But at that moment, someone let out a scream as if tearing and ran into the casino hall shouting.
“S-s-s-someone died!”
Son Yowan hesitated.
‘What?’
At the words shouted by the person who’d just entered, he felt dizzy for a moment.
‘Already?’
What followed was a mess as if promised. At the word murder, people fell into chaos. Someone was suspicious, someone was afraid, someone spouted conspiracy theories.
However, that time was actually better. Compared to the moment after sudden noise arose and all the translucent secondary guests filling the casino disappeared completely.
Something ominous was happening. Everyone there sensed it intuitively.
But none of them were as serious as Son Yowan, who knew the ‘truth.’ Son Yowan, who had been standing dazed in front of the door in surprise at the word murder, suddenly looked outside. His heart pounded with anxiety.
“It can’t be, right?”
Someone seemed to be calling from behind, but he couldn’t hear properly. Actually, even if he’d heard, he would have ignored it.
There was no time to leisurely listen to other people’s words right now.
‘Noise.’
The unidentified phenomenon that made all the secondary guests disappear. Son Yowan knew what that noise was. He’d seen it in the future scenes.
Secondary guests were a type of holographic image that entered with permission to specific facilities. When such secondary guests had their entry rights cancelled and were forcibly expelled from the facilities, phenomena like earlier would occur. However, those with authority to cancel secondary guests’ rights were limited, and even more limited were those who could cancel the rights of dozens of people at once.
There was such a person among the murder play characters. One of the close associates who moved as the Godfather’s hands and feet in place of the Godfather, who had secluded himself at some point.
If he came, it was the end. What that meant was that they couldn’t leave Manghyang. Because the first thing he did as soon as he appeared in the murder play was close Manghyang.
“He didn’t come from the first incident, right?”
So to deny that hypothesis, Son Yowan blurted out unconsciously.
“So it can’t be, right?”
It won’t be, it won’t be…
While thinking that with his head, Son Yowan hurriedly rushed out of the casino. No matter how small the possibility, it was different from zero. But if he left here before things happened, the possibility became zero.
“Where are you going! I said there’s a suspicious person!”
Son Yowan didn’t want to take even the smallest risk.
However.
“Ugh!”
Thud!
His mind immediately became dizzy. It seemed he’d bumped into something, and it also seemed someone had pushed him.
While Son Yowan, thrown on the floor, couldn’t come to his senses, footsteps were heard from afar…
“You are…!”
He tried to lift his head while suppressing dizziness, when he heard someone else’s words spat out along with the sound of swallowing. Son Yowan was extremely tense. He had an ominous premonition.
The words after ‘You are’ didn’t come. Son Yowan’s anxiety grew stronger. He recalled the personality of ‘that person’ who appeared in the murder play but whose time to appear hadn’t come yet.
‘That person’ was, if anything, the detective role in the murder play, and in reality was the most famous person among the Godfather’s close associates. Many people called him ‘Goegoe’ behind his back.
‘Goegoe’ had two meanings. Lonely enough to be quiet, and abnormal enough to be strange.
True to that name, the detective was taciturn. Not only did he speak little himself, but he also didn’t like other people talking much…
Son Yowan, unable to overcome the impulse, glanced up with his eyes, and at the edge of his vision he saw someone raising and lowering their arm. That person was closest to the entrance, and unlike those originally inside the casino, had their back to the door.
And long boots, wearing a sharp-angled black suit with the boots on, with a coat draped over it…
‘I’m screwed.’
Son Yowan despaired.
That outfit. The detective.
The detective’s face wasn’t visible well in the future for some reason, but his outfit was so distinctive he could recognize it immediately. Long boots, black suit, and the long, black cape-type overcoat on top were the uniform of ‘Goyo,’ the Godfather’s hands and feet, the guard group.
‘It’s definitely not time for him to appear now, but why…’
“…”
While feeling wronged and stealing glances at the other person, Son Yowan forgot to immediately lower his gaze pretending otherwise the next moment. Leather boots, uniform, thick coat with fur. The outfit was so splendid that anyone with a uniform fetish would drool involuntarily, but the person before his eyes… wasn’t…
What ‘wasn’t’ he, you ask…
‘Just how many scarves did he wrap around himself?’
Because scarves were wrapped tightly around his neck to the point of looking almost like a mummy, the splendor of the uniform couldn’t be felt at all. He’d wrapped so many that even more than half his face was covered, so you couldn’t even tell what he looked like.
‘If he’s going to be like that, he should have just wrapped himself in a blanket!’
However, except for Son Yowan, no one showed signs of waking up. No, they ‘couldn’t.’
“…Good day.”
While everyone was silent, the person wrapped in several layers of scarves (somehow) spoke.
“Huuu.”
And following the greeting, a sigh full of fatigue came out.
‘Huh?’
At that moment, Son Yowan hesitated, not fitting the situation. He’d heard that sigh soaked in fatigue and ennui and heavily seasoned with annoyance somewhere before…
‘That too.’
Probably recently…?
“…”
“…”
Meanwhile, silence and bewilderment flowed through the hall. Because the person who’d said “Good day” as a greeting had no words after that.
“Haah.”
Only after some time passed did he (barely) add a self-introduction.
“The Godfather’s, dog… and proxy.”
But this time too, the explanation was insufficient.
“In the current situation… you should also see me as concurrently serving the role of funeral director.”
The words that followed were completely meaningless.
The silence became even more uncomfortable and heavy. Because the explanation was insufficient and the words didn’t make sense, yet there was no further comment, it was even more so.
“Um…”
Eventually, one of the people who’d been silent out of caution stepped forward. It seemed they’d judged that nothing would be resolved if they stayed still.
Then the person wearing the Goyo uniform turned their eyes, the only part of their face visible buried in the scarf, in that direction. Then, silence.
“Shall, shall I take that as permission to speak?”
To that too, more silence. This time Son Yowan also understood the meaning of that silence.
‘Because it’s correct, so don’t bother making him talk, just do it, I guess…’
Perhaps their interpretation was similar to Son Yowan’s, as the person who’d just stepped forward opened their mouth again.
“Excuse me, but. Are you from Goyo, uh, no, I mean, are you Goyo?”
“That’s correct…”
“Th-then exactly which of Goyo? By any chance, your name…”
The person wearing the Goyo uniform didn’t answer immediately even after receiving the question. After doing so for quite a while, he let out a long sigh and pressed his furrowed brow several times before slowly answering.
“So Yeowon.”
The VIPs’ eyes widened.
“For now, I’m Goyo’s… captain.”
Murmurs spread. Son Yowan almost screamed.
‘He’s the detective!’
With this, even the 1% possibility of mental victory flew away. As expected, the detective! As expected, Goegoe!
“Goe…”
Another VIP there also shouted up to ‘Goe’ and immediately swallowed. Even though it was obvious they’d been trying to say Goegoe, the person wearing the Goyo uniform, ‘So Yeowon,’ said nothing in particular.
“To meet the famous Captain So, it’s an honor!”
A VIP with at least some sociability quickly gilded So Yeowon’s face.
“Th-that’s right. This is the first time seeing you this close.”
“You’re a precious resource who only appears when there are major incidents.”
Other VIPs also quickly added a word each.
“Ah! But the fact that Captain So has appeared now means…”
While looking at each other alternately, light suddenly returned to people’s eyes.
“The Godfather sent you!”
“What a relief!”
Relieved people took turns stroking their chests one by one.
“Haha, indeed. What a relief. So, Captain So, listening to what you said earlier, you came to protect us knowing that a suspicious person killed someone, right? This is truly an honor. As everyone knows, Goyo is only deployed for special missions like Goeidam occurrences unless it’s the Godfather’s order, isn’t it? Not to mention the captain!”
Among them, some even completely recovered their usual pace and talked with a laugh.
“No matter what, when else would we have a chance to receive protection from such a precious person…”
They’d been chattering as it came out but realized something was strange midway and stopped their tongue.
“Um, uh, C-Captain… So?”
That person asked in a tone that became awkward trying to hide their trembling.
“But how did you know that fact and, come this, quickly?”
“Please make your expression… clear. For both our sakes.”
“I mean the incident… the person dying…”
