Chapter 51
“So, you finally came?”
The moment he stepped through the gate, an all-too-familiar study appeared before him.
Mephisto smiled slyly, as if she had already predicted his arrival.
Juhyuk’s decision wasn’t exactly surprising.
After all, just listening to someone’s past could give him information important enough to be tied directly to his survival.
He wasn’t stupid enough to hesitate over whether to take it.
“Get to the point.”
“Which story should I start with?”
“Garisto.”
“You’re quite firm, aren’t you.”
She exhaled a long trail of cigarette smoke before continuing.
“Fine. For something this trivial, we don’t need a contract.”
Once the cigarette burned down to the filter, Mephisto snuffed it out and stood.
Without hesitation she began laying out information about Garisto.
“Next month—specifically, January 12th. It’s the day he inspects all the modified demons in his mansion.”
Once a year, Garisto personally sets a date to inspect every modified demon stationed throughout his estate.
And according to what Mephisto discovered, the inspection day was next month.
“If you choose that day to go to his mansion, you’ll probably get closer to him far easier than usual.”
“Is the information reliable?”
“He’s the kind of guy who’d risk his life for accurate intel. You can trust it.”
Her answer carried an unusual degree of confidence.
Juhyuk hesitated briefly, but he knew Mephisto wasn’t the type of demon to joke about matters like this. In the end, he chose to believe her.
“So I just need to go there on January 12th?”
“That’s right. Of course, he’ll still leave a guard or two behind, so don’t get careless.”
With that advice, she subtly gave Juhyuk a once-over.
Then Mephisto looked away and murmured quietly:
“Well, something like that… you can probably handle easily now.”
In her eyes, Juhyuk had already grown strong enough.
When next month’s inspection day arrived, he would inevitably meet Garisto.
Why on earth does he want to meet that lunatic so badly?
Those who sought out Garisto were usually as insane as he was—
—or so desperate that they needed help from even a madman like him.
He doesn’t seem insane… and he doesn’t look like someone with a desperate goal either.
The more she learned about him, the more he felt like a labyrinthine creature.
It was because of that very mystery that she had tempted him with such rare information—to see how he would waver.
“Now you want to hear the other story, right?”
“…”
Conflict.
It was a powerful tool to expose human nature.
What internal turmoil would Jung Juhyuk experience when he heard everything?
“Sung Jia.”
Mephisto’s eyes gleamed.
She was curious.
What choice he would make.
What ending he would reach.
And with what kind of eyes he would face that ending.
“Savor the story of that girl and her friends slowly.”
With an excited heart, Mephisto began to speak.
*
Flaking paint on crumbling walls.
A single lightbulb hanging loosely from the ceiling.
In that place, the children screamed again today.
“Please… please stop….”
From behind the one-way mirror, researchers observed the child as if she were nothing more than an object.
In the next room, her friend had been locked in a 40°C room without water until she nearly died.
The youngest child in their own room had been subjected to increasingly strong electric shocks until almost electrocuted.
Today was Sung Jia’s turn.
A cramped space where she couldn’t even stretch her arms.
Twelve hours had passed since she’d been shoved inside, folded up like a piece of paper.
All she could do was beg the empty air to stop, then at other times scream in rage that she’d kill them all once she got out.
Soon after, she’d fall apart again, grabbing her own hair and apologizing for things she never even did.
Who knew how many times she repeated the cycle?
Only after all that time did they finally pull her out.
“…”
She wanted to jump on the researchers pulling her out, but she’d eaten nothing for twenty-four hours and had been cramped and twisted inside that box so long that her body was already at its limit.
Her mind too had deteriorated to the point where she couldn’t answer a single question.
After a week of isolated “psychological treatment,” she was finally allowed to return to the other orphans.
“Jia! Are you okay?”
Her roommates surrounded her with worried faces.
She looked at their bodies—
The bruises on the limbs of the child hugging her.
The numerous needle marks on the arm of the restless girl beside her.
A child sitting far away staring blankly at them, head wrapped in bandages from some experiment.
“I’m fine…”
They exchanged words of comfort that were anything but true.
Jia sat down and talked with them as usual.
“I was trapped in a space half the size of our bed.”
“For how long?”
“The counselor said exactly 23 hours and 32 minutes.”
“Ugh…”
The others shuddered at the thought.
Jia turned to the girl covered in bruises.
“You got beaten again?”
“Yeah. But it was only for four hours this time.”
The girl laughed, saying she was lucky it was only physical this time.
“You?”
“I got a few weird injections. After that, I puked and convulsed all day.”
“I see.”
Puking and convulsions were among the milder outcomes.
If the researchers got greedy and miscalculated the dosage, children would cough up blood and suffer days of agony so severe they’d rather die.
“When do you think we’ll awaken…”
“If we don’t awaken, we’ll never get out of this hell.”
There were only two ways out of this wretched research facility.
Fail to endure the artificially induced awakening experiments and die…
Or awaken successfully and escape.
Some children had awakened and disappeared from the facility.
They never saw it themselves—only heard rumors that someone had awakened and escaped overnight.
Still, the children desperately hoped to awaken as soon as possible.
“When I awaken, I’m destroying this place first.”
“If that were possible, the kids who awakened before would’ve smashed everything already.”
As they chatted, faint smiles bloomed on their faces.
It was the only time they could laugh in a place worse than hell.
Complain, sympathize, share meaningless conversation—anything to avoid thinking about who would be dragged away tomorrow.
That was Jia’s childhood.
A child who only knew the words “mother” and “father,” but never their warmth.
One day, that dark-eyed child watched as her closest friend was taken away.
The girl who was always by her side.
The one who had hugged her warmly when she returned after a week of isolation.
The girl covered in bruises who coughed through the night.
For days she had been dazed, unable to respond properly to anyone.
The cheerful girl who always brightened the room returned from the experiment…
…unable to speak, frozen stiff.
She must have been subjected to something unspeakably brutal.
They all left her alone, giving her space to rest.
But… why wasn’t she isolated?
Normally, any child whose mind broke from the experiments was put in isolation for treatment.
But not this time.
Dangle.
Why wasn’t she treated?
No one knew.
Dangle.
Even a day later…
A week later…
And then—
Dangle.
“Kyaaaaa!”
Even when the girl hung from the ceiling like a lightbulb and greeted them with a pale, lifeless face—
They still didn’t know.
“What’s going on?!”
“S-Sister… s-she…”
“…”
Researchers rushed in at the scream.
One flinched, then sighed deeply.
“…Ha.”
He turned on his radio.
“B-2 room’s mood is dead. Come clean it up.”
Mood?
He spoke as if referring to an object.
Jia, whose eyes still lingered on the body, approached the troubled researcher.
“What’s a mood?”
“What?”
He scowled.
With the squeaking of the hanging girl, the sound of a child vomiting and crying beside them—it was all too chaotic, and her question annoyed him.
The man waved his hand.
“You kids don’t need to know. Move to the next room.”
“…”
In that moment, every child staring blankly at the corpse slowly turned their heads toward him.
The youngest, who had been crying and vomiting, stared with injustice.
The boy whose eyes had been losing their light stared emptily.
Jia clenched her fists tightly.
And finally, one of the twins quietly spoke.
“Her name is Da-eun.”
The only hope in this hell.
The girl everyone loved.
Even covered in bruises, she always acted tough in front of the others.
“Park Da-eun.”
Her name was Park Da-eun.
“Not a mood. Park Da-eun.”
She had a name.
Even if she didn’t know its meaning, she said it was the only thing her parents left her, and she had smiled bitterly.
The twin stood, approached the researcher, and raised a hand toward his neck.
“What are you—urk!”
“I wonder what it feels like to die with your throat crushed.”
The researcher floated, clutching at his neck, unable to breathe.
He stared at the children in panic.
He looked around wildly.
“Da-eun noona…”
“D-die… they’re all… gonna die…”
A strange, overwhelming aura filled the room.
It was the moment the researchers’ efforts finally bore fruit.
Still choking on invisible force, the researcher desperately activated his radio.
“A-awakening… multiple awak—!”
Crack.
His neck snapped, cutting off his words.
Then a voice rose.
Do you want to kill them all?
*
“Yeah… I remember. That day I made a contract with a tiny kid—and now he’s all grown up.”
“…”
“So? How does it feel? Hearing the past of the Hyunho Candy brats?”
Juhyuk didn’t answer.
He kept his eyes closed, saying nothing.
Hmm~ is he wavering?
Seeing his unreadable reaction, she poked further.
“You still plan on protecting the Association that let all this happen?”
Before hearing the story, he could’ve easily stopped them.
But now…
He’d heard the truth of Hyunho Candy.
Could he really be cold-hearted enough to ignore it?
While she watched eagerly for his reaction—
“I’m going.”
Juhyuk stood as if nothing had shaken him.
“You’re not going to answer?”
“I’ll handle it.”
With that simple answer, he headed toward the gate.
“I’m dying to know what you mean by ‘handle.’”
“That wasn’t part of the promise.”
He answered without hesitation and kept walking.
Before he crossed the final gate, he looked back.
“I’ll be here on January 12th.”
“…Fine. I’ll be watching carefully.”
“Do that.”
And with that, he disappeared.
The study went silent after the story ended.
