Finding the mother of Kang Chan-seong, the original owner of this body, would not be difficult.
He had already recovered a small amount of the most important resource, Magic Power, and he possessed the material needed for tracking.
-SLICE!
Veylord reinforced his fingernail with Magic Power and pricked the tip of a finger on his opposite hand.
Bright-red blood seeped out and floated into the air.
[Blood Tracking]
This spell was used to locate people connected to the blood.
Naturally, it tracked them in order of how closely they were related by blood, beginning with the owner of the blood and then proceeding to their immediate family.
Since Kang Chan-seong himself was already here, the next people to be tracked were his mother and father.
'Come to think of it, wasn't his father already dead?'
According to his memories, the man called his father had spent his life consumed by drugs and gambling before dying of a sudden heart attack.
"Tut, tut! How could there be someone with such a pitiful life?"
Even to Veylord, who had lived for a very long time, Kang Chan-seong's short life had been extraordinarily cruel.
Practically abandoned from birth, he had spent his childhood in his grandmother's care, collecting wastepaper alongside her to make a living from the time he was in elementary school.
By the time he entered middle school, his grandmother's health had deteriorated, forcing him to work alone. Even so, he must have been rather intelligent, as his grades consistently remained near the top.
Then, in the year he entered high school, his grandmother, who had been his guardian, passed away.
Kang Chan-seong was left completely alone.
To make matters worse, he was later informed that his father, who had occasionally visited him during the rare moments when he was sober, had also died.
The real problem, however, was the person called his mother, who continued to visit him regularly.
She had demanded money from him when he was still a high school student with no one to rely on, even stealing his identity without permission and leaving him burdened with debt.
Of course, one could undoubtedly find plenty of people who had suffered even greater hardships.
But how long could someone endure a life in which, as though someone were deliberately imposing trials upon him, he was knocked down whenever things became bearable, only to face an even harsher ordeal whenever he seemed about to overcome the previous one?
'At this point, his will to live really is no less impressive than the Hero's.'
There were plenty of people who abandoned their will to live at the slightest hardship.
That only made Kang Chan-seong seem all the more admirable to Veylord.
Just then, the tracking spell was completed, and a red thread formed from blood connected itself to his little finger.
"Well then, shall I go catch that bitch?"
After leaving the small boarding-house room, Veylord headed somewhere unexpected.
Rather than descending to the ground below the building, he climbed toward the rooftop.
The roof of a small three-story building was hardly very high.
Even standing up there, there was no possibility of seeing the other end of the red thread.
But he was not trying to find the end of the thread.
[Invisibility]
At his single command, the spell activated. Light reflected away from his body, and he quickly vanished from sight.
[Flight]
At the same time, his feet gradually lifted off the ground, and he slowly rose into the sky.
Upon closer inspection, small magic circles beneath his dress shoes and around both hands were lifting him upward.
[Barrier]
The final spell he cast enveloped Veylord's body in a streamlined protective barrier.
"Now then, shall we go?"
Magic Power surged according to his will, and Veylord's body shot upward at tremendous speed.
Using the magic circles formed around his hands and feet to change direction, he began flying freely through the air.
One might wonder what he intended to do about the drag generated by flying through the sky.
But that problem had already been solved by the Barrier he had created.
Thanks to its streamlined shape, the Barrier prevented any wind from penetrating it, effectively turning him into a one-man flying craft.
However, an unexpected obstacle awaited him during his flight.
'Good grief! Why are there so many buildings, and why are they all so tall?!'
As he followed the path indicated by the red thread, he encountered numerous high-rise buildings.
Avoiding the buildings themselves was not a problem.
The real issue was the unexpectedly powerful wind.
Gusts known as building winds swirled like turbulent currents, interfering with his flight.
Because of them, despite his intention to fly at a distance from the buildings, he nearly collided violently with one nearby.
'This is ridiculous. Even if my power is lacking, to think a wind like this could leave me so helpless.'
For the moment, he increased the output of his Magic Power and climbed above the buildings as quickly as possible.
Only then did he confirm that the wind had calmed.
"Phew. Encountering phenomena so different from those of my previous world is rather bewildering. This is a new experience."
Unlike this world, the only structures that reached such heights in his previous world were the Emperor's palace and the towers of mages.
"I must fly at least this high. Otherwise, the slightest mistake could get me killed."
He needed to adjust his use of magic to suit the conditions of this world.
After quickly reaching that conclusion, he released Magic Power once more and resumed his flight, this time with greater stability.
After flying for quite some time, the tall buildings eventually disappeared, leaving only green forests and mountains in sight.
'Just how far has she gone?'
Judging by the red thread growing increasingly vivid, his destination was not very far away.
At that moment, Veylord felt the thread suddenly pull taut, and his expression brightened.
'Found her!'
He immediately began descending rapidly, following the red thread stretching toward the ground.
Soon, a small building covered with camouflage netting that resembled the surrounding foliage came into view between the trees.
The building had been crudely constructed from panels.
From within it, he could sense the presence of a considerable number of people, along with the heated atmosphere of their base desires.
'Don't tell me she came here to gamble with the money she received from selling her own child to an organ factory?'
As he descended to the ground, he spotted men patrolling the surrounding area.
Every one of them carried himself like a delinquent. None looked like a professional bodyguard.
Just then, a roar of excitement erupted from inside the building.
"WAAAAH!! I WON!!!"
"AAARGH!!! I LOST AGAIN!!"
Since he was already invisible, Veylord decided to maintain the spell as he entered the building.
Inside, he discovered the source of the desires emanating from the people gathered there.
At the very back of the building stood a transparent piggy bank filled with stacks of fifty-thousand-won banknotes.
The gamblers were so obsessed with the money and the outcome of their wagers that they were betting everything they possessed.
"I'm betting on a win this time!!"
At someone's shout, everyone turned toward a large monitor mounted on the ceiling.
On the screen, a gambling game resembling baccarat was underway, with the winner determined by comparing the dealer's cards against the player's cards.
Among the gamblers, a heavily made-up woman was shouting in a shrill voice.
"Reveal the cards already!!"
And the woman's little finger was connected to Kang Chan-seong's little finger by the red thread.
'Hmm… I suspected as much, but is that really her?'
At that moment, a part of Veylord's soul began tingling.
'As I thought. You were still here.'
Ever since realizing that he had possessed this body, Veylord had continuously searched for the soul of its original owner, Kang Chan-seong.
However, after failing to find it anywhere, he had concluded that the soul must be hiding somewhere.
That was why he had deliberately taken the time to find this woman, who was connected to Kang Chan-seong, in order to locate his soul.
'But why react only now? Don't tell me you still pity that woman after everything she did to you?'
As though confirming his suspicion, the soul tingled once more.
'Ha! Have you lost your mind? That woman sold you to organ traffickers. And now she's gambling again with the money she received. Are you seriously saying you want to forgive her?'
But this time, there was no response, as though that was not what the soul meant.
Instead, Veylord sensed that it was concerned about a particular spirit standing behind the woman.
The spirit belonged to a man with gentle eyes.
He resembled Kang Chan-seong so closely that Veylord thought this might be what Kang Chan-seong would look like if he were a little older.
'Is that your father?'
-TINGLE.
The soul immediately sent a signal, confirming his question.
'Are you asking me to save his soul?'
-TINGLE.
Meanwhile, the spirit was gripping the gambling woman's neck with both hands and screaming furiously.
[Die! Die! DIEEEE!!! You fucking bitch!!]
But no matter how many curses he hurled at her, the woman continued gambling without the slightest reaction.
At most, she seemed unusually thirsty, gulping down large quantities of beer.
Veylord shook his head and sighed at the futile efforts of the man who was supposedly her husband.
'Phew. I should bring him outside and have a conversation with him first.'
Passing through the crowd of people engrossed in gambling, Veylord moved behind the spirit of Kang Chan-seong's father and seized him.
[Huh?]
The spirit was startled when a physical force suddenly acted upon him.
Before he could react, both figures disappeared from the gambling hall.
-WHOOSH!
They reappeared on the roof of the panel building.
[What?! What the hell?!]
The startled spirit finally noticed Kang Chan-seong and flinched in surprise.
His shock quickly turned to delight.
[Son… how are you still alive?! I clearly saw them dragging you away that day!]
"Silence!"
Although Veylord spoke only a single word in a low voice, the spirit trembled as though divine punishment had descended upon him, and his mouth snapped shut.
"You may answer only the questions I ask. If you agree, nod your head."
Only then did the spirit sense that something was seriously wrong, and he nodded.
"What is your name?"
[Kang Tae-pung.]
"When and how did you die?"
[I was murdered five years ago. They made it look like suicide by drug overdose.]
Five years earlier would have been when Kang Chan-seong was nineteen.
Then Veylord asked the most important question.
"Who killed you?"
At his question, Kang Tae-pung's eyes turned bloodred, and an endless torrent of pitch-black Resentment poured from him.
[That woman! Hong Jang-mi!! That bitch did this to me!! GRAAAAAH!!]
The extraordinary torrent of Resentment was powerful enough to shake even the restrictions Veylord had placed upon him.
As a result, Veylord was forced to expend additional Magic Power to reinforce those restrictions.
"Enough!"
Immediately, the black Resentment pouring outward froze in place, as though the scene had been captured in a photograph.
"Calm that anger."
At Veylord's command, Kang Tae-pung's Resentment flowed back into him, like fine dust being sucked into an air purifier.
[Haa… haa…! Damn it…! What the hell is going on?]
Even though he was already dead and had become a ghost, he had never imagined that a single word from his son could render him completely immobile.
[You… who are you? You're not my son!]
Was it a father's intuition?
"You are perceptive. Your son is already dead."
[Th-then… did he die that day?]
"I do not know which day you mean, but he died from overexertion at a place where his organs were being harvested."
More precisely, his overworked body had succumbed to an excessive dose of anesthetic.
[Ha… So that bitch ended up devouring even her own son.]
"By that reasoning, you do not seem to have been a particularly good father yourself."
[Yeah. That's true. By then, I'd already gone completely mad from drugs and gambling.]
"So you intend to remain attached to that woman and take revenge?"
[That's right. I'm going to kill that bitch and drag her to hell with me!]
The way he ground his teeth in fury revealed just how deeply obsessed he was with revenge.
"Then I shall give you the power to kill that woman. In return, how would you feel about making a contract with me?"
[If you're really telling me I can kill that woman, that bitch, then I'll agree to any contract!]
He knew all too well that, with his current strength, he could not harm her no matter how many curses he hurled.
But then he suddenly realized that the one making this proposal was using his son's body.
[Wait! Doesn't that mean you'll be committing a crime using my son's body?!]
"Do you truly believe that someone possessing abilities such as mine would be caught by ordinary police officers?"
At the spirit's concern, a cruel smile spread across Veylord's lips.
***
It was only late at night that the doors of the noisy gambling hall finally closed.
"WAAAAH!! I WON!! No wonder my shoulders felt strangely light today!!"
Hong Jang-mi, who had won money gambling for the first time in a while, boarded the bus in high spirits.
At that moment, one of the gang members, dressed in a perfectly fitted suit, followed the passengers aboard and offered a word of thanks.
"We would like to thank everyone for visiting our establishment today. For those who wish to visit us again, we will send the location of our bus separately by text message."
After finishing the announcement, he stepped off the bus.
Soon, the lights inside went out, and the vehicle began moving.
The bus had been traveling quietly for quite some time when the sound of someone sobbing could be heard.
[Sob… sob…!]
Hong Jang-mi had been on the verge of drifting into a pleasant sleep.
The sudden crying made her frown.
"Ah, shit. Who the hell is crying on a good day like this?"
Grumbling irritably, Hong Jang-mi shifted in her seat and tried to fall asleep again.
Then the sound of someone sobbing echoed beside her ear once more.
[Sob… sob… sob~!!]
Only then did she realize something was strange.
'It sounds like it's coming from right beside my ear… Did someone sit next to me?'
But she distinctly remembered that there had been no one sitting beside her.
"Huh?!"
Goosebumps suddenly rose across her entire body, and her closed eyes flew open.
The instant she turned her head to the side, she found herself staring directly into the pale, stiffened face of the deceased Kang Tae-pung.
"UWAAAAAGH!!"
With a scream, Hong Jang-mi opened her eyes and looked around.
She was still inside the darkened bus.
Her sudden scream startled the passengers as the bus traveled along the national highway, and they glared at her with irritation.
"Good grief! Can't you keep quiet?! What, are you showing off because you won some money?"
Despite the complaint from someone with a rough voice, she remained confused.
'Why the fuck did that man suddenly appear in my dream? What a disgusting feeling.'
Just then, from the window on the opposite side, she heard a voice she should never have been able to hear again.
[Die!!]
"What?!"
The instant she turned toward the window, a horribly twisted hand shot out from it and wrapped around her throat.
"Ghk!!"
[Hong Jang-mi!! How dare you! You did this to me and my son!!]
"K-Kang Tae-pung!"
At that moment, a loud voice rang out, and a rough hand landed on her shoulder.
"Good grief! I said keep quiet!"
The hand suddenly shaking her body brought Hong Jang-mi back to her senses, and she could breathe again.
"Haaah!!"
The continuing strange occurrences made it difficult for her to regain her composure.
"W-wait! Stop the bus! Hurry!"
She sprang to her feet and rushed straight toward the driver's seat, shouting as she went.
"Stop the damn bus right now!"
At first, the driver ignored her.
But when she seized him by the collar and shrieked at him to stop, he panicked.
"No! How am I supposed to stop the bus here?!"
"Just stop it!!"
She even grabbed the steering wheel and shook it, forcing the driver to slam on the brakes.
-SCREEEEECH!
"You crazy bitch!!"
The bus finally came to a stop amid furious curses.
The doors opened, and Hong Jang-mi was thrown out.
After rushing off the bus, she regained her senses in the cold night air.
It was as though she had gotten off while under some kind of spell.
"Huh? Why did I get off the bus?"
But before she could ponder that question, the bus simply closed its doors and drove away.
She had been abandoned on a road deep in the mountains.
"W-wait! Heyyy!!"
No matter how loudly she shouted after the departing bus, it did not stop.
Nor did it change the fact that she had been abandoned in the middle of the road.
"My money! My money!!"
To make matters worse, she had left all the money she had won gambling on the bus.
Desperate to catch the vehicle as it disappeared into the distance, she even kicked off her high heels and ran after it.
"HEYYYYYYY!!!"
But no matter how hysterically she screamed, the bus naturally did not stop.
Only a quiet echo remained, reverberating along the mountain road in the darkness of night.
Just then, the cries of wild animals sounded eerily from the darkness, where not a single streetlight could be seen.
-CUCKOO~! CUCKOO!
-COO-COO~ COO-COO! COO-COO~ COO-COO!
They were merely the calls of cuckoos and oriental turtle doves living in the mountains.
But for a woman left alone in such a place, they were more than enough to heighten her anxiety.
"Damn it! Where's my phone?!"
She rummaged through the Hermès bag she had remembered to bring with her, searching for her phone.
Although she had no money on hand, she intended to call a taxi to get out of there immediately.
However, on a mountain road like this, there was neither a Wi-Fi connection nor even a reliable mobile data signal.
"Ah! Fuck! What kind of shitty place is this?!"
On the verge of exploding with frustration, Hong Jang-mi raised her hand as though to throw away the phone she was holding.
"Argh!!!"
But without even the light from the phone she had replaced only recently, she had no confidence that she could walk along this dark road.
"Fuck! Why is everything going wrong today?!"
The happiness she had felt from winning money gambling had already vanished completely.
"This is all because of that fucking bastard Kang Tae-pung! Why the hell did that unlucky bastard have to show up in my dream?!"
Unable to stop muttering complaints out of anxiety, she finally operated her phone and turned on its flashlight.
The light revealed a winding asphalt road stretching ahead, with towering rocks and trees rising from the mountainside beside it.
On the opposite side was a sheer cliff.
"Ah, shit. Why is the road like this…? I-I guess I should follow the direction the bus went…."
In her hopeless situation, her only remaining option was to walk in the direction the bus had taken.
Otherwise, she would have to try hitchhiking with any vehicle that happened to pass along the road.
'Please… let something come by.'
Hong Jang-mi walked forward, repeatedly turning around to look behind her before facing forward and walking again.
Just then, she thought she saw two small lights behind her.
"Huh?!"
The lights flickered faintly in the distance.
They looked like they might be the headlights of a car, or perhaps the beam of someone's flashlight.
'P-please! Let it be a car!'
She could hardly remember the last time she had wished and prayed for something so desperately.
'Ah, actually, there was one time. When that beggar bastard was dragged away instead of me. I prayed they'd pay a good price for him.'
The price she had received back then had been substantial enough for her to pay off her loan-shark debts and still have money left to gamble again.
'It's such a shame I only have one child. If I'd known things would turn out like this, I should've had another one with that man.'
Meanwhile, the lights in the distance were steadily drawing closer.
But even at a glance, something about them seemed strange.
'Huh? The lights are too dim….'
-GRRRRR.
For a moment, she wondered whether her eyes were deceiving her.
What appeared in the beam of her phone's flashlight was neither the car she had so desperately hoped for nor another human being.
It was a tiger as enormous as a house, its orange-red body marked with black stripes.
"Huh?! Wh-what?! A t-tiger!"
The unexpected sight left her completely stunned.
Her body stiffened, and both legs refused to move.
She had never imagined that she would encounter a wild tiger in twenty-first-century South Korea.
-ROAAAAAR!!!
The tiger's thunderous, unmistakable roar reverberated through the surroundings, draining the strength from her body.
"H-ha… haa… This can't be happening…."
As those words barely escaped her trembling lips, a man's voice that she should never have heard again echoed beside her ear.
[Hong Jang-mi.]
It was the voice of the already deceased Kang Tae-pung.
The very same voice that had called her name even as his heart was stopping from an excessive dose of drugs.
"No! No! That man's dead!! He's dead, I tell you!! I saw it with my own eyes!!"
From the dream she had experienced on the bus until this very moment, an icy terror had gripped her, as though his shadow were gradually swallowing her whole.
[Hong Jang-mi!]
As her mind grew increasingly confused, Hong Jang-mi could no longer distinguish whether she was dreaming or experiencing reality.
'This is a dream! It's just a dream!'
[HONG JANG-MI!!!]
But the voice she heard was far too vivid and real.
-HAAAAAGH~!!
Moreover, she could feel his anger within the hot breath brushing against her ear.
Just then, Hong Jang-mi saw a brilliant light approaching directly ahead.
"Ah…!"
In a split-second judgment, she concluded that she had to reach that light if she wanted to survive.
'Please! Please! If there's a God, save me from this situation!'
As she prayed desperately to God, strength returned to her weakened legs.
And the instant she took a step forward, she came face-to-face with an intensely brilliant light.
"Ah! Thank y—!"
-CRASH—!!
Before Hong Jang-mi could finish speaking, the light struck her with a violent metallic crash and sped past.
-SCREEEEEECH!!!
The sound of brakes being slammed in desperation echoed noisily throughout the mountains.
The source of that light was an enormous cargo truck.
In its rear cargo bed, heavy coils were secured in place, rolled up like giant rolls of toilet paper.
-SCREEEEEECH!!!
But because of the weight of the coils loaded in the cargo bed, the truck was only able to stop after traveling a considerable distance.
As soon as the vehicle came to a halt, its door opened.
A truck driver with a rather shifty-looking face jumped down, muttering complaints under his breath.
"What the fuuuck!!"
Despite his appearance, the man unleashed a stream of remarkably foul curses as he examined the stretch of road his truck had just passed.
Then, upon seeing the devastation he and his truck had caused, he squeezed his eyes shut.
"Goddamn it! Talk about shitty luck! If that crazy bitch wanted to die, she should've done it quietly! Why the fuck did she have to jump out on a deserted road like this?!"
Looking at Hong Jang-mi, whose lower body had been horribly mangled, he felt nothing but resentment at his own misfortune.
But he did not hesitate to act.
"Damn it! I've got no choice!"
He approached the woman lying motionless on the ground, seemingly dead, and quickly pulled a pair of cotton work gloves from his pocket.
After putting them on, he grabbed Hong Jang-mi's limp arms, dragged her away, and threw her straight over the cliff.
"S-save… me…."
He thought he heard something at the moment he threw her over, but the driver deliberately ignored the sound.
'I've got to survive too! If you live, not only will I end up in prison, but I'll have to pay compensation for the rest of my life!'
Hardening his resolve, he quickly cleaned up the bloodstained road and drove away.
All that remained were dark bloodstains marking the black asphalt.
-SNAP!
At that moment, a heavy snap of fingers rang out, and a refreshing rain began falling from the sky.
The cold rain washed away even the remaining bloodstains, completely erasing every trace of Hong Jang-mi.
Then Veylord, who had been watching everything from the sky above, opened his mouth.
"Now then, that is enough. Well? Are you satisfied?"
Beside him, Kang Tae-pung, who had also watched the entire scene, finally broke his silence and answered.
[Is she… dead?]
"Not yet. But she will die slowly, in agony."
Hearing his answer, Kang Tae-pung nodded and opened his mouth once more.