Passion: Diaphonic Symphonia Novel - Chapter 55

Today, too, Christoph had been covering his ears and groaning softly with a pale face all morning, and only in the afternoon, feeling a little better, he went out to ride a horse. But he returned to his room shortly after, saying the horse seemed to have injured its leg.

And he sat in the study, a picture book open before him, chin propped on his hand, staring intently at the same picture. Not turning the page, just the same picture. Perhaps he wasn’t even looking at the picture.

“Why don’t you try to get some sleep? You don’t look well.”

Jeong Taeui looked around the study, which was now neatly organized with nothing left to put away, then at Christoph, who had been sitting in front of the picture book as if he were asleep with his eyes open.

Christoph shook his head without looking at him.

“No… I don’t like sleeping. I only have strange dreams.”

“What kind of dreams?”

Jeong Taeui asked, frowning. He took water from the mini-bar instead of beer and approached him. He placed a palm-sized water bottle in front of him and sat on the chair across the table.

“I don’t know. Something hazy just moves around. That’s all.”

“That’s all? …Then can’t you just ignore it? If it’s not harming you.”

“It feels unpleasant when it brushes against me… I feel like throwing up because I feel something touching my body.”

Christoph shook his head.

“Hmm,” Jeong Taeui sighed and immediately put the water bottle to his lips. Since it was a small bottle anyway, he could empty this much water in one go.

“But in your case, it seems you can endure contact aversion if you set your mind to it. When I touched you—though you frowned—you endured it well.”

“That doesn’t make the sensation any better. And there’s no reason to purposely endure touching other things.”

“Ah, right,” Jeong Taeui mumbled, just gulping down water.

Reinterpreting that statement, it meant, ‘I can endure you touching me, but it’s never pleasant.’

Jeong Taeui inwardly clicked his tongue. Then he subtly probed.

“Why don’t you talk it out with Ilay and make up? It’s not good for friends to be awkward with each other.”

“Not friends. It’s an unwelcome misunderstanding.”

“Ah, right, that’s how it was,” Jeong Taeui said, looking at Christoph. If it had been any other time, he would have snapped, but seeing him quiet, it seemed he was in a very bad condition today.

It was then.

The phone on the study table rang.

Christoph didn’t try to answer the phone even after it rang several times, not even glancing at it. Jeong Taeui, who had been looking back and forth between him and the phone for a moment, scratched his cheek and picked up the receiver.

“Hello?”

‘Christoph? …Oh, no, is it not?’

A delicate, fine voice.

She called Christoph’s name, then added uncertainly a moment later. It seemed she wasn’t very familiar with Christoph.

“Just a moment,” he said, and handed the receiver to Christoph.

Christoph, who had been staring blankly at the painting, looked at the receiver and then at Jeong Taeui with a momentarily annoyed expression. Then he reluctantly answered the phone with a faint hint of irritation in his voice. “Yes,” he said, just one word.

Beside Christoph, who was on the phone, Jeong Taeui stood up, holding the now empty water bottle.

It was quite late. He thought he should just go back to his room.

He’d throw away the empty bottle, put back the few books he’d taken out earlier, and then head back.

However, Jeong Taeui, who had thrown the plastic bottle into the trash can and was walking towards the bookshelf where he had taken out the books, suddenly tilted his head.

Even though Christoph had answered the phone a moment ago, the room was somehow quiet. It didn’t seem like he had hung up.

Jeong Taeui put the books he had taken out back in their place and stretched his neck to look towards the table. He thought Christoph had hung up, but Christoph was still holding the phone.

‘He didn’t hang up after all,’ he realized. It was just that his voice was so small it was hard to hear, but Christoph was indeed giving short answers into the phone. “Yes, yes, no, yes. Yes…”

Hearing those disjointed, monosyllabic replies, Jeong Taeui walked towards the table, looking at Christoph strangely. Then he realized.

Christoph’s face was pale. He was deathly pale, like an intricately crafted wax doll whose lips alone moved.

His face, drained of all color. His slightly wide eyes trembled faintly. Like his lips.

Jeong Taeui involuntarily stopped. He stood frozen, staring at Christoph with disbelieving eyes.

He had never seen Christoph like that.

With a pale, frozen face, he was barely answering in a thin, mechanical voice, like a doll. His eyes, his lips, even his pale hands, trembled faintly, as if with fear or anxiety.

A barely audible, creeping voice whispered.

“Yes. …Yes. …Yes, Mother. …Yes…”

If a voice had color, this voice would surely be the unstable, trembling color of glass. Thin and precarious, as if it could shatter at any moment.

Then the words Christoph whispered pierced Jeong Taeui’s ears.

Mother.

That thin, faint voice had clearly said that.

Christoph’s complexion grew paler and paler. Eventually, he seemed to be gasping for breath, his hand gripping his throat so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

Jeong Taeui’s stopped feet slowly began to move. His steps gradually quickened, and soon he was almost running towards Christoph.

With a face so pale he looked about to faint, barely gasping for breath, his voice remained utterly quiet. If one only listened to his voice, it was just too quiet to understand, not trembling or wavering. As if speaking in a low, calm, and composed tone.

But Christoph was already trembling violently, and his gaze was fixed blankly on empty space.

“…Chris.”

Just as Jeong Taeui reached Christoph, the call ended.

Christoph slowly lowered the receiver from his ear, then hunched his body, his face still pale. In the study, where the air conditioning was set to a comfortably cool temperature, he shivered with a deathly pale face, looking incredibly cold.

“Chris.”

Jeong Taeui called him again and carefully placed a hand on his shoulder. However—as he had somewhat expected—Christoph’s shoulder visibly trembled and he recoiled, shaking off Jeong Taeui’s hand.

Christoph slowly lifted his gaze. His blue eyes finally looked at Jeong Taeui.

The trembling gradually subsided. His shoulders, his body, his lips and hands, the trembling lessened and then stopped.

He sat there for a long time. He just sat silently, looking down at his clasped hands. Even after a long time, his pale complexion barely returned to normal.

Eventually, he rose from his seat. He stood up somewhat abruptly and left the study without looking back. Jeong Taeui hesitated for a moment, then followed him.

“Christoph, where are you going?”

“To ride a horse.”

Christoph said curtly. His brief, cold tone was no different from usual. He seemed to have already returned to his usual self.

Jeong Taeui frowned and clicked his tongue.

“How are you going to ride through the forest path in the middle of the night? It’s too dark to ride a horse.”

“I can ride.”

Christoph replied without looking back and went down the stairs.

Jeong Taeui followed him down. Outside, pitch-black darkness had already fallen. Even if there were scattered lights in the forest, it was dangerous to ride a horse. But Christoph didn’t seem to be listening to anything Jeong Taeui said.

…Ah.

“Your leg! Your horse’s leg! You said it was injured!”

He had said earlier that he came back because his horse seemed to have injured its leg when he went out for a ride.

Christoph, as if remembering just then, slowed his brisk steps towards the stable immediately after leaving the mansion.

“If you really want to, why don’t you just take a walk in the forest instead? The walking paths are well-lit.”

Jeong Taeui offered an alternative, but Christoph hesitated for a moment, then resumed his steps towards the stable.

“I always went into that forest with that horse. Even if I don’t ride it and just lead it, I’ll go that way.”

Jeong Taeui was about to say something but eventually sighed and closed his mouth. It seemed that nothing he said would reach Christoph in his current state.

However.

“Christoph.”

Jeong Taeui called his name.

Christoph, who was several steps ahead, looked back with an annoyed expression. Jeong Taeui quietly asked him.

“Can you see properly in front of you?”

Was he rational? Was his body trembling? Was he so overwhelmed by anxiety and unease that his body wasn’t moving properly?

Christoph looked silently at Jeong Taeui for a moment. Then he frowned slightly. Only then did he seem to return to his usual self, just a little.

“Of course.”

He left only that cold remark and turned back. And walked towards the stable.

Jeong Taeui slowly followed him, wondering what to do. Since he couldn’t ride a horse anyway, he couldn’t follow him. So, should he watch him leave, then just take a walk on the path and come back?

Jeong Taeui followed Christoph, who had disappeared into the stable, thinking that since he was out anyway, he might as well take a short walk on the path.

At night, the forest paths changed daily, with only one path lit by lanterns. So sometimes he would encounter people taking night walks, but generally, few people went into the forest at night.

‘It would be nice to enjoy the starry night in the forest,’ Jeong Taeui thought with a light sigh as he entered the stable. The guard who should have been in front of the stable seemed to have stepped away for a moment, as the chair next to the entrance was empty.

The U-shaped stable, with two entrances, was quite spacious, accommodating a dozen or so horses widely separated.

The horse Christoph usually rode was in the innermost part of the stable. It was around a corner, out of sight from the entrance.

Christoph, who had been walking towards that inner part, stopped just before the corner. He stood still, staring intently inside.

“…? Christoph.”

Jeong Taeui tilted his head in confusion and called him. But he seemed not to hear Jeong Taeui’s voice, only looking inside.

Jeong Taeui scratched his head and approached him. He had to go further in to get the horse, so it was strange that he was stopped there.

Calling out “Chris” again, Jeong Taeui approached his side and then fell silent. Faint voices could be heard from inside the stable. From the sound, there were five or six people, low voices mixed with laughter.

“I told you not to hurt its leg. If its leg is hurt, you can’t ride it, so of course there’s no danger.”

“Still, he couldn’t ride the horse he liked so much, so his face was miserable all day, that crazy bastard.”

“Look, let’s put a few thorns under the saddle. Then, as the horse runs, the saddle will rub against the thorns and prick it, so no matter how well he handles horses, it’ll be hard for him to ride without problems.”

Low chuckles mingled.

Jeong Taeui, listening to those faintly leaking words, gradually frowned. He had realized what these vulgar and malicious words meant.

Tsk, he clicked his tongue and looked at Christoph with discomfort. And then, he stopped in his tracks.

Christoph stood there silently, listening to those words. The men, invisible from Jeong Taeui’s position, seemed visible from Christoph’s.

For a moment, the thought crossed his mind that Christoph’s face might turn pale again, like before.

However, Christoph neither turned deathly pale nor trembled in convulsions. He merely stared at them with icy eyes.

“…Good. It actually worked out well.”

Christoph said quietly.

But his voice, cold as ice and sharp as a blade, echoed chillingly within the stable, and the voices from inside instantly ceased.

The men inside changed their expressions and turned around. As they moved and shifted their positions, Jeong Taeui could finally see them.

The six men gathered there were all followers of Richard. Although he hadn’t spoken to them separately, he had occasionally encountered one or two of them in the dining hall. He remembered them because they would often glare at him or Christoph, muttering curses in low voices when they passed by.

“Did Richard order it?”

Christoph asked. In his eyes, there was a faint, subtle sneer. Eyes that looked down on a man who was only capable of that much.

The men, realizing the meaning, instantly glared fiercely.

“It has nothing to do with Richard! We just hate seeing a madman like you wandering around Tarten!”

“It has nothing to do with Richard…? Fine. Even if this has nothing to do with Richard, you guys have something to do with him.”

Christoph said quietly. He suddenly glanced at Jeong Taeui, who was a few steps behind him, and looked slightly annoyed, then curtly said, “Don’t interfere.” And then he turned back to the men and said,

“I needed a suitable distraction anyway. Today, I’ll take care of you, and I’ll take care of him too.”

“…You crazy bastard…!!”

It didn’t take long for the men to move.

And for Christoph to step forward in front of them with an expressionless face.

Jeong Taeui didn’t know exactly what kind of man Christoph Tarten was.

He had only heard scattered, partial accounts of how he fought and survived on countless battlefields.

Jeong Taeui didn’t know his cruelty, his ferocity, what expression he wore, or what his eyes looked like when he laid people down one by one.

He had only guessed from fragments.

That deranged, expressionless face, the blurred focus, the mechanically precise and unhesitating movements of his body.

Jeong Taeui saw for the first time the sight of him calmly and quietly dismembering people without the violent convulsions of a seizure.

There, he was like a machine.

A machine that, covered in blood, felt no aversion, had no heart, and saw people only as objects.

That beautiful machine, like an intricately crafted glass doll, was terrifyingly unhesitating. In tearing human flesh, and in ripping out the red and blue things that filled that flesh.

Where he had passed, scattered pieces of flesh, whose original attachment point was unknown, pooled in puddles of blood.

It didn’t take long.

Only a few minutes.

Covered in blood from head to toe, he finally stood quietly in a place where even the ear-splitting screams had ceased, and only groans wriggled like insects.

He rubbed the blood from his shoes on the hay, as if bothered by it, and then looked around.

There were no longer any people attacking him. The six men lying on the ground could no longer harm him.

“So many rumors must have been circulating about me, and yet you are truly foolish…”

He mumbled as if pitying them, then sighed and lifted his head. But there was no hint of lament or pity on his face. No expression at all.

He lifted his head, slowly looked around, and then suddenly fixed his gaze on Jeong Taeui, who was standing to one side.

Before Jeong Taeui could even intervene, or rather, even if he wanted to intervene, he was blocked by the men, and while he stood there dumbfounded, the place had already fallen silent.

“Oh… were you still there?”

Christoph mumbled ambiguously.

His tone, asking with a slight raise of an eyebrow, suggested he had thought Jeong Taeui would have fled somewhere long ago.

“Christoph, these people are…”

“They’re alive. I didn’t kill them. This isn’t the field, so I shouldn’t kill them.”

He spoke clearly, like reading from a textbook, or as if someone had forced him to memorize it, saying he wouldn’t kill outside the field.

Jeong Taeui hardened his face, looked at him, and then sighed softly.

At least, whoever it was, they seemed to have managed to input that into his head. Not to commit murder in unauthorized places. To this dangerous man, who was like a naive child.

Christoph wiped his blood-stained face with his sleeve. But his sleeve was already soaked with blood, so it was useless.

He showed no signs of fatigue at all. He wasn’t even gasping for breath.

His sanity seemed fully intact. Aside from the pervasive smell of blood, he was no different from usual.

“Alright… then shall we go catch that guy?”

Christoph mumbled, slowly tilting his head from side to side.

“That guy, you mean.”

“The guy sitting above these guys. He needs to be held accountable for not managing his subordinates properly. I was thinking it was about time to clean things up anyway. This is a good opportunity to go. It’s actually worked out well.”

Jeong Taeui soon realized who he was talking about.

Richard.

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue. If they confronted each other again now, it wouldn’t be over easily.

“Chris, you can’t cause such a scene in the house—”

“Oh, it’s fine, it’s fine. He’ll be at the bar today.”

“Bar?!”

“He owns a spacious bar… And since it’s Tuesday today, he’ll be there.”

He usually leaves others to manage it and goes to check on it every Tuesday, Christoph added, waving his hand. Drops of blood clinging to his fingertips splattered.

“He has several secret rooms in the back where people don’t go, a suspicious bar where no one knows what he’s doing. Isn’t it perfect for going to hold him accountable? Yes, it would be good to have a cocktail while I’m there. I just hope he doesn’t poison it.”

Christoph shrugged.

And then he readily turned and walked straight out of the stable.

Jeong Taeui stared blankly at his retreating back, his face deeply furrowed.

Something was going to get very troublesome. No, it already was troublesome.

“…First, what to do with these people…”

The men lying like corpses at his feet, occasionally twitching, seemed like they would truly become corpses soon if he didn’t contact someone. He had to somehow deal with these men, who were in such a gruesome state that their original appearance was unrecognizable.

“…Damn it. I should follow Christoph and stop him… He really is the type to turn someone else’s establishment into a bloodbath.”

Jeong Taeui anxiously watched Christoph’s retreating figure, growing further and further away. He would surely miss him while dealing with these men.

However, while he fumbled in his pockets for his non-existent phone, the guard, who seemed to have just returned from the restroom, came back.

Seeing the stable instantly transformed into a horrific scene of hell in his absence, the guard’s eyes widened.

He probably suspected Jeong Taeui, who was standing alone and unharmed, and stammered something, but Jeong Taeui had no time to listen to him.

“Please call the hospital. And the mansion too. Huh? Please.”

He lightly patted the shoulder of the guard, who was trembling and pale from the bloody scene, and Jeong Taeui quickly rushed out of the stable. The guard shouted something belatedly from behind, but Jeong Taeui had no ears to hear.

Christoph had already turned the corner of the mansion towards the garage.

Jeong Taeui ran like a madman, determined not to lose him.

Damn it, what is this? How did it come to this? I wanted to live peacefully, why again?

Spewing a mouthful of curses, Jeong Taeui ran desperately towards Christoph, who was a good distance away, inserting a car key into the sedan neatly parked inside the garage.