SYNO Chapter 13

Horrified, Ssangryeong dashed towards the door he had entered through.

Click, click! He rattled the handle as if trying to break it, but the door, as expected, was firmly locked.

“Hahaha, Mr. Ssangryeong’s reactions are always so entertaining. You heard what the Commander said, didn’t you? No funny business.”

At her genuinely amused voice, Ssangryeong gritted his teeth and glared at Dr. Sirius.

“Are you crazy? You came all the way to the Dependent Nation just to catch me?”

Ssangryeong yelled, his voice strained, his back pressed against the door.

He hadn’t risked his life escaping the Home Nation because he was afraid of their torture. It was because he was terrified of this insane doctor’s persistence.

Sirius tilted her head and gave a bright smile.

“Oh my, you know me so well now? That’s right. I came to this Dependent Nation just for you.”

The day he received the information that Dr. Whistler was missing, he had gotten completely drunk.

A celebratory toast.

That damn doctor was finally gone.

He figured she’d probably gotten on the wrong side of some high-ranking officials in the Home Nation with her flashy antics and been kidnapped.

“As an information thief, Mr. Ssangryeong, you must have heard the news of my disappearance, right? Yes, it’s a very accurate information. I am indeed missing from the Home Nation.”

She took a step closer to him, her hands clasped behind her back. A chilling light reflected off her bright red glasses.

“What can I do? Many people are looking for me, but I want to find you, Mr. Ssangryeong.”

The saying about not spitting in a smiling face was a lie. Ssangryeong gathered saliva in his mouth.

‘Should I just spit on her?’

As he considered worse things, he suddenly felt his eyelids grow heavy.

Was it because he had met this woman, whom he only encountered in nightmares, here again?

Was that why his mind was so hazy?

“Ah, Mr. Ssangryeong. Are you feeling by any chance? That window you just ran into, I made it special, just for you. I figured you’d try to escape at some point.”

That this woman was alive and hiding in the Dependent Nation…

“How is it? Are you feeling drowsy? Or are you feeling the urge to… just die?”

Her high-pitched voice echoed in his ears, disorienting him.

“That’s strange… You should have collapsed by now. Hmm?”

The scratching sound of a pencil suggested she was recording the process of her clinical trial.

“Ugh…!”

As the ground seemed to shake beneath him, Ssangryeong tried to steady himself.

He knew he’d fallen into a trap. In fact, the problem started the moment he was dragged into the government building in the Dependent Nation.

Ssangryeong stumbled, his legs finally giving way, and he collapsed onto the floor. He desperately clawed at the wooden floor.

‘Fuck, I need to stay… conscious…’

If he lost consciousness here, he might wake up with some of his body parts missing. Or perhaps he’d wake up in a torture chamber in the Home Nation.

At that moment, he could vaguely see Pienne looking down at him with an impassive expression. Looking at the man’s cold gaze, Ssangryeong pressed his lips together tightly.

‘Yes, fuck… This is all your doing, isn’t it?’

Even though he was captured and helpless, he wouldn’t be easily manipulated by these people from the Home Nation.

He wasn’t one to take things lying down.

So, no matter what…!

Crunch, the sound of something blunt being cut echoed in the quiet room and Pienne’s eyebrows shot up.

He immediately turned his blue eyes towards the source of the sound.

His gaze landed on Ssangryeong’s mouth. Dark red blood was gushing from his already full, reddish lips.

“…Damn it.”

Pienne, his face contorted in a frown, threw his half-smoked cigarette into the ashtray. He immediately grabbed a bottle of water and rushed over to Ssangryeong.

Forcibly opening Ssangryeong’s blood-stained lips, Pienne looked down at his amber eyes with a grim expression.

Ssangryeong, his eyes unfocused, couldn’t put up much resistance.

Yet, a faint, mocking smile lingered on the corners of his lips.

“Ha.”

Pienne scoffed.

“Just as I thought.”

Someone who valued his life wouldn’t commit suicide over something like this.

Thinking so, Pienne tilted the water bottle and poured it into Ssangryeong’s mouth. As he poured the water, the bright crimson blood diluted and washed away, leaving a faint, cloudy trail on the floor.

His soft tongue, finally revealed, was somewhat mangled. If he had bitten down with a little more force, it would have been severed.

“Reckless fool.”

He couldn’t let an important criminal die. Pienne pulled a handkerchief from his jacket and stuffed it into Ssangryeong’s mouth.

He watched as the blood soaked into the handkerchief and the bleeding slowly stopped.

“Cough…”

Ssangryeong, his mouth stuffed with the handkerchief, swallowed convulsively.

It was astonishing that he was forcibly maintaining consciousness through the pain he inflicted on himself.

“Sirius, that window doesn’t seem to be very effective.”

It was a question laced with annoyance, asking what the point was of her ambitious creation if it didn’t work. Sirius scoffed.

“Just wait a little longer. He’ll fall asleep as soon as the pain subsides.”

Pienne gritted his teeth.

“He’s a stubborn one.”

There were plenty of foolish prisoners who bit off their own tongues to escape torture, but it was rare to find a scoundrel like Ssangryeong, who had no intention of dying but willing to sacrifice a part of their tongue just to stay conscious.

“Bring out the device, Sirius.”

Pienne, irritably dropping Ssangryeong’s head back onto the floor, spoke in a low voice.

Sirius, who had been smoothly tracing her index finger across the strange window she had created, replied casually,

“That device won’t work unless the subject is completely unconscious, Commander.”

“Bring it out. It’s fine now.”

“Oh, has he finally fainted?”

Sirius, finally tearing her attention away from the window, brought a device that could be worn like a hat from a corner of the laboratory.

“This is the moment I’ve been waiting for. To be able to delve into Ssangryeong’s mind.”

After connecting the device’s wires to the computer, Sirius began operating it, her fingers flying across the keyboard with blinding speed.

She glanced at the Commander, who was staring intently at Ssangryeong.

“Why are you looking at him with such interest? You already knew. That Ssangryeong is a very resilient and valuable criminal.”

Sirius gently curved her lips upwards.

“It was you, Commander Pienne, who ordered me from the Home Nation to pursue Ssangryeong.”

Ssangryeong was a master of escape. He was the only criminal she’d ever failed to capture, even after personally pursuing him in the Home Nation.

And the starting point of this relentless chase after Ssangryeong was Commander Pienne.

Sirius recalled what Pienne had said to her once.

“There’s a man named Ssangryeong. The higher-ups are desperately trying to capture him. Bring him to me, Sirius.”

It was quite unexpected, as the Commander rarely gave her direct orders. Nevertheless, Sirius had refused.

“I have a lot of research to do, Commander. I’m busy.”

“What about a brain that never forgets what it’s seen once?”

“…Does such a person exist? Where?”

“Who knows. He’s hiding somewhere.”

“Are you saying that this man, Ssangryeong, has such a brain?”

Sirius’s eyes widened. It was a statement that deeply intrigued her, someone who had lived her entire life pursuing her interests.

“Hmm, do you have a picture? What does he look like?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then which organization does he belong to? Does he work alone?”

“I don’t know.”

“…At least tell me his area of operation?”

“I don’t know. Nothing.”

The Commander had only given the order to capture him, without providing any information about Ssangryeong.

It was the first time the meticulous Commander, who always planned everything down to the last detail, had given such a reckless order.

Sirius, finishing her recollection, smiled sweetly.

“You went through more trouble than you expected, didn’t you?”

Although she had wasted a considerable amount of time on this mission, it was the order of the superior she had chosen, so there was nothing she could do.

There was an unspoken rule in the Home Nation.

Officials had to choose which side they were on, which rope to grasp.

‘I chose Pienne de Laviste.’

In her opinion, among the many presidential candidates, Pienne was the most qualified to be President.

Aside from his handsome face, his sharp mind, cold judgment, and the way he treated his subordinates with respect were admirable qualities.

“You seem to particularly enjoy using me, Commander.”

At Sirius’ pointed remark, Pienne nonchalantly ran a hand through his ash-gray hair.

“You wanted this too.”

“Well, I suppose that’s true. I was curious about Ssangryeong’s brain. But I wouldn’t have come to this filthy Dependent Nation if it weren’t for your orders.”

“Just get started. Before Ssangryeong wakes up again.”

“Yes, yes.”

Replying perfunctorily, Sirius pushed her red-rimmed glasses up her nose. Then, she placed the prepared detection hat on Ssangryeong’s head.

Sirius immediately started operating the computer.

“It’ll be done soon. About a minute?”

Yellow lights flickered on the hat, which was adorned with several light bulbs. Pienne, watching with his arms crossed, chuckled.

If Ssangryeong had seen himself wearing this ridiculous hat, he would have surely erupted in a torrent of curses.

A state-of-the-art device capable of extracting memories directly from the brain, and Ssangryeong, captured and lying unconscious.

Everything was going smoothly.

Or so it seemed.

“What… is this?”

Sirius, who had been operating the device with rapid keystrokes, frowned deeply.