World of Masks

Chapter 12

Translator: Seven

Editor: Ana_Banana

In the refreshing morning air, it felt like his hangover was slowly fading.

Jin-suk, who was sitting among the corpses and pools of blood under the clear sunlight, slowly got to his feet.

Although he had pretended to drink while he was in fact throwing away most of the alcohol, he still drank enough to get a hangover in the morning.

“Well, I drank so much that I ended up sleeping like a log.”

Jin-suk clicked his tongue and kicked a body that was next to him which rolled over without any resistance.

Then, while spinning the short sword in his hand which seemed to have become a new habit, he entered the house in front of him which had a structure that was no different to his own.

Jin-suk approached the bodies that were laying on a pile of hay in the corner. It was a mother and her child.

He then put away the short sword he was holding and began pulling the bodies out of the house.

To be honest, the hardest ones to deal with at dawn were the ones who didn’t attend the feast like these ones, or those who had left early.

It was pretty easy for him to deal with the ones who had gotten drunk and collapsed, but it was annoying for him to sneak into the house of those who were sleeping at home.

Jin-suk, who had pulled out the two bodies, soon went into another house to pull out even more bodies.

They were mostly children, and the bodies of some adult women were scattered between them. All of the men had participated in the feast and were taken care of there.

Jin-suk, who had roughly collected all the corpses in one place, sat down in a chair that he had taken from a random house.

“Now. It’s about time that he arrived.”

Sitting on the chair, Jin-suk took a bite of some meat that had been left over from yesterday and waited for someone.

Anyone would say that waiting like this was boring, but Jin-suk waited quite patiently.

How would that person react when they saw this?

Would he collapse from shock?

Would he become upset that this happened?

Jin-suk giggled to himself, hoping that he’d be able to see an unexpected reaction.

The sun rose and was almost in the middle of the sky.

Soon a man’s shadow could be seen approaching.

The man seemed to walk with a limping gait as if there was something wrong with his legs and there seemed to be something protruding from his back.

As he hobbled over, Jin-suk gave a bright smile when he saw this man walking with the help of a cane.

The time had finally come.

“Hey. Welcome.”

He welcomed him with wide arms. However, the man who was approaching seemed to sense that something was wrong and slowed his pace.

“Th….thi-, this!”

Ranphral stopped walking and fixed his eyes on the corpses that were behind Jin-suk.

The dried bloodstains that had already started turning black and the bodies that had been piled together like garbage.

Faced with the overwhelmingly disgusting smell which seemed to fill his nose all at once, Ranphral collapsed to the ground.

“Hiiik!”

When he saw this reaction, Jin-suk felt a bit disappointed.

He had hoped that he’d see a different reaction.

Nevertheless, Jin-suk, who still had a bright smile as though the gruesome scene had nothing to do with him, took a step to the side so that he would stop obstructing Ranphral’s view.

“Now, here are the ‘friends’ that I promised.”

As if he was an announcer on stage who was announcing the next performance, Jin-suk stretched his hands exaggeratedly and introduced the ‘friends’.

“Hey. Now Mr. Ranphral should keep his promise.”

The sun above his head showed that it was noon and he had delivered the promise right on time.

Jin-suk had happily told Ranphral yesterday to visit the village the next day because he was close to fulfilling his request.

That was why Jin-suk felt some satisfaction after completing this job.

Well, he didn’t know if this was what his client Ranphral had in mind.

Jin-suk walked towards the pile of corpses for Ranphral who was shivering on the ground and was unable to react.

He picked up one of the bodies that was in the pile and held it for Ranphral to see.

“There’s nothing to be scared about. Now these ‘friends’ won’t ever annoy, curse or despise Mr. Ranphral. No, now Mr. Ranphral can do whatever he likes. How’s that? Where could you find ‘friends’ as comfortable as these ones?”

After saying that, he shook the body, and changed his voice before saying ‘Hi Ranphral! We are friends!’.

“U…Uak!”

Ranphral screamed and began to flee from the village as fast as he could.

However, his limp made it so that he couldn’t run very fast.

After seeing Ranphral run away, Jin-suk clicked his tongue and threw the corpse he was holding aside.

Without taking another glance at the body that fell with a ‘thud’, he began to chase after Ranphral.

He didn’t need to run to catch up to the man limping away with his cane, only a fast walk was necessary.

Puk.

“Ack!!!”

Jin-suk, who hit the back of the escaping Ranphral which caused him to fall, grabbed him by the leg and began dragging him back to the pile of corpses.

“Now, now. Where are you going? I worked really hard for this.”

“Hiiik!”

Ranphral dug his fingers into the ground to stop himself from being dragged away.

His nails broke and his skin peeled, causing him to paint marks on the ground with his blood, but he wasn’t able to stop himself from being taken.

“Well I’ve made a lot of preparations for this. No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t think of a way to make them become your friend. So I eventually decided to kill them and give them to Mr. Ranphral. At first, I attracted the people by giving them the prey that I hunted.

They didn’t even know it was for their lives. After building a good relationship, I threw a big feast. Since it was a feast held by someone who treated them well, of course they would participate without any hesitation.

Next? What is there to say? I killed the ones that had fallen asleep after getting drunk. But that wasn’t the end, I still had to go kill the rest who weren’t there too.”

Jin-suk gave out a hearty laugh.

It was the best idea he’d ever come up with.

But Ranphral swung the walking stick in his hands at the hand that Jin-suk was using to hold his leg as if he didn’t agree.

“Le…Let go of me!!”

Pak.

The sharp pain made Jin-suk let go.

Following that, Ranphral began to crawl to the town desperately.

Jin-suk’s eyes became a bit distorted when he touched his still tingling hand.

Puk.

“Hiiik!”

Ranphral’s body stiffened when the blade of a short sword stuck into the ground beside his face.

The surface of the sword, which had lost its original luster seemed to glow red as if it was an invitation to the gates of hell.

“It seems that Mr. Ranphral doesn’t like the ‘friends’ I made.”

Jin-suk put his face close to the face of Ranphral who had his head turned.

What he saw was an ugly, swollen face that had snot running from its nose and teary eyes that were visibly afraid.

Jin-suk pulled out the short sword and held it to Ranphral’s neck.

“Do you really not like them? The ‘friends’ I made?”

The shivering Ranphral shook his head slowly.

“N-…no. Huk, I, I love…them.”

“Really?”

Jin-suk laughed again.

“Yeah. If you didn’t like it. I don’t know what I would do.”

Taking the shortsword away, Jin-suk came off of Ranphral.

Ranphral kept staring at Jin-suk with a terrified expression and it was unsure whether he still had thoughts of running away.

“But there’s a problem. Ranphral needs something more to be friends with them.”

Jin-suk approached Ranphral’s face again.

“Are you curious?”

“Uh…m-, mhm! Mhm!” (TL: not quite…but it is the closest english equivalent)

Looking at the desperately nodding Ranphral, Jin-suk nodded with satisfaction.

“You said it.”

Puk.

The shortsword entered Ranphral’s throat as Jin-suk whispered in his ear.

“It’s your life.”

“Kek!”

Blood flowing in his oesophagus and lungs prevented Ranphral from breathing.

Looking at the twitching Ranphral who was desperately grasping his neck, Jin-suk pulled out the shortsword without hesitation.

Shik.

The fresh blood on the sword fell to the ground, making a small puddle by his feet.

Ranphral desperately tried to stop the bleeding in his neck, but as if to ridicule his efforts, blood continued pouring past his fingers.

It was hot.

As if he didn’t care whether Ranphral was able to stop the bleeding or not, Jin-suk grabbed Ranphral’s leg again and continued dragging him to the pile of corpses.

“I thought about it. And in the end a friend that was a corpse was indeed the best. But discrimination between friends isn’t good. Doesn’t Mr. Ranphral think so?”

“Kelug! Kelug!”

“I knew it! I knew you’d think so too! As someone who was always discriminated against for being different I knew you’d be able to understand me!”

Jin-suk put his hand to his chest as if he was impressed.

However, Ranphral’s movements were gradually slowing down.

“Now Ranphral will truly be the villager’s friend. Aren’t you happy?”

“…”

There was no answer.

When he heard that there were no more sounds, Jin-suk turned to look at Ranphral.

It seemed as though he had bled out as there was a long trail of blood behind them as though it was painted by a brush. Ranphral’s body was extremely pale, and he did not move at all.

“He died.”

Jin-suk smacked his lips, before scratching his cheek and humming a happy tune as he continued to drag him to the pile.

Huk.

Thump.

Jin-suk threw Ranphral’s body into the center of the pile of the villagers’ corpses.

Then he walked away for a bit before turning around.

In front of him were the villagers bodies surrounding that of Ranphral.

Jin-suk raised his thumb and index finger on both hands in the shape of an L and put them together to form a picture frame.

The entire scene seemed to perfectly fit the frame of his fingers.

Jin-suk smiled brightly as he saw this. He felt refreshed as if he had accomplished a great task.

“See!. Look how nice that looks!”