Chapter 78 – Swimming Emperor (22)
“‘A shaman’… I did meet a few for fortune readings.”
“I’m not the same type as those people.”
Naturally, shaman Yoo Il-am came to mind—the one who kicked Song Sun-young while claiming to be chasing ghosts.
What a complete piece of trash!
He was still number one on my list of people I hoped never to see again.
“You seem different indeed. The shamans I met before were fooled by my husband’s outward appearance.”
“……”
I didn’t respond. Because the moment she became conscious of her trembling right foot, I could no longer read her true intentions.
I regretted revealing my trump card too early.
“What kind of person did you think my husband was?”
“A man with strong patriotism.”
“You saw him accurately. And when I suggested he try politics, he refused.”
“He probably struggled because his past was not clean.”
Politics in the past was like that.
President, ministers, governors, assemblymen…
Unless you became a public political figure, your crimes and corruption were rarely investigated.
Nam Hae-soo could never do it.
Just as celebrities get ruined years later for bullying classmates in school when it becomes public—
Nam Hae-soo would have collapsed instantly if his crimes for the sake of success were exposed.
That was why someone with so many buried sins could never become a politician.
“…You seem to know everything. Yes. My husband had many secrets.”
“So there’s a truth you must confirm, isn’t there?”
“Yes.”
Park Han-hee admitted without hesitation.
A husband full of secrets.
All through the funeral, her expression seldom wavered, but it shifted every so often—not because of inheritance concerns, but because she was fixated on something else.
A secret he hid until death.
And he entrusted that secret not to a family member, but to a complete stranger.
Of course she can’t ignore that.
If I were in her place, I’d react the same way.
“Mr. Nam said to leave the judgment to me.”
“So you won’t show me anything, is that it?”
“I’ll judge first.”
“…These days, handsome young men think they can get away with anything, don’t they?”
“Sorry, what?”
Her tone blended scolding and praise in a way that caught me off guard.
“You think that was a joke?”
“…No.”
If her taste hadn’t changed over the years, then she meant it.
“Mr. Kang Moon-soo, thank you for talking so long to an ugly old woman.”
“O—oh, not at all.”
“I’ll reminisce here and wait. I expect you to share everything you discover.”
Her wheelchair slowly turned away from me.
“Madam.”
“Still something to say?”
“Did you truly want to remain a track athlete all your life, even if you couldn’t become a national representative?”
“…And what did the girl who confessed to you without trembling her right foot say to that?”
“If you answer first, I’ll tell you.”
She looked at children running around the resort and said:
“A person is happiest when they’re doing what they want to do.”
“You haven’t changed.”
“And what did she say?”
“She said she runs simply because she wants to run.”
Had she not been tormented by her senior, she would’ve kept running in reality too.
Whether it fit her aptitude or not.
“So, did I pass your test?”
“I was just curious.”
“As an elder, let me tell you this: in society, we call that kind of thing a test.”
“…I apologize.”
“I’ll wait.”
“Yes.”
Now, it’s time to search for Nam Hae-soo’s final dream.
Right before the hijacked plane in the dream could land at the airport, I escaped and chose a floating villa on the sea.
I was confident in swimming—if surrounded, I could just escape into the water.
…or so I believed.
And that’s exactly how I got played like a fool!
It might have been a decent hiding place in a fantasy world without guns or snipers, but in modern times?
Not at all.
A sniper can attack safely from afar.
With no cover in the open sea, it’s basically the perfect shooting range to kill someone.
“There’s no way it was a coincidence.”
I did choose this villa, yes. However, there are dozens of identical overwater houses lined up left and right.
Room 503, 504, 505, 506…
Just like that.
A random vacant one was assigned to me by the resort manager, but what if that manager was hired by Nam Hae-soo?
Then it isn’t a coincidence anymore.
Click.
I unlocked the door and cautiously stepped inside. The villa was exactly the same as the one in the dream.
“…Damn trauma.”
A blurry illusion flashed in front of me—Nam Hae-soo raising a toast and gesturing for me to sit.
Every detail was identical: the arrangement of furniture, the structure of the room, even the view.
It sent chills through me.
‘Only the furniture is different…?’
Modern designs are more refined than in the past era, but the locations of the TV, bed, bathroom, dressing table—they were all the same.
“At least the outside… looks normal.”
No suspicious yachts or boats in sight.
Beep.
I turned my phone back on, after keeping it off to avoid being tracked.
Brrr—
[Song Sun-young: Moon-soo. Let’s eat.]
[Song Sun-young: Are you sleeping?]
[Song Sun-young: You’re not in the dorm either.]
[Song Sun-young: Who are you sleeping with?]
[Song Sun-young: Call me when you see this.]
Dozens of messages poured in at once, my phone vibrating nonstop.
“…Unbelievable.”
What does it matter where or who I sleep with?
I decided I’d finally give the coach’s daughter a reality check.
RING~♪
“Hello? You told me to—”
(WHERE ARE YOU—?!)
Her voice thundered through the phone loud enough to shatter it.
I’d save the scolding for later.
“I’m overseas.”
(Again?! Didn’t you say you were going to Nam Hae-soo’s funeral?)
“I went. I left after—”
(Then you should’ve told me! Text at least! Do you know how worried I was? And Mom said she didn’t know either…!)
“…Yeah. That’s my bad.”
Why am I apologizing to someone I’m no longer involved with?
Something feels wrong.
(When are you coming back?)
“If possible, tomorrow.”
(That place you’re at… it’s a honeymoon island, you know. Lots of couples.)
“Yes. There are tons.”
I answered without thinking.
(Who did you go with?)
“I came alone.”
(You? Alone? You, who hates spending money on coffee, suddenly paid for a luxury resort full of couples? With your money?)
“Well… hard to believe, but yes. Alone.”
(If you’re lying, be prepared.)
“Okay.”
What a ridiculous world.
If I did bring a girl, so what?!
Even though I didn’t…
(Come back safely.)
“Yeah.”
(Call me when you arrive at the dorm.)
“…Why?”
(There’s a problem. I want to discuss it with you.)
“What problem?”
(Secret.)
“……”
Secrets again. I’m sick of them.
(If you’re curious, hurry back!)
“Yeah.”
Click.
After hanging up with Song Sun-young, irritation surged up to my throat.
‘It’s not like I’m her husband or her boyfriend…!’
It wasn’t the first time, either. She scolded me the same way when I moved without telling her.
But the annoyance didn’t last long.
Thump!
My heart broke again.
“…What can I do.”
Nobody had ever asked where I was or who I was with so persistently. Usually, if I didn’t want to say, people would just get the hint and back off.
But Song Sun-young was different.
She nagged… like family.
So I hated it, but also… liked it?
The feeling was ridiculously complicated.
‘…Let’s go look.’
She delayed me a little, but it wasn’t too dark to find a baseball-sized box.
The place that no one could find, the lowest place.
The only possible “lowest” location was under the building.
“No wonder no one ever checks here.”
Tourists who want to swim go to properly maintained beaches or pools.
Under the villa is technically the sea, too—but with no lifeguards, no coral reefs, nothing scenic. Swimming here is like gambling with your life.
Who would do that on vacation?
Not only that, the villas are built so close together that someone swimming under them could easily be mistaken for a peeping tom or a thief.
So no one ever bothers looking underneath.
“They’d assume it’s just sand.”
Time to check whether it’s only sand.
I changed into my competition swimsuit—as always—and dove into the water.
Splash!
“Hm…”
There were only support pillars and sand.
Buried in the sand, perhaps?
I was seriously considering coming back with a shovel when…
“Life is hell.”
Those words had been carved into the lower part of a pillar, only visible underwater.
‘Found it.’
Hell — the lowest place on earth.
Just like in the video message:
— “Where we met for the last time. That place holds my secret.”
— “Hidden at the lowest point where no one can find it.”
The last place we met—could mean the entire island in a broad sense, but specifically, it was this villa.
And the lowest place—beneath the building, underwater.
“Life is hell.”
‘He even left a signpost!’
Good thing I didn’t have to dig up the entire seafloor.
Scrape, scrape—
I brushed aside the soft white sand beneath the pillar.
Tap.
My fingertips hit something hard, like a rock.
I pulled it out.
‘A black box.’
Just as he said—a baseball-sized black cube.
Splash—
I climbed back up the ladder that connected the sea and the villa, then examined the box closely.
“Looks like it opens by twisting…”
Rattle—
It was tightly sealed, but not impossible for someone with my strength to open.
Twist, twist—
After dozens of rotations…
Click!
The cube split in half.
‘This is… an old-generation memory chip?’
A portable storage drive I’d seen constantly in his dream world.
It had been carefully wrapped in plastic and tissue to prevent water damage.
Now what?
Of course I would open it and see what’s inside.
“I really came prepared, didn’t I?”
From the moment he said it was the size of a baseball, I had a vague guess. And the possibility that it was some outdated tech from the old era.
110V, 220V, USB, MP3 players…
Old-era adapters and cables are cheap and portable, so I had packed them without much thought.
Tap, tap.
I immediately connected the memory chip to my smartphone and ran a program capable of reading ancient files.
‘…What is this?’
Even the file names were ominous.
“Woodpecker”
“Cuckoo”
“Bulbul”
“…Classy hobbies, I see.”
If his wife had found these while he was alive, it would’ve been grounds for divorce—no question.
Next files…
“Park Han-hee”
“Park Han-seol”
‘Why his wife’s name… and her older sister…?’
Curious, I tapped on a file—then froze.
There were countless videos.
Even the track team senior I called a “tortoise” in the dream was there.
“This is a truly dangerous secret…”
I decided to put off judgment and kept looking.
“Hell”
‘…He wrote “Life is hell,” didn’t he?’
A name shared between the pillar inscription and this file. They must be related.
Tap.
I prepared myself and opened “Hell.”
“…Huh? It’s that woman.”
The one who betrayed him in the dream, who was killed by her husband-turned-monster.
In reality, she had been driven to suicide after being forced into escort work…
So that’s why Nam Hae-soo remembered the case so clearly.
‘…He was involved?’
She wasn’t the only one.
Inside this “Hell” folder were mountains of evidence—crimes Nam Hae-soo committed to succeed, or after succeeding: exploitation, coercion, blackmail, and worse.
And at the very end—
“Divine Punishment”
The last file.
“Divine punishment, huh…”
Tap.
Just like his video message, it was a simple recording of Nam Hae-soo’s face.
(If this is being watched, it means I’m dead.)
“That’s true.”
(As you’ve probably guessed by now, I am not a righteous man. I oppressed the weak, threatened women, betrayed friends, framed colleagues… I am a demon.)
“You don’t say!”
Even with a quick glance at the files, there was no forgiving him.
(My wife does not know. She doesn’t know I bullied my track team friend into helping, that I used her family’s weaknesses to force our marriage.)
“Wow…”
He wasn’t even human.
(I was scared.)
“As you should be.”
(I regretted it. But it was too late to undo my mistakes.)
“……”
His dream world wasn’t born from patriotism.
It was born from guilt.
A demon who deceived even those closest to him wanted redemption.
(You are likely the person I trusted the most at the moment of my death.)
“Well…”
Probably?
(So I leave this in your hands.)
“You bastard…!”
I had stepped on a landmine.
(I’m truly sorry to burden you with this.)
“What do you want ME to do with it?!”
Nam Hae-soo’s dream ended by handing me one giant bomb.