Chapter 191.2

Chapter 191.2

Cold, clammy skin clung to hers like pig hide. It merged with her own.

Every contour of her face shifted—eye shape, brows, nose, lips. A stranger stared back from the mirror. Han Seoryeong was gone.

She applied an ultra-thin hydrogel film to her rounded neck and wore an overhead mask for the first time.

Once used to deceive and control her, that same technique now adhered perfectly to her face and neck. With freckled skin stretching from her cheekbones to the bridge of her nose, brown hair, and brown eyes, Seoryeong had transformed into a completely ordinary-looking foreign woman with a short bob.

When Kia opened a hard case that resembled a firearm container and revealed several different faces, her brows furrowed without meaning to. She couldn’t stop herself from thinking of Kim Hyun.

It felt like becoming someone entirely new. A foolish illusion that anything was possible.

Was that how Lee Wooshin had managed to be gentle and kind like Kim Hyun?

“This thing costs more than a house. Stop frowning.”

Kia scolded her lightly. But if she hadn’t frowned, the pain rising from her chest to her throat would’ve been harder to contain.

She pulled on a tight black tactical suit and packed a crescent-shaped karambit, a spring-loaded flick knife, a fixed blade, and a butterfly knife, each tucked into different pockets just as Kia had instructed. Every time her childhood instincts flickered back to life, Kia grinned.

“If the heir dies, the Solzhenitsyn estate would automatically revert to the state. The Kremlin’s plan is to use the symbolic weight of that bastard’s return. If the order had come to me, I’d have killed him already.”

His eyes darkened.

“In the meantime, Russian agents have already infiltrated the mansion. Do you know what that means, Sonya? They’re trying to get pregnant by Solzhenitsyn, so the inheritance tilts toward Russia.”

“…”

“It’s not hard for a trained agent to seduce a blind man.”

She paused halfway through tying her shoes but didn’t let it show. Maybe her heart had gone dry enough to hear,

“You know what that’s like, don’t you?” as if Kia were silently accusing her. She quickly shook the thought off. No use wallowing.

“The Kremlin wants him completely broken. I’ve heard they’re targeting his spine next. The plan is to paralyze him. It’s easier to seduce a man who’s useless and miserable.”

She didn’t want to feel anything close to pity. Still, there was something pathetic about this Solzhenitsyn. She couldn’t figure out what he hoped to achieve by turning his damaged body into some kind of trial.

It felt filthy. Not just him, but the name Solzhenitsyn itself. It unsettled her.

***

How far had they driven?

Her eyes widened at the sight of the massive lake, luminous and perfectly round like a full moon.

Seoryeong stared for a long time before her gaze shifted to the grand mansion beyond it—eerily reminiscent of the Winter Castle.

Kia flashed an ID only someone in their line of work would recognize. The gate opened without a word.

From the moment she stepped inside, a strange sense of familiarity crawled across her skin like damp hair sticking to the back of her neck. Even the detached annex looked suspiciously familiar.

As she climbed out of the car, she grounded her legs to keep from trembling. After half a year in hiding, the tight fit of her tactical suit felt oddly foreign.

Treat it like a standard op. That one thought relaxed her clenched fists.

Kia was already inside. She followed, cutting silently across the reception room.

“…”

Just for today. She wasn’t the scared child who used to tremble in the dark.

Now, somewhere in this place, the Solzhenitsyn bloodline lay hidden. And the one approaching with a blade was the last surviving Koryo-saram.

The roles had reversed. And with calm precision, Seoryeong moved.

Kia was gone. She left no sound in her wake.

‘How dare you… speak of something like the Final Gate when you don’t even understand it?’

She clenched her molars. ‘I’ll see your face myself. Just how noble and pathetic are you? I’ll see it with my own eyes!’

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep!

The moment she turned the hallway corner, an alarm blared out of nowhere. She bit down on her lip and broke into a sprint.

But it didn’t stop.

With every step, every turn, the tone shifted.

Beep. Beep. Beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep!

Her breath grew ragged. She cursed under it.

No matter which direction she turned, it felt like she was caught in an invisible web.

The motion sensors woven throughout the building tracked her every move with chilling precision.

She hadn’t even reached Solzhenitsyn, and already her location had been completely compromised.

Her lips went dry. Cold sweat ran down her spine.

Where the h*ll is Kia right now…?

Finally, she spotted a blind spot and slipped into it.

The alarm cut off like a blade dropping. Silence rushed in, cold and sharp.

“Ha…”

She exhaled, a breath of tension breaking free.

“You’re here?”

Click.

A muzzle pressed cold and hard against the back of her skull.

Her breathing stopped instantly, like someone had hit a switch.

That voice… familiar. Mechanical. It scraped along her nerves like metal on glass.

She turned, slow and dazed.

What stood before her didn’t feel real.

It was a scene too surreal to be happening.