as if crying, while his hands were stained with his wife’s blood, lingered in Yoo Jiha’s mind for a long time.
* * *
The Bureau was in an uproar for several days as they conducted a large-scale purification process for all employees to see if anyone else was contaminated like Jeong Ing-bar. Since Jeong Ing-bar’s recovery was proceeding smoothly, the interrogation was carried out simultaneously. It was speculated that the contamination had spread gradually, fueled by the fear that he might be consumed by the Aberration that had possessed his arm.
Jeong Ing-bar answered everything without hiding anything, from the time he started having strange dreams until the day of the incident, but he replied that he didn’t remember well after being injured. Once the employee from the Information Analysis Office who conducted the interrogation left, Jeong Ing-bar sighed and made a phone call.
This is Jeil Heon.
“……The statement just ended.”
Thank you.
“Not at all. It’s true that my consciousness was blurred due to the injury, Sunbae. I simply answered that I didn’t remember because there was no conversation I heard clearly.”
Jeong Ing-bar laughed somewhat self-deprecatingly. Since Jeil Heon had testified about the conversation with the Smiling Man, there would be no need to visit and interrogate Yoo Jiha.
After hanging up, Jeil Heon did not return to his office immediately but stood for a moment with his back against the wall.
「Where is my Yeo-jin?」
〈Do you remember the Aberrations you’ve devoured so far?〉
Yoo Jiha, with his shallow experience, could not grasp the context of this conversation, but anyone with some knowledge of the situation, including Jeong Ing-bar, would notice. The truth that the missing Bearer, Lee Yeo-jin, had mutated into an Aberration.
Jeil Heon realized this 17 years ago, when he reunited with the Smiling Man. The Smiling Man had tracked Jeil Heon precisely. Since Lee Yeo-jin would never have revealed her child’s whereabouts on her own, it would have been impossible unless he had opened her brain. Or, as an Aberration to an Aberration, he had devoured her.
The devouring of an Aberration is different from human eating. To use a human analogy, it was an act of melting the soul and unifying it with the predator. Just as a single drop of black paint in white paint prevents it from ever returning to its original pure white, devouring was the same, so Aberrations rarely acted upon it. Unless they were exceptions like the Blind Eater, who were faithful to imprinted orders without an ego.
The Smiling Man did it. Thus, he was able to track Jeil Heon’s movements through the Lee Yeo-jin fused within him. The Aberrant Mother who appeared at the Jongmyo Shrine without harming people must surely have been Lee Yeo-jin.
‘Since Yeo-jin’s waveform as a Bearer was recorded in the Bureau, she probably mixed in the Essence of another Aberration. That’s likely why she lost her reason…’
It wasn’t a foolish act committed out of a desire for power. It must have been Lee Yeo-jin’s choice to hide the fact that she had become a corrupted anomaly from the Bureau. Jeil Heon fully agreed with her choice.
More devastating than the truth that the Aberrant Mother was eventually devoured by the Smiling Man was the fact that he had killed and devoured the wife he loved, yet did not remember it. It was evidence that the mind of the Smiling Man, who was already mad during his lifetime, was broken beyond repair.
And Jeil Heon had no intention of telling the Smiling Man the truth. He had only stepped back from the Prayer Chamber because Yoo Jiha and the injured were there.
‘I need to get the Mansin’s Divine Blade back first.’
Now that he remembered, he contacted Kang Suk-young to ask when she would return the Substitute Blade she had taken for analysis at the lab.
I get it, so just come up.
Hmm.
Hearing polite speech was a bad omen, but he decided to go anyway. In the Director’s office, Kang Suk-young was waving the Substitute Blade around just as she had during her active days.
“Since it’s a Divine Tool containing the divine power of the teacher, who is a blood relative of the Smiling Man, it is indeed the optimal weapon for hacking that bastard to pieces.”
“Is the analysis of the arm you brought finished?”
“It seems he devoured another Aberration midway. I’ve registered the new waveform, and since it’s rare for an Aberration mutated from a human to be Catastrophe Grade from the start, I intend to secure and isolate it if possible.”
“I see.”
At the docile response, a deep wrinkle formed between Kang Suk-young’s brows. Despite the Smiling Man being practically a lifelong enemy, the response was too compliant. Kang Suk-young’s brow furrowed in disapproval. Could this man possibly…