Chapter 151.1

Chapter 151.1

With every step she took toward him, the years of hardship, like climbing a rugged ridge, surged up inside her. Joo Seolheon forced strength into her face, which was on the verge of crumbling.

The messy, curly hair she used to nag him to cut was gone now, only the pitiful jut of his bony neck remained.

The man still bore his suffering, his aged face buried in his hands.

After what felt like an eternity, her eyes met his hollow sockets.

“—!”

Rigay, who had lifted his head, stared blankly at her. Joo Seolheon stifled a rising groan.

“Why?”

After completing her mission and returning to Korea, she hadn’t looked back at what she had left behind.

Under strict surveillance by the Russian government, Rigay denied any visits and was completely isolated. Even the rumors that had once circulated about him had abruptly vanished at some point.

But over a decade later, she received intel that he would soon be released. The shocking revelation was that he had actually been continuing brain research in a facility disguised as a prison.

From then on, Joo Seolheon grew restless. If Russia had orchestrated his release, they would hunt down every surviving child from Sakhalin. And if that happened, Sonya’s existence would also…

She had to prepare as quickly as possible.

That was how Operation Bird Box was born. Its core objective: “Eliminate any forces approaching the owl and protect the daughter from her father.” But Joo Seolheon’s real goal was to kill Rigay if he ever got close to his daughter.

But if it was true that he had gone mad, if his once-brilliant mind had truly broken, then where in the past was he trapped?

Before meeting her? After? If his mind had shattered into fragments, she couldn’t trust him.

If only Sakhalin’s fanatics remained…

“Rigay.”

She stepped closer to him, her hand resting on her waist. During Operation Red Veil, a moment of hesitation had stopped her from finishing what she should have.

The order to kill Rigay Viktor.

It was the only stain on Agent Zoya’s record, and now, the final period she had to put in place. She pressed the cold barrel of her gun against Rigay’s forehead.

“Black hair… Zoya.”

A slow smile spread across his face, distorted by countless scars. Joo Seolheon steadied the trembling gun with both hands. How had he ended up in such a wretched state? Yet she had come all this way just to see this face.

“Your eyes… Where are your eyes, Rigay?”

“….”

“You! Why don’t you have eyes?”

Her hands shook uncontrollably. What had happened to those sharp, intelligent eyes from the past?

“What the hell did you do?!”

“Don’t hit me, Father! I’m sorry, I don’t want solitary confinement! Ahh! God will establish a kingdom that will never perish. Sakhalin is the promised land, and the Great Winter City will strike down and destroy all nations! My mission is to place all beasts underfoot, I can do it, I can create it!”

Rigay clutched his head, begging in rapid fire. Joo Seolheon lowered the gun and tilted her head back as if collapsing. This cowardly man. This failed father. This weak savior. And yet…

“…Rigay, you kept your promise.”

***

When you grow up with parents who barely make ends meet but keep having child after child, there comes a moment when they start to look like animals. Mating is brief, but responsibility is long, yet her parents were pitiful creatures who gave birth and then turned away.

Her siblings, packed together like cargo, were constantly underfoot, wailing. Unable to feed so many mouths, she agonized daily over whom to abandon, until she finally decided to abandon them all.

Leaving her burdens behind, Joo Seolheon began working at a sewing factory in her mid-teens, ruining her body just to survive. Fortunately, she was sharp-witted, pretty, and had a ruthless streak that even ghosts would back away from.

Though she worked at the factory, she never stopped studying, and by twenty, she became a low-ranking civil servant. A superior who had been watching her recommended her for field training instead of desk work. She had no talent for physical tasks, but her opportunity came soon enough.

“In North Korea, female agents carry out an operation called ‘Seed Planting.’ Have you heard of it?”

The U.S. CIA had reached out to the NIS for cooperation. A CIA agent named Damon was looking for a delicate-looking Korean female agent.

But more important than appearance was one condition: ruthlessness.

“The Workers’ Party Operations Department sends female agents abroad to obtain diverse faces; white, Black, Arab, Southeast Asian. The 915 Liaison Office manages them, providing support while raising the children as operatives. Their natural looks lower cultural barriers. What useful assets.”

“What are you getting at?”

“How far are you willing to go, Ms. Joo?”

“….”

“Let’s say you had to bear the child of someone you don’t love.”

“This isn’t North Korea.”

“But the place Ms.Joo needs to go is Russia.”

“That’s why it’s not easy,” Damon added lightly, sipping his soda before setting it down with a grimace.

Joo Seolheon thought of the home she had abandoned. Her parents, who popped out children like it was nothing. Those detestable beings who only cared about numbers. Since when was childbirth some noble act?

“I’d at least prefer to have sex with someone who has all their limbs intact.”

That day, she received a new name.

“Zoya!”