And when consciousness returned, it was a dusky evening. Under the covers.

Binnari removed the covers and looked back. An empty, wide room. It was the Mago dormitory.

“Ah, ugh…!”

Feeling a sting, Binnari looked down at her hand. It was covered in blood. Looking closely, there was a deep wound.

“Ah. Ah… Ah…!”

Recognizing the wound, the pain started rushing in. And memories began to resurface.

Right, after meeting father, and seeing mother’s cult. And then…

There was no memory of how she got back here after that.

“What, did I, did I possibly.”

Kill someone? Or hit someone? Such negative thoughts filled her mind.

‘You’ve gone crazy, Shin Binnari. You’ve finally become a criminal’s child. You’ve finally become a criminal…’

As Binnari repeated this to herself, a black indirect message appeared in front of her.

[The Lord of Chaos assures you that you never did anything bad, pulling your shoulder firmly.]

“Lord of Chaos?”

When the familiar black message window appeared, Binnari finally stopped the cycle of negative thoughts.

As if to comfort Binnari, the Lord of Chaos sent another message.

[The Lord of Chaos explains that those wounds were from breaking your mother’s mannequin and damaging the coffin.]

“Ah…”

[And he says that you opened a crack between dimensions to escape from there and head to the Mago dormitory, acting as rationally as possible even in that moment, as the Lord of Chaos pats your head.]

Only then did Binnari properly look at the wound. There were stab wounds, and blood marks from hitting something large and flat several times.

Finally relieved, Binnari laid back down on the bed.

“I don’t remember.”

[The Lord of Chaos comforts you, saying that sometimes people forget memories to protect themselves from excessive stress.]

Is that so, it seemed the memory was completely erased in an extreme stress situation. Such things did happen occasionally in reality too.

Trusting the Lord of Chaos’ words, Binnari turned over from her laying position.

“Father… didn’t have an affair.”

As the situation became somewhat clear, Binnari’s mind raced. It wasn’t an affair, but that he had joined mother’s cult.

A father who loved mother so much couldn’t possibly suddenly love another woman after mother died.

Binnari recalled father again.

Saying mother didn’t die. And believing mother would return because he made a body for her.

Getting absorbed in mother’s cult like that, putting mother’s clothes and wig on a mannequin, extorting money from Binnari for years…

“Ugh!!”

Suddenly feeling nauseous, Binnari bent her back. Having not eaten all day, yellow stomach fluid immediately spewed out.

Her body suddenly started trembling.

‘…What should I do?’

Shaking, she pulled the covers over her head. The emotion that followed was terror.

Dark spirit power slowly seeped out, covering the room.

As the spirit power enveloped the room, the sound of a gong started ringing again in Binnari’s quiet room.

“Shut up!!”

Binnari covered both ears and screamed, but the elaborate illusion vividly transmitted that scene.

Binnari barely managed to speak in a trembling voice.

“Help me…”

Tears began to fill her eyes. One or two drops of Binnari’s tears fell on the blanket.

She couldn’t forget the mannequin wearing mother’s clothes and father’s sharp gaze directed at her.

Vivid memories of a harmonious childhood with him came to mind.

The dramatic contrast seemed to say there was no going back.

It was unclear where things had gone so wrong. Is restoring the relationship impossible now?

Half-crying, Binnari started pleading for help from where she lay face down.

“Help me, someone help me. Mom, Soo-ho… Please help me, I’m so scared. What do I do? Ihyeon… Please help me. Quickly. What do I do now? What about my mom and dad? Mom… What do we do?”

But Binnari’s room was silent, and Binnari, who was desperately crying out for help that no one heard, sobbed for a long time.

She can’t contact Ihyeon either. He said the calls were being monitored.

Even if she contacts Soo-ho, there’s no way. He probably can’t come down from the North.

Realizing there was really no one to ask for help, Binnari got up from under the covers.

She wiped her tears with her sleeve and her mouth with a tissue.

Outside, as evening began to fall, the mountains were quiet. Binnari, with a blank expression, headed towards the front door.

“No one will help.”

Binnari muttered softly. Right, no one will help. No one can help.

Having convinced herself, Binnari put on her shoes as if possessed by something and left the dormitory.

“So I have to solve this myself…”

Binnari muttered as she went down the stairs. Dark spirit power was slowly creeping out.

Right, she had power anyway. An S-rank, number one in the world rankings. Even if she kills someone and shuts them up, no one will know.

‘Kill, and then completely ransack the memories to find out all the related people, erase their memories one by one, forge official documents to remove resident registrations…’

Binnari headed outside. A plan for how to deal with them was gradually forming in her mind. Uncontrolled fear and anger were driving her.

“There’s no other way… I have to kill. Kill everyone and die myself. Anyone related to mom has to disappear… There’s no way now. It’s all ruined. So I, the sane one, have to take responsibility…”

Binnari’s steps headed towards the path between the dormitory and the temple. Walking along the bamboo forest, the sound of a gong rang out.

She seemed to have heard something like that before. One reason for ringing the bell is for the sinners in the hell world.

It’s also rung to lead innocent beings to enlightenment, but it also signifies that while the jailers punishing the prisoners in hell pray upon hearing the bell, the prisoners can take a brief rest.

Binnari paused for a moment at the sound. She had to remember. Wouldn’t she soon hear it too?

She hoped the monk would ring that bell for a long time so that she and father could have a long break.

Binnari looked at the stone pagoda that held memories of mother and the Arhats.

‘He said to come when my mind is made up.’

It seemed she would never be able to go. There was no choice. Father had to die. And she had to die too.

Everything was completely ruined. If she had to do that to even her dead mother, it was right for everyone to disappear.

Perhaps it would have been right to follow mother right after she died.

If only mother and father had never married, if she had never been born.

Then maybe no one would have been unhappy. She shouldn’t have been born in the first place.

As Binnari’s thoughts gradually spiraled to absurd conclusions, the ominous dark spirit power spread around her again.

At times like this, the Lord of Chaos always maintained silence, so Binnari’s thoughts were becoming more and more extreme.

There was no one to protect father or Binnari. Even mother, who had been protecting them, was gone.

“Miss Shin Binnari!”

As she blankly watched the figure ringing the temple bell, someone pulled Binnari’s wrist and turned her around. Binnari raised her head to look at the person.

Nan was panting and wiping the sweat flowing down his forehead with his suit sleeve.

When Binnari blankly stared at him, Nan spoke rapidly.

“I’m sorry for suddenly grabbing you. I called out from the dormitory but you didn’t turn around… Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

“No. You’re not. You look too dangerous right now.”

Binnari pulled her grabbed hand back. The hand slipped out limply.

Binnari, looking at Nan with a calm expression, turned around. Nan quickly blocked her path.

“Please move.”

“…Where are you going? What happened?”

“I have to go kill father.”

At Binnari’s calm answer, Nan gasped. He carefully grabbed Binnari’s shoulders and said,

“…Would you tell me what happened? We will help you.”

Binnari glanced up at him. His eyes were full of worry.

They’ll help. At those words, Binnari looked down at her shoes and muttered weakly.

“…Only now?”

“Miss Binnari.”

Binnari wiped her flowing tears with her sleeves. She had been crying non-stop since coming to Busan.

Holding back her tears, Binnari started talking.

“Why only now? Shouldn’t you have helped when our mother died? You should have helped before father fell into the cult. How can you expect me to believe you saying you’ll help now!”

Binnari covered her face with both hands, crying loudly.

Whenever she needed help, there was no one by her side.

Help with suspiciously good timing was a trap.

Just look at father. There were traps laid out for Binnari’s family who lost their mother.

She didn’t know how father had been managing, but Binnari couldn’t discern what was a trap and what wasn’t, so she couldn’t carelessly trust.

So Binnari didn’t believe in help. She could barely trust even Kang Ihyeon.

But now, now that she had barely endured on her own, they say they’ll help. It’s too late.

“…I apologize. I have no excuse. But, we will help you.”

“How can I believe that!”

Binnari screamed. Nan grabbed Binnari’s shoulders. A chilling voice flowed from him.

“You don’t have to believe it.”

At those words, Binnari looked up.

“I know you can’t easily trust people. So, instead of believing, could you postpone killing your father?”

“…What?”

Nan’s expression was hardened. He carefully took Binnari’s hands.

“If you allow it. Within 24 hours, I will resolve the issue tormenting you right now.”