The Soul-Harvesting Puppeteer - Chapter 25

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 25
In that moment, Lee Byeol-ha, commander of the Artemis Knights, closed the distance to Han Eol in mere strides.
The Vice Commander, compact in frame and wearing glasses, held position at Lee Byeol-ha’s side.
Following swiftly, the female knights of the Artemis Knights descended and encircled Han Eol.
Their expressions had hardened into stone—some had gone so pale their faces were nearly white.
Behind Han Eol stretched a horrific tableau of carnage that had drained the courage from every one of them.
Even the Vice Commander, known for her unwavering composure, stood slack-jawed at the sight of tens of thousands of Pyo-Rang corpses.
The Artemis Knights had mobilized in emergency response the moment word reached them that the 1st Base Camp in the Highland 8 Continents was under massive assault by Demon Beasts, rushing to support the 1st Squad’s defensive stand.
Once the Base Camp’s walls had stabilized, they’d scrambled to provide reinforcements at the Metal Mine.
When the Artemis Knights first arrived at this location, Commander Lee Byeol-ha and every knight under her command had already written off the Metal Mine as lost.
Surveying from high above, the scale of Demon Beasts surrounding the Base Camp’s walls appeared nearly identical to the scale of those charging toward the Metal Mine.
The Base Camp was an impregnable fortress. Most of the 1st Squad’s ability users were positioned there, defended by sturdy walls, a moat, and multiple Mana Cannons in heavy armament.
The Metal Mine, by contrast, had only a small garrison and a single ramshackle watchtower.
“Abandon the mine. We must defend the Base Camp first.”
Lee Byeol-ha had made her judgment with cold logic.
Thereafter, Lee Byeol-ha and the Artemis Knights soared above the Demon Beasts assaulting the Base Camp, singling out and sniping only the commander-class beasts.
Whoooooosh!
As Lee Byeol-ha unleashed her Ability, a summon materialized in the shape of a golden whale.
The whale summon, spanning dozens of meters in length, ghosted through the earth as though insubstantial, erupting from the ground to snatch a Pyo-Rang commander in its maw before plunging back into the soil with its prey.
The whale’s gullet was so vast that several Pyo-Rang Demon Beasts surrounding the commander were dragged down with it.
Those swallowed Pyo-Rang dissolved into slurry beneath the earth, vanishing without trace.
Again and again, the golden whale summon surfaced across the battlefield, methodically eliminating commander-class beasts.
The Pyo-Rang formation visibly crumbled.
After some time longer, a considerable number of Pyo-Rang Demon Beasts began withdrawing from the field, scattering in all directions in flight.
“Phew, finally—I can breathe. Oh, thank the heavens.”
The 1st Squad Leader, who had been bleeding freely while holding back the Demon Beasts atop the wall, at last cast down his shield and collapsed where he stood.
“Victory! Victory! Victory!”
“We won. We defeated them. Ha-ha-ha-ha!”
The cheers of Sacred Group ability users erupted from every section of the wall.
But the Artemis Knights did not rest.
“We move to the mine immediately.”
Lee Byeol-ha piloted her Glider first, banking toward the Metal Mine.
“All of you, follow the Commander.”
The bespectacled Vice Commander issued the order coldly.
“We hear and obey.”
The female knights of the Artemis Knights responded in unison.
Immediately after, more than a dozen Gliders carved through the wind in formation.
Lee Byeol-ha naturally held the lead.
Chapter 4
‘By now, the security detachment positioned at the Metal Mine has surely been torn to shreds and swallowed whole.’
Lee Byeol-ha narrowed her eyes in regret.
Yet she remained resolved to confirm the situation herself.
But what did she find?
Remarkably, the area surrounding the Metal Mine was blanketed in Demon Beast corpses—tens, even hundreds of times more than around the Base Camp.
And within that hellscape, there remained a single ally survivor whose body was entirely intact.
That was Han Eol.
The squad mates who had struck Han Eol on the back of the head and fled had long since been devoured. Only Han Eol remained.
“How is this even possible?”
Lee Byeol-ha blinked in disbelief.
“Indeed, I would say so.”
The Vice Commander of the Artemis Knights, equally incredulous, removed her glasses and scrubbed the lenses with her clothing before replacing them and scanning the surroundings once more.
No matter how many times she looked, nothing changed. From the mine’s entrance stretching into the distance, the entire earth was carpeted with Demon Beast corpses.
The Vice Commander was not alone in her shock. Others found the situation equally impossible to accept.
“Look. Can you explain what happened here?”
Lee Byeol-ha’s icy tone cut straight through Han Eol’s ears.
“Well, I mean to say…….”
Han Eol moistened his lips with his tongue, then improvised an explanation on the spot.
Having heard Han Eol’s account, Lee Byeol-ha asked incredulously.
“What? You don’t even know yourself? You were simply surrounded by an enormous number of Demon Beasts, awaiting death, and they just… collapsed on their own?”
Lee Byeol-ha’s voice, ordinarily level and flat, began to rise with each word.
‘Oh goodness. Did I answer too carelessly?’
Han Eol felt a flutter of panic.
‘I mean, if I were them, I’d find it hard to believe too. All these demon beasts suddenly dropping dead like that—it doesn’t make a lick of sense.’
Han Eol wanted to slap his own mouth.
But he’d already started down this path. If he changed his story now, the Artemis Knights might haul him straight into an interrogation room.
‘What the hell. Too late now.’
Han Eol screwed his eyes shut and piled one lie on top of another.
“Commander, I understand it’s hard to believe, but it’s the truth. Without knowing how it happened, the scene just unfolded before me. Now that I think about it, I may have glimpsed some kind of shadow in the distance…”
Han Eol was wracking his brain to explain the situation in the vaguest possible terms when Lee Byeol-ha appeared before him as if teleporting. She seized both his shoulders in an iron grip.
“What? What did you just say?”
Lee Byeol-ha’s voice had risen past mere loudness—it had turned sharp, almost shrill.
“What kind of shadow was it? Male? Or female?”
“W-w-well, that is…”
Of course Han Eol couldn’t answer properly.
It was a lie he’d made up on the spot.
Lee Byeol-ha pressed him harder.
“It was a woman, wasn’t it? It had to be.”
This wasn’t a question—it was more like she was asking herself, searching for confirmation of something she already knew.
“Hack. Cough, cough, cough.”
As Lee Byeol-ha, a Superhuman Power user of formidable strength, shook him by the shoulders, Han Eol’s head bobbed violently up and down. He coughed and hacked uselessly.
Yet Lee Byeol-ha paid him no mind. She simply watched his head nodding and interpreted it as an affirmative answer.
“There. My suspicion was right after all.”
There was something wet, almost trembling, in the low murmur of Lee Byeol-ha’s voice.
The truth was, Lee Byeol-ha didn’t trust people.
And she trusted men least of all.
She wasn’t alone in this. The Vice Commander and most of the female knights of Artemis shared the same inclination.
Yet Han Eol’s hastily concocted lie had not only convinced Lee Byeol-ha outright—it had shaken even the fastidious Vice Commander.
There was a reason for this.
‘Could it be that she helped us?’
‘Could it be Lee Hyeon?’
Both women’s minds had seized on the same thought, and they turned to face each other.
Chapter 5
Lee Byeol-ha’s large eyes, fixed upon the Vice Commander, trembled like aspen leaves.
The Vice Commander’s eyes, looking up at Lee Byeol-ha, had transformed into something like those of a girl who had recovered a forgotten dream.
And why wouldn’t they?
What was the founding purpose of the Artemis Knights?
To protect Lee Hyeon. Safeguarding Lee Hyeon, the master of Beast Spirit Energy, had been Artemis’s ultimate reason for existing.
After Lee Hyeon had grown disillusioned with the Sacred Group’s owner and his family long ago and vanished into Highland, the Artemis Knights’ role had shifted from “protecting Lee Hyeon” to “slaying demon beasts.”
Yet Lee Byeol-ha, the Vice Commander, and others had never forgotten Artemis’s original purpose.
In truth, to Lee Byeol-ha, Lee Hyeon was more than a grandmother—she was an object of reverence.
To the Vice Commander, Lee Hyeon was nothing less than an absolute goddess, a matter of faith.
But they never, ever spoke Lee Hyeon’s name aloud.
If word of Lee Hyeon’s existence ever leaked to another city, it would be catastrophic.
Imagine if it became known that a natural predator existed in Midland Seoul—one who could reverse the Beast Spirit Energy of demon beasts and suppress them.
Then every faction seeking to checkmate the Sacred Group would unite to assassinate Lee Hyeon, and murder squads would pour into Seoul.
For this reason, the leadership of the Sacred Group and the Artemis Knights kept Lee Hyeon’s existence a closely guarded secret.
‘That’s why it was so maddening. Even after she vanished, I couldn’t openly search for her. The reality of it all—I felt like I’d go mad from the suffocation.’
Lee Byeol-ha clutched at her own chest.
‘But the moment I gave up everything, I found traces of her instead. Oh, oh, oh. Grandmother didn’t pass away. She’s still alive. And she’s been protecting us from a place close by our side. Ah, ah, ah, ah…’
Tears welled up in Lee Byeol-ha’s eyes.
‘Sob. So Lee Hyeon has finally returned. She dealt with the demon beast horde and protected this Base Camp for us. Uh, uh, uh…’
The Vice Commander removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes vigorously.
As both women grew emotional, Han Eol felt oddly adrift.
‘What’s going on? Why are they suddenly like this?’
Han Eol knew nothing of Lee Hyeon’s existence.
He had no idea that Lee Hyeon’s unique ability—reversing Beast Spirit Energy to instantly kill demon beasts—looked from the outside almost identical to the result of Han Eol extracting the souls of beasts with his multicolored hands.
But one thing became crystal clear to Han Eol.
‘Whoa. Their souls aren’t turning that hostile color. That means my off-the-cuff lie actually worked, didn’t it? I was prepared to be suspected a little, given how flimsy my story was, but what’s this?’
Han Eol felt suddenly cheerful.
The Artemis Knights had erected a Barrier around the Metal Mine region.
Whirrrrr―.
As the female knights laid hundreds of long rods embedded with Mana Stones in a line across the ground, a blue barrier surged up from them, completely blocking everyone’s view.
This Barrier, ten meters high, could not serve as a sturdy defensive line like a city wall.
Instead, the Barrier itself had sight and sound-blocking properties, making it ideal for use when one wished to conceal what happened inside from the outside world.
Moreover, installing a Barrier bearing the Sacred Group’s mark carried its own declarative effect: “No unauthorized entry into this area.”
For this reason, the Artemis Knights and various other departments of the Sacred Group made frequent use of it. In truth, the Barrier could be thought of as an upgraded “police line.”
“What exactly are they doing in there?”
Kim Hyu-in’s voice was thick with frustration.
In fact, after barely repelling the large-scale offensive of the Pyo-Rang Race that had broken out recently, Kim Hyu-in had allowed himself to nurture certain hopes.
‘As a flame-type Ability user, I made a considerable contribution protecting the city walls against the Pyo-Rang Race’s great offensive. So perhaps the upper ranks of Artemis might reconsider my position.’
Lee Byeol-ha, the Commander of Artemis, is part of the Sacred Group owner’s family line. Not a branch family either, but Chairman Lee Gang-hyeon’s own daughter—the direct line of the direct line.
‘If I could just catch her eye, this Kim Hyu-in’s life would change completely. Hah, hah, hah.’
In his imagination, Kim Hyu-in was already walking a path of roses.
But what was this?
Whatever had happened at the Metal Mine, the Artemis Knights had erected a Barrier around the area and forbidden all access to anyone.
Even the 1st Squad Commander was not permitted beyond the Barrier.
Naturally, Kim Hyu-in could see neither Lee Byeol-ha nor the faces of the Artemis female knights. He could only watch as additional Artemis female knights who had been sent from Midland Seoul filed one after another into the Barrier, emerging with their packs bulging full.
In fact, the Artemis female knights were in the midst of packing Pyo-Rang Race corpses tightly into Space-Compression Vacuum Packs, preparing to transport them to Midland Seoul.
All the while, Han Eol, under the watchful eye of the female knights, donned a long-haired wig and dressed in their armor, disguising himself before slipping out beyond the Barrier.
A group of Artemis female knights surrounded Han Eol and escorted him back to Midland Seoul.
The one responsible for smuggling Han Eol out was none other than Lee Byeol-ha herself.
‘I cannot leave that man connected to Aunt Grandmother in the 1st Squad. If word of Aunt Grandmother’s appearance reaches him, that greedy wretch Lee Seong-woo knows no telling what he might do.’
Lee Byeol-ha bit her lower lip hard.
The Puppeteer Who Harvests Souls
Author |
Jyunon
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Corp.
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Editorial Department
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Samyang C&C Corp. – Dream Books
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G720:N+A063-20260703071
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@dreambookss
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No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the written permission of Samyang C&C Corp. – Dream Books.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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