Numerous lacerations to the stomach and chest, strange stick marks on the face, and no signs of resistance.
The body found at the back door of the incense shop was the work of a serial killer known as the Judge.
His murders were not all that surprising, as they had been happening so frequently recently, but the fact that the crime scene was Judith's Candle Shop and the victim was Leon Harrington left Henry stunned twice.
Although he was pale and his hands were shaking, Henry quickly began to get things done, feeling that his experience working for the police had not been in vain.
Henry, who discovered the incident first, immediately reported it to the police and took the body to the autopsy room. Only then did he tell Judith about Leon's death.
Even though Leon and Judith aren't on good terms, aren't they still siblings?
Although Judith had extraordinary courage and would not blink at the sight of anything, it would not have been pleasant to see her brother brutally murdered.
So Judith heard the detailed story of Leon's death from Cain.
“It is the Judge’s doing.”
“Do you call that crazy guy by such a grandiose title?”
As Erne, sitting next to Judith, frowned, Cain muttered with an embarrassed expression.
“What should I do when soldiers call him that? It’s all for communication.”
Erne clicked his tongue at the poor excuse.
“That’s not important right now.”
Cain looked at Judith, avoiding Erne's gaze as if embarrassed. Judith looked calm compared to the horrific nature of the incident.
'No, why behind our store... I thought they were finally trying to restore their image, but now there's a serial killer causing trouble.'
Judith was swallowing a sigh of dry appreciation.
Even if Leon had been left alone, he would have become prey to the Golden Bug and would have gone to the other world. Still, he would have lived a successful life in the gambling house until the very end, so she guessed that was a happy ending in its own way.
Considering the violence he committed against the original Judith and the money he stole, the death that Judge gave to that bad guy was incomparable. But to be killed by a serial killer.
“We need to investigate further, but for now we haven’t found any witnesses. We’ve been looking into Leon Harrington’s whereabouts, and according to the innkeepers at the hotel where he was staying, no one came looking for Leon except the casino staff.”
When they went to ask the casino staff, they said that Leon had won a lot of money, went out to the bathroom, and never came back again.
“The guy who was gambling disappeared and you didn’t even look for him?”
“He said he went to the bathroom. But Mr. Leon Harrington prefers to urinate in the open...”
Cain trailed off. Erne mumbled about all sorts of things, and Judith felt embarrassed even though she hadn't even urinated in public.
“He doesn’t owe any money to the casino and he goes to the casino every day without fail, so it seems they don’t have to release anyone to look for him.”
That night, Leon Harrington was murdered by a serial killer.
“Why did that murderer kill Leon? He usually only kills bad people, so his nicknames are the Judge, the Apostle of Darkness, etc.”
“Isn’t Leon a bad guy too?”
Erne muttered.
“He’s a bad guy, but he’s only bad to me.”
Compared to other things like extortion, human trafficking, and cutting off other people's livelihoods, Leon's actions were bad and limited to Judith.
Do the Judge judge things like that? Domestic violence? How do they know that?
“Even though you look at me with such curious eyes, I don’t have much to tell you.”
Cain sighed as he washed his face dry.
“There were no signs of resistance and there were so many injuries that at first we assumed it was the work of an acquaintance with a grudge, but there was no connection between the victims. There were no acquaintances that overlapped with all of the victims.”
He took a folder out of the pile of papers on the desk and spread it out in front of Judith and Erne.
“Here is Leon Harrington’s autopsy report. The autopsy wasn’t done properly, but I thought Madam might be curious, so I’ve provided an interim report.”
“Thank you, Marquis.”
Judith looked at the autopsy report. It was exactly as Cain had described it. The body had no dagger wounds, no signs of resistance, and there was a stick pattern on the face.
It looks like a tree branch, a pattern made with sticks. She's only heard explanations, but this was the first time she saw the exact shape.
“Is this the tattoo on Leon’s face?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Judith tilted her head at the pattern that seemed familiar.
“Did the perpetrator draw the same tattoo on other victims?”
“No, he drew a similar shape.”
Cain showed the autopsy reports one by one. There was a pattern like ㅡ on Mastura’s face, ㅗ on the face of the murdered lower-ranking nobleman, and 上 on the face of the bar owner.
“We are guessing that it is a symbol of a tree branch.”
“Is this some kind of proclamation that they will kill people until a complete tree is formed?”
When Erne asked while looking through the report, Cain shrugged and said that he thought similarly.
'A branch? No, this is not a branch.'
At first glance, it may look like branches extending from a tree trunk. But this is...
“Your Excellency, please lend me your pen.”
Judith borrowed a pen from Cain and drew the patterns in order: 一, ㅗ, 上, and a vertical bar not connected to the left of 上.
If you draw one more horizontal stroke above it to connect all the fragmented letters.
'The bar is straight.'
正. A Chinese character is used when counting to five. Judith dropped her pen as if she had been hit in the back of her head.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“Your face has turned pale, Ma’am. Here, please have some water.”
Cain and Erne's voices rang in her ears. As far as Judith knew, there was only one person in this world who could use Chinese characters to count numbers.
A possessed person who lived in the same world as her and came here. A priest, that guy.
“...Ugh.”
The moment she understood, an extreme headache came over her. At the same time, memories she had forgotten came flooding back. Judith gasped for breath as the pain seemed to tear through her mind.
Now I know. Who was the person who died with me? Why did he have to be possessed by this novel? Why was he so malicious toward the existence of other possessed people?
Judith lost consciousness after her body tilted and Erne's voice called her name.
And Judith had a dream. In her dream, she saw a pure white sign going up.
Yu-Jin Coin Laundry.
It was a large sign with her name written in her name.
“...Yeah.”
The aftershock of the forgotten memories coming back was harsh. I fainted for half a day and barely opened my eyes.
“Are you in your right mind?”
“Get up, Miss Harrington. Even if you’re sleepy, you should get up and take your medicine.”
“Yes, take your medicine and go back to sleep.”
I was out of my mind by the urgent voice I heard as soon as I opened my eyes, the gentle hand waking me up, and the bitter scent pushing in front of my nose.
It was only after the bitter-smelling liquid entered my mouth that I regained my senses.
“Ugh, bitter!”
The medicine was terribly bitter. So bitter that it almost made me lose my senses.
“You have to eat it all.”
“Miss Harrington, the apothecary you trust so much, must take it all.”
I resisted, but my resistance was weak, while Erne and Beichi were more determined.
Finally, I was able to free myself from the foul, bitter medicine only after emptying the bowl.
“It’s surprisingly bitter.”
As I muttered to myself, Erne also muttered as if talking to himself.
“It wouldn’t be as surprising as Miss Harrington suddenly collapsing.”
Shouldn't I have taken the medicine? I think my heart stopped for a moment.
Erne sighed as he threw some firewood into the fireplace.
“It’s not like I wanted to fall, so I fell.”
I pouted.
“A forgotten memory came back to me.”
“What memories?”
“A memory from just before I died.”
I put down the glass of water I had been sipping to drown out the bitter taste.
“And I think I know who the priest is.”
“Did you know each other in a previous life?”
Erne sat down next to the bed.
“We shouldn’t have known each other.”
When I was Yu-jin, after the death of my father and mother, I renounced my inheritance and paid off all the debts in my name.
I took advantage of the opportunity to open a coin laundry in the neighborhood of one-room apartments. Although it was a side job, the business was so good that I was able to recover the cost of opening the laundry in a year.
One day, when the laundry shop was just starting to generate income, I, who had finished working overtime and having a company dinner, stopped by the coin laundry shop for a moment to clean it.
It was late at night, and the only customer in the laundry was taking clothes out of the dryer and putting them on. I frowned as I immediately realized what was going on.
“Even if there’s a sign telling you not to take your clothes off in the laundromat, there are bound to be people like that.”
I should warn him. I hurriedly opened the laundry room door before the man left.
"Hey."
The body found at the back door of the incense shop was the work of a serial killer known as the Judge.
His murders were not all that surprising, as they had been happening so frequently recently, but the fact that the crime scene was Judith's Candle Shop and the victim was Leon Harrington left Henry stunned twice.
Although he was pale and his hands were shaking, Henry quickly began to get things done, feeling that his experience working for the police had not been in vain.
Henry, who discovered the incident first, immediately reported it to the police and took the body to the autopsy room. Only then did he tell Judith about Leon's death.
Even though Leon and Judith aren't on good terms, aren't they still siblings?
Although Judith had extraordinary courage and would not blink at the sight of anything, it would not have been pleasant to see her brother brutally murdered.
So Judith heard the detailed story of Leon's death from Cain.
“It is the Judge’s doing.”
“Do you call that crazy guy by such a grandiose title?”
As Erne, sitting next to Judith, frowned, Cain muttered with an embarrassed expression.
“What should I do when soldiers call him that? It’s all for communication.”
Erne clicked his tongue at the poor excuse.
“That’s not important right now.”
Cain looked at Judith, avoiding Erne's gaze as if embarrassed. Judith looked calm compared to the horrific nature of the incident.
'No, why behind our store... I thought they were finally trying to restore their image, but now there's a serial killer causing trouble.'
Judith was swallowing a sigh of dry appreciation.
Even if Leon had been left alone, he would have become prey to the Golden Bug and would have gone to the other world. Still, he would have lived a successful life in the gambling house until the very end, so she guessed that was a happy ending in its own way.
Considering the violence he committed against the original Judith and the money he stole, the death that Judge gave to that bad guy was incomparable. But to be killed by a serial killer.
“We need to investigate further, but for now we haven’t found any witnesses. We’ve been looking into Leon Harrington’s whereabouts, and according to the innkeepers at the hotel where he was staying, no one came looking for Leon except the casino staff.”
When they went to ask the casino staff, they said that Leon had won a lot of money, went out to the bathroom, and never came back again.
“The guy who was gambling disappeared and you didn’t even look for him?”
“He said he went to the bathroom. But Mr. Leon Harrington prefers to urinate in the open...”
Cain trailed off. Erne mumbled about all sorts of things, and Judith felt embarrassed even though she hadn't even urinated in public.
“He doesn’t owe any money to the casino and he goes to the casino every day without fail, so it seems they don’t have to release anyone to look for him.”
That night, Leon Harrington was murdered by a serial killer.
“Why did that murderer kill Leon? He usually only kills bad people, so his nicknames are the Judge, the Apostle of Darkness, etc.”
“Isn’t Leon a bad guy too?”
Erne muttered.
“He’s a bad guy, but he’s only bad to me.”
Compared to other things like extortion, human trafficking, and cutting off other people's livelihoods, Leon's actions were bad and limited to Judith.
Do the Judge judge things like that? Domestic violence? How do they know that?
“Even though you look at me with such curious eyes, I don’t have much to tell you.”
Cain sighed as he washed his face dry.
“There were no signs of resistance and there were so many injuries that at first we assumed it was the work of an acquaintance with a grudge, but there was no connection between the victims. There were no acquaintances that overlapped with all of the victims.”
He took a folder out of the pile of papers on the desk and spread it out in front of Judith and Erne.
“Here is Leon Harrington’s autopsy report. The autopsy wasn’t done properly, but I thought Madam might be curious, so I’ve provided an interim report.”
“Thank you, Marquis.”
Judith looked at the autopsy report. It was exactly as Cain had described it. The body had no dagger wounds, no signs of resistance, and there was a stick pattern on the face.
It looks like a tree branch, a pattern made with sticks. She's only heard explanations, but this was the first time she saw the exact shape.
“Is this the tattoo on Leon’s face?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Judith tilted her head at the pattern that seemed familiar.
“Did the perpetrator draw the same tattoo on other victims?”
“No, he drew a similar shape.”
Cain showed the autopsy reports one by one. There was a pattern like ㅡ on Mastura’s face, ㅗ on the face of the murdered lower-ranking nobleman, and 上 on the face of the bar owner.
“We are guessing that it is a symbol of a tree branch.”
“Is this some kind of proclamation that they will kill people until a complete tree is formed?”
When Erne asked while looking through the report, Cain shrugged and said that he thought similarly.
'A branch? No, this is not a branch.'
At first glance, it may look like branches extending from a tree trunk. But this is...
“Your Excellency, please lend me your pen.”
Judith borrowed a pen from Cain and drew the patterns in order: 一, ㅗ, 上, and a vertical bar not connected to the left of 上.
If you draw one more horizontal stroke above it to connect all the fragmented letters.
'The bar is straight.'
正. A Chinese character is used when counting to five. Judith dropped her pen as if she had been hit in the back of her head.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“Your face has turned pale, Ma’am. Here, please have some water.”
Cain and Erne's voices rang in her ears. As far as Judith knew, there was only one person in this world who could use Chinese characters to count numbers.
A possessed person who lived in the same world as her and came here. A priest, that guy.
“...Ugh.”
The moment she understood, an extreme headache came over her. At the same time, memories she had forgotten came flooding back. Judith gasped for breath as the pain seemed to tear through her mind.
Now I know. Who was the person who died with me? Why did he have to be possessed by this novel? Why was he so malicious toward the existence of other possessed people?
Judith lost consciousness after her body tilted and Erne's voice called her name.
And Judith had a dream. In her dream, she saw a pure white sign going up.
Yu-Jin Coin Laundry.
It was a large sign with her name written in her name.
***
“...Yeah.”
The aftershock of the forgotten memories coming back was harsh. I fainted for half a day and barely opened my eyes.
“Are you in your right mind?”
“Get up, Miss Harrington. Even if you’re sleepy, you should get up and take your medicine.”
“Yes, take your medicine and go back to sleep.”
I was out of my mind by the urgent voice I heard as soon as I opened my eyes, the gentle hand waking me up, and the bitter scent pushing in front of my nose.
It was only after the bitter-smelling liquid entered my mouth that I regained my senses.
“Ugh, bitter!”
The medicine was terribly bitter. So bitter that it almost made me lose my senses.
“You have to eat it all.”
“Miss Harrington, the apothecary you trust so much, must take it all.”
I resisted, but my resistance was weak, while Erne and Beichi were more determined.
Finally, I was able to free myself from the foul, bitter medicine only after emptying the bowl.
“It’s surprisingly bitter.”
As I muttered to myself, Erne also muttered as if talking to himself.
“It wouldn’t be as surprising as Miss Harrington suddenly collapsing.”
Shouldn't I have taken the medicine? I think my heart stopped for a moment.
Erne sighed as he threw some firewood into the fireplace.
“It’s not like I wanted to fall, so I fell.”
I pouted.
“A forgotten memory came back to me.”
“What memories?”
“A memory from just before I died.”
I put down the glass of water I had been sipping to drown out the bitter taste.
“And I think I know who the priest is.”
“Did you know each other in a previous life?”
Erne sat down next to the bed.
“We shouldn’t have known each other.”
***
When I was Yu-jin, after the death of my father and mother, I renounced my inheritance and paid off all the debts in my name.
I took advantage of the opportunity to open a coin laundry in the neighborhood of one-room apartments. Although it was a side job, the business was so good that I was able to recover the cost of opening the laundry in a year.
One day, when the laundry shop was just starting to generate income, I, who had finished working overtime and having a company dinner, stopped by the coin laundry shop for a moment to clean it.
It was late at night, and the only customer in the laundry was taking clothes out of the dryer and putting them on. I frowned as I immediately realized what was going on.
“Even if there’s a sign telling you not to take your clothes off in the laundromat, there are bound to be people like that.”
I should warn him. I hurriedly opened the laundry room door before the man left.
"Hey."
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